Maha

Morning...

The sun entered its bright rays inside the cave announcing a brand new day. I open my teal colored eyes with a yawn.

"Good morning, beautiful!" A voice greets me.

I tilt my head up and see Rudo standing in front of me. He smiles and rub his head up against my own affectionately.

"Oh, good morning! I wasn't expecting you to come this early Rudo." I say, surprised.

"Yeah, I know. I did say afternoon right? Well, your sister told me that it was alright for me to come inside the cave and see if your awake."

I stand up with a stretch and smile. "Its okay, I'm glad your here. Now we can spend the whole day together. I don't think my brother needs me to babysit my nieces or my sister needing for me to join her on her Queen duties. Today should be a free day for me. I hope nothing comes up."

Rudo chuckles. "If something does come up Maha, then it'll be okay. There's always tomorrow right?"

"Yeah, but I wanted to see you today."

I step closer to him and place my head underneath his chin purring. I guess you guys can say that Rudo and I are dating officially. We've known each other for a good long while and have grown extremely close every since. He makes me so happy and crazy as it sounds, each time that I am around him I get butterflies inside.

"Alright break it up there you two."

I step away from Rudo and see my brother Kion come forward. Rudo's cheeks turn a deep red while I rolled my eyes with annoyance.

"Kion, what do you want? I thought you were gone on early morning patrol already?" I ask.

"No. I had to stay home with my family." Kion replied. " I'm about to leave now. I was wondering Maha if you mind watching the cubs? Aala went hunting with the hunting party and should be back shortly. I don't want the cubs alone unsupervised."

I look at Rudo. He shrug his shoulders and sat down between Kion and I.

"It's okay Maha, I don't mind. They're just cubs. How hard can it be?" Rudo said, smiling.

Kion grins, "Rudo, you've babysat before?"

"Yes, my foster siblings a lot. My foster mother would leave us home alone most of the day."

"Hmm. Well, my twin daughters can be a handful at times. Maha here can tell you all about them. I have to go and meet up with my guard team now. I will tell the cubs to come up to the cave. Thanks little sis!"

With that, Kion turned around and exited the cave.

I sigh shaking my head. "I should have known today wouldn't of been a free day."

"Relax Maha, we still have the rest of the day. It's only morning!" Said Rudo, while nuzzling me.

"I know."

Two cubs run inside the cave. It's Kion and Aala's twin daughters Adia and Chauna. They hug my furry legs with happy smiles.

"Hi, Aunt Maha!" The sisters greet.

"Good morning little ones!" I smile, while hugging them also. "Your father ask for me to watch you both until your mother comes back home from her hunt."

"Okay!"

Adia notice Rudo and hides behind my left leg shyly. "Aunt Maha, who is that?"

Rudo chuckles and crouch down to match the cubs short level. He gave a friendly smile. "My name is Rudo! I am your Aunt Maha's friend. What are you girls names?"

Chauna, who isn't shy steps up to Rudo. "My name is Chauna. That's my twin sister Adia hiding there!"

"Nice to meet you both."

"Aunt Maha, can we go to the waterhole and play?" Chauna asks.

I nod, "Yes. But Rudo and I will have to come with you."

"Okay! Come on Adia, I'll race ya there." Chauna beams.

Adia finally comes out from hiding and runs out the cave first. "Oh no you won't! Last time you've cheated."

"Hey! I didn't even count up to three yet. Now you're cheating!"

Chauna runs after her. I shake my head at them with laughter.

"Ready for some babysitting Rudo?" I ask him, while walking out the cave.

Rudo follows slowly behind me. "Yup. This will be a piece of cake! I have much experience."

"Oh, so you're saying that I don't?"

"I'm sure you do. I'm just the master at this."

I smirk. "Oh really?"

He walks up to my side and nodded. "Yeah."

"Alright then. How about you go find them?"

"Sure!"

Rudo chase after the cubs. I giggle finding it quite amusing.

"Here they are Maha! Their at the watering hole already." He calls.

I walk through the tall grass and arrive at the waterhole seeing Adia and Chauna playing in the water. Rudo sits down watching them. I sit next to him watching too.

"Wow, they're both excellent swimmers! I taught myself how to swim when I was their age." Said Rudo.

"Kion taught them how to swim and really? I've always been afraid of water..." I say, while looking over to the side shyly.

"How come?"

"Growing up, my father wanted to teach me how to swim. He had taught Kiara and Kion too! I was never interested. I've always thought that I would drown..."

Rudo chuckles and playful hit my right shoulder. "Oh come on Maha, its not scary. The water is completely safe. You control the water."

I shake my head and look unsure. "I-I don't know..."

"Look, how about I teach you?"

"You?"

"Yeah! I'll be right there with you as you swim. Besides, if you really think about it, the waterhole isn't deep at all. This is actually good for a beginner!"

"Okay, fine. I'll try it."

Rudo smiles wide. "Yay!"

I laugh at his excitement. Rudo walks over and step inside the waterhole. I stand on dry land and gulp. I truly don't know about this. But I trust him. I take in a deep breath to calm myself and touch the water with my left paw.

I jump backwards, "Eeeeeeek!! Its cold."

Rudo laughed and swam around. "Come on Princess, the water is fine once you get all the way in."

"Yeah, come in and join us Aunt Maha!" Said Adia.

"It'll be fun!" Said Chauna smiling.

Okay, here goes nothing. I slowly step inside the waterhole. Rudo swims over to me.

"See, I told you its not deep! Now, try to swim yourself around like this."

Rudo kicked his legs back and forth while swimming. I watch him and try to follow his actions.  I notice that I am also swimming.

I smile happily, "Look, I'm doing it!!!"

Rudo looks very stunned. "Wow, a faster learner huh?"

"Yeah I get called that a lot. I'm just like my mother when it comes to that."

Adia and Chauna are both play fighting and of them happened to splash water on my face.

"Hey!"

They both giggled. "Oops, sorry!"

I grin at them and splash back. They laugh and next thing you know, it became a splashing war. I notice Rudo  is alone, so I turned around splashing him too. His large mane is now dripping wet.

He smirks, "You're going to regret that big time."

Rudo swims after me as I quickly swam off with laughter. I got out other waterhole shaking myself dry then ran away.

"I'm going to get you Princess!"

"That's if you can catch me slow poke!"

Not paying any attention, I tripped over a large tree root and rolled myself down a grassy hill. Rudo ran down the hill and panicked.

"Maha, are you okay?! Did you break a claw? Do you have a scratch any where?" He asks, while checking me out.

I lay on the grass and laugh, "Rudo relax, I am fine. That was so much fun!"

Rudo nuzzles me as I purr. Unexpectedly, I licked his cheek.

"Thank you for teaching me how to swim."

He blushes. "Y-Your welcome."

I stand up and walk back to the waterhole. "Come on, let's get back to the cubs."

Rudo follow me up the hill with a smile. As we walked, our tails intertwined.

*******

Author's Note: Hey guys, skyy15 here! I know this is off topic buuut, my tablet had finally came in the mail yesterday so now it will be easier for me to type the chapters instead of typing on a small phone! Yay :D This chapter was extremely so cute! I wanted to introduce Maha and Rudo more since the last book was so focused on Makosa and Bahiya love story. My baby Maha is growing up *sniffles*