Nobody knew who Nyonda’s father was.  Zira’d heard tell that he’d been found moments after birth, eyes tight shut, kneading his tiny paws in vain against his dead mother’s belly.  None of the lionesses in the hunting party that had discovered him had really wanted him, supposedly because of a natural aversion to his charcoal-colored fur.  However grudgingly, though, they had decided to take turns nurturing the helpless newborn.  His care often switched paws, so nobody had had the chance to become attached to him as a mother to a son.  In fact, by mere coincidence (or perhaps something more) it was Zira’s mother’s turn to nurse him when the two cubs’ eyes had opened, practically within minutes of each other.  The two of them had been together ever since.

The good news—or bad news, depending on how you look at it—was that no one ever really noticed Nyonda’s presence or absence, health or injuries.  After depositing the unconscious cub next to a tree stump within crawling distance of the waterhole, Zira had raced back to her mother and oh-so-carefully curled up next to her.  When sunrise came, no one was the wiser.  She quickly rattled off to her waking mother that she was going to go play with Nyonda.  The lioness, though slightly bewildered by her daughter’s sense of urgency, didn’t press the matter.  

Zira bolted anxiously back to the waterhole.  As she approached the stump she saw that Nyonda was still asleep.  She sighed in relief and sat down next to him.  His fur tickled her side as she settled down.  He looked so peaceful sleeping there…Zira smiled and placed her head gently on the hollow of his neck.  She was so lucky to have such an amazing friend: a friend so true he would sacrifice himself for her.

Nyonda gave a small moan under her.  She sat up as his eyes twitched open.  He yawned and stretched, blinking in the sunlight.  Suddenly he noticed Zira beside him.

“Zira?” he moaned.  “Is that you?”

She grinned at him.  “Good morning, sleepyhead.”

He looked around, squinting.  “Where are we?”

“The waterhole, silly.  See?”

“Oh.”  He looked confused.  “I thought…”

“Thought what?”

He screwed up his face in concentration.  “But it was…I remember it was dark.  There were rocks, and…and pain…”

She licked the top of his head.  “You followed me to the Stoneyards last night.  I was being an idiot and following up on Tomo’s challenge.  He wanted to make me a member of his little gang but you wouldn’t let them.”

“Oh…oh, yes!”  His face lit up in sudden recognition, but a moment later it drooped again.  He sighed.  “I must have been out of my mind.  There was no way I could have beat them. I…Zira, I failed you.”

For a moment she was still, but suddenly erupted into laughter.  “Ha ha ha!  Failed me?!”  She gasped for breath, then collapsed into convulsive screeches of mirth.  Nyonda looked at her uncomfortably.  Luckily she soon regained her composure and turned towards him with a sweet, thankful smile.  “I-I couldn’t ask for anything more of you, Nyonda.  You’re the best friend I could ever hope to have.  You cared about me, so you came after me, and you stood up for me against those creeps.  You’re a really brave guy, Nyonda.”

He glanced up at her from beneath his long bangs, embarrassed by the praise.  “Aw, come on, I can’t possibly be that awesome.  Don’t try to fool me, I know I lost that battle last night.  Tell me what happened.”

“Well, you sort of appeared out of nowhere…I almost jumped out of my fur when I saw you.  You told Tomo and the girls to back off, and then all of a sudden they were on top of you.  I admit I closed my eyes and covered myself with my arms; I’m such a coward.  But when I looked up…”  Suddenly she cut off.  The horrible image had just reappeared in her mind, the gruesome picture of Nyonda, a mangled heap of fur and blood, and Zira not knowing whether he was dead or alive…

“Well?” he prompted her.

“I think either Mata or Kumi threw you against the rock wall.  You weren’t moving.  I was scared to death.”

“I guess that explains why I can’t remember anything, then.”

Zira couldn’t help but give a small chuckle.  “So they pinned me down and threatened to kill me if I didn’t join them.  Naturally I refused the offer…”

“You WHAT?!”

“I…I refused the offer.”

“B-b-but they were gonna kill you!”

“Well, I sure as heck wasn’t going to join their little gang, not after…well, you know.  But as luck would have it, Ni heard the fight and came to our rescue.”

“Who?”

“Ni.  He’s that big gold-and-brown guy.  Older kid.”

“Ah, yes.  I think I’ve seen him around.”

