Ari

Hope is but a waking dream

A light yawn parted the young lion's jaws as he lay in the dirt floor beside the giant three foot tall blue topaz egg he had dubbed Abraxas. He still didn’t know if the egg was alive, but the beautiful thing at least deserved a name. Not to mention he and James had decided the gem was a girl. Was that strange? Did one normally name a rock they liked a lot?

The young lion turned over to be laying on his belly, he turned his paws to the side and began his morning bath. He started with his face, mane and paws and worked his way back to his rump and finished by combing out his tail tuft. With the first morning chore done, Aristotle stood up and gave a big feline stretch forward with his rump in the air, then rocked the opposite direction. Taking a deep breath the young lion flexed his claws digging them into the fine loose dirt below his paws.

Turning his head he allowed his eyes the same shade as the egg shaped gem they fell upon. A loud growling purr escaped the young lion as he walked up close to the egg and pressed his side against it, practically wrapping his entire body around the egg, his tail tip gently tickling the side of the egg. Good morning my darling Abraxas. He cooed to the gem, clearly enamoured with the gem. The young lion walked the outside of the gem using his own freshly cleaned fur to shine the outside of the gem.

Ah, another chore done. His stomach growled loudly as he looked around the room. He was hungry. He needed to go hunting, and soon. With a sigh the young lion tore himself away from the gem and headed for his front door. Pausing for a moment he stuck his head out looking first one way then the other. Then he lifted his nose sniffing the air, all he could smell freshly was James and his growing bed. Sure that no one was coming, or was in the area the young lion headed out deeper into the ruins.

The deeper into the ruins the young lion walked the slower his pace got, he slowed his pace finally until he was at a crawl, his muzzle sniffing this way and that tasting for a scent. He was scenting for rats or rabbits. Mice had become a bit too small to satisfy his appetite as of late. After all he was a growing boy. The more he grew the stronger, faster and more intelligent he became. He had become a good hunter missing only sometimes, but even the best only made it six out of ten times right? Aristotle stalked down the narrowing streets finding sparse grass and lower plant life that his prey lived on.

Ari

Hope is but a waking dream

Sharp baby blue eyes cast about the ground for tracks, powerfully sensitive nostrils picked up all the scents nearby. It would seem that those looking down as guardians of the cave were smiling upon him. He easily picked up the scent of a pitch rat. Though he approached with great caution knowing from previous experience how nasty they could be in a pack. Slowly the young lion crept forward. A single pitch rat though large would not be enough to satisfy this poor beast. He was growing, and growing made the young hungry.

Slowly stalking up to where the pitch rats tracks were freshest. It was just inside a small hole made from a crumbled wall. It wasn’t large enough for the growing lion to fit but he could be patient. However he wouldn’t have to be that patient as the large fat waddled it’s way out of the hole. The pitch rat was clearly well fed as it seemed to be more fat than rat.

A grin spread over Aristotle’s muzzle as he lifted a paw and Aim to bring it down and pin it, while swinging his jaws down to break its neck.

Ari

Hope is but a waking dream

It would seem that his aim was better than he thought. It also turned out sharpening his claws last night had been a good idea. As his paw came down, it sliced right through the left side of the Pitch Rats neck and severed its vocal chords. It couldn’t use its shrill cry to call for help. He was in a good way this time. With a bright smile the young lion sat back and licked the small bit of blood from his front paw.

Not being very far from home the young lion turned round and headed back to his home next door to James. He carried the carcass inside and hid it in a small hole in the ground covering it with dirt to hide its scent. He’d be home later to eat it, but for now he wanted to go find a couple more rabbits. He was actually pretty hungry so a couple rabbits and a rat would make for a great meal or even several more rats would prove satisfying but either way he still had some work ahead of him.

Quietly he stalked back to the entrance of his house and sniffed the air making sure that no one was near, he trotted out of his house and off towards the heart of the ruins. He was curious and letting his stomach take the lead on where he went. He kept his nose to the air and his eyes on the ground, his rounded audits perked and listening carefully for any signs of his prey.

