The day so far had been good for Umbuji. With no one around and a full stomach he had been able to lounge on one of his favorite rocks all afternoon, absorbing the warm African sun, his body draped across the rather smooth surface. Oh what it meant to be a rogue.

He opened his light blue eyes and shifted his large head and shook his ragged mane about. He then rolled over onto his stomach, deciding it was now time for the sunning of his back. He let out a content grumble and closed his eyes once more to relax.

Isi had been wandering around aimlessly for a good portion of the day, tail flicking behind him as he looked for a good spot to sun himself. All the best rocks were already taken, and he frowned when he was a cheetah draped over his favorite spot. But then, he saw an open rock right next to a lion and he quickly darted forward and flopped, belly-first on the rock.

"Finally!" he sighed, wiggling into a more comfortable position.

At first Umbuji didn't move, thinking he might have imagined the invasion of space and unnecessary speaking. In his mind he counted, one, two three, then opened his eyes, expecting it to just have been a dream. It wasn't. He uttered a low growl to the intruder. "Dude. Not cool." he said to the leopard. Annoyed by the other cat Umbuji lay back down, and attempted to spread himself so that he was covering as much of the space as possible, leaving little room for the leopard. He didn't want to give up his good spot just because an annoying leopard had decided to barge in.

"Hey, every lion is entitled to a little sun. A cheetah is on my favorite rock," Isi said, scowling slightly and shifting to absently press his paw against Umbuji's side. Really, the other lion didn't have to be so rude.

"Thats right, every lion is entitled to the sun, and this lion was here first so shove off." He sighed and shifted his body towards the leopard some more, nudging him closer to the edge. "Why don't you go bother the cheetah, you didn't have a problem with bothering me.

"At least I didn't lay down on you," Isi joked, grinning absently and rolling onto his back. He had to wonder why the other lion was so grumpy. "I'm Isimangaliso. Isi for short."

Umbuji grumbled some more. Why wasn't the leopard getting the message?! "I haven't laid down on you. Yet." The lion shifted his position to show how uncomfortable. He didn't respond when the leopard shared his name, not when he'd been so rude and inconsiderate.

"Geeze. Why are you so grumpy?" Isi said absently, rolling his eyes and hopping off the rock to circle over and sit in front of Umbuji, right in his line of sight.

"Because." He started, drawing out his voice. "You, leopard, have just barged right into my personal space where you could obviously see I was relaxing and not too interested in being interrupted, and you can't even be bothered to ask if its okay." Umbuji stared at the annoyance, willing it to leave him in peace.

"What are you talking about? I'm not a leopard," Isi said, the rest of Umbuji's words lost on him as he bristled slightly. "I'm a lion, just like you."

Umbuji's mouth dropped open. He was stunned, surely the leopard couldn't think it was a lion? It was no where near as handsome and elegant as he and his species, Umbuji thought to himself. The lion had temporarily lost the skills for speaking before he burst out in a jumble of words and laughter. "Ohhh hahahha you, you think hahahah you are a l-l-lionnnnnnn! Ahahahaha" He rolled of the side of the rock, clutching his stomach with his fits of laughter.

"My mane didn't grow in right, but I'm still a lion just like you!" Isi said, bristling even more and glaring at Umbuji. Oh, the poor leopard. He had no clue just how silly he was making himself look.

Umbuji was laughing so hard now. This guy was hilarious! Surely he was joking, he couldn't actually believe all that, it was ridiculous. The lion was still rolling around on the ground unable to contain his humor. "Everyone, get a load of this guy! He thinks he's a ahaha a lion!" He muffled his laughs with a paw and tried to straighten himself. "Yes. A lion like me." Umbuji tried to act serious, looking the leopard in the eye, but he couldn't help sniggering.

"You're a real jerk. You know that?" Isi grumped, glaring at the lion before him sulkily. He didn't know why he even bothered talking to Umbuji.

"Okay, okay, I'm sorry!" Umbuji tried to stabilize himself. "But really, you have to know, you aren't a lion." He placed a paw on his own chest, "I'm a lion" he moved his paw to the chest of Isi, "You are a leopard. That's just the way it is."

"Think what you want. I'm still a lion like you are," Isi said, shrugging absently. After a long moment, he decided to try again. "I never caught your name."

"I'm Umbuji." He tilted his head. How strange, the leopard refused to believe he was anything but a lion. He felt pity for a moment, there would be others who would be even more harsh than he had been when they find out what this leopard thinks, some lions would even be offended.

"Nice to meet you, Umbuji. I suppose," Isi said with a small smile, his tail curling around his haunches.

"I guess," Umbuji agreed, he'd certainly gotten a good laugh out of this encounter at least. "Tell you what, you can have my spot, I'm heading off anyway, what do you think?" The lion shifted so that there was more room for the leopard.

"That'd be nice. You have fun wherever you're going, Umbuji," Isi said, grinning and hopping up onto the rock.

"You too. And don't go barging in on peoples space, you never know, they could be a lot worse than what I was." He leapt from the rock at started off, heading no where in particular.