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 Posted: Fri Aug 06, 2010 9:53 pm
 Oh what a lovely day it was! The sun was shining, but not too brightly, there was a fine layer of dew coating the grass, and it was rather quiet. It was still early in the day, and Iolana had decided to go out looking for flowers to bring home to his dearest mother.
The little white and pink cub bounded through the grass, humming happily to himself as he searched. His family wasn't terribly far off, but he was beginning to stray a bit farther than usual. He used to never leave his mother's side, but nowadays he was determined to do something nice for her whenever possible rather than simply clinging to her leg all the time. It was worth going a little while without seeing her to get to watch her face light up with joy when she saw his wonderful gift!
Now if only he could find some flowers.
The little things were being particularly elusive today, especially because Iolana had yet to learn the best places to find them, and usually just found them by accident. In fact, he was heading in completely the wrong direction, but he didn't know that. He could search for hours without becoming discouraged, and so he would. Anything for his wonderful mother.
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Posted: Fri Aug 06, 2010 10:30 pm
Nkiruka had just finished her bath time, and was sitting nearby with an incredibly bored expression on her dark little face, watching her Mother bathe her siblings. A few times she almost fell asleep while sitting there, but she managed, however barely, to stay conscious. Her yawn was interrupted when she heard some rustling through the grass nearby, and out of the corner of her eye she thought she saw something white and pink move past her. Hum...curious!
Ears perked and tail swaying behind her, she cast a glance at her family to make sure they were busy...and then slipped away from the group, bounding into the grass to stalk the thing that wandered past. Of course, she could see it now; it was a cub! Pffft, another pale one...but oh well, it was still playmate material! Someone who wasn't one of her brothers!
Ruka stalked the poor thing, crouching just low enough to just barely see him over the grass. She had yet to master the art of stalking silently though, and the longer she trailed him, the more she started to giggle.
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Posted: Fri Aug 06, 2010 10:47 pm
Iolana was wandering in a fairly unpredictable pattern, zigzagging all around. As a result, he thought he saw something dark in his peripheral vision once or twice, but he paid it no mind. He simply kept on searching through the grass for anything brightly colored and nice-smelling.
At least, until he started to hear something behind him.
"Who's laughing at me?" He spun around and quickly found the source. "Oh! Hello there!" He thought it might have been one of his siblings, his 'competition', so to speak, for his mother's attention, but this one was clearly not related to him. She must not be so bad, even if she was following him and laughing at him.
"What's your name?" He asked, still glancing around for flowers, but finding none. "You're in the pride, right?"
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Posted: Fri Aug 06, 2010 10:57 pm
Ruka stood up straight when the pale cub turned and called out to her, her ears pinned back in a rather animated look of dismay. Awww maaaaaan~! You weren't s'posed to notice!" She whined, blowing a puff of air up at her little black tuft of hair. Apparently she didn't realize how bad she was at stalking. "I wasn't laughing!" She clarified, bouncing through the grass to wander closer. "I was stalking." Her head tilted a bit, sitting down with a disappointed huff. Aww man, her game was over!
"Nkiruka! Everyone calls me 'Ruka', though. Uhh...Yeah! The Intaba...umbi..." Her nose wrinkled, trying to spit out the pride's name and thus far, failing miserably. "Yeah, the pride!" Her disappointment started fading away once she realized he was looking for something, and ever so slowly her ears started to perk up again. "Whats your name? Whattcha looking around for?"
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Posted: Fri Aug 06, 2010 11:03 pm
"Oh!" He gasped, partly because he felt bad for ruining her game, but mostly from the sudden appearance of her brilliant blue markings. He had only seen the top of her head and her eyes at first, and the blue was startling. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to notice you!" He blushed, not sure of what to do. "I can pretend not to notice if you want." He stared blankly at her for a minute. "It sounded like laughing." He frowned, "But I'm not good at stalking, so I dunno." He shrugged, trying to regain his composure and not stare at her blue triangles and lines under her eyes.
"Nice to meet you, Ruka." He smiled, trying not to laugh at her inability to say the pride's name. He couldn't say it either, so who was he to judge? "I'm Iolana'Nafsi!" He said proudly, "Everyone calls me Iolana, or just Io." He flicked his tail. He loved his name, especially the meaning. 'To soar like a hawk'... His mother must have high expectations for him!
"I'm lookin' around for flowers! I want to give my mama a present!" He said happily, "Do you know where to find some?"
