[PRP] Ground Yourself [Kimanda + Kitambi] - FIN

[Chibi Sheepcat]

Kitambi sighed softly to herself as she paced back and forth in the drum circle. While normally she would have asked Isithunzi to teach this strange young male about Rhythm, she had the feeling he expected that she would be his teacher. She had, after all, declared herself Nsundu's heir, which meant that she had to be good a Rhythm. Thus, she was left the task of teaching him. After their meeting yesterday, Kitambi had decided that he needed to learn more about his Rhythm before he could ever fix that dancing of his. He was just all over the place. Kimanda needed to get grounded in his Rhythm before he started flailing his legs all over the place. What better place was there to teach him than the drum circle?

The young cub finally sat down in front of one of the smaller drums, tail flicking as she waited. Kimanda better show up, otherwise he was going to get quite the tongue lashing from her. Nsundu might have shrugged it off, but Kitambi was not so patient with her students.  

[soutou]

Kimanda had never seen a drum circle. Kimanda had never even seen a drum. So when he followed Kitambi's instructions and arrived in the ring of instruments, the cheetah was just a little overwhelmed. How very, very odd! He looked around once or twice before spotting the pacing cub. He grimaced and trotted over. Was he late? He couldn't be that late. "Hello, Kitambi," he greeted her, wondering if he was supposed to be more formal since she was the heiress. Whatever.

He sat down and watched Nsundu's daughter. He was here to fix his Rhythm (a bit said, since before yesterday, he didn't even know it was broken) and he was going to be taught by a baby. Sigh. It was a bit humiliating. He'd just have to swallow his manly pride and get over it. Augh. "So where do we start?" he asked. No time like the present! Besides, he had a travel mate to get back to soon!  

[Chibi Sheepcat]

Manly pride? Psh. Kimanda, you hang out with bossy girls. You don't get to have any manly pride. Kitambi would also be very unimpressed if she knew she was being called a baby. In pride terms, she was ranked among adults, and in her mind that made her anything but a baby. That was quite possibly one of the reasons she was so mature.

"Kimanda," Kitambi responded, poker-faced as usual. The cub sized him up as he sat next to him, trying to decide what kind of drum he should use. Well, she would have to explain what drums were first before she let him bang on them. They were pretty hardy instruments, but Kimanda wouldn't know not to hit them with his claws and that would ruin them. "Right, so. We're here to work on Rhythm, because you need a good inner sense before you start expressing yourself. We're going to be using drums. Do you anything about these?"  

[soutou]

Kimanda flicked an ear back. Well, of course he didn't have any idea what to do! Wasn't that why he was here in the first place? He gave Kitambi a look, one that clearly told her to stop playing with him. She might be important, but that didn't change the fact he could probably tackle her to the ground if he really, really wanted to. Which wasn't the case, as he wasn't violent, but that aside. "No, Kitambi. I have no idea. Cheetah, remember?" he added, as though that explained everything.

It did explain a lot, really. Hopefully, she didn't forget he'd only been experiencing Rhythm for a little while. He'd lived his entire life as a cheetah. A Rhythm-less, light-footed cheetah. This caused problems apparently. He just wanted a little patience, was all. That's all. Really.  

[Chibi Sheepcat]

Kitambi returned the look with a stone face, having considered her question perfectly legit. How was she to know that cheetahs who knew how to dance didn't know about Rhythm? That really wasn't fair of him to think that he hadn't learned about the whole thing. She didn't even know how he met her mother, so she really couldn't have known that he'd never seen a drum. The cub had had an inkling, which was confirmed by the look Kimanda was giving her. Well, she supposed she had better start from the beginning. Patience was key when dealing with your incompetent pupils.

"You're a cheetah who comes to this pride asking to see my mother to show her how well you dance. For all I know, she could have showed you how to drum as well. I don't even known how you know her," Kitambi replied levelly, before asking, "She apparently taught you about Rhythm though. What do you know about that?"  

[soutou]

Shut down, Kimanda, you were just shut down. It seemed to happen a lot when it came to Kitambi, too. His manly pride and confidence had no effect on the cub. She just bulldozed right over him every time he thought he was going to get out ahead of the game. (See? He knew she was an evil little brat. It was because she was a cub, this he knew. She just couldn't help it. And, she was Nsundu's daughter. That should explain it all.) He sighed, his ears flattening against his skull as, once again, Kitambi shamed him into behaving.

"I never said how well I dance," he muttered. "I just wanted to show Nsundu I was better." That was actually the truth. Kimanda knew, somewhere in the back of his mind, he wasn't good at all. He just didn't want to admit that yet. "We only hung out for one afternoon. That's...not much." Hopefully, Kitambi could decipher what he meant without disassembling his pride any further.  

