So much had happened recently in the Pridelands, the murders on the borders that'd frightened many of the hunters and huntresses from going too far out of the territories and then the whole debacle with the sky going dark and the stars falling from the very heavens themselves caused a near riot. Njana could only remember the screams, the yelling, the greast beast of black smoke and starlight and running...now the pride was trying to recover from the shock and the obvious loss that had befallen some of the members. Some had lost members of their family, their friends, it was hard to imagine what was going through their heads...Njana was just happy knowing at so far Shujaa and his family seemed to be in one piece. As far as she knew atleast.
For now, life would go on as usual as the King and his council consorted on how best to fix things and what plans of actions to take. The murders still happened after all, there was no word of anyone being captured. No one being brought to justice for the loss of the lives that'd been taken at the borders, so Njana stepped with caution as she looked out for food near enough to the borders without actually crossing over and ready to bolt away at a moment's notice. It was better to be safe and sorry...though with this current weather that'd rolled in over the plains it made it much harder to smell out anything. Gazelle, zebra and wildebeest had all been drowned out by the heavy smell of the ozone amidst those fat raindrops that pattered upon her muzzle and nose. Weather had a wonderful way of timing it seemed.
Until that smell hit.
That familiar terrible smell. That smell that all animals knew and made her stop in her tracks as it permeated past the heavy rain and made her look about. Death. Death had a very prominent smell, but it was hard to differentiate between that of a prey animal and a predator...which made her very on edge.
She considered turning about and heading back, possibly finding a party to hunt with another day to spare having to deal with probably coming across a body, she didn't want to deal with idea of having to tell some poor family that one of theirs might've passed away in a gruesome manner. She didn't want that on her mind. However such thoughts were quickly erased from her mind as she heard a soft sound rise above the heavy pitter patter of the water that fell from the sky.
A cry. A very soft cry. It made her stop as she looked about for the source of the sound that unfortunately drew her closer to that pungeant smell, but something in the sound just pulled her closer as if she was connected some invisible string that urged her to seek out the tiny squeaking. Closer she padded and her fears were sadly confirmed as the haze of rain did nothing to hide the body quietly bleeding on the grass infront of her, she had no idea how long this one had died but it was definitely a lion. A lioness to be more specific. It made the knot in her stomach tie tighter as she was tempted to flee from the body before sound reached her ears again and she peered about looking for the source yet again.
And she found it. Unfortunately.
Writhing rather helplessly against the body, partly covered in blood and dampened from the rain was a tiny golden peach coloured cub that made Njana straighten up in fear. Any animal's reaction to a crying cub of another family would be to vacate to let the parent deal with it and not get in trouble, but it was apparent that this little fuzzy ball of squeaks and tears' mother was in no position to help her at all. And Njana's heart felt like breaking at the sight of it. This poor lioness must've been on her way and been wounded on the way and her dying moments were spent with her cub in her mouth...atleast this was the golden female was assuming, her thoughts were kind of all over the place as the tiny creature continued to cry and the rain continued to come down. That wouldn't do for such a tiny creature.
A new instinct flourished in her chest as she moved her to scoop the tiny mewling cub in her mouth, the closeness soothing the tiny creature enough to cease the majority of her squealing as Njana turned on her heel and ran back towards the towering form of pride rock. It didn't take her long to reach the dens that despite a bit of trickling water from the rain were easy enough to find a dry space in and she settled the tiny ball of fluff down between her paws in an attempt to get a better look at it. 'It' was a she and despite the blood on her, she was fine, just cold and upset which was more than understandable even at this fragile age with no idea what was going on it was obvious the cub knew that something was wrong. The poor thing, it broke the golden lioness' heart as her tongue started to dry wash the little creature's fur, snorting at the peculiar taste of the blood on the cub's fur as eventually the squealing died down and the tiny creature was soothed. She now and then made a fuss, but with her size it was nothing that Njana couldn't handle.
But now she had a problem on her paws.
She wasn't a mother, she hadn't had her own cubs and now she'd found a tiny creature that needed warmth, protection, milk above all things. Though by the size of the cub she looked like she should've been weaning any day now - as uncomfortable as the process was....still she wasn't in any place to be taking care of such a small baby. For a moment she considered looking about the dens for any recent mothers and ask if she could drop off the tiny cub in amidst whatever litters there were.
It was however hard to keep those thoughts when the tiny cub in her grasp suddenly started snuggling into the fluff of her chest, finally begginning to fully settle down against this big warm, soft lump that'd found her and who surely must be mother. It was the only thought process that made sense in their tiny unaware mind. And as much as she hated to admit it, Njana couldn't help but melt at the action, she smiled ever so faintly as she nuzzled against the tiny body and curled herself protectively around the newfound baby. She could look for a new family for her on the morrow....or maybe the next day, or maybe the next week.
And with that she slowly started falling asleep with the cub between her paws.
( Word Count; 1168 )