Heavy are the paws that have to make a decision. That was how Iyõ felt. She knew now that she wanted cubs of her own, children to raise and to watch grow. The next step now was selecting a suitable male from those that were available.

There were several males for her to make her selection from. She would have to assess them all on their merits, their strengths and weaknesses, their proven abilities, their, well, everything. All of it was important to take into consideration, at least to Iyõ. She wouldn’t ignore a thing, that she was certain of.

She wondered what her sister would say. Iyõ had not yet told her sister that she had decided to bear a litter of cubs. She imagined she would be surprised, but happy. It would mean she would become an aunt, after all. Iyõ imagined her sister watching over her as she gave birth. She would be the strong one. She would watch as her cubs were brought into the world, and would be fully involved in all manner of raising them. Iyõ was sure her sister would be supportive of her decision. She would tell her soon, before she chose a male. It would be important to get her sisters opinion after all.

The choice of male would be a tough one for Iyõ. She had always had her eye on the golden male, Bangizwe. He was gone now, along with the other Umholi, Andhaka. Iyõ had always admired them. They were both incredibly strong, and had served the pride well. If she had acted sooner, perhaps she could have born cubs from one of them. But that was neither here nor there now. There were new males in the pride, and they had proven themselves to be stronger, and as it always has been, things had taken course and now they were the Abholi of the Bonelands.

Whispers made their way around the pride for some time after the males came to the lands. With them, a pack of fierce warrior lionesses had come as well, bringing a new dynamic to what some might call a stale social situation. What had they done to get rid of the two Abholi? They had come from a previous pride, everyone knew that, but what had happened to it to cause its downfall. Why did the females follow. Were they okay with how things worked here? It would be strange, Iyõ imagined, to go from living life one way, to living it another. It was so long ago now that she'd joined this pride that she could scarcely remember what life was like outside of it, but for many of those lionesses, she was sure it may be a bit of a culture shock and a change of pace for them to get used to and to understand.

Umkhombo she had seen before. Iyõ had been around when his father, Gakere, had been the Abholi. She wondered if he was like his father. Gakere had done a lot for the pride. Because of him, males now had more opportunity to stay within the pride. Iyõ Liked this, whilst she agreed that too many males could be a problem for the Bonelands pride, she knew they were more useful than some were given credit for, and they were still required to take a vow of celibacy. It was even him who had brought about the truce and pact with the Firekin, the army of the desert. At the time Iyõ had not been sure about that particular move. They were strong lions, sure, but their way of life was so... militant, Iyõ could not see what benefit there could be from the two joining. Still, it had proven to be a worthy venture, and many young lionesses and lions from the Bonelands had taken up visiting the outpost and training with the Firekin there.

His father had done quite a lot indeed, Iyõ had not realised until reflection. Umkhombo certainly had a lot to live up to. He certainly came from a strong family, and his colouration was also quite dark, which Iyõ admired. She knew, however, that a lot of females would be vying for his attention. She wondered if it might be hard to gain his attention, or even if some females might be jealous of her if she were to approach him. Would she be jealous of them? Potentially, but that was how things went here. They all accepted it.

Then there were the other males, there was quite a lot of choice now, Iyõ realised. Before there had been just 3, sometimes 4 males for the lionesses to choose from. Now there were five. Salymaz and Ahlaq were both said to have come from the same pride as Umkhombo. The pride they'd all come from was said to be a warrior pride, where the lions prided themselves on their ability to fight. Iyõ knew this meant that they were both strong lions, otherwise Umkhombo would not have brought them along, surely. The other two males Iyõ was unsure about. Faust she had not heard much from, Budek was a recent addition to the pride, having removed another Inselelo which she had not paid much attention to, for his mane was far too white for Iyõ's liking.

Still, she could feel herself leaning towards one of the Qyrhyeshti. They were strong, and handsome lions. Their manes were dark, and Iyõ knew that they at least potentially could sire strong and healthy cubs. She hoped that they favoured female cubs. Although she knew and agreed with the ways of the pride, she wasn't sure how she would deal with things if her own sons were to leave, if she were to have sons that was.

Iyõ nodded with her decision. She had narrowed down her choice to three of the males. The process of elimination felt good, she was at least closer to her decision than she was before.

The golden lioness looked around to see if she could spot her sister. With only a handful of lions left to make her choice from, Iyõ knew she would need the assistance of her sister.

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