[PRP] I shall call you... mini-me.

[wooga Paes]

(( stupid pointless title xD ))



Typical, grumpy day for Mapatano. He was, once more, placed on a rock. Key difference, today, was that he was alone. Hisa was off enjoying the sky a bit.

Sadly, life was somewhat back to normal. For him, at least. He was still the pride's a*****e, but he'd been holding back on meanness with just about everyone. Save maybe Elea, but she harassed him just as much as he harassed her. As far as he saw it, it was a fair game.

With a snort, the lion slid off the rock. Time for a half-hearted patrol, then a half-hearted hunt.

Woo-hoo.  

[FerretPrince]

Already, the day had all the beginnings of a long day from what Kamau could tell. As soon as he had woken up that morning, something was wrong. Mainly, Naamini had been missing. Well, not ‘missing’, exactly. He was pretty sure that his twin had gone off exploring by herself again. She did that a lot, especially lately, much to the annoyance of her brother. He didn’t mind exploring with her, of course. It was only when she went out on her own that he worried. There was so much danger out there that she just… never thought of! So, Kamau’s day had begun with a search for his sister and it was continuing even now.

Oh, hey a bug! As the butterfly lazily flew by, Kamau batted at it lightly and was thoroughly distracted by its fluttering. The other cubs in the pride just… didn’t seem to like him or his sister much. Occasionally, when he saw them, he was tempted to go and ask them to play, but… they just seemed cold. Or something. It was worrying, somehow, as if he had done something. He just didn’t get it. Like Peke. Peke had seemed so angry when he met Kamau, even though the green cub had only been lost and needed to find his way back home.

Speaking of being lost… the cub paused for a moment and glanced around, trying to regain his bearings. Right then, something huge slid down from a rock further up, sending Kamau into a minor conniption fit. He stumbled backwards and then, rather inelegantly, jumped into a pile of grass and tried to look like nothing, nothing at all. He might have even been successful, if not for the fact that he was shaking. Eventually, he peered up at the huge black lion and, very, very quietly said, “…hi. Umm… you’re not a rogue, are you?”  

[wooga Paes]

Once movement was perceive, Mapatano was mildly interested. Once it registered that the moving thing was white and green, well.. he was very interested. His shoulders tensed almost as a reflex, only until he notice dit was a cub. He blinked, staring at it for a bit.

He'd known Hisia had cubs. They were two. And... they were Msiba's. A lip curled clightly as if to produce a sneer, then said what-would be sneer vanished. What was so different about this cub being Msiba's... then it was Mapatano, and the former king? It was strange, perhaps, but the black lion found himself feeling... well, empathetic.

He sighed. "No, I'm not a rogue. " The black lion flicked his tail. The boy still looked somewhat young, he doubted he'd been told about Msiba. He wasn't even sure it'd ever be spoken of, at least.. not by Hisia. He couldn't blame her. "My name is Mapatano. " He sat down, looking at the cub.

"What did Hisia name you?.. You have a sibling, I've heard? "  

[FerretPrince]

Wide green-gray eyes watched the black lion, still trying to see if he was lying or not. Well… he didn’t look like a rogue, or so Kamau thought. He looked, more or less, like every other lion the cub had ever seen. But he still looked all… unhappy at first, which didn’t help things much, even if he claimed to not be a rogue.

“You know Momma?” he asked, brightening up immediately. Now he crept out, feeling certain that his Momma could never even know anyone who was evil. Besides, since this lion knew Momma’s name, he definitely wasn’t a rogue who might want to cubnap a little cub. “My name’s Kamau and my sister is Naamini. We’re twins, but Mini is braver than me. I wish she wouldn’t wander so much…” But that wasn’t really something to bother Mapatano with.

“Um… it’s nice to meet you, Mapapa… Mapto… sir,” he said eventually, stumbling over the long and confusing name. “How do you know Momma?”  

[wooga Paes]

"Nice to meet you too, Kamau. " He tipped his ears forward. This kid was probably picked on, he figured as much. His father had done a lot of wrong. As such, Mapatano hardly felt the need to correct him at the wrong given name. "You can shorten it, if you'd like. " It was somewhat out of character for him, to let people shorten his name just like that. Oh, Mapatano, were you going soft?

"I know her by name. " he twitched his tail tip. "I'm good with names. And she's hard to not know; she's one of the triplets... twins now. " His mom had also gotten a nice bag of fame when she'd had cubs with Msiba. And fought Mchawi. "I guess you could say twins run in your family. Your aunts cubs are twins too. " Though he was certain he knew them by now. Mapatano hardly liked to think about them, though. With them came, inevitably, Nyonda. Typically, he found himself shoving her out of his thoughts.