[Chibi Sheepcat]

You could hardly blame Kitambi's behaviour on being a cub. She was just being herself. If Kimanda had met either one of Isithunzi's daughters, or even Juke and Muujiza's children, his opinion of cubs might have changed drastically. But of course, he meets Nsundu's eldest daughter first, which is always dangerous. While Kitambi was not quite as excitable or friendly as Nsundu, she was just as bossy if not bossier. Kimanda was just too much of a pushover. It had nothing to do with Kitambi (or so she would have you believe).

The cub sat silently while Kimanda explained his situation, watching him with a critical eye. So he had only met her once, for one afternoon. Apparently he was so enthralled by the idea of dancing that he decided to find her and show it off. Touching, but she doubted that her mother had spent any great length of time teaching the cheetah. He had probably just picked up on whatever she was doing. Right. That meant they had to start from square one.

"Well, she obviously taught you some dance moves, but nothing about real Rhythm. When you dance you have to feel the Rhythm, otherwise you might as well be wasting your energy on something a little more productive. Rhythm is all about beats, and letting them flow through you and out through your dancing. Does that make any sense to you?" Hey, she had to check.  

[soutou]

Ouch. Kimanda sighed and shifted uncomfortably. Kitambi wouldn't understand the whole situation, not really. First of all, he really liked Nsundu, or he wouldn't be wasting his time at all here. And secondly, he had just assumed it was that simple. Stupid assumption? Yeah, probably. But he was Kimanda, and Kimanda made stupid choices and stupid assumptions by habit. It was that theory of invincibility getting him in trouble again. You can imagine how often that got him in trouble, too.

"Well, Nsundu told when I run, I'm running to a Rhythm, the Rhythm is not based on my running. So my dancing should be about the beat, and not the other way around?" He was mimicking her a little, yes, but he just wanted to make sure he had this straight. Again, it didn't seem to complicated, but that's how he got himself into this mess in the first place, now wasn't it?  

[Chibi Sheepcat]

Kitambi probably wouldn't have known what to think if Kimanda had told her that he had come because he liked her mother. It was a bit of a foreign concept to the cub, males that likes females and actually stuck around. Her birth wasn't exactly a mystery. She knew that she had a father, somewhere, but that he wasn't around. Isi's kids didn't have a father either, so it wasn't all that uncommon for her. Thus, Kitambi wouldn't have even commented on the fact that he had come because he liked Nsundu. She would have just assumed that it was a fake reason to hide something else.

"Right, that's pretty much it. You have to start with the Rhythm first. It's like the roots of a tree. A tree would fall over if it wasn't grounded with its roots." Maybe this Kimanda wasn't such a hopeless case after all. He seemed to have at least some kind of understanding of Rhythm. "So, here's the deal. We'll do some basic exercises, then I'll put you on a drum. Drums are the best way to feel rhythm, because... well, you'll see when you play one." She paused, before leaning back on her haunches and resting her weight on her hind end. "Put your body like mine, and then I want you to hit your paws on the ground in a one-two, one-two beat, like this." She demonstrated for him. "Keep going, and I'll tell you want to do as you go on."  

[soutou]

Roots and trees. Kimanda didn't know much about trees, but that much made sense. It was building from the ground up. You had to be able to walk before you could run, and run before you could sprint, and only after you could sprint could you hunt. So Rhythm must be like that. First you get the beat, and then your get the Rhythm, and then you get the dancing? Some order like that. Kimanda watched the cub and nodded, slowly arranging his body to copy the young lion. He listened to the beat she set out for a few good moments, making sure he had it down in his head before he tried it.

He hit the ground, one-two, one-two. Hmm. It wasn't very loud. Certainly not as audible as Kitambi's beat. The cheetah frowned and stuck the ground harder, but that messed up his beat. Augh! Frowning, Kimanda tried a third time. He would get this right. It took a while, but eventually the spotless cheetah was striking the ground enough he could be heard (still not comparable to Kitambi) and he was pretty sure he had the one-two beat down. He glanced up at the cub. Now what?  

[Chibi Sheepcat]

Kitambi continued her beat until Kimanda began his own, slowly stopping hers. Rhythm was something you learned by doing it, as well as a little bit of instinct. It was kind of like hunting. You had the means of which to do it and the instincts, but you never got really good unless you kept doing. She expected that he wouldn't be able to hit the ground as hard as she did, and that he wouldn't be able to pick it up that fast. Or rather, she assumed the last part. Truth be told, she wasn't sure he'd be able to do very well at anything she taught him. He was just a cheetah after all.

