(Private for TheWhistlerify)

[UncoordinatedPisces]

Siri stretched out, eyes still closed tight. She wasn't in as deep of a sleep as she was earlier, but she was still kind of dozing. She certainly wasn't ready to move away from Dakari's comfy mane. Mjuvi on the other hand was quite glad to be out of the den.

He didn't care when he was sleeping, but he needed his space once he was awake. He glanced around, watching a few birds as he did the first morning they were here. He yawned and shook his still growing mane. He lay on the ground and put his head between his paws miserably. Maybe I'll help out with the hunt somehow, he thought, I don't want to be playing with Siri all day.

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Nura sat at the water's edge, her cub splashing about in the water between her front paws. "Akina, sweetheart, you're meant to be drinking" she said with a small smile. "I know Mom, but this is fun!" the cub retorted, grinning up at her mother. Nura knew her daughter wouldn't venture in, and Nura was too concerned about her surroundings to worry about her splashing. These lands were foreign to the young mother.

Her pale green eyes scanned the area; not too far away lay the meatless remains of what smelt like a wildebeest. This made her even more weary. It may have died of natural causes, but more likely something killed it. Still, she had to find a place to sleep for the night. They had travelled another huge distance without any real shelter, so she hoped to venture through the tall grass to see what was on the other side.

[TheWhistlerify]

Laini woke up a short while later, smiling at the sight of Siri and Dakari together. Yesterday she'd been rather concerned because of the two of them, and seeing that everything was okay was a huge relief. The adolescent lioness stretched and stood up, walking past Dakari who was bathing their little sister as she slept. Silently bidding her older brother a good morning, she headed outside. "Hey..." she knew Mjuvi liked his space in the mornings so she didn't sit down too close to him.

[UncoordinatedPisces]

Mjuvi rose his head turned to look at his sister. He didn't smile, but he didn't frown either, instead he gave her a nod. "Morning" he murmured. The litter mates sat in comfortable silence for a while. It didn't feel awkward when they didn't talk, they could enjoy each other's company to a certain extent. Suddenly, the sound of rustling grass made Mjuvi sit up.

He could see the tall grass from where he was. Something was moving. He quickly glanced back at Dakari to see if he had noticed before watching the grass again as it slowly moved apart. From it, emerged a particularly bewildered Nura with Akina in her mouth. She froze when she saw the group of lions. Two adolescents, and in a sunken den laid a male just slightly older, but quite a bit bigger than her. She couldn't see that he was bathing a cub. Wearily, she took a few steps towards the group.

Mjuvi let out a low, but non-vicious growl, loud enough for Akina to hear and for Nura to stop. The teenage lion didn't feel as friendly as she might of, even if he didn't mean to cause harm. "Who are you?" he asked, secretly hoping his brother would join him by his side. The lioness put her Akina down, and the cub immediately scurried to hide behind her mother's front leg. "My name is Nura, I mean no harm" she replied as calmly as she could.

[TheWhistlerify]

Laini also noticed the grass rustle, and hoped with all her heart that it wasn't another group of hyenas or something even worse. So when a lioness and a cub emerged, she was actually relieved. Her brother, as was expected of him, wasn't as thrilled. She noticed the cub hide behind her mother's leg, and felt a little bad that the little one was so scared when there was no reason to.

Dakari was soon standing by his brother's side. Even though he doubted Mjuvi would get into a fight, he knew the adolescent wouldn't be a match if that were to happen so he wasn't going to take any risks. However his approach probably wasn't as intimidating. "I'm Dakari." he said, figuring he might as well introduce himself as well. "These are my siblings." By then Siri had already wondered out of the den as a result of curiosity. "We don't want any trouble either."

He couldn't help but wonder just who this lioness was. This was the first time he was seeing another grown lioness that wasn't a part of his pride. Was she a part of a pride that lived in the area? Was she a rogue like he and his siblings were? And, most importantly, could she be trusted? Sure, she did have a cub with her and probably wouldn't want to risk getting hurt because, at least at the moment, the cub depended solely on her for protection, but who knew?

[UncoordinatedPisces]

Mjuvi slowly sat back down on his haunches. Nothing would happen; Dakari wouldn't let anything happen. "I'm Mjuvi" he added, not exactly smiling. Nura observed the adolescent with some confusion. Maybe he is just an unhappy kind of lion, she wondered. She noticed the cub with them; Siri was beaming, having noticed Akina. If they too had a cub to look after, they wouldn't risk anything. took a few steps forward, but Akina stayed put. "Come on sweetheart, come and say hello".

Akina slowly followed her mother, and Siri didn't wait to go and introduce herself. The cub was a couple of weeks younger than her, but that wasn't going to stop Siri from making a friend. "Hello! My name is Siri!" she said enthusiastically. The cub nervously stood up straighter and looked at the ground. "Umm..." the cub was obviously a little awkward. This was in fact her first time meeting a lion around her age. "I-I'm Akina". Siri jumped a little out of excitement, having got a response.

Mjuvi noticed Akina's nervousness and he frowned a little more. "Siri, back off a little bit, ok?" he called to his little sister. Siri stopped smiling as wide as she was, and stared at the smaller cub, wondering why she wasn't as excited as her. Nura approached Dakari, assuming he was in charge of his siblings. She wasn't concerned about Akina, Dakari's little sister seemed a nice enough cub. "So, is there a pride around here?" she asked. "Also, I found a dead hyena back in the grass..." she added with slight worry in her tone.