Large paws muffled his steps as he walked through the rubble strewn ruins. He was looking for more rats or rabbits to add to his food cache. It seemed here things were hard to find to eat, so he was wanting to build up a stash of food. Though he was unsure of how to keep the food from spoiling he at least wanted to gather a day or two worth of food.

Ari

Hope is but a waking dream

One of his glances at the ground to search for tracks was almost useless. It seemed that he perhaps wasn’t going to find anything other than a rat. Rather he stopped and found the sparse tracks of a rabbit large Bush Rabbit. The young lion leaned down sniffing the tracks testing to see how old they were. It appeared that they weren’t very old at all, maybe about an hour or two tops. If he was diligent he would find it.

Aristotle kept his brilliant blue eyes trained on the ground, his nose breathing in the scents from the tracks. The young lion flicked his tail as he crouched down once more following the tracks forward and toward an old building. There was a low wall with a crack in it that the Bush rabbit had gone under. He could get over it without any trouble at all. So the young lion did just that as he climbed over the wall, he entered a small room.

There near a far wall where there was a massive hole in the low roof, where green grasses and other plants were growing. And there sitting in front of the little green patch, was a large fluffy ball of brilliant orange fur. It was luxurious, he had honestly never thought of hunting them just for their fur. But looking at them now, he realized just how soft their fur would be as a pillow.

Quietly the young lion crept up behind the Bush rabbit, a soft low growl rumbled in his chest. The young lion took position and loosened his muscles as he prepared to pounce. Leaping into the air the young Lion aimed to land with his large paws on its back to pin it and his jaws open to crush its head for a swift death.

Ari

Hope is but a waking dream

Aristotle sailed through the air in silence from across the small room. His claws pulled in to be sure not to damage the pelt. The young lion came down on top of the Bush Rabbit. His pws landing on its back pinning though just barely.

The young lion leaned down and instead of managing to get the struggling rabbit’s head, Aristotle grabbed the rabbit by the neck and pierced it. His jaws clamped completely around the rabbit’s neck and bit down. Its squealing soon stopped, and it’s struggling ceased as its life slowly faded away. He had managed to kill it without causing any damage to pelt at all.

With his new prize the young lion trotted back to his home and dog next to the rat burying the rabbit as deep as he could manage in order to keep it cool and fresh. With that task done the young lion walked back out to the door of his home sniffed several times to confirm no one was still coming and then he headed out.

This time the young lion headed towards one of the dark alleys. Yet again his nose and eyes attuned to looking for any form of trail scent or physical. Perhaps maybe even a sound would be nice. He could track sound too. Giving a wave of his slender whip like tufted tail the young lion stalked through the shadows from alleyway to alleyway, looking for any sign that would tell him he was on the right trail.

Ari

Hope is but a waking dream

It would seem that this alleyway was a bust. There was nothing here except for a cutter of debris from the deteriorating buildings around him. Though he searched the ground often, he found no signs of any kind of prey having come this way. He lifted his muzzle, his nostril taking in every scent around him.

There was nothing here. He could smell dust and the odd random thing here or there. But he could catch no scent of prey. Huffing softly the young lion turned down a small alley leading to larger main street. Here the young man inspected the ground. Here on this main street there were to many prints from passersby, that picking out any one set of tracks was near impossible.

There were fresh scents of prey here, but their exact direction was being drowned out by the amount of other scents in the area. Lifting his head, Aristotle looked around for another alleyway. It didn’t take him long to spot one just up ahead. It looked small from here but it looked like the growing young lion could fit in and make it through.

The young lion trotted down the main street at a leisurely pace. There was no need to be in much of a rush. He had dinner and breakfast and now he was just looking for lunch. As the young lion approached the alley he found that it was a bit bigger than he had assumed it to be.

Aristotle once more crouched down stalking through the alley once more on the full hunt.

Ari

Hope is but a waking dream

There it was. The scent he was looking for. Sniffing the air the young lion lifted his muzzle sniffing the air. They were close. A soft growl escaped the young lion. His paws dug into the dirt as he followed the scent through the network of back alleyways.

