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Mipa wound up waking Kovu up yet again early in the afternoon, having to prod him several times to make him come to his senses this early before dusk.

"Urgh..." Kovu groaned and rose unsteadily, blinking in the bright light of the afternoon sun which filled the open glade.

Mipa was standing, bereft now of her tattered grass outfit. Somehow she looked even wider without it concealing her natural body shape. Her belly still swelled below the level of her chest. Both of them were still filled with digesting meat; some more than others. "Come on, Kovu, I need your help with something."

Mipa needing something brought him more awake than the prospect of chewing on ostrich bones would have. He followed her into another area of tall grass.

In the shade of the trees, the heat was tolerable. Mipa sat down on her plump backside and Kovu sat across from her. "Alright, what d'you- Oh." he said, then saw what Mipa was holding up.

It looked initially like a small bundle of grass, but Kovu quickly saw that it was bunched together at one end...woven at one end. "I'm going to teach you how to make cord." said Mipa with a smile.

Kovu looked at the larger female wide-eyed. "Mipa...I can't-"

"Kovu!" Mipa pressured, "Come on, it's easy."

"Maybe for you, but I-"

She pushed the bundle into his forepaws. "This time, I mean it. You can do this Kovu."

"Mipa..." said the lion, plucking up the little bundle and rolling it clumsily around in his paws. He felt like he was going to accidentally crush the thing. "I don't know the first thing about doing anything like this."

"Here." she said, lying down in the tall grass. She extricated another small bundle. "I'll show you."

Not seeing any other choice, Kovu settled down facing her. "Why do you need to make rope exactly?" he asked somewhat dubiously, a last ditch effort to escape the lesson.

Groping the thick flesh of her neck, Mipa rolled her eyes. "Well...I need cord so I can fix my cloak and also some of the traps down in the oasis." She turned her eyes on him. "You aren't afraid of earning your keep are you?"

Kovu chuffed. Given half a chance, he'd mention a dozen other ways he could earn his keep. But right now, however, he was held fixated by her piercing blue eyes. "Ok, show me how its done," he said.

It turned out to be a simple, but repetitive task. The crude cord was woven of four strands of grass. It was fairly simple to manipulate the long grass blades at the ends of their waving stalks. Mipa showed him how to bring the correct strand down, fold another around it, then bring the side of his paw down the blades to crease it into place. The process was then repeated. There were four different folds to make, repeating endlessly in the same order, as well as a fifth when it came time to add in a new blade of grass. Mipa's clever, yet simple design allowed new strands of long grass to be woven continuously into the same length of cord.

Kovu was really amazed, although his paws were clumsy and not nearly as fast as Mipa's. Although he kept making mistakes, the fact remained that he was crafting. Humans were the craft makers, everyone knew that. And yet, here Mipa was, dabbling in forbidden arts. It seemed magical, and yet Mipa was so pragmatic about the affair, as it it utterly lacked any supernatural significance.

As Kovu tried to work through the process of learning Mipa's rote method, he kept thinking about her last binge, now a full day past and yet still fresh in his mind. That look of pleasure on her face as she wolfed down those scraps despite having eaten so heavily just hours before. He wanted to know why she felt compelled to stuff herself to the brim. Not so much to stop her, not any more, but rather to understand.

"Now let me watch you for a while," said Mipa, "I'll be right back."

Without the larger feline's constant guidance, Kovu worked slowly and ponderously, trying to remember the steps in the right order, to keep the cord growing. He almost forgot to add a new blade of grass at the right time and had to undo two creases to fix it. It surprised him just a little that he could do that much. Like Mipa had said, it wasn't really that hard, not when someone had showed him what to do.

Mipa returned and settled down heavily in front of him, flattening the grass under her heavy body. Kovu's nostrils widened when he scented blood.

It was the monkey. It was a little ripe now that it had sat for the better part of two days, but not really the worse for wear. No one had thought of touching it in the wake of the ostrich boon. Mipa sat her paws on it and proceeded to tear off a strip of flesh from its scrawny flank. "Go ahead." she mumbled, her mouth full.

Kovu stared at her a moment and then looked down at his cord. He strongly wanted to remark on the fact that she was eating yet again, that she was, in fact, overeating...a lot. Some powerful impulse, almost sexual in nature kept making his eyes rise to see her chewing and swallowing, obviously enjoying the snack of the monkey.

He continued to work. His rhythm steadied with her around, so he felt comfortable enough not to talk as he worked. Unable to withstand the urge any longer, he asked, casually, "Hungry again?"

She looked at him with a critical eye. She chewed thoroughly and then swallowed, the lump bulging in her thick, fleshy neck, before responding. "Not really, but I saw this lying around and...I don't like to waste food."

"Ah, I see..." Kovu hummed, still working on the cord.

She took another bite, chewed and swallowed; followed by another. She looked suspiciously at Kovu who seemed intent on his work. "I know I'm fat, Kovu. You can ask what's on your mind."

Kovu turned his head and smirked at her, "Are you sure that I'm not like those other lions?" It was a bit of a stretch, but he felt that he had earned that much by now.

