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Golden paws gently nudged the small brown ball of fluff that lay before her. Teal eyes looked across the plains where not far off her three other cubs were beginning their morning’s play. Yet her youngest daughter remained asleep. She gently licked the scruff of her neck, easing her awake and into the new day. It had been a couple of weeks since Mwujuzi had birthed the litter, and she couldn’t be happier. She had always wanted to raise a family and while the circumstances surrounding this particular family were not quite what she was expecting, it was a family none the less.

A gurgle came from the brown lump nestled tightly between her mother’s paws. Njiti blinked her eyes, rusted brown, and quickly furrowed them shut again. She detested the morning, and she hoped she would be allowed to sleep a moment or two, or maybe even for the rest of the day.

“Mother, I don’t want to!” she protested from her safe, warm bed.

“Are you sure it is day time? You aren’t going crazy?” Fanciful as the question may be, Njiti hoped her mother would say yes.

The golden lioness laughed at her daughter. She always wanted to stay in the den, she hoped she would one day realise just how much there is out there, and that she would not remain so lazy!

“Njiti, the day is here,” she said in a calming voice. “You can only sleep for so long!”

Mwujuzi rolled her cub out of her arms and onto the ground.

“Don’t you want to join your brother and sister? They’re just out there, can’t you see them?” a golden paw indicated to the location of the cub’s siblings.

Njiti rolled her little eyes. “I bet Damu is just playing king again, being a big poo-poo.”

Her brother always put himself in the main role whenever they played pretend. He never shared! He could be so annoying sometimes.

“I’d much rather play with you, mother!” Njiti pounced onto her mother’s side, she had accepted that she was awake, so she was going to make the most of it.

Njiti loved her mother dearly and it was she who she spent the most time with. She loved her siblings of course, but sometimes they were a bit too silly. Her mother always knew just what to say and she gave the best hugs and kisses!

“Oh! You got me,” cried Mwujuzi as she was pounced upon. She rolled over so her cub was now on her belly and gave her a big, sloppy lick, knowing that would get a rise out of her.

“Ew, gross!!!” growled Njiti and jumped away, rubbing her paws over her face to get the yucky drool off her.

“Muuuuum,” she whined as she cleaned herself. “Why did you do that?”

Mwujuzi looked at her daughter. She reminded her a lot of herself when she was that age, a little bit too close to her mother, not quite brave enough to go out on her own, and also a bit distant from her brother, like Njiti was with her siblings. She will do just fine then, she decided then and there, because I have done more than fine.

“Because, my love, if I don’t keep you clean, the great big honey badgers will sniff you out and take you to their burrows and eat you in the night!” she nipped at her daughter playfully as she concluded her sentence, emulating what would never actually happen to her daughter if she met a honey badger.

“Not a honey badger!” Njiti screamed a little at the thought. She didn’t want to be eaten by whatever a honey badger was. “I will kick it in the face!”

Njiti attempted to kick the imaginary kidnapper but ended up just tumbling in a heap at her mother’s front paws.

“My little brown daughter, you are a silly one,” she nudged her daughter back up onto her feet.

The brown reminded her of the rogue she’d been with that resulted in her 4 blessings. She was young and alone and didn’t know any better at the time. She didn’t regret it though. Maybe there was slight regret that her cubs would probably not grow up with a father, but she’d met many a lioness on her journey that had had cubs fatherless or knew of others who had, so she was not too worried.

“Njiti, do you like it here?” she asked her daughter. She’d always thought she’d have cubs in a pride somewhere, where they could be safe and taken care of.

Njiti looked at her mother. Here? Here was their home! Of course she liked it.

“What a silly question, mother,” she shook her head at her mother’s idiocy.

“This is the best place ever!” she scurried around the small den to prove her point.

Mwujuzi laughed a little. Of course that would be something a cub said, they were always seeing the best in things. She put the question to the back of her mind, making a note to ask again at another point in time, perhaps when they had grown and they knew more about the world. For now, they were just happy playing.

“Are you sure you don’t want to play with your sisters and your brother? It looked like the girls are winning!” She looked out and noticed the two little lionesses standing above the male on a rock.

“As they should be! Girls always win, go girls!” she said matter-of-factly. Damu was the only male she knew, and he was her brother, but he was so silly sometimes.

She looked out at her sisters. That was something she wanted to be involved in, them winning! She rushed out of the den to join the fun without another word to her mother.

Mwujuzi smiled as her cub finally joined the others. Sometimes she worried she might not grow to have a close relationship with her siblings, something she always wanted with her brother.

The golden lioness rose from her spot on the earth and made her way outside to join her little ones as their day continued.

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