Khanyo's day had been a busy one thus far. He'd awoken early to get some training in before he sparred with Neze later in the morning, and after that the two had gone off to hunt something for lunch. They had grown up together in the bonelands, and the half-brothers had been raised by their father, Surtak, early in their lives. They were soldiers, mercenaries, and they lived to fight and feel the thrill of battle. Due to their father training them from an early age both males were considered quite small, though Khanyo was the shorter of the two brothers. Despite his small stature, the golden male was heavily muscled with a thick and heavy frame. His strength alone usually enough to carry him in a fight, and his low center of gravity kept him from being bowled over too easily, but his height and weight did come with disadvantages. He wasn't very agile, and that made hunting difficult for the mercenary.
Neze had spent his morning as he did most others, by meeting with his brother and sparring to get their blood flowing. It was their morning routine ever since they had been cubs raised by their father in the Ithambo'hlabthi pride. Surtak had trained them from an early age to fight and spar one another, and to Khanyo and Neze it was as essential to life as water to drink or air to breathe. Training so early in their lives had caused them to grow rather short in comparison to most male lions, but Neze was the taller of the two brothers. His body was heavily muscled, though he wasn't quite as thick as Khanyo and his body was a bit more on the lean side which made it easier for the dark pelted male to maneuver. So when it came to hunting, Neze usually took the lead, as he had now.
Khanyo had separated himself from Neze as the dark pelted lion stalked their quarry. The golden lion prepared for his part of the hunt, the final stage that he could actually help with. His ears pricked forward as he heard the commotion up ahead, and the golden male hunkered down behind the tall grass. Luckily his small frame and golden coloring made it easy for him to hide amongst the stalks of dry grass. He would need to be precise in his strike, as he would not have the speed or agility to chase whatever Neze flushed out towards him. A few moments of rustling brush and pounding hooves coming closer to his hiding spot, and Khanyo judged that now would be the time to strike. The dark maned male rushed and leapt from his hiding spot, though he had miscalculated either the antelope's position or its ability to sense him in time and react, because he had nearly missed the thing completely. Instead of slamming into head on like he had planned, Khanyo was left staggering to hook his claws onto the thing's haunch as it tried to buck and run away. Through sheer force of will and strength alone Khanyo was able to drag the panicked herbivore into his grasp to the point where he could wrestle it to the ground and latch his teeth around its neck.
In the time it took Neze to catch up to Khanyo the antelope had breathed its last and the brothers had a decent meal on their paws. "That was a close one," Neze commented, his dark eyes on their lunch. He would have been truly sorry if Khanyo had missed the strike, as his belly rumbled unhappily with hunger. "It's too bad we don't have the umzingeli to hunt for us," Neze said with a hint amusement in his voice. In the bonelands the females did all the hunting, and Neze could see why. Males simply weren't as good at it. His mother might not even approve of her son having to hunt his own meals, which was unfortunate, because Neze didn't approve of it either. Males and females had very defined gender roles in his old pride, and they had practically ingrained themselves into Neze's mind since cubhood. With a mother like Buna, how could they not be? She had been very traditional in her teachings, and though Neze had spent most of his time with Surtak, he still had listened to his mother. These teachings were difficult for him to shake sometimes, especially when it came to any female that wished to fight. It just... was strange to him.
Khanyo had taken a moment to catch his breath before ripping into the warm flesh of their kill. He too was hungry this day, and would devour this meal before his next sparring session with Neze. "How about a pair of busisa?" Khanyo asked between bites. He had heard the rumors of the Tani'Ajiri accepting a pair of hunters into the pride, and after overhearing Bamba talk about them this morning he was fairly certain more of the bonelands had made its way into their new pride. Khanyo didn't really mind, as his mother Chazama had been fairly progressive and had even encouraged him to train at the Firekin outpost before he left. He was glad he had listened to her, because it had given him some much needed experience and training that he hadn't received since their father, Surtak, had left the pride.
Neze furrowed his brows at Khanyo as he settled in to enjoy their meal for himself. "What do you mean?" The dark brown male questioned, as he had not heard any of the rumors or talks. Bamba had mentioned seeing his 'mum' and 'auntie' earlier, but Neze hadn't quite put two and two together yet. Bamba had also grown up in the bonelands with them, though he was a little bit younger and hadn't been included in any of their training sessions. It dawned on Neze, after a rather long and knowing look from Khanyo, that Bamba's relatives were most likely from the bonelands as well. "Oh," he said simply, trying to hide the fact that it had taken him longer to figure it out than Khanyo.
Khanyo rolled his eyes as Neze attempted to save face from being embarrassed, but he didn't feel like ribbing the other male over it. At least not at the moment. "I don't know much about them, but it would be nice to have someone else worry about the hunting," Khanyo relented. He really didn't mind that he had to do it himself, as his mother had stressed that he needed to learn to be able to feed himself out in the rougelands, but that didn't mean he liked it. Besides, it would give him more time and energy to focus on training, and Khanyo was eager to dig his claws into some more mercenary work. Contracts had been slow recently, and the jobs hadn't been very exciting, but he needed to be ready for when they landed a big job.
Neze nodded as he tore into their meal, his hungry belly demanding more. A single antelope wasn't much for the two of them, but it would be enough until they were able to find something else. Or perhaps, until they were able to get something from someone else. "We may need to introduce ourselves," Neze prompted as he swallowed. Perhaps if they got to know them better, they'd have a better chance of asking the former busisa to hunt for them. He wasn't sure if he'd met or even would recognize the females, but maybe it would be nice to speak of the Ithambo'hlabathi and their time there. There were times where Neze missed his old pride and their way of life, but as long as he was able to fight for the mercenaries then he was satisfied with what life had offered him.
Khanyo raised his brows at his brother, wondering at what Neze was thinking about. Ultimately he decided it would be much more fun to tease him than to play at any guessing games. "Don't get any bright ideas, Bamba would have your hide if you tried anything with his 'mum'," Khanyo chuckled. That probably hadn't been what Neze was thinking, but he watched his brother's face light up in red hot embarrassment followed by fury and that only made Khanyo laugh harder. "Watch out, don't let him hear you say anything like that!" Gods above, this was proving to be a very eventful morning after all.
That had not been what Neze had intended, and he knew that Khanyo knew that! The dark lion snarled unhappily as he dug into the last bit of their meal. It had been a small antelope, and it had not lasted long. "Why? I'd kick his rump if he tried anything", Neze grumbled, doubly embarrassed for Khanyo insinuating he was interested in the new hunters, and twice as much so for thinking Bamba would be able to beat him.
"So, you are interested then?" Khanyo prodded, his earlier laughter subsiding for genuine curiosity. Though he still wore a huge stupid grin on his face that may have been the cause of Neze slamming his paw into his face. Khanyo wrinkled his nose and growled at his brother, but to be honest he had definitely deserved that. "Come on then, I'll kick your tail right here, right now," Khanyo prompted as he rose to his paws. The meal had been enough to satisfy his hunger for now, but it certainly hadn't lasted very long.
It was Neze's turn to roll his eyes at his brother. "Don't be an a**. Let's just get cleaned up and we'll see if we can find them," Neze rumbled half-heartedly. At the very least maybe they could find Bamba to ask him more about them. As long as Khanyo didn't make an a** out of the both of them, then maybe they could score some free meals.
((Word Count: 1,657))