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 Posted: Sat Feb 14, 2009 2:05 pm
 Once a week, Imara took her cubs to the leaping stones to train as a family. These stones held an important place in her family. Generations ago Imara’s father, Inari, came to the leaping stones to test his strength, and there, on that very day, Inari met the god Mrost. Mrost promised the cub that if he trained hard, showed desire, and became powerful, he would join an army of great lion warriors and become part of a great destiny. Vu knew the story by heart.
On this day Vu came to the stones by himself, as he often did, to train in solitude. He leapt from stone to stone, climbing higher and higher, toward the sky, until he reached the highest stone and came down again. He was going to be bigger soon. He could feel it with every step he took.
His legs had grown in strength and less so in stature, yet he felt assured that he would experience a growth spurt in the coming weeks and checked himself every day by a marker he’d scratched on one of the trees by his mother’s den, to see if he had grown. Firm muscles rippled along his spine, though his cheeks and belly still looked plump with babyfat. He sharpened his night black claws on the side of the stone and let them shine. Someday he would be big. Someday he would be great. Someday he would be a hero. Someday, someday.
When the stones cast their long shadows across the dusty earth Vu took a break from training and flopped down in the shade of one of the big stones. His side rose and fell heavily from the exertion. He opened his mouth as he panted, letting the cool air run over his tongue to cool his blood. The songs of the birds in the trees soothed him as he closed his eyes, just going to rest them for a few minutes, and then fell asleep in the shade.
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Posted: Sat Feb 14, 2009 2:41 pm
 She'd been watching him train. Though, she didn't know what he was doing. She did that sometimes, when she was bored, though she'd never actually gone that high before. Molemogi wasn't hidden or anything, sitting down by stones, just in the shade so she wouldn't get to tired in the heat of the day. Green eyes focused on the cubs form; it was more mature than she'd seen on any other cub in the Pridelands, it mad her... feel like playing with him. Like teasing him a bit, or flirting.
She'd dared moved closer when he fell asleep, not able to resist anymore. Yes, the silent female watched as the pale cub slept, moving to swipe his growing mane from his face. Settling herself beside him, she just stayed there, quiet, watching, looking around. Was he thirsty? He would be after that leaping. After a moment, Mollie got up and moved to the watering hole. There were plenty of big leaves around, so she plucked one with her teeth, and used her paws to splash water into it, and then carefully dragged it back, having to walk backwards. Not her finest hour, but certainly something entertaining to watch.
Tumbling three times, she was covered in dust by the time she got back to him and moved to nuzzle up against him. That would wake anyone up; being nuzzled by someone they didn't know. Waiting for those red eyes to open, the dark colored female sat near the leaf, waiting ever patiently.
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Posted: Sat Feb 14, 2009 3:11 pm
“Nygh. Stop it.” Vu swatted at her weakly, rubbing his paw over his face and laying it to rest across his muzzle as he cracked open his white patch eye. He blinked at the black form standing over him. Father? No, this was a girl. A younger girl. Vu was about to tell her to go play somewhere else (he did not want to play with any girls, aside from his sisters, because he’d learned that most of the girls in the Pridelands didn’t want to rough house like he did) when he noticed the water leaf.
“Oh.” He sat up groggily and looked into the water and back at the strange girl. She wasn’t from his family and he’d never seen her around the Pridelands before. So where did she come from? “Is this for me?”
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Posted: Sat Feb 14, 2009 3:15 pm
Green eyes focused on him as he swatted at nothing and grinned at the question. Indeed it was for him, but she didn't say it. She did nod though, to let him know. Shifting, she inched away from the water leaf and let him have his fill. He's probably want to know her name. And that meant talking. Perfect. She despised talking for some reason.
Clearing her throat a bit she took a breath and spoke, voice raspy from disuse; "I'm Molemogi... My dad is Haiba..." And that was all she said because it hurt to peak any more that that, honestly. Mollie got away with not talking in her family because her family was strange anyway. Moving over to him, she put a paw on his shoulder and pushed, of course, when she knew his snout wasn't in the water.
With a playful flick of her tail, she pounced on him, aiming to gnaw on his ear. She might have been younger and weighed less, but she had a brother of her own to wrestle with. And her dad taught her how to rough house a while ago!
