(Breed to Buttercream, Buttermilk or Arabica for a chance at Arabica)
Isla was born along with her twin on the same day, but different hours. While her sister came out when the moon was at it's highest, she instead took her time to see the sunrise, with the first rays of sunlight touching her and, apparently, giving her the distinctive marks on her face and back.
Everyone in the pride always talked about two things: the similar appearance she had to her mother, Tesis, and the absolute contrast her twin, Noche, had with them both. She would always keep in her memory the eternal disputes and fights caused by the year-round speculation that Noche wasn't of their same blood, but a cub that had been either abandoned at the tree or to their luck and that Tesis had rescued and claimed to be hers; no one would ever understand the struggle that she had to give birth to her.
Growing up, however, they didn't care about those acussations. They only needed each other's company, and other cub pride members didn't seem to care either, which made them pay less attention to the whole problem; still, the twins were constantly getting in trouble by going to forbidden places, such as the wastelands, the savannah or the arid dessert; Karion's scoldings were awful, but their mother's were even worse. That never made the stop anyways.
By her teens, things changed progressively. This time only Isla would be invited to hang out with the others or to go hunting, while her sister was always either ignored or belittled; at the beginning Isla tried to brush off the guilt and would leave her twin with their mom, but as time passed by, her heart got heavier and heavier to the point where it had become unbearable. She stopped attending the adolescent's reunions as well as evading them, knowing well that her status had been lost and she was no better than a common, weak beetle. She endured it still.
Being that neither of them were invited to hunting with the grown-ups, their mother encouraged them to look for another ways to train. This lead to them sneaking in the middle of the night to track gazelle herds and hopefully catch one while asleep, which they'd leave in the pile of food so no one would notice; that, however, saw it's end when a tragedy occured on one of those nights.
As always, Isla and Noche left the minors cave to go take their "training session". It didn't took them long to find a herd of zebras already knocked down by sleep, but they were insecure at first as if it was a good idea or not; they had never tried hunting anything that wasn't a gazelle or a duiker. Noche didn't trust they would be fast or strong enough to even catch one, but Isla wanted to prove the others wrong, and reassured her sibling that everything would go just right; the first few moments were exciting to say the least, full of adrenaline after they had woken up the whole herd; a few kicks came in and some claws were given in return, until they were able to take a foal out of the group and get him down. Even when it wasn't that impressive for an adult lioness, it sure was an achievement for a teen.
They were just returning home with the pieces of their prize when a loner lioness faced them, clearly hit by hunger and her eyes dripping with desire. She didn't even hold back a minute before launching to them, ready to fight for the fresh meat, and being that they were still slim and with little muscle, the twins had to use all their strenght to defend each other from the experienced adult.
Not only did they went home with empty claws, but also full of scratches and scars that would probably never disappear; the most injured resulted to be Isla, with a neck bloody scratch that had already tinted her fur of red. Being that it took them a good amount of time to get back to the cave, when they did the sun had been up for more than an hour; everyone saw them at the distance and immediately went to bring them in, as well as sending a messenger to the King; he had to know.
Isla doesn't remembers much to this day, but she does know part of the story from what others told her. Rey, the cave's assigned sub-male, and Noche, her twin, were strongly blamed for the bad shape she had returned in, and while Rey was given a second chance for not having incidents like this in his record, Noche was chased off due to the public dislike to her and the King's fury for putting at risk their wellbeing. Isla wanted to explain everything once she gained full consciusness again, yet was interrupted by the submale in charge of her and told not to risk it.
"Nothing you say is going to make him change his decision. Your sister's gone for good, and he won't put energy into finding her even if the mistake was yours; in fact, that'll only make him chase you too. Your mother won't be able to take another heartbreak, so think it through."
The impotency of having caused Noche's exile consummed her entirely, forcing her to go mute and rarely appear in front of others. No one cared to ask though; they just assumed she was traumatised by that day. Because of so, Isla became severely isolated to the point where her mom would have to ask pride member's if she had moved from her spot at all; her guilt wouldn't allow her to live normally, and to this day, she still tends to wander off by herself or reclude at the bottom of The Hive.
Given her poor condition and unwillingness to participate in any activity at all, she was assigned the task to keep track of all the crafting items they had, while she prepared to take Tesis's position as the pride recorder. Everyone hopes that once she has cubs she'll get the peace she needs to "be normal", but Isla isn't as optimistic as them. She knows that her sister's memory would haunt her eternally, even when the day came and she'd lay on her deathbed.
â You want to tell a pride mate that they need to correct their behavior, but you couldn't find the words and you felt bad. So, you approach đđŧđĩđĒ and ask her to do it for you. She laughs at your ineptitude, but agrees. You can trust her to say what needs to be said.â (31/08/2024)
â As you walk by, đđŧđĩđĒ refuses to look at you! She must be angry about something you did before.. â (17/10/2024)
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