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 Posted: Fri Mar 30, 2007 2:52 pm
"Wait...what?" asked Zuri, in shock and confusion. Carried off by water? What did he mean by that? Was there something about these lands that Wacheza wasn't telling her? "What do you mean being 'carrried off by water'? Can that happen?"
Zuri wasn't panicked as she was before, but rather just confused and worried. Perhaps these lands weren't as safe as she thought...nonetheless, she trusted the cub to help her, he seemed kind, but something about these lands didn't make Zuri feel so comfortable.
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Posted: Fri Mar 30, 2007 2:58 pm
"Oh... well, I guess if you don't live by the sea you wouldn't know..." Wacheza looked for the right words for it, "The water moves up and down all the time on the shore. Sometimes it goes way down, so there's more beach and sand... but sometimes and in some places, the tide comes up really fast, and if you go to sleep there, and you sleep really deeply, then you can drown by mistake before you wake up. There are also undertoes when you swim... so you can get dragged under, like the water is trying to eat you. It can be pretty scary if you don't know."
Wacheza knew that it had terrified him when his mother and father had explained it to him and his siblings. Especially when he had almost been carried off himself more than once when he didn't pay attention.
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Posted: Fri Mar 30, 2007 3:02 pm
Zuri listened the cub's words, not giving a sign of any emotion. She then looked a bit out at the sea, then back at the cub. Then back at the sea. After a moment's pause, Zuri spoke.
"Okay, so I'm not going any closer to the sea," said Zuri quickly. "I'll go get food with you, eat it quickly and rush out. I don't want to take any chances."
Zuri was terrified of the idea of getting captured by the water and pulled under, the loss of control of her own body seemed so frightening to her. And the fact that it could lead to fatality certainly did not help soothe Zuri's fears.
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Posted: Fri Mar 30, 2007 3:08 pm
Wacheza blinked, looking a little suprised that Zuri was so afraid, "It isn't that scary... I mean, I've been swimming here. You just need to know where it's safe and you're fine. I know all the places where you'll be alright. And besides, that water only goes up to the edge of the sand. You can avoid it if you want, and you can see the tide coming. It doesn't reach out and grab you."
His parents had been very careful about explaining how it all worked so that he wouldn't be afraid, but he would know all the dangers too, just in case things went wrong. "I didn't mean to scare you."
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Posted: Fri Mar 30, 2007 3:14 pm
"Oh, alright," said Zuri, now feeling very embarassed. She wasn't quite sure about how water really works and what it can do. "I don't know how to swim, I'm not that used to water really. I usually only drink it, or occasionaly splash it a bit at my brother."
Zuri relaxed herself a bit once more, it was all such a strange day. Who knows what adventure this could turn out to be? She needed to sleep too, hopefully it wouldn't take too long to find food.
"Now lets go get some food so I can eat and rest before heading off," said Zuri, starting to take charge again.
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Posted: Fri Mar 30, 2007 3:23 pm
"Okay... but don't drink sea water. Its' really bad for you." Wacheza warned her, getting up and trotting off, hoping that she would follow after him, since he didn't know how Zuri would hunt.
He didn't understand her a whole lot, but he still wanted to give her a hand. Or rather, paw. "Follow me, I'll show you where the rabbits live. Don't kill too many though... only what you need because my pride needs to eat them too."
((Hum... would they technically be hares or rabbits? I'm not sure in africa...))
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Posted: Fri Mar 30, 2007 3:27 pm
"Kill?" asked Zuri. It then occured to Zuri the reality...she had to kill the rabbit herself. Usually her mother is there to do it for her, Zuri hasn't actually killed her own prey before. "Oh, right, of course. Uh, I'll only catch one, don't worry. It should keep me full for enough of a journey. I hope."
Zuri gave a nod, preparing for what she was going to need to do. In a few minutes, she'll be hunting fully for her first time. She knew what she had to do and knew that she could do it, but she never expected her first real hunt to happen like this.
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Posted: Fri Mar 30, 2007 3:32 pm
"You okay?" Wacheza asked, looking a little suprised, "You look a little sick." Wacheza had only been on a few hunts himself, and had killed a lot more fish then he had rabbits. It wasn't something that he really made a habbit of.
