_kingofthedead_ (_kingofthedead_) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2018-04-24 22:33:00 |
|
|||
Entry tags: | t'challa (black panther) |
Who: T’Challa
When: April, during the Incense event
Where: The Pleistocene Era Dream
What: The Black Panther meets the big cat of the prehistoric jungle
Rating/Warnings: Low
Status: Complete
When T’Challa ‘awoke’ he knew immediately that this couldn’t be the waking world. For one thing, he was in his boxers and nothing else, and there was no way he would go anywhere outside his home in those. All around him were strange fauna and sounds of creatures that sounded much larger than your average animal. The OC had pulled pretty impressive stunts before, but looking about him in the sunny field he was in, he knew for certain he was definitely in the past. In the far distance he saw a herd of what appeared to be Woolly Mammoths grazing, and the trees around him were completely unfamiliar to the waking world.
“Either I am in the Savage Land,” he said aloud to himself, musing, “Or this is the deep past.” There was only one way to find out. He started to carefully head in the direction of the Mammoths, parting the grasses that were higher than himself, when he felt the presence of something nearby. He froze, and listened very carefully. Immediately he could tell he was being hunted for he could hear the careful breath of the beast behind him and just faintly hear its heartbeat. He held his breath and heard the faintest sound of a large paw take a step.
All at once there was a burst of sound and fury, and the grasses exploded with the ferocity of a large cat tearing through them, heading directly for T’Challa. He launched himself into the air, somersaulting backwards, landing into a crouch behind the bewildered big cat.
It was a sabre tooth cat. Roughly the size of a lion, it came to a stop and turned, snarling at T’Challa and staring him in the eyes with the cold stare of a hungry predator.
The warrior king was briefly reminded of one of his other dreams, where a walkabout in the jungle in his youth had a similar encounter. Only the panther was not this large, and he had plenty of trees and jungle to work with.
But here, without any weapons, what was he to do?
The animal charged again and this time T’Challa tumbled sideways, but the cat was as quick as he and lashed out with a paw, catching part of his shoulder. T’Challa let out a cry of pain as the claws sliced through his dark skin, but there was no time to inspect the wound. It was then, as he rolled to his knees again, that he felt it.
The necklace! The one from the dreams he had recently gotten! Shuri had made it for him, and it contained his Vibranium Black Panther suit! With a thought, it suddenly spawned out of the metal claw necklace around his neck, and before the sabre tooth could comprehend what it was looking at, T’Challa now too, was catlike.
It hissed at him fiercely, confused.
“Good kitty,” T’Challa said calmly behind the mask , not moving. “I would not try again if I were you.”
Looking very much like his namesake, T’Challa knew there was every chance the beast now thought him an interloper or competitor. At least now he need not fear for his life - if ever there was reason to do so. If it were a dream, there was no point. But that injury, which still ached, felt very much real, and he did not want to take any chances in case this were indeed, somehow, the real world.
The sabre tooth snarled and circled him slowly, hissing every now and then. T’Challa too, got up and circled, taking steps counter to the cats to keep the distance between them.
“You are the ancestor of what we worship. I do not wish to harm you.” T’Challa then said, breaking the primal silence between them. The sabre tooth, though, clearly had other plans. It charged again, slashing the air with its huge paws. T’Challa took the hits, countered, kicking the cat in the jaw once. It screeched and staggered away a moment, before becoming even further enraged and pouncing. The weight of the animal was more than T’Challa could have anticipated, but as usual, he remembered Shuri’s little trick in the suit almost too late.
With a twitch of his body he reflected the absorbed energy from the fight and the cat went flying through the air, landing twenty feet from where T’Challa lay. Scrambling to his feet, T’Challa decided that was enough and disappeared quickly and stealthily through the tall grasses leaving the stunned animal behind.