"I told you to stay behind me" Neila hissed at a small black cub with vibrant pink markings.
"I'm sorry Mom" His ears folded tightly against his head, looking sincerily sorry for what he had done.
It would be easy to mistaken the two for brother and sister, but in fact the lioness was the second in her family line to have a cub at such a young age- the other being her own mother. She had a rather difficult relationship with her, and bolted the moment she was confident enough to believe she could survive on her own.
Another thing that ran in the family was being a flirt. This got her in trouble more than once, but this time the young cub following her around, Koda, was the result. His spots reminded her clearly of the spots she was so happy not to have inherited from her mother. Why did she have to go and fall for a male with a black pelt? Because of this, she had some unexplained agression towards her son, sometimes snapping at him when it really wasn't call for. She was still incredibly young to be a mother, and simply wasn't mentally prepared for this happen.
She was trying though.
"I'm sorry Koda." She sighed while nuzzling his pink hair tuff. He was quite the cute little guy, spots aside. Neila was quite the superficial character, looks meant a lot to her. So to know she made beautiful children warmed her heart.
Kodas tail wagged behind him like a wilddog being served with a piece of meat. Whenever his mother wouldn't yell at him meant the world to him, though he knew it wouldn't last long.
"That doesn't mean you can walk in front of me, ya'know." Neila hissed again and guided him back by her tail with her paw. The rogue lands was a dangerous place for the duo, and she tried to keep him on a short lease to reduce the chance of him getting hurt. She wasn't entriely found of her creation, but she was still a mother after all. Her red eyes darted along as she spotted a group of small animals over by a watering hole, this gave her an idea.
"Okay, I think it's about time for you to learn how to hunt" She spoke rather nonchalant. The cub was far too young to even attempt to hunt, but Neila didn't know any better and figured he should be pulling his own weight around. "You've watched me do it plenty of times, you shouldn't have any problem doing it yourself."
Koda's eyes widend at the news. He wasn't timid to new things, but most of the prey his mother brought him outweighed him three times over. He looked over at where his mother was staring and realized his target would be far more mangable than he had originally realized. Thank goodnes.
"Whatcha waiting for? They arn't going to stick around there forever, your going to loose out on your chance."
Koda took a deep breath before making a sloppy attempt at prowling towards a small rabbit. His big black and pink bum was stuck straight up in the air, giving away his position quite clearly. Neila let out an audable sigh before walking a few steps towards him and pushed his bum down with her paw.
"your going to need to go a little faster. At this pace they are going to be gone by the time you get to a reasonable distance." His mothers advice was well placed, but to him it just meant he was doing it wrong and needed to be less of a failure to please her.
He started to move quicker, making good time but almost blowing the whole hunt when the rabbit turned it's head up to look around. Koda stood perfectly still, he knew his markings worked against him quite a bit during a hunt, but he HAD to do this!
Once the rabbit put it's head down he made his way closer.... closer... closer still! Koda had never been so close to a prey animal in his life, a live one at least. He was intrigued with it's mannerisms and took a moment to watch it. The rabbit figited a lot, and it's nose was constantly moving. It suddenly started straching itself and Koda's eyes grew wide as he saw how quickly it could move it's large back feet. As he rabbit began to groom it's ears, pulling them down with it's small front paws, Koda realized this was the perfect time to pounce.
"Here goes nothing!" He thought to himself, getting into pouncing position and lunging forward. He felt fur between his paws, he had managed to land on his unsuspecting prey. He began to celebrate in his head, before realizing that there was much more to this than just jumping on it. The rabbit benith him began to buck and darted around in the grass, Koda holding on for his life, his small claws being the only thing keeping him from a world of pain. Suddenly the rabbit started making this incredible grunting noise that terrified the small cub. It certainly didn't look like a creature with so much fight in it to live!
With one last buck, Koda went flying into the watering hole and his prey escaped into the grass.
"Uh.. nice try." Neila came over and pulled him out of the water. She licked his hair tuff back into place. Koda seemed in a daze about what had just happend, but when he heard his mom say those sweet two words, Nice try, he began glowing. He hadn't actually caught the rabbit, but his mom was PROUD of him!
"Really!?" His eyes grew wide and watered. He wanted to make sure she actually meant what she had said.
"Sure sure. Now, lets go find some real food." Neila would never understand this cub. He had just failed miserably at his first attempt at hunting, and he was over there so exicited, as though he actually accomished something. Koda could become useful to her as he grew up, but that was a long way off. For now... she would try her best to keep her temper in check, he was a cub after all. He would grow out of this alkward stage sometime soon... At least she hoped.
Koda was so exstatic at his mom's answer that he ran in front of his mom once again. This time, she didn't fight it, and the cub began to hop around like the rabbit he just chased off. Next time, he would show her that he could catch his own food.
(Word Count: 1105)
