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 Posted: Wed Oct 13, 2010 5:06 am
 Msrah had come up with a new and fun game for himself today, and he was torn between wanting to show someone and wanting to play more first. For the moment this toy was too much fun to abandon. He had found this really awesome plaything in one of the less travelled pathways among the dens. It was an old skull from some kind of prey beast, but he wasn't experienced enough to know what kind of animal it was from. There was no meat or fur left and the bone itself was yellow and brittle, but it made the most amazing sound when he attacked it and sent it rolling in the corridor. The sound echoing between the walls and roof made him feel very happy, and he was going to work himself tired playing with it unless an adult physically picked him up and made him stop.
Msrah usually played with at least one of his siblings, but this was still too much fun for him to have time to go get someone. But since the sound of his rowdy play and joyful meows echoed through the den area, it was really only a matter of time before someone would go investigate and find him and his treasure.
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Posted: Wed Oct 13, 2010 5:27 am
 It had been apparent from the time her personality began to assert itself that Hiimatayt was a cheerful, fun-loving cub. She was rarely seen without a smile and loved nothing more than to play with her siblings - even when they would rather be sleeping. Most days, fortunately, she was all played out by mid-afternoon, having gone about her morning play with such gusto that she was completely tuckered before dinner time. Usually food revived her, though, and she was capable of a few more hours of high-energy antics.
Right now, though, it was early enough in the day that the dark-coated cub was practically vibrating with potential. Everywhere she looked the blazing sun showed her interesting places to explore and new people to meet. However, it was not her eyes which led her to the day's adventure, but her ears. They had picked up on the unmistakable sound of a cub having a great deal of fun, along with a mysterious and unknown sound that she couldn't place. The hollow echoing which accompanied the sounds of a child's play called to her almost as strongly as the other cub's sounds themselves.
She trotted over the sand, stepping lightly to avoid scorching her still-sensitive paw pads on the heated ground. Older lions had better protection against the sun-warmed sands, but her paw pads were still pink and soft and tended to burn if she wasn't careful. Fortunately the sounds were coming from a cave, which meant she'd be playing in the shade. She had no doubt that she'd be playing in the very near future - everyone was a potential friend, after all.
"Good morning!" she exclaimed, bounding into the cave and looking around her with wide eyes. "Can I play?"
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Posted: Wed Oct 13, 2010 1:42 pm
Play? Play was the magical word for Msrah, and the only one that could possibly trump it was "cuddles". He gave the skull a hearty whack with his paw and sent it flying down the old temple corridor before looking up at his new friend. It was a dark coloured girl, and he was sure he had seen her during lessons even if he couldn't remember her name at the moment. He recognised most of the cubs his age even if he hadn't talked with all of them and therefore didn't know their names. But that was easy to fix!
"Hi!" he said in response to her greeting, "I'm Msrah! Msrah because I was the sixth one born. But we are seven cubs so I'm not the baby. Who are you?"
He was too excited to stay still while she answered so he bounced off to retrieve the skull. He batted at it playfully a couple of times before hitting it harder to send it back to the dark girl. It deflected off the wall once with the most wonderful “thunk” and stopped no more than half a tails length from her paws. Hopefully she'd take it as an invitation to join in, but he grinned at her just in case. She had asked if she could play and this was his answer.
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Posted: Sat Oct 16, 2010 7:13 am
Tay's expression lit up with glee at Msrah's enthusiastic greeting. For a lioness whose markings seemed to dark and doleful, she had quite the beaming smile and a real skill for conveying delight. Likely because her pleasure was wholly genuine in this instance. She just knew Msrah was going to be a wonderful playmate and friend!
"Hi, Msrah! I'm Tay! I'm named for a kind of rock, I think. Having seven siblings around sounds like it would be a lot of fun." She completely failed to grasp that if there were seven cubs, one of them would have to be Msrah, so he only had six siblings, and not seven. Numbers were still a bit fuzzy for her in pretty much every respect. Lessons covered them, of course, but she had yet to grasp the concept.
Her dark eyes flickered back and forth between Msrah and the skull he'd been batting around. It wasn't that she meant to be rude, or imply that Msrah wasn't interesting enough to hold her attention, but the sound the skull made fascinated her, and whenever it moved or struck something, her paws practically twitched to give it a whack and see what she could make it do. At the same time, she wanted Msrah to know that she really was happy to meet him. Hence the divided attention.
It was a relief when the skull ended up so close to her paws, as she could barely have contained herself any longer. She sprang forward with her forepaws outstretched, expending entirely too much effort for such a small jump, and sent the skull skittering across the floor of the temple. Her lips were pulled back from her tiny, sharp teeth in a childish grin.
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Posted: Mon Dec 13, 2010 2:39 pm
Msrah was about as good with numbers as his new friend, and he didn't catch her error. Six cubs, seven cubs... Had he known how to count properly he could have told her they were 8 siblings, but yeah... numbers. The more the merrier! He briefly wondered what kind of rock she was named after, but that thought left his mind as soon as Tay hit the skull, sending it flying. Moving object! Attack! He ran after it and made a long jump to pounce on their noisy prey.
