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Toboa let out a brief but warm purr at Han's comforting touch. The little lioness could be a sweetheart, and Toboa felt lucky that she had such loving members of her extended family to make up for her mother's coldness.

A noise behind the two lionesses made Toboa's ears twitch. She turned her head slightly and caught sight of two more pride members - Dina and her daughter Chazama - approaching, albeit slowly. The dark lioness picked up on Chazama's hesitation and decided not to call out; that would probably only make the bright Umzingeli more uncomfortable.

She turned her head back to the new Inselelo just as Nguvu, the former newbie, greeted him. Toboa bowed her head slightly to show the mountain of a male her respect, but the expression on her face showed her friendly connection with Nguvu and his sisters with no trace of 'reverence'.
"Good day, Nguvu," she mewed quietly, not wanting to interrupt the Inselelo's introduction.

Predictably, Wodi could not resist a gathering where Surtak was involved. The fact that it was also centered around their newest Inselelo was a bonus, as it could potentially give her more fodder to harass her very favorite Umholi with. And, to be honest, she really was curious about this 'Jasiri,' even if he did have a white mane...not that she was interested in what traits he might or might not pass on, although she would be surprised if any of the females bothered with him other than to pester him, not with Gakere and Surtak around.

...speaking of pestering and Surtak. The little lioness sidled forward, wearing a familiar, cheeky grin. "Ooh, so this is the one who saved us from the fleas once and for all?" Wodi's voice was thick with admiration - and sarcasm. "It's about time someone did."

Personally, she was pretty sure she could have taken Kamal, but then, Wodi was pretty sure she could take anyone.

Males aside, nothing quite got under Surtak's skin like the white and black patched female. The growl did not cut short, but rather grew into a low rumble, as if Wodi's presence reaffirmed his need to assert himself.

"Wodi." Her voice made his jaw clench and still she continued to speak.

The Umholi's eyes shifted to Jasiri, exposing a great deal of yellow as they did. "He has not been proven flealess." Either Surtak had not noticed the sarcasm, or he felt it suitable to comment regardless.

Nguvu nodded to the lionesses who greeted him "Hello." His voice was a little like Surtaks, only it matched his huge appearance. Though big, Nguvu did not appear to be to threatening. His nature was fairly jovile and his mannerisms did not pin him as a creature to be feared.

He eyed Jasiri once more. "I'm sure we shall, if we need to. You must have fought well. We could perhaps make a good team in ensuring the protection of the pride." Nguvu did not object entirely to forming alliances with the other males in the pride. He stretched out his body a little to tower ever so slightly higher than usual.

Turning his eyes towards Surtak, he bowed gently. He had a great deal of respect for the male, but was unsure as to why he had taken such a dislike to him. Perhaps it was the nature of his joining, being found with dead crocodiles, after all, could have been a little different to their usual system. "Good day, Surtak."

"He has far less fleas than Kamal, and that in itself is a blessing!" The pale Busisa stepped from the grass, giving the new Inslelo a once-over. Far too bright for her liking... Her gaze shifted over to Surtak, amusement in her eyes as she saw how Wodi's presence got to him. While a Busisa like herself, Wodi had already lent to the pride her genes in the form of strong children. In fact, as far as Mhisani knew, she herself was the only Busisa who hadn't yet. All so far had been by Umholi. Her eyes were on an Inslelo, a lion that while he bore relation to two pride females, bore no relation to far too much of the pride. As far as she knew, though, this new Inslelo held no relation to the pride, either, which was itself a blessing. Hopefully both stuck around long enough to have at least some cubs.

She circled the new Inslelo with a good enough distance between them in case things went south, looking him over. "So... Jasiri... Do YOU have family?"

Jasiri could feel the tension in the air, but since he wasn't familiar with the pride dynamics he couldn't figure out if it had been something he said, or if it had something to do with the lions and lionesses that had approached. Perhaps a mixture of both. After some initial hesitation many of the pride members were approaching at once. He smiled at the black and white female, Wodi, was it? He had either missed the tone of sarcasm or chose to ignore it. But her comment about fleas confused him. What? And now Surtak questioned his flea-status too? He kept smiling, but his eyes had lost some of his previous confidence.

"I don't have fleas," he protested, but you could almost hear the unspoken 'do I?'. Jasiri took pride in his well-groomed coat, and so far he had managed to go through life without encountering pesky pest infestations. The thought of bugs crawling around in his beautiful fur made his skin itch and he resisted the urge to scratch himself.

Toboa, Han and the yellow and white female were whispering, and he was sure he had heard one of them say something that sounded like 'fleas'. His ear twitched slightly as he managed to pick up the word 'baboon' from the whispers. What was this?

Another tan female spoke up, and her words didn't exactly calm him. Kamal, wasn't that the lion he'd beaten to get in? If Kamal had fleas and he had touched him... Ew. Ew, ew, ew! Could fleas jump over during a fight? What if they could? Jasiri was sure that he could feel tiny bugs crawling on him. Or was the itching just his mind playing tricks on him?

"Um..." he said, "Not really, no. I haven't seen my mother since I left when my mane started to grow in, and I haven't seen my littermates since then either. I assume my sister stayed with mother."

((Will post with Buna later...))

As more and more lions started to converge on the spot, and more and more verbal jabs were thrown, Han began to feel sorry for the male. It wasn't his fault he had been born with such a pale mane, after all, no more than it was her fault that she had been born ill. She was quiet and looked away from the surrounding females and a few of the males that had shown up. Had they been in smaller company she might have laughed off the slurs and reassured him that they meant no harm, but now...there were so many here she didn't want to step out of line.

Lifting her head, she spotted her mother not too far from where she stood, and she wondered if she'd be disappointed if she stood up for Jasiri. As it was, she kept her mouth closed for the time being, but did offer him a sympathetic look. She knew what it was like to be teased, although it had been when she had finally found the strength to leave her den under the watchful eye of her mother, and then her siblings. Other cubs didn't know she had been sick, and teased her for her lack of energy and poor pouncing skills.

Granted, she knew none of the teasing was done with malice, but her childhood tormentors hadn't done it with bad intentions, either. It was a trial by fire, seeing if he was tough enough to fight for his place, but then humble enough to know that the females really ran this pride, and he was there for protection and children.