[Closed] Kopa's Captivity

[AustralianChaos]

Tanga laughed openly as Marini once more jumped on his back, using his mane to hold herself up. "Don't, worry, Rini...I've never broken a promise to you, have I?" he asked with mock innocence, knowing what Marini's answer would be. As leader of the pride, sometimes he had been forced to break a promise to play with his daughter because something had come up in the pride. But at least it was not often, and his daughter was usually very quick to forgive him when it happened.

"If you hang on, I'll carry you to the waterhole," he added, continuing to chuckle as he stayed by Kopa's side, rather than walking ahead of the cub. He wanted to show Kopa that they were all equals here in this pride, and that he only used his status as pride leader when he really needed to, not as an everyday title.

Leaving Marini to decide for herself whether she wanted a ride in his mane, or to walk on her own four paws, Tanga turned his attenton back to Kopa, who looked a good deal hapier now that he had talked a little with Marini. "So, Kopa, if there's anything you want to know about me, or this place...feel free to ask whatever's on your mind. You must be a little confused right now, so ask anything you want, and I'll do my best to help." he stole a glance over his shoulder at his daughter, smiling at her. "I'm sure there's a few things Rini could help you with as well."

[TheWhistlerify]

Marini stayed on her father, deciding that he should 'face the consequences' of not letting her run ahead as she playfully bit his ear.
"Yeah, Kopa, anything you wanna know." she mumbled playfully, her dad's ear in her mouth

[KiarasMate]

Upholding his pleasant looking expression, Kopa dipped his head downwards briefly in a show of respect for Tanga giving him permission to drink from the waterhole. The black maned lion's approach to making Kopa feel as though everyone stood as equals within his lands was starting to rub off on the young cub but uprooting his formal ways was going to take a lot more than a simple word of reassurance. While he wanted to believe that everything that had happened to him today, was sincere and everyone he had met was just as kind as they had come off as being, Kopa's trust still remained tainted at the paws of Zira. Giving his company the benefit of the doubt however, Kopa retorted to Tanga's reply in an appreciative tone as he flashed a thankful looking smile.

”Thank you Sir. I'm grateful for your kindness.”

Kopa was right about to dash after Marini, when he spotted the cream colored cub once more, leaping into her father's mane, prompting the golden furred male to adjust his gate in order to fall back in line next to Tanga, as he had been relying on Marini to lead the way. Even though she had told him the general direction to which the waterhole was, Kopa, by no means, felt confident enough to venture on ahead of his company. As it appeared as though it would still be a little while longer before they would even reach their desired destination as Kopa himself couldn't even see the waterhole yet, most likely due to the hill obstructing his view, the youngster's ears twitched again as Tanga presented Kopa with another question, followed by Marini, who simply echoed her father's words while having a muzzle full of his ear. Pondering over what was being asked of him, several questions did happen to surface in Kopa's mind, the former of which, seemed to be the most intriguing to the golden furred cub as he thoughtfully responded to Tanga, his expression shifting into that of cub like curiosity as the words left his maw.

”How did you and Heshima end up in these lands Sir? Have you two always known each other since you were cubs?” Making certain not to leave Marini out of the loop, as she had seemingly volunteered to field any questions he might have as well, Kopa asked the only logical thing that popped into his head, given the fact that Marini was in fact, the daughter of Tanga and Heshima, the rulers of the lands Kopa now resided in. ”And seeing how your parents are like the king and queen of this place, does that make you a princess Rini?”

[TheWhistlerify]

Marini had never thought about the fact she was the pride leader's daughter. "I don't know..." she said letting go of her dad's ear, "I never really thought about that, but I think so." she said, still sitting in her dad's fuzzy mane.

[AustralianChaos]

Tanga 's smiled lessened as Kopa posed his first question about his history in the enclosure, and with his current mate. But it quickly returned as the idea of royalty was brought up.

With a rather hesitant smile, Tanga decided to answer Kopa. "We usually don't go by 'king' or 'queen' in this place, even if it might be what we are. As Heshima said, we're a little less formal." He gave another warm smile to his mate, before releasing a little sigh, knowing his next statement was going to get Marini really excitement, if she wasn't already. "But yeah, I guess you could say that Rini is a princess of sorts."

"As for where we came from, and whether I've known Heshima all my life, that's a different, and much longer story." He gave Marini another sweet smile, knowing her curiosity about this subject would come up fast...again. Tanga had always managed to worm his way out of telling his daughter about where he came from, but he knew the time would have to come soon...and maybe it would help Kopa to know that he was not alone in what he was facing right now. "I'm sure Rini's probably bursting to hear it, so I guess I'll explain it tonight, after dinner."

