Born Wednesday, July 24th, 2019. No breeding items were used on her mother or father. The 102nd sirenomelia in Lioden.
Father: Emberstar
Mother: Orangepelt
{ :: Burning Ash :: } crawls around using its front legs only. The merged hind legs don't seem to bother it, and it seems to be able to poop just fine.
Other cubs this age prance around, but { :: Burning Ash :: } just paws at nearby insects, making it a bit of an outcast.
{ :: Burning Ash :: }'s mom is worried for it - it does not seem to grow much lately.
{ :: Burning Ash :: } has trouble digesting and hasn't been eating much in the past few days. It meows quietly from pain.
{ :: Burning Ash :: } passed away due to health complications.
You place the offering at your pridemember's resting place. It arises again and their decaying body turns into a moving, life-like vessel. How incredible it is to interact with them again!
Orangepelt heard the commotion first. Kestrelspots and Graypelt, the lions who had overseen the birth, hustled about and let out shocked gasps. Orangepelt wanted nothing more than to close her eyes and sleep forever, but she tried to crane her head toward her newborn cubs. Graypelt’s smooth pelt blocked her vision. Kestrelspots brow was furrowed in worry. Orangepelt groaned. “What’s...What’s happening?” The shaman shook his head and scooped a small lump into his jaws, padding briskly to his den. Graypelt scooped up the male cub and placed it by Orangepelt’s stomach. No one answered the mother’s anxious questions about the other cub.
A few days later...
Orangepelt was sprawled out in the Broodmother cave, letting her male cub suckle from her belly. She understood she could not keep him, and she had no sense of doubt about having him sent to the reserve. It was the first thing every lioness learned- the only cubs that were kept were for breeding. Graypelt lay next to her, keeping a keen eye on Silverkit, who played with some cubs from the royal court. Hearing a mewl or pain nearby, Orangepelt twisted her head toward her other cub.
Her heart rang out with sadness and guilt. The cub’s back legs were fused together, Kestrelspots had explained. The cub would die before it would ever be able to be trained. Orangepelt shoved down her emotion. The cub would live again after it’s death, thanks to a gift left to the pride by Bast- a Canopic Jellyfish. The orange lioness shook her head. She didn’t want the cub anyway, and neither did Emberstar. The money it brought in would help the pride, and Orangepelt didn’t want the cub around to remind her of her birthing failure.
She sighed. One of her cubs was a defect, the first ever born in the pride. She hoped her shame wasn’t too visible.
A few months later...
Burning Ash sat patiently with Emberstar. The fact that only a couple of hours ago she had been dead didn’t bother her. Nothing seemed to bother the quiet, mysteriously calm cub. Before her death she had been lonely, depressed, in pain. But now a visit to the spiritual side of the universe seemed to have given her a sense of clarity. Her eyes were alit with excitement. A new pride-a new permanent home. She looked up to the massive male leader, who gave her a gentle smile. Smiling back, she squirmed awkwardly into a comfortable position, her back leg sprawled out beside her, and waited, ever patient.
