Kania's journeying into motherhood was at the forefront of her mind as she strode towards the local watering hole, chewing on her lower lip.

No sooner had she told Tapiwa of her intentions, and her encouters with Bazazi, it was coming into harsh reality just what she was getting into.

She paused mid-step, a smile crossing her face as she thought of her own youth, the shenanigans she'd get into with her twin, and how much she pined for her soft-spoken intelligence at the moment. How would she feel about everything? Not to mention Dania's children, Kania had been so absent for them, she barely knew them.

She slumped down, a soft huff escaping her mouth, and she rested her feet on her paws, if only for a moment. But the day was unseasonably cooler, and with the warm sun beating on her back, Kania could feel herself drawing towards an afternoon nap....

Rustling to her left, Kania instantly perked up, staring at the small creature. It was blurred, and she had no time to focus before it darted into the higher grasses, and she quickly followed after it, curious.

As she walked, her feet grew heavier and heavier, and she found herself struggling to keep up with the fast pace of the smaller animal, which was starting to look more and more like a relative, with the browns she had come to recognize as her own.

She eventually had to stop, breathing heavily, no long able to catch her breath as she noted the small thing had been swarmed by others, and now she took them for what they actually were: cubs.

They looked happy enough, but she had the strong feeling that they felt as if they were missing something, thoguh how she could see that without knowing a thing about them was a strange thing indeed.

A flap in the distance, and the cubs turned and were running for it, whatever it was. Something blue, and a bird and- Kania's breath caught in her throat.

Tapiwa!

The familiar face was a relief, but upon trying to approach, Kania couldn't budge, and when she opened her mouth to speak, not a sound emerged.

The bird took no notice of her either, and seemed to be squawking rather incessantly at the cubs and ushering them somewhere, though Kania couldn't hear any words.

Despite all her struggles, she never got an inch closer to them, but she watched them pass by, the cubs squealing with delight at having being shoved off, a few of them even making it harder on Tapiwa by darting behind her back and forcing her to turn and chase them down, leaving the rest of them snickering.

Despite the birds' struggles, Kania got the sense they all knew each other and got along much better than she herself did with the vulture, and a sliver of envy ran through her at that, though she supposed she hadn't been the easiest to grow up with.

A call from behind her, and all eyes were on Kania. She knew that voice, had heard it escape her own mouth, but she utterly feared seeing something that just couldn't be possible. That absolutely shouldn't be possible, in any version of reality.

She wished badly that she could turn and see, but instead she watched the cubs fast approaching, running the long distance and stopping short at her feet, and Kania's eyes widened in surprise when one cub looked right at her and cheerfully called her 'mother'....


Kania snapped awake, her gaze darting around for the cubs of her dream, and finding nothing, she quickly shook her head and stood up, her body aching from sleeping on a rather hard patch of ground. She felt colder than she had earlier, but she took note of the water in the distance and debated either continuing her course or returning back to her little hideaway, thoroughly shaken up from that very realistic dream.

What should've taken only moments took her a few minutes to decide, but finally she settles on returning herself back to her nest, no longer looking forward to playing at the water's edge with her prior elation at her incoming desires.
She thought it over in her head, tossing the idea around, before she finally settled on one possible solution: she'd seen something that she wasn't supposed to.

Possibly a prank pulled by the warmth of the sun, or maybe just her own mind trying to convince her she was on the right path, but it certainly hardened her resolve. Leave it to Kania to take a nap and turn it into some soothsaying event. She rolled her eyes with a sigh, yeah right. The rogues had gotten through to her with their stories, it seemed.

She couldn't quite get over the fact, however, that something was wrong. She saw her children, as she took those cubs to be, and saw the joy they held for Tapiwa and herself, but there was a nagging in the back of her mind that it wasn't quite picture perfect.

She couldn't bring her worries to Bazazi, or even to Tapiwa for that matter, certain they would both laugh it off [or in Tapiwa's case, just roll her eyes with a snort] and she decided then and there that her best course of action was to keep the dream to herself and store it away as the fault of her endeavors, nothing more even if she herself felt that it was.

She looked down and saw that, for the most part, she had been standing stock still the entire time she thought to herself, and a blush ran under her fur. Knowing she'd probably already made herself look like she's crazy, and not wanting it to get back to Bazazi, she hurried herself to her usual shade, hoping Tapiwa was napping and that she wouldn't ask where the lioness had been.

She didn't think she had been spotted, but you never knew how things were leaked around here, and she'd best be on guard anyway.

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