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 Posted: Tue Feb 20, 2007 9:41 pm
A sweet chirping came to her ears, but it wasn't met with the happiness one usually associated with such things. Rather it heralded that morning was almost upon them, as the insect orchestra of the night began to die away and the sky got lighter to the east.. at least, Kizuka thought it was getting lighter, it could easily be an illusion of her mind. Either way, it meant that another day had passed and she still hadn't found a trace off Ushaufu in the desert.
The lioness stretched, yawning lightly as her bones creaked and joints popped. She was becoming so used to sounding old, and anymore Kizuka didn't give it a thought. Kizuka settled back down in her place, tucking her paws up under her chest. For the past few days she'd gone out at dawn and combed for a sign to tell them which way to follow after Ushaufu, and come home at night to hunt for her daughter. A peek outside told her that Kimaji's babysitter, the father-like hawk Vaarg, hadn't arrived yet, and she wasn't keen on leaving just yet, either.
Instead, Kizuka thought today would be a good day to deviate from the norm. Kimaji was growing faster with every passing day, it seemed, and Kizuka still hadn't taught her more than the basics of hunting. She was being neglectful, an idle thought whispered at the back of her neck. It was true, and Kizuka didn't deny it. Instead, she let her eyes roam the dark cave for the shadowy figure of her daughter. If she were gong to start teaching her, it would be better to move before true dawn.
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Posted: Tue Feb 20, 2007 9:51 pm
Her mother didn't have to look too far for the white and gold lioness; Kimaji was just starting to awaken, having heard the sound of her Mommy stretching. She hadn't been sleeping well of late, for she was worried about what could be happening when she was stuck with only a hawk for company. She wanted to help; she wanted to prove herself worthy of the Storm King's protection. But it would be rude to hinder Mommy on her quest, and Kimaji disliked rudeness.
Still, as she yawned and peeked toward the sound of the noise, she couldn't help but ask, "Mommy! What are we doing today?"
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Posted: Tue Feb 20, 2007 10:37 pm
Kizuka smiled at the shadowy figure. She shifted a little so that she was closer to her and used her tongue to comb out the tuft fur between Kimaji's ears. When it was done she gave another yawn, an echo to her daughters. Laughing softly, the lioness stood to give her bones one more stretch. Her claws cut through the air, toes spreading as she let the movement fill every honed and worn muscle of her body. It felt good, letting everything air out like that, and she rocked back the other direction to stretch her back legs too.
When she finished, Kizuka let her tongue lap at her teeth, shaking off the fuzzy feel of sleep and shook her fur out. "Well... I thought we'd do something different this morning, than our usual schedule," she began presently, padding to the entrance of the cave to smell the morning air. It was dry as dust, but that was no longer shocking. In fact, had she smelled any drop of moisture she would have been far more surprised. "Have you been practicing your pouncing still?"
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Posted: Wed Feb 21, 2007 4:32 pm
"Uh huh, uh huh!" Kimaji beamed as she followed her mommy to the entrance of the cave. She hadn't really been doing much of anything else lately, and she had been waiting to tell her mommy about her latest adventure. "I caught a bug yesterday! But then I let it go, 'cause bugs are yucky."
Something different than the usual schedule? That sounded fun, since the usual schedule was so...well...boring. She imagined her mommy traveling far away from the dry forest they called home, finding water for the first time since Kimaji had been a tiny cub. Water...she could barely remember what it was like...
But that wasn't important now. "What are we gonna do today?"
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Posted: Wed Feb 21, 2007 5:55 pm
Kizuka's first thought was that bugs, while "yucky" Were a good source of food. She restrained herself from snapping at Kimaji, though--the girl didn't need it. Keeping her temper was getting harder to do with every passing day, but Kizuka forced that thought to the back of her mind. Looking about the cave entrance, the lioness slowly padded out into the relative chill of the dusky dawn. She stopped a good distance away, thinking about how best to go about this.
"Well, first we should head in towards the stream." The last bit of water there was slowly fading away, but for the moment it still existed. She looked behind her, waiting on the girl to begin following before she headed out through the remains of the jungle.
