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 Posted: Wed Feb 20, 2008 7:51 am
"Come back!" His voice drifted from his muzzle gently as Ithayiga darted after it, his tail wagging in the air behind him much the way his father's did.
Soft crunching noises came as Itha leapt over the grass, bending it and crushing it each time beneath his broad orange paws, smiles lighting in his blue eyes. He was amused by all of this, happy that he'd managed to escape the paws of his mother long enough to chase the butterfly this far away from home. Even if he wasn't sure where 'this far away from home' was.
Legs bunching beneath him, Itha surged one more time forward and leapt into the air, his black stripes dancing down his back and sides in a playful manner as he did so, almost making him appear to be longer than he was. Landing, Ithayiga cupped his paws and peered down into them, tail swishing with hope that he'd caught it.
He'd missed...
Lifting his blue eyes, the juvenile peered out at the butterfly and saw it flitting over the grass in a teasing manner.
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Posted: Fri Feb 22, 2008 1:18 pm
 Skuld had left her bones behind on this day. Her father's words, though they had hurt at the time, rang with truth. She needed to not wear them, they did slow her down and all. Despite the fact that Skuld had taken them off for a day, she still loved the bones she often wore. She'd wandered away from the den like she did every day and sat in the shade of a tree, panting from the excessive heat. She'd get up in a moment, but right now... She just didn't want to. Heat had a way of making a cat lazy, especially one with a dark coat like her own.
However, butterflies had a way of countering the heat, and a white one drifted into sight, a ways off. The cub following it was hidden to her view, but it was a nice, pretty, white butterfly. She'd never seen a white one before... which was the reason that the cub rose to her paws and followed after it, padding quite quickly. She was coming from a 90 degree angle from the other cub, and she curiously approached it, though it was still a little way off.
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Posted: Mon Feb 25, 2008 7:02 pm
Orange and black was much like a tiger as Ithayiga crept across the long grasses, his eyes were locked soley on the butterfly, not noticing the world around him or who was in it.
Only the gentle fluttering of white wings met his blue eyes, fillling them until his pupils swelled beyond slits and took in the sunlight around him to get a better sight on his prey. Muscles bunched and Ith's legs pulled close together. Whiskers all out on end and his tail flittering out behind him, the small cheetah juvenile watched until the butterfly seemed to be moving in slow motion.
It was the mark of a hunter that he was able to see the world in this manner, but he was still a far way from being... anything.
In one movement he kicked with his hind legs and struck out with his front paws, sailing through the air with outstretched paws towards the butterfly.
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Posted: Wed Mar 05, 2008 11:49 am
Skuld, too, was beginning to get ready to pounce the thing as she got closer, but just as she was about to jump, an orange-and-black streak beat her to it. The butterfly vanished from her sight, she imagined that whatever had just made the jump had caught it. She peeked up above the grass' top to see if she could find it, and it wasn't long before her eyes fell on another cheetah.
"Hey there!" Skuld said, tilting her head. She'd wanted to investigate the butterfly, as she often investigated every living thing she ran into. "You're sure fast! My name's Skuld," She said in a friendly manner as she pushed through the grasses to get closer to the stranger.
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Posted: Wed Mar 05, 2008 1:07 pm
Slowly his paws lifted, orange nearly releasing the butterfly entirely as he stared at it. He'd gone and crushed the poor thing to the ground by accident.
A pout came to his orange face for a moment before Itha realized that he had company. His tail lashed out sharply as he turned, eyes shimmering full of blue, to look at a smaller female that had apparently watched everything he'd just done.
She was brown, really brown, and unlike himself she actuallyhad spots. It was just like his sisters, both of them had spots and Itha just looked like a tiger thrown into a thin cheetah's body. Every cheetah that had spots Itha envied.
Not much but enough.
"Hello." His eyes curved in a smile even though it barely reached his muzzle. No smile did, his face was a mask when he was around others that he didn't know. "Thanks but I crushed it, not all that great at pouncing yet."
At this his eyes flashed a frown before dissipating back into a smile at her name.
"Skuld? Sounds cool, like 'skull'" Itha said, eyes crinkling, "My name's Ithayiga. Were you hunting the butterfly too?"
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Posted: Mon Mar 31, 2008 4:39 pm
"Thanks!" Nobody had come to the Skull conclusion before, though she'd thought it now and then herself. "Nice to meet you Ithayiga," Skuld said with a smile and a little dip of her muzzle- such was polite in her mind, though she didn't care if someone else did that or not too, so long as they were friendly.
