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Examining the lioness that was first to chime a response Simo quietly admired the rich color of her pelt, bobbing her head gently to acknowledge the tidbit of information as well as express her appreciation for it. Unfortunately, she was at a loss for a name to accompany the lovely face that greeted her, trying hard to glaze over the fact in her response sheepishly. Sounds troubling.. but I take it no one was injured?

By no one it was clear Simo was implying the cubs that had been mentioned. No doubt the pride's collective fur had likely been ruffled by having these strangers not only encroach upon their territory, but their offspring as well. Any lion with common sense knew that tensions always ran high when the young were involved. To think that the red pelts would be so brazen as to--perhaps unwittingly--endanger their cubs did cause the Umama to worry. Thankfully Njalo was there to reassure her.


From somewhere below a cheery chirp piped from the cover of the shadows, two brilliant yellow eyes stared up at the others with a roundness that gave the female an innocent appearance. Even though she was the same age as Simo and many of the other lionesses Nja had an ever whimsical way about her. An almost never wavering jovial quality, even despite the loss of Matifu whom she had never openly mourned. Njalo's cubs came home safe and sound, Simo! Kinda soggy though..

Humming amusedly at the thought that some of her children seemed more fish than feline at times, she was glad that her sisters had protected her young. Despite their status as lusizi she was certain that they were still valuable members of the pride and was glad that Gakere had accepted his half siblings without incident.

"It looked as if it would turn ugly there for a while," Buna said, "I wasn't there from the start, I arrived around the same time Gakete did. We protected the cubs while he tried to make a deal with them."

She paused wondering how she should describe what had happened. There had been plenty of fangs bared on each side. And them this deal... She wasn't going to try to describe it, because she knew she couldn't do it without looking disgusted.


Xefo was very interested in the lionesses arriving and hissed questions in Xatu's ear. He understod the basics of the pride dynamics bit he didn't know the names of all important players yet.

Xatu knew that it was best to just humour him and tell the vulture what he wanted to know.

"That's Simosihle," he whispered and indicated the mord dominant lioness, "She leads one of the groups of females, the other one is Njalo."

He paused while he tried to figure out how to describe her.

"She follows Beru, one of the other leading lionesses," he lowered his voice even more, "And she had a litter of cubs with the lion Gakere defeated to become the leader. Um... Before he died. So I guess her status is pretty low."

"Fighting skills," Buna repeated and made a face. She didn't say it very loudly, and it wasn't really meant as part of the debate, but the lionesses closest to her could hear it, and anyone looking at her must be able to tell what she thought of this.

"Does anyone know what colours these huria would be," she said, more loudly this time, "Even if they aren't red, they might not be.... ahem... proper."



Xatu found Baie's tale captivating, despite the fact that he had been there. It was a good summary of the events and he had nothing to add (and even if he would have, he wasn't sure he'd dare to chime in).

His ears folded back slightly as Buna spoke. Proper colours. Gods forbid they might send someone like him there... Light coloured and with a white mane. He knew his pelt and mane wasn't very desirable by his prides standards, and part of him agreed. He wasn't sure if that was what she meant or if she was worried about lions with more exotic looking pelts. He had met a few strangely coloured ones on his first journey. They had seemed to get by all right, but everyone knew that strangely coloured cubs didn't thrive as well as normal coloured ones.

Xefo nipped Xatu's ear to try to get him out of his strange funk. The vulture had no idea what went through his head some times, but now was not the time to sulk, it was the time to act.

"I can scout them out," he croaked and shook out his feathers, "But if you want to know what they think some lion would have to talk to 'em."

Slowly sinking down to lay upon her belly, relaxing amongst the lionesses that gathered, Simosihle listened to the report that Baie offered when no one else seemed willing. Supplemental information occasionally chiming from Buna and the male she didn't recognize. It was surprisingly easy to follow the events that had transpired between either side when a single person was explaining that. Easier than the dizzying experience of having to follow several voices at once shouting from every angle and for that Simo was grateful.

