A lazy day in a new home

It's been quite a while since the pride of young renegade lions was adopted into the Shadowlands by king Ni, and they were slowly getting accustomed to it. However, the second oldest member of th pride, Kusubiri, was adapting more slowly than others. To him, the Shadowlands seemed so dull and dead - there were no fresh green plants anywhere in the horizon, only dry bushes and a few dead trees, the ground was dark, the sky was black and they were so few herbivorous animals! This was nothing near the harmony and abundance of life in his old Savannah home, no wonder it was called the Shadowlands.

The young brown lion was resting atop a branch of a dry tree, thinking about his early life and the pain that it caused him. He missed his family dearly, but he knew that nothing could bring them back to him after that elephant attack, and he felt guilt for running away, thinking that he betrayed them that way, even though he was fortunate to save his own life. He sighed and looked out to the horizon, missing the girls in the pride in a certain way. Like Maliki, Kusubiri didn't get to have a moment with one of them, since they were accustoming themselves to the life of a hunting lioness.

But soon, a fly was buzzing around, and landed on the teen's snout. He hated these little pests so much! Always buzzing around to annoy you with their very appearance! It continued to buzz, while Kusubiri eyes moved, fixed on the fly. Then, his instinct kicked in when he started to swat it with his tail: "Shoo! Shoo! Get outta here!" The fly flew away with each swat, only to come back between them. This time, Kusubiri unwittingly swung his paw at it, not knowing that it broke his balance on the branch: "Why you little...", then, when it began to crack, it was all clear and he went numb for a second, then nervously said: "Bummer!" The branch broke and the lion fell down to the ground with a panicked yell and a hard thud.

Then, he got up and shook his head, to get rid of the dust and regain his consciousness. And after that, he saw Kiseki, who was walking around and didn't yet see him, but the male's muzzle bent into a large, happy grin, because he hasn't seen her in a long time. She looked much different now, young and beautiful, reminding of an old conversation between him and Maliki. But instead of shouting out and letting her know he was there, he decided to catch her off guard. He sneaked behind a rock, waiting for her to come closer, and then, he jumped out from behind it and said: "Surprise!"

The talk with Kiseki had made the male lion feel much better, he now knew that he didn't suffer alone, his 'family' missed him just as much as he missed them. He had promised her they would see each other more and he had meant it, even if he had to visit with them separately by stealing them away sometimes then he would do it because if the others were feeling the way that Kiseki was then he was sure they all needed time to talk. His own past wasn't haunting him as much as the others lately, he had let it go more and more as he found himself occupying his time with trying to gather the frayed threads of their small family in the Shadowlands.

His large golden paws made imprints in the dirt and his mane was growing shaggier by the day as it started to fill out some more. He smiled at some of the lionesses he passed but it was only a passing friendly smile, though a couple gave him smiles back that were more flirty. He supposed that was normal, but he'd never really paid much attention to it until Kiseki had told him that he had at least one female who watched him. It was weird to think that other girls looked at him romantically, he had been so used to being the older brother or surrogate father that he couldn't fathom what actual dating would be like. He humphed at these thoughts and went a bit faster, thoroughly embarrassed by his own thoughts.

It didn't take Maliki long to sniff out Kusubiri's scent and he followed it towards the younger male with zest. There was safety in numbers he supposed and Kusu was growing probably more handsome than Maliki himself, or so he had heard a couple of females saying. When he got close it was just in time to see Kusu springing into the air with a surprise shouted at the form that could only be Kiseki, the notch was a dead giveaway. Maliki frowned slightly for a moment but tried his best to make his expression more amused as he trotted towards them, "Be careful Kusubiri, you don't want to hurt her by accident" even if they were becoming grown he couldn't help the fatherly chiding sometimes.

He did smirk though softly when his head was lowered and throw himself forward wrapping paws around Kusubiri's hindquarters and rolling to the side to flip him off of Kiseki and over himself so that Kusubiri would land on his belly on the other side of the golden lion. Maliki winked at Kiseki before standing and shaking his coat out, grey dust spiraling away from the golden surface like silver flecks.