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 Posted: Mon Mar 31, 2008 5:07 pm
It was an absolutely glorious day! At least, Kanelo thought it was glorious. After all, the sun was shining, the world had avoided oblivion for another night, and there were all sorts of fascinating things to discover. Currently, the juvenile’s mismatched eyes were focused on a large cricket-like insect. It was huge! Like a great big… big… bug! That was exactly what it was like! The bright orange exo-skeleton of the insect had the white lion completely fascinated, at least for the next few moments. As the bug went along its daily business, he stalked it carefully, as if it was the greatest thing to ever exist on the planet. For all he knew, it was the greatest thing to ever exist on the planet. And, if it was indeed the greatest thing to ever exist on the planet, he didn’t want to miss a moment of it.
…
Currently, the greatest thing to ever exist on the planet was eating a dead snail. That didn’t seem to dissuade Kanelo at all who ventured even closer to the gargantuan insect. The bug continued its dining, apparently not noticing or perhaps caring about its stalker. Curiosity got the better of Kanelo and he nudged the bug with one paw.
And that’s when the greatest thing on the planet exploded in his face. Well, not really ‘exploded’… but it sure seemed like it to Kanelo since those sharp backlegs of the King Cricket lashed out. Oh, and it pooped at him. Only speed saved him from a face-full of feces. Backing away sharply, Kanelo wisely hid behind a dead log, peeking back over at the cricket only when he was sure it was ignoring him again.
Wow! That was amazing! Hey wait! There was something fluttering by! The cricket was quickly forgotten in favor of some fluttering butterflies as Kanelo attempted to swat a few down, just for the sheer joy of it.
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Posted: Wed Apr 09, 2008 7:25 pm
Slowly, very slowly, Sioda creapt up to it, his tail swishing a bit as he did so. It was in a burst of speed that he launched himself at the cricket and landed on the large thing with such a crushing force that it was squished from his weight and the force behind it. But guts squished between his little white paws and he sat back, peering at them with a lifted eyebrow.
"Ew. Okay, squishing bugs is a 'nooooo' then." Sioda said, ticking the past-time off his list of things that seemed interesting... at the time he came up with them.
Naturally he was running out of things on that list, he needed something else to come along that would come up with equally amusing things, or at least that WAS interesting.
Cleaning his paws on the dirt, Sioda twisted and rolled around, making himself a giant ball of dust and fur, the cream and white getting tinged so they dissapeared behind tan dust.
That done, he sat up and peered at himself. Now was time to see if he could convince someone that he was someone else. Prefferably someone he knew but then he didn't care who.
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Posted: Sun Apr 13, 2008 3:10 pm
Kanelo’s ears twitched as he heard a cricket song somewhere nearby. Ohhh! More bugs to chase! He crouched low to the ground and steadily stalked the sound, getting closer with every passing moment. But, before he could figure out where the cricket was, it stopped. Aww… but, then he heard something even more interesting. A voice. An unfamiliar voice, in fact. Now that was interesting. Other lions were always interesting, especially if they were other juveniles like himself. Born into a large family, Kanelo loved being around other lions. Being alone simply wasn’t normal.
Poking his face through some dried grass, he watched the other lion roll around in the dirt. “That’s the sort of thing that makes my mom have conon…connniperti… issues,” he observed. To say that his mother was ‘fastidious’ was being mild, although Kanelo would never use that word. He preferred calling her ‘super-ultra-mega-clean’. The dust didn’t bother him. It was fun to play around in it! And it made big huge clouds everywhere, and it swirled around in pretty ways.
“My name’s Kanelo,” he said proudly. “What’s your name?”
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Posted: Mon Apr 21, 2008 7:18 pm
Busted.
So much for that plan then I guess, Sioda ticked that one off as well and shook his fur until it was nearly back to it's old cream and caramel self.
"Mom would probably clean my ears until the sun sets if she caught me doing that." Sioda let a grin settle over his dusty muzzle, eyes dancing with mischief. "But if you have to do something you can't do it just half, gotta do the whole thing or nothing!"
A moment passed, in which Sioda stirred the dust up with his chocolate colored tail, then just as soon as it had come it was gone, his red eyes amused by the other and wanting to see what he could come up with.
Maybe something interesting.
"Kanelo? Mine's Sioda." He responded, his voice was a little higher pitched than normal, but he was a cub. "I like those peepers. Where'd you get em?"
