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Paid 15GB.
2GB for an opacity changer on the cream rims.
Zero regrets o3o
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Adis x Ashernaly, the fifth special lioness.
Nine cubs.
Bohemia - by Aker the King
http://www.lioden.com/territory_lion.php?id=1159370
Josie - by Alekzandr
http://www.lioden.com/territory_lion.php?id=2757600000
Amaryllis - by Poisoned Apple
http://www.lioden.com/territory_lion.php?id=86366360000
Magnolia - ''
http://www.lioden.com/territory_lion.php?id=86366360010
Fiorella - ''
http://www.lioden.com/territory_lion.php?id=86366360020
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85 stats at 15/12/13. (+ x skill)
537 stats at 24/05/14. (+135 skill) Day before her last litter is due :/ 596 hunts, 13 years, 5 months.
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The young adol had been bought for a high bride-price from her homepride, by a ragged and hungry looking lion from far beyond their borders. She had been offered to another king, who found her wanting, she, who was the first-born true daughter of the great Ashernaly! She had been found to not be 'special enough' and so rejected out of hand. The strange king, hearing of the spurned lioness, had made a bid for her and won. And so her destiny had changed, a new path forged.
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After a long journey through the drylands, they reached the king's keep. The lioness had never suspected such bounty could flourish in the midst of the desert, an oasis hidden at the base of a ravine, with a grand lake and cool jungle. Many lionesses already lived there, and it was one of those, Mythril, who gave her the name the pride would know her by - Loveletters. Like ink and parchment she said, though Loveletters did not know what those were. Presumably some kind of bird or something.
She was treated well, though Fynn did not have much time for her. Mythril and the others of the Trinity took over her education, for though her former pride had been the home of many great huntresses, her dam had not truly been of their bloodlines, rather a noble princess of rare beauty but little skill. To prevent her becoming the same, she was sent on countless hunts. Soon she developed the strength and skill to become a hunt leader, and train youngsters in their ways.
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Fynn, though he had paid a steep bride-price, never forced himself upon her, instead allowing her to choose suitors from beyond the pride. Fynn's blood held a weakness, a sickness that had expressed itself among his early cubs, that he did not wish to cripple his pride with. And so Loveletters wandered far from home, under the supervision of the trinity to find a suitable sire.
Her first cub was a young male, and sickly. The pregnancy had been rough, and she cubbed early, losing one of the young. The remaining cub was dark as herself, but without her glorious rims, and grew slowly. Fynn said nothing, but watched the youngster. He would not be a suitable heir.
Her son eventually grew in strength, and size, but always knew he did not hold a place in the king's heart. So when he was an adol, nearly full-grown with his golden mane coming in in patches and his frame tall but lanky, he left the pride with a group of the other adols, to find their fates elsewhere.
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Her second litter went better.
The was another young slate male, and Love's heart broke to see him. But he had two sisters, both maroon, one with her glorious rims. These cubs were healthier, for precautions had been taken, and they thrived. Loveletters watched them play with the other cubs of the pride, and was content.
The slate son found a place with another pride as a sub male, maybe one day a heir, and the maroon daughter left to join a nearby pride, where she was welcomed for her great beauty. But her final daughter, the one marked by her birthright, stayed within the pride. She was given the name Bohemia, her name chosen by the seer, an echo of her mother's glory.
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Loveletters still lead the hunts most days, taking over the full responsibilities for the pride when the Trinity withdrew, and the hunt mistresses grew old and slow. It was she who taught the wanderers how to hunt as a team, rather than just a sole lionesses, and she who lead the initiation hunts for the youngsters. She was away on one such hunt when a sub male arrived with a prune lioness, a small prune cub trailing behind them. A prune cub who wore her lineage's birthright.
Loveletters demanded Fynn's explanation, why he had brought this impostor into their den, to have her blood's lineage stolen from them. She was no fool. She knew that Fynn hoped for a cub with her grand bloodlines to be his heir, and had watched each of her and her daughter's litters with growing despair. Bohemia had failed to produce a worth heir also, or to pass on the birthright at all. To Love, the young prune was to replace her and her daughter, and give the king the cherished heir, complete with the garish marks that her dam wore with pride.
Fynn would not allow her to chase off the lioness and her cub, quietly informing her that there were lionesses who had considered her too royal and fancy for their humble pride when she first arrived, with her rare pelt and good breeding. Love was forbidden to harm the child, and instead to focus on providing for the pride as best she could. The kingship had never been promised to one of her blood anyway, there were other kings who would sell their sons to be crowned, should it come to that.
So Love fumed, and watched the cub grow.
She was a garish thing, and her mother too. A shambles of bloodlines, nothing defined or refined about her at all. Love disparagingly nicknamed the mother Glitz, a name that stuck like mud to her already spangled form. Love eventually learned via gossip that one of her mother's other cubs had also worn her cream rims, and so was made a king elsewhere. The young cub who so offended her was his offspring, who Fynn had bought at the meeting place, and brought home to question regarding her heritage, and as a fail-safe should Love's bloodline die with her.
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It was not until a year or so after this, when the young cub, now named Sasha was half-grown, that a heir was finally born. Bohemia had a litter of three darling, gorgeous cubs. A maroon like herself, a smokey gray, and a maltese, with regal gray-blue coat. The cubs each bore the grand rims of their ancestry, but also the onyx panther of their father, a king from far away. At first, the three were praised as blessed triplets, until it was discovered that one was in fact male, simply a little smaller than his sisters. And with that an even greater celebration was held, for he was the would-be king.
His name was to be decided upon becoming an adult, as way the tradition of Fynn's birth-pride.
Loveletters bloodline grew strong once more, and more cubs bearing her heritage were born. Josie, by the sire Alekzandr, and a young natural who shared Chia's blood as well.
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But now her bones grow old, and her blood slows. She only has a few years left before she joins the ancients, and has decided to retire from the hunt once her last cubs are born. She wishes to spend a few years simply enjoying the flow of the pride, and counselling her grandson, teaching him his heritage, the name of his great-dam, who was a beast of remarkable talents and beauty, the likes of which were few and far between. She also began work on selecting his coterie, the lionesses closest to him, basing it on skill and blood and birth. A pair of twins, from a different special lioness than their blood, but sharing the same choice markings as the, were to her obvious. Their mother had been chosen for her rarity, and Love had found her to be a true sister and huntress, quite likely to inherit the task of training the young adols when she retired. The others were yet to be decided, but would likely be pride-born, as opposed to outside blood.
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