Ithunzi’lusizi enjoyed his time about the pride without his mother’s supervision. It was a freedom he seldom got when she was around. Not that Alaia was a bad mother, far from it. It was simply that she always wanted them nearby, when all Unzi ever wanted was to go exploring. He was a boy, after all, it’s what they were supposed to be doing. The boys explored and the girls learned how Umbikezeli performed their craft, in case one day they were gifted with the sight. That was unless the pride already knew the parents could not produce gifted cubs, or something like that.
Unzi didn’t pay much mind when his mother attempted to teach him the history of their pride. It wasn’t something he really wanted to learn. What good was history when it didn’t protect his family, or put food on the table? That’s was his train of thought, anyway. To be a man to Unzi meant being able to protect his family and provide for them. Being without a father and one of the youngest in the litter left quite a big impression on the cub when he watched how the Kabaila’umbikezeli interacted with her children.
It was true those cubs also didn’t have a father in their lives, but they had their grandfather, and they knew who their Dad was. He wasn’t even sure the name of his own father. Dur-something. He’d have to ask his mother again, but that was beside the point. The Kabaila’umbikezeli’s cubs had a regular family unit; Mother, children and father, even though their ‘father’ wasn’t really their Dad. He longed for that sometimes. Any male presence in his life that wasn’t one of his siblings was superb to the little cub.
Unzi flared his nostrils in annoyance and decided something needed to be messed with. Usually he’d chase after one of the other cubs, giving the Nannies great concern in whether or not he himself was gifted. Males couldn’t be gifted and he knew this. Males that were, were generally driven out of the pride or killed. The Nannies said something about male Seers being violent and vicious. He didn’t think himself violent or vicious, and he certainly didn’t have their pride’s gift. He just had too much energy for his own good.
Spotting his target, Unzi began to crawl towards a brightly pink colored flower. It was sitting far off from the other flowers in the area. He knew they held some significance but he couldn’t recall at the moment what it was for. He would probably have to pay attention next time the subject came up. That pretty pink flower was a perfect target for his pouncing.
Unzi waited patiently, starring at the flower as he slowly crept up on it. He was supposed to stalk his prey before he pounced on it, as he recalled. His mother had taught him the basics of hunting before she was to drop him and his siblings off at the day-care and resume her duties as a Umbikezeli. Some days she would leave early and come to spend time with him and his siblings, never having a vision. Other days he wouldn’t see her till dusk, or some time past that. It fluctuated constantly.
It seemed like it took Unzi minutes to creep up on the unsuspecting flower until he was within a good range of attack. Inhaling deeply, Unzi launched himself from off his feet with his back legs and began the sprint. Normally prey would run and the chase would begin, but since Unzi was hunting down an immobile plant, the chase didn’t last as long as he had anticipated. He was practically ontop of the pink plant when he went in for the pounce, cupping the top of the flower in between his paws and face planting into the dirt with it.
He gave the flower a growl and began to kick his feet at it, little back claws shredding the stalk of the plant to mere shreds within minutes. The clasped head of the flower was promptly inserted into Unzi’s mouth as he began to bite it, simulating the strangle hold he was use to suffocate his prey while on the hunt. That was until the seeping liquids of the plant came in contact with Unzi’s mouth and caused an expression of absolute disgust to form on the little boy’s face.
“Eww, gross!” Unzi exclaimed, spitting up whatever he could from his mouth and feeling the churning of his stomach as it began to give way to a bought of vomiting.
Unzi’s mind raced with thoughts of possibly having chewed on something poisonous as he vomited up the bare minimal contents of his stomach. He didn’t feel like he was dying, but the horrible taste that had caused him to vomit could be masking the possible danger to his health.
Panic stricken and no longer wishing to ever hunt pink flowers again, Unzi gave off the highest shriek ever recorded for a juvenile male in the pride and started crying as her ran to the side of one of the Nannies. He didn’t want to die! He wanted to live! He had his family to protect, and pretty pride women to court, or whatever boys were supposed to be doing when they got older!
Fumbling as he came up to the side of one of the Nannies, Unzi’s tear soaked eyes blinked a couple of times as his mouth opened to reveal mile a minute speech pouring out of it, “I-I was practicing my hunting and I saw this pink flower and I thought it would be the best target for my practice and so I went and stalked after it for several minutes, than I went and sprinted for it and after that I pounced it and kick it and than I bit the top of the flower’s head and it tasted awful and than I BARFED EVERYWHERE and now I’m going to die aren’t I?”
Word Count: 1000
