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 Posted: Sun Apr 06, 2008 11:16 am
Despite what Indu would believe about Badiri, he did have a conscience. The little incident with the ants and Indu hadn't bothered him a great deal, but he figured it might be a nice idea to go back and see that the ants really had recovered. Maybe he could say sorry- but he would never admit that to anyone else of course. There was nothing better to do at the moment anyway! Maybe he'd go looking for one of his sisters or something after, but already on his way back to where he'd run into Indu, he figured he could finish his little adventure there first!
"Hmmm!" he hummed along as he searched around a rock when he arrived at his destination, "I don't see any." With his nose almost in the dirt, the cub took a good look around trying to find signs of ants in the dusty area around the rock.
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Posted: Sun Apr 06, 2008 11:38 am
The words were carried on a sweet voice, though it was a voice filled with confidence and surety. She wasn't teasing him for having his nose in the dirt, and was in fact just merely curious as to what the young cub was doing. She had met him once before, when she had visited his father and his new litter of cubs. She had familiarized herself with their names and how they looked, so that when she met them later on she didn't have to bother herself with asking them what their names were. It was her duty to know who they were, anyways, and Sini never shirked on her duties. He was part of a rather large litter, but even so she had them all memorized by name, rank, and appearance. Sini had all the members of the pride organized in her head according to their name and rank. Some times it took her a few moments to recall someone, but usually it came instantly to her, as it had done with Badiri.
"I'm Sini'ngozi," she told the boy with a smile, doing her best to be sweet and polite with him. Sini wanted to make a good impression, wanted all the members of the pride to like her (though she seriously doubted that Njiru would ever come to like her at the rate that they were going). "A fine boy like yourself shouldn't be burying his nose in the dirt," she continued on with a soft, amused chuckle. She remained standing, not really intending this meeting to be lengthy. She just wanted the boy to know her a little, and then she would continue on with moving through the pride, saying her daily 'hellos' and 'how are you doings'.
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Posted: Sun Apr 06, 2008 11:48 am
Hearing his name, Badiri jumped almost immediately as if he had been doing something wrong. Unlike what he might have expected, though, it was no one he knew that he found himself face to face with. His nose actually did have dirt on it now, from when Sini had startled him. The blue lioness looked familiar, but it was not anybody he could easily recall. He just stared at her blankly as he tried to figure it out- and it was thankfully shortly afterwards that she introduced herself.
"I knew that," he said immediately, trying to seem as smart as her. It wasn't until she commented on his nose being in the dirt that he realized he might have gotten some on his face, and he knew that certainly wouldn't look very good! Ducking down self-consciously, he rubbed at his nose with his dusty paws- really only making the smudge worse.
"I was looking for ants," he explained, standing upright once again with his pale snout now smudged with pale dirt.
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Posted: Sun Apr 06, 2008 12:09 pm
She laughed softly in amusement, simply because Badiri was being faintly cute, pretending to know her name when he really didn't. He was too young to remember every person he had met, and she had met him first at a very, very young age. There was no way he could have remembered who she was, and so it was amusing that he tried to pretend that he knew. It didn't do him many favors, except Sini thinking him adorable for trying his best to seem smart. Next time he would likely know her by her name, because those sort of things came with time. It had taken Sini quite a long time to memorize every member of the pride by their name and rank. She was no genius, just one determined lioness to do her job right. When it came to her position as a priestess, she took everything seriously. It was quite the contrast to how she was now, easy-going and generally just relaxed. "Of course you did, Badiri." She said his name only just to gently rub in the fact that he had not known her's.
"Ants?" An eyebrow found itself arched high on her forehead. "Why are you looking for ants?" Watching his attempts to get the smudge of dirt off of his face, Sini decided to help him, no matter how amusing it was to see him struggle to get it off of him. With a tender smile she licked the fur on her paw and rubbed it against his face, wiping away the dirt more permanently than Badiri had managed. "There we go, the dirt's gone now. There's no evidence that you had your nose in the dirt. I think your mother will be vaguely pleased to see you return home clean."
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Posted: Sun Apr 06, 2008 12:20 pm
The little cub puffed up importantly when she laughed, determined not to let her laughter get to him- or the doubt that was obvious in her voice. It didn't matter that much, he knew her name now- and he wanted to know why she'd known his, but he couldn't really ask now! It would blow his cover of pretending to know who she was, he could just ask his parents later if he really wanted to know. And maybe he would.
