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 Posted: Sat Mar 14, 2009 1:44 pm
 Morning came early in the desert, the sun already high in the barren sky, its rays warming her hide as well as that of her red-pelted son. How her children had begun to grow, proud, stronger each day. There were times she could have sworn she saw them growing before her eyes, already dwarfing what they had been as newborns. At last, they had grown strong enough to begin their training.
Mahakali was strict in training, no whining, no excuses, no disobedience would be tolerated. Training was often done in a group, or in pairs, but there was also value in one on one lessons. Today was Asmo'koka's turn, the youngest of the six.
She had come for him early that morning, waking him from among his sleeping siblings. There was to be no debate in the matter, no pleading for just a little more sleep, no grumbling at being the only one force to wake so early; she simply gave him no choice in the matter, catching him in her maw to carry him from the den.
Whatever objects or struggles he made, Kali carried her son across the sands, unwilling to let him walk until they had reached the chosen training sport for the day. It was not over concern for his safety that she chose to carry her cub, he was strong enough to walk himself if needed, but rather because she did not wish to give him the chance to fall behind or wander off, such small paws could not walk as fast as her own.
Today was Asmo'koka's day, and for a little while at least, he would have his mother's full attention.
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Posted: Sat Mar 14, 2009 2:30 pm
 He felt it very unfair to be woken up so early by their mother and carried off while the rest remained blissfully sleeping. He yawned and tucked his paws up close to his stomach as he swayed with every step from his mothers maw. She had something planned and he wasnt sure if he liked it!
Oh how he wanted nothing more than to curl up in the warm sands and blissfully nap the day away. Another yawn escaped him and he placed one of his paws against his eyes and rubbed. He knew when she placed him down again the drills would start.
He blinked his sleepy eyes and pulled his mind out of the haze. It wouldnt do to be sleepy in front of her when she started training. She would want him to be at the very best of his performance. It wasnt that he didnt like training, training with his siblings had been enjoyable. He wiggled a little as he swayed too and fro, he was going to show his momma what he was made of!
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Posted: Sat Mar 14, 2009 5:03 pm
"A warrior must always be alert, Asmo'koka."
Her voice was firm, though she did not scold, she would not fault one so young for his morning sleepiness (though she would not tolerate such once the training began). Her children were young, strong yet inexperienced. As they grew they would learn as she had, learn to always be aware of their surroundings, to know who and what was around them, to shake away the haze of sleep in a single instant. Only a moment's unawareness could mean the difference between life and death.
Satisfied with their location, Kali set her son on his paws, it was now that she expected him to be alert and listen to her words. She had carried him far enough from the dens to not be disturbed, today they would train on the loose sands of the desert, not the harder earth and rocks at the interior of the pride. Though distant from the pridal dens, they remained well within the safety of firekin territory. Her children had been strictly forbidden to ever wander so far as the borders, even wandering this far alone would earn them more trouble than they should have cared for. Her children were precious, she would not have them endangered until they were ready to face it.
"A warrior's most important tool is his senses. Listen, tell me what you hear, look around, what do you see?"
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Posted: Sun Mar 15, 2009 12:32 pm
He must always be alert. He knew his attention drifted from time to time, he was going to have to try and pay very close attention to what was being asked of him. He did not want to fail this training, and it wouldn't do to disapoint mother. " Yes Mother." he said though his tone still betrayed his sleepiness.
Asmo'koka looked around, as much as he could through squinted eyes. The sun hurt badly as it reflected off of the sands around them. Slowly he became more accustomed to it and by the time his paws touched the hot sands his eyes where nearly all the way open.
His little paws sent to dancing almost immediatly in the sands. Their mother had carried him so he had not gotten used to the heat yet. He struggled to keep still as she asked him that question, and stopped himself from closing his eyes to listen more entently.
His ears flicked back and to the side, he even tilted his head a little as he stood and consentrated. "I hear... the wind. " he could hear the sands stiring and falling over the dunes. "heartbeat." he wasnt sure if it was his or hers but it seemed very loud in his ears now. "I see....sand. " he continued to stare and slowly turned a full circle. "a few bushes, and your pawprints leading here"
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Posted: Sun Mar 15, 2009 8:01 pm
A stern look, a silent command to be still, a gaze that would have frozen any cub, any adult, where he stood. There was no need to speak the words, he knew what she wished, and if he did not, he would learn. For the moment, such actions were forgiven, in the future they would not.
She stood in front of her son, watching, listening to his words. A nod of approval, an excellent answer. Footprints, fading quickly into the sands, many cubs would have missed it, but he had not, a promising start.
