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 Posted: Tue Aug 30, 2011 6:14 pm
Arusi loved it here, loved the hot sun and the other cubs and she loved her big family! All of it was super great, even though they had lessons like.. all of the time! But sometimes they were allowed to play, as long as they stayed near the temple and stuff.
It was too bad, Arusi would have liked to see all of the areas of the lands she wasn't allowed to see! They seemed so much cooler! But right now she'd found a tortoise, and was pouncing at it's shell and running a few feet laughing every time it turned it's slow head toward her.
"Juuuuust one ride!" She yelled out, hopping again, this time scrambling to catch her balance. But all that she caused the animal to do was retreat back into his shell as much as he could and she prodded at the hard surface with her paws. "Oi, oi! Wake up you!" She growled out, though she obviously couldn't do any real harm to the poor thing.
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Posted: Tue Aug 30, 2011 7:51 pm
 In the shade of the temple lay a dark, mud-covered figure who watched the celestially-colored cub bounding around some hapless tortoise. His expression was one of amusement as his yellow gaze remained fixed on the pair. His sympathies went out to the tortoise, who clearly wanted nothing more than to escape the hot sun and the cub's attentions. Merit-Kerer, the voyeur, could relate to the first desire at least, and he thought he could be of some assistance with the second.
"The best way to get them to come out is to be very still and very quiet," he observed without leaving the shadows.
At this time of day very little could induce the dark-furred juvenile to leave the shade of the temple unless it was a trip to the river to cool off. Since he had only recently returned from such a trip, it was unlikely he would venture out again until the mud he had coated himself in began to dry, crack, and flake off. The overall effect would not have been unlike being addressed by a small swamp monster.
"Of course, I find tortoise is a rather slow way to travel, in general," Kerer mused, still pitching his voice so that the starry-coated cub could hear him.
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Posted: Wed Aug 31, 2011 9:02 am
As she heard word of another she stumbled off of the turtle, gaze jerking in the direction of the speaker. Her face wrinkled. "That's stupid! He should just do what I say because I'm a lion and he isn't!" She spoke the words without one thought of how ridiculous they sounded, it was simply the logic her mind followed. Even if the kid sounded like he was helping...
Her gaze continued to roam over him, over his dark green fur and the spattering of mud all about his fur. Whatever he'd been doing to get so dirty seemed like a fun idea in Arusi's head. He looked fun! She grinned as he moved closer, shrugging as she glanced back toward the tortoise. It was already trying to escape again, though undoubtably it wouldn't get far.
"Bah, s'not like I'm even traveling anywhere... having a ride and going someplace else are different matters!" Her words were brash and careless, though not unfriendly. She strutted toward him, narrowing her dark colored eyes as she peered at his golden-yellow ones. He seemed... different looking from a lot of the cubs around the sands. And also different from her family, though it was a cool sort of different. "Hi! I'm Arusi, who are you?" She was not intimidated by his obvious older age or that he was a boy and she was a girl, in fact she liked boys better. Most of the girl cubs were such sissies!
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Posted: Thu Sep 01, 2011 10:18 am
"Probably," Kerer acknowledged. "But good luck convincing him of that."
He rolled his shoulders and some more of the mud drying on his fur cracked. It was important, he had learned, to make sure the mud cracked in the right places so that it wouldn't fall off all over the temple, which tended to make people angry. It also helped keep the mud from restricting his movement, which could happen also, given how thickly he let it get caked on.
Kerer's gaze followed Arusi's as she glanced back at the tortoise, but he noticed that she was approaching him. Well and good. It meant he wouldn't have to keep raising his voice to talk to her, since he had little to no intention of going into the sun unless it was to get to the river.
"That's a very going point," he said. In the typical way of all juveniles, he was surprised that anything half so intelligent and perceptive could come from the mouth of a cub. He had already forgotten that he'd been a cub not too long ago and he hadn't been stupid, just under-educated.
"It's nice to meet you Arusi. I'm Kerer," he said. Yes, his full name was Merit-Kerer, but since he had learned his name meant "beloved frog" he had expressed a marked preference for the part of his name that meant "frog" rather than "beloved." After all, he was a boy and boys weren't supposed to answer to mushy names.
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Posted: Fri Oct 07, 2011 6:52 am
Her nose wrinkled and then she laughed at his words, for a moment thinking it was some sort of joke. Of course it was easy to convince a lion it was not a lion... simply because it was a tortoise! Surely there weren't things that thought they were something else entirely... were there?
Her dark eyes floated over the mud caked onto his body, tail flicking. It looked like he'd been having fun wrestling in the mud! Though she also had taken note that going around in such a 'dirty' state was more than a little frowned upon around here, especially in the temple. That hadn't stopped her from getting messy every day of her short life so far though.
"Kerer!" She repeated, nodding slowly as if she was accepting of his name, as if she had a say in if it mattered at all. "Cool! Kerer!" She said it the second time simply because it was fun to say, which she thought her name was not. "Were you playing in the mud? Is there a good mud pit 'round here? I like playin' in the mud, especially if I can find Radha after, she hates getting dirty!" She grinned at this, not explaining that Radha was her sister. "It's best to pounce when the mud is fresh, then it gets all over her!"
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Posted: Fri Oct 07, 2011 7:47 am
Kerer had no idea what had prompted the nose wrinkling and then laughter, but if he'd had to guess he would have thought it had to do with his muddy state. After all, it wasn't a state most lions would choose to spend time in, and it certainly wasn't one that was generally approved of by the pride's adult population. They were always going on and on about cleanliness. Didn't they ever get hot?
He was about to get defensive about it, simply out of habit, but then she said something completely unexpected. Cool. None of his siblings had ever made the connection between his preference for being mud-covered and its cooling effects without being led to the conclusion. Yes, he actually thought that's what she meant, because that's what he was thinking of, and she got extra points for figuring it out herself. Even if that hadn't been what she meant, really.
