The pride was dying. Everything was going to pieces and it had been for a very long time. People had left, gained their freedom and never looked back but she couldn't. She couldn't leave the people who were staying. It was killing her to stay but she didn't have a choice. If she left, others would die.
But even the prey beasts were going further and further out of the pride. Further from the lands and she had to travel so far. Everything was broken now and she didn't think anything could fix it. Sometimes when she was alone in her den, tears of frustration welled and she was unable to stop them.
How had everything gotten this bad? She had thought they were bad before. Now it was just...everything was ruined. Everything.
She had struck out early that morning, trying her hardest to find prey beasts but only finding empty sprawling landscapes, barely a breath of life. The pride had sucked the life out of everything and everyone, she thought to herself, bitterness in every thought.
The cub was playing, as cubs do, in the dusty, dried out ground and giggling as her coat got further and further brown. Her once beautiful coat was utterly ruined and she seemed quite content. "Oh Shae, isn't this wonderful?" She asked joyfully, calling out to her companion, the pale hare who stood atop a rock, attempting to act as lookout.
"Shhh!" Shae protested, a frown across her face and her eyes scolding. "We're really out in the open, Mirae. Be quiet."
Mirae rolled her eyes in all the characteristics of a misbehaving youth, getting sassy in her youth and rebelling, ever so slightly, against the hare that had raised her from almost infancy. She couldn't remember her parents, she could only remember Shae.
"Oh Shae," Mirae sighed, sounding far older than her cub status, before she began to play in the dust once more, her giggles echoing all around them in the quiet, almost too quiet, landscape.
It was the giggles that caught Iaeratu's attention, and she froze, her body low to the ground having scented a hare nearby and hunting for that prey beast. Hares were barely enough for one person but at this point, they were something. Though many had left, there were some that were still afraid to leave. They had nothing to go to.
Iaeratu wished she had something else to go to. Somewhere to go. Somehow she could leave this all behind, run away and find freedom. She felt the guilt weighing her down though. She couldn't leave. She was trapped. Trapped by her own mind.
She crept closer to the sound, wondering if it was the hare who was laughing, but as she moved closer, she scented the other smell. The lioness.
Another lion? None of the pride came this far out, unless they were hunting or patrolling. It couldn't be a patrol. No patrol would giggle like that.
She fastened her speed, ready to warn the stranger away, beg them to leave, but as she approached and the pair came into view, her heart froze. A cub had breached their lands.
No.
She had seen too many people taken as slaves. This cub, dirtied by the dust and covered from head to paws, looking thrilled at her new brown coat, this cub couldn't become a slave. She wouldn't. Iaeratu wouldn't let that. Even Ligi Jabari took a slave. No one in the pride could be trusted.
"You have to leave," she said, her first words to them a desperate caution.
Shae had been watching Mirae, and Mirae had been enjoying the dirt cheerfully, and so neither heard the silent Iaeratu approaching until she spoke. Shae lept into action, racing to stand protectively in front of Mirae, although there was little she could do considering her own tiny stature and the fact that to many people she was, in fact, food.
"We mean no harm!" Shae insisted quickly, as Mirae ducked down defensively behind Shae, the cub attempting to become the size of the hare in order to hide from the stranger before them. It took a moment before Shae realised what Iaeratu had said.
"Wait, why?"
Iaeratu barely reacted to the Hare's words, or her question, she was frantic as her mind (as tired and exhausted as it was) went into overdrive in panic. "It might already be too late," she fretted, her eyes wide and panicked as she glanced back over her shoulder to the pride. "How fast can you run?" She demanded of the pair, but stared at them for a moment, realising that the cub and the hare would never out run a full grown lion.
If someone stumbled upon them, there was no stopping them being claimed as slaves, or kept in the pride. They wouldn't be able to fight it.
Iaeratu's heart was like ice in her chest as she froze in place. She had to save the cub. The cub couldn't face this life. The pride was dying. It would kill the cub. She couldn't do that. She had to save them.
"It's useless, you can't run fast enough," she dismissed them, her posture now determined. "Climb onto my back. I can get you far from here before anyone knows you were ever here." They would scent her though, mixed into the scent of the hare and the lioness. If they ever found the trail, she would be doomed.
Could she return to the pride after this?
Or more importantly, could she bare to leave? She was staying to protect those who couldn't protect themselves...but she was leaving for the same reason. This cub would not fall into the hands of the pride. She wouldn't stand for it.
She knew that she could not live with herself if she let that happen. She knew that the pride was dying, and she could not save them. But she could save this cub.
She fell to her stomach, presenting her back to the pair. "Please." She did not use that word often but she needed it now. She had to do this.
Shae was beginning to panic, the lioness' panic creeping across both the cub and the hare. "What's happening?" She asked, her voice obviously worried. "We know you are trying to help, but what are we running from?" She had partially turned, cuddling Mirae close to her in a protective gesture.
"What will happen if we don't run with you?"
She met the Hare's eyes, her gaze sincere. "Then you will die and your cub will be a slave. Please. I can't watch that happen. I will take you far from here, where they can never reach you but we have to go now. I can't risk her freedom or your life." Well, the hare wasn't really that important. If she died, who cares, but the cub...Iaeratu had to save her.
"Please," she repeated softly, presenting her back once again. "This pride won't hesitate."
Shae stared into the lioness' eyes, suspicious of her motives but she could see the panic, feel the nervousness and the fear in her voice. She didn't seem to be lying but Shae was so afraid to trust a stranger, especially with Mirae. She knew that prides were dangerous, and she had thus far avoided treading on too many people's toes when it came to prides, but was this her luck running out? What if she trusted the stranger and Mirae was hurt?
But what if she didn't and Mirae became a slave?
Shae couldn't risk Mirae's life.
"Mirae, darling, get on the lioness' back," Shae said soothly, brushing the cubs fluff off her forehead. "It'll be ok but we need to go now. I'll be right behind you." She gently pushed the cub forward.
Mirae went reluctantly, but the fear that her companion held had seeped into her as well, her once cheerful attitude sucked out and replaced with a wide-eyed fearful expression. "What's happening?" She whispered, remember Shae's earlier words to be quiet. "Where are we going?"
"Somewhere far from here," Shae murmured as she helped Mirae climb onto the lioness' back, near her shoulder blades. The hare moved onto the back as well, careful to balance herself as she knew it might be a bumpy ride. "It's ok, our new friend will help us."
"Oh," Mirae murmured. "Hi new friend," she greeted Iaeratu with a soft smile, unaware of the panic which filled both companions.
Iaeratu felt her heart melt a little at the young lioness' words. New friend. As simple as that. She had once thought to herself that she could never bring new lives into this pride, not in the condition that it was in, and she realised that included those who had wandered in. She would not be responsible for this cub becoming a slave.
"Hi new friend," she said back softly. "Hold tight. It's going to be a long ride." Careful not to dislodge the cub nor the hare, Iaeratu moved quickly along the landscape, putting as much distance between herself and the pride as she could.
It was exhilarating. She was free. She had escaped. She could have walked free long ago, but it was her own guilt that held her captive. Now she had a new mission; she couldn't save them all, but she could save this cub. She would save this cub. She couldn't fail this.
(WC: 1570)