Sunflower
Sunflower could either be the luckiest or unluckiest lioness on the Savannah.
Born the runt of the litter, she was always fighting her sister and three brothers to be able to nurse. However, this saved her when her mother got deathly ill and infected two of her brothers. All three sick lions died within a week.
The wet season that followed was a dry one. Numbers of large herbivores dwindled, and Sunflower's pride grew increasingly more desperate. Infighting became the norm. It was every lioness and her cubs for themselves. Sunflower only survived because of her prodigy siblings feeding her. Eventually, though, they too grew desperate and tired of their weaker sister being unable to help. After a particularly bad hunt where Sunflower pounced too late and lost the prey, the two had had enough. They took turns fighting their frail sister, who had no chance of fighting back. The moment she had the chance, Sunflower bolted and didn't stop until she collapsed.
She was exhausted, covered in blood, heartbroken, and excruciatingly alone.
As the months passed, Sunflower taught herself to live alone. She learned healing from Wild Dogs, hunting from a kindly leopard, and fighting from the various lone lionesses she passed by. She was still weak, but she was surviving. Eventually she returned to where she had been shunned. To her horror, she was greeted with not smiles, not indifference, not even growls. There was only ash, skeletons, and the stench of terror and death. A fire, no doubt caused by humans, had ravaged the dens and killed everything. Sunflower felt as if she had died too.
For years, Sunflower was wilted. She felt nothing, loved nothing, just did what she needed to do to survive. Then she met Rambai, a kindly looking red King with a sandy mane. He brought her to his meager pride and offered her a home. Months later, he even offered a family. Sunflower was blessed with a daughter during her fifth wet season. In honor of her mother, she named her Nasai.
Now, Sunflower works every day so that no cub- nor lion- in her new pride will feel the pain she has felt.
