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 Posted: Sun Oct 07, 2007 3:48 pm
It was a relatively quiet day in the Jungle- or, it was for one young half-leopard as she had gone off on her own that morning, and with no one around to talk to, the usual background sounds of the Jungle were all you had. That made for a rather peaceful morning for Kafiri as she played on her own by her little own little hiding spot. She'd noticed that lately it had seemed smaller and had set to work on making it wider and deeper. Since it's initial creation with Mezi, it had increased in size a couple of times and some flowers had managed to take root and start to grow. It was Kafiri's favorite spot, though it was still a secret between just her and Mezi- unless her brother had told someone else. Kafiri had every confidence in him keeping it secret, though.
So, half in and half out of the miniature den, Kafiri worked at scooping some of the dirt out to make it roomier and more comfortable.
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Posted: Tue Oct 09, 2007 3:00 pm
Clearing his throat as to draw attention to himself, he took a few steps closer to Kafiri. "Having fun?" He smirked, looking at all of the dirt around her. He couldn't say he would be enjoying doing such things, since his dislike for having a dirty coat had only worstened when he and his brothers grew their small hair tufts. He even more self conscious now, feeling that he looked far too similar to male lion cubs, even though he'd never actually seen one, and adult male leopards had small tufts. Plus, he was jealous of his sister's coat, and always had been. He couldn't understand why she'd dirty it up so easily. If he looked like that, he'd certainly show it off.
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Posted: Tue Oct 09, 2007 6:56 pm
Kafiri was not the type to enjoy getting dirty, but she was the type to not worry about it needlessly. She put her own comfort ahead of keeping her fur spotless, and adjusting the size of her secret little den was one of the things she sacrificed her fur for. She would worry about getting cleaned up before she headed home- or that was the plan.
She had not expected company this morning, and since she felt relatively safe and hidden in the area she didn't panic right away. Instead,, at the sound of the voice, she scrambled out from the hole and turned around to see who was there. When she saw Mezi, she smiled and carefully shook the loose dirt from her fur.
"Yes," she said, glancing down at Mezi's toes and then back up, "Come to play?" She almost sounded hopeful, but was genuinely curious as well.
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Posted: Thu Oct 11, 2007 7:35 pm
Mezi flashed a look that almost said "as if", but tried to make it nice. He knew that she knew he wasn't terribly fond of dirt, and was very unlikely to play near it. He might've enjoyed a walk, though, if he had come under other circumstances. Even a game involving trees would've sparked his interest at that point. He had learned to get part way up the bark of trees, but still couldn't manage to get up to a branch. If he could only find that leopardess again, the one who had taken him up when he was a young cub... He was sure Kizu would help him figure out what he was doing wrong. She seemed to have liked him plenty when he had met her. Surely that hadn't changed in the short while since then. He suddenly realized that the things he had thought about were both things that could only be done in the jungle, and got very glum. So much so, that he lowered his ears, tail and head some, and slumped back on his haunches. He still wanted to go with Tojo, but man, would he miss this place.
With an overly dramatic sigh, Mezi worked up the saddest, most pathetic voice he could. "No, Kafiri. I didn't come to play." A dramatic pause. "Toj and I want to leave." He looked around him and sighed again. Really, he was being ridiculous, but it was quite the show. If anything, he at least made the conversation more interesting. After a sweeping glance at the trees, he stared back at his sister. "Leave the jungle, leave mom... leave the family." He dropped the dramatics very quickly after that one, staring hard at her, waiting for a reaction. Would she freak out? Beg to go? Demand to go? Or just stare at him like he was crazy and ask for an explanation?
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Posted: Sat Oct 27, 2007 12:33 pm
Kafiri wasn't too bothered by Mezi's look, she was used to be treated like that- and of course he didn't look as sincere as she might have expected from some members of the family. Mezi was always nice to her, even if he didn't really want to play with her right now. However, when he sighed and he spoke in a tone of voice she had never, ever heard from him, her silvery eyes widened and she tilted her head. Something must be wrong, not only was he not here to play but it sounded like something very serious had happened.
She started, her heart skipping a beat when Mezi said that he and Matojo were leaving. Her immediate reaction was intense panic at the idea, and she failed miserably at any attempt to keep her eyes from watering. Of course, it sounded like to her like they intended to leave alone, and were not going to invite her- especially when he made a point of saying leave the family.
"Y- you can't leave me here by myself!" she cried, unable to hold back a terrified whining tone. Mezi and Matojo were her only friends, the only ones in her family she felt close to, the only ones she was ever really happy around- if they left, she didn't know what she would do.
