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Kanie was getting bigger, just as she'd known she would. Her movements were growing smoother and her attempts to immitate her mother were getting closer and closer. Someday she would be able to call herself a fighter. And someday was going to be soon. She could feel it. And when she was a fighter, when she was one of the best there were, then it wouldn't matter that she was fatherless. It wouldn't matter that she was a halfblood. It wouldn't matter that perhaps five members of the pride had ever heard her utter a word. Because she would command their respect, her skills would speak for her.

It was quiet here, where she prowled in the shadows. Mother wasn't far, she never seemed to be when they were outside like this. But they were allowed to go further and further from those watchful eyes. At least mother was capable of recognizing that she didn't need to be smothered and looked after like some of the females with cubs seemed to do. It would have been purely agravating. Hikari seemed to need it, and perhaps her other siblings might too. But Kanie...she was independent. She didn't need anyone but herself for company. No one at all...

And here was someone she had never seen before. Kanie looked up from the small stone she had begun abusing at the sound of small pawsteps, her eyes fixed quizzically on the young pureblood. What was on her head? It looked...odd. Did she even know it was there? Or that it looked silly?

Kanie snorted. She'd learned from her pale sibling that being laughed at tended to result in upset feelings. Occasionally tears. This cub looked new, and was littler than she was. And so therefore must be younger. They would be upset if they were laughed at.

Perhaps she was driven to make up for the way she had been unable to save her brother from the taunts of some of the other cubs, the so-called 'pureblooded' cheetahs. But she did not feel like sitting back and letting this one find out she looked silly from someone who would actually say something. Instead, the black hybrid rose to her paws and, with grace she was slowly mastering, made her way over to intersect the path of this strange cheetah cub. Better to let her see her before removing the thing. Startled cubs sometimes cried to mommy, and then their mother told her mother and her mother was exasperated at someone or another, which usually was troublesome for her eventually. Better to be seen first. That it might seem rude or even threatening to plant herself firmly in the other's way without a word did not occur to her in the least.

The other spoke, asking her what was wrong. Kanie only eyed her quizzically. Did she truly not know? Then again, she had almost just walked into her where she plainly sat right here. Not even in the shadows. She knew how she could melt into them, and had been careful to be in sunshine just for this cub's sake.

Nodding, she reached up and hooked a claw through the crown on the other's head, giving it a tug to dislodge it. "Silly," she added in her raspy and halting voice. Just in case the other cub might misunderstand her intentions. Most seemed to. It was frustrating when they cried for no reason. Very frustrating indeed. If she didn't care about her mama, she might be more tempted to give them a reason to cry when they did that.