[PRP] Rumbly in my Tumbly (Kafele x Hila)

[SilverLutz]

It was a day like any other. Kind of. Kafele was feeling good, his mane was looking great, he just had some lunch...but was still hungry. He had pounded down mouthful after mouthful of meat until his stomach ached, but it ached for food. Really weird. Deciding it would be better to let it settle and see if that helped, he was currently heading for the shoreline to see if he could find anything interesting on the beaches. Sometimes the waves tossed up some cool shells. Since his father was waiting a bit longer to take them out a-Viking he had to start his awesome collection of stuff somewhere, right?

Hopping down the rocky shoreline to the sandy shore, Kafele inhaled the salty air with a deep breath. Some gulls cried overhead as they hovered in place, using the breeze to remain aloft without expending too much energy. Kafele tipped his head back to stare up at them, wondering what it was like to fly.

"Mom can fly," he murmured to himself with a little grin. Maybe the next time she showed up he could hop on her back and they could soar into the sky!  

[Vashtya]

Hila was bored. Her siblings hadn't seemed interested in playing, so, predictably, she'd opted to wander off and explore...not that she needed an excuse to do so, but...

Coming to the top of a small rise, her eyes widened as she took in the ocean shore. She hadn't been here before, and the sight of so much water (odd-smelling water) was enough to freeze her in place for a moment. As she got her bearings, blue gaze sweeping along the shoreline, she spotted what looked like a familiar face - had he grown, though?!

Picking her way through the rocks that dotted the beach, she waited until she was close enough to be sure it was who she thought it was, before calling out. "Hey there! I don't think you'll get any answers from them," she said, nodding her head toward the circling seagulls with a smirk (but not an entirely unkind one) - she'd noticed his mouth moving, but hadn't been able to catch what he'd been saying.

SilverLutz

 

[SilverLutz]

A voice carried over the crashing waves and gulls and for a moment Kafele wasn't sure who was talking to him. The sea? His mother? The gulls themselves? Turning around, he spotted a dark little cub with a bright tail tuft making her way towards him. It took him only a moment to put a name to the face and when he realized who it was he grinned.

"Hila! Ha!" he added with a laugh, swishing his tail and tossing his head so the wind blew his mane out of his eyes. Never thought having a mane would be a problem...now he knew why most of the lions here braided theirs.

"I was just talking to myself," he said, trotting forward a few paces to meet her. She wasn't nearly as wobbly or wriggly as she had been the last time they'd hung out together and although he had grown, she had as well. "But I wouldn't put it past them to talk back. I've seen some birds that talk," he said with a smirk in return.

"What brings you out here? Aren't you a little little to be so close to the sea without your parents?" The teasing in his voice was suffocating and he knew from his previous encounter with her that she wouldn't let him push her around, but what fun was hanging out with someone if you weren't talking?

Vashtya

 

[Vashtya]

Hila rolled her eyes in response, although the smirk didn't leave her face. "Maybe they do, but only a bird-brain would choose to talk to them." this was accompanied by a small head-toss in the seagulls' direction. The birds in question, of course, just shrieked in response.

"My brother and sister didn't seem to want to play, so I decided to go exploring," she replied, batting at him with a paw, accompanied by a slight narrowing of her eyes. "And just because you weren't smart enough to be let very far out of the den at my age..." she said slyly, slightly less inclined to take offense than she had been on their last encounter, since it had only seemed to amuse him further.

"What about you?" She continued, tilting her head slightly. "Weren't there any birds closer to home for you to talk to?"

She looked far more pleased with herself than was deserved.

SilverLutz

 

[SilverLutz]

Oh, she could give as good as she got! Her replies had Kafele laughing, delighted at her ability to verbally spar with him and he had to admit he was also impressed. For one so young she knew her way around smack-talking someone with better jabs than 'you're a butthead!'.

"If I recall, I was trying to scrounge up some Reavers at your age," he teased back, placing a paw on her head to push her back so she couldn't swipe at him as easily. "And basically the same reason you're here...my brothers are all sleeping and my sister is off somewhere else." He huffed softly - who would want to sleep on a great day like today? - before lowering his front end down a bit in a play bow.

"I'm hunting shells and cool stuff that washes up on the beach so I can start my hoard," he informed her as he wiggled his butt in the air. "Get a head start on all the other Freeborn my age who wanna become Reavers. You wanna look with me?"

