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 Posted: Tue May 27, 2008 2:20 pm
The dry season was only just starting but it felt as if it had been going on for weeks. The smaller pools and little rivers were drying up quickly, leaving behind the large watering holes. Dusk covered the landscape in shadows, giving off blessed cool air. Right now, Kanelo wasn’t that concerned about water, in all honesty. He knew where the big ponds were, and that was good enough for him. Right now, he was looking for a home. Sure, he loved his family and all, but… well, the fact was, the den was getting more and more crowded. It could hardly hold all of his siblings and their parents. In the light of dusk, the young lion stalked around the caves, trying to find something that would suit his purposes.
At least, that was the original intention. Young adult or not, he still had a miniscule attention span and it didn’t take him long to get distra hey, what was that! Kanelo’s ears pricked up and he bounded forward, recognizing a small cave that he had come across some time ago. Ha! It had been ages since he had been here! Hmm… could he still fit? Tilting his head to one side, the mostly white lion examined the opening carefully. Certainly, he had grown since then, but… well, why not?
Hefting himself up to the opening, Kanelo managed to fit his front half into the hole fairly easily. It was the other half that gave him difficulty. His back claws scrabbled against the stone, trying to find purchase to move forward or backwards. Either way would be pretty good, he figured. If he really thought about it, though, then he would have realized that moving backwards out of the hole would be better than into it. But, naturally, he didn’t think of it.
“Eugh… just a little further…” he wheezed, scrabbling all the more desperately. “Come on, suck it in…” Attempting to follow his own advice, Kanelo merely managed to get more thoroughly stuck. Finally, he stopped struggling and tried to find the positive side. “Well, I don’t think this’ll do as a den,” he announced to no one in particular. “Hey, it echoes in here! Echo! Eeeeeccchooooo! Hi! My name is Kanelo!”
Head tilted to one side, he listened enthusiastically to the reverberating sounds and the repeated ‘Lo-lo-lo’. Ha! If only the opening was a little bigger, maybe this cave would be an ok den after all. It was clearly big enough. Anything big enough for an echo was… uhh… big.
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Posted: Tue May 27, 2008 2:45 pm
My name is Kanelo!
Manuku was out for a walk thinking about his options for the evening when he walked by the little cave just in time to hear Kanelo call out. The youth highly doubted that there were too many Kanelos in the area, and the voice was too familiar for it to be anyone but his brother. It was ironic but not terribly surprising to run into a family member while out and about, there were so many of them after all.
"Kanelo?" he called, hopping into the mouth of the cave. It didn't look very big at all, so much so that Manny wouldn't have dared to go in unless cave-exploring is what he really wanted to do. There didn't look like there was a whole lot of cave to explore. But then, it sounded more fun than just walking around!
"Kanelo, is that you?" Manny called again, taking a step in, "What are you doing?"
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Posted: Tue May 27, 2008 2:59 pm
What are you doing?
Kanelo blinked his odd-colored eyes as his brother’s voice came out from somewhere. Well, that was weird. Echoes were supposed to sound like the speaker’s voice, not a sibling’s. Wait, wait… the voice was from behind him. Naturally, Kanelo did his best to back up and turn around but, being stuck, this didn’t work out too well. “Manny? Yeah, it’s me! What are you doing out here? I didn’t think I’d meet any of the family out here.” Not that it was upsetting or anything. He loved his family and everything, even if he was trying to find his own den.
“I’m exploring! I came across this cave when I was just a cub and I decided to come back and see how it was.” Well, that was more or less the truth. Sort of, anyway. And it certainly sounded a lot better than ‘I was bored and wandering around’. It made him sound like he actually had a purpose. “I mean… well, I love Mom and Dad and all of our siblings, but I’ve been thinking… things are getting pretty crowded back home. I figured I might as well start looking. Just trying to… uh… see everything that this place has to offer! Yup!” Nope, he wasn’t stuck at all. He just liked standing here, in one place, in a cave.
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Posted: Tue May 27, 2008 3:21 pm
Manny's ears perked forward when he got a response and confirmation that this was exactly who it sounded like it was. He couldn't help but laugh when Kanelo said he didn't think they'd see any family out here. They were a close family, there was no offense to be taken from Kanelo's comment.. it was just amusing.
"Kanelo, there are eight of us," he called back, taking another step in, "And mom and dad, and grampa, Aunt Mira.. and everyone else. You can't lose us that easy."
He took a couple more steps, realizing quickly how tight a squeeze it was. For anyone much bigger, or for anyone who was claustrophobic it wouldn't be an easy cave to get into. As soon as Kanelo said he found it when he was a cub, it made a lot more sense. Then Kanelo hinted at how home was crowded and he was looking around.
"You're going to move out?" he asked surprised, stopping immediately. It was a surprise, no one ever seemed to talk about it and there was always so many of them around it just seemed natural. The den was crowded but that was just how it was.
