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 Posted: Wed Apr 20, 2011 5:03 pm
 Peeking around a tree nervously, Subarenae watched for males. She hadn't met any other than her father and brother, but she'd been told all about them. She knew she was supposed to stay away from the other dens during her play, and be unfailingly polite should she encounter a male, otherwise they would be very angry. Only, Suba wasn't sure she yet knew what politeness was, and she was very worried that she might upset the wrong male.
The area was empty though, so she happily flopped onto the sand and wriggled. It was warm and comforting as always, her favorite plaything. She dug herself a little trench to hunker down in, feeling the cooler sand on her toes while the upper sand still threatened to cook her. If only all of the world could be as fascinating as sand.
Deciding she wanted to be warmer, she crouched and pulled the sand in over her, raking it on top and then flipping back onto her belly so that only her head peeked out. The heaviness soothed her, and she sat there, watching the world quietly for some time, content.
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Posted: Wed Apr 20, 2011 6:10 pm
 Azhar liked to watch others. His (many) siblings, the adults in his family, strangers passing by. He was utterly fascinated as to how they all interacted with each other and the way the world around him worked in general. It didn’t help that both his father and momma Zarha seemed to have such a clear understanding of all things. In his quest for knowledge, the dark cub had taken to wandering – something that was ridiculously hard to accomplish when his mothers and his father’s bird kept such a close eye on them. But least he wasn’t a girl so he wouldn’t get into trouble even if he was caught as long as he didn’t go too far.
Right now he had spotted something infinitely more interesting than his siblings. A strange cub! She wasn’t just strange because he hadn’t met her yet, she was actually a little odd as far as he could tell. At least that’s what he believed at first when he saw her digging her own grave and then lying in it. He moved closer as stealthy as he could, trying to stay out of her line of sight as he silently considered possible reasons for her actions and only spoke when his head was right above hers.
“Hello banu, what are you doing?” Unused to speaking to felines outside his family, he almost skipped the title but caught himself. It crossed his mind briefly that the girl’s father might not like strange cubs approaching her but that didn’t bother him. After all, he was just a cub himself and it was ridiculous the amount of things one could get away with using that excuse – his sister Bad was a good example of that.
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Posted: Wed Apr 20, 2011 6:56 pm
Suba froze at the sound of the voice, coming out of nowhere as it had. For a long moment she held perfectly still, hoping that maybe whoever it was hadn't seen her in her camouflage of sand. Maybe they were talking to someone else, or just rambling to themselves. But the closeness of the voice had her peeking out of the corners of her eyes, until finally she spotted the other cub behind her.
She sniffed. It was a male! Well, it was a cub male though. Was that alright? Would she get in trouble with a cub? He didn't seem angry with her, though from this angle it was hard to tell. She stayed buried as if the ground would keep her safe from attacks. But her mother's voice reprimanded her mentally, so she did the polite thing and replied. "Hello pad. I'm just... resting in the sand."
He was a curious shape, what she could see of him. Dark with swirly marks. Not the colors or patterns of her extended family, so they probably weren't kin. Had she gone too far into another family's denspace? She peered up at him, crosseyed. "Is it okay for me to rest in the sand?"
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Posted: Wed Apr 20, 2011 8:28 pm
Had he startled her? That wasn’t his intention but it did make sense that he had now that the dark cub considered his approach. It took a while for her to respond – enough to have Azhar wondering if her father had forbidden her from talking to male cubs - but when she did, the orange-eyed youngster looked confused.
Now, Azhar respected females. Perhaps not as equals – they did seem to have different roles in the world after all – but he certainly didn’t think of them as inferior. How could he when he was deeply nurtured by his loving mother, growing under the close watch of the sharp cunning eyes of his Anwar’s beybanu who his father greatly respected? So her question caught him somewhat off-guard.
“Why are you asking me? I’m not your Pad. If your father says it’s alright, you can do anything you want.” he held absolutely no claim to her so he saw no reason to exert any control over her actions, curious as they were. Unless she meant to ask if he was bothered by the fact that she was talking from inside the gra-… hole. He moved around her so she wouldn't have to strain her neck to look at him. “I don’t mind it. But why did you dig a hole? Why not just rest one it?”
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Posted: Wed Apr 20, 2011 9:01 pm
Reassured, Suba shimmied up out the sand like a serpent, not caring that so much of the tiny grains were now stuck in her fur. That was her natural state of being, covered in sand and grit. "Well, I didn't know if this was your sand," she explained, patting it back down into place tenderly. Even though the weather was warm, she was slightly cold after being so covered in warmth, but it was refreshing.