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Posted: Sat Oct 27, 2007 12:45 pm
Mezi's eyes widened in terror as the tears started to stream. He stood there dumb founded for a few moments, his mind stuttering at the very sight of crying. What was he supposed to do now? He hadn't meant to make her cry. If anything, it was at the top of his list of things not to do. He had intended for either (a) her to demand to go or (b) for him to invite her along. Crying hadn't been woked into either of those plans. After a few moments of standing there, his jaw agape, he rushed over to his sister's side and did it all over again. "Ka - Ka - Kafiri! I'm not gunna - gunna leave you!" He stuttered something fierce, stumbling over every word as if it was a great obstacle. "St - stop crying!" He stared at her, not at all sure how to fix the problem. Was he supposed to shake the rest of the tears out of her? Or maybe he should comfort her? He'd neer been good at the whole comfort or affection thing. There had to be a way to stop her.
All at once, and with incredible speed, words started pouring out of his mouth. There was no thought involved whatsoever, it was just the first thing that his body seemed to be able to do in response to tears. "Toj and I want to go find our dad! We want you to come! We're leaving everyone else, not you!" He was practicaly shouting it all, even though he didn't exactly mean to broadcast these plans. He'd yet to confront Mleli since that fight after meeting the crazy old bird-lion, and he didn't plan to. If the leopardess was somewhere around (which was probably completely untrue, but Mezi was getting a little paranoid), the whole thing would be ruined. "Kafiri, why would I leave you?" He practicaly whimpered the last part out.
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Posted: Sat Oct 27, 2007 1:02 pm
Kafiri didn't know what to think of Mezi's reaction to what she was doing and what she had said, but she didn't like that he just stared at her for several moments- it made it feel that much worse, and when he finally stammered out that he had no intention of leaving her, she had a hard time believing it right away. When he stumbled over, she couldn't help but lean into him, almost clinging. None of the leopon cubs were very good with being comforting or affectionate, but Kafiri knew how to cling well enough.
"You'll take me with you?" she mumbled, sniffling and calming down a bit once the idea sunk in. "W-why do you want to find our father? Could he really be any better than mother?" Kafiri may not have heard the whole story behind the fight that Mezi and Matojo had with their mother, but she certainly didn't expect much more from an absent lion than the angry leopardess.
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Posted: Fri Nov 09, 2007 5:17 pm
Mezi stared around the pair as his sister clung to him, a slightly awkward look on his face. He wasn't sure how to handle this at all, but went with what seemed like the best idea and leaned back into her. Having yet to recover emotionally from the fight with his mother and Matojo, he probablly needed to cling just as much as Kafiri did. After all, he hadn't vented on anything yet, so all of that stress and anger was still surging around his little body, just waiting to explode. Now wasn't the time for that, thought. Right now, he needed to comfort his sister. So, he sat there in silence for a few minutes, just leaning. "Of course we'll take you with us. I wouldn't go without you." Even if she didn't want to go, she'd be going. Mezi'd drag her along. He practically needed her at this stage. Sure, he'd have Toj on the long journey ahead, but he was more attatched to his sister than his brother. The two had bonded in a family that wasn't very big on bonding. He couldn't leave that.
The whys were something he was sure would come up, but they were something he really hadn't prepared for. His young mind had put this wole plan of telling Kafiri they were leaving and having her insist on going, and that was that. He figured she might ask why, but he didn't think out how much to tell her. There was so much, wasn't there? Starting with that crazy bird-lion, and then the fight with Mleli... and how was he supposed to explain simple curiosity. "Well.. Some stuff happened. And I don't think he'll be better than mom. He's a lion." There was obvious distaste with simply the word. The real thing was even worse, and not only that, Mezi thought, their dad was a crazy bird lion. As if he wasn't ashamed of his heritage enough already! "I just... Well aren't you curious where you get that coat from?" He pulled back from the clingish hug and stared at her, or rather, her markings. He knew that she knew he was fond of them, and so hopefully she wouldn't take the question the wrong way. Even if her coat was a source of pain in a sense, since their mother was always harder on her, surely she had to be curious? Mezi was curious to see the creature who had made his life so rotten, even if he figured he wouldn't like what he saw when he saw it.
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Posted: Sat Nov 17, 2007 4:52 pm
Kafiri was happy that her brother stayed with her, even leaned in a bit. She didn't know how much he needed her at that moment, but she knew that she needed him to be right there with her after that scare. Without her brothers, she was sure she couldn't last with her mother. They would be the only reason she never just tried to run away, which meant that going with them, if they insisted on leaving, was really her best option. She sniffled her last sniffle, and looked at Mezi as he started to explain.
"Stuff? L-like the fight with mom?" she asked quietly, still wondering what had been going on that had caused such a bitter fight. She was a bit relieved that her brothers didn't have some great delusion of their father being great and good.. Kafiri could not imagine someone nice leaving them with just their mother. She looked down when her coat came up in the conversation.
"I- I don't know," she mumbled, "I know you like it, but I just.. "
She trailed off. Would looking like thier father really be any different than Duma looking like their mother? Duma was nothing like her, though she and Kafiri were not very close. Kafiri could not really admit to being curious because of that, maybe more to know who he was even on a superficial level..
