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 Posted: Fri Feb 25, 2011 10:14 pm
As morning dawned on another new day Ulwazi set out to do some exploring. Whenever they arrived in a new place the first thing Ulwazi did was to go out and take a look around. He never meant to venture too far from Gutu's den or wherever the family happened to be staying. Even when he was a cub he usually stayed close, not so much out of appreciation for his new "family" but because he feared being picked up by another stranger in the rogue lands, for although his current situation was undesirable Gutu was at least kind. He still longed to be reunited with his birth mother and siblings (he could remember them clearly) but accepted, based on his calculations, given the size of the rogue lands and their rate of travel, that this outcome was unlikely in the extreme. Gutu was as good a mother as he could hope to come by out here. He had no reason to leave.
Still, though he tried to stay close to home, his curiosity always got the better of him. Case in point: Ulwazi, crouched low in the tall grass, wide eyes fixed upon a strange creature standing on top of a little mound of dirt far from Gutu's camp. This fascinating creature was small, only about the size of a hare, but slender and - here's the fascinating part - standing upright on its hind legs! Ulwazi had never seen such an animal. There were several of the creatures, all bustling around the various mounds, running in and out of burrows. Ulwazi had been observing them for nearly a half-hour, numb to the discomfort growing in his joints. His breathing was practically mute.((In this RP, I'm playing Ulwazi as a juvie as he is overdue to grow. D: ))
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Posted: Sat Feb 26, 2011 7:35 am
 Dosari was watching Ulwazi closely again. It wasn't that he didn't trust his cheetah brother, it's that he didn't trust his curiosity. It was a dangerous thing in anyone, because it lead to needing rescued and right now their mother was out hunting so making sure that everyone wasn't getting in trouble was his job. His self appointed job, but still his job.
He had been added to the group of oddballs after Ulwazi. Bawa and Haamoni were already in the group and well acquainted with each other when Ulwazi got there, so when Dosari, Isoba and Kamili showed up it was almost as if this was all there was and ever would be for the two hybrids. For Dosari the feeling was mutual.
He trotted out towards Ulwazi quietly, his little serious face watching him carefully, "Find anything interesting, brother?"
Brother. That was what he was to Dosari. Whether or not it was Ulwazi's view he wasn't sure as he had never had a vision about the blue cheetah. It didn't matter for Dosari, though. He was being raised with this male, his birth brothers and two hybrids. This was his family and he was thankful for it. That was probably the strangest part about the trio when they were assimilated into this silly family, it wasn't like they were being dragged out of another family and put into this one. They had no other family. Their mother had abandoned them and told the person they were abandoned to that their one brother was unrelated and that a dark lioness would come and take them. All of that came to pass. They lost a brother and gained three.
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Posted: Sat Feb 26, 2011 8:18 pm
Suddenly the funny little creature standing on the mound let out a cry. In an instant all the funny little creatures stopped their scurrying and bolted into their burrows. Ulwazi sat up straight, wincing at a sharp pain in his back. He shouldn't have sat up so quickly. At first he felt upset that his subjects had run off all of a sudden, but when he turned and saw Dosari a slightly pained smile flashed across his face.
"Hi Dosari," he said cheerfully as he stretched out his long spine. Most of his poof was gone now, except in his tail and his mane, which was the poofiest of all. "Yeah! I saw a bunch of funny little creatures living in those holes over there. I've never seen anything like them. They could stand on their back legs like hares, only they weren't hares, and one of them was playing look-out."
Ulwazi always enjoyed having Dosari around. He made him feel safe and his seer powers were so interesting. Dosari was a good friend, but Ulwazi found it hard to think of him as his brother. They weren't even the same species. One might accuse him of thinking too literally, although he did call Gutu "mother" if only to please her. Even though she took him away from his real mother something about her smiling face made him feel warm and fuzzy inside. If that made his life a paradox then this was one paradox he felt content to leave unresolved.
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Posted: Sun Feb 27, 2011 1:13 pm
"I've seen them before," Dosari said with a slight nod. They were funny creatures, standing on their back legs. He had tried to imitate it once, but it was so very uncomfortable to sit as they sat. At least he was not alone in his fascination with them. His brothers, how he loved them, but they were not fascinated by the little rodents like he and Ulwazi seemed to be. They were target practice, granted he also wanted to use them for target practice.
"Can you sit like they sit?" He asked curiously, tilting his head, "I tried once, it was very uncomfortable, but you have thin legs like them, you might be able to do it."
Dosari let his eyes wander over to the series of holes the silly creature slept in. One had poked its head out to see if the coast was clear; however, when it caught sight of Dosari it skittered back into the hole. He hoped it wouldn't come back out and distract the two. He wanted to talk to Ulwazi about their mother and how she was acting so anxious lately. Haamoni and Bawa had noticed her anxiousness, but they couldn't see what Dosari saw. He thought that perhaps Ulwazi could see it as well.
"...I'm concerned about Mommy," He said quietly, "She's muttering to herself... and the other day she cried in front of me. You know she doesn't like to cry in front of us..."
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Posted: Wed Mar 16, 2011 8:29 pm
Ulwazi once thought of using the little creatures for hunting practice. However, after watching them for almost half an hour, he began to feel almost like a friend. He was aware that even small animals like these had feelings of their own, for he had watched hares and other small creatures before and even carried on conversations with genets. They told amazing stories about fear, about running for one's life. These tales chilled Ulwazi right down to his bones even at mid-day. Yet when Gutu brought home a hare for him to chase he would pursue it as if it were nothing more than a sack of meat with legs. Sometimes he hated himself. He wanted someone to explain why the world was so unfair, for no matter how hard he concentrated he could not find an answer by himself.
Could he stand like they could? He looked down at his paws. Even though he was still quite young, he understood that every creature had its special talents. Cheetahs outran the wind, lions fought with courageous strength, leopards moved like shadows and hybrids could do many things. He sat down and tested his talents at imitating the funny little creatures. He lifted off the ground about half a foot and sat down again, distracted by what Dosari said next. He tried a few more times, halfheartedly balancing on his rear, keeping his eyes on his paws, a slightly sad expression on his face.
Finally he stopped, looking defeated, and said, "I know. I think about her a lot. There's something strange about her, not like anyone I ever met before. My mom - my cheetah mom - told me that one day all cubs will grow up and leave their families to look for mates and start families of their own. I think our mama doesn't want that to happen."
He would always call Gutu mama and his mother mom. At first he called Gutu Gutu, but she didn't seem to like that. The more he grew to love her the more he wanted to please her, so he started calling her mama. He decided that this way they could be equal. Still, there was definitely something different about his mama.
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