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Posted: Sat Feb 14, 2009 3:35 pm
“Oh. Thanks.” She was weird. Too thirsty to think about it, Vu shifted his paws and bent to lap from the water leaf, keeping one eye on the strange black girl. Other than the slightly dusty taste, caused by all the times the girl tripped, the water was refreshing. He wondered why she brought it to him. When he finished she said her name. She had a weird way of talking, too. Her pauses and quiet voice reminded Vu of his friend, Uidan Fyja, who hardly spoke a word unless Vu asked him a direct question. Maybe they were related.
“My name is—” She pushed him! That was really weird. He swatted at her, glaring. Before he could say anything she tried to jump him. Vu, whose mother had just started teaching him how to counter attack, instinctively rolled onto his back with her on top of him, tucked his hind legs under the weird girl’s belly and kicked out back. Mother called this, Using your opponent’s momentum against him. Vu didn’t understand what that meant. When he did it to his brother though, he went flying forward over Vu’s head and landed in the dirt about a foot behind him.
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Posted: Sat Feb 14, 2009 3:39 pm
And flying she went. Landing on her back and sliding, Mollie hissed out and flipped herself over after a moment of laying there, even more dirty now than she had been. Ah well, it was rough housing, wasn't it? Did he know that? She stopped in mid circle around him and blinked, sitting on her haunches. "Play...?" There. One word. Easy enough. Scratching at her shoulder with one of her orange back feet, she stood up again and shook the dust from her pelt, or attempted to, tail flicking once more.
This time, she'd attempted to pounce him from the side, figuring he couldn't kick her away. If successful, she'd end up jumping over him, putting her back feet to his side, standing on her front paws, and kick him like he did her. If not successful, she'd topple over into the dirt again with a growl of frustration.
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Posted: Sat Feb 14, 2009 5:39 pm
“Oh geeze, I’m sorry! Are you okay?” Vu clambered to his feet, afraid he hurt her when he threw her. She was just a little cub (of course, Vu was also just a cub, but he was not just a little cub). He sighed in relief when he saw she was alright. The white tuft of his tail twitched as he watched her circle him, curious and interested, the edge of a smile playing at his lips.
When Mollie jumped he hit the dusty ground on his stomach, ducking her pounce with ease. He spun around and laughed at her slyly. This was starting to get interesting! He bounded over to her and tried to roll Mollie onto her belly with his front paws. This was a rather silly move, he knew it wouldn’t work on his siblings, but he was far from taking Mollie seriously at this point.
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Posted: Sat Feb 14, 2009 5:54 pm
She wouldn't let him roll her on her stomach. She swiped at his paws and got up, hoping to headbutt him in the chin. The green eyed female knew the elder cub wasn't taking her seriously and it made her snort. Of course, she grew up with hardly anything but sisters. Or was growing up, rather than that. With a grunt Mollie went to the left, acted like she was going to pounce, then spun to the right, trying to catch his tail in her teeth to gnaw on.
A giggle escaped her throat; she was having more fun than she'd ever had! Even if irritated, it was still lots of fun. She could learn a lot from this male, she thought. And he was kinda cute, a sort of bonus for her. Perhaps after this she could practice her flirting skills with him. If she wasn't already.
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Posted: Sat Feb 14, 2009 6:09 pm
Vu bounced back and reared up on his hind legs to swat at Mollie as she tried to head butt him. The whole game came as a surprise, the good kind of surprise. When Mollie backed off Vu fell back to all fours and faced her. He kept his eyes on her at all times, never turning his back, just the way his mother taught him.
She changed direction suddenly. Vu saw the trick. He spun around just as Mollie’s jaws snapped the air. Since they were facing each other already he nuzzled her roughly, laughing and nibbling her ear playfully.
Something was weird about this. Vu was too young to understand what it meant. However, he sensed that there was something not quite right here. Mollie didn’t play with him like the rest of the girls. When they stopped rough housing, maybe then he would figure out what made this game seem so odd.
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Posted: Sat Feb 14, 2009 6:16 pm
Well, that caught her off guard, the nuzzling and nibbling. With a laugh, she nibbled on his mane tuft when she could and then brought a paw to bat his nose lightly, not trying to hurt him. It would be just a brush of the pad of her paw against his nose before she flopped over onto her back, pawing up at his chin in a submissive sort of way, but still playful at the same time.
There was a smile on her lips and a giggle escaped once again before she stretched her head to n** at his toes and then flipped herself back over, sitting up and on her haunches once again. Canting her head to the side, she arched a brow. She wanted to know his name, but he didn't know her well enough to get the singles she usually gave yet. "Name?" Came that gentle, croaking voice once more, motioning to him.
