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It was dark and the night was still cool with the lingering winter time. Sciuri had a desire, a powerful and inexplicable desire to venture out of the den, away from her beloved siblings and parents and aunt and into the unknown. She had no intention of leaving them permanently or anything like that. She just wanted to have an adventure, a different sort of adventure, and she had never in her life ventured out alone after dark. In fact, she rarely ventured out after dark at all, alone or in company. It wasn't that she was afraid of the dark, for no lion could really be afraid of the dark, nor even was she afraid of the things the dark concealed, as her aunt Gliri claimed to be. It was simply that there was nothing outside the den to interest her after dark, usually, and so she had no call or cause to go exploring after the sun set. However, tonight was different. Tonight she felt the urge to go out, to leave the den and explore the world by moonlight.

For the black-coated juvenile male, nighttime was nothing new, but that did not mean that it wasn't something special. The night was his time, and he felt more a part of it than he ever had or would feel a part of daytime. The sun was too hot, too bright, and while he certainly wasn't about to start hissing and complaining that it burned him, he did not think it could compare in any way to the moon. When he was older, old enough to pay court to and call on women, he would compare their beauty to the moon rather than the stars or the sunshine, and for him that would be among the highest of compliments. Tonight the young lion was not out to woo anyone, though. He was merely out to enjoy the simple pleasure of the night air on his fur and the light of the moon shining into his eyes. He went about his inspection of the family area contentedly before setting off on his own. He did not expect to meet anyone, as he rarely did, and did not mind that.

Sciuri had not spent a great deal of her life practicing stealthy techniques, tactics, or maneuvers, and so it was something of a miracle that she was able to get out of her family's crowded den without bestirring anyone else as she threaded her way around and over and past slumbering bodies of family members. Aunt Gliri tended to sleep in the back of the den, where there was a secret way out that she could take to avoid waking everyone when she came and went, keeping her own schedule. Sciuri knew better than to try to sneak past her. Gliri slept too lightly to be sneaked past by someone as inexpert as Iuri was. Which meant she had to go for the obstacular route involving parents and siblings. Her father was easy, being a heavy sleeper, and most of her siblings were the same, but sometimes they weren't and sometimes her mother woke unexpectedly. When all was said and done, though, Iuri made it out of the den without waking anyone and set off.

Because his family had gone to sleep early, Ru had been able to make an earlier start than usual, which meant he was able to roam farther afield, covering ground in a tireless loping pace he had developed during previous evening excursions. Each night for the past several nights he had set off in a new direction, deliberately exploring the territory around the den. H wanted to be as familiar with the land as possible so that he could anticipate any possible attacks. The mountains to the west were still a bit daunting, so he was saving those for last. Today he was heading more northwest, traveling not quite in a straight line, but very definitely in one specific direction. All of his senses were on high alert as he attempted to take everything in and evaluate it for its threatening potential. So far he detected nothing threatening in this direction, but then the wind shifted, carrying to him the scent of another predator, an unfamiliar lion. He crouched and waited.

The night breeze which nipped at Iuri as she walked had also been bringing scents to her. Some of them she recognized - most of them in fact - but there were others which were strange and unfamiliar. Just before the wind shifted direction Iuri smelled something both strange and familiar. It was the scent of lion, but not one one she knew. Only once before had she ever met a lion from outside of her family, the lioness Ghazaala, but this lion didn't smell like her either. She didn't know who they smelled like, and she was curious. When the wind changed direction she set off at a sprightly pace toward the direction it had been blowing from before, so now she was following the wind toward this strange new lion. Her aunt's concerns about strangers and the things the dark might conceal raced through the back of her mind, but she was more intent on the idea of having an adventure than she was on the potential dangers her adventure might bring to her.

From his crouched position it was incredibly difficult for Ru to see through the tall grasses to tell what was coming, but all of his other senses told him that someone, the lion whose scent the wind was carrying to him, was coming toward him at a pretty good clip. The sound of their haste ought to have been louder though, if he'd been dealing with a fully grown lion. That it wasn't indicated to him that he was probably being approached by a cub or something, which was interesting. He was fairly certain that most parents didn't knowingly allow their cubs to wander about at night. His mother would have had conniptions if she'd known about his nightly ventures. Curiosity prompted him to stand up and make his way to meet the other lion. Perhaps he would be fortunate and it would be someone with whom he could practice fighting, though he wasn't too hopeful. Something about the scent was feminine, and in his experience females didn't fight, though they also didn't go out at night.

"Hello?" Sciuri called when she thought she heard the sound of someone approaching. Their movements were far stealthier than hers, but she got the feeling that whoever it was, they weren't really making much of an effort to conceal their approach. This might have insulted her at another time, but she was relieved here and now, because she guessed that anyone who meant her harm would probably continue sneaking up on her. "My name's Sciuri," she said as she slowed her pace. Up ahead she could see the grass moving as if someone was about to burst through them at any moment and reveal himself. Or herself, she supposed. What was interesting was that she should have been able to see at least part of them above the grass. The fact that she couldn't indicated to Sciuri that she was either dealing with someone who was slinking to be unobtrusive or someone quite small. Intriguing.

