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 Posted: Mon Nov 17, 2008 9:18 am
Amira wasn't really sure what was going on. Mama had taken Konja away from the day. She wasn't moved by their protesting, heartbroken 'aww!' or 'maaan!'. She scolded them for it, said it wasn't lady like. Amira had wanted to go hunt, too, but both parents had agreed she and her sister were much too young and would get stomped to death by a zebra if they tried to fight one.
They hadn't said that last part, but they were thinking it. Oh, were they thinking it. It frustrated her and her sister. The remedy arrived in a game of "hunter" taking turns being the prey beast. Caring is sharing, after all. Amira was grumbling to herself in the present, because it was just about her turn to finally be the hunter when Lakisa had arrived. Mom hadn't told them they had "lessons" today.
Bandele had been observing the two from afar, struck by their potential potential. Playing a game didn't make potential, but the desire to play said game did. These two, he thought, could become great warriors.
But... Lakisa didn't agree, and she had other plans.
"This pride doesn't need warriors," she huffed. Bandele scowled in return.
"If you'd had them before, maybe this wouldn't be a rebuilt pride, now would it?"
"Do you think they're married?" Amira whispered to her sister.
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Posted: Mon Nov 17, 2008 9:26 am
Tabia was less than amused. She had wanted to play Knights again, but Mama had insisted that Konja didn't have time to be a princess. He had to go out hunting or something that didn't involve being captured by rabid hyenas (she would have rescued him for sure). The very idea that Princess Konja could hunt was a little… interesting, but the younger sister hadn't given it too much thought. She had wanted to go along on the hunt but that too had been denied. Apparently they haven't proven their worthiness as knights to go on this mystical hunting trip. One day, Tabia vowed. One day!
For the time being they had to sharpen their skills. It was her turn to be the prey beast, which suited her just fine. They shared their skills between them, so if Amira picked up a new hunting technique then Tabia would get to learn it and use it when Amira was the prey beast. They were the bestest knights in the whole pride for a reason. But it appeared that knight-training was being postponed for "lessons."
"I bet she wants him to marry her, but he hasn't proposed yet so she's taking out her frustration on him," Tabia whispered back as she watched the two of them argue. "Perhaps Commoner Bandele doesn't feel he has the skills yet to marry Princess Lakisa."
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Posted: Mon Nov 17, 2008 9:34 am
As wrapped up as he was in his bickering with Lakisa, the quiet conversation between the two cubs, the source of the squabble to begin with, was not lost on him. Being aware of everything around him was part of being skilled at what he did--or what he didn't do, because somebody insisted his could-be students become worthless copies of her who made their son's lives hell and did nothing but boss them and the rest of the male gender around. Hmph!
"Commoner?" he repeated, briefly turning his head in their direction. Amira had been in mid-agreeing nod, but with his focus on them, she scurried behind her sister and didn't dare peek out for a while. Tabia had said it, don't look at her!
Bandele wasn't angered by it. In fact, he felt it served to prove his point. He was looked at as a normal pride member because he couldn't guide the army like he wanted, because there was no army. Even so, Lakisa's snarky smirk was not appreciated.
"They're going to grow up to be fine young daughters," the lioness continued. "They'll birth beautiful cubs and bring more life to this land. Their father is..." Lakisa took her turn to gaze at the two sisters. "...a special case, but otherwise, their family is known for large litters, as is this pride in general. Their grandmother's brother just had seven, and Sen returned with six. These two are responsible, as well as their peers, to help repopulate this place. Not lower the numbers by getting into silly male fights."
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Posted: Mon Nov 17, 2008 9:40 am
Tabia's ears perked when he looked in their direction. Oops. A real knight must confront her foes and stand by what she says! Thus, she simply stared back at Bandele. Of course Bandele was a commoner. He wasn't a part of her and Amira's knight training group so he wasn't a knight. He also wasn't a lady, so he couldn't be a princess or a queen. And he wasn't like their dad, even though they did sort of look the same. Still, until he did something that made him not a commoner, that's what he would be.
Lakisa's next words, however, made her frown. Bring more life to this land? Have cubs? What was all this nonsense? They were knights! Knights protected the land with honour and chivalry and good sportsmanship! Tabia looked over at Amira quizzically. "What is she talking about, Am?" She whispered. "Large litters and returning with six and seven? It sounds weird."
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Posted: Mon Nov 17, 2008 9:48 am
Despite what Lakisa thought, Bandele was not one to get swept up into pointless battles, be they verbal or physical. Other males may have wanted a staring contest with Tabia, but not him. He looked away and made note her being so defiant of him. Maybe this one did already have potential, not potential potential.