One of his dusty white paws pointed to the two tonal eyes Kanelo possessed, a broad grin over his face, clearly hoping that he too could gain a bright blue eye in return for his two blood colored ones. After all, Kanelo had a red eye as well, so clearly he must have done something to get the blue.
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Posted: Mon Apr 21, 2008 9:39 pm
At Sioda’s wise words of wisdom, Kanelo broke into a wide grin and nodded enthusiastically. Finally, someone who actually understood that anything worth doing was worth doing all the way! And, if you were going to do something with only a half-assed effort, it clearly wasn’t worth doing at all. Some of his siblings failed to understand that sort of thing when he brought home an interesting bug or, perhaps, was a little overenthusiastic in his explorations of the local waterhole. Just as he was about to launch into a story about something like this, Sioda spoke again. A metaphorical iron girder fell right in front of Kanelo’s train of thought, completely derailing the entire thing.
Peepers? Peepers? Kanelo blinked the aforementioned peepers, trying to understand. Oh! Eyes! The mostly white youngster puffed up his chest with pride. Yes, he had very unusual eyes and was quite proud of them. “I didn’t do anything to get them. I was born with ‘em.”
His chest deflated a bit, as he realized that, perhaps, this wasn’t some grand adventure or anything. Being born with something just wasn’t the same as earning it. “One of my brothers, Manny, has eyes like mine.” An idea popped into his head. “Hey, one of his is blue and the other is red too! Maybe we got ‘em switched or something.” Ok, so the shades of blue weren’t exact matches or anything, but it was close enough, right? “Actually…” he thought further. “Everyone in my family has red and blue eyes. Only me an’ Manny have got both.”
Those odd-colored eyes fixed on movement not long after he finished speaking and, before long, Kanelo was completely distracted by some flying insect. “Wanna see who can catch more bugs?” he suggested, eager to make a new friend.
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Posted: Tue Apr 22, 2008 5:14 pm
"Mixed up you say? Well that's a shame if you were born with them that way, takes all the fun outta findin' new peepers. But they're cool." Sioda grinned at him, shining white teeth glittering in his muzzle. Too white to have been used that often.
Then that thought was gone, as if pulled from his head by a drifting breeze.
Bugs and the prospect of a game filled it now, brimming over as Sioda thought of his capabilities when it came to grabbing them from the air. Letting a slow grin fade into existance on his white muzzle, the juvenile nodded his head.
"I betcha I can beat you, even if it's only by one." His wink was cheeky, but he knew he was fast. Even his mother had told him that he was fast when it came to practice hunting. "You're on!"
With that last bold statement he leaped into the air after a beetle that hovered there, it's transparent wings beating faster than his heart. But his paw missed by just a fraction, flying through the air below it as he fell back down to his haunches.
"Dangit..."
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Posted: Tue Apr 22, 2008 6:00 pm
There were many words that could be applied to Kanelo. Hyperactive. Imaginative. Friendly. Outgoing. One word that could not, under any circumstances, refer to the youngster in any way, shape, or form was ‘graceful’. The white cub was pretty much the opposite of graceful. When learning how to walk, he had actually managed to trip on his own feet while lying down. Much amusement was had by all, even Kanelo although at that age he had only been laughing because everyone else was laughing. Still, this was all in fun and games and Kanelo didn’t mind losing so long as he had fun.
While Sioda went after the bugs in the air, Kanelo focused on the ones on the ground. A grasshopper skittering across the dry grass caught his focus. Immediately, the juvenile threw his body to the ground and started stalking forward, his odd-colored eyes completely focused on the unfortunate insect, which didn’t seem to notice him at all. With his tail high in the air, the juvenile did that oh-so-popular butt-wiggle thing that is as inherent to stalking cats as swimming is to fish. And then he jumped!
Long before he had even completed one butt wiggle, the grasshopper had jumped into the air, its wings flinging themselves out. Kanelo could hardly switch his directions in mid-air, but he tried anyway and only landed in an inelegant heap. Kanelo laughed, noticing that his newfound friend wasn’t having any better luck. “Where do you think all these bugs come from?”
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Posted: Tue Apr 22, 2008 8:21 pm
Rubbing his nose with a paw after attempting a limb spread leap at a passing mantis, Sioda turned his blood colored gaze over to Kanelo. The other seemed like he was fairing about as well as Sioda himself right now, but that didn't deter him from attempting further, only served to give him some hope.
