Post by Satya on Oct 5, 2010 23:47:03 GMT -7
Young clouded leopards Sabera and Kavin argue, and are joined by old Pranjal for a conversation about courage and identity.
---
Sprawled out in a leisurely manner upon a large rock is Sabera. She's been sunning herself all day and enjoying the feel of the sun's heat baking her back. Tail swaying slowly side to side, she grooms one of her forelegs slowly, rolling her tongue through her soft fur, trying to make each strand perfect. She's a pretty little princess this morning, sweet as sugar, not a mean bone in her body.
Girls may be content with tanning and preening, but boys need more excitement in their lives. The dirtier, the better. He's not far from the water's edge, chasing a fat toad from where it was hiding under the shade of a damp, rubbery-green leaf. The amphibian displays more speed and agility than one would expect of such a round, lumpy beast, making a respectable show of dodging the swiping paws of the darker-colored and battle-scarred cub. "Commere! You ain't ganna escape from me!"
Glancing her head up at the ruckus, Sabera raises a brow upwards, then makes a disgusted face. "Oh, gross! Kavin, you are covered in dirt and chasing a frog! If you lick it you'll get warts all over your already ugly face." She says with a haughty snort, before going back to leaning her legs, one slurp at a time. "You better get clean or you're going to get in trouble. You look, and smell.. like a boar."
Pranjal wanders slowly through the jungle, pausing now to sniff at the trail of some passing creature, then examine the tracks in leaves in more detail. It's curiosity, yes, but it's also a matter of safety. Clouded leopards are by no means the largest or fiercest of creatures, and it's a good idea to know exactly what's going on. Especially when there are cubs nearby - and her ears perk at the sound of just such young voices.
Kavin pricks an ear back at Sabera and slows his mad dash, leaving the toad to flee as he arches a brow and scowls over one scruffy shoulder. "What bug crawled up yer butt, Sabby?" He snorts as he looks over himself, raising up one paw to absently wiggle brown-stained toes and flick off bits of mud. "I ain't /that/ dirty. Sides, you ain't my mom. I'll be dirty if I wanna."
Rolling a bit onto her back, Sabera drapes her head over the side of the rock, staring at the boy upside down with a wry grin upon her muzzle. "I'm just saying, you look shabby and unkept. You are that dirty." She says as her ears twitch a bit on her skull as they point towards the ground. "I may tell your mom that you are wasting all her hard work." She giggles in a teasing manner. "Then she'll bite yah' ear again."
Pranjal pauses to look at where a deer has marked his antlers on a tree, and then continues onwards, turning her steps towards the cubs that she can hear at play. Sounds like they're arguing. Well, that's one of the traditional forms of play, really!
"Pfft. I ain't scared a'my mom." Kavin says with a curt curl of his tail, sniffing at the air as he flicks the branch-torn ear atop his skull. There is a brief flash of memory - a landing gone wrong, a fall and collision with sharp breaking branches, then a plunge into the river and bounced against the hard stones... The cub shakes his head, snorting at the female cub. "I ain't scared of /nothin/ and I don't care about bein' dirty."
"Not scared of -anything-?" Sabera says with a growing grin upon her face. "Not even a hungry tiger who may gulp you down with one bite? Or a big scary angry bear?" She rolls back onto her stomach, dropping her chin down across her paws, looking coy as she softly hums under her throat. "I think you're scared of something. What is it?"
Pranjal comes closer - close enough to begin to hear the words. Her own paws are quiet, though, stealthy without trying as she approaches.
"I toldja, I ain't scared of anything." Kavin says as he pushes himself back into a walk, slowly pacing back and forth with idle strides. "Tigers can't climb and bears are big and dumb. I could beat them easy! Being scared is silly. It makes you... stupid and you don't think. You just run or... fight and... what if it ain't the right thing to do? You're so scared, how do you know what to do? But if you're not scared, you can think."