“So he was taking a walk at night and he heard the noise.  He got us out of there nice and quick.  We owe him our lives.  Even if he went on and on later about how those other cubs are always up to no good and shouldn’t be trusted and blah blah blah…”

“Then we give him the appreciation he deserves.”  Nyonda rose onto all fours.  “If we owe him our lives, I really ought to thank him in person.”  He turned to leave, but after a few steps tripped on a rock and went sprawling.

Zira trotted over to him.  “Oh, sure.  You’re perfectly ready to just get up and run around everywhere with a twisted wrist or heaven knows what.  No.  You’re staying here until you’re better.  All better.”  She put unneeded emphasis on the word “all” but he didn’t push it.  He just looked up at her looking playfully annoyed.

“Well, I can see I’m not going to be able to change your mind.  Do with me as you will.”

“That’s my boy.”  She led him back to the stump by the water.  He sat down obediently and looked up at her, as if awaiting orders.  It was too much; they both cracked up.

Zira wasn’t sure if she’d ever fully appreciated the time that the two of them had together.  She hadn’t realized how much her scruffy friend really meant to her until last night.  She wasn’t about to let him get into trouble now.  But she couldn’t hold back one last giggle as she stood up.

“Behave yourself, now,” she joked.  “I’ll be back with food as soon as I can.”

“Don’t you go worrying your little head off, Zira.  I won’t do anything stupid.”

She laughed a musical laugh and jogged off to find her mother.



For the next few days little Zira tagged along on every hunting trip she could.  Her mother was pleased that her daughter was “growing up” and didn’t object in the least to her attending more hunts than she could possibly need for food, thinking that the cub just wanted to get in lots of observation and practice.  Zira was indeed watching and participating in more hunts than was necessary for her.  Every time she saw the chance, though, she would carefully rip off a slab of meat from the kill and run down to the waterhole with it.  Luckily Nyonda hadn’t broken anything during the brawl, so after a few days of rest he was up and about again.  His wounds were healing nicely, and nobody noticed the dark scabs that camouflaged with his blackish fur.

Nyonda had his mind made up that the first thing he would do when freed from Zira’s quarantine was meet this Ni.  Side by side the two cubs trotted through the grass, stopping to ask any other pride members they ran into if they’d seen the tawny-furred youth.  Finally they got an answer from a young lioness: he’d last been seen sleeping by the river, near the rapids.  The cubs thanked the older girl and headed off to the river.

They hadn’t gone far when Nyonda noticed something out of the corner of his eye.  He stopped walking, causing Zira to bump into him from behind, and turned his head towards whatever had caused the movement.  At first he saw nothing, but after a few seconds he caught a glimpse of a flash of red several yards away.

Zira had noticed, and she knew immediately who the strangers were.  Involuntarily she clawed the ground and crouched slightly.  Her hackles pricked upward as a low growl began to sound in her throat.

“Zira…”  Nyonda placed a steadying paw on her shoulder.

The girl blinked.  Where had that come from?  Was it one of her flares?  She shook her head from side to side as the fur along her back flattened again and she relaxed her posture.

“It’s nothing.  I’m fine.”  She turned determinately away from where she’d seen the movement and walked on.

“Forgive and forget, they say,” Nyonda muttered as they continued onward.

“They doesn’t deserve to get away with it like this.”  Her eyes were narrowed.  She was barely aware that she was hissing.

“Zira, please.  Let it go.  They’ll forget about it eventually.  If you make a fuss over it things will just get worse.”

“But they hurt you…”

“I’m perfectly fine.  I just got scratched up a lot, that’s all.  They aren’t old enough to do mortal damage in fights.”

“Yeah.”

They were still a few minutes away from the rapids when they suddenly heard a girlish squeal and then laughter.  The two cubs picked up the pace until they came around a boulder by the water’s edge and saw Ni’s golden form lying there in the sun.  He wasn’t alone, though; a slightly darker and more reddish ball of fur was in front of him.  The little creature seemed to be on its back, apparently laughing its little head off.

“Hey, Ni!” Zira called as she stepped around the boulder and trotted towards him.

Ni looked up and his face brightened.  “Zira!  Nice to see you again.”  He noticed Nyonda peering nervously out from behind the boulder.  “And your friend as well.  Don’t believe I caught your name, kid.”

“Oh, it’s Nyonda.”  He gathered his nerve and walked over to the older male.  “Pleased to meet you, Ni.”

“You too,” Ni chuckled.  He turned to the younger cub in front of him.  “Come on, Malka, come say hi to Nyonda and Zira.”

