Post by Satya on Sept 28, 2010 20:15:41 GMT -7
A rambunctious young clouded leopard, his elder, and a guest.
---
Uncia is resting curled up by a log, as she watches Pranjal and the cubs....she yawn-roars, and stretches, it had been a long journey up to the outskirts of the Long Gi territory, and they took an extra long roundabout route so no outsiders could potentially follow them and discover their whereabouts of their headquarters. Uncia is excited, for this is the first time she'll be able to see the young Kavin since his harrowing ordeal. She glances over at Pranjal and grins. "Seems like its nearing Grishma (Summer) eh, I can feel the increase in humidity and the temperature. Back home where I'm from, the glaciers would be starting to melt again."
For all but a short time has past and his injuries barely healed from his plunge in the water, Kavin is not a youngster to be deterred or kept down. In fact, he's been making a scene of showing off his new battle scars, from his notched ear to the scraped scars in his shoulder and sides where he was flung against stones. It's been no end of frustration for his parents, who have not only suffered with the attention their son has brought upon the Lon Gi but by the fact it doesn't seemed to have sobered him one bit. Even as Uncia and Pranjal are speaking, Kavin is above, barreling across the branches at reckless speed in pursuit of something or other and making a god-awful racket in doing so. "Commere! You can't escape me, I'm ganna catch you!"
Pranjal chuckles. "That's the first of the river-risings, when we see that icemelt down here. Then the rivers will rise higher yet, come monsoon," she says to Uncia, then looks up to the branches and laughs. Amongst all the arguments, she's been a voice of calm humour and patience - cubs, as she so often has said, will be cubs, and the Lon Gi will be glad enough for bravery later. She rears up against one of the tree-trunks, and raises her voice. "Hey hunter! Come down here before the monkeys decide you're one of them from all that screeching and drag you off!"
Uncia chuckles as well as she watches the young Kavin Climb through the trees. "Perhaps we should feed him bananas instead of meat too." She says with a grin. "Seems like he's recovered well." She remarks. "Aye, this is a pleasant land, I can only imagine what the home of the Long Gi is like." She watches some ants crawl along the log for a moment before turning back. "I just hope he learned his lesson to be more careful when crossing swollen flood waters."
A mottled brown-gold head pokes through the branches, the tip of his pink tongue poking out between sharp white teeth. Though most of him is hidden, one can just imagine the juvenile hanging near upside-down from the branches, claws and tail keeping him anchored. "I'm not a monkey!" Kavin protests to the elder leopard, despite his posture which might suggest otherwise. "They smell funny and are always pokin' at things with branches and they throw their own ----" And it's best that just then Uncia's presence distracts him and promptly hushes the feisty cat. Frantic memories dimly recall her, and rescuer that she is he still seems taken aback, as if the size and unfamiliarity of the snow leopard intimidates him. But he's not scared of anything! As if recalling this, his mouth sets firmly before he pulls his head back between the leaves and soon can be seen shimmying his way down the trunk of the tree.
Pranjal hahs. "Oh, he'll be leopard enough, come dinner time. Got quite the healthy appetite." That gets a smile of approval. And then there's Kavin himself! Pranjal grins at his protests, and then broader at the bit he cuts himself off from saying, chuckling a bit as he pulls his head back and starts coming down, turning her attention back to Uncia while speaking just loudly enough to be sure Kavin can hear as well. "Ah, water-spirit is a strong one. Almost as full of mischief as some cubs, sometimes, too. Only he's stronger than any cub - or any grown leopard, too. Even an elephant can get in trouble by underestimating the water-spirit."
Uncia chuckles. "Ah yes, of course, I have heard of the legend of the great water spirit, who beats back the flood, and makes it dry again, and provides bounty for all." "So great water spirit do you see a bountiful harvest for us all this summer season?" She smiles. "He is a brave one that Kavin." "I Just hope his parents have nerves of steel." She says as she watches the cubbeh descend.
