[PRP] Valid Inquries (Uuni x Imhotep x Onuris)

[Hopefolly]

IC Timeline: Several months after Close Enough. What's left of Renzi's litter has been rescued / adopted by Roka, named by Sema and Abasi, and continue grow at a healthy rate. Ure, Ajia, Sema, Abasi, Roka, and Uuni are all traveling together with the cubs in search of Tanana.

Morning light disturbed his siblings' sleep, but not Imhotep's. He was awake before the sun, exploring the grassy field with plodding steps of unvarying rhythm. Back and forth he paced, until Uuni had arrived and he'd hurried onto her back. Mom told them a few days ago they'd soon be too big for the Goddess to carry atop her head, between her horns, and since then he and his brother had missed no opportunity to race for that sought after perch.

Imhotep didn't understand what all the fuss was about, yet even this young he knew indignation when he saw it. Whatever was happening was the reason they had Uuni all to themselves today. The timing couldn't have been better no matter the reasons.

"Wait until Mahdi sees this," Imhotep was saying to his brother. Again.

Mahdi was a cub in a small pride they'd once visited. Their hospitality was impeccable, but Imhotep mostly remembered that bratty friend they'd made and his accusations they were lying about knowing two Gods. He couldn't recall where Uuni was at the time and Mwokoti had been nothing but a memory for many suns and moons.

Before they'd set out, Roka had made it clear there was to be no teleporting where the children were concerned, so that meant they had an hour's walk still ahead of them — if Uuni could outlast the cubs' impatience and onslaught of questions.

"Why does Mwokoti have wings and you don't?"  

[Kaelyndra]

No yelling. No magic. No transforming. No teleporting. No eating the children. Was there anything she was allowed to do?

Suffer, apparently. Uuni was paying penance for every cub she'd placed across the African continent. It had festered itself in two cubs currently vying for her headspace. It was lucky she could regrow eyes, because losing one as an almost certainty.

"Yeah!" piped the one who was walking circles in the space between her shoulder blades. She'd be an elephant, but it might traumatize the children. Then again, Roka wasn't here--The thought was immediately cut short by careless, young, sharp claws that pricked through her mane and into her neck. Uuni dipped her head, and Onuris was able to leap the rest of the distance to land, belly first, on his brother's back. He proceeded to wiggle his body so he might worm his way into sharing the spot. "Then he'll have to share his secret!" What this secret was, Onuris did not know. He did know that Mahdi knew it, and therefore he wanted to as well. The answer, truly, was irrelevant. Perhaps, though, it was why Mwokoti had wings and why Uuni did not.

"The same reason the sky is blue, but isn't made of water," Uuni immediately retorted. Already, the hair underneath their warm, tubby bodies was itching. No matter the species, those creatures caught between juvenille and cub got fat. Their bodies buldged out awkwardly. Unfortunately, this allowed them to fit rather comfortably on her skull, their bloated tummies as a makeshift anchor.

"And she's old." This had been the answer to most questions asked about Mwokoti.

"Why are you friends with Mahdi if he calls you a liar?" she countered. Even now, she was trying to convince them walking halfway across the plains was a terrible idea. Unfortunately, three lionesses, two males, and two cubs were not on her side.

 

[Hopefolly]

Strength in numbers was a concept they learned early. Imhotep would abide by it until it started squishing him against a set of horns. "The sky isn't blue at night," he quipped, trying to push his brother back down from wenst he came. Onuris was successfully banished to Uuni's neck before she could retort, though at that point she might have favored complaining instead. Sharp cub claws. Sharp cub claws everywhere.

On the matter of their friendships, Imhotep had yet to reply.  

[Kaelyndra]

"No," Uuni agreed. A sound as shrill as the cubs' claws were sharp escaped her mouth as Onuris struggled against his banishment. The goddess came to a stop.

"Mkodi be damned, I will make you both walk." Damn was not a curseword, Roka, so there. Uuni's tail flicked while she waited for Onuris to settle on her shoulders. Unfortunately, he did not.

"Imhotep, was there last time." To Onuris, his brother's superior speed was a constant sore. "It's my turn," he continued to plead his case towards Uuni, hopefully winning her over before his brother countered.  

[Hopefolly]

Not a chance.

Imhotep was there last time. And the time before that. This whining came as no surprise to him and he had his reply locked and loaded. The best defense was a good offense. "I was awake first, so I get first pick where to sit."  

[Kaelyndra]

"I don't really give a babboon's furry behind," Uuni interjected, as Onuris opened his mouth. Things started innocently enough, but soon they'd be wailing, and one would be crying. "Imhotep was there first."

Leave it to Uuni to practice the same level of maturity of the cubs. "That's not fair! It's my turn! Sema said!"  

[Hopefolly]

Smugness, thy name is Imhotep. "When?" he demanded curtly, staring back at his brother. It was a curious thing Sema should have the time to tell Onuris that considering Imhotep really was awake first. He didn't think about that until after the fact and blurted out the question more for argument's sake. "Sema's not in charge," he added swiftly. "Uuni's in charge."  

[Kaelyndra]

"Yesterday!" Onuris shrieked, over Sema's proclamation of leadership. Uuni flattened her ears against her skull. The goddess proceeded to break into a jog, forcing the hellious offspring to concentrate on balancing. When she raised her head, a sharp pain shot through the tendons in her neck. Still, everything she saw looked like dust and grass and more dust. Maybe a tree.

"Are you sure this is the right direction?" Uuni shouted over the pair's life and death debate.  

[Hopefolly]

"You're a liar!" Imhotep had screamed. Cue bickering match, with accusations being tossed back and forth. Uuni's brisk stride didn't diminish his capacity or his willingness to verbally joust with his brother. The louder they became — and did they ever get louder — the less productive they were. A truce was no more in sight than the pride.

"It's just over that hill over there," Imhotep informed Uuni. "Maybe we should have asked Mwokoti to take us," he added, in theory meant for his sibling. His uncles would have been aghast with his snark.  

[Kaelyndra]

"Maybe we should." Onuris was a great believer that the unknown was always better than the known. The antelope were always sweeter on the other side of the river. And so, without stopping to think whether this would be an effective method of summoning a goddess, the cub began to shout, "Mwokoti! MWOKOTI!"

Feeling the arguments had reached a point that could not be salvaged, Uuni simply joined in with a suggestion. "She won't come unless we're lost." Given Uuni's eyes shuffled between hills and randomly picked one, that would soon be a distinct possibility.