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Zarha’s father had just finished telling a story about all the strange creatures he saw on his travels through the rogue lands. With her imagination set on fire, Zarha tried to become just like one of those creatures.

First she tried to be a hyena. She practiced laughing manically, which troubled her mother and confused her sister. Then she decided she wanted to be a leopard but when Afsar joined in she decided to go play by herself. Afsar wouldn’t follow her rules.

Now Zarha wanted to be a cheetah. Papa said cheetahs ran very fast so that’s what she would do, too. First she needed to find some other cubs to run with. What good is running fast if you can’t have a race?

Suha had found herself feeling almost...dare she say it... almost bored. She'd been daydreaming all day, watching the sky for any clouds that might pass so she could pick out shapes and make up stories about the places that they'd been. But there weren't that many clouds, and she found herself wishing her daddy would tell her another story instead of trying to make some up for herself. Her daddy was so much better at it, his stories were always much more interesting than the ones in her head. It was fun to fantasize about having adventures and falling in love. But she found herself wishing she could have an adventure herself, which made her nervous a little. Adventures seemed almost like they'd be scary to have all alone...

Her ears perked up as she caught sight of one of her half sisters, and she lifted her head from where it had lowered to her paws to see the other Banu prancing off to greet...a new girl. Oooh, maybe she could go too? It would be fun to meet someone else who wasn't family, she seemed to have so very much family. Maybe they could even have an adventure together!

With this thought gleefully in mind, Suha rose to her paws and bounded over to her white furred half sister and the new black and tan cub.

"Hello," she greeted, looking hopefully from one to the other, suddenly wondering if she might be interrupting something. What if they were already friends?

Outgoing like her father, Zarha smiled at the two new friends. She was an energetic cub, cool as her pelt was black, not a shy bone in her body.

Dareia. What a wonderful name! Zarha wished she had the word ‘dare’ in her name. She assumed someone with such a great name must be adventurous. Suha’s manners reminded Zarha that she should mind her own, the way her mother and father kept telling her to, though they weren’t here right now. So she might have ignored the thought if Suha hadn’t spoken first. Now she felt obligated to say something.

“Nice to meet you, too!” she exclaimed. That should do. She looked back and fourth between the two cubs, comparing them. “Are you two sisters?” she asked curiously.

Suha’s paws wanted to do a tiny little dance on the ground before her as she looked from her half sibling to the new cub. Already she was feeling giddy and excited, and they’d done nothing more than introduce themselves. She grinned at Dareia when the other glanced at her, happy to be spending time with part of her vast family. There was no doubt that daddy was still her favorite, with his lovely deep voice and seemingly endless supply of wonderfully fascinating stories. But she wanted to play with all her family. It was saddening that she wasn’t even sure how many of them there were. She knew her daddy, and her mommies, and most of her brothers and sisters. But then she had her half-sisters and half-brothers, whom she only knew half as well as she should have liked. And then she had uncle and aunts and lots and lots of cousins. She’d only even met one of them so far, when she wanted to meet everyone.

Nodding agreement to Dareia’s explanation of their having two mommies, Suha couldn’t help but ask, “What’s your daddy’s name?” Curiosity you see. Perhaps she should have said ‘father’, it sounded more grown-up. It was easier to learn about other daddies though, since cubs probably had lots and lots of mommies, like she did. There was just so much to keep track of, she had to start somewhere. Someday she’d have met everyone in the whole pride. Maybe she’d even meet the perfect Pad too! Oh, she certainly hoped so!

Suha’s eyes widened as Zarha spoke. Her father had been a rogue? He’d lived outside the pride? True, she knew her daddy and the other Pads had traveled outside the pride before, that’s where they brought their mommies back from sometimes. Her brothers would do it too, someday. But to have been born out there, where she knew it must surely be so very dangerous… what with the strange males and the Kajira-like females that didn’t live with a Pad to protect them.

“Wow,” she breathed, “He must know a whole lot about things outside!”

Not that her daddy wasn’t knowledgeable and full of stories and wisdom and…stuff like that. But she couldn’t help but wonder what things… Misl… Misve… Zarha’s daddy might know. Maybe he knew about other things that her daddy hadn’t told her about! Maybe he’d told Zarha, Suha’s daddy told her stories all the time, so surely Zarha’s must have too. Maybe Zarha would tell her some of them too! Oh, she certainly hoped so!

Zarha didn't realize that her friends thought her father had been born in the rogue lands. After all, she never said that. All she said was that he used to be a rogue. Even if she knew what they really thought she probably wouldn't try to correct herself. If anyone found out the truth, that her father was born a Pridelander, she would simply feign ignorance.

She continued her story with gusto, "He just finished telling me a story about some of the animals he met while he lived there, in the wild. One of them was named Sellion." She loved that name! "He was all black with really bright pink stripes, even brighter than Dareia's purple stripes, all over his body. He was a cheetah. Cheetahs are these really skinny cats, smaller than a lion, with looooooong legs and tails, and their manes go back like this." She licked her paw and pushed back her mane, giving herself a little mohawk. "My dad says Sellion must have been dropped on his head when he was a cub because he believed in all sorts of crazy things, demons and monsters. He even thought my dad was a monster!

"But not all cheetahs are as nutzo as Sellion. My dad knew another cheetah, a female named Zito. She was cunning and could run faster than the wind. If she was in our pride, she would have been a kajira for sure. Even though she was rebellious and loved to fight, she still respected my dad because he's a warrior."