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You're doing one of your daily walks when you hear the flapping of wings over your head. Thinking it might be a huge bird and therefore a huge meal, you leap in the air with your claws ready for the deed, not expecting to see:
If you see the cub:
A winged lion cub! You don't think you've ever see one before, much less a smilus winged lion cub.
Stunned mid-jump, there's no time to stop your paws from grabbing the poor thing and bringing you both to the ground with a brute thud. Ouch!
Scared and worried, you quickly turn to look at the youngling in your arms. Thankfully he seems fine, just as stunned as you.
Not really sure of what to do, you try to soothe him, but as soon as you move, the cub screeches. It's a mixture of the typical cub cry and a dying owl that makes your ears hurt.
You try to quiet him down before the parent comes around, but the cub climbs over you with his sharp little claws and flies back into the air, disappearing behind the closest clouds.
Now, scratched and more confused than before, you wonder if this all was just a weird dream.
If you see the adolescent:
An adolescent winged lion! Surprised with the peculiar encounter, you almost forget you're in the middle of the jump, a few meters from the ground, with no time to change your colliding route with the young lion.
Despite his desperate flaps to avoid the impact, the adolescent clumsily crashes into you, and together, you hit the ground ahead, rolling over each other before finally stopping and making a huge dust cloud on your way.
The lion quickly gets up and away from you, not forgetting to slap your nose a few times and blaming you for jumping on him before doing so. You think that maybe if he can fly, he should fly higher to avoid this kind of trouble.
Not interested in your comments, the young winged lion growls at you, it's not like an adult lion's growl, and it has some notes of screeching owl in it which makes you hold back a laugh.
Only now you notice he's also a primal, what a find! You clean the dust off your fur and decide to tell your pride mates about this peculiar encounter, but, as you turn, the winged primal jumps on your head and use it to get momentum to go back in the sky.
You watch him go with a headache and the doubt if this was all real after all.
If you see the adult:
A winged lion?!
He seems just as surprised, and, as your eyes meet you almost forgot you are in the middle of the air.
It all happens in a fraction of a second. To avoid the fall, the strange lion stretches his strong arms and crashes into your open paws, which were expecting an easy prey, to get a strong hold of you.
For a moment you feel what's like to be flying and wonder how amazing would it be to have your own set of wings, but the lion is not so interested in carrying your weight around and drops you when he has his flying rhythm re-established.
It's a brusque fall, but you manage to make in on your feet. The lion lands on a rock with an annoyed expression.
He looks at his landing spot and then at you and growls. He has the clicking sound of an angry owl in his voice. It makes your fur bristle.
"This could've killed one of us if we hit this head first."
He warns. It's true, you should be more careful. But in your defence. You didn't think flying lions were real.
Now back in the ground and more calm, you notice he's not only a winged lion, but a smilus too, or maybe you got attacked by a huge bird, hit your head pretty badly, and is now seeing things.
You wanted to ask some questions, but the stranger is not as friendly as you expected, despite saving you from your not-so-clever decisions. He's more interested in getting your fur off his coat before fully opening his wings and, with one strong flexion, shooting through the skies and disappearing behind the clouds.
You sit there watching with amazement and confusion, wondering if you'll ever meet again.
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