Shula stretched, enjoying the morning light. It was still early enough to not be taxing to dance, and she was particularly thrilled this morning - Her children were adolescents, and that meant they were catching up. Indeed, for as long as they seemed small, they were now far larger than she herself had been at that age. The bright red lioness smiled, before turning back into the den. "Soleil, come on, now, you lazy bones girl, get up and let's go!" She prodded her daughter with a paw, urging her up. The cooler morning hours wouldn't last forever, now would they?
Soleil groaned, covering her face with her paws. "Aw, it's too EARLY..." Her reward was more prodding, this time from one of her brothers. She peeked out, glaring at Keahilani. "It'd really suit you if I got up, wouldn't it?" He nodded, and Soleil gave a huff. "You want my spot, don't you?" Another nod. The blood-red lioness scowled, but finally got up, stretching. As Hinata started to follow her, she blocked the snake with a paw. "Sorry, Hinata, I gotta do this without you... Mother's insistence." She gave the snake's head a pat, then turned, padding after her mother. As soon as she was out of the den, her brother predictably took her former spot. Gold eyes glanced back, before glaring into smug blue eyes. She'd get him for that later...
After ensuring her daughter followed with nobody else in tow, Shula led the way to her favored spot to dance. She soon settled to doing stretches, making sure her limbs were good and limber. "You'll want to stretch before you do this... I wish I could have started this much sooner, but there was nobody to watch your siblings while your father was out seeking water..." She looked at Soleil, mirth in her eyes. "You're good and old enough to be taking care of yourselves now, so we'll take the chances we can get." She shifted, popping several joints with a purr. The entire motion and action caused the fur to stand up on her back for a moment in a most pleasant manner, before settling down.
Soleil blinked, then followed her mother's lead. She quickly found her joints popping in places she'd never thought they would before, and the feeling was.... Divine. She shook out her blood-red coat when she was done, looking to her mother. "So now what?" Was there really a point to dancing? She paused in her thoughts. Of course there was, her mother had always told them there was. Dancing took the mind off of one's problems, if only for a while. And then there was how limber it made one... She's witnessed, as a juvenile, her mother bring down a desert hare. The animal was a particularly hardy one, as many other animals were leaving the desert in the face of the persistent drought. So... She could likely use this to her advantage.
Shula hummed, closing her eyes and smiling. "You need to think of a song..." She lifted a paw, covering her heart with it. "In here. Any song you can think of." Her smile turned soft as she opened her eyes, looking down at her paw. "Like... When I met your father, I was dancing alone... Singing a song about dreams..." It was a fond memory, if it had been a startling moment. She hadn't expected someone else to be there, with her. Her attention suddenly snapped back up to Soleil. "Are you imagining a song, feeling it in your very soul?"
She blinked for a moment, watching her mother, and then smiled a little. She looked so happy... For a moment, the drought didn't matter. Soleil and her brothers and sisters being slow to grow, and then having a growth spurt, didn't matter. Memories, she thought, were good at that, reminding one of happier times... The dark red lioness was startled from her thoughts by her mother's question. "Oh! Um..." She settled, then relaxed herself. She couldn't really FORCE the song to come to her... Getting lost in her thoughts, Soleil started to hum.
A grin lit up Shula's face. "That's right, Soleil... Now let the song move you!" She herself found her paws strating to move, the steps coming naturally. As she watched her daughter, she saw white-toed red paws move in the same manner. It made the older lioness proud - The music in her own soul had passed down to her children.
Soleil rose to her paws, eyes still closed as she started moving. Every step felt... Right. Fluid. "Turn around... Look at what you see-eehee-hee... In her face, the mirror of your dreeeaam..." She spun in the spot she was dancing, moving with the song in her head. "Make believe I'm everywhere, hidden in the light... Written on the pages, is the answer to a never-ending story..."
Even Shula got lost in the song. She couldn't help it, finding a joy in the lyrics. "Reach the stars, fly a fantasy... Dream a dream, and what you see will be..." She spun with Soleil, using her own steps to guide the adolescent in a few steps sideways. "Rhymes that keep their secrets, will unfold behind the clouds... And there upon the rainbow, is the answer to a never-ending story..."
Somewhere in her mind, Soleil was envisioning a lion. A handsome lion, at that, with broad shoulders and a thick, billowing mane. She wished he was real, then and there, so he could sweep her off her paws, as it were. Maybe take her above... "Show no fear, for she may fade awaaaaa-aaa-aaay... In your paw, the birth of a new daa-aa-aaa-aay..." She shifted on her paws, taking a step to the right. "Rhymes that keep their secrets, will unfold behind the clouds... And there upon the rainbow, is the answer to a never-ending story..."
Shula was so enjoying the song, she closed her eyes... And then missed Soleil's next turn, only discovering it when daughter crashed into mother and both tumbled to the sand. A silence fell over them for a moment, before Shula detangled and stretched. "Right... I think that's enough for now..." She offered her daughter a smile. "I liked the song, Soleil..."
The dark red lioness smiled sheepishly from the sand, then got up. "I should... Go train with the other soldiers..." As she hurried off across the sand, though, her paws seem to shift in a dance on their own.
Watching her daughter go... Shula could only chuckle. Then she went to rouse Kosuke so they could do their own dancing.