She sat still until he finally figured out the combination, nodding her head to indicate that it was good. Not too bad for a beginner. "Try it on the drum now. You sit the same way, you just hit the drum instead of the ground. You don't have to worry about breaking it, you won't hit it that hard. Do the same beat, and then I want you to continue on into the next beat that comes to your head."  

[soutou]

Kimanda didn't notice Kitambi was fading out until she had actually stopped. He looked up for a brief moment (it was too hard to concentrate if he looked away from his own feet for too long) and frowned. He didn't want to stop now that he'd finally got this down! Well, sort of got it down. But it was better than nothing. It was better than what he had before, too, so there! But the cheetah had no choice but to do what Kitambi said, so he stopped. He padded over to the nearest drum and reared up, setting his paws on it gently.

Alright. Same Rhythm as before. It couldn't be too hard. He struck the first beat and yelped, nearly falling over with surprise at the noise it gave off. "Is it supposed to do that?" he asked Kitambi, giving the instrument a wary look. He struck it again, testing it. Well. Nothing bad seemed to be happening. Kimanda righted himself and started the beat again one-two, one-two. It certainly took awhile to get used to the way the drum reacted to his paws, but he finally got the pattern down. Once he was really sure about it, he added a third, shorter note before starting the pattern over again. It was best to start small and avoid making a fool of himself, but still make sure it was 'challenging'.  

[Chibi Sheepcat]

Had Kitambi not been the poster child of the poker face, she might have burst out laughing at Kimanda's expression. She had to be forgiving with him. He had never even seen a drum, much less used one before. Perhaps she should have beaten the drum first before she made him do it. He probably didn't know what to expect. Even so, his reaction was extremely comical. It made it very hard to keep a straight face, but somehow the cub managed. She did, however, let a little hint of amusement slip into her voice.

"Oh yes. That's the point of a drum. It makes the sound louder so everyone can hear it. Plus it doesn't hurt your paws as much," Kitambi explained, enjoying the wary look he gave the drum. No Kimanda, it's not going to bite you. Maybe she should nudge it towards him with her foot. Naw, that would be cruel. She was supposed to be teaching him, not scarring him.

When Kimanda finally got the Rhythm going, Kitambi moved to sit at the drum next to him. "Good, now I want you to copy me. We're going to be doing a simple song, just to get the feel of the drums." The cub took a deep breath, before beginning to drum out the beat. It was a fairly straightforward beat, the chorus easy enough to join into. "Join into the chorus when you feel you're ready, and join in the verses if you think you can do it."  

[soutou]

It was a very good thing Kimanda did not notice how hard Kitambi had to fight to keep from laughing at him. It would have been a grave, grave wound to his manly pride indeed, and that was no good when he was trying to learn something so difficult. But her explanation seemed logical, so the cheetah was left with no option but to trust the strange drums. He wondered if he was the only cheetah to ever play on a drum. Hmm. Now, that would be seriously neat! (And make all the humiliation worth while.)

"Um, okay," was all he could say to the cub's next set of instructions. He wasn't paying total attention and only caught half of what she said, but he could guess. Right? He had settled and listened, actually having to hear the chorus four times before he joined in on the fifth. He struck the drum timidly at first, afraid he'd throw Kitambi off, but that was a silly fear. The cub was clearly solid in her beat, and soon Kimanda was hitting the drum just as hard to her, happily confident he was following along perfectly. So he tried to join in the verses.

...that proved to be a little harder.  

[Chibi Sheepcat]

It was probably true that Kimanda was the first cheetah to play a drum. The Nchi'mahadhi had been a lion exclusive pride for many years, few of the other feline species traveling out that far in the first place. In that way, Nsundu was a rather revolutionary queen. None of her ancestors would have even considered welcoming a cheetah into their midst, much less teaching him about Rhythm. While they may have believed that other creatures could understand Rhythm, they didn't go out of their way to teach them. They had to show a natural talent for such things.

Kimanda was sadly lacking in what Kitambi considered the natural talent department, but he was doing well. He seemed to at least understand Rhythm, which made her life that much easier. Perhaps she would be able to get this cheetah dancing after all. She continued to beat out her song, waiting as patiently as she could for Kimanda to join in. When he finally joined in, she hit the drum a little harder, hoping to encourage him to beat it louder. He was hitting the drum like a blind lioness trying to feel her way around. Come on Kimanda, get with it.

"You can hit it harder," she called over the drum beats, pleased when he began to do so. There. That was much better. She was so pleased with him that she even slowed down the verses in the hopes that he would catch on and join in.