She was very visible, so Yujin had no trouble in spotting his mother. Since he was, fortunately, bit darker, the young lion also had no trouble in stalking up to her to give her a scare.
She was resting at the mouth of their den, a small crack over a ledge. He almost felt bad attacking her like this, because maybe she was tired after delivering a message or something, but then he remembered this was Nuying, and she was his mother. He shouldn’t feel bad about trying to play with her! So Yujin’s mind was clear as he pounced his mother’s neck. “Arrrr!”
To the cub’s disappointment, his mother didn’t seem too surprised. He could tell she just made a shocked gasping sound to please him, so in revenge for her attempted trickery, Yujin nibbled on her ear. “You lied to me” He accused.
His mother acted all surprised. “What do you mean?”
And she still had the nerve to play dumb! He smiled as he climbed around on her back, happily scratching her with little claws. “Just now! You pretended to be scared. You weren’t really scared, though.” Yujin explained. “So, you lied.” The young lion concluded.
His mother didn’t seem either ashamed or impressed. She just offered him a small smile. “I guess I did.”
Though she had just admitted to lying, he wasn’t very pleased, because that sort of reply actually just meant he couldn’t enjoy himself berating her for lying. He liked it more when his mom talked back, and then they could play more. It seemed today she wasn’t in the mood. He settled down, though still draped across his mother’s back. Fine, lets try some other stuff. “Mom?” He didn’t really know what to ask, but figured he could think of something quickly enough.
“Yes, Kaa?”
There we go! She had just given him a topic. “Why do we have two names? Why can’t I be just Kaa or just Yujin?” It was a really weird thing. Personally, he was more used to the name Yujin, because that is what everyone called him, except his mother, sometimes. And he knew Kaa really was his name, and so was Yujin. Which meant he had two names. Really, he had never met someone with just one name, having grown up in Tianxia. So it wasn’t so much by comparison that he asked…
He just wondered, that’s all. “Well, um… It’s pride custom.” His mother’s answer was unsatisfactory, and he might have pinched her for that, but decided he didn’t want to harass his mother more at the moment.
“Why?”
The thing about kids is, they can ask why all they want. It was such an easy question to ask, you really didn’t have to think about formulating it at all! Just keep asking why, why, why. Maybe someday you’d get somewhere. “Well, first off, you do know that you should never let a rogue know your name is Yujin, right?” Typical mothers, always doing a security check. Because he didn’t want this to derail her explanation, the cub just nodded. He noticed his mother looked at him a bit suspiciously, but, fortunately, just went along with her explanation. “Okay. So… One of your names is your ‘common name’, and that name is Kaa.”
Common name, that seemed weird. But Yujin didn’t want to say anything and get his mom to change topics, because he was sure she could somehow find a way to do it. He nodded so she knew he was listening, though he now idly compared his golden toes to his mother’s fur.
“Your common name is how you will introduce yourself to outsiders. And Yujin is your proper name, but it’s only for us, in the pride, to know.”
Now the young lion couldn’t really just keep on nodding, because no matter how much he nodded he wouldn’t be able to ask a question by bobbing his head up and down. At least, not without inventing some sort of code first! “Okay. But why do we have a special name just for us?”
This one Nuying pondered a bit. “I’m not completely sure, really. I wasn’t born here, and the pride is still rather new…” Appearing to sense Yujin’s disappointment at the rather pathetic answer, she continued. “But I think it has to do with safety, or at least that’s one of the reasons.”
Yujin frowned. “What do you mean, safety?”
“Well… Let’s say someone from outside were after you, for whatever reason.” His mother didn’t seem to really like that hypothesis, as he felt her tense beneath him. What, did she think he could actually get some random rogue after him? “If they come looking for you, it would be harder to find you, because he wouldn’t know your name.”
He considered this for a few moments. It made some sense, but he still found that a little lousy. That couldn’t be the only reason! “That’s it?” He scowled, because he really hoped that wasn’t it. If a rogue knew his common name, they would probably find him anyways, if they just ran into someone who knew his common name, too! “I don’t think that’s the reason.” Yujin told his mother, shrugging. “Or at least, I don’t think it’s the only reason. Or even the main reason.”
“Oh?”
“Well, yeah. I don’t think just having a second name will protect me from an outsider if he really wants to find me.” And again, if a rogue wanted to find him that badly, they probably wouldn’t just go around, politely asking people! They’d probably try to sniff him out, or they could always just describe him.
Nuying frowned slightly, possibly because she felt that, somehow, she had failed at something she probably should have been better at. He smiled to let her know he didn’t think of it that way! “So why do you think we have two names?”
His mother had caught him there. Yujin frowned as he thought, but couldn’t really come up with an explanation. “Is it only our pride that does this?”
“That I know of, yes.”
That somehow made this harder. Yujin slid off his mother, plopping down onto his haunches with a huff. He continued to ponder as he raised a paw to scratch behind his ear. “I dunno, I have to think about it.” He wondered if there was anyone he could ask about this… Someone smart and educated. Maybe someone important, who should know a lot about the pride!
… Well, maybe Zise would know! She was the lord’s daughter, after all. Seemed like the sort of thing she should know! “I’m gonna go now!” He declared, standing up and shaking out his fur.
“Okay, but first I’m going to give you a b—”
“Going! Bye mom, see you later!” And he ran away as fast as his legs could carry him.