Timbavati Pride - CH1: The Royal Children

Up on the cliff, where the pride slept inside their cave, the sun that peeked over the horizon barely touched the flat lands. It was usual at this time that a strong, golden brown cub would wake to embrace the day and bring his friends to join him.
Mosi's purpose was to become very close to the princess Awena. He was indeed a beautiful little boy with the most darling curl on the top of his head that hung just in front of his face. In the morning, nearly every morning, Mosi woke just before sunrise to wake his friend. His parents instructed him to be the best he could be, especially towards Awena. While Mosi not quite yet understood the whole purpose behind betrothal, he was obedient toward his parents' orders and did whatever he could to win brownie points with Awena, her friends, and the royal family.
The young lion cub bounced from his resting spot and swerved his crown around, seeking out his friends. At first, he sees Akina: a younger cub with dark, almost purple, fur. She had a father who came from outside the reserved area, which means Akina carried genes no one saw in any lion anywhere in Timbavati. Akina was a strange sight, but "strange" was much loved by the kingdom. Her fur was longer and her eyes were darker than the other lions'. One would have never guessed her mother to e such a pale, tawny lioness.
In the cave, the golden cub leaped from open space to open space, trying to avoid the slumbering adults. He readied himself to attack the girl. "Akina!" He grunted playfully, tackling the cub. "Let's wake up!"
She rubbed her eyes with her wrists and moaned at Mosi, "lets not... Okay?"
"Oh come on, Akina!" Mosi persisted, then went after the two princess who were rested just feet away from the king and queen. "You're no fun..!" He continued to tease his half awake friend.
"Sh..!"
Mosi nudged Tamasha. She was a light sleeper, so she was quick to wake. Her sister? Not so much. Awena could sleep through anything and go completely undisturbed. It took all three of the cubs jumping on her all at the same time to even bring her back from dreamland. Akina, Mosi, and Tamasha began taking turns until they were all pouncing on Awena's body in a frantic, excited mosh. Awena began swatting the air, then her friends and sister.
The male cub suddenly became very gentle as he begged the princess to get up. "Come on, Awena! Let's go have fun."
Sleepily, Awena rolled her eyes and sat up, brushing a prominent tuft of fur out of her eyes. Much like Mosi's curl, Awena and Akina both shared a clump of fur on their heads that fell over their foreheads and almost dangled right in front of their eyes. Akina had very thick fur, whereas Mosi possessed a sort of "wool-y" feeling coat and the princesses had remarkably soft, thin fur.
The blue hue had returned to the sky as the four cubs trotted out of their cave and to the right, down the tall cliff. The alerting voice of Dawn, their pink, feathered friend, called out to them. "Stop right there, you crazy young-ens!"
Dawn was a very caring girl and was very good at her job. She took care of the royal family and usually baby-sat the princesses. It was her responsibility to know what the cubs were up to.
"Where are all ya'll going?" She asked the foursome.
"Hiya, Dawn!" Mosi spoke out. "I think we're going to go to the big tree today."
"Big tree?" Dawn questioned.
"The big tree you can climb on." Tamasha answered.
"Well..." the big pink bird hesitated. "I guess that's not too far."
"You can see it from here!" Akina pointed out a notably large tree just ahead in the distance.
That same tree had been the home and play site of many animals for years now. It was nothing short of amazing to climb its trunk and see the savanna from the home of a bird's. Time and time again, the four friends went out to the tree to chase each other and just be lazy until the sun went down. Today would be one of these days. The quartet of cubs ventured down the cliff with Dawn squawking at them, "be home before your family eats or else you can go to bed hungry!"
That simply meant to the children to be home before sundown for their own good. In their minds, sundown was forever from now, so Dawn's words of caution really meant nothing to them... For now.