Kavin huffs as he drops down the last short distance, claws scrabbling as he more or less falls but lands unharmed. He is neither a leopard for grace or class, much to his parents chagrin. "Ain't scared a'no /spirits/." He scowls, cutting a rather unimposing figure by being small and scruffy with bits of leaves stuck in his fur. "Couldn't hurt me!" Well, minus the notched ear and scuffs and the face Uncia had to rescue him... but hey, who's keeping score?
Pranjal chuckles to Uncia. Sure, she's heard the legends, too. Doesn't quite believe them, but she won't say as they're false, either... she simply shrugs in reply, smiling. Kavin proves just how steady his parents' nerves will have to be with that fall, and Pranjal smiles as she pads over towards him, leaning down to aim a lick at the tousled-up fur between his ears. "Maybe spirits can't, but there's plenty of things that can. I ever tell you what happened when I met a hungry bear?"
Uncia grins and lies down again by the log. "Ohhh stories, I love a good story. So what did happen when you met the hungry bear, Pranjal?" She asks ..."Do tell, I am most curious." She flicks her tail and glances at Kavin to watch his reaction.
Kavin wrinkles his nose and gapes open his mouth, no doubt about to object vehemently to Pranjal's grooming until she begins to mention a story. Like all children, he is drawn to stories, and as a boy he particularly loves action and no soon as the 'foe' been mentioned than his mind is going right for the excitement. "A bear? Really? Didja fight it? Didja /eat/ it? I bet bears taste bad, they're all big and smelly and hairy."
Pranjal chuckles, and settles herself down into a sitting position, curling her tail around her legs. "A bear, really!" she replies, and grins. "Well, he sure wanted to fight me, roaring and rearing himself up onto his hind legs - why, he was nearly as tall as that branch there!" She makes a gesture with her head, to point. "He was big, but he was fast, too, and if I'd tried to run up a tree, he'd have knocked me down before I got halfway..."
Uncia grins and glances once at Kavin and then back at Pranjal.."Yeah Didja Didja Didja?" Uncia is kinda of a child at heart at times. She flops on her side and grooms one of her paws as she listens to the story, Happy to finally have some company. Life alone was kind of boring even though at times it was good to have solitude, one needs company and friends once in awhile. Uncia was glad to have met the Long Gi tribe.
"...that tall? Woooooow." Whispers Kavin as he cranes his head up to look at the branch towering above his head, grey-brown eyes growing wide and awe-struck. "But, Pranjal, what happened? Huh? I beat you beat it, cuz you're here! If it ate ya, you wouldn't be. I bet I coulda outran some big old dumb bear. Ain't they all fat and stuff?"
"He certainly was smelly and hairy, too! Like he'd rolled in something long-dead and hadn't had his ears washed in years - and that was just his paw when he swiped at me, never mind his breath!" Pranjal shudders artistically. "Well, outrunning him is just what I did - right along the ground, through the deepest patches of undergrowth. Big thing like him, he couldn't get through those easily, and so I would pull ahead a bit - and then on the clear bits, he'd get closer, until I could smell the stink of his breath. He wasn't fat at all - that's why he was so hungry!"
Uncia grins. "A leopard and a bear, that must have been an epic battle." She says....and mainly lets the young Kavin do the talking. She continues to groom her paw as she listens quite intrigued by the story-line as the plot continues to thicken. She lets out a few gasps at the important tense action parts, and such and thumps her tail in eagerness as the story continues. Uncia grins "Do you think it was as epic a battle as the Sakhet Nakh and the Do-Rak tigers?"
Kavin wrinkles his nose at the imagined fetid stink of unwashed bear as he hunkers close to Pranjal, his belly brushing the ground and his long banded tail jerking side to side with enthusiastic twitches. "I bet they're always hungry, they're huge. So what happened next? You can't have run forever, couldja? Didja outsmart him? I bet you did! You got lots of smart things to say." For all he's not a cat for stuffy elders, he tolerates most of Pranjal's occasional enlightenments. At least of the grownups, she hasn't forgotten how to have fun sometimes.
