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 Posted: Mon Feb 06, 2012 5:05 pm
 Selet tended to regard himself as the sneakiest of all his siblings. After all, he was the one who most reliably snuck away when Mommy and Daddy were distracted with the rest. And who said there was something wrong with having five brothers and sisters? Selet never complained, because that meant there was always someone else to take the fall for what he did or didn't do. Not that he had any kind of grudge against the rest, he just liked to do his own thing. Today that included wandering off quite a ways. It was lonely out here though, and he was just about to head back when he saw something. Something was moving out there! The cub decided to follow it.
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Posted: Mon Feb 06, 2012 7:18 pm
Ikira had been facing off with a rather large specimen of lizard. It had first met her with one bright eye, intriguing her into investigating further. However, as she'd nosed closer, it had turned with lightning speed and bitten her on the nose! She had let loose a startled and pained yowl and swatted at it to get it to let go. It took a few eye-watering minutes to convince it to release her. The cheeky critter had then stood on its spindly legs and hissed at her, opening its mouth wide in clear threat of another bite.
Ikira, refusing to give in to such threats, and believing herself to be very brave, ignored her smarting nose and had slapped a paw heavily down on the lizard's tail. "Gotchya!" she started to gloat, but stared in mute astonishment as the lizard took off running... without its tail, which remained under her paw. Further outrage had followed, and with a frustrated growl, she had bolted after it. She was small enough to duck under any bushes the thing tried to hide under, and sharp enough of eye to follow it through the grasses. So it was leading her on a merry chase, leading her further from her family. She wasn't worried though. She was a brave cub, and could find her way back if she wanted to. For now, that lizard had to die by her paw!
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Posted: Mon Feb 06, 2012 7:23 pm
Selet was surprised when a lizard nearly ran into him before making a small noise and running past him. It was missing its tail! He hadn't seen a tailless lizard before! He stared after it in surprise. That must've hurt. He knew it hurt when his tail was stepped on or bitten or generally had anything done to it.
He was so busy, he almost didn't see the lion chasing after the lizard. He didn't think they'd seen him though.
The other cub went past in a blur and Selet blinked in surprise. "Wait!" he called out. "Where are you going?"
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Posted: Mon Feb 06, 2012 7:30 pm
"Hunting," she barked briefly over her shoulder, while keeping her eyes on her prey. The silly thing seemed to never run out of energy to keep those ugly legs moving, and she hated to admit she was growing tired. Perhaps the other cub could be of some help here. "Come help me chase him down!" she yelled, dodging left around a substantial rock. The lizard had fleetingly considered scaling the rock, but it wouldn't have been hard to follow him, so he'd wisely chosen to keep running. But coming around the rock, Ikira saw where he was headed.
Up ahead loomed one of the few large trees in the area. It had a weird, twisted trunk that was very thick, to a cub's point of view. Lizards were excellent climbers, but lions were much less so. Her lungs were burning, but she put on an extra burst of speed. She just had to try and catch it, or herd it away from that tree! They might never kill it if it managed to reach that haven! "Evil monster!" she shouted breathlessly. "You will not escape us!"
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Posted: Mon Feb 06, 2012 7:35 pm
Hunting was always good. Mommy always said that they cubs had to practice their hunting otherwise they woudln't be able to feed themselves when they were older and she kicked them out. Not that Selet thought Mommy would actually do that. But it was a big threat. And he didn't want her to have to follow through on it.
Ideally he'd leave when he was ready and not a moment sooner or later.
In the meantime, why did he have to help her chase the tailless lizard!?
"Why are you chasing that thing anyway?" he asked as he followed the stranger cub. "Why's it an evil monster? It looks like just a lizard without a tail."
At least this was more entertaining than anything his sisters did!
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Posted: Mon Feb 06, 2012 7:51 pm
"It tried to eat me," she replied shortly, beginning to huff more loudly for breath. "It bit me on the nose, then dared threaten me with more bites." She growled as she ran, believing herself to sound very fierce (instead of terribly cute, as most adults would have viewed her rowling as). "I have to kill it before it hurts more cubs!" She was realizing, however, that it would reach the tree before they caught it. Her burst of speed had significantly slowed again, and her stubby little cubbie legs were not working quite as well as she wanted them to.
Sure enough, it reached the tree and up it scurried. Her gaze followed it upwards as she barreled along. This unfortunately took her eyes off the ground in front of her, and between her lagging energy and weary muscles, she simply was not prepared for the loop of tree root that appeared before her paws. One forepaw dipped into the hole beneath it, the other tripped over the top of the root, and without a sound she tumbled to the ground.
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Posted: Mon Feb 06, 2012 7:54 pm
It tried to eat her? He'd never heard of a lizard doing that before! He'd heard of lizards biting though. But this was very very strange.
"So it's a lion-eating lizard? It looks really small for that." After all, it was still much smaller than either cub and it didn't really look like it could eat that much lion. Unless if it grew. Like snakes did. Daddy had mentioned that once or twice, how snakes could eat something huge and then just lie there digesting it.
"How you gonna get it now?" Selet asked.
