Cruel Lesson

Uru laid in the den that she had chosen from one of the few safe places in this land of rogues. In her forearms were two cubs and at her belly were two more cubs. A large litter was uncommon for a first time mother, and for one so young. But the birth had went smoothly and all four cubs were healthy. Uru was exhausted, but despite her body wanting to sleep, she just couldn't. Her gray-blue eyes kept trailing over her new babies, taking in the appearance of each one and feeling her heart and being fill with warm love. But the grandest gift...was the ability to name the life she had created. But her body finally got its wish and she fell into a gentle slumber. Tomorrow she would give them names.

The princess quickly learned that being a rogue mother was more difficult than being just a normal rogue lioness. There were no pridesisters who would bring her food while she rested or watch the cubs while she went off to hunt. As for the matter of food...her body was weak from birth which hindered her speed. When she returned to the den, her belly was hollowed with hunger and as she laid down, the babies squirmed to her belly to get what milk she could produce, but it was limited. She had to try harder or else her cubs would die from starvation. Uru forced herself to her feet and once more left her cubs. She would be successful and bring down enough food that would fill her belly and make her milk flow, and then, once they were safe and well fed, she would bestow names upon her children.

When she left them the second time, it was the last time she would see them alive. She had been forced to move further to find food and when she returned...pure carnage greeted her. All four cubs...brutally slaughtered and the culprit's scent hung in the air like a taunting kind of perfume. That smell...Uru felt something stir inside her, a rage that was not supposed to exist in the peaceful Galelanders. Anger was a negative emotion that was frowned upon by the pride, but this...this was not anger...it was raw rage and vengeance. Uru's eyesight slowly darken, her mind went blank.

Her monster took full control and when she finally regained her senses...there was pure carnage, more so than the sight of her torn apart cubs. The pregnant lioness and the father of her dead cubs had bore the full brunt of the monster's wrath...the sight sickened her and turn blue-ginger lioness turned and ran far away.

Uru would not let the same mistake happen twice. When she found the best place for her cubs, she refused to let any other lioness near it. Any lioness who happened by was sent off with a warning and a nick from claws. The birth was slightly hard, but Uru had grown since the first time and now she was ready for the challenges of raising cubs as a rogue lioness. After a painful spasm, the first cub came, and there was silence. The blue-fawn lioness turned to begin lapping at the little mass of fur, but her breath caught in her throat. The cub was perfectly formed...but very still. She tentatively licked at it, waiting for it to inhale sharply and let out a mew or wail. But there was nothing. The cub was stillborn. Blinking back tears, Uru carefully shoved the little corpse away. She would have the remaining cubs and then set out the preparations for burial. In minutes there were three cubs in a cave of silence. The second cub had came in silence and like its first sibling, it did not respond. The third and final cub was the same. Three cubs...all born dead. They were born and died nameless, as was the fate of the cubs who did not live to see the sun. Uru's screams echoed the night, an intense pain and heartache of a lioness who lost not just potential love, but also her cubs. This stillbirth was the last straw...Uru no longer wanted this accursed life. She was going home and wanted to forget that all of this had ever happened.