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Pepper has always been perfectly fine being on her own. It's the reason that she left her old pride as soon as possible. She just wanted to be able to live her life freely, however she pleased.
She quickly learned that being independent, away from the safety of a stable family, was harder than she had imagined. She loved the freedom, yes, but she hadn't thought about the risks that she was taking when leaving the pride. She had many tussles with predators, earning her a multitude of battle scars.
As she grew older she grew wiser. She learned of the nearby territories and which ones to avoid and which ones she could freely hunt on. There was one such territory that she liked to frequent the most. The king was kind and had occasionally shared meals with her. He was always trying to get her to join the rest of his pride, always speaking very highly of them. Pepper had been tempted a few times, but she knew that she may lose out on her freedom if she took him up on his offer.
This changed one night. She was laying down in her favorite resting spot one night, hoping to get a little sleep when she heard them: the cackling of many hyenas coming from all around her. She was immediately on high alert. She rose to her feet and gave out the mightiest roar she could muster. She knew that they had already smelled her here, there was no point in trying to hide, but she could try and scare them away. It didn't seem to work, though.
The was suddenly struck in the side, a hyena had thrown itself on her from the darkness it was hiding in, she fought valiantly, bucking the creature off and stepping on its throat as hard as she could to keep it down. But there were more, dozens more. She fought with every last ounce of her strength, trying to make her way out of the throng of hyenas. She roared in a call for help from anyone. She was in between two territories, maybe there was a hunting party or patrol out.
She was in luck. Out of the corner of her eye she spotted several lionesses, who she later learned to be Ace, Marrow, Snow Sugar, Imperator, and Cumulus, charging towards her. As they reached the battle they threw themselves into it, making swift work of many of the hyenas.
In her amazement Pepper didn't notice a hyena stalking towards her. When it got close enough it sliced a claw through her eye, blinding her right side completely. At this point, enough of the beasts had either run off or been killed and so Pepper ran towards the nearest clearing, stumbling over bodies and rocks.
She collapsed to the ground, exhausted and in pain. She has no clue how long it had been before the noise stopped. The growling of lions and the laughs of the hyenas all disappeared. She couldn't bare to look at anything right now, but she hoped that meant the lions won.
It did. Ace was the one to nudge her torn shoulder and ask if she would like to stay at their den for the night. Unable to do much else Pepper nodded. She tried to get to her feet, but fell into a heap instead. The lionesses did their best to roll Pepper on top of two of them, Imperator and Cumulus, so that they could carry her without issue. It was there she fell asleep.
When she finally came to she could smell herbs all around her. Her eye appeared to have been bandaged as best as possible and her wounds covered in some type of salve. She could only see from her left eye, but she did her best to look around her. She wasn't alone, across from her slept a white lioness who appeared to be slowly waking. The entrance of the den was just to the left of the lioness, Pepper could see the sun rising outside.
After a bit, the white lioness rose and saw that Pepper was awake. She introduced herself self as Snow Sugar and asked how Pepper was feeling. They talked for a bit until a large male lion came into the cave. It was the king with whom she had shared meals with before. He seemed happy to see her awake and as well as she could be given the circumstances. He told her she could stay for as long as she liked while she healed.
And so she did. She grew stronger and Snow Sugar took care of her injuries every day. She met the rest of the pride and became fast friends with Ace. She hadn't realized just how much she missed having community, it had been so long. She learned to live with only one eye. It was a challenge but eventually she was able to join hunting parties once more.
In the end, she grew too attached to their little family. She finally accepted the king's offer to stay. And she lives there now, happy to have a place to belong.
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