|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Posted: Sat Aug 16, 2008 8:14 pm
If Thibiti were Hasana's child, the poor lioness would have probably gone crazy with mothering instincts. She would have had the young lion between her paws in an instant, eager to groom him until his coat shone with cleanliness. Knowing Hasana, she would probably have hunting something for him, like she hunted for many of her adult daughters. But Thibiti was not Hasana's child, and thus there he was, feet caked with mud and his nose pressed firmly to the ground. The dirt and the mud mattered little to the young lion, for he was on an adventure.
He had woken this morning to find a peculiar scent trail passing by the tree where the pride slept. Normally he wouldn't have noticed such a thing; however the strange footprints that accompanied it had caught his attention. And once he saw the footprints, the scent came easy enough. He had followed the trail through several muddy puddles, around a large bush, and was now tracking it in the direction of the grove of flowers. Single-minded in his pursuit, Thibiti barely noticed his surroundings. He had a footprinting thing to catch!
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Aug 16, 2008 8:20 pm
Xundao's mind was lost to the breeze, as it normally was. While he wasn't a very adventurous cub, he could be quite boring, just sitting and staring. He preferred to think about things, and learn a little too. It had driven his father nuts, as Yue saw himself in the little runt. He didn't have a wild sister like Yue had Sen, though, and so the lion had tried to coerce his son into doing something other than sitting around and thinking. Nothing had worked, and thus Yue gave up on his son. There were eight of them, so it wasn't like he couldn't be proud of any of the other ones.
Xundao sat just inside of the flower grove, a place that he probably shouldn't be in, but was sitting in anyway. He watched the flowers shift slightly with the light breeze, mesmerized. Until he heard some sort of rustling behind his back. Ooh, he hoped it wasn't Father again, coming to scold him for doing nothing. His eyes widened when it was Thibiti, eyes glued to the ground. What was he doing?
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Aug 16, 2008 8:27 pm
Thibiti didn't notice his brother sitting in amongst the flowers, too busy snuffling the little footprints that had been left for him to trace. The tracking became a little harder in the flower bed, where all sorts of creatures lived. Once of them could be the one he was looking for, and thus he had to keep his eyes open and his nose alert. No doubt whatever he was tracking would be either sleeping or hiding by now, and so his ears wouldn't be much use. Thus, Thibiti didn't notice the sound of his brother's breathing, instead walking past Xundao and then turning sharply around his front to pass by his front feet. Wait, feet? Oh my!
Thibiti came to an abrupt halt when his nose nearly hit his brother's feet, staring at them intently. Did these feet belong to the creature he was looking for? No... These feet were too big! This was the wrong creature! The young lion gave a huff of exasperation, before he realized just who the feet belonged to. Xundao's feet! And he was in the way of the trail! Thibiti lifted his head so his nose wasn't pressed against the dirt, and stared at his brother. For a moment, he simply stared, before he said quietly, "You're standing on my trail. 'm tracking something. Did you see something with little toes walk by you?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Aug 16, 2008 8:42 pm
Xundao blinked as he watched his brother silently, just trying to figure out what the heck he was doing. Was there a beetle around here or something? His rosey eyes couldn't catch sight of anything before him, so he merely shook his head. Xundao was about to fall back into his trance when he felt the air around his lower half shift. Looking down at his brother, it was hard for the while male to not giggle.
"Little toes?" he asked, a curious look in his eyes. "Not really, no. Somethin' fresh?" The young male hopped to the side to jump off of the trail, watching his brother more than looking at the ground. "Whatcha following?" Knowing that his mind would be too wrapped into whatever his brother was doing, Xundao decided to forget his previous actions and instead stalk after his brother a bit. It would be distracting, and then any thread of his father bugging him would be gone.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Aug 16, 2008 8:48 pm
"Hrm..." Thibiti replied when his brother said that he hadn't seen anything with little toes. He was slightly disappointed that Xundao hadn't seen what he was looking for. It would have made tracking it a lot easier if he knew what exactly he was looking for. For all he knew he could be following the trail of a giant beetle with lots of toes. He didn't even know if giant beetles were dangerous. Normal beetles weren't all the dangerous – though they made good hunting practice – but you never knew about the giant ones. They could be sneaky like that.