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Posted: Tue May 27, 2008 3:41 pm
“Yeah, there are a lot of us,” Kanelo admitted sheepishly. “I just didn’t think I’d meet anyone out here anyway. I thought everyone was at home.” Most of them, anyway. They were when he left. He had made sure of that, or he had tried to, since he didn’t want to be followed. It was hard, trying to imagine how he would tell his family that he was moving out. He loved his family, he really did! It was just… well, everyone needed their own space sometimes, even hyperactive lions like Kanelo. As Manny approached, Kanelo struggled more to get free, since he didn’t want his oldest brother to catch him in such an embarrassing situation.
“Aw, Manny… don’t say it like that! It’s just… well, maybe I am thinking about moving out. A little. Not the whole move, exactly, but maybe just a few days to sort of try it out.” Ha. It was sort of ironic… Kanelo was the baby of the family and he was the first one to even consider moving out, as far as he knew. None of the others really talked about it, at least. Maybe they were all thinking the same thing, but not voicing it. Judging from the surprise in Manny’s voice, Manuku hadn’t been even thinking about it. “I’m not gonna move out right away! I’ve still gotta think of a way to tell Mom and Dad and everyone else… and maybe see if anyone else wants to move out with me.”
It hadn’t occurred to Kanelo before, but his family was really big. Really, really big. He had thought of it before, obviously, but now he was thinking about how… empty a den would be without everyone else. But if one of his siblings wanted to move out with him, maybe it would be ok?
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Posted: Tue May 27, 2008 4:07 pm
Manuku was a very happy and confident lion, he liked to be the center of attention and while that sounded more difficult with so many siblings around but to him that was just more people to love and entertain. But then the idea struck him that if there were less of his siblings around, there would be more attention for each of those who remained. But at the same time, he wouldn't really like if they all moved away. They didn't seem that old yet, they barely had manes!
"Have you talked to dad about it?" he asked, skipping over mom since she was the one who wasn't so worried about what they did. Dad was more likely to worry and talk about it with them. Manny stopped when he mentioned how he was thinking about how to tell their parents and the other siblings. It made him feel important to know first.
"Has anyone else been talking about it? Did I miss something?"
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Posted: Tue May 27, 2008 4:56 pm
Yeah. It wasn’t so long ago since the cubs had first started walking around and dragging mud into the den, much to Intombi’s despair. Speaking of a parent’s despair… Kanelo’s ears pressed against his skull as Manny brought up father. That was what the mostly-white lion was really despairing about; it was one thing to tell Mom that you were moving out. It was quite another to tell Dad. He loved having all of his kids around. It made him happy and Kanelo didn’t want to take even an ounce of happiness away from him. “No, I haven’t told him yet. You’re the only one who knows so far. I’m not really sure how to tell Dad. ‘Hi, thanks for taking care of me, I’m gonna go away now’? How am I even supposed to bring it up? I mean, I’m not going to be going away forever! I’m not leaving the Pridelands.” Not yet, anyway, although he was horribly curious about what was beyond those borders… “So, I’ll still visit and everything. And I don’t even want to move that far away.”
“I don’t think anyone else has mentioned anything… but, I wouldn’t be surprised if at least one of our siblings is thinking about it. I bet Jasiri has already thought of it. He’s braver than I am and always trying to do things before anyone else.”
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Posted: Tue May 27, 2008 10:12 pm
A conversation was best had face to face, so Manny decided it was time to move along and try to find Kanelo to chat properly about this. He was a bit curious about why his brother hadn't already come out to face him yet, but they were in the midst of a rather serious conversation so it was hard to jab at him about it.
"Well, dad doesn't live with his parents and we know exactly where they are," he commented, thinking mainly about Sheshe and Kizamaji (and not Mtima'safi). Intombi's parents were a mystery, though, but she wasn't even the parent they would have to really worry about leaving, "He left, he'll have to understand some of it."
Manny snorted back a laugh at the mention of Jasiri, but was distracted when he found it increasingly difficult to get to wherever the heck Kanelo was. He stopped, and stared, trying to see through the darkness.
"Kanelo, where are you?"
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Posted: Tue May 27, 2008 10:19 pm
Oh, that was a good point. Kanelo hadn’t even considered that. Mom and Dad didn’t live with their parents, so clearly they had to be ok with letting one of their own sons go off on his own. It was weird, how he had never thought of that before… obviously, he knew that Dad had parents. It was hard to ignore the proof when you saw it. But Mom… well, he had sort of just assumed that she had popped out of nowhere. Which was just silly! Everyone had parents.
“Where am I? Uhh… well… let me start by saying this. I am definitely not stuck, ok?” Oh, yeah, that was convincing. And about as subtle as a flying brick. “I’ve just run into a bit of trouble back here… I’m further towards the back of the cave. See, there’s this little like… series of caves back here and I wanted to see how far they went. Just to see how much room there is, you know? But I’ve run into a temporary problem. It’ll be over soon enough. And I’m definitely not stuck or anything. It’s perfectly fine.” Again, he tried to scrabble his way out of it, but failed to do anything else besides make a lot of noise.
