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From the dark entrance of the cave, a different pair of silver eyes gazed out at the bright world. Their owner was a bit more timid, however, and simply watched with a cocked head as Mahvash toddled this way and that and then flopped head-over-paw. Oh no!

The dark cub gave a small chirp out of impulse and then moved one paw forward. Then another. Then another. On wobbly, over-sized feet she crept out boldly from the den site and made towards her sister. ...But then something large and dark and fluffy righted Mahvash and the little, dark female stopped. She blinked for a moment and pondered the fluffy, black lion in slight confusion. Who wa -- OH! DADDY! A smile spread over the cub's face upon her realization and she flicked her tail up around her legs in excitement.

Not wanting to miss out on the Daddy-fun, she moved to stumble over to his fuzzy body, but something caused her to attention to...well... switch over to something else.

Upon looking down, Rasa'parvaneh noticed that she had no front feet anymore! Panic over-took her for a moment and she drew back and lifted one foot. When it easily slid out from the golden sand, she cocked her head to the side and then placed her foot back down. It sunk a little back into the loose ground. She then pulled out her other foot and then same thing happened with it; it came out with ease and then sunk when she put it back down.

....Oh, this was TOO interesting....

In almost a fit of glee, Rasa shoved her front paws forward and down into the sand until her chin was grazing the tiny, golden particles. She gave an innocent, naive giggle, and then tried to pull her legs out... Only they wouldn't come out. She gave another pull, and her back feet slipped and her butt slid right underneath her. She was totally stuck...

Her nose lifted into the air and the corners of her mouth fell sharply. She flattened her ears and glanced nervously about, panic resurfacing in her gut. After giving one last tug, she did what any little girl would do: she called for her daddy.

She actually didn't even "call," as in a verbal yelp. Oh no, instead she mewled and chirped and squeaked in all manners and volumes that conveyed any type of urgency. She wanted out NOW.

As her sisters climbed out into the daylight, Bhavini lingered in the darkness. She intensely wanted to go outside and have a look around herself, but she was a little more cautious and thoughtful about it. The cub saw how their paws sunk in the sand and decided that it must be hard to walk on, at least for ones so small. She crept forward after her mother, taking her first few tentative steps into the sand. Vini blinked at the strange new texture, her tail flicking in quiet amazement.

Blinking as she stepped into the sun, she looked around curiously, nearly forgetting that her family was there, her jaw slowing falling open. It all looked so different from in the cave. Now that she could taste it, smell it, touch it up close, she felt almost overwhelmed. It was a lot to explore. Picking up her feet, she started to wobble off in another direction that caught her interest, making soft little mewls of pleasure at finally being out of the den.

Rasa's body fell over as her mother licked her, which triggered a small giggle-fit to issue its self from the cub's mouth. As she rolled over and got back on her feet, the issue of the sand and its sinking properties had already left her mind and she trundled away without any real wordy response. She continued to sink here and there, but honestly she no longer thought anything of it.

Taking a few more steps away from her mother, Rasa paused for a second and watched Bhavini trounce away as well. She canted her head, and then made a series of clumsy hops and pounces towards her in what appeared to be an attempt at running.

She got about a few inches away from her sister's tail before she skidded and splashed sand forwards with her front paws. A small smack at Bhavini's white tail-tuft was attempted, but Rasa jumped back and missed. It was no matter, though, for she was already gallivanting off in another direction.

Clumsily she ran (or tried, at least), away from her parents and the den, and inadvertently towards Hadaya. She hadn't seen him earlier, and she didn't notice him until she was but a few feet away.

Her giggles stopped, she skidded partially to a halt and then hopped backwards in a series of funny steps for about a foot or so, and then tripped up and flopped onto her bottom. She gave a look of surprise, but didn't cry or turn tail. ...This lionman looked familiar, she knew, but ...what was his name again?

Rasa got up off her bum and cocked her head, then it came to her -- HIS NAME STARTED WITH AN H, RIGHT?...RIGHT? A large smile spread over her small, dark features, reaching her pale eyes and making them a little squinty.

"HAAAaaaaa..." she mewled, but she faltered and drifted off a second later. That wasn't his name! "Umm... Haaaadd... Haaaaa... haaaa ha HA HA!" she ended, giggling as she gave up on trying to say or remember his name. Whatever, she'd remember it eventually. In the mean time, she plodded over to him, a smile still plastered all silly-like on her face.

Of the siblings playing in the sand, there was one who was not among them, dark fur blending in well with the darkness. Rashne had not left the den yet, his lavender eyes peering thoughtfully out into the light, watching his sisters play and explore the outside world. As of yet they had not been allowed to venture out into the open sky, consoled by the words that one day, when they were older, they would be allowed. That day had come rather abruptly for the black cub, who had been content to stay in the den and listen to whatever his mother and father had to say. Of course, he had watched them both leave on several occasions, but had never really wondered where they were going. That was not to say he was afraid of leaving, he was just not as curious as Vini or Mahvash.

Unfortunately, this left the cub slightly distressed when all his sisters had left, leaving only he inside. Of the cubs of Senatla's litter, Rashne was the eldest of them, if only by a few minutes. He had been born just slightly before any of his siblings, something that was beginning to mean more and more to him as he slowly grew. He was also the only male of this litter, which kind of made things a bit awkward for the black cub as well. Not that he couldn't play with his siblings -- he liked his sisters, in the short time he had known them. The problem was more in the fact that he didn't exactly know how a male cub should act, and he certainly did not want to disappoint his father. Some of his sisters seem timid of the outside world... but did that mean a male cub should too? Should he go running out into the world, brave and courageous and unafraid of the dangers and unknown? It was a mystery to him.

