[PRP] We're Stuck Together (Dumaka, Yezekael) - FIN!

[Mogami]

Dumaka was slowly getting accustomed to the new pride. Sickness and death were a natural thing to the cub who hadn’t know anything else since his birth as far as he could remember – and he did try to remember. Being part of a large family had helped getting adjusted with life in the Kitwana’antara and having older siblings was something he rather enjoyed.

Actually, at that precise moment, the cub was stalking a tail tuft that seemed to pop out from a dense bush and he was quite sure it belonged to one such sibling. It was dancing in rather taunting manner and the cub felt happily obliged to hunt it. After a long deliberation on how to do it, the cub leapt forward clumsily as he tried to pounce of the elusive tuft.
 

[MoonRazor]

Well, how about that. There Zeki was, doing his own little bout of hunting (it was a lizard, and it had narrowly escaped just nanoseconds before the following... incident came to pass) when out of nowhere, he felt a tap and a yank on his progressively-bushier, black-striped tail. The sudden contact had been such a surprise, in fact, that he lost control for a split second and let out what could only be called a squawk, yanking his tail out of reach and, in the same breath, spinning around and diving out of the bush to confront his attacker.

"RAWWWWWRRRR!!!" Even as he puffed himself up, he recognized the striped, blue-eyed figure of one of his many new little brothers, and promptly deflated himself, letting his fur and body settle back into a more relaxed stance. Now that the initial surprise had gone, he felt much more at ease, especially since he had managed to identify the source of the "attack."

"Dumaka~" He fairly sang. Zeki had quite taken to the idea of having younger siblings, and was settling into his new role of big brother fairly comfortably. He knew that there wasn't much that he could contribute to their upbringing, other than to cheer them up when they were down (and Zeki was very good at cheering people up, mostly because he never seemed to be too down in the dumps himself) and being around to protect them from bullies, if they happened to show up (and Zeki was good that too; he was a big boy, always had been, and his size, if nothing else, seemed enough to scare off potential troublemakers), but that didn't stop him from trying to take as active a part as possible in the little cubs' lives. They were all family now, after all.  

[Mogami]

Though visibly startled at first by his older brother’s quick and loud reaction, Dumaka was rather pleased with the impact one simple pounce had managed to inflict upon the larger cub. Being able to catch someone older unprepared was a great feat for the young striped lion.

“Yeze-kael.” He replied in much the same tone, giggling. He stepped back with mischievous grin, his little rump dancing playfully behind him. “I got you.”

And he kept grinning, hopping clumsily from side to side and nearly falling more than once, in a very clear invitation to play.  

[MoonRazor]

"Oh, y'think?" Zeki said with a grin, a mischievous twinkle dancing in his eyes as he watched his little brother hop about. But no, he was not going to take the bait - not so soon anyway; he was waiting for the opportune moment in which he could pounce his brother and get him back for the tail attack. He stood where he was, violet eyes following Dumaka's every clumsy move.

"Well, what you doing up so early, anyway, hm? Din't mama ever tell you, little cubs need sleep. Like, lotsa sleep. Otherwise you won't grow." He puffed himself up again, drawing himself to his full height. "How d'you think I ever got to be this big, huh?"

In truth, the speckled cub's size had nothing to do with how much sleep he had gotten as a younger cub, and everything to do with the genes he had inherited from his father - but Zeki didn't know that, and neither did Dumaka. For all either of them knew, his growth was the direct result of many good nights of sleep.  

[Mogami]

“I sleep a lot!” the cub said defensively but quickly realized that wasn’t a particularly great achievement so he made a small attempt at explaining himself. “I woke up… I didn’t wanna go back to sleep again.”

“I’m gonna be just as big as you!” he said with great certainty, standing straight closer to his older brother. Obviously that wasn’t enough to reach Yezekael’s nose so the small cub rose on his back paws for a few seconds, displaying a bright look of triumph… right before he started falling backwards. “See, I’m already taller-er-er…aaaah!”  

[MoonRazor]

"S'okay," the speckled cub reassured his striped brother. "Mebbe it's the effort that counts." Zeki wasn't quite sure. He hadn't really had enough time to reason out any theories of his (and in truth, he didn't know if he wanted to, or even knew enough to do anything of the sort), but he figured it would be alright to tell Dumaka something that seemed, for all intents and purposes, to make sense.

At the very least, it was sense to a growing child's mind, and whether or not the real world would deign to adhere to Zeki's somewhat warped sense of logic didn't much matter at this point. Right now, it seemed more imperative that he voice his ideas out into the world, and then wait and see if they would pan out.

Zeki grinned as Dumaka drew himself up next to him. "Oh yea?" He said with a giggle. Anything was possible. "Maybe when we're all growed up, we'll compare, and if you're not, then-" He cut off abruptly as Dumaka began to topple backwards, and reached out with a paw in an attempt to stop, or at least slow, the cub's momentum.  

[Mogami]

Dumaka took the paw without hesitation, holding on tight his front paws at first and the – because almost falling on his back was becoming less embarrassing and more amusing by the second – the cub used his back legs to push the ground and grabbed his older brother’s leg with four paws so that only his tail now touched the ground. He looked up with a cheeky grin.

“I got you again!” he said with a giggle. Yes, Dumaka was quite happy to have a great number of big brothers that he could play with.  

[MoonRazor]

Zeki blinked at the little striped cub that had managed to cling to his paw with all four feet, and chuckled, shaking his head and his paw lightly, as if attempting to dislodge the little creature. It must have been a rather strange and amusing sight from afar, the vision of a little cub clinging burr-like to the paw of a much larger one.

