[LOG] The Divided Heart (Sanjirou & Imbra)

[Princess_Feylin]

Sanji

Sanjirou was bored. Bored out of his little head. His mother was doing appointments, his father was doing who knew what and he'd run away from the nannies in search of adventure. Stepping around a corner, the boy felt a cool breeze which made him sigh against the stuffiness of the pride. Why was it always so stuffy? It might be cooler than most, but there felt like there was no air movement at all!

Moving toward the wind, he saw that it wasn't just the wind. There was a small pool of water! Racing towards it, the cheetah cub managed to trip over his own paws and tumbled head over tail into the pool of water and discovered it was actually quite deep. Swimming to the top, he gasped and climbed out of it, shivering because of how cold it was. but it felt so good!

"Ha! Now I have a secret place to cool off!" He said triumphantly, not even thinking about an echo or if anyone was around. He dipped his head in the water again, submerging it completely before he pulled back and shook his head rapidly. As Sanji giggled through his dizziness, he laid down and put his front paws in the water. His giggles would echo through the stone passage ways, but he still paid no attention to it.

Imbra

A lean figure wended her way through the underground tunnels of the Kuroi'Nera. When she was younger the darkness underground had made her uncomfortable, but she'd made herself face it every day, and train in it until the impenetrable shadows held no more mysteries, and thus no more fear for her. Now she did not even need the dim sunlight which shone through small cracks in the surface. She could make her way blind, or even with her ears stuffed.

As she was neither blind nor deaf, however, it was no challenge for the adolescent cheetah to make her way to one of the underground pools the pride boasted. There weren't a lot of them, but even so they rarely seemed to be crowded, and during the day they were even less so, since much of the pride preferred to be above ground during daylight hours. Im didn't blame them, but she was thirsty and she preferred the cooler water from underground sources.

"People drink that, you know," she said caustically to the cub who had been splashing in the pool moments before.

 

[Princess_Feylin]

Sanji

People might drink out of it, but I'm swimming in it," he said to the faceless voice before he jumped in it. He didn't care who it was, it wasn't his mother or father, so he didn't care at all. Why would he? No one could do much about him playing in the drinking water. "Besides, I doubt I'm the only one who swims in here. Rock falls in here and dust too. So why should fur matter?" Finally, he turned his big blue eyes to whoever it was he was talking to and blinked. Wait.

This girl looked just like his dad. "...Right? I mean, I bet you swam in it too when you were as small as me." He continued to look her over, really, really confused as to why she looked like his daddy. No one ever said anything about daddy having a sister or cousins here. "..... Why do you look like me?"

Imbra

"Rocks and dust settle to the bottom of the pool, where people don't have to drink them," Imbra pointed out. "Fur floats. And for that matter, I don't know how thoroughly your bum gets cleaned after you s**t."

Imbra had a bit of a foul mouth on her. It had always sort of horrified her nanny, who swore up and down that she didn't know how she'd acquired it and refused to believe Imbra when she said she'd just heard the words around. Her dad used them, too, even when she was younger, and that was where she had really learned them, but Im had figured out early on that Tomkrie didn't like to hear people say bad things about Im's dad. Imbra didn't either, so that was all right.

"Actually, I didn't. Not in this pool. There's another, shallower pool that my sibs and I would swim in. It's the one the grunts and slaves use to clean our meat."

In the dim light it wasn't exactly easy to make out the cub's markings, and so Imbra didn't bother to make an effort. As she spoke, she had no idea she was addressing her half-brother. She was simply informing some idiot cub of things everyone ought to know. When the cub asked why she looked like him, however, she gave him a sharp look that may have gone unseen. They did look alike, though not too much.

"Probably because we're related. You're Abhishri's son, right?"

 

[Princess_Feylin]

Sanji

He gasped at her course language and whined afterwards. That annoying, cub whine he did with his dad. "I cleaned really well! I wouldn't get in here if it was dirty. Besides, fur falls off when you lean in to drink anyway. So what does it matter?"

He snorted at her and spit water in her direction for her language and frowned. "Momma said no one should use that language. She said it makes you look stupid and uneducated." He finally climbed out of the little pool and wirnkled his nose.

"I'm NOT swimming in bloody, meat water. That's so gross! Your fur would get all greasy from it and then you'd spend hours getting it out. No thank you." He shook himself dry and sighed when his fur puffed out. Then she said momma's name and he narrowed his eyes at her.

".....How do you know momma? Are you someone who calls on her for her job?" He figured that would be the only logical way. Momma didn't have time to meet with anyone but clients.

Imbra

"Sorry, but I'm not inclined to take your word for it," Imbra said. "However, I'm also not really inclined to drink from here anymore. It does matter though, because the next people to come through might not know you were swimming in here, and maybe they'll get sick because you weren't as careful as you claim you were."

