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 Posted: Wed Oct 05, 2011 10:18 pm
 Sarabi had never taken on hunting as a specialized profession, other than the small number of training sessions she had when she was a teenager in her ancestral lands. Normally, she would have felt apprehensive or inadequate about teaching someone else a trade she didn't quite entirely have full grasp of - however, she was a lioness, and lionesses naturally hunted, right? That thought was hard to fully perceive when she had another duty in the Mizuka'nyevu that was far from spotting out weaker creatures to kill.
However, the enthusiasm from Kayin removed all of Sarabi's inhibitions for this lesson, and seeing him spinning around put a wide smile on her face.
"Alright then, let's start looking for food."
Lowering herself to a stalking position, Sarabi made a motion over her mouth, signalling that silence was needed.
"It's good to be quiet. Keep low to the ground. Don't walk with heavy steps. You need to feel like... A feather."
She crouched over through the grasses to her side, looking over herself at Kayin to make sure he was mimicking her emphasized movements.
"See? Shh."
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Posted: Sat Oct 15, 2011 4:28 pm
 "Slart loorking." He nodded and sat himself upright, his back ridged and his eyes wide. Poor Sarabi's first few statements went unseen and thus- 'unheard' but her hunting companion. Kayin was so focused on keeping an eye out for prey that he'd completely missed her attempts at instruction and her example. The lion soon brought his paws up to his chest and teetered on his hind legs, looking more like a meerkat than a cat of prey.
As she crouched over again, he caught the movement and watched her with wide, interested eyes. Falling to his paws, the lion tipped his head and focused in on the lioness' muzzle as she spoke again.
He needed to feel like a feather... he needed to be quiet. Both concepts were nearly impossible for him to grasp. Walking quietly was something he was notoriously terrible at and keeping quiet was a concept that was so foreign to him that his brother had given up trying to explain it.
He fell on his belly, crouching down with a loud thud, following Sarabi's lead. "Fleathers stray dowrn too?"
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Posted: Sat Oct 15, 2011 5:17 pm
Luckily, Sarabi did not catch her student in the least helpful position ever for a hunt - looking only when he had all of his paws on the ground. She started to think that teaching another - especially one in Kayin's situation - was not going to be that hard at all, since it was written in their biological code after all! However, that thought was very fleeting, and very hopeful. It didn't even have a chance to exist for more than a few seconds as she saw the grey lion crash into the ground as in on purpose, adding a confusing statement to that as well.
She looked at him at what must have been a questionable face - part puzzled, amused, and sympathetic at the same time.
"That was loud," she commented for now, walking over to Kayin.
She poked at his hindlegs, attempting to straighten them, and her face prodded over his sides and chest for a more fitting posture. His form was definitely beyond suitable, but still workable.
Backing away to smile and admire her work (and hope that Kayin could keep it), Sarabi made sure that he was watching her before she said, "..To be quiet, you need to... feel like you're touching the ground, but not touch the ground. You know? Like, slowly. Like... Like the rocks are sleeping but you can't wake them. Right?"
Even Sarabi would have been hard pressed to understand her own instructions if someone else had told her that.
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Posted: Sat Oct 15, 2011 5:27 pm
Kayin adjusted himself accordingly, shifting his paws when she prodded them and righting his backside. He froze in place, his eyes wide and his mouth ajar as Sarabi took a step back to assess her work. The poor male looked helplessly lost to her instruction, his eyes growing increasingly unfocused as she began speaking. How could he touch the ground...but not touch the ground? The rocks were sleeping? How was that? Perhaps they were always sleeping. He'd never seen a rock move before... and how did he not wake someone? He managed to wake Utomo almost every time he moved in his sleep or got up in the morning.
He opened his mouth but the multitude of questions died on the tip of his tongue. Maybe he just needed to try...he'd hate to disappoint his tutor.
Making a quiet grunting sound, Kayin began shuffling, stumbling, and tripping in an attempt to get all four feet off the ground at once.
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Posted: Sat Oct 15, 2011 5:45 pm
At Kayin's lack of response, Sarabi simply stood there, not knowing what the next move should be, or whether she should wait on something from Kayin. The hesitance was clear enough to Sarabi that he was confused, but she could not blame him; she wasn't a fitting teacher. This lowered her self-esteem a tad bit, but still, watching Kayin try his "best" - whatever that was - in front of her kept up her motivation and cheerfulness.
Thankfully though, Sarabi started to get the same idea as Kayin; maybe they just needed to try - trial and error. Obviously, words could only get her so far in this situation. If she thought back on it, she couldn't even remember how she was taught to hunt. She realized that she probably practiced and watched others perform instead of having verbal lessons; how silly she was to try and even attempt that for Kayin!
"Oh, Kayin!" Sarabi exclaimed once he started going wild with his legs, "Forget what I just said."
She helped him to steady himself, and then peeked at the fields again in hopes of spotting some nearby creature.
"Maybe we'll just skip the whole quiet thing, huh? I mean... all hunting really is is chasing something until you catch it. What do you think, Kayin?"
Sarabi motioned to some faraway shadows she spotted that looked like a couple stragglers of zebras separated from their main herd, saying, "See those?"
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Posted: Sat Oct 15, 2011 7:18 pm
Kayin smiled sheepishly as the lioness helped him back onto his paws. Huffing, he dropped his haunches to the ground and brought a paw to the side of his face to rub at his cheek. Maybe he wasn't so good at this hunting thing... he couldn't hear how loud he was being and he really had no idea how to adjust himself so he wasn't making so much noise. He knew that he did something to disturb the herd, however. There'd been many occasions where he would come close- only to have the prey beasts run off with their tails head high. The only thing he managed to do was get a mouthful of dust...