The young lion stalked through the alleyways crouched low to the ground. It didn’t take him long to find the owner of the scent. There in one of the sparse clumps of grass was what he had been following. It was just as fluffy as the first one, and its pelt was only a little paler of an orange than the first one. It would do nicely to help make a bed out of.

Slowly the young lion crept up behind the rabbit. He crept as slowly as he possibly could up behind the Bush Rabbit. They were more fur than meat, so to make a meal that meant catching more of them, and a pitch rat. It would take two or three more to feed the growing lion. He didn’t mean to be but he was always hungry these days. Though it was no wonder the young lion was growing at a rapid rate and putting on quite a bit of muscle weight and that meant he needed to eat more.

Aristotle waited watching the rabbit for a few moments to see what it would do. Then creeping as close as he dared, the young lion leaped into the air with his paws aimed to come down with his full weight on the rabbit. He meant to pin it beneath him.

Ari

Hope is but a waking dream

As the young lion came down he only managed to catch the Bush Rabbit under one paw, however this was enough to keep the Bush Rabbit to keep from running away. Aristotle put all of his weight into that one paw pressing the rabbit down into the dirt and grass patch. A deep grating growl escaped the young lion. He was beginning to enjoy hunting. He seemed to be pretty good at it. At least pretty much all of his hunts had been successful, he had yet to go hungry even for a day.

He had started like every feline, with tiny little mice. But those soon became unable to satiate his hunger. However he soon moved to the mouse’s larger cousin the rat. However these had been apt to fighting back. Especially the larger black ones, that he had learned were called Pitch Rats.

As the growl escaped his chest he leaned down snapping the Bush Rabbit’s neck. He had been pressing down on its chest,and therefore the rabbit couldn’t scream which meant he could keep hunting in the area. However he would take this back to his house and eat. Trotting in through his front door he dug up the other rabbit and the pitch rat he had managed to catch.

Using his claws he slowly began to skin the rabbits and the rat. He was wanting their fur to line his new bed as soon as it was made that was. But collecting the pelts meant he would have less work to do later. And he was hungry. But he knew he had to work slowly or he would damage the skins. As he worked, the rabbit skins came off rather easily, however the much tougher skinned Pitch Rat turned out to be a bit more work than he had anticipated and he nicked one of the legs of the rat. However he took the skins after scraping the of fat and other leftover meats. He carried the skins to the stair case and left them out to dry with the other two Rabbit skins that were already there. With that done the young Lion went back to eat. Which he did hungrily.

Ari

Hope is but a waking dream

AFter finishing his meal, the young lion sat back on his rump. Next he began the process of cleaning his face of blood and any bits that got stuck to his face. He looked at the bones he had left behind. He knew the rabbits should live again, but the Pitch rat he wasn’t sure of. There were a lot of them and they were aggressive and just downright mean. However with a long moment of contemplation Aristotle decided that even the rat, as nasty as it was, they deserved to live again as well. It wasn’t their fault they were just aggressive, it was their form of defense. To attack before they were attacked.

With that the young lion gathered all of the bones into a pile and moved them as much at a time as he could to the back yard where he normally buried the carcasses. Digging a fresh hole, the young lion nosed the remains into the hole, after that he gently pushed dirt back into the hole. Live again in another life. The young lion spoke the words softly as a form of farewell and paying respects to those he had to eat.

Trotting back into the house Aristotle looked around. He still had plenty of the day left. He once more poked his head out the front door and sniffed the air searching for any new scents that weren’t there when he had come in. Thankfully there were none and no one was near except James. Next Aristotle walked back into the room containing the gem-egg. Abraxas I’ll be back in a day or two. I need to make a trip to Eridanus. The young lion purred deep and loud as he rubbed against the egg affectionately. James would come check in a bit later and know he wasn’t home and would stay with the egg until he returned.

After saying his goodbyes to Abraxas he trotted out of the front door at a leisurely pace. With that Aristotle trotted out of Orion and into Tunnel I heading toward his birthplace of Eridanus.

EXIT ARISTOTLE...