He opened his mouth to explain about the ants when the lioness reached over to got the dirt off of his nose, which only made him wrinkle his nose and scowl- but he was clean now, and he agreed. It was always better to come home about as clean as you had left, but they were only cubs! It shouldn't be so bad to get a bit dirty while trying to have fun and be a cub.
"Nothing else to do," he answer, half lying. His intention had been to seek out the ones he had disturbed before, but there really wasn't much else for him to do when he didn't want to hang around with his sisters or brother. Indu was the only other cub, and he didn't really like her. She wasn't very friendly.
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Posted: Thu May 29, 2008 11:09 am
She couldn't help but think him endearing, even though she suspected that he didn't quite like her at this point. After seeing his chest puff out importantly, she had to laugh again. It wasn't something she could really resist. To her his little actions were funny and adorable, and though she did laugh at him, she saved him from being embarrassed by not calling him adorable. She knew what a young cub's pride meant to it, and so she was being careful to not completely and totally demolish it so that it wouldn't be put back together until a long later date.
She smiled sweetly at him when he crinkled his nose at her. See? He was simply too adorable not to laugh and coo over. She knew little cubs appreciated being dirty, and did not appreciate being cleaned by random female lions, but it was for the best. His mother would be happier to see him come home with only a little dirt on him than a lot. It would save him from being attacked and groomed, so in all honesty, she was doing it for his own good.
"I'm sure there are more interesting things to do in this world than play with ants. You have a bunch of siblings, how about you russle and tussle with them?" She so wanted to reach out and ruffle his head fur, but that would only embarrass him, so she resisted. "I'm sure the ants will be thankful for you leaving them alone. You are a few thousand times bigger than they are."
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Posted: Thu May 29, 2008 12:08 pm
Badiri did his best to ignore her laughter, and instead focused on her suggestions of what there was to do. He shook his head when she brought up his siblings. Sini was right, there were a lot of them, and they did usually like play together- but sometimes they wanted to play in smaller groups or be by themselves. And sometimes, though it was rare, they did all manage to disperse so it was hard to find one of them to play with.
"I wanted to find ants and play by myself for a little bit," he admitted, "I played with them before, they only don't like when you step on them! And that was an accident."
He blinked, realizing he might have said too much now.
"Uhh- I mean-"
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Posted: Fri Jun 06, 2008 7:14 pm
Sini imagined with a family as large as the one that Badiri was a member of, it would be nearly impossible to be alone and have no one else to play with. Badiri couldn't be used to being alone, and it made her sad to think of leaving him on his own to play with some ants. There weren't a lot of cubs in the Mwezi'Johari, so Badiri didn't have much of anyone else to go to outside of his family. Sini would be glad to find him someone to play with, but she wasn't sure she was ready to contribute to the circle of life and have cubs of her own. She was going to wait until she discovered that male she wanted to settle down with, though her choices were limited at this point. With the pride newly settled, things haven't begun to move in their proper flow. Sini would just have to wait it out, and eventually fortune might turn her eye to her and decide that it was time to give Sini some completion and fulfillment in life.
She smiled kindly at his little admission, and with a little 'eureka' thought entering her mind, she figured out the reason he was most likely playing with ants than his own siblings. He must have felt guilty about hurting the ants, and was trying to make remedies with them. Sini tenderly thought about how honorable that was, and she couldn't help but admire Badiri, whom at a young age at least understood the concept of wrongdoing, and fixing the wrongs one committed. "I understand," she said softly, and affectionately ruffled the hair on the top of his head.
"It's rather kind of you to play with the ants. They must get bored with playing with others who look exactly like themselves." She was doing her best to be supportive of Badiri, and not to be mean and teasing like lion cubs his age would be. But, she did admit to herself that she didn't know how to get along with cubs as much as she knew how to get along with adults.
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Posted: Sun Jun 08, 2008 9:59 am
Badiri had no idea that his confession was going to make things easier for him, he was only worried about having said it at all- until she said she understood and ruffled his mane. He was so surprised, and rather pleased, that he didn't complain about the mess being made of his little mane. If he could get someone on his side, he wasn't about to argue.
"Yeah," he nodded, glad to have some support for the idea. He wasn't about to confess that it was actually Indu who'd been playing with them first. He could befriend them just as well as that stuck up little lioness!
