[PrP] Rising of the Sun

[Kisoni]

The first few times that the cubs were allowed out was with their mother or father only. Children grew fast, however, and before too long they were given leeway to explore their home on their own, within certain boundaries. So it was one sunny morning, as balmy and beautiful as it generally was in the cove, that young Tau came trotting up to the front of the den. He looked out over the meadow of flowers with happy enough features, but the eldest of the two sons had already proven himself to be trouble and today would only offer further proof of this, if he had anything to say about it. Indeed, he had a plan of what he wanted to do his first day out of the protective reach of his mother.

Tau turned to look into the darkness behind him, one ear cocking for sound from the cave. It seemed as if everyone was asleep still, though it was hard to distinguish smaller breaths from his father's snoring. A wicked smile came across Tau's face and he bounded off into the jungle.

Near the caves the rocks were too high to climb sufficiently, especially for a small cub--never mind that he had remained larger than the rest of his brethren. So, he skimmed along the edges of them and further down towards the strange, bodiless crashing sound he'd heard a hundred times echoing through the jungle but couldn't place. Their father said it was the Ocean, a huge body of water much bigger than the streams they were used to. To Tau such a thing was hard to imagine, but when he'd rounded a corner and broke through the line of trees he no longer had to. "woooww..." He breathed, eyes growing large as he stared out across the deep water, glittering orange and red and white in the morning sun. No wonder Hadithi spent so much time out here.




 

[Daffupanda]

Amusingly enough, Tau hadn't been the first one out of the small cave that day; Nili had woken up to see the sunrise earlier that morning. Unable to sleep, for whatever reason, the smaller of the two males had slipped out of his parents' so called 'protection' and had flopped himself down in the middle of a patch of lovely, colorful flowers a little to the right. They almost drowned him out of sight, his scent masked by their pollen, and thus was why neither of his siblings' noticed him, he figured.

He'd watched Tau slip out seemingly unnoticed, an elegant, almost regal brow arching till it hid under the tuff of black hair that slid over his eyes. He'd snorted as he'd watched the scene unfold before him, rolling his eyes for effect; it was not unheard of for Tau to go just looking for trouble, really. He'd been there, many-a-times to watch him do so, however... what followed after him wasn't all that normal.

Blue eyes gazed through the flowers as one of their sisters bounded on after the rowdy male, no doubt in order to stop him before he got into trouble; Nili snorted again, "Good luck with that..." he murmured under his breath as he turned back to the flowers. He sunk his nose deep into the nearest one, inhaling it's sweet scent, rubbing his forehead on it's stem; he truly liked flowers. They were beautiful, delicate, and almost everywhere around the jungle part... they felt like little companions, and Nili was always amazed at how they were able to withstand even the most furious of storms, and look radiant the following day. As he leaned in to sniff at the flower again, however, he paused, something akin to guilt rumbling at the back of his mind, almost like a caterpillar, eating away at his thought, "Oh, Fine!" grumbling slightly, the delicate prince stood on his paws and abandoned his flowers, moving through the vegetation with much more grace than his sister had displayed.

In fact, he managed to pad out elegantly, just bare moments after Rani's... stumble. Though he was as mesmerized by the sight of the water as both his siblings, he made a much smaller show of it, instead turning his gaze to look at the cubs while regally padding onto the sand, "Yes, well, the scolding we'll get for being out here all alone will not be nearly as 'pretty', or as incredible, now will it?" despite his words, haughty and blunt, his gaze slid over to the large expansion of water, the blue mirroring that of his eyes, "Even if it is lovely," it was as much of a confession as either of the cubs were going to get from their haughty brother; really, he didn't mean any harm. He meant well, in fact, however, his vanity and pride usually got in the way of things and how he did them. Even the way he carried himself was delicate, which mounted for some teasing from Tau more often than not - then again... Nili was just as prone to lashing out verbally, probing just how sharp a tongue he had when riled up. He did love them however; it'd showed in the way he only allowed his parents and siblings to touch him, groom him, or otherwise 'dirty him up' as he called it when they played.

"Tau, you can't stay out of trouble, and now poor Rani and I, both, will probably get our hides scolded just because we were worried," Nili was much more blunt than his sister, and more often than not, the cynical voice of reason that stood to the side and commented sarcastically how bad an idea this or that was. It was his job. Just like Rani's job seemed to be the peacemaker. He was fine with that; he loved his life just the way it was. It held balance to it, "Can we go now? There's a lovely patch of flowers by the cave with my name on it."  

[Kisoni]

"Well then go back to it, Dorkface," Tau gave his brother a sneer. He didn't really know what a "dorkface" was, or even a mere "dork," but it sounded like the right thing to say. Nili's bossy attitude always got on his nerves. He stepped over to help Rini up to her feet, one paw attempting to brush dirt off of her and only succeeding in rubbing the dirt in. He didn't really notice. "If you're so worried about getting into trouble. Scarydy-cat." With a roll of his eyes, Tau once more looked back at the ocean. Should he dive into the waters or go back to his old plan. Waters, old plan, waters, old plan, waters...

