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Name meaning: Cold
Name origins: unknown
rank: Alpha Huntress
Lineage: huntress Bahari and Dhaegan
Litters mothered: 2*
Adopted litter 1*: Yamini (M) and Hangaika (f)
Litter "2": Firifiroo (F), Giwa (F), Imfezi (F)
Birth stats: 495
*Baridi adopted her younger siblings Yamini and Hangaika from her aging mother Bahari.
Not long after her mother passed on, the winners of the two prides respective tournaments was to be announced. Young Baridi carefully groomed her now yearling cubs to perfection before meeting at the river that split the prides of the falling leaves and shifting winds.
Queen Sheikh, the sleek albino lioness brought forth her teenage daughter and swept her gaze across the young males before her. "Izvara, we have told you our suggestions, just as we told your sister.." the aging lioness paused as a look of pain swept through her-- the Queen's younger daughter, Utamu had left the pride in rage at not being crowned as heir. "It is up to you to decide your fate and the fate of our pride. The lion you pick today will one day be your mate, just as the lion I chose became my mate and king." She let her eyes slide lovingly to the well built albino male who stood silently off to the side.
Izvara moved forward cleared her throat and spoke "I wish for Sahibu to be my mate. I wish to combined the longest line of our pridesister with our royal line, and take Asali's grandson to be my mate."
While the pride cheered, a blossom of sadness and pain rose in Baridi's chest, had she not pushed her mother to birth these cubs? and for what? to see Yamini leave the pride in disgrace? She moved to console her younger siblings and move them away from the procession when Yamini stopped them
"Mom, there is another royal cub, a son. If we leave now, Hangaika might lose HER chance. So what if I wasn't picked? I will go on and find a lioness who will love me, isn't that enough?" he looked at the only mother he'd ever known with eyes wise beyond their short life.
Baridi nodded, she had no doubts the boy would find love.
Queen Ona swept forward and brought forth a young cub not even in his mane yet. "Like my grandfather before me I shall choose the betrothal for my son. She must be strong and fast and come from a strong lineage just as Jororo did before her." The lioness padded in front of the young girls pausing now and then to appraise them.
After what seemed like an entire dry season she pointed a paw at Hangaika "come forward child, you will be the mate to my son, and my pride's next queen."
Baridi felt both joy and fear when her little girl was chosen. she had assumed, wrongly so that only males would be in this tournament, just as the last one and gotten to hoping her daughter would simply stay with her--the last piece of her mother.
a few weeks later the adopted cubs of Baridi, Daughter of Bahari, left the pride each on their own journeys.
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