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Posted: Sat Feb 14, 2009 7:50 pm
Vu stared at her in bemusement. Having developed a healthy disgust for childish behavior at this stage, Vu still batted his paw at her and humored her with a limp smile even though he thought her behavior now was stupid and babyish. His tail swished back and fourth thoughtfully. Then she snapped at his toes, catching him off guard, and he bounced back half a step with a startled laugh and came back to her, tilting his head in the same way that she did.
He didn’t stand as close as he had before. She was a snappy thing, after all. An odd cub, stupid and babyish like the females Vu met from some other litters, but also tough and wilily like his sisters, quiet like Fyja even though she should have been old enough to talk. He waited, in case she was going to sneak attack him again, and when she did nothing he smiled a little less reservedly. “I’m Vu. My father is Ghilt, the big black lion with the white mane.”
He turned his head so that his mane tuft fell over his face and swished his mane back again with a quick shake of his head. “Like me. I get my light fur from my mother, Imara. I bet your dad is a black lion, too.”
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Posted: Sun Feb 15, 2009 3:02 pm
She shook her head at that and blinked. Her dad wasn't a black lion, not at all. Her dad had a pale pelt that matched her rear and nose and her toes! Her mother was the black lioness. Green eyes looked to the side as she thought of how to say it. With a flick of her tail, she gave a grin. "Mom's dark like me." Simple enough words. This was the most she'd spoken since she was brought here as a tiny little cub by her dad.
Scratching at her ears with her back feet, she made a little noise and then snorted, shaking her head so her ears flopped against her head. After that, she began to lick her paws and clean her face of the dust they'd gotten into her fur.
It would be a moment more of cleaning before she stretched out her back legs and looked to the rocks he'd been jumping on. What was he doing up there? Turning back, Mollie tilted her head and gave him that questioning look, motioning to the rocks with a paw. Did he understand that? Maybe, he'd been doing a good job of it so far; and he didn't make fun of her for her broken voice.
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Posted: Sun Feb 15, 2009 5:02 pm
“My family trains on those rocks,” he explained, looking at the largest one of the bunch. “We’ve been training here since my grandfather was a cub. My mother trained here, too. See all those scratch marks?”
Vu nodded his head at the many white lines dragged across the rock. He walked along the stones, looking back at her with a smile. “They all belong to my brothers and sisters and me. You can see them best cause they’re fresh.”
Even though his mother cautioned him against telling other cubs about their family's traditions, Vu thought others would be happy to know that the Pridelands was secure under their protection. After all, the lands outside the pride were dangerous! At least Vu assumed they must be. Why else would Mrost put his mother in charge of forming an army? Anyway, nothing bad ever came from telling other cubs about his training. Some of them even respected him for it.
He sat down beside the biggest rock in a spot where the sunlight came through to shine on his crisp pelt and puffed out his tawny chest. “I’m going to be a warrior someday and protect the Pridelands from evil.”
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Posted: Mon Feb 16, 2009 8:35 am
She looked at the tiny scratch marks and then moved over to make her own scratch on it. She jumped up a few of them, claws clutching the rocks and looked down at Vu with a bit of a grin on her face, tail flicking this way and that. Mollie was planning on being part of the guard, too! She just... didn't know what yet.
Hopping down, the dark cub darted and jumped over Vu, towards the leaf she dragged over and then drank the rest of it up. She couldn't help that, she was thirsty and hyper now. Mollie wanted to go running, or attempt to hunt, something like that! She was far to little to hunt, obviously, but she had big dreams. Looking back to Vu, those green eyes flickered and then grinned, turning to run her muzzle along his with a purr, her tail flicking this way and that.
Flirting was something she was practicing, and he was the perfect one to try it on. Though, she didn't think he knew what she was doing. "Me too.... Protect the lands.."
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Posted: Fri Feb 20, 2009 12:08 pm
Mollie fluttered from here to there like a little black humming bird. Lions sometimes called Vu hyper. Now he almost understood why, but even he never flew from place to place with the brevity of Mollie. When she nuzzled him he looked upon her with bewilderment at first.
He laughed and disentangled himself to walk away. “No way! You’re just a little girl. My sisters are tougher than you.”
Vu studied her for a moment. What would Mrost do? He smiled slyly and started walking around her with his tail in the air and hopped onto one of the rocks, then onto the next highest and the next. There he walked to the edge, gazing down at Mollie with great importance. “If you want to be a warrior, you have to prove yourself. Not just anybody can be a warrior, you know.”
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