Asteria

You enter a cave filled with lioness, they look better cared for than the main pride. Each one is either expecting, or already raising up their young.

A lioness with markings you've never seen before approaches and introduces herself as Asteria, the mate and queen of the new king. Ah, that's right. Misfortune passed on their rule to their estranged son after getting bored of the earlier king's females and daughters. She's different than the other lionesses in the main pride. She isn't emaciated or watched intently by hyenas, infact, you hadn't seen a single one near this cave. It's almost like they avoid it.

Asteria smiles and introduces you to everyone, while filling you in on this caves way of life. All these lionesses have been deemed of higher status than those of the main pride, many were either bought from other prides by the former king, or raised up by them. You ask which one she is and she simply laughs and says neither. "I was actually a shamans apprentice not too long ago. My master had abandoned on the brink of death after he had been lost in a trance. I guess when he came out of it he must have thought I left because it was too much. When Perses found me. He did not speak much, still doesn't. But he took me in and had his funny little hyena heal me, and I felt indebted to them. So here I stayed."
You listen curiously to her story before you ask if being queen was part of why she stayed. "Oh no- that wasn't even a factor until recently- I w-well I suppose the reason I stayed led to that." She seemed suddenly bashful. Oh, you get it now. How odd such a soft spoken and kind lioness fell for the son of a murderer. But I guess you can't judge.

You spend a little longer playing with the cubs before leaving, Asteria nearly trips bringing you a gift of meats wrapped in Leaves. You've never tried what she calls "Smoke Meat" before, but she seems happy to have you take it with her. It looks like prey that ran through fire.

Sometime later you spot Asteria chasing around Hyena pups. She seems to have her hands full as they nip and tug at her tail, fleeing before she can grab them. You come to help thinking they are harassing her before she stops you. You didn't even get to growl at the little mutts! She fixed you in a piercing glare before her looks softened turning to the puos. "These children are innocent of their parents crimes. Even they are cast away by their parents, I dont know if its for their own survival, or the parents in this famine." She looks at you making sure you won't budge before letting the pups come investigate and sniff you. "Maybe if I raise these little ones along with the prides own.. they will have a brighter future than being mindless kill drones that Misfortune manipulated their kin to be.." She seemed hopeful. You tell her it might still be dangerous. She doesn't hear you and begins to groom one of the more energetic pups who squealed and squirmed trying to get back to playing. You gently bap one on its head making it roll over exposing its belly. I guess it's kind of cute.

It had been a while since you last visited the pride, once again it is ruled by a new king. Asteria sadly bows her head to you and says she is still in mourning, she had hoped she would give Perses a heir but instead passed down a single female cub before he passed. She mentions she doesn't mind the new king as he is kind and allows her to keep her status among the other lionesses and doesn't force any of the lionesses to be his, but she still misses her love. You spend some time comforting her as she tells you stories about the former king. You remember how odd he was, but this pride had never had a normal leader other than the first. Maybe things will change?