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Friends with https://www.lioden.com/lion.php?id=794116112677 since childhood.
Floe sat flicking her tail back and forth on the top of a large rock. The sun was nice, but all the adults were lazing about under it, or out hunting. She scanned the group of cubs with her blue eyes dilated and narrowed. It was hard to see who was who and their smells were all mixed together. Their broodmother was stretched out on the ground, sunbathing with her eyes half-lidded and a contented expression on her face.
Floe yawned. She wanted to play with the other cubs, but everyone was already in a big cluster, playing with each other. It didn't seem right to go join in now.
She turned around, hopped off her rock, and padded over to Doe. Doe was the only one not playing with them all. The sandy-colored cub was basking in the sun just like a grown lioness, and seemed intent on showing off her fur. The two looked very different; only their eyes matched, both the same pure shade of blue.
Everyone said Floe was prettier. The other cubs always told Doe how silly she was, and not everyone got along with her. Floe was popular with the whole pride, because she was supposed an exotic, foreign beauty, inducted into the pride and with markings and coloring different from it all. She liked getting along with all the other cubs, but she didn't really like how they fawned over her. Floe had always told Doe she quite liked how the plain cub looked. It was true—precisely because of how normal it was. She looked like any other lioness and she was treated that way. It made her... approachable. Down-to-earth. That was reflected in the way other cubs teased her.
Doe blinked up at the silvery one as she approached. She stretched luxuriously. Her fur was silky and sleek from all the care she took, and she had a pretty face.
Floe bent as if she were stretching, too, only to change it into a crouch. She pounced at Doe and initiated a tussle before her friend could react. Doe wouldn't have agreed to it! But when they started playing, Doe always had fun, despite herself.
This time, Floe managed to pin her down, and—knowing Doe would want to get the dirt out of her fur after all that rough-housing—preemptively started grooming her friend. Doe giggled and rolled over, bending for Floe to lick her forehead and then grooming her back, plucking a bug out of the silver cub's fur. Doe told Floe she looked pretty, too. Floe beamed. They passed some time that way, chatting with each other about anything, before Adali's hunting party finally returned. They were dragging an okapi along with them for all the cubs to feast on, before anyone else. Floe scampered over to their meal with the other cubs, turning back to wait as Doe strolled regally behind her.
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