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The outlands. A barren hellscape with hardy anything to eat and it seemed like more and more mouths to feed every day. Siyo'Jini paused in his back and forth pacing to stare in the direction he knew the pridelands to be in. Why should they have all the prosperity? What did they do to earn that? An unhappy growl bubbled up from the back of his throat as he thought about that pride of fat, happy lions just lounging around, practically picking out their lunch like some sort of herbivore buffet was just prancing around that precious priderock of theirs. It made him sick to think about it. The fact that he and his own were stuck out here in the outlands, biding their time until their resources finally ran out, was enough to make the large lion's blood boil. Siyo'Jini had in fact been born a rogue, but as luck would have it, his father had somehow come to the conclusion that they would lead better lives in the outlands. His father was dead now. Even though he had only been a cub at the time, Siyo still remembered the day that Si'dhaifu, his father, had challenged the former warlord for power and lost his life in the process. Which left Siyo, a cub too young to understand what was going on, at the mercy of the outlands and the lions that called it home. Even though he had just finished growing his adult mane, he had learned to grow up much quicker as an orphan in the outlands. Life was tough, and he had to be tougher.

Thunzi was never far behind Siyo'Jini, though this day seemed to have gotten away from him and his friend had slipped away somewhere. Likely to brood. He'd been doing that a lot lately, and it was all Thunzi could do to keep his friend distracted. Like Siyo, Thunzi had grown up an orphan in the outlands, though he had at least been born into the pride. His father, Gnar'und, the former warlord, had been killed by Muuaji during his challenge. Thunzi had been a small cub at the time, and hardly remembered his father, so he didn't hold any ill-will towards the current warlord. At least, not for that fact alone.

His pale paws scraped against the dusty soil as he pulled up to an abrupt hault, the sight of his friend pacing back and forth finally coming into view. Ah, Siyo was indeed brooding again. He'd been doing that a lot lately. Whelp. There was really only one good way to get his friend's attention at this point, so Thunzi unsheathed his claws and bellowed out a roar of challenge, hardly giving Siyo any time at all to process what was happening before charging at him.

Siyo'Jini hardly had time to rumble a response to the challenge roar before he felt Thunzi's full weight crash into the side of him. The shock of such a sneaky tactic jolted his mind from his thoughts and before he knew it he was channeling his frustration into his claws as he whipped around to smack the pale lion with a face full of claws. The two staggered apart for a moment, circling one another with teeth bared and the taste of blood on their tongues. This was the outlands after all. When one fought, no matter if it was a spar or a challenge for power, it was always considered smarter to fight with one's claws out. There was no shortage of pain or hunger in the outlands, and if they were to survive, then they needed to be the toughest around.

"I seem to have gotten your attention," Thunzi snarled, his face stinging from the claws he had received moments ago. "Good. Now stop being melodramatic and fight me!" He would have added more insults to really rile up his friend, but he didn't have the chance as Siyo quickly closed the gap between them and proceeded to beat the heck out of him. Claws, teeth, they were all flying as the two young males scraped and bit at one another in a snarling frenzy.

There was a point where Siyo realized he was just beating up his only friend, and he rumbled a low warning growl. "Yield," he commanded as he had Thunzi pinned by the shoulder with his claws mere moments away from shredding the other male's neck. They were both breathing heavy at this point, but Siyo'Jini had welcomed the excuse to let off some steam. Perhaps he had welcomed it a bit too much, as he hadn't realized just how badly he had kicked Thunzi's a**.

A bit blood trailed past his nose and all Thunzi could smell was the metallic scent that lingered in the back of his throat. They had both gone a bit over board in their sparring, but it seemed Siyo was the victor this day. "Ugh, fine. You win," Thunzi grumbled as he scrunched his nose up in distaste. He hated losing, but clearly he had been beaten. With a shove he pushed Siyo off of him and rolled over to his belly so he could get his bearings. "At least you're not pouting anymore," Thunzi laughed, a toothy grin plastered onto his bloody maw.

"I wasn't pouting," Siyo growled as he stepped backward to give Thunzi room to stand. "I was just..." he trailed off, unable to find the right word for exactly what it was he had been doing.

"Pouting. Brooding. Whatever you want to call it, you've been doing it a lot lately," Thunzi reminded him as he took a moment to lick a scrape on one of his forelegs. He winced a bit at the pain, but it had been worth it.

"Yeah, whatever," Siyo huffed as he sat back on his haunches and stared back in the direction of the pridelands, his brows furrowing as his lips curled back into an unfriendly snarl. "I just don't understand why we have to be stuck here, rotting away in this hell hole, while they get all the food and water they can dream of," he admitted, clearly unhappy about the lot in life they'd been given.

"So? If you really want to prance around their precious circle of life, why don't you go join them," Thunzi snorted with a roll of his eyes. He couldn't imagine living in the pridelands. Sure the food and the water would be great, but having to follow all of those rules? Naw, that was for the birds.

Siyo made a disgusted noise in the back of his throat as he stuck his tongue out at his friend. "Fat chance. They probably don't even know how to fight like proper lions. With teeth and claws and blood," he chuckled in amusement. He had heard pridelanders were huge, the biggest lions around, but that didn't always make for the best fighters. "At least you put up a decent fight," he teased Thunzi with a shove to his shoulder.

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