"You can't beat a tiger or a bear. You're stupid without even being scared." Sabera retorts back to him with a loud laugh as she rolls her eyes upwards to the sky for a moment, then lets out a loud yawn of laziness in her throat. "Big rough and tough Kavin is gonna beat up a tiger miss Pranjal!" She calls out to the Elder with a musical laugh.
Pranjal smiles softly, padding closer. "Hmmm. I don't think that's quite what he said, is it, Kavin?" she says, with a look to the male cub. "Not being scared doesn't mean fighting things. It just means you can think and figure out what the right thing is. And often, the right thing is to run away very quickly and hide!" Especially if you're a small cub, but even for a full grown cloudie...
Kavin blinks as he cranes his head back to peer at the arrives Pranjal, grinning crookedly at her words. "Yah!" He chimes as he shoots a brief 'see?!' glance over towards Sabera before returning his gaze to the Elder. "I'm a leopard, not a tiger. I know I gotta run sometimes and I can climb way faster than any old fat striper. Scared things don't run right, or, they don't run at all! They just stay in one spot and shake and stuff. Not me!"
Ears flattening as Pranjal agrees with the boy instead of her, Sabera lets out a loud scoff. Now she has to think of ways to ruin his day by scaring him and teaching him a lesson. "Not being scared will make you do dumb things cuz you think you're being brave." She huffs under her breath, then sways her tail back and forth behind her once more, then stretches out in the sun.
Pranjal turns to Sabera. "Ahh, that's a very important difference! You're talking about being fearless, which is very different than being scared. Being fearless is no good. If you're fearless, you don't think anything can hurt you. That's wrong. There are many things that can hurt you. But if you're scared, you're so worried about getting hurt that it stops you from acting. That's bad, too. You have to be somewhere in the middle. Not too fearless, and not too scared. Kavin will probably have to be very careful to not be fearless." And Sabera will likely have to work hard to not be scared!
Well, Kavin is probably a little less cautious than he should be, but reckless and suicidal are two different things. He flicks his tongue out between his teeth, dragging it absently across his whiskers. "I bet the elders are almost fearless, huh Pranjal? Like my dad, and Sabby's dad. They're tough. I bet I'll never be an elder."
Hmf. Sabera decides to no longer pay the pair of them any mind. She will just go back to grooming herself. What's good being fearless if you look and smell like a dirty toad? She'll be pretty, and no one wants to hurt pretty cute girls like her. Humming to herself, she continues to work at her paws, admiring her job as she goes.
Pranjal laughs softly to Kavin. "Now why would you think something like that? Why, Elders have to worry about everyone - not just themselves, like you do, but after every single one of us. Whenever there's something dangerous - like a tiger coming, or a river to cross - the Elders have to try very hard not to be scared, because there are so many ways that somebody could get hurt. But being scared, or being fearless, would make it more likely that someone would, so we have to manage it somehow!"
Kavin tips his ears forward as he regards Pranjal, brows furrowing at her words. "I know they're mad at me." He says frankly, uttering a slow breath. "Cuz of falling in the river and... Uncia and all of that. My parents are always mad at me, but, they just don't understand. I just... all the ceremonies and traditions and stuff... I just don't like them. They're boring."
Pranjal settles herself down comfortably. This conversation seems like it's one that could take a while. "They are sometimes, aren't they?" she says, and smiles. "But they're part of what keeps us all together. Because as much as you and Sabby fight, you're both part of the Lon Gi. And that's an important thing, and we need to remember it." She pauses a moment, considering the boy with a tilted head, and then grins. "Do you know what I do, when it gets too boring? I look at whoever's talking, and I pretend they're something funny. Turag is a turtle, because of how he moves so slow and deliberately when he's up there."
Kavin absently steps over to the rock where Sabera lays, flopping down beside it and stretching out in a poise of filthy casualness. Mention of the serious and renowned elder as a turtle brings a snicker from the boy. "Sabby's dad, a turtle? Now that'd be funny. He does kinda move like a turtle sometimes. What do ya think my dad looks like?!"
