[BACKLOG] Where Is Your Fire? (Arita x Tawa)

[SilverLutz]

Tawa'shilah loved the sun. He was named after it in fact, as were many of the Firekin. He loved the way it made his fur warm up, how it lit up the day, how it made the sand look like water lifted off from it. His pelt wasn't particularly dark and his little tuft of a mane was bright, keeping the sun away from his neck and head. It was lovely!

He knew that wasn't the case with everyone, though. His own siblings had black pelts, as well as his mother and father, and they would hide from the sun on a daily basis while it was at its highest point. The dark fur attracted the heat, leaving them hot and tired and grumpy. Tawa tended to stay away from them during the hottest part of the day for that very reason. He was starting to show a little bit more mane on his neck and chest which his mother deemed a sign that he was ready to finally explore on his own before his training took up all his time.

So off he went, searching for nothing in particular. Every now and then he'd pause to look at a funny paw print in the sand or sniff around for bugs, but for the most part he strolled aimlessly, his tail bobbing happily behind him.

Quaji

 

[Quaji]

Most litters had one, maybe two hurias in it. Not Arita's. She was one of six huria cubs in her litter. In fact, not a single cub in the entire litter had any traditional colors. They were quite the talk of the sands right now, considering their mother was dark red and black, but their father was Fariwuta, a son of an old princess from days gone by, at least that's what she had heard anyways.

Trudging one paw after another, Arita walked on the edge of a smaller dune, careful to keep herself walking lightly. The ground was hot and the sun was high, not exactly an ideal location for a lioness with a pelt like hers. Already it was slightly red-tinted, even with part of a kudu pelt upon her back. As she walked, of course luck would have it that one of her paws didn't land right and down she went. Maneuvering so she slid instead of tumbled like her brother tended to do, hopefully she wouldn't hurt herself like last time... Pale red eyes widened as they focused now that the pelt had flown off with the speed the little cub was getting, just to see a tiny red body at the bottom, with a good chance of her hitting him.

"Look out!"

SilverLutz

 

[SilverLutz]

As the sun reached its peak in the sky, Tawa began to get a little thirsty. He paused for a moment to get his bearings before starting along some of the dunes that led the way to one of the watering holes. He could grab a drink and then head back to the den for a nap. Although he was growing older he still enjoyed his mid-day snooze with his siblings.

A strange noise reached his ears once he got walking again that made him pause and look around. It almost sounded like a snake hissing, but the sound didn't fade nor end. It only got louder. A voice called out to him and he turned in the direction it came from, surprised to see the source of the strange hissing. A cub was sliding down the dunes and it didn't look like she was doing it on purpose. Tawa didn't have much time to react since she was closing in at a pretty good speed, and it was mid-hop that she collided into him. The collision sent him tumbling with the other cub and found them in a heap when they stopped moving.

"Ow," he said quietly, although he wasn't sure what hurt. Maybe it was just a general ache of someone slamming into him. "You okay?" It took him a moment to realize he might not be the only one that was hurting. The other cub had been the one coming down the dunes, after all. She had likely hit him head-on. At least he had taken the brunt of the bump on his side.

Quaji

 

[Quaji]

"Sssss," Arita hissed as her paws folded over her head. "I...I think so." The cub's pale eyes were squeezed shut as she attempted to compose herself from the impact. Oh, and what to say too. Mama had warned her about the dunes, but nooo, she hadn't listened and now look where she was. Crumpled on top of another cub that she was hit in her folly.

It was slow and methodical when the huria finally began to peel herself off of him, but it was sudden when she paused. Arita's hind legs were back on sand, but her forelegs were still on the other cub. From that position she couldn't help but stare with those pale red eyes she had. It took nearly a good thirty seconds before she realized what she was doing. With all of the grace of a falling stone she scrambled off of him the rest of the way, her tailed tucked under her.

"Sorry." The apology was a mumbled one.  

[SilverLutz]

As the other cub began to untangle them, Tawa shifted to try to help. He noticed he was the only one moving after a while, though, so he shifted to ask what was wrong. Instead he came face-to-face with the other cub, wide, brown eyes meeting a very pale red. They stared for a moment before the female scampered off, putting some distance between them.

"Whoa...look at you!" he said as he got a better look at the cub. She was so pale! He'd never seen any lion like her before. All the others he had seen (granted, they were only his siblings and his parents) were all red, black, white, and even a tiny bit of blue on one sister's tail. But this cub...why, she was a strange tint of...something else!