The little cub looked up at the older three.  “Hi!” he said cheerily, rolling over onto his feet and standing up.  “Ni’s told me all about you!”

“Well, hi there!” Zira said to the cub, grinning.  “Ni, is this your little brother?”

“Yeah, that’s Malka.  Hyper, friendly, always getting lost.”

Malka glared at Ni.  “Gee, thanks.”

Zira laughed.  “It’s very nice to meet you, Malka.  What sort of games do you like to play?”  She couldn’t help but talk to him with a cooing, motherly voice.  He was so cute!

Malka grinned at her deviously.  “Did you say…plaaaaaay?”

Nyonda chuckled as he watched Zira and Malka walk away down the river, chattering about how he liked to play and how un-playful Ni was and the things that Zira used to play when she was younger.  What a nice little brother.  Sometimes he wished he had a brother.  But he had Zira, and that was good enough for him.

“So, uh…” he started, unsure of what to say to Ni.

“You’ve got a cool friend there,” Ni put in before Nyonda could think of anything to say.  “You’re quite the valiant one to go after her the other night.”

“You think so?”

“I know so.”

“Wow, thank you.  I just thought I was being reckless by trying to stand up to them.”

“Well, you may have been outnumbered, but you stood up for your friend.  That takes courage, and that’s what counts.”

“Yeah.  Well, maybe I was being noble.  But I really must thank you for showing up when you did.  You saved our lives.  How can we ever repay you?”

Ni blushed.  “You’re making me sound like a hero.”

“Well, you are!  I mean, if Zira and I see you as our hero, then you’re a hero no matter what.  You should be happy.”

“If you say so, kid.”  Ni chuckled.

“So, what’s it like having a brother?”

Ni looked at him.  “That’s like asking what it’s like to have a nose.”

“Oh…”

“Might as well take a stab at explaining, though.  It’s hard to describe.  Ever since Malka was born I’ve…well, he’s another presence in my life.  Sometimes he feels like a bit of a responsibility, like when I get worried about him and want to protect him.  But he’s really fun to have around, even if he’s a bit annoying, and I’d do anything for him.”

“Kind of like how I’d do anything for Zira?” he blurted without thinking.

Ni smiled.  “Sure. There’s only one small difference: Malka and I have a blood connection, while you and Zira aren’t related.  Not that that’s important, of course.  Whether people are related or not doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with friendship.  It just happens between people, and it’s great either way.  Now, see, since Malka and I are brothers, we end up spending quite a bit of time together.  You and Zira, I assume, have also spent lots of time together for some other reason.  In the end, both result in true friendship.  You kind of learn to love the person you’re with the most, you know?”

“I guess.”  Nyonda cringed a little bit inside, though, at Ni’s use of the word love.  He’d always thought of love as something…girly, something gushy and romantic.  Ew.  But the way Ni talked about love for his little brother was interesting.  Maybe love was just caring about someone a lot, doing anything in your power to help a certain person, wanting to be around that person; in other words, the strongest kind of friendship.  Nyonda sighed in relief.  No fears about gushy-loving Zira, then.  They were the utmost best of friends.  There was nothing wrong with that.  If she were ever in trouble again, he’d do anything to get her out, even if he had to endure the pain from the other night a hundred times over…

All of a sudden a shrill scream sounded.  Ni and Nyonda tensed, eyes wide.  Now that they were focused, they could make out a faint cry from far away: somebody was shouting for help.

“Malka!”

“Zira!”

Like lightning the two youths raced downriver, towards the source of the cry.  Ni glanced to his left at Nyonda, who was surprisingly keeping up with the older lion seemingly effortlessly.  Ni was impressed by the cub’s speed.  They might need that.
The shouting was getting steadily louder.  They could now distinctly make out Malka’s high voice, crying for help.  They sped up anxiously.  Soon they were about to crest a small hill.

Ni, being taller, saw that the opposite side of the hill was dangerously steep before Nyonda did.  He skidded to a stop and stepped on Nyonda’s tail to keep the cub from flying over the edge.  The two lions surveyed the situation before them at the foot of the hill, eyes wide.  This was bad.

“Zi-” Nyonda started to shout, but Ni pulled the younger male to him and clamped his mouth shut.

“Shush!” he hissed.  “Have you got a death wish?”  He turned away from Nyonda thoughtfully, then looked back at him.  “I think I’ve got an idea.”



A few minutes earlier...

“You gotta be kidding me,” said Malka, staring at Zira.  “You make star patterns too?”

