V

Benighted Water

One sun, when the three siblings were growling and meowing, rolling around and batting at one another, Kasha squealed, "Can't catch me!"

"Wanna bet?" Meersha replied, excitedly as she leapt from a large rock, landing on her brother and they tumbled around sideways. "Ha! Got'ch ya again!" she cried, standing over her brother trumphantly.

"Pinned again by your own sister!" Banjija laughed as he pounced from a near tuff of golden grass.

"Yeah? Well you try pinning her!" Kasha snapped back.

Meersha only giggled as she scrambled off her brother and began to charge at the other one.

She was a small puff ball, but a wild and strong one at that. Meersha had a beautiful golden coat, the same as Simba - if anything, she looked like a girl Simba. Brave and mischievous as him, too. Her eyes were still a baby blue and developing a perminant color, but she - more like Nala - was the best at wrestling, and so easily pinned her brothers and other cubs. Usually, her playfullness ended her in trouble, having pounced someone while one of the elders were telling a story, or having been discovered rolling about in a near puddle of mud.

Kasha, the oldest, looked much like his mother. Like her, he was slim and tall, especially for a male cub. His eyes had already turned an unusual crimson-brown, and the tuff of his tail was the same mixture. This little one, blanketed in thin, golden fur, could always be seen as the leader of the trio. He was the one to hault a fight in its tracks. To stop an argument before it started. Of course, most of the time one could and would easily spot the blanket of his presumptions that so wrapped him up at the thought of being the future leader of the White-Feather Pride.

Banjija was a brownish gold, but resembled his father in many other ways. The most distinct feature of his physical form were his ears; both circlular, but instead, ending in a strange point where a few red strands would stick up in the air, making him look similar to a bob cat or lynx. Indeed his personality was different than that of a normal lion's. Like his sister, he caused much of his own trouble. Unlike Meersha, though, he was keen to getting his own way, even if that meant cracking the rules of his parents, and the pride itself. A troublemaker, but one who loved it, and was generally not sorry as his sister usually was.

The three were playing near the southern borders of the territory. Luckily their mother was near by, basking in the sun alongside Bayna and Chusuka - whos' cubs were back at the nersery - and a cubless lioness named Tanda.

"I'm surprised you let your cubs out this far," commented Tanda, tail swishing in the overgrown grass.

"Yeah, especially 'cause of the rogues," agreed Bayna as her ears twitched.

Kinara rolled her eyes as Chusuka nodded. "I remember when you wouldn't let me out of your sight," she recalled.

"Oh c'mon, they're right over there. And they're in my sight." Kinara growled, a tone of annoyance overlapping any warmth in her voice right then.

Those few yards away, down a small hill, the cubs continued to romp and play, kicking and pawing at each other with an ocassional nip. It was Banjija who then whispered something to his brother, and the two nodded. Before Meersha could react, they bounded away, their cackles filling the air. She snarled and ran after, only to see each of them sitting upon a flat rock, near yet another hill - or small cliff was more like it, since the land behind the rock dropped straight down a few feet.

"Can't get us!" she heard Kasha call as he stuck his tongue out, blowing a rasbery.

"Yeah, slow poke!" Banjija meowed out.

Huffing, she abruptly leapt, only to fly right passed as they each ducked. The cub went tumbling through the air, down the back of the cliff behind the rock that her two brothers had been on. Before anything else happened, her face met the ground with a hard smack. Getting up, she staggered with blurred vision, only to shake it - as well as the throbbing sensation in her skull - away and look clearly up at her siblings who were now bawling with laughter, rolling over on the rock. Once more, she huffed and started away, further south, leaving Kasha and Banjija behind as she reflected on hurt feelings with a few mumbles.

"Oh, c'mon!" yelled Banjija. "Don't be such a zebra!"

"Meersha, wait!" pleaded her other brother.

Meersha ignored the insult, plotting her revenge, when suddenly, her ears perked and her eyes landed upon a large patch of green grass. She tilted her head at the sight for, in all of her short life, she had only seen blades of gold and yellow. Quickly snatching this rare opportunity, she crawled into the green tuff curiously, her nose twitching. What lie hidden in this patch, made her gasp. Right in the cub's view, was a small, swirling pool of crystal, clear water. Perhaps it was the cool shivers this pool seemed to coerce down her spine which caused the intake of breath. Or the fact that it had not rained lately, and with no mud encircling its fine borders, it was made clear that this was not an ordinary piece of nature. Whatever it was that made her gasp, she placed her small paws on the edge of the puddle, gazing in awe and fascination at its presence.

