Mikaili was bored. Mehta was busy doing something else and he couldn't find Lhach to play with and that older lion wasn't around anywhere and there was just nothing to do. He'd been content to entertain himself before he'd met others and realized how fun it was to play with someone else. He had no interest in the sliding rock he'd found and he'd been over to play around in the trees and long grass.
This left the nearby river. If he was careful and didn't get out into the current he was sure he could sneak over and have some fun without Mehta ever knowing.
With a private grin to himself he headed out towards the gurgling waters, reaching the shores and beginning his exploration of the half muddy, half sandy edges. There were plenty of rocks for him to hop upon and he quickly made a game out of leaping from one to another without getting his paws wet.
Kanzi loved to explore. It was really the only thing that she had really gained from her father, aside from his good looks, of course. He had been a rogue once, always looking for the next big adventure.
She was born to a pride, but that didn't make her spirit calm. The pride encouraged travel and was a very open place, making it fun for her to head out on her own without worrying that she was breaking the rules. How she hated to get people upset with her! Smiling to herself, she found herself near a river, the sound of water flowing instantly making her want a drink. So she headed closer, surprised to see a young cub hopping along the rocks over the water.
"That looks fun," she told the boy brightly, "might I try it with you?"
Mika gave a squall of surprise, startled by the sudden intrusion of the lioness just as he'd been about to make his next jump. He tottered at the edge of the rock a few moments, tail flailing wildly as he tried to regain his balance before he tipped forward and had to reach out with his front paws, making them splash in the trickling waters. He spat a few times, shaking his head and looked peevishly up at whomever had interrupted him.
The size of the lion made him pause only a little bit. He frowned at the female as he stepped back onto his rock, shaking out his front paws to send flecks of water flying in all directions as he tried to dry himself as best as he could. "What...?" He looked back over his shoulder, wondering if someone else was there that he hadn't noticed. When he saw no one he looked back over at the smokey gray lioness. "Me? You want to hop rocks with me?"
He tilted his head to the side, eyes narrowing a little bit in childish thought as he considered letting her play with him. "Well... alright... but you can't touch the water. I bet you can't stand with all of your paws on one of these rocks!" It was less of an insult and more of a challenge, a dare. "You have to keep all of your paws on one rock and then you have to jump to the next rock and not get wet. I guess since you're bigger and since you PROBABLY won't be able to be all on one rock at the same time you can be on two rocks. If you get wet you lose!"
And as though to give an example and bunched up his hind legs, gave a little waggle of his rear, and leapt from his rock to the next one, landing neatly with all paws on it's top and clear of the water.
"AH!" Yelped Kanzi, frightened because she had startled the other. It didn't help as she could only watch in horror while the little cub sprang up, awkwardly missing his pawing on the rock and falling into the water with a small splash. Luckily, it didn't seem like the little creature had hurt himself doing that, so she was able to let out her breath, which she hadn't even been aware she was holding until that moment.
Did cubs always do such reckless things?
"Yes you," she chuckled. Who else could she have meant? Though now she was worried that playing the game would get the youngster hurt. Until, of course, the cub started to make challenges. She had never been one to turn down a challenge.
"Oh really? I bet I can!" She followed his example, awkwardly getting onto one of the small rocks. Her four paws met one another as she struggled to keep herself from needing another rock to stand on. She could have picked a bigger one to start on, she imagined. Looking around, she found a more decent sized one to jump from, making a leaping and landing it with relative ease. The fact that she sprang over other rocks to get to it was more to impress the cub than anything else. "Well? Your turn again!"
He couldn't help but give a barely stifled laugh at the way the bigger lion stood crammed with all four paws on her small rock. A laugh that was cut short as she made her jump.
"Aw!" Mikaili gave a cryptic exclamation. He'd been hoping she wouldn't be able to do it, but the fact that she'd leapt so HIGH and over so many other rocks certainly didn't fail to impress him. He set his jaw and scrunched himself up on his rock, looking around for a good challenge. There... to his left was a rock he probably could reach and be jumping over another one in the process.
