Welcome to Gaia! ::

So many little wiggling bodies, so many new and strange things to see...Giza had woken to a new and strange world, terrible large and bright, but filled with color and so much wonder. The breeze through the grass entranced her, and the sounds of her litter mates fascinated her young mind. Of course soon enough she'd begun to tell them apart. She knew which were her brothers and which were girls like her by scent. Some were black and purple, others had bits of red.

Of course this made her wonder...why was she so different? Her purple was strange, something caught between her mother's shade and the red that appeared on her siblings. Her paws were dark, true, but the rest of her was so bright. She stuck out like a sore thumb amidst the gloomy-hued litter. Still, no one seemed to mind. One brother had wing markings like hers, and another had thorny vines too!

Today she was playing with a third brother though, the one with the jagged mark under his eye. He didn't know they were playing yet, but that was half the fun, right? She watched him playing at some game, and then, unable to resist any longer, she leapt from the grass, tackling her sibling and tumbling over him. "Gotcha!"

Phlegyas tumbled over, surprised but the air forced from his lungs a laugh. It was a long shot to guess who had ambushed him, but by the process of elimination, and the bright tail seen from the corner of his red eye, it had to be Giza. He stood, shook himself off, and lunged forward in retribution, a savage yell coming from his tiny chest.

Giza squeaked and tumbled backwards, paws flailing to fend off her 'attacker'. "Phleeeeegyas! Stop! Stop! Mo-o-ooove! Your foot! Your foooot!" His hind foot was stepping on her, but it didn't hurt. Far from it, somehow the pressure was unbearbly...ticklish. She shoved at his chest with her paws, trying to free herself, laughing madly the whole time.

Phlegyas, unawares of the feeling under his foot promptly leapt off, and stared at his sister nervously. He shook his tail before looking around to look for his mother or a sibling, hoping not to be caught doing anything that may get him in trouble.

Giza's laughter finally died down to a heavy wheezing, and she rolled over onto her feet. "Phle!" She swatted at him with a paw. "Your foot was tickling me so bad!" She shook herself to get the last of the tickle-feeling out...and promptly draped herself over her brother and started chewing his ear. "Tickling's against the rules you know!"

Phle's ears fell even as she gnawed on them. So he'd been had! His features wrinkled beneath his purple pelt as he tried to reach to chew back on her. "Well how was I supposed to know that you were being tickled! I thought you were gonna die!" If he'd been more mature, it would have been quite the statement of care, but at his age, it was still the plaintive cry of someone not wanting to get in trouble with mother. He growled a little in his struggle, and wiggling, he muttered, "I'll chew you to death!"

Giza patted at Phle's face. "Silly! You didn't hurt me at all!" Both of them were still too small, to undeveloped to really hurt eachother, even if they'd wanted to. She laughed at his silly threat and chewed all the more on that ear she had in her mouth. "You mean like 'dis?" She asked around the furry thing in her mouth. "I'mma chew you to death first!"

The little cub mewled loudly, less from pain but more of the embarrassment and shame he felt at being dominated by his sister. He stood, wiggling, trying to get her off, and straining his neck until he snapped up her tail with his mouth and began to gnaw. "Oo! Ike ish", he declared while setting the example.

Giza giggled as Phle struggled. She planned to let him go soon enough-he liked to win, and she liked her siblings to be happy. Of course, that was before he got hold of her tail. She squealed as he bit, releasing his ear and wriggling. "Oww! Well you know what? Take this!" She twisted around and got hold of his tail, completing the chew-circle.

Her interest waned after a few moments, and she released her brother. "Hey Phle?" She asked, ignoring his further attacks on her tail. Something had been bothering her lately. "Have you seen something big and black and red wandering around nearby lately?" Of course she didn't know what it was-that it was another lion, and her father to boot. Her eyes weren't that good yet. "'Cause I've been seeing one out in the grass."

Phle nearly flopped over from the relief of release, but only squeezed tighter on her tail as she caught his. But he held fast, even as she let go, working it thoughtfully like a water buffalo its cud, determined to chew her to death.

"Mmmm..."

He turned his red eyes upwards in thought before finally spitting her tail out. "You mean like Marrik? ...Naw, he's not that big." Shrugging, he continued. "The only big things are Mother or things with horns n' hooves." Of course, he didn't also register his father's own crown of a beast's horns that he too had glimpsed a time or two.