"Why aren't you out playing with other cubs? "  

[FerretPrince]

Kamau knew vaguely that he had cousins out there, and that they were twins too. His knowledge ended there, since he hadn’t met them yet. Oh, and they had funny names that both began with ‘U’. And that their mother was… his ears fell back a little and he glanced down at his paws. “Yes. I know that Auntie Ficha and Momma had a sister. But she’s not here anymore…” his voice trailed off and he began looking elsewhere. “Momma and Ficha don’t like talking about her much, or what happened to her.” He just knew that there had been a very bad earthquake and that lots of stuff had happened. Sometimes, he heard the adults talking about it, in low hushed voices, but nothing in real detail.

His ears fell down even lower at the question and he developed an immediate and deep fascination with his paws. “Umm… I don’t know where Mini is right now… she went out exploring ahead of me. And the other cubs don’t seem to like me much… Peke doesn’t, anyway. I only asked him for directions back home, but he wouldn’t answer me. I wish I knew what I did wrong.” So he could make it better, naturally. Kamau was just that sort of cub.  

[wooga Paes]

He was right. He hadn't expected Hisia, or Ficha, to be eager to talk to the cubs about anything. Especially Hisia. "The pride's been through a lot. " Mapatano commented, his strange, fluffy tail twitching.

Mini, the explorer type? The sooner she got some bird to watch out for her the better, then. But not to worry about that too much just yet; cubs were cubs, and the only entrance was guarded. ... Well, the only entrance that you didn't need a map-seer to easily get through. "Its not your fault the cubs don't like you. " Mapatano frowned.

"And Peke's the worst to start with. " Not that Mapatano spent much time with any cubs. He simply knew Peke was the 'meanest' of his siblings. And since Msiba and Machafuko had killed his sister... he doubted he, or Dumu, who'd watched it all, would be all happy about meeting Kamau or his sister.

"You could, perhaps try one of your cousins. Ufunuo, he's supposed to be the nicer-sort. " Out of cubs right now, he at least imagined Ufunuo to be the nicest, and even then, he'd still been through a lot. Or a cub that hadn't been here when Msiba had been around and acting. That had nothing to do with the earthquake and the aftermath.  

[FerretPrince]

“Uh-huh. Momma says there was a big quake and lots of lions are lost because of it.” ‘Lost’, Hisia had said, but Kamau was beginning to get the feeling that this was a serious type of lost, the kind that a lion couldn’t recover from. Momma tried to be so strong about that, but she always looked so sad when she thought about it. Nyonda had been ‘lost’ during that earthquake. And many others.

Kamau looked up from his feet at the adult lion curiously, picking up on words that he probably shouldn’t have. “How do you know it’s not my fault? It must be my fault because Mini doesn’t have problems like this,” at least, not that she had complained to her brother about, and he firmly believed that there were no secrets between them, “And no one would ever hate Momma or Auntie Ficha.” Another firm belief there. Like most cubs, he was absolutely certain that his mother and aunt were the bestest parents in the whole world!

“And I didn’t mean to start with him anyway… I had gotten lost. His bird found me and they walked me back home. Walked and flew. Do you have a bird?” New topic, new topic! Since Kamau liked birds far more than sad stories, talking about the winged creatures sounded far more fascinating. His eyes lit up a little and he smiled at the older lion, all enthusiasm now.  

[wooga Paes]

The black lion nodded, then his ears flicked. "Its not them, either. " He grumbled. He didn't want to say too much, the Msiba-talk certainly belonged to Hisia. And he didn't want a lioness (or two) rushing over to yell at him for not keeping his beak shut. "Your mother won't appreciate me saying a lot, so I'll just tell you its someone you haven't met yet. I'm sure she'll talk about it when you're older. " He could tell, then hope this kid kept quiet... but that'd not be too great.

"Yes, I do. " Most adults did. Unless... their bird died. Had Hisia gotten a new bond-bird yet? "She's a red kite, and she's flying around. She'll probably drop by soon. " How could he assume that? Well, birdies have good eyes. And if she saw, with said good eyes, Mapatano talking to a cub... well, she'd drop by.  

