A few nights had passed since Damu and Asali had aired their feelings to one another, and Damu had to admit she was feeling less weighted done. Not exactly carefree, but a bit more at ease. Maybe this life wasn’t so bad? Sure it was strange to go from living hell to living free, and she still didn’t understand how their lives could change so drastically, but at least their lives were no longer in immediate danger. Her musings on the subject have been long and many times left her feeling frustrated and snappish towards everyone. Her tail twitched as she watched the savannah, awaiting Asali’s return from what was hopefully a successful hunt.
Every step sent a small jolt from her paw to her shoulder, not enough to cause her pain, but enough to be noticed for certain. A tickle that provoked moderate caution. Between her jaws lay the limp body of a gazelle, not exactly a bountiful meal for the three adult lions, but enough to keep them full until she could hunt again tomorrow. The thing had leapt and zipped and zagged at odd angles, proving a challenge for the usually straight forward hunter. Unfortunately for Asali, she wasn’t as limber as the creature, and had trouble keeping up with its maneuvers. She supposed she must have landed wrong in one instance, thus the tickle that kept running up and down her front leg. She’d need to take it easy for the rest of the day, that should be sufficient in allowing it to fix itself.
Her patience paid off and soon enough the familiar form of her pale sister came into view. As did the sight of their next meal. Damu was indeed hungry and could certainly eat if given the chance, but she had more important matters to discuss with her sister. Swiftly the dark pelted lioness got to her paws, jogging up to Asali and pressing their foreheads together in greeting. Yes, she certainly felt more unwound in her sister’s company, and with those feelings came thoughts and musings she wasn’t so certain about. "We’ll fetch Durin in a moment, I want to talk to you first,” she told her, ears flicking back and forth uncertainly. This... would be interesting.
Asali quirked a brow at her sister’s straight-forwardness, usually the dark lioness skirted around issues and forced Asali to guess at their reasonings. It was strange, but her sister seemed happy and that was all she cared about. Dropping the gazelle where she stood the larger of the two sisters flopped over to her side, still attempting to catch her breath after the successful hunt and then dragging the beast all the way here. "Do go on, I’m dying of curiosity”, she quipped, teasing her sister for her unusual good mood.
Damu rolled her eyes at her sister, flopping down next to her. She did notice Asali’s labored breathing and heaving sides, and vague felt guilty for not accompanying her on her hunting trip. Thing was, Asali enjoyed the activity, where Damu did not. She disliked the idea of chasing something only to kill it in the end, perhaps because she felt as if they were the ones still being hunting. There was a thoughts she had been trying to ignore for the past few days. Perhaps that’s why her mood had been so good in the past few days. "I’ve been thinking, that maybe I’ve been a bit harsh”, she began, resting her chin on her paws. "On both you and Durin, that is.” Anyone else didn't count, and should be met with hostility.
"Oh?” she had to bite her tongue to keep from continuing in a sarcastic manner. "We’ve both been stressed lately, but thank you.” They did have a large blow up at each other a few days ago, and she wondered how deeply that had really affected her sister. She had seemed apologetic at the time, but Asali had been willing to leave it at that. Which left her to wonder, what exactly was her sister up to right now?
Damu huffed, eyeing her sister for a long moment. "I know that, but I still felt like saying it.” She didn’t like apologizing, didn’t feel the need to most of the time. But they’ve both been through a lot and the last thing they needed was to be at each other’s throats. "Its just nice to get a few things off my chest. I didn’t realize I’ve been keeping it all in like that.” And she hoped she wouldn’t do that in the future, the last couple of season had been horrible! She had realized how much she had been missing out on by bottling herself up.
Asali couldn’t help but laugh at little, surprised at how quickly her sister turned herself around. "Trust me, I noticed”, she replied, nudging her sister’s shoulder. "Just try not to do it again. If you’re feeling stressed, you can always talk to me. Or you know, spar a bit. Its fun to kick your rump every once and awhile.” Especially if Damu was being grumpy at her! That thought made the lioness laugh once again, as she settled her head onto her paws. If today continued to be so pleasant, she didn’t know what she was going to do with herself.
"Is that so?” Damu replied mildly, feigning disinterest in her sister’s obvious attempt to get a rouse out of her. That didn’t last long however, and Damu soon launched herself at her sister. The two wrestled for a moment, and Damu noticed that her sister must have still been tired from her hunt. It wasn’t often that she pinned the larger Asali, but had managed to today. Her grin widened at the thought victory. "Yeah, good job kicking my rump Asali, totally worked out for you-” she shouldn’t have given her sister the time to catch her breath. Before she knew she had the wind knocked out of her and somehow wound up flat on her back. ”... Ow”, she muttered, glaring.
It was Asali’s turn to feel smug at her victory, and she soon rose to her paws to stretch her tired muscles. Good news that her leg hadn’t buckled as she flipped her sister off her, so it should be fine. "Of course it did”, she chuckled, bowing her back and feeling her muscles stretch and joints pop. "Now go grab Durin and we can get started on dinner”, she told her, flopping back down to rest. Ah, victory was sweet.
((Word Count: 1122))
