The crimson lioness laid down on the ground, twirling her paw in the ground. Tsveta had dirt covering her and her tail fur was in knots from heavy travel. The weather had cleared up finally after day after day of rain and storms. If was the perfect weather to spend time exploring, getting into fights and just having fun if only her sister would want to do something other than sit around and clean herself.
Tsveta looked over at her blue sister who was sitting next to the river licking her fur. Her sister was more delicate than Tsveta, not to say that she was weak by any means. Tsveta enjoyed getting, getting dirty and did not mind getting scars and bruises from it. Tanzi however was careful. Her appearance was everything. She did not fight if she did not have to. When she hunted she thought about her actions and made sure she wouldn't have to over exert or hurt herself.
The way her sister thought about things was FINE, but when it got in the way of her being able to have fun, it made dealing with her sister next to unbearable.
“You missed a spot,” Tsveta grumbled as she watched her sister.
Tanzi was more than used to ignoring her sister's annoyed stares and quiet complaints. Despite her attempts she could never get her sister to appreciate the feeling of being clean. She gave her sister an innocent smile.
“Thanks for letting me know. I will be extra meticulous to make sure I don't miss anything else.” She said before going back to cleaning.
Tsveta slumped her head down in defeat. She could not understand why anyone would want to just sit around cleaning themselves when there was a big bright world to explore. Waiting around when the weather was perfect just added to the wound.
“You know that this is a good time to freshen yourself up some.” Tanzi said, cocking her head to the side. “After all when you told me you wanted to leave our home it was so we could find mates, start a family and a new life. With your current appearance I doubt any potential suitor would find you desirable.”
Tanzi gave her a knowing look.
Tsveta scowled. It was true that to get her sister to travel with her she said that the whole point was to find a mate. At the time she knew that she couldn't travel alone. It was dangerous and she could get lost. She could trust her sister and they had each others back. So she made a little lie about why she wanted to leave. It worked, but of course now Tanzi could use that against her.
“Hm you know I want someone to love me for me. Flaws and all. It would be a shame if someone fell in love with me only to find out later that they can't stand me. Better to be upfront about who I am.” she responded.
“If you say so. Instead of relaxing and refreshing what would you do?” Tanzi asked.
“Explore of course. It is a waste of a perfectly good day to just laze around acting like we're too good for the world. We could be missing out on something amazing. Life keeps moving whenever we wait around doing nothing.” Tsveta complained. She looked away from his sister and looked down the river. Growing up she heard story after story of young lions and lioness leaving their home only to find death and monsters on the other end. Stories that were meant to warn the young to stay home and listen to their parents. Whenever Tsveta heard those stories it made her that more interested to see danger and smile in the face of it.
“How about we spend some time doing what you want to do. Say until the sun reaches the middle of the sky? That should give you plenty of time to show me why exploring is so much better than taking care of yourself.” Tanzi said as she slowly got up. “And afterwards, once you realize there is nothing out there to do, we can come back here and you will let me get you looking your best self. Then maybe we can actually start looking for potential mates like we set out to do.”
Tsveta's eyes went big. She stopped listening after Tanzi said that she would go. So many times Tsveta tried to convince Tanzi to go places but her sister would always ignore her. This adventure would have to be something special.
“What are we waiting for?” Tsveta said, standing up. She went over to Tanzi and started to playfully push her.
“Alright alright, no need to be so pushy!” Tanzi said getting up.
The sisters traveled a little ways, with Tsveta knowing exactly (or at the very least roughly) where she wanted to go. Tanzi was not far behind her, quietly muttering to herself about what she should be doing right now. The terrain wasn't too difficult to travel on, Tsveta had purposefully picked a route that Tanzi couldn't complain too much about. When they got to a high spot, Tsveta stopped and looked around, in complete bliss.
“Look at all this! If we keep going we could make it over there.” Tsveta pointed. It was a rocky path down, but at the end there was some prey animals. “We could get some food and keep going.”
Tanzi frowned at her sister's suggestion. They had already been traveling for a while, the sun was in the middle of the sky now. She knew that if she caved in on this, her sister would just want more and more. “We are going to head back. There are fish in the stream we can catch. It will be safer to head back then to try to walk down this way. This is new territory for both of us. Imagine if one of us got hurt? What would the other do?”
“Taaaaanzi, live a little. We aren't going to get hurt. And even if you did, you would at least get to lay around all day. No new changes.” Tsveta responded. “Plus it will only be new territory until we travel it. We might end up enjoying it more than the place we're at now!”
She slowly started to head down the steep mountain side.
“I really don't think you should be doing that.” Tanzi said.
Tsveta ignored her sister and kept going. “See you have nothing to wo-” She stopped abruptly as the rock she had just stepped on gave way. The crimson lioness found herself tumbling down, getting banged up by rocks on her way.
“Tsveta!” Tanzi cried out. She looked around for a potentially safer way down as her sister came to a stop at the bottom, not moving. When she found a path she carefully traveled down it, being mindful of ever step she took. She could not afford for both of them to be hurt. Tsveta would hopefully understand.
“Tsveta!” she called out as she finally made it to her sister after her slow decent. She shook her sister still body, trying to get any reaction. Dreadful thought after thought rushed to her head, the worse being returning home to tell her family about the incident.
“STOP.” Tsveta managed to growl.
“You're alive!” Tanzi wanted to cry and laugh, but when her sister turned and looked at her she knew she had to stay strong. Tsveta looked worse close up. “You should have listened to me.”
If Tsveta was in better shape, she would have mockingly repeated her sister, but with how she was doing now, she wasn't sure there was much for her to do. She took a deep breath and thought about what she could do. Traveling back to their previous spot would be difficult. For now it would be safe to stay here for the night. The rock ledges could provide cover from the weather. The only obstetrical was convincing Tanzi that is was a good idea and hoping that she didn't get too big of a head from being right for once.
“I think I am going to need to take a rest for a while. I guess you got your way after all.” Tsveta joked. She tried to get up, but felt pain shook up her leg. “For right now do you think we can rest here? Once I am feeling better maybe we can make our way back?”
“Fine. I'll get you patched up. But from now on you can't just do whatever you want without thinking okay?” Tanzi said. Tsveta nodded and closed her eyes. She knew that she would not hear the end of it for a while. Hopefully though, she would heal up quickly. Right now everything hurt. She didn't even have enough energy to make fun of Tanzi.
“For now rest while I go hunting. Stay quiet and sleep. I get the feeling that you will be resting for a while.” Tanzi said.
“Thank you.” Tsveta quietly said. Her sister nodded her head and began her hunt.
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