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Umbia was lounging around on a rock, oh how she loved to just lay about not really doing anything. She was thinking about a certain someone and a smile crossed her face. Oh how wonderful to just laze and let him swim about her mind. She really wanted to see him again but she wasn't going to look for him. How bad would that look?

She closed her eyes and let herself out a pleasurable purr like rumble. Oh how happy she was right now. If only he was here with her and if only he felt the same way. She didn't know how he felt and she wondered if she ever would. Oh well she could dream for now.

All you had to do was change Umbia's pelt colour to white and that picturesque scene of a young lioness daydreaming would have been Ihlo last year. How things had changed...

The young mother thought she had escaped for a quiet moment or two, only to find her rambunctious daughter Atla had followed and was now tugging at her tail. Sighing with a smile, she indulged her daughter some on-the-go playtime as she continued to go for a walk and stretch her legs. She'd left Njozi in charge of the rest, forcing her to chuckle lightly to herself.

When she happened across Umbia, she thoguht for a moment it was her father sprawled out again, soaking up the warmth. But this figure was missing the tell-tale rusty mane.

"Umbia?"

Umbia looked up blinking and smiled at her sister and the youngster following her.

"Hello Ihlo and Atla." She hoped she had got the name right, the twins seemed to have such similar names it confused her way too much! She smiled though it was lovely to see her sister and neice.

"How are you both doing and where are the others?" She was clearly talking about her other neice and nephews. She did love seeing them. Aunty Umbia. Haha it was a strange thing.

Ihlo smiled at her half-sister, although the 'half' part was never an issue. Her half-siblings had been more of a family to her than her own brothers and it felt as though she had truly been born to this family. She walked over and gave her sister an affectionate nudge with her nose, and then watched carefully as Atla tried to copy her mother, clambering all over the rock to reach her aunt. It was a clumsy attempt, but an affectionate one all the same.

"Oh couldn't be better. Njozi is minding the fort at the moment, but this little lady escaped," she smiled and chuckled as Atla beamed an innocent smile.

"Enjoying the sun? And what could have possibly put such a wide smile on your face?"

Umbia chuckled at Atla and jumped down from the rock to give the youngster a soft nuzzle.

"Oh your so mean to him, giving him the lively things to look after!" She chuckled a little knowing that he probably wouldn't mind, but the image of him having the 3 youngsters climbing over him couldn't stop him from laughing! Oh it was so funny!

"Yes the sun is wonderful. It keeps me happy!" She chuckled again.

"Smile? What smile is this my dear sister?" She was clearly happier then normal and wasn't giving any reason as to why. She was just happy happy happy!

"I'm not mean...he was kind of asking for it. These are his children as well afterall," she laughed brightly, now occupied with her daughter clambering all over her paws instead.

Ihlo smirked at her sister, now wiser with age and motherhood, and a strangely new natural sense of picking things up emotion wise.

"Oh you can't fool me...you're a cheerful sort, but not THIS cheerful," she teased. "Come on, you can tell your big sister."

Umbia laughed.

"Oh wise Ihlo nothing gets past your wise sense!" She laughed loads.

"Oh I was just thinking about someone. Someone who is wonderful and out of reach! Dreaming haha!" She wasn't going to hide things well most things from her sister. They had a bond and the girls seemed rather close. That was how she liked it.

"Anyway, how are the little ones? They are growing so big now!" She smiled changing the subject while looking at Atla. She was proud for her sisters, they had such wonderful children!

Ihlo's smile grew wider. So, it WAS a boy. She thought as much. She recognised that smile anywhere, if only because she used tow ear so often herself.

"Oh, they're growing faster than we can keep up," she laughed, answering her sister's question. The subject of this crush wouldn't be mislaid for long though. "They'll start 'life-lessons' soon, we've been talking about it. They're so hard to actually keep IN the den anyways."

"Soo...whats his name?" she smirked and elongated the 'so.'

She laughed as Ihlo spoke about the children and these 'life lessons' oh that would be interesting to see. The youngsters would probably be good at life with the parents they had.

She then laughed even more as her sister changed the subject back to that which she was trying to avoid! Oh how annoying!

"Izulu." There she said his name.

"He is rather strange, I am not sure why though because he can be lovely but he seems to put on this front. Oh he is awesome but yeah my crush will be over with soon I am sure!" She smiled trying to get her sister to realise that the feelings probably weren't mutual.

"Oh...planning on making a move?" she pressed for more information. Her immediate thought was that Umbia would be brave enough to make her feelings known. "Or keeping eyes open for someone else...?"

"You are terrible sis!" She laughed.

"I have eyes for no one else at the moment if that is what you are asking! I have tried to make a move many times but he seems to just brush them off! I might try one more time but other then that I might just give up." She smiled at her sister softly, wondering why she was saying all of this.

Ihlo looked aghast as Umbia mentioned giving up.

"You can't give up!" she scolded. "Is he worth fighting for? Perhaps he's just a bit...well...dense..."

It was always difficult to comment on a male without making them sound like morons, but Njozi was like this when she first met him. It took them a while before they revealed their feelings for eachother, and Ihlo could see some of herself in her sister.

Umbia shook her head.

"I don't know. i can't figure him out at all, he is a strange creature." She smiled and then looked at the sky before at Atla who she had forgotten was with them. She missed being that age, she didn't have these strange silly feelings when she was that age.

"Well, some of that is natural. Some of us just know what to do, and some of us don't. I know I didn't," she laughed. "It must have taken me and Njozi so many days and nights, weeks...who knows...before we realised how we felt."

She tried to offer some reassurance. Ultimately, she couldn't command her sister to go after this Izulu. Perhaps she shouldn't. Ihlo knew very little of him. But all the same, Umbia was her little sister and she had to be there to give her advice.

Meanwhile, Atla had grown bored of the 'tagging toes' game and was slumped across her mother's paws instead, watching everything around her, occasionally peeking up to see an exchange pf words.

Umbia sighed a little.

"Do you think mother and father had these issues?" Of course she was talking about her parents and not Ihlo's but to Umbia Ihlo was part of the family and forgot most of the time that she had a different mother. She looked as much as part of the family as any of the others did.

She sat down looking down at Atla again and smiling. She wanted to have cubs.... or did she? What a random thought to go through her head! Well that was staying in her head for sure!

"I've no doubt," Ihlo chuckled. "Love...is never easy. Show me the 'perfect couple' and I'll show you the pitfalls and misunderstandings they had during their time together. No-one's perfect."

She leaned over, disturbing Atla from her comfy cushion of mum's paws, to give Umbia a nuzzle.

"Are...you afraid he'll reject you? Is that whats stopping you?"