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Isa was glad to be out of the hot sun. With their lighter coats she and Aara more inclined to burning than their father or half-brother, and when she had thought that they would have to cross an entire desert she had been secretly dreading the trek, despite her father's promise that they would not attempt the crossing until dark. Isa worshiped her father and trusted him implicitly, but sometimes that didn't help when she was hot and tired and sore.

"Do you think we're going to stay here forever?" she asked Khozar. Aara was sleeping, and so unavailable for consultation, but it was Kho's opinion that mattered more to Isa anyway. Next to her father, Kho was her favorite person in the world.

Khozar had been prowling around the den he shared with Mirsajadi, Isa, and Aara. It was cool and dark compared to the desert outside, but also small and confining. Kho was the oldest of the youths traveling with Mirsajadi and he alone could remember their mothers and their former pride. He didn't miss the mothers or the pride, but he resented their father dragging them hither and yon only to apparently settle them here.

"I don't know," he answered honestly. "Maybe. I guess it will depend on what the pride's leader has to say about us staying. Four lions can be a lot to feed."

Isa thought about that for a moment. She didn't remember living with the Ukuucha'Wafalme except sometimes in the moments before waking up she dreamed about her father's harem, though she did not know that's what her dreams were about. Mirsajadi didn't like discussing where they came from or their family, and so Isa didn't ask him to.

"None of the lions we saw looked like they went hungry," she pointed out. "Besides, I think the lioness who brought us back here - Harima? I think she likes Mirsajadi. I bet she really wants him to stay."

Isa wasn't sure how she felt about that. The idea of there being some other female competing with her for her father's affection wasn't an appealing one at all, but at the same time she thought that her father should be married, because then he'd have someone to do the hunting for him and free up his time so he could spend more of it with Isa.

Kho frowned at this newest point Isa had raised even as he absently corrected her, "Harimau'tapi, not Harima."

Of course he had noticed that the lioness seemed to be acting a little oddly around Mirsajadi, but it had not crossed his mind that she might be attracted to his father. Kho found many admirable traits in his father that he hoped he possessed, too, or would one day, but for some reason he had a difficult time thinking of his father as lovable. Perhaps that was because of how guarded his mother had always been around Mirsajadi.

"Perhaps, but I can't imagine Mirsajadi staying somewhere just because a lioness he's just met asked him to. I guess the problem is that I don't even know if he intends to stay her for a long time or a short time." It bothered Kho when he didn't know things.

"That's true," Isa agreed, feeling a little more relaxed. "Maybe he only means for us to spend a short time here while he decides where we ought to go next."

She fell silent again as she watched her half-brother pace around the den. Then she spoke up again with another question, "Do you want to stay here, Kho?"

The den they waited in was larger than any den she could remember living in, but at the same time it felt small and claustrophobic to her. Isa had lived most of her life in the open or in temporary shelters which were still mostly above ground. Being underground made her uneasy, but if both Mirsajadi and Kho were okay with it, she would try to be, too.

Like Isa, Kho found it strange to be underground, and like Isa he felt the weight of the rocks pressing in on him, but he felt an obligation to be brave and stoic so as not to let Mirsajadi down. He thought he could get used to living underground, since he could certainly see the sense in doing so, considering the desert sprawling above.

"I don't know enough about it yet to say for sure," he answered honestly. He tried to be honest with his sisters as much as possible. He wanted to protect them, but he didn't want them to be weak or helpless either. It was a fine line, and one his father walked, too. "But Harimau'tapi made it sound pretty nice."

She hadn't said a great deal about the lay of the land, but she'd spoken about the pride itself and the sort of lions who lived there and how they occupied themselves. It had sounded interesting to Kho, but then he was interested in just about everything.

Now Isa frowned. She had liked Harimau'tapi well enough when Mirsajadi introduced them, but she didn't want her father and brother to end up liking the new lioness more than they liked her. She was, either despite or because of their best efforts, more than a little bit spoiled.

"Living underground is really strange," she pointed out. She wasn't sure yet herself if she wanted to live here, but until she decided, she would try to keep everyone's opinion the same as hers, which might mean that she would seem to be arguing against herself sometimes.

"And Harimau'tapi seems nice and pretty and all, but do you really think she's good enough for Mirsajadi?" Because Isa didn't. Not at all. She didn't think there was anybody in the whole world who was good enough for her daddy, except maybe her, and Mirsajadi had already explained that fathers and daughters didn't get married.

Kho could guess something of what was going on in his half-sister's head, and the supposition made him smile. He and Mirsajadi disagreed too much for him to imagine himself being jealous of a hypothetical mate for their father like Isa was, but whether he knew it or not, he would resent having less of his father's attention, too. Nevertheless, his next words to her were meant to be reassuring.

"I think we're both getting ahead of ourselves, Isa. You know how Mirsajadi is. He'll meet with the leader of the pride and they'll come to an arrangement that suits him and might suit the leader, and then he'll tell us what was decided. I very much doubt that Harimau'tapi will factor into Mirsajadi's decision at all. He's too smart for that."

Whatever disagreements Kho might have with Mirsajadi, the young lion still tended to worship his father, acknowledging that there was no one more intelligent or better able to take advantage of any situation. He had no doubt that whatever Mirsajadi decided, it would be what his father thought was the best, even if Kho didn't agree with him.

Isa nodded and padded over to Kho, planting herself in his path so that he would have to stop pacing. Most of the time they talked while walking or moving in some way, but their confined quarters made his pacing irritating. She licked one paw as if this had been an accident and not a planned measure.

"Whatever happens, it will be the right thing for us," she decided. "Mirsajadi would never do anything to hurt us or put us in danger."

Being younger than Kho, she didn't realize how dangerous it had been for Mirsajadi to leave his daughters unguarded except for their barely-older half-brother. She knew Kho was older and so having him as a guardian made perfect sense to her.

"I think we should go exploring," she announced after a few moments. "Let's wake up Aara."

Kho shook his head, amazed at how quickly his sister could dismiss a subject just by deciding that it didn't matter what Mirsajadi decided to do because he always knew best and could do no wrong. Almost every time Kho had disagreed with Mirsajadi he had lost the argument, but he'd been right more than once, and Mirsajadi had acknowledged that, and that had made Kho even more certain that his father could not be followed blindly. But that was an argument he didn't ever plan to have with Isa.

"I'm sure he'll do what he thinks is best," he almost-agreed. "And I'm equally sure he'll be angry if we go exploring and get lost. So let's leave Aara asleep and play the question game until Mirsajadi comes back."

Kho liked the question game because he almost always won. Isa was getting better at it, but Kho still won every game. Only Mirsajadi could beat him, and even then Kho was still the victor more often than not. The cubs played for what seemed like a long time before finally falling asleep. Their father had not come back yet.