[PRP] Twin Brothers (Masoka and Mazi)

[AnimeChickie]

Masoka laid out lazily on top of a rock soaking in the sun's rays. The pride had been quiet lately; since the war was over, everybody had readjusted to daily life in the pride. The cubs from the war were growing up and everything seemed peaceful so far. Though, there were a few disgruntled souls out there and Masoka was one of them. He tried to keep his thoughts to himself but it was difficult hiding things from his twin brother. They were much closer to each other than then rest of their siblings. The juve stretched tiredly before getting up and heading underneath a nearby tree. Looking up at it, Masoka placed his front two paws as far as he could reach up the tree and attempted to climb up it. He felt himself slowly slide down the trunk of the tree as his attempt failed.  

[Annchen]

Mazi didn't know what Mizimu'Tungika had been like during the war or before it, but older lions said it would keep getting better now. And since his life had been pretty good up until now, the future looked bright. One thing that could make it better would be to become a Sacrifice like Mom, but he tried not to speak too much about that. Yuusa had made sure they all knew to honour the Sacrifices of the pride, and he knew that such a revered position wouldn't be given to just anyone who wanted it.

He wondered if Masoka would want to talk about it. They talked about most things but he didn't think his twin felt the same desire to become a Sacrifice. If he did, he didn't talk about it as much as Mazi had done when he was just a little cub.

It was nice to lie in the sun, but when he heard his brother get up he opened one eye to see what he was doing and if it was worth joining in. Masoka's failed tree climbing operation was enough to get him moving.

"You can't climb a tree like that," he said and swatted at Masoka's tail with his paw, "Do you need a push?"  

[AnimeChickie]

He was still young but Masoka had observed a lot of different things about the pride. Sacrifices were revered but he felt that there was something wrong about the whole set up. He knew his mother always told him that being a sacrifice was good but from the beginning, he always knew that something was wrong. Yuusa cared about him so much and she had always taken care of him. It wasn't that Masoka didn't love her but he always felt that there was something missing from his life. At least his brother and siblings would always be there for him...

Masoka slid down to the bottom of the tree and noticed his brother swatting his tail. He shook his head and responded, "It's okay. I'll get up there someday." He liked doing things on his own and it would give him some sort of goal to reach by the time he was an adolescent. Dropping down to the bottom of the tree trunk, Masoka sat on his haunches next to his twin brother. "What have you been up to?"

He wondered what his mother and other siblings had been doing lately. Masoka had a habit of disappearing for a days at a time but he always came home and he never wandered too close to the borders. Masoka liked spending his time hunting and honing his skills because he hoped that he could use these skills to be useful someday.  

[Annchen]

The tree was tempting, especially after Masoka's failure, but Mazi resisted the temptation to try to climb it. Instead he started to claw at the bark in an attempt to sharpen his growing claws.

"Oh, nothing much," Mazi said, "Been at home and with the minders... Oh, and we went to see some of Mom's sacrifice friends yesterday."

It was evident from his tone of voice and his perked up ears that he had really enjoyed the visit. Mazi was perhaps a bit star struck when it came to the Sacrifices of the pride, but he himself didn't see it that way. They were supposed to be honoured by the rest of the pride, so a bit of hero worship was clearly in order.

"We couldn't find you to ask if you wanted to come so we went anyway," he said and frowned, "Mom worries, you know?"

He knew Masoka liked to wander the pride lands on his own, and he had started to get used to it. In the beginning it had felt so wrong not to know where his twin was. He didn't share the same connection with his younger brothers so it didn't bother him when one of them went off to play alone. He supposed it might be an older brother thing, the wandering.  

[AnimeChickie]

Nodding mindlessly, Masoka really did care about his family but he always felt out of place when he was with them. He liked wandering around and coming home as he pleased. It let him decide when how much time he spent with them and made sure they didn't irritate him too much. He wasn't surprised that they went to see Yuusa's sacrifice friends and that Mazi had seemed unusually enthusiastic about it. Masoka had tried his best to sound indifferent about the sacrifices in the pride but after so much time, it was hard to pretend any longer.

