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With all the young lives under her care within her hearing distance (she was very clear that they were all to stay where she could reach them quickly, if need be), Nyunya felt she was free to stretch her legs a little and walk in a sort of circle around all the cubs she cared for. A kind of patrol, perhaps. She was very vigilant about keeping her young safe. But did she view all of them as hers? Three were her sisters, in truth, but she'd cared for them from the moment they were born, and she was who they called their mother. Is that what she was? A sister, or a mother? She couldn't pick, and so she decided that, in the end, it mattered not. She loved them all the same, sisters or daughters.

Ah, speak of the devil... she thought with a wry smile, spotting Sura playing near her rock. Sure was, perhaps, the easiest of Ithi's youngest litter to look at. She looked so much like their mother, and so little like their father. But that did not mean Nyunya couldn't pick up on the similarities to Nyekundu that were present. An image of that brute was branded on her mind, and it would never fade away. The white body was his, and while hers could come from the same place, she liked to pretend that her coat came from her beloved mother, Denge, sadly gone from this world. The back stripe was Nyekundu's, as were the bands on Sura's tail, like the ones she herself carried. But there was no pink to make the connection painfully obvious, as there were with the others, and Ny sent an automatic glance upward at the tuft of salmon fur that hung over her eyes as she thought it.

But ejecting these thoughts from her mind with effort, she allowed herself to draw closer to Sura, letting a gentle smile spread across her face and lighten her eyes. "Are you having fun, darling?" she asked when she became close enough to, thought it was obvious, from the young female's laughter, that she was. It lightened Nyunya's heart after all the drama she'd recently suffered, and even if the feeling were only to be temporary, it was welcome nonetheless.

Nyunya's own smile brightened considerably at this, and she leaned down to give Sura a quick, loving nuzzle. "I'm glad, sweetheart. I was worried you were a bit bored over here on your own." Little made her happier than seeing her cubs happy. And thinking that way made it rather obvious to her that, in some ways, she truly did see Sura as one of her own. She supposed raising them from newborn even just this far could create a bond like that, especially truly being a mother on top of it. She still wasn't used to all the instincts that seemed to come along with the job, and she didn't understand them completely, but so long as they helped her keep all these gorgeous young cubs happy, she didn't question them, either.

Nyunya slowly sat herself down next to Sura. She was honestly glad no questions had come up about differences between herself and Sura; she honestly didn't know what she would say. She could point out that her true daughter, Tifu, also bared only minor similarities to her? Or that Sura shared her Amani's split-coloured tail fur and back stripe, just of different colours? Nyunya was also glad, just a teeny tiny bit, that Taabu wasn't here (it hurt her having to be apart from him, and one of her sons, too, but with Sura and the other two, it was perhaps a blessing in disguise for the time being). Sura had never seen the male who would be masquerading as her father when he returned, and it was a good thing; more questions would be raised, because Sura looked less like Taabu than she did like Nyunya.

That would lead to questions Nyunya never wanted to be asked to answer. Whether or not Taabu was the father. And if not, who was? She never wanted any of them to know about Nyekundu. She never wanted any of them to be anything like him. She definitely considered it a blessing that all of them were such sweet and innocent little things.

Nyunya had to chuckle softly at Sura. Her youthful enthusiasm was always fun to watch, and it was endearing as well. It reminded Ny of how she used to play around herself, and how she had never let the little scrapes and bruises slow her down. But Nyunya was more like her mother now, beloved Denge, and she couldn't help but be concerned over that little bump, even if Sura was obviously fine. She reached out a paw and hooked it arounf Sura, gently pulling the younger cub back so she could examine her head better. "You've got to be careful, sweetheart."

But Nyunya had to wonder why Sura would purposefully choose to play with a rock when she had sisters and a brother to play with instead. Not unless the rest wouldn't allow her to play. Frowning just slightly, Nynuya said, "But why aren't you playing with the others, honey? Is everything all right between you all?" It was a mother's worst fear that there was division between her own cubs. And she didn't want any of her little ones growing up to be like bratty, horrible Fedha... and especially not Nyekundu. That was her true worst fear.

Nyunya had to laugh quietly, because Sura sounded exactly as she had growing up, when she'd got the cuts and bruises that all cubs get in life. Nyunya had to privately wonder if the trait was passed down from Ithibati or Nyekundu. The two lions were important figures in both their lives; even if Sura had never met either, they were still the two that created her, and even if Ny did not have Ithi's blood running through her veins, she still had the lioness' influence in her heart, and that counted just as much in her opinion. "All right, honey; I believe you." Nyunya released Sura from her grip, nudging the little cub gently with her paw so that Sura would know she was allowed to go off again.

She tilted her head at Sura's answer, obviously not seeing the cub's logic. Nyunya didn't see how Sura could get in trouble just for playing with the rest of the cubs. None of them ever got in trouble unless they wandered too far from mother's protection, or were deliberately mean or spiteful. Of course, Nyunya just assumed Sura was referring to being in trouble with her, not the cubs. "Trouble? What do you mean?"

Nyunya chewed the inside of her mouth as she watched Sura pound on the rock, mulling over how best to deal with this situation. Of course, now the problem was very clear to her, because the way Sura hit at the rock was not what Nyunya would call gentle. If she were one of the other cubs and one of her brothers of sisters thought to pound her that way, she probably would've run to her mother. Hell, she had done that whenever Fedha had decided to go over the top. She had liked getting him told off for being too rough with the little girl, but that wasn't something she wanted to encourage in her own kids.

"Well... Sura, you don't have to play with them so roughly." She shifted her body so that she was laying down, now pretty much eye-to-eye with the little white female. "If you hit them that hard, then they're gonna get angry with you, because it's not nice. If you play gentler, then no one will have any reason to be mad at you, sweetheart. Then you can play with everyone else."