The sun was just beginning to rise on the eastern border of the horizon. Mauja'gonjwa had been up since the first stars had faded away into the morning light. And though the need for sleep had slowly begun to pull at the corners of his eyes, he still remained stubbornly awake. One of the cubs in a near by den had been coughing all night and their frantic mother worried pacing only ceased when she herself fell into a coughing fit.
The sickness that so ravaged the bodies of the lions in the pride did not make any sense to him. Why would so many leopards remain here to help preserve a doomed race? It was enough that his mother had born him and his siblings. His only purpose, in life chosen for him, was to take care of these lions when they could no longer take care of themselves. It was enough to make his intelligent mind race. His mother obviously loved this pride to the extent that she would bring cubs into the world for them. To spread the immunity and bring the strength of the pride back.
But why? Was it worth it? For the lions to bear so many cubs, to increase their numbers, when everyone knew that many of them would not reach adulthood or would spend their lives in the miserable varied stages of a terrible illness. It seemed a very depressing life indeed. To know that your life was doomed from the very start. He couldn't even begin to imagine that hopelessness of the situation.
Distracted by the streaming thought in his mind, Mauja began to paw at a trail of ants that was winding their way over the soft dirt that lined the ground outside the den. The lions depended on leopards like him. By why was it then that he felt a cruel hand was holding him in place, forcing him to play servant for a species that could not survive alone. He felt a pang in his heart. He did not wish any wrong against the lions. He simply failed to see why he should stick around to watch his friends grow up and die.
