[PRP] Check Up Time (Dumaka, Ena) - FIN!

[Mogami]

Dumaka was leaving the healers’ den after his much dreaded check-up. He had been the first to be examined and, honestly, it hadn’t been as nearly bad as the cub had expected it to be. He had to admit though. Dumaka didn’t really like to be examined and he couldn’t wait to get out of that place so he’d answered every question with a negative, even when it was a lie. “Do you feel tired after you play?”, “No.”; “Have you ever started coughing after running too fast?”, No.”. And so on. Pretty soon he had left the small group of striped and lacy little lions, looking tall and brave after the terrible ordeal and he was now grooming himself while he waited for the others to be done.
 

[Kira_of_the_Flame]

Ena hadn't been feeling well after playing with her siblings down at the watering hole and decided it might be best to go and see her step-mom Eva for a checkup. Walking up twoard the healing den Ena noticed another cub around her age sitting and cleaning himself. The striped cub looked a bit irritated and Ena almost just walked by him thinking it might be best if she just left him alone but she changed her mind and walked up to him.

"Did you just get a check-up? I have to go get one now too but I don't have to go in right away. The head healer Eva is my ma, so she can give me one later. Im Ena, by the way. Whats your name?" she said as she sat down next to him.  

[Mogami]

Dumaka cocked his head, tongue frozen in place and his grooming activity was interrupted. He didn’t know this cub so he was happy that she had told him about her stepmother because he was about to tell her he didn’t like the healers and their prodding very much.

“Eva? Is that the dark one with the stripy hair?” he hadn’t been examined by that lioness but he did see one who looked like she was in charge.

“I’m Dumaka.” He answered, straightening up a little. “Does your mom give those weird herbs that taste really bad?”  

[Kira_of_the_Flame]

"Yea shes the one with stripy hair." she gave the other cub a smile.
"Nice to meet you Dumaka." she said before answering his question about her moms medicine. "Yea those herbs taste pretty nasty huh." she laughed before saying, "They have made me feel better though sometimes.... but I have to say the purple stuff made from those flowers is the worst. I really don't want anymore of that. Ick!"
As she made the ick noise it morphed into a cough and it took a second before she could calm down.
"So how did your check-up go?" she asked him.  

[Mogami]

Dumaka had never felt sick enough that he would willing eat those nasty herbs so he considered the possibility of something worse very carefully.

“Purple stuff. Got it.” He took as a friendly warning, determined to commit this new information to memory and avoid the purple medicine at all costs. “I have a stepmom, too. I don’t look like her either.” Apparently it wasn’t very uncommon to be raised by someone who wasn’t actually related to you and Dumaka was happy to know that. When the other cub started coughing, Dumaka looked mildly concerned and instantly started to feel an itch in his throat, promptly joining in on the coughing to make it stop.

“I was okay. I don’t usually cough.” He said when Ena seemed to be feeling a little better. Maybe she should go see the healer right away.

“I like your blue sun.” he said quietly, eyeing the girl’s shoulder. It took him a while to realized that wasn’t her only marking.  

[Kira_of_the_Flame]

She was happy to hear that she wasn't the only one with a step-mom and smiled as Dumaka complimented her on her fur patterns. "Thanks I think I got it from my mom cause my dad dosen't have this marking. I like your pattern too, tiger stripes are very manly. Dosen't some of your siblings have a lacey pattern?" she asked him.

"So is the rest of your brothers and sisters getting a check-up too? I hate being sick, my siblings get to play all the time and I have to take medical herbs." she kicked a pebble and watched it roll off and down the hill  

[Mogami]

One could really see the young cub puffing his chest out at being called “manly”. He looked back at his stripes with a little smirk.

“They do, almost all of them. I think it would look good on a girl but we’re all brothers, no sisters…” Not that it disliked it on his brothers. Honestly, he just saw it as a memento from their birth mother so he’d never really thought much about it. “I have a lot of older siblings, too. Sometimes they get sick too, especially one of my big sisters.” He wondered if that meant girls were weaker but he assumed that was one thing he should not say aloud. He made a motion to stop the pebble but wasn’t fast enough and he watched it roll away. He looked around for another pebble and took a good whack at it, watching it go a little further than the other one.

“Mine won.” He said with a playful grin, throwing a small pebble at the purple-eyed cub.  

[Kira_of_the_Flame]

"Wow all brothers huh? Were a mix, both girls and boys. There are alot of cubs my age in the den or just a tad older. My big sister Bee is immune." she told the striped cub before getting pegged with a pebble.
"Hmm you win huh? Watch this!" Ena said as she scooped up another pebble threw it in the air and spun around, waking the pebble with her tail. The stone flew through the air and was lost in the distance. Smirking playfully at Dumaka she said, "Beat that!"  

[Mogami]

“Immune? Really?” Dumaka considered the little tidbit carefully. So much for his theory… “Lucky.” He’d never given much thought about what it meant to be immune. In his case, it could mean that could go into the rogue lands and find his birth mother. He felt a strange longing when he thought about her. “I don’t know if any of my siblings are immune.” There wasn’t much time to think though. Before he knew it, there was game to be played!

