Kuwani heritage
"Are we there yet?"
Kuwani snarled under her breath. Her irritation seeped also into her answer:
"No. You cant make things go faster by this kind of questions, Kijiwu."
Kijiwu was a nimble wild cat. She looked almost ridiculously small next to her tigon companion.
"But I am tired. My legs hurt. Do you even have a slight idea where are we going? Where is that pride teritory?!"
For someone so small was Kijiwu quite vocal about her dissatisfaction. Kuwani grinded her teeth. One day she will kill that annoying furball... That wild cat was truly well avere that Kuwani liked her, and that she is usefull to her. With her sharp wits she had no shame to use this knowledge to her advantage.
What more, Kijiwu was right. Kuwani had no idea where is the place she needs to find. Her only lead was river. There, in deep gorge grinded by rushing water, made its home pride of lions. Quite unusual pride. She heard, that all of them had their pelts panther marked.
So she traveled along the river and hoped, that she will find them. But right now she was unable to even glimps the water, because dense shrubs with huge thorns kept her away.
"Hey! Are you even listening to me?" called out annoyed Kijiwu.
"Yes yes, I just need to make sure that behind this all is still river. Damn shrubs... I cant see a thing... EEEEEEEeeeeeeeek!"
"Kuwani! Hey! KUWANI!"
"Here..." the answer sounded a bit rough.
Kijiwu made her way through thorny shrubs, only to find that her friend had fallen down, into mud and water of river.
"Oh, you okay down there?" the smaller cat couldn't avoid a bit of mischief in her voice.
"Yeeeh, nice and comfi..." said Kuwani with flattened ears. "Come here and see for yourself!"
"Ooooh no, I am quite happy up here... NononoNONOOOO!"
And with that, Kijiwu was suddenly down in mud, next to Kuwani. The edge of the gorge was already loosened, and under wild cat's weight it broke away completely. Tigoness sneered at her:
"What happened? I was under the impression that you are happy up there?"
"Ha ha, you are oooooh so funny..." growled Kijiwu, while she shook vigorously her paws in futile attempt to get rid of mud.
Kuwani laughed, stood up and shook herself.
"Hey! Stop making such mess! And look at your harness! Is everything in one piece? Is something broken? Let me take a look!"
"Everything is okay, stop fussing about it..." Kuwani rolled her eyes, but stood still for Kijiwu's inspection.
"I am fussing?! I will be the one cleaning it! Your huge paws and claws will..."
She fell silent in mid sentence. Then, with flattened ears she opened her mouth and hissed. Kuwani, alerted by her friend, looked around.
Lions. They were everywhere. On both banks of the river, even in the water. They watched them carefully, with a degree of hostility. But what was important, they were panther marked. Kuwani turned toward fluffy, barbary maned male:
"Are you River Panther pride?"
"Maybe..." the male frowned. "Who is asking?"
"My name is Kuwani, daughter of Kachida, and this is Kijiwu. Panthera Ultima of River panthers is my father."
For a moment lasted stuned silence. Male turned his head toward dark lioness with eyes like stars:
"Ramoth, do you know something about this?"
Air around the lioness gloved for a moment with blue light of her spiritual guidance. It is a shaman, relized Kuwani.
"I know nothing of this, but my mother, Chise, recognized her as one of daughters of Panthera The Warrior. He was a primal beast, smilus." Ramoth squinted her eyes at her king: "He was your grandpaw."
While you were trying to enjoy a nap, Kuwani bounced around excitedly, asking you to take her on an adventure. You growled at her to let you sleep for a couple more hours, to which Kuwani huffed and mumbled something about how lazy lions are. You would have batted at her, if you weren't so tired.
