Malka almost laughed as he watched Lana and Julia clap in genuine applause at the rather talented macaque. "Well, what do you know? It's dinner, and a show." Lana said, her hypnotic voice turning Malka's insides to fire just from the mere act of speaking. He considered simply running up to her and begging for her paw in marriage, but he also prided himself on his self-control, which was one of the many things he could honestly claim to have over his favored half-brother. As he continued to watch, he noticed that Akato had appeared beside his two female friends.
"And who would have thought there were other musical foods besides beans." Akato attempted, and perhaps the two lionesses were in a good mood for they laughed along with him. In fact, the only one not laughing was the terrified young monkey in front of them, as he tried to scream to sound the alarm. To Malka's amusement, he was too frozen even for that. "Li-Li-Li-Li-Li-Li-" That was all the macaque could manage, and that made Lana and Julia giggle even more.
"Oh, oh! I love guessing games! I think I know what he's trying to say." Akato said, and then assumed a thinking posture before he started 'playing'. "Lemons! Limes! Lettuce! Lubricant!" Akato called out in quick succession, and the last one earned an eyebrow raise from Julia. However, Lana simply called Akato back. "I know how to fix this." She then grabbed the still-stuttering monkey, picked him up and pulled his tail, his stuttering speeding up each time she pulled. Malka, realizing that he might very well give away his hiding spot, couldn't help but laugh at the scene he was witnessing.
"LIONS!" The Macaque finally screamed after the third time his tail was pulled, and as soon as Lana set him down, he bolted right back to what was presumably his colony with what Malka was swore was the speed of lightning as Lana, Julia and Akato broke out in laughter. Lana looked behind her towards a rustling shrub. "Hey, Jai. Now watch this." She said, and Malka knew she was speaking to her baby brother. What he didn't know was if he was actually in that shrub or not. In any case, she lead Julia and Akato towards the tree that the diminutive monkey ran, and as Malka discreetly followed behind, perhaps in an almost involuntary trance, he was able to spot the macaque as he made it back to his colony.
"Aunt Miriam! We have to-" The callow monkey started, but was interrupted by his ornery aunt by that name. "Mordecai, you're supposed to be looking out for LIONS!" Beratement turned to panic quite quickly as soon as the matriarch noticed that her nephew was being pursued by 2 lionesses and a male, and at that Malka swore the entire colony froze for a good 3 seconds before panicking and running around. "Wow. Look at them go." Akato pointed out. "And that's just the way I like them." Lana said, as the young sentry named Mordecai attempted to put on the brakes, but a few more of his troopmates ran into him and caused him to be forced against Lana's nose. "Scrambled." Oh, how Malka wished it he that Lana was tasting when she licked Mordecai hard enough to lift him off the ground for a bit.
Never did I ever think I'd be jealous of a primate, Malka thought as he felt the wind change. Not that it was going to distract the three sub-adult lions who were chasing the troop of monkeys all around, batting them into one another each chance they got. However, eventually the game of theirs had to end, as all of the monkeys were eventually able to make it back their tree. While they had taken their fun at playing monkey-ball, they had failed to account for the fact that macaques could turn a the inside of a tree into an elaborate lair, one that only a small animal could inside of. After a few seconds of pawing around and attempting to find any sign of life within the two entrances in the tree, Lana and Julia both just shrugged, realizing the fun's over.
"Heehee! Jai was right. It never gets old." Lana said, and now that Malka was a little closer he could now tell that she had definitely eaten a few koalas beforehand. Which was a cause of concern given Icarus' decree against that particular choice of food, but Malka only had a few seconds to ponder that when he heard Lana speak up. "You can come out now, Malka."
As she said that, Malka's fur bristled in embarrassment, and as he realized that she was looking right at him, he did his best to play it cool and then stepped out from under the brush that he was hiding in. "So that's how you play monkeyball. Looks like fun." Now able to actually see and hear him, Akato and Julia joined Lana in staring right at Malka. Given Malka's size, ebony-brown mane and yellow-orange fur, Akato and Julia began to wonder how they didn't notice Malka was there and likely watching them the whole time. More importantly, they wondered why no one alerted them as to the presence of another lion, friendly or not. "Oh, hi Malka. So glad you could drop by. Did David and Kyabe tell you where to find us?" Julia tested, but she quite possibly already knew the answer. "Well, actually, I didn't even see or hear either of them, really. I was… well, I was distracted by how you guys were at this game." Malka said, praying to the spirits that Lana didn't notice his prurient observation of her, but if she did he wouldn't give her the chance to react to it as another subject reared it's fortunate presence. "Wait, Kyabe?" Malka asked, genuinely not knowing who that was. "You sure you aren't talking about Ni?" Malka inquired further. Julia simply giggled at how wrong Malka was about that, and it was moments like this that made Malka truly believe she and Lana were cousins. They both certainly knew how to make males melt with their laughs and voices alone, that much is certain.
"Oh, you haven't met him yet. Well, Kyabe is the father of my cubs." Julia said, batting her eyes seductively in what Malka was going to assume was his direction. However, the next line out of his mouth betrayed his disbelief. "Cubs?"