|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Posted: Mon Jul 02, 2007 3:07 pm
It was a bright afternoon in the Pridelands, and Wahabu found himself without anything to do. He'd considered hunting, but there seemed no groups about and he wasn't too hungry himself. He'd considered giving the hunt for Kubwa another shot, but was fairly certain that if he ever found his friend again now it would be by chance. He thought of his other friends, but eventually decided it might be a good time to go visit his grandmother and his young uncles and aunt. It had been a little while, and he did love to see them.
Wahabu headed in the direction of his grandmother's den, not in much of a rush to get there but not really expecting anything particularly interesting to happen along the way.
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Jul 02, 2007 3:18 pm
 Noyana pounced after another kill. She had mastered the art of keeping her tail down, and was learning how to stalk much more efficiently. However, today's victim was considerably larger than any she'd ever tried to catch- a baby antellope. Thus far, she only knew how to kill hares, but she was tiring of the taste.
The antellope's long leaps, however, were far greater than her juvenile strides, and she was finding that it was much faster than she at this point. She darted across the Pridelands still, not paying any attention to what was going on around her, even though she knew she wasn't going to catch it.
Eventually, she gave up, and coasted to a stop, panting. "You got lucky!" She called to the little thing between breaths. Noyana was determined to be the best huntress the pridelands ever knew.
What she didn't know was that she had stopped right in front of the adult male. And hadn't yet noticed him. But as he got closer, her senses returned to her and she realized where she was.
Still, he startled her. She jumped silently to her feet- she'd never been known to squeal like a girl when surprised. "Hello," she panted, looking up at the male.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Jul 02, 2007 3:50 pm
Despite Wahabu's attention being elsewhere, it didn't take a great deal to see a small antelope leap out before him. His eyes followed the strange sight of the lone creature, only to have them drawn back to before him by the shout of a brightly colored lioness that made it immediately evident that she had been chasing after it. He couldn't help but smile, and walked closer to talk to her.
"Hey," he greeted her informally, "That was a speedy little antelope, huh?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Jul 02, 2007 4:37 pm
"Sure was! That thing was terrified of me, like all the prey in the Pridelands will be soon," she said, proud of herself. She was so confident that she'd be the best huntress ever. Not a doubt. "You scared me a bit, though," She chuckled, somewhat reluctant to have admitted it. "I didn't see you there." She hated to admit a weakness.
She looked the male over... She'd never seen him before. And he had one eye red, and the other blue! She'd seen that in canines, but never on a lion or a leopard. Chaka had told her that she had a friend with one red eye and one silver eye, but that had been a maned wolf. I guess you see something new every day, Noyana thought to herself.
"My name's Noyana, I've never seen you around," she said, curious about his name. "What's your name?" She asked, tilting her head in a cub-like fashion. "And why are your eyes different colors?" She had to ask. Maybe they meant something special.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Jul 02, 2007 4:49 pm
"And it should have been, you'd have caught it in no time then," he chuckled, having no problem feeding her ego- especially when she admitted that he had startled her, "I'm sure you'd have seen me if you weren't so busy hunting."
Wahabu could see her looking him over, and stood tall in an effort to give a good impression. He took the chance to look back at her, she was yellow, like him, but a very different shade. Somewhere between him and his grandmother, it looked like.
"I'm Wahabu," he introduced himself, then laughed at the question about his eyes. It was not the first time he'd been asked about that, and the other time had been quite recent, "I don't know why my eyes are different colors. My mother's eyes are blue and gold, I suppose I got the trait from her." Wahabu expected that perhaps there was a reason his mother had two different colored eyes since she was a goddess, but he didn't get to ponder it long.
"Noyana?" he suddenly repeated, realizing he'd heard it before, "I've heard that name before." There were a couple of seconds of hesitation before he remembered who'd mentioned her, "Do you know Intombi?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Jul 02, 2007 5:45 pm
She nodded to the answer about his eyes. "That makes sense," she said. She got her funny colored tail from her father, so it only made sense that he would get two different colored eyes from his mother.
She let his compliments on her hunt inflate her ego. There was nothing wrong with being confident with one's skills, or so she thought.
Noyana perked up at mention of Intombi. "Yeah, I know her! I met her not long ago... we went swimming!" Noyana said excitedly. She wanted so desperately to introduce Chaka to Intombi, but hadn't ever run into her since. "How is she? Is she doing well? I would like to see her again, she's a good friend!" Noyana said happily, words flowing out of her rediculously fast, as fast as the memories had flooded her. Yes... Intombi would be nice to see again. She was as tomboy-ish as Noyana.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Jul 02, 2007 6:27 pm
Wahabu wasn't very surprised to hear the excitement in Noyana's voice when he mentioned Intombi, he had gotten the impression they were good friends from the brown and pink lioness from the very start. This only confirmed the notion, and he grinned.
"I saw her a little while ago," he explained thoughtfully, "She asked if we were related, I guess since we're both yellow. I think I actually convinced her to join the pride sooner than she wanted to, though I haven't seen her around since then."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Jul 02, 2007 8:12 pm
"Wow..." Noyana said happily, pondering the implications of this news. Heck, she could teach Intombi all about the Pridelands, and about how to hunt hares, and where the best places to swim were... It would be wonderful to have another rendez-vous with Intombi.
