here's chapter 5 and thanks to erulasse for reviewing again
Chapter 5 shelter
The next morning the cubs woke up cold and hungry out in the open Savannah far away from their old home.
Shargra walked over to Shanika and nudged her with his paw. She groaned and rolled over. "Shanika! Wake up!"
"Mmph…f've more m'nutes!" she mumbled.
"SHANIKA!"
"I'm up!" cried Shanika, leaping to her feet. "Oh…it's you."
"Don't sound pleased to see me then."
Sarcasm was lost on Shanika. "Okay then, I won't. Hey Shargra?"
"Yes?"
"When are we going home?"
"We aren't."
"Oh. Hey Shargra?"
"Still here Shanika; there's not many other places I could be, though oh how I wish there was somewhere, somewhere without you."
"…whatever. Hey Shargra?"
"Yes Shanika?"
"Guess what. I'm hungry."
Shargra could stand it no longer. He flipped. "Well certainly Shanika, what would you like? We have a nice wildebeest steak done medium rare, or perhaps a zebra…"
"Oh! Pick me! Pick me!" shouted Shanika, leaping in the air. "I know! Pick me!"
"Yes, what is it Shanika?"
"WILDEBEESTWILDEBEESTWILDEBEESTWILDEBEEST!" she yelled, gabbling so it was all one word.
"I was joking."
The young lioness's eyes filled with tears. "You-you lied to me?" she sobbed, completely over the top. "We're not going to make it, are we? We're doomed!" she said dramatically, swooning into Shargra's paws. He moved out of the way and she fell to the floor with an 'Oof'.
"Shanika calm down, we'll be fine." Shargra said, trying to assure his friend of that which he was not sure of himself.
"But how can we survive? We're only cubs! We can't even catch our own food yet!" Shanika said, by now hyperventilating.
"We'll manage, how hard can it be?" Shargra said knowing full well how hard it was, having already tried it.
"Just think…it seems only yesterday we still had a home." Shanika said wistfully.
"It was only yesterday."
"Oh yes. Time passes so quickly, doesn't it?"
"Look, let's not think about that. We need to think about how we can survive - the first thing we need is shelter, I feel a storm coming on. Then we can worry about food." Shargra said, not wanting to think of his home or his family now.
"What! But food's much more important!" Shanika said indignantly.
"Oh yes, I forgot who I was talking to." Shargra said sarcastically, "Why did I have to get stuck with the food-crazed lion?"
"Hey I'm not food-crazed... I'm hungry," she said, following him along and yawning as they moved off.
"You just made my point for me." Shargra replied.
"Ok, ok, so I may be a bit food-crazed but that's not the point. The point is-"
"You're right, that's not the point." He said, scanning the horizon. "Come on, we have to find shelter."
Shanika still looked rather upset.
"I'll let you sing if you come!" Shargra said.
At this Shanika suddenly looked a lot happier, and she jumped up and started to sing.
"Why did I say that?" Shargra groaned under his breath.
"What was that?" Shanika said angrily.
"Oh nothing, come on let's go."
And he moved off again. After a few seconds he realized Shanika wasn't following. He turned to see her sitting on the ground, concentrating and cross-eyed.
"Shanika, what is it now?"
"I can't see my eyebrows." she said, "I want to see my eyebrows."
"Oh do come on!"
With that both cubs started walking to the horizon, Shanika singing something that sounded like 'We are one' but with different words.
"As you eat a lot you'll see,
There is so much that we…can't eat enough.
And the only thing I want
Right now is a pot
Of tasty stuff…"
"Stop singing."
"But-"
"No buts. STOP."
Five minutes later "Shargra…"
"Yes, what is it Shanika?"
"My paws hurt."
"It's only been a few minutes! You realize this could take all day!" Shargra exploded.
She carried on walking, muttering nasty words under her breath. Shargra shook his head disbelievingly.
"Shargra…"
"Shanika, if this is about your paws, I will remove them." Shargra warned, gritting his teeth in a grin reminiscent of a hungry hyena.
"No, I was about to say that there's a cave. See, over there by that waterhole?" Shanika said.
"How on earth did you see that?" Shargra said surprised.
"I'm just so clever that's how." Shanika said smugly.
Shargra chose to ignore this and said, "So…let's go check it out."
The two cubs changed direction to walk over to the cave.
"This looks interesting." Shargra said while exploring the cave, "It's quite deep, sandy floor, if you weren't looking carefully you wouldn't see it and right outside there's a waterhole. We could live here for a while, It's perfect!"
"Good. Now you can say it, go on, admit it, who was right?"
"You." He admitted grudgingly.
"Oh yeah! I was right! Go me!" she screeched, darting off to explore the rest of it.
"For the first and only time," he muttered.
"Hey, Shargra come here and look at this!" Shanika shouted excitedly.
"Where are you?" Shargra said.
"Up here." Shargra looked up and saw her on top of the cave.
"What are you doing up there?"
"Just come take a look, will you?"
Mumbling, he clawed his way up the rock and up by her.
"So what's up then?" he gasped, panting and sweating from exhaustion.
"Look, over there on the horizon. What's that?" she asked.
"It's a big pointy rock, so what? It's got to be at least 30 miles away." Shargra said unimpressed. "You made me climb that rock for this?"
"Ok so maybe its nothing but it seemed important, so… when do we eat?" she said eagerly, ignoring his question.
"When we catch something, you want to try?" Shargra said.
"Ok, if it gets food I'll try anything!" giggled Shanika.
"Great. Then off you go." Shargra grinned.
"What! You're coming too!" said Shanika indignantly.
"That might work…but only lionesses hunt, so it won't." Shargra said.
"Sexist warthog. I'll sing," she said warily.
"Okay! I'm coming, just don't sing. Hopefully this wont take long." Shargra said.
Six hours later…
"At last we're back. Boy, whose stupid idea was it to go get food?" Shanika said.
"At least we're not hungry any more." Shargra said.
"Yeah but it took all day and we only got a bird. It's dark now." Shanika said.
He rolled his eyes. "Your powers of observation astound me. Look, we're back at the cave. Just go to sleep; tomorrow everything will be fine." he said, praying it would be true.
Looking incredibly dejected, Shanika flung herself on the ground. Shargra did the same, and closed his eyes, his head instantly filling with images of his mother, his father, their home, all he had ever known.
"I shall never be able to sleep in these conditions!" proclaimed Shanika, instantly falling into a deep sleep.
Shargra sighed and settled down again. Things would be better in the morning. He began to drift into sleep…
"Shargra?"
He frowned. "What?"
"I'm hungry."