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Since her talk with Sekizen, Sineri's thoughts had been turned decidedly toward more serious things than the young lioness was prone to thinking about normally. Sekizen had spoken of missing one half of the parental unit, which every family was supposed to have. But he didn't, and neither did she. And his foolish beliefs that there was a perfect reason for his father to be missing had never been her belief about her mother. She knew her father well, and she also knew that Ez would have said something a long time ago if there had been anything to say about the matter.

Though the sun was hot and perfect for sunbathing, Sineri couldn't find rest at it. Not so pleasant images filled her mind, ones of abandonment and betrayal among other things, and they would not allow her to slip into her regular doze. The intense rays beat down on her once again pristine golden fur, but she ignored it, her eyes focused ahead and her brows furrowed, letting her mind whir to its own rhythm as two warring opinions fought for supremacy in her mind.

That is, until she caught a speck of white in the distance. At the same time, she also noticed she'd reached the gorge, which surprised her. She'd only been here a few times before (she wasn't so terribly fond of heights, and stayed away from the edge), and hadn't realised she'd walked so far. This time if Ezoeha had to come and get her, he might be cross for real.

But the white speck soon became a figure, and as she continued on, that figure became familiar in turn. So familiar (and so welcome a sight) that she managed a slight smile and increased her pace. To see her friend was exactly what she needed right now. Tete would cheer her up somehow, she was sure of it. He was a happy and lively character, and it rubbed off on her easily.

But as she drew closer, her mood began to lower once more. Tete looked like he was feeling worse than her. Drawing up closer, but keeping a few feet's distance between her and the edge of the gorge, she called out softly, "Tete? Are you all right?" The concern she felt surprised her. There was actually a great deal of it, like how she'd feel if one of her siblings, particularly Shaji, looked that way. Or even her father. She just accepted it as part of friendship. After all, she'd never had one before; how was she to know different?

Sineri did indeed experience a lurch of some kind in her stomach when Tete startled and looked like he might tip over the edge of the gorge and fall to his doom. It made her feel sort of queasy for a few moments, lingering even after it became obvious he was fine. She couldn't seem to stand the thought of Tete not being around. It was... upsetting. Another quirk she chalked up to friendship.

She felt much more at ease when he moved away from the edge - away from danger - and as the churning in the pit of her belly died down, she allowed herself to sit and shrug her shoulders slowly. "I was just... walking. And thinking. I wasn't paying attention to where I was going." She cast a glance to the gorge, looking as far down into the mouth of it as she could at her distance for a few moments, before snapping her attention back to him. "What about you, though? Why have you come to the gorge?"

Sin blinked in surprise. "They don't like you? Are you... sure?" Smothered with love and affection by her father, it was foreign to her to think of family as not loving other members (her mother wasn't considered by her as family truthfully; Kia would have to do something impressive to be thought of that way). That was what family was about, wasn't it? Grandparents were meant to love and spoil their grandchildren.

But then again... there was her grandfather. She'd never met him; not by his or her choice, but by her father's. He didn't like his father, but he'd never talked to her about it. And for her father not to want her to meet him... only led to the conclusion that he was mean and wouldn't like her. Frowning, she added, "I don't think... my grandfather would like me, either. I've never met him. Or my grandmother."

She frowned as she digested this, biting the inside of her mouth and looking at the dirt between her paws. That didn't sound right. At all. It didn't sound like it was supposed to. His grandparents shouldn't be mad at him for something he had no control over, right? But she couldn't help wondering... would her grandparents react the same? Hers and Tete's situations seemed to parallel each other quite well; would the same hold true with the reactions of their fathers' parents?

"Your mother?" she asked tentatively. "You don't know yours, either?" But her frown deepened. "But that's not your fault! If she's gone... you can't help that. Like I can't help it, either. It's not our fault, Tete; it's not!"

She sighed softly. "Yeah... yeah, I guess they are supposed to. But I don't even know if I'll ever meet mine. Dad doesn't want me to..."

She thought about it; she'd been thinking about it, a little bit, even before she met Tete. Sunbathing spots were popular. Often she saw complete, whole and perfect families. It made her wonder... why she only had a dad. Not that she wanted for anything, and she loved her father more than anything. She just wanted to know why her mother didn't want to stick around and love her and her siblings.

"I only started thinking about it lately, too. It did just seem natural to have just my dad around... Wasn't until I started noticing a pair of parents everywhere that I realised my family wasn't... normal."

Sin sighed, and she shook her head. "No, she shouldn't have. Sounds to me like she just likes being mad for no reason. I mean... it's really not your fault that your mother isn't here."

At Tete's ending question, though, the little female sighed again, and her shoulders slumped slightly as she met his eyes with her own. "I don't know. I haven't asked my father yet. I should... I want to know if she gave any kind of pathetic reason, or if she just left... If she didn't love us... But I don't want to upset my daddy at the same time. I don't know whether I should ask him or not. What do you think I should do?"

Oh, Sineri definitely considered it a big deal to have been left behind by her mother. Her father loved she and her siblings so wholly and completely that only being loved a fraction of that seemed unreal to her. The only other alternative to her was... no love at all. That wasn't a very big esteem booster. Even all together, all five of them, if her father was not included, they weren't enough to make her mother stay. She wasn't just a little bit saddened by that.

But, to be honest, she was just as upset, if not more, by the fact that her mother left her father. Ezeoha was perfect in her eyes; what kind of female would leave him after just having his cubs? She was still of the age to have private daydreams about eternal love, and this apparent rejection of the person who meant most to her in the whole world left quite a sting. But, because she didn't want her father to be upset over her, she never let him see how it affected her.

"Maybe you're one of the lucky ones... Maybe your mother really did have to go away for a little while." She sighed. "I don't think that's true with mine... I think daddy would have told us by now if my mother was coming back. But he hasn't spoken about her at all."

She nodded slowly, because asking Ezeoha really did seem to be the only choice left to her. She just had to.. work up the courage. "I guess I'll have to ask him.. eventually. Soon."

Sineri was starting to think along the same lines as Tetemeko. If Tete thought his father had only gave him part of the truth just to satisfy curiosity, perhaps Ezeoha would do the same to her, to spare her feelings. She was torn by trying to decide which she thought would be worse: her father lying to her (but then again, if Ezeoha did, it would only be to protect her from hurt, and knowing that would make it hard for her to be angry at her beloved father), or telling her the truth, which Sineri was almost one hundred percent expecting to be hurtful.

She shook her head as though to clear it, then sighed heavily. "Maybe... you'll just have to ask him if that's what he was doing. And maybe ask him to tell you everything. Parents try to protect us from the truth sometimes, even when we need to know it."