“Of course I make star patterns,” Zira replied with a smile.  They were walking slowly along the riverbank.  It was very peaceful, and she rather liked the experience of making small talk with somebody younger than her.  “I think it’s really fun to look at the night sky and imagine what could be there.  Don’t you think so?”

“It is fun,” Malka muttered.  “I just didn’t know people besides me liked it.  When I can’t get to sleep at night I stay up and look at the stars.  It feels good.”

They slid carefully down a steep slope and continued walking.  “Alone?  You poor thing.  It’s so much more fun when you can bounce ideas off of someone else.”

“Really?”  The younger cub looked up at Zira.  “Well, I guess Ni could do it with me, but he’s so boring sometimes…”

“Shh.”  Zira suddenly thrust a paw in front of Malka to stop him walking.  He looked up at the older girl questioningly.  She stood tall but tense, eyes narrowed in concentration.  Her ears were pricked and her nostrils were flared slightly.  What was she doing?  Malka was too scared by her sudden change in mood to ask her what was going on.  He looked around him nervously, sinking into a fearful half-crouch.  That was when he saw and heard a patch of tall grass rustle.

In a flash Zira whipped around, landing on all fours in front of Malka, sheltering him from whatever was lurking there in the grass.  “Who are you and what do you want?” she blurted, trying to hide the fear in her voice.

“Well, lookee here,” a rough voice said.  “Lil’ brave ones.  Fellas, come look at this!”

A strange creature rose from the grass in front of them and began to walk casually towards the two lion cubs.  It was black and spotted with patches of gold.  It wasn’t all that big, but it looked huge to Malka.  He shrank down in fear behind Zira.  

Suddenly he saw something out of the corner of his eye.  He whipped around.  There was another one!  And another!  And there, and there!  There had to be at least a dozen of the scary animals surrounding them.

“Ziraaa…” he whined, pressing against her leg urgently.

One of the creatures was speaking.  “Blimey,” it muttered.  “Pups!  We never get close to the pups when they’re alone like this.”

“A treat, ain’t it,” said the first one.  He looked Zira in the eyes and sighed.  “You lions.  Always getting the best of the meat…”

“What are you doing here?” Zira asked him, sounding braver than she felt.

The wild dog grinned, showing rows of sharp teeth.  “Oh, just slinkin’ around.  Hoping something edible’d magically appear, maybe.  But we’ve never gotten this close to unsupervised lion pups.  No, this is quite a treat for us.”

“Dibs on the haunches!” one of the other dogs chirruped from behind Malka.  His eyes widened in panic.  Suddenly realizing what the pack intended, he sat up and began to wail with all his might.

“Heeeeeelp!  Somebody!  Someone help us!”

The dogs acted as if they hadn’t heard, and Zira did nothing to try to calm Malka down.  She was focused on the pack leader.

“Sweet revenge,” the dog was muttering, half to himself.  “Best served cold, they say, but I daresay warm flesh tastes all the better…”

“You wouldn’t dare,” came a hissing, venomous voice from between Zira’s lips.  Her fur bristled along her back and she dug at the ground with her claws.  Her lips were pulled back their farthest, exposing her pointy white teeth.  “Come no closer, if you value your life.”

“What kind of flaky idiot are you to think you can beat us?  You’re so outnumbered, you couldn’t get two feet before one of us would slice your head off.”

“You underestimate me,” Zira growled.  “I may be young, but I’m made of 100% pure lion muscle, and lion muscle doesn’t know age.”

“Yeah!” came a sudden voice from far off to Zira’s left.  “Lions pwn your doggy tushies!”

Every single pack member looked towards the sound.  Zira jerked her head up too.  She knew that voice, even if it was uncharacteristically high…

“Who said that?” the pack leader snarled.

The voice didn’t heed the question.  “Sunsets are red, noontimes are blue, rocks don’t have brains, and neither do you!” it sang.

“It’s another pup!” shouted one of the dogs, rising on its hind legs to see farther through the grass.  “There he is, hiding behind that rock!”

“Get him!” the leader barked fiercely before turning to the two dogs on his immediate left.  “You two stay here and guard the others,” he told them quietly, and a second later he bounded away.  The rest of the pack bolted after their leader towards the source of the mysterious voice.

“We’ll teach him to insult us like that!” one of the dogs growled as it disappeared into the grass.  In a few seconds Zira and Malka stood alone, except for the two wild dogs that circled them menacingly.

