Welcome to Gaia! ::

Jowy groaned as sunlight broke through the small shelter into his eyes. The underpass wasn't exactly full cover, but other than sunlight and the occassional breeze, there wasn't too much need for having a full shelter for the cubs. Taban had the area secure enough and those of the troupe were almost constantly on patrol for rogues and hostiles. As far as he knew, the world was a completely safe, if overly so, place to live.

If only it was a little less bright...

He groaned and batted at the air, as if he could somehow shoo the sunlight away. As he increased his efforts the blissful fog of sleep slowly lifted, leaving him fully awake and fully agitated. Groaning, the cub rolled over onto his belly and rubbed his eyes with the back of his paws.

Huali was still sound asleep for the most part. A fidget here and there was visuable as he stirred about in dream world. Occassionally you could hear him even moan some sort of none sence about to many birds attacking or some other obscure thing. He was in bliss though.

A bird flew over head crying out over head. Huali squeezed his eyes shut tighter and swiped at the air. He couldn't see what he was swipping at much like some one reaching out blindly to turn off their alarm. If their alarm had wings and could fly way out of reach that is. The cub tossed to his side in frustration continuing to squeeze his eyes shut as hard as he could.

Another bird passed over head giving out another cry. That was it. Huali rolled to his paws and got up slowly. He'd been defeated by the mighty birds cry and now he was damned to be up for the rest of the day.

Not a bad thing though. Jowy was up to. Huali padded on over to his brother with a huge smile spread across his maw.

"Jowy!" He chirped.

Jowy opened his mouth in a long, loud yawn. He slowly rolled himself forward into his shoulders, his claws stretching out as his spine stretched and popped. Slowly, he rolled himself forward and kicked his hind legs out one then the other behind him. After stretching himself down to his toes and giving a few short snaps of his tail, Jowy settled back onto his haunches.

His eyes still half-lidded he turned to his brother and offered him a sleepy smile. "You too, huh? We need to find somewhere more shaded to sleep from now on."

He sighed and began licking the back of his paw. Normally, their dad came around to groom up their coats but he wasn't around that morning. Perhaps he'd be more willing to listen to their request for a more suitable shelter if they made themselves presentable that morning.

Huali grinned at that. The cheeton agreed with his brother a more reclusive spot would be nice.

Another bird flew over head giving out a loud caaawww over head. Huali's head shot up with a glare in his eyes.

"Maybe some where with less birds too," He stuck his tongue up at the bird as it passed. That would teach them to be making noise when he was still sleepy.

Jowy lowered his paw back to the ground and slowly inched his way to the edge of their den. He blinked hard as the sun's glare blared through the open grassland. Lifting a paw to block out the worst of it, he scanned the surrounding area for members of their troupe. Nearby, Fakhir was laying out, his eyes sharply scanning the horizonline. Lucia was likely very close by as well.

"We have to sneak." He pointed over towards the hyena guard and then back to Huali meaningfully. "He'll make us to go time out."

Huali gave his brother a wink like he understood perfectly fine. Just one paw in front of the other. Slowly he inched forward trying his best not to be so obvious that he was there. This was hard for the young cub though. He really wanted to show off to his brother in some fashion while sneaking but another part of him told him that would get the two of the busted.

Oh god.. so hard.... Huali bit his lip and continued to inch forward. This wasn't as cool as he had planned out in his head earlier.

Jowy, on the other hand, was patient. Even in his youth, he'd never been the type to rush into anything. He'd been perfectly content, some days, to lay on his back and watch the sky, finding shapes in the clouds or daydreaming of the day he and his brothers would take their places in their father's unit. The things they'd accomplish!

Jowy froze, a flash of horror moving through his eyes as he looked over to his brother. Oh no...

"Huali, don't-" he reached a paw out, intent on stopping his brother. Too late. His other sibling raced out, bellowing his 'war cry' (which in his opinion badly needed work). He brought his paw to his forehead before bolting forward. Might as well...Fakhir couldn't get both of them, could he?

Fakhir whirled around, up on his paws in an instant. With a sharp growl and a flash of his dangerous teeth, the hyena bolted forward after Huali- the first offender. He snapped his eyes to the side, tagging Jowy in his sight before picking his paws up into a full gallop forward. "Oh no you don't!"

Huali was pleased now that the chase had begun. The ground beneath his paws sturdied him as his long legs worked. The power of a lion and the speed of a cheetah really seemed to work together in harmony.

However.

Huali's eyes were not where they needed to be for his stunt. No, he was busy watching Fakhir and Jowy. The cubs eyes needed to be front and center because if they were he'd probably had evaded the rock in his way. But no. The rock hit his paw in just the right angle causing him to tumble to the ground face first.

Sure this all happened so fast and he was quickly back on his feet but the wise a** of a cheeton paid for it with the time he needed to make up to regain the speed.

Jowy threw a look over his shoulder, eyes going wide. Fakhir had already broken into a full-on run. He'd seen the hyena training, and while he wasn't much on endurence, he'd done very well in speed and agility. Swallowing hard, Jowy picked up his own pace, "OH NO. OH NO. OH NOOOO!"

"RUN JOWY RUN!" The wind lion called out to his brother. He hoped that he escaped. Even in Fakhirs jaws the little wind lion had to admit this was just to much fun. Oh he knew he was in trouble though. It wouldn't be fun once this chase was over.

Worth it? Yeah.