Pretend to be Sweet; Speak with a Smile

Feathery quiet and with practiced precision - that's how Johari crept through the depleted lands. Or at least that's how she saw herself doing it. In all reality, the cub wasn't the best at stealth. She'd miss a noisy twig underfoot or get her unkempt pelt caught on a stray thorn and have to yank it loose. Overall, it was probably a good thing she was only practicing. Any real task and the young lioness would of been sent back to camp as an embarrassing failure. But that is what practice was for!

Standing back up from her previously crouched position, Johari scanned the terrain around her. There wasn't much to work with besides the patches of thorns and a few other sparse sprinklings of cover. That was what made the Outlands so good to practice in though. Of course it would be easier with pointers from someone that knew what they were doing; her mother had promised to show her when she was older, but now that the cub was at that stage neither parent was around. Perhaps she could ask Mandisa? But the princess was probably busy... Vitani maybe? Scar's kids got some of the best training, and Johari could always feel the sheer confidence that the older female gave off. But they haven't really ever talked, and Vitani wasn't even an Ikemba lion.

A small cloud of dust billowed around the beaver-colored cub as she plopped her rump haphazardly on the dead ground with a few thoughtful flicks of her partial tail. She would find someone eventually; Johari never gave up after all. For now, she would simply have to keep going at it on her own. Slow progress was still progress.

As the young Thorn continued to give herself a mental speech so she could carry on with stealth practice, a voice drew her ear. Perking up both bi-colored lobes rewarded her with the very end of someone's short monologue; ...really do work? That was all there was to catch before loud smacking filled the area instead. Odd. Johari didn't recognize the voice or poorly mannered eating habits. She had assumed only other Thorns or smaller critters would take refuge around here. There was still so much to learn.

With her curiosity and sense of adventure piqued, the cub stood once more and made her way toward the sound. Though the journey through a set of prickling vines wasn't pleasant, it was the quickest and most direct route. One which soon led with Johari poking her scruffy head out into a small clearing of sorts and, just a few feet away, gave the scene of a jackal pup chowing down on what looked like bugs. Gross...

Regardless, she would be heard or noticed soon if she hadn't been already so there was no point in keeping the rest of her cub-y body strangled inside the thorns. Shoving out the rest of the way sent the tangles - of both the vegetation and her own pelt - shaking and settling in their own uniquely formed styles. From there... Johari wasn't really sure what to do. Was the jackal trespassing on Cursed Thorns land? Maybe. Was she gonna chase her off like any proper Thorn would? Uhhhhh.

For a few awkward seconds she simply stood there, blinking her stormy gaze at the canine until finally words formed on the cub's creamy muzzle, "Uh, hi." An unsure greeting that was followed by an equally unsure half-smile.