“That little friend of yours is sure in for it,” one of them grumbled.  “Kitisho doesn’t take kindly to people making fun of him.”

The other dog suddenly sat down and slouched over.  “Man, why did we have to be the ones to stay here all bored-like?  I wanna chase something so bad.”

Malka heard a branch snap behind him.  He flinched, but when he saw Ni several feet away he suddenly smiled hugely.  Ni was holding a paw to his mouth, as if saying “Quiet.”  Malka nodded and nudged Zira, pointing to Ni as she turned around.  Zira held back a sigh of relief.

“Oh, quit your whining, Sheba.  When the others get back, we’ll get first pick of the meat.”

Sheba suddenly sat up.  “Hey, what if we just killed them now?  Do we really need the others to help us?  They’re only a couple of pups.”

“Idiot!  And face Kitisho’s wrath?  You know how he gets when he’s deprived the privilege of making a kill…Ow!”

The two dogs fell forward and hit the ground with a thump.  Ni had hit them squarely in the back, pinning them to the ground with his paws.  He leaned his head forward between theirs.

“Make no sound,” he whispered in their ears, extending his claws to tickle their necks.  “You are in lion territory.  We don’t want to see your kind on our land anymore.  Never come back to our side of the river, if you know what’s good for you.  Now go.”

He let the dogs out from under him.  Without a word they stood up and dashed away, splashing unceremoniously through a wide, shallow part of the river and soon vanishing into the distance.

“Thanks, Ni!” Malka piped up.  “I knew you’d come!”

“I guess that’s two I owe you,” Zira chuckled.  “Look at me.  I just cannot stop getting in trouble, now can I?”

“When I see my kind in trouble, I step in.  And since you two are important to me, there’s no need to repay me at all.”  He winked.

Suddenly Zira remembered what had distracted the rest of the pack.  She remembered how well she knew the voice that had created the needed diversion.  She looked Ni straight in the eyes.

“Ni,” she asked sternly, “where’s Nyonda?”



Nyonda zigzagged crazily through the grass, reciting Ni’s directions to him all the way.  Left, right, right again, left…He dodged bushes and rocks like mad.  All the while the angry pack snarled and stumbled along behind him, cursing the troublesome cub under their breath.  He had to draw them far away from where Zira and Malka were.  He mustn’t get too far ahead of them.  They had to keep him in sight, had to keep thinking that they could catch up to him if they tried hard enough…

His paw hit a rock and he went sprawling in the grass.  In the few seconds that it took to stand up again the dogs were almost on top of him.  He leapt away in the nick of time and kept running.  His forelegs stung where they’d scraped the ground, but he couldn’t stop now, not when his friends were depending on him.

Suddenly his eyes lit up.  There it was!  There was a log lying across the top of a slight swell in the earth, still several yards ahead.  Bushes and rocks on either end completely obscured whatever was on the other side.  He thought of Ni’s instructions.  With a running start, jump onto it, not over it.  Then leap as far as you can, and you’ll reach the other side.

The other side of what?  Nyonda hadn’t thought to ask earlier.  But the log was coming up fast, and there was no more time to think.  He touched the top of it with his front paws, brought his hind legs forward, and pushed off as hard as he could.

It wasn’t until the moment his paws left the ground when he realized that the river was far below him.  Here it was narrow but quick, carving the beginnings of a canyon into the earth.  The turbulent surface of the water was several feet below the log.  Not near big enough to be a canyon or gorge, but it was enough to give someone several bruises.

Nyonda took all this in very quickly.  In a split second he landed on the other side.  He turned around.  The wild dogs, caught unawares, had leapt over the log and were now falling straight into the river, tripping over each other and banging their limbs on the rocks.  Squeals of alarm and splashes filled the air.  Nyonda couldn’t help but snicker.  He soon remembered his instructions, though, and shot off along the other side of the river before the dogs could register their surroundings.

In a minute or two he saw Ni’s telltale gold hide gleaming in the sun on the other side of the river.  The river was wide but very shallow here, and he waded back across without a problem.

Zira seemed to be yelling at Ni as he approached.  “So you told him to go run off and get chopped up by a pack of rabid dogs?!  What’s the matter with you?  They’re probably ripping him to shreds right now!”

“We had to distract them somehow, and I guessed that the dogs wouldn’t be stupid enough to leave their prey unattended when they were.  I knew Nyonda wouldn’t have been strong enough to get past the few they left behind to guard you.  I’m confident he’s safe.  Have you ever seen him sprint?  That little speedo could give a cheetah a run for its money.”