[TheWhistlerify]

Laini couldn't help but smile at her sister's enthusiasm, even if it did discourage Akina a little. After all, Siri was known to constantly want to make new friends and play. But it seemed like her little sister's approach was a bit too much for the younger cub to handle. "Akina, huh?" she asked softly, lowering her head so that the cub wouldn't have to look up at her. Perhaps a... quieter approach would have better results. "That's a lovely name." she added with a smile.

Dakari also looked at the two cubs with curiosity, only becoming aware of the fact that Nura had approached him when she spoke to him. "I was going to ask you the same thing, actually." he said politely. "We only got here two days ago and, as far as I know, there isn't one..." He looked at Akina. "But it would have been a foolish question of me to ask. Your little sister definitely wasn't raised in a pride... She wouldn't be so nervous about Siri if it were the other way around."

Nura appeared to be as old as he was, so he ended up jumping to the conclusion that she and Akina were sisters. After all, he was a young adult. A pregnancy did last for about 3 months, not to mention that Akina was definitely not a newborn. "The hyena? Oh..." he looked down at the ground for a brief moment, remembering the events of the previous night. "That one and four others nearly killed Siri yesterday..." He didn't know whether Nura had noticed the cuts on Siri's side or not. "I don't know if that group was part of a pack or not, though... As you can probably see," Dakari turned her attention to their den, "we're trying to keep a low profile..."

[UncoordinatedPisces]

Akina circled the ground with her paw as Laini started to speak to her out of awkwardness. When she said her name was lovely, she looked up. This older, pretty lioness thought her name was lovely? The cub's lips curled into a small smile. "Thank you" she replied quietly. Nura watched from a distance for a moment. The female adolescent seemed kind enough, and she was glad her cub had been polite.

Nura listened to Dakari, nodding. She winced ever so slightly when he said 'little sister', but the young male was too quick to bring up the matter of the hyena for her to respond. She glanced at Siri again, now noticing the cuts on her side. "Must of hurt" she mumbled. She was a little concerned now; if this pack of hyenas were in the area it may not be safe to continue on alone. She sat down and thought momentarily.

"Hey, I know this is quite sudden" she started. Mjuvi could almost tell what she was going to say, he huffed and walked into the den. "But do you mind if Akina and I stay around here until tomorrow? We need to rest and I don't want to risk a hyena attack if we stay out in the open..." she explained. "Also, Akina is my daughter, not my sister" she added, giving the impression she didn't want to talk about how that came to be.

Siri was talking about mindless things to Akina, and the younger cub listened with curiosity. Siri was talking about crickets and games she plays, but when Siri enquired to what games she played, she didn't have a response. "I'll teach you some later" Siri said, her enthusiasm not hindering.

[TheWhistlerify]

Dakari listened to Nura without interrupting. She did seem quite worn out, so he wasn't too surprised when the lioness asked if she and Akina could stay with them for a while. Before he could respond to that, however, Nura informed him that the little cub was actually hers. "Oh! I, uh..." He hadn't seen that coming because of how young she was. The fact that she obviously didn't want to talk about it kind of explained why she was on her own with her daughter, and it was none of his business to begin with anyway.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean-" he began to stutter a little. "I just thought, because you're really young-" he cleared his throat and shook his head. "Sorry, I'll stop talking." After a short silence, he continued. "I understand. Even though I barely know you, I know how dangerous it might be around here." He briefly looked at Akina and Siri. "Besides, whatever happened in the past aside, I think it's pretty amazing that you've taken care of your cub on your own like that."

He offered the lioness a kind, warm smile. "I'd hate for that to go to waste, so you can stay with us for as long as you like." Siri and Akina appeared to be starting to get along quite well, and it would be safer for the younger cub and her mother to not be on their own even after they'd rested, so who knew? "It'll be safer for all of us, actually. There's a waterhole nearby." Nura might have seen it already, but he didn't know that for sure. "I could show it to you." He rubbed the back of his head with a paw. "I m-mean, if you or your daughter need water..."

[UncoordinatedPisces]

Nura shook her head. She didn't want Dakari to feel awkward about it. "Don't worry, I was expecting you to make the assumption that Akina wasn't my daughter" she said softly. She reflected on the hardships she had faced as he commended her for her care of Akina. "It hasn't been easy" she murmured.

She sighed, grateful of Dakari's kindness in letting her stay. She wouldn't have to worry for a little while. Nura bowed her head a little, and at the mention of the waterhole she chuckled. "I've passed the waterhole and we've both had a drink, but thank you for the offer" she explained.

Meanwhile, Akina was slowly warming up to this slightly older, excitable cub. "I wish I had a tuft on my head like yours" Siri said with a smile but a hint of envy in her voice. Akina ruffled it up with her paw and smiled back. "Thanks..." she replied quietly, "I like it".

[TheWhistlerify]

Dakari was feeling a little silly for having stuttered a little when mentioning the waterhole to Nura. But he knew better than to expect anything else from himself because he's always been like that. "That's great." he said as he once again rubbed the back of his head with a paw, feeling a little awkward now that he was kind of having a 'casual' talk with the lioness, in a way. "I-it's really convenient... That we have a waterhole nearby and all... Um..."

The young male let his paw drop down to the floor, his eyes following it. In the corner of his eye he could see that Nura's daughter was starting to feel more comfortable around Siri. "Looks like Akina's getting used to my sister's... energy..." He chuckled a little nervously. From the very little he did know about Nura and her daughter he could tell that the younger cub has never met another cub before. Therefore, it made him happy to see that Akina was starting to come around. "That's nice. I wouldn't want her to feel uncomfortable..."