[ORP] The Death of a Queen

[Meepfur]

He supposed he should have seen it coming, but...he hadn't. Perhaps none of them had - who ever really thought that someone they loved, someone so important would die? She'd seen it, of course. She'd always seen everything, or so it seemed sometimes. It was why she'd made her way out to the borders, to the banks of the river, with her Consort in tow, and bid him collect his siblings and follow as well.

There were eleven of them in all. Five adults, and six on the verge of becoming so. He wondered, if such a thing were possible, if she'd planned it that way somehow; to pass now, rather than return to find her gone. He wondered if Mng'aro had seen it, wherever he was...watched his mother lay her head on her paws, and die.

And most of all, he wondered why. Oh, not why she had died - no matter how he grieved, he knew that it was the way of things. That she had been old, very old. What he wondered was why him - of all five named Scions, why would it be him? Why not another Queen, in Epesi'vipawa, Arada'laurëa, or Mwenye-Heri Tarishi? And if a King, why not Roho'eupeanga? All his life, he'd thought it would be one of the others.

He wondered why she'd never told him, for she must have realized he had no ambition for it, and no idea. Now what was he to do? He wasn't wise the way she was, couldn't see the way she had. He was just...himself. And right now, he felt very small, and very sad, and very alone. It showed for most of the way back into the swamps, as he trailed along at the end of the dozen-lion procession and said nothing, even if prompted.

As they neared where the Mama Bwawa had gathered the pride, he forced himself to lift his gaze from the ground. Though he let his devastation show, he pushed back his insecurity to where none could see it. He was the last to swim across to the island-den that was the royal family's, to drag himself out from the water and turn to face the pride.

There were so many of them, now, and they were all here because of her. Some were born of her, most had simply been drawn here to the pride she'd brought back from death. Staring out at all those faces, he lost whatever grip he had left on words for a moment that seemed to stretch on forever. He closed his eyes for a second and tried to breathe - tried to find a way to speak without having to think.

Finally, when he opened his eyes, Narindima'moyo spoke, just loud enough to be heard:

"The Queen is dead. I am the King."

Behind him, the goddess threw back her head and roared - not with triumph, but with grief. The grief of them all.  

[demon_pachabel]

Welcome to the pride Yaxha-Skanawati! NOW THE QUEEN YOU'D JUST TAKEN ON IS DEAD. It really had felt like that big of a blindsiding for Skanawati (Goodness the change in title had felt unfamiliar to him), who had found that his first gathering of the pride would be one which was so somber. Had Ira'Quinh come as well? He couldn't see her head amongst the members and he had left ahead of her.

It was a bittersweet feeling to have, overall.

On one paw, he had been so new to the pride that the passing of the monarch and giving the role to her son was something that he hadn't been expecting, as well he was unfamiliar with the one who had taken a long time to speak.

Certainly a young lion who looked more or less capable to him, but then again, there was also a sort of look of...
....

Something else. Perhaps it was the grief.

Yes, that must have been it. However, when the goddess opened her jaws to roar her own grief, Yaxha too took a deep breath before opening his own to allow his voice to join hers.
..
..
Oh god, hopefully that was allowable.  

[OP-Yuna]

Domevlo made no effort to hide his shock and sorrow - if not on the entirety of his face, then in his eyes. He might not have known the queen his whole life - in fact he had only known her a short time - but it felt like nothing he'd ever known.

The queen had been the first to welcome him in to the lands. The first to ever offer him a word of kindness, or to show him acceptance. that alone was enough of a reason to bring tears to his face - salty drops that ran a narrow course along his scars.

Despite the sorrow, he could not curse the spirits for haven taken such a kind soul home. In fact, the thought brought him comfort. He looked around at the rest of the pride, seeing their reactions to the news. Domevlo thought to say something, to offer some sort of eulogy, but he didn't know if it would be appropriate.

In the end, he lowered his head in a great bow to their king.  

[Hanyousblood]

The queen was... dead?

Poor Ira'Quinh, so happy and exuberant to finally make it home with her beloved name right at her side, and now... now she was still standing there beside him, but there was something terrible and different about it all. Everything. The whole mess of the pride and family.

... It felt surreal. There was just no other way of putting it into words. The queen she had known since her birth, the queen who had always been there, the queen who had been an omnipresent ruler and overseer since even before her time, was dead and gone, and now, in her place... was a lion she could barely remember who felt nothing like her.

He was a King and he already didn't seem it. She... didn't know what to do, how to feel. The best she could manage was defaulting an appropriately bleak frown-- so foreign on the muzzle that usually had a dreamy smile-- and passing her companion a lost look.

"?--..........."

Except that her question came out as just a hiccup, and then she did something entirely foreign.

She threw back her head and roared her own grief with them.

It hurt.

It hurt in a way she'd never really known before.

Was this the thing you called 'loss'?  

[Keantha]

Thembekile's heart broke as she huddled down against the ground. It seemed so strange to the dark lioness. She and her brother had just found a new home and now...

Now it was already changing.

Her violet eyes glanced up to their new king. Bekile pitied the poor male, to loose his mother and be thrust into the role as their new king so soon. She was sure that he felt lost and bewildered but what cold be done? They needed a leader...

