[Log] Uh-oh... (Taab & Ny... +6 ;D)

[Kaytla]

The position of the sun above didn't even mark it as midday yet, but Nyunya was already exhausted. During a walk she had taken to purposefully get some fresh air away from her family, she had managed to bring six more into it. Hence the reason she didn't yet have the energy to get up at that moment. It was sort of ironically amusing... She'd gone for a little stroll (or waddle, really, as that was all a mother could do when about to bloody pop all over the place) to get away from the little things that stressed her out around the den, only to find six more little reasons for having a stressful morning.

Not, however, that she could ever complain about them. Every single one of them was beautiful, and she had fallen in love with each the moment it arrived. Though, she couldn't deny that she was a bit dismayed by the gender ratio, with five boys to just one girl. Just putting up with the other two had been a challenge - for as long as they both were here, anyway. How was she supposed to manage with five of the little buggers running rampant? She only had two eyes, after all, and she knew girls could get up to their own kind of trouble separate from their opposite gender. This period of motherhood already promised to be more challenging than the last, that was for sure.

With a sigh, Nyunya leaned her head on her crossed forepwas once more, letting her eyes settle gently on the colourful bundles huddled together. So much pink this time. One of her new little boys was almost entirely pink. But looking at them all, cuddled together and tucked against her slide, sleeping soundly after their first feeding, she... couldn't say, completely honestly, that she was anything other than enormously proud with these beautiful babies. Looking at them, it didn't seem possible that cubs so sweet and innocent could ever give her trouble.

Of course, they would likely prove her first opinion right soon enough. They always looked innocent when they were asleep.

 

[Kaytla]

Nyunya's head lifted as she heard her mate's frantic voice calling for her. She had opened her mouth to answer, but at that precise moment, there was a bit of wiggling movement against her side and it stole her attention. With a frown, she paused. Hm. Knowing Taabu, he would most likely be rather upset that this had happened away from home. Especially with the fact that the first birth hadn't been... smooth (though, that was all because he had been there and freaked her out, she was well prepared to say if he started about it). Perhaps, for now, she should not give away her position and just catch up with him later, once she had figured out what she could tell him to keep him happy and quiet... and also how she was supposed to transport six babies with one little mouth. Another predicament she would solve easiest without Taabu there and berating her.

Unfortunately, she was not going to have her way, and her darling mate came crashing through the underbrush, much to Ny's discontent. She felt yet another stir of movement against her side, and had been about to tell him to bloody keep the noise down when his mouth opened and words started spewing out. Her eyes widened, and for a moment, she was stunned. What was he thinking? Did the idiot not see that she had a pile of sleeping cubs tucked against her side? Obviously not! Her usually brilliant mate was doing a marvellous job of supporting the stereotype that you couldn't have both beauty and brains. As Nyunya felt yet more wriggling afainst her, she opened her mouth to interrupt Taabu and give him a severe telling off (quietly, of course) when luck saved him and made him stop talking.

"Keep your voice down," she admonished quietly instead. "They've only just drifted off." That was a damn sight better than what he would have gotten if he'd continued to talk so loudly and had further disturbed their cubs. She may be tired out and happy at the moment, but her anger could still be easily brought to the surface, and upsetting her babies was a fast and certain way to get it done. However, since Taabu was following his temperamental mate's unspone rules, he was safe. For now.

"I hope you're prepared, Taabu," she continued in a whisper, her lips quirking in a little smile. "There are five boys this time and only one girl."

 

[Kaytla]

Staring at her mate with an expression that bordered on incredulity, Nyunya raised an eyebrow slowly. "Boys aren't hard?" she parroted back at him. It seemed to Ny that she had a more accurate view on things than Taabu did. "We have five here, Taabu. Five growing up together and getting up to all sorts of mischief. Rengo and Njozi were fairly easy to look after because they grew up separately. Trust me... boys fight when they're together. Or they get into trouble together. Or both. I remember, I grew up with two of them."

Still, despite her words, the small lioness looked down upon their new horde with an overflowing amount of pride and affection in her eyes. While she may take full advantage of a mother's right to complain, already she loved those cubs more than life itself. And truthfully, it was only her hormones that made her talk that way to begin with; hormones added to the knowledge that she had a pawful of problems ahead of her with a litter this big. But even so, that was a ways off. She could relax for a bit, while they couldn't even open their eyes and were adorably dependant on her It was vaguely amusing how she cherished the times when she didn't have a moment of time that wasn't dedicated to the twenty-four hour care for her newborns, but dreaded when they got older and gained independance, leaving her alone for portions of the day.

She slowly laid her head down, tucking it around a small, fluffy body and gently nudging it closer to her for warmth, smiling at the adorable mewl it made in protest at being disturbed. Her softened red eyes moved slowly up to her mate's. "Taabu... do you have any suggestions for how we can get these six back to the den as quickly as possible?" She hadn't wandered far, had been physically unable to, but the den was still a distance away. She didn't feel comfortable having any of them out of her sight just yet, not even completely comfortable leaving them with Taabu - though she trusted him implicitly. Her mothering instincts were kicked up into hyperdrive again, just as they'd been with the first litter.

 

[Kaytla]

Nyunya was a smart lioness, and she also knew her mate was a smart lion. Otherwise, he probably wouldn't be her mate, despite how irritated she could get when he was right and she wasn't (which happened as often as it didn't). But being smart, and knowing Taabu was also smart, she strongly suspected he was humouring her by agreeing so easily. Ordinarily, she may have called him on such an affront, preferring to prove she was right than have the victory handed to her, but today, she was simply too tired. Giving birth could do that to a girl. Besides, she deserved her easy victories for today - and for many days after. And if Taabu really did remember what she was like the first time around, he would know that wouldn't be the only liberty she would be taking. Nyunya knew how to milk her ordeal for all it was worth.

