Pride Days II

Pride Days II
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The air, cool as it was, touched all. It's cool windy inhabitants brushed through the tall needles and threads of the golden savannas, now turned red from the bleeding light of dusk. Just the faintest stars had blossomed amidst the sky. Just as flowers bloomed in their season, so did the stars each night, for each night was their new season. It was a stranger evening, this one. It was as though the wind itself carried messages of the peculiarity of this hour. For now as the sun fell, the creatures of the night would rise. Amidst them, flourishing in the deep wilderness, a great family of famous proportions.

Four paws felt those chills in the wind. Something new birthing, it seemed. A new night. And those same four paws, though old and war-torn, possessed a sense of regality. The wondrous feline eyes of the great lion stared out to the camp from his high peak. He felt the stony mouth of the cave beneath the very pads of his paws. His locks of golden-auburn hair stirred slowly in the breeze that entered the cave unwelcomely. He watched carefully, seeing that all was in order. His mud-colored nose was like a brown gem in his face with its whiskers of white, like the silk of a spider's web. He just kept looking out as the sun went down.

"Sira," set Jali, turning only slightly as his mate approached. A lioness of golden colors and capturing the same essence of royalty with each paw step. She, of her beauty, stood close by Jali and sat next to him. "Do you think Sabyr will forgive me forever?" he asked, looking to her. Her face was that both of repulsion and sorrow. But also a hint of happiness.

"You don't need to ask such questions," Sira cooed, laying her head against the King's mane. "Sabyr killed your father. And killed many of us. Why should he be forgiven by us? But at the same time, Jali... I don't think you'll have to worry. Nothing is wrong. All is over with."


****

"Father! Father!" whispered a tiny voice in the bramble. The old male lion turned, obviously tired. His mane was black with ridges of blonde, but now silver streaks had salted it. His weary amber eyes zipped back over his shaky shoulders, watching a patch of weeds shaking and ruffling with movement. Sabyr rolled his eyes as he turned and began approaching it, hearing the small voice continuing to protrude from it. "Father where did you go? Look at me!"

"Osiris come now, let's go home, I'm exhausted," he said, brushing a bit of grass back with his toes. He unveiled the form of a tiny offspring, a progeny. His cub, still small. Dark-furred and scarlet-eyed, little Osiris pawed his way into the light. Immediately Sabyr's fears were unsheathed, and he gasped quickly, his heart pounding up to his ears. In horror he beheld Osiris with streaks of blood matted in his fur, and painting his paws. His very measly snout was colored crimson, and the life-fluid, blood, continued to drip from his fur, sopping wet with it. "What happened?" Sabyr said in panic, grabbing his child quickly and holding him to the ground, inspecting him closely. "My child! What happened! Where were you hurt! What happened!"

"Calm down father," Osiris giggled. "I'm not hurt!" A high giggle sounded from the cub. Sabyr's face became puzzled. What had happened? "It's not my red stuff, dad," said Osiris. "It belongs to the little jackal cub! I hunted daddy! Are you happy?"

Sabyr relaxed somewhat, but a new fear awoke within him. "You... you killed a jackal? But how? You don't even have your claws yet!" Sabyr said, a shaky voice arising within him. "Where was this jackal pup? I--" he stopped himself. "Nevermind. We must go, the parents will not be far. I cannot risk you tonight, my love," he said, picking young Osiris up by the scruff and dashing through the weeds. "We're going to wash you off and then you're going straight to sleep!" he growled, mumbling through the corner of his mouth as he clinched Osiris' blood soaked coat.

The night was young and new still. And so began the Pride's continuation.

By the edge of the woods, Kakra sat, staring into the moonlight that pooled in the lake adjacent to the pride’s camp. A litigon cub, Kakra’s mother was the lioness Layla, and her father, the powerful tiglon warrior Gamba himself. She looked more like a lion’s cub than anything else, but her fur bore a distinctly deeper-orange tint to it, and there were also faint stripes covering her body. Headstrong and quick to act without thinking, Kakra was characteristically tough for her young age, and unbeknownst to her, she along with the other cubs would someday face a future that would impact the entire world. Oblivious to the great burden that rested on her paws, and to the silent threats that lie creeping beyond the trees, she gazed into the reflection of the moon and stars that floated in the sky above.

Kakra had been feeling uneasy, in recent times. That feeling, the feeling of dread and unease that set the fur on her back standing on end, was the terrible, nagging sensation that she was being watched by something. She had looked for it before, but she could not see anything behind her to rouse suspicion. Despite this, she felt as though an unwelcome observer had entered her life, and nobody else knew that they were present. A small cub, she did not know that this could mean danger; yet had she spoken about it to someone, it would have surely filled her parents and all of the other adults with alarm.

Sunset Pride had, for a very long time, been the target of hostile forces.

Suddenly, Kakra looked up, seeing someone appear at the other side of the lake, and felt herself relax.

It was Mabel, the elderly wildcat, whose one leg was so riddled with arthritis that she could barely walk. Even so, she had gone out, and was dragging with her a gigantic cluster of herbs. She had paused at the lake to take a drink, faint ripples coming from where she lapped at the water’s edge. Kakra had always found the small brown-furred creature, barely larger than herself, to be mean-spirited and uptight, but even so, adored her all the same. Mabel had looked after Layla when Kakra and her twin brother Atsu had been born, and it was Mabel who had watched over their pure lion brother Omari, when he had been sick, soon after birth.

With Mabel there, Kakra felt safe, even as far away as she was.