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 Posted: Mon Aug 20, 2007 4:26 pm
Tiah’s green eyes settled as she spoke out, licking the forehead of her daughter Tufah.
“Tufah m’love, how on earth did you get so unclean? Your brothers didn’t do this did they?”
She didn’t like for her cubs to be un-kept, in fact she was a nest freak and always seemed to be cleaning them. Everyday they each had a turn at taking a bath.
Tufah, for one, enjoyed her daily bath. While she didn't mind the honest grime she picked up playing and learning, it was just so much nicer being clean. It was also pleasant and time spent with her beloved mother.
I was hunting the hares but they saw me and I fell." She shrugged, closing her eyes instinctively. She also didn't mind admitting failures to Tiah - for she was her idol.
“You need to be very quite when you hunt them, love, they have very long ears, ears that were made for hearing. You have to tip toe your way into the kill and be very quick on your paws because they can also run at very fast speeds. You have to learn about your game, Tufah, master each different animal you conquer.”
Tiah spoke as she finished cleaning her. His green eyes closed for a moment as she yawned and licked at her own left paw before moving her sight back to her little one.
“Have you gone hunting for anything other than hares yet, Tufah?”
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Posted: Mon Aug 20, 2007 4:59 pm
"Lots of things. Birds, mice, bug, tails. Everything that moves makes me want to hunt it...but that's how we learn right?" She'd asked the question before but was always pleased to hear that yes, by playing, she was learning. It made life very rewarding after all. She was an ambitious cub and as already striving to be the best.
Tufah smiled and rested her head against her mother, so she could feel her voice as well as hear it.
“That’s right m’love. You learn as you play, and once you learn something you never really forget it. The feeling, the taste and smell, it stays with you always.”
Tiah purred and nuzzled her forehead along his daughter’s. She wasn’t ever really close to any of her other cubs like she was with Tufah. Maybe that was because Tufah reminded herself of her at one point in time.
“Have you seen any of your siblings today? I sent your brother Tahka off to get me a evening bite but he has not returned again... probably off playing with Sara.”
“Next time I will send you off, I know you’ll come back right away with a good meal for the two of us.”
She did this everyday. She would send one of her cubs out to hunt, to test them and see what it was they could do without her. If they came back with a good meal then both would eat, but if they failed only one would eat, and that one would often be Tiah.
She wasn’t a bad mother, but she wasn’t a good one much. She wanted her offspring to be the best they could be, so she was hard on them at times.
"I will try my best. I'm getting closer to catching one of those hares, I just know it!" She sighed after her excited comment, hopeful and feeling as if she could go catch one now with ease. Of course she, like her siblings, had failed Tiah's test reasonably often. But as they grew, they got better at it. One day, Tufah knew, she'd be as strong and swift as Tiah and then, oh what a feast shed catch her...
"I haven't seen Tahka since this morning...didn't want to disturb him and Sara." As much a she loved her siblings, was bound o by the bonds they shared, Tufah wasn't sure she liked them much. Matisho was annoying and stupid, Haiba was nice but could be clingy, Sara was too like herself at times, and the 'Twins'...well they were a pair. And you don't butt in on pairs.
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Posted: Mon Aug 20, 2007 5:12 pm
She purred deeply and nuzzled her once more.
“Hah, it doesn’t matter I guess, if we get hungry we can go hunting ourselves, I am sure your brother ran off to do other things anyway.”
She knew her son wasn’t doing what he was told. He never did.. But Tiah never punished him. He was too much like her father, she couldn’t ever be strict to him though she knew it was unfair.
“Tufah, when the sunsets I will show you the stars. They are very lovely in this spot.”
She stoped.
“You’ll make a fine hunter someday, I can see it now.”
"I'd /better/. What more can I do for our Pride than that? Hunt well and guard the cubs." The smile grew into a small, rumbling purr deep in her throat at her mother's praise. Still, she couldn't hep the tinge of sarcasm that crept into her voice. Grace, balance, speed, strength...all very well. But Tufah knew that she did not have power.
"The great kings are up there, in the stars, aren't they? One of the other nannies was telling the other cubs about it earlier."
Tiah’s once perfect smile soon turned into a look of anger and discontent.
“No, love, they aren’t. There have been NO great kings in the past. Everyone that has ruled this land and died.. died alone and hold no place in the stars. The past king, the brother to your grandfather Taka, he died recently and I do not think he rests within the skies above. Whoever told you that lied.”
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Posted: Mon Aug 20, 2007 5:19 pm
"Why would they lie like that? To cubs as small as me!" Tufah frowned up at her mother, as soon as the shock at her mood change died a swift death. Her on newborn purr stopped as her young mind raced, trying to figure out a reason... "It's another trick isn't it? To keep everyone happy and contet under our current 'leaders'.
She spat out the word 'leaders' spitefully. Tufah had had every flaw, every injustice pointed out to her since the day she was born. Biased by what she'd been told, she had no faith in them what so ever.
After all, they lived in the pointy rock and everyone loved them. No one cared about her and her siblings really, save Tiah. And their home wasn't anywhere near as impressive.