"I was around." Looking up at the tree, he really wanted to be able to climb it someday. Their mom worried about him a lot but it was a little more depressing when he heard his brother say it. Masoka had always felt bad about making his mother worry but he knew what he needed to do... "I know she is. I'm okay though."  

[Annchen]

"I know," Mazi said, sensing his brother's unease without really knowing what he was thinking, "I think Mothers are supposed to worry about everything. I swear, she's worse than the minders about some things."

Mazi liked spending time with the minders, for the most part, but some of them could be a bit much. But it was always fun to meet the other young members of the pride to play and learn. If that meant having to deal with the occasional overprotective minder he was willing to pay the price.  

[AnimeChickie]

Masoka nodded slightly and responded, "I know. I'll try to come home more often so that you guys don't worry about me too much." He was a relatively independent cub regardless of whether he wanted to see his family or not so it wasn't unusual for him to want to explore as much as he could. There was a lot out there in the world and he wanted to do as much as he could before he was tied down to his pride duties.

"Don't worry though. I'm careful and don't go beyond our pride's lands. What's been going on at home?" Looking at his twin curiously, Masoka did wonder what his siblings were up to.  

[Annchen]

"Not much more than that I guess," Mazi said, "I almost caught a cricket but then mom called and it got away. The hunters brought Zebra for us yesterday... Did you get any of that? And Sefu and Serifa are so boring to play with, but it'll be more fun now!"

There wasn't really a big difference in the maturity or size of his littermates, but since Mazi knew he was second oldest he felt there was a difference. They were older; him and Masoka, and they were twins. Naturally he had more in common with his twin brother than with the babies of the litter. Never mind the fact that they were as big, if not bigger than him. They would always be his baby brothers, no matter how big their paws were.

They did have a lot of fun playing together as cubs, and all the brothers could still play all day long sometimes, but when Mazi talked to his big brother he tended to forget about that... He itched to come up with something fun to do, just the two of them. No mothers or pesky brothers allowed!

"Do you want to do something now?"  

[AnimeChickie]

"That's cool. Crickets are fun to play around with because if you step on the ground right next to them, they jump away. I saw the zebra and came home really quickly to eat. I left right away though and why will it be more fun to play with them now?" Masoka loved his younger siblings very much but even though there was essentially no age difference, he always felt like he was the big brother and he had to take care of them. That was the same with his twin brother though.

There was definitely a part of Masoka that greatly missed playing around with his brothers and having no cares in the world. It would be difficult to go back now. He had too much to worry about, too much to think about. He wanted and needed the space even though he missed his brothers' companionship very much. He welcomed the idea of doing something with Mazi right now. "Yeah, sure. I've been thinking about exploring the borders a bit more or going to bother the minders some more. Is there anything you've been wanting to do?"  

[Annchen]

Mazi didn't point out his brothers misunderstanding. Playing with his kid brothers would be as boring as ever, but he had assumed that Masoka would stay for a while and that they would play. But since Masoka was up for doing stuff now he didn't feel the need to embarrass himself by letting Masoka know how much he had missed him. Missing people was something girls and cubs did. And he was neither, even if he didn't feel grown up enough to do a lot of wandering on his own. But admitting that was not cool, so he didn't...

"That sounds great," Mazi said with obvious glee, and then realised that he should probably pick one of the two options, "Um... I dunno, explore perhaps?"

It sounded dangerous and fun and dangerous, but as long as Masoka was beside him he was up for anything. Exploring was probably less dangerous than Mazi imagined since the outer patrols made it very unlikely for them to get far enough to get in real trouble. But since he had a very fuzzy idea of what the various claw members did when they weren't sparring or hanging around, Mazi was trembling with anticipation of this big adventure. This would be great!