Username: ԏєѧѻӆғוѓԑ
Lion Name: mori
Lion Gender: male
Pride: Desert BluffsPride Status: depending whether i win the prompt for
valentine #6, either the founder or a guardian of some sort that will leave the place i describe below to join the pride and start a new life for himself
Prompt: (i'm so sorry it's so much longer than i meant for it to be -)
(update i trimmed it down to 1000 words)It was dark again, shadows melting together as the colour in the sky faded away to dim blue and black. He paced across broken stones between columns and crumbling buildings along the borders of the extinct city. It was quiet, heavily, like crisp silence after a heavy rain. The soft crunching of leaves, rustling of branches, cracks of bones and crunching tiny pebbles beneath his paws were the only things to break the stillness.
The real routine wasn’t in the pacing, in the flickering ears or the pale eyes, both reaching out into the darkness. It was a sporadic routine, each time he hoped it would be the last, and each time he knew he would be disappointed. As a clatter alerted him to an intruder on this night, he sighed, knowing it was time for the pattern to resume once again.
Tracking the shivering heartbeat of a small creature, he was in no hurry, musing about the inevitable. He heard frantic breaths and uneven footsteps, each attempting to be hushed but easily detectible to him nonetheless. It always went this way. They would try to escape, try to get deeper into the city and seek refuge, and he would follow them. Slow, dark, heavy, inevitable. They would shout, they would fling things at him, they would beg for their lives or curse him, they would plead or declare that they were here for him. To get by him. To steal from him. To kill him. To save their little world from the notorious, wicked, dark, cruel beast. But he would simply finish his job regardless of the route they chose, so he didn’t pay much mind to the varying individuals and the stories they wove in shaky voices. They were all the same to him.
A loud shout broke the hush, followed immediately by a crash, objects clattering all over the ground. More shouts, followed it, desperate, piercing cries, and he didn’t know what to think of this. They didn’t usually beg before he had gotten to them. As he rounded a corner, he was surprised to see the tiny panicked creature lying among the dry bones and useless armor of their kind, screaming at a shadow that was cast on the wall. He sighed. This one must have been cast here intentionally by others, rather than choosing to come. But it didn’t matter. He had his job to do.
He growled, lowly, a rumbling sound that announced his presence by filling the half-collapsed space which used to be a room. The trembling human on the floor ceases crying out and lifts their head, glancing around and seeming relieved, which gives him pause. He comes a few steps closer and lifts his head, looking down at them, and they meet his eyes unwaveringly. It is unnerving. He growls again, less loudly this time. They can probably get the message from here, he thinks, but they don’t. They cautiously pick themself up off the ground and get on their knees, staying very still before him and still staring at his eyes.
“Won’t you run?” he asks. His voice is deep and soft, like the dull roar of a distant waterfall, rarely used but still powerful compared to this tiny, quaking thing.
“Run?” asks a small voice.
“Won’t it catch me?”“It?”“Forgive me. The shadow that haunts this place.”“It will.”“Then I shall stay here.”“Will you beg?”“For passage?”He blinked at them.
“To where?”“From here. Away. With protection from the shadow. Yes, I would like to ask this of you, Anjisnu.”He pauses again, unsure how to respond. He should just kill them, and yet…
“What have you called me?”“Anjisnu. You banished the shadow with your purr.”“Small one, that was a growl. It was intended for you. Are you not afraid?”“I am reverent. You protected me. If I misinterpreted, and you are here to take my life instead, I suppose there is nothing I can do to stop you. But I will go into the night at peace, for the shadow did not take me with it.”He was quiet a while more. He watched as the creature’s eyes flickered across his face, observing the ancient scars, clearly wondering what caused them but too polite to ask.
Their voice was tentative and soft.
“Are you not the guardian of the city that was once here?”“I am. None may enter.”They bent down and pressed their face and palms to the dirt.
“I apologize for my transgression. Make your judgement as you will, Anjisnu.”He observed them a while longer. They had forfeited their pride, yet not their dignity. He sighed and turned away from them, and for just a moment felt amusement at the sound of them scrambling to their feet in order to scurry after him.
“You are bold for a creature afraid of its own shadow,” he told it.
“I mean no disrespect.”“I know. That’s why you’re still alive.”They walked side by side to the edge of the city, heading in silence towards the soft rustling of the trees. As they reached the edge, the human stopped, looking towards his face with curiosity and respect in equal measure.
“Speak your mind, small one, before you return to your own lands,” he said to them.
“I have but one request.”“The boldness of your heart knows no bounds. What is it?”“May I know your name, that I may use it when I share my experience among my kind?”He watched the woods a few minutes, then turned his eyes towards the human’s.
“Mori,” he rumbled.
“Now stay no longer, lest you never make it home to tell any tales about beasts.”The human obediently stepped off the edge of the stone pavement of the city and into the woods, but they looked back at him with a certain peace in their expression.
“I have met a peaceful guardian tonight. I have no story to tell about a beast.”(long story short, no, despite everyone thinking so, he's not just a beast ksjdhfjksfs)
