Lessons From A Prince

The prince had returned from his journey to the Coldlands to receive yet another order from his brother. He had to teach the young cubs how to hunt for themselves. It was a drag truly, shouldn't the parents teach the young ones? After asking around, it seemed as if the only cub worth teaching was young Kazi. He was one of the only cubs born here in the Shadowlands, and Ni took that fact to heart. The young male was a native, he would know these lands better than any other lands that he may live in.

It worried the prince somewhat that Kazi was related to the deceased prince of the Pridelands. What did Nala say his name was again? Simba! That's it. Of course, would the cub even know? Does Kazi know his aunt still resides in the Pridelands under Scar's harsh rule? Here he was safe, he didn't have to worry about Scar or anything about the rules the tyrant set. He could freely learn about Simba and his uncle Mufasa without being threatend or killed right after. But, it wasn't Ni's job to do so. For today, he was teaching hunting.

The golden male looked around, there was a lot of small prey today; most easy for a young cub to catch. The Wafu Valley used to be part of the Pridelands, and one could easily see Pride Rock in the distance. A few loyal Shadowlander Hyenas were mucking about the area, but it gave Ni an odd feel. If Scar showed up unannounced, the jig might be up. The Shadowlands may be attacked and the hyena spies would turn. But no matter, right now the lion had to focus on hunting and teaching. Ni anxiously awaits for Kazi's arrival, hoping he didn't get himself into too much trouble on the way over.

ooc: sorry it's so blah XD))

Hunting. Every cub has to learn it at some point in life and today was little Kazi's chance at impressing the older lions, and being the only cub in the pride boasted some one on one time with none other than Prince Ni himself. Truthfully, Kazi always kind of thought of Ni as another older brother in a sense and he absolutely couldn’t wait to start training with him. With a expansive smile upon his maw and a look of determination upon his face, the small golden cub ran as fast as he could to find the Prince, who was probably bored out his mind with waiting for him so he hurried to the hunting grounds as fast as he possibly could. ”I..I’m here!” he called out as he sat down to try his best to catch his breath. Sure he didn’t need to run in the first place, but he was too excited to even consider slowing down. All Kazi wanted to do was just get started.

Moments of silence passed and the prey seemed to be oblivious to the prince's presence. And finally, the young cub whom he would be training came running. He seemed anxious to begin, excited to be given this opportunity. Ni chuckled and patted the young cub on the head, "Now Kazi, I hope you didn't get into much trouble while you were coming here," The prince saw so much of his father in the cub, the scruffier chin, the pale green eyes, it was all there. But, would the cub be a fighter like his father? Or a hunter like his mother?

The prince shifted in his spot, "Now, there is something you must first understand Kazi. Even though the lionesses usually do the hunting, these lessons are for you and you alone. Males also must provide food for their pride and families so the burden isn't all on the females of the pride. Besides, what if something happens to the pride and you are left on your own? What would you do if you didn't know exactly how to hunt?" Ni didn't want to scare the cub, but with an ever looming threat of Scar, it wasn't impossible.

There was a shift behind him that caught his attention and Ni smiled when he realized it was a small hare. The prince turned back to Kazi and smiled, "I want you to hunt that hare over there Kazi, just do what comes naturally," The male was certian that the cub would succeed, his mother was an excellent huntress, so why wouldn't he be? Ni would sit back and watch, anxious to see what the young male would do.

The golden cub shook his head back and forth. "Nope I was good!" he chirped as he sat down before spotting a small ant scuttled across his paw causing him to raise it and divert his attention to the insect Bending down, his nose close to the ground, he started to follow it. "Yeah I got it..." he replied in a distracted tone as he continued to walk following the insect to the mound. There were more of them? This was certainly going to prove to be quite interesting.

With a flick of his tail and small smirk appearing across his muzzle, Kazi crept closer and pounced upon the mound causing insects to swarm onto his body. They weren't just regular black ants, no, these were red ants and boy were they furious. "Ah! Get em off!" the golden cub practically shrieked as he began to run around causing a small hare that was nearby to prick up it's ears and stand perfectly still before running off.

Rolling around in the dirt, the golden cub winced at the bites the insects left and laid on the ground lifting up his head staring at Ni before realizing what had happened. "Oops..." A small nervous smile graced his expression as his rimmed ears drooped against the sides of his head in embarrassment.

It was clear to Ni that the cub did not 'get it' for in a moment's notice, many fire ants were upon him. But Ni did not help him, for it was his own mistake for not listening. A chord was struck in the prince, that was how his father treated him, let him pay for his own minor mistakes. But this was different, this was a major lesson and Kazi was seeming to just blow it off. His cries of pain rang through his ears and Ni wanted everything just to go and help him! But, it was his fault, and what was worse that his target had fled as he was running around screeching.

Ni's paw found it's way to his forehead as a small, 'oops' was muttered from the cub's mouth. "No matter Kazi, just try to listen this time?" The prince took a deep breath and sighed, looking around the area for where the hare had bounced off to. Finally after spotting it, he turned to Kazi once more. "Your dinner ran off in that direction," he said motioning his head to where he saw the hare, "do whatever you can to catch it. And remember, stealth and quietness," It was a hard thing to ask for a cub, but the golden lion had to, it was part of his training.

The dark maned lion would watch Kazi with no intention on moving. Only if the cub was in grave danger would he make a move to help, but no one came out to the Shadowlands, so danger wouldn't be that much of an issue. Ni only hoped that Kazi was able to learn from these mistakes that he's had so far and triumph to get his first kill of his life. If that is, the boy cub could even find the hare that he was hunting...