Welcome to Gaia! ::

Suha had been sitting by the edge of the den she shared with her vast amount of syblings and mothers for some time now. For a while she'd been watching a cloud shaped like a hare scuttle across the sky, imagining that it was a fluffy white rabbit in a hurry to get somewhere and trying to think of a good where and why. She'd decided he was in a hurry to go and rescue his true love, because that was always a perfect reason, when the wind changed and the cloud stopped looking like a hare and started looking like...well...nothing in particular. Just a cloud. And now she needed a new story to think of.

Or something else to do. Suha stretched, wriggling the paw that had sort of fallen asleep while she sat staring at the sky for who knew how long. Thinking was fun, but she needed to do something else for a while. Maybe she'd go have a little look around, there were so many other places to see than just the outskirts of the den. True she didn't usually go by herself, but the once or twice she'd ventured out a little ways hadn't gone badly. Maybe she'd find an adventure!

Oh, but first she'd need to find someone to go with her. It was so very scary to go alone. Ears perked, soft blue eyes alert, the cub made her way delicately through the grass, trying to remember to be aware that she was one of daddy's little girls and therefore had to be a good Banu. And part of being a good Banu, as far as she could see, was not getting all scruffy and dirty. Another part was being quiet and polite to the Pads. Pesar confused her, she wasn't sure how to act with them since they were her own age, but 'polite' seemed to work well enough. It would probably be more fun to play with another Banu though, she wouldn't have to worry as much about being a good little girl...

Suha padded softly and carefully away from the den, alert and listening for a call to come back, or, more wishfully, a call to come and play. She liked playing with her siblings, it could be fun. Not nearly as fun and wonderful as daddy's stories. But daddy was busy most of the time it seemed. She had to make her own fun, without his deep rumbly voice to give her ideas. Maybe she could make up another story for herself, though she didn't know where to start. Besides, her stories were silly and didn't make as much sense as the ones daddy told... she wouldn't dream of sharing them. Not until they were much much better than they were...

...what was that?

The puzzled Banu cub blinked at the grass, surely there had been a bright flash of color in there a second ago, but it was gone now. Someone hiding? It certainly would be easy enough, since the grass was so much taller. Which meant...which meant it must be someone her size! Which could be fun, if they were nice and wanted to play. If they were a Banu like her instead of a little Pad, whom she would have to be very carefully polite to.

Hopeful, Suha headed right into the grass, aiming for where the flicker of yellow had been. It was a cub after all! A new friend maybe? She seemed like she was having fun on her own though, and Suha didn't want to annoy someone by accident...

"Hi, my name's Suha," she said after a moment's thought. Introductions were nice, and polite, and if the other cub didn't want to talk then she could ask Suha to go away or something.

Suha giggled at the headbutted greeting, shaking her head slightly as she took half a step back to c**k her head and examine this new cub. She had such warm colors in her fur, it was really pretty. Like sunshine!

"My name is- oh wait," she giggled again. She'd already introduced herself, oops. Oh well. "I've never caught bugs before, how do you do it?" It looked like Afsar was having fun with it, she couldn't wait to try too!

"Ohhh..." Suha listened as the other cub explained, silver tipped ears perked attentively and her eyes bright with excitement. Carefully, she crouched down, leaning slightly forward to try to keep her light colored fur from getting all dirty. But wait, her belly was supposed to be touching the dirt. She'd never seen one of the grown up Banu's all dirty, so she usually tried not to be so herself. But she could always just clean it off after, right? Her daddy wouldn't be disappointed, he probably wouldn't even notice if she did a good job. And then she could hunt crickets! It would be good practice for when she was hunting for real!

"Okay, like this?" she queried, dropping so that her stomach just skimmed the ground, inching forward with a little bit of an awkward wobble since she wasn't used to being so very low to the ground. She wobbled forward a few steps, then paused, sitting up. "Wait, was your mommy hunting your daddy?" Suha asked, confused. That couldn't be what the other cub had meant, right?