Mipa frowned, "Please don't joke about that, Kovu." She released a breath and reclined on an elbow. "But seriously, you can ask, Kovu. It...it isn't right of me to get mad at you just for asking a question."

Kovu was actually surprised at this bit of understanding. But Kovu was not about to test this extension of her trust, but he felt like he needed to get something out in the open. "Alright." he said, and set aside his cord for the moment. He turned on his elbows to face her. "Mipa, you... like to eat, don't you?"

She frowned and looked at him harshly, but seemed to get a hold of herself. There was a slight edge to her voice when she spoke though, "What do you mean by that? Doesn't everyone like to eat?"

"Yes, but..." Kovu waved his paw, "I think you know what I mean. I mean you eat just because the food is there, not necessarily because you're hungry."

A small grimace crossed the corner of her mouth. The evidence was right there between her paws. "I...I just don't like to waste food. It would be rotten in a day or two. You can have the rest if you're hungry..."

Kovu stared at her. "Mipa, it's alright. I don't want it." She seemed to relax, but not fully. "I just want to know why you choose to eat...when you don't have to." she gave him another look, "I'm not criticizing you!" he said hurriedly, "I'd just like to understand is all."

Mipa sighed raggedly and tossed her head. Her sleek brown coat glistened in the late afternoon sun. "I...I don't know. I just see food lying around and I want to eat it, that's all." Kovu raised his eyebrows. "Well, sometimes I get bored or I can't sleep." Mipa amended, "Eating usually makes me feel better..." Then she added, in almost a whisper, "...but sometimes I don't even know why I'm eating while I'm doing it."

They were both quiet for a few moments. Then Mipa looked guiltily down at the remains of the carcass, a certain longing in her eyes. If it wasn't hunger, it was definitely a compulsion of equal strength. Kovu made a shooing motion with his paw. "Go ahead, Mipa. If you want it, eat it."

Now she cocked her head. "You don't think I'm an absolute pig, do you? For eating this so soon after the ostrich?"

In all honesty, Kovu thought that she was a weak-willed glutton. But of course, he kept this to himself. He had a certain compulsion of his own, a notion of seeing if she would, in fact, grow even larger than she was now and what that might possibly look like. "Of course not Mipa." he said. He reached out and put a broad paw on hers. "If you want it, then take it. It's just going to rot anyways."

He was being unfair, he knew, but something in him seemed to enjoy the sight of Mipa eating. He was barely scraping the surface of the impulse, but clearly he liked the idea of the tubby lioness gobbling down tidbits after stuffing herself with ostrich just the day before.

She smiled a half smile and worried the small mammal with her teeth some more. Before she commenced eating again, she gestured back to the cord. "I think you still have work to do, Kovu." she said. He smiled and turned, happy to work to the sound of her crunching small bones in her teeth.

There was literally nothing left of the small monkey when she finished. Afterwards, she left Kovu alone to go check her traps before nightfall. She returned with several small animals. Kovu forced himself to take at least one, so she'd feel more comfortable eating the rest...

Mipa's dressing of grass and fronds was probably the most complex thing that she made. Kovu had certainly never seen the like. She often commented, usually during the times she set him to binding cord, how long it had taken her to make it as well as how long it would have taken to fix it on her own. Cord wasn't all that the dress needed, but it was something that it needed a great quantity of and was the most time consuming to make. She could also use it to repair some, but not all of her traps. "For stronger cord, I use tree bark." she would say and continue to explain that the grass cord was usually only suitable for some internal mechanisms in the trap or binding a twig cage together for a bird or a small monkey.

However, while Kovu was perfectly willing to help Mipa with repairing the cloak he'd ruined, he did not sit around all day weaking cord in the grass. He went off on long walks through the jungle, puzzling over things; usually Mipa's condition and his part in them as well as his plans for the months ahead. While he was thinking, he would release his pent up energy with some good old fashioned traditional tracking and hunting. Warthogs were worthy prey, both elusive and fierce.

After three days of catching only small prey and scant quantities of that, both lions were beginning to feel the familiar pangs of hunger. Kovu mostly because he'd let Mipa have most everything she brought in and Mipa because... well, her appetite was what it was. She never questioned the food differential. Kovu said that anything she caught was rightfully hers, anything she gave him was thus, actually a gift. While it was perfectly true, Kovu had the notion that she was also looking for an excuse not to share. He didn't think that Mipa was very comfortable with being hungry.

It was an odd mentality to be sure. Lions should be used to the boom and bust mode of their lifestyle by the time they've grown, but Mipa... she moped about after as little as 18 hours without food, checking and double checking her traps, clearly in distress, though she didn't much complain aloud. Kovu had never seen another lion with such an odd relationship with food. He wondered what she would be like in a real famine. He wondered how he was going to get across the desert with her in tow. One thing was perfectly clear, it was all in her head. Her belly - and his as well - still bulged with the ostrich meat they'd gorged on, working slowly through their system. Kovu accepted small animals as snacks, but really didn't feel hungry until the third day. Mipa, on the other hand, simply did not seem happy unless she was chewing on something fresh... constantly.

