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Ukene had been studying the Great Lion's form from on top of a convenient rock formation, reciting everything she'd learned from Mitsuki today in her mind when she noticed the yellow - was it yellow? The Great Lion was bright, but light colours were still a bit hard to distinguish in His light - tuft bopping along the tall grass. How funny! She watched with great interest, identifying the thing as a tail after some scrutiny.

But a tail that tiny.. that meant whoever owned the tail had to be a cub, or at least a juvenile, right? Or maybe a mini-lion - did mini-lions exist, or was it just something she'd thought of somewhen?

In either case, she really ought to check it out, didn't she? Maybe the youth was lost and scared and just wanted its mama!

With that thought in mind, Ukene waited until the tail was a bit closer to her resting spot before softly clearing her throat and waiting for the owner to notice her. It wouldn't do to give someone a heart-attack after all.

"Hi!" Ukene beamed, happy that the little cub (she'd been right! Victory dance!) didn't seem to be in any sort of distress, if not a little nervous. But friendly! And friendly was always good.

"What are you doing out here? It's very late you know, and even if He is watching over you you should be in your bed with your siblings, sleeping, not running around out here where you could get lost." It was recited with much care and no fervor at all, being actually what Zizi had told her daughter (more or less) when she used to find her wandering around similarly when she was younger. But it didn't seem like the cub's parents were around to say it, so Ukene felt that the slight scolding fell to her, if not somewhat uncomfortably. But that was a part of being an adult, right? And she'd been trying so hard to be more adult, more like her siblings and the other lions in the pride and less like herself - even if it was a constant struggle and made her more miserable than anything else.

"Really?" Well, if her father had given her permission.. obviously it was okay! Still though, she was kind of a tiny little thing (or maybe Ukene just wasn't entirely used to being as large as she was now) and she might get lost in the grass.
It'd happened to the older lioness often enough at that age, that was for sure.

"Are you sure you won't get, you know, lost or something? I would, I mean, if I was tiny like you are - well, I was and I did get lost very often, and I think that was what I meant. Don't you? It makes sense, though, somewhat, right? I think so, I think." She didn't pause to wait for a reply from the younger lioness. "And getting lost can be very scary, unless you've got siblings to find you, 'cause siblings always find you when you're lost, so if you've got siblings you don't really need to worry. Do you have siblings?"

"That's awesome!" The older lioness beamed enthusiastically at the small cub. "You've got waaay more siblings than me."

"I did! I have Utunzo and Upenzi and they're really, really good at finding me when I'm lost. Except I don't get lost so often these days, but I used to. What's your name? Mine's Ukene, and I'm an apprentice midwife! Your siblings have very awesome names so you probably do too, right?"

The older lioness grinned happily, proud that she'd guessed correctly; the little cub's name was just as awesome as those of her siblings'!

"But a cub is still something, isn't it?" Her voice was a bit confused, but it was quickly lost as they moved on - finally something she knew about! Ukene puffed up, looking every bit as adult and serious and knowledgeable as she knew how to: "An apprentice midwife is a midwife in training who follows around her senior and observes the techniques and duties of a proper midwife. When she's not doing that, she gets taught the basics by her mentor until said mentor deems her ready to move on to harder things."

She paused, having forgotten the rest of the speech that she'd tried to memorize days ago. "But I haven't helped with a birth yet or anything, I'm mostly getting taught stuff about the Great Lion and, uh, stuff." She thought for a moment: "How to act around pregnant lionesses, too, though I'm not all that good at that - not that I really-really know or anything, since I haven't actually met any yet, but when the day comes I'll be prepared!"

She nodded along quite vigorously: "I think your daddy's right! Because that sounds reasonable, doesn't it? I mean, then you'd be all prepared and everyone else who'd just been slacking off -" Ukene hadn't cottoned on to the fact that that was the sort of thing every cub learned yet, " - they'll be all like, you know, 'whooooah, you're awesome!' and you can be all 'why yes, yes I am!' and that'd be completely awesome wouldn't it? I've always wanted to say 'why yes', but it doesn't really come up when you're chatting with people, so you gotta plan ahead and take your opportunities before they present themselves. I think."

Ukene beamed so hard she swore she could feel her maw cracking. "You really think so? No-one's ever thought I was awesome before! Except for me, but I don't think I really count." She nodded with a pseudo-solemn mine; "You, my friend, are fantastically awesome as well. Totally!" She couldn't resist grinning again, feeling the stress evaporate in the face of what was looking to be a new friendship.