"Yeah, I was, but there's not really a good mud pit nearby. I always go down to the river." And usually he got in trouble for going so far from the temple, too, but he always considered it worthwhile, and he had never gotten eaten or drowned yet.
He didn't know who Radha was, but he knew the delight of getting mud on siblings and other lions who didn't want to get muddy, or who were fussy about dirt, and then making them squeal in horror. Just the thought of it curved a wicked grin onto his face, showing very white teeth set against his dark coat. He loved to do that, and it showed.
"I've never seen a girl play in the mud. All my sisters hate it." His tone implied that they were foolish for doing so. He couldn't help hoping that he'd found someone as sensible as himself that he could play with in the mud sometimes.
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Posted: Fri Oct 07, 2011 8:01 am
Oh, he was actually allowed to go down near the river? More and more she thought of this older cub as really awesome, and she was happy they were meeting! Her siblings were all wusses, most of the time. Pena was the easiest to play with... but sometimes Pena weirded out Arusi. She was a little stupid, clearly. She thought she was Chandran's twin! Completely brainless! "Oh man, the river! Do you see any crocodiles down there? Or anything neat like that? Do you think you could bring me some time? I don't think I'm allowed there..." She squinted, thinking hard. It didn't really matter to her that she wasn't allowed. It wasn't like she was off beating someone up or something, she just wanted to have a little fun!
She snorted, nodding in agreement as he stated that his sisters didn't like the mud. "Yeh, I get what you mean. My brothers too, though. They don't like the mud." She rolled her eyes. "There almost as big of sissies as my sisters." She grinned and chuckled. She loved her family a lot, even though most thought she did not. She simply didn't have a filter, so most of her comments came out being... slightly mean. "We could go play in the mud! We could have a mud fight! It would be fun, no one ever wants to have a mud fight with me!" She urged, trying to convince him to bring her down to the river.
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Posted: Sun Oct 09, 2011 6:15 pm
Kerer shook his head. If Arusi had been older, or perhaps a little less easily impressed, Kerer might have been tempted to stretch the truth and exaggerate the dangers he faced in going to the river. However, she was a girl and younger than him, and obviously too interested to require any lies on his part. Unless you counted the sort of lie he'd sort of told in implying that he was allowed to go to the river. It was more that his parents weren't very effective at stopping him, and neither were the pride's nannies. They could punish him when they caught him or he came home, but that was about it, and the punishments were not effective deterrents.
"I guess I could," he said. It didn't occur to him that he might get in more trouble if he brought a younger cub along who might not know how to swim, or might get into other kinds of trouble. Crocodiles and hippos weren't unheard of, even if he'd never seen one up close. He'd never seen a crocodile at all, and the only hippos he'd seen had been at a great distance. His parents weren't the sort to allow their cubs to be in harm's way, and had impressed on him the importance of avoiding both those creatures once they figured out he was going to continue returning to the muddy shores no matter what.
"I haven't had a decent mud fight in ages." At least it felt that way. "But you have to promise not to cry or anything. I hate it when girls get all weepy."
He hated it because he was always blamed, just because he was a boy and bigger. Kerer didn't have any sort of bullying instinct, and wouldn't purposefully hurt another lion except in self-defense, but he had learned that it was best to stay away from crying girls, because the blame always fell on the nearest, least upset-looking boy. That was usually him.
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Posted: Wed Nov 30, 2011 8:09 am
This was turning out to be a great day, especially with the fresh idea of heading down to the river. Even if she couldn't go today, she was definitely going to hold Kerer to his words! Man would it be cool to see a crocodile, think of how much bragging you could do! She wondered if her parents had ever gotten really close to the creatures? Arusi bet she could have easily touched one, definitely! She would be the first lion cub to bop one on the face and survive! Think of how cool she would be then? Everyone would definitely talk about it. Of course, she already was really cool so maybe she would leave the dangerous stuff for when she was older…
not to cry… The older boy's words pushed away her imagined greatness and her nose wrinkled. "Like I would!" She practically yelled the words at him, sounding slightly offended he'd even assume such nonsense. She huffed, but decided she'd let the comment slide this time.
Still full of energy she bounded around him, the grin back on her maw. "C'mon, c'mon, what are yeh waiting' for? Let's go!" She laughed, thinking of how much fun this was going to be. She was going to get him good in the face for that crying comment! She was Arusi, and she didn't cry! Ever!
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Posted: Wed Nov 30, 2011 8:35 am
"Hey, just making sure," Kerer said in a conciliatory tone. "For all I know, you're the kind of girl who cries if someone steps on her tail by accident. Not that I'm saying you are. I'm just saying I don't know you well enough to say."
Fortunately she didn't seem to be too interested in hanging around listening to him make explanations and excuses for the way he'd phrased things, which suited him because he didn't like having to make them. He was a very practical, pragmatic lion and whatever he said or did seemed perfectly sensible to him, so having to explain himself was irritating because he felt it wasted everyone's time.
"All right, let's go," he agreed, a grin baring his white teeth in contrast with his dark face. He intended to put her to the test when it came to getting hit with mud. His first throw would get her right in the face. Then he'd know for sure.
End here, d'you think?
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Posted: Wed Nov 30, 2011 4:21 pm
Arusi paused in her prancing about only to snort, to show how foolish she thought the idea of that was. She would hardly cry even if an adolescent stepped on her tail! She would get even though, accident or not. No matter though, now was the time for mud fights!
"Lead the way!" She cried out, though was ahead of the older male anyhow. She bounced from paw to paw until he was ahead of her, then followed behind. Boy would her parents be upset when she came home covered in filth again... but it would be worth it! END
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