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The small, pale female was currently stretched out on a sun-warmed ledge not far from the mouth of the den she shared with her family. Her paws drooped dejectedly over the edge, her tail lying listlessly behind her. Her entire posture screams depression. Well... perhaps not as extreme as depression, but she was definitely unhappy. She'd been this way for the last couple of days. Her energy seemed drained, and she was quiet, unusually so, her eyes often distant as she looked inwards, into her thoughts.

Those crimson eyes were currently half-closed, though clearer than usual, determined not to think about... Nyekundu... today. But she'd thought that yesterday, too. It hadn't worked. He'd still crept into her mind, and as soon as he did, her mood plummeted and she couldn't find the energy to do anything to distract herself.

She huffed softly, watching the cloud of dust rise before her face for a moment before focusing her eyes past it, towards the trees, letting the leaves blend into a solid mass of green of multiple shades. Why hadn't she been told? Why hadn't her mother ever told her? It would have prepared her for that meeting. It had been an emotional overload, and she still hadn't fully wrapped her head around it and accepted it. She tried to deny it to herself, but she knew... she knew. There was no denying it. She looked more like him than she did Denge, and the thought was depressing.

With a sigh, she turned her head, looking upwards, to where her Liza was. Her family still didn't know about him. But perhaps... perhaps he could make her feel a little better. If she could find the energy to get up, that is.

Ny's eyes closed tightly at the sound of her mother's voice, and her shoulders tensed. For a moment she stayed that way, before forcing her eyes open again and turning to look at Denge. "Well, here I am," she replies in a dull voice, before turning her eyes away again. She couldn't look at her mother right now. If she'd known how bad Ny's father was, the pale little female felt she should have at least been warned about him. Given a description, perhaps, so she could have avoided the meeting altogether. At least, if Denge had told her about him, it would have gently removed her secret dreams of one day having a father-daughter relationship, instead of having them torn out by the beast himself. She intended to ask exactly why this hadn't been the case... as soon as she steeled herself for the conversation.

She sighed gently as she heard the worry in her mother's voice, knowing it was for the wrong reasons. Briefly, she buried her head in her paws, allowing her mother a few moments to sniff her and figure out that she wasn't hurt or anything so stupid - at least, not physically. Give her mother peace of mind on that account, even though Nyunya didn't think she deserved it at that moment.

When the pale juvenile had had enough of this sniffing, she shifted away from her, lifting her head from the darkness she found in her paws. "What's the matter with me?" she repeats quietly, her gaze moving out over the distance, away from Denge. "I went out to the Pridelands the other day. Just to explore, you know. Took me ages to get there. But while I was there, I met a lion. His name was Nyekundu." She pauses, waiting for this to sink in. "My father, right?"

Nyunya lifted herself to a sitting position, staring sullenly out at the trees. The last thing in the world Denge needed to fear was her going to Nyekundu in any capacity. She felt she would truly rather die. She'd heard whispered things about him before she even met him, things that made her dislike him, but after meeting him, seeing how he really was and learning the truth, she hated him. Truly, hated him. She would never, ever go to him.

"I don't need the details of it, mum," she said, voice a whisper like Denge's. "I know enough. He told me enough." She shuddered. "I don't want to know any more."

She sighed once more, turning to look at her mother again. She could see the worry and confusion, could make an educated at the reason. "I know that. Just thinking of him that way makes my skin crawl. When I think of the things he said..." She trailed off, shaking her head sharply.

"Why didn't you tell me?" she asks suddenly, surprised to hear tears in her voice, even though her eyes remained dry. "Why didn't you tell me who he was? Why didn't you prepare me for that meeting?"

Ny didn't want to be fair about it, didn't care to be fair about it. It wasn't fair that someone like him had to be the father she'd secretly dreamed to meet and be loved by as only a father could. Or so she'd thought, anyway. Those hopes had been rather painfully shattered, and she felt wounded by the blow.

"Mother," she says with forced patience, Denge being one she hated snapping at, "it had to happen sometime. You can't keep me locked in the borders of this land, and there was no way to stop me meeting him eventually. But if I'd known who he was and what he was about, maybe got a description of him so I'd know him at sight, I MIGHT have been able to avoid him!" she says, voice rising with the last in spite of herself. "At the very least I might have been somewhat prepared for it. I wouldn't have given him pleasure when he saw my confusion and fear." Her voice drops to a whisper.

She rose to her feet, pacing a few steps away, staring out across the lands in the vague direction of the Pridelands. "He said he'd come back for me, you know. When he wanted me. Said I was his." She shakes her head. "I don't know if he knows where I live, but I don't doubt he meant what he said."

She made a soft sound, somewhat guilty and exasperated. She could hear her mother's fear at the news Nyek might come back. Well, she supposed, Denge had more reason to be scared than she did, after all, it was her who... Nyunya shook her head. She'd been blessed, or cursed - depending on how she looked at it - with her father's brains, and it hadn't taken her long from Nyek's clues to figure out how she was made. The thought of it kinda dampened her anger a little.

"I know, mum," she said quietly. Her pale paws carried her the distance back to Denge, sitting beside her mother and leaning her small frame against her. "I'll always be yours. Never his." She pauses. "But if he comes back, I'll have to go. He can't be allowed to roam these lands causing havoc looking for me. I'll have to run," she says, her distaste at the option heavy in her voice.

"Like I said," she murmured, idly batting at her mother's tail, which was within her reach, "he thinks I'm his. Of course he wants me. And I hear the rumours of his cubnapping coming into the lands with strangers. Maybe whatever he takes them for is what he wants me for."

She nodded lightly. "I noticed he hadn't been back for a while. I figured he'd taken off somewhere." She glanced back up into her mother's eyes. "I knew about the family, too. I overheard. But... it doesn't matter to me. I intended to leave as soon as I'm bigger. I'm going to travel the lands, see all the things I've wanted to see." A hint of a smile lights her face, just talking about it. She really couldn't wait 'til she was strong enough and big enough.

The secret to Ny's knowledge was basically... she was a sneak. She always semmed to be lurking in the right place at the right time to hear things she shouldn't, or that her mothers wouldn't want her to.

"He didn't know I existed. He was as surprised as I was to find out who I am. Well," she adds bitterly, but the bitterness is directed at him, not Denge, "perhaps not as surprised as me." She sighs softly, nuzzling gently into her mother's fur, one of her rare bursts of physical affection.