Today was an important day. Dongo stood on a small hill(Really, something of a glorified mole hill), enjoying the sunny morning. He inhaled deeply, smiling broad. Today, he was going to have a serious talk with his son. Key word, SON. So far, he had been unable to pull Rajeev away from his sisters and mother to let him know that, no, he wasn't weird for feeling not right about being called a girl. He was a boy, and he needed to know this good and well. "Rajeev, come here."
The brown cub, distracted by a savanna butterfly, looked up from his play, blinking. A smile spreading on his face, he bounced over and rubbed around his father's leg. "Yes, daddy?" Blue eyes glimmered as he looked up, ever his father's eyes. Sitting down, he wondered just what this one-on-one chat was about. It had to be something special, if it didn't involve his three sisters. Maybe it was about the fact they were all so colorful and he was so... Plain. Quite a bit like Daddy, after all!
Dongo cringed, rather visibly, at being called 'daddy' by his son. "Rajeev, please don't call me 'daddy'... Just call me 'dad'. It's less... Odd..." Shifting so that he could, he sat down behind the cub. "I bet you want to know why I brought you here, away from your mother and sisters." He leaned down, smiling at the cub. "We'll just let them have some 'girl time', without us boys, okay?"
Rajeev looked at his father oddly, getting up and stepping away. Turning to face the gold lion, he tilted his head, one ear lifted and one ear back. "Boys...? What's that supposed to mean...? That I'm a tomboy?" He DID rather like to rough and tumble a bit more than his sisters, after all. "Or is it because I'm an ugly brown where my sisters are prettier colors?" It was true, they were decorated in pink, purple, blue, and green. And Rajeev was... Brown and white.
"No." Dongo sighed, ears folding back into his mane and vanishing. "Rajeev, your mother is... Well, a bit MISTAKEN about you... See, she grew up in a pride where there were no boys. So when we met as adolescents... I was the youngest male she'd met." He wasn't mentioning the fact her old pride had been attacked by males, so he was also the first NICE male she'd met. All in the span of roughly a month, to boot. "She's never seen a male younger than adolescent, as it were."
The cub took on an even more confused look. "So... Then... I'm... A boy?" Was that why he felt odd being called a girl? Rajeev sat down, considering the words. It led him to something. "If Mommy--" He paused. "Mama... Is from a pride of all girls... Why did she leave?" He tilted his head. "Why did you two come here? Were YOU always here, and went out to find her?" Was his father a Seer? Gifted to See things? It would be fascinating if he was!
The adult shook his head, reaching over with a paw and ruffling Rajeev's hair. "You'd have to ask your mother why she left... As for me, no, I'm not from here. We came here together. We fell in love here, that's for sure... I thought we'd end up in different clans when Tawa'di was telling us all our clans when we joined the pride..." It had surprised them both when they were each told in turn that they would be in the Mantis clan. That had probably played a part in them falling in love.
Considering his father's words, Rajeev nodded. "Okay... So where did you come from?" It was an innocent enough question, after all, and-- A cricket jumped by and Rajeev was promptly distracted. Crouching down, he stalked it, ears forwardas he crept along the grass. Wiggling his rear a bit, he stuck his tongue out, before jumping. The cricket got away, likely never to be seen again, but he had at least had FUN doing it!
Dongo couldn't help but chuckle, watching his son pounce. Or try to. It was fun to watch him, at least. When the cricket left, Dongo reached a paw over, scooping Rajeev up and returning the cub to the spot in front of him. "If you want to know, then you have to stay here where I can talk to you, and pay attention! Silly boy." He raised an eyebrow, watching Rajeev. "Unless you don't WANT to hear... I mean, I could tell your sisters instead..."
Rajeev's ears pricked in surprise, before going slightly back. "No, no, I wanna hear! Tell me, please?" He huddled against Dongo's leg, looking up at him. "What's it like outside the borders? Are all prides in clans like ours? Are they all so nice?" There were probably prides out there that weren't so nice. It was a fact of life, not everybody WOULD be nice. "Was Mama's pride broken up into clans?"
"So many questions from you now!" He smiled, ruffling Rajeev's tuft of white hair. "No, not all prides are in clans. Some are just... Prides. Some are nice, some aren't..." He sighed. "The world's not perfect, after all, and not all prides can be paradise like the Ela'wadiyi pride. No, your mother's pride wasn't broken into clans... But she did mention a pride LIKE hers, where males were sub-serviant to females, that was broken into clans. She'd apparently heard about it from others in the pride. It may help that an aunt of yours is from said pride.. You'd have to go and find her and ask her yourself about it. As for me... I was in multiple places as a cub. My father was from the Pridelands - They're a pride of large numbers. In fact... Some of my relatives are here, and so, too are yours." He smiled, leaning down to Rajeev's level. Indeed, there were a surprising number of relatives of his in the pride..
His ears perking up, Rajeev listened with intent. "Wow... I bet those prides are all amazing!" Well, each in their own RIGHT, at least. They were different and exotic to him, in the least. At the mention of relatives in the pride, he looked at his father weirdly. "How many relatives...?"
"Oh, about... Three. Four counting your aunt. One is my litter-brother, Wakhakwi... And then two half-sisters on MY father's side." He closed one eye. "Oh, and.. Yeah.. Your aunt via mating with Wakhakwi. I met her once, she's quite the sight... She's patched in three colors..." It was a rather lovely coat, actually.
The cub thought about it, then shrugged. "I think I'll worry another time... For now... I think I'll revel in knowing that I'm a boy, not a very confused girl." He gave a nod, then got up. A butterfly drifting by soon had him distracted, before he ran off after it with a sound of glee.
Dongo sighed, wondering if his words were going to be taken to heart. Well, at least the fact that his son was a SON was being taken to heart. Either way... He shook his head, getting up to wander off near by. There were other things to do with his time, like make sure no boys came near his daughters.