"I dunno... momma says that they're little devils in a crunchy shell." He grinned at this, remembering how he'd stomped one out before his mother and she'd wailed. Mut'slama didn't like things killed before her. "I like eatin' em, they're crunchy."
With that he leapt up and smacked at another, this time his paw hit the beetle, but it zoomed out of his reach, zigzagging across the sky in patterns that made it look crazy... or mad. At least it didn't come back to attack and bite him like some of them did, he'd have had to run for water if that was the case, not very cool.
"Where do YOU think they come from?" Sioda asked his companion, wondering if Kanelo had a better story than his own.
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Posted: Wed Apr 23, 2008 4:49 pm
Kanelo considered the crunchy shell bit with slightly more thought than he usually gave such things. Typically, the most attention he gave anything was: ‘Oh, hey, what’slooksomethingshiny!!’. Yeah, he had a short attention span. Most cubs did, but Kanelo combined his attention span with such a lack of thought that made it special. “Depends on the bug,” he announced finally. “Some really fluttery ones---the ones that come out at night?---they’re squishy and not crunchy. I guess those would be fluffy devils or something…”
As the beetle crossed paths with Kanelo, the white cub smacked it with a paw. Out of pure luck, there was actually a solid smack between paw and beetle. The only one more surprised than Kanelo was probably the beetle, which landed on its back on the ground. For a moment, Kanelo was too surprised to do anything at all, but once he got over his surprise, he nudged the beetle. “Why can’t it get back over?” he wondered out loud. Ohh… look at all those legs! They wriggled madly in the air as the beetle struggled to right itself.
“Huh? Where did I come from?” A few neurons sparked off in Kanelo’s brain as he struggled with this concept. He had yet to get to the ‘Where do babies come from?’ stage with his parents. “Well… I know that my mom went off alone and had me and my siblings… so, I guess she found us somewhere? It was far away. Really far away. Maybe even gajillions of miles!”
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Posted: Mon Apr 28, 2008 7:32 pm
((Sorrysorry))
Watching a cricket for a moment, Sioda leaped for it and landed on it, hearing a sickening wet crunch beneath his paws. Apparently leaping and squishing them wouldn't count as catching them... Darn.
At least Sioda knew that he was good at squishing them, even if that wasn't quite catching them.
Letting his red eyes roam for a moment, he picked up on a rather large butterfly and leaped for it. The leap lacked both in grace, timing, and placement. Instead of landing on the butterfly, Sioda smacked his nose into a rock and rolled onto his back laughing at himself and rubbing his small black nose.
"Well I meant where you thought bugs come from... but I guess that works too. I never asked my mom where my brother and I came from, not that she'd probably tell us even if she IS really smart." Sioda began, he rubbed his nose once more and rolled over to his white belly. "Makes me wonder why we come from so far away though. If we belong here why would be be born so far away?"
One of his ears flicked backwards as Sioda thought about this. However when a fly landed on it he flipped over and lost his train of thought, substituting a rather large fly for it.
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Posted: Tue Apr 29, 2008 6:00 pm
Ohh!! Where did bugs come from! Well, that question was much easier to answer, since it was perfectly clear to Kanelo. “That depends on the kind of bug,” he announced, proud that he could, at last, share his theories of bug-genesis with someone. “Ants and spiders and stuff come from the ground. That’s why, when you turn a rock over, there are lots of ground bugs under it. That’s where they come from. If they didn’t come from underground, then they wouldn’t be there. And bugs with wings come from…” he hesitated here, since he hadn’t gotten this far in his theory. Before this moment, he would usually get distracted by something before he could chase the thought down.
And, just on schedule, he noticed his tail. Oh, that dastardly tail! A few twitches was all it took before Kanelo sprang off into an exuberant---and pointless---chase. His tail, predictably enough, was always one step ahead of him. Or was it behind? Either way, he sure wasn’t getting it. Eventually, the cub became so dizzy that he simply fell over in a collapsed heap, possibly crushing a few bugs. Now what was he talking about before…? Oh, right! Bugs and the origin thereof!
“And winged bugs come from clouds!” he finished his previous thought, pleased with himself for getting out this answer. “Clouds are like the ground of the sky.”
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Posted: Mon May 05, 2008 6:14 pm
Sioda, in lieu of anything else to do, merely watched the entire spectacle unfold with a stony face. Inside was a different story, but on the outside he was stony and watching as if he were solely focused on the one thing, like that were the only important thing at the time.
