[PRIVATE: DGFone & Thewhistlerify]

[DGFone]

Amuza shrugged. "We do whatever we feel like," he said, "walk around, run around," he grinned at Lina, "just sit and talk. It depends on what we feel like doing." He could almost read Lina's mind as for what she was thinking. "Yeah, so we still fool around often enough like before," he added, "after all, it is fun."

---

Umeme motioned for Muroki to get over to them. "I asked: do you think that this is a nice place to be in?" She found it slightly funny how Muroki was exploring the area on his own while she was the one talking to Hatari. But now that she had his attention, she wouldn't mind if he joined in the conversation as well.

[TheWhistlerify]

Lina chuckled, "I never said it wasn't fun." she didn't come here with the thought that Amuza and Shrike had completely abandoned their cubhood hobby, but she was wondering whether the pranks they would pull on each other and the ridiculous dares they had each other do softened as they grew up. "What kind of fooling around do you do?"

---

This time Muroki made sure to listen to what Umeme said. "Yes, I think it's very nice." he said as he moved over to join them. If it hadn't been for Gakuru who lived there, he would have asked Umeme whether she would like the idea of them staying there every once in a while for a couple of days or for even longer periods. Because it was this close to where their pride lived, it would have allowed them to see the others as often as they wished.

[DGFone]

Amuza grinned again. "Oh, you know, the usual," he muttered.

"Racing, fighting, pinning one another," Shrike added, "it's why we wanted to see if you wanted to try and pin us. Because we have been practicing, but you on the other hand might have gotten worse." He was already suspecting that Lina was very stubborn about not trying to pin them because she knew that she was much worse now than before.

---

Seeing that Muroki was with them now, Umeme turned back to Hatari. "So you like living here?" she asked, "as in, what do you do in your spare time? And how is hunting? What kind of prey do you catch?" She hoped that her questions were not too much, but she was curious how a grown, lone, lion like Hatari lived out here all on his own.

[TheWhistlerify]

Lina raised an eyebrow, "I have been practicing by hunting. You on the other hand were probably just 'hunting' each other, and don't take it personally but you won't really get anywhere if your 'practice' is running around and pouncing at each other."[/b] she usually wasn't someone who taunted, but if Amuza was actually taking it that far she didn't mind doing the same. Beside, sometime it was just so easy to give it right back to Amuza or Shrike that it was quite hard to help it.

---

Gakuru didn't really find Umeme's question as annoying as she thought he might find them. "Well, I usually lie around all day, because there isn't much to do or anybody to talk to." while where he lived was an appropriate living spot, it didn't have as much prey as the territory he was forbidden to enter had. "Hunting can be quite rough because there isn't always pray to be found around here, so I can't really choose what to catch." Sometimes he was even forced to actually infiltrate the pride's territory so to not starve, but he tried as hard as he could to avoid doing that.

[DGFone]

Amuza glared at Lina. "It doesn't really matter what you hunt, and if it lives afterwards or not," he replied coldly, "I don't think there's much difference between Shrike and I practicing on each other, and you hunting prey."

Delano looked at Amuza and Lina, feeling slightly worried. He hoped that the teasing wouldn't escalate into something worse, but he didn't like the tone Amuza was using.

---

Umeme thought about where the prey was when they last hunted yesterday. "There should be more prey in this area soon enough," she said, "I believe that they're migrating over here slowly." If it were true, then Hatari will be able to hunt easier, and this place will be an even better home than it already is.

[TheWhistlerify]

Lina didn't know whether Amuza truly believed that pinning down another lion was as easy as pinning down a zebra that was running around and randomly kicking or whether it was just his pride that made him carry on with their rather stupid argument. "There is." she also couldn't remember Amuza being so short-tempered.

---

Gakuru couldn't help but agree that having herds migrate closer to his area was good news. However he then realized that it might be bad news. "I hope your pride doesn't end up expanding here because of that..." if there would be less prey to the point of them having a difficult time hunting, he feared that they would end up following the herds which will force him to leave.

[DGFone]

Amuza felt like there was no point in continuing the argument. Lina didn't believe him, and he doubted that she was going to change her mind simply because of anything that he can tell her. So even though he really wanted to continue on and try to convince her otherwise, he simply sighed and let the matter drop. He tried to think of something else to say, but his mind was coming up blank, so he simply remained silent, watching Lina, trying to figure out what she was thinking.

---

Umeme shook her head. "Nah, they won't," she said confidently, "not many bother to leave the kingdom's territory. The few rogues that travel around the boundaries are enough to keep everyone away for the most part, and..."she hesitated, not sure if she should continue explaining or not, but now that she already started... "a short while ago, there was something along the lines of an attempted take-over or something like that... I don't know the details, but not too many are eager to go to new places for now." She smiled at Hatari. "Don't worry, if you can keep your guard up for danger, you'll be fine here."

[TheWhistlerify]

As the rather awkward silence dragged on Lina was starting to realize that the argument that went on has been a rather pointless one. The reason she wanted to come see Shrike and Amuza again but they ended up arguing like cubs. It didn't really matter to her how they were practicing their hunting skills, and now that she was thinking about it there really wasn't too much of a difference between catching prey and practicing on one another. "So, uh..." she said after a short while, wanting to spend some pleasant time with her old friends like she first intended to. "Aside from hanging around do you ever do something to, like... break the routine?"

---

Even though it looked like Umeme knew what she was talking about and even though her confident tone was rather convincing Gakuru could not help but still feel slightly worried. "I hope so." Being forced to find another place to live would be really difficult, not to mention that the chances of ever meeting other friendly lions like Umeme and Muroki would be even lower. Having to leave would mean not only living somewhere else but it would also mean being completely on his own again.

[DGFone]

Amuza grinned. "Nah, not really. Why should we? We hang out here, talk about things, hustle about, enjoy life, you know... Don't really do anything apart from that." Next to him, Shrike nodded in agreement, but chose to elaborate.

"We do other thing as well, but rarely. Sometimes we feel like exploring, other times we hunt. But most of the time, we can be found here just hanging out. Why break our routine if we enjoy it?" Even though Amuza and Shrike clearly enjoyed not doing much, to Delano, their life sounded rather boring.

---

Umeme noticed Gakuru's worried tone, and immediately regretted saying what she did. "Last I heard, there shouldn't be anything to worry about," she added quickly, "Muroki and I didn't see anything suspicious or worrisome anyways, so it might have simply been a rumor." She shrugged, trying to ease up on the tension. "If you haven't seen anything yet, I doubt you will see anything in the future."

[TheWhistlerify]

Lina would never say it to either Amuza or Shrike, so to avoid another pointless argument, but she found their ways of spending their time rather lame. The most important thing was that they enjoyed it, even if she could not figure out how and why. "Well, I guess none of us is living it up anyways." she said, completely ignoring the emphasis Shrike put in on the word 'hunt'.

---

Gakuru knew that Umeme was most likely right, but any lion in his situation knew that staying on guard all the time is always necessary even when it looks like there's nothing to be concerned about. "Yeah, you're probably right." It was common for rogues to get kicked out without being asked too many questions, but he knew that being recognized by the pride would mean being persecuted.