She chuckled at them being siblings. "I guess it kinda makes sense. Maybe if you go back a way, we could be related..." she said, pondering this as well. "I would've heard about you if that was the truth," she muttered to herself. "It's really weird that I'm mostly yellow, you know," She said, giving him insight into her family that he probably didn't really care about, but she thought was interesting. "My mom's mostly green, with only a little yellow, and dad's got no yellow at all! And here me and Chane are, we're both yellow!" She said. "I wish Chane would come with me more often. He likes to meander off on his own more and more nowadays..." Noyana said with a tone of regret. She didn't like the distance that was growing between her and her twin.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Jul 02, 2007 8:23 pm
Wahabu nodded to confirm what he'd said about Intombi when Noyana commented. He had no idea what she could be thinking, but it was obvious she was happy about it. Hopefully Intombi would join, and they would both see her around more often. It never hurt to have lots of friends around.
"As far as I know, there's not much estranged family of mine out there," Habu said thoughtfully, thinking about anyone his grandmother or father might have mentioned. Little did he know he did have two aunts out there that he'd not heard a great deal about.
"And I don't think it's too strange not to look a lot like your parents. I have an aunt who is a light blue color with darker blue patches," he explained, trying to visualize his little aunt, "And she has these bright yellow and orange markings on her legs. My grandmother- her mother- is a gold color with blue, like on my legs, and her father is all white." Habu did not bother to explain about the odd colored uncle he had, Kiwi was much more noticably odd within the family.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Jul 02, 2007 8:33 pm
Noyana nodded to all the information. Maybe it wasn't that strange after all, though she still thought it was a little odd. Maybe her grandma somewhere was yellow, and her mom was the strange one with all the green. Yes, that had to be it.
Completely out of the blue, Noyana lept to her feet. "Can you hunt well? Feel like telling me what the secret is to catching antellope?" She asked. The image of the thing's stupid tail as it ran off haunted her; mocked her. "I know that maybe my strides aren't long enough to chase it down, but at the beginning of the chase I was close enough, and tried what I normally do with rabbits, and it didn't work." The young lioness was clearly irritated with the matter, and even if she could get some tips, her conscience would be clearer.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Jul 02, 2007 8:50 pm
Wahabu was a little surprised by the sudden subject change, but happily went along with it. It seemed to him that many young lions were aspiring to become great hunters. First he had met Safuma, who had tried to hunt him, and now he had Noyana questioning him about it. Perhaps he should work on his own hunting so he could offer more advice when these situations arose.
"I'm not too bad at hunting," he said with a slight shrug, "I'm not exactly good colors for hiding, but you just have to be more careful. Catching your prey off guard is a good thing, and knowing the area your in so you can drive it to where it can't really escape.."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Jul 02, 2007 9:02 pm
Noyana took careful note of what he said, and was rediculously focused for one her age. Her eyes widened, as if that would help her retain the advice like a sponge. She'd analyze later what she'd done wrong with the baby antellope.
"Maybe my siblings would be good practice targets for hunting," Noyana said, thinking out loud... of course she wouldn't be able to use her claws or teeth, but it certainly would help out with the sneaky part.
"I figured the color thing out the long way," Noyana said, twitching her tail. She used to sneak around with it in the air, believing that it would fool anyone around to believe it was a stalk of grass, when it really only gave away her position.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Jul 02, 2007 9:17 pm
Wahabu couldn't help but shudder and shake his head firmly at the idea of using siblings as targets for hunting. He couldn't imagine Noyana meant what he thought of, but after his sister very nearly hunted him when they were young he couldn't help but think it was a bad idea. Noyana certainly didn't seem the type to deliberately hurt a friend or family member, though he didn't really know her that well. She just didn't give off the same pure-evil vibe that Wahabu got from his sister, though he was stubbornly opinionated about Kilango.
"W-well-" he hesitated, "As long as you don't hurt your siblings."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Jul 02, 2007 9:30 pm
That was an odd reaction. She folded her ears back, she never was one who wanted to make someone displeased. "I don't mean to hurt them, just... sneak up on them," she reasoned. "You know, to practice my sneaking skills." She was careful to avoid any hunting words, like stalking or pouncing. This was obviously a raw nerve that she had unintentionally struck.
She wanted to ask about the story behind it, but decided against it. It'd be best to turn away from this subject for now.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Jul 02, 2007 9:42 pm
"I know, I know," he mumbled when she assured him that it was only practice in sneaking and not actually in the hunting itself. It would be good practice, he supposed, having someone to sneak up on- but he'd never really had a sibling or someone to do that kind of thing with, "I can't help it, it's a long story. I'm sure if you're not too rough then it'd be very good practice."
Well, he had certainly ruined the conversation by overreacting. He had to make an attempt at lightening the mood once again.
"How many siblings do you have?" he asked, curious but also sounding a bit like he was trying to get a better conversation going instead of dwelling. Of course, this left questioning him about his own siblings open.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
