It was one of those days where the wind was blowing hard, which meant two things. First, it meant that Uruloke was being assaulted by tiny particles of flying death in the form of sand and dust, which led to the second thing. Loke missed his jackal pelt, Warmee. He had stopped wearing him, submitting to peer pressure from his siblings, but that didn't stop him from missing his jackal companion. Nevertheless, Loke made his way through the pride, squinting against the vicious wind and shivering. He missed Warmee.
Zynab had fallen into a routine. She would get get up in the morning, walk around the pride, stop at the food pile for breakfast and go out to hunt all day. When she would get back, she stopped for dinner, walked around until she was tired and went to bed. It wasn't a very exciting time, but it was something structured. Zynab liked structured things; she thought everything should have a time and a place. It was alright to alter your day every once in a while, but some took that to extremes. Like cubs did. They didn't do anything the same two days in a row. Everything had to be different with them; new and fresh. At times, she missed that, but lately? She missed being near her family and fellow pride members. That's why, this morning, she was walking through the pride actively seeking out a familiar face.
Loke sighed and shivered some more. It was kind of a pity that none of his siblings were cuddlers. Not that Loke was the sort who would cuddle. That wasn't fierce and Firekin-like. But it would be nice to have someone to share body heat with, since he had been deprived of his favorite companion. He was distracted by the appearance of a familiar figure. Not familiar as in part of his family, which was something of a relief. Everyone in the pride seemed to be related to him, and he got tired of it sometimes. Which was odd considering he'd just wished to have someone to cuddle with. He wouldn't be cuddling with the fiery flower lioness, he didn't think, but talking to her could distract him. He strode purposefully toward her, noting that she seemed smaller now that he was a little older.
Movement caught her eyes and she turned her head toward it. A cub, well... a little bigger than a cub, was striding toward her like he had something in mind. Looking him over, she realized this was the brat she'd spoken to some moons ago. She hadn't seen him since then. Zynab also realized that the way he was walking indicated he was freezing just like she was. Her muscles ached from the cold, but she'd forced herself to keep walking. Walking warmed up your muscles. Hell, maybe she'd actually be hot when she went for her afternoon hunt today. She stopped walking and sat as he walked up to her and arched a brow. "I rememer you. Lock, right?" Not like she really remembered his name, she just remembered a grumpy, sleepy, mouthy cub who amused and annoyed the hell out of her that day.
"Loke," he corrected. "Uruloke. Fire lizard. And you're the fire flower, right?" He wasn't bothered by her inability to remember his name. In a litter of thirteen it wasn't uncommon for people to mix his name up with his siblings' names. However, he did wonder if she was deliberately misremembering his name. From what he recalled of their last conversation, she wasn't a cub person, so it wasn't as if she spent so much time hanging out with cubs that she was likely to have mixed him up with someone else. "Enjoying the day?"
Close. Damn, she thought she remembered it. "Zynab. Yes, fire flower." Watching him, she tilted her head as she inspected this cub and then shrugged to his question. "Too cold to really enjoy anything right now. Hate the winter." She wasn't grumpy about it, just stated the obvious. "Loke. I was close, I suppose. I haven't seen you since that day. Busy with your twelve brothers and sisters?" She wondered just how in the hell his parents managed to have thirteen of them, and how they took care of them all. Probably had some nannies looking after a pawful of them. She couldn't suppress a violent shutter at the wind picking up for a minute. It sliced through to her bone instantly, which meant the cub wouldn't be doing any better.
"Sort of busy, yes. I'll be apprenticed soon," he said. He was actually looking forward to that a great deal. He was going to grow up to be a guard. Sharp-eyed and fairly quick on his feet when not frozen, Loke knew he would make a great guard. A lot of his siblings were going to be soldiers. He thought a few wanted to be water finders. He found it hard to keep track, actually. The older he got, the more he wondered how his parents managed to keep up with his litter. "Sorry. Zynab. I'll try to remember that for next time." He looked at her curiously, and might have said something more when a frigid gust of wind seemed to shear the flesh from his bones. He shivered violently and hunched in on himself.
Seeing how the cub reacted, she shook herself off and got moving again. "Follow me, Loke. We'll keep walking to warm up. Keep moving and you won't have time to feel the cold." Zynab wouldn't know if he'd make a good guard or not. Perhaps she might, but she settled for being a hunter. After all, one pride couldn't have too many when it was a huge pride like theirs. Someone had to make sure everyone ate. Flicking her tail, she looked down at the male who was probably walking beside her and spoke again. "I haven't been called flower since I was younger than you are now. Don't really care for it. It doesn't fit me." Unless that flower had thorns. Zynab might be easy on the eyes, but she was definitely not a flower. She had tough, thick skin like most firekin. Not to say that there weren't any flowers, but still. "Did you watch the lizards like I told you?"
"Hah," Loke said disbelievingly. The bark of laughter was clearly insincere. "I'll walk with you, but I guarantee I'll still be feeling the cold whether or not I keep moving. I'm always cold." His tail twitched and his whiskers did the same. He was amused by her consideration. Not many Firekin cared too much about his comfort. Except his parents, of course, and even they would have told him to toughen up and deal with it. Mostly he tried to do that, but on days like this it was really hard. "I won't call you that, then. But I can't very well call you 'fire.' That's got to be the most common name in the whole pride, practically. I guess I'll have to remember Zynab." He was too young to be a flirt, but as an older lion, maybe, he might have argued that she was sort of floral and pretty. Instead he just shook his head in response to her question. "I meant to, but it's not happened yet."