On the fourth day, Kovu came to the rescue, dragging a heavy sow up the side of the mountain for them to share. Mipa was ecstatic and the male lion as well. He finally validated his presence here by providing sustenance. He made a show of picking the choice organs from the beast, a display of machismo that Mipa only generally appreciated. But Kovu just wasn't hungry enough to make much of a dent in the carcass after picking his winning spoils.

Mipa on the other hand, went at it with the same gusto she used to tear up the ostrich, the last of which had surely yet to pass through her system. She glutted herself with abandon. She ate so much, in fact that she gave herself a belly ache. She groaned and closed her eyes, saying she'd never eat like that again. All the time Kovu was there with her, comforting her, all the while harboring the fact that he'd deliberately egged her on while they were eating, just to see how much she was willing to eat so soon after the ostrich binge.

Kovu also discovered then that Mipa was simply helpless around food that was just lying around. Oh, she'd feign disinterest, of course, but there was no time when she was conscious that she was unaware of that available meat; he could see it in her eyes. Kovu simply needed to make himself scarce for an hour or so. When he returned for his "walk" the carrion was undeniably smaller. Mipa never said anything about the shrinkage and Kovu never brought it up.

After gorging, Mipa slept a lot, which was natural, but she also worked on her cloak of grass, her isidwaba. She hummed a little song while she worked nimbly with her paws, resting on her belly. Kovu didn't recognize it or even the language it was in. Even with Mipa's appetite and her constant nibbling, the warthog took three days to be reduced to bones. Kovu found a small pastime in breaking open the bones for their marrow and casting off the fragments over the clifface and down to the lake below, if only to keep glade from becoming a graveyard.

Mipa was so turgid and lazy with the availible warthog that she hardly left the glade during that time. Aside from sleeping, she really did get a lot of work done with her cloak project while she was cloistered there. She seemed happy when she finally dawned it, however that came with a small surprise from both cats.

It was two days after the hog had been thoroughly cleaned of meat, however with two big kills in so short a time, even Mipa was not yet complaining for food. She instead had devoted her time to the finishing touches on her article of grass and reeds, her which would hide her large body in the abundant grass. Indeed, it seemed none the worse for wear despite its previous shredding. Kovu was happy for her as she cinched it around her neck and she beamed.

"Just as good as-" She cut herself off. Kovu saw why.

Mipa was looking around the side of her. Where before the cloak had generously covered her thick barrel torso down to her chest, now it seemed spread thin. The grass fell short of the bottom of her chest, and also, it appeared that her belly had decided to widen the distance further. It now hung below her well padded breast. She hissed through her teeth as she stared at the evidence of her growth.

Kovu was surprised, but for a different reason. He'd known she was putting on weight. It was only surprising how quickly she showed visible results of his subtle prompting. "Looks like it needs a little more adjustment." he chuckled.

However, Mipa refused to be bought off with a quick joke. "Ugh, I can't believe what a fatass I am!" The lioness, in a fit, undid the knot holding her constuct to her and threw it carelessly aside. She plopped down fuming, staring at her beloved cloak with hurt pride.

Kovu settled beside her and leaned lightly against her. He looked at the too-small cloak with her for a while. Eventually he said, "It's not a big deal, just let it out at the sides some more. You can do that."

Mipa frowned, "I know I can, but I don't want to."

"Why not?"

"Because then I'll have to let it out again and then again. Eventually I won't even need my cloak anymore. The animals will mistake me for a hillside." said Mipa

Kovu forced down a snigger into the darkest place of his soul. "Mipa." he said seriously. "It's not a big deal. We've eaten well and we show it. You do and I do. It's natural." And he did speak the truth. After consuming his fair share of two large food beasts, Kovu had reclaimed some of his former sleekness, particularly over his ribs and shoulders.

"But I show it a hell of a lot more than you, Kovu." she scoffed in reply

He ventured to put a paw against her flank, stroking her and finishing with a light pinch of her fat. "It doesn't matter. The only thing that matters is is how you feel about yourself."

"Ugh!" Mipa grunted, rising away from him. Kovu stared at her wide eyed. She rounded on him and said loudly, "Look, I appreciate what you're trying to do, Kovu, I do, but stop pretending that you have all the answers, because you don't!" Her tail lashed side to side, occasionally striking her wide flank and sending ripples across her body. "You can't just say a few words and make feel better about myself and I can't just wave a stick and drop all this extra weight!"

Hot tears slid down both sides of her snout. "So stop pretending, already would you Kovu? Just stop..."

Mipa screwed up her face and then trotted away, her wide flanks wobbling with her passage and her heaving breaths. She didn't go far; Kovu could hear her sobbing in the trees beyond.

The lion licked his lips and smooth his black mane away from his face. Looking at the discard grass cloak, he sighed and went over to it. He carefully folded it and carried it over to her bed where she usually kept it when she wasn't wearing it. Despite how he wanted to go and comfort her, to tell her that it really was alright, to tell her the truth about how he felt about her body, he also knew when a lioness just needed time to herself. He buckled down to wait for when she needed him. It really was the least he could do.