He was forced to drag his thoughts away from giant beetles with paws when Xundao addressed him again. "Wha? Fresh? Oh, yeah. I think so. It was pretty strong back under the big tree, and it's getting stronger!" Thibiti seemed quite pleased with himself for being able to tell that much about it. "I'm not really sure, since you haven't seen it and I haven't seen it either. But it's got toes, we know that much." The moment Xundao expressed interest in the toed creature he was automatically included in the adventure party. "Do you wanna hunt after it too? It might be very dangerous."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Aug 16, 2008 9:01 pm
"Ahhh...." Embarassed, the colour around Xundao's cheeks almost matched those of his eyes. He didn't quite want to admit what he was doing, but it seemed like a good idea. "I was sort of...watching the flowers sway." He let his eyes wander elsewhere, away from his brother. There was a small chance that he'd lift his eyes away from the tracks, and Xundao didn't really want to risk it.
Once his brother invited him along, though, Xundao's excitement returned. He let his eyes glue themselves to the ground as well, intent on finding this trail that Thibiti was following.
"Do you think it's like...a really big bug?" It was obviously small enough to slip past Xundao's "watchful" eyes, but big enough to have it's own scent as well as be tracked. By Thibiti, mind you. Xundao was horrible at these sorts of things.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Aug 16, 2008 9:09 pm
"Oh. Well, watching the flowers is a good reason not to be watching the ground," he supplied, as though excusing his brother's inattentiveness. In all honestly, Thibiti wasn't sure he could have ignored something large walking around him in favour of watching the flowers but this was Xundao. If the flowers were interesting enough, he probably wouldn't have noticed a herd of antelope running by. He was allowed to be a little dreamy. There were seven other siblings who could keep an eye out for him.
His brother's question made Thibiti grin a little, wondering if Xundao could read his mind. That, or he must be really unoriginal. But no matter. They would find the truth out when they reached the end of the trail. "I think it could be, but it's gotta have big feet. I never seen a bug with really big feet, big enough to leave footprints. You ever see one? They ever land on any of the flowers?" Since that where Xundao seemed to look, it was a fair question to ask him.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Aug 16, 2008 9:22 pm
Xundao kept after his brother, staying just a pace or two behind his side on the right. He didn't want to mess anything else up, especially since he obviously had been in the path of water it was earlier.
"F-feet?" He'd never seen a bug with feet, and that just sounded frightening! Granted, Xundao didn't quite care for bugs, except for fireflies. "I think if something with feet was on a flower, it's crush 'em." No, he hadn't seen anything. But then, he barely even watched the flowers. It was only a cover for him completely spacing out for no real reason other than he liked it.
"Only butterflies and bees go on the flowers. Maybe the little tiny ones that eat them. Nothing big," he said, stating the obvious. He leaned forward, pausing after Thibiti so he could get a gooood look at the tracks that they were following. He didn't really recognize them at all. So much for growing up to be a smarty-pants.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Aug 16, 2008 9:33 pm
Crush the flower? Oh... he hadn't thought about that. That was probably true. Xundao knew more about flowers than he did anyways, since he watched them so much. Thibiti often wondered if his brother would become a flower caretaker when he was older. It would suit him, or so the young male thought. He could sit out here in the flowers all day and pull out a weed every now and then. Thibiti was sure it was a good job for his brother, just not so much for himself. He needed something a little more exciting, but not something that took him away from his family. He couldn't talk to anybody who wasn't in his family. Strangers made him shy.
"So nothing with big feet can land on a flower? Not even a really big bee?" Thibiti was a little disappointed that it wasn't any bug that landed on flowers. If it had been, Xundao would have been able to identify it if they saw it. Being able to identify it before it saw them would give them a huge advantage. But for now, they were still at square one. "Maybe it's not a bug... maybe it's a mini-lion!" Now there was a thought!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Aug 16, 2008 9:43 pm
Xundao's ear twitched as he thought about it more, not really paying much attention to his brother for a moment. Something....something. It had to be something, especially if his brother said that he could smell it. And there were tracks here! ...wait. Picking up his paws, the white boy just noticed that his own paws were starting to get all muddy. "Yuck." He shook at them a bit, but only a fraction of the mud actually fell off. Gross.
Trying to swing his mind elsewhere, he was interested in the thought of bees. Bees wouldn't be able to leave tracks like those! Just as he was about to mention something, Thibiti came up with quite an interesting idea. A mini-lion! "Whoooooa." Xundao was impressed. "You really think there's a mini one running around?" He swished his tail, the tips of it getting their own coating of mud. "I think you've figured it out, Thibiti!"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Aug 16, 2008 9:56 pm
Thibiti turned his attention away from the trail when his brother stopped, blinking green eyes at him. What could possibly need more attention than the trail they were following? Apparently, his muddy feet. The young male stared down at his own feet as though seeing them for the first time, amazed at how muddy they had become on his trek. Would their dad be upset at them for coming home so dirty? He'd make sure they cleaned up before they came back. "Don't shake it!" Thibiti jumped back when Xundao shook his feet, trying to avoid getting any more mud on his white fur. The dirtier he got the more time he would have to spend cleaning.
