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 Posted: Mon Jul 18, 2011 1:09 pm
 The day was hot, and Soifra regretted leaving the den. It had taken her a long time to get to the slow moving river, and she knew her lungs would give out on her with a coughing fit before she could make it back to the den. She needed a good long rest in the shade, or in the water, before she could even think about making the trek back.
Still, it was good to just get out of the den and into the fresh air. It was supposed to be good for those who were sick - breathing fresh air was supposed to help strengthen the lungs, and moving around was supposed to help keep her spirits up. Or anyone who was sick really. Mostly, Soifra found that it wore her out, but she slept better at night when she was exhausted from being out and about.
Soifra bundled herself into the shadows under some bushes, close enough to the water to paddle her paws in it, and looked out through the foliage as another cub approached the stream.
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Posted: Wed Jul 20, 2011 10:03 am
 Lawsonia Inermis was a lion cub who had been blessed with good health and fortune. While some of his siblings had found themselves subject to the disease that ran rampant within the pride, he had, up until this point, maintained a resistance to it. At present the small cub was still far too young to confirm if he was truly immune to the affliction but in time it was expected that the healers would draw their own conclusions. Regardless of the vague nature of his current status within the pride, it did have its benefits in the sense that he was able to do far more than most of those who had been graced with the disease.
It was for this reason that the cub was out of his den more regularly than the rest of his siblings. As with every morning, he had woken up early and darted outside. A momentary pause to gain his barings and with a firm nod to a neighbouring lioness, he had puttered off to explore. He rarely moved too far away and was always in reach of his mother, suffice to say that he had gotten an earfull the last time he had disappeared and it hadn't been pleasant!
Alas, that morning he wasn't feeling particularly adventurous and as a result, he had decided to stay much closer to home than normal. A second or so was all it took for him to pick a direction and he had soon set off towards the river. It would eventually dry up, becoming a very sluggish trickle as the dry season took hold, but for now it supplied an ample supply of water which had a number of benefits - good for swimming and it gave him a drink.
Entertained by the prospect of a paddle at the very least, the cub quickened his pace to a lop and proceeded onwards, rapidly coming into view as he bridged the distance between himself and Soifra...
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Posted: Wed Jul 20, 2011 10:18 am
As she watched the other cub approach, Soifra hesitated for a moment. She didn't know this cub by sight- but if he was here he had to be part of the pride. If she was stronger, she would probably know him better. There was no reason to skulk in the shadows when she could have a conversation.
Soifra poked her face out from the underbrush. It was not for nothing her father had named her; she was good at being quiet and still and, like the spirits she was named for, good at hiding in the shadows. The other cub would probably not have seen her if she did not emerge. She just wanted some conversation without coughing halfway through.
"Hi there."
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Posted: Sat Jul 23, 2011 3:38 pm
His powers of observation left much to be desired at the moment and he had much to learn before he could aspire towards the rank of 'scout'. His dreams and aspirations were obvious, in fact, he was very vocal about them around his family but from a practical standpoint he wasn't quite at the point that he would be of use to those on the border. It was for this reason that he was indeed, completely unaware of Soifra's existence and would have remained so if she hadn't moved out of the shadows.
Thus, it was with a flicker of white a blue that she was immediately brought to his attention. The colours caught his peripheral vision and the lion cub immediately turned his head in response. A flicker of his ears and he also heard the greeting, clearly directed at him. Well, he assumed it was directed at him since there was no one else in the immediate vicinity. Electing to assume it was for him, he skidded to an abrupt halt and then padded slowly towards her - it was immediately apparent that he didn't recognise her.
A cub from another den?
"Hello," he replied, a touch breathly from his jaunt across the small distance between here and his den. "Day like this, you should be out paddling don't you think?" he observed and then glanced briefly at the tree. "Although I suppose the shade would make sense as a place to chill out too," he conceded.
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Posted: Sun Jul 24, 2011 8:16 pm
Soifra shook her head when the other cub suggested paddling. "Dad says that the healers say too much dampness will bother my cough, so I'm not supposed to go in the water. Especially not when there aren't any grownups around because if I had a coughing fit while I was swimming I could go under and drown."
Not that a swim wouldn't be nice in the heat, but Soifra knew her daddy would be heartbroken if anything happened to her, especially something as silly as a swimming accident when she knew better. Either way, it would be nice to talk to this cub for a few minutes before he went away to swim or play. She didn't talk to the pride's other cubs, excluding her siblings, nearly enough.
"I'm Soifra. My daddy's Sliabh. Who're you?"
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Posted: Thu Jul 28, 2011 5:23 am
Ah - so she was one of the ill lions? He really should have known better, immunity or a delayed response to the disease carried within the pride was exceptionally rare. He was the exception, it wasn't the other way round and as a consequence he should have been aware that it was exceedingly unlikely that she would be in as fit a state as he was...the same went for the rest of his pride. Unsurprisingly, the tiny cub elected to pull a disgruntled face, his nose creasing just a touch - it certainly put a dampener on proceedings and the pun, was completely unintentional.
"Oh," he replied a touch dumbly as he regarded the female, slowly shaking his head. "Well, what about if you just came went to the river and sat in the shade there?" he offered quietly, his head tilting to the side as he regarded her. It wasn't as if he was asking her to swim and if she was thirsty, she wouldn't need to walk very far either - it made sense to him!
"I'm Lawsonia Inermis," he said finally and offered a wry smile, "But most just call be Nemi," he added, almost as an afterthought. "My mother is Yejide," he clarified after another momentary delay.
