[LOG - East] Learning. Again. (Kazi x Zenda)

[Kytora]

Zenda was roaming today. It wasn't that she liked being alone and wandering with no one else to wait on her (after all, her status as a duchess was spoiling her even at such a young age), but when push came to shove, she didn't really have much of a choice today.

So, to say it simply: there wasn't anyone to wait on her hand and foot on this particular day. She had been left to her own devices.

The cub picked her way through the dirt and tried not to soil her coat too much with the dirty things. She'd much rather be inside right now, but since there wasn't a real purpose at the moment, outside she had went. And, really, there wasn't much she could pick up that would make her coat dirty. She matched the dirt pretty much exactly, shade-wise, which was the oddest thing. She was never sure if she was truly dirty or just felt dirty when it came time for a bath.

She made a face at a small pile of mud that happened to block her way from progressing along the path she had found. It wasn't too big to leap over, and she dearly did not want to get dirty today...Zenda eyed the enemy and weighed her options.

Tarakazi had been outside since he was able to sneak away from his parents, which hadn't been very hard to do. Since the two were so busy with pride-related duties and whatnot, the small cub had plenty of opportunities to go outside and leave his parents to their dealings.

Kazi didn't notice his dirt-colored sister at first, he was too busy digging in the ground and looking for new rocks. He kept a pouch around his neck, that currently was empty. He had four rocks lined up in front of him; all different colors, shapes and sizes. Kazi seemed to be having a debate with himself, his face was scrunched up in thought, his brow furrowed.

"Now, now, now." He spoke, apparently to the stones in front of him, "I know you all wanna come home with me. But I don't think I'd be able to take care of all four of you!" He frowned, then turned one of the rocks over onto it's side. "You need to be quiet, I can't even hear myself think!"
Kazi sighed heavily, then looked up and spotted his sibling. He smiled at her widely. "Hey, Zen-zen!" He called, using his petname for her. He was odd in the way he came up with names for all of his siblings.

Zenda winced as her brother's nickname for her cut through the air and reached her ears. She really wished he wouldn't call her that. Really. Secretly, maybe she didn't mind so much because it gave her special attention: she was the only one he called 'Zen-zen.' And the cub guessed, for that fact, that he could be forgiven.

"Hey, Kazi," she responded, glancing over her shoulder to see him nearby, four rocks lined up before him. She sighed and rolled her eyes. There he went again, collecting rocks to put in his little pouch. She wasn't sure how many pouches and how many rocks he had, but she knew that by the time they were older, he could build his own den with them all.

"Talking to the rocks again, brother?" she sniffed daintily and decided to trot over to him, leaving the problematic mud puddle for another time.

Kazi grinned at her and nodded enthusiastically, completely oblivious to the fact that his nickname for her made her cringe. He looked back down to his rocks and shushed them, then turned back to her.

"Yeah, they all wanna come home with me, Zen-zen! I don't know what to do. I don't wanna hurt their feelings, but if I take every rock that I find, I won't have room in the den for anything! Even our brothers and sisters!"

Another frown crossed his face and he huffed with annoyance. "What do you think, Zen-zen? Which would you choose?" Although Kazi knew that he was the only one who could "hear" the rocks, he always liked having his siblings input on things.

There four rocks on the ground, one a dull grey, one a bright blue-ish green, one spotted brown and black, and one shimmering with crystalized materials on it. Kazi had already named them all, and he was leaning towards he spotted one because it seemed the most friendly.

Of course Kazi would ask her to help him choose. She inwardly rolled her eyes again and glanced at the four rocks before them.
"Either this one," she pointed to the bright blue-ish green one, "or this one," she pointed again to the shimmery rock with crystals on it. "They're the prettiest," she explained to him, since she figured he'd want to know why she chose the ones she did.

"The blue-green one matches your eye. Actually, it matches both of them. And the crystal one is shiny, which is one of my favorite things." Really, he should've known better than to ask her for an opinion regarding rocks, especially when it seemed like he didn't so much care about the appearance as much as...something else.

Zenda stood before him, head tilted to the side, and watched him. "What do you think, though?"

Kazi nodded, a sagely look on his face. He took her opinion very seriously. "Well, they are definitely the prettiest." He said with a nod. Kazi wasn't surprised by her answer, those two rocks were a lot like his sister, obsessed with how pretty they were and not wanting to be dirty.

