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 Posted: Wed Apr 04, 2007 2:51 am
Sura'athari toddled along late in the morning, humming softly to herself as the lazy sunlight spilled onto her fur and warmed her back. She had been born not long ago, and she made it a daily thing to sit and take a nice sunbath in the morning. She and her sisters were not very healthy young cubs, although their mother had never truly explained how it had come to be. After all, Mama was a fine healthy lion. But she had heard once that sunlight made one stronger and healthier, and so in her neverending quest for optimum health, Sura had made it a habit to sunbathe every morning.
The white cub found her spot, and lowered her rump onto the ground, stretching out her forelegs lazily with a wide yawn, turning to groom at the pastel gray stripe that ran down her back. Her little pink tongue swiped carefully over the fur, smoothing it down gently. There was nothing more the cub liked than making herself look wonderful. For when she looked wonderful, she looked more healthy too.
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Posted: Wed Apr 04, 2007 5:06 am
Umbia was as different to Sura as one could get. She was born into a healthy family with both parents around who doted on her constantly. She had an older sister who she could play with and seemed to dream of a different life daily.
The black cub had decided to go for a wander to get her mind off how boring her life seemed to be here. Her eyes were on the ceiling but lowered to rest on the grey body of another cub. Hoping that something interesting may come of meeting this strange cub she bounded over, slowing as she got a little closer.
"Hello there, who are you?" She spoke softly, her eyes darting over the cubs body noticing that she seemed thinner then most cubs.
"I am Umbia. You look hungry." She was a cub so hadn't learnt that some things can stay in ones head and are better off there then being spoken. However Umbia was no more then a cub and would probably never learn to keep her mouth shut, she was just a very blunt person.
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Posted: Wed Apr 04, 2007 5:56 am
Sura didn't quite notice the black cub nearby, and had almost dozed off in the warmth of the sun when a voice broke through to wake her up. She lifted her head slowly - as she always did things slowly - and looked up at the strange cub that stood over her and blocked the sun with her head. The white cub gently climbed to her paws with a smile. "I'm Sura," She announced proudly. She had yet to learn how to pronounce her full name properly. Sura'athari - it was quite a mouthful! "What about you?"
Her smiled turned to one of mild embarrassment when Umbia wondered if she was hungry, and shook her head hastily. "Oh, no, I'm not hungry at all," She reassured her, although realizing that Umbia was nowhere near as skinny as herself and her sisters. Sura had always thought cubs were all as thin as she was, but obviously she was wrong. The white cub felt a the beginnings of a spark of jealously enter her. Why were other cubs so much healthier?
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Posted: Wed Apr 04, 2007 8:26 am
Umbia looked at her again and shook her head. "You should still eat something you look like you might snap in half." The black cub spoke bluntly yet again seeing no reason why not to speak her mind.
She stretched and looked around, "Maybe you could help me catch a rabbit or two and then you could eat one. Might help fill that tummy of yours." Umbia had come to the conclusion that Sura needed to eat whether she felt hungry or not and Umbia would be the one to make sure she did eat.
"If we don't catch something I will get father to, he is a good hunter." She smiled and nodded happily at herself.
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Posted: Thu Apr 05, 2007 5:55 am
"Oh, um, okay?" Sura managed a smile. She wasn't used to saying no to anybody. She seemed to have a compulsive need to please everyone and everything around her, and it meant that she could never quite find it in herself to decline anything. She wasn't a very useful hunter though, and it often troubled her. She wasn't a particularly fast runner, nor could she run very far before she started gasping for breath and simply had to stop. Sometimes she wondered if she would ever grow up to be a huntress for the pride. It had never occurred to her that there were other jobs for a grown lioness who didn't wish to hunt - watching the youngsters, perhaps, or storytelling. She had always taken the nannies for granted and had never really thought too much about them.
"Oh, I don't think it'll be necessary to bother your father," She said quickly. A father? She wondered what that was like. Mama never talked about her father, as if he had never even existed to begin with, and it didn't matter how many times she asked, she had never been told anything about him. She supposed he was gray - otherwise how could it be possible that she had not a speck of salmon on her pelt? Sometimes she thought she looked so unlike her mother that she felt down and depressed.
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Posted: Thu Apr 05, 2007 10:46 am
Umbia just smiled, "Follow me and father would be happy to catch us something, he doesn't do much else. He is just so lazy!" She chuckled and started to walk in a random direction which wasn't all that random because she knew it led to several entrances of what she believed to be a rather large rabbit burrow. She came here to practice her hunting skills but hadn't got one yet so she hoped that maybe with someone else she might get one.
"I hope you are good at scaring rabbits. I want to kill it!" She smiled happily while planning how their little hunt would work. Umbia was a very bossy little girl even though she was the youngest of four.
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Posted: Fri Apr 06, 2007 1:46 am
Oh she was plenty good at scaring the rabbits. Come to think of it, she wasn't much use at doing anything else with them. They were far to swift for her to catch, and even if they weren't, that crazy zigzagging they used whenever they ran was sure to throw her off. She was all too used to such thoughts, though, and she was only feeling slightly put off as she followed Umbia toward wherever they might be headed.
