Maluuni'jambo started, very awake now from her daughter's pounce. "They are? That's wonderful!" She got up, stretching as she nudged the only other cub sleeping beside her. "Ri...I've got something to teach you and you sister tonight."She smiled gently. "Your father has likely taught you about this pride...but I think you should learn the good things from my side as well."
Moricorm stirred from her sleep at her mother's prompting. She had been so busy the past few nights, she had worn herself out. "A lesson? About what, mother?" The dark little cub was truly curious...What other than hunting did their coward mother have to teach?
Anameleth grabbed her sister's tail between her sharp cub teeth and pulled her out into the dusky light.
"Look Ri, fireflies!" Anameleth's eyes shown faintly with the golden glow of the flickering fireflies.
Maluuni chuckled and followed her daughters outside, her forest green eyes taking note of the fireflies immediately. Oh...it was a joy to see them, though their last appearance hadn't been too long ago...They'd come for her cubs' birth too, and then a little after. "Where I grew up...Fireflies were very important. Because they house souls within their lights."
Ri squeaked, then growled as her larger sister dragged her out. "I can move on my own!" Once outside, however, the fireflies caught her eyes as well. They were like the stars or the moon...points of light that did the demons no harm."If they're souls, why do they just fly around?"
Anameleth looked quizically at her mother. "Where'd you come from, that the fireflies are considered souls?"
"Very far from here...The jungle that is part of our lands...I grew up somewhere like that. Full of green and life. I...I left there, because some things were bad. But others, like what I will teach you, are good." Maluuni sat, her tail curling around her feet. "I learned that when a firefly dies around a newborn, that newborn has gained their soul. And if a cub isn't around, it becomes a firefly somewhere else, always searching for its next life."
Anameleth cocked her head, letting the information sink in.
Ri blinked at her mother and looked at the fireflies around them, tail swishing idly through the grasses. "That...makes a little sense, I suppose." She bounced around through the swarm, batting at the little bugs.
Maluuni chuckled. "Be careful. You never know who's soul you might be pawing at..." A calm smile was on her muzzle. "Maybe your future mate...or your future sibling."
Anameleth sighed and flopped over onto her back in the tall grass. "Tell us more, please?" She was starting to like the sound of her mother's former pride. She was her mother's child more then her father's.
Ri stopped batting at the fireflies, eyes a little wide. "Really?" Oh now THIS was something she could use...if she could figure out whose soul was in which firefly.
Maluuni nodded. "Yes, really. You never truly know." She lay down, to be more comfortable. "To us...the Goddess of Fireflies kept our souls...but our true Mother-Goddess was Forest. She was everything to us. She gave us a home, made homes for the creatures we hunted, and cultivated the trees and plants we used in our lives. It's why I value our little patch of jungle so much...It reminds me of the forest."
"Mom, what was bad about the land you lived in before?"
That was a question Moricorm had wondered since her mother mentioned it. Her mother seemed to love some things so much...and turned her back on them. Why? Was it just MORE cowardice?
Maluuni sighed. "Cursed fur. There were three colors of fur that were believed to be cursed. Red, black, and white. When I was born, I was decreed to die before I was old enough to have cubs. But another...another pride wanted our lands, and so I survived...because my pride died." Guilt flooded back into Maluuni. She knew she shouldn't feel glad so many had died while she lived...but being here, in the now, with her beautiful daughters made the guilt go away. Her cubs made everything better.
"Was Dad in the pride that took your lands?"
Maluuni chuckled and shook her head. "No. I didn't meet him until much later." She nuzzled Meleth, then licked the top of Ri's head. "If he had been part of that pride, I don't think I would have had you and you siblings with him."
Ri protested the impromptu washing and shook herself. "Father would have made sure those lions were driven back, if he'd been in your pride. And made sure they knew red and black weren't a curse." She posed, proud of her colors.
"If we had been born in your old pride, we would have died, huh Mom?" Meleth patted Ri's hindquarters with her paw, trying to get her sister to play with her.
Maluuni nodded sadly. "Yes...But if you had been born to me...I would have protected you with everything I am." She smiled. "I had two cubs before you...A boy and a girl." She shook her head. "The boy was taken by his father...and I have not seen the girl in...so, so long. One day, though, I'll find her, so you can meet her. She's red and yellow...like a flower."
At her sister's prodding, she turned and batted back, grin on her face. "Another brother and sister? Are they small...like you and me?"
Meleth pounced onto her sister's back and clung to her back, growling softly. She also managed to ask her mother a question, even with a mouth full of Ri's ear. "What happened to her?"
"Because her father followed the ways of our old pride, he was going to kill her...or make her suffer like he did to me. I...I had her run away with a kind lioness that passed by." She sighed. "And she was small, like me, but her brother was large as his father. I was one of the first small lions born to that pride."
Ri squeaked and moved to roll over, trying to get her sister off her back. "How were you sure she was a nice lioness? She could have been bad!"
Muffled, Meleth answered her sister's question. "You think everyone's either bad or cowardly Ri."
Maluuni chuckled again. "It was a feeling, and...something about her. I couldn't quite tell what it was...but she was...divine, almost."
Ri huffed. "I've heard stories of the lions outside the pride! I'm no fool! But..." She kept her mouth shut now and tried to grab her sister's tail.
FIN