Old plan it was. Pulling his eyes from the vast expanse of saltwater, the cub turned instead to the face of the cliffs their home was built into. "Who cares about dad's stupid ocean? I wanna see what's up there. Come on, Rani!" Without bothering to hesitate and see if she'd follow--for he had an idea that she would, regardless--he ran over to the smallest of the ledges. There was a path to the top, actually, but one still had to climb a little when using it. There were boulders and sliding rocks all along it, not to mention several places where other creatures nested. What did father call them? Muses?

Tau put both his front paws up on the ledge he could just barely see over when standing up. A bit of a scramble later, the pink cub pulled himself up onto the ledge, grinning at his accomplishment, and turned to look once more to his siblings. "Coming? or is Nili too much of a cryyy babbyyy"  

[Asparegus]

The worst thing to happen to a cub was to be abandoned, regardless who abandoned them. And Orifiel was abandoned. It was bad enough he had left his mother but even worse that he had left with a lion he didn't know. And it had come back to bite him in the figurative butt when he woke up alone and lost. There were days when he felt like he was going to starve to death, the vegetation so unappetizing and horrible on his palette. The dead seagull he had finished the other day had been horrible but there was a ray of hope in that seagull: the sea~! ((forgot to mention his mommy took him to the sea once))He remembered the sea! There was a pang of happiness in his chest so sudden that it almost hurt. He didn't feel so lost anymore.

Orifiel had run swiftly to the sea until he had exhausted himself. But it was his lucky evening in that he had found the glistening beauty and yet unlucky in that he was on a cliff and had no energy to climb down.

It was another day now but he felt no better. He curled himself in a ball and groomed his tail comfortingly. Ori had found the sea but he was still alone. He even laughed to himself, fancying that on the other side of the small rocks he had nestled his small body in to protect from the wind there were others, talking to each other and probably having fun. It was just him being bitter. Sadly, he wasn't surprised that he had come to the point where he was hearing voices.

With a sigh, he picked himself up to see the sea. He just wanted one more look, one more glimmer of hope before he let his mother's moods take over and sink into a depression. But the cliff was much more colorful with the morning. It even had shapes of colorful cubs on it. Oh the irony, he thought, now I'm seeing things.  

[Daffupanda]

"Hmph..." it was the only response either of his siblings were getting at the current moment; his brows knitted together into a frown as he watched them, though his head had not lowered an inch; in fact, it was amusing to note that even despite Tau's biting words, Nili remain unharmed by them, "Tau, you don't even know what dorkface means, first, please get a grasp of the English language, then feel free to banter with me," rolling his eyes, he watched as the bigger male taunted him further and then ran off to climb the rocks in order to, no doubt, get himself killed. Nili had long since decided that Tau had a death wish of some sort.

Despite his thoughts, and even words, the vain little male was perfectly aware that Tau had probably not even heard, or paid attention to him, and thus had probably missed his own snappy remark, "Whatever..." he murmured with a sneer as he followed calmly after his sister, "We're doom, you know; we're going to die. If we don't slip and break a paw on our way up... we'll get stuck up there with no way to come down unless we break our necks," a pause followed as he climbed up the rocks, much more gracefully than poor Rani had, making sure to push her small form with his nose and paws from behind where ever needed, "Anyhow, where does he get the idea I'm a cry-baby? Have you ever seen me cry? I don't think so," giving his sister one last push, the siblings made it to the top.

Now, it was true that they had reached their so called 'destination', however, this didn't seem to keep the biting sarcasm and the cynicism out of Nili's voice, "We'll, we're up here, lovely; what do we do now? Roll down the bleeding rocks till we break our necks?" he looked at Tau pointedly; the fact both males shared a sibling-rivalry type of relationship was easy to notice, even from a distance. Both loved each other dearly, indeed, but they were too different, one from the other; in fact, both males were on separate and entirely opposite ends of the spectrum. Where Tau lacked the ease of words and cynicism that Nili had, the purple cub lacked the brute strength and strangely brave (almost dumb, Nili figured) optimism the larger of the two seemed to have.

He had half a mind of voicing his mind, even more than he previously had, when movement out the corner of his eye caught his attention. At first, it was a green blue; a green-blue blur that wasn't entirely recognizable against the background of water and jungle around them, however, no sooner had Nili turned his head that he recognised the 'blob' as another cub, "Oh god..." now, despite his general attitude, Nili was still his parents' son. That much was obvious as he grit his teeth and made a dash towards the figure; something was wrong.

First off, as far as he knew, they were the only cubs in the area; he knew this because he'd asked his mother, just the other day, if there were any others they could play with (the need to find someone with his same appeal for flowers and calmness had spurred the question in the first place), and Misae had lovingly told him that for now... there were no other cubs. She'd told him about uncle Kere, and aunt Kimaria... she'd even told him about a couple other of lions that had decided to stay within their pride's lands, however, he'd never heard anything about a cub.

Which meant this one was a stranger. Which meant something was wrong.