Stepping out onto the sand, Rashne paused just slightly outside of the den, sitting back on his haunches and peering around curiously, glancing up at the sky to marvel at it's blueness.

One by one, each of the cubs came stumbling out of the den, some a bit more clumsily than others. Thili attempted to watch all of his cubs at once, and mostly accomplished nothing more than getting his eyes crossed. How in the world had Senatla managed to watch six cubs without help before? Briefly, he was confused by Ziba’s words… had he ever fallen in front of the cubs before? He couldn’t recall… oh! But, of course, Siti had probably been by once or twice. No doubt, she had entertained the cubs with vast tales of how clumsy their father had been as a cub. “Alright, Ziba. I promise.”

As Senny helped Rasa up, Thili kept his focus on Bhavini. The red and silver female cub was a lot more adventurous than he liked, honestly. No, scratch that; he loved that she was interested in the world all around. He just wished she would be more interested in the world immediately around them. Like within three feet of the den.

Shaking himself off, the black lion called to his daughter. “Vini… don’t wander too far. And stay away from the water’s edge!” After he had said it, he realized, it was probably a mistake; it probably sounded like a challenge to little cub ears. At least the others were mostly staying behind… especially Rashne, the only boy in the litter. Ah! Speaking of boys, Hadaya was here! That was a nice surprise. Thili smiled broadly at the young lion, greeting him with a brief nod. “Hello, Hadaya. Watch your tail; they’re vicious little hunters.” The sentence included a chuckle, indicating that Thili wasn’t being serious when he said this. Honestly, being mauled by a cub was one of the most adorable things ever.

He nudged Rashne’s shoulder with his nose before directing his attention towards the deep blue sea. It was far enough away from the den so that wandering cubs wouldn’t drown, but it was still a breath-taking sight from here. “See that, Rash? That’s the ocean.”


~.~

Speaking of being mauled by a cub… Mahvash pouted when she saw her attack had been foiled. Foiled, I say! Her twin’s nudge diminished that disappointment, however, because her sister was a far more tempting target. “Grr…” she attempted a fierce-sounding growl and attempted to tackle Ziba, gnawing on one ear for a brief moment before getting bored. The only thing smaller than the cub was her attention span. In this case, the thing that had caught her attention was Haddy, the brown lion.

Immediately abandoning her sister, Vash ran---half-stumbled and half-ran anyway---towards Hadaya. The soft sand made it all the more difficult, but even that became a game. She would attempt to bat at the sand, giggling all the while. Eventually, she made her way to her older adopted brother’s paws. “Haddy!” she made her own attempt at saying his name, looking rather pleased with herself.

My… wasn’t Hadaya popular with the cubs today?

Rashne looked slightly startled as he heard his mother's voice permeate through the fits of laughs and screams of delight, shaking head head once and blinking over at Senatla, her lavender eyes mirrored in his own. "Goodmorning," He replied with a happy grin, getting up from where he had sat by the den and taking a small step forward, his paw sinking down a bit into the sand. Briefly he drew his eyes down towards it, making comical faces as he tried to figure out what he was suppose to do about it. In the end the male cub ended up ignoring the strange sinking sensation he felt, and instead opted just not to move for a while, until he got his bearings.

His attention, however, was drawn back to reality as he felt a strong presence behind him and a muzzle against his shoulder, nudging him a bit. Immediately the black cub looked up, a look of aw overtaking him. "Dad!" he cried, both in surprise and delight. The large black lion was the source of much inspiration for the young cub. Being the only male of the litter, not to mention having five sisters, it was even more important to him to make Thilivhali proud of him. He was all Rashne aspired to be, so large and majestic and... well, with his limited vocabulary, that was all he could come up with. So it was with much curiosity that he looked towards where his father was pointing, the large blue expanse of water widening his tiny eyes. "What... is it? It's very big... did a piece of the ceiling break off and fall down?" Rashne asked curiously, looking back up at the black and silver lion.

Wow...suddenly Hadaya was so popular! Saharan was nearly crashed into by more than one sibling as they jostled for a place near their new best friend-sibling-thing. She looked up at the face of the one who seemed to have enraptured the lot, and noticed that he didn't seem all that pleased. Maybe he was afraid he'd step on them? His feet sure looked big enough, and in her young mind the sand was just as hard to walk on for him as it had been for her. Yeah, that was probably it. She nudged her way through the crowd and thumped her head against his side. "Don' worry!" She encouraged him, though her quiet voice was probably lost over the chatter.

Thinking it might be best to let the others play with Hadaya for a bit, she started to amble back towards her parents. But then, behind her Daddy...so much blue! What was it? It looked like sand, sorta, with little hills and all, but it moved, and it was blue! So blue!

With a glint in her eye that bordered between excitement and overwhelming curiosity, she changed course. The sand was still a challenge, and unfortunately it looked like it extended all the way to the big-blue-something, but no matter. She was a cub on a mission! Oof! Hey, what was this Dad-shaped thing in her way?! Didn't it know she had a big-blue-something to investigate! Oh...it was Dad after all!