[PRP] Bug Off (Maji, Sundai)

[Talencia]

Now that she was old enough, Maji was enjoying some serious exploring. It wasn't that she wasn't happy being a member of Sikukuu... not at all! The pride was fantastic. Who couldn't love a pride focused on celebrations and parties? But Maji craved more than just celebrations. She was a much more physical sort of girl. She loved to climb, to dig under, to poke around. She'd even gotten in trouble when she was little, climbing higher than she should have. She'd ended up falling wrong and breaking something in her tail. Oh, how it had hurt! It had healed, though, giving her tail a subtle, rather perky kink in it.

She didn't often go very far from the pride's borders, truthfully. Adventurous as she was, she wasn't stupid, nor was she foolhardy. Best to be close enough to flee for help or safety rather than get lost in the big, wide world without help. She'd heard rumors of nasty lions who kidnapped people, taking them back to their pride to serve as their slaves. This was not at all something she wanted to happen to herself. She wasn't really afraid of lions, but out here she knew she was no match for even a female lion, much less a big, strong male.

Other species were just fine, though. She'd been raised in such a mish-mash of species that she didn't really see even hyenas as all that different from herself. While that might get her in trouble if she ever met an unfriendly pack of wild dogs or hyenas, she had yet to meet such a circumstance. Thus, when she spotted a black and white leopard in the distance, she pricked her ears and picked up her pace a bit. Time to meet a new friend! "Hello there!" she called when she was just close enough to be heard. "Who are you, and where are you from?" One certainly couldn't accuse Maji of being shy or reticent!

CaliWolfe

 

[CaliWolfe]

Talencia

Sundai couldn't wait to show Kohi this one. She hated bugs, even tossed one he had followed all day off of the ledge they had sat on to prove it to him. He had thought that was pretty mean of Kohi... Bugs are people too! That's what he told her, but then she had given him the stink eye and sent him off to grab her lunch. He didn't mind though, he was certain he'd find a bug Kohi would like! He was determined to impress that sister of his!

This bug was cool! It was colorful and had a horn on it's face! How couldn't someone like a neat looking bug like that?

When he noticed someone heading towards him Sundai lifted his head still caught with a smile on his maw. Oh? She wanted to know who he was... Where he was from. "Hmm." He paused to devour her words and spit out a sentence that made sense. "I'm Sundai." He told her. "I'm a traveler." That was the easiest way to put it. He figured as much. He had come and gone to many places before so just saying he was traveler fit the bill. "Do you like bugs?" He asked curiously. Maybe Kohi didn't like bugs, but Kohi was weird. Sundai couldn't see why others were grossed out or scared of bugs at all. They were neat.  

[Talencia]

She accepted his name and the generalized answer about where he was from with a bob of her head. "I'm Maji, and I'm from Sikukuu." Her slightly kinked tail waved enthusiastically behind her, and she opened her mouth to ask him if he'd heard of her home before, but he beat her to speaking first.

She paused to consider his question. Bugs, huh? "I... guess so?" she hazarded. "I haven't really paid them much attention, really," she confessed forthrightly. "I've seen some pretty ones, and some odd ones, but I never really thought much about them." Her ears swiveled as she thought about it. "Why? Did you find a weird one?" She approached closer, ears forward and whiskers spread with interest. There was very little the hybrid teen was afraid of, and bugs certainly weren't one of those few things. At worst they could sting or bite, but generally they were easy to avoid (or smash!) if they were the nasty kind. Except wasps. "I don't like wasps though," she added hastily, just in case they were what he was all about.

CaliWolfe

 

[CaliWolfe]

He had never heard of the Sikukuu, but he imagined if they let those only a bit younger then himself and Kohi run free, it couldn't have been that bad of a place. He was tempted to test for himself and see if the name was fun to say, since he thought it might be. Or maybe it was something of a tongue twister but he didn't want to risk annoying his new found company. He knew when he repeated words a lot around Kohi she got annoyed and smacked him for it.

