Chapter 7 : Springing the Swamp Trap
"Yawn, what happened dada Kui? Where are we?" Damu looked around the moving scenery through blurry eyes. The sun was setting, which meant that she had to have been asleep for many hours. I haven't slept so well in a while.
"Oh yer affake," Her mouth full of Damu's fur, she set the little cub down to clarify, "I had to move us from where we were for safety. You seemed so tired that I didn't think you would worry too much if I did while you rested." "Oh. Are we closer?" Damu's ears perked up in excitement, hopeful of how far they had traveled while she was asleep. "A little bit further and then we will be in the territory." Kuibia looked down at her with a smile. Damu looked around at where they had stopped, but it didn't seem like what she expected. It was no longer the flat shrub decored clay land that they were in when they first met, but rather wet green vegetation and thick trees sunken into pools of water. "This is Blood Pride territory?" Damu seemed hesitant as she sniffed the thick marsh air. She looked down at one of the nearby pools and saw that there was no red dye in the water. "Well we have to cross the river at a certain point but it will be safer for use to travel through this marsh area." Kuibia kept smiling but she didn't like how the little cub was so inquisitive. This will also help us avoid the waterfall so by the time I get you to Baba it will be too late for you, you little brat. "It will be fine, we just need to get through this area." "Okay, I guess. It smells funny though." Damu's young predatory eyes caught the glimpse of a frog on a rotten trunk and started to stalk it, only for it to jump into the green moss filled water, splashing her in the face. “Ew!" She shook wildly trying to get the filthy water off her face. Kuibia even chuckled when a string of loose swamp plant was strung across her snout. "Well it will help mask our scent." She flicked the plant off of the small cub and started walking, expecting Damu to follow. For her it was easy to jump and walk from giant roots sticking out of the water and patches of earth, but the grunts and scratching noises behind her told her that the little one was nowhere near as experienced. "Dada Kui-ugh-wait for me." Damu called as she used her claws to climb up the muddy bank, groaning in disgust at her back feet going into the slimy water. "You are a big girl Damu, you’re going to have to keep up." Kuibia called back, not so soft voiced as the little one had heard her speak before. This brat is really getting on my nerves. She needs to learn how to be tough or she will never make it. "B-but- Ow!" Damu yelped as a pricker bush thorn went into her front paw pad. The little one started to sniffle and cry as she was used to doing when in pain and expected the older one to do as her mother would and come take the sharp thing out and console her. "Stop crying it's just a pricker. Pull it out and keep moving." Kuibia had turned around and glared down at the cub, annoyed by her infantile behavior. "I-it hurts sniffle c-can you help me?" She lifted her paw up to show where the plant was sticking into her paw. "Tch, it's barely in the skin. Pull it out yourself and let's mo-" She froze as her ears picked up an echoing call of a male lion. It was not even a mile away and the one that replied was even closer. "Kinyesi! Get moving brat, let's go!" Little Damu winced at how Kuibia snapped at her, who seemed to be a totally different lioness. "B-but-" "Move!" Kuibia raised a paw and smacked the back of the small cub, with enough force for her to be pushed forward and when she instinctively went to catch herself the stinging sensation of the thorn going deeper into her paw made her cry out in pain. "Shut up and move!" Kuibia swatted Damu's backside, shoving her onward as she listened for more calls of the males nearby. "Ow! Stop it hurts!" Damu limped forward and tried to keep her injured paw raised, looking back at the seething female she was so foolish to trust. "I don't have time for this!" Kuibia picked Damu up again, not so gently as before and started in a fast run. Damu hissed as she swung from her scruff in Kuibia's mouth, unable to pull the thorn out of her paw with the bouncing of her bumpy ride. "Kuibia put me down! I don't like this!" Damu called, wiggling in discomfort and trying to avoid sticks hitting her. Kuibia snarled and jumped into the swamp water and started to swim with the small cub's head just barely above the water. "Ow! My cuts!" Damu cried, the sick feeling of the water flowing across her open wound, the loose edge skin peeling, pulling and brushing against the swamp plants. By the time Kuibia got them to the other side she was weeping and clawing for the ground. She was unceremoniously dropped to the ground and before she could get up a heavy paw pressed against her back, claws gripping at her skin. "Listen you little excuse of our Baba's blood. If I had my way you would be hyena food. But he wants you so you are going to shut up and we are going to get through this area without bringing attention to ourselves, is that clear?" "Well well serpent tongue turn to stone sister?" both females looked up and standing before them was Kujitoa, leaning against a tree in boredom from watching the little scenario play out. "Kuji, back off! I found her first. I will bring her back to Kuua." Kuua?! Did she just say Kuua? I was right! Damu's struggles became more frantic as she was held down, digging into the earth for some kind of leverage to pull herself out from under the weight. "You found her and you caught her, but you can only try and bring her to him. And what do you think it will prove? You still are what you are Kui," Kujitoa flexed his claws out as he came closer, eyeing his seething sister and waiting for that final small thread of patience to snap, "You aren't Baba's little girl. Your little name should be proof enough, Tupa." "SHUT UP!! ROAR!" Kuibia swatted Damu to the side as she lunged at the juvenile male, eyes blazing and teeth bared. Damu watched the fight commence but really she couldn't really follow it; it was nothing but tumbling mess of grey and yellow fur, clashing teeth and swiping paws. I have to go. Now's my chance. Damu started to limp back to the water, sliding it and swimming despite the pain, all the while listening to the fight. "Don't grr call me snarl Tupa!" "This fight is pointless. Ugh you can't beat me, Tupa." "Why you little- hiss." Damu was thankful that she had made it to the other side and the older pair were still in combat. She hobbled as fast as she could back the way she and Kuibia had come, knowing they had gone backwards if they were indeed going back to Kuua. Roar. Roar. Damu froze for a moment, listening to the loud echo of a lion's call that didn't sound familiar. S-some lions eat cubs! Damu remembered her mother tell her of stranger danger, especially older males, and her movements became more frantic, until the pain in her paw became too much to bear. Looking around she saw a collection of roots raised in shallow water created a small hole she could squeeze through and be safe from any large animals. Squeezing between the thick wood she pressed herself into the deep earth wall on the other side and waited for anyone or anything. Roar. Roar. It was a different lion's call, a much much closer lion's call. Damu pushed deeper into makeshift den and eyed the outside with hesitation. She could no longer hear the conflict of her half-siblings, so for all she knew it was the victor calling out for reinforcements to catch her. Some sloshing in the water told her she was not alone and all she could do was hold her breath and keep her eyes squeezed shut. "Oi you in there, what're you doing?"
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Translations: Damu: Blood Kuibia: Stealth Kujitoa: Devoted/ Loyal Kuua: Kill tundu kike: Impudent Female Kinyesi: Shit
dada: sister