Movement through what should have been abundant foliage was almost as easy as the path through the desert now, only a few more trunks to wave around. There wasn't any reason to keep her silence as they walked, not to mention it was good to have time with her daughter. "So you caught a bug, huh? What kind was it?"
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Posted: Wed Feb 21, 2007 6:25 pm
Kimaji followed at a good pace behind her Mommy, wondering what could possibly be interesting about the stream, and what exactly they were doing. Mommy hadn't answered her question directly, but Kimaji knew she'd figure out eventually. Though her speech was still that of a cub, she had lost some of her impatience. Mommy liked to take her time to explain things really well, and Kimaji could wait for a good explanation. Maybe she'd get a real story out of the deal!
"It was black, and it had a long, tall nose," Kimaji explained. "I saw it crawling around in a pile of dead leaves, and I managed to sneak up on it." Really, though, the type of bug wasn't important. She had caught it, all by herself!
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Posted: Wed Feb 21, 2007 6:38 pm
"Sounds like one of those big ones!" Kizuka replied, throwing a smile towards her daughter. Kimaji's speech was adorable.. perhaps a little worriesome, but Kizuka really didn't mind that her daughter stayed as innocent as she was. In a way, it was refreshing to see someone so unjaded with life. "And you caught it all by yourself!"
A part of her said that that shouldn't be unusal for a lion Kimaji's age. Kizuka ignored it, because that was her fault, not Kimaji's. The poor thing... "After we get some water, I'm going to teach you some more about hunting. I'll bet today you could catch something even bigger than that bug."
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Posted: Wed Feb 21, 2007 6:52 pm
Kimaji's eyes widened as a large grin graced her maw. "Really? I can catch something bigger than a bug!" Her pace quickened as she looked about for the stream, hoping that it could come sooner. So much for her newfound patience...but this was different. This meant that she could be useful! She could help Mommy instead of Mommy helping her! She could be a good lion for the Storm King!
"I can't wait!" she exclaimed, though she bit her lip soon afterward and lowered her tone considerably. "I guess we should be really quiet then, huh?"
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Posted: Wed Feb 21, 2007 7:20 pm
"Not just yet, its alright." Kizuka chuckled quietly at seeing the exuberance her daughter expelled. Turning her mind back to the path, the pair rounded a bend--a very small cliff made in the forest floor from settling earth--and came upon the cusp of the stream. Kizuka stepped down into the mostly dried stream bed, moving forward to begin drinking of the muddy water.
After a few moments, she stepped back from the pool and found a dry spot to sit upon--not as if that were hard--and began to groom herself. grooming was important, she'd always believed. It wouldn't do to reek so horridly that your prey could smell you a mile off. Once she'd washed her face and shoulders, Kizuka turned back to her daughter to inspect her. Satisfied, she gave a smile, "Alright. Now.. The basics of hunting. I know we've gone over this in the past, but bear with me, because you can't go wrong with repeating them.
"Rule one! Surprise is your best ally. As you said before, its best to be quiet when stalking prey, which leads into Rule Two! Have a plan before you move. Making a plan on the fly is occassionaly necessary, but it always best to have an idea of what you're doing before you do it. This goes double when you're working in groups, because your partner or pride members will need to know who is going to be where, otherwise its mass confusion. Rule Three! Do not attack significantly larger prey alone." Here she paused. it had been a very long time since they had come to this land, and she wasn't certain Kimaji remembered what certain prey beasts, long since seen, looked like. "Do you remember what a Zebra or Wilderbeast looks like, Kimaji?"
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Posted: Thu Mar 22, 2007 9:23 pm
The younger lioness pondered for a long moment. "Zebras...are white like me, but with black on them?" It was more of a question than a statement of fact. She hadn't been allowed to be around when her parents were hunting outside of the Storm King's lands, and the only memory she had of the zebra was a foggy memory from cubhood, watching them run from the distance.
"Always have a plan..." she said to herself, wondering exactly what her plan would be when the time came. It was hard to have a plan if you didn't know exactly what you were doing. But Mommy was there, and Mommy knew best.
