On a warm afternoon a bright green lion could be spotted wandering the lands of her pride, while most of her coat blended in quite well, the purple tuff of hair on her head and swaying tail easily gave her position away. It was a particularly quiet day in the Chatri Clan, and with Dauna ever quickly growing she was becoming more eager to introduce herself to pride members outside her own family.
Her mother talked often about the vibrant colors that the other lions in the pride had. For the most part the Chatri was made up for greens and purples and pinks, so while beautiful.. it was still a limited color pallaet for sure.
Her grey eyes wandered, but was unable to find a companion she was so desperately looking for. Undetered, Dauna continued her search.
Kupakwasha, Kupa to all but his grandmother when she was angry, padded along the trail with a soft hum and a sunny smile. For a male of the Kunanda, he was scarily massive, easily towering over the largest of his sisters by two full heads. As a mere juve, he already outweighted many of the adolascent females and promised to be even bigger once fully grown.
Thankfully for all, the only thing bigger than his physically size, was the size of the males heart. His whole world revolved around making people, espcially females happy, a trait that made him a darling of his family. Always eager to lend his bulk to one of his sisters hairbrained schemes, it was rare for him to be alone. Today though was just one of those rare days it seemed.
The female stopped dead in her tracks, one of her paws still in the air mid-step. Dauna's eyes darted straight ahead of her, a bright red.. rather large creature in the distance was making it's way into her line of sight. The colors hinted her off that this male was most likely a member of the pride, just was she was looking for! However, in the back of her usually blissfully ignorant mind.. she realized that maybe not all lions in the pride were as friendly as the ones in her clan.
Still, she thought to herself, if she approached him with friendliness and confidence what could go wrong?
Dauna let out a roar, trying to call out to him incase he hadn't seen her. She began to sprint towards him, and realized that this "dot" was becoming bigger and bigger as she drew closer to him. She came to a stop only a few yards away from him heavily panting and gawking at his size. The male seemingly towered over her.
"Why.. hello." Is all she could think of saying.
He smiled at her brightly, "Well hello!" Oh yay! A new person! Kupa loved everyone, it was just the big male's way. Luckily he had never met anyone cruel yet so his happy go lucky nature was still firmly intact. He immedatly sat/hunched down trying to make himself smaller and put his head below hers. It was not because he was submissive, thought he was, it was just he knew his size made soome people look at him odd.
Dauna watched the male quickly change his posture, and was quickly reassured that any fears she had were misplaced. She twitched her tail and after moving closer sat down to learn more about this curious lion. "I'm Dauna from the Chatri Clan. I haven't met many males outside of my brother..." Which was true, but she had never met any other females either. "So I hope you don't mind me asking..." Her front paws shuffled a bit from under her, dragging out her question only to loudly blurt it out.
"Are all males where you are from so big!?"
His ears laid down as he looked down at his feet. So she was another that was scared of his size, " No lady...i'm not normal..." It made him somewhat ashamed that he was so different than the other males in the pride, but for all of his size, Kupa was barely more than a cub.
Dauna's eyes widened at the sight of this big male looking rather down at her questioning his size, maybe she could have phrased her question a bit better. "Uh, oh shoot." She pondered for a moment as the male looked ashamed. "What I meant to say was are all males you are from so bi..burr.. bright. Your coat color is very bright, and I was just wondering if there is a whole clan out there with such handsome looking males." Dauna leaned in closer and nodded to him. It was a long shot if he would actually believe her, but the last thing she was expecting was to hurt this big guys feelings. "Sorry about that, sometimes I'm hard to understand!"
His smile brightened quickly as he looked back up at her, " I am the brightest colored of my litter!" He had no idea why it was important but it had made his mother happy and that was all the mattered to him.
Dauna let out of a sigh of relief to see that the male took her explanation to heart. She would have been rather upset with herself if she had so quickly ruined her first shot at a potential friendship with someone outside of her clan. "Brightest of your bunch, huh? Well with that coat, I believe it!" She seemed to have stumbled upon a subject that he enjoyed talking about this time, she was on a roll now.
"So does your family live nearby?" She stood up and looked around to see if any other lions where around. To be quiet honest, Dauna wasn't sure of how far away from home she was herself, but she would deal with finding her way home later.
"We live near here, I just like to go to the waterfall by myself when I can. It's nice there and I love the water." His smile was bright and easy now as he gazed at the older female. She was pretty and seemed really sweet!
"You like the water, and you go to the waterfall all by yourself?" Her ears twitched, he was a lot more independent than she had ever dared to be.
Speaking of the waterfall... that's the place her family goes all the time to drink. Not realizing the rumbling in the distance should have hinted her off to where she was in relation to her home. Dauna came to grips with the fact that maybe she hadn't wandered off as far away as she had hoped. She had a lot to learn about these lands for sure.
He flashed her a guilty look when she meantioned being by himself. "Uh...wellll...."
"..Hmm?" The green lioness tilted her head to the side at the males odd hesitation to answer her question. "What did you do, sneak away or something?" She said playfully.
Again he hunched down, looking at his toes "yes ma'am." If there was one thing his mother taught him it was to be respectful.
Dauna couldn't' help but let out a giggle at the males confession. Although he was large, she took a good look at him and realized that he was still pretty young. "Well I'll let you in on a little secret..." She paused and spoke quietly, as if her mother or one of her older sisters would hear her. "This is actually my first time away from my family."
He blinked up at her then smiled shy, but happy. Oh good, she wouldn't tell on him! He really didn't think momma would mind him going to the waterfall alone...but she worried about all of them so much.
he female smiled back at him, and looked up towards the sky. It was getting late already.. Dauna wanted to explore, but she didn't want to be making her way home in the dark. This was such a nice lion though, she hated to part ways so soon. "I'm sorry if this sounds rude, but I really should be getting back." Her head sort of bowed down as she spoke. "It was really fun to meet you though, maybe we'll run into each other some other time at the waterfall!"
"I would like that!" He beamed happily standing up again his head just slightly about the older females. "I should get back too before momma misses me! Bye bye nice lady!"
The green lioness gave a nod to the male, and turned around to make her way home. After awhile, Dauna realized she hadn't caught his name. "Uh wait, excuse me!" She turned back around and in hopes that he hadn't gone too far.. but he was no where in sight. "Well.. maybe next time."
