Conversations At The Waterfall Cliff

Participants:

Kiini - lion, son of King Mzohari and Nyunya.
Kikora - juvenile lioness, pride youth.
Mashaka - lion, brother of Balana, Kopje guard.
Msasi - juvenile lioness, pride youth.


Kopje Valley - Bottom of the Waterfall Cliff
You come to the bottom of a large cliff. Just above you is a massive promontory jutting out of the side, it sends a shadow across the waterfall. A large torrent of water comes down, creating a large 'lake' at the bottom of the cliff. Many sweet grasses grow on the edge perfect for grazing animals. As you look up the cliff face, you see a small path leading to the promontory and then stretches further along the cliff.

To the [K]opje [V]alley [Climb] up to the Promontory
[E]dge of the [S]avannah

A sparkling and cool lake
You can see the 'end of' a runoff stream.

Kikora is sprawled across Wingu and Korzar's sleeping bodies, hoping against hope that her weight or shifting will get them to wake up — and nothing seems to be working. She's been awake for a few minutes now, and when she realizes that her non-aggressive attempt at waking the boys is a failure, she simply rolls off of them, ending up on her back with all four paws angled toward the sky. "-Sooooo boooooored-!" She laments, her ears wiggling in the dirt. She kicks her hindlegs out to scootch herself up some before flopping over on to her side, giving her a clear view of the very quiet Msasi. "Hi 'Sasi!" Kikora says quite suddenly, shifting her forearm beneath her to hoist herself up into a strange lounging position.

Shutting her eyes to enjoy the blissful quiet for a moment, Sas breathes deeply and exhales. When she hears here name called, she turns around with a slight frown on her face. The juvenile spots a cub that she recognizes as one of the newbies. "Hey," she replies simply, not moving from her seat. Instead, she just spins herself around to face Kik. "You right there?" Sas asks, watching the little peformance of acrobatics.

Kikora's forearm grows tired of supporting the big cub's upper half, and so she flops over to her stomach and stretches out, dark claws extended to knead at the grassy earth beneath her. "Yeeeah, but I can't get anybody to wake up t'day. 'Goo and Kor' are sleepin', 'Len and Gadi, too." She heaves an overdramatic sigh, her ears folding against her head. "Not even Kori or Mwa's around. Too lazy!" She says in a mocking, scolding voice but it's quickly dropped as she grins brightly at Msasi. "What are you doin'?"

Msasi falls silent as Kikora goes on off on her rant. Not recognizing half of the names mentioned, Sas just offers a smile and nod to show she's listening. They must be nicknames, or something, because Sas is pretty sure she knows most of the pride. "You gotta learn to entertain yourself sometimes, kid." Msasi states, speaking from experience. "Sometimes the people you want around just aren't there. But anyway, I just cam down here to cool off. Sun's hot today, you know," Msasi says, in a neutral tone.

"Last time I did thaaat, I ended up in trouble," Kikora states when Msasi mentions entertaining herself. "I followed a big ole lizard out of the valley. I didn't -meeeean- to…" she says quietly, watching the waterfall as it plummets into the pool nearby. "I promised Balana and Kori that I'd be goood."

Msasi nods, wondering what a lizard is. She's never seen one of those before. Was it some kind of predator? "Oh, well maybe in less harmful ways. Like sitting by the lake, or exploring /inside/ the valley. That's a favourite past time of mine," Msasi adds quietly. Shifting her forepaws out, and sinking to her belly, Sas lets out a sigh. "You haven't seen Vikali wandering about, have you?" She asks.

Mashaka pads in here from the valley, looking to relax.
Mashaka has arrived.

"Vik-a-lee?" Kikora asks, her ears pitching forward. "Nooo, not since … not since she an' Kiini wandered off together." She narrows her eyes, almost suspiciously, "But that was a few days 'go." She watches Msasi through a pair of curious brown eyes, feeling a little isolated from the other lioness. Msasi isn't as playful as the other cubs, Kikora has come to discover.

Kiini has settled down by his sleeping cubs after helping to bring his sister's cubs into the area. As is, he's drifted off into a light nap for the moment, a combination of an earlier patrol and then playing with his own cubs before coming to find Mzu.

Mashaka pads through the grasses, back from his own patrol near the border, wandering toward the water to get a drink. He spots the others and changes his direction a bit to pass near them.

