Naledi was casually strolling through her rainforest home, occasionally glancing up at the canopy above as she went along. Today had been nothing short of a good day. The lioness had spent the majority of the day training some of the lionesses in combat, and afterwards they had enjoyed a short chasing game that had ended in rolling and laughter. Naledi smiled to herself as she thought of the long road that the lionesses that had been enslaved had taken to get to this point. She had been taught to believe that they would be enslaved for their entire lives and should not hold onto unnecessary feelings and thoughts such as escape and freedom. However, in the back of her mind, she had always held onto both notions despite not really believing in them, despite being brainwashed and controlled. They were nice to retreat to in her thoughts now and again. If anything they served as somewhere for her to retreat to whenever she was feeling particularly overwhelmed by the conditions of her enslavement. She would have never been able to guess that these ideas would manifest as true in her life. Naledi could not describe the shear feeling of happiness and joy that had overcome her when she finally understood that she and the others were truly free.
When her Queen, Anansi, had shown up in the dens where she was kept, she had felt sympathy for what seemed to be a new arrival to their prison home. Oh, but how wrong she had been, and how glad she was that she had been wrong about her. When Anansi began to speak of mutany, Naledi had thought her to be insane. How on earth do you expect us to fight against our captors?, she had asked, confused and bewildered by her ideas. The dominance of the males had always been absolute and unquestionable. It was continually drilled into them that there was no escape. That the role of a female was that of a slave. Although, Naledi knew that somewhere deep inside of her being that those ideas were bad and wrong, and they never did really sit right with her at her core. She had fallen in line to avoid excess suffering, but she had never truly accepted their definition of who the females were and what their purpose was in life.
So, despite being very skeptical, Naledi had been absolutely ready to hear the message that Anansi brought with her. The truth of her real purpose in life. Slowly, over time, she began to realize that yes, she was strong and had power. All females did. It had been this realization that had led Naledi to helping Anansi plan and execute the revolt against the slavers.
Naledi owed Anansi her very life and more, if it had not been for her Queen, she and the others definitely would have rotted away in the hellhole that had encompassed them. The lioness had never known another lioness that was as brave and courageous as her Queen. The tales that she spoke of a land where females ruled seemed like a fantasy, a fairy tale for children. Well, not a fairy tale that would have been told to any child that lived under the male rule. No, boys were taken from their mothers as soon as they could eat on their own, so as to limit the development of the natural bond between mother and child and to make it so that the adult male had little to no memories of being with their mothers or any other female. When female cubs were born, some of them were always killed so as to maintain the group's self imposed male to female ratio, and the others were left to grow and learn painfully with the other females. They had always made sure that there were at least approximately two males to every one female. Later on, this served to further solidify Naledi's budding beliefs that the females were just as stronger, or even stronger, than the males were.
Now, of course, Naledi knew the truth. The truth that was that females were in fact naturally stronger and more powerful than males were, and that males were in reality just short of being overgrown cubs with no self restraint. Knowing what she knew now, she felt embarrassed and even a little silly for allowing herself to be enslaved by these creatures for so long. For believing in their self centered doctrine that was only ever meant to delude the females into believing that they were anything less than powerful.
Living side by side with males in her new home was a trying thing, but she believed in Anansi's philosophy of everyone living peacefully under female rule. Still, it was difficult for her not to resent them at least a little bit. Most of them were kind and friendly, completely ignorant of the horrors that took place. Naledi almost felt like it was a slap in the face for the males in the pride to smile at her and greet her in passing when, as a youth, she had been kicked or glared at whenever in the present of a male. Sometimes she felt a little overwhelmed, it had been quite a while now that they had been living in this fashion under her Queen's rule, but she still needed to take time for herself and step back every now and again. It still amazed her, the difference that her life had taken on since the arrival of the strange black lioness.
Females were clearly just naturally suited for leadership with their patient and level headed way of thinking. Females were far less likely to attempt to assume total dominance and control over the inhabitants of the area. Males, on the other hand, were childish and greedy, taking what they wanted without concern for others or the future. In all honesty, if it had been up to her, she may not have chosen such a peaceful resolution and would have probably demanded more blood from their male captors than what had already been spilt.
Only, Anansi had had the remaining survivors chased away with the threat of death if they ever returned on their heels.