Chapter 8: New Friends

"So do you like Nundi?" Jayden dared to ask as she followed her scruffy furred friend, Zula.

"Did it seem like I did?" she asked, turning her orange-red eyes on her.

Jayden shrugged.

"Well, I don't really like him like that. We're just friends. I don't really know him that well."

"Oh," Jayden said, nodding.

"Just a little farther and we'll meet my friends." Zula said. They walked on for a minute more until they came upon a group of sunning rocks. These rocks weren't used as much as the ones around Pride Rock, but it looked as if these lionesses used them regularly.

Three lionesses were on the rocks. Two were laying and one was standing on the ground beside the rocks. All three lioness's ears were perked up, looking at Jayden and Zula.

"Hello!" one of them called when they were closer. Jayden recognized the gold-brown lioness with a dark red tail tuft and purple eyes, Tamani, as the one standing beside the rock. She must be standing by her daughter, Mebala. The two younger lionesses were nearly full grown size, but by their age were still adolescents. They probably had their huntress tests not too long ago.

Zula introduced Jayden to them, and again explained why Jayden and her pride were here. Mebala was a darker version of her mother. She was dark gold-brown but with light brown eyes and a darker red-brown tail tuft. Taeliss was a color difficult to describe: a light gray-peach. She had a dark gray tail tuft and bright blue eyes, with outlander facial features. If Jayden remembered right, Taeliss's mother, Tikana, was a medium to dark gray, and used to be an Outlander, so that would explain the outlander-like eye markings and pointed nose.

"It would be nice to see Vitani again." Tamani said, standing. "I'll gather Tikana and see if she would like to visit our old friend. Good to see you, Jayden, you're so grown up now!" The gold-brown lioness smiled. Jayden thanked her, and the lioness dismissed herself to find her friend.

"Say, Jayden." Mebala said, "Did you bring any boys with you?"

"Yeah, boys! Did you?" Taeliss added.

Zula rolled her eyes.

Jayden laughed. "Yes, one is my brother, Koru, one is my sister's mate, Mani, and the last one is Drayden. He's a lion who joined our pride not too long ago."

"Is he cute?" Taeliss said, giggling.

"Uh…" Jayden hesitated. Was Drayden cute? "I suppose."

"You suppose?" Mebala asked. "That's all?"

"Why do you almost have the same name?" Taeliss asked. "Did your mom run out of names when you two were born? Or was she going for the cute twin-rhyming name thing?"

"Dummy," Zula said, reaching up and swatting the peach-gray lioness's side. "Drayden's not her brother, Koru is. And they aren't even twins, right?" she turned to Jayden.

"Right, Koru is older than me. My twin is Dayya. My mother didn't make our names rhyme, though she did put a 'ay' sound in each our names."

"So Drayden's name is a coincidence?"

"Yeah."

"Forget the name, all I wanna know is: Is Drayden spoken for?" Taeliss said looking eager.

"He's not even the same age as you!" Zula said, exasperated.

"Almost!" she replied.

"Please. Be quiet." Zula said. "All you adolescents can talk about is boys."

"Don't act like you don't like boys!" Taeliss said, her bright blue eyes narrowed.

"Yeah! We see the way you look at Clous!" Mebala added.

"Please." Zula said again. "Clous is my sister's boyfriend. That is all."

"Whatever." Mebala said, not believing her.

"Why am I friends with them?" Zula asked Jayden playfully.

Jayden laughed again, so glad to be swept away in their banter. Her heart was finally calming down after seeing Dark. The girls talked on for a while. Jayden sat down, feeling tired from her trek.

She felt she did pretty good on the meeting with Dark. She hadn't blurted anything she hadn't meant to. She didn't stare excessively or babble.

I did laugh a little too much… She realized and blushed. Why am I over-analyzing this anyway? Get back into the conversation.

When there was a lull in the conversation, Jayden asked, "So have I met everyone new to the Pridelands since I've been gone?"

"You met us, what more could you want?" Taeliss joked, pressing a paw to her chest.

"You ham head." Mebala said. Then to Jayden, "You met Nundi?"

"Yes, I took her to his tree." Zula said.

"Nundi and his special tree." Mebala shook her head.

"And I met Afia." Jayden said. "She was…cute."

Jayden's hesitation made the other three girls burst out laughing. Jayden joined in.

"She's a little ball of fury." Mebala commented.

"How'd she get such an attitude anyway?" Taeliss asked.

"It's a mystery." Zula answered. "Her parents are so nice, I dunno where she gets it."

"How are the King and Queen anyway?" Jayden asked, "Or are Kivu and Ciara the royals now? I didn't get a chance to talk to Kivu much earlier."

"Not yet." Zula replied. "They are to be married soon, though. In front of the whole pride."

"Woah." Jayden said.

"I know. Kiara and Kovu are well. Afia's birth was much easier than Clous's. I don't know if you heard that story, but Kiara had a pretty hard time with Clous. Well you were there when he was born, I was just a newborn myself." Zula laughed.

