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Keerva x Thixo Tafiti
Birth Stats: 659
4th generation by mother's line
"Secret"
Born to the Queen, Keerva, and to an outside male, Gyfrinach is the very last cub of Keerva. A single cub in her litter, she is extremely precious, but already shows her headlong nature. She is already rushing into things, not thinking about what she is doing. Her mother lets her, knowing that it is often better to learn from experience, so the young princess often has blood matted in her pale fur from the tiny cuts and scrapes that she's gotten herself into.
Now that she is older, young Gyfrinach gets into even more mischief. Her cheeky nature fills the pride with joy, and she is always egging the future king on, getting them both into trouble. She doesn't care for the consequences, instead only trying to make her existence as fun and carefree as she can before her mother dies. Her pranks are played on all the lions except her mother and the king, for even the princess won't cross that particular line. Despite the spoiling she gets, she knows deep down that playing tricks on those two are off limits, and she obeys that without question.
With the passing of her mother, the snake known as Neidr turned to the young teenager, offering support in her time of loss. She accepts it, seeing him as a symbol that her mother was still around, and soon they are inseparable. Because of his close link to the Otherworld, developed with Keerva, he tells her stories, telling her of her mother, and how she is finally content, no longer in pain. She shares these tales with her future mate, the young prince, and together, they find solace in this time of grief, and a strength that will serve them well for the times to come.
Now old enough to hunt, the young lioness is proving her worth. It is clear to all that she has inherited her mother's great skill for hunting, and she has quickly risen to become one of the best. Despite the added responsibility this has given her, she still manages to find time for the cubs of the pride, and to play pranks on the older lionesses. In this, Llwyd is a willing helper. There have been many a time when a pile of elephant poo has fallen on an elder, and the two young royals nowhere to be found.
With Madi growing old, Gyfrinach is feeling more and more responsibility settling on her shoulders. She knows that it is only a matter of months before she had and pride-brother will be ruling, and it is only at night that she allows the fear to surface. Not even Llwyd knows how scared she is.
She is terrified that, somehow, her mother will be disappointed in her, and that she will not be able to live up to the pride's expectations. But to the pride, she is all fun and laughter, never once letting the fear shine in her eyes.
The death of the king was hard on the whole pride. They hadn't been expecting him to go so suddenly. All the previous kings had died in their sleep, and the pride had never considered anything else to happen.
But the unthinkable had happened, and their king had been killed. Not by a rival male, or by prey defending themselves, but by poachers.
She'd taken it upon herself to comfort the pride when Llwyd vanished to grieve on his own, but as the afternoon wore on, she went out searching for him, the battered and stained kingfisher feathers weighing her heart down. They were the sign of the king, used to show that he was of the first king's line, and that the ancestors approved of the choice, but they were no longer as new as they had once looked. But they were all they had.
She found him by a rock outcropping, and her eyes played tricks on her, showing her their king as he had been in his youth, brown and glorious, but then the vision changed, and she realised that it was just her mate, covered in brown dust.
She curled with him, trying to comfort him, and found that the close contact with him helped her own grief. She felt calmer now, more balanced with her own emotions, more able to help out the pride. As they stayed together, she sensed him calm himself, and then something changed between them. The world seemed to tilt before righting again, and something changed deep inside her. Without voicing her thoughts, she knew. She would only ever have his cubs once, and she would only ever have two litters.
It was all she could offer him now. Her loyalty, her love, and her faith in him to do what was right.
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