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 Posted: Fri Aug 03, 2007 4:38 pm
Dahabu'Chaka hadn't left the Pridelands in a long time. She rarely even approached the borders, not without her lion friend Noyana. But this morning- early early morning, the "lioness" couldn't help it. A mouse skittering around her den woke her up, made her follow it without paying attention to where she was going. Before long, Chaka found herself beyond the boundaries, and now she just sat, pondering the idea of borders.
The sun hadn't rose yet, but she knew it was early morning. Any time now, it would definitely come up over the horizon, and then she wouldn't get any sleep until the heat of the day.
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Posted: Fri Aug 03, 2007 4:57 pm
Light paws skidded over the grass gracefully, the lean, striped and spotted creature moving along the sand, kind of gliding. The cheetah's mane weaved slightly in the wind. It was morning, and he was an early bird.
His orange-brown pelt glimmered slightly in the sun, well groomed, obviously. Makani was, by all means, careful about his appearance. See, while he wasn't a sissy cheetah that groaned whenever he got dirty, he did care if his fur was messy and looked uncared for. Besides, he'd just woken up. He had to groom, to get out that annoying morning dew.
His green eyes caught movement, however. A jackal following a.. mouse. He stopped, watching the mouse skit this way and that, and looked around. This seemed like the only means of entertainment he had right now. So, Makani stopped, and watched.
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Posted: Fri Aug 03, 2007 5:06 pm
Chaka watched the mouse scurry away. She silently hoped it knew that she had spared it, for she was the greatest huntress there was in the savannah.
Chaka turned her attention now to her growing mane. She was proud that she'd grown it. What had before been fuzzy like the rest of her now had longer furs. Not much longer, but indeed not the same short fuz that she'd had. She reached a paw up and felt it, as much as she could through her rough calloused paws, hardened by life and adventure. All she could tell was that they were longer. Still, she was now an accomplished lioness, "mane" and all, just like her mom!
Her attention and pride broke, though, when she thought she saw someone in the distance. Whatever it was, it blended in well with the grasses, because she couldn't find it again. She waited for it to move, then she'd know where, maybe even what, it was.
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Posted: Fri Aug 03, 2007 5:15 pm
Oh no, he'd been spotted! What fear. He'd noticed her eyes for a moment had seemed to have focused on him, then she'd lost sight. He smiled weakly, a movement easy to mistake by the sway of the grasses. Up sides of having his coloration; women loved it(well, he liked to think so), and it hid him.
He decided to play a bit with the jackals sight, even though it wouldn't last long. He flicked his ears three times and waited, remaining where he was, frozen, waiting to see if she'd noticed his ears or not.
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Posted: Fri Aug 03, 2007 5:22 pm
Chaka's eyes caught the movement, but could see nothing else. She squinted, trying still to make out a shape. No matter how hard she squinted, nothing took shape. Her eyes, though, remained locked on the area where the thing had shaken.
She rose to her feet, irritated. How dare anyone mess with a lioness? "Who's out there?" She called, starting to get irritated with whatever was out there. If it didn't come out, she'd go to the spot without a second thought.
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Posted: Fri Aug 03, 2007 5:30 pm
Oh.. This was just great. He held back the urge to chuckle until finally, the jackal seemed annoyed, and he did, likely to reveal his location, especially when he started to trot towards the jackal, spots rippling through the grass.
"I am. " He said coolly, unafraid. After all, jackals were never threats; they were smallish, and even a cheetah, lean as they were, had nothing to fear from them. Even if they bit, they could be overpowered. Besides, he was always faster.
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Posted: Fri Aug 03, 2007 6:34 pm
Chaka's found the figure immediately as soon as the cheetah started to move. She smiled. Just a cheetah. She had been worried that it could have been a hyena or something much worse. She had no fear of cheetahs, why she didn't know. Should one decide to attack her, she was honestly dead meat.
But as a lioness, Chaka didn't worry about it. After all, cheetahs were weaker than lions.
Her face, though, was clearly one of relief. "Nice to meet you, stranger," Chaka said. "I'm Dahabu'Chaka, a lioness of the Pridelands." She smiled up at the cheetah, blissfully ignorant of what she really was. Nobody had ever challenged her beliefs.
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Posted: Fri Aug 03, 2007 6:49 pm
"Hello, Dahabu'Chaka -- " He paused, perking his ears in confusion, and looking down at the jackal. Did she just say lioness? "Lioness? " He questioned, partly to himself, then circled a bit around the creature. definitely a jackal.