For a few quiet moments, the new mother considered her mate's words. What Taabu suggested seemed to be the only reasonable way to handle the situation, but that didn't mean she liked it. It involved her being separated from some of her cubs for a while, and that just wasn't ok with her. Likely it wouldn't be for a while - at least not until they were old enough to tell her they wanted some time to themselves. With a sigh, the small lioness finally nodded, reluctant though it may be. "All right," she murmured. "But you'll have to make sure Njozi's there before you start taking them." Taabu would know that, of course, as well as every other important detail necessary to make sure their cubs were as safe as possible, but that didn't mean she could help directing and instructing him like that.

 

[Kaytla]

Again, Taabu was speaking a great deal of sense. And he reasoned with her before she could argue the point herself, which yet again proved he was smart, and that he knew her well. Try though she automatically did (if a tad half-heartedly, due to fatigue), she couldn't think of a single thing to argue about to try and keep her cubs with her just a little while longer. Even though she knew she'd be with them again the moment everyone was safely returned to the den, the idea of being separated from any of them still made her anxious. Irrational though she knew her concerns were, she was just never able to shake them. Though, if she permitted this to ever happen again, she would stay in the den around the day of her birth and send everyone else out.

Though, even with Taabu's suggestion being perfectly sound, that still left Nyunya with a choice that seemed... impossible. How to choose which of her newborns to be taken from her sight? This was a dilemma no new mother should ever be confronted with. Almost despairingly, she stared down at them. She was unable to decide on any. Finally, with a sigh that was both exasperated and pained, she closed her eyes and turned her head away. "Just take one, Taabu, and go," she said, urging him to do it before she stopped him even as she shook her head no. "And hurry up. Please?"

 

[Kaytla]

It had taken all of Nyunya's strong will to remain where she was while Taabu took one of her babies from her one after the other and disappeared toward their den with them. She lay there with the slowly dwindling bundle of cups, tense and alert, ready to spring to action at any moment... though what action she expected she couldn't have told anyone. All she knew was that every instinct she possessed told her to stop allowing her children to be taken from her and gather them all once again. Only the fact that she was too stubborn to give in to the urge stopped her from actually attempting this.

But when Taabu returned to make the last trip with her, the petite lioness was already on her feet, pacing in an agitated fashion, though she never strayed more than a few inches away from the last two cubs, a young daughter and the son that looked most like her out of all the boys from both litters. As she heard her mate approach, she looked up with a forced smile and a strained expression on her face. "That took far too long," she said, even though Taabu had probably made the journey in record time - and had no doubt worn himself out a bit in the process. Nyunya hadn't physically been able to travel miles away from the den, but it was further than anyone would like to go over and over again at speed.

Briefly, she buried her face in his mane, taking a deep breath she hoped would calm her a bit, seeking the comfort of his presence. "Let's just get us all back home quickly so my nerves can settle, ok?" she murmured into his thick fur, shifting her head to look down at the last two.

[Mm... I haven't forgotten Ny has to have her freak out. If you make Taabu pick up Tapanga whenever you have time to reply, I'll make her have it when she grabs her clone baby. xD]  

[Kaytla]

Nyunya took advantage of all the time Taabu let her lean against him. With her eyes pressed into the darkness of his mane, she could at least forget a little bit the sick, gnawing feeling in the pit of her stomach that came from having bonded with her cubs and suddenly being parted from them, even if it was for the better in this situation. She took in deep, steadying breaths and tried to will the tension from her body.

Though, when Taabu finally moved away, everything flooded back in again. All her efforts to find some modicum of calm were washed away like the tide. The petite female squared her shoulders and braced herself as much as she could for the ordeal to begin anew. Another thing she had a problem with was having her cubs out in the open so young. What she and Taabu were doing went against so many of her motherly instincts (over-protective though they may be) that it was almost a physical pain.

She sighed softly to herself and bent down to pick up the last remaining cub, yet another son, but as her eyes settled on him, she suddenly froze with her maw only a few inches away from the helpless bundle of damp fluff. When he had come into the world covered in the fluids of birth and had been placed with his brothers and sister, Nyunya had not noticed his individual looks, only memorised his scent and absorbed his warmth, sharing her own. She had not noticed that one she naturally and unconditionally loved so much bore such a resemblance to the one she hated with all her heart.

Nyunya quickly pulled back, stepping a few paces backward and away from her son, her eyes never leaving his tiny form as she slowly shook her head. "No... no. Not him. No."

 

[Kaytla]

Taabu's words and movements snapped her out of her trance. What her mate said made sense, of course, as it was bound to, coming from him, but although Taabu correctly guessed what Nyunya's reaction was about, he didn't understand. Of course, with her looking like her father (which she did realise, and hated), some of the cubs would resemble him... but not this. The little cub she saw before her was an exact replica of her father, and though she still loved it with all her being, there was also a separate gut-instinct reaction of fear and loathing, not directed at the little one itself, but at the one he was a reflection of.

"Taabu... he's identical!" she said in a loud whisper, making no move yet to pick up her daughter. "You didn't see Nyekundu, you don't know - you can't know... you can't realise how much... they look the same. There are no differences!" Of course, there were, but Nyunya's continuing trend of irrationality kept her from seeing that. Nyekundu had never borne a red mark around his ankle, and if the cub were to open its eyes, she would see it had its father's red, amd not its grandfather's yellow.

She could only keep staring at the little bundle dangling so helplessly from Taabu's gentle jaws. It was almost an absent, yet completely instinctive move that brought her daughter closer with a careful, protective paw; even at her most distracted and frightened, she was a good mother.