Suha glanced at Afsar when her new friend laughed, puzzled for a moment before a sheepish little smile slipped onto her features. She didn't mind being laughed at, so long as it wasn't to be mean. If she was being silly, or looked funny doing something, then it was okay. And since Afsar explained why she'd laughed, in a way. then Suha didn't think she was being mean. So it was okay.

"Ohhh...I was confused," Suha admitted with another small giggle at her own foolishness. "Wait, they weren't in any pride?" she asked suddenly, straightening up to stare hard at Afsar. The colors were different, but the splotchy sort of pattern was kind of there...and she'd only heard of one Pad who'd been born a rogue.

"Is your daddy Pad Misle...Pad Mesvel... ... are you Zarha's sister?"

Yes she was! Suha nearly squealed in excitement at having guessed right And Pad Vu was much easier to remember, and pronounce, than Misle...vuma..something...

"Yes! We had a race, Zarha and my sister Dareia and me!" she gushed, "She told us all about him, he was soooo brave!"

Not that her daddy wasn't brave. Oh no, he had to be the bestest in the whole world. After all, her daddy was the sultan. So of course he was the best. That didn't mean Zarha and Afsar's daddy couldn't be awesome too. He just wasn't as awesome was all.

Intense? Well, she supposed Zarha had been really into what they were doing. But that had been fun! The way she told all about her daddy protecting her mommy, the way she slicked her fur back to stand up like a sheetah's did... Suha might've considered her enthusiastic, but that wasn't a bad thing at all. It was fun!

"Well, she sure beat me," Suha giggled, not the least bit upset at having been bested. It had been fun anyways. "Yes! Sultan Aali is my daddy!" she squeaked and squirmed a little bit, thrilled that Afsar had been able to guess. She loved looking like her daddy. "Aysel is my mommy mommy," the little Banu added, just in case the other cub wanted to know. "And...and your mommy is Pad Miselev...Pad Vu's Beybanu, right?" The lioness he'd fought a scary Firekin for, the one he loved. The idea made her curl her toes and giggle again. Afsar's parents were just like what Suha wanted her grown-up life to be like!




((( Off topic some, but Zarha is going to become Banu (possibly Beybanu) to my Anwar eventually. I would loooove him to meet Afsar too. Perhaps when she and Suha are through we could try that? )))

"Woooow!" Suha giggled, still somewhat caught up in her imagination. Zarha had told them all about how her father had saved her mother. And now they were here, and Pad Vu had made her his Beybanu. She'd also heard that she was his only Banu, and Suha couldn't help but envy her. Just a little. How special she must feel, to her love's only. Not that the pride was wrong in any way, oh no. But...but it would be nice to belong to just one Pad and be his one and only...

Someone who would be her best friend and make her feel better when she was sad. Someone smart and kind who knew the answers when she couldn't understand, like her daddy did. Someone who didn't mind her if she had an idea, and who had the cutest smile, just like-

"Yeah, I have a ton of brothers and sisters," Suha blurted, trying to cover up her sudden fluster. Romance. It was so exciting and giddy. "And yeah, he's my cousin! He's older than me, but he's nice. I don't know him that well, but..."

Suha felt her fur prickle, and scuffled her toes in the dirt. Just like...who? No... no he...he was just a friend. A really nice friend. Besides, she'd thought he was his brother when they first met, that had been so embarrassing. She bet Afsar hadn't made that sort of mistake! But she'd never seen anyone with fur that rich dark shade of green before, she'd not realized that there might be more than one Pesar who looked like that.



((I meant more of a...like... meeting meeting. Not a future banu thing really, just a 'you met my sister huh?' kinda thing? Meh. And I would LOVE for him to meet Malik! He knows something is up with the pink cubs who don't look like dad, but he hasn't gotten to meet any of them yet! ))