Though she had plenty of duties to her pride, and plenty of things to teach her growing daughter about how to be a fit and fair leader, Queen Khathelela had made a habit of finding time for herself, for her mate, and for her sons. She was hardwired to put the pride before herself and everyone. Her inner voice constantly told her to do what was good for the group, not the individual. Over time, though, and most especially after the birth of her first litter, Lela had been convinced that she needed to take a little time for her sanity and to create memories with her cubs and mate. Today, she had managed to figure a block of time to spend with Astraios, one of her sons, while he sparred with her nephew, Vunozi. The boys had grown up wrestling eachother, though the odds were always in Vunozi's favor. He was older by enough to make a sizable difference. His sense of fair play, Lela had noticed, let Strai win occasionally, but now that Strai was older, Vunozi wasn't holding back.
She had selected a low stone to lay on while she watched them. This way, she was out of their tumbling reach, and could see enough to cheer for both of them. Lela didn't like to play favorites, even when one of the contestants was her son.

Vunozi was still the larger of the pair, in more ways than one. He was a full-fledged adult now, something that even he found hard to believe for it was still semi-new to him. He didn't think it would truly sink in until he settled down. But he was also much more fit than his cousin - Strai hadn't had enough life on him yet to create the lean build and muscular legs and quarters that came from hunting on a regular basis. As this was Vunozi's lot in life, he spent a lot of time exercising/searching for prey. And boy, did he love his job. If he hadn’t been predetermined for such a fate by the Great Lion, he probably would’ve chosen it. Consequently, this gave him a strong faith that the Great Lion watched over the pride, more so than he might’ve had otherwise. He loved to hunt, he always had. When he was younger, he entertained himself by three things: trailing around after Atlas, sparring with Strai (after he came along), and of course – hunting field mice and later rabbits. There wasn’t anything he enjoyed more as a pastime than scaring up a few rodents. Now-a-days, he wasn’t as much into that sort of thing, of course. Once he’d actually begun going on hunts, he had learned to love the rush of adrenaline that only came from big game. He enjoyed all of it. The tracking, the waiting, the stalking, the rushing, and finally the take down. The whole experience thrilled him, no matter how long it took. And there was no feeling he had yet to experience that could be compared to a successful hunt.
For this moment, though, the hunter had a different kind of prey. Before him, claws splayed and teeth bared, was his cousin Strai. That boy had grown, alright, and still was. His mane was coming in awkwardly these days. Vunozi chuckled, remembering well what that was like, those awkward adolescent times, when he felt uncomfortable in his own skin. His cousin, though, didn’t seem to share this problem. There was nothing awkward about the poise and confidence that rolled off of that purple lion. In a few moments, Vunozi planned to bring Strai back a little closer to earth.

Though usually observant, Strai seemed to be completely ignoring the fact that his cousin was a far superior fighter than he. He was only focusing on his first move, flexing his claws and swishing his tail. He stared hard at his cousin, trying to ignore the fact that his mother was so near by. Usually, they didn’t have an audience. Strai wasn’t really embarrassed to have Lela around so much as he thought she might be a little distracting. Then Vunozi chuckled – his purple ears shot forward and his light blue eyes narrowed. “What are you laughing about?” He lifted his head up from its previous forward and down position. His muscles relaxed a little as he stared in a perplexed sort of way. Had he missed some big joke?

Lela folded her paws in front of her and wiggled a little to settle more into a comfortable position. This was about as relaxed as she got – a lioness all about grace and poise had trouble letting her hair down. Even while she was simply sitting here watching her son and nephew, she had a certain air about her that told a looker on that she was at the very least high up in the social ladder. Her head was high, her look confident and she had a way with her grooming that made her always look like she had just taken a bath. She fit the look of a queen, short of a crown. At that moment, though, she had a perplexed look on her face. She wasn’t sure how normal sparring matches went, as she wasn’t really ever a part of one. She was honestly wondering if it was even possible for her son to get a leg up here.

Vunozi laughed again. “You act like you have a chance.” Without waiting for his cousin’s response, and without giving him time to recompose himself for a defensive maneuver, the larger brown lion launched himself through the air. He made contact before Strai knew what to do with himself. Both lions crashed to the ground in a cloud of dust, but Vunozi made sure to twist his body just enough so that he did not land completely on top of his cousin. He wanted to win, sure, and maybe get rid of some of that confidence, but he didn’t want to injure the younger lion. He laid partially across the stomach of Strai and turned his head over his shoulder to look down at him. “Caught, just like a rabbit.” He smirked proudly.