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Posted: Tue May 27, 2008 10:59 pm
As Kanelo expected, his assurances that he was not stuck were very unconvincing. Manny stopped completely and stared into the darkness with a raised eyebrow. Kanelo was not stuck, but in a touch of trouble.. in the back of a narrow cave that went into other caves. That made very little sense, and wasn't going to help Kanelo try to move out if they had to go and get dad to help or something.
"Ok, ok- stop that!" he called when suddenly there was a lot of noise from the scrambling for freedom. Manny followed the sound of his brother's struggle and very quickly bumped into Kanelo's back end. Caught by surprise, the lion jumped back- which wasn't a smart move in a small cave. Hitting his head and scraping his side, he stumbled back as best he could.
"Found you," Manny observed, though his attention was more on recovering from the shock.
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Posted: Wed May 28, 2008 12:01 pm
“Augh! Manny, something just touched me!! There’s something else in here! Oh… wait, that was you? Oh… good…” Kanelo said weakly, his heart winding down back to a normal rhythm. For a moment there, he was worried that there was something… evil in these caves. Like some sort of demon or evil god or who knows what. At least he knew that his brother wasn’t evil, although when they were cubs he had often accused his older brother of being a snot-monster of doom or something similar. But that was just normal for siblings.
Kanelo struggled to look over his shoulder and only managed to put a pain in his neck. Still, he thought he could see a flash of blue. Might have been his imagination. “Manny? You’re still here, right? And you’re alright? I thought I heard a thump or something back there and I know it wasn’t me. And if it wasn’t you, then I’m going to flail around or something.” When freaking out, the mostly-white lion tended to flail around a good deal. It tended to keep others away.
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Posted: Wed May 28, 2008 9:09 pm
Manny decided quickly that trying to sit was a very bad idea when it became obvious that if he tried he might get stuck like that too. It was far too cramped in here, and suddenly he was rather keen on getting back outside. Of course, he was the oldest and if Kanelo was stuck then Manuku would have to find a way to help him out. Even if Kanelo insisted he wasn't stuck- but the idea of flailing instead of actually just leaving made it pretty clear to the blue-maned youth.
"I hit my head," he said, but not without enough of a pause to give Kanelo a minute to start freaking out, "Kanelo, I want to get out of this cave. We might not have a lot of room at home, but it's more than this! Do you want my help getting out or not?"
It was very clear Manny jumped right to the conclusion that Kanelo was stuck. His voice hadn't moved, even when he freaked out. And when he freaked out, he didn't move even then. He would tease his brother about it later, but right now he was willing to help.
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Posted: Thu May 29, 2008 11:34 am
He hit his head? At the news, Kanelo went into another frenzy of scrabbling, desperate to save his brother from… from… well, hitting his head again. Then again, Manny had probably learned that hitting his head was painful and not an experience he wanted to repeat. Also, it occurred to Kanelo that he really was stuck and not in a position to save his brother from so much as a dustbunny. “Uh… yeah. Yeah, I think I do need a bit of help…” pft. Some adventure this was turning out to be. And so much for moving out. If he couldn’t even find a den on his own without getting stuck, then maybe he wasn’t ready to be out on his own. Dad would certainly say that, once he was done fussing over his kids.
“Um… do you think there’s a way to avoid telling Dad about this?” he asked, doubting that it was possible. “Come on, I’ll give you my spot in the den and everything!” Which actually wasn’t that much of a bribe if you thought about it.
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Posted: Thu May 29, 2008 1:30 pm
Holding back a laugh, Manny stepped closer to Kanelo again, his eyes better adjusted to the dark after spending so long in the little cave now. It helped that Kanelo was white, of course- and it was very obvious why he was stuck. He'd gotten part way through and now his back legs couldn't go with him.
"We'll see if I can get you out or not," he said with a small laugh, "But I doubt dad could do much about it, he's even bigger than us. Anyway! Try moving backwards, you can't get through but your front got through before- right?"
Reaching out, Manny took hold of Kanelo's tail in his mouth to try to pull him free. He figured any little bit of help would be good.
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Posted: Thu May 29, 2008 6:48 pm
“I’ve tried that about a million times already,” Kanelo whined. “It wasn’t easy getting even my front half through here. I had to really squeeze.” It didn’t make sense to him. By all logic, since he had gotten his front half through here, he ought to be able to get it back out. But, for some reason, logic that looked good written down didn’t always work in real life. The problem with real life was that it was far too real to be predictable and have all these little simplistic rules. ‘What goes up must come down’, for instance, didn’t always apply to certain mixtures of particularly sticky mud, as Kanelo had found out during his cubhood. No, that mud would stay on the ceiling of the den for all time. Nope, life found ways to ruin even the most obvious of things.
For example, no matter how much Kanelo struggled, he still remained pretty firmly stuck in the passageway. Still, at least there were echoes. That kept him amused, at least a little. Eventually, the lion sucked in his gut and pulled back, scrabbling with all of his might and POP! Since Manny was right behind him---a bad place to stand, unless you were prepared to deal with another lion in motion---Kanelo careened right into his brother, proving that at least one law of physics still worked: a lion in motion stays in motion.
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