Nothing really surprised her as the conversation progressed except one small detail that caused the grey Umama to tilt her head, clearly perplexed. They offered to train us as part of the deal? Why would Gakere agree to such a thing? Our lionesses are capable huntresses, unless we are faced with drought the pride never goes without. What would we need training for?

Below Njalo's head flipped back and forth between the females that hovered over head with her usual dopey, but cheerful demeanor. If there was a problem with these new intruders she seemed oblivious to it. After all, her cubs had come home fine and nobody had been hurt despite the disagreement that had seemed to occur at the water source. It certainly sounded as if the two prides had come to a fairly peaceable solution to their problems without using force--whether or not that docile compatibility would continue remained to be seen but Njalo was an optimist and a short-term thinker. As long as everyone was safe and happy at the present moment, there was little for her to concern herself with. Tongue poking from her maw to clean some dirt from her deceptively wide paws for such a small lioness.

"I guess that was the best they could offer," Buna said with a scowl, "They didn't exactly bring anything to trade with."

Her body language made it very clear what she thought about all this. The idea to send one of the Abazingeli wasn't bad, but she was not going to volunteer. The less she saw of those red abominations the better.

"So who do we send," she asked loudly, "It better be someone sensible that won't get all carried away by their strange customs."


Xatu followed the discussion with interest, ears attentively pointing forward. He wanted to help, but it would probably be better if an experienced Umzingeli handled the contact with the strangers. But perhaps... He sat up and spoke before he could change his mind. His voice was soft, almost meek.

"I could," he trailed off and cleared his throat, "I could pretend to be interested in their training if it helps. In case things turn ugly."

He averted his eyes, almost wishing he hadn't offered. He felt out of place, speaking in the presence of so many females. As a cub his opinions hadn't mattered at all, and he half expected to be ignored now too.

The vulture rolled his eyes. Trust the lion to stick his neck out for no good reason. Xefo was rather fond of his companion, but the strange lions would eat him alive if push came to shove... On their first trip together outside the pride the young lion had nearly got his tail handed to him by a bad tempered lioness. So who knew? Some training might do him good. The vulture was fairly confident to be able to sniff out trouble before it happened and tell Xatu when to run.

Normally gentle brown eyes hardened as they rolled towards the new male that had made himself present, Simosihle recognized him only as her half-brother's shadow. As long as the lion had been within the Bonelands he seemed permanently attached to Gakere. She didn't take well to his accusation, no matter the lack of emotion it contained. Unlike us? Just because they had never been tested didn't mean they weren't able! Maybe not all of them, but at least a few of the lionesses in their pride had to be worthy of the warrior title. I hardly think you know us well enough to pass judgment!

That was what she wanted to say. Maybe that's what she should have said, but the Umama hadn't had enough time to become familiar enough with her position to feel so entitled. If Gakere had decided that training with the red pelts was a sound trade for access to their water, he had to have reason for it. He was a level headed Umholi and probably the best choice of those available to lead, but that didn't mean she always understood his actions. And it certainly didn't mean she had to appreciate all of the males he took into his company.

Instead she turned her attention to the others who had been present for most of the conversation. Dina and Buna in particular. She wanted the lionesses to be as a single unit, standing divided would be of no use to them. She also wanted their voices to be heard. I don't believe that Gakere would make a deal with these strangers that would give us the short end of the stick. I'll try to speak privately with Gakere.. perhaps he can explain his intentions better and I will try to express what concerns you all may have to him.

Convinced that if she understood the situation better she could help get the less enthusiastic of their group, even those that were Beru's responsibility, on board Simo tried her best to reassure the others.

Surprised by the tension that shot through her friend's shoulders at the appearance of the new Umholi, Njalo glanced around to see if anyone else noticed. She'd never seen Simo react that way towards anyone so to see the dusty grey lioness react with such a strong aversion. Well, strong for the Umama anyway, who was already correcting her quiet reaction and adjusting her posture into a more easy-going manner. Glancing at the new addition to the pride Njalo couldn't see what made Simo so tense. He was a lion like any of the others as far as she could tell, granted, not as impressive as Matifu.