Pranjal chuckles, and nods to Kavin. She's good about wrapping up her words of wisdom in entertaining tales, after all. "I was starting to worry that I'd get too worn out, and he would manage to eat me - but then I saw the jungle clearing out ahead!" Usually something that a clouded leopard would find a problem, mostly arboreal species that they are! "Well, I put on a burst of speed, then, running straight up to the edge of the cliff - and then I leaped right off, flying through the air until I caught myself on one of the little scrub-brushes that grow there, clinging on with all my claws as it bobbed up and down. That bear didn't have a chance - he charged right off after me, and he kept right on falling, all the way to the bottom. Splat!"
Uncia grins. "Stupid ole bears." She says with a chuckle. "Think they would have realized there was a cliff there and stopped." She shrugs. "The bigger they are the harder they fall, isn't that the saying?" She smiles at Kavin as she watches him enjoying the story-teller. "You'd think Pranjal here was official story-teller of the Long Gi." as she watches from her spot by the log.
"You /jumped/?" Boggles Kavin with wide eyes and an amazed stare on his face. "Off a /cliff/?!" There's a brief pause until he erupts onto his feel, fluffed out from whiskers to tailtip as he breaks out in a triumphant crow, "AWESOME! That's wicked cool, I wish I coulda seen the bear splat! I bet the ground shook. You totally gotta teach me that move." Oh, right, his parents would just delight in that, though some of the crankiest elders might joke good riddance to the pest.
Pranjal grins broadly at the reactions, and then her tone gets more serious as she adds, "If I hadn't caught onto that bush, though, I would have fallen right after him. It's a really good trick, but it takes a lot of practice to pull it off - and you should make sure to do that practice someplace where you won't fall too far if you miss! I got a lot of bruises before I was any good at that sort of leap." She even encourages Kavin to practice wild tricks! No matter how often his parents wish she'd try to calm him down, instead... but she's had enough rambunctious cubs to know the best to be hoped for is a reshaping of that energy into something at least marginally safe.
Uncia grins and yawns , flicking her tail. "Looks like we got quite an acrobat and an acrobat in training to look after." The snow leopardess remarks. She grins and looks at Kavin. "You know us Snowies, are quite agile and quick, I bet I could teach you a move or two." She grins. "I'm sure one day when you're older you'll be able to take on a bear like that. but for now you've got a lot to learn and practice...." She swats a pesky mosquito away from her flank....
If he was a girl, he's squeal with delight. But Kavin is a boy, and so, he just yowls out a battle cry that sends the birds running - for the sake of their own ears, no doubt. His voice is still entirely too tinny to strike fear and is likely better suited to mimicking skidding tires. "Woo! I'm ganna learn how to jump off cliffs! Everyone's ganna be soooo jealous. When do we get to start, huh Pranjal, huh?" He blinks then and cranes his head to peer at Uncia, head tilting. "...really? You know howta jump off cliffs, too?"
Pranjal chuckles at Kavin's excitement. Clouded leopards are quite the acrobats of the treetops - why, they climb down trees head-first and hang from their hindpaws! And if Pranjal's best tricks are now reserved for those days when the rains aren't coming, well, she's replaced some of that raw agility with refinement and wisdom. She nods at what Uncia's said. "Why, up where snow leopards live, there are entire cliff-faces they have to climb along. Covered in snow and ice, too!" she says. "That's why they have such big paws." A different sort of agility is required for that, to be sure. "To start... how about you see how well you can leap onto branches from below and catch them? One jump at a time!"
Uncia grins and looks at Kavin. "Maybe some day when you're older, and your elders have taught you well, I might take you up there to see the snow and ice lands...and the glacier." She says with a smile. "I'm sure you'd be amazed at that." "But for now you should listen and learn from Pranjal, I can't take you up there until I know you're ready."