Bowing her head again, she closed her eyes against the grief that seemed to press in against her from all sides.
 

[Iris_virus]

-She was... confused..

Through her rather short span of memories, she could not dig out the situation that had befallen the pride, so as they gathered, her expression quickly fell from the happiness that usually accompanied a group get together, to something far more somber. The grief of the area was evident, seemed almost to radiate like a physical aura.

Death... another foreign concept, but as she listened to muttered soft statements, and tried hard to read the body language of those, she pulled out the important bits and pieces. The queen... would not be coming back. Ever. She'd gone someplace else.. with the spirits perhaps? And it was so far away that noone seemed to have the idea to go try and retrieve her.

The nameless lioness was sad that she hadn't had more time with the queen in which so much love and grief was spilling. Obviously she was a kind creature though, she had let her in after all, even despite her current lack of helpful skills for the pride. She'd allowed her a place to stay and learn, and maybe one day become one within the pride. Yes, from everything she'd seen the queen had been a wonderful lioness, and her ears fell back, large sigh breaking through her throat.

What a terrible day. How sad she felt for missing the great queen. And how truely heartbroken she felt for all those that knew her better and grieved so visably.-  

[Pink Myth]

The male leaned into his sister giving her a soft nuzzle. The death of the queen brought back painful memoirs of his mother. Her dark pelt much like his sister laying on the cold den floor when they where so young not moving. She had giving the two information about their father before her passing. He didn't believe it how ever. He didn't want to think that their father was alive.

That is why they had come and with in the short time being in this place they had grown to love and believe in with all their heart. The male then let out a roar of his own not only for the queen but feeling her offspring pain. He knew it was better a child living with the death then a parent going threw it. He had seen first hand of this.

He hated death yet it seem to follow him like a curse. His mother...then his mate that even though he had only know a short time was ripped from him with the death of their cubs soon following. Now...it was the queen his closed his eyes tightly letting his head fall as he hoped and prayed that he was not the one that caused these changes to happen.

He then opened his eyes as a hard cold stare was placed onto his face as his limbs told him he needed to move he needed to do something. So he did the only thing he could let let out one more roar from his now shaking body before collapsing beside his sister hiding his face so others would not see his tears.  

[Chibi Sheepcat]

‘The queen is dead.’

The words echoed in his head as the Mother roared, and Kuuzusha lifted his eyes from the wet ground. It was almost unbelievable that she was gone. She, the lioness who had welcomed his mother here and accepted the cubs she had. He and his siblings had grown up well here, protected and taught in the swamps. Time had passed quickly, more so than he had ever thought it would. He shouldn’t have been so surprised that the queen would die within his lifetime. She had been an adult when he was born, after all, and most of her children were approaching adulthood with each passing day. Even so, Kuuzusha had assumed that the queen would always be there. It was so strange to say that she was not.

But death happened to every creature. Thinkers like himself were prone to considering life and death, especially when they were left to watch the world around them. Kuuzusha had seen many things live, grow, and die in his lifetime. It was an irreversible process, and an inevitable one. And so, he sat neatly beside his mother, violet eyes solemn, head bowed once more.

May the spirits bless the new king, and the pride, in their time of grief.  

[Tristan Thorne]

She'd come here for a quiet life, to live happily...

And now this.

Her heart ached... but it wasn't a grief born of a dead loved one. It was a grief born of lost opportunites, and it was a grief she felt for the heartbreak Roho was surely feeling now. She was grieving for what could have been, while he was grieving for a part of his life she had never shared. He had lost a mother. She hadn't known the queen well, but she had hoped...

Ah, even here the world was cruel.

Isha heard the Mother's cry of agony, and she felt the pain ripple through her own body.

Oh, she had hoped her children would have a grandmother to love! But it wasn't to be.

The lioness' dark eyes traveled to Roho, her heart twisting cruelly as she watched the tears pour down his face. With tentative steps she wove her way through the gathering until she stood by him. She didn't know if she was allowed to stand near him, but right now she didn't care. Screw the rules!

She stopped by his side, saying nothing, and lent him her shoulder to lean on.

Things will get better, She tried to tell him silently, We will live, and love, and most of all - we will remember.  

[Successful Edit]

Kikwi'konochapa, formerly called Tsopa, was not long home from his name quest. It was oddly his first thought on hearing the news of Queen Asali's death. That at least he'd come home before, at least he'd been greeted home by her with his new name, that she'd known it, and he'd introduced his very-much-potential mate to her, seen her about the pride lands in the meantime - and not come home only to find out weeks after the fact. It was a comfort he'd been home and seen her, now he wouldn't see her about the lands again.

He was not born of Asali but she had brought him and his siblings up alongside her third litter, so he'd cared for her as more than just his Queen, though the foundling would never have called her his mother mother she was still an important figure to him personally. Kikwi was slowly starting to realise from his visions that the Mother might actually be...well his mother but he owed so much to Asali.

He'd be loyal to Narindima'moyo as the new King but for now, his thoughts were centred (quite rightly he thought) on the late Queen. He lowered his head in grief.