He eyeballed it, took aim and launched himself... and just -barely- managed to land without touching the water. As it was his tail flicked downward and dipped into the river, lifting quickly and flicking a spray of drops over his head. He turned and grinned at the stranger as though to say 'I'm just as good as you.' "Your turn!"
"You got wet!" she hummed, "but I guess it's not your paws so it doesn't count, right?" She didn't mind- rules were rules, "I'm impressed you jumped over a rock like that! You're very talented for someone so young." She looked around, trying to find another rock that was a good deal away so she could leap over others to get to it. Unfortunately, most of the rocks were too small for her, with the exception of one fairly close by. He probably would have had to jump for it, but with her much longer body it was simple to just walk on over to it and keep herself from getting wet.
"Do you think you'll be able to beat me when I don't even have to jump to all the rocks?" she asked with a teasing grin, keeping her tone light since she was talking to a cub. It was fun, she found, to play with cubs.
"Nuh-UH! It wasn't my paws!" He was very quick to give a shrill yell of protest. He only relaxed when she seemed to agree that since it wasn't his paws he didn't really lose.
He watched, his little jaw dropping as she casually stepped from one rock to the other, not touching the water and not falling off. He promptly sat down on his rock, scowling. "You're cheating! The game is that you have to jump!" For a hot moment he almost turned and hopped off in a huff, he didn't want to play with a cheater, especially when it wasn't fair. But if he did that he'd be on his own again and no one to play with. His mood still sour from her cheatery he stood back up and huffed. "I can still beat you." He jumped to the next rock, one that was pretty big, at least for him. If he took up the other big rocks then she'd have to jump on smaller ones.
"You have to jump though, okay? Otherwise I'm not playing with you anymore." He gave her a stern pout to further emphasize his words.
Kanzi laughed, watching the little cub make a fuss over her illegal move. So maybe she had been wrong to step across the rocks, but jumping would have been too hard! She would have over-shot the mark and landed right in the water. Still, she knew she couldn't win the game. When you played with cubs, the cubs always come out the victor in the end. That was just the natural order of things, really.
Who was she to mess with the order?
"If you can still beat me, prove it!" she hummed, watching him jump on one of the larger rocks. So he was playing dirty! That was alright. She knew he would feel proud if he managed to beat her now. "You're right, of course," she laughed, "I'll jump. Watch!" She found another rock, one too small for her, and sprang at it, making a show out of landing on it before her paws slipped and she collapsed into the water.
Mikaili gave a shout of triumph, laughing as he hopped from his rock to the next one and finally pounced into the water near the lioness with a big splash. He flailed a little bit until he found his footing, head ducking under once for a breathless moment that would have caused Mehta to have a heart attack were she here. He popped back up laughing.
"That was too tiny for you, why'd you jump on that one?" He lifted his chin as high as he could to keep his face out of the water, edging more towards the shore so he could stand properly. "Oh well. I won!" He lofted his tail triumphantly, finally reaching ground he could stand on without a struggle and turned to look at his new friend. "I'm Mika."
"I thought if you were jumping on the bigger ones, then it would only make sense for me to try jumping on the little ones. Like a switch, you know?" She asked, lying but figuring it would be harmless enough. She sat up in the water, shaking her head about to get some of the droplets free from her small mane. Lying in the low level of water had still managed to get her pretty wet.
She enjoyed the water very much, probably because she lived by the ocean.
"You did win! You're clearly much better at this game than I am." She got to her feet, moving out of the water after the cub. It was a lot easier for her to do so than the smaller cub. For a moment she even wanted to lift him out, though she imagined he wouldn't have liked the help. "My name is Kanzi! It's nice to meet you, Mika."
The cub flopped out of the water into the grass and rolled onto his back before rolling over onto his feet again and giving a full body shiver to get the water off. "Well I've been playing it longer than you. AND I did make it up. But you were really good at it, too." He lifted his head a little, giving a sidelong glance over towards Kanzi. "You... you were really cool when you jumped over all those rocks. When I'm big I'll be able to do that too."
