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 Posted: Tue Oct 04, 2011 1:27 pm
 Maral couldn't help feeling antsy and anxious. He was a cub who preferred not to be the center of attention, or even to have anyone's attention come to rest on him for too long. Like his brother Mheetu, he just wasn't comfortable that way, and yet he sometimes forced himself to act out of character and deliberately call attention to himself. This was not one of those times.
Right now, Maral was doing his utmost to be sneaky so that he could get away from the enormous group of lions that filled his den right now. He was related to all of them, and ordinarily found no problem in being around them. In fact, Maral usually liked being part of a litter of nine because it meant that he could be overlooked with minimal effort on his part. However, since his father's return to the Pridelands the den felt too small and cramped.
Getting out of the den wasn't actually much of a challenge because nine juveniles plus two adults meant that he and his siblings were generally encouraged to be out and about, even in light of the recent invasion of hyenas. The challenge was getting out of the den without any of his siblings or parents attached, which had been a modification made since the hyenas' aggression. He understood, but he just wanted some alone time.
If he saw a hyena, or even thought he saw one, he intended to come straight home. That was the deal he made with himself to make his escape more acceptable. Still, the farther he got from home, the more the fur along his back prickled with nerves. He felt like someone was watching him.
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Posted: Tue Oct 04, 2011 9:44 pm
Had Maral looked up to the ledge above the den, he would have figured out the source of his discomfort - a small female cub, just old enough to escape from her watchful parents. She was a point of pride as well as a thorn in their sides- she had almost died at birth, but struggled to breath. Their little fighter pulled through - to become one of the bossiest and most headstrong cubs the Pridelands had ever seen.
Kosoko was bored. Everyone was busy worrying about hyenas - whatever they were, she didn't think she had ever seen one - and she was bored. She craved amusement. The plan, so far as it was formed, had been to see how high she could climb on Pride Rock, but now there was a young male below her, and Kosoko wanted to know what he was up too. Since her parents were busy, he would keep her company.
"Psst," she whispered.
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Posted: Wed Oct 05, 2011 5:57 am
Maral, like most lions, was not in the habit of looking up and watching for potential threats to come from above. Very few predators would take on a lion anyway, and those that would generally did not come at them from above. Leopards might drop down from a tree, he'd been warned, but he had almost as difficult a time believing in a threat from a leopard as he did believing that some kinds of apes would steal cubs. Now hyenas on the other hand. Those he would believe anything of, except climbing, because everyone knew they were dogs and dogs can't climb.
Other lions could though, and when Maral heard the unmistakable sound of someone hissing for his attention he nearly jumped out of his skin. Okay, so it wasn't likely to be a hyena, but it could far more easily have been one of Maral's many siblings, or even a parent, wanting either to accompany him on his explorations or convince him to head back. He wasn't ready for either of those things. He'd had more than enough family time lately, and it was getting harder and harder for him to evade any sort of special notice.
Furtively he glanced upward and hoped he didn't look too guilty. The plan was to say he'd stepped out to relieve himself if it turned out to be family. However, his gaze was not met with one of the brown or tawny hides common to his family. Instead a dark-coated girl cub who practically blended into the shadows perched there, looking down at him. He sighed with relief.
"Hello," he whispered, and then kept walking.
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Posted: Wed Oct 05, 2011 10:00 pm
That was not the way that this was supposed to go. He was supposed to stop and pay attention to her. That was what older lions did when they saw cute little cubs. Even if he wasn't that much older.
Kosoko was not willing to take walking away from her as an acceptable reaction. So she started following him along the edge, chanting to get his attention as she went..
"Psst. Psst psst psst. Where're you goin? Psst. Stop walking away!"
He had better stop walking, or Kosoko would show him who was boss here! And it wasn't the bigger, half grown male, she was sure.
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Posted: Thu Oct 06, 2011 2:17 pm
Maral's ears went flat and his tail swept very low to the ground as the cub continued to follow him from above and turn her hissing chant for his attention into something like a mantra. It seemed he was not going to be rid of her so easily. With an exasperated sigh he plopped down onto his butt and looked up at her.