"Your loss, not mine," was all she had to say on the subject of not watching the lizards. She'd done it when she was his age and she blended in so much better thanks to them. Zynab wouldn't have reacted to the flirting even if he tried. She wasn't interested in anyone younger than her. Not like that, anyway. No, her interest laid in older males. In her head, she had more in common with the older males than the younger ones. But this one was proving..... interesting if nothing else. Maybe she'd keep him around as a friend. She could see him moving up in the ranks. Maybe she could use him for favors or something if he ever made a high enough rank. A smirk appeared on her muzzle at the thought and she looked to him. "Every name in our pride has something to do with fire. Be it ember, a flame, a spark, smoldering, smoke? At least that's what I've come to gather." Everytime she asked someone their names meaning, it seemed that they all had something in common with fire.
"I know that," Loke said, rolling his eyes. "Fire, flame, embers, sparks, and also the sun. The sun's pretty popular, too." He was walking next to her, looking up at her as he walked. The Firekin were a large pride, and its members were also large. Zynab was larger than Uruloke right now, but she probably wouldn't be always. It was that kind of thinking which kept him from being bothered by the fact that he still had to walk a little awkwardly to keep up with her longer-legged strides. "I'll do it sometime," he said. "I really do mean to. The stuff you mentioned that I could learn sounds important, and I want to be the best when I start my apprenticeship. What have you been up to?"
"It's good you're excited about your apprenticeship. I've seen to many get pulled into something simply because they didn't want to do anything. I have been up to absolutely nothing but hunting lately. This pride is getting too big that I have to hunt all after noon every day to keep up with the demands. What with new mothers or expecting mothers, or just busy lions that are too busy to hunt for themselves." Zynab sort of growled as she said it. She hated lazy lions who didn't do anything for themselves and did nothing but barked orders. Somethings never changed. Licking her muzzle she looked down to the cub again and noticed he was struggling to keep up. So, she slowed her pace a little and smirked. "What are you going to be doing when you're older?" She knew he would grow up to be bigger than her in every way. He'd have more muscles, better speed. Then she'd have to hurry to keep up with him.
"Was that a jab at my family for being irresponsibly large?" Loke asked, grinning. "I might just have to bite your ears off if it was." He even threw in a growl to get his point across, though he was not a terrifically terrifying figure, even growling. He didn't think to say anything stupid or trite, like about how it kept her busy at least. Instead he shrugged. She'd been the one to start the growling, he told himself, so he hadn't acted out of line. And he hadn't really been growling-growling anyway. Just a little joking growl. "I'll be a guard," he said. "If I get through my apprenticeship all right, anyway. And I don't know what else."
The growl did little to scare her. Instead, Zynab let out a scratching sounding laugh at it and then nodded. "It might have been, but not in this case. There are plenty other females rolling over and having large litters. The pride is expanding too rapidly. We're fixing to have to expand our territory and might have to step on some toes to do this." She smirked. What if they got the Pridelands? That would expand the pride by ten fold! "A guard? Do your damn job and kick the asses of anyone wanting to join. I hate letting in weaklings." Sometimes, the weaker ones in the pride got lucky in their duels with guards and whoever else accepted a challenge. But every once in a while, a strong fighter came in and was quickly snatched up by some smooth talking female with a silver tongue. That pissed her off, too.
Loke laughed. "That sounds like it would be exciting. Expanding our territory. I hope we do, and that I'm old enough to help." He was too young to have experience of any kind of battle besides the duels cubs fought. He had seen hunting parties and death, of course, but never participated in a fight to the death, or even a duel with claws bared. He had no concept of what it would be like if the Firekin ended up going to war against the Pridelands, or any other pride, for that matter. To him, it sounded like a wonderful adventure, one he would be thrilled to be a part of. "I'll be a good guard," he said. "I won't let any weaklings in." Of course, he also didn't expect to be fighting that many of them. More likely, he'd spot them in advance and then race back to one of the soldiers or other warriors whose job it was to fight the duels.
Her eyes rolled to look at the sky and she frowned. Time to start her hunting. Looking back to the cub, Zynab gave him a smirk and stopped walking. "I have to go hunt. My party is leaving in a few minutes. Loke, come find me and I'll help you work on your skills when or if, I have the time. Hunting skills, elements of surprise. It's all useful and you're never too young to learn. Who knows, maybe you'll surprise your siblings in a fight or something." With that, and a paw on his head messing up his mane tuft, she turned and walked towards the boarders to meet up with her hunting party. If he spoke to her quickly and loudly, she would hear it before meeting the group.
"Oh, yeah. Okay," Loke said. He hadn't forgotten about being cold, but it had been nice to talk to a grown-up instead of another cub. There was only so much he could talk about with other cubs. Well, at least in the way of real things. They could pretend and all that, but it was hardly the same and he preferred to talk about real things. The closest to pretending that he got was to pretend he was already a guard or soldier with his siblings, and that was also not very much like pretend, since he'd be doing that when he got older anyway. He would have smiled at Zynab, but she chose that moment to decide to treat him like a cub and muss up his mane, which earned her a scowl instead. He might have added a more grumpy face to go with it, but she was already heading away. Instead he decided to do the grown-up thing and not make a fuss. He just called after her, "Good luck! Kill something big."
