[PRP] Could Always be Worse [Ea, Fia & Itzcoatl]

[Kimaria]

Fia's limbs were sore from the early morning work out regime she had begun (thanks to Xipil who seemed to like to suck the spontaneity out of everything) and for a moment she had to wonder whether she still had the fire for such things. The death of her nephew seemed like so long ago now, his face a faded image that she struggled to bring to the surface. There had been clashes since, but somehow the impending threat now seemed to have drifted into the background.

Things were tense but the feeling of impending doom and war had certainly dropped off the radar.

With a sigh she turned to meet the glaring eyes of the black cobra and narrowed her gaze.

"What are you looking at?"

The snake only gave a long, breathy hiss in response.  

[Mimsey]

Things might have settled down in the Motoujamii. But not so for Ea.

Every day was a new opportunity for drama, drama which she was more than ready to accept. Today, it was the continuation of cases in which a group of cubs had gotten into a poisonous patch of thornroot. It wasn't fatal, but Ea was tired of looking at swollen tongues and placating nervous parents.

And when Ea was unhappy, she went about making sure everyone knew it. After berating the lot of them, the unpleasant doctor stormed about looking for other fires to put out. But as luck would have it, this time, she didn't find any. Still angry, but she felt the winds knocked from her sails when there was nothing to direct this agitation upon.

"I am surprised you still keep that thing around," Ea said as she completed her loop and found her sister towards the end of it. Fia was perhaps one of the few that managed to escape her tirades. "I hope the start of the day has gone better for you than I."  

[Kimaria]

Fia blinked, turning her head towards the familiar voice of her sister. The corner of her mouth twitched briefly in response and, with a small shrug, she made herself more comfortable upon the sand and waved a paw dismissively in the serpent's direction. "He comes in handy on occasion."

Itzcoatl gave another, louder hiss and puffed out his throat. "More often than you'd like to admit." His tone was sharp but his bark had always been worse than his bite.

"Xipil still has me running drills with the rookies," Fia grimaced, "I think he has no intention of letting me see a battle. At this rate I'll die of old age first." Most lions probably wouldn't have thought that such a bad way to go, but not Fia.

"So," she continued, "who has you riled this morning? Do we get to teach them a lesson?"  

[Mimsey]

Ea's ear twitched at the mention of battles, but she said nothing to it. Instead, she strolled forward, giving the snake a steady stare with her unusual, wild eyes. "You could inform anyone with cubs to instruct them better on what to not put into their mouths," she grumbled. "What ever happened to bones to teethe on?"

The black cat sat, her tail steadily thumping in its own rhythm. "A group of the younger ones ran off, starting pulling pieces of thornroot to chew on. Swells up the tongue, but mostly just looks bad."

She made a short, derisive noise. "For the past day or so the wards have been getting in patients for it. A couple in the middle of the night. There's not much you can do- cub has to go without food for a few days. Make sure there's water, and it clears up."

"But ask anyone and none would admit to having raised dumb children."  

[Kimaria]

Fia twisted her mouth into a grimace so as to cover her smile at hearing the story of swollen-mouthed cubs. Having to deal with a rabble of whiny kids complaining about their discomfort sounded far worse than getting up at the crack of dawn to train.

Heh, maybe life wasn't so bad, after all.

"They have to learn the hard way if their parents aren't teaching them smarts. Unfortunately, that means that you end up dealing with the aftermath of the stupidity. Can't say I envy you, sister. I bet the parents are soooo grateful to you, as well. Not taking you for granted or anything."

She laughed, "I do hope our new, baby brother wasn't one of those cubs?" She thought of little Kimeti with a smile. She'd never particularly wanted cubs of her own but she did love having a large family that seemed to be constantly burgeoning with new faces.  

[Mimsey]

Ea couldn't help but laugh at that remark. It was hard to imagine their mother, stumbling in the middle of the night gripped in a fight over her single cub. "As far as I know, no," she said, a flash of fangs glimpsing in her smile. "Mother ran us strict enough when there were six of us. I can't imagine being the only one."

"If Kimeti did dose himself with the stuff, she'd probably give him a tap on the bottom and handle it herself," she mused. But then, with a short snort: "...but on the off chance, I'll stop by and take a look at him."

"Apparently, rumor is another older cub put them all up to it," she said with a grimace. "When I do find out the name of them, I'll be sure he serves his time in the wards as a rug."

Vent over, Ea took a short breath, and looked back to her sister. "Other than that? The usual incidentals."  

[Kimaria]

"Very true," Fia mused, "poor boy. I hadn't ever considered that. Being the only child of the litter must make it impossible to make any mischief. No siblings to blame or use as a distraction." To not have any brothers or sisters to grow up with was an odd thing for a cub, she supposed. The two of them had been part of a large litter and twins, as well. Perhaps she took her sister for granted, too.

"I imagine he'll be glad for a visit whether he followed the other kids or not. Or, being a smart boy, maybe he'll know the culprit behind the scheme and point you in the right direction."

The snake flicked his tongue lazily, "or perhaps you'll find that he himself, is the culprit."

Fia rolled her mismatched eyes, "riiiight. That's a definite possibility. Can't understand how we didn't think of that ourselves."

Itzcoatl huffed in response.

"Are you thinking of swinging by mother and father's den now, Ea?"  

[Mimsey]

It might have been in sarcasm, but Ea hadn't considered the fact that their little brother could have potentially been responsible. Her brow furrowed, for a moment considering. To be truthful, although she had certainly graced her mother's den several times during the pregnancy and after the birth, she was also quite busy.

So many of her younger brothers tended to blur together.

"That wasn't the plan," she said, rising to her feet. "But it certainly could be. I don't relish the idea of returning back to the wards."

But before she did, the doctor loomed for a moment near the snake, "Any grounds you have for that theory of yours?" she said with a warning timbre. "Snakes do, on occasion, have medicinal applications."  

[Kimaria]

Fia smiled, pulling herself to her paws and giving herself a quick shake to wake up limbs that had started to go to sleep. "Great! I'll accompany you in that case. Haven't dropped in on the parents for a while."

Side-stepping up to her twin, Fia glanced down at the snake in amusement, enjoying how he squirmed under the tone that was now being directed at him. He was rather good at talking himself into trouble and it was one of the small pleasures in life to watch him try to wriggle out of it and (mostly) fail.

"N-no," the cobra sputtered. "Let me get out of your way. I would hate to hold you up in your important task." His coiled body shifted against the sand, pushing him backwards a pace or two, and then he was shuffling off across the compact grains as quickly as he dared.

Fia laughed, "you remind me of mother when you get like that."  

[Mimsey]

"Hpmh," Ea grunted, watching as the cobra skirted off to places unknown. She was not a lioness who appreciated being sent down the wrong trail. With a shake of her head she turned, falling into step with her sister.

The pathway 'home' was a familiar one, and one they had walked more times than Ea could count. "I doubt mother would appreciate that," she said with a toothy grin. "I am quite certain she still fancies me the irresponsible one."

Even Ea knew that probably wasn't true. But it was a hard feeling to shake, even years and several litters between the both of them. "But who knows. Should we find our brother amongst those with the swollen tongue, perhaps my title will have been justly passed on."

Going home, it seemed, didn't take long at all.