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Posted: Sat Aug 07, 2010 12:08 am
"It's okaaay...Guess it just means you're real good at this game." Ruka decided and admitted with a bit of a grumble; she had been totally unsuccessful so far in surprising anyone! Her Brothers, this new cub...she had to get better at it, if she was going to be a proper Big Sister! "You're Weird." Her dark head tilted when he seemed to stare at her, squinting at him for a moment as though scrutinizing his odd behaviour...but then it clicked. This cub must be like her Mother! Suddenly she understood. It was okay though, not many people knew how to act around her, because she was so dark. "But it's okay! I like you." She decided with a firm nod, hoping that was enough to calm his insecurities.
"Nice ta'meetcha, Io." Ruka giggled, standing up only to move right beside him, sitting herself back down. She sat with a rather straight posture for someone so young, and her ears perked as she looked around. Flowers, really? There weren't any here! "Uhm...Innit the patch of flowers over there?" A dark paw raised, pointing to the other end of their Pride's lands.
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Posted: Sat Aug 07, 2010 8:47 am
Game? What game? Iolana had no idea that they had been playing anything, but perhaps that was the point. "That's good, I'm not very good at most games." He smiled for a moment, then made an odd face again as she called him weird. Was that a bad thing?
Apparently not. "I like you too!" He said excitedly, "It's nice to meet a new friend!" He wiggled his toes absentmindedly. This was his first friend outside of his own family! How exciting!
"What?" Iolana looked in the direction that she pointed, squinting. He couldn't see them from here. "All the way over there?" He stood up on his hind legs to get a better view. He couldn't tell if he could see a bright patch over there or not before he flopped over; lions were not made to stand on their hind legs, after all.
"Oof..." He stood back up quickly, shaking himself off. "Well, do you want to come with me? I really want to get some flowers!"
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Posted: Sat Aug 07, 2010 11:41 pm
Ruka grinned, lightly leaning against Io. "You're my first friend!" She said proudly, as though it would mean something incredibly important to her new buddy.
"My Brother's don't count!" She informed him, in case he didn't get it the first time. When Io went to stare at the direction she pointed, she giggled with a nod of her little head. "Yeah! I remember, they smelled really really pretty." Purring at the memory, she was actually startled when he moved, and then toppled over; she was leaning against him, after all!
Laughing, she climbed back onto her paws and pranced around him in one full circle before hopping in front, facing him and starting to walk backwards. "Okay! I'll race you, Io!" She let out a playful little growl, pacing eagerly in front of him before running into the grass, heading towards the field of flowers.
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Posted: Sun Aug 08, 2010 8:38 am
"Really?" Iolana beamed, "You're my first friend too! Except for my family of course." And as she had already stated, they didn't count. Brothers and sisters had no choice but to be your friend. Or at least to tolerate you.
Race? What did she mean race? OH. Who can get there first! "Yeah, I'll race you too!" He yelled excitedly, chasing after her as quickly as his little legs would carry him. Unfortunately for him, that wasn't very fast. Maybe it was because he was clumsy, or maybe he just wasn't a very fast runner, but try as he might Iolana wasn't able to catch up with Ruka. She always stayed a few steps ahead of him.
"Ahhhh... Ahhhh... Choo!" Iolana sneezed dramatically as a bit of tall grass tickled his nose, causing him to stumble and fall over again mid-stride. He sniffled as he stood up, trying to get the odd tickling sensation out of his nose before he started to follow Ruka again, this time with his nose held high in the air to keep the grass out.
He looked a bit silly, but he didn't really care.
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Posted: Mon Aug 09, 2010 8:33 pm
"Reallyreally!" Ruka chirped back, perking up excitedly when Io admitted to being in the same position. Really?! Yay! The race began, and while Ruka was more than a little awkward with running through the grass, she had plenty of practice under her from playing with her siblings, and that was apparently enough to keep Io behind her.
His sneeze made her yelp and stumble a bit, but she righted herself with a giggle, looking over her shoulder at him to make a face. "Eeeew! Excuse you~" She teased, her expression lighting up when she saw the way he decided to walk; aww, that was hilarious! "You look like a flower!" He did! His little white snout over the grass, with little hints of pink? Totally a flower.
Speaking of Flowers! Ruka looked in front of her again, just in time to see the flower patch. Hoping he hadn't noticed yet, she skidded to a halt and bounded back the few steps to pounce playfully on Io, trying to cover his eyes from the sight of the pretty things. "Guess what I found!" She purred out excitedly, lightly gumming at his little pink tuft of fur.
