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Ny was currently clambering up the slope toward Liza, only half paying attention to when she slipped, absently cursing under her breath each time she lost her grip. Her mind was preoccupied, as it had been ever since she met her father. It was a horrible concept to think of that... thing... as her other parent.

She shook her head, trying to shake him out of her mind without much success, walking forward slowly and sitting heavily beside her big, yellow companion. After a moment of silence, she reaches over a pale paw and nudges his shoulder. "Liza, wake up." She knew it wasn't the cheerful tone she usually reserved for him, but she couldn't help it. She couldn't pretend to be cheerful for him with her mood so low.

She shook her head, negating his apology, as it wasn't necessary. But she couldn't find the voice to say it. Instead, she moved to press herself up against him, burying her face in his mane. No one else so far had managed to make her feel better about this situation. Liza was the only one left. She didn't know what he could do for her, but she really did need something done. She was in a deep funk and she couldn't seem to pull herself out of it.

She huffed softly in a sigh, her little body shaking just a little as a fraction of the tension in her body begins to drain out, her eyes closing. Liza's presence was somehow comforting in itself. He was hers, he did as she wished, and she knew he was willing to protect her. Protect her from her father. It made her feel a little better.

She sighed gently, mildly surprised but quite happy when he curled himself around her and began grooming her gently. She had suspected she might have to direct him to do such a thing, should she want comfort from him. If she hadn't been so... unhappy... she might have considered this a step forward in her plan to help Liza think for himself, but she was understandably distracted.

Nyunya remained as she was for a few moments, letting a little bit of silent comfort take place, before she slowly pulled back a little bit with a nod. "Yeah, Liza. Some food would be nice," she murmurs quuietly.

Surprise managed to break through her very despondent look. She briefly wondered how he - a male, no less, when she understood females to be the better hunters - managed to bring down a bird, of all things. Even her mother, Denge - who was surprisingly adept at hunting, if little else - had never brought home a catch such as this. She'd never tasted it before, although she'd chased a few in boredom while she'd been exploring, both recently and when she'd been a young cub. Her mothers usually went for easier prey, like hares and other, more normal prey beasts. She was starting to revise her idea of getting her mother to teach her to hunt, and was instead considering asking Liza to teach her. Somehow, the thought that she could simply get him to do all her hunting for her never occurs to the little lady. But anyway, even if it had, she would have dismissed it. She wasn't lazy; when she was strong enough and fast enough, she'd catch her own food when she got hungry. She liked to be independant, did Nyunya.

After the moment of surprise had passed, she shifted her weight to be facing the carcass properly. "Thank you, Liza," she murmurs quietly, lifting her eyes to gift him with a shaky smile that took unimaginable effort to fix on her face. Then, she set about eating her full. But being a petite thing, she hardly needs much to satisfy her, and she never ate gluttonously. And not just because there were always others to be fed besides her. She liked being trim. She liked her health and energy.

Once full, she sits back. "Are you hungry, Liza? There's plenty left for you." Over half, in fact. She begins the meticulous task of cleaning the blood from her pale, pale fur. She never minded getty dirty, be it mud, blood or something else; but after the fun or the feeding was over, she did like to return to her normal cleanliness. But at this moment... the task was only one more thing to distract her momentarily from her thoughts.

Grooming was something, while she liked to do it herself, she really preferred done by others - usually her mother, and even at this age. As soon as he began, she stopped herself, letting him take care of her. She hadn't really been in the mood to do it properly, anyway. And besides, he could see stains she couldn't.

"No, Liza, the bird was fine. Thank you," she murmurs. Oh, yes, she'd definitely lost her bounce and her energy recently.

"But you must be hungry," she continues, giving him a light nudge, salmon fur brushing bright yellow. "Go on, eat. I don't mind."

She was getting far too used to this arrangement. She intended to help Liza, to stop him depending on females and treating them all as queens, as something to be feared and obeyed without question. Now, though, her mind was too preoccupied to realise she had settled fairly well into the role he expected of her.

In the silence that had come about during Liza's eating, Ny's mind had wandered down darker paths, inevitably. She didn't think of him any more so much as she thought of how she felt about him. It made no sense, she knew, but as if she cared.

She had not noticed, at first, that Liza had crawled back to her side. It took her a moment to register it. Nyunya looked at him, smiled weakly, then did a double-take as she noticed the blood and gore covering him. With her mind distracted, she didn't realise he was waiting for her instruction. "Aren't you going to clean yourself? Or would you like me to help?"

It was a testament to how frazzled her mind was that she didn't try to reassure him when he was frightened she would punish him. Instead, she flopped despondently to a laying position. How could she comfort him when she was so... uncomforted herself? She had found it difficult to smile recently, let alone offer reassuring words that he was not about to be clipped. She felt sure he could figure it out from this, though.

For a few seconds she remains silently this way, before she murmurs quietly, "I'm going to leave here soon, Liza." She had no choice. Nyekundu would come for her, and she didn't want to bring him here, where her family was. Let him chase her dust. "Are you coming with me?" She thought he likely would. Still, he'd travelled an awful long way to get here. Perhaps he might want to stay. She had no right to force him to leave, though, but she would appreciate the company and... protection in the wilds, places she'd never been and never even heard of.