Kavin eyes Uncia's paws from where he stands, and utters a faint and thoughtful 'huh'. Those are big and fuzzy paws. "Glacier? I saw something big and white from the top of the trees way way away with.. big rocks....mountains! Yah, those. That a glacier? I wanna see it!" He blurts out, not waiting for an answer before his attention is back on Pranjal. "Jump to that branch up there? I can jump all the way to the bear branch! It's /easy/." He says, his tail proudly sticking upright with the tip curling like a question mark. He scampers over to just under the branch, hunkers down to the ground with his rump wiggling and his ears flat, and then pushes off with a mighty leap. It's the biggest, best leap he can muster and his paws are stretched to the sky... and he'd be lucky to get a quarter of the way up.
Uncia chuckles. "Just keep doing a good job listening and learning from Pranjal here, and in time you'll climb up to that glacier with me. But it will take time young apprentice. It will take time." She smiles at Kavin...and turns to Pranjal, yawning...."it is getting kind of late, and well we have a big day coming up..perhaps we should turn in?" She asks. She can see the moon poking through the jungle through the mixed clouds, and fog.
Pranjal chuckles, and sits up with an alert, inquisitive expression to watch Kavin try. Can he make it? Well, no. But is he likely to hurt himself, jumping up from the ground? No. And it will be good practice for leaping, and maybe teach him something about his limits in the process, more surely than anything she could say or do to him. She sits to watch the youngster in his enthusiasm, smiling and resting her old bones.
He may not hurt himself, but Pranjal's idea does more than just keep Kavin entertained. He spends several long minutes jumping and swatting at the air, though, the branch gets neither closer nor any more obtainable. In the end, Kavin is covered in dust and panting and, best of all, he looks tired out. "...hmf... I'll get it tomorrow. You'll see." He huffs as he flops down beside Pranjal, his eyes already half closed as he mutters, "...you'll see, I'll get it." And it's in no time flat the boy is out cold, snoring and sprawled out in the dirt. Limits? Kavin may never learn them, and in the end, it'll either kill him or make him one of the best the Lon Gi has ever seen.
---
Uncia is resting curled up by a log, as she watches Pranjal and the cubs....she yawn-roars, and stretches, it had been a long journey up to the outskirts of the Long Gi territory, and they took an extra long roundabout route so no outsiders could potentially follow them and discover their whereabouts of their headquarters. Uncia is excited, for this is the first time she'll be able to see the young Kavin since his harrowing ordeal. She glances over at Pranjal and grins. "Seems like its nearing Grishma (Summer) eh, I can feel the increase in humidity and the temperature. Back home where I'm from, the glaciers would be starting to melt again."
For all but a short time has past and his injuries barely healed from his plunge in the water, Kavin is not a youngster to be deterred or kept down. In fact, he's been making a scene of showing off his new battle scars, from his notched ear to the scraped scars in his shoulder and sides where he was flung against stones. It's been no end of frustration for his parents, who have not only suffered with the attention their son has brought upon the Lon Gi but by the fact it doesn't seemed to have sobered him one bit. Even as Uncia and Pranjal are speaking, Kavin is above, barreling across the branches at reckless speed in pursuit of something or other and making a god-awful racket in doing so. "Commere! You can't escape me, I'm ganna catch you!"
Pranjal chuckles. "That's the first of the river-risings, when we see that icemelt down here. Then the rivers will rise higher yet, come monsoon," she says to Uncia, then looks up to the branches and laughs. Amongst all the arguments, she's been a voice of calm humour and patience - cubs, as she so often has said, will be cubs, and the Lon Gi will be glad enough for bravery later. She rears up against one of the tree-trunks, and raises her voice. "Hey hunter! Come down here before the monkeys decide you're one of them from all that screeching and drag you off!"
Uncia chuckles as well as she watches the young Kavin Climb through the trees. "Perhaps we should feed him bananas instead of meat too." She says with a grin. "Seems like he's recovered well." She remarks. "Aye, this is a pleasant land, I can only imagine what the home of the Long Gi is like." She watches some ants crawl along the log for a moment before turning back. "I just hope he learned his lesson to be more careful when crossing swollen flood waters."
