"Well, here we are," Vita announced after a short walk. "This is Den Valley." Adia couldn't believe her eyes. Never in her life had she seen such a collection of dens and caves! And in one den there was even a pile of fresh meat to pick from! Lions, lionesses, and cubs of all shapes, sizes, and colors were everywhere, playing or eating or cat-napping or scrapping or grooming each other.
"I'm hungry. I'll get you acquainted with the gang later; you get to know the cubs yourself," Vita said, smiling at Adia's reaction to Den Valley. "I'll be seeing you later, princess." With that, Vita joined the other elders in eating a zebra carcass.
Adia turned again to the pileup of scrapping cubs she had seen earlier, but they were no longer in a pile; they had obviously noticed her, and a reddish cub with two darker paws and two lighter ones was padding over to her.
"Hi," The cub grinned confidently. "My name's Ashad. Are you new here?"
"Yes," Adia answered, taken aback by Ashad's confident nature. "My name's Adia, I'm the princess of the Pridelands."
"Wow," An almost white cub breathed. "You're a real princess?"
"Khari, let her breathe," Ashad said, looking exasperated. "Adia, this is Khari. That's Hakan—" A copper cub with darker toes nodded. "This is Aruna—" A pretty dark brown lioness smiled warmly. "Over there, that's Nirav—" A short brown cub waved nervously with one paw. "Here's Rohana—" A scruffy tan lioness with darker paws squealed, "That's me!" "And that's Sonoma." A dusty brown lioness with random black spots flicked her tail and smiled shyly. Adia inclined her head politely to each one in turn, like her mother and father always would. Then something in a nearby den caught her eye: a dark brown cub with a tuft of black fur on his head. He seemed very lordly and walked with his tail and head held high.
"Ah," Aruna grinned. "I see you've noticed Bakari."
"Bakari?"
"Actually, he's Prince Bakari." Sonoma corrected. "He's the prince of the River Pride, or at least, we think he is. There's no doubt in our minds he'll become king."
Adia frowned. "What do you mean, you think he'll be king?"
Hakan stepped forward. "Any lion who wants to be king can be king. They just have to fight each other for the title." Hakan paused for a moment, as if to add dramatic silence. "It's really the only violence that goes on around here."
Adia let out a low whistle.
"I feel really sorry for him, though," Rohana pitched in. "He was betrothed to… well… her." Every cub except Adia hissed at the mention of her.
"Who?" Adia felt left out not knowing who she was.
"Her," spat Ashad, who looked uncharacteristically full of malice. He flicked his tail in the direction of a cub Adia hadn't noticed before, who was sitting alone and drawing something with her tail into the loose dirt in front of her. The lone cub was a light brown color with a dark brown stripe going down her back and paws the same color as that stripe. Adia squinted and realized that there was a pale yellow tag on one of her ears. Of all the cubs, that one looked the strangest.
"She's so weird, don't go near her," Rohana growled. "She might rub off on you." All the cubs shuddered.
"What do you mean, weird?" Adia asked. "Is she mean or something?"
"Not mean, I guess," said Nirav slowly. "Just really… weird. She never plays with the other cubs and she likes to… move the dirt around with her tail or something, and… well, she's just… she's just weird." Nirav finished lamely.
"Alright, well, I certainly won't go near it if I have to," Adia squealed as though talking about something that might make her sick. Here was a cub she would never hang out with. Her thirst for popularity would never allow it.
And obviously, neither would the other cubs.
"Adia, you coming?" Ashad's voice brought Adia back to Den Valley. "We're gonna eat now…"
"Yeah, yeah, coming," Adia replied quickly and began to follow her new friends to the fresh kill pile.
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"…her."
Samirah watched her tail as it moved around in the sand, first this way, then that, creating a beautiful contour line illustrating almost perfectly the lines of Bakari's face. She picked up her tail, set it down again, and began drawing a new line from that point. That was Bakari's ear. Samirah smiled and started a new line… that was Bakari's eye. Soon the drawing was finished.
Samirah looked at her masterpiece and smiled a little. It was very lifelike… it was just like the real thing.
Just like the real thing.
Samirah suddenly smacked her paw onto her sketch of Bakari and began to smear the dirt around until all that was left of his face was half an ear and a distorted nose. Samirah grinned evilly; that was what she had been longing to do the whole time. Oh, how she loathed that Bakari, with his annoying "I know everything" smirk and his stupid pet name for Samirah and how he always had this "I'm a prince and you're not—deal with it" way of prancing around… Samirah gave her drawing an extra whack.
"Just weird…" Samirah heard someone's voice from a little ways away. The other cubs seemed to have gotten to their favorite conversation subject: Samirah herself. She sighed and tried to ignore it.
"…never plays with the other cubs…"
I would if you would let me, snapped a voice in Samirah's mind.
"…likes to move dirt around…"
You want me to make a drawing of you and smash it too?
"…she's just weird."
Or she's just different.
Just then, a new voice came into the picture, one Samirah didn't recognize. She couldn't quite hear what she was saying, because her mind was too clouded by sudden thoughts. I wonder... could this cub be different? Maybe… maybe she might give me a chance!
The new cub began to get up to eat, and Samirah seized the opportunity. "Hey," She yelped as the new cub was beginning to follow the other cubs. The new cub whirled around and stared at Samirah, eyes wide and bulging.
"Hi, I'm Samirah," Samirah began, hoping and praying that the new cub didn't believe any of the tales they had told. "You're new here right?" For some odd reason, the cub seemed at a loss for words. She nodded her head up and down dumbly. "Okay," Samirah tried again. "Listen, if you want a tour of the Riverlands, I can—"
"Look, I don't know you," the new cub interrupted nervously.
"I know, but—"
"No," the new cub whimpered, backing away from Samirah. "I don't know you. This conversation never happened. Don't tell anybody, or I'll…" her voice trailed off, but she recovered again. "Goodbye." And the cub raced off to her friends at the fresh kill pile.
Samirah sighed. The other cubs just HAD to spoil her chances of making a friend.
Woah,
look, I actually updated!!! Wow! Well, I think you should know who this
story is mostly about now... :) Big thanks to all those who are
reviewing-- and simply enjoying the story!
Aishia