His question baffled Suba entirely, and she stared at the remains of the hole, trying to comprehend. Why dig a hole? Why not dig a hole? Mother dug dens all the time, had taught her to dig from her earliest memories. "Because it's fun?" she answered, more a question than an answer.
Maybe males didn't dig. Her father didn't, as far as she knew, and neither did her brother. "Do you not dig?" Maybe he needed someone to demonstrate how? Her feet picked up the rhythmic pattern of digging of their own volition, kneading the ground beneath her and tearing up a little furrow beneath her. "Do males not dig? Is it only supposed to be females?"
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Posted: Wed Apr 20, 2011 10:08 pm
“No, it’s not my sand.” Azhar said very seriously, committing to memory the fact that some lions owned this sort of things. “Fun…?”
The cub tilted his head as he looked at the patch of sand. He didn’t usually like that answer. Fun was a word grown-ups used to make him do things he didn’t usually like to do. Like: Go play with your brothers, it will be fun! No, thank you. Azhar much preferred to be left alone to own devices instead of running around like an idiot and playing silly games that served no real purpose. But she was playing on her own… so maybe it was fun. But it still sounded pointless though. Perhaps he could use a hole to cover himself during windy days… but that was what dens were for, right?
“I’ve never seen anyone dig.” Oh, now he was curious! She spoke as if it was something all females did and he’d never actually seen anyone in his family show the slightest interest in digging. “Not my sisters or my mothers. Do you mind if I try…?” Ha… she was showing him how to do it already! Azhar moved to the opposite side of the shallow hole and followed the brown cub’s example, widening the gap more than actually making it deeper. “Like this, banu…? Huh, I should’ve introduced myself. I’m Pesar Azhar’Hilel but everyone just skips the last part. I’m the son of Pad Anwar’Mazin.”
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Posted: Thu Apr 21, 2011 8:13 am
Suba gaped at his answer. His mothers and siblings didn't dig? What kind of strangeness was that? Mother never wasn't digging. She'd dug about ten dens by now, though she kept purposefully destroying them for some reason. Suba didn't try to fathom adults' intentions. "I'm Banu Subarenae, daughter of Pad Rasul," she replied absently. "What do you mean they don't dig? Do they not like it? My mother taught me to, and her mother taught her. Females have to be able to dig dens for their Pads, don't they?"
Seeing that he was mimicking her, she decided to just go to it. She kicked up into a frenzy, tossing sand all around them, little legs cycling in their familiar pattern. It was a gleeful experience to dig. Sand made more sense than anything. Pretty soon she'd made a hole about cubsized, down to the cooler sand underneath. She stepped out neatly and gestured to it with a grin, as if offering it as a gift to the young male. "A den for you, Pesar. Please forgive that this Banu is still so young and inexperienced."
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Posted: Thu Apr 21, 2011 9:12 am
It finally made sense to him. Digging did have a purpose and it was a most useful and noble one, after all. If it was meant to create a den, a home for the Pads where his banu would rest and rear the young cubs, then Azhar had nothing but respect for the task. He still failed to see how the process could be considered fun but maybe it gave the banu a great sense of accomplishment and enjoyment.
“I don’t think my father’s banu dug our den.” He said without certainty but Azhar wasn’t arrogant enough not to consider all the things that could’ve happened before he was born. “At least, I don’t think so. They’ve never taught my sisters though, unless they did it in secret.” Which he doubted, of course.
“Why, thank you, banu.” He said after a few moments of hesitation. It felt as though they were playing Pads and Banus, a game his sisters seemed to greatly enjoy. He’d never played this game with a female from outside his family before and it did feel different, he admitted. But it was in good light fun – the girl had used his correct title, after all – so young cub tried to play his part as a gesture of his appreciation for the things the other cub was teaching him. Once again his face showed surprise. “The sand… it is quite cool here.”
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Posted: Thu Apr 21, 2011 1:39 pm
So, the male's siblings, if they did dig, did so secretly and not telling the males? Suba pondered this. Was she also supposed to keep it a secret? Mother had never said, and she dug in front of father all the time. Well, the secret was out now anyway, and besides, she was too eager to have someone to with about her favorite hobby. She beamed as the male tested out the hole. "Yes, the sand's always cooler under the surface. I guess because it doesn't get the heat of the air, I dunno."