He sat down, looking around to be sure he was still familiar with his surroundings before looking back over at the gray lioness. "Are you all alone?"
"Well thank you," she chuckled, giving her whole body a shake before moving closer to the other. No point getting him all wet so he'd be upset with her. They were finally starting to get a long a little bit. Though, cubs being haughty wasn't out-of-the-ordinary in her book. All kids liked to act that way from time to time. well, she never had, but most of the cubs she'd met so far seemed that way.
Didn't matter: she liked them anyway.
"Of course! And because you came up with the game, you'll be able to do it even better than I could." She sat down not far from him, smiling faintly at the question. "Oh, no, I live with lots of other lions, including my family. Other animals too! We all live together by he ocean. Do you know what the ocean is?"
Mika flopped down very close to her, looking up with a tilt of his head an an expression of intrigue. "I just live with Mehta-Mommy. But I've seen other lions around too. Lhach lives around here I think. But what's the ocean?" The word was funny, foreign, exotic. Just the sound of the word felt like it was something fun. "Oh-shun. What's it like?"
"It's a REALLY BIG pond, with water going out as far as you can see! But the water tastes really bad so you can't drink it. And if you swim out too far, the water will take you out and you won't be able to come back at all! But it's really pretty and fun to play in cause the water moves up and down the beach, where all this sand is. I love it there." She smiled just thinking about it.
"It's nice you live with your mommy. I love my mother very much! Though isn't your mommy going to get worried if you don't get back to her pretty soon?" She asked, hoping she wasn't keeping the cub from his family.
Mika had been about to ask what a 'pond' was when Kanzi described what it must be. He closed his eyes and tried to think of water that went out as far as he could see, opening them wide again in amazement. He imagined it being like a river that stretched all the way out to where the sun rose... that sounded more like what she was trying to tell him about. Especially with the fast water carrying you away.
"Wow... how does it move up and down? Is it like when you jump in the water and you make splashes?" It was a little hard to imagine what that might look like. At the mention of Mehta worrying over him he gave a little frown, glancing back towards the direction he knew their tree to be. "Uhm. Well... I don't think so. Maybe not..." His voice lowered a little in doubt. He didn't want to make her worry and if she started shouting for him like she usually did when he wasn't around it'd be kind of embarrassing.
How long had he been out playing? He couldn't really remember. Was the sun far away from where it'd been when he'd first headed out...? He squinted skyward, trying to tell.
"Yeah! But I guess there's something real big out there making all the splashing, cause it's a lot of water moving! I don't really know how it works, I just like living around there, you know?" She smiled, humming happily to herself for a moment as she thought about the ocean. Her home. Where her family probably sat wondering where she had gotten to. Maybe it was time for the both of them to leave and go home. "Well, I think it's time for me to go home. Why don't you head back to your mommy? Do you need me to walk with you? I don't mind if it's a little way off, I just want to make sure you get home alright." she got to her feet, watching the smaller animal. This was why she liked cubs- they were so easy to talk to.
Mika popped up to his feet, giving a little shake of his head. "No, I can get home by myself. I'm big enough!" He didn't sound offended by her offer. He was far too busy imagining the ocean, the big water with the splashes moving up and down on the sand to really be concerned with the fact that she thought he'd need help going home.
"Maybe I can see the Ocean someday. If I find it will you be there?" He began to pad towards the direction he needed to be heading, hesitating and going a little slower so he could hear her answer. She was nice enough, and he'd need someone to show him around the strange Ocean if he visited.
"Of course!" she said happily, "I'll be there and I'll show you the best things you can do in the ocean!" She didn't mind making promises that probably wouldn't come to pass- the young needed happy things to think about, didn't they? And if they did meet again it would make the moment all the more merry, so there was really no reason not to promise the little boy that she would be there.
He turned and started to leave, so she did the same, heading back the way she had come to get to her pride members. Her father would want to know what she did, though he knew she had her own life now. Part of living in a pride- family was always there. Another perk, in her opinion. She smiled, looking over her shoulder. "Bye Mika!" she said before
heading her own way again.