A mottled brown-gold head pokes through the branches, the tip of his pink tongue poking out between sharp white teeth. Though most of him is hidden, one can just imagine the juvenile hanging near upside-down from the branches, claws and tail keeping him anchored. "I'm not a monkey!" Kavin protests to the elder leopard, despite his posture which might suggest otherwise. "They smell funny and are always pokin' at things with branches and they throw their own ----" And it's best that just then Uncia's presence distracts him and promptly hushes the feisty cat. Frantic memories dimly recall her, and rescuer that she is he still seems taken aback, as if the size and unfamiliarity of the snow leopard intimidates him. But he's not scared of anything! As if recalling this, his mouth sets firmly before he pulls his head back between the leaves and soon can be seen shimmying his way down the trunk of the tree.
Pranjal hahs. "Oh, he'll be leopard enough, come dinner time. Got quite the healthy appetite." That gets a smile of approval. And then there's Kavin himself! Pranjal grins at his protests, and then broader at the bit he cuts himself off from saying, chuckling a bit as he pulls his head back and starts coming down, turning her attention back to Uncia while speaking just loudly enough to be sure Kavin can hear as well. "Ah, water-spirit is a strong one. Almost as full of mischief as some cubs, sometimes, too. Only he's stronger than any cub - or any grown leopard, too. Even an elephant can get in trouble by underestimating the water-spirit."
Uncia chuckles. "Ah yes, of course, I have heard of the legend of the great water spirit, who beats back the flood, and makes it dry again, and provides bounty for all." "So great water spirit do you see a bountiful harvest for us all this summer season?" She smiles. "He is a brave one that Kavin." "I Just hope his parents have nerves of steel." She says as she watches the cubbeh descend.
Kavin huffs as he drops down the last short distance, claws scrabbling as he more or less falls but lands unharmed. He is neither a leopard for grace or class, much to his parents chagrin. "Ain't scared a'no /spirits/." He scowls, cutting a rather unimposing figure by being small and scruffy with bits of leaves stuck in his fur. "Couldn't hurt me!" Well, minus the notched ear and scuffs and the face Uncia had to rescue him... but hey, who's keeping score?
Pranjal chuckles to Uncia. Sure, she's heard the legends, too. Doesn't quite believe them, but she won't say as they're false, either... she simply shrugs in reply, smiling. Kavin proves just how steady his parents' nerves will have to be with that fall, and Pranjal smiles as she pads over towards him, leaning down to aim a lick at the tousled-up fur between his ears. "Maybe spirits can't, but there's plenty of things that can. I ever tell you what happened when I met a hungry bear?"
Uncia grins and lies down again by the log. "Ohhh stories, I love a good story. So what did happen when you met the hungry bear, Pranjal?" She asks ..."Do tell, I am most curious." She flicks her tail and glances at Kavin to watch his reaction.
Kavin wrinkles his nose and gapes open his mouth, no doubt about to object vehemently to Pranjal's grooming until she begins to mention a story. Like all children, he is drawn to stories, and as a boy he particularly loves action and no soon as the 'foe' been mentioned than his mind is going right for the excitement. "A bear? Really? Didja fight it? Didja /eat/ it? I bet bears taste bad, they're all big and smelly and hairy."
Pranjal chuckles, and settles herself down into a sitting position, curling her tail around her legs. "A bear, really!" she replies, and grins. "Well, he sure wanted to fight me, roaring and rearing himself up onto his hind legs - why, he was nearly as tall as that branch there!" She makes a gesture with her head, to point. "He was big, but he was fast, too, and if I'd tried to run up a tree, he'd have knocked me down before I got halfway..."