Definitely not something a lion saw every day. Certainly, there weren't too many cubs out there with Dumaka's cheekiness, and fewer still that would have thought to do what he had done.

"Well, what you gonna do when I do... this, then?" He asked with a laugh, sitting back on his haunches and raising his entrapped paw further away from the ground. "Bet you can't touch the ground even if y'wanted to now!"  

[Mogami]

“Pff! Of course I can!” But he couldn’t and he realized that as soon as the cub attempted to extend one of his back legs to touch the ground and ground it did not meet. He gave a tiny whelp and brought his back leg right back to the starting point, hugging his big brother’s leg even tighter than before.

“No fair, no fair!” Dumaka cried out indignantly, his voice slightly high-pitched. He couldn’t help but to feel a little afraid – as if he could actually hurt himself if he were to fall from such a terrible height! - and his throat itched a little but he ignored the feeling. Right now he was just focused on holding on as if his life depended on it, the little striped leech.  

[MoonRazor]

The sight of Dumaka reaching out with his hind legs to touch the ground greatly amused his elder brother, and Yezekael was struck by a sudden urge to wiggle his paw slightly... just to see what would happen. Knowing that it was not the smartest idea and would have a greater chance of causing his little brother to throw a fit than anything, the spotted cub restrained himself.

Besides, he quite liked the feeling of having a little cub clinging to his leg. It was interesting, and made him feel rather big brother-y. The truth of the matter was, he'd fall and smack his face into the ground before he'd let any harm come to the herd of little siblings his mother had recently brought back home.

"Oh, okay," he said with an elaborate sigh, as if reluctantly relinquishing the new position of power he had discovered. He lowered his paw gently back to down so that Dumaka could easily scramble off. "Got you." He added with a grin.  

[Mogami]

Dumaka had to refrain from releasing his brother as soon as his tail touched the ground. That his big brother had taken him back down so quickly was a tiny victory but he couldn’t help to acknowledge that he’d looked rather silly hanging in the air like that. He was doubly annoyed when Zeki spoke. The cub huffed and puffed comically before a sparkle of an idea seemed to cross his gaze. The cub smiled a little and then grinned wickedly as he looked up to his big brother, still not letting go of his leg.

“I still got you. I have your leg and I’m never letting go.” He held on even tighter. “You’re gonna live the rest of your life with me ata-… attach-… we’re stuck!” he dropped his final words as a mighty conclusion, nodding vigorously as if to prove his point.  

[MoonRazor]

If he had expected Dumaka to disentangle himself the moment he hit the ground, Zeki was wrong. Much to his disbelief, the little striped cub continued to hang onto him, possibly even harder than before.

He studied his brother carefully, as if to determine whether Dumaka was being serious. It seemed that he was. A pensive look crossed the spotted lion's face as he regarded the little striped cub. "Well, alright," he said finally. "As long as you can stand it when I walk like... this!" He sat back on his haunches, raised his forelegs back into the air, and proceeded to bunny hop forward, one slow step at a time.

"Cause, you know, this is what happens when something attaches to me and gets stuck. Can't walk normally anymore." Hop. Hop.  

[Mogami]

Dumaka hated to lose but in this particular case he had to admit that he didn’t have much of a chance at getting everything his way and, quite honestly, he wasn’t really upset about it. The last thing he’d expected was that Zeki would start hopping around like a deranged gazelle. He braced for impact every time the leg he was holding hit the ground but it was getting harder and harder not to let go. This was the most ridiculous thing he’d ever seen in his – admittedly short – life and he was right there, playing a part in it. It was hilarious and Dumaka couldn’t help but to giggle and laugh quite loudly, shouting “Ooohh!” every time his older brother jumped and “Eeeek!” when hit the ground.

Finally, the cub let go of Zeki’s leg – obviously not on purpose - and rolled on the ground. Back on the dirt and belly watching the skies, the cub remained where he’d fallen, smiling and giggling as if he couldn’t really stop. His chest moved up and down rapidly and the cub did appear to be tired – even if remarkably happy.

“Okay, okay. You win this time. Just this time.” He said after a good while, grinning as he extended his neck to watch his brother upside-down. “Just ‘cause you’re bigger.”  

[MoonRazor]

Zeki was as amused by his brother's noise effects as Dumaka seemed to be with the hopping, which was just as well. It seemed like a win-win situation for them both. Being stuck to his little brother was certainly proving to be more fun than he would ever have thought, but then again, Zeki supposed that was to be expected. He should have known enough by now to realize that he did quite enjoy every minute he spent with the little buggers.

The spotted cub was tired enough by the time Dumaka let go of his leg, and promptly dropped to all fours, looming over his striped brother to make sure he really was okay. Which he certainly seemed to be. He was laughing as if there was no tomorrow, and his glee seemed infectious. Zeki grinned, shaking his head.

"Just cause I'm bigger, huh?" He echoed, quirking a brow. "Well, then maybe one day when you grow bigger than me, you can get even." It might have seemed like a difficult task to grow bigger than Zeki, though. The speckled lion had inherited his father's hefty size, and finding lions of his own age group to match him was difficult enough as it was. "Course... you might get a few more weird stares if you tried to cling to me if you're bigger."  

[Mogami]

Dumaka giggled again as he slowly rose to sit.

“I’ll be bigger! Much bigger! And then you’ll be the one hanging on my leg!” Dumaka exclaimed happily and immediately started laughing again, pictured the absurd possibility: one grown lion hanging to the leg of another for dear life. Ridiculous!

“Zeki…” the cub started tentatively, his expression shifting between playful and hopeful. “Will you carry me back to the den…?”