|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Posted: Sat Jun 07, 2008 2:34 pm
He was exploring.
Cassian was the exploring type. He liekd being on the move, seeing different things - even if they were a bit of a slanted haze. He liekd experiencing different textures beneath his paws, liked to feel the different breezes ruffling through his whiskers.
He'd been going further and further with each day that passed, getting braver to strike out on his own. After all, the world wasn't so scary. It was full of wimps! First the pink cub, then the spotty thing. Was he the only well built lion around?
As he lay he glanced down at his thick forearms. He was short and stocky in appearance with a gruff face and a jutting chin. He looked like the typical bad boy, the child who caused his mother trouble. The rebel with the silver eyes. And he was, in a way, but it wasn't him, not deep down. Deep down he wasn't a thug. It was his front to keep people from finding out his secret. A front to keep his pride in tact.
He flicked the hair out of his eyes and squinted to help bring the horizon into focus. "Now what..." He mumbled to himself.
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Jun 07, 2008 2:58 pm
Pipihindi liked to explore as well, it was one of her favorite things to do when she couldn't find someone to play a game with. It was hard not finding someone, where she had so many siblings- but sometimes she wanted to find someone else to play with, too. It was how she'd ended up so far from home that afternoon. She was a chubby, happy little cub- looked as carefree as she felt. Humming, she stalked along with her nose to the ground in a rather comical mock-hunter pose.
"I'll find you yet," she murmured into the dirt, though what exactly she was looking for was hard to say. She was happy off in her own little world, not paying enough attention to notice the nearby pale lion.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Jun 07, 2008 3:06 pm
He heard a voice. Not a very close voice but a voice none-the-less. For a moment he lay still, wondering who it was and whether the voice would bring trouble to him. He wasn't sure exactly where he was, which was worrying, so for a moment he stayed quiet.
He lifted his head slowly, shifting his silver gaze to glance around him. At first there was nothing. He couldn't see anyone looking at him, anyone trotting over to see him. Nothing. And then he pulled himself up into a sitting position and turned to gaze over a shoulder.
Sure enough there was something there. Something that was vividly bright against the dullness of their surroundings. He curled his tail and tilted his head thoughtfully. What to do?
He could slink off quiet like before he got noticed?
Hm, yeah, that sounded like a good idea!
So, with that in mind, the boy leapt towards the long grass, desperate for it's cover - one thing that he missed about the jungle was being able to hide easily. But before he could reach it he tripped on a stone and fell heavily, face-first in the dirt.
"Ouch..."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Jun 07, 2008 3:20 pm
Thump.
Pipihindi was startled out of her little hunting exercise but the sound of something falling to the ground. It wasn't a sound she was unfamiliar with, but usually it was a sibling trying to get her so immediately she assumed a defensive position. Nothing happened, though, and her red eyes turned to the pale lion now with his face in the dirt- but in a very different way than when she'd been hunting.
She couldn't help but laugh as she got up and inched closer.
"Wow, what happened?" she called, "Are you OK?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Jun 07, 2008 3:27 pm
Embarrasment flared in the youngster. Embarrasment and irritation at his own stupid clumsiness. He untangled his forepaws and shoved the stone aside as if taking his anger out on it. Then, he turned and looked into the smiling girl's face.
Wow.
She was...blinding?
Actually, she reminded him of his brother somewhat; dark with vibrant markings. Except this girl had smiling eyes and a cheerful face. His brother never looked that happy. It was almost...infectious. However, the embarrassment of having his plan of sneaking away fail kept the expression at bay.
He huffed.
"Course I'm okay. Just a stupid rock." He glanced at the offending object and scowled. "Getting in my way when I was trying to get home and everything." He eyed her. "What were you doing over there anyway?" He arched a brow and jutted his chin.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Jun 07, 2008 3:35 pm
It wasn't hard to tell that the stranger wasn't very friendly seeming, but for now the optimistic cub was happy to assume that was only because he'd just tripped. She wouldn't look very happy if she'd just fallen over. Well! Maybe she would, but Pipi was a bad example. She stopped laughing, but kept a pleasant smile.
"Oh, that's not very nice," she agreed, though clearly not as upset with the rock as he was, and leaned to look behind him to see where this rock was. It wasn't something she put too much effort into, and her attention quickly went back to Cassian.
"I was hunting," she explained proudly.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Jun 07, 2008 3:41 pm
He pulled his eyes back to her, nodding slightly. Now, how was he going to get himself out of this one? Why was it that he never seemed to bump into anyone that might be nice to talk to?
He certainly did judge people straight away, but he couldn't help it. It was a habit now and he couldn't seem to shrug himself of it. Either way, he could already tell by her happy little face that she was going to be another one who never got angry and sad 9which was a bit silly, considering no one could be happy all the time). Someone else who had a lot of joy and no sadness.
Why was it he got the raw deal when so many other cubs could just enjoy life? It wasn't fair.
"Woah, wait, you can hunt already? But hey, you're smaller than me, that ain't no fair. How could you learn it so fast? I haven't even started to learn it yet." Well he had...but he hadn't been very good at it.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Jun 07, 2008 3:49 pm
"Weeeell," she hesitated, dragging a paw in the dirt in an almost shy manner when he suddenly started interrogating her about hunting, "I'm not very good at it or anything yet, but you have to keep practicing!"
She drew herself up importantly, clearly doing an impression of someone who'd been trying to help her learn to hunt, "Practice, practice, practice!"
With a small laugh, she sat down.