WHAM! Before Strai had even processed what his cousin had said, a giant, hard brown body had hurtled into him and crashed him onto the ground. He coughed from the impact, tried to suck in air but found he couldn’t. The dust that surrounded his face would’ve been a problem anyway, but he had simply had the wind completely knocked out of him. And now there was a big, stupid lion lying across his stomach, severely constricting his ability to move and breathe. He huffed out again, and was finally able to suck in some dirty air. He coughed, and managed to breathe in again after. Now to deal with the fact that he was being crushed alive.
The purple adolescent wiggled and writhed under his cousin. “Get off me. This isn’t a fight.” He pushed at Vunozi’s rib cage with his paws and huffed again in frustration. “I hope you don’t have to crush rabbits to kill them. I think a hunter’d be better than that.” He wiggled some more, almost free.

Lela gasped as her nephew flung himself forward. She hadn’t been expecting the sudden attack, though she wasn’t necessarily amazed by it. It wasn’t hard to take an overly confident adolescent male by surprise. Having been an adolescent once herself, Lela knew all about how her male counterparts’ minds worked. Narrow roads, single goals, that’s how they were at that age. She had been a much more complex being, or at least so she liked to think. Then again, she had been living in much more tumultuous times, and couldn’t afford to focus on the here and now only. She craned her neck up on the impact, watching how her son hit the ground and listening for any crunching or cracking sounds. Though broken bones weren’t exactly common place, a mother couldn’t help but worry while watching such a display.

Vunozi smirked down at his writhing foe and couldn’t help but laugh again. “Stop squirming or you really will be like a rodent.” He pushed off the ground and stepped over the younger lion to come around to his side. “Watch what you say, cousin, or I’ll make you go out on a hunt while I sit around and practice being a prince.” He winked at Strai, and tossed a quick look to his aunt to make sure he hadn’t crossed some sort of line with that comment. He felt comfortable enough when it was just him and Strai to say that sort of thing, but with Lela here – the actual queen – he second guessed himself the moment it flew out of his mouth. Regardless of their relation, there might be some etiquette that was necessary.

Strai rolled over once Vunozi got off him. He coughed again, but pushed off the ground rather quickly. He glared up at his cousin, who was acting all proud of his feat, and huffed again. “Yeah, yeah, real funny. I bet you feel so tough, getting down a youngster like me, old man.” While Vunozi busied himself with glancing to Lela for confirmation that he was still in the clear, Strai took offense by the comment and took the opportunity as a distraction. He launched himself hard into Vunozi’s side. Their contact with each other made a dull thud, and Vunozi was knocked off balance. Strai landed on the ground spread eagle, but his cousin landed on his side and slid a little, most likely scraping something along his side. Success.

The queen smiled at her nephew, letting him know he was safe with his comment. Though she wouldn’t have been alright with such talk normally, she wasn’t bothered by her nephew and her son messing around with each other while sparring. Also, it didn’t hurt that the three of them were basically alone.
Lela sat up this time, forgetting her graceful position. She stared out at the pair, who looked anything like accomplished young adults. Her son was splayed out on the ground much like a dead hare, and her nephew was thrown on his side and potentially bleeding. She cleared her throat.“Alright you two. Maybe it’s time to stop beating on each other.” She peered at them cautiously.

Vunozi hadn’t seen what was coming until it already came. He felt the impact and felt his feet leave the ground, and then felt the hit and the slide. It was his turn to gasp for breath. He laid there with his mouth open, huffing and puffing for a few moments, until he was able to breathe normally again. Then he felt the pain. He winced and rolled onto his stomach, then turned his mouth to look at the side that had hit the ground. He grimaced. “Well, kid, you got me.” On his shoulder was a nice little raw area where blood was mingling with brown fur and skin. Very attractive.
He looked back to his aunt, then to his cousin, who was still spread eagle on the ground diagonal to him. “Call it a draw?” He couldn’t help but grin – even with the sting in his shoulder, he enjoyed beating on his cousin sometimes.

Strai’s position was incredibly ungraceful – he could almost feel his mother’s proper eyes boring into the back of his head. The look on his face, though, was nothing but pure satisfaction. He had completely knocked his older, bigger, stronger cousin off his feet! Sure, he’d lost his own footing and fallen in such a position that he would now be completely unable to protect himself in – but who cares! This isn’t the real world! This is SPARRING, and he had just gotten ahead in the game. “You bet your dang rabbits I got you. Show you to be cocky!” He grinned again and pushed up off the ground to a sitting position. “I’ll take a draw this time, but next time I’ll beat your behind.”
And with that, the sparring was done.

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