Green eyes watched the clouds drifting high above through the sunny sky. Hashiel was lying at the entrance to the den where he could see them, instead of deeper in. It wasn't even his den, the one that he'd shared with 'Divy and where they'd raised their children.
That was still a marvel to him. The fact that he and she, two leopons who, by all rights shouldn't be capable of having children, were parents. Parents of children who were their own flesh and blood, and not adopted from those who had already passed on.
Passed on, as he was soon to do.
The leopon had given up on concealing his sickness from his mate - mostly because it simply took more strength than he had anymore. Hashiel hadn't wanted to worry her, but when he'd started to have trouble simply walking from one part of the pride to another without stopping every few paces, he'd known that there was no hiding his illness.
He'd known he had the disease from cubhood, yes, but he'd been able to grow up and lead a fairly normal life, which was far more than some could claim. It wasn't unheard of for cubs and adolescents to die of the plague. And then to have cubs of his own on top of it!
The den he was lying in lay in the center of the pride, where the elders and sickly lived, and where the Healers could tend to them more easily. Unfortunately for Hashiel, only the Dusk Healers had any reason to visit him now, and even they could do little to comfort him as his time ran gradually to a close.
Yes, he had family. A mother in the pride, as his leopard father was a rogue, siblings, a mate, her family, and of course their cubs. But Hashiel had sent them all away. He'd seen enough death in his time in the Kitwana'antara that he didn't want his kin to be there when the Goddess of Pestilence finally claimed him. He hoped they were together, comforting each other, but he didn't even want his own twin to be with him.
Maybe he thought that by keeping apart, he'd be safeguarding the new litter that 'Divy was expecting. Who knew? Most of their first litter was capable of catching the disease, being either leopons or lions. They had no idea what 'Divy was carrying this time, but only Sasta, their leopard son, could truly be immune from the last group.
Well, that wasn't completely true. Hashiel's own mother, Saskiranel, was immune, and thus had even left the pride on occasion. Leading, of course, to Hashiel's own birth. But immunity among lions was rare and uncommon with leopons.
Had it gotten darker? The sun didn't seem to have moved much that the leopon could see, but it seemed to him that the sky was not as bright a blue as it had been before. The clouds didn't seem to have gotten larger or more widespread either.
No, it wasn't the sky, for some parts of it were still bright. It was almost as if he could see a shape in the sky and land before him, of a lion, sitting, waiting. Pestilence herself? It could be. Or perhaps his failing eyes were playing tricks on him, making Hashiel think he saw the goddess when in reality he was simply dying.
Either way, he bowed his head to the shape he saw and knew no more.