Play hunting was hard, and while Msrah was good at pouncing stationary objects he missed most of the time as soon as he tried something moving. This jump wasn't too far off, but also much less controlled than an adult hunter's, and he started to tumble as soon as he landed. When cub and skull finally came to a halt the fifth born sat unsteadily. He was dizzy, he was dusty, but he had almost caught their prey and he couldn't stop smiling.
If this had been a grinning contest, it would have been really hard to decide on a winner.
((OOC: Realised they are 8 cubs when looking at a group picture... So slight edit. Pretending Msrah is the one who can't count.))
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Posted: Tue Dec 21, 2010 9:12 am
Laughter burbled out of Tay as she watched her new-found friend leap after the skittering skull. It wasn't a mocking or condescending sort of laughter, but rather laughter born of pure delight that she'd played correctly and her companion seemed to be enjoying himself. It would never have occurred to her to laugh in a mean way. That wasn't what laughter was for, as far as Tay was concerned.
"Wow!" she exclaimed, remarking on the distance he leaped.
As far as Tay was concerned, accuracy was entirely too much to strive for at this point in her life. It had taken a stroke of luck for her to send the skull moving in the direction she'd meant it to go, and with enough force for it to end up anywhere near Msrah. Skulls were heavier than they looked!
"Oh! Are you okay?"
Her demeanor changed abruptly when Msrah came out of his leap into a tumble that left him sitting with evident unsteadiness. Had he hurt himself? She wasn't about to keep smiling if that was the case. She was already running over to offer whatever assistance she could when she noticed that he was smiling.
Much like her understanding of laughter, Tay was convinced that a person couldn't possibly smile if they were actually hurt or unhappy, so his smile reassured her. By the time she reached him, having proved unable to stop her forward momentum and so decided to continue in that direction, Tay's smile had returned and she was already enthusing about how cool he had looked when he did that tumble-roll-thing.
"That was so cool! You've got to show me how to do that," she said.
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Posted: Wed Jan 12, 2011 3:21 pm
"Did you see that," he asked, silly grin on his face, "I almost caught it. I did! Perhaps I could be a hunter like the dads."
Because since his dad was a hunter all other dads had to be too. Simple! He shook his head, testing if everything was all right. It felt like it was and the dizziness had disappeared almost completely. Tumbling like that had been fun, but he wasn't sure he could repeat it on purpose. He would if he could, because it had been awesome and made his new friend smile.
"I don't know how I did it," he admitted, "I just went really fast and then jumped and then tried to stop before my paws wanted to I think. It was fun!"
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Posted: Thu Jan 13, 2011 11:23 am
"I saw!" she agreed, unaware that in her excitement the volume of her voice was rising and her tone was approaching a squeak. "You'd make such a good hunter!"
The idea of being a hunter was quite thrilling to Tay, for whom everything was thrilling, actually. She spent several minutes pouncing after her own tail and shadows as she imagined what it would be like if she was a hunter, too. The fact that she had an audience who might be feeling ignored, or might think she was strange completely failed to phase her. As far as Tay was concerned, she and Msrah were friends now and nothing either of them could do would ever change that.
"Is your dad a hunter?" she asked, returning to the present and panting a little from her exertions. It was a lot of work catching tails and shadows. She hadn't managed to get a single one. Perhaps she should do like Msrah and stick to skulls, he'd come really close, after all, and she might be able to do the same once she caught her breath again.
Herself, Tay wasn't exactly sure what her father did. She was positive it was something really cool and wonderful, but she didn't know what that was. She should ask him sometime, she decided, though that thought was chased from her mind quickly enough when Msrah began to explain how he'd done that marvelous stunt.
"It looked fun. I'll have to try it sometime, though I don't know if I could do it a-purpose. It doesn't sound like you did it that way. Maybe it can't be done a-purpose at all. That would be funny!"
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Posted: Thu Jan 13, 2011 1:54 pm
Msrah spun around, trying to keep his eyes on Tay as she hunted, and he nearly ended up dizzy again. He wasn't sure what she was doing, but it looked like she had fun and it was funny to watch so he didn't mind.
"U-huh," he said and nodded vigorously, making the teal bead in his braid bounce, "And mom's a nanny. Is your dad a hunter too? My sister says all dads hunt. Do you have lots of sisters?"
He cocked his head to the side as she tried to analyze the great thing he had just done. Made sense that you couldn't do it if you wanted to. He giggled as he dreamed up a possible solution.
"You should try not to do it," he squealed and pawed at the skull again, "That should do it."
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Posted: Fri Jan 14, 2011 6:55 am
"A nanny! I want to be a nanny, too!" Tay exclaimed, seizing on the most pertinent part of Msrah's words. "Then I'd get to play all day and forever. I don't know why anyone would want to be anything else."
But, oh yeah, he'd asked her questions about what her dad did, and probably wanted to know about her mom, too. Tay felt a little silly admitting that she didn't know, but the fact of the matter was that she had no idea. She thought he might hunt sometimes, but was that really what he did all the time? She didn't think so.
"Um. I don't think my daddy hunts all the time, but I think he does hunt. I do know he's really brave though, 'cause my mommy says so all the time." And besides, all dads were brave, right?
