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 Posted: Thu Apr 19, 2007 7:34 pm
That was the very scenerio that had landed him where he was: Lounging under a tree in the shade to keep himself from turning into a melted mass of lion. He wouldn't have made a good adult-figure with that, afterall.
He watched, lazily, as a group of herdbeasts grazed in the distance, bringing a certain degree of horror to his stomach as he recalled when he himself had been trampled by one of the buggers when he'd made his first attempt hunt himself.
An official note: Don't be a hunter or a teacher.
As if expecting something, anything, he turned his white and black maned head to look back towards the shape of Pride Rock, not too far in the distance, hoping, ever so slightly, to see maybe the love of his life.
She'd gone off to talk girl-stuff with some of the other lionesses that morning, though, so somehow he didn't expect that to happen.
So he simply laid his head on his crossed paws and waited, simply for anything.
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Posted: Thu Apr 19, 2007 9:10 pm
Follow the leader. Some called Sen's game that. She knew it by no name. The nameless game was not one to be played with her siblings. They were far too predictable and uninteresting.
No, if only for them, she had other games. For some of them, anyway. Admittedly, there were a few of them she was less fond of than others. (Meaning, Yue, because everyone just went on about how adorable his fur was whenshelookedjustascutesopayattentiontoherokay?) Ai, as his smallest of sisters called him, probably had her highest reguard out of all the siblings. Some might say she looked up to him.
And, that was why she chose him for her attack.
Slowly, very slowly, the cub slunk through the grass. The mission was a difficult one, putting each of her skills to the test. The target? Why, at least twice--maybe five times--her size. Currently imobile.
--Wait! Target moving! Target moving!
Resisting the urge to squeak, the cub sprawled out, low as she could go. Her eyes shut tight, applying the if-I-can't-see-you-you-can't-see-me rule. When there was no other motion, they opened, and she lifted again, continuing forward.
Almost...
Almost...
Attack!
With a tiny cry, the female launched forward, landing on her brothers stomach.
Mission accomplished.
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Posted: Fri Apr 20, 2007 2:29 pm
It didn't take much to sneak up on a lion who was as observant as a blade of grass, which didn't move until something was directly upon it. In fact, the child could have been as loud as everything and he wouldn't have known until.....
"Hmm?"
The dark lion's head turned slowly at the battle cry, the pitch and decibel of it telling him quite clearly that it was something small assaulting him, or rather attempting to. For a moment, he almost was tempted to think it had been the Jackal-Lion Tiaret. However, the little white cub planted on his stomach told him otherwise.
His stomach moved with the laughter that ensued upon recognizing the little female whom had taken perch there, moving a paw to rest it atop her head in an adoring manner.
"Ah! You caught me, Sen~" he said in good nature and acknowledging fully that he'd lost the game he hadn't even been aware that they'd been playing. Those were the best kind, however. "You make quite the little huntress."
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Posted: Fri Apr 20, 2007 2:49 pm
Sen's 'vicious' assault continued, stopped by the large paw on her head. Her ears were pushed cutely down, her eyes covered, but her grin was plenty visible. Reaching one of her much smaller paws up, she knocked his away and wiggled her back end more like a pleased dog than any lion.
"I know! I'm way better than Yue, right? Right?" While she kept her dislike for their golden brother quiet from their parents, Sen had no problem blutering it out to her most favorite older brother. If anyone recognized she was better, gold or not, it would be him, she was sure.
"Ai, are you gonna teach me to hunt for real?! Not Yue, just me!"
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Posted: Fri Apr 20, 2007 2:56 pm
INSTA-SOFTSPOT.
Ai crossed one paw over his chest, using the other to stroke his mane, almost in the same way a man with a beard would when he was thinking or considering something that required a lot of thought.
"Well, seeing as boys are given a natural edge and you seem to be doing well to surpass even that, yes." he said, not really being close with his baby brother (time three.....), thus having an internal pang of guilt at making the generalization that his baby sister was better than him.
Then again, he had no evidence to prove otherwise.
Then she suddenly asked if he'd be teaching her to hunt. That was a bit of a blow to his ego that read 'LEARN TO HUNT SOONISH', though the last experience had been quite an... interesting establishment.
However, Ai felt that he could start teaching her maybe a few minor things. It would be a while yet before the girl would be punted out with a bunch of large animals and told 'SIC'EMKILLRAWR'.
"I'm sure I could teach you a think or two." he finally answered after a bit of thought. It wouldn't hurt anything, right?
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Posted: Fri Apr 20, 2007 3:08 pm
When Ai agreed, her grin widened, each and every tiny tooth at least half-way visible. Ahhhhh ha! She knew she was better. If she learned more now, she'd stay better. Not just better than Yue, but better than the other two (not that she held any grudges against them as of that moment).
"YES!" the cub cried joyfully, toppling onto the ground. Her head shook, removing the dirt that had flew up into her eyes. "Let's start now, okay? What do we get to hunt? Zebra?!"
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Posted: Fri Apr 20, 2007 3:18 pm
Ai could recognize the grin she wore for it's traces in every sibling they had, moreso in that he himself had worn it too many times, namely in when he'd dragged their mother out to the water-hole at an early time in the morning.
It felt like such a long time ago.
