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 Posted: Sat Mar 19, 2011 3:11 pm
 Bahram was bored. Most of his friends were members of his family and right now he felt sick of them! Being the middle child in a litter of eight was bad enough without Star's cubs to compete with, not to mention Mozi and his hundreds of uncles. He spent the last hour trying in vain to get someone's attention. Now he had had enough!
He did not look back as he marched away from the den. When he finally did look back he could no longer see his father's den nor any members of his family. Suddenly he remembered the cold anger blazing in his mother's orange eyes when she scolded his sister Badiah after Pad Ilyas retried her and fearfully realized that this was not the kind of attention he wanted. His ears went back. Maybe they won't even notice I'm missing, he tried to console himself, but it did no good. Frightened, he sat down in the open and looked for an adult. He wanted someone big and strong to make him feel secure again. He didn't care even if they wound up taking him back to his den, just as long as they didn't tattle on him.
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Posted: Sat Mar 19, 2011 3:21 pm
 It was a bad habit, one that would make his banu uncomfortable, but he couldn't seem to stop himself, Behnam thought as he walked past the dens. He was heading for the edge of the pride lands to sit, to look out at the rogue lands and wonder what Koko was doing out there. To wonder if she missed-- He stopped, looking blankly at the cub sitting in the middle of the road, looking close to tears. A male, right? To be honest he hadn't spent much time with cubs, even when his father's banu had a litter. They sort of, well, worried him. He was rather large for a lion, being the son of a god, and they were just so tiny and... breakable. But what was he to do when this one looked so traumatized? "Are you okay, little pesar?" he asked.
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Posted: Sat Mar 19, 2011 3:42 pm
Bahram looked up to see a massive lion standing over him, maybe even bigger than his grandfather, who up until this point was the largest lion Bahram ever saw. As he looked up at him his front paws lifted off the ground. He caught himself just in time, though he almost fell right onto his back in shock. The realization that males even larger than his grandfather existed filled him with fear and awe. He scrambled to his feet and pressed his lips together in an attempt to look brave. With his tail in the air, he said loudly, "Yes!"
The older pad looked nothing like any of the adults he knew. His heart pounded at the daunting stranger. For the first time in his little life he was talking to someone who was clearly not part of his family. He grappled for the lessons his parents taught him on greeting pads. He puffed out his chest and utterly failed to look bigger. "I-I am Bahram... s-son of Pad Anwar. Who are you?"
The question might have come off a little rude. In trying to appear brave he instead came off as loud and irritating. To make matters worse for the older pad, Bahram seemed to believe that he needed to raise his voice in order to reach his lofty ears.
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Posted: Sat Mar 19, 2011 5:21 pm
Wow, he was a loud little guy, wasn't he? Behnam hesitated, then sat down, lowering himself to the ground in front of the little one so they were eye to eye. "My name is Behnam, son of Nywele and his beybanu, Amani," he said quietly. "It's nice to meet you, Pesar Bahram. But... would you be lost?"
He glanced around, looking for a mother or an older sibling that was supposed to be watching the cub. He didn't see anyone.
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Posted: Sat Mar 19, 2011 5:37 pm
Bahram bristled. "No! I mean..." He sagged, eyes darting. "I'm not... sure... where I am, but I'm not lost! I just went out for a walk, that's all."
He worried that if he admitted to being lost Behnam would try to take him home right away. On the other hand, he didn't want to make it seem as though he knew where he was going because then the pad might leave him alone again.
The shiny markings on Behnam's nose suddenly caught his eye. He stepped closer, staring at them, watching the way the sun moved over the shining hairs. Entranced, he tried to touch the markings with his paw.
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Posted: Sat Mar 19, 2011 5:50 pm
Behnam moved his head slightly to let him touch, seeing the look on the cub's face and fighting a smile. "I got the gold from my father," he told the cub. "He's covered in shiny gold markings."
He worried about keeping the cub from his den for too long. The little one couldn't be that old. "I bet your mothers are worried about you," he told the cub, unknowing what Bahram was thinking. "And your father, too," he added a bit belatedly.