"Is it really that fun to kill things?" She found herself wondering. Ever since she had been born and had almost died by not knowing how to suckle, she had developed a strange awe at life and she valued all life to the utmost. To her, a blade of grass wasn't just grass, it was a living stalk whose life she could so easily end, but wouldn't - couldn't. She understood the eat-or-be-eaten rule well enough, but she had never understood why it had to be other creatures that they killed. It wasn't as if their prey was smaller than them. She pictured the giant wildebeests and the zebras, how much larger they were than lions.
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Posted: Wed Apr 11, 2007 1:19 am
"Of course it is, you are killing to eat!" Umbia thought this other cub was weird, no weird wasn't weird enough. There would be a word somewhere to describe what Umbia thought but she couldn't think of it at this moment in time.
Leading the way Umbia made it to what seemed to look like a clump of bushes though it soon became obvious that wasn't all it was. She crawled through a small hole that had been made by other animals and just laid watching.
The otherside of the bush were rabbits, loads and loads of rabbits.
Umbia smirked and licked her lips.
"Yummy!" She whispered to Sura.
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Posted: Wed Apr 11, 2007 2:23 am
Rabbits. The mere sight of them made her feel less confident about herself. She couldn't catch rabbits, and so she had learned not to try, and to move on to easier game like grasshoppers or butterflies. Things that didn't move as fast. She crawled in next to Umbia and hunkered down, watching the rabbits through the hole. They remained blissfully unaware of the cubs' presence.
"So? What are we gonna do?" She lowered her voice so it would not carry to the sensitive ears of the little herbivores that lingered about before them.
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Posted: Tue Apr 17, 2007 10:05 am
Umbia looked at the other cub a little confused again. She didn't know what we were going to do after she had already been told? That cubs confusing.
"We are going to hunt. I will hide and you will chase rabbits towards me and then I will try and kill them, you will come and help after you chased it, understand?" Umbia had tried to say it in the most simple way she possibly could, mainly because she thought Sura must be really stupid as well as really skinny.
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Posted: Fri Apr 20, 2007 12:10 am
Sura shook her head impatiently. "Well, I know that," She said with a shrug. "But that's it? Just hunting them?" It didn't seem like much fun to the white cub. But then again, who knew? Perhaps she was just deprived of knowledge of play. She crawled forward a little more to get a better view of the rabbits. "Then where are you gonna hide?"
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Posted: Sun Apr 22, 2007 7:29 am
Umbia had decided the cub with her was really stupid and really boring already. Yes Umbia was quick to decide what someone was like even if in truth they were actually really nice.
"I will be over there." She pointed to a small hole in a row of bushes.
"You chase them to me and I will try and catch one." She smiled and turned to where she was going to lay and wait, she just hoped the other cub had understood.
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Posted: Thu Apr 26, 2007 3:04 am
"Well, alright then." She shrugged and crouched in the bushes, waiting as Umbia made her way over to her hideout. Just catching the rabbits didn't seem like so much fun to her, but she didn't bother saying anything. Perhaps this was what all cubs liked to do, and she was only strange. The thought dampened her mood a little. She didn't like feeling like an outcast. All she wanted to be was a normal little cub. But then again, would that ever really happen for her?
A flash of red against black gave her the signal that Umbia was in place and ready. Sura hunkered down in the bushes and gave the black cub a chance to settle in and ready herself for their little hunt. The white cub's ears pitched forward in anticipation. Ah, rabbit. Their scent wafted toward her on the wind. It was a good thing they hadn't smelled them yet.
She counted to ten. That ought to be long enough, she reckoned, and rose slowly and noiselessly and positioned herself so that most of her weight was on her haunches. She wanted to explode out of the bushes, so her hind legs would be the best way to go. She crouched like this for a moment, and then sprang.
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Posted: Mon May 07, 2007 2:39 am
Umbia was wondering what she was waiting for and it seemed that she would never move but when she did, Umbia's keen eyes watched the rabbits bounding away.
She tensed her muscles and waited, hoping to pounce on the nearest rabbit and as one came closer she pounced... and missed.
"Stupid rabbit!" She growled and then got up and ran towards another rabbit, however she missed that one as well. She thought that catching rabbits with another person would be so much easier but it obviously wasn't and it was a frustration.
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Posted: Mon May 07, 2007 6:06 am
Seeing that Umbia had missed the two rabbits that had scattered her way, Sura powered on after the slightly slower one. She had gradually started to learn how to run properly, and though she still lacked completely the grace with which a grown lioness would run, her lope had slowly become more refined, and flowed with less effort. She still remembered the way she had run as a younger cub, awkward and slow, as if her paws had been sculpted far too large for her frail little body. But gradually, so very slowly, she had learned by watching the older lions while they ran. She would sit for hours on a little rock seat just watching lions run or even simply walk by. And she had learned.
The rabbit's hindquarters bunched as it took another powerful leap. "Oh, no you don't!" The white cub muttered crossly at the creature. She had been outrun, outsmarted too many times. She was so determined to catch up with the rabbit that she didn't notice her breathing was coming fast and shallow and that she was starting to get a stitch in her side. All that didn't matter. Only the rabbit and running after it did.
At that moment, the sensation of running felt wonderful. Subconciously, she realized she was tiring, but she was so caught up in the thrill of the chase that she just felt as if she could run forever. And though she knew she'd suffer for her decision later on, she just kept on chasing the rabbit.
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