The little cub watched with half-lidded, dark gray eyes as a few cubs played nearby, his tail thumping lazily behind him. Sebahive could not deny that he wanted to join them, but his fear held him back. It would probably seem strange to most people. Why would a cub be scared of playing?
He believed he had a very good reason, though.
Earlier that day, his pride had discovered another seer. Now, normally they would have rejoiced over this, as they had when the other gifted members were unveiled. However, it wasn't until today that he realized that they were all female. This one was male... and clearly not all there. He had always seemed strange to the pride, but it had never been this bad. This time, he had gone completely berserk, attacking some of his fellow members, and had to be subdued. In the end, the lion had been driven out of the pride, and the reasons behind the "why" became the highlight of today's gossip.
It comes as no surprise that the cubs eventually got wind of what everyone was gossiping about, and in turn, asked about it. Though some of the adults were uneasy about telling them, they were taught a bit more about seers in general and informed of how dangerous male seers were.
Sebahive had never been so confused. He had always been rather observant, so why hadn't he noticed such a huge problem? And he was not talking about the issue of male seers, like the rest of his pride was... He was talking about himself.
He had been getting splitting headaches almost every other night, strange dreams that seemed to linger in front of him even after he had awoken, and come to think of it, a few days ago he had thought he'd seen some cubs running across water, but he had put it off to his lack of sleep. Even now, he was hard pressed to see it as something being wrong with him.
However, the more he thought about it, the more it made sense. He was showing symptoms of being a seer, and that absolutely terrified him. He'd turn violent, he could hurt one of his siblings or, even worse, his mother....
The white cub quickly shook his head, his black tuft of mane falling down in front of his right eye and causing him to close it. 'Don't think about it, Sebby.' His ears flattened against his head, 'It's probably nothing. Just some... some bad food or something... every night.' He sighed at himself, disgruntled at how unhelpful his train of thought turned out to be.
Well, he supposed, it really could be nothing. Maybe it really was just from his lack of sleep? There was no way of telling whether his hallucinations were from exhaustion or otherwise.
'But would it matter to the others?' The fur on the back of his neck bristled, 'You saw how quickly they got rid of that guy.'
No, they wouldn't just toss him out. Just because he might be showing seer tendencies... no, of course not!
But he couldn't deny his own fear over that rejection. If they found out....
Sebahive paused, 'IF they found out...' Of course! No one ever said anything about telling them.
'But how could you possibly hide it from your family?'
That was a good point. He frowned in thought, before shaking his head sadly. 'They won't know if I don't let them. I'll just have to start avoiding them.' He nodded slowly to himself, 'Don't play with my brothers and sisters anymore. Don't let anyone get too close.' Then, if it turns out to be nothing, he could forget all about it and things could go back to normal.
Yes, that was what he would do. So, with one last longing glance at the other cubs, he turned and slipped away, back into the silence and solitude of their den and away from where others might see him, hoping that it really was nothing to worry about.