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 Posted: Mon Aug 18, 2008 3:43 pm
 It was a normal day.
The sun was smiling down from the sky and radiated off of Ithemba's dark fur. Ithemba smiled as if to greet it and made herself comfortable next to her favorite tree. Her favorite tree wasn't her favorite just 'cause it was big and pretty; vast patches of clay spots lined the perimeter of the trunk. With a little sigh of contentment, she began to dig out some of the cool, wet substance. She just loved to play with clay. It was her most favorite thing to do.
Biting her tongue lightly as if to help her focus, she started to shape figures out of the clay. A stroke here, a scratch there...It was turning out nicely, she thought. With another little sigh, she truly felt that nothing in the world would be able to upset her happy little time. Nothing at all.
Then she felt something blocking the sun, and a shadow fell over her...
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Posted: Mon Aug 18, 2008 6:27 pm
It was a normal day indeed.
Ushindi was out and about, surveying his future kingdom. His father was gone off without him. Again. His mother was off doing her thing, no doubt with her precious daughter, and his brothers were, well, who really cared. He could do without them. If they didn't care enough to learn enough to even try to rival him as their father's heir, he wasn't about to stop them.
Except.
The blond cub's lips curled into a wicked grin. Ears out to the side, Ushindi lowered himself to the ground and slunk over to his sister, who also appeared to be spending the day alone. And what was she doing? Something useless. Like always. His tail thrashed excitedly as he sprung into action, leaping into the middle of Ithemba's play place.
"Good day, sister."
Good day indeed.
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Posted: Mon Aug 18, 2008 6:40 pm
Ithemba's heart fluttered and she gave a slight cry in surprise when someone jumped in front of her, nearly crushing her little clay figures. But this wasn't just someone...It was her brother. But not just another one of her brothers...
It was Ushindi.
Taking a few deep breaths in an attempt to recover herself from the shock, she stood. "U-" she cleared her throat. "Ushindi. Good day." she returned his greeting softly. Striving to hide the worry in her eyes, she tried to focus on something besides him; besides those glowering, amused eyes which were so like hers in color. Ah, the clay. She'd just stare at her clay. Maybe he wouldn't be angry if she didn't look at him.
"You..." she began, hesitant to speak. "...Wanna play?" she asked, looking back up at him. Maybe, for once...He would. Maybe that day would be different.
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Posted: Mon Aug 18, 2008 7:06 pm
Ushindi's lips curled further, absolutely delighted that he could shock his sister. He took great joy in proving that he was, indeed, the very best of all his siblings. His tail flashed from side to side and he pushed a paw into her little...whatever you wanted to call them. He wouldn't call them sculptures. Lumps, more like.
He twisted, sinking low into the dirt to force her gaze on him. Make her uncomfortable. "Play?" he snorted, eyes bright and teeth bared in an awful grin. "Play with you? You play like a girl." He looked down at the mucky mess he was standing on and stomped his paws around, splashing away any of her hard work that was still left standing. "A dirty, filthy girl." He snorted and shook his head.
"You should play more like me. Like a prince."
Obviously, princes played better.
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Posted: Tue Aug 19, 2008 4:59 pm
"Oh--" Ithemba couldn't hold back the soft noise of loss as she watched her brother smash her beloved creations. She stared, mouth agape at how they looked once her brother removed his paws and wiped the remnants of the clay cruelly on the grass. The wet, shining clay, once fat with form, was now a dead-looking smear on the ground. Why...?
With a tiny swallow, Ithemba licked her dry lips, heart racing at his threatening closeness, mulling over her brother's words. So, he didn't want to play...Because she was a girl. Well, girls' played bad, she knew that because of what everyone always told her. They always told her she'd never be as good as a boy. But still, he shouldn't have done that. Ushindi shouldn't have done that. It wasn't nice. It wasn't fair. It was so mean.
He was mean, he was mean!
"How..." Ithemba couldn't hold back the question, even though she knew it had the possibility of blowing up in her face. But she had to vent her emotions through SOMEthing, and speech was all she could manage at the moment. She'd never act violently, no. Never that...But if she could vent through small words, she felt that would make it all better. Maybe he'd tell her how and then he'd like her more? If not, maybe he would leave? She hoped so. She chewed her lower lip with a frown, trying to hide her pained expression.
"...How would I play like a prince?" she asked hesitantly.
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Posted: Mon Sep 01, 2008 6:40 pm
Well. That was something. Ushindi's ears flicked back, mind racing as Ithemba simply inquired how to play like a prince. That wasn't supposed to happen! She was supposed to feel insulted and pick a fight, or get her feelings hurt and cry so he could make her stop crying. This wasn't supposed to happened at all! The blond lion kept his ears pinned and could hardly keep himself from bristling all over the place.