"What?" he hissed. "The way down is to turn around and keep going until the path joins this one up there."
He nodded in the direction he meant. It was unlikely she was actually stuck, but he couldn't think of any other reason why she would be following him and trying so hard to get his attention. Well, there was always the possibility that she wanted to get him into trouble, but he didn't even know her. Why would she want to get a complete stranger into trouble?
Maral hoped that she did turn around and go back down the path. In the time it took her to reach the point where they converged he could be gone. His pale coat made camouflage more difficult than it might be for his siblings, but he was getting good at passing unnoticed anyway. He was so close to having some time to himself, too!
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Posted: Thu Oct 06, 2011 5:26 pm
Kosoko was quite pleased when the other lion finally stopped and turned to look at her. That was how things were supposed to go - none of this walking away from her nonsense. She sat down on the ledge to peer closely at him.
"I already know how to get down that way, that's the way I came up! I just wanted to talk to you. But I can come down now. Just stay still!
And Kosoko leapt off the edge, aiming to hit the other lion in the chest. He would be a good landing spot.
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Posted: Fri Oct 07, 2011 7:31 am
"That's good," Maral said, continuing to whisper. He was bound and determined not to have his escape discovered until he was far enough away from the den that they couldn't simply step outside and find him. He didn't want to worry anybody, but was it really so much to ask to not have ten other people around all the time?
"Why would you want to talk to me - oof!"
Maral had not expected that she would take the most direct route down, and even if he had considered that she might, he had not anticipated that she would use him as a landing point. Probably because Maral himself would never have deliberately tried to jump on another lion, since that would have the undesirable effect of drawing their unavoidable attention. But she didn't seem to have that problem.
It took him several moments of panting to recover from being her landing pad. That had hurt! He thought she might have managed to bruise his whole chest, and maybe push his ribs a little too close to his lungs. His entire body hurt now. Fortunately he was young and resilient and still had a pretty short memory about most things.
"That hurt," he complained.
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Posted: Tue Oct 11, 2011 7:24 pm
Kosoko looked quite pleased with herself when Maral stood up and seemed ok. "I think you're fine, because I am not very heavy and now we are friends so you can keep me company because mom and dad say that I am not supposed to wander around on my own because of the hyenas. What do you want to do today? I want to go see the watering hole, so come on."
Kosoko shook the dust out of her fur, and trotted off in the direction of the pride's water.
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Posted: Wed Oct 12, 2011 5:41 am
Maral couldn't help noticing how self-satisfied the younger cub looked now that she had gotten his attention and made her rather spectacular landing. Apparently everything had gone perfectly swell from her point of view. Having been used as a landing pad, Maral might have disagreed, but he was also a doormat and not likely to start disagreements over minor matters, which this was, ultimately.
His eyes widened at her proclamation that they were friends now and that they would apparently be going to the watering hole together. That hadn't been his plan, but it didn't seem his input was necessary here either, and he still didn't see the point in making a big fuss over the matter. He hadn't exactly had a destination in mind when he set out; he had just wanted to be alone. Now that it seemed he wasn't going to be able to be alone, there didn't seem to be any reason to debate where he would be going.
"I'm Maral," he said as he trotted after her. He couldn't help but make the introduction. It was only polite, and Maral was usually polite, though not painfully so. Being too polite attracted unwanted attention, just as being rude would. A happy medium of being blandly pleasant generally worked for Maral.
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Posted: Wed Oct 12, 2011 1:57 pm
Kosoko remained perfectly satisfied when Maral started following her, and smiled when he introduced himself and didn't complain about her decision. She always made good decisions anyway, but it helped confirm her opinion of herself when no one made a fuss about her decrees. If he kept this up, he would be a good friend, someone she could drag around on adventures without worrying about whether they were unhappy.
As long as Maral didn't complain, she assumed he was happy. And if he was happy, he would probably follow orders, because she made him happy. Right?
