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 Posted: Sun Jan 11, 2009 3:02 pm
Kobe was curled tightly into a ball, keeping warm against the bodies of his mother and other siblings. When he felt a gentle nudge against his form, he barely stirred, rolling onto his side and letting out a small yawn. It was exhausting being a cub, constantly hungry and eager to nurse and using such a great amount of strength to keep his body upright and move about slowly. There were so many things around, but he wasn't quite able to get to everything as quickly as he'd like. Once the cub had stirred, it seemed he became uncomfortable in that position.
With flickering eyelids, the cub slowly opened his eyes to peer out at whomever had woken him. Seeing his eldest sister before him, the cub beamed and let out another yawn. Chubby legs slowly raised the cub to his feet and he instinctively made his way to Omoa's side without any question.
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Posted: Sun Jan 11, 2009 3:03 pm
Omoa smiled back and gave an affectionate nuzzle to her only brother. Kobe was a sweetheart; she enjoyed spending time with him. Though she could tell he was still a bit sleepy.
"Do you want to sleep more? Or..." she trailed off and mischievously looked from side to side, "do you want to go on an adventure?" she whispered the last bit with a grin. She had no idea where they would go on this adventure, but that was the fun of it. Spontaneous exploration. Great stuff, that. She used to do it all the time when she lived alone.
Kobe nearly toppled over at Omoa's nuzzle, still unbalanced on his feet and tired from having just woken up. With a shake, the cub regained himself and smiled warmly at his sister. Leaning upwards, the cub tried to give his own nuzzle. Kobe was an absolute love when it came to his family. He adored every aspect of his mother and father and looked up to them entirely. When it came to his sister, Kobe nearly treated her as another parent, someone to trust and respect as well as play with.
At Omoa's first question, the cub slowly shook his head no. As warm and comfortable the den was, Kobe had the intense curiousity that seemed to plague his entire family. With an adorable grin, the cub stayed close to his sister's side, indicating that he was ready when she was. Peering outside the den opening, Kobe wore a curious expression, "Where are we headed?"
She chuckled warmly at his own attempt at a nuzzle, happy he was so quickly catching on that it was okay to give affection to family whenever he wanted. Omoa herself was prone to such a thing, and she had never been scolded for it. So she made sure to treat her siblings the same. Affection was a great thing.
"Where do you want to go?" she answered his question with one of her own. She stood and trotted outside of the den, her small legs and body gracefully sliding out into the sunlight. The light shone on her pretty green coat. The adolescent turned back to the den's mouth. "Well? You coming? You can lead this adventure, if you want," she added as an enticing plus.
Kobe was surprised when he heard Omoa's question. He got to decide where they went and what they did? With wide eyes the cub followed after his older sister and quickly scanned the beaches surrounding their den. Just what did he want to see first? Returning his gaze to the green colored female before him, the cub looked overwhelmed. "There's so much to see! What all can we look at in one day?"
This was one of Kobe's first times out from the den so everything was new to him. He had come with his siblings and his mother onto the beach to play in the sand, but aside from that and the few shells he had found, the pride's territory was foreign to him. Looking up towards Omoa for assistance, the cub asked another question, "Where do you like to go, sis?" His small tail waved behind him curiously, indicating his excitement over their adventure.
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Posted: Sun Jan 11, 2009 3:04 pm
She laughed outright. "We can look at many things; we can go see the ocean, we can go explore in the trees. We can go see what we can find in the sand and dirt near the den. We can do a lot." It just depended on how long they stayed at each place. That was the key.
"I love the ocean. And collecting shells. Oh! We could go to the small water pools and look for shells in there. There's a bunch of different little plants and creatures that live there." The pools she spoke of could be dangerous, but only twice a day. And right now it wasn't one of those times. They were small pools, created at the edge of the shore, near some rocks. There were wiggly things that lived there, and shells with creatures inside. Those were the best kind; the ones that washed up on the sandy shore were either broken or...broken.