His mother had warned him once of another type of fight, one of the heart, but he never worried about it. Women were crazy, and if he couldn't have them as soldiers, he didn't want anything to do with them. If he'd ever thought otherwise, Lakisa was putting the bricks back in place in the walls that kept him from it single handily. "Obviously, they'd rather be guards or hunters for this pride."
"Their mother wants them to be lovely young ladies like her," Lakisa pointed out. Alake was a darling, and she would be glad to provide them with the same attitude. If only she'd had a daughter. Woe! "And a mother always knows best."
Amira had, cautiously, returned to their line of sight and continued observing the back-and-forth with watchful eyes. "I dunno," she responded. "Maybe we should ask Dad what they mean."
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Posted: Mon Nov 17, 2008 9:54 am
Dad would know? Good thinking! Tabia nodded approvingly to her sister. "Kay, we'll remember to ask when we go home tonight." Poor Fadhi indeed. Luckily, there were lots of lionesses in this pride and the neighbouring pride that he could shove the question on. Lionesses business was left to lionesses, he would say. It was probably very lucky that he didn't have a son. Tabia would probably be a little disappointed that she had to ask a lioness about it, but such was life. In the mean time, were these two going to keep fighting? She wanted to go back to playing their game!
Slowly, so as not to alert the bickering adults, she turned her head to the side to look for an escape route. They couldn't out-run the adults, but if they got to some cover before the adults noticed maybe they could hide. It was worth a shot. "Am, do you think we can make a run for it?" She asked as quietly as she could.
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Posted: Mon Nov 17, 2008 10:02 am
Amira wasn't so sure, but... She was a knight, too! Her sister couldn't always have more courage than her. She had to learn to be brave too. The cub turned her sibling and nodded furiously. "Let's do it." She was brave. She was brave! She was brave!
...Uh oh, he was looking at her again!
"RUUUUN!" Amira cried out before she could stop herself. A slight nudge to her sibling was all Tabia would get before her elder sister did, in fact, make a run for it. Tabia was a good knight, and knights were fast, so she'd be right behind her! No doubt about it! The cub continued to squeal as she ran along. The noise stopped when she did. Amira tumbled back from the impact, dazed. "Woooah."
"Uh..." Waseme stared down at the both of them. She'd never met them, but she knew whose they were. She'd heard they'd been given to Lakisa as students, too. Poor things.
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Posted: Mon Nov 17, 2008 10:07 am
Right… on the count of three they would ru-HEY WAIT WHAT?
Tabia had only half a second before Amira was yelling and bolting out of their lessons. No fair! She hadn't given her fair warning! That wasn't even a good shove! The younger sister scrambled to her feet and scurried after Amira, already knowing their cover was blown but at this point it was too late. Amira had already yelled their plan to the whole pride so they might as well just book it until they got too tired to run. Then they could just sleep through their lessons.
The sudden cease of Amira's squealing brought Tabia back to reality, and she skidded to a stop just short of Waseme's paw. Panting from the sudden sprint, she did her best to stare fiercely at their new foe. "Name yourself!" She managed, after a few false starts. "We are… the knights… Am and Tab." Wheeze. 100 metre dashes were just not her thing.
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Posted: Mon Nov 17, 2008 10:28 am
The brave (shut up) knight Amira had heard tale of this lioness! A leader ugly as sin, but with a firm paw and a grounded nature that Sen promised them would do well to guide the pride to it's rightful path! She wasn't sure what most of it meant, since it translated into cub as "blahblahblah", but she understood the subject of royalty and she did know who Waseme was.
"Tabia!" she urgently whispered, beside her sibling in a flash. "Tabia! That's the queen!" Or future queen, or something. At the very least she was a princess.
For a time, Waseme kept doing what she'd been doing; she stared at them. "You two need to stop hanging around Bandele." She could sympathize with the guy in terms of having life goals (or dreams), but this wussy pride, next to a wussy pride, surrounded by other wussy prides, didn't need an army. Or warriors. Or anything that would waste effort on something that was... a waste of effort. "I'm Waseme," she offered. She was very proud of her status, but not so arrogant as to brag about it to a litter of cubs. "You must be Amira and Tabia. I've heard of you around the pride some."
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Posted: Mon Nov 17, 2008 10:38 am
… The queen huh? Tabia blinked several times. Oh. She was a lot smaller than she had originally envisioned her. "The queen? Are you sure? Where's the king then?" There had to be a King and a Queen! And a collection of noble knights! And lots of other things like commoners and nobles and other things like that. Otherwise it just wouldn't be a proper pride.
