A Change of Plans [PRIVATE: AC & The Whistlerify]

[TheWhistlerify]

Marini smiled slightly as she noticed she had some sort of an affect on Tanga, and that he seemed to be a little less restless than just a moment ago. Even if it didn't fully help, which Marini didn't know if it did, she was glad that she could help even by the slightest. And now that he seemed to be less disturbed, she allowed herself to drift off as she remained cuddled to Tanga's warm fur

[AustralianChaos]

In the end, Tanga's recent trauma did cause a restless night, and as the sun rose up over the horizon the next morning, he was already up, sitting near his parents den, watching the sunrise from the edge of the small wood the den was hidden in, letting his thoughts wander as he tried to make sense of yesterday.

Tanga had managed to get a few precious minutes sleep here and there, but for the most part it was a long, sleepless night, and those small naps had not been restful at all, plagued with nightmares, mostly relating to Sarabi and himself, but a few had even involved Scar, that black leopard that had nearly killed him...and a couple had even involved Marini, much to Tanga's terror when he woke up. He relaxed every time he found her sleeping peacefully by his side, her warmth against his side, but could not be completely put at ease.

The nightmares had helped awaken Tanga to a startling realisation...if Marini was suddenly taken from him, he knew it would be nearly impossible for him to live on. She had been the one, sole rock in his life, the one constant he could count on to always be there when he needed her. Despite being reunited with his family, and being happy for that second chance, Tanga knew that his love and dependency on them paled in comparison to his feelings for Marini. He loved her with all his heart, and he needed her...needed her there to keep him company, let him know she would never leave his side.

As Tanga watched the sunrise, a glimmer of movement caught his eye, and his startled to see Sarabi coming out of the ravine where the others were sleeping. As Tanga took an involuntary step back, despite being a long distance from the aging lioness, he wondered what she was doing up so early. But the question fled from his mind, along with almost all conscious thought, as Sarabi turned and stared straight at him. Tanga froze, locked in fear, as she stared at him for what felt like an eternity. Her eyes seemed to show surprise at seeing him, almost as if she had expected him to have fled during the night, which he probably would have done if it weren't for Marini and Uhuru. But eventually she pulled her gaze away from Tanga, giving him one last angry glare, letting him know nothing had changed between them from last night, before making a snort that Tanga could see, but not hear, and stalking off, most likely looking for something to hunt down for today's meal.

As Sarabi stalked off, Tanga let out a breath he did not know he'd been holding, and the involuntary shaking he had brought under control last night started again, feeling like he had just run four laps of the hill flat-out. He knew now, without a doubt, that he was scared of Sarabi, and doubted he would ever be able to approach her, much less talk to her, ever again.

[TheWhistlerify]

Simba woke up, as early as he usual did. This was the time of he morning he would set out on his daily jog around the hillside, and the early morning was when he mostly took off, since it wasn't hot, and since Nala was usually asleep at that time. She was used to him gone by the time she woke up, and didn't mind it at all, so he found it best if he did his jogs in the morning.

He started getting up, completly forgetting of his broken paw when a slight wave of pain went straight through it as he tried to pull himself up, reminding him that his paw was broken. He sighed when the pain went away, he would obviously need some time to get used to this new position he was placed into. Instead he went back to his cuddled up position by Nala's side, keeing his paw close to his chest so that he could lay close to her without forcing the broken paw to come in touch with anything.

-

Uhuru also woke up around the same time as Simba did. Despite how AC probably expected me to wake Marini up, she's a heavy sleeper. The little cub yawned slightly and stretched up before hopping off from her fathers fuzzy mane. She intended on going for a drink by the waterhole before deciding what she should do today, like she always did. When she walked outside of the den, she could see Tanga sitting outside. She wondered why he was up at such an early time, usually when she woke up he was still asleep... and by Marini's side, gross! She couldn't understand anything about relationships, like most of the cubs her age and found it just wierd.

She approached Tanga, not spotting Sarabi who was already out of sight, and doing something Uhuru probably wouldn't care about. "Hey Tanga." she said, again stretching after a good night's sleep in Busara's mane

[AustralianChaos]

Tanga jumped a little while Uhuru's voice pulled him out of his thoughts of Sarabi, which caused him to sigh when he realised who was greeting him. He knew he was going to be easily startled like this for a while yet, and hated himself for it. "Hey, sis," he greeted warmly, ruffling up the fur on top of her head with his paw as an added gesture to the greeting, before turning back to keep watching the sunrise. "What's got you up so early?"