Her expression was amused when the cub made his pronouncement about swearing. She was an adolescent. Swearing was cool. The fact that a cub and his mother apparently disapproved only made it that much more appealing of a verbal habit. Only her father and maybe the Boss Lady held enough sway with her to get her to change her ways.

"It's not bloody meat water. There's enough of a current to carry everything away. It goes even deeper underground to take it away. My fur's never gotten greasy." Actually, the idea of greasy fur was kind of disgusting. Fortunately, it definitely wasn't any sort of danger. The current did a good job taking away any sort of undesirable things from that pool.

"Spirits, no," Imbra laughed, borrowing one of their father's expression, even though she didn't really know what spirits were. "But I try to keep track of what goes on in the pride and I absolutely keep track of what goes on in my own family."

 

[Princess_Feylin]

Sanji

It was still a gross thought. "Good. I don't want you drinking out of here anyway!" He said, fur bristling slightly as he glared at the other girl. "You never explained how you're related, you know. You just blah blah about me. So I guess you have nothing better to do than ruin fun, stupid girl." His ears flattened as he once more put his paws in the water and looked at it. Despite some fur, it was still really clean. Sanjirou had already formed an opinion of this girl and he didn't like it. It's not the kind of cheetah he wanted himself to be around.

Huffing, the male flicked his tail back and forth. "You look related to my dad, so who are you and how are you related to me? I hope it's not by blood, you're kind of ugly. I don't want the chance my future babies will come out as nasty as you!" He stuck his tongue out at her and snorted.


Well now, he was a very opinionated little boy who just thought all girls had cooties and this uneducated girl was covered in them worse than a hyena in fleas.

Imbra

"Spiteful little brat, aren't you? Does your animosity extend to everyone who might want to drink here, or just me? I'm not the only person who drinks here, you know."

Imbra did have a fiery temper, but she was controlling it for two reasons. First of all, the little idiot was only a cub and it would certainly be unfair of her to act on her inclination to knock some manners into him. Second, they were half-siblings and it would probably disappoint their father if she were to drown his youngest son. Even if it was a little bit tempting.

"I am related to your dad, actually. I'm his oldest child, Imbra." With an insincere smile she added, "I'm so sorry if that spoils your plans for any future offspring, but perhaps you'll do the world a favor and refrain from breeding. I'm not sure you ought to be passing down such stupidity."

 

[Princess_Feylin]

Sanji

He bristled again and narrowed his eyes, growling low in his throat. He was a cub, so it wasn't a very good growl, but still. Wait... what? He looked confused and then down right refused to believe it. "I'm daddy's only child, you're just a big, stupid, stinky liar!" It couldn't be true. Sanjirou knew his dad would tell him something this important! Momma didn't say anything, so she had to be lying. But she looked so much like his daddy. His brows knitted before he shook his head and looked sternly.

"You're just jealous because I have the best parents. I bet your mother and father are just as ugly as you! Go away, I was here first!" He puffed his little chest out, trying to be any amount of intimidating. It didn't work though and soon tears filled his eyes before he hung his head. Did daddy hide this from him? Was she really telling the truth?

Momma said keeping secrets was just like lying, so was his daddy lying to him? His ears flattened before he seemed to curl up on himself, now in a depressed state.

Imbra

"You're wrong," she said without venom. There was no need for her to be cruel here. Clearly the truth itself was enough to upset the cub mightily, and she wasn't a bully by nature. There was no challenge or sport to be had in besting someone younger, smaller, weaker, and stupider than oneself.

"No matter how much you deny it, and how much your mother may want to deny it, Mananakbo has two litters in the Kuroi'Nera. One with four cubs by my mother and you by yours." Her tone was a little unkind here, implying that perhaps the smallness of his litter was a reflection on his mother. She didn't care what was said about her mother, really, never having known her, but she didn't like even the implication that her father might be anything less than perfect.

When tears appeared in the cub's eyes Imbra's reaction was almost exactly like their father's would have been, and she physically took several steps backward and away from him. "I'll give you some time to reflect on that. It looks as though it may take a while."

 

[Princess_Feylin]

Sanji

The tears just dripped down his cheek with the slight in her tone and he just rested his head on his paws, crumpled up in a wet, sodden lump on the stone ground. Surely he'd get sick this way, but his brain wasn't focused on the cold. His dad had another litter and didn't tell him? That was lying and now Sanjirou was growing angry again. He looked up to her and hated everything about her. Why was she still here. He never wanted to see her again. Or his father. Getting to his paws, he turned his back on her and stalked towards his den, the tears still there but a look of pure hurt and rage on his young face.

Now he had to tell his mother. His mother deserved to know, at least.