Things were changing for Mirsajadi. It was as if leaving the pride in search of a banu had been exactly what his body was waiting for before it finally decided to catch up to his mind, which had always been advanced to the point of precociousness. The last few weeks before his departure he had finally begun to develop the usual long-limbed build generally associated with adolescence. This phase had not lasted very long, and after a few weeks in the wild it seemed Mirsajadi's body was changing once more, filling out somewhat and growing more powerful.Oh, he was still a leaner lion, but for much of his adolescence he could have been mistaken for a juvenile - and frequently was - and now he finally felt he looked like an actual adult. It was gratifying. More gratifying still had been when he encountered a lioness, older than he with dark brown fur and amber eyes. She had known a great deal about his pride, and let him know from the start that she had absolutely no intention of going back there with him, which spared him the awkwardness of informing her that she wasn't the sort of lioness he was looking for anyway.
They had passed several nights together in pleasant company before parting ways. It had been an educational experience of the sort Mirsajadi had not anticipated. Ever since then his mind had turned back to home every now and again, and the beybanu he had waiting for him there. She was his friend - for a long time she had been his only friend, really - and so the thought of having sex with her didn't quite sit well with him, but he was still curious about what it would be like. At least occasionally, when the day-to-day task of surviving wasn't all-consuming.
For the moment it wasn't, but Mirsajadi was more interested in the small cataract he'd come to as he walked alongside a stream. He'd never seen anything resembling a waterfall before, and so even this small example fascinated him. The pride he came from was characterised by a great lake around which the majority of its inhabitants made their homes, but that was not a lake fed by anything like this.
With his dark red eyes wide Mirsajadi watched the water tumble over the rocks in a seemingly unending stream. It was fortunate that he had come across this source of water. It meant that he need not fear starvation, for water also attracted prey beasts. True, they would be cautious and wary, as was only appropriate, but Mirsajadi was wily and growing stronger. He would always be smaller than his brothers, he was coming to realize, but if he could survive this his survival would mean more than theirs because of it. At least this was what he told himself.
He also told himself that watching a waterfall was not a waste of his time. True, it was neither scheming nor plotting, which had been his two primary occupations for as long as he could remember. Nor was it hunting, not for food or banu. It was kind of relaxing, however, and there were not a great many things in the striped lion's life that relaxed him. So this was not a waste of his time.
"And besides, who is there to judge?" Mirsajadi mused
His voice had matured more quickly than the rest of him, settling into a versatile (and yet generally silken) tone and timbre that made him perhaps a little more successful at seduction than a lion of his physical build had a right to be. Though when he thought of seduction Mirsajadi did not necessarily think of sexual seduction. Instead he thought of it more as the winning over of another and getting them to do the things he wanted them to do, and he would have been the first to admit that he usually accomplished that by using his wits rather than merely trying to charm people with his voice.
The water burbled back at him as it traveled along its path. Not that he imagined it was burbling at him. He was not the sort of lion to assign personality traits to things which didn't naturally have them. A rock was a rock and could neither think nor feel. Water fell into the same category. In fact, almost everything that was not feline fell into that category, even if they were capable of speech. The ability to speak did not necessarily indicate the ability to reason, after all, or feel.
Something was pressing at the back of the striped lion's mind but he did not know what. It was a little frustrating to Mirsajadi not to know what was trying to force its way to the forefront of his thoughts, but it would surely make an appearance eventually and if he tried to force it experience had taught him he would only chase it off. He would have to be patient. It was easier to be patient, though, when he did not have the feeling that whatever it was would turn out to be something urgent.
Thinking the word "urgent" served as the catalyst for Mirsajadi's mind. No sooner had the young lion thought the word then he realized what it was trying to attract his attention. It was not a thought at all, but rather the need to perform a bodily function. Doubtless the need to relieve himself had been prompted by the sound of water flowing and tripping over rocks and then splashing down. Mirsajadi did not bother spending any time thinking about the matter beyond the thought that it was disgusting to relieve oneself in the same place one drank, which necessitated relocation on the part of the striped lion.
Mirsajadi sighed and pushed himself to his feet with movements as smooth as he could manage before he began to walk away from the waterfall. It would not be too very long before he could return to this spot to watch the waterfall more, if he still wished to do that. Otherwise he would see what there was to be done about catching some dinner, perhaps fish, and then finding someplace which would offer some semblance of shelter to him while he slept.