She flopped onto her belly, feeling more comfortable around him now, and wriggled along to form fake snake tracks. "I like the feel of the sand," she explained, knowing he probably thought her strange. "I like the warm sand, and the cool, I like how it tickles in my fur and gets stuck in clumbs between my paws." The smell of sand and dirt was comfort and home, it made her feel safe. "What about you? What kind of things do you like?" She'd never met a strange male before, and if his siblings didn't dig, maybe he also had all sorts of strange, different habits.
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Posted: Thu Apr 21, 2011 3:22 pm
“Yes, that makes sense.” She was clever. It wasn’t often that he found cubs who analyzed the world around them and tried to understand why things worked a certain way. At least not out loud. Formulating hypothesis was something Azhar did quite often in his mind and he tended to forget that the inner dialogue inside his head was not something exclusive to the black cub. For all his interest in watching others, Azhar was still rather self-centered.
“Well, I didn’t really like sand much. It itches and it gets into places I can’t reach. But I like lying on it like this.” What kinds of things did he like? Well, he knew what he liked. He just wasn’t sure he wanted to share it with anyone else. In the end though, his childish honesty won and he decided to answer the question, not at all bothered by the fact that the female cub was the one leading the conversation now. “I don’t like many things. I like figuring things out. I like to see others and understand why they act a certain way and say the things they do. I like to understand everyone’s qualities, flaws, ambitions, fears… and I like the lake. It’s nice there. I like a lot more things but they’re personal.” Things they would say too much about his family and as such, those were private. “There are a lot more things I don’t like than the ones I like, I suppose.”
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Posted: Thu Apr 28, 2011 12:47 pm
Suba nodded in agreement; sand did tend to itch. She liked the tickle of it, but she could see how others might not. Maybe that's why not everyone liked digging. The rest made even more sense. "My papa's like you," she commented. "He always wants to understand things. He makes little tunnels and makes lizards go through them, to understand... something about lizards." The details failed her. "And then he eats them," she added proudly.
Well, if this boy was like papa, that must be alright then. She knew how to act around papa, he wasn't a scary type of male who would get angry if you didn't know your manners. "Well, I like to dig," she explained, since he'd said he wanted to know about people. Might as well help him out. "My mother taught me, and her mother her. Grandmother was a rogue, and she would dig up things called 'bone-stones', that looked like the bones of huge monsters!" She rose up on her hind legs and spread her paws to demonstrate this concept of 'hugeness'. "We have one in our den. It's an... air-loom."
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Posted: Thu Apr 28, 2011 8:48 pm
“Are lizards interesting?” the cub asked with a frown trying to understand why anyone would be interested in studying the little critters. “I just like to understand lions and leopards, I’ve never paid attention to them.”
“Knowing how to make proper dens is good so digging is good, too.” He thought out loud but grew silent when the other cub started talking about giant bones and monsters. And even though he’d heard the word before, the cub didn’t remember what an heirloom was and that bothered him. “What’s an heirloom? And do you think your father will mind if I visit your den to see the bones? I can ask my father for permission.”
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Posted: Thu Apr 28, 2011 9:00 pm
"Well, father finds them interesting. And tasty, I guess. Mostly he likes to see how they run through the tunnels he builds." Suba sat down and scratched at her ear thoughtfully. "I don't know what an airloom is, actually. Just that it's something shared by the family. I guess it's something you decorate a den with. We've got a couple of things like that. Bones and rocks and stuff."
She was excited at the prospect of her newfound friend being invited over, but... "I'd have to ask my father permission too. I'm not sure if he'd be upset I met a boy." Probably not, father was always tender with her. This was too good an idea to pass up though. "You can ask your father, and I'll ask mine, and maybe you can come over and see the monster bone-stone! Mother could tell you all about it. She probably knows what an airloom is."
She bounced to her feet, already eager to run straight home and get permission. "I should probably be going anyway, mother would want me to stay close to home. I hope father says it's okay for you to visit!"
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Posted: Fri Apr 29, 2011 8:36 am
“Mmm.” Azhar started thoughtfully, pondering on the possible meanings of the word heirloom now that he had some clues from the little banu. A decoration shared by the family? Interesting. “Maybe when I grow up I’ll be interested on more things…”
He nodded when she stood up and followed suit, shaking vigorously to get the sand off his coat and paws. He hoped Anwar wouldn’t mind because he was really interested in visiting Suba’s family. They all seemed pretty remarkable and he might actually learn a few things from them.
“It was a pleasure to meet you, banu Subarenae.” He said automatically, remembering his lessons and turned to leave, his mind drifting towards the adult banu in his father’s harem. He definitely needed a bath.
((Fin! ))
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