We are bound together by ties stronger than any family. The will to survive keeps us healty and fit, and it is for this reason our strange way of life came to be. Our laws, while simple enough, are strictly and often brutally enforced. We live by the first and foremost rule: One must always feed his brothers before himself. While it seems easy enough, we often find ourselves stricken with temptation, and any lawbreakers are often savaged brutally and used as examples for those who choose not to obey.
Our society is one of the oldest and most primitive ways of live: The strongest rule. In order to gain status, one must fight for it. Many lives are wasted in the pursuit of the prestigious title of Clan Leader. In the end, only one may achive this goal, and the rest of the clan are cursed to grovel at her feet. It is then up to the males to clamor and reduce themselves to petty displays of power so that one may perhaps catch the Leader's eye and fall into favor as her mate. Through simple observation, one may remark that females are far more ruthless in their claim to power than males, for they have nothing to lose amongst female society if they fail. Losing males often fall out of favor amongst their brothers and are more often than not belittled and forced to leave in order to re-claim their dignity. It is only after fleeing our primal society that he might redeem himself; perhaps he will join another clan and have another shot at winning the tital of Fiercest Male.
Upon gaining her favor, the leader's mate then selects a small group of the swiftest and strongest hyenas to become his sentries; it is these who patrol the boundaries of Hyena society and decide who has chosen to disobey the laws laid down for centuries. It is they who do the dirty work, executing felons and banishing those deemed worthy enough to survive their harshest punishment. It is those whom we live under the constant eye of; one slip can have dire consequences.
After even a harmless encounter with us, a being foreign to the ways of the Hyena will immediately recognize our lifestyle. Countless are the times that it has been remarked how we never refer to ourselves as "I," and it is only for the sake of the story that I speak of myself as such. You see, unless one has claimed the noble rank of Leader, the rest of the Hyena clan quickly adapts to life as a faceless mass with only one goal: survival.
It is here that the story begins from a Hyena's view. Our story of disarray, starvation, sanctity, prosperity, and finally The Beginning.