She was sure everybody knew it was coming - The signs had been there long ago, before the drought at the Hongshan and the Nergui and... Everything souring the world around them at present. And yet it had been a shock to Savitri when she'd gone to pay her aged father a visit and found the great lion far too still for her liking. She found a high point shortly after, choking back her emotions before she let out a loud, clear, and mournful roar, calling to her family, regardless of if they were related to Bodaway or not. Everyone who knew him, everyone he'd met, touched with his fire. Her brothers and sisters from other mothers, even her aunts, uncles, cousins both close and distant, nieces nephews, and children. One of the last flames of a great dynasty had gone out, and it was time to call the family in.
She was sitting outside his den as they came in from the reaches of the desert. She'd have Shula send Shumusi out into the Roguelands to see if she could retrieve even the wandered children and grandchildren home for a visit later. It was right. He'd want it that way. "I don't know what time of night or morning it happened... But a fire has gone out. It was a fire that burned with a passion that even failing vision could not dim. Father was a vestige of an old dynasty, one of the last two lions in the pride to remember as far back as Makadari, many generations ago. How any Firekin can live that long is a mystery, as nobody can deny our lifestyle is brutal on the body, but he wore his age with pride. He believed firmly in Kidondo's way, but he also believed firmly in Finar-si and that one day she'd come back to our pride. He's with her now, probably much younger than he was at the end. A cub again, a juvenile, an adolescent not lost in the world beyond our borders. He saw many places and many lions and many prides, but he still came home to the desert, where he was born, and so he's died in the desert of his birth." She bowed her head, body shaking. She felt a paw on her back, but had no idea if it was a brother, a sister, a daughter, son, niece... She wasn't sure who it belonged to, but it was comforting and needed. Finally, she found her composure again, raising her face to the sun above. "He leaves behind a great legacy in his own right, between here, other prides, and the roguelands - 28 children in total, Goddess only knows how many grandchildren and great-grandchildren between us all! So while we mourn his loss today... We must celebrate the life he led, and the lives he helped create." She looked around at the lions gathered and gathering. "Does anybody else have any words about him?" She was sure someone did.