As Kavin comes closer, covered in dirt, Sabera scoots a bit closer onto her rock to make sure she doesn't get any of that on her. She wrinkles her nose up, staring down at him with a loud huff. "My dad isn't a turtle. He's fast when he wants to be. He just takes his time." She snorts loudly.
Pranjal chuckles, and considers on Kavin's question for a moment. Sabera's indignity just gets a smile. "Your dad? He's more of a rhino, I think. That way he sticks out his jaw and gets all stubborn. Sometimes I think he's going to actually start charging forward until he hits a rock or falls in the river himself!" She laughs. "And me, I must be one of those little birds that's always bobbing up and chattering about things..."
Kavin lets out a hoot of laughter as he rolls over onto his back, paws wiggling in the air as the mental image of his father with a rhino's giant horn. "Oh that'd be soooo funny to see. My mom... oh she's totally a monkey! The way she can talk and talk and talk... oh! You know what I'd wanna be?! One of those really fast birds.. a... a falcon! That'd be so awesome to fly. Not just jump... but Fly!"
Eyes rolling upwards a bit, Sabera who is too 'majestic' to join in on their playful antics simply goes back to grooming herself. "You'd be an ostrich." She putters out quietly as she taps her tail harder against the rock, before shifting a look back down to him. "And you need a bath, you /smell/." She states, nose still wrinkled up, trying to ward off his offending funk.
Pranjal chuckles along with Kavin's amusement. With any luck, he'll be able to use that trick to be just a little less bored during all those dull ceremonies - at least, if he can hold in the giggles well enough so that his parents don't get suspicious. She's not offput at all by Sabera's dignity, just smiling. "Hmmm. Falcon, or ostrich?" Falcons soar high, while ostriches... stick their heads in the sand. Fearless and scared again, maybe? She doesn't bother to bring it up, just smiling. "Well, I guess we'll find out, won't we?
---
Sprawled out in a leisurely manner upon a large rock is Sabera. She's been sunning herself all day and enjoying the feel of the sun's heat baking her back. Tail swaying slowly side to side, she grooms one of her forelegs slowly, rolling her tongue through her soft fur, trying to make each strand perfect. She's a pretty little princess this morning, sweet as sugar, not a mean bone in her body.
Girls may be content with tanning and preening, but boys need more excitement in their lives. The dirtier, the better. He's not far from the water's edge, chasing a fat toad from where it was hiding under the shade of a damp, rubbery-green leaf. The amphibian displays more speed and agility than one would expect of such a round, lumpy beast, making a respectable show of dodging the swiping paws of the darker-colored and battle-scarred cub. "Commere! You ain't ganna escape from me!"
Glancing her head up at the ruckus, Sabera raises a brow upwards, then makes a disgusted face. "Oh, gross! Kavin, you are covered in dirt and chasing a frog! If you lick it you'll get warts all over your already ugly face." She says with a haughty snort, before going back to leaning her legs, one slurp at a time. "You better get clean or you're going to get in trouble. You look, and smell.. like a boar."
Pranjal wanders slowly through the jungle, pausing now to sniff at the trail of some passing creature, then examine the tracks in leaves in more detail. It's curiosity, yes, but it's also a matter of safety. Clouded leopards are by no means the largest or fiercest of creatures, and it's a good idea to know exactly what's going on. Especially when there are cubs nearby - and her ears perk at the sound of just such young voices.
Kavin pricks an ear back at Sabera and slows his mad dash, leaving the toad to flee as he arches a brow and scowls over one scruffy shoulder. "What bug crawled up yer butt, Sabby?" He snorts as he looks over himself, raising up one paw to absently wiggle brown-stained toes and flick off bits of mud. "I ain't /that/ dirty. Sides, you ain't my mom. I'll be dirty if I wanna."
