|
Goli had never been good at reading others. That was her curse, and yet it was a curse she wore like a skin. She was a lioness of striking beauty, her black coat tinged with deep red at the tips of her fur, like the glow of embers in the twilight. But beauty had never been enough to shield her from the heartbreak she seemed destined to suffer. Every pride she had joined, every lion she had given her trust, had left her broken in some way. They had all taken what they wanted—her affection, her loyalty, her body—and then abandoned her when they no longer found use for her.
She wasn’t stupid, not really. She could sense the lies and the insincerity, but there was something inside her that always believed, always hoped that *this* time, things would be different. Her heart was as open as the plains, wide and vulnerable. She loved too easily, too deeply, and in the end, it was always her that was left behind, like a dry carcass on the savanna, picked clean by vultures.
She had once followed a lion named Kor, a pride leader with eyes like liquid gold. He had promised her that he would never let her go, but when the time came for him to choose between her and a stronger, younger lioness, he had turned his back on her without hesitation. It had nearly broken her. After that, she wandered from pride to pride, searching for something she couldn’t quite name but knew she needed.
When Goli found Aka Manah’s pride, she was a shadow of herself—skeptical of everything, but still, *hoping*. She had been drawn to the pride by something she couldn’t explain. It wasn’t the grandeur or the strength of the lions that attracted her. No, it was something quieter—a feeling in the air, a sense of calm that lingered among the members of the pride. Goli wasn’t the smartest lioness, and that was the truth she couldn’t deny, but she *felt* things. And here, in Aka Manah’s pride, she felt… safe.
At first, she kept her distance, wary of the other lions, especially Raha, the fierce matriarch whose reputation for cruelty preceded her. But it was Aka Manah who spoke to her, who saw her not for her past mistakes but for what she could become. His quiet kindness, his deep understanding of life and death, drew her in like a pull of gravity she could never escape. Where others might have seen weakness in Goli's open heart, Aka Manah saw something different—a lioness with enough love to offer a thousand prides, if only she could learn to trust again.
Goli was not a lioness of many words, and her intelligence was not sharp, but there was something pure about the way she cared. It was simple, and sometimes too much, but it was real. She had learned the hard way that not every lion was worth loving, that sometimes, even the strongest hearts could break. But here, among Aka Manah’s pride, things were different. She learned from him—how to protect the vulnerable parts of herself, how to love without losing herself in the process. And for the first time, Goli understood that love wasn’t just about what others could give to her; it was about what she could give to herself, and to the pride she had found.
She still wasn't the sharpest, and her heart still ached sometimes with the memories of the lions who had used and abandoned her, but now there was something different in her—something more resilient. Aka Manah had shown her that being kind, being vulnerable, was not a weakness, but a strength. And though she would never be the most calculating, the most strategic, or the most powerful, she knew that her place here, in this pride, was earned through the simple, steadfast loyalty she gave.
As Goli lay under the shade of a tree one afternoon, her red and black coat glimmering in the soft light, she felt for the first time in her life that maybe, just maybe, she had found a home that wouldn’t leave her behind. Aka Manah passed by, offering her a quiet nod, and she offered him a small, but genuine smile. It was a smile full of hope, full of the kind of love she had once thought was destined to be her downfall—but here, it was her salvation.
|
