Heed

Taken in from a distant Pride, Heed is looking forward to her new life. This Pride is smaller than where she came from, but she is okay with that. Most of the lionesses and cubs are very nice, kind, and while there are a couple of them who are rude or snappy, she finds it easy to ignore them. Especially when there are so many new places to explore!

Her first heat was grueling. After she grew into a fine young lioness, she was eager to start a family, to have cubs of her own, but... they tried. And tried. And tried some more. It was beginning to look as though she would never conceive, but after seventy-nine attempts she was finally pregnant! Mchafu groomed her thoroughly and made her a nest of the finest feathers and pelts. She would birth him a litter of wonderful Christmas cubs!

She has recently embraced her motherly instincts, and has taken in a little Albino hedgehog that she's named Mister Prickles. She found him curled up beneath a bush, trying In vain to hide from a circling hawk. She roared at the avian bully and took the spiky ball home with her, keeping him safely tucked away in her den. She has also taken in a pair of rock doves named Jock and Gigi, who had flown into the wrong climate and ended up stranded in the harsh cold.

Her second try at cubs took much more effort than the first, and King Mchafu enlisted the help of a neighboring male, King Imin. After two hundred and thirty tries, she was finally pregnant once more! She looked forward to another litter, especially after all the "work" it had taken to make them...

Over three hundred tries... her last heat was grueling, and the one before it she hadn't even conceived. She was worried she wouldn't this time, either, but at last she was pregnant. Somehow, this time felt different. Special. She fidgeted for days, finding the perfect corner of her cave, the perfect materials for her nest. The birth was a long one. The month before, a prized member of the Pride had birthed a white cub with eyes pink as the sunset, a mutant, and the whole Pride had congratulated her. She looked proud, yet disappointed that it hadn't been something truly special like Ukungu's fur or Mara's tails. Heed had been confused by this. Shouldn't she see all her cubs as special? As she gave a final push, her eyes flew open wide. Unlike the first two greyish bundles she had birthed, this one was jet black. His toes, his claws, his nose... everything. She marveled at his pelt, and when the other females came to see him, she hid her whole litter behind her paws and snarled. This little male was special, too special for their judgemental eyes. She would show only the king, only Mchafu!

Seeing the pitch black bundle, Mchafu allowed a look of awe to enter his eyes. This male was perfect. Special. Unique. More than that, he was obviously intelligent and brave. Mchafu declared the new male his heir, a Prince, and dubbed Heed the new Young Queen of the Pride!

When Mchafu passed, and her son changed his name, Heed watched as the Pride began to change as well. The kindhearted lions she had known were replaced with cruel females who used claws instead of words to sort things out, and a shadow stretched over her once happy home. But, Kaldr-Sverđ was still her son, and she still loved him with all her heart. More than that, he still loved her, and any lioness who dared challenge her authority as a Queen of the Pride faced his infinite wrath...