"Sorry, but I am under the impression you are a jackal. " He frowned, tilting his head and standing full height again; the jackal was even less than half his size. Pointy ears, bushy tail. It even smelled like a jackal-- however could it be a lion?
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Posted: Fri Aug 03, 2007 8:00 pm
"Jackal, me? Pff!" Chaka said, blowing it off entirely with a confident air. "No, there's a type of lion that's really small, that's what my family and I are, you see?" She asked. "Perhaps you've seen one of us, perhaps you haven't. We're just smaller, stay smaller all our lives, but we're no less powerful," She said as if she was the expert in the area. "See? I'm even growing a little bit of a 'mane.' Even lionesses grow a little bit of one, look!" She shook the fur at the top of her head. It was longer than the rest, one had to admit.
"If you don't believe me, you can ask any of my siblings or my mother, we're lions!" she felt as if she had just preformed a civic duty, teaching this cheetah about "her kind." He would be much better off now!
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Posted: Fri Aug 03, 2007 8:12 pm
"Hm. " He blinked. Was this creature delusional? "Lets see. I've seen small lions before. " He said coolly, pacing calmly around the jackal. "I'm a cheetah, and I have a mane. Maned wolves have manes. " He said calmly, looking over the yellow creature he'd deemed delusional.
"Manes aren't a lion-only characteristic. That is probably some overgrown fur. " He shrugged. "Either way, you smell like a jackal, look like one, have pointy ears, a long, thin snout, thin teeth, your claws aren't retractable-- well, mine aren't either. " He muttered, looking down at a paw for a moment. It wasn't that great looking; they were rather dull. He could tell hers weren't either, though; they'd remained out until this moment. A canine feature, generally.
"And your tail is bushy all over. Do explain how a lion lacks so many features. Size is completely understandable. " Makani smiled calmly, stopping his pacing finally, and quirking a brow. However would she explain all that? A lion wasn't a lion, missing so many things. Though, he did allow a thought to flicker in his mind for a moment; if he did get this delusional creature to believe she was a jackal, which she was, would that mean he'd get an upset little creature on his paws? Maybe the whole bloody delusional family. Ick.
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Posted: Fri Aug 03, 2007 8:25 pm
"They're Pridelander traits- only the small lions of the Pridelands have bushier tails, pointier ears, and longer snouts than the traditional small lions," She said as if she was all-knowing. Nothing the cheetah could say would make her believe she was anything but a lioness, or even instill any doubt of the fact.
"And as for the mane, well, mine's just weird because if you look at a Pridelander lioness's mane, you'll see that theirs are weird too. And the claw thing, I can so retract my claws!" she said. She looked down and surprisingly managed to bend them back enough so that they weren't touching the ground. She looked back up to the cheetah. "Once again, the fact that I can't pull them all the way in is just because I'm a Pridelander variety of small lioness." She nodded once again, feeling accomplished in having proven her point.
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Posted: Fri Aug 03, 2007 8:34 pm
"Oh, indeed, I was mistaken! You are not a jackal. " He said, a surprising well forget 'belief' tone. "However, you are still not a lioness. You lack any lion quality you should posses. Pridelander lions are lions just the same. You might as well be an entirely new species. " He sighed. What a dumb creature.
"Then, besides your family, are there any other 'pridelander little lions'? " It was incredible how easily he kept his tone calm and curious rather than rude and impatient. Practice, dear. "Because, as far as I know, a generation of strange lions doesn't just pop out of thin air. "
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Posted: Fri Aug 03, 2007 8:43 pm
"We are so lions!" Chaka growled. It was a surprisingly lion-like growl, which came from hanging out with Noyana all the time. "Of course there are other Pridelander little lions! I don't know their names, but there's a black and bluish one, and..." she went on describing fellow little lions who, in reality, were jackals, but in her mind they were lions...
"And not to mention my parents, siblings, and grandparents." She nodded sagely, after her long list was finished.
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Posted: Sat Aug 04, 2007 3:38 am
Oh, look. She knew how to imitate. "And did all of them tell you they were lions? " He sighed patiently, though this was starting to get idiotic.
"See, I am confused here, because you lack lions features, yet you posses every single jackal one. Why would a lion, or lioness, in your case, be exactly like a jackal? " What kind of moron was this? Did she go around telling jackals they were lions?
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Posted: Mon Aug 06, 2007 4:13 pm
"Of course we're lions!" She said, clearly getting frustrated like she had been earlier. "I can go get another lion, and she'll explain the same thing, if you want. I'm a lioness, and that's that. And if you don't believe it, you're just a fool." She nodded, deciding that this conversation was over.
"So you never gave me your name, Cheetah," She said, changing the topic.
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