All Play and No Work

[Athari]

Oh crap, they'd given him away!! Without so much as a warning or explanation, Athari turned around and took off running.

"Hey what are you on about?" Swafi asked, swinging around as the two females darted past him. Just in time to see a rust red form disappearing into the bushes. "Hey, who's that?!" He followed Flash and Elanna's example, running after the newcomer. "Hey where ya goin man wait up!!"

Wait up he said. Yeah right. Athari knew better. He ran faster, but not in time. Swafi burst through the brush just before he could pick up enough speed to get away. When his brother saw him, a devious, almost evil smile overtook his entire face. "Aha!! Athari!!!" Without warning, Swafi took a flying leap that sent him flying over the heads of the two girls and landed him right on top of Athari with a heavy thump.

"Athari!!" Swafi said in a desperate, almost crazy tone, "Athari, tell them I'm not a liar!! Tell them you're my brother!!"

"W-what..?!" Athari was too frightened to make sense of Swafi's words. Swafi shook him roughly with his front paws, unsheathing his claws. "Tell them Athari!! Tell them I'm not lying!! Tell them you're my brother!! NOW!!!" He shook his brother even harder and growled heavily right in his ear.

"Ok ok!! Um he's my brother!! He's not a liar!!" Athari gasped, desperate to get his brute of a brother off him.

[Elanna]

"Get off him!" Elanna ordered, shoving against Swafi in an attempt to get him off the other lion. She could clearly see he was terrified of his 'brother'. She could see the obvious resemblence to Upendi in the darker cub but she felt more sympathy to him than fear, it wasn't that hard to imagine Swafi terriorizing him.

"I said get off, you great brute!" Elanna ordered again with a harder shove on Swafi's shoulder "Let him be!"

[Swafi]

Swafi gave her an enormous shove in response, intent on shoving her down. "Shut up!! You're not the boss of me!!"

"S-Swafi, w-what are you talking about?!" Athari yelped, squirming under his brother's weight. "What's going on?!"

"Just...just shut up." Swafi shook his head lightly before getting off Athari and letting him up. Immediately Athari scurried away from him to hide behind Elanna, his ears pinned back behind his head.

Swafi took a moment to calm himself before looking at Athari pleadingly. "Athari. Tell her that I'm telling the truth. She doesn't believe that we're brothers or that Scar died a long time ago or anything!! Tell her I'm not crazy!!"

Athari just looked at Elanna, doubly confused. "What..?"

[Elanna]

Elanna held her ground against Swafi and gave Athari a sympathetic look as he cowered behind her. Swafi was a bully. How do you deal with a bully? You stood up for yourself and showed no fear.

So, Elanna padded forward until she was nose-to-nose with Swafi, her sapphire eyes blazing.

"Leave him alone! You aren't his boss and your aren't mine either!" she growled "And for the record, you are crazy."

[Flash]

Flash stepped forward, hackles rising defensively as Swafi shoved Elanna, although she would make no further move unless he made a move to repeat the action.

"Who's this?" she asked, tilting her head to one side to look at Athari. Another of queen Kiara's spawn, no doubt. Possibly another one who supposedly didn't know anything about the war. "Could be a trick" she muttered to Elanna, as she awaited a response from one of the males.

[Swafi]

Swafi's hackles raised. "Get out of my face!! Yeah he's my brother Athari!!" He snapped at Flash before Athari could say anything.

"Athari's the second born between the two of us, he's weak and little and stupid. He's too dumb to be the king, that's why I AM."

[Athari]

In reponse to Swafi's words, Athari cringed and shrank down behind Elanna, trying to make himself appear as small as possible. Why did Swafi have to be here? Why? Why couldn't he get away from his mean older brother for even one day?

At least there were these strangers and they seemed willing to help protect him. For that he was grateful.

[Elanna]

"The only dumb one I see is you!" Elanna snapped. This cub was irritating her beyond all belief. First he claims he is the Evil Queen's son yet refuses to acknowledge the truth and now he was bullying his 'brother', who was plainly terrified. Elanna wouldn't stand for that with her own brothers and certainly not with Swafi.

"You think your sooo macho because you can bully someone but it only makes you look like an idiot. If they're going to put you on the throne then you're going to be a pathetic king!"

[Flash]

"Careful, Elanna..." Flash's tone was more cautious. Insulting an enemy - so mom said - only made them more dangerous. If Elanna kept on the way she was going, things would not end well - especially not for Flash herself, who knew she would rashly throw herself between the two lion cubs if Swafi started to get violent.

[Swafi]

"I-I wouldn't say that if I were-"
"WHAT did you say?!" Swafi growled, cutting off Athari's mumbled sentence, shoving his face into Elanna's roughly, "Me, pathetic?! I am your SUPERIOR in every sense of the word!" A nasty smirk crossed his face. "In fact, my PARENTS appear to have the upper hand on YOUR family in my story and yours!! So I wouldn't be talking too loud!" He smirked. Maybe it was time to have some fun with this girl. She seemed to be afraid of this Upendi....heaven knows who that was, but it was a weak point and Swafi intended to exploit it.
"In fact....what if I did know this....Upendi? Huh? What are you gonna do then?"

[Elanna]

Swafi shoved his face into Elanna's and she held her ground against the other cub. He didn't scare her and she knew if it came to blows she could hold her own. She gave Flash a look that clearly said not to get involved, she didn't want Flash to get hurt and it was her battle to fight.

"You are not my superior and you never will be!" Elanna hissed turing her gaze back to Swafi "I don't care who you are or what our families are like but if Upendi is here then would fight! You don't scare me and neither does she."

[Swafi]

Finally, Swafi backed down. He pulled away from Elanna with a snort. "Well you should fear me. I can be pretty scary... I know how to make people listen. Isn't that right Athari?" He made a faux lunge at Athari hiding behind Elanna, making him jump.

"Y-yeah..that's right." Athari mumbled. "What'd you say? I couldn't hear you."

"Yeah, you can make people listen." Athari said more clearly. Satisfied, Swafi walked away a few steps and turned around to face Elanna again, his expression smug and his chest puffed out with pride. "See? My brother knows what he's talking about. He knows who to be afraid of."

[Elanna]

Elanna's sapphire eyes darted to Athari, she could tell he was terrified...he may have been Kiara's son but all she could feel for the dark cub was pity...he didn't deserve the treatment Swafi was giving him. She turned her gaze back to Swafi and glared at him

"He listens to you because he's terrified and for no other reason, if it came down to you or someone who treated him kindly, who do you think he'd choose? I know what I would. You may think that fear and loyalty are the same thing but they aren't. Your a bully and I think your coward too, only a coward would need to scare people into following him."

[Flash]

"Elanna..." Flash's eyes darted between her friend and Swafi. No matter what happened, she could already tell this wasn't going to end well, one way or another. If Elanna would only back down... but the pup knew her friend well enough to know that she would never do that.

[Kyusho]

Kyusho nodded. "Elanna's right. He's your brother, isn't he? If he is, you shouldn't be treating him like that. It's just...wrong." Kyusho commented. She was starting to get a basic idea of who was good, and who was bad. She didn't think Swafi was that bad, but she was kindof angry after she saw him treating his own brother like that.