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Posted: Sat Mar 19, 2011 6:00 pm
"Wow... they're really shiny!" He began to wonder who Pad Nywele was. He must be an enormous lion and with such shiny markings Bahram imagined him to be very handsome. His mother told him he was handsome, too. If he had gold markings like these he would be even handsomer.
Bahram looked fearfully into his eyes, ears flattening. He backed away. "Maybe. But you don't know what my mom will do to me if she finds out I wandered off! She'll skin me alive!"
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Posted: Sat Mar 19, 2011 6:05 pm
"I don't think you'd make a big enough skin to be useful, though," Behnam said thoughtfully, cocking his head slightly. "She might yell at you for going out without telling anyone, though," he added. "Because she would be scared that something might happen to you, like you might fall into the lake, or get lost and accidentally leave the pride lands."
He did smile slightly at the worried look on the cub's face. "But I wouldn't know for sure. I haven't had any cubs yet. But I would like to know that they were safe if I had some, wouldn't you?"
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Posted: Sun Mar 20, 2011 4:35 pm
Bahram frowned, thinking Behnam was trying to be cute with him. If he had any idea what his mother was like he wouldn't joke like that. Truth be told, his mother was not the tyrant he imaged. It was only natural that she would seem like the bane of his existence when he focused solely on how she would punish him for running away. He shifted his paws. "Well, yeah..." he grumbled. "But I wouldn't punish them for wandering away on accident."
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Posted: Sun Mar 20, 2011 5:31 pm
"And it was definitely by accident, wasn't it?" Behnam said. "You just... saw something that you couldn't help but follow? Or maybe you heard someone calling your name?" He doubted it. But he could be wrong.
If one cub was this much trouble, and he had thre--two banu, think of all the cubs they could have--think of how much trouble they could be! Behnam shook his head, abruptly realizing a major flaw in the pride's system. "Perhaps I should have just started with one," he said to himself.
Then he stood. "Why don't I help you get back to your den?" he asked the cub.
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Posted: Sun Mar 20, 2011 6:18 pm
Bahram outright glared at Behnam. He wondered if all adults were like this, always questioning the word of cubs, always making fun of them. Behnam seemed so nice at first and that was his worst crime of all. Bahram was still learning that lions were not always who they seemed on the surface and the lesson was a painful, disillusioning one.
"No," he said stubbornly, shaking his head. "You'll tell on me!"
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Posted: Sun Mar 20, 2011 6:33 pm
"Then we'll sneak you back to the den area, hide you amongst another group of cubs, and you can tell your mother you were just trying to make friends," Behnam offered. Oh, he really was going to suck as a father, he decided. How did his father manage?
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Posted: Sun Mar 20, 2011 6:43 pm
Bahram sat on his butt and turned his lip up at Behnam appraisingly. The concept of distrusting someone was still rather new to him but with Behnam he seemed to be getting the idea. Every time he thought he knew what to expect from Behnam he did something different. He looked around, hoping to spot another, more trustworthy grown up, but no one seemed to be around. Bahram started to squirm. He turned back to Behnam and made his eyes into slits. "You promise not to tell?"
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Posted: Sun Mar 20, 2011 7:00 pm
"I absolutely promise," Behnam said, just wanting to get the cub off of his hands. Oh lord, did he hope his banu were better with cubs than he was! He was groping around in the dark, trying to figure out why the cub was glaring at him for everything he said. "It's not very far at all, see? In fact I can see a group of cubs from here!"
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Posted: Sun Mar 20, 2011 7:17 pm
Promises meant a lot to Bahram at this age. Even though he took Behnam's word at face value, he was still somewhat reluctant to follow him back to his mother's den. He followed Behnam's gaze, blinked, and shook his head. "I don't see anyone." Maybe he just wasn't tall enough. He titled his head. "Hey, how come you haven't got any cubs of your own yet? Didn't you get a banu?"
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