☆°•Cherry•°☆

☆°•Cherry•°☆ didn't remember a time when she mortal. At least not well. She remembered pain. She remembered a faint scent wrapping around her like a warm blanket before her eyes even opened. Even when her fur was damp and sticky, that scent had been her comfort. But she didn't know the lioness it belonged to. She knew the scent faded as quickly as she came to recognize it at somewhere she should have been safe. Somewhere she should have been taken care of but there was no warmth of love returned from the scent. Even when she tried to follow it and mewed softly in pain and fear. That scent never replied.

A different one did. She felt the padding of paws coming toward her before teeth found her scruff and she was lifted. She couldn't hear words yet. But felt the gentle rumble as she was lowered to the earth once more against warm fur and her own was tenderly cleaned. She was fed. She was held. And ☆°•Cherry•°☆ had curled into the new scent as if it was the one that brought her into this world. When lavender eyes slowly opened to greet the world for the first time, she met glowing preon dripping with the very stars themselves. The eyes of Kaguya. The heavenly queen who took her in as her own daughter and cooed so warmly when ☆°•Cherry•°☆ took her first look around.

The other cubs avoided her for a while, though. Once she had the strength to try to play, the extra legs that she'd been born with got in the way. Moving them hurt. They tried to go in opposite directions and it was...it was easier on her body to just...sit. To watch the others as they played. But Kaguya would always come to her. Trotted around her so slowly so she could keep up and bat at her tail, giggling as happily as any little cub. Sometimes Kaguya would pick her up and carry her through the lands so she could explore just like any other young one. Reminding her that even though she was different...she mattered. She was loved. She was cherished.

Then Kaguya gave her the greatest of gifts. She took away the pain. ☆°•Cherry•°☆ was raised to immortality before her body could begin giving out. Granted a life forever by the side of the lioness she came to call her mother, she was given another gift. She became the protege of the queen. Not just a cub. Not just a child. She learned from her personally. And those lessons shaped her to her very core. The kindness and mercy she was given she showed to others who crossed her path. The gentle play gave her an optimism that was difficult to shake. No matter what came her way, ☆°•Cherry•°☆ knew she would be ok. She could thrive. She could live...

And she owed it all to her true mother.

She owed it all to Kaguya.

(Lore by Jasmine - G2 Heavenly Splash #416498)