What parents in their right mind would leave a cub this young out on their own? "Hey guys," calling to his siblings over his shoulder, Nili bit his lip, slowly his dash to a steady trot as he reached Orifiel. Having reached the other male's side he lowered his head and sniffed; his cub-mind, despite it's sharp intelligence, was not able to add two and two. Not yet anyhow. Instincts alone told him that this cub had been out on it's own, what with the fact... no one's scent clung to his form, alas, he could not really make heads or tails of the situation, "Hey..." his voice had softened out, mellowed as he lowered his head, nosing the green form, "You okay?" instincts alone told him that, no, this cub wasn't 'okay', "Are you alone?" it was almost amusing how his voice and features had mellowed out, almost femenine in fashion, soothing, for some reason Nili himself could not understand.  

[Kisoni]

"Of course he's alone!" Tau chimed in. He'd seen where his brother had made for, though he'd been trying to ignore the other male as much as possible. Nili was always so annoying! The boy's whining and penchant for the pessimistic bothered him. If that kid had any choice, he'd never leave his little patch of pansies. Ironic, that. Rani was a lot better in her brother's mind than Nili was, for at least she wasn't so scared that she'd complain about his plans constantly.

And see! Today they had paid off! There was a reason they should have gone up here. Like Nili he'd seen immediately that there was something wrong with a cub being so alone as he was. Their parents certainly didn't allow them to go running off willy-nilly.... he ignored that that was just what he'd done today. Instead, he circled around the new comer, leaning in to sniff him. He didn't even smell like the sea, which was a VERY strange thing for this land! Tau tilted his head, "Where did you come from, kid?" he asked bluntly, though the question itself was innocent enough. His ears perked a little, curious at the possibilities.  

[Asparegus]

At the slight realization that the cub shapes were indeed alive several cliche phrases of the dying ran through his mind: "am I dead?", "is this heaven?", "what do you want?", and the ever-popular "I want my mommy". However he settled on none of them but rather "I'm fine."

He groaned and lifted himself into a sitting position and rubbed the back of his head with a paw. "I'm alone and..." he turned to take in all of the three cubs crowded around him. "I... I don't know where I came from. From back that way ...somewhere." He gestured behind him. He couldn't remember how far he had come, if they had come straight here or had traveled a meandering route. So he had no idea how far away home really was, that in fact, it was all the way by Lake Victoria.

He squinted at the girl so that his head would stop spinning and register her properly. "You saw this... in the stars?" Why hadn't they told him one darn thing about this? He had been such a fool, so focused and excited about the promised journey. His mother certainly hadn't raised him to be one, even at this young age, yet given the opportunity, he had lowered himself for the occasion. He shook his head and looked back to the first, the purple cub. It was time for an atypical phrase. "Where am I?"  

[Daffupanda]

The blank look Nili issued his brother seemed to voice that in his (not so) humble opinion, 'of course he's alone' wasn't all that natural at all, however, even the smaller of the two brothers had his priorities straight; help first, bicker later. They had all their lives ahead of them to bicker and show just how much more intelligent and sensitive he was over Tau; for now, helping this teal-pelted cub had taken up the order of priorities, "Huh," she said softly, his head tilting to one side, locks of what would in time become an elegant mane cascading ever so slightly over his eyes, "Smart little stars," he commented lightly, "Though they could've told us a little sooner; I'd have not objected to coming up here otherwise."

It was clear that despite how he'd initially felt about the escaped, the nature of his thoughts very much mirrored Tau's own. Of course, neither male would ever really so much as confirm this, or admit it in any way, "Far, far away," he answered Tau's question lightly as the teal cub spoke up, "Can you smell the earth on him? It doesn't smell like ours... and his pelt doesn't look like it's been bathed in ages," which lead to the conclusion that not only was he alone, but... he'd been pretty much 'alone' even in the company of others before.

As the cub spoke, obviously confused (Nili had no doubt this was partly due to being hungry as all hell), he leaned in, his eyes hooded as he nosed the boy up, "Shhhh..." it wasn't the same harsh voice he'd been using early, but rather, something more soothing, for some odd reason, "Shhhh... don't talk now," turning his maw to look at his brother, he offered him a grim stare; Nili himself lacked the bulk and frame to carry, or even drag Orifiel down the cliff and towards safety. Tau however...

Arching a silent brow, he hoped the other cub would understand what he meant without him having to voice it, because honestly, it was damn embarrassing; in any other situation, Nili wouldn't have minded his small body (in fact, it came in handy when wiggling into small places when they played hide and seek, and he was quite apt and moving swiftly because of it, elegantly) however, when it came to situations like this, he had no other option but to pass the baton to his brother, choosing to sooth the cub instead, "You're some place safe," he said instead, "Kizingo'zaa, Daddy calls it," a pause as he looked at his sister, "We should take him to the den... despite what he says, he doesn't look 'fine' to me; maybe Mom or Dad'll have some left overs..." they were, after all, far too young to be efficient at hunting anything much larger than a butterfly.

Which was sort of embarrassing all on it's own, "What's your name, kid?"