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Morning--and elsewhere, a similarly smallish white cub was padding softly among the tall grasses, flinching visibly at the occasional vulture's shriek or distant roar or trumpet or other voice of an animal announcing itself to the early savannah.

Tulivu flattened his bone white ears back against his head as he shook his small ruff of soft snowy periwinkle-streaked fur out of his lambent blue eyes. His entire form slumped with dejection. This had been a horrible idea.

His two more adventurous brothers, Oro and Roho had dashed off together despite their mother's express ultimatum to not stray from the pridelands, and, though he had waited behind dutifully for a few minutes, Tuli had given into the urge to try to follow them, partially worried that he would get in trouble for their sudden condition of being MIA, and partially because, despite all his hemming and hawing, he really did respect the fact that his brothers were so brave, and secretly wished he could be like them. Had he known the word for jealousy, he would have realized he felt this too. For he was envious that the two could be so self-subsistent... so seemingly able to exist--without him.

Biting his lip, he winched up the side of his face which bore the pale blue glyph, the distinct mix of heaven and earth he'd inherited from his parents, and sighed.

Now what? He was lost, alone, and was sure to get in trouble by the time he got back. A muscle in his throat twanged. Talk about mistakes.

A toppled acacia tree was up ahead, and impulsively, he sprung atop a low, thickish branch to seat himself and get his bearings straight. Perched on snowy haunches, he suddenly caught sight of a misty looking form, perched atop a rock. His ears flicked forward in curiosity, despite himself. He'd never met a lion outside his pride, and this one didn't look familiar. Another cub? But what was she doing out here?

After a moment of hesitation, he hopped to the ground, and traveled a few tentative steps forward, ears folded back slightly in apprehension.

"Hello--?" He called haltingly, and, instantaneously almost regretted his actions. What if this other was dangerous? She certainly didn't look particularly unfriendly but--if he made her mad...

His tail curled in an ambivalent question mark.

Instinctually, Tuli withdrew an inch or two as the young female ambled forward, but he stumbled so that he landed plopped on his haunches again as she circled him. Her walk was remarkably easy for a cub's and seemed to carry nearly as much grace as an adult lioness. All at once in the back of his mind, he wished he could stroll along without stumbling over paws that seemed too large for him, or hold his head slightly high and proud, as she held hers.

"Oh.. uh.." He watched her warily, visibly nervous but still trying awfully hard to be polite, gentlemanly even, like his father. "I suppose my name's Tuli." He winced at his words. Suppose? Stupid stupid stupid... "I mean--It is Tuli. Tulivu, actually--" He shut his jaw with a soft snap, as if to bar any more disoriented words from tumbling out. It was clear this young male tripped over his words just as easily as he did his paws.

He would have hesitated at the question of where he was from had it not been for her pleasant smile, for he wasn't sure if others were supposed to know about the land of his pride, but despite her dignified aura, something about her seemed remarkably accessable. "My parents are part of the Ushi--" He didn't really want to confuse her with the long name. "The Unity Walkers. From the Jungle." He tacked on, to clarify.

His brow arched slightly, wondering what her reply could be. As she strolled a bit closer, the young cub shifted his weight so that his right paw only barely touched the ground as he leaned slightly back from her. It wasn't that he didn't like the proximity, in fact, part of him found it rather nice, it just made him nervous. Despite all his blather, Tuli was really pretty shy.

"Where do... you come from?" He asked, trying to keep his tone polite. "What are you doing here?" He turned his head slightly, shifting a large rounded ear.

His ears flattened back with a mind of their own as she proclaimed her origins unimportant. A flash of worry pulsed through his mind. Had he offended her? But her next statement seemed harmless enough, and he hurried to reply in turn. "I guess I've never met a girl, either." He winced, crestfallen that he had slipped up yet again. "I mean! -- one that was my age. The ones at home are all older. And they don't seem to care for me much anyway." His shoulders slumped slightly. Many lions in his homelands seemed to find his offbeat nature exasperating. He didn't blame them, but he did wish that he had at least one person, other than his brothers, who he could really talk to. The general mood of the majority of the Unity Walkers was either laidback or adventurous, and his personality fit neither end of the spectrum, but seemed to leap away from both ideals.

His trace of unhappiness turned to mounting anxiety as the misty-colored female apologized. "No--you didn't offend--" He paused, and arched his brow. "'Sir?'" He repeated, with a tentative humorous snort, a small, slightly nervous, but genuine smile growing on his countenace. His ears craned forward slightly. He'd certainly never been called 'Sir' before.

At the question about his pride, the young male's ears swiveled back again. "Oh. Uh, you know. They... walk in unity--?" He faltered. Oh no! He couldn't even explain his own pride! She must think him hopelessly stupid. But truthfully he didn't even understand what the word 'unity' meant, although his father had told him once that it was like 'together.' "Just a bunch of lions who live together." He added with a deadpan and a shrug, hoping to salvage some remnant of authority on the subject.

His pale-blue plumed tail curled at his haunch, flickering in a subdued manner at her next comment. One ear tilted forward in hesitation, the other following a second behind as a grin of recognition spread his young features. That--what she had just said--sounded a lot like something he would say!

"It is a funny name, isn't it?" He said, feeling slightly bubbly inside with the elation of finding a personality similar to his own. "I guess I never thought about it before. With everyone around you saying it, you kind of get used to it." Where did this other come from? And were there more like her? He had to know!

"But wait..." He said, his brow wrinkling slightly, his smile lessening somewhat without entirely disappearing. "Don't you live with a group of lions too? You say you have brothers?" Well, he had brothers too! Didn't that make them even more alike?

He listened attentively to her as she described her living conditions. He shook his head at her question, for he didn't think he knew them, he hadn't met any other lions apart from his pride, she was the first. "I have two brothers too!" His ears flickered forward in clumsy enthusiasm as flexed his paws to hunker his smallish form a little lower.

Although part of him was loathe to admit weakness in front of Kilua--for certainly he already had showcased enough of them--he felt himself wanting to comisserate. He turned his head slightly, staring past the female for a second in hesitation before glancing back to her. "Yeah, sometimes my brothers like to hang around eachother rather than with me. I guess I sometimes worry too much for them. They're really brave, see." He added for good measure, not wanting her to think that he resented his brothers, for that was not the case.

"Roho is the oldest. Sometimes I think he's the bravest. Or at least the most..." What was that word? "--adventurous. But he can be kind of mean to me if I get on his nerves. Oro is the second oldest. He's really smart. And he's brave too." Brains, brawn, thinking about it made Tuli feel slightly put-out, for he had no excess of either--well that wasn't true, he was smart, but not in the witty way of Oro, who was able to string together words in such delightful patterns.

"And I'm me. I'm not very brave." He ended his ramblings with a shrug and a slightly sheepish smile. Underneath he stung a little, and he felt his cheeks hot with something like embarrassment. "Which is why I'm out here, looking for them..."