As Sen moved off of his stomach, Ai rolled over in the opposite direction of her, before sitting up, shaking out his fur a bit in a sort of 'majestic' manner. It was possibly one of the very few things he managed to make look 'cool' without putting practice into.
He practiced things a lot.
"Well, I would think we should start with seeing what you already can do. Because the preybeasts keep better watch for sneaky little hunters than I do. They'll know you're coming no matter what. You just need to make sure you can be right there before they obtain this knowledge, see?"
It sounded good in his head, and he was hoping it made sense coming out as he spoke it, ducking down to sort of 'crouch' against the ground to speak in a whisper of secret-secret lessons to the white cub.
"So before we hunt anything, let's try out those stalking skills for me t'see, alright?"
He wasn't about to go put her into possible danger anytime soon.
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Posted: Fri Apr 20, 2007 3:37 pm
Sen had little to no clue what he'd just said, but what little she did understand she managed to translate into, 'No zebra.' Okay, that was lame, but she guessed showing off her 'stalking' skills (much better than her brothers were, thank you), would be an alright thing to start out with.
With the unwavering confidence only a cub or an adult who was an idiot could muster, Sen crouched down and moved in a circle around her brother. It was cute, but sticks cracked under her feet a few times, and the rocks shifted below her.
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Posted: Fri Apr 20, 2007 3:46 pm
Sadly, Ai could admit that he could probably not do much better until he'd hit adolescence, so he was going to need to give her a crash course of the perfect stalking tecknikeeeeeee... yes, spelt exactly like that.
"You're pretty good." Ai said, still in the crouched position, "However, you need to watch out for things that can move and make noise. Zebra, for example, will run away from you if they hear them. That makes hunting really hard, see?" he explained, secretly wondering why he, who was yet to have made a second attempt at hunting, was telling her how to do it right.
But mom and dad had taught him, and they did rather well kthnx, so he had to have SOME merit.
"Would you like to try it again with my pointers, or do you want me to show you how I do it?" he inquired, though in the back of his head, his mind was screaming BAD IDEAAAAAAAA.
He simply had no confidence.
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Posted: Fri Apr 20, 2007 3:55 pm
For the eyes of someone so young, their hero could do no wrong. If they drowned a puppy, there was definately a good reason for it. Judging by Sen's reaction, Ai was her appointed role model. At least for the time being.
"You can show me!" she chirped. She resisted the urge to bounce up and down with excitement. Ai had to be really, really, reeeeallllyyy good. Her expectations were on as high a level as her impatience. She plopped down, eyes focused on her brother, and only on her brother.
"I'll watch you," said the cub.
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Posted: Fri Apr 20, 2007 4:06 pm
Ai took a deep breath as his doom unraveled for him, forcing himself to remember it was the STALKING he could do, just not the er... catching.
"Alright, I'll circle you, just in a bigger one than you did, alright?" he said, giving her a sort-of-informant that he WASN'T running away, before turning to take a few steps away to give him a larger space to circle with. He took one last deep breath, like one would before diving into the water, before ducking into some longer grass, carefully scoping out his path.
It was a rather simple task for the full grown male to move as quietly as possible, sometimes altering his path to avoid things he couldn't find a way around otherwise. But not only was he quiet, he moved rather quickly, finishing a partial circle to sneak up on Sen and reach out...
Sloooooowwwwwwwwwllllyyyyyyyyyyy
and place a paw on the tuft of her tail. "Gotcha."
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Posted: Fri Apr 20, 2007 4:11 pm
Sen jumped. If it was surprise or glee that caused it was anyones guess. She span toward Ai so quickly she nearly fell over. Her already light eyes seemed even lighter as she gushed over what anyone else would see as a minor accomplishment.
"You're so, so, so, sooo good, Ai! I'm going to be as good as you one day! Are you better than Mom and Dad?!"
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Posted: Fri Apr 20, 2007 4:17 pm
Ai seemed to sigh in relief that she hadn't been looking at him once he'd finished going 'OMG, YERSOLAME'. Sitting up, he again placed a paw on the excited girl's head, shrugging his shoulders a bit, or at much as a lion was able to.
"I dunno. But I did learn from them." he said, grinning. "But I'm sure you'll be a wonderful stalker and huntress." he confided before moving his paw and crouching to the ground again.
"Now, would you like me to do that again and you can tag along to see how it's done? It'll be like you're doing it too, see?" he offered, ducking back down and ready to head back into the grass upon her say-so.
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Posted: Fri Apr 20, 2007 4:21 pm
The cub giggled and raised both her paws to bat at his playfully. When Ai removed it, she toppled onto her back and flailed until she managed to flip back over. Instead of standing, she stayed low, scurrying over to her sibling and nodding in eager agreement with his idea. "Yeah!"
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Posted: Fri Apr 20, 2007 7:22 pm
So back into the grass he went, pausing to wait for the smaller female to join him, before he started off to stalk his way through the grass, pausing every now and then before he'd step over something.
These pauses were accompanied by a 'Step over this' or 'We need to go around this' along with a paw jab towards it, his words whispered, but aimed to Sen directly.
Partway through a backwards-circle of his original route, Ai paused an motioned the white cub close to him.
"Alright, I'm gonna have you take the lead now... try to follow what I've been showing you, and you tell me what -I- should step over, alright? I'll tell you if you miss anything." he said, using one paw to lightly push her into the lead of their pair.
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