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Sometimes, Matojo loved his pelt. Black and white in splotches worked well with the dark shadows and dappled light of the jungle in which they lived. The leopon cub was training himself, his imagination providing foe and prey...he slinked from shadey spot to deep shadow to burst into a short run after who-knows-what he'd daydreamed up. A twist and he clawed at empty air, making the dust motes swirl furiously...

Oh he'd grow up to be a perilious beast and nothing like the lion his so-called father had been. Then his mother would be proud of him. That was Matojo's simple plan anyway. Though the second he'd started his 'training' it had become much like 'playing' to be honest. His snarls and grows were half laughter.

Matojo whirled about as if to block an attack, standing on his back paws - turned again at a flash of white at the corner of his sight - and saw Kafiri. He dropped to a sitting position and flicked his ears back in embaressment. Oh. Oh bother. He'd probably seemed an fool to his sibling.

There were three ways to react. One was to get angry. Another more ashamed. But the young cub picked the third which was to get up and bound over. Bridge the space between them and fall into step with Kafiri for a moment.

"Busy, sister?" Maybe she'd like to play too. Worth a shot atleast.

Mezi was walking on air. His mind was so high in the clouds, he hardly noticed the flowers he walked by, which had originally been the purpouse of this little walk. This wasn't the part of the Jungle he usually stuck to, so he had come out here in hopes of finding some flowers he could bring back to the stream, where he was beginning to spend more and more of his time. Instead, however, he was practically prancing through the dirt and leaves, letting the exotic plant species around him pass on by. There was something far more exciting in his mind at that moment. He had been in a tree.

Something the purple leopon hadn't thought he'd get to do until he could climb up himself was sit on a branch. However, after a run in with an adult leopardess when he had strayed a bit from Mom's territory, he had been given the chance. The leopardess, after a little talk, to the cub up a tree so he could get a taste of what it was like to be up there. It had been a few days ago, but man was he happy. WIth his head held by, he crossed the path that his brother and sister were walking on, not even seeing them. His eyes only saw the leaves and branchs above him.

Kafiri's attention was on what Matojo was saying as opposed to the sudden appearance of another of her brothers. Playing seemed a good explanation for attacking a bunch of dust, really- with the right imagination she could even see how it could be fun. Of course, it was not something she usually did.

She opened her mouth to respond to Matojo when Mezi appeared in the corner of her eye, just before being bumped into. She jumped a bit in surprise, though she was happy to see Mezi, and kept herself out of the conversation just yet.

"I was just asking if our dear sister wanted to play"

Matojo shrugged and smiled one of his little smiles. He did care about all his siblings but two at once when it was meal or bedtime was an oddity now, and he wasn't sure how to react. Usually he was off playing - err 'training' even - alone since they'd all grown up enough to get away from the family den. And he couldn't fault that since no one really seemed to want to stay at their mothers side now they had a bit of a choice in the matter.

Unlike his brother, Mezi dealed with Mleli's personality flukes by being as leopard-y as he possibley could. Instead of training to be strong, he met as many leopards from outside the family as he could, and practiced climbing daily. Well, tried to pracitce. He'd yet to actually climb one yet. It was something he preferred not to think about it. Since Kizu had broth him up a tree, though, he was as high as a kite as far as happiness went, and had even more motivation to get himself up a tree on his own as soon as leoponly possible.

Not being one to jump into a play session, Mezi conisdered just going along on his nature walk with out his sibings. It was a slightly special occasions, though, that all three were together in the middle of the day. "I guess I could join in. What did you want to do?"

Kafiri was Mleli's favorite to pick on, and her way of dealing with it was much more passive than the ways her brothers chose. She avoided the trouble, she kept herself scarce when necessary- it was why she and Mezi had made her own little den. It seemed this day they'd all be doing the little things that helped them with their own situations.

She was pleased to hear that they could all play together, even though no one had any idea of what game they were going to play. Kafiri smiled meekly, and glanced around for ideas of games but found nothing she felt brave enough to suggest.

"What games do you like?" Kafiri asked, looking mainly to Matojo. It had been his idea, and she knew more about Mezi than she did about him so it was some small effort to get to know him a little better.

"Erm..." The loner flexed his claws into the earth and looked about for inspiration. There were birds and butterflies flitting about but they had the advantages of flight. And there were myriads of earthbound and tree clawing wildlife. "Perhaps a chase? "

(Good for the hunting skills... he thought.)

Or they could chase each other! There were three of them for once, out and about away from Mleli's attentions. Matojo studied them both a moment - aware suddenly how very very different they all were - and smiled. "Or a playfight."

(Good for the fighting skills... he thought.)

"Or we could explore and play hide and seek. Or make something...Or...anything. I don't mind."

(Everything had to be good for something.)