Uncia grins and glances once at Kavin and then back at Pranjal.."Yeah Didja Didja Didja?" Uncia is kinda of a child at heart at times. She flops on her side and grooms one of her paws as she listens to the story, Happy to finally have some company. Life alone was kind of boring even though at times it was good to have solitude, one needs company and friends once in awhile. Uncia was glad to have met the Long Gi tribe.
"...that tall? Woooooow." Whispers Kavin as he cranes his head up to look at the branch towering above his head, grey-brown eyes growing wide and awe-struck. "But, Pranjal, what happened? Huh? I beat you beat it, cuz you're here! If it ate ya, you wouldn't be. I bet I coulda outran some big old dumb bear. Ain't they all fat and stuff?"
"He certainly was smelly and hairy, too! Like he'd rolled in something long-dead and hadn't had his ears washed in years - and that was just his paw when he swiped at me, never mind his breath!" Pranjal shudders artistically. "Well, outrunning him is just what I did - right along the ground, through the deepest patches of undergrowth. Big thing like him, he couldn't get through those easily, and so I would pull ahead a bit - and then on the clear bits, he'd get closer, until I could smell the stink of his breath. He wasn't fat at all - that's why he was so hungry!"
Uncia grins. "A leopard and a bear, that must have been an epic battle." She says....and mainly lets the young Kavin do the talking. She continues to groom her paw as she listens quite intrigued by the story-line as the plot continues to thicken. She lets out a few gasps at the important tense action parts, and such and thumps her tail in eagerness as the story continues. Uncia grins "Do you think it was as epic a battle as the Sakhet Nakh and the Do-Rak tigers?"
Kavin wrinkles his nose at the imagined fetid stink of unwashed bear as he hunkers close to Pranjal, his belly brushing the ground and his long banded tail jerking side to side with enthusiastic twitches. "I bet they're always hungry, they're huge. So what happened next? You can't have run forever, couldja? Didja outsmart him? I bet you did! You got lots of smart things to say." For all he's not a cat for stuffy elders, he tolerates most of Pranjal's occasional enlightenments. At least of the grownups, she hasn't forgotten how to have fun sometimes.
Pranjal chuckles, and nods to Kavin. She's good about wrapping up her words of wisdom in entertaining tales, after all. "I was starting to worry that I'd get too worn out, and he would manage to eat me - but then I saw the jungle clearing out ahead!" Usually something that a clouded leopard would find a problem, mostly arboreal species that they are! "Well, I put on a burst of speed, then, running straight up to the edge of the cliff - and then I leaped right off, flying through the air until I caught myself on one of the little scrub-brushes that grow there, clinging on with all my claws as it bobbed up and down. That bear didn't have a chance - he charged right off after me, and he kept right on falling, all the way to the bottom. Splat!"
Uncia grins. "Stupid ole bears." She says with a chuckle. "Think they would have realized there was a cliff there and stopped." She shrugs. "The bigger they are the harder they fall, isn't that the saying?" She smiles at Kavin as she watches him enjoying the story-teller. "You'd think Pranjal here was official story-teller of the Long Gi." as she watches from her spot by the log.
"You /jumped/?" Boggles Kavin with wide eyes and an amazed stare on his face. "Off a /cliff/?!" There's a brief pause until he erupts onto his feel, fluffed out from whiskers to tailtip as he breaks out in a triumphant crow, "AWESOME! That's wicked cool, I wish I coulda seen the bear splat! I bet the ground shook. You totally gotta teach me that move." Oh, right, his parents would just delight in that, though some of the crankiest elders might joke good riddance to the pest.
Pranjal grins broadly at the reactions, and then her tone gets more serious as she adds, "If I hadn't caught onto that bush, though, I would have fallen right after him. It's a really good trick, but it takes a lot of practice to pull it off - and you should make sure to do that practice someplace where you won't fall too far if you miss! I got a lot of bruises before I was any good at that sort of leap." She even encourages Kavin to practice wild tricks! No matter how often his parents wish she'd try to calm him down, instead... but she's had enough rambunctious cubs to know the best to be hoped for is a reshaping of that energy into something at least marginally safe.