"Kasha! Banjija! Meersha!" her mother's voice rang through the night air. "I told you to stay in my sight! Come back this instant!"

But Meersha ignored the lioness's verbal distress, now gentling nosing the surface of the cool liquid. Shivering, Meersha could feel a second chill creep up her back as her fur bristled - something she had never done before. The young lion could do nothing else while the water began to spin and swirl, churning even faster than before. For a moment, she even thought it produced light, yet it soon turned dark, giving the puddle a bleek, eluminating sensation that came right into her, causing her heart to race and her breathing to increase.

"Meersha!" Kinara roared out, closer now, a tone of urgency in her voice.

Still, the cub watched. A second later, something happened: a picture appeared in the water. It was of a frosty night, out in a far off savannah land where the clouds seemed to dip down to accompany the grass. The moon was high and full, though, and somehow was able to shine its reflecting light from the sun, slicing right through the fog. Then, without warning, there was a cat-like creature. Black as the night itself, it snuck around, in any bush, behind any tree it could. Meersha gulped and quivered at the moving pictures in the water, yearning to take a step back, yet her legs wouldn't listen. Suddenly, the unusual animal looked to her! It was as if the whole thing was taking place, right in the water itself. The crimson eyes narrowed as it creeped closer and closer to the surface where she herself was exposed...

"MEERSHA WHITE-FEATHER!" someone abruptly snarled behind her.

Meersha jumped in surprise and tumbled backwards, only to find herself staring up at the angry face of Kinara as she landed on her back. For a moment, the young one pondered about what was scarier: the eyes of the creature in the water, or the eyes of her own mother right then.

"Mama, I - " she started desperately, scrambling to find words. But Kinara grabbed her and turned around, heading up a sloping part of the small cliff and padding up the knoll behind it, muttering muffled words about how her cub's father was going to hear about her wandering, and how she should be ashamed.

"Meersha," her father growled lowly. "I cannot beleive you wandered away like that."

"But, Dad," said Meersha, defensively. "It was Kasha and Banjija's fault!"

Ashuma sighed and shook his head, before replying, more calmly, "How so?"

"They, um...They made me fall down the cliff!"

Ashuma blinked and looked to Kinara, who sighed as well, turning to look down at her other cubs.

"What?" they both asked at the same time, innocently.

"What happened?" Ashuma firmly questioned, demanding an answer.

They were all now at the den, away from the pride. It was near evening as the sun began to fall, leaving streaks of red, orange and pink in the darkening sky.

"This was so not our fault," growled Banjija, glaring at his sister.

"You didn't answer me." his father replied.

"She was being annoying so we led her near the cliff." exclaimed Kasha, quietly. "She jumped and fell down it...But!" he said, before his parents could react. "she was the one who wandered off!"

Kinara and Ashuma both turned to Meersha, who's ears drooped. "But...but I saw something. I saw grass that was green!"

Her mother, for a second time, sighed and leaned down to nose her. "Yes. Once in a while you'll see patches of green, honey. But you don't go wandering off!"

"But," she went on. "It was in the green grass!"

Ashuma asked curiously, "What was?"

"I...um..." she attempted to the best way to describe it. "Water...Uh...it was like showing me something...!"

"Look, you just don't go off by yourself." Kinara stated.

"You don't believe me, do you!" she cried, frusterated.

"Why would we believe a zebra?" Banjija laughed, though he quickly regretted it.

Ashuma snarled and nipped at his son, and the cub instently fell silent as his siblings smirked.

"Even if...water shows you something, you don't go off by yourself." Ashuma then ordered. "Is that clear?"

Meersha gave up in trying to argue and convince her parents, and instead nodded, trying to look guilty as she stared at the ground and pawing at a pebble.

"Good."

With that, the leader began to make his way back to the pride. It was at the top of a small hill that he haulted in his tracks, looking back at them, questioningly. Kinara nodded.

"Let's go," she said to her cubs.

"Huh?" asked Kasha. "But what about the den?"

"It's time to move to the main den in the middle of the territory, with the rest of the pride. All the cubs are moving there now," she exclaimed, voice now warm as she grinned.

The three excitedly trailed behind their mother, who followed Ashuma. When they arrived at the main den, perhaps an hour or so later, they curled up with each other to keep warm, surrounded by the other lionesses and their cubs. A choir of crickets sung outside, and there was a light breeze lacing through the lands, only to be stopped by the den itself. This den was more of a cave, and was dug out of the easternmost part of the great knoll in the middle of the territory.