"I have! Wait, I have?" Thibiti had agreed to his brother's exclamation without even really thinking about it, and the words took a moment to catch up to his brain. "You really think that it might be a mini-lion? Because that would be super cool!" He'd never met anyone smaller than himself! Growing up among eight siblings meant that somebody was the smallest, however nobody was ever really mini. They had also grown up with him, so it wasn't like Thibiti was any taller than his siblings at this point. But a mini lion! This was going to be exciting! "C'mon we gotta find it!" Thibiti took off along the trail, putting his nose back to work.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Aug 17, 2008 7:49 am
The shaking of his paw yieled little results, but there was a few small pieces that had reached higher than his paws. His belly was getting a little muddy now. While he was examining this new filth, he hadn't quite realized that Thibiti had taken off. "Ah!"
Scrambling to keep up, while also trying to keep the trail alive, he danced around the prints that they were following, in the process caking on more mud onto his paws. He couldn't wait 'til they could get to the lake to clean themselves off. For now he's just have to hope that his father didn't see, or another one of the sibilings that might tattle on the pair. Feh.
Soon he found his place again just behind THibiti on the right, his own nose lowered to the ground. He could catch a scent he didn't quite recognize, but it was hard when the stench of the mud was mixed into it as well.
"It must be, if it's got feet like these!" Xundao was only used to lions and bugs, and the concept of other things never crossed his mind. He didn't think that it could be some other sort of furry creature.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Aug 17, 2008 8:33 am
The scent was getting stronger, and Thibiti couldn't help but feel incredibly excited. This would be their first real tracking session! And tracking was the first part of hunting, or so he assumed, which made this adventure even more thrilling. The young lion was neither big enough nor strong enough to hunt anything himself, but he could always practice on small animals. That was how you got better at something, right? Practice, practice, practice!
Straight through the flowerbed ahead of them, an aardvark waddled along, seemingly unaware of his young pursuers. He was much too busy sniffing about for insects to worry about any potential threats. Upon sighting the strange creature up ahead of them, Thibiti skidded to a halt, dropping down to the ground in hopes it hadn't seen them. "What do you think it is?" He whispered to his brother, green eyes focused on the aardvark. It didn't look very much like a mini-lion. He wasn't even really sure what it looked like.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Aug 17, 2008 8:44 am
Xundao followed after Thibiti silently, assuming that his brother knew exactly what he was doing. It didn't cross his mind that if what they were following could be dangerous. Everything was so peaceful here at home, so why wouldn't everything be?
With the sudden halt, Xundao slammed down his paws, skidding a little with the mud cacked on his paws. He opened his eyes eyes warily, finally catching sight of what Thibiti was talking about. It was...weird. The strangest thing that Xundao had ever seen. He flicked his ear while thinking, trying to see if anyone had ever told him about an animal like that.
"Maybe it's a mini-lion with no hair?" A really ugly one, since the hose looked nothing like a lion. And it was a little too round in the middle. But if you reeeeally used your imagination it could be a naked mini-lion! "Maybe it's looking for us," he whispered, noticing that it's own nose looked to be to the ground.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Aug 17, 2008 8:51 am
Thibiti couldn't take his eyes off the strange creature, completely fascinated by it. He had to remember to turn an ear in his brother's direction to listen to his answer, and gave a decisive nod. "It must be a hairless mini-lion that... that..." How could he explain the long nose? "It got its nose stuck in a hole once! And then it stretched, see?" That sounded like a good reason! It looked like that had happened to it. Thibiti made a mental note never to get his nose stuck in a hole. He didn't ever want to look like that!
He tore his eyes aware from the mini-lion when Xundao suggested that it was looking for them, momentarily caught off guard. Looking for them? Thibiti stared at the aardvark, watching it sniff around in the dirt. They had just been doing that... Maybe it was tracking them too! Xundao was a lot more observant than he let on. "Did we leave footprints over there too? What should we do? Do we know what it'll do if it finds us? We could surprise it now if we wanted to..."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Reply