"But I will tell you this for now; I did not grow up with Heshima...we met after I'd grown up." He gave his mate another loving smile at that, his mind going over several of the many memories they shared together. Ever since he had arrived at the enclosure she had been there for him, and he had done his best to return the favour...with interest, although Marini now demanded most of his attention. "But I like I said, it's a long story."

He looked up, noticing that the were closing in on the waterhole, which had finally come into view as they made their way over the top of the small rise. He gave Marini an accusing smile, as if to ask her: I assume you're going to want to race Kopa there now that he can see it?. But despite the look, he made no move to stop her from doing just that...maybe Kopa could use a little fun anyway, after everything he had been through.

[TheWhistlerify]

Marini jumped off her dad and landed next to Kopa. Her sneaky smile across his face, "Race ya!" she said laughing and took off

[BlitzRogue]

Coming across the normal sleeping quarters near The Hill, from which the entire enclosure was visible on a clear day, Arria managed to spot a lone lion lazing in the shade. She quickly recognized Shani, "Looks like he's almost as happy as Grunge about whatever it is that's happened." Arria thought playfully. "Hm, I wonder if he's in a good enough mood to tell me what happened."

As if in direct response to her thoughts, though more likely a reaction to her pawsteps, Shani's ear perked up in as close to "interest" as Arria ever saw in the ever-bored lion. By the time she reached his resting spot, he had gotten up and taken up the same, undetermined course that Arria was currently following. Before she could ask him if he had any wisdom to instill about the direction she could take to find the others, he took the liberty of explaining (if not, degrading) the situation.

Arria laughed out loud in response to Shani's description of the "king" and "queen's" behavior around cubs. "You're so mean!" she added to her outburst. Being the only lions in the enclosure to have one of their own, it was neither surprising to hear nor difficult to piece together the situation with her own imagination.

"So we've got a new cub, uh?" Arria began, a playful smirk growing on her face, "Is it a guy or girl? Have we figured out the name yet? Fluffy, perhaps?

"Regardless of whether we need to be there or not, I'd kinda like to meet them. You don't have to come if you don't want to... I'm sure you've got tons of better things to do, am I right?" Arria grinned once more.

[YFWE]

Walking along with the small group of lions as they made their way toward the waterhole, Heshima felt slightly unneeded as she walked slightly behind her mate, daughter and newest pride addition, not that she minded much. Tanga almost always had everything under control. When it came to affairs such as these, Tanga was always on top of things, and he was so good with cubs, as exemplified by his handling of Marini. Heshima could do nothing more but stand back and allow Kopa to become more and more acquainted with her family.

After all, it would be important to cultivate a good friendship between Kopa and the rest of the pride early on. If this was the case, chances were that when Kopa grew to be much older, he would only continue to be as contributory and pleasant a lion as he seemed to be as a cub. At the very least, Heshima was interested in keeping Kopa more civil than some of the more surly members of their pride, who still were nowhere to be seen.

Heshima's attention snapped back to their conversation at the mention of her name. Seeing Tanga smiling at her and speaking to Kopa of how the two of them had met, Heshima returned a quick smile, nuzzling her mate once.

Heshima laughed as Marini raced off toward the waterhole. "Rini, be careful," she called after her daughter. "I don't want you to trip and fall like last time and I'm sure you don't want that either!"

[TheWhistlerify]

"I won't fall!" Marini said looking at her mom. Noticing Kopa was still walking behind she shouted at him, "Kopa come on!" she laughed and ran again

[Mike]

"Mean?" Shani asked with an air of wounded pride, "I would never. It's just that they're not acting like a real King or Queen, more like Head Babysitter. I mean, who says we have to let the membership of our pride be dictated from the outside? Misfits like this new one, and I think it's a male, are just dumped in here and we drown them in adoration before we even get to know them, and certainly before they earn it. A King needsto be reserved and dignified."

As much as dignity was important to Shani, he knew that he himself didn't always succeed in that respect. It didn't stop him from trying though, and he always kept his head held high even when those around him found him bothersome or tiring. Shani picked up his pace slightly and started off in the direction he'd heard Heshima take a short time earlier, beckoning Arria to follow. In the Enclosure no two points were ever very far apart, and it wouldn't be long before they could see Tanga and company. In the meantime Shani waited for Arria's answer to his rather provocative opinions.