Mosi lead the way, Awena followed just behind him, Akina at her side. Tamasha followed her slightly older sister closely. Their little tails poked over the surface of the tall blades of grass that covered miles and miles of the territory. In the immediate distance, they saw their playground. With some galloping, they fast reached their destination. The roots were the size of full ground lions and the branches could support elephants! Mosi called to Awena, asking him to follow him up the tree. While Akina went right on ahead the three, Tamasha was still left behind on the ground. She never could get very far up the trunk. Awena looked at her sister just before she took Mosi up on his request. "What's wrong, Tam?"
The blonde girl shrugged and planted her hind end on the dirt. "I can't climb it."
"You don't know how?" The white female asked.
"I'm not strong enough." Tamasha answered.
"Yes you are." Awena leaped toward the bark of the tree and sunk her claws in it. "Mind over matter!"
Her sister halfheartedly jumped on a root and tumbled off just as fast.
"Come on, Tamasha! I believe in you!" The princess genuinely encouraged her sister, but what she immediately received back from Tamasha was anything but nice.
"Just shut up! Okay? Shut up!" Tamasha snapped. "I'm just not strong enough." She then proceeded to sulk in self-pity in the dirt.
Awena sighed woefully and continued on her way up the tree. "Whatever."
Once Akina, Mosi, and Awena finally found their places among the leafs, Mosi asked the white lion cub, "Is Tamasha okay?"
Awena spoke quietly and shrugged. "Yeah. She's just short-tempered. She doesn't like her mistakes to be acknowledged by me. I love her and all, but she makes it hard to care about her with that attitude of her's..."
"It's okay, Wen." Akina assured her friend, yawning and sprawling out over the limb she chose to perch on. "Bina is like that too." She referred to her younger sister.
Awena chuckled as she said to Akina, "At least my sister doesn't rip my fur out with her mouth."
The darker cub gave a humorous, pouty face and covered the tuft of fur on her head with her paws. "Don't rub it in."
"Oh yeah!" Mosi exclaimed in realization. "I remember that day."
"Yeah." Akina testified. "Bina jumped on my back and straight up sunk her teeth into my skull, pulling out a big ole clump of fur."
"At least it grew back." Mosi laughed aloud. The other two joined him.
Out of nowhere, a flock of birds fled the giant tree and entered the baby blue skies. The trio looked around the branches and leafs, searching for the source of their distress. It was Tamasha. She had climbed the skin of the huge plant and finally made it up to the same level as her friends. They watched her bounce from branch to branch, all smiling. Awena raised a proud brow to her friends, as if she were trying to say, "See? What did I tell ya? She could do it all along."
Mosi grinned from ear to ear, feeling immensely proud of the princesses.
Akina looked to Awena's sister and said, "You scared the birds out of the tree!"
"I'm ferocious." The cub responded in the most sarcastic, cute voice she could muster.
Awena laughed at her sister. "About as ferocious as a meerkat."
"More ferocious than you!" Tamasha pretended to be angry at her albino sibling.
As Tamasha found a place next to the recumbent Akina, Mosi gave a wholehearted, pathetic, roar that sounded more like a house cat whose tail got stuck in a doorway. "I'm more ferocious than both of you!"
The girls broke out in a frenzy of unconditional, overwhelmed laughs. "Right!" Tamasha sarcastically burst out.
"Mosi," Awena began, trying to contain her messy laughter. "You couldn't be scary to save your life!"
The male rolled his eyes and began to laugh with them anyway. "I'm trying!" In all seriousness, perhaps Mosi was just trying to make the girls laugh. After all, whatever he did to get in good with Awena's family earned him more leeway to be around her. While Akina accompanied Tamasha and Awena purely because they had fun together, Mosi felt drawn to be around them. Regardless of how his family and her family conducted their relationship, Mosi, genuinely, sought to become Awena's cornerstone and best of best friends. He loved her presence, and maybe, thought a bit too much of it. Awena understood his desperateness to remain close to her, but she insisted he relax. In the company of each other, there was no judgement and there was no pressure. Nothing to fear.