Sunlight illuminated the world, giving the grass a particular glow. It danced on the water, like a jewel in the grasslands that Ukumelana viewed from above. The vulture inhaled a pleased breath, wheeling around in a lazy circle. Below, her lioness friend, now going by Phikelela, walked. Ukumelana gave a beat of her wings, backflapping as she settled on Lela's back. "Favorable winds today, and I think I smelled the start of something dead!"

"You sound far too pleased by that." Despite the vulture's weight on her back, Lela continued to walk. She couldn't fault the bird, of course - Vultures had to wait until things were a little more than JUST dead before they started to eat them. Meat couldn't actually be fresh or it would be far too hard to pull and tear apart for their beaks. It was part of why their silent agreement with the Ithambo lions was so important - They didn't HAVE to go searching for miles to find a carcass that had been in the sun for a day or two, when they just had to hang around the lions for a while. "So, what dead animal is it this time?"

The vulture got the silent implication from the question. She shifted and launched back into the air, lazily flying up. "Lemme go check it out, I can tell you where it is... Maybe get a bit of a snack for yourself while we're looking." With slow easy beats, Ukumelana rose into the air, spiraling her way up until she'd gained a good height. She followed first her nose, pinpointing which direction the delicious smell of carcass came from, and then began to scan the ground. She was fully expecting perhaps a buffalo, or a recently-passed elephant, maybe a gazelle or zebra. What she didn't expect was a glint of something shining in the grass and scrub below. In wide lazy circles, she drifted in the area, creating a beacon for Lela to follow.

As she got closer to where Lana was circling, Lela's nose twitched. She could smell the unmistakable scent of death, but something tinged it - The smell of lion. It was no lion she recognized the scent of, though, and though minute, it was mingled with others. A part of her worried that she'd stumbled upon a group of rogues, intent on conquest, or desperate lions seeking refuge.

What she found instead, as her ears twitched and caught desperate little sounds, made her gut twist and her heart wrench. Stepping through the grass, she stopped and stared upon the form of a lioness, passed from the mortal world for some hours now, with five little cubs pawing at her and crying pitifully. One of the females, a gold-colored cub with a dark mask on her face, noticed Lela and hissed. The rest huddled close, afraid of this stranger.

The longer Lana circled, the lower she'd dropped, until she'd recognized what she saw. Lana felt a pang as she settled in a tree, watching Lela. Five cubs, orphaned before they could begin to find life... At a glance and a smell, she could find no blood. There was no evidence of a fight, no scuffle, nothing to indicate the lioness had been killed by another. Looking at the lioness' form, it looked like she'd passed from internal problems, possibly even age. It was an unfortunate time, to be sure, for any lioness to have cubs. "We can't leave them here."

Lela shook her head, staring at the cubs. The fear had ebbed a bit, when she'd made no move to attack. Slowly, she stepped closer. "Come, little ones... Come along..." She leaned down, nuzzling one of the three males. Gold like his sister, he had a mane like dried grass. Gentle as any natural mother would, she lifted the cub by his scruff and, only looking back to be sure the rest followed, started for the pride. It would be slow progress, but it'd be well worth it to get the little orphans somewhere safe. She had no names to go by, no history, only the memory of their lifeless mother, adorned in gold, something no lion born to the Ithambo did, and surely they would never do, raised Ithambo.

Taking to the air again, Lana flew as slow as she possibly could to make sure the cubs followed Lela. It was a slight strain, but not too hard to keep up. It wasn't every day they found something quite like this, or any cinga did. The last cubs found at the border had been undeniably the cubs of one of the now-departed Umholi, Bangizwe, and before that... She wasn't sure if any others had been found before. When they stopped to rest, for tiny legs couldn't move very well, Lana settled on the ground near by. "They'll be Lusizi... Even when the girls grow up."

The lioness nodded, settling as the cubs curled up against her. They had let out pitiful cries for food, but she'd yet to have a litter - She had nothing for them. The rest of the lionesses weren't too long a trip away, though. When she'd gone scouting, there had been quite a number of litters, at least two of which came from Kuhasa. Feeling some mothering instinct, she leaned in and groomed one of the whimpering cubs. "It's alright, little ones... We'll be at the pride soon, and surely somebody will be willing to help you." Her gaze went up to Lana, ears flicking back. "Lusizi, with some very sad names." She looked back to the cubs, gently pulling one of the males close. "The boys should stay, too... Be Ahluke. They'll have nobody else besides their siblings, and the pride that raised them, we shouldn't make them go out into the roguelands."

Lana nodded, then nestled in with the cubs. They made her think of her eggs, ready to hatch any day and carried about by the lions. A dust-colored lioness, Imvula, was watching her eggs at the moment, so that Lela and Lana could scout the area. There were, of course, many cubs in the pride, which meant every one of her chicks would find a partner. "I wonder something, Lela..." She looked up at the lion, clicking her beak for a moment. The male cub the lioness had been carrying stopped his whimpering to curious place a paw on the vulture's face, causing her to smile. "Will one of these lost little darlings bond with one of my chicks?"

Chuckling, Lela looked at the cubs. "Perhaps. It would give the boys purpose, that's for certain." She looked up at the sky, tail twitching now and then. After a while, she got up and lifted one of the cubs at random as she started again on the long walk back to the pride. As before, the cubs fell in line behind her, clearly intent on not being parted from one of their siblings.