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Marmalade purred softly, nuzzling her new female cub. A new cub, so small, so fragile. Her mind swarmed with the worries any mother would face, thinking about the future of the new approaching dawn. Her daughter's ebony eyes looked up at her and the smile on her face, made her mother smile as well.
It was bright as the approaching dawn. Just as the dawn approached, so did her cub. She shuffled to her little paws, stumbling at first but quickly scrambling to her mother's side, kneading her belly for milk and love which she received with no hesitation as Marmalade rolled to the side a bit and licked her cub as she suckled. Her cub, not even a few hours old, had walked so quickly!
Her heart warmed as she watched the new dawn. She knew the name of her cub, even if she couldn't understand it now, she would one day.
"Aurora." The name was set in stone and plastered onto the cub so quickly, it was like the honey drizzling from the hive.
And it fit her personality and coat ever so nicely.
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Aurora said nothing as the dawn rose above the Savannah horizon. It shined on her mother, who was old and feeble now. She watched at the sun engulfed her mother's body and her heart broke when she heard a final gasp from her mother's lips.
She leaned her head down, staying silent as sobs broke out like bees from a hive, intending on taking their honey back.
She was alone now, all alone in her adolescence. She was awful at making friends with the other lionesses and now she was alone in a pride she felt like she didn't belong. She looked up at the growing sun, it matching her coat nicely.
It was a new beginning, she decided. Just like the dawn.
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Aurora, now fully grown, looked out on the top of her den, an old village home. It was a little big but she had fought a lot of lionesses to get this den. She watched the growing sun, sighing peacefully.
She had grown strong and well-liked by the other lionesses. She brought the pride the big food and trained under the careful eye of the head huntress and Queen, Arrosa. Together, they trained the younger, newer huntresses and Aurora took the command of second-in-command as Lead Huntress as Arrosa was getting older.
Her personality had suffered drastically, going from the weak, shy, and quiet little lioness to a strong, energetic, good-natured, neighborly lioness. She was happy with her life in the pride. Though she missed her mother, she knew that among the stars, her mother watched over her.
She looked up at the fading night sky, seeing the fading twinkling lights of the fading silver pelt. A bright, glimmering star shined brightly before it disappeared, as if it had twinkled "Good morning and goodbye."
Aurora smiled and looked down at her cubs. She knew they would be a very big handful. But she would love them all the same.
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