Vashtya

 

[Vashtya]

Grinning herself, Hila wrinkled her nose, playfully snapping at the offending paw pushing her out of range of retaliation. "True. And it went so well for you!" She ducked out from under his paw as she said so, barely refraining from sticking her tongue out. "Do you have a lot of brothers and sisters?" She asked, wondering what that was like, if so.

She narrowed her eyes suspiciously at his play bow, but...his suggestion was a good one. Who wouldn't jump at the chance of finding something she could show off to her siblings later? Or even that might give her a head start toward the same goal?

"Sure!" She replied without more than a second's hesitation. "I bet I find better stuff than you do, though!" She continued, a playful smirk creeping back across her face. "Especially if you keep stopping to talk to the birds."

SilverLutz

 

[SilverLutz]

"Sure did," Kafele said with a grin in return. He had learned that some cubs just didn't want to have fun. Rough housing and fighting were a nice pass time but there were other games to be played. Thankfully Hila had been on the same page and they had had a good time, at least.

"I've got a bunch!" he added, lifting from his play bow. "I've got four brothers and four sisters, although three of my sisters are adults. Different mom," he added with a little wink as if it was a big secret. His older sisters had helped his father raise him and his litter mates since they were quite the handful, but they had never taken on a 'mother' role. They had made it very clear they were sisters and should be treated as such.

As Hila agreed to the little treasure hunt Kafele had to keep himself from leaping about in delight. Although he was older now and his mane was coming in he was still very much a young lion, eager to play and have competitions of various types.

"No way you'll find something better if this is your first time at the beach," he said with a little wave of his paw. "You'll probably just find a shell with a crab still inside." Without waiting for her to retaliate, he turned and pounced down the beach, pausing to stick his nose into piles of rocks and seaweed to see what he could find.

Vashtya

 

[Vashtya]

Hila shook her head, but didn't roll her eyes, since his reply was a compliment...at least, she was going to take it that way.

She blinked slowly. That was a lot of siblings! It must be nice though, to have so many potential playmates (although he'd ended up wandering off on his own, too, so maybe it was more similar to her smaller group of siblings than she may have otherwise suspected.)

Snorting at his cocky response, this time she did roll her eyes, yelling after him even as she turned to search a different part of the beach "No cheating and asking your friends to help you!"

Snickering a little, she darted off, finding a cluster of rocks, butting right up against the water's edge, forming a small tidepool. Splashing in the shallow water, she peered under a small overhang, barely pulling her nose back in time to avoid a pinch from a rather aggressive crab. Unfortunately, while she managed to avoid the pinch, she did slip and end up in the water, the splash rather impresive.

Getting to her feet as quickly as she could, she scrabbled out of the tidepool, trying to look nonchalant, and hoping Kafele hadn't seen her fall.

SilverLutz

 

[SilverLutz]

It was Kafele's turn to roll his eyes at her comment about the birds being his friends. He hadn't even been talking to them and yet she kept harping on it like he had! Puh...he'd show her. Some day. Not today. Today he was looking for cool stuff to bring back home and show to his father. Vidar had a habit of tying little trinkets into his mane so they hit one another as he walked, making little chimes and tinks. The Captain claimed it was so his enemies or his prey could hear him coming and get a head start on running away. And people wondered where Kafele got his cockiness from.

A splash drew his attention back in the direction Hila had gone and he burst out laughing as he watched her climb out of a tide pool, soaking wet and looking as if nothing had happened.

"Careful," he called out in a sing-song voice. "It's a little slippery over there." He knew from experience as he had come down here in the past, only to fall on the rocks multiple times. Sometimes it had been painful and on the rocks themselves, other times he'd ended up in the sea. Both were not pleasant memories and he tended to stay away from the rocks all together now.

Vashtya

 

[Vashtya]

Ugh. Of course he had noticed her fall. Wasn't he supposed to be looking for stuff?! Shooting a dark look in Kafele's direction as he oh-so-sweetly "warned" her about the slippery rocks, Hila shook out her now-sopping coat. Now she really had to find something amazing.

Gingerly, she stayed on top of the rocks, her steps far more cautious than they had been previously. Spotting a shallow crevice, she stuck one small paw inside (after confirming there wasn't another irritable crab already in residence), scooping out all of the debris inside.