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Posted: Mon Feb 06, 2012 8:00 pm
She laid in a crumpled, dusty heap beside the tree root, looking upwards crookedly at the tree's branches overhead. She gave a disgruntled noise, like a huff, and sprayed damp dirt everywhere. A mouthful of grit and a stinging nose. This was not turning out to be a very good day. She detangled her limbs, eventually standing upright again with a dirty coat and a very grumpy look on her face. The boy's questions weren't helping her mood at all either. She didn't like to be doubted.
"What if its got pozins?" she demanded, her wide vocabulary stumbling for once. Occasionally such a word came out oddly. It was another one of those things adults seemed to adore, but she found their cooing over her a bit annoying sometimes. "I might be dying. That's why I have to kill it." She turned and looked up the tree trunk again. "If I die of pozin, you have to avenge me." It was said with great satisfaction. The idea of being avenged made her smile. "But for now, we have to climb. C'mon." With that, she marched up to the tree trunk and pressed her forepaws against it, flexing claws into the tough bark.
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Posted: Mon Feb 06, 2012 8:03 pm
"Doesn't poison mean you're sick?" Selet asked. At least, that's what he'd thought it meant. Maybe she knew something he didn't? "Should you be climbing that if you're sick?" He watched her ascend and wonder how exactly he'd gotten stuck avenging the stranger cub if she died.
"And how you gonna climb that anyway? Mommy says that if lions were made for climbing, we'd be leopards but we're not so we don't climb and they do." It was somewhat confused coming out of Selet's mouth, but he'd gotten across the salient points of that discussion.
Funny, it had been related to this same tree.
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Posted: Mon Feb 06, 2012 8:36 pm
"It means yer gonna die," she confirmed, trying to hitch herself up the tree, only making minimal progress. She was just too worn out to make it up the tree. After several moments of grunting effort and no progress, she finally gave up and dropped to the ground. She gave the male cub a mild glare. "You are a know-it-all. I don't like know-it-alls." She didn't quite mean to sound so unkind, nor did she mean to imply she entirely didn't like him. She meant it more as a warning, that if he kept it up, she'd refuse to be friends with him.
"Lions can do whatever they want to do. I'm certain of it." This was said with great dignity and force, like a motivational speaker. "If we want to climb trees, we can." She glanced up at the towering trunk. "Or at least, we can after we have naps." It was sinking in that she was really very tired, and was beginning to want her siblings to curl up with for that nap. "At least that lizard monster will have to go without a tail. I shall eat his tail," she announced proudly, beginning to stride off back the way she'd come. She wsn't entirely sure if she could find the small tail again, but it sounded like the right thing to do. "Then he won't ever dare bite me again, or I'll eat more of him." Yes, that sounded properly brave and valiant.
"And you can't have any, because you didn't help." This last was directed quite pointedly at the male. She huffed her indignation about the state of affairs. He was a boy, he was supposed to rescue the girls. He certainly hadn't rescued her.
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Posted: Tue Feb 07, 2012 5:16 am
Poison would kill you? Mom hadn't said that, just that it'd make you very very sick and helpless! Selet eyed the girl suspiciously. Did she know something Mommy didn't...or was she just making it up? He couldn't be sure. Nor did he like being called a know-it-all. He certainly didn't consider himself one! He just had parents telling him lots of stuff.
"Ew. Lizards are kind of icky," he responded at the thought of her eating the tail of the little creature. They were meat, yes, but there was better stuff around. Like gazelle. Gazelle was really tasty when Mom and Dad brought one home.
Actually, he knew that his parents were planning on leaving to hunt when he'd slipped off. They might be back by now. And if he wasn't there, sure bet his siblings would eat his share!
Selet followed the other cub, mostly because that was the direction he had to head back in as well.
"I don't want any of your icky lizard anyway," he told her with a sneer.
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Posted: Sat Feb 11, 2012 1:10 pm
She glanced back at him with surprise at his sneering tone. What was he taking out on her, anyway? He hadn't been bitten, nor had he tried to climb a tree. Tired as she was, she got rather grumpy with him for being so stuck up. "Maybe you can't hunt yet, so you are g'nor'ant," she fired off in reply. "Hunters eat what they catch, or its a waste and an insult to the gods." Her nose went in the air, though not so much that she'd trip again. "So I'mma eat what I caught. Too bad you can't catch anything, not even a lizard's tail."
It was petty and childish, but hey, they were cubs! By some miracle, Ikira did indeed find her lizard tail after some wandering about, wondering why the boy was still following her. When she found it, she stopped and glared at him. "Stop following me and go home," she ordered sternly, using her mother's tone of voice. "I can't look after you, I'm just a cub." With those parting words, she picked up her lizard tail and headed for home, unaware of just how haughty and snooty she herself had sounded as well.
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Posted: Sun Feb 26, 2012 2:05 pm
Selet reluctantly considered that she did have a point about needing to eat. His own tummy rumbled at the thought and he frowned at it. He'd eat later, when he got back to Mommy and Daddy and his siblings.
So the cub stuck his tongue out at the retreating back of the young lioness and headed for home as well. Served her right!
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