"Well, you can't build ugly things like these," the little prince started, smooshing through the clay with a paw. "You have to get dirty." He started to bounce up and down, splashing all over himself and his sister. He even stopped to roll, suddenly transforming from white and gold to a muddled, pale brown. The wicked grin was back in place as he sprang to his feet and shook all over. "And you have to be tough. Like this!" And with a feeble roar, the young cub launched himself at his unsuspecting sister, throwing his weight into her as they collided.
"This is how princes play!"
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Posted: Mon Sep 01, 2008 7:18 pm
Heart fluttering at the sudden frantic expression of her brother, Ithemba waited gravely for what would happen next. She watched him prance around in her precious clay, even rolling his white fur in it, tan markings becoming a blur and blending as they mixed with the substance. She had to roll around in clay to play like a prince? Then, she would...She didn't mind getting clay on herself like that. Did she...? She'd never done it before. Well, it was easy enough. She waited for his next instructions. Then she saw his grin...She knew that grin. What was he planning? Oh, toughness...She had to be tough. But like what?
She didn't get to wonder for long.
With a sharp gasp, Ithemba landed on her back, the air getting swiftly knocked out of her lungs. A little wheeze escaped her mouth and it took her disorientated mind a moment to get itself back together. She blinked a few times and stared up at her brother.
He wanted to fight?
"N..." Ithemba wanted to shout "no", but the word wouldn't come out. Ushindi always got so mad when she disagreed with him and that only led to more trouble. Why couldn't he just go away and leave her alone?!
Something heated was filling Ithemba. Slowly, slowly, it was coming over her. Her stupid brother was always getting into her business. Calling himself a "prince". She had always stayed out of his way. She never did anything directly to him to upset him. Why did he always bully her?! Slowly, slowly, something hot and angry was filling Ithemba...
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Posted: Wed Sep 03, 2008 4:31 pm
Ushindi frowned when nothing happened. She just fell. Ithemba just fell over and blinked at him. Why didn't she fight back? A worrisome growl escaped the blond cub and he snarled, not shy at all about showing his sister just what he thought of her weakness. What was wrong with her? The little lion took a swipe at his sister, trying to encourage any kind of reaction.
"Fight with me!" he shouted. "This is how we play!"
His mother was the crocodile lioness and his father was the king. How could Ithemba possibly turn out so...so...spineless! Ushindi's lip curled in disgust. They were supposed to be playing, wrestling, practicing, and she was just flopping around like one of the dead things their father would bring home to eat.
"What is wrong with you?"
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Posted: Wed Sep 17, 2008 3:01 pm
"I--!" Ithemba clenched her teeth and closed her eyes as tight as she could. Maybe if she wished really hard, she would disappear and fly to some place far, far away? To a place where she could play with clay all she wanted and not have her creations get destroyed. To a place where she could float inthe sky like a cloud. To a place where there was no sadness and her mother could be happy.
To a place with no Ushindi.
Ithemba's eyes snapped open. She stared at her brother, not blinking at the swipes he made at her. Slowly, her eyes began to narrow. Slowly, her lips curled to show sharp, white cub teeth.
How could he ask what was wrong with her? She hated that. She hated when people asked her that. What was wrong with HER? No...
What was wrong with HIM?
"Nothing's wrong with me!" Ithemba shouted. Then she sprang up from her prostrate position and tackled Ushindi. She swiped her paw across his face and grabbed his ear in her teeth, biting it hard.
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Posted: Tue Nov 04, 2008 9:13 am
Ushindi had not expected Ithemba to yell at him. He had not expected his sister to bite him, either. He was pinned to the ground breifly, mouth agape as he just let the assault happen before his brain finally registered he was losing to a girl and maybe he should do something about it. The little blond lion growled mightily and rolled to the side, yowling a little as the motion ripped his sister's teeth through his ear.
He was bleeding!
"Ithemba!" he roared (though it really wasn't impressive as he hoped), and leapt at his sister, head hanging to the side as blood trickled from his ear. He tried to bite and claw, but was finding the liquid sliding down his ear to be quite distracting. The young lion pulled back and shook his head. "I can't play now..." he muttered sulkily.
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Posted: Wed Dec 31, 2008 9:54 am
Ithemba's legs were quivering and her mouth was hanging open. Blood dripped from her lips and her eyes were wide, as if she were petrified.
She had just attacked Ushindi!
Tiny claws digging into the earth, the cub assessed her brother from where she stood, eying his bleeding ear and the red liquid that trailed down his face. She'd never thought it was possible for her to do something like that to anyone, especially her brother. It was impossible. It was insane! She didn't understand what had come over her to make her act in such a violent way. But the act had been done. She had bit him and made him bleed. Even though part of her was happy about it, she knew that it was wrong. She didn't like to hurt others.
Swallowing dryly, Ithemba stuttered, "S-so...rry, Ushindi." She blinked quickly, nerves taking over at his roar. He didn't seem very mad. He almost seemed...a little upset.
"We...Shouldn't play like princes anymore..." the cub said slowly, lowering her head.
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