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Tseva was returning from her hunt. She'd already delivered her kill - a brace of hares - and was looking forward to spending time with Avahk. There'd been odd undercurrents in the pride lately - well, odder than they had been - and she was sick and tired of dealing with them. She wanted cubs, to raise with Avahk, that she could focus the whole of her attention on. And not so incidentally to ignore everything else going on in the pride.

But what had happened almost accidentally before seemed to be almost impossible now that they were actually trying! Well, she was trying. Avahk was helping, but she wasn't certain how much of his heart was in it. Frankly, he was more than overdue for some fatherly responsibility, having managed to miss out last time and leaving poor Tseva to raise all seven by herself. Thank the gods she'd had her parents to help out, but still! Seven! And now you'd think the boy was sterile, good gods.

Or maybe that was the problem. Despite living here, she did not believe in the Great Lion, or at least, not exclusively, the way the pride as a whole did. Was this somehow punishment? Hmmm, perhaps she'd talk to one of the Priestesses about it.

She was so lost in her own thoughts that she almost missed the light-colored lion pacing to and fro in front of what might have once been a den. The female avoided the collision narrowly and stepped to the side.

"Oh, I'm sorry!" she exclaimed, offering the apology as son as she had breath to say it.

She did not, in any way, expect the reaction she got. Tseva would have thought a "no, it's fine" would be normal. Even a "watch where you're going!" would have been acceptable.

Groveling and begging forgiveness for something that was clearly her fault and not his? Never even crossed her mind as a possibility.

"What? It's not your fault, I'm the one who nearly ran into you!" the lioness replied. "Get up, there's no reason to be down there, I'm no one special," she tried to explain. It was very difficult to tell somebody why they shouldn't do a thing when you had no idea why they'd done it in the first place.

"What?" Tseva looked at the den in question. It looked, well, bad. But she didn't know that much about underground dens - it wasn't something they'd had in the swamps, for obvious reasons. And on the mountain, well, it was a mountain. There were caves.

"Oh, I see. Well, I guess we should find some more people to help dig it out, eh?" she replied. "And really, get up!" The last was said with some irritation. She saw no good reason why he should be deferring to her like this, and it looked like some people were starting to take notice which was definitely NOT what Tseva wanted.

"There's nothing to apologize for," Tseva told the lion firmly, determined to overlook the bizarre and slightly embarrassing situation he'd created. "Just don't do it again." Seriously, she wanted to know what had prompted the odd behavior, but had the feeling she was better off not asking.

He seemed very much of hte slave mentality though, starting to dig right away. Tseva frowned and looked around, debating.

"Do you want me to find some more people to help, or did you just want my help?" she asked at last.

Tseva lingered nearby, watching the pale male dig with a frown. She had, inadvertently gotten a partial answer to her unspoken query, but it really raised more questions than it had answered. One thing was certain. Whatever pride he'd been born to was one she wanted nothing to do with, if it produced lions as jumpy and convinced of their own inferiority as this one.

"Are you sure? It's a lot of work, and it'll go faster if you have help." Not that it was the work she'd had in mind for tonight, but Tseva wasn't afraid to get her paws dirty if that was what was required of her.

Tseva smiled at the lion as she came up into the space he'd made for her and set her own paws to the task.

"I'm Tseva Reygehl; it's good to meet you." The den really was a mess, she quickly discovered. It was a good thing there were now two of them, as she didn't see it being livable for some days now.

"I'll keep you in mind, though I warn you that my mate, Avahk, seems to be related to half the pride - most of the time when we need help, he just asks a cousin." It was, all in all, a rather efficient way to do things. However, she didn't want to alienate the poor lion further.

"Still, I'll remember you, especially if there's any digging to be done!" The last was said kindly, teasingly. She really didn't want to offend him, not when she'd finally managed to get Upya to stop grovelling to her for no good reason.