The moon was bright and beautiful high up against the vast blackness of the night sky. The day was over, activities done with until the next day came. Everyone had eventually made their way to the dens to turn in for the night. The only sounds left were those of the insects and of the females in her immediate vicinity getting comfortable and settling in. She preferred to sleep in the females' den, she felt more comfortable there. Naledi had come to accept the presence of the males in the pride, but in her opinion she didn't have to sleep right next to them. They didn't make her nervous anymore or strike fear into her, not since she had come to accept the horror that her life had been and true nature of males. Ever since her spirit quest, Naledi has felt more powerful and more at peace than she ever has before. She smiles as she thinks of her life now, living here with her sisters in peace. She loves it, but she can't help but drift back into her memories from time to time. Usually, they didn't come to her in her conscious state, but rather in her subconscious or dream state. As she laid her head down and fully relaxed, she closed her eyes and began to drift off. As the deep world of sleep came over her, she began to see flickers of her past dance across her vision... Naledi had been born in a place where grass fields and umbrella trees extended for miles and miles, as far as the eye could see. In the far distance where the mountains that stood tall over the grasslands. Animals of all kinds lived there together and shared the resources of their collective home. Naledi's mother had been a young lioness who had been barely past her adolescence when Naledi was born. She had never known her parents, she had been the surprise illegitimate child of a secret love affair. Her mother had gone into hiding to give birth to and abandon her only daughter. Naledi's mother had managed to survive her abandonment and be raised by several different lions out in the rogue lands in her short life. She was on her own by the time she had hit adolescence and was running wild. She grew into a young adult that way. When she discovered that she was pregnant, alone and not knowing who the father was, she settled down in the grasslands to give birth to the only cubs that she would ever have. Still being young, Naledi's mother only gave birth to two small cubs, Naledi and a boy.
They lived together in the grasslands for quite a while in relative peace. They had been happy. Despite being abandoned herself, Naledi's mother managed to successfully raise her two cubs well into their juvenile age. Naledi and her brother spent their time playing with one another and attempting to involve their mother in their games. Naledi's mother had sworn to herself that if she ever had children of her own, she would never abandon them like her own mother did. Unfortunately, it seems that she was doomed to loose her children one way or another. One fateful day, Naledi, her brother, and her mother had been sleeping peacefully under the star speckled night sky under the large tree that they normally slept under, when they had been savagely ambushed.
Five large male lions had come upon them and had rudely awoken them. Once their mother was awake, the males told her that they would her's and her son's lives if she handed Naledi over willingly. Of course, Naledi's mother refused in shock that they had demanded such a thing. They, of course, attacked the young lioness and she fought bravely for the lives of her children. Seeing that she was outnumbered, she tried to lead the males away from her cubs in hopes that they could get away. She never understood why these males wanted her little daughter. However, the five males managed to easily overpower and kill her, she having used every last bit of breath and energy to defend her cubs. Naledi and her brother had run off in fear of the battle that was ensuing, but they were quickly found after the death of their mother.
In one brave attempt to save his sister, Naledi's brother leap in front of her and bit the nearest male on the leg. The male had been so enraged that he had immediately pounced on the small boy and began to maul and shred him. Naledi was grabbed roughly by her scruff and forced to watch her brother die. At this point, she was in such a state of hysteria that she opened her mouth and began to scream and cry loudly. The males bit her and struck her in an attempt to silence her, but she would not stop wailing. Eventually one male knocked her out all together, striking her across the head, causing her small body to hit the ground and roll. The last image that Naledi has of her home are the fading still figures of her mother and brother.
When she began to come to, she had nearly forgotten all that had transpired earlier that night. It had taken her a few hours to return to consciousness after the horror that she had witnessed. However, as she looked around and didn't recognize her surroundings, everything began to slowly filter back into her mind and she remembered everything. She began to scream once more.
She woke up gasped for breath and looking back and forth frantically as she attempted to get a grasp on reality. Looking around, she saw that she was in the den with the females and she was safe. Naledi let out a big sigh as a few tears of relief escaped her eyes. She was home and everything was fine. Laying back down with a huff, she stared at the ceiling of the cave they slept in, and wondered how see was going to get back to sleep now that she was being plagued by her past.