Wrinkling her nose, she was disappointed to see it was nothing but some tiny pebbles, and a few horribly crushed pieces of shell. Moving a little further along, she spotted a larger space between two of the rocks - one she could probably fit between!

Leaping down toward it, she hesitated, seeing that it extended deeper than she had thought it did - a small cave appeared to extend downward, dark and smelling like old, decaying seaweed.

She debated for a moment, sticking her head inside, although she couldn't see very far. Should she go in by herself, and hope she found something, or see if Kafele wanted to explore it with her? (Not that she was scared, of course! She was just considering it because he would need all the help he could get...yeah, that was it.)

SilverLutz

 

[SilverLutz]

The look he got made Kafele snicker, but he left Hila to her own devices as he began to hunt through a new seaweed pile. So far during his ventures down here he had only found broken shells, but he was sure some day he'd find something really cool and worthy of adding to his tiny collection. He already had some really shiny rocks that he liked, but eventually they'd make room for real treasure.

After pawing through a particularly fresh pile of seaweed and coming up empty, he glanced over at Hila again to see how she was doing. He had glanced over just in time to see her jump down between some rocks, disappearing completely.

"Hey!" he shouted, running over to where he had seen her disappear. Had she found something cool? Propping his paws up on the rocks, he pushed himself up and looked down into the crevasse where Hila stood, staring further down under some rocks that he couldn't see.

"Do you see something?" he asked, excitement in his voice.

Vashtya

 

[Vashtya]

She barely stopped herself from visibly flinching in surprise, when he spoke from so close behind her. Turning to look over her shoulder, though, excitement at her find overrode all else.

"It looks like a cave!" She said, shifting slightly so he could see past her - she couldn't move very far to the side, since the crevice was rather narrow, but it was enough.

"I can't see far enough in to be sure, but who knows what kinda treasures are inside?" She continued, her look expectant, almost daring him to disagree. After all, it wasn't large enough to fit a full grown lion, and how many others their size were likely to have explored it?

SilverLutz

 

[SilverLutz]

There wasn't much room for both of them in the crevasse but Kafele was sure that if Hila moved into the opening he'd be able to squeeze in after her. An adult definitely wouldn't fit so she had made a great find.

"Get on in there and start looking! I'll be right behind you," he urged, motioning with his paw for her to go on. There was no way he was letting this little gem of a discovery go untouched. He had to hand it to her, he wouldn't have thought to look in the rocks this far down for anything. Judging by the sand that she stood on the water rose up and filled the little cave during high tide so it was hidden half of the day, making it a perfect spot for treasure.

Vashtya

 

[Vashtya]

Shooting him a triumphant grin, and courage bolstered by the promise she wouldn't be going in entirely on her own had her darting through the cave opening, stepping forward far enough that she wouldn't block the entrance, and blinking as she waited for her eyes to adjust. As they did so, she inhaled slowly, then exhaled.

The walls were perpetually damp, jagged edges glistening and almost seeming to beckon to the curious cub. While not huge, the space was large enough for both of the lions to search without bumping into one another excessively - and unless she was mistaken, the walls appeared to be dotted with small holes and crevices - just the right size for something special to be hidden away. Beneath her paws, a small crunch made her look down - while the floor wasn't covered in them, the shells that littered the sand-and-rock floor were mostly whole, the mother-of-pearl interiors gleaming invitingly.

"Pretty neat, huh?" She asked, grinning.

SilverLutz

 

[SilverLutz]

Kafele waited until Hima had moved forward before jumping down into the little crevasse, scraping his shoulders on the way down. He definitely wouldn't be able to fit once he grew a bit more which was a shame, but for now this was a fun little spot to explore. He pushed his way through the rocks and ducked his head, joining the younger cub in the cave. The walls were littered with pockets and shelves, perfect for hiding treasure, and the floor itself seemed to shine with the interior of the shells glistening in the dim light.

"Whoa...it looks like the moon when it's really big," he said, dragging his paw through the shells so they shifted and glinted up at him. He tried to find one that was completely whole with no chips that also had a perfect sheen of opalescent coloring, but it was hard going.

"I bet this place fills up with water when the tide's in," he said, and as if to make his point clear a wave washed into the little area from some hidden spot deeper within the rocks. It got their toes damp before receding and it was a promise that in a few hours time this cave would be inaccessible to lions of any size.

"We should find some cool shells and get out before the water starts to rise."

Vashtya