He sighed and looked out to where the Zebra were trotting. His ears rose up and his posture tensed once more.
"I see. We... snleak on them?"
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Posted: Sat Oct 15, 2011 8:36 pm
"Hmmmmm..." Sarabi thought out loud, sitting back in a contrasting relaxed position, unlike Kayin's.
Her eyes flitted to Kayin, and then back at where the zebras were in a back and forth motion; she was trying to gauge how far away they were as well as what would bring the two closer to their goal.
"How fast can you run, Kayin?" she then asked, an idea popping into her mind.
One didn't really need to hear to be able to run fast. All one really heard while running was a whoosh of air, anyways. But could there have been any situations that came up for Kayin to make him an adept runner? It seemed unlikely. Even though he was a bit scragglier than other lions, it didn't seem like he had ever been in any life or death situation.
Admittedly, she wasn't that good of a runner, most often catching her prey by surprise rather than endurance or prowess, but it seemed like she had to figure out some way to... adapt for this hunting style.
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Posted: Mon Oct 24, 2011 3:30 pm
Kayin drew his attention away from Sarabi once more as her eyes drifted over to the zebra. He brought a hind leg up to scratch at the shaggy mess of a mane, sending little hairs up around him in a flurry of dusky gray. He needed a good grooming, that was for certain. With his thinning mane and the shift between seasons, his skin was growing increasingly itchy.
He whimpered happily as he scratched, then sat upright as Sarabi looked his way. At her question he dropped his leg and pushed up to a stand. "Can run! I run grood. Real grood."
There was nothing quite like a demonstration. Lifting a paw, he pointed over to the nearest tree. Without another moment to waste, the little lion bounced up this feet and tore across the grass, laughing wildly as he bolted for the tree. She'd be proud! He was fast at least. It was one of the few things he'd taught himself and one of the few things he could boast about.
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Posted: Mon Oct 24, 2011 5:02 pm
Too busy focused on trying to help Kayin out, Sarabi only heard and saw him respond positively to her inquiry. At this, she giggled at his enthusiasm and before she could say any more, Kayin was up and displaying his apparent prowess on foot. Finding his laughter contagious, she ran after him towards the nearby tree, amazed at how speedier he was than her.
She gave Kayin a few moments to soak in his accomplishment, wondering herself if this was something he had to learn with purpose, or if the fellow just liked to run. She supposed it could have been a mix of the two. Kayin definitely had a youthful energy within him, which was something she, being a young adult too, could think about fondly.
"Wow, Kayin!" she said, still chuckling over his impressive display, "Faster than me, even... Well, then you'll probably do this hunt better than me."
A paw raised to point at where the zebras were in relation to them now, and she looked back at him to explain, "Run after them, and if you can get close... Hold them onto the ground, and then we can eat them!"
Sarabi smiled almost devilishly, as if she was challenging Kayin to a competition of sorts. She then mouthed the word "go" and sprinted off towards the zebras, taking just one glance to see that he would pursue with her.
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Posted: Mon Oct 24, 2011 5:14 pm
Kayin slowed as he rounded the tree, his tail tossed up like a banner, head held high, and his paws pounding proudly against the ground. It was almost a comical sight really. A lion with a mane no thicker than the grass he was walking on, thin as a branch, and incapable as a cub prancing about as if he were king of the territory. Complements were few and far between, so he took what he could when he could.
Dropping his haunches to the ground and panting off his short sprint, he glanced after Sarabi's paw then quickly back to her to catch her words. He was supposed to catch them? But...that never worked. They were so fast! Faster than he was even- and they could run longer. It didn't help that he couldn't actually hear the thundering around him, the panicked whoops, and thus- he had to rely on sight alone to keep himself from being trampled and kicked over.
Sadly this had happened once or twice. He couldn't remember the exact count...
He opened his mouth to protest, but Sarabi was already up on her feet and tearing after the herd. Eyes going wide, Kayin burst out after her, his mouth agape and his tongue lolling from the side of his mouth.
Maybe... it was different with a hunting partner? Maybe?
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Posted: Mon Oct 24, 2011 6:24 pm
Mistaking the agape mouth of Kayin's for positive feedback that he was excited to start on their hunt, Sarabi turned her head right back to her targets, telling her muscles to go fast - faster than they ever had gone before! It didn't help that Sarabi wasn't a hunter in the Mizuka'nyevu, so she wasn't even supposed to run, ever. Surely enough, Kayin caught up to her, even surpassing her a little bit. At this, she grinned and motivated herself to pick it up - not only did Kayin had something to prove, but Sarabi did, too.
As was expected, any prey that caught sight of vague forms sprinting at them would immediately react, their instincts to survive overthrowing any need to question or hesitate. They didn't even need to hear the thumping, loud paws going over the dirt from the two lions; they just... ran. And Sarabi followed.
Luckily, the stragglers of zebras included a few children, that despite their nimbleness, had not quite developed enough leg muscles to run as fast as their parents. Sure, zebra mothers sometimes stayed to protect their young, but when it was a question of either one young life taken versus two lives, the survival of the fittest dictated her to run. Despite her prodding and pushing, the speed of the foals was not enough to keep up with their family.
Sarabi knew she was getting closer - she smelled the dirt on their pelts, heard their frantic heartbeats... She could only hope that Kayin felt the same, but whether or not he could, it would be easy to just single one of them out and pounce.
She made a leap towards one of them, clawing at his screeching striped flesh, and waited for it to slow down from being dragged. She barely had time to watch at what Kayin was doing - if he wasn't successful, perhaps this would make up for both of their efforts, if she managed.
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