((Aim Log: Daffu and Kissy; Nili and Tau))
As usual, he wasn't supposed to be where he was. Really, the little pink boy was beginning to be rather predictable. Rather than stay in the meadow with his siblings, the moment Misae had nodded off for her afternoon nap, the youngster had slipped away down to the beach. A little way past the jetty there was a small pool in the rocks that intruded upon the beach. He'd found a lot of funny looking crustations and other creatures there, and thought they were great fun to play with--whether or not they agreed.
And of course, similarly, and just as predictably, the smaller of the two boys had first watched his brother walk away, telling himself that no, this time he would NOT move from his lovely little patch of flowers. But just like always, no sooner had 3 minutes gone by, that Nili had hung his head in defeat and padded off after the so called 'troublemaker'. Really, he didn't know what it was with Nili, but he seemed to get kicks out of doing exactly the opposite of what he was told, "What will your excuse for today be?" he'd gotten over trying to scold his brother; there was no use to it, oh no.... morbid curiosity fueled the smaller of the two boys now.
"Why do i need an excuse?" Tau asked, paw dipping into the water again after a particularly elusive silver slip of a fish. It dashed once more into the wavy, tentacled plants Tau had already realized weren't very smart to touch. He made a face at it, "I'll be back before Mom wakes up, and the sun will dry me."
A snort followed Tau's first words, "Oh, I don't know; because either mother or father will come looking for you, and at a given moment you'll have to explain WHY in the gods' name you're here. Again. Instead of where you're supposed to," a pause as he frowned, "then again you can always use the usual whine of 'But daaaaaaaaadddd... I got BORED there', which seems to have worked so far," amusingly enough, there was no sarcasm in his words, again, just morbid curiosity. Nili had come to the conclusion he was a glutton for punishment. Just like Tau seemed to be, actually, "That's what you said last time father found you... us... whatever."
"You always try to blame it on me too," Tau snorted, "But its your choice to follow me all the time. And i don't whine! Its the truth!" He turned his head to stick his tongue out, just as his paw got caught in an anemone. The lion cub gave a slight yelp, almost canine in nature, and jumped back. He plopped down onto the sand and stuck his paw in his mouth.
Tilting his head, the smaller male seemed to pause only momentarily before he took a small leap, landing elegantly on the rock to watch the water, "Blaming would imply me pointing a finger at you; I merely say I followed you," fact was, that despite everything, Nili was prone to being a bit of a pessimist. Every time Tau got away, the purple boy's thoughts would nag at him; What if Tau got hurt? What if something happened? And of course.... the moment the thoughts appeared, he'd follow after the rash pink boy. Not that he'd admit to this, both boys were much to proud to admit, or appreciate the sentiment, "And besid-" he was cut off as Tau yelped, a small smirk appearing on Nili's maw, "Besides, if I weren't here, the ocean would have eaten you by now; you've got a way to attract danger and disaster. What's with you," following Tau, Nili tucked his head against the other male sniffling careful at the hurt paw, because... well, it was in his nature to be caring. Even when probably not wanted.
"Touch it and see," Tau replied around his paw. Of course, his mouth WAS full, therefore it came out more like "THHphm ee haatheeee." After a minute he took his paw out and pushed Nili's face away. He didn't like others being so close up to him, and he showed that quite readily. "They sting, don't touch it." As much as Nili cared for him, Tau really didn't want his brother hurt.. not, of course, that anemones were terribly harmful, but he had a feeling Nili would exaggerate it. He stood up then, and headed off further down the shore. "The ocean wouldn't eat me! Dad says the ocean is the Mother, so why would it hurt us? That doesn't make sense."
"I don't need to touch it to SEE it hurts," he rolled his eyes, rubbing at his nose where his brother's paw had pushed at him, frowning in that way only he seemed to be able to. It was somewhat a reminder of their on mother's features, and the way only she could frown when both of them needed a scolding. Taking a last look at the pool, Nili peaked over it's ledge, scowling horribly at the harmful plant when Tau wasn't looking; how dare it! The elegantly, he flopped back down on the floor and followed after his brother, his eyes half lidded, languid, an air of grace and superiority towards, well... nothing in particular. It wasn't that Nili thought himself above other, it was just the impression he gave; he was actually quite compassionate, and perhaps worried about others more than was healthy. A mother-hen if there was any, "I heard a song... a story about it. A legend. It's not meant to be true," he answered matter of factly, "It was just a story I heard; a moral," a brow arched at his brother, almost daring him to ask him to sing the tale.
"Not all stories are true, dad made that clear, but he says that this one is. That he even met her.. Mother, that is." Tau frowned back at his brother. That haughty air about Nili was exactly the reason they had as many problems between them as they did, but Tau knew better than to make much of it. If he did that, it'd just end up in arguments and bruised feelings, and then their parents wrath would REALLY come down on them. The only thing that Misae and Hadithi didn't seem to tolerate at all was fighting. "What song? Why haven't I heard it?"