Nyonda blushed at the praise.  He trotted up to the others smiling.  “I’m back, and I’m fine.  Clever idea, Ni.  It worked perfectly.”

Zira sighed heavily in relief, but the calm didn’t last long.  “What did you think you were doing?  You could have killed yourself!”

“I trust Ni.  And somebody’s got to keep you out of harm’s way, right?”

“Yeah, ha, ha, everybody go make fun of Zira the Dimwit now.  I see how it is.”

“Oh, come on, Zira, it wasn’t your fault at all.  You were just walking and talking with Malka.  Nothing like the other night.  You were just minding your own business this time, and there’s nothing wrong with that at all, so don’t go beating yourself up again.  You’ve been through enough these past few days.”

“I guess you’re right.  I promise I’ll try my best not to do anything stupid in the future, though.”

“That’s nice,” Ni muttered, somewhat sarcastically.

Zira glared at him.  “Are you implying something?”

“What?” he asked innocently.

This made everyone laugh.  Malka fell to the ground and started pounding the ground with his paw.  Ni picked Malka up in playful retaliation and gave him a noogie, making Zira and Nyonda chortle and shriek all the more loudly.  The dogs’ ambush and its seriousness faded from everyone’s mind as the sound of young lions’ laughter rang over the water.



Their mood still lingered as Zira and Nyonda skipped home together.  They’d had enough adventures for one week and were keen to get a good rest, or at least play somewhere safe.  The ideal place for that, according to Zira, was wherever her mother, Penda, happened to be.

Zira’d never known her father.  Penda never mentioned him.  If it weren’t for all the other cubs in the pride that she often saw hanging around with their fathers, Zira wouldn’t have cared.  She had a caring mother that she loved, and she had a best friend that she loved.  She’d just recently made two more friends.  What more did she need?  She felt no feeling of longing for her missing father; she just couldn’t help but wonder what it would be like to have one.

“We’re back, Mother!” Zira called as she and Nyonda approached the solitary acacia under which Penda could usually be found resting.  They could make out the dark shape of a lioness with her back to them, lying still in the shadow of the tree.  Nyonda stopped.

“Looks like she’s napping,” he observed.  “We should be quiet.”

“Eh, I wouldn’t be so sure.  Lots of times she’ll just lie down and zone out.”

“I see.”

The cubs tiptoed cautiously toward the lioness.  Though the dry grass rustled beneath their paws, she didn’t stir.  Now quite close to her, they crept around her still form towards her hidden face.

Penda’s fur was a dark tan color, a shade darker than Zira’s own.  Her nose was pink instead of black, but still prominent and angular.  Like her daughter, her eyes were deeply set in her skull.  Her ruby red eyes stared obliviously out into the savannah, focused on something that wasn’t there.  A moment later, though, she suddenly blinked several times and hurriedly sat up straight.  She looked a little dizzy and confused at first, but in a second or two she’d grasped her surroundings and was looking at her daughter.

“Why, Zira!  You’re back!  Oh, hello, Nyonda.  Pardon me…I must have dozed off.  Boy, what a lovely day.  So what have you two been up to?”

“Oh, just goofin’ around,” Zira said lightly.  “We were hanging out with Ni and Malka over by the river, actually.  Had a nice little…um, adventure…”

Nyonda made an odd coughing noise, as if trying to hide a humorless laugh.  Penda glanced at him questioningly, but soon turned back to her daughter.

“Ni and Malka?  Are they some more friends of yours?”

“Mm-hmm.  They’re both really friendly and fun to hang around with.”

“That’s really nice to hear, darling.  I was starting to worry if you’d ever make another friend.”  A hint of a smile danced briefly across her face as her eyes flashed in Nyonda’s direction.  Nyonda blushed.  Zira snickered.

“It is nice to have a couple more people to hang around with, I guess,” she confessed.  “Malka is so adorable!  He’s just the sweetest little thing…”

“Well, don’t let me stop you from having some more fun.  You two can’t possibly want to hang around with a lazy ol’ girl like me.”

“Actually, Ms. Penda,” Nyonda began, trying to hold back a yawn but failing, “we were kind of wanting a nap ourselves.”  He glanced over at Zira, who was already settling down at her mother’s side.  “Er…is it okay if I…”

“Of course you can stay, Nyonda.  Why would I shun my only daughter’s best friend?”

Nyonda smiled in gratitude and curled up next to Zira.