All of that became moot when Msrah broke Tay's brain. Well. Maybe he didn't break it, but his suggestion came pretty close. The idea of trying to do something by trying not to do it, while it made perfect sense, also presented an impossible situation for Tay, who had no idea how to go about doing something like that.
"Okay?" she said, very unsure of herself. "Like this?"
She backed up a bit and gave herself a running head start while thinking "don't do it" and continuing to race toward the skull. Her eyes grew wider and seemingly larger as she drew closer, since the skull didn't seem to be getting out of her way, and neither did Msrah, and if she didn't do something spectacular she was going to crash into both of them! Cub and skull were saved from that fate because Tay's subconscious had more sense than she did and her paws sent her veering to the left to miss both potential targets, though the sudden direction change also brought her to a crashing halt on her bottom.
"Ow. Not quite," she squeaked, not quite ready to try it again.
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Posted: Mon Jan 17, 2011 4:59 am
She made a good point... It would be nice to be able to play and play and play. But if he wanted to be a dad he'd have to hunt, right? Luckily no one was going to force Msrah to decide right this moment, and he wasn't sure how to word his thoughts on the matter either. Since Tay had moved on to something else he didn't have to.
"Yeah," he agreed, "All dads are super brave!"
Msrah would probably have been equally confused if he had tried to follow his own advice, but trying to not do something kind of made sense in his own head. At least before he had said it. He would probably have been hit by Tay if she hadn't changed course, because his evasive jump to one side came after she had already crashed.
"Wow," he said, "Did it hurt? Did I look like that when I did it? I think I spun around more because I felt all dizzy later."
But then his focus changed as he realised that he could make sounds if he hit the skull just so, and without sending it flying. His small paws drummed on the dry skull and he grinned and looked at Tay to see if he had noticed what he just did. Cool!
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Posted: Mon Jan 17, 2011 7:05 am
Perhaps when she was older Tay would be better able to keep her mind on one subject, but right now she just couldn't focus on just one thought at a time, and she couldn't multitask in her thoughts very well, either, despite her best intentions. If she'd been aware that her jumping from topic to topic was making her a little difficult to keep up with conversationally, she would have made a greater effort to bring her mind to heel.
Most of her conversational efforts were abruptly cut off with her failed attempt to replicate Msrah's feat of acrobatic awesomeness. She wasn't dizzy or anything, just a little startled. And her bum felt a bit bruised. But she was fine, and she was smiling broadly to make sure Msrah knew that. She didn't want him to worry, because worrying felt bad and her friend shouldn't feel bad. Not ever.
"Um. A little? But I'm fine. I don't think I looked like you. You looked cool and spinny. I didn't do any spinning...And what's that sound?"
She turned her head from side to side, trying to figure out where the odd hollow sound was coming from, her ears swiveling and twisting with her head. It sounded really, really neat, and if it was something the temple did, or maybe something Msrah was doing, she wanted to know about it.
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Posted: Sun Feb 06, 2011 3:34 pm
The sound, the sound, she noticed the sound! And she looked really funny trying to figure out where it came from. Msrah had to stop what he was doing and giggle. Like his new friend, he didn't have the greatest attention span. Also, he had a hard time doing many things at once, and when you giggled your body had to do a lot of things and it was hard to do anything else. When he was done giggling he needed to show Tay the awesome thing with the skull. Making sound was fun, and it might be easier than to try to recreate the cool, spinny landing.
"Lookit, lookit, lookit," he said, drumming with his paws to emphasise every word, "I'm doing it, look!
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Posted: Thu Feb 10, 2011 11:22 am
The sound stopped and Tay frowned in bemusement. Perhaps commenting on it had made it go away? That would be a shame. She shouldn't have said anything, maybe. But then, if she didn't say anything else, maybe it would come back, and then she could figure out how it was happening.
The noise resumed just as Tay followed Msrah's directions and looked at him. She saw him drumming his paws on the skull they'd batted about and realized that his paws strikes corresponded with the hollow sound she'd been hearing before.
"You're doing it!" she exclaimed, not bothered by the fact that he'd just said the same thing not moments before. It was exciting enough to be said twice, right? "That is so cool."
It didn't occur to her to ask to try. Msrah was doing a great job, and she didn't want to mess it up. Actually, she would have been reluctant to admit it, but she was getting kind of tired. There had been a lot of excitement in her day so far, and now she wanted to nap. Not so much wanted as needed, really, but she was enjoying herself too much.
She yawned.
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Posted: Thu Feb 10, 2011 1:41 pm
There was not a single thing more contagious than a yawn among cubs. It would travel at the speed of lightning and infect every single cub in it's way. Tay had hardly finished yawning before Msrah did the same, wide enough to show his sharp cub teeth. He shook his head and ended his drum solo with two sharp taps, but then yawned again. Oh, he couldn't be tired yet. There was so much fun left to do.
"Do you want to try now?" Msrah asked, bouncing slightly up and down. If he bounced he couldn't be tired, right? And if he wasn't tired... He yawned and then frowned at his body's unwillingness to do what he wanted..
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