Horatio was wondering if perhaps he had said a little too much towards Amalthea. Was he overstepping his boundaries? He just wanted to learn a bit more about her, but perhaps he was going about it the wrong way. Letting his paws wander around, he was mulling over the idea that perhaps he should pull back a bit more. Would that help?
Of course, while letting himself wander around, he didn't realize that he had tripped right over a little cub. "Oof!" he said, hearing the little squeal as he tripped right down flat onto his chest, mane splayed around everywhere. Groaning, he rolled around onto his stomach to see who he had run over, but before he could let his eyes focus, he felt a sudden weight on his stomach.
"Hey!" the squeaky little voice yelled, glaring down at Horatio's face. "Watch where yer going!" Mahtab scrunched his face up, hoping to look meeeean. Cause it wasn't nice to get run over like that, especially by a big old adult like this one!
Horatio blinked, wondering what had just happened. It all seemed to appear way too quickly. Ok, well, he seemed to appear way too soon. That little voice was obviously boyish, if not quite grown yet. He couldn't get his words together, but the little one certainly knew what he wanted to say.
"I know I'm small, but you'll be sorry when I get older!" Mahtab was going to grow up big and strong, and not get tripped over anymore! Okay, so maybe this was the first time, but that didn't matter much. It still sucked!
"Er, sorry chap," Horatio finally got out of his mouth. He pushed the little one off of his stomach, as he didn't intend on being a stepping stone for the rest of the day. "Didn't see you there. You are a little bright coloured just...." He took a moment to think before continuing, "you're low to the ground."
Mahtab squeaked. How...how dare he! "Yeah well...yeah...well....just wait 'til I get bigger! I'll be bigger than you!" At least that's what the little one hoped for, but there weren't any guarantees for that. And it wasn't like his parents could help him out...so he'd have to man up on this one alone.
Horatio laughed. "Well, that might take a bit. Say, where are you going, anyway? I don't usually see little cubs like yourself wandering around alone." And he didn't.
Mahtab beamed. "I'm being helpful." As in, staying out of the way. At least his parents wouldn't be too upset at him, right? He was being perfectly good until this adult tripped on him. Hopefully he wouldn't get in trouble...he didn't deserve it!
"Oh?" Horatio asked. "I'm sure you're doing a swell job." Really, he didn't know what to do with a cub. What...did they like to do besides get in everything and crawl all over the place? "Who're your parents, anyway?"
Mahtab puffed his chest up with pride. "Unyezi and Nerit." He was proud of his parents, regardless of their status. They were his, and not everyone could say that, could they? (Not that everyone in the pride would be proud to say that their parents were slaves.)
"Oh!" He knew them, at least just a little bit. "Yeah, I guess you do look like a good mix of them. Hm, guess I should have noticed." He glanced over at him a bit closer. "D'ya know Amalthea?"
"Yeah? So what? You like her?" Psssh, this little...big guy was just too funny. He looked up at him...eh. Too much of a pain. Mahtab kind of wanted to just go home now, but it might not be nice to just leave. Sigh. Why was dealing with adults such a pain in the butt?
"And if I do?" Horatio asked? Mahtab just laughed. "You realize you're gunna be a slave to? Not...not that it's a bad thing. I'm proud of my parents..." Using cub-logic didn't work so well when you were talking to an adult.
That was something that perhaps he should have realized, but didn't. Was that why Amalthea was so nervous around him? And seemed to push him away almost, without meaning to? He didn't see being a slave as such a terrible thing. They weren't quite that, just servants, to be honest. He almost understood why there were being protected, and in the greater span of things, it did make sense. Being too close to the borders was dangerous, if there was no protection for them. He was still warring with himself on the beliefs of the pride, or all of them. But he felt that this was something more important than that. If she was so worried that he would lose his rank...did rank really matter more than love? Could he even call it that yet? He really liked her, but love went both ways. Sigh.
Mahtab just stared at the lion. "Ooooohhhkay then. I'm just going...to go home. Bye!" And the little cub took his chance and ran away. What a weirdo.
Horatio didn't even see him leave. He let himself think a bit more. No, this was something that he was going to have to talk to her about. Somehow. He didn't even know how to express his feelings to her if she wasn't so sure about anything herself. Maybe this was going to be more work than he thought. Ooooh man. This was going to be a lot of work.
Blinking, he realized that the cub had left. Whoops. Well, if he was allowed to be out on his own, then Horatio shouldn't worry about him too much. He would have to take more time to gather his thoughts up, and then find Amalthea and ask her. Well...ask her a few questions, but tell her his intent. It was going to be interesting, and he was going to have to do this right.
With a small smile, he slinked off to find something to eat. Thinking on a full stomach always worked better for him.
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