The day had dawned bright and sunny, a rich fresh scent filled the air with the promise of spring. The day matched her mood. The young leopardess had birthed a litter of cubs some months back and they were now so lively and energetic she could barely keep up with them all. Her cubs were so precious, yet they seemed to get themselves into all sorts of trouble. Just yesterday she had rescued her young frog-loving daughter from a borrow she had somehow become wedged in, 'looking for a frog like me' apparently... Smiling warmly she looked over to where three of them were playing. She worried for her single son, for she knew how boys were, but so far he had only been as accident prone as his sisters. Suddenly she heard the plaintive call of her youngest daughter and sat up, turning to look for the origin of the voice she knew so well.
Wet and bedraggled, Safiya cried for her mother as she limped across the sandy ground towards the large yellow bulk she knew gave the best hugs in the whole wide world. "Moooooom." She whimpered, lifting a paw before she flopped on to her side, unable to move a single step more. A moment later the warm rough swipe of her mother's tongue traced over her fur, making her mewl and squirm again. "Mooooom..... I got an owieeeee...." Ears back she peered up at her mother with huge sorrowful eyes.
Lakeisha tilted her head, smiling gently down at the dramatically flopped over cub and licked her sodden fur tenderly. "What happened Saf?" She asked softly, lifting her daughter into her forelegs and nuzzling her close.
"I was tracking this tree rat.. just like you showed us. But he saw me and tried to run away.... so I chased after him, but I tripped over this huge log and fell down a mountain side." Wincing the young cub rubbed her headtuft to show what she hit. "Then this water swallowed me up but I fought it off and the tree rat was laughing at me.... " After a moment her voice got indignant. "And then a huge spiky monster stabbed my tail!" Whimpering she pulled her tail forwards to show her mom the few spikes sticking out of it.
"Oh no!" Lakeisha exclaimed in mock shock, cuddling her baby close as she soothed her gently. "Did you get that nasty tree rat? But come, let me have a look at you." Leaning down she nosed Safiya all over, gently and methodically checking her cub from nose to tail. After pulling out the few cactus spines that had lodged themselves in her daughter's tail, she smoothed the fur over with her tongue. Once she was certain her baby hadn’t been hurt other than the spikes from the cactus, she let Safiya squirm out of her grip and shake herself off.
“Why don’t you show me where you found the tree rat, maybe we can hunt it together..” Safiya beamed at her mother’s suggestion and nodded enthusiastically. “YES!! Lets!” Bounding off the energetic youth was scampering across the rocky ground with her mother trotting calmly behind her. It wasn’t far, just round behind a patch of scrub where the cubs all liked to play. Dancing about she proudly showered the log she had tripped over, which was a simple branch, the river turned out to be a muddy puddle and the mountain had been an abandoned termite mound, its strange spiral chimney weathered and in disrepair. As she was shown each of these natural disasters, Lakeisha listened avidly to her daughter’s dramatic retelling of her epic adventure though several times they both got distracted by jumping the branch and seeing who could jump the highest, or trying to balance atop the termite mound.
Leaping up, quick as a deer, Safiya laughed brightly, dancing around the rim on tiny paws. Then her mother had a go but could bearly get both from paws atop the old mound, and when she tried to balance her whole body on it, she swayed and flailed wildly before tumbling off. After a moment of shocked fear from her daughter, the pair of them were helpless with laughter, ending up splayed on their backs, Safiya tucked against her mother’s neck as they watched the clouds drift past on the endless blue of the sky.
“Well... I think your tree rat nemesis has disappeared, sweet one.” Lakeisha said, turning her head to peer cross-eyed at her daughter beside her, causing Saf to burst out laughing and both of them spent another few minutes in helpless giggling.
“Ahh well... I am sure he will return and then I can Vanquish him again!” Lakeisha arched a brow and grinned. “Vanquish? Now where did you learn a word like that?” Safiya blushed and squirmed for a moment. “I was talking to the serval that Shyamala knows... he said it.... that it meant you fight really bravely and beat the other person up.” Lakeish chuckled. “Well.. not so much beating them up, it is when you stand up for your beliefs and those that need your protection against others who would do them harm.” Smiling gently at her daughter’s rather awed expression she chuckled. “Just beating someone up is a bad thing, but protecting the innocent is noble.”
“Ahhh....” Safiya blinked, wide-eyed, her mother knew so much!
“Noble means a person who does good deads for others.” She explained with a smile in response to her daughter’s look. Safiya blinked and nodded. “Vanquish if you are noble..... beating others up if you are bad.” Shivering she slunk close against her mother and nuzzled the rich creamy fur. “I wana be noble and good when I grow up. Can I?” Chuckling Lakeisha nodded. “Of course you can, though I hope you will be graceful and gentle of heart, as befits a Lady.”
“OH! A Lady like in your stories?” Safiya asked excitedly, settling down in the hopes that her mom might tell her about The Silver Prince again, or the Lion-tamer a dashing rogue who saved lovely ladies and swept them off their paws and out from under the lion tormentors.
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