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Content and comfortable, Unyenyezi had found a high place to rest her bones where she could see several of her pridemates about their business. It was a wonderful sight to her, after the horrid war and after getting lost like some silly kitten on the trail. Just to lay here and watch through half lidded eyes. She'd been so worried! Now all she could do was smile these days. Things were going pretty well for her beloved pride, she thought, and the Great Lion must be smiling down on them all.

While she lay there she let various thoughts and memories pass through her mind. First she ran through some names, ranks and families as always (kept her memory sharp, she liked to think) but she eventually got lost in musings again. How her Tamu used to nuzzle her, how her brothers Maitho and Fedha used to play as cubs, what her mother'd make of current happenings. If it were true or not that moonlight and starlight could be caught in your paws if you were crafty enough or if that was an old cubs-tale. Just slow, hazy half thoughts that didn't mean much and kept her awake and watching.

Though it was a dark night and she was in the shadows, it didn't take long for the cub to catch Unyenyezi' eye, black furred though she was. Her movement and her blue 'moon' mark catching the real moon's light gave her away and the old lioness peered at the young one. Dragging her mind back out of her wandering thoughts and back to the present. Didn't take long to match a name to that face! It was one she knew pretty well, considering who this little ones parents were.

"Good evening, Alcmene!" She called, friendly as ever. Unyenyezi had a habit of acting like everyones kindly old aunt, really. She sat up and looked down, vaguely wondering if she had any nice tasty humbugs still in her old pouch. Cubs always liked something tasty, goodness knows, and she was hardly a stranger. She'd always been about anyway.

"Enjoying this lovely night?"

"Oh just watching the pride and the Great Lion, munching on a few of these."

She nudged the small pouch which she often carried, that held a few small trinkets and as ever - humbugs. Literally humbugs. When she nudged it gently, as Unyenyezi had hoped, there came a soft (and just a bit miffed - had they understood bug talk ) humming. The tell tale sign of the striped beetles that were a 'sweet' of sorts. Unyenyezi had quite a sweet tooth and usually had some about. And if she didn't, well, she had a knack of finding them.

"You can have some if you'd like. Isn't the view good up here?"

"In sound, yes. Unyenyezi which is preeetty close to Unyezi. Though you can call me Zizi if you want." She answered, then reached into her pouch herself. Mmmhumbugs. Really, beyond sound the names were nothing alike really, but there you had it. Was funny how words worked like that sometimes, ho hum...

She let a moment or two pass, just watching the lions below again and smiling. Then something occured to her. All the lions below were adults for the most part. She'd never been a parent so the notion of bed time was something she'd forgotton since she was a cub herself. Maybe she should keep an eye out for Alcmene's.

"Do you have a nickname, Alcmene?"

"Ah, I know what you mean. When I first apprenticed to be a recorder priestess, my cousins used to tease me and just call me recorder."

Though, she had to admit, for a time being a recorder had been not only what she did but who she was. She'd thrown herself into remembering ever fact she could get her paws on rather than remember who she'd lost. Luckily that period of her life was over now. It had been useful in the long run but had been a bad way to cope.

"Mmm...you could be Al or Alc or Mene, I suppose. If you wanted one. I know I did as a young one, but my brother Fedha hated them. Had to be Fedha or nothing. Even though his twin could get away with calling him Feddy" She grinned at the memory.

"No, they're not brilliant, are they?" She laughed. "Our nicknames just came from chopping up our full names, so they were easy to get, but Alcmene doesn't fair well. Sounds lovely in full but not so much in parts."

"I once knew a lioness, slave rank but beyond beautiful, she even ended up with a guard as a mate she was so lovely. She was named Kifaa but her friends called her Beauty, Uzuri, as a nickname." The older lioness recalled. "You could get a nickname that way, an entirely new name that suits your nature."

"Well...kind of. It's my job to know everyone but I don't know you young ones all that well I'm afraid." Unyenyezi's mind flitted through a number of cubs, from green ones with vine markings to Alcmene's own litter....yes, there were many cubs now.

"But yes, there's quite a few cubs about now. You're sure to make friends with them." We've all been very blessed, she thought, and for a second mused as always how her time for such things had probably gone. Her silver fur had grown darker with age, tarnished, she'd joke and she wasn't as spritely as she once was. Who wanted a hazy minded old timer as a mate or mother?

She munched on one of the humbugs thoughtfully. She wasn't even sure she'd know what to do with a cub of her own. Feed it too many sweet bugs and fill its poor head with old memories as bedtime stories, probably.

"Me?" She shook her head softly. "No, no...I lost my mate before we had any." Oh Tamu! Zizi sighed but pushed away her sad thoughts swiftly. The cub didn't need to see an elder so down. So she smiled and recalled the only other cubs her line'd had.

"I have some a niece and a pair of nephews out there somewhere, but they must be adults by now." Maitho's cubs with that mysterious Xiu Xiu. Now, what were their names again...Verdandi, Ramlin and Tseen Ke? It'd been an age since she'd seen her brother, never mind his children! But the historian could remember the names well enough.