That stupid crab! Ever since he and Nili had run into it a few days prior the damned thing hadn't left him alone. So far as Tau could tell, the crab (who's name was Willy for some unknown reason) hadn't told Hadithi or Misae about the incident, but he was making life an undisputed Hell for the little hellion. It wasn't nice in the least.
"'ey lad, y'best be gettin' offa thare. Yer gonna fall in an oi'm naught gonna save ye." The crab warned as Tau ran down a series of rather wet rocks juttig out into the ocean. The two were well away from the cove, further up north of their home that Tau ever dared go when Nili was with him. It wasn't that he didn't like his brother... okay, he DIDN'T like his brother, even though he loved him, but he very much didn't care fo the fact that he was never sure how far he could push his limits with Nili. One of these days Nili would end up running to their parents over something, and Tau would rather it not be for something HE had done.
"I'm not gonna fall old man!" He called back, glaring at the crab scuttling after him. "why don't you just leave me alone?!"
Willy rolled his eyes as best a crab could, which wasn't a terribly easy feat in all honestly. That was probably why he'd missed the cub's inevitable slip. Either way, when he next looked forward to make a come back, Tau was already gone beneath the waves and rolling off further down the beach. or up it, depending on the way you looked at things. "Oh fer the love of pete.." Willy sighed, turned around, and went running after the cub's father. he was damned if he would take the blame for this!
Along said beach, amusingly enough, trotted a dark female that was seemingly lost in her own world. She eyed the waves with a fervor one would only expect to see between daughter and her mother, or perhaps even two mates. In her maw she carried a large seashell, a conch that she toted by the extending lip. In a way, she almost treated it as if it were a baby, hugging it close whenever she stopped. Of course, as soon as she saw the pale blob in the water, she dropped it immediately. Oh, the ocean had sent her another gift! With a smirking grin plastered to her maw and a gleam in her eyes, she trotted down the beach and into the water to intercept it. "What is it," she said to no one, daring closer, maw extended as she stood mid-leg deep in the tossing waves.
"AHhewremmUHhELLP!" said the white object, which would prove to be a white and pink object in a moment. The waves rolled him over and over within the water, the foam admonishing him for getting to close. He was lucky, this time, the water hissed, for they loved his father and would give him no grief.. but it was a warning against his disrespect to the ocean. It gave him life, said the waves, and it could take that life away. And so it was without gentle hands that the ocean tossed him up into the shallows so that he could breath, and rolled him to a stop at the feet of an older cub.
Tau sputtered and coughed and hacked a moment, eyes squeezed shut and generally looking very much like a drowned rat. After a moment, however, he climbed to his shaky paws and peeked his eyes open. once he'd seen the female standing over him he straightened immediately then and tried to look unphased. "Uh... hi."
She had watched in silence as he was tossed, head tilted to the side in what could only be described as curiosity. After all, she had long since learned that the ocean killed or saved at its own whim - running out to help could only further its anger. Her eyes widened slightly as he was deposited at her feet, a grin spreading over her maw - that was all the inclination that she needed. "Oh, he's very pretty," she exclaimed, not talking to him, but not seemingly talking to just herself either. She smirked, letting her tail flicker - in her mind, he was the perfect gift. The ocean really did spoil her. "You must have made the ocean angry," she said finally, to the boy that happened to be a bit younger than her. "But it must think you're still a good present," she added, tail now lashing, but her eyes gleaming with that fervor again.
"Present?" He sputtered, whatever response he'd had to her presence completely disrupted by her first words. The fact th at she'd been speaking to the ocean--which was quite obvious to one who had been raised as he was--didn't at all phase him. Actually, he took it as normal, but didn't like the last part of that statement. "I'm not you're present!! I just.. was playing on some rocks."
She shook her head slowly, her eyes narrowing slightly in an obvious little mood swing that happened to be quite common for her character. "The ocean gives me things all the time. Why else would it have brought you right up here to me?" she smirked and shook her head, tail wavering slightly, "you just don't want to admit that it likes me more." She shrugged, turning to pad a little more into the shallows. "I understand though, even Chozi thinks that shells belong to him sometimes," she muttered, finally leaning down to examine the conch she had dropped. Nothing broken - that was good, she knew better than to make the ocean angry, especially by breaking its gifts. "But I don't think you should go back on those rocks - next time might make it even worse, and it could forget it gave you to me at all. Then we'd be in a mess, wouldn't we?"
"It -- It didn't give me to you!!" He protested, "The ocean just let me go cause it likes my dad!" He frowned, heading up towards the shore. Stupid water, stupid ocean, STUPID GIRL. "I don't care if the ocean likes me!" He promptly yelped after that as a wave splashed hard against his back legs,then rand up to the safety of the shore.
