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"Aylin," Sciuri whispered as soon as the family seemed to have fallen asleep. She was speaking as softly as she possibly could to avoid waking anyone else in the family. "Get up, it's time to go."

Tonight was the night she was supposed to meet up with Ruzanski. It had been four days since she first met him, and so that made it the day they had agreed to meet each other again. Sciuri had spent most of the day going over her route in her head to make sure she went to the right place.

If she went to the wrong place it would be pretty bad. Not only would she not get to see Ruzanski again, but she'd look stupid in front of Aylin. She hoped Ruzanski wouldn't mind that she had brought her sister without warning him, but she had no way to warn him and hadn't wanted to wait until after tonight just so she could. She wanted Aylin to meet him and share her secret.

Go? Her head slowly shifted at the word and she let out a yawn. Aylin had always drifted off fast, but it never took much to wake her up. Cracking open a golden eye, the pale cub yawned again and got to her paws, careful not to step on anyone else. Go? Where were they going again? She looked mildly confused as she somehow managed to make her way out of the den entrance. They couldn't talk inside, everyone would wake up and then they'd be in trouble. So, she sat her rump down a bit outside and stretched out her muscles before yawning once more, eyes watering from how hard it was.

She had actually played with her siblings today, which meant she was really worn out and tired. Naturally she wated to sleep, but it seemed her sister had other plans for the night. "Where are we going?" she asked, voice thick from sleep. So she wasn't a night person. Who would be if they had just fallen asleep and gotten woken up.

"It's all right," Sciuri assured her sister, eager to be on her way and reluctant to spend any more time discussing her sister's sleepiness or forgetfulness. "It happens."

She set off at as quick of a slink as she could manage without making too much noise. For the moment it was more important to get away from the den without detection than to make haste. It was hard to make herself slow down and be mindful of the trail she and Aylin might leave, but with effort she managed it. It wouldn't do to be caught and dragged back to the den for a stern talking to.

"This way," she whispered, and then reminded her sister unnecessarily, "We have to be quiet."

Iuri thought that it would be far enough once they were out of sight of the den, and then they could start trotting, which would cover more ground, faster. It wasn't all that far away where she had met Ru, but Iuri could feel every moment of delay as if it was disastrous. She didn't want anything to go wrong, or for Ru to somehow reach the conclusion she had decided against coming out to meet him, though he had seemed like the kind of boy who would have gone in search of her if she didn't show up. It wouldn't have been difficult for him to find her family's den and her. After all, there were a lot of them living there.

Aylin followed her sister like a zombie. She was quiet of course, because she did understand the implications of what would happen if they got caught. Things wouldn't go well at all if were caught. So, she would stay quiet until she was told. However, that didn't mean that she would be boring. She got up a head to her sister and rubbed up against her in a friendly mannor before prancing around. Now that she was waking up, she was in one of her rare, playful moods. It took a lot to not wander off and go exploring in this new area.

Somehow, though, she managed to stay right behind her sister.

Sciuri was now watching their surroundings carefully so that she could find the exact spot where they had agreed to meet. The world was a big place, to hear Aunt Gliri's stories, and it wouldn't do to show up in the wrong place and miss him, which was one of her concerns, as was showing up at the wrong time, but now it seemed there wasn't much danger of that. She was certain they'd be there with even a little time to spare. She wondered if he would be waiting, or if he would be late.

"Well, I think he's probably very brave. I mean, he goes out by himself at night a lot, and he goes very far from where his family lives. We're about an hour away from him, he says."

Sciuri paused to hop onto the raised and gnarled roots of a tree in an attempt to get a better view of the surrounding area. They weren't quite there, but from her elevated vantage point she could see their meeting place. She had hoped that she'd be able to see Ruzanski, though. Unfortunately, he was either being far more stealthy or else she just wasn't looking in the right place. Or perhaps he wasn't here yet.

"If you come up here and look that way, you can see the pile of rocks where we're supposed to meet," she said, and then waited for her sister to join her before continuing to describe the boy they were going to see.

"His name's Ruzanski. But he said I could call him Ru if that was easier. I like Ruzanski, but it is a pretty long name. He's really good at pretend. I bet with three of us we could have the best adventures ever."

It took her a minute to get up there on the roots with her sister. Aylin wasn't the most graceful of cubs. So, after a few failed attempts, she finally got her rump up there and then peered out where her sister told her too. Of course she was listening to Sciuri's stories of him still. It was nice to hear different stories from different people.

"I wouldn't mind having adventures!" It was fun having something to look forward to." After some looking, she found the rocks and grinned a little. "I see the spot! But I don't see anyone down there. Maybe we're here early?"