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Posted: Thu Mar 22, 2007 10:00 pm
"Yes, that's right," Her mother replied to both questions equally. Kizuka nodded a moment to herself, looking about the quiet, damaged forest. Explaining the rules verbally was simple, but showing all of this in practice... that was something else all together and kizuka needed to find a way to show what she meant... without putting her not-quite-a-cub cub in danger. "Alright.. follow me, darling."
Standing, Kizuka lead the way from the impromptu 'watering hole' over to where there was a small clearing in the forest. Near its edge she hesitated, knowing Kimaji must be familiar with the area already. "crouch low now," Without waiting to see if Kimaji did or not, the lioness slunk down into the under brush to slowly creep along the forest floor. Finally she came to the edge of the meadow, surveying it with half lidded eyes.
"never whisper," Kizuka said in a low pitched, hushed voice, "Whispers buzz; they attract more attention than they're worth. ... Now. Do you see that rotting log in the middle of the field? .... You are going to circle about to the left here, keeping hidden in the bushes. When you get exactly opposite where we are now, I want you to dash out and tackle the log. I will be in the field watching. If I see you, you will know it."
When it seemed the directions had sunk in, Kizuka stood up and slippedfrom the forest's line to dissapear into the high-grass of the meadow.
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Posted: Fri Mar 23, 2007 10:01 pm
Oh...so she was supposed to hide until she was ready? Hunting sounded like hide-and-seek, only you did the hiding and the seeking at the same time. This could be a fun game! Although that rotting log probably had icky bugs in it...
No matter! Kimaji was on her way to tackle the log. Crouching low and moving to the left, she moved as quietly as she could. But...how would she know when she was exactly the opposite! She didn't know what the log looked like on the opposite side...giving herself some inner encouragement, the young lioness continued to move behind the bushes toward her target...
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Posted: Fri Mar 23, 2007 10:29 pm
In the field, Kizuka slunk through the taller grass, keeping an eye on where her daughter was. She wasn't cruel, and thus distanced herself from what she knew was only obvious to her eyes as a trained huntress, and what would be obvious to the causal observer. Of course, all prey beasts were very wary creatures, even when they felt themselves safe, and thus it was always a good move to be so subtle that another Lion couldn't pick you out of the forest. This was Kizuka's specialty, and a part of her was ashamed at not having begun to teach Kimaji until so late an age--especially with Kimaji's glaringly white handicap.
As much as she wanted to give her daughter leeway on this, it wouldn't do her any good to go easy on her for it. No, if she wanted to keep her daughter safe she would have to make the education as harsh as possible--and thus, as close to real life as she could. Her pelt certainly wasn't going to help her in the least, and disabling her education because she had it would only make things worse. It was because of this that Kizuka allowed her teeth to graze her daughter's flank when she came up behind her in the forest. The gesture wasn't harsh or painful, but just enough to get attention.
"You've been caught." Kizuka stated plainly and settled herself beside her daughter. True, she hadn't taught Kimaji what to do, either... that was rather the point but she'd let the girl ask about it before she explained it.
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Posted: Fri Mar 23, 2007 10:34 pm
What the...! Kimaji sunk to the ground, a dejected sigh escaping her as she looked to her mother. She'd done something wrong! If she had actually been hunting, she would have lost the potential meal and possibly doomed her family to a day of starvation. But what had she done wrong? "How'd you know I was here?" Kimaji asked.
The lioness privately wondered if her mother would have spotted her if she'd taken the right turn instead of going left as she was told to do.
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Posted: Fri Mar 23, 2007 10:41 pm
"What colour is your coat, Kimaji?" It was a rhetorical question, of course, and kizuka tilted her head. "Think about the way that the light works in the area about you. Take your time surveying the land and seeing what would work best with your surroundings. Darker things can hide in the shadows, but what can the light hide in?" She didn't give her the answer, though Kizuka knew she was making it rather obvious for her. It was the why that Kimaji needed, really, not the answer.
"Rember the rules, but also apply them to what you are hunting and whom you are hunting with." That said, the lioness stood once more and slunk off into the feild beyond to dissapear once more. "Try again."
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