Welcome to Gaia! ::

Binti stalked through the tall grasses, rather pleased with the outcome of her run-in with Al-Hattal...although his opinions of things were strange, to say the least. With a mental shrug, the lithe, slender lioness padded under a small, rather stunted tree, its gnarled bark bone-dry, and cracking in the blistering heat of the savannah.

Not too far from that very tree, two small figures were trotting along at a fast pace. The yellow one, a yellow genet Dakarai was talking at a high rate pace... explaining about the techniques of climbing trees. (And why it was such a good thing to know, when escaping predators.)
Next to him was a little brown cub, who appeared to be listening and taking in every single word with such serious an expression, that anyone looking on would laugh.

They trotted right beside Binti. And then...

Dakari's head twitched, and he stared back at the lioness as if she'd just appeared there out of thin air. Then with a loud 'SQUEAK!', he was up the tree and dangling off the highest branch he could find and urging Runako to do the same.

Runako stared at Binti with an expression of sheer terror... wasn't she one of those predator things?!... and attempted to climb the tree. The only thing he achieved for his efforts was to fall flat on his back and lay there with all four paws waving wildly in the air.

Binti blinked. "What the HELL is wrong with you?" she muttered at the cub before her. Had she been an adult male lion, she could well have understood his fear...but she was a lionESS, for god's sake. Pawing at him cautiously, as if half afraid he carried some sort've communicable disease, Binti narrowed her turquoise eyes slightly. At least he lacked the customary male arrogance that most of her species seemed to have been born with...shaking her head, she stared down at him expectantly, only vaguely noticing the behaviors of the genet. "I'm waiting..." she murmured, sitting back on her haunches, an impatient expression wrinkling her nose.

Runako froze, as the lioness touched him with her giant scary paw things. Was she tenderising him, just like how Dakari had told him? They did that, according to all the genets. Then they licked you, to see if you tasted more like dinner or desert!

"For what, a side order of GENET? Climb, Runako, climb!" Dakari above the cub and lioness shrieked, tossing twigs and dry bark down on her.

Runako wriggled onto his tummy again, and started his attempt at climbing the trunk. The only problem was... cubs weren't exactly built for climbing trees.

"Don't eat me! I taste like lion poo! ...and that tastes really bad, I've tried!"

Stepping lightly on the cub's tail, Binti looked distinctly offended. "Why would I eat one've my own kind?" she snorted, shaking her head. "I may be a rogue, but that doesn't make me a cannibal, you foul creature!" she hissed at Dakari.

"And from the way you smell, cub," she turned on Runako, her eyes glinting in the bright sunlight. "If your smell is any indication, you probably have been ROLLING in lion dung--hasn't anyone ever taught you how to groom yourself?" she raised an eyebrow arrogantly, annoyed at their assumption that she was going to eat them--it was fun to intimidate others, but not when one wasn't even trying!

Runako continued right up that trunk, and fell backwards again over Binti's paw. He stared up at her, insisting, "You'd eat me because I am a genet!"

"Ignore her!" Dakari called shrilly, "She's tricksy!"

Runako blinked then, and sniffed at himself. There wasn't something very nice about that smell, she was right. Was grooming good? "What's grooming?"

Binti snorted...again. Not the most ladylike of lionesses, this one. "You're not a genet. Your friend there is, but you're a lion cub..." her voice eased, if only slightly. "And grooming is a practice of cleaning oneself, usually with one's tongue (although in your case, I'd recommend a dip in the watering hole--when you're DONE drinking), in order to not smell like dung." Such a strange cub, this one.

"And stop your shrieking-it's bad enough that you've been lying to the cub, but if you damage my hearing, I WILL eat you." she snarled at the panicking genet, her turquoise eyes hardening.

"I don't want to taste how I taste for you!" Licking, lions did that. They did that all the time! Dakari said it was to pratice licking food, because all they thought about was food. Food and prey! "I only lick leaves."