"I wouldn't call it hunting so much as catching, but yeah, I was after it too. No big deal though, there are plenty of butterflies out there to stalk," she said calmly. "I'm pretty good at pouncing them without squishing them, and I'm alright at sneaking, I think," Skuld said happily, crouching down into the grass and then popping up again. "You didn't notice me, huh?" Of course, she hadn't noticed him either until she saw him jump.
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Posted: Wed Apr 09, 2008 7:58 pm
Both of Itha's blue eyes crinkled in amusement for a moment before changing back to their normal shining interest. She'd probably thought the same thing of her name before, it was only off by one letter. How many on the savannah didn't get that though?
"Oh there are lots out here. I've eaten a lot of them just today." Ithayiga said smoothly, completely lying in order to see how open she would be to something that males generally did, the disgusting things they were prone to. The females he'd met in the past hadn't liked that he'd eaten bugs usually. Even if he hadn't eaten them today didn't mean that he didn't eat them at all.
Bugs tasted good.
"Nope. Didn't notice you at all, you must be a shadow or something when you hunt." Itha said, both of his eyes scrinched, a wry smile showing in them. "Can you teach me how to do that? People still see me when I'm hunting."
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Posted: Mon May 26, 2008 9:32 pm
Skuld pondered what he said. "Eating bugs...?" She was thinking out loud more than she was talking to him. "How interesting, I've never really heard of that before. I'm always eating meat more than bugs, and sure, I could eat bugs... I find waiting til I get back to mom for a meal more tasty, but to each his own..." She said with a casual gesture with her paw.
She nodded enthusiastically to Ithi's next question. "A nice lioness taught me how, I've found it rather useful when you're trying to get close to something right before you get ready to make a dash for it." She hadn't mastered using this trick on her father, but she would sure work on it. Someday... someday she'd get her father's elusive tail. Then she'd... do... something with it.
"First, you've gotta get really low to the ground. Like you're lying on your belly, but just a leeeettle bit more up..." Skuld crouched low to the ground to demonstrate. "Like this."
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Posted: Sun Jul 20, 2008 8:20 pm
"You should try them, they're really good!" Itha chirped happily, a smile finally bringing itself onto his orange colored muzzle. "And it holds you over till your mom gets back, at least it does with Athi and I. Our sisters not so much, they hate bugs."
Both of his ears pricked up instantly, a show that he was listening with all his attention to the words coming from Skuld's mouth. She was a way for him to learn how to hunt given that his mother claimed he was too young despite being juvenile and fairly decent in size. He wasn't small like either of his parents were, that much was for certain.
"Like this?" Itha repeated and laid himself down so that only his fur touched the ground, his little legs spread to the front and back of him in odd positions to brace his little body up, yet his bottom failed to follow suit and instead stuck up in the air with his tail like a flag to any prey that might walk by.
"... or maybe not."
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Posted: Wed Jul 30, 2008 11:55 am
Skuld pondered the idea of eating a few bugs as a snack for next time her mother went off to get food. She kept that strategy in the back of her mind. She could always learn interesting things from strangers, she'd found. She felt very important, with how Itha was listening so intently to her, but she had explained it just as Siri, the nice lioness had.
Skuld watched as he mimicked her, for the most part. "Kinda like that..." she said, still crouching down herself. "Only just one thing... Here, stay like that." She said as she rose herself and padded over to him. She pushed first on his spine, just after it started to stray from horizontal, then with her other front paw lightly pinned his tail tip down. "Maybe that'll help?" She suggested.
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Posted: Thu Aug 07, 2008 11:20 am
Blinking his eyes owlishly, Ithayiga beamed and wiggled his bum a bit more, doing his best to keep it down where she'd pushed it. After months of playing with his twin Athi, Itha's tail wanted nothing but to stand up like a flag erect, bum up in the air and wiggling before tackling his poor brother. Even though Itha could be shy around others before knowing them and he was a fraidycat, he was still braver and more outgoing than his shy twin.
"So THIS is how I didn't even see you. You must be a really good hunter!" Itha crowed brightly, blue eyes glittering as he swished his tail about in a wagging motion and tried a leap.
Only to end up in a heap of small orange and black fur and long ungainly legs all tangled up together.
Grace... was not Itha's strong point.
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Posted: Sun Aug 24, 2008 3:13 pm
Skuld gave a chuckle at his compliment. "Well, I don't really hunt anything yet, but I'm pretty good at sneaking up on things," she admitted. The dark cheetah watched as Itha took a leap and landed in a pile of his own fur, which Skuld found amusing. She padded right back alongside him, tail flicking playfully. "All you need is a little practice, Itha, you'll get better!" The cub said cheerfully with a little tilt of her head. She spent a lot of time stalking after butterflies and getting really close. After all, they were no good to her far away, the cheetah needed to get up close to properly investigate them.
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