|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Posted: Wed May 28, 2008 8:53 am
 Such a beautiful morning! A lovely sunrise mesmerized the young cub, in awe of it's many colors and hues. He romped playfully towards it, eyes fixed upon the horizon with a determined look. Today he would reach the sun, he WOULD!
"Friend, friend! Wait for me!" He called out, running as fast as his small legs would carry him. "Please, friend, I only want to play with you!"
His voice squeaked pleadingly, but already he was short of breath and flopped onto the ground, panting. Still, even though he knew that he would not reach his friend the sun today, his gaze was still fixated upon it. He sighed, and sat up, shaking the dust from his creamy pelt. His heart sank as the sun rose slowly away from the horizon into the sky, now a steady blue rather than the magnificent colors it had been moments before.
"Why do you run from me, friend?"
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed May 28, 2008 8:37 pm
 "Why... Why on the savannah am I up this early?!" Makali asked himself agitatedly. The adult lion was usually asleep well into the day, but nooo~ Makali had been awake since before the crack of dawn. And for what?
Well, it couldn't help that he'd not gone back to his family's den that night. He'd slept under the stars, and the male could tell you- it was not as warm as sleeping underground was. He had figured... He was big, he was physically an adult, Makali couldn't keep going back to his parent's den! He'd slept out under the stars last night, he'd find a den before that night. If nothing else, just a place to spend that night.
His mind was set on this until he heard a young voice calling out. Makali stepped through a wall of grass and headed toward the voice to find a small tan-and-white cub whom had no doubt belonged to the voice. At least it was a boy, Makali tended to not get along so well with girls. Unless they acted like guys, then they were ok.
"Who's running from you?" Makali asked, jutting into the cub's morning.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed May 28, 2008 8:46 pm
Startled, the young cub spun around and stared up at the older lion, dumbstruck look on his face. He didn't realize that anyone but himself could hear him talking, a mistake he often made and still had not caught on to. When he was alone, or at least thought he was, Cha often began saying his thoughts aloud.
"Oh! The sun, the sun is running from me!" Cha pointed with his paw, as though he did not expect this stranger to know what the sun was. "Every morning I try to catch it before it gets too high to reach, but it is always much too quick and it gets away from me!" He explained excitedly, hoping that this new lion would understand his plight.
"Please sir, if the sun will not play with me today, will you? What is your name, anyway?" He tilted his head to one side curiously, grinning. "Mine is Chapa'Matlai, but everyone just calls me Cha."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed May 28, 2008 9:01 pm
Makali turned his golden eyes to the sun when the cub mentioned it. He wasn't going to rain on Cha's parade and tell him it was uncatchable though. No... He'd let the cub have some hope on that front. Instead, he responded in a conveniently neutral fashion, "The sun is quite fast... I've not heard of anyone who could catch it, but you could maybe be the first!" Besides... How funny would it be to watch a cub chasing after the sun? Deep in him, he thought it was kind of cute, but cute had been a word Makali had always kept out of his vocabulary- that was a girly word.
"No need to call me sir, though," Makali told the cub. "My name's Makali, Mak for short, and sure, we can hang out." He took a glance around for what was about. "What do you typically do for fun? We could go climb a tree over there, see if there's any bird nests..." Of course, he remembered last time he'd been around a bird's nest. Ah well, it had still been cool.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed May 28, 2008 9:11 pm
"Yep! It's really REALLY fast." Cha nodded furiously, "Uh huh! I want to be the first one to catch up to it. It always plays hide and seek with me when it comes down from the sky, you know." He puffed out his chest proudly, "That's how I know it's my friend, but it's too good at the game of tag for me to get it just yet."
"Okay then, Mak." He grinned, "Yeah let's... Hang out." He had never heard the phrase before, but he assumed it was some sort of game. "Oh, I do all kinds of things! Climbing trees sounds good. We can hang out there!" He said excitedly, thinking furiously to come up with all the different ways that he could hang off of the tree.
"Are you good at hanging out?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed May 28, 2008 9:27 pm
While Makali masked the expression quite well, he had a very hard time keeping a hint of... confusion out of his eyes. He had never, ever seen a boy act so cute. Cute was a girl thing, if it wouldn't have been completely rude (yes, even Mak had some sense of manners,) the grey adult would have winced at all the cute emanating from the cub. This poor boy... must be... boyed up, and now! Makali thought determinedly to himself. If he could turn at least one boy's life around... that would be enough in life. "Yes, I'm great at hanging out. Maybe we'll find some cool bugs up in the tree, I know of an awesome one, let's go!" he suggested and headed off towards it. To toughen the kid up, he had to act like someone Cha would want to imitate, and while Mak would probably have little success trying to mold this cub into himself, he would spend the day (and possibly future days) trying.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed May 28, 2008 9:35 pm
Completely oblivious to Makali's confused look, Cha followed him on the way to the tree with a bright look in his eye. "Cool bugs?" This lion sure did use some odd words. Hanging out? Cool? He had no idea what these meant, and the word awesome intrigued him especially. Still, not wanting to appear ignorant, he resisted the urge to ask their meanings.
"Yeah, one time I found a bug under a rock, and it was cool." He nodded, "And awesome too. But then it went into the sun, and it wasn't cool anymore." He shrugged, doing his best to sound as though he knew what he was talking about. Makali clearly understood what was cool and awesome, and Cha wanted to learn how to be like him without appearing too foolish in the process.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Jun 03, 2008 8:47 pm
Boy, do I have my work cut out for me... Makali thought to himself after listening to the cub talk. Cha was... really cute, Makali didn't know what to do with him. He had avoided cute things as a cub, and if he were the same age as this cub, he'd bluntly tell him how feminine he was acting and that it was definitely uncool. However, as Mak had grown... he had developed some sense of decency. He knew now that he might hurt the kid... And more importantly, anger the parent, and that was a can of worms that he didn't feel like opening.
Mak was relieved, though, to hear that Cha had gone looking for bugs at least once. "I see," he said simply, successfully resisting telling the cub that he was being painfully cute. Luckily, they were getting there. "See that tree up there, it's easy to climb, there's a rock at the base." It was sturdy enough to hold him, too. It'd be easy for both of them to get up there. "If you peel back the bark, I'm sure there'll be some bugs that are worth the climb." Makali said with a nod.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed Jun 04, 2008 9:33 am
"That tree there?" Cha hurried ahead of Mak and pointed to the tree with his paw. Without waiting for an answer, he quickly set about climbing on the rocks. His tail lashed about behind him, showing his excitement as he struggled to pull himself up onto the tall rock.
"Bugs are always worth the climb!" Cha grunted as he managed to pull the back end of his body up onto the rock, "Bugs are fun, especially when they're colorful and pretty." He nodded enthusiastically. "But you have to be careful with the little guys. Yup, if you're not you might smoosh 'em." Cha's expression suddenly turned serious.
"I think being smooshed wouldn't be very much fun. I mean, you get all flat and you can't move any more!"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Jul 11, 2008 7:22 pm
"Yeah!" Mak said. Bugs were worth the climb. He followed Cha over to the tree, keeping up easily with a lope that an adult could easily pull off. Makali waited at the base of the tree for the cub to climb his way higher and higher into the treetops as little bits of bark fell before him. He proceeded up as soon as Cha seemed high enough for him.
"Bugs are fun, I like them," Makali said as he proceeded up. "And yes, they're best un-smooshed," he agreed with a solemn nod. "While they're still crawling, if you show 'em to a girl, most of them will freak out, it's kind of amusing to watch. Some girls'll even freak out over a smooshed one," he said with a mischievous chuckle.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
