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Yareha was starting to viscerally understand why people took mates for life. There was no other good way to go about raising cubs. He had four (four!) that he was in charge of (best not even think about the other six) and the little beasts were running him ragged night and day.

It was like they understood how to use shifts. Ime'kotek and Hamaniya were sleeping right now, but Chiba and Avahk were wide awake. He'd gotten the two outside, so that they were less likely to wake their sisters. But now he had no idea what to do with them. Other than keeping them from going off too far, or hurting themselves or each other too badly, or eating things that were clearly inevitable...

Being a father was the hardest job he'd ever done in his life.




The sun was shining, the sky was clear and all Avahk wanted to do was play! Two of his sisters were being sleepy lazybones, but at least he had Chiba and Daddy! And really, Daddy was the one that really counted. He was bigger than Avahk and all his sisters put together which made climbing on him the best game ever.

So that was exactly what the cub was doing. He'd used one of Yareha's back legs as a kind of step and was now walking around on his father's back with blue eyes watching him every step of the way.

Yareha was lying down, as much to prevent Avahk from getting too hurt if (when) he fell as to preserve his own energy. He supposed, on reflection, that he shouldn't have allowed his son to climb up as it would only encourage Chiba. But it was too late for that now. The adult lion gave a strictly mental sigh.

"You'll have to get up on your own Chiba," he told the girl, neither a yea nor nay. Besides, a bit of thinking was good for cubs, right? Figuring out how to solve her own problems now, maybe her life would be easier than her father's.


Avahk frowned. He didn't want Chiba up here too! Wasn't that just like a girl, she waited for him to figure something fun out and then she had to copy him! He wouldn't mind as much if Mom was here, but Mom had said that they were going to live with Dad and she would visit now and then but it seemed like that was a long way in the future.

So he stuck his tongue out at his sister. "No girls allowed!"

The parent did sigh aloud this time and sent a silent prayer to the Great Lion for strength. Trust children to make a mess of things. The question was, how to deal with this "argument" without taking sides?

"Avahk," he said at last, "girls are allowed to climb up there too, and you can't push her off." The white lion twitched slightly, making his back a less stable perch for a few moments.

"And if you do, I won't let you on there anymore." Nothing like a threat to make his statement stick, right?

Avahk stuck his tongue out at Chiba again. Silly girls, always running to Dad whenever things got hard. He stood there, feeling proud of himself, until Dad spoke. She was allowed up and he couldn't do anything to stop it? That wasn't fair! He was here first!

But then Dad started moving and Avahk fell. Not off of Yareha's back, not yet, but he'd lost his footing and now was simply sprawled there. Drat. Looks like Dad really meant what he said.

"Yes, Dad," he muttered sullenly in response to the threat.

Yareha winced slightly at the tiny pricks of Chiba's claws. He supposed he hadn't mentioned anything about them and to be fair, the punctures would be fairly minor. He just had the feeling there were going to be a lot of them.

The lion considered asking Chiba to not do that, but decided there had been enough rejection towards her today. Maybe when the two were done playing on his back he'd tell her. But not while she was still climbing up.

Avahk took advange of the quiet stillness to regain his footing and stand up. He watched Chiba's steady progress with scorn. "You're so slow!" he taunted her. He had been much faster to climb up, and smarter too. Everyone knew you used stepping stones, instead of just running and jumping and hoping your claws would save you!

This was obviously why girls shouldn't be allowed to do this. They just made a mess of everything.

The problem, Yareha was discovering, with cubs on your back was that you couldn't see what they were doing. He could hear Avahk taunting Chiba, and the girl growling and retorting.

"Kids, no fighting back there or I'll throw you both off," Yareha warned the pair of them. He wasn't certain where Avahk had gotten the idea of male superiority from, but he'd have to make a note in case it caused problems in the future.

Avahk snorted at Chiba. What point was there in not being quick? In not beingfirst? First was best. After all, he was the oldest, older than all his sisters. That obviously made him the best.

"Says you!" he told her. Then his ears perked as Dad spoke. "We're not fighting," he protested. He didn't want to fall off Dad's back for something that stupid. He'd stay up here until after Chiba got down. Then he'd win.

Yareha sighed. So this was fatherhood, huh? It was a lot more work than he'd ever believed possible. And this portion of his life had only just begun. By the Lion, it was going to be a very long year.

At least there was one good side to this, as far as those who knew him would say. This, more than anything else, was educating the white lion on the consequences of loving girls. It was a harsh lesson, but hopefully it would have some benefits.