[PRP] I don't bite...much (Gatito/K'i-lin)

[KasaiLoki]

K'i-lin had finally gotten rid of the bag of herbs to the needed location. Now she was free to do what she wanted.

The first order of business? Get this strange scent off her form. From meeting Gaius, she knew the scent had made others uncomfortable. The joys of being a Priestess in training perhaps? She had to deal with that. But that didn't mean others would.

The gold and white kirin headed towards the waterhole. The pains in her stomach from hunger hadn't subsided, but she was learning to cope with them. (She also might have consumed one of those herbs...as a test).

As she approached the waterhole, she debated whether to toss her whole form in the liquid, or just use her paws. Perhaps the herb dust that was coated on her pelt would mingle with the water, and settle other's stomachs as they drank?

She shrugged to herself, opting to submerge herself fully in the liquid. There she was, the only part of her body sticking out of the murky liquid, was her white head. Purples eyes closed, enjoying the cool water.  

[Krysin]

"What... are you doing?"

Gatito was sure he had already gotten his fill of strange sights for the entirety of his life when he managed to stumble upon another. The young male had left his family's den in hopes of finding a Captain to join the next viking outing. Lately there had been frequent expeditions out of the lands in search of food. Their kept population kept on dying out. The land had turned infertile, and the herds were starting to suffer. Gatito had just wanted to stretch his legs and see the outside world a little bit, perhaps prove himself during it.

He had made a stop by the watering hole to take his fill of a drink when he noticed a young lioness just... floating in it. Before he had spoken, he had watched her in silence for a few minutes, perplexed by the sight. She was very unnaturally pale, he thought. It was pretty, but at the same time strange for a young male who had grown up in a family of very dark pelts. He had one sister who was as pale as a spirit, and she seemed otherworldly to him too.

For a while he presumed her dead, but her body seemed to be precariously still in the water for a dead lioness. So, she was alive. Why she was in the water, he did not know. He personally did not like the deep water, there was something about the unknown that gave his young mind pause. "Do you... need help?" he finally offered after his first precarious question.

KasaiLoki

 

[KasaiLoki]

Krysin

What are you doing? K'i-lin's eyes sprang open, revealing the violet orbs behind them.

"If you knew what I had to be around today, you would not question it." K'i said softly, not wanting to remove herself from the water just yet. She nodded her head for the male to join her in the water, unsure if the dark, bony male would do so. "There's a spot on the back of my neck that I can't seem to reach. Perhaps you can help me with it?" The young priestess asked.

"Don't worry, I won't bite." She smirked at the male. "I'm in training for being a priestess, so even if I did, I am sure I can find some way to patch you up." The lioness was moving closer to the shore, although she found herself hugging the ground to stay in the water as much as possible.  

[Krysin]

"...I think I might still question it," Gatito admitted with a scrutinizing look upon his face. He was always the skeptic, always taking a back seat to his siblings antics. The young male was not the most socially adept because of it, though he believed himself to be better at it than his parents. For an adolescent, he was very large, taking after his father more-so than his spitfire of a mother.

"What?"

Her request was the most surprising thing he had heard in a while. He looked back over his shoulder, as if looking for someone else to confirm what he had heard. Did she just... invite him into the water with her? Gatito wasn't big on swimming, but his curiosity over the mysterious female held sway over his decision-making process. He hadn't really hung out with other females besides his own sisters, and had no honest idea of how he was supposed to react around them.

Gatito took a step over to the water's edge. If he was going to do this, he wasn't going to hesitate despite his dislike of the water. A paw reached out, the white bone markings stark against his dark coat. Most of his siblings carried similar markings tinted by blue. Only his one leg was strikingly similar in markings to the bones that lied underneath fur, skin, and muscle.

"That's not really reassuring, you know." Oh, he was hesitating now. The water had come up to his elbows and the feeling was unsettling. "Is your training part of the reason you've submerged yourself in our drinking water?"

KasaiLoki

 

[KasaiLoki]

Krysin

"Yeah, this spot, just back here," She twisted her neck, wanting to nudge him to a spot right in the center of her neck. It was just in that spot her back paw couldn't reach. "You'd be helping me out you know." She closed her eyes again, her neck still craned in. When nothing touched her, she peeked open an eye, seeing the male's paw lifted, but not moving.

Oh, boys.

She grinned, closing the gap between the dark male and herself. "Indeed it is," she purred, "right there." Now she was close enough he didn't have to reach. "I figured if I am giving these herbs to the sick, whatever remnants are left on me can go into the water source and maybe it would do a mass help to others." K'i-lin's logic, though it may not have been a bad idea. She should've just dumped the entire herb content in the water.

"You're a hesitant male aren't you? What, not use to being around others?" K'i giggled slightly.  