Kobe's eyes lit up as his sister explained all the various activities the two could do. Circling Omoa, the cub began to jump about excitedly. Tumbling into the sand, Kobe giggled and bounced back to his feet. "Lets see the pools! I want to see what lives inside!" While the cub wouldn't dream about bounding off without his sister, he did begin to take a few steps forward towards the shore. As he padded through the sand, his paws dug gently in search of shells. Finding shells was one of Omoa's favorite things to do and so Kobe decided it was one of his favorites too!
While waiting for his sister to lead the way, the cub found a few dull broken shells and scooped them up with his paw to get a better look. One appeared similar to the bright purple shell his father wore on his paw, though it was brown in color. "Doesn't daddy have one of these? Why is there a hole inside of it? What goes inside?" Now with plans for what they would do, Kobe seemed to have entirely woken up from his previous sleep.
She quickly began to walk after him, smiling at his eagerness. Their den wasn't too far from the beach, so it didn't take too long for them to switch from the dirt ground they slept on to the soft, sandy beach where there destination lay. The pools were a little walk away to the right, but while they headed that way, it couldn't hurt for him to ask questions. Which he did.
"Yes, he does have one, except it's much bigger and a shiny purple. Something lives inside, Kobe. A little crab or a hermit crab crawls into a smaller one of these conch shells (that's what these are called) and as they grow, so does the shell. Little other creatures grow on it, and when the crab becomes too big for the conch, it leaves it and goes to find another one." Which was explained to her by their father, of course. He knew -everything-.
Kobe took in everything Omoa said with great enthusiasm. He smiled the entire time and when she finished, he looked back towards the same broken shell with a different light. It was amazing to think that something would be able to live inside the shell. It would have to be so small. "So the shell in the little... c-crabs den? Will we find any of these crabs near the pools?" Kobe dropped the small shells back into the sand and continued after his sister curiously.
As the two walked, Kobe kept peering from the left to the right, trying to take in all of his surroundings. He was amazed by everything, from the way the ocean pulled up onto the sand to the way the sand changed texture after it became what mama explained was 'wet'. Looking in the direction in which the two padded, Kobe thought he caught site of the pools Omoa described to him. "Are we there already?" Kobe bounced forward again, eager to find the little creatures his sister described.
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Posted: Sun Jan 11, 2009 4:28 pm
She nodded, proud. "That's right. The shell is the crabs' little den. We might find some of them, but I dunno if they'll be out of their shells. We'll probably scare them all away to hide in their dens." She giggled.
Omoa squinted to see that far away, but nodded when she saw the rocks that surrounded the pools. "Yep, here we are!" and she quickened her pace to match his bounding leaps. "Be careful, though," she warned in a parental voice. "You could fall in, and it's kinda slippery at the sides and the top." She leapt up to the side and balanced easily, having done this millions of times. "Here, use these stepping places to help you up." She pointed to them, only a foot away from where she stood. These were the very same steps she had used to get up to this height, as well.
Although Kobe's excitement had brought him all the way to the very edge of the pools before his sister, once he was there he sat and waited patiently for her direction. Kobe had been told multiple times before from his parents that the big water could be dangerous if you weren't careful. He had always been so content just to watch the water at a distance, amazed by the great force that crashed it down upon itself in waves. It was really mesmerising. Now that the cub had an opportunity to see everything up close he didn't want to get ahead of himself and find himself in trouble. While he waited for direction he watched the ripples and movements of the water. "It almost seems alive!" He said in excitement.
It wasn't long before Omoa made her way beside him and offered him guidance as to what he should do. Looking towards his sister with a big smile, the cub followed her every word, slowing climbing up where she had directed and peering into the pools. Once he was able to really get a good look the cub's eyes widened and he thought of a surplus of other questions. As he caught site of a tiny hermit crab he couldn't contain a giggle. "Lookit! Lookit!" He used a paw to direct Omoa's gaze and then his expression became serious. "Omoa! If that's their den, how do their families fit inside? It's so small!"
"Close!" Omoa told her little brother. "It looks like it's alive 'cause it's always moving, but there are really things under the water that are alive. Just like that little crab." She had watched him with a cautious eye as he had climbed up after her directions. Kobe was always good at following directions; she never had much to worry about with him.