The only thing at the time.
Except that on the inside he was laughing so hard he couldn't even begin to explain the depths of it. He'd seen another cub chase their tail, but never before up close. Sioda's general reaction to such behavior was to ask, "Isn't that your own tail? why chase it?" but he wasn't so rude as to say that out loud before this possible new friend. His brother maybe, not a new friend.
Finally he got the answer he was looking for and his whole body seemed to perk up, the inner laughter and thoughts gone. Bugs came from the ground and sky? That would be awsome!
"It's like dinner's ALL around me!" Sioda crowed. Immediately he went and sunk his paw into the softer dirt nearby and started to dig. "I bet they get lots of babies under here!"
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Posted: Sun May 11, 2008 1:53 pm
If Sioda had asked the question, the answer would have been simple: ‘Because it’s there!’. That was Kanelo’s answer to just about everything in the world, including questions like, ‘Why did you jump in the mud’, ‘did you have to go so close to that ratel?’ and, his favorite, ‘was there any particular reason why you tackled your sleeping sister?’. Yep. The answer to the universe was simple: ‘because it’s there’. But, the question went unasked, so Kanelo’s wisdom was lost to the ages, never to be spoken out loud… unless, of course, he said it out loud later, which was completely possible.
He tilted his head to one side when Sioda started laughing before joining in. Hey, if someone was laughing, that meant someone was happy! Hooray! That was always a good and happy thing. “Hey, you’re right! Dinner is all around us! Wow, I don’t think I’ll ever go hungry again!” Not that Kanelo had actually ever gone hungry, to be honest. His parents were good hunters, so long as his mother could wash up immediately afterwards. Very… picky in that respect.
Eager to help his new friend, the white cub bounded over to Sioda’s side and dug into the soft dirt. “What do you think they look like?” he finally asked, realizing that he wasn’t sure what bug babies looked like. For all he knew, the grains of dirt could be bug babies… actually… as that thought popped into his head, he inspected a suspicious-looking dirt clump. It didn’t look like a bug… it didn’t even look alive! But you never could tell. Sneaky things, bugs.
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Posted: Tue May 13, 2008 8:25 pm
Toes curling around the grainy dirt, Sioda grinned at Kanelo. Of course he didn't know what bug babies looked like, but any attempt to make things a game would be better for him in the long run. He liked games, he liked challenges. He liked the thrill of doing something someone else was slower at or worse at.
Sure it was cruel, but it was sure fun!
"I'll race you to figure out what they look like!" He crowed, his paws sinking further into the dirt and clouds of it flying out from behind him like a dog burying a bone.
If he knew he wasn't going to tell, but even then he didn't know what one looked like or even tasted like. He'd eaten one or two bugs? Not a lot certainly, but it was more than some lions could say even after all their years. His mother hadn't ever eaten bugs, though she was always very clean and quiet.
Somehow her son had ended up a dirty little thing, always rolling in the dust and marring his cream and white colored fur until he didn't even look like himself anymore.
Why? Because it was fun. Almost as fun as chasing after bugs in the dirt when you didn't know what it was you were looking for.
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Posted: Wed May 21, 2008 6:56 pm
Luckily for Sioda, Kanelo loved games too. And the white cub didn’t mind losing. Well, not really… sure, he preferred winning, but he tended to get over losing pretty quickly. His mind was only so big and could only hold so many thoughts at one time. It never took long for him to forget about losing and start thinking about the next victory. He grinned, happy to find a friend who wasn’t hung up on cleaning like half of his siblings were.
“Yeah! I bet I’ll find more of ‘em too, once I figure out what they look like!” he challenged Sioda. His paws whirred at the dirt, trying to find anything suspicious. While his excavation found a few interesting-looking rocks and a couple of twigs, it seemed curiously devoid of any bugs. Or anything that even looked like bugs, or even their babies. Actually, it once again occurred that, since Kanelo had no idea what baby bugs looked like, he might have come across thousands of them already. Or… or… since Sioda didn’t have any idea what they looked like either, maybe he could lie… After all, it wouldn’t be a complete lie; for all he knew, maybe he did already find some baby bugs.
He considered this, oblivious to a worm industriously crawling away. Nah… it wouldn’t be worth it, he decided. It was just a game. “Hey! Hey, look at this!” he said, finally noticing the worm that was setting out for new lands, where a worm could wriggle proud and horizontal.
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