[Krysin]

He almost scooted back when she closed a good amount of distance between them, and even then he could not resist leaning back a little. Thankfully, his cheeks were dark enough to hide any blushing that rose to them. As a cub, he had joined his siblings in picking fights with other cubs and in general was a menace to other like-sized cubs. Now that he was an adolescent, it left him with.. not as clear of an idea how to act friendly to another.

"I know." Deciding that he would be an embarrassment to his siblings if they saw him like this, he mustered up the confidence to get over his whole 'girls' issue. He reached out, his paw applying gentle pressure to the back of her neck. Gatito rubbed the spot for a few seconds, just to make sure it was clean before he pulled away. He would have hated to be told he did not do a good enough job.

"Don't you think the water's too much, compared to the amount of whatever herbs are on you? I can't even smell it from the water, so how is there enough there to do anything?" Curious, he leaned in to sniff her, though now that she was well-washed he could not smell anything from her either.

"...I just am not that fond of the water, okay?" he bristled a little at the insinuation that he was hesitant. He would be a shame to his parents if he were! Gatito just wasn't sure how to handle this pale lioness, this otherworldly creature.

KasaiLoki

 

[KasaiLoki]

Krysin

K'i-lin's eyes closed as he rubbed her neck. She only opened them when he pulled his paw away. "Ah, much better." She said with a smile, leaving the water. Her white pelt was now a dark gray from the liquid. But now out of the water, her gold markings were revealed. They did not shine as much on the wet pelt.

"It's a thought. There isn't many other options right now." The adolescent said with a frown, sitting at the shore. "Whatever is plaguing the land, hopefully will leave soon so things can go back to normal." She sighed.

"Pft. The water isn't bad. It's not like the waters after the cliffs! Now that...I would be more scared of than this little waterhole."

Her purple eyes lit up. "What's your name Scratchy?" Her smile widened. "I'm K'i-lin. Daughter of the greatest reaver Bast'ion!"  

[Krysin]

Gatito followed the female out of the water, relieved to be out of its depths (though he had hardly gone in that far from the shore). Curiously, his gaze swept over, and though the water had grayed her fur she was very... pale. Even her gold markings made her seem even more unusual. He had not met many with her coloration, though the Stormborn was truly a melting pot when it came to pelt colors, sizes, and markings.

"I do not know, it has lingered for a while now..." Gatito confessed. For the famine that struck the lands, he still looked remarkably healthy. His parents had done all they could to make sure their children remained strong despite what plagued the pride as a whole. "If it does not return to normal soon, we really will be in dire straits."

He frowned a little as she told him the water wasn't 'bad'. Lions weren't meant to be in the water - that was for fish, and he didn't really like fish all that much either. "You're fine swimming in here, but off the shores... I don't think anyone would jump in to rescue you if you fell." Those waters were too dangerous, too tumultuous for any sane soul to brave.

"My name is Gatito, and surely you don't think your dad is the best reaver out there...?" he asked her, incredulous over the claim. "My father is Daijur, my mother is Jupe. They are the strongest reavers I have ever seen." His dad, certainly, had enough strength to best three lions at once!

KasaiLoki

 

[KasaiLoki]

Krysin

"Before I became an apprentice, an adult said they use to sacrifice lions in the pride to the Gods. I don't know how true that statement is...but hopefully there is nothing about it." She hadn't asked her dad about it, and not having a mother around left that option out.

"Exactly." The female agreed. She would not swim in the ocean. Those waters have killed. Their next victim would not be K'i.

"I do." She challenged. "I have not heard of your father nor your mother, so I can hardly believe how strong you claim them to be." K'i smirked. "I guess that means you just have to bring me around them to see, huh? I am free tomorrow." She thought about it. Datura didn't have anything going on for her tomorrow, so yes, she was indeed open. "My dens over the ridge that way. You better not be late picking me up."  

[Krysin]

"...don't tell my sister that," Gatito mumbled without thinking. The words spilled from his lips carelessly - he did not think his death-obsessed sister would go about sacrificing lions, but there was nothing to prove that she wouldn't. When they were younger he had thought it was a silly hobby, but as the days passed her fixation on death grew. He definitely did not want stories of lion sacrifices reaching her ears until she was over this whole 'death' thing.

"I haven't heard of your father, either," Gatito countered. He thought it was a good counter, too, since he had never heard of a lion called Bast'ion. His parents had never mentioned such a male, and so obviously he was not that great of a reaver as K'i-lin thought him to be.

The next words out of her mouth were a total shock to him, and the young male almost did a double-take. Wait, what? He hadn't even agreed to anything! Yet, he had, or at least she was convinced he had. Oh, by the Storm Lords he could not bring a female around his parents and siblings! That would be so embarrassing - he'd never live it down.

"Uh, what?" he blinked at her with wide blue eyes. He had just been totally sidelined by the proposition.

"...Okay."

And he was agreeing to it, too!

"I'm just... gonna go now. Uh, see you tomorrow." He walked away, wondering what in the gods' names just happened.