Sciuri sat back on her haunches and raised her forequarters in the air to look over her sister's shoulder at their proposed hiding place. It looked good to her, and she said so.

"So, let's start gathering some smaller rocks," she said.

As they gathered the rocks she kept her ears open, listening for the sound of someone approaching, but she didn't hear anyone. Not that she'd really heard him the last time, either, but now she knew he was supposed to be coming, so he wouldn't be able to sneak up on her quite so easily.

"I do wish I knew which way he'd be coming from," she said to Aylin. "It would make it easier to figure out which direction to watch."

She helped her sister gather the rocks up and eventually they got behind the rock and started stacking the rocks so their sides wouldn't be seen from this direction. Now all they had to worry about was her rump being seen. She was pale, really pale compared to her sister. She would be spotted easily against the night sky.

"It would make it easier, but sometimes the easiest isn't the best, hm?" Dad told her that sometimes.

"Oh, sure," Sciuri said, grinning with her sharp teeth. "A furry rock. With a tail attached. Or is that a furry snake?"

She laughed, though the sound faded when she remembered that she and Aylin were supposed to be in hiding and that laughter would certainly give away their location. In order to make sure that didn't happen she peered out of their hiding place, checking to see if anyone was around to hear her.

There was no one there and the wind carried no scent on it at all. At least, it didn't carry the scent of any lions. Mostly it smelled of grass and rocks. Nothing to indicate that Ru was anywhere nearby. She swallowed and turned her attention back to her sister.

"Any idea what kind of games you might want to play when he gets here?" she asked.

Laughing at the comment, she shrugged and grinned right back. "I don't know. Maybe he wouldn't see the fur if he's from far away." Aylin was just trying to keep the conversation going.

Her own laughter died when her sister's did and the pale lioness enjoyed the quiet. But she also enjoyed Iuri's question. She had been thinking about that a few moments ago. "Tag, first of all. Then we should let him pick, then you. Or you then him. Or tag can go last..."

Tag was one of her favorite games. Because it kept her interest unlike hide and seek. She usually fell asleep during hide and seek so she'd slowly been avoiding her siblings when they decided to play that game.

"And maybe I'll grow wings," Sciuri replied with a soft snort of laughter. "If anyone wins, it'll probably be me."

That was unlikely, actually. Sciuri was clever and quick-witted, but she wasn't very quick on her feet and she had a bad habit of guessing very wrongly which way people would go. She usually got tagged a lot.

"He doesn't like girly stories," she said, mostly reminding herself of that. "So we shouldn't do something girly when we pretend."

Sciuri made herself smile, even though a sort of sick feeling was growing in her stomach. How long had they been waiting for Ru to show up? Long enough that Aylin had noticed and said something. That...wasn't good.

"I don't see how he'd know to do that," she said. "I mean, he could, on the off-chance that I came back, but...I don't know. Maybe he will."

Wings? That would be fun to see. Oh, she'd be so jealous if her sister grew wings! She wanted to be free like the birds were, too! Then she realized her sister was joking and it made her feel a little sheepish. However, she wouldn't let her her sister see that.

She kept quiet while her sister was talking, deeply lost in her own thoughts and smiling a little bit more. What if she had wings? She could fly away with the birds and see what this land really held for her. She could spot prides, make maps and help her parents out so they would be able to walk without worry about stumbling into a pride.

What would she call herself? Flying lion was just not original enough. Maybe a flylion. Or a ghost. She could be considered a ghost, she was pale enough.

"Are you sure he's coming?" She said after a considerable amount of silence on her part.

Sciuri was startled by the solution Aylin came up with. It was perfectly in-keeping with what she'd been hoping would happen. And that way if Ru never came, Aylin wouldn't be there to witness it. And if he did, Sciuri would make certain that they didn't get their plans mixed up the next time. If there was a next time. She wasn't feeling very kindly toward him in this moment.

"That could work. You think you can find your way back all right?" She was sleepy too, and she knew Aylin was. She didn't want her sister's weariness to get her lost or something.

She nodded at that and smiled. "Of course I'll find the way back. It was a straight line, wasn't it?" Aylin asked, her voice heavy with sleep. Another yawn, a louder one this time, tongue curling. Oh, gods, this was tiring. Getting to her paws, she went over to her sister and licked her cheek softly before nuzzling her.

"See you when I see you, Scirui.." She said as she wandered off towards home. She loved her sister, and didn't think her a liar. Their plans weren't set in stone because they couldn't always talk to each other and meet up. So she didn't think bad of her sister at all.