----------

As Sarabi hunted, stalking a zebra, she thought on how she had seen Tanga before. She had expected Tanga to be gone this morning, whether because he ran away of his own accord, or because his parents had seen sense and removed him before he could become a danger to others...but he was still here, although it looked like her actions yesterday had succeeded in creating some sort of rift between him and everyone else, judging by his solitude this morning.

As she finally succeeded in bringing down the striped animal, and began dragging it back towards the hillside where everyone always ate, her thoughts kept going. Technically, if Tanga's parents were too blind to see his unstable nature and remove him, then there was nothing she could do about it. But there was one thing Sarabi knew for sure, Tanga had to stay away from Simba now, and if the aging lioness had her way, he would stay away from Nala, too...she knew there was nothing she could do to stop Marini from hanging around Tanga, as she was already far too close to him.

[TheWhistlerify]

Uhuru growled playfully as Tanga's paw, which was the size of her head landed on her head. She set herself free and grabbed his hand with her four legs and began to wrestle it, growling cubbishly and chewing on her brother's fingers, "I'm always up this early." she said, before returning to her brother's fingers

[AustralianChaos]

Tanga gave his first proper smile in ages as Uhuru proceeded to wrestle with his paw. He ignored the slight pain he received as she chewed on his paw toes, knowing she wasn't doing any harm to him, and simply started laughing. Then he remembered the time Uhuru had tried to play with him, and had hurt him, when his old wounds had still been fresh. But now they were mostly healed, and Tanga received no pain from them any more.

"You wanna play, do you?" he asked, adding his own playful growl to Uhuru's, before grabbing her with both paws, balancing on his hind legs for a split-second, before letting himself tumble backwards onto the grass, pulling Uhuru with him, causing his sister to end up standing on his belly. Feeling only minimal discomfort from the fresh scars on his chest, Tanga then proceeded to try and free his trapped paw, by tickling his sister. "Is this fun?" he asked playfully, grinning at his sister.

He was completely caught up in the moment, and all thoughts of Sarabi and her hostile attitude had vanished for the moment as he wrestled and tickled his sister, although he did not put every effort into it...he did not want to hurt her, after all.

[TheWhistlerify]

Uhuru wasn't aware of it, but she was very ticklish. She only understood that when Tanga began to tickle her, "Stop!" she yelled playfully, her cubbish grol turning into laughter as she lost grip of Tanga's second paw

[AustralianChaos]

Tanga heard Uhuru's cries for him to stop, but also heard her laughs, and decided that he would not stop...yet. With his other forepaw free from Uhuru's chewing, he starting tickling her with that one, too. "Stop?" he asked, his voice full of exagerrated innocence. "But you're having so much fun!"

But he soon he, too, fell into a massive fit of laughter, and couldn't keep the tickle session up. Finally freeing Uhuru from his tickling session, he just laughed uncontrollably, unable to do anything more, he was having more fun than he had in a long time.

[TheWhistlerify]

Once Uhuru fell Tanga loose hold of her, she quickly rolled back onto her feet, taking the oppertunity she was some-how given and again jumping at one of her brother's fore-legs. She really was having a great time, and Tanga's taking advantage of her smaller size only made her grow even more playful

[AustralianChaos]

As Uhuru grabbed at his foreleg once more, Tanga let her, but took the oppourtunity to wrap his other foreleg around his little sister's small frame, in a strange mix of a warm hug and playful wrestle, still laughing uncontrollably as the two of them continued their little game, Tanga still stuck on his back as his sister climbed all over him.

----------

Kali, now awake, left the den, stretching to remove the small cramps from her muscles, before turning and spotting Tanga and Uhuru through the trees. At first, she barely understood what she was seeing...but when she realised that Tanga was, despite his bad day yesterday, having a good time, a smile lit up the mother's muzzle as she sighed at the sight. she briefly considered calling Busara so he could see the cute spectacle, but refrained at the last second, deciding to let him sleep...along with Marini. The two of them would get up in their own time...and she thought Tanga and Uhuru could use this little time to themselves, to have fun and bond, as they always should have done.