"I think I'll take this one with me." He pulled the blue-ish green one to him. "And Zen-zen, this one says she wants to go with you. She thinks you're pretty."

He smiled brightly as he pushed the crystal rock towards his sibling. He had indeed "heard" the rock say that it wanted to go with Zenda, and he hoped his sister would accept it.

Kazi looked down at the rock, tilting his head to the side. "Oh, she says she'd like to be made into a necklace." He shrugged and smiled brightly.

Zenda smiled slightly as he made his decision. She knew she was good for something, after all! But she definitely wasn't expecting for him to push the pretty crystal rock towards her and claim that the rock had 'chosen her' to stay with, and that she wanted to be made into a necklace.

She blinked and glanced from the rock to her brother, then to the rock, and back to Kazi again.

"Are...are you sure? I mean, is she sure? She is pretty." How would she make it into a necklace? There was probably someone in the pride that could help her out. And she wasn't totally against the idea. Actually, she liked it the more she thought about it.  

[Kytora]

Kazi laughed lightly and nodded at her. "Oh yes, she is very sure! Can't you hear her?" He pushed the rock more towards his sister, until it touched her. He wondered if she could feel the warm orange glow that he could see surrounding it.

"I'd like for you to have her, Zen-zen! She'll remind you that no matter what happens, life is beautiful." He smiled and tilted his head to the side, swishing his tail about behind him.

"These two understand, by the way, so don't feel bad for them!" He picked up the blue-ish rock, and placed it in his pouch. He then took the other two rocks in his mouth, and trotted a few feet away, to where he had found them. He placed them carefully in the niches of earth that had supported them before.

He turned back to his sister and grinned. "Whatcha wanna do, Zen-zen? I'm kinda hungry." His stomach growled as he spoke and he laughed with embarrassment.

Zenda could neither feel the rock talking to her nor see the warm glow Kazi would claim to see. She couldn't hear any warm and appreciative words, but she imagined them.

Oh Zenda, you're so pretty! My crystals will reflect so prettily on your brown fur. Won't you wear me as a necklace and show me off to your whole family and all your friends?

Oh, yes. Yes she would.

She giggled at the stomach growl, but couldn't contain her own growl in response. The cub glanced at her stomach and shrugged. "I guess it's time to eat! Wanna try hunting?"

Kazi laughed and smiled brightly at his sister as her stomach accompanied his own in growling.

"Okay! I think there's some mice over there, in those bushes. I've seen them running around before, but I never really followed them much." He padded over to the bushes he had spoken of, his oversized paws treading softly.

He stuck his nose into the vegetation, glancing around and sniffing for any trace of a critter. He suddenly pulled his head up and smiled at his sister, motioning with his head towards the other side of the large patch of bushes.

"I can hear something over there!" He whispered, bending down close to the ground and shimmying along as quietly as he could, though his butt was stuck high in the air.

Nodding, Zenda waited for a moment before following him over to the bushes in question. Mice were easy, and if they caught enough, they could be quite the filling meal.

At his beckoning, she neared where he stuck his lower half into the air. She smiled slightly and shoved his butt down with a paw before laying low to the ground herself, though much more sophisticated than he had been.

"How many shall we get?" she asked, voice a little above a whisper. Comparing their stomach growls' she figured that they would at least need five mice. Each.

Zenda slowly wiggled forward as well, until her nose was touching a leaf of the bush and she could see through the spaces a little better. She saw one, two, three mice right there, crawling around and stopping to sniff the air periodically. It was so silly that the little things couldn't see the two big lion cubs right in front of them!

Kazi looked over at his butt as his sister pushed it down, and grinned guiltily. He always did forget that, from father's training! More aware of his posture now, he looked over at his sister as she settled herself low to the ground.

"I'm not sure, I think as many as we can get!" He answered in a whisper, his mouth watering at the sight of the four mice going about their business.

Kazi really wasn't sure how to catch mice. Was a direct approach best? Should he just barge in, jump on them and hope he squishes a few? Or should he stay where he is, wait for them to turn their backs, and pounce then? Or perhaps lie in wait for a trap? Thoughts ran through the cubs mind and he furrowed his brow in confusion.

