Daina

Born on November 21st, 2022. <3
Daina sits curled up in her den, cubs nestled against her stomach. They are too young to be named yet, but their personalities are already shining through. For now, though, they are sleeping, so Daina is free to carefully pull herself away and pad out into the world.

The sunlight is fleeting, so she will make her walk quick. The red orange sunset reflects on her fiery pelt as she slinks through the tall savanna grass. One day, some of the cubs will walk alongside her, learning how to be a broodmother as she is. She will teach them well, she thinks. Just as her teacher taught her, and his teacher had taught him before.

Daina already has her eye on one of the little cubs, a small brown one that was less rambunctious than the others. She would make a good apprentice, and one day a good teacher.

But, until that day, Daina walks among the grass, patrolling a familiar path she has walked every day like clockwork. Though her route has never changed, the landscape around it has. The earth has been scorched by blazing fires, then swiftly put out with buckets of rain over the next month. Old trees had fallen, and new trees sprouted in their place.

Daina finally reaches the end of the path; a large rock outcropping looking over the whole territory. She sits at the base of a lone acacia tree, its branches shielding her from the elements as the sun finally begins to dip below the horizon, only a small sliver of it left. And as the stars begin to peak out in the night sky, and the nocturnal animals awaken, Daina sits and thinks.

It is not like the cubs she is caring for will have an easy life. Nor did she, when she was a young cub. But she hopes that like her, the cubs in her care will be able to find solace in a life, even if it wasn’t the one meant for them.

Daina knows that whatever trail they decide to blaze, she will support them no matter what.

The sun has finally set, and Daina knows that the cubs will be waking up soon, ready for her to entertain them somehow. So, she turns her back to the horizon, and goes back the way she came. When she gets back, they will crowd around her and beg for a new story, so as she walks she tries to think of something interesting to tell them.

Tomorrow, she will do the same thing she did today. And she is happy with that.