Rolling a bit onto her back, Sabera drapes her head over the side of the rock, staring at the boy upside down with a wry grin upon her muzzle. "I'm just saying, you look shabby and unkept. You are that dirty." She says as her ears twitch a bit on her skull as they point towards the ground. "I may tell your mom that you are wasting all her hard work." She giggles in a teasing manner. "Then she'll bite yah' ear again."
Pranjal pauses to look at where a deer has marked his antlers on a tree, and then continues onwards, turning her steps towards the cubs that she can hear at play. Sounds like they're arguing. Well, that's one of the traditional forms of play, really!
"Pfft. I ain't scared a'my mom." Kavin says with a curt curl of his tail, sniffing at the air as he flicks the branch-torn ear atop his skull. There is a brief flash of memory - a landing gone wrong, a fall and collision with sharp breaking branches, then a plunge into the river and bounced against the hard stones... The cub shakes his head, snorting at the female cub. "I ain't scared of /nothin/ and I don't care about bein' dirty."
"Not scared of -anything-?" Sabera says with a growing grin upon her face. "Not even a hungry tiger who may gulp you down with one bite? Or a big scary angry bear?" She rolls back onto her stomach, dropping her chin down across her paws, looking coy as she softly hums under her throat. "I think you're scared of something. What is it?"
Pranjal comes closer - close enough to begin to hear the words. Her own paws are quiet, though, stealthy without trying as she approaches.
"I toldja, I ain't scared of anything." Kavin says as he pushes himself back into a walk, slowly pacing back and forth with idle strides. "Tigers can't climb and bears are big and dumb. I could beat them easy! Being scared is silly. It makes you... stupid and you don't think. You just run or... fight and... what if it ain't the right thing to do? You're so scared, how do you know what to do? But if you're not scared, you can think."
"You can't beat a tiger or a bear. You're stupid without even being scared." Sabera retorts back to him with a loud laugh as she rolls her eyes upwards to the sky for a moment, then lets out a loud yawn of laziness in her throat. "Big rough and tough Kavin is gonna beat up a tiger miss Pranjal!" She calls out to the Elder with a musical laugh.
Pranjal smiles softly, padding closer. "Hmmm. I don't think that's quite what he said, is it, Kavin?" she says, with a look to the male cub. "Not being scared doesn't mean fighting things. It just means you can think and figure out what the right thing is. And often, the right thing is to run away very quickly and hide!" Especially if you're a small cub, but even for a full grown cloudie...
Kavin blinks as he cranes his head back to peer at the arrives Pranjal, grinning crookedly at her words. "Yah!" He chimes as he shoots a brief 'see?!' glance over towards Sabera before returning his gaze to the Elder. "I'm a leopard, not a tiger. I know I gotta run sometimes and I can climb way faster than any old fat striper. Scared things don't run right, or, they don't run at all! They just stay in one spot and shake and stuff. Not me!"
Ears flattening as Pranjal agrees with the boy instead of her, Sabera lets out a loud scoff. Now she has to think of ways to ruin his day by scaring him and teaching him a lesson. "Not being scared will make you do dumb things cuz you think you're being brave." She huffs under her breath, then sways her tail back and forth behind her once more, then stretches out in the sun.
Pranjal turns to Sabera. "Ahh, that's a very important difference! You're talking about being fearless, which is very different than being scared. Being fearless is no good. If you're fearless, you don't think anything can hurt you. That's wrong. There are many things that can hurt you. But if you're scared, you're so worried about getting hurt that it stops you from acting. That's bad, too. You have to be somewhere in the middle. Not too fearless, and not too scared. Kavin will probably have to be very careful to not be fearless." And Sabera will likely have to work hard to not be scared!