Giza shook her head and reached around to pat the fur of her tail back into place where it had been chewed. "No, not that. Sorta like Marrik, the red's the same I mean, but it's not like a horn-thing either." She thought a moment. "It had horns and stuff, but it moved funny. I dunno. If it was important I think Mommy'd tell us." She smiled at the thought of their mother. Few would imagine the goddess of decay to me a good caretaker, but to Giza she was simply the best. Nevermind that she was the only mother the cub had ever met. "I wonder where she is right now...?"

Giza on the other hand did run straight, and because of that started to really catch up. Each time Phle swerved back in her direction she was closer, closer...Of course the larger boulders started to slow her too, but she made the best of them, scrambling and leaping from one to the next...

Just as Phle reached the top she was at the bottom of the largest stone. "I'm coming up!" She threatened, and then with a crouch and a tense, she leapt...and nearly fell back down, clawing to pull herself up. "Wow, what a view!"

Phle was nervous as his sister scaled the stones, not because he was worried about her insistent gnawing and cuddling, but because she almost slipped. He reached a paw out and his jaw dropped just after she recovered, and he had to disguise his care by pretending to shove her back. But that rivalry was forgotten for the camaraderie of a beautiful view.

"Isn't it...?" He gazed slack-jawed at the terrain, the browns and sienna of the grasses, to the green of lusher pastures and the blues of the sky and the water.

But missing from this picturesque view was purple. Besides that of Phlegyas and his sister, that is. He turned to her, head cocked and looking slightly disappointed, he said, "Well, I guess Ma's not here after all... Now what?"

Giza swiped a paw at Phle. "You trying to make me fall? That's not nice, Phle!" She nipped his ear and then chuckled. He couldn't have meant to do that. She stood and moved to look out better. "Yeah...Momma picked a pretty home. I hope we stay here a bit longer than we did in the last den." She chuckled and pointed with a paw to where the grass was much browner than the rest. "Look! I can see where Momma sleeps from here!"

That was true though, no Posca in sight..."Hmm...well we could still try by the water, or maybe see if the others want to help us or play or something...?"

Phlegyas flopped down on the rock, sunning himself like a lizard in a dangerous spot, but he sighed heavily. Sure it was fun and was pretty, but they'd gone the wrong way. He rolled and tumbled about into his sister's legs as he moaned. "Gizaaaaaa why'd you make us come here? You're so stupid!" As he lay next to her, complaining about his problems and making them hers, he frowned.

"...I don't ever want to leave...."

Giza pranced about as her brother rolled, trying to dodge him. Unable to escape without climbing down she chose instead to lay down atop him, and stop his thrashing. "I'm not stupid!" She retorted and nosed her bro. "How come you're mean to me, Phle...?" She didn't want him to be. Somehow it felt like...like something was already going to happen. Something that would...mess this up. She wanted to get along, be friends with all her siblings, but Phle was always making it hard...

"Ever? But what if momma leaves? We have to go then...'Sides, there's lots of world to see together..."

Phlegyas' eyes glazed over, and he lost control of his body. His limbs went limp under Giza's weight, but in a moment, he didn't even register it. Instead, he was somewhere else. Far away from the rocks and the den, a darker place, with a cloudy sky. In his vision, he saw hunched forms, hyenas, though he didn't know it. The cub's body grew cold and clammy as a shudder passed through him. He was scared, and above all, confused. Why had he and Giza been oblivious to the quick onset of overcast, and to the deadly predators that stalked before him? But as he continued to watch, it was then that he saw her. Phlegyas' mind's eye came to rest on the large form of his mother.

So they'd been wrong, she was with them, right? Even as he felt comfort at seeing Posca, he was still lost. The urge to call to her was a choking sensation in his throat, and he swallowed hard. There was something he'd missed before, between the grays and blacks and dull coats of hyenas, and behind his mother, was a bright pink that suck out like a sore thumb. He didn't know how he'd scanned over it, but as the legs and bodies parted, it was Giza.

But she was bigger. There was no explanation for any of this. His ears pinned back to his head, but turned forward as he recognized the voices of his family. It was indistinguishable, and faint, more of a whispering, but he could discern their exchange. Something... Something about how Giza missed her siblings. How she was so sad they were gone. Their mother cooed to his sister, and told her how much she missed them all too. And as Posca's head turned in Phlegyas' direction, as though her inky black eyes were staring right at him, she was gone.

The cub blinked against the bright sunlight, back again under Giza's little frame, and pinned on the jumping rocks. He shook with fear and confusion, and wriggled his body from under her, taking a good hard look at his little sister. His mouth agape, he worked his jaw to find something to say, but no sound came out of his mouth.