"You're not red! Where's your fire?" His question wasn't cruel or teasing. Tawa had been told all Firekin were born with the fire's blessing, and therefore would bear some sort of color to remind them of that blessing. This cub...had the fire forgotten her?  

[Quaji]

His question, however he meant it, caused the little cub to puff her cheeks in anger and a firm frown to suddenly appear on her face. 'Mama said if you don't have anything good to say, don't say nothin' at all.' Arita reminded herself. Sorry mama. "I have fire! It's..it's in my eyes! At--at least I'm not covered in weird markings!" She retorted, her voice cracking as she tripped over her own words the entire way through the short sentence.

By the end of her little outburst the pale cub's chin began to quiver. Arita knew how people looked at her, looked at her siblings. They were all wrong. Brown, gold...and then her. Her who burned in the sun, the very thing that seemed to be such a focal point in their home's culture. It seemed almost ironic, but it was something that Arita wouldn't know until later.  

[SilverLutz]

The reply he got surprised him. Tawa's ears perked up and his tail raised at the verbal attack, but when the other cub's chin began to quiver he realized he must have hurt her feelings.

"H-hey, don't be sad!" he said, pouncing a little closer, sticking his rump in the air and bowing to invite her to play. "Ooh, yeah, your eyes are red!" Well. Pinkish. But he'd call them red if it made her feel better. Tawa was a kind-hearted cub and disliked seeing others upset, so he was always quick to try to make them smile.

He was about to pounce when the pelt that had been on the female's back fluttered between them, startling him so badly that he yelped and turned quickly to dart away, thinking it was some strange bird. He slid to a stop in the sand and turned, his brown eyes wide as he stared at the flat scrap of fur.  

[Quaji]

"I'm not sad!" Arita retorted with a stamp of one of her paws to try and prove her point, as if it did anything. His attempt to play, or...whatever he was doing wasn't helping. At least she didn't think it was helping since she was still huffy and her tail was still whipping the ground behind her. "Of course they're red. They're my fire..." The last word trailed off just in time for the scrap of her kudu pelt to come fluttering down--finally--to land on the ground between the two young cub.

While the pelt had clearly startled her with how she scrambled back, shoving sand on top of it in the process, it was nowhere near to the reaction that the red cub had shown. No, he had been downright terrified by it. And Arita couldn't help but laugh. With quick movements, as if it was almost muscle-memory she approached the thin fur and began to drag it back upon her back. "It's not gonna bite," she called to him with a layer of teasing laced on the four words.  

[SilverLutz]

Tawa pressed himself down into the sand, ears flat on his head and tail curled between his legs as he watched the pale cub drag the strange thing onto her back. When it was clear it wasn't going to hurt her he stood up again, although he kept his distance for the time being.

"What is it?" he asked hesitantly, placing one paw slowly forward to being his journey back to where she stood. "And why are you wearing it?" He'd never seen something like that before, either. Today was a day of firsts!  

[Quaji]

"The sun hurts me." Arita stated rather matter-of-factly. "Mama got me this to protect myself from it. It's part of last week's lunch." Or rather the remains of it that Ares had managed to get before her mate and cubs tore it apart. She glanced at him with a quizzical look on her face, "Haven't you seen a kudu before?" Though it obviously would have been a dead one at this point in their life. Maybe it was those lessons she was already getting to prep her for the roguelands had exposed her to information that most of the other cubs didn't have yet.

With a hiss, Arita started to nearly dance as the sun shifted ever so slightly in the sky to begin illuminating the sand beneath her paws. "I..I should go. I wasn't supposed to be gone this long."  

[SilverLutz]

The sun...hurt her? Tawa tilted his head a bit in confusion. He knew the sun was too hot sometimes for some in the pride, but he had never heard of it hurting someone before. He squinted up into the sky to glare at the sun for hurting the other cub, then looked back at her with confusion.

"A what?" he asked, having no idea what she had said. Kudu? The heck was that?

Her sudden decision to depart made his nervousness of the pelt flee. "I'll go too!" he said, not wanting to stop talking to the female yet. She knew lots of stuff he didn't and he was curious to know more. "I want to know what kudu are!"

He ran after her as she danced across the sand, heading back to the den area of the pride, questions leaving his muzzle every moment. He had lots of things to ask her.

FIN