"We don't hang around Bandele," Tabia replied with a frown. "He keeps coming to visit us. There's a big difference." A huge difference. Sure, she did include everyone in their games by giving him a rank, but that was different. He didn't get invited to practice with them, and thus they did not 'hang out' with him. This queen needed to pay attention to her subjects more. Well, at least she knew their names. "That's right. And you've heard of us?"
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Posted: Mon Nov 17, 2008 10:46 am
"Yes, you're one of a few new litters we've gotten recently." Waseme's handling of cubs could be taken a number of ways. Some might respect her for not talking down to them like many adults did. In truth, she didn't behave differently around them because she wasn't sure how. The awkwardness was there, yet well masked. She'd have to thank Alake later for misleading them about their prides customs. "Our ranking system doesn't work that way. We only need a queen. Same as the pride next to us, and a lot of other ones." Or so she'd heard in her travels. The age of having the upperhand just from being female was upon them. She couldn't say she didn't approve. "The closet thing we have to a king is Yue, and I don't know where he is. You don't like Bandele?"
Amira didn't waste the opportunity to voice her feelings, "He's scary! ...Lakisa is kinda weird, though."
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Posted: Mon Nov 17, 2008 10:52 am
Gotten? Here was this gotten thing again. Did litters just fall from the sky and pride members went and picked the ones they wanted to bring back? They were really going to have to talk to their dad tonight. Tabia wanted to know why all these litters kept popping up and being gotten and all this nonsense.
"We only need a queen?" Tabia repeated slowly, as though she didn't quite understand. "How come? Everybody should have a king and a queen so you can um… be a King and a Queen! It's a package deal!" Screw the whys, having a king and a queen was important! That's what happened in all the stories and Tabia was sticking to the stories. You can't just write your own fairytales with one queen and no knights. Those stories would suck.
At Amira's exclamation, she gave her sister a nudge. "What she means is Bandele is big and weird, like Lakisa. Nothing's scaring 'cause we're not afraid of anything!"
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Posted: Mon Nov 17, 2008 10:58 am
"Uh... yeah! Not afraid of nothin'!" Except Bandele. He was scary.
"I see." Waseme concluded both these children were batshit crazy, and that her suspicion their mother was batshit crazy (you had to be to get along so well with Lakisa) was no longer just a suspicion. Now, she was convinced. "This pride does fine how it is," she tried again. "We sort of have a king, the queen just decides things the king would in most other pride. And boys are stupid, so that's a good thing."
Amira couldn't help but be a bit awe struck. "So you decide everyhing?"
"Almost. The queen has four..." Would it make them more confused if she got all official about this? "...helpers," the lioness finished smoothly. "Four helpers, who... help. Decide things." Maybe not that smoothly.
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Posted: Mon Nov 17, 2008 11:04 am
That was the spirit! Tabia grinned and lifted her chin in what she thought was a fearless, defiant gesture. Nobody scared her! Not even Bandele! Though, she probably wouldn't want to meet up with him after dark without Amira or her parents around. That would just be weird, and probably a little scary. But she'd never say anything like that. After all, she was a fearless knight!
"Four helpers who help decide things? Decide things like what? And how do you know how to decide Kingly things when you aren't a king?" Wasn't there any order to this pride? Honestly! A queen couldn't decide kingly things no more than a king could decide queenly things. There were differences in gender that just couldn't be erased no matter how butch Waseme looked.
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Posted: Mon Nov 17, 2008 11:11 am
Again, Waseme stared.
Somebody get this damn kid out of her face before she whacked the little runt across the valley, please?
Her prayers were for once answered. The two subjects of part of their discussion, Lakisa and Bandele, fast approached. Since they could have easily caught up long ago, Waseme predicted they'd been fighting up until now. The angry looks both of them wore told her she was right.
Lakisa, as usual, spoke first, "Waseme, dear, please tell this uncultured beast to stop pestering me when I'm trying to work with the children."
Then Bandele's turn. "Most of the cubs here have the potential to protect this pride. That mountain won't hold that Goddess forever. And what about the rumors of Hari being a traitor? What if that's true, and the mountain collapses? Are we really going to let this place be demolished a second time?"
"You weren't there, little boy," Lakisa hissed back at him. "Ukali and Mwokoti sealed that Goddess so well, she won't ever--"
"Alright! Stop! Stop." There was this overwhelming urge to beat her fug face into a rock today Waseme was having a hard time resisting. She looked between the two sisters, then eventually pushed Tabia toward Bandele, leaving her sibling closer to Lakisa. "You take this one, and you take this one. Then bring them back to me in two sun sets and I'll decide which of you gets to keep both."
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