"Yes it did, but if you still think you can find a way of weaseling out of it, I'll leave it up to you and the ocean," she said with a bit of a shrug, although there seemed to be a bit of a storm dancing in her eyes. Her mood was quickly darkening - she didn't like it when others disagreed with her. "And you better hope it likes your dad a whole lot, 'cause all you're doing it making it even worse for yourself." A smirk spread over her maw as he was splashed hard against, mirth shining bright in her eyes. It obviously amused her when the ocean was cruel to someone else. "Keep saying that," she said quietly, looking back towards him, "it'll only make things worse."
He turned around and stuck his tongue out at her, "I'll ask my dad to talk to it for me!" He puffed his chest out, "He's the great Ngaolinda, he can do anything." Ohhh the trumped up visions of youth. "I bet it likes my dad more than a little snot like you."
"I bet it doesn't," she said angrily, teeth gritting as she narrowed her pale little eyes at him. She was bigger, and if she was one for physical force, she might have tried to attack him. "And I don't even know what a Ngaolinda is, it's sounds silly," she said with a bit of a sneer, though she lifted up her head and gave a following 'hmph' sound.
Tau frowned, "The leader of our pride, stupid. Geeze. its not SILLY, its IMPORTANT." Tau huffed a little more. He too might have been one to attack... but it wasn't in his culture to do so. In fact, it was fairly strictly forbidden. Amusingly enough, he too gave a little 'hmph' and tossed his head, sticking that nose up in the are. "And IIIII Am going home!" He started off down the beach in a direction... unfortunately he wasn't sure if it was the right one or not.
She smirked and quirked a brow at him, "maybe he's the leader of your pride, but he's not the leader of mine." She simply tossed her head slowly, then sat down in the softer sand. "That's not the direction of your home," she said with a little 'hmph', though she was obviously amused now. She got up and began to trot after him - forgetting her little present and leaving it behind. "In fact, this is the way to my home - so I guess the ocean's doing a good job of making sure you come home with me."
"You have a pride up here?" He said sceptically. Though, now that she'd mentioned it, hadn't his father once, in musing to Tau, mentioned another ocean pride not far off? He couldn't remember; most of what Hadithi said went in one ear and out the other. then he snorted, "I'm just turned around! I'm not your present!" The fur on the back of his neck tried to stand on end but he was so weighed down with water it was difficult.
She nodded slowly, her tail wavering behind her as she trotted along for all the world like she actually did own him, and maybe everything else too. "Yeahp, I belong to the ocean pride. I've actually never heard of your pride at all," she shrugged, looking at him now sceptically. She laughed though, a strange mix of mirth and anger in her eyes, "and you might not think so, but the ocean gave you to me, you should give up."
"IT DID NOT!" He practically yelped at her, then growled lowly. "And my pride is an ocean pride too. We live down that way." He turned and pointed in the opposite direction, "Which is where i'm going now!" And with that, he began to trot back the correct way to his pride. He barely noticed the large dark shape at the other end.
She frowned at him as he yelled at her, gritting her teeth before she finally managed to choke down her anger and add back in a calm but cold voice, "yes it did." She turned around to look at him as he began to trot off, her fur bristling, "and you're not being very -" She cut off, narrowing and squinting her eyes, "what is that?"
"because i'm not your--" Tau had begun to snap when her question caught him offguard. "What is what?" He looked off down the beach at a dark object coming closer. The closer it came, the more he could see that there was... something.. scuttling beside it. Something red. Wait. "Oh no.." His ears flopped back and tail drug a little.
"TAU!" Hadithi roared, slowing his pace to advance on his cub with a very rare mask of fury written across his face. This was probably one of the only times he'd ever yelled at his cubs, even when they deserved it. "Young man, how many time have i told you not to wander fromt he cove?!"
She frowned as the other lion started to come towards them, and then once he began to yell she frowned and glanced towards the ocean. SHe seemed to be listening to something, but her frown didn't go away. Instead, she moved to sit a little closer to the waves, shrunken back. "I don't know who he is," she said quietly to no one, "what is a cove?" She seemed to be talking to.. something. They wouldn't find it strange, but they were the only ones that wouldn't have.
"A million," Tau murmered sourly, "But it was the ocean's fault!!"
That was obviously not the right thing to say to Hadithi. "If you hadn't been testing its limits on the rocks, as i told you not ti, it wouldn't have needed to prove itself. How many times do we have to go through this before you'll listen to me, Tau?" The last question was a lot more... exasperated than angry, really. Hadithi gave a sigh and pulled his son close, "I could have lost you."
"Daaddd.." Tau whined, annoyed, but let himself be pressed to his father's leg anyway. It was then that he noticed the girl again, blushed, and tried to pull away. "Dad!"
Hadithi raised a brow, looking up. He followed Tau's line of vision and saw.. the amazingly bright little girl on the edge of the water. Hadithi cracked a smirk at that. He registered, then, that the girl had been talking. A whisper of wave told him to who. "Another Ocean spirit it seems. Its been quite awhile since I've met one of my own kind. Were you responsible for saving my son?"
"She was not!" Tau protested, but now his voice held a bit of fear in it. Oh god, what if she were right?!