Well, Kavin is probably a little less cautious than he should be, but reckless and suicidal are two different things. He flicks his tongue out between his teeth, dragging it absently across his whiskers. "I bet the elders are almost fearless, huh Pranjal? Like my dad, and Sabby's dad. They're tough. I bet I'll never be an elder."
Hmf. Sabera decides to no longer pay the pair of them any mind. She will just go back to grooming herself. What's good being fearless if you look and smell like a dirty toad? She'll be pretty, and no one wants to hurt pretty cute girls like her. Humming to herself, she continues to work at her paws, admiring her job as she goes.
Pranjal laughs softly to Kavin. "Now why would you think something like that? Why, Elders have to worry about everyone - not just themselves, like you do, but after every single one of us. Whenever there's something dangerous - like a tiger coming, or a river to cross - the Elders have to try very hard not to be scared, because there are so many ways that somebody could get hurt. But being scared, or being fearless, would make it more likely that someone would, so we have to manage it somehow!"
Kavin tips his ears forward as he regards Pranjal, brows furrowing at her words. "I know they're mad at me." He says frankly, uttering a slow breath. "Cuz of falling in the river and... Uncia and all of that. My parents are always mad at me, but, they just don't understand. I just... all the ceremonies and traditions and stuff... I just don't like them. They're boring."
Pranjal settles herself down comfortably. This conversation seems like it's one that could take a while. "They are sometimes, aren't they?" she says, and smiles. "But they're part of what keeps us all together. Because as much as you and Sabby fight, you're both part of the Lon Gi. And that's an important thing, and we need to remember it." She pauses a moment, considering the boy with a tilted head, and then grins. "Do you know what I do, when it gets too boring? I look at whoever's talking, and I pretend they're something funny. Turag is a turtle, because of how he moves so slow and deliberately when he's up there."
Kavin absently steps over to the rock where Sabera lays, flopping down beside it and stretching out in a poise of filthy casualness. Mention of the serious and renowned elder as a turtle brings a snicker from the boy. "Sabby's dad, a turtle? Now that'd be funny. He does kinda move like a turtle sometimes. What do ya think my dad looks like?!"
As Kavin comes closer, covered in dirt, Sabera scoots a bit closer onto her rock to make sure she doesn't get any of that on her. She wrinkles her nose up, staring down at him with a loud huff. "My dad isn't a turtle. He's fast when he wants to be. He just takes his time." She snorts loudly.
Pranjal chuckles, and considers on Kavin's question for a moment. Sabera's indignity just gets a smile. "Your dad? He's more of a rhino, I think. That way he sticks out his jaw and gets all stubborn. Sometimes I think he's going to actually start charging forward until he hits a rock or falls in the river himself!" She laughs. "And me, I must be one of those little birds that's always bobbing up and chattering about things..."
Kavin lets out a hoot of laughter as he rolls over onto his back, paws wiggling in the air as the mental image of his father with a rhino's giant horn. "Oh that'd be soooo funny to see. My mom... oh she's totally a monkey! The way she can talk and talk and talk... oh! You know what I'd wanna be?! One of those really fast birds.. a... a falcon! That'd be so awesome to fly. Not just jump... but Fly!"
Eyes rolling upwards a bit, Sabera who is too 'majestic' to join in on their playful antics simply goes back to grooming herself. "You'd be an ostrich." She putters out quietly as she taps her tail harder against the rock, before shifting a look back down to him. "And you need a bath, you /smell/." She states, nose still wrinkled up, trying to ward off his offending funk.
Pranjal chuckles along with Kavin's amusement. With any luck, he'll be able to use that trick to be just a little less bored during all those dull ceremonies - at least, if he can hold in the giggles well enough so that his parents don't get suspicious. She's not offput at all by Sabera's dignity, just smiling. "Hmmm. Falcon, or ostrich?" Falcons soar high, while ostriches... stick their heads in the sand. Fearless and scared again, maybe? She doesn't bother to bring it up, just smiling. "Well, I guess we'll find out, won't we?