Augh! Stupid brother! Nyuni was frustrated with Jicho again. He just had to talk to Dios, and now she was loosing ground. She needed some advice, but she was too nervous to apprach her mother. She seemed...too perfect, and Nyuni didn't want to worry her mother over such small things. Nyuni herself didn't realize that these 'small things' were big indeed.
So instead she decided to try and seek out some extended family. She knew that some had decided to move on in life, but there were still some left. Her tail curling behind her, she drank in the air above, trying to catch a scent. Hmph. Too many to sense just one. She peeked outside of the communal cave that almost everyone slept in, hoping to see someone. Thankfully, she did. Cousin worked good, right? Right!
"Ata!" she called out, hoping to catch the lioness' attention. "Heeey!"
Ata, who was being her typical good-for-nothing self, lying around and being lazy, did not expect to suddenly be called upon, so it took a few moments to actually register that someone was shouting her name. Damn, was it time to hunt again? She opened one eye, though her back was still to the other lioness. .. Nyuni wasn't usually the one wanting her to hunt. Yawning and taking her time, she lazily rolled over, getting into a sitting position and tilting her head at the other lioness.
"What? "
The red lioness bounded up towards her cousin, skidding to a half just short of Ata. A smile peeked on her face as she plopped herself down next to her. It was very, very obvious that she wanted something. Nyuni loved all her family, but she didn't normally go calling for them either.
"Hey!" she said with a chirp in her voice, excited. "I was just hoping you'd be okay if I asked you for a little advice?" She brimmed with excitement as the tip of her tail couldn't stop twitching. There was no way she'd be calm enough to hunt any time in the future, with her being so bouncy out of no where.
Ata blinked at the lioness' excitedness, eyeing her up and down curiously. Well, this was interesting. Her reactions were still somewhat slow from sleep, and she furrowed a brow, pondering this. What did she want advice for? .. Who in their right mind came to Ata for advice? Something was very fishy here! ... Well, not really. Ah, might as well give the puppy a bone, right? Shrugging, she nodded. "I'm awake, might as well. "
Th lioness paused to glance at the other's tail. Hyper kid, yes. "What is it?"
"Ah!" Whoops, she didn't even think that Ata could have been catching a nap. The lioness, always full of good intentions, still never really thought about what others would be doing when she called on them. Her huge fault in her personality. "I'm so sorry if I woke you up!" She lowered her head, her ears plastered to her head in apology. "I'll check next time, promise."
With the encouragement to continue, she dove right into her main question. "Ata, what was it like having cubs?" Right to the point. Someone needed to teach this girl a little subtley. If it would even reach her brain in the first place. "I'm....I'm just curious, really. You seem to be the best one to ask out of everyone." They were closest in age, and Ata always seemed approachable. Really.
"Nah, its fine. " Perhaps it was good she'd been awaken, anyway. Maybe today she'd hunt before someone had to tell her to. Its not that Ata usualy slept all day, it was more common to find her simply doing "fun" stuff rather than work stuff. Like spooking gazelle rather than actually hutning them (she'd actually ruined a few hunts like this), or those enormous flocks of birds. Yess, that was fun to do.
The question succesfully chased sleep away, and she blinked, unsure of what exactly was going on. Actually, it was rather funny, whatever it was. "Its cool. Kids really know how to have fun! " They diid, yes. Mud wars and wrestling, yay!
Nyuni's ears perked up, and the fidgeting within her stopped. Brown eyes widening slightly, she looked at Ata a little more seriously. "Really?" Fun? Well, that's what it didn't really look like, but Ata had to know more than Nyuni did. Nyuni was just learning what all this other stuff was in life. There was more to life than hunting and sleeping!
"Hmmmm." Her mind ticked away, but it didn't get very far. Her attention span didn't let her do that too often, as she always would come up with more questions.
"Did you think that they were difficult at all?" she asked, her head tilted to the side. "I don't really know them, so I'm sorry if I'm implying something that they aren't..."
"Yeah! " Ata said, oblivious to the actual effect she was having on the girl. Truth is, Ata's advice was only really good for folks more like her. In general, she dealed with most things in a completely different way. She pondered this next question a bit more, though.
"Well, they were pretty.. self sufficient, ya know? I just had to butt in when they fought too hard or.. get them food and junk. " She shrugged. Her kids had been really easy to deal with. They were smart, and didn't really need much. Food and the occasional "being a mom".. but the times that required that were far inbetween. "And no, thats alright. "
This was sounding better and better. She nodded her head, her eyes looking towards Ata at times, and other times looking out at the horizon. Was this something right for her? While sounding easy didn't tempt her, the fact that it seemed like a good thing did. There was no question for if she was ready for it or not; Nyuni would never know. She always assumed that she was ready for anything. She didn't realize the cliff that she would jump off of once she did take the plunge.
Hopefully it wouldn't be too soon.
"Wow, that sounds incredible," she said carefully, and a little more slowly. "And everything you say makes sense. My mother would butt in if my brother and I got a little too argumentative..." she giggled at the thought. Ugh, butterflies!
"Didja plan for the kids when you got them?" Another serious question, and straight to the point. Ny's ignorance of other's feelings was getting a little out of control.
Nods, thats what her parents had done too! Ata was fine with her kids playfighting, but if they argued too much she did butt in, which was usually enouh to calm them down. Easy going mom saying no made a difference! And she ahd the rules, too. Like.. no poking the eyes, ugh. That was a low, low blow.
She nodded slightly at Nyuni's comments, then paused at the next question. "Um.. no, not really. " Accident kids, yay. "But in the end, all was good! "
"Ah," she replied. "I'm glad that everything ended up well!" So even if...no. She would do this right. It seemed almost thrilling. Now she just had to convince a couple more over to her side. Jicho...maybe. She didn't pin her hopes on him, though. He was worrying about her a little too much. She wasn't being brash, no way! He just needed to let her do what she knew was right. Hmph. And Dios was really bothering here. What to do...she didn't have a clue.
"Thanks for the advice, Ata. It's so nice to be able to talk to someone that's not...my mother about these things." Her mother would probably think on the same lines as Jicho...and her father too. She'd show them how mature she could be, once she had everything planned out.
Only, they knew how poorly she planned things. That was why they worried.
"Do you wanna go on a hunt later?" she asked, knowing that they'd be asked to. Later indeed, since she still needed to calm down a bit more before she could hunt. Not that she hunted well, either. "At least before one of the elders asks us too." She stuck her tongue out at the thought of it.
"Me too! " Of course she was glad. Her life, her kids, she was really happy everything had worked out just fine. And now her kids were grown up and she didn't see them as much, but she didn't really mind at all. Missed them? Sure. But they wer ehappy, and she was happy. "No problem, Nyuni. " She nodded, then made a face at the idea of hutning. She wasn't a fan of it either. "Yeah, sure. " Before those elder got their tails in a knot sounded good, yes.
"Wake me up in a few hours! " She said, then uncerimoniously flopped on her side, covering her eyes with a paw. Finish the nap first, yes.
Nyuni smiled warmly, nodding as well. "All right, I will see you then!"
Wondering what to do with herself as she listened to Ata's breathing, she decided that she was going to go find Dios. She needed to find a different way to get his attention...and somehoe make her older brother stop getting in the way of things. Didn't he not notice how much it was bothering her? She really didn't want to confront him, but she wanted him to stop more.
Worry resettling in her heart, she got up quietly and slinked back into the cave, deciding to think on what to do before acting. It was time to change from being so forward to being more...subtle. She'd figure it out somehow.
