The sounds of preparations for battle were all around the goddess' body. Pawsteps and battle songs that were sung early. She was helpless to aid the colony that were likely still so new to the world, so fragile and so in need. They had cubs. The three of which were her charges, left to tend by her by their mother, who had been sacrificed to someone Shan Furen could only guess was their deity.
The sight of those cubs being taken away, down the same horrible path their mother had walked before leaving this world screaming gave the once mighty goddess the burst of strength she needed to renew the blaze in her heart to a low glow. Staggering onto her feet, Shan Furen let out only one warning roar as she closed in on the lion guards that had been charged with protecting the young ones.
The goddess was supposed to be a weak thing, left to the side as a 'ultimate offering' of sorts or so she had heard while biding her time. Time. Time was something not on her side. With great haste she dispatched them, leaving their bleeding and lifeless bodies to soak the forest floor red as she took each cub, placing two upon her back and the last in her back.
Running. So much running. The trees were too thick to fly and teleporting with such small bodies in her care was not something she wanted to do.
More soldiers. Hiding the cubs safely in a gap beneath a tree's roots, Shan Furen met battle once again. Lion after lion, she met and defeated, but not without wounds of her own. By the time the howls of pain subsided, bodies surrounded the brown goddess whose wings were spread in all of their glory, her mouth hanging open, panting, chest heaving as breath escaped her. Starry eyes glanced back. The cubs had seen everything and only stared at the bloody goddess. One began mewling. Quickly Shan Furen glided over to them, shushing them quickly as she looked around. Worry began to flood her as the crying continued. Others would hear it in the silence that fell over the woods otherwise.
They had to move.
Grabbing the cubs, she fled. Fleeing the forest, away from these lands, she left a would-be pride in ruin and vultures prowling overhead. They would feast and she would run until the sky appeared and then she would fly. Away.
[409 words]