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Posted: Fri Aug 12, 2011 10:02 pm
"Well, I can come out, I guess," Soifra said. "It would be easier to talk then. Hi, Nemi."
Soifra did come out and sit near the river, but the water seemed fast to her, so she backed up a bit. She wasn't used to being away from the den that often, and it was always upsetting when she had to explain that she was one of the sick ones.
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Posted: Wed Aug 17, 2011 11:46 am
He had siblings that were unwell - they struggled for breath somedays and were fine the next but their issues were unmistakable. They were ill and there was no point in denying the issue! If Soifra was one of the plagued lions then there was little that Lawsonia could do in relation to it...it was simply the way she was and this couldn't be changed. Thus, if she cared to explain that she was unwell then so be it, otherwise, it simply wouldn't pry... Suffice to say he was no healer and nor did he intend to become one.
"You're right, it would be easier to talk," he agreed, paddling into the water. He didn't go in too deep as he recognised his own limits, but he did savour the way in which the water cooled him down significantly. Once comfortable, he took a seat in the river and peered searchingly at Soifra, he hadn't quite worked out that she found the riverflow to be too fast yet.
"I'm guessing you're afraid of the water?" he queried, "S'couple of cubs like that, but it really doesn't hurt. One day if you feel up to it I could teach ya how to swim!"
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Posted: Fri Aug 19, 2011 8:05 am
"I'm not afraid of it, I'm just not strong enough to go swimming I think," she said. "But I could probably learn to swim. If it was a warm day and the water was warm and you know somewhere were the water pools and doesn't move too fast. Daddy says that water moves and it can pull cubs with it if they aren't very strong."
Soifra looked at Nami in the water. "Isn't that cold? It looks cold."
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Posted: Mon Aug 29, 2011 1:26 pm
"Oooh right, so you need some sort rock pool thing," he concluded with a small nod. He'd heard of them but he'd never had the opportunity to see any. He assumed that there were some in existence but as he wasn't allowed to explore the full range of the pridelands, he wouldn't be able to stumble upon any until he was much older. He filed this little tidbit of information away for later use though, as Soifra and his siblings could probably benefit from it in the long term. It was a small aspiration, but at least he had something other than his desire to be a scout!
"I'll keep my eyes out for one," he offered with a smile before shaking his head slowly and turning his gaze down towards his paws. Suffice to say that he had no issue with the water, to him, it wasn't too bad. "It's not cold," he replied at last and grinned. "S'refreshing - I mean it's cold when you first poke it but once you're the whole way in, it's real nice!" he explained and lifted a paw. It was at this point that he flicked some of the water droplets towards her nose so that she could feel the temperature.
"See? Not cold!"
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Posted: Mon Aug 29, 2011 6:17 pm
"That would be nice, to be able to learn to swim safely." Soifra chalked that up to just one more thing she couldn't do because of the sickness - but the list of things she couldn't do was so much longer then the ones she could.
She snuffled when the water fell on her nose. "Ok, so it's not that cold. But I bet you'll be cold when you come out all wet." Overall, Soifra preferred to be warm and toasty.
"You'll have to lay in the sun to warm up."
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Posted: Mon Sep 05, 2011 1:46 am
"And that's a bad thing?" he enquired curiously. It was no secret that after playing about or 'training' that Lawsonia enjoyed nothing more than flopping on his back or side and basking in the sun. It was surprising how quickly the heat could dry off his coat and with one so dark as his there was no issue with keeping warm. It was with this in mind that he wiggled his eyebrows inquisitively at the female cub to indicate that he didn't quite follow her train of thought, but that he didn't intend any offence by it.
"I don't know," he said finally, paddling back and forth in the water closest to the shoreline. "I've always found it really refreshing," he confessed. He shook his head after a few moments, gazed down at his paws and then lifted one out of the water for inspection. Sure enough, its temperature was significantly more comfortable than the heat on his back! "Maybe its cause my coat always warms up really fast, so finding a way to cool it down is a good thing -"
He grinned after a moment of thought.
"Any warmer and I'd make the water bubble, just like one of the scouts told me!" he gasped.
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Posted: Wed Sep 28, 2011 10:29 pm
Soifra was a bit confused - what was he talking about, bubbling water? Water didn't bubble, it either pooled or flowed. There were only bubbles in it when it went passing over rocks and things and got all churned up.
"Why would the water bubble because you're warm? That doesn't move the water around, it just makes it warm."
Boys didn't make sense, sometimes, Soifra knew, but he had said a scout told him about bubbling water. A grown up should know better.
"Maybe the scout was just having fun," she offered.
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Posted: Sat Oct 01, 2011 1:45 pm
"I don't think he was," Lawsonia replied dubiously, his lips pursing into a thin line as he contemplated the possibility of a scout playing games with him. Afterall, wouldn't it be perceived as dangerous to encourage a cub's curiosity? It wasn't as if many individuals in this pride were permitted to wander and that would only tempt them, no? Regardless of what the case may be, childlike innocence prevailed and Lawsonia soon shook his head quite vigorously - no, he was going to stick with his gut and his gut told him that there really was bubbling water.
...Somewhere.
...Somehow.
"But when I get older I'm gonna go see it for myself if the queen allows me," he announced with a firm nod, a determined expression flicking onto his features. "And then I'll solve the mystery of how it bubbles, come home and make bubbling water for everyone to enjoy!"
"Sounds good, no?"
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Posted: Mon Oct 03, 2011 11:20 am
"Sure. I hope you have lots of fun." Soifra tried not to sound tetchy - but it was hard to listen to cubs that had big plans when she knew that she would never get to see the things they would see.
"I think I like my water the way it is though. I don't think water needs bubbles."
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