"No, I mean the tale; the ocean that eat the lion. It's not true. I was one that was meant to teach a moral," he nodded to himself, "I heard it a bird," he told his brother, "Not mother," then he motioned towards the waters, "I can't sing well; my voice breaks, but it told the story of two lions; they were very much in love. One day the male told the female he would go out to hunt; what neither knew was that the ocean was in love with the female too, and had watched in jealousy..." he motioned towards the pulling waters around them, "The male told the female he'd be back soon, to wait for him at the edge of a certain cliff where she would be able to see the sun set, but he never came back; the ocean in it's jealousy, pulled him in and drowned him. The female was left to wait and was very sad; she died waiting for her lover. The ocean, ashamed to have let it's feelings take over, covered the girl in salt, and where she'd once sat waiting, now sits a large white rock," he waved a paw almost dismissively, "Too sad a tale to tell others, if you ask me; but the moral, the bird told me, is that jealousy is a bad thing, and that it makes us do horrible things, and that everyone will feel it, even something as mighty as the ocean," she shrugged as they padded on, turning only then to glance at Tau.
"But that doesn't have anything to do with us," Tau replied ith a snort. "We're certainly not lovers, and we have nothing for the ocean to be jealous of.. so why would it drown us?" And 'woosh' was the sound of it going straight over his head.
He too snorted, "It has nothing to do with us, of course, but you could learn to think outside the box; I was just using an example. I meant something BAD would end up happening to you," but of course, there was no need to try further at it; Nili could have sworn he'd heard the wooshing sound it'd made as it'd gone straight over his head, "It's meant to be a lesson to be learned," the rolling of his eyes seemed to indicate how much Nili thought a 'lesson' could be taught, "Why do you keep on leaving anyhow, not that I care?"
"Because its boring" Tau replied, practically spitting the word in emphasis. Oh how boring it was! "We stay at the cave all day, we talk to the plants who never have much more to talk about than how sunny the day is, and listen to mom sing! Its great for awhile, but I wannna see more! I like listening to the ocean roar and finding weird, slimy things in the rocks! I LIKE doing something... something... DIFFERENT." He huffed a little and jumped up on to a nearby rock, looking down the shore. "I almost wish the Ocean would take me away. At least that would be an adventure!"
Of course, being the practical of the two, Nili could not understand what good having the ocean take them away would do, because well... they'd DROWN. And he, for one, could not swim; oh how he could not swim! It was a small secret of his... but Nili was terrified of water, "Plants have a lot to say, if you listen carefully," he frowned at Tau, looking almost offended he'd said such a thing; flowers always had a lot to tell HIM but then again, flowers and plants were a bit too delicate for the likes of Tau, "Well, if you want different," he paused then, his paws staying still over the sand, looking out towards the distance, or rather, attempting to look at the distance, the trees blocking his view, "Why don't you go out THERE," he motioned towards teh border neither could see, "Les told me she came from the pridelands. That's far away, maybe YOU could go there," he'd mentioned this sarcastically, as a joke, but no sooner had he said it that paused, "No, wait, forget I said that," he'd only just noticed that the fact this was meant to be a joke would go right over Tau's head, "I didn't just say that; ignore what I said."
"The pride lands?" Too bad he'd said it, because Tau's ears perked almost instantly. "I thought these were the pride lands?" He paused, then grinned, "you mean another pride don't you!" There was a suddenly, hyper energy to Nili's brother as he thought about this, his entire a-quiver with excitement. In fact, the cub very much resembled his father in that moment. "I've got to ask here where they are! Oh wow, I bet it'd be great to see another pride! Dad mentioned them before, but he never said there were any still out there..." Tau turned to look out into the distance, eyes sparkling with wonder. "I wonder how many i could find?!" As he turned his tail had bopped again a strange red stone half buried in the sand beside his perch. His back turned to it, he never saw it move of its own accord to look at him, but Nili probably did. Before either one could act, however, one large, meaty claw reached out and clamped onto the offending, pink object. Whatever else Tau had been about to say was immediately cut off by a sudden stillness in which his fur stood on end. He Yelped then, jumping and tail lifting into the air in surprise, crab still dangling from it.
He grimaced then, his eyes closing, his head tossed back almost dramatically before he dared face his brother again, "Father told me once that this was Kizingo'zaa; Les comes from a distant pride, across the bloody Savannah, apparently, called Pride Lands. It's far, FAR away and Les nearly DIED getting here," a pause as he frowned and mumbled, "Not like she'd admit to this..." he was still in his small little world of denial when Tau began his hyper-little-act, "Did you hear a word I said; she nearly DIED. And they're ACROSS THE SAVVANAH," but of course, it was like talking to a brick wall, "She got lost; probably couldn't tell a bird which way to fly to get there and..." it was then he saw the crab move. Oh, but it was too late; he opened his maw, his paw outstretched, and for a singular, almost comical moment, he stood with a panicked look on his face. It was too late however, and the crab did his... deed, "STAY STILL! BROTHER!!" running after him, Nili tried his best to catch Tau in an attempt to rid him of the painful... pain in the tail.
The crab snapped menacingly at Nili as the other boy came closer. For his part, Tau was in too much paint o move... at first. Then he turned and snapped at the crustation tail-cuff, only to have his nose pinched for his efforts. "YEOW!" He yelped again, tumbling off the back of the rock and away from Nili's attempts. "GETTOFF!!" Tau leapt to his feet once more and began to run around the beach, tail flapping in the wind behind him, and crab hung on for dear life. It was amazing that no one heard this.
