"Hamu!" a lioness called out. She stood on the ledge of a gorge. Her voice echoed off the canyon walls.
She stood firmly on the ledge, scanning the gorge with narrow, green eyes for someone. It was mid-afternoon, and the sky above her was crystal-clear. The lioness' fur was a gold-yellow… and she was just entering her adolescent years.
She then spotted a tiny bundle of gold fur, hiding inside the gorge amongst a couple of fallen boulders.
It was a lion cub.
A rather tubby, wide-eyed, lion cub.
"Hamu!" the lioness shouted down into the gorge. "There you are! Get up here! Mother's gonna get me good if you get hurt!"
"…You'll never take me alive, Thamani!" Hamu- the supposed ball of gold- yelled back at her. His childlike voice echoed in the gorge.
Hamu then hopped down off a few rocks, attempting to run away from the lioness.
Thamani… the lioness… sighed with a growl. She didn't have time for this. The teen lioness carefully made her way down the ledge, and hopped down off a boulder onto the gorge floor below. She trotted over towards the rock pile her brother was hiding amongst.
Then she began to examine it.
That pile of rock wasn't here yesterday. It looked relatively new.
Some rocks from the heap of rubble clumbled and rolled to the ground. Hamu hopped off the rubble pile with his pudgy little paws… and jumped down onto the gorge floor with a grunt.
He then spun around, discovering his sister coming over to him.
"Yaaah!" the cub wailed. Hamu whirled around and attempted to escape by leaping over quite a small rock that was in his way- but landed square on top of it, unable to move. Hamu squirmed, trying to climb up… but his access body weight happened to be a problem.
Thamani scoffed. She padded up behind her brother in a hurry.
"…You can't keep wandering off every time mother calls for a bath," she said. "You don't think you're being a little dramatic?"
Hamu's head lifted up, squeezing his eyes shut.
"…I'd rather die than take another bath!"
Thamani's brows narrowed. She suddenly tried to grab Hamu's tail with her paw, but Hamu frantically scratched and clawed his way over the rock with a whimper, flipping over with a flop on the other side.
Without thinking twice, Hamu then decided to crawl inside a dark, small opening under the rock pile. A few loose pieces of rubble in the heap shifted.
"Hamu!" Thamani yelled. "You twit! You're gonna get hurt!"
"-AAAHH!" Hamu screamed.
Thamani jumped.
Little Hamu then flipped out of the dark opening backwards. He accidentally flung himself back, and went toppling over a few pieces of rock. But came back up… rather frightened.
"AAH! AAAH! AAGGH!" he screamed. Thamani suddenly went baffled.
"What?"
"Dead guy! Dead guy!" Hamu cried out. He suddenly hopped over to his sister's side, hugging her foreleg.
Thamani lifted a brow in amusement… and smirked skeptically.
"…What?" she said, pleasantly baffled. Thamani lowered her head, and began to enter the small opening in the rubble pile to investigate.
"NO!" Hamu yelped. "DON'T! Who knows what he's died of!" He then fearfully ran up behind his sister.
"Uh- neurotoxic venom! Food poisoning! Rabies!"
Thamani withdrew her head out of the dark opening with a scowl.
"He's not dead, you moron," she deadpanned. "He's still breathing. I bet you he got caught in a rockslide."
Thamani then proceeded to stick her head back inside the small opening, digging out a few loose pieces of rock with her muzzle.
Hamu simply watched, letting out a nervous laugh.
"Oh. Rockslide. Heh. Y-yeah. That's not contagious."
He then frowned, glancing around at his surroundings… significantly paranoid.
Thamani then found warm fur under the heap of rocks. She bite down on it, dragging it out of the opening, and exposing it into the sunlight. It was an unconscious, elderly lion. His mane was black, and had russet-brown fur. A scar was visible over his shut, left eye… and a brutal, open wound took up most of the right corner of his head. It was leaking dark fluid, which couldn't be anything other than blood.
It was quite nauseating.
Hamu immediately retched, slapping a small paw over his mouth. His cheeks puffed out and in.
Thamani blinked and glanced over at her brother. "You're such a baby. It just looks like a concussion."
"-I bet he's infected!" Hamu shouted. "You're not contaminating me with those germs. Thamani! What're you doin'? Just leave him for the hyenas!"
Thamani was tugging on the old lion's mane, inching him out from under the rock heap with all her strength.
"-He's a memmer of our speshies…" she murmured through her teeth. "That'd be inhumane."
Thamani let loose of the lion, laying him along the rubble. He lay silent.
The teenager just stared down at him.
"We should tell Mother…" Thamani said. "…Tell her what we found."
"Oh… no," Hamu groaned, rolling his eyes. "You know how worked up mother gets with this kinda stuff."
Thamani looked up, and hopped off the rock she stood on, landing on the gorge floor.
"Here," she said, turning the other way down the gorge. "Stay here and watch the guy. I'll go and fetch her."
"What?" Hamu burst out. His jaw fell ajar. "Gross! Don't leave me here with him!"
Thamani stopped. Then turned back around slyly... lifting a thin brow.
"…Would you like to go and fetch mother instead?" she said- smiling mischievously.
Hamu's face dropped.
The thought sank in for him… realizing the risk he would be taking at the possibility of being abducted for bath time.
Hamu smiled cheesily back at his sister.
"Uh… no, I'll be sure keep the guy some company…" he said timidly.
Thamani turned the other way again, running off down the other end of the gorge. As she prodded off, Hamu looked back at the old lion, eyeing him gingerly. The elderly lion simply lay there out in the sun.
Hamu scrunched up his face, appearing deeply disgusted.
The mood had to be lightened. Just so Hamu could contain himself.
"So… uh," Hamu began… easing his face. He cleared out his throat casually.
"…You like… rock-climbing?"