"I'm Kosoko. Everyone thought I was going to die but then I didn't die and now I get to go out of the den by myself and everything. You're lucky I chose you to be my guard cause otherwise you would probably be busy being bored and alone right now. Hurry up, I want to get there before the meerkats do because they sound weird."
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Posted: Thu Oct 13, 2011 12:28 pm
Kosoko's reasoning may not have been perfect, but the end result was more or less the same, so it probably didn't make much difference why Maral would continue to follow her. In truth, he simply was non-confrontational by nature and unless she actively tried to injure him or get him into trouble, he probably would just continue to go along with whatever she said until she told him he could go. He wouldn't ask to go because, well, he just wouldn't.
The constant stream of chatter took a little bit of getting used to, but not too much. With eight siblings there were always several conversations taking place at once and he had a lot of practice at following multiple lines of speech at a time. It was just that this one was uninterrupted and didn't seem to require any sort of input on his behalf. Which didn't bother Maral in the slightest. He was content just to walk and listen. It wasn't quite as good as being alone, but he could also just tune out the frequency Kosoko spoke on.
Thinking of that possibility made Maral smirk. She probably wouldn't notice if he wasn't paying attention, or that he was smirking. He was beginning to form the impression that Kosoko was a well-meaning but self-centered girl. He didn't mind that so much. If she was wrapped up in herself she wasn't likely to notice too much about him, and that was how Maral liked it. He picked up his pace in response to her urging and went on thinking about other things.
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Posted: Fri Oct 14, 2011 4:12 pm
"And then I went out of the den when no one was looking because I wasn't going to wait for them to watch me, but I thought I should still find someone, so that's you. I bet you'll be a good bodyguard, cause you don't talk much. You're very focused. You can probably fight off all of the hyenas, ever."
Kosoko continued to lead the way for her new "bodyguard" until she saw the watering hole. "Here we are! The watering hole. What is there around here?"
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Posted: Tue Oct 18, 2011 6:50 am
Most of what Kosoko said Maral tuned out. At least, he wasn't giving her his full attention. He was looking around and wondering how likely he was to be seen out of the den without his siblings or parents. And then he tried to figure out whether that would get back to his mother and get him in trouble. Probably not. Maybe not. He hoped not.
"Bodyguard?" he repeated, tuning back into Kosoko's one-sided conversation, which was more like narration than conversation in truth. "Do you mean me?"
He couldn't see himself fighting off all the hyenas, though he had been severely disappointed to learn he wouldn't even be allowed to fight one. He wanted to be helpful. Instead he and a few of his brothers had been asked to keep order in a communal area for cubs to wait for their parents and caretakers to return. That had been stressful, even with the game of hide and seek he'd gotten into. He would have preferred to be fighting, or maybe spying.
"Ah. Water? People? Other animals?" Maral guessed. He wasn't sure what other answer she might be looking for.
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Posted: Sat Dec 10, 2011 8:50 pm
Kosoko found herself disappointed by the watering hole. She was sure there was some excitement somewhere in the pride lands, but it certainly wasn't around pride rock. She would have noticed that, if there was anything worth noticing around here.
"This is less exciting then I thought it would be, Maral. Maybe you should take us back to the rock. We can find something else to keep us busy. Maybe climbing back to the top of the rock. What do you think?
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Posted: Wed Dec 14, 2011 11:51 am
Maral had to agree that the watering hole wasn't very exciting, but he could have told Kosoko that himself if she'd asked, and if she'd been inclined to listen. The likelihood of either occurring was probably pretty slim though, so there was no way for him to say "I told you so," and no reason either.
"I can take us back to the rock," he said carefully. He didn't like having to argue with people or disappoint them, but in this case it seemed he would have to. Actually, in this case he'd probably have to lie, which he really didn't like doing.
"I can't climb the rock with you though. I have things that I have to do with my family. My father's just recently come back to the Pridelands and my mum wants us all to get to know him better."
Technically all of that was true, but it still felt like lying when he said it this way and for this reason. He hoped she wouldn't try climbing the rock on her own, because that sounded like a very good way for her to get hurt, or even killed, and if that happened he just knew he would be at fault, whether or not anyone else ever acknowledged it.
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