“They don’t have opened minds, m’love. They only see what has been given to them, but you and I know better, we know truth over lie. In the stars above us lay your grandfather Taha, who died a young, lonely death. Even my mother couldn’t take his death, it crushed her so.. so she took me and left this pride long ago. I never did get to see him, but I knew him well. Mother spoke of him all the time, everyday and always. She told me about his life and his death. He is above us now, he is.”
Tiah spoke deeply, nodding her head some as she gazed up at the skies above, eyeing them deeply.
“He was to be king, you know? Once upon a time ago..”
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Posted: Mon Aug 20, 2007 5:47 pm
She'd heard the name of her grandfather before, knew her mother had never known him, but that was a new one. King? How could he have supposed to be a kin, but didn't become one...?
"...did he die before he reached the throne, mother? Hunting or illness or...? Why did your mother become queen as his mate? Sarabi was queen for a while, after Mufasa died - everyone says so at story time when they teach them history, I've heard them. Why not grandmother?"
Tufah was still angry at being lied to, indirectly, and her quick young mind suspected the other tales might be false too. She had liked to sneak into the 'classes' of cup-sat youngters and listen to the nannies. and story tellers..but if it was all false, she'd get her history elsewhere!
“Your grandfather’s brother, Mufasa took his betrothed, Sarabi away from him when he had left on a journey and when he returned Mufasa was the king and he had taken Sarabi as his queen. Your grandfather was crushed and left his brothers side feeling betrayed.”
Tiah hissed softly.
“My mother later found him and comforted him, loved him knowing that he could never love her in return. But, because his brother had taken the thrown right out from under his paws he could do nothing! No one even considered him royal family after that, Mufasa lied to make Taka look like a fool and took his life and joy away from him!”
She stopped again
"Then the sickness came and took him, took Taka away..."
Tufah spent several long moments turning all this over in her mind, trying to digest what she'd been told...make sense of it, work out what it meant. It meant that everything was different from now one. She was royalty! Her whole family was! Which made sense, considering how great they were, but no one knew. Or worse, if they did, then they'd allowed it...
"How could they /let that happen/? The pride? That's just wrong. How could they? There's no...no fairness. No what'sitcalled...justice! They betrayed him...." Betrayed us. In her mind, Tufah replaced Taka with herself. Imagined having everything that made her happy and that she deserved -denmotherwarmthsiblingsfoodfightingrunninghuntingwatersundarkscentofgrasstasteofmetfeeoffur - with the alien adult concept of mates and thrones.
And it made her angry. The power she wanted to change things for the better should have been hers. That power was in her bloodline as much as what she needed to become a good hunter. And it had been taken away from her when it was taken from her grandfather.
“I don’t understand how it all got that way, m’love but in this story justice was not present.”
Tiah simply moved her cubs closer to her side and sighed deeply.
“Things are unfair and have always been, but we disserve more, we do. Don't you ever forget your pride, Tufah, your inner family pride. the pride that we live in means nothing! It's the pride he have within that means everything."
"I won't forget." Tufah growled softy, her whole body tense despite the closeness of her mother. It wasnt fair! It just wasn't!
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Posted: Mon Aug 20, 2007 5:57 pm
“Justice will come soon, Tufah, it will come soon..”
Tiah almost chuckled with a sickening glee. Her cubs would become the best, then the family would be sorry..
"If it doesn't come quick enough I'm /telling/." Despite the childish phrase, Tufah meant it. She'd roar it from the treetops, she'd beat it into the other cubs, they'd know the truth....or maybe there was a better way, a tricksey way...
"Grandfather Taka was known for being smart wasn't he? And crafty?"
“Yes, he was. I am glad you remember what I taught you.”
Tiah purred some.
“He had a good mind.. unlike his good-for-nothing brother..”
"And he had....had...." -charisma was the adult word for it - "...had...lion liked him, he made them like him? Before they betrayed him."
“I know he was well known, I am not so sure about the liked, but respected he was.”
Tiah stopped for a moment and found maybe tweaking the story some couldn’t hurt any.
“Yes, Tufah, he was loved by all, and respected by many, he would have made a fine king.”
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Posted: Mon Aug 20, 2007 6:05 pm
Tufah nodded. And so an idea was born....she'd be like her grandfather. She'd get respect, and love - which meant being nice - until her fellow lions gave her some of her power she deserved. Then justice would be done.
"...thankyou for telling me, mother. The others - they should know to. This is the pride of our family. And the....and the shame. Because we're forgotton. It's not our fualt, it's theirs, but we are and we shouldn't be."
“We are not forgotten and NEVER will be. We will make them all see Tufah, someday they will all KNOW our names and what we have done.”
Tiah’s eyes closed slowly as she rested her chin upon the back of her daughter. She felt so tired now.
“Tufah, go find your brother before it gets too dark, I’m tired and need some rest.”
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Posted: Mon Aug 20, 2007 6:09 pm
Tufah pulled her body out from underneath her mothers head, slowly, rubbing against her neck with affection. Poor dear mother...she was old already and she'd not managed to make things right...well, Tufah would make sure she managed to get something done before she was all old...
"Yes mother. I'll be back soon." With a quick nuzzle of her nearest cheek, Tufah left Tiah. Time to find Tahka. Luckily, the double pugmarks left by the twins would be easier to follow than a lone cubs -
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