"Yes, I remember. She was very tired all the time which made her inactive. She didn't join the training much because of it." Jayden added.

"Yes, that's right."

"Don't start any scary training stories." Taeliss said.

"You mean, no scary Vitani stories." Mebala joked.

"You think my mother is scary too?" Jayden giggled.

"You haven't even met her!" Zula said. "She's a nice lady, sheesh."

Jayden smirked. Her mother did come off as stern to most, and sometimes became cross, but really she was gentle and had a sweet voice… when she wasn't angry.

"How 'bout some scary Black Pride stories." Taeliss said, looking at Jayden. "You were there at one point, weren't you? At the battle. The battle happened before we were born, so we've only heard stories. What was it like? The Black Pride?"

Jayden's thoughts went back in time. She was crouched in a bush, leaves blocking her view. She pushed them aside to watch the Pridelanders confront the Black Pride. She learned the Black Pride lion, Blood was Dark's father, and one of the black lionesses was his mother. She had watched Blood strike the weak lioness, and Dark had run from out of no where to her side. Jayden couldn't hear what was said, but she said the black cub crying. Jayden never saw any of the actual fighting. She had followed Sanu when she was ordered to take Dark home. She remembered hearing fighting, snarling, growling sounds behind her, but she hadn't looked back.

Jayden laid down before speaking. "The Black Pride was… well… frightening. I have no better word. I didn't see any of the fighting, but I did see their leader, Blood. Well he actually didn't turn out to be the true leader."

"The lioness was." Mebala said, nodding. She had heard the story.

"Yes, both were frightening. And black as night."

"Like Dark." Taeliss said without thinking. Her gold friend shoved her in the shoulder and said "Shhh!"

"Dark's not like them." Zula snapped, defending her adoptive brother.

"I know, I'm sorry." Taeliss amended.

Zula's gaze softened. "It's okay. My brother gets bothered when someone compares him to that evil Pride. And I do too."

"Well it's over now, Dark's the only true black lion left." Jayden heard herself saying. "And he's as pure as clear water."

Or rain. She thought, remembering his distinctive watery scent.

"Exactly." Zula said.

"He is a good guy." Mebala said.

Jayden looked at her. What kind of comment is that? Is she interested in him?

"Wait!" Zula suddenly blurted. "We've forgotten someone! There's someone you haven't met yet, I just realized."

"Oops. No one tell her we forgot her." Taeliss said, looking embarrassed.

"Who?" Jayden said.

"Ahila. She's a new member. An adolescent, younger than these two." Zula pointed with her tail.

"Oh. Who's cub is she?" Jayden asked. Another female? …Great…

"No one's. Well, no one here. She came to the pride a year ago when she was just a cub. Her mother was with her, but she was ill. She passed away only days after being in the Pride." Taeliss supplied.

Jayden's heart lurched with the sad news. "That's terrible, what happened to the mother? What was wrong with her?"

"I'm not sure." Taeliss said.

Mebala spoke up, "She had been kicked in the stomach by an antelope while hunting. Kicked hard."

"She was coughing up blood." Zula added.

"Ew." Taeliss blurted. "I mean, poor thing."

"Really, you should show more sympathy for the dead!" Zula said to her younger friend.

"Yes, Mom."

Zula only tossed her head in the opposite direction in indignation.

"I want to go meet everyone from your pride, Jayden." Mebala said.

"Alright, we can do that." Jayden said, then a yawn escaped her jaws.

Taeliss and Mebala began standing up but Zula said, "Wait, Jayden is tired, she just traveled a long way in a short time. She should rest for a while."

"Oh no, I'm quite fine." The brown lioness said, though now that she thought about it, she was very sleepy.

"Come on, just take a nap." Zula suggested.

"These rock here are really comfortable." Taeliss said, getting up and jumping off the rock. "Rest there. We'll meet your pride ourselves."

"Are you sure that's okay?" Jayden said.

"Of course." Mebala answered, moving off the rock too.

"Yes, rest now. We'll check with Ciara or Kiara about lunch." Zula said.

Jayden jumped onto the large flat rock and made herself comfortable. "Well thank you."

"No problem." Zula replied, and the three lionesses walked away toward Pride Rock.

Jayden closed her eyes, feeling really pleased. I made new friends! Well Zula was always a friend when we were cubs. Though we weren't particularly close. I'm really glad it seems now we can be close friends.

The other two are fun as well. Taeliss kind of blurts out things before thinking, but she's means well. Mebala is really funny. They seem as close as sisters. Their mothers were very close friends too, if I remember right, so that might have something to do with it.

Jayden let her mind wander as she dozed off, this time without thinking of Dark at all.

Author Note:
If you'd like to see a picture of Mebala and Taeliss, and all the girls in the Pride right now, there are two links to pictures of them in my Bio, I'm going to put them at the very very bottom, so just click on my name, Kiara32, and scroll all the way to the bottom to follow the links. You will have to copy/paste them into your browser to see them. Thanks!