Ru saw Sciuri before she introduced herself, but he heard her call out even before that and debated answering her. However, he decided it might be more fun - at least for him - if he waited to say anything until after he had emerged from the grass. He would reach her soon enough. And he was now quite certain that he was approaching a female based on her voice. One he saw her he smirked, pleased to have had his suspicions confirmed because it meant he had utilized his senses effectively. He was still wearing the smirk when he stepped out of hiding and into view. "Good evening, Sciuri," he said. He wasn't quite sure he'd gotten the name correct, since his ears sometimes played tricks on him. "I'm Ruzanski. Do you live around here?" It would be good to know if there were other lions living in the area, and she surely had a family. He could smell their varied scents mingling with her personal scent, as he was sure his family's scents mingled with his.

Sciuri watched what looked like a green-eyed shadow emerge from the grasses and marveled at the other cub. He was clearly a cub, and probably around her age, but he was larger than she was, and larger than her brother Lua, too. Probably because her mother was so small, she guessed, and Aunt Gliri was small, too. Still, there was something about the way he moved that struck her as being rather wilder and more predatory than any cub ought to be. It wasn't necessarily that he seemed more mature. He just seemed...different. "Hello," she said a little shyly. "I do, yeah. My family's den is pretty close by. What about you? Do you live around here?" She hadn't known there were other lions nearby, except for the rogues who sometimes passed through. It would be wonderful, she thought, if she could return home and tell everyone that she'd made a new friend, though that would also mean admitting she'd sneaked out of the den at night. Maybe she'd make up a story.

It did occur to Ru that this would be a good time to practice the manners his mother was always going on about, but he decided that they weren't necessary here. This wasn't a formal meeting. Neither he nor Sciuri had meant to find one another. This was just an interesting coincidence. He probably wouldn't tell his family about Sciuri and hers. He doubted his mother would be pleased either by his wandering or by his discovery. "Not exactly," he answered her. "At night I sometimes go exploring and tonight I ended up here. Kind of lucky, that." It was, but Ru wasn't the sort of lion to believe in luck. The idea of a higher power appealed to him, but he wouldn't have called it luck. His beliefs were closer to a belief in fate or destiny. It was sort of comforting to him to think that whatever was going to happen would happen no matter what he did. And sometimes interesting and exciting things happened. Meeting Sciuri counted as interesting and exciting he decided.

"Definitely lucky!" Sciuri exclaimed. "I'm glad I met you." She wasn't sure what else to say to him. Meeting new people wasn't something she was very good at. She had almost no practice with it, and while she was friendly and personable, if a bit sharp-tongued at times, she really didn't know what to say to unfamiliar people to get to know them. "Um...Would you like to play, maybe?" she asked. "What sort of things do you like to play?" She didn't have any idea if he had siblings or family or anything like that, but she was sure he knew how to play. He couldn't just go out and explore at night. There had to be more to his life than that. Otherwise he would go exploring during the day, wouldn't he? "That is, if you don't have to go back home. I don't want you to get in trouble for being caught out of your den when you shouldn't be." There was a question in her words, giving him an excuse to say no and to go away if he didn't want to play with her.

Ru considered Sciuri's question briefly, but there was no need for him to stop and think about it. Life was something meant to be lived, and so he was more than pleased to agree to play with her. He just hoped that she wouldn't want to play silly games. He didn't actually mind games of pretend, but he got so tired of them when they turned into stupid romance stories. It was more fun when they were adventure games. He grinned as he considered the possibilities. "I can stay for a while," he told her. "I'm only about an hour away from home, so I can get back in plenty of time. How do you feel about games of pretend?" He was wary as he asked her this, but he still asked. He had already learned that the only way to get something in life is to ask. Or to take it, he supposed, but information was pretty hard to take from a person. It was more effective to ask, he thought. And besides, he was trying to decide if Sciuri was worth seeking out in the future.

Sciuri's grin was wide and white. "I love games of pretend. I like to pretend I'm going on adventures." She could see the way his green eyes lit up with interest and continued, "My aunt is an amazing storyteller and sometimes I like to try to act out the stories she tells, but that's more easily done with my siblings, since I've got so many of them. With just the two of us, it might be easier just to make things up as we go along." She was really glad that he could stay. This was the best sort of adventure, she thought. "And maybe, if it goes really well, we could meet up again sometime to continue it?" Maybe she was being too eager, trying to set up meetings in the future when she didn't even know for sure if they'd get along. But she thought they would. She hoped they would. Something about Ru, the way he moved and the way he seemed so at ease with the world around him, made her want to get to know him better, and maybe introduce him to her siblings someday.

"Adventure games are the best," Ru agreed. "We could pretend, since it's dark, that we're lost in a cave and have to find our way out. And there are monsters in the cave. Really big and dangerous ones." He was warming to the idea, and could already envision the monsters which inhabited the cave, and the sort of awful things they were waiting to do to him and Sciuri. He shivered with relish. "I think that would be fun," he said. "But I have to finish exploring around the den first, so not tomorrow. How about..." He had to stop and think about it, and how many more compass points he had to explore before he was free to return to this direction. "How about in four days?" That should give him enough time, if he made the last few strips wider. It would be worth it, he thought, to get to play with someone who thought it was fun to play adventure games. If he was lucky, they wouldn't have to do any silly romantic stuff either. This was brilliant.