A Sort of Father-Son...Thing

(February 4th. Open to Kishan and Nuka)

"OUCH, OW, OW OW."

He's stubbed yet another toe. Nuka was fumbling around in the dark balancing something on his back with his tail. His bony shoulder blades made for an excellent place to keep the board. The chess board.

It was the only thing he'd kept from Nottingham. He adored the chess board. Even if he wasn't all that good, it was his one reminder that his son Mauko had existed in his life. He had the stone carved pieces, the board and the instructions in his head. His tail held it in place as tightly as he could.

He had someone to show it to. He walked to where there was a light. One of mother's soldiers had hung a lantern of fire and he sat beneath it. He set up the board with as much precision as a lion could.

Now he could only hope his new little friend had remembered to meet him there.

Black as night, it was near impossible for some animals to make out Kishan at first. He blended in so well and he was so small that he might as well have been the wind itself. It was fantastic! Now he could show off how good of a hunter he really was! ...Well, he could have if it wasn't for how his mother still insisted on attempting to give him Spanish lessons. He hated that. So he wasn't bilingual. Big deal! He should have been focusing his efforts on learning to fight and hunt. Not learning to communicate with some other species that happened to mainly speak Spanish. How he had gone so long without picking up the language was uncertain, but Kishan didn't care. He had more important things to attend to anyway.

This meeting with Nuka, for instance, was what was at the forefront of his mind. Kishan scampered through the darkness and seemed not to have any sort of concern for what might have happened. His long whiskers would guide him if he happened to near some structure in the darkness, and his sort of night vision was helping him to pick up shapes decently well. One shape stood out the most, and that was Nuka. He was the only other feline shape he could make out, anyway. Kishan was confident that he'd gotten to the meeting spot.

"Nuka! Hey!" Kishan greeted. The black cub came to a stop just beside the lion and grinned up at him. Now he could find out what was in store for him.

"I made it! Just like I said I would," he said. "So... What'd you wanna do out here?"

"AH!!!"

Nuka nearly jumped out of his fur. Kishan wasn't nearly impossible to see. He was COMPLETELY impossible! He was a black little dot with yellow eyes that Nuka could barely see until he popped up beside him in the torch light. He gripped his chest slightly before turning to spot the cub. He was grinning up at him and Nuka's muzzle softened. His ears folded back and the male went back to lying on the ground.

"I wanted to show you something cool," he said, unfurling his tail from around the chess board and revealing it. "This is a chess board. It's a game those weird human-animals play in Nottingham. I learned while I was up there...visiting." He rolled his eyes to the side awkwardly, hoping Kishan hadn't actually heard why he was in Nottingham.

"Anyway," he purred, "I thought...maybe...you'd wanna know how to play. You wanna play?"

Kishan's grin blossomed a bit more and a purring sort of laugh escaped him. He'd actually scared Nuka! He would have thought that his yellow eyes would give him away in the darkness, but he supposed that wasn't the case. Oh well; he'd done his job and now was getting the answer.

Chess? Kishan had never heard of it before, but that was to be expected. The little black feline had never exactly come into contact with human related things before. The cub looked at the chess board and sniffed at it for a moment. The pieces looked like funny-shaped rocks and he almost wanted to stick one in his mouth and start chewing on it. But he wasn't a baby. Definitely not! Chewing on rocks was the sort of thing a baby cub would do. Taking on the game would be what someone his age would do, and that was what he determined would be best.

"Sure," Kishan said. "But you're gonna have to teach me. I've never played before."

That much wasn't exactly necessary to point out, of course, but Kishan didn't care. He felt like he should mention it. After all, if Nuka had set all this up then he must have had the intention of trying to show Kishan how to play. That meant teaching. He never would have guessed that the lion would think himself a teacher of any sort, but hey. He'd helped him with his pouncing a bit and that qualified him as a teacher as far as the cub was concerned. So he looked at the pieces and the board again and tilted his head to the side.

"Okie dokie lokie!"

Nuka's tail flicked back and forth excitedly as he went to show the cub how to play. He remembered teaching Mauko and instead of making him sad it made him...happy. Happy to share his knowledge again. Warm with the memories of his son and happy he could give another cub what he gave Mauko. He was starting to feel like his old self again which was what he wanted. Maybe he was starting to move on.

With Mauko's memory warm in his heart, he pointed to the king piece. "That's the king," he explained, "The object of the game is to capture that piece. It's like hunting and my king is your prey."

He pointed to the pawns. "These little guys can only move one space ahead. But if you wanna capture a piece with them they have to be diagonal to these little guys." He stared for a moment before offering a slick grin.

"Oh tell me if I have to slow down for ya!" He teased.

That was the king? Kishan looked at the piece in question and squinted at it for a moment. It sure didn't look like a king to him. Maybe that was the point, though. If it was meant to be a king, then a king it was. From what Nuka had explained so far, it sounded as though the game was like some kind of... Hunting simulation. Thing. The older of the two went on to explain the pawns and Kishan nodded once.

"Okay, so the king is all super important and the little guys do the work. I think I get it," Kishan said. He looked at some of the other pieces and pointed a claw at the queen piece. That one was what he wanted to know about next. After all, it had to be fairly important if it was right next to the king.

"What about that one? What's it do?"

"Oh that one?"

Nuka smirked. He'd always associated that piece with his mother. And why wouldn't he? Powerful, more powerful than the king if anything, able to make silent moves and capture and kill everything. He raised his head. "THAT is the queen," he said, "The queen is the badass of the board. She can move in any direction, while the other pieces all have restricted moves. So if you're in the queen's sights you'd better watch out!"

He chuckled. "The other pieces are a liiiitle confusing," he said, ears raising as he looked down at Kishan. A few lights flickered on him making him look a lot like...he shook that thought from his head. He picked up the bishop. "I like this one. It's shaped pretty neat," he said, his voice getting childish a bit.

It was something fun. "Which one's your favorite?" He asked.