But then as far as the Busisa was concerned, few were.

The arrival of Surtak and his blunt statement didn't exactly sit well with the cinga. She didn't know him very well, certainly not well enough to be comfortable around him, and thus had a difficult time judging his intent. Or even to whom he was speaking to. There was no further explanation to his words and that annoyed the splotchy lioness, whose ears swiveled backwards more out of reflex than an obvious show of her stress. It was Simo who seemed to be the voice of reason in this conversation, so Dina took the Umama's cue to ignore the male's statement and focus on less frustrating matters than the Umholi. The lioness couldn't quite put her claw on it, but Surtak's statement had seemed to rattle her at least to some extent. They weren't warriors, they were hunters. That's why they had the males to protect them. But would that be enough if things did take a turn for the worse?

She swept those thoughts aside as something to worry about later, and dipped her head to the Umama as she made her statement. "That would be appreciated Simosihle, at least a little insight is better than none." Especially because it was difficult to read Gakere at times. Dina didn't know if that was just a problem she had, or if it was universal throughout the pride.

Chazama's distant expression quickly changed to interest as Surtak made himself known. The adolescent lioness turned her attention to the brown Umholi and listened to the sound of his voice; his words sunk in later. He was a bit on the mysterious side in comparison to the other males, and that interested Chazama greatly. Almost as much as these intruders did, who were new and strange, almost exotic. She couldn't wait to see them for herself! A flutter of excitement touched her eyes at the prospect of getting to see one of the red giants up close, her round ears flicking and moving in anticipation.

Oh! But Surtak was still here and was still interesting. The young lioness pushed herself up to a sitting position, ignoring the other female's converse- or perhaps just missing the conversation completely out of her distraction. "But they have offered to train us, we could be warriors", she spoke up, excited but also shyly and quietly. She didn't speak to the Abaholi often, least of all Surtak; and, her mother had even told her he growled! She'd never heard him do that before! Thinking about it like that made her realize she had missed all the action and excitement... and most of all, the adventure of meeting strangers.

Watching everyone around her the gravity of the situation was beginning to sink in for Njalo'sasa--or at least what she understood of it, which clearly wasn't much. Raising concerned eyes to Simo when Buna offered Baie to the stranger out-of-priders. One would have thought she had suggested feeding the Umzingeli to a group of rabid hyenas by the expression on her face. The red lions want to take Nja's sisters away?

No! Snapping quickly, wanting to n** that thought in the butt before her companion could carry it too far, Simo continued in a calmer tone. Nobody is being taken away, Njalo.

After a moment of addressing the mother of seven singularly, she added the rest of the group to the conversation with a sweeping gaze of her eyes. It's only that some of the girls wish to learn from the fire giants. However, if we have Umzingeli or Busisa who are interested in studying with them I don't think they should be denied the chance, though I think the younger generations would do best to mind the wishes of their mothers. They can always take up training when they're grown or learn from one of our own.

A purposeful glance adorning the eager-eyed Chazama with a small smile. In the meanwhile Njalo simply nodded passively, looking a dozen times more relaxed than she had a moment ago now that her fears of losing her family had been quelled. Purring with delight. Oh! That's good! As long as they come back home Nja thinks it's okay!

Amused at how easily sated the rogue-born lioness could be Simo clucked her tongue, climbing to her paws as she regarded Dina with a gentle gaze. She sympathized with the mother's plight, not entirely certain how she would have felt if her own children had wished to train with the brutish strangers. As things were, the slate-pelted Umama didn't possess much of a desire to learn from them herself. It's no trouble at all. I hope it will help ease some minds, my own included.

And with that said, Simo dropped lightly from the rocks, ready to make good on her promise both for those who looked to her and to reassure her own uncertainty.