Msasi frowns to herself. They didn't leave did they? A little panic starts to boil up inside the juvenile. 'I must find her soon,' Msasi decides. "Oh, don't worry about it though," she says out loud, not wanting to upset the cub too. There is a moment or two of awkward silence between the two, before Mashaka appears in Sas' view, and the juvenile breaks out into a grin. "Mash!" She calls, standing up and padding past the cub towards him.

Kikora is fairly observant when it comes to body language and so she hunches down a bit in response to Msasi's frown, her ears turned back all the way now. When she sees Msasi break into a grin, she's slightly confused at first … and then notices a very large lion padding through, one that she hasn't met before. Instinctively she remains crouched down, feeling more than a little awkward — she's surrounded by others who she hasn't gotten very close to, not aware that Kiini is at least semi-concious.

Mashaka gives a wide smile as he sees Msasi, moving over to meet her. "Hey there Msasi." giving the younger one a happy nuzzle. "How have you been doing? Been keeping out of trouble?" he asks, teasing her with a mock suspicious look.

Kiini yawns, waking up as the chatting around him starts to get a little bit louder. "What about Vikali?" The lion asks just before he yawns. Kiini blinks and sits up, stretching out his forepaws as he spots cubs and the other pridal guard. "Anything out on the borders, Mashaka?"

Glad to have someone she is more comfortable around, Msasi nuzzles Mashaka as soon as she reaches him. "You know me," she replies with a smile, "I hardly get into trouble! Was patrol exciting?" As Kiini speaks, the juvenile falls silent again, turning to face him and listen, sitting herself down next to the big lion. Throwing a glance off towards caves, Msasi wonders if her mother was hiding up there somewhere. Maybe she had gone to see her own mother up top of the cliff again. The juvenile is soon looking for an excuse to pardon herself and leave now.

Kikora detects Kiini's voice, but finds that she's most comfortable laying in her current crouched position. She's loathe to move, wishing that one of her own playmates would wake up. Ah, well … it is hot, and lions will be lions … 'lion around'. Pbbt.

Mashaka purrs to Msasi and grins. "Sure you don't." he says, teasing again gently. "Patrol was.. boring. Nothing's going on. Everyone's being lazy. GladI say you up." He glances over to Kiini and shakes his head. "It's pretty much dead up there. Not even anyone awake to say hi to." he answers, moving a paw to playfully ruffle Msasi's headfur.

Kiini only smiles to it. "I'd rather it be boring than dangerous." He points out, picking his back end up off the ground and making a swish with his tail before padding towards the others. "You see Kori at all lately?"

Msasi grins to herself as Mash ruffles her head. She playfully pushes back with her paws, but to no avail. Unable to think of anything to get her away, Msasi simply opens her mouth and after some hesitation, says, "I'm sorry, I've got to go." Standing up, she turns towards the path up the cliff, and pads away.

"Kooori?" Kikora asks from her sprawled-out position in the grass, peeking up at Kiini with her big, brown eyes. "You an' Kori gonna play?" She asks innocently enough, still trying to work out just what the adults do when they're out of sight of the cubs.

Mashaka nods to Msasi as she leaves. "Alright." and turns to the others. He smirks a bit to Kiini. "Yes, I agree, though I'd like to at least do something other then tiptoe past sleeping lions." he grins.

Kiini chuckles and nods, "Well, what sort of thing did you have in mind??" Kiini's fairly curious at this, and ends up sitting down in front of the other male.

Mashaka hmmms. "A nice fight now and then might be something at least. Run a hyena off here, chase an evil leopard off there. You know, the usual." he grins.

Kiini now starts to laugh, "Its been a while since I've been in a fight, that's for sure." Kiini answers, before shaking his head. "I haven't had luck chasing off anything bigger than a jackel in the past moon myself."

Mashaka ahs. "I haven't seen many things to chase off in a while, aside from a lost hyena. It's just too safe here sometimes." he grins. "Of course, that means we're doing our job right." he smirks.

"Uh, yeah, I have four cubs who need it to be that safe." Kiini reminds the other, revealing his big drive behind walking the borders every day. "That's all I need is to have them start wandering in an unsafe land."

Mashaka nods. "Oh, I'm not saying I want this land to be unsafe. Why do you think I'm a guard? But maybe some missions or something offland would be nice every so often."

Kiini sighs and sits back. "I wish I could say the same." Kiini answers, "Truthfully, I'd love something like that, but I have my paws really full here as is. Between Mwaliko, and then having the cubs too…"

Mashaka smile a bit and nods gently. "Having a mate and cubs is great too though." he says. "Something I don't have currently."

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