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Posted: Mon Aug 09, 2010 8:45 pm
"What?" Iolana giggled, "I don't look like a flower! I look like a lion!" He lowered his head to look at Ruka, but no sooner had he done so than he was on the ground face up, with Ruka over him, making it nearly impossible to see.
"Uhm..." Iolana wasn't too sharp, at least not yet, and had no idea what his friend had found. "Your family? My family?" He stared up at her with a look of confusion. He hated guessing games, because he was just so terrible at them. "Something really special?"
He squirmed a bit in an attempt to get out from under her, pulling his head away playfully to try to keep her from chewing on it any more. He would never openly admit it, but he was very particular about how his 'mane' looked, even at this young age. "I give up, Ruka." He laughed, swatting at her lightly, "Tell me what it is!"
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Posted: Mon Aug 09, 2010 9:00 pm
"Floooower!" Nkiruka insisted, laughing as she managed to pin him to the ground. His responses made her stop laughing and just stare at him like he'd grown a second head that was making faces at her. "Whaaaat? No, My Mama's doin bath time! You're weird." She giggled out again, removing her paws from his eyes. "But it is something really special!" The tuft gumming thwarted, Ruka settled for lightly biting on his cheek, making a general nuisance of herself.
Well, right up until he swatted at her. "Ooof!" With an overdramatic gasp, Ruka rolled off of Io and onto the ground beside him, making a big show of being 'defeated'. She rolled from side to side for a moment, but eventually gave up and lay sprawled out on her back, giggling happily. This was fun!
"I'll give ya a hint; gotta look that way!" A paw lifted, pointing in the direction of the flowers.
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Posted: Mon Aug 09, 2010 9:07 pm
Iolana shook his head as she continued to insist that he was a flower. He wasn't, as nice as that might be. But then again, if her were a flower, maybe lions would come along and pick him up all the time. Maybe that part wouldn't be that great. "Bath time...." He wasn't sure if he was supposed to be disgusted by that idea or not. He liked bath time because it was time with mother, but his siblings didn't seem like they liked it as much. Maybe he was weird.
He sprung to his feet as Ruka rolled on the ground, suddenly looking panicked. "Are you alright? Did I hurt you? I'm so sorry!" He paced back and forth in front of her for a bit until she started to giggle. Oh. She was kidding.
He knew that.
"That way?" Iolana turned his head and almost instantly saw the flowers he had been looking for. "Oh! Flowers!" All the pieces suddenly fit together in his head and he felt rather silly, but he'd have time for that later. For now, it was time to pick some pretty flowers! He bounded into the flower patch excitedly and began examining them, looking to find only prettiest and most perfect flowers to bring to mother.
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Posted: Mon Aug 09, 2010 9:20 pm
Nkiruka usually just put up with bath time. She liked being clean on most days, but she'd rather not take time out of her busy schedule to do it. A cub's life was a busy one; it involved an ability to multi task! There was a whole world out there that needs to be examined, after all! Lots of bugs to be caught, flowers to be smelt, little rodents to be pounced on. Yup, a cub's work is never done.
"I'm fine!" She burst out laughing, rolling onto her side and pawing at her nose in an attempt to quiet her giggles. Io was so silly! So very silly. It was great, she'd never met someone like him before! Her brothers were really rough and tumble, he was sweet and weird.
"Why d'you wanna get your Mama flowers?" Ruka sprung to her feet, bounding after Io to go look at them. She wasn't going to pick them, but she was going to sniff at them, and maybe try to eat one or two of them...
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Posted: Mon Aug 09, 2010 9:30 pm
"I knew that..." Iolana blushed as Ruka stated that she was, in fact, unharmed. "I just wanted to make sure." He giggled before continuing to look at the flowers. Decisions decisions... This one was so pretty but then again the ones over there look nice too, and they all smell so nice. He couldn't make up his mind!
Iolana was surprised by her question. "Why wouldn't anyone want to bring their mother flowers?" He stared at her blankly. "I mean, I don't know about yours, but my mother is the best lioness in the world! I love my mother more than anyone in the whole world!" Not that it was saying much, since he didn't know very many lions outside of his own family, and none of them were particularly important to him except for perhaps Ruka, now.
"I like to bring pretty things to mother, she gets all happy and tells me how sweet it is." He smiled, "She looks so proud of me when I do nice things."
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