"They like to play follow the leader a lot, I think," Badiri pointed out, having observed that most of the time when he saw ants they were walking along- often in lines. It was a fun game, but that was like the only one they seemed to know.
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Posted: Mon Jun 09, 2008 10:50 am
"Well, maybe you can be their leader," she said with a sweet smile, her tactics subtle, but encouraging him to be a strong lion that everyone looked up to. She was pleased that he did not mind her ruffling the 'mane' on his head, that he showed that much tolerance. But, perhaps he was just happy that she wasn't teasing him or scolding him. Sini would never have done such a thing, but he didn't know her. When they had first met, he had still been very young - he still was very young. He couldn't have been able to remember her, maybe her face, or her eyes, but not her name and the pattern of her blue fur. No, he wouldn't know the extent of her tenderness towards cubs, he wouldn't know that she had a bit of a weakspot for them. They could likely all get away with bossing her around a little before she put her paw down.
Maybe it was a good thing that she didn't have cubs - she'd hardly be able to control them.
"I'm sure that the ants will enjoy following you around." She glanced over her shoulder then, her gaze sweeping over the new Mwezi'Johari lands. She still wanted to make a few rounds today, talk to a few lions and refamiliarate herself with them. No matter how much the prospect pleased her, spending her whole day playing with Badiri, it wouldn't be the wisest of things to do. If Sini spent her whole time playing with cubs, she wouldn't be able to keep up her mental track of everyone in the pride. It was very tempting, but she had to at least tell Badiri that she had to leave soon. "It's been very nice talking to you, Badiri, but I have things that I need to do. When you're old you don't get to play - you get to work." She sighed softly, letting her bangs flop in front of her eyes in a purely pre-teen gesture.
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Posted: Mon Jun 09, 2008 11:11 am
Leader.
That was an interesting idea. Very interesting. And the fact that Sini suggested it to him made his little ego grow ever so slightly, someone thought he could be a leader. That was a good thing, in his mind- perhaps a bad thing to tell a cub. At least she'd only suggested the ants- and now he had something he could spend the rest of his own afternoon doing when she inevitably went off for work. His yellow eyes were wide and he had a grin on his face when he looked up at Sini as she started her farewell.
His grin immediately turned around when she said you didn't get to play when you were old. That was not something Badiri liked to think about- his parents didn't seem to have to do a lot.
"That doesn't sound like very much fun," he said honestly, making a face, "You could stay and play with me instead, I won't tell if you do."
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Posted: Mon Jun 09, 2008 11:23 am
She was glad to see that smile on his face, to see that her words had some sort of impact on him, and that it was a good impact. That was what Sini wanted to do the most, impact the lives of others in a positive manner. Sini wanted to do some good for the pride that she was so fond of and was proud to be a member of. Or, at the very least, she wanted adorable cubs to like her. She wanted to be liked in general, but if she had to choose a certain age group to like her, it would be the youth. The youth carried the future on their shoulders, and would bring change that was for good or for worse. Besides, the youth were easier to get along with - especially when they had faces as cute as Badiri's.
"Yes, it isn't very fun, but I played a lot when I was young, I have to do some serious work now." She didn't want to make it seem as if adulthood was boring, because it really wasn't. There just wasn't time so much for games when there was work to do. Sini never romped around anymore, never played the childish games she had favored so much as a cub and a juvenile. When Badiri offered her the opportunity to stay and play with him, she laughed kindly even as she shook her head in a 'no'. "I really can't. I have things to do, and I'd feel guilty if I neglected to do them. I'll be glad to play with you when I'm less busy, all right?" She couldn't resist, and so she ruffled his 'mane' once again. "I really must go now, take care, and don't stay out to late. You don't want to worry your parents." She stood up, and with a tender smile gifted to Badiri, walked off to cotninue her 'rounds'.
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Posted: Mon Jun 09, 2008 11:37 am
Badiri made a face this time when she ruffled up his mane, but again he was willing to put up with it. He was amazing sympathetic to the older lioness only because he was very keen on having fun right now himself. He wouldn't want to have to go to work or anything right now, and Sini wasn't so bad. But if she had to go, she had to go.
He guessed, anyway.
"Fine," he murmured, "I won't."
The cub watched Sini go, and then turned back to his own little adventure. Now he really wanted to find the ants!
Fin.
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