"I don't like wasps either." He told her. They hurt, especially when they stung you right on the nose! That experience made Sundai certain of himself that he'd never dare to try and catch a wasp again...

"Bugs are very interesting." He told her. "Just because they don't speak like us doesn't mean they don't have feelings... They just act differently." He then uncurled his paw to reveal the shiny colorful bug with a horn on it's head. It was alive, but a little hurt to the point where it couldn't run away. Sundai had found it like that and was caring for the little guy ever since. Which was hard because whenever Kohi saw his bugs she'd scream and run away. Or crush them under her paw... "See, this one is pretty neat right? And he isn't biting me or anything either. He must be a nice bug."

Talencia

 

[Talencia]

Maji was understandably relieved to hear that her new acquaintance agreed with her on the wasp front. It wasn't cool that something that small could not only hurt you, but chase you as well! In a gang no less! Not cool at all. Thus reassured, she came a little closer, blinking thoughtfully at his words. Hmm. She'd never considered a bug's feelings. How would it feel to be a bug? "Goodness, we must be like elephants to the bugs! Or bigger!" Her eyes went wide and round at the imagining. "Maybe that's why some of them bite or sting," she mused aloud before leaning in to see what he had.

Her nose twitched as she sniffed at the rather large bug. It was intriguing. How did so many colors get on one thing like that? She was glad it was a nice bug though. She watched it for a moment as it teetered on his paw, then angled her ears back and squinted her eyes. "Do bugs breathe?" She had noticed that this horned pretty thing didn't seem to. She looked up at Sundai with bright interest. "Do they have noses like us?" She couldn't think of ever having seen a bug with nostrils. Maybe they didn't breathe at all? But then, how were they alive?!

CaliWolfe

 

[CaliWolfe]

"Giant elephants!" Sundai exclaimed with laughter. That seemed to be an accurate representation of leopards and hybrids compare to what bugs saw... He almost wondered what bugs thought of lions that were considered giants in his eyes. They must have been colossal beasts to the tiny little creatures.

"Hmm yes. They bite or sting when they feel scared or angry." He told her. He managed to keep calm most of the time, if only to avoid making bugs he carried with him angry. They got mean when they were angry, and when scared they'd do anything to get away.

"They do, but don't." He bit his lip trying to explain to her. "See, some bugs use their feet to smell things, and others use the little antenna on their heads and faces to smell. So they don't really have noses, but they can still smell and such. They breathe um... Well, they breathe somehow." He hadn't figured that part out yet, but if they didn't breathe how did they smell? More importantly how did they live? Obviously they had to breathe some way or another otherwise it just didn't make sense.

Talencia

 

[Talencia]

Maji stared at him in astonishment. "They smell with their feet?! How in the world did you ever figure that one out?" She leaned forward to peer closer at the large, colorful bug, trying to get a better look at its feet. No, she didn't see anything that looked like a nose... not even close. With a frown she sat back and picked up one of her own paws and examined it. Was it possible to smell with ones feet? She gave one of her pads a meditative lick. She could taste what was on her feet... but her feet did not do the tasting. That led her to thinking of feet with tongues, and she burst out with a laugh.

"Sometimes I think bugs just aren't from the savannah," she said to her new friend, eyes twinkling merrily. "They are too different than anything else here. Birds have noses," she waved a paw skywards, "though they don't look like ours. Snakes too. Even elephants breathe like we do, though their nose is weird." She pulled a face and waved a paw like a trunk, touching her nose to her shoulder as she did so. "But bugs? They aren't like us at all." She stopped goofing and peered at his bug again. "But why do they come here, if they are so different?" she mused aloud.

CaliWolfe

 

[CaliWolfe]

"If they don't have noses on their face they have to smell somehow, right?" So he figured they must smell with their feet. If bugs had little antenna they touched and felt with that but since the bug he was holding didn't have one he figured either it couldn't smell at all, or it used it's feet to smell.

He laughed as she imitated having an elephant trunk. "Agreed." He smiled. "Bugs must be from somewhere else, but they stuck around here because it's warm." He had been to cold places before and much to his disappointment no bugs seemed to like it in those places. In fact, he hadn't been able to find any bugs in the snowy hills he had found once. It was too cold, for him, for them, for everyone.