Uncia grins and yawns , flicking her tail. "Looks like we got quite an acrobat and an acrobat in training to look after." The snow leopardess remarks. She grins and looks at Kavin. "You know us Snowies, are quite agile and quick, I bet I could teach you a move or two." She grins. "I'm sure one day when you're older you'll be able to take on a bear like that. but for now you've got a lot to learn and practice...." She swats a pesky mosquito away from her flank....
If he was a girl, he's squeal with delight. But Kavin is a boy, and so, he just yowls out a battle cry that sends the birds running - for the sake of their own ears, no doubt. His voice is still entirely too tinny to strike fear and is likely better suited to mimicking skidding tires. "Woo! I'm ganna learn how to jump off cliffs! Everyone's ganna be soooo jealous. When do we get to start, huh Pranjal, huh?" He blinks then and cranes his head to peer at Uncia, head tilting. "...really? You know howta jump off cliffs, too?"
Pranjal chuckles at Kavin's excitement. Clouded leopards are quite the acrobats of the treetops - why, they climb down trees head-first and hang from their hindpaws! And if Pranjal's best tricks are now reserved for those days when the rains aren't coming, well, she's replaced some of that raw agility with refinement and wisdom. She nods at what Uncia's said. "Why, up where snow leopards live, there are entire cliff-faces they have to climb along. Covered in snow and ice, too!" she says. "That's why they have such big paws." A different sort of agility is required for that, to be sure. "To start... how about you see how well you can leap onto branches from below and catch them? One jump at a time!"
Uncia grins and looks at Kavin. "Maybe some day when you're older, and your elders have taught you well, I might take you up there to see the snow and ice lands...and the glacier." She says with a smile. "I'm sure you'd be amazed at that." "But for now you should listen and learn from Pranjal, I can't take you up there until I know you're ready."
Kavin eyes Uncia's paws from where he stands, and utters a faint and thoughtful 'huh'. Those are big and fuzzy paws. "Glacier? I saw something big and white from the top of the trees way way away with.. big rocks....mountains! Yah, those. That a glacier? I wanna see it!" He blurts out, not waiting for an answer before his attention is back on Pranjal. "Jump to that branch up there? I can jump all the way to the bear branch! It's /easy/." He says, his tail proudly sticking upright with the tip curling like a question mark. He scampers over to just under the branch, hunkers down to the ground with his rump wiggling and his ears flat, and then pushes off with a mighty leap. It's the biggest, best leap he can muster and his paws are stretched to the sky... and he'd be lucky to get a quarter of the way up.
Uncia chuckles. "Just keep doing a good job listening and learning from Pranjal here, and in time you'll climb up to that glacier with me. But it will take time young apprentice. It will take time." She smiles at Kavin...and turns to Pranjal, yawning...."it is getting kind of late, and well we have a big day coming up..perhaps we should turn in?" She asks. She can see the moon poking through the jungle through the mixed clouds, and fog.
Pranjal chuckles, and sits up with an alert, inquisitive expression to watch Kavin try. Can he make it? Well, no. But is he likely to hurt himself, jumping up from the ground? No. And it will be good practice for leaping, and maybe teach him something about his limits in the process, more surely than anything she could say or do to him. She sits to watch the youngster in his enthusiasm, smiling and resting her old bones.
He may not hurt himself, but Pranjal's idea does more than just keep Kavin entertained. He spends several long minutes jumping and swatting at the air, though, the branch gets neither closer nor any more obtainable. In the end, Kavin is covered in dust and panting and, best of all, he looks tired out. "...hmf... I'll get it tomorrow. You'll see." He huffs as he flops down beside Pranjal, his eyes already half closed as he mutters, "...you'll see, I'll get it." And it's in no time flat the boy is out cold, snoring and sprawled out in the dirt. Limits? Kavin may never learn them, and in the end, it'll either kill him or make him one of the best the Lon Gi has ever seen.