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Posted: Thu Nov 22, 2007 9:14 am
Mezi winced when she mentioned the fight with their mother. Though he had been thinking about it, the words made it seem more real. He was close to Kafiri, probably closer to her than any of his family members, but he still wasn't ready to really talk about Mleli. It was too fresh on his mind and he had yet to really destress from the situation. If he started talking about it now, he was positive he'd only end up yelling at Kafiri, which would make her cry again, and that was something he sincerely didn't want to happen."Yeah, like the fight with mom..." He looked away, not wanting to stay on topic any longer. When he was ready to talk about it, he would, but for now he just couldn't. Though he wouldn't readily admit it, the fight had hurt him. Deep down he really did love Mleli, and though he was still angry about everything, he was also sad.
He sighed, unsure of how to explain his curiosity. "Well, once we're out of here you won't have to worry about it anyway. Mom can't harass you if we're gone." His voice wasn't in the most comforting tone he could've mustered, but then again the subject matter wasn't exactly comforting either. "I just want to see why mom hates us." He glared at his purple paws, filing the color away in his mind. "I want to see the reason why we aren't leopards." He finally made eye contact with his sister again, though somewhat reluctantly. "Don't you?"
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Posted: Mon Nov 26, 2007 1:49 pm
Kafiri watched Mezi with her tearful grey eyes, realizing quickly that she had hit a sore spot- especially when he looked away. But if he could ask questions like this, wonder why the fur that caused her so much trouble was the way it was.. she could ask just as uncomfortable questions. And just like she'd given only partial answers, it seemed fitting that Mezi would do the same. Kafiri wanted to know the whole story, it seemed crucial if it had something to do with Mezi and Matojo wanting to leave so much. When Mezi asked more about if she wanted to see why their mother was so resentful, why they weren't leopards, Kafiri couldn't think of a positive response. After all this time, she was far too pessimistic on the subject. It wouldn't change anything, why bother?
But that's not what she wanted to tell Mezi.
"I guess," she murmured.
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Posted: Wed Dec 05, 2007 5:13 pm
Deep down, Mezi might've settled for Kafiri's logic and not have this desperate need to get out of the jungle. He really did love this place, all the flowers and such, and he fully intended to return after tracking down their father. The underlying push on his curiosity, though, was his current anger. Sure, he was curious before the fight; that's what had caused it after all. He woudn't have been as easily convinced to leave, though, if it hadn't been for the fight. If he had been ready to talk about it right then, he would've told Kafiri that, and asked her to go for moral support. Instead, he hid behind his curiosity and pretended that he didn't understand why his sister wasn't as curious as he was. Though he'd been slowly growing out of his lying habit, he still couldn't help but throw a few out when his pride was in danger.
"Well... I want to meet him. Besides, it's not like we'll be gone forever." He nodded firmly. In truth, he and Tojo had never mentioend coming back. It'd just been understood that that would be the end of this journey, at least for Mezi. As far as he knew, his brother didn't want to come back. Maybe there were bigger and better things out there? Who knew. Mezi was sure that couldn't be true, though. After all, the jungle was full of flowers AND leopards. It was like a dream world for him. Why would he leave forever?
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Posted: Wed Dec 05, 2007 5:47 pm
Kafiri nodded slowly in response to Mezi's firm nod, there wasn't much else to say about it. If her brothers were going, then she would not be left behind without them. They were the only ones in their family that she felt any connection to, Mezi and Matojo. They were her only friends, and she didn't want to be here without them.
"Mother's going to be really mad," she mumbled, knowing it would be true even if they came back.
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Posted: Tue Dec 11, 2007 8:10 am
Mezi sighed at the mention of an angry mother. "She's always mad. What difference will this make, anyway?" He knew darn well she was already madder than she had ever been before, but he was trying to ignore it. Plus, if they were gone, how could her anger possibly affect them? Sure, when they returned (or at least when he returned), they might be in a stinking lot of trouble. Then again, what if it took them a while? What if they weren't back until they were near adulthood? Mleli can't control them past a certain point, right? She could only yell at them until they were so old, then there would be no more control. Well, really, she could still yell at them, but it wouldn't mean they had to listen.
He looked around for a few seconds, as if trying to find someone. He gave up the search quickly, though, and simply stared at his sister. "So... you're gunna come, right? We should go get Toj and get out of here if you are." He was anxious to get going, get away before they could be stopped.
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Posted: Tue Dec 11, 2007 1:57 pm
"I guess," Kafiri nodded when Mezi pointed out that their mother was always mad. She'd been particularly angry lately, but Kafiri knew that when they came back, assuming they did, they'd be in for an earful. Maybe worse, now that Mleli had proven she was capable of actual physical harm. She might not have control over them when they were older, but she could still try to.. Kafiri had a horrible feeling it would never end, or they would be completely disowned. Especially after something like this.
"I'll come," she murmured, nodding, "B-but what about everyone else?"
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