Yet there was so much more to see, to hear in the desert if one knew where to look. A scrap of brush, the hints of a trail left by a desert hare, the chirping of a beetle, the grunt of sand against a serpent's belly. For those who could hear, the desert spoke in a clear voice, to those who could see, each expanse, each dune, told it's own tale. These were the lessons she would teach her son.
"Good. Now look more closely. Tune out the sounds within yourself, the things you expect to see. What more do you see?"
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Posted: Mon Mar 16, 2009 12:56 pm
The cub knew he had to do better, there where things that he had missed and he knew his mother expected him to be able to figure it out. She was giving him a chance and one he was going to take full advantage of. He slowed his breathing as it seemed to be the only thing besides his heart beat that he could hear. It was so distracting.
thump-thump
His ear flicked to the side. "A hawk..or some sort of bird that screeches." he said, the sound gone as quickly as it had come to him.
Thump-thump
Blinking, he turned and looked over his shoulder. He didnt want to move from the spot to investigate but he could hear something in the sand a little ways off to his left. "Something is digging in the sand over there.. I can hear the sound of the sand being moved." He said as he turned back to his mother.
She had asked him what more he saw... it all looked the same. Her tracks where less than little divits in the sand now. The sun was beating down on his back, almost uncomfortable but something he had known all his life when out of the caves.
For a long moment he was silent, he didnt know what was too trival to bring to light. What was important to notice. "I see... lines in the sky waves off the sand." he didnt really know how to discribe how the heated air appeared raising from the sands. His head turned this way and that trying to pay the closest attention to any small detail that could be over looked. "Occasionally there are holes in the sand, I think creatures live there..."
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Posted: Tue Mar 17, 2009 12:03 pm
"Very good, my son. You must learn to always use your senses, to always be aware of what is around you, to know whether you are about to face a friend or an enemy, weather a creature will run, ignore you, or attack. You must learn to see the intent in each creature you met, to read all the world around you in but a single thought."
She paused a moment in her words, tail twitching as she spoke, pacing on direction and then the next, movement adding emphasis as she spoke. A moment of silence for him to absorb all that she had said, the other half of the lesson (how to keep others from knowing your own intent) for another day.
"The sand on which we stand now is different from the sand there," a nod of her head indicated a short distance away. "You must learn to know the difference."
A warrior's path was no easy task, it required strength and discipline, and today was only the first step on that long road. Surely in those few short words she had given her child much to take in, to learn to understand. But he would succeed, there was no doubt that he would.
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Posted: Tue Mar 17, 2009 12:56 pm
Asmo'koka nodded as he listened intently to his mothers speach. He knew that these where lessions that woudl help him become strong, not only strong but powerful. He could use everything she was teaching him when he was older to help survive...things he could even use now.
The cub in him wanted to pounce her tail and to gnaw on it, such a thing was not propper, would be ill recived and would be harshly punished. That would be picking a battle he couldnt win. Now was not the time for cub stuff.
He frowned a little and looked over at the sands she had indicated. He didnt see anything different about them. Her words had meaning but he didnt understand. Was it that they had different life in them or where they different in texture? "How is the sand different?" he asked her, wanting to fully understand her.
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Posted: Tue Mar 17, 2009 10:05 pm
"That, Asmo'koka, is what you must learn to see. Everything we see, everything we hear, tells us something different, gives us a different scent. Even if something looks the same, it may not be, there is always more beneath."
Another pace, this time circling to stand behind him. Her movements, her voice, it was as much a test as it was a lesson. The child who listened, who followed the lesson rather than giving in to distraction, that child was to be rewarded. When the day of combat came, a warrior could not allow himself to lose his focus, to do so could mean death.
"Think of your siblings, though some of you may look alike, you know that none of you are the same. It is the same with the sands. Some is coarse, some is fine, even the land that seems flat is not. Some has life, some does not, the brush you see there could very well help you find your way home."
As she spoke she raised a paw, indicating a scrap of brush not far from where he paw prints had once marked the sands.
"Learn to read the land and you will always find your way, you will always find that which you seek. Just as you will always know what you are facing when you learn to read your opponent."
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Posted: Wed Mar 18, 2009 12:46 pm
Crimson eyes watched the vast sands looking slowly from his left to his right. It was then it dawned on him just how far the sands streched out before him. He had been so busy looking for things he hadnt seen the much larger picture. If he wandered out here alone, unprepaired he could easily become lost. Even an unweary or weak adult could face the same fate.
His eyes settled on the bush, he stared at it for a long time as it comitting that single bush to memory. The way it faced, the way the branches turned. It had things about it that made it different than another bush.