"I can kill the rabbit if you want... but I might take a little while." Wacheza told her, trotting along with a small bounce in his step. It was true that when he hunted, it was usually by accident. He sat so long that things came over to figure out whether or not he was dead. They were just unlucky if he came too and they were still close to him.
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Posted: Fri Mar 30, 2007 7:38 pm
"It's fine," said Zuri. She had no problem killing anything, she wasn't one to feel sentimental to the prey's feelings, she knew that it was the way of life and didn't really care to think about the prey. "I need to do this. I have no problem hunting, I just haven't really done it before all on my own. I know how to, just haven't done it. I should be fine though, I've practiced. Now its time for the real deal."
Zuri gave a slight nod to Wacheza.
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Posted: Fri Mar 30, 2007 7:53 pm
Wacheza nodded back quietly, "Okay then... good luck Zuri. I'm going to go fishing. Unless... well, I could teach you how to do it too... but most lions can't do it as well as I can..."
The reason for that was simply because Wacheza was dead silent, forgot where he was, and just sat there for hours with fish gathering around him until they thought he was just part of the scenery. Only when he woke up did he even realize that his food was coming to him.
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Posted: Fri Mar 30, 2007 8:12 pm
"No, hunting is something I need to learn to do on my own, afterall, I'm going to be on my own on my journey soon," said Zuri with a confident nod. Zuri looked around the area. "So is this the place to hunt around these parts?"
Zuri turned to Wacheza with a smile. She felt somewhat bad having to leave him so soon, he seemed rather nice, even if she didn't really understand this strange land that he lives in and that she had found herself in.
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Posted: Fri Mar 30, 2007 8:22 pm
Wacheza gave her a bright smile and he nodded, "Right down this hill, near the rocks, that's where the rabbits live. You can chase them from there, I'll get us some fish and find a safe place to sleep."
Wacheza trotted off, tail twitching lightly as a butterfly from earlier landed on his back and the others started to follow him around as soon as he was a meter away from Zuri. For whatever reason, probably just Wacheza being Wacheza, they still liked him.
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Posted: Sat Mar 31, 2007 10:22 am
"Alright, thank you. I will go down and eat, when you're done, come back, I'll be waiting for you," said Zuri with a friendly smile. Hopefully Wacheza wouldn't take too long to find the fish. Zuri never really had fish before, it may be something interesting to try. "Sound like a plan?"
Zuri looked down the hill and over to the rocks. There were a few rabbits sitting around together, and one more a bit stray from the rest of the group. Zuri smiled at the sight of her target, but then looked back at Wacheza for his response.
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Posted: Sat Mar 31, 2007 2:28 pm
Wacheza was still sitting in the water when Zuri looked at him, staring off into the sky as though he were somewhere else entirely. At that moment, he looked like almost an empty shell, his soul missing from his body. Butterflies sat on his head and fish gathered around his feet, eating around him like he was just part of the scenery.
He suddenly blinked into awareness, and dove his head underwater, grabbing one of the fish and pulling it out. The small animals and bugs darted away as soon as he moved, leaving him looking almost hopelessly alone looking all of a sudden. Even with the fish in his mouth, he momentarily looked like he had gone off somewhere else, then he shook his head and got out of the water, going over to Zuri, carrying the dead fish in his mouth.
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Posted: Sat Mar 31, 2007 2:41 pm
Zuri rushed down the rocks after looking at Wacheza for a brief moment. She quietly hid behind a rock near the stray rabbit, getting ready for the opportune moment to attack her prey. After a few seconds, Zuri leapt out from behind the rock, directly behind the rabbit. She swiped a claw at it, hoping to at least injure it enough to slow it down in the event it ran.
After another moment and quick fury of swipes and bites, the rabbit was dead. All the other rabbits in the area seemed to have disappeared, most likely hiding. Zuri stood over the dead rabbit proudly, she knew she could hunt. With a grim smirk on her face, she began to tear into the rabbit's flesh, eating the meat.
One delicious bite later, Zuri looked at Wacheza, carrying over the fish. Zuri smiled at him as she swallowed the meat before taking another bite. Ah, the rabbit here sure was tasty.
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