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 Posted: Fri Jan 11, 2013 10:33 am
 The little purple cub growled fiercely, rump wriggling in the air as she lined up her pounce. Leto had just learned to stalk things the other day, and now she felt the need to pounce on everything that so much as twitched. Leaves, tails, bush branches, tiny fish in the shallows of the river, all were at her pouncing mercy. She liked stalking better than roughhousing. The other cubs sometimes got too rough, and Leto found it difficult to play with them anyways. She usually has more fun off on her own or with just one other person. Too many lions just scared her, quite frankly. Most of the time she was hiding behind her mother's or the nanny's legs.
Leto's current prey of choice was a small beetle, scuttling up the side of a small rock. Its wings seemed to change colour in the sunlight, going from black to green to purple. The cub crouched down as low as she could, belly dragging across the ground as she crept closer. When she deemed that she was closer enough, Leto pounced, flying towards the rock at full speed.
The beetle calmly took off into the air, soaring out of Leto's reach. The cub crashed into the rock face-first, dropping to the earth to clutch her muzzle in her paws. "Ooooooow...." She groaned, grumbling under her breath.
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Posted: Fri Jan 11, 2013 10:47 am
Just because her title was ceremonial didn't mean Dyl'Ahn didn't take it seriously.
Quite opposite really, she viewed her title as responsibility to provide for the other women in the pride, and today was no exception.
She crept through the trees, carrying today's catch quietly and carefully today before finding she wasn't alone-- a small noise, a cry of pain, and the female dropped her kill, stalking to follow it.
And found a cub with a sore muzzle. The female sighed and smiled, padding over to her and sat.
"What's wrong, little one?"
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Posted: Fri Jan 11, 2013 11:32 am
Leto looked up at the lioness sitting next to her. How embarrassing! It was bad enough that she had hit her head in the first place, and now someone would know about it. Her mother was a huntress for goodness sake! She was supposed to be good at these things.
The cub glanced at her paws, scrunching up her nose to make sure it still worked. The motion hurt, but the pain was rapidly disappearing. "I hit my face on the rock." The cub admitted grudgingly, pouting slightly. "Trying to catch a bug." Leto explained, scratching at the dirt beneath her paws. If she ever saw that bug again, she was going to rip it up into tiny little pieces and scatter the remains into the river! Stupid insect.
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Posted: Fri Jan 11, 2013 11:41 am
"I did that when I was your age." Dyl immediately smiled kindly to the cub. "As I recall, it was a dung beetle too." The huntress offered Leto a warm smile, the kind that showed as best she could there was nothing wrong. "Is this your first time in this area?"
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Posted: Fri Jan 11, 2013 12:05 pm
Leto returned the smile, feeling a little better that this adult had messed up at her age too. Her pride had recovered somewhat, but her nose was still slightly throbbing.
The cub scowled at the stranger's question. Come to think of it, Leto actually had no idea where she was. One minute, she had been snuffling through the grass right near the den, and now...now she was here. Wherever "here" was. Crap. She was actually lost. It was a good thing this female had come across her. Leto would have hated to have been out all day, and even night long until someone found her. Or she found her way back on her own, though the cub was pretty sure she couldn't have. "Uh...yeah. I mean, I don't know where I am." Leto grinned sheepishly, shrugging her shoulders.
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Posted: Fri Jan 11, 2013 12:10 pm
Dyl smiled, nosing Leto softly.
"I'm guessing you wandered from a Nanny?" Luckikly they were still in Antianeira territory, of Dyl would have been more concerned the cub was in worse straits-- likely even taken her in.
"Don't worry, I can take you back. Though, it explains why you didn't know a rock was there. It's good to know your hunting grounds." She winked. "Find a favorite place, possibly with other sisters, even, to hunt. Feel the earth in your toes." Dyl'Ahn wiggled her toes in the dirt easily.
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Posted: Fri Jan 11, 2013 1:52 pm
Leto scowled at the lioness. "I knew that the rock was there!" She protested indignantly. "I just...crashed into it anyways." The cub mumbled afterwards. Sure, she smashed her face into the thing, but she wasn't blind!
Then again, it was always good to take advice from her elders. Well, according to her elders it was. Leto squished her toes into the earth, making a face at the cold dirt that got in-between her pads. She yanked her feet up, shaking off the dirt that clung to her fur. "It's cold." Leto complained. "How can you hunt in cold dirt?"
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Posted: Fri Jan 11, 2013 1:59 pm
"I move." Dyl smiled, nuzzling her. "I don't focus on it. It's hard, but you can do it. As for the rock, I believe you. But it isn't memorized. Not yet. So you need to watch where your placement is." She nodded, but thought. "So, you can pounce, abd stalk. Would you like help tracking?" Always an important skill. "I don't mind helping you hunt in a way to avoid rocks."
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Posted: Wed Jan 16, 2013 8:19 am
The cub could understand how constant movement could prevent her paws from getting cold. After all, she hadn't really noticed it till now, when she had stopped moving. But tracking? Leto didn't know what tracking was. Perhaps something to do with paws prints? If this female thought that tracking was an important skill, then Leto decided that it would be a good idea to learn it. After all, the lioness seemed wise and knowledgeable. Plus her mama would be proud of her to see how quickly she was learning, right? It couldn't hurt. Not to mention that it seemed kind of fun! "Yeah, let's track!" Leto agreed, bouncing on her paws a little bit.
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Posted: Wed Jan 16, 2013 8:38 am
Dyl'Ahn looked thoughtful as she considered 'prey', mind covering various options before she remembered her kill, and smiled. Leto was small, and it would be a good start. Dyl'Ahn looked to her, and smiled. "Alright, then. I have a kill nearby you can track first. What it is, is a nice, fat zebra. Do you have zebra's scent memorized?"
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Posted: Wed Jan 16, 2013 6:44 pm
Leto thought for a moment, trying to remember what a zebra smelled like. She think she had zebra just the night before. The cub was still getting used to the taste of meat, but she recalled that the scent had been strong. "I think I remember it." Leto said, her head cocked to the side. She was silent for another moment until she confirmed it to herself with a nod. "Ya! I ate some before." She didn't have the scent memorized like an experienced huntress would, but Leto knew it well enough to have an idea.
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Posted: Wed Jan 16, 2013 6:47 pm
"Alright, I want you to follow my pawprints to it. It'll be a nice fat one, so it'll smell strong. It'll also have some of my scent, if you get lost. I'll be where you can find, though." Dylan smiled, calmly.
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Posted: Wed Jan 16, 2013 7:12 pm
Following paw prints? That seemed easy enough. Especially since the huntress' paws were so big! They would leave huge marks in the dirt! Leto scampered over the older female, staring at her paws before realizing she was supposed to be looking in the dirt. Leto gave the huntress a sheepish grin before focusing on the marks in the dirt.
It took her cub a moment to realize that the right tracks to follow were the ones with the toes pointing towards where Leto had run into the rock. Backwards meant forward! Crouching low so that she could keep a close eye on the tracks, Leto began venturing off into the grass, rump wriggling a little with each step.
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