"Only one crab lives in one shell at a time, silly. Each member of their family has their own shell. If the shell was big enough for all of them to fit into, something could come up and eat them! That wouldn't be good, now would it?" She laughed and licked the side of his face.
Kobe listened carefully as his sister addressed each question he asked and answered them all well enough to satisfy his curiosity. WIth a sheepish smile, the cub giggled when his sister corrected him about the hermit crabs and licked his face. Even if it sounded like a silly question the only life the cub really had any concept of was his own. He imagined everyone lived how he did. It was funny to learn that this wasn't the case. Looking up to Omoa again, Kobe smiled, "So each crab has its own den, but maybe the big water is like the family den where they all live together?" Filled with excitement, Kobe's tail began to wave about behind him.
While he waited to hear his sister's answer, the cub laid down where he was and peered as far as he could into the pool, "What other types of things live in these pools, 'Moa?" Kobe saw a variety of plant life and some strange things inside, but he didn't really understand what much of it was.
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Posted: Fri Apr 03, 2009 2:28 pm
Omoa sat down beside him and stretched to point her nose to the water as well. "You could look at it like that, yes. Except that the big water is a really, really big den of a lot of crab families that all live together. Just like the whole world for us lions. There are a lot of us, and we're all separated and with our own families, but there are other prides and families out there living in the world. So yes, you're exactly right," she told him proudly.
"There can be lots of things in the pools! What do you see in there? Lots of plants, I know, and the crabs. But what else can you spot in there?"
Omoa's praise meant the world to Kobe! With as big a grin as the cub could muster, he stood back up proudly and puffed out his chest. Knowledge was valued highly in the Simbafutaji and even as a cub, Kobe understood how much it meant to everyone. He couldn't wait to share what he learned with his sisters and friends! Wouldn't they be jealous to know that he had a big sister who liked to teach him things?
When Omoa asked him what it was he saw, the cub ducked low again and squinted hard to try and see the things beneath the water. "It's hard to see the stuff under the water!" He complained, easing forward a bit more. He almost missed it at first because of how still it was, but soon the cub caught site of a strange creature stuck on the side of the small pool. It was orangeish in color and looked almost star-shaped. Reaching a paw out, Kobe tried to poke it to see what would happen. "Is that a rock?" he asked, feeling how rough the animal felt.
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Posted: Tue May 19, 2009 9:00 pm
Omoa giggled, almost reaching over to grab her brother's rump so he wouldn't fall in. Yes, it was hard to see under the water when you weren't in there! But if Kobe fell, that spelled trouble for both of them. She didn't know what exactly was dwelling in the deeper waters of this little pool and had absolutely no desire to find out.
"Nope, not a rock! Feels like one, though, huh? It's called a starfish. I don't know why its a 'fish,' when it doesn't look like one at all, but its obviously in the shape of a star and lives underwater with the rest of the fish. They come in a lot of different colors, too."
She scooted in closer and scooped a paw into the water, grabbing the starfish and gently pulling it off and out of the water to stick it on the rocks between them. "Here, you see the bottom?" she flipped it over gently and gestured to the sticky-looking things on the underside of the starfish. "Those are sticky. They let the starfish stick itself to the side of the rock and not let go or fall down. And they feel funny," she laughed, putting a digit on one side and lifting up. The starfish kind of stuck to her finger and then let go with an odd sound.
Smiling at her brother, Omoa suddenly realized that it was past time to return home. She gently replaced the starfish in its home, making sure it stuck to the wall before drawing her paw back out of the water.
"Alright little brother, we'd better get home before the rest of 'em start to worry. But we'll have new stories to tell them, about this pool, so don't worry. We'll come back." She nudged his side gently and then leapt gracefully down to a lower rock, then trotted back out to the sandy part of the beach. Then she led Kobe back home, and soon, she knew, they would once again go exploring. After all, there were many different little pools for them to peek into, with many different kinds of creatures lurking in the waters.
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