[FerretPrince]

“Oh.” Was all that Kamau could really say. Most of Mapa’s words went over his head, not entering his brain at all. Or, if they did enter his mind, they simply bounced around a bit before going right back out without leaving even an indentation on his synapses. If it was someone else’s fault, then why were they all angry at him? It didn’t make sense! Still… at least now he knew that the other cubs really were upset with him or some reason, even if it wasn’t his fault. Mapa had told him that much, even if he hadn’t meant to.

“Can I meet your bird? I like birds.” As if there was a single lion in the pride who didn’t like birds. Kamau admired the feathered creatures for their freedom and their bravery in soaring to such great heights. During the quake, the sky had been blackened with evil birds called vultures---although, not every vulture was evil; just some of them---and the birds were brave enough to go into the swarm and fly back out again. If only he could have that same bravery…

He tilted his head to one side, suddenly realizing something. “You’re alone too. No one wants to play with you either?”  

[wooga Paes]

"Sure, when she shows up. " The black lion shrugged. He estimated that son Hisa would fly over to 'check on him', then be off. Or, in this case, not be off, because she'd see the cub.

He blinked at that. "I don't play much, but no. " Mapatano glanced away for a moment. "I'm not the guy you usually talk to if you can avoid it. " His snarky, mean and withdrawn attitude hardly helped.

"Ah, there she is. " The black lion raised his head, unusually fluffy tail flicking as e saw something red in the sky. He was quite right, Hisa would have simply flown over him any other time but she was visibly getting lower once she saw the cub. Soon enough, she perched on the floor next to him, looking up at her bonded incredulously.

"Hisa, this is Kamau, Hisia's cub. "  

[FerretPrince]

“You don’t play? Then what do you do?” In the back of his mind, Kamau was vaguely aware that adults didn’t play as much as cubs, but surely Mapa played a little, right? He had the greatest tail in the world! How could he not play with it? “And you’re nice. You talked to me.”

Hmm… even the cub was aware that this was stretching the definition of ‘nice’ a little, but it was still great that he was talking to someone. An adult even! And learning stuff too. Naamini would be so jealous! He could hardly wait to go tell his twin everything he had learned today. Kamau’s attention was easily re-directed towards the red bird, Hisa.

“Hi, Hisa. It’s nice to meet you. I’ve never seen a red bird before.” Well, that wasn’t quite right… he had seen red birds before, just not a red bird of prey before.  

[wooga Paes]

"Nope. I patrol. I hunt. Thats about it. " I also bicker like there's no tomorrow. But that Mapatano was hardly going to say out loud. He flicked an ear; nice for talking to him? This kid -really- had no friends, did he? As the cub turned his attention to Hisa, Mapatano was somewhat happy for a bit of a break. Let Hisa chat a bit.

"Ah.. nice to meet you.. too. " She blinked, still somewhat confused as she glanced up to her bonded again, than to the cub. Mapatano was being nice. amazingly so; he wasn't usually this nice to.. anyone, even cubs. .. Well, excluding her. "Really? We're that odd? " She smiled(as well as her beak allowed her, anyway). Kid looked cute.

"How's your mom doing? "  

[FerretPrince]

Oh, Kamau had some friends. Well, he had one friend, his twin sister. Sure, they sometimes had petty sibling squabbles, like who was more likely to get cubnapped, but they generally got along. Considering their vastly different personalities, it was surprisingly how well Kamau and Naamini got along… but, then again, they didn’t have any other cubs to play with, so maybe they didn’t really have a choice. It was either each other, or no one at all. Until they got birds anyway.

“I didn’t say you were odd,” Kamau protested, worried that he might have inadvertently insulted Hisa. “I just said that I hadn’t seen a red bird before. Except for the really little ones that eat seeds and stuff. Momma’s fine. We went exploring the other day! She showed me the herds and the pond!” He puffed up with pride at that, although it soon deflated a little as he recalled how sad Momma had been. But he had more stories to share with his new friend. “And she told me why we get birds! Do you know why?”  

[wooga Paes]

Hisa chuckled slightly.. "Alright, then. " She nodded, hopping to the side a bit, not really enjoying the ground. "Oh, really? Has she shown you the lake yet? It's much cooler than the pond. " She nodded. At least, she thought it was; she enjoyed flying over the lake.

"and of course I do! Can't pick a lion if I don't know why, eh? " She laughed, and glanced at Mapatano. "Though, I might as well have been kind of loopy when I picked that one. " She teased.

Mapatano grumbled at that. "At least you got to pick. " He protested; lions didn't chose their birds. He was stuck with whatever picked him! .. on the upside, he really liked his companion. But they were never all sentimental about it.