That only made Dakari panic worse, and he started to race from one side of the tree's top to the other side in a frenzied run. Trapped! Food!

Swatting lightly at Runako's nose, Binti snarled-not in genuine threat (even she wouldn't genuinely harm a cub ^^; ), but rather to focus the small cub's attention. "Are you calling me a liar?" she hissed. "I told you. You. are. a. LION. Not a genet, but a lion." she enunciated each word carefully, fixing her eyes on the cub's.

"If you really need to see it to believe it, I can show you at the nearest watering hole--all you would have to do is compare your own features to those of your...companion." the genet, unlike her Shujaa, was not going to be of any help. It was enough that she almost wished the cream-colored jackal had come with her when she'd left Us'kali talking to Ama.

"I look like a lion, I used to be a lion. But now I'm a genet." Runako argued stubbornly, "Dakari said so, Dakari made me a genet when he found me. Dakari keep me safe from big hungry lions who want to eat me genet heart."

He was quoting one of Dakari's lectures word for word... after all, it had to be right!

Binti rolled her eyes. "Unfortunately, kid, we can't pick what we are. You were born a lion, and while you can be a coward and act like a genet til the day you die...you'll die a lion." she said succinctly, not pulling any punches. And she thought she'd been working on her excessive bluntness. Ah well, it'd been a long day.

"Genets scary too!" Runako wriggled off her paw, crowching on his front and making a big 'rrrrr' noise. He was really scary, he thought, as he made his scary face and sound. She'd go running off to her lion mommy!

"But even if I was lion, I have no pride. I have genet."

Binti shook her head, tempted to bat at the youngster again. "Try that when you've got a mane worth puffing up, squirt." she retorted. "And being pride-less doesn't make you any less've a lion..heck, I left my parent's pride when I wasn't much bigger than you." she replied, remembering those circumstances all too well. "However, Us'kali would probably take to you like you were her own." she offered. Nooo, she didn't have a maternal instinct in her body--this was just common courtesy, she told herself.

"I don't want to go to Us'kali, I think you can be my new mommy. And Dakari my daddy. I can be half lion and half genet." Runako didn't see anything wrong with that idea. Hadn't she just told him that he was lion, no matter what? Just like Dakari had told him he was genet, no matter what?

Dakari looked pretty displeased by that idea, but he'd started to edge down the trunk. His eyes stared accusingly at Binti, as if it was all her fault his cub had gone mad. Still, he was a little amused as well. When Runako decided on a mother, it meant one thing.

"I'm hungry." Runako told Binti, headbutting at her. "Foodfoodfoo..."

...he was hungry.

...Oh no...he'd better not be expecting THAT... A cold, icy finger of terror shot down Binti's spine. Had she been human, she'd probably have been hyperventilating.

"Not all females are able to provide that particular brand of sustenance." she muttered drily, swatting lightly at the cub. Cute though he was, there were some barriers that were not meant to be breeched. Not that she WANTED some passel of cubs tagging at her heels...well, maybe someday. If she ever found a male who wasn't intending to be waited on hand and foot for the rest've his life. Fat chance've that. Even in her mind, her tone was derisive.

"However, if you'll WAIT a short while, I'll see if we can't locate some fresh prey, and feed you." she sounded half-defeated, although she slid the genet a particularly unfriendly glare, as if he were responsible for her predicament.

"I asked Dakari and he gave me leaves. They weren't very nice. What does prey taste like? It won't be genet, will it?" Runako was now circling Binti, examining the great lioness as if he'd never seen one up close before. He had, of course, but she was a different color. And she had funny things on her fur.

Darkari had crawled down off the tree, and was edging around Binti very carefully... very ready to duck up the tree again if he needed to.

"I tend to prefer antelope." Binti observed drily, her turquoise eyes flickering between the genet and the lion cub, her tail lashing back and forth in agitation. How had she ended up in this situation? Of all the lions she had ever met, she was the LEAST maternal, and yet here she was, with two pieces of excess baggage, apparently.