"I understand." he said with a nod of his head though his mother was now behind him. Even though she was his mother something about her standing behind him where he couldn see her, see what she was doing made him uneasy. He turned to look over his shoulder at her.
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Posted: Wed Mar 18, 2009 4:23 pm
"Good, remember what I have said, Asmo'koka, there will come a time when your life depends on it."
Her voice was hard, her words had not been a suggestion, but a command. She had not spoken just to speak, but to teach her son an important lesson, one she intended all her children learn well, a lesson she would continue to teach, and to test them on. Should her son forget the lesson so quickly, there would be far more for him to worry about than whatever danger he would someday face.
She had circled, standing in front of him again, her eye red eyes watching those of her son's, reading his expression. He learned well, how much like she had been her children were. Was this how the great god of War had seen her those years ago?
"Follow."
A flick of her tail, the lioness turned, trodding across the sands. She did not wait, her son was to follow as she had instructed, he knew better than to not obey.
There was a rabbit den nearby she had spotted the previous day, the hint of tracks, the scent of life betraying its occupant. It would soon prove to be an unfortunate day for the rabbit .
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Posted: Thu Mar 19, 2009 12:27 am
His eyes turned to watch her as she moved from behind him to infront again. Her words where truth, a commandment to follow for the rest of his life. Failure in this could result in his early death should he be unwise enough not to hinder her words. He nodded, comitting to memory everything she was saying, soaking up her words as he did the suns rays.
It was hot, uncomfortably so. He wished so much to be in the shade of the caves right now but he wasnt going to show his mother that he was tired. He was not going to be the weak one. He sat there, back strait as he watched her, nodding his understanding. "yes Mother."
At her order he hopped up and trotted after her. Her steps where so much larger than his and he had to hurry to stay close. At first he thought his lesson ended for the day but soon he began to realise that was not the case..this may very well be a test.
Turning his mind to the task at hand he tried to keep his attention on his suroundings as they passed, listening closely the sounds and smelling the air around him.
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Posted: Thu Mar 19, 2009 6:29 pm
Leading her son, Kali did not look back, he was to follow on his own paws. Though she never once looked over her shoulder, she was aware of his presence, his scent, the sound of his paws trying to keep up with her own larger steps. Where he to fall behind she would have known it in an instant.
A short walk, their destination was not far, the lioness stopped in her steps, a paw raised to halt her son as well lest he approach too close. A tilt of her head, she indicated a spot in the sands a few feet away, the opening of a burrow nearly hidden in the shadow of a rock, disturbed sand, the hint of a scent.
"Tell me, Asmo'koka, what do you see there?"
This lesson was in two parts. Could he find the rabbit, read the sands and follow the scent of the creature within? But reading the sands was only half of the task, upon finding the rabbit, how would he propose to get it out of its shelter? The test was set, the reward, a savory treat for only himself.
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Posted: Fri Mar 20, 2009 12:04 am
He nearly walking into her paw as he had been looking out into the distance the sudden movment so close nearly made him stumble. He frowned and scolded himself, he had to expect something like that and he needed to be more aware. That reaction alone showed he wasnt fully adept, but this was a new lession.
He paused and flicked his ears forward listening to her words. Steping forward softly he peered around her legs before finally moving to the side so he could get a better view. Sand had been disterbed.
He frowned and wanted to step closer but favored sniffling the air instead. Tilting is head and streched out his nose and scented it again. There was something near by. He lowered his head to sniff at the ground. "A prey beast lives here..." he said an air of wonderment in his voice. He didnt know which sort it was but it smelled musty and with a bit of citrus from the type of grasses that grew near by.
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Posted: Fri Mar 20, 2009 1:37 pm
A nod of her head, a silent word that he had answered correctly. A simple thing, hidden in the sands, easily missed if one did not know what to look for, yet to those of the sands it was as clear as the sun in the sky.
"Now, how will you capture your prey?"
It was not a simple task to catch a rabbit from its den, nestled in the safety of its shelter, the creature was not likely to run into the jaws of a waiting lion. While sticking one's paw into the den sometimes worked, it was rarely so simple, and digging was possible was the beast often escaped before a large creature could get to. Crawling in after it might have worked for smaller predators, or even a cub, but there was always the risk of getting stuck. To drive the beast from its den was perhaps the most effective.
A gentle nudge, Kali settled onto her haunches to watch her son, tail curling silently around a hind paw. It was time to show her what he could do, and while she did not expect success on a first try, she did insist he use what she had taught him. How well he did would determine his reward.
Today a rabbit, but soon the prey would be larger, and more dangerous.
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