"I caught a butterfly once, but that's all," Pipi bragged a bit too honestly, "It left funny dust on my paw, I didn't know bugs could get dusty like that until then- did you know that?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Jun 07, 2008 3:56 pm
He watched her suddenly turn shy, lowering his eyes to watch her draw patterns in the dirt. "Practise..." He echoed. But what if you couldn't practise because of difficulties? He shook his head, frown deepening as he looked back up at her.
"A butterfly? What'd you kill that fer? Not like yah could eat it or nothing." Dust. What would a butterfly want dust on it's wings for? Maybe that's why they flew so erratically? Damn, they were annoying when they flew around his ears, but Cassian had to admit he liked watching their bright colours flying all around.
"Er...nope. I ain't killed no bugs before. Not on purpose anyways. I mean...I might have squished some when I lay down to sleep or something..." He shrugged. "But, eh, I don't hunt." The words were out of his mouth before he could really consider them.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Jun 07, 2008 4:10 pm
"I can't practice on anything else, all the big and tasty stuff is a lot bigger than me," Pipi answered, tilting her head wondering why he didn't already realize that, "Or some of the small and tasty stuff is too fast. I'll be able to get them eventually, though!"
She was confident, that was for sure.
"Oh?" she blinked, looking surprised when he declared that he doesn't hunt, "Why not? It's fun, and when you get big and good enough you can catch your own food." There was enough food to go around, but being able to pick what you wanted was a nice idea to the cub. And besides, she idolized her mother- if Kohpi could hunt, Pipihindi should be able to as well!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Jun 07, 2008 4:20 pm
"I suppose..." It did make sense after all. How could a cub be expected to have the skills to hunt a hare? Antelope were far too big and...ugh it all seemed so hard, so much effort! He didn't think he could do it.
And then she was looking surprised and it took him a moment to realise why. He bit his lower lip and looked suddenly nervous. What was he going to say to that?
"It's girl work, right?" He puffed out his chest. "Men do the fighting, girls do the hunting, yeah? That's the way stuff is done." He nodded, and inwardly he was congratulating himself for being so amazingly smart. Yes, what a comeback! "See, so I don't need to learn. I can learn the more important stuff, like fighting and protecting and all that kinda stuff." He pondered. Was that right? He shrugged. Either way it was a good enough excuse for him.
"So yeah, you gotta make sure you learn, cos one day you're gonna need to hunt for a boy, see?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Jun 07, 2008 9:19 pm
Another blink. Girl's work? That didn't sound right. The boys doing the fighting made sense, her brothers liked play fighting more than she did and the boys were bigger than the girls. Kind of- Dongó was smaller than everybody. It sounded like a fair trade off in some ways, but it wasn't how things were with her family. Not even with daddy's family, a whole big pride full of lions and lionesses who all hunted.
"That's not true!" she argued, "Daddy hunts with his pride, and mommy doesn't hunt a lot but grandma and Mkorogo do."
Being young and ignorant, she didn't even imagine it might be different in other groups of lions. She didn't know that some groups had only a few males, she herself lived in a fairly large group and with a leopard. She hadn't a clue.
"I need to learn to hunt for a boy.. who's got to learn to fight and protect a girl- me?" she questioned, narrowed her eyes and raising an eyebrow to try to understand, "I probably am better at hunting than fighting, I never win at those kinds of games."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Jun 08, 2008 8:38 am
At her first words he flinched and took the smallest steps back. She certainly did have a lot of expression in her words.
He lifted forward an ear, slowly as if it were heavy, and focused it on her. "Well, your family is the exception, yeah? I mean I don't think everyone works like that. My family sure don't. Then again, my whole family is a bit..." He trailed off there, not wanting to go on. He didn't like talking about his family with strangers.
"Yes. So, you hunt for him and he keeps you safe. It's the way it works, yeah? It only makes sense you're better at hunting. Yer smaller, harder to see, and you won't get none of that irritating fuzz around yer neck." He nodded matter-of-factly. "Anyway, so that's why I won't learn to hunt. I gotta practise fighting. I've fought with everyone I've met so far, but dun worry, I won't fight you. I won't fight girls." So he did have a streak of gentleman in him, even if it was small.
"So, do you live around here, or what?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Jun 08, 2008 10:22 am
Was her family odd? It was entirely possible, did most lions have a leopard living with them? Maybe that was why Mkorogo did hunting too, he was small and he didn't have a mane- he fit the description that Cassian was giving for what makes girls good hunters, except that he was a boy. And daddy didn't live with mommy, or another girl- except her half-sisters- to do the hunting, so maybe.
Maybe Cassian was right.
"So, if you don't learn to hunt then you practice fighting and get really good at just that," she speculated, if his attention was not divided in several tasks then he could be even better at what he did focus on, "But what if you don't find someone to hunt for you?"
She didn't seem concerned at all with being attacked, easily reassured by his promise that he didn't fight girls.
"Uh, kinda," Pipi said, looking around, "I live back that way-" she gestured, "but I guess I wandered farther than usual."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Jun 08, 2008 11:34 pm
The thought jolted him. What if he couldn't find someone to help him? What if he couldn't leave his parents, ever, because there was no one there to look out for him and make sure he was eating properly.
The thought brought a mix of fear and sadness that gripped his heart and had him cower very slightly.
He couldn't very well say that his brother would hunt for him after saying all that stuff about males being the fighters. He wasn't even sure that he was goign to end up with his brother at all. So he screwed up his face and said the first thing that came to mind.
"Then I'll find someone and make them do it--I mean, bargain with them." He sniffed. "There must be thousands of girls out there wanting protecting whilst they travel about."
He nodded. "So, a rogue then, just like me? I haven't met none of those pride cats yet, have you? Apparently there's prides all over the place, my old man warned me about them but..." He shrugged. "I don't see what all the fuss was about, right?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Reply