“Oooh…!” he said as he watched her throw the pebble in a most amusing way and promptly tried to do the same… obviously missing the stubborn pebble by far. Another attempt, another fail. But the little cub was too proud to ask her how she did the little trick. Finally, he ignored everything else and used his front paw to give a good whack at a pebble that appeared to have a good shape for flying. It went far and he felt somewhat avenged but it wasn’t as good as Ena’s attempt. Fine, he would concede. Just this once.

“You win. This time.” He said and his throat itched again causing a massive coughing fit.  

[Kira_of_the_Flame]

"I'm not sure if any of my siblings around my age are immune, mom says we wont know for awhile cause were young." she told the cub as she thought about her disease. She wasn't going to let it get her down though, she wasn't going to let it make her live her life carefully.

Ena smirked a little when she noticed that he wasn't able to copy her trick and smiled at Dumaka as she realized she won this game.
"It's not a hard trick, just have to know the secret to make it work. Do you want me to teach you how? Once you learn it you can best your other siblings with it!" she told her new friend, mischief sparkling in her violet eyes. The same eyes that showed concern and understanding when he started to cough roughly. Watching him cough seemed to make her throat itch and within seconds she sneezed loudly. "Acchhheeeooww" she exclaimed as she fell over from her loud high pitched sneeze. "Must be dust or something" she told him, giving him an excuse as well as herself.  

[Mogami]

Dumaka was slowly growing in awe of the girl in front of him. Not only did she seem to know a whole lot of things but she did amazing tricks and was capable of sneezing louder than anyone he’d ever seen.

“You okay?” he said, a little wide-eyed and considered her explanation. “Yeah, dust maybe.” They were too young to be sick, right? Dumaka certainly hoped so, there was so much he wanted to do without feeling the crippling grip of disease. The idea of having something to gloat over his siblings was rather tempting though and Dumaka decided the pebble trick was definitely something worth learning.

“Okay, show me!” he said with a certain amount of urgency, as he noticed some of his brothers waiting at the entrance of the healer’s den. They seemed to have finished their check-ups already.  

[Kira_of_the_Flame]

"Yeah I'm okay really." she said as she sniffed, hoping she wouldn't sneeze again. "That sneeze made my head feel fuzzy though" she told him as she laughed.

She watched his enthusiastic expression when she offered to teach him her trick and smiles cutely. "Okay the trick is to never let the pebble out of your sight and to swat your tail as hard as you can! Like when you try to whack one of your brothers with it and you really want to make it sting." she told him with laughter in her eyes. "I'll do it once more then you try, okay?!"

Ena picked up another pebble and got into position, she twirled as she threw the pebble up in the air and watched as it came back down. Just as she finished her spin she whacked the pebble with her tail and it soared out through the air, falling somewhere down the hill that they couldn't see.

"There you go! Now you try! Remember, keep your eye on it and whack it like its your brother!" she laughed again and handed him another pebble.  

[Mogami]

Okay, it sounded simple enough. Dumaka watched the demonstration with keen eyes, taking in a lot more details this time and doing the appropriate “ooooh” sound as the pebble disappeared. Then he attempted to do the same. Throw it, watch it… hit it! He knew exactly which brother to picture as he did it.

It wasn’t as bad as his previous attempts and he did manage to graze the pebble – it actually hurt a bit! – but the pebble changed direction abruptly and nearly hit an adult that was passing through. Dumaka did his best innocent expression before grinning at Ena, clearly amused. Perhaps it would take some practice to get it right but that didn’t bother the cub.

“Almost! I’ll get it next time.” He looked at his siblings again, silently counting the lace patterns and stripes. He pointed his head at the den. “I have to go. They all seem to done already.”  

[Kira_of_the_Flame]

Ena looked at all the stripy and lacy lion cubs and sighed. Looks like her friend was leaving and now she had no reason not to go inside and see her ma for some medicine. Turning back to the cub she smiled, "Aww well okay, maybe next time you can teach me a trick."

She got to her feet and started to walk towards the healing den before she could think twice about it she bounded back to him and nuzzled his neck a bit. She ran back towards the den with a blush you could've seen if her fur wasn't so dark.  

[Mogami]

“Oh! I’ll teach you something that really bugs bigger lions!” Dumaka said excitedly, thinking of what he’d done to his older brother during the last time they’d played.

He took her nuzzle with some surprise but didn’t show it much. He was used to being cuddled by mom and sisters but it was a little different when it was someone he’d just met. He didn’t really understand why, though so he just took the little nuzzle a normal gesture between friends… so apparently he’d just made a friend. That was actually pretty cool. He didn’t have any other friends outside of his family – though, granted, he did have an unreasonable number of siblings.

“Bye Ena!” he shouted at the dark blue cub before running off to join his brothers.

- The End! -