Talencia

 

[Talencia]

She pondered what he'd said. Well... she supposed smelling with their feet was as likely (or unlikely) as anywhere else, right? Though it did seem a weird conclusion to jump to. But what did she know? He was the expert here, clearly. She also had to agree that bugs didn't seem to like the cold. Now that she thought about it, there never were any bugs around in the winter time, when the snow dropped down to cover the dens as well as the mountain top. Which led to another thought.

"Goodness, what must a mountain seem like to a bug?!" She frowned thoughtfully. "Maybe the cold reminds them of being up high, and they don't like it?" It seemed logical to her, anyway. Something so small surely must not like to go way up high on the mountains, which were too big for even her to properly see. Intrigued, she got right down into the dirt, squeezed one eye closed, and tried to look at the world from the perspective of a bug. "Mountains must seem like the world is just determined to go the wrong direction!" she exclaimed. "Imagine if the entire savannah was going nearly straight up, and we were trying to walk up it!" Now that she'd latched onto an intriguing idea, it was hard to not keep thinking of new challenges that the bugs must face!

CaliWolfe

 

[CaliWolfe]

Sundai pondered this new thought. "I always thought maybe they thought mountains were the end of the world." Snow seemed to be the bugs natural enemy. If it was cold, they avoided it. Sundai had thought they felt a never ending winter was coming, and the bugs needed to take shelter and hide.

He noticed bugs just naturally didn't live as long as he did. Maybe to them it really was a never ending winter, and when spring came it was only generations later that they'd get to see the sunshine again. The leopard shivered at that thought. Being a bug was seriously tough business.

"Or maybe they don't even notice the mountain. Maybe they just think it's a new type of sky, or something." He sure would think the savanna had turned into a new sky or something if he was a bug. Sundai was sure of it.

He smiled as Maji had bend down trying to see things from a bugs eye. It was so nice to meet someone who seemed to like them as much as him! He watched the bug in his paw crawl around, it seemed ready to fly away... His eyes widened as he realized it was about to do just that. "oh no!" the little creature seemed to half-fly half-pounce away and out of his paw.

Talencia

 

[Talencia]

Maji saw it happening, but jumped forward to put a restraining paw on her new friend's shoulder. She felt sympathy for him, but hoped to get him to see things from a bug's view. "Wait! Think about what we've been talking about... mountains and elephants." She lowered her paw and tipped her head sideways to look up at him. "Just imagine life for your bug friend. Can you imagine being held captive by elephants?" She turned to look where the bug had leapt to. "Huge elephants that you couldn't understand? How would you know they weren't going to squish you later? Or just wanted to be your friend?"

She shook her head and looked at him earnestly. "If your bug is ready to head out on its own, shouldn't you let it? What if it has a family? Little bug babies waiting at home!" She tended to get very carried away, clearly. Still, she felt rather impassioned just now for the tiny creature. "Shouldn't we let it fly away if it can?"

CaliWolfe

 

[CaliWolfe]

Sundai doubted his little bug had a bug-family to head home to, especially since Kohi had squished and squashed half of them with her big paws after shrieking upon seeing a single bug. He got Magi's point though. He certainly wouldn't enjoy it if an elephant decided to hold him captive while another of its kind had gone and annihilated half his family. In the little bug's eyes he must have been a terrifying monster and the poor creature was just awaiting the day Sundai got tired of caring for him, and squished him too!

"Mmm, yes. If he can fly away then we should let him do that." Unless the bug was girl, in that case they should let her fly away. Sundai had perfected referring to bugs as either a boy, girl or 'it' if he couldn't decided what gender it must have been. If bugs could talk he'd just ask them what gender they were, but they didn't talk so he couldn't ask.

His silver eyes gazed over at his hopping little pest as it scurried off into the grass. "I guess he didn't feel like flying." He thought out loud. "But at least we know he'll be safe, I think."

Talencia