"How should we get them, Zen-zen?" He asked his sister, since he had the feeling she was better at this than him.

He was correct in thinking that she was (usually) better than he at hunting. However, Zenda had never hunted mice before. Usually the hunting was left to a parent, and the cubs had not been out to hunt with either mother or father yet. They'd probably reach that point when they were juveniles.

"I think...we should wait 'til they're still, then pounce them." She watched the mice in question carefully, hoping that they would turn around and become completely unawares of the danger she and Kazi presented. Soon, too! She was hungry! If their noses didn't catch her scent, they would surely hear her stomach growl.

After a few more moments, they all were finally turned away, and she wiggled her tail from side to side, inching closer.

"Now!" she whispered, not wanting to scare the mice prematurely, and pounced into the bush.

Kazi nodded at his sisters instructions, waiting until the right moment presented itself. His stomach growled again and he flattened his ears against his head, cringing. He hoped the mice didn't hear it, but when he looked up again they were all turned to the other side, and he suddenly her his sisters whispered commend.

Kazi jumped out with a pathetic roar, and landed into the pile of scattering critters. He could feel two of them underneath him; one under his paw, and one under his stomach. He squeezed the one beneath his paw further into the ground, and soon enough the creature stopped struggling.

The one beneath the lions tummy was luckier though, he pulled himself free and ran off into the bushes, disappearing into the foliage.

"I GOT ONE! Zen-zen, I got one!" Kazi exclaimed happily, picking the dead rodent up by its tail and letting it dangle from his jaws.

Just as Kazi got two, so did Zenda. Except that she managed, somehow, to land on both mice with one paw, instead of one mouse to one paw like she had originally planned.

She glanced to her brother and grinned, nodding.

"Great! I just have two, and they're both under my paw." In a moment rare for her graceful demeanor, she giggled. "They're wiggling; they tickle!"

But eventually she pushed down hard enough with her paw that when she moved it, both mice were unmoving, laying side by side where she had caught them. And, again, in another show of kindness, she took one of the mice and offered it to Kazi.

"I think you're hungrier than me, Kaz," she said, holding the mouse to him by the tail.

Kazi had already begun chomping on the mouse he had caught, and he looked up at his sister with surprise. He wasn't used to kindness, and although his family wasn't outright mean to him, none of his siblings had ever done anything like this before.

Kazi felt a warmth in his heart as he accepted the mouse. "..Thanks, Zen-zen!" He took the mouse and began chomping on them both, he was indeed hungry!

When he had finished, he wiped his mouth on the grass and stretched out with a big smile. "That was actually pretty filling! Maybe not like the stuff momma and daddy catch, but it was pretty good!" He smiled brightly, anbd a large yawn escaped him. The days antics had worn the cub out, although he wasn't eager for the day with his new favorite sibling to end.

Zenda wrinkled her nose at his manners.

"Just..don't mention it, okay?" Their family had a reputation to keep as stoic, just rulers. They weren't necessarily 'generous,' and if she was caught doing something nice--even to her brother--what would happen? Their image would be ruined!

Besides, she was going to have to try and teach him some manners. Didn't he listen to Mother's lessons about that?

"Mine was good, too," she responded after slurping up her mice as well. She wasn't as tired as he--Kazi had been outside far longer than she had today, plus he had been doing much more exerting things than watching out for dirt and puddles and the like.

"I think I'm going to head back to the den. I'm tired." She playfully poked his tummy. "And so are you. C'mon."

Kazi stifled another yawn, then rose and stood beside his sister. "I am tired! A nice nap would be great." He found his way out of the bushes and padded towards the mud puddle Zenda had seen before.

Kazi trudged through the mud without a second thought about getting dirty, then shook his feet off afterward, spewing dirt and grime every which way.

"Come on, Zen-zen!" He said with a grin. "I'll race you home!"

With that he took off in the direction of the den, muddy paw prints in his wake.

She cringed and shivered wildly as he simply plowed through the mud puddle she had been glaring at earlier. He was so dirty! Ugh, how could he stand it? Gingerly, Zenda leapt across the puddle to land beside her brother, happily still clean from their adventures today.

And then he was gone, racing her to the den. She shook her head, smiled, and then raced after him.