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honeymead leads her pride with a pragmatic eye. she has no honorific title, but is instead adorned with fine, gilded jewelry that glints in the relentless desert sun, so out of place in the barren land that one can only come to the assumption that the feline they stand before must have either inherited or fought for some otherwise unseen fortune. in honey's case, it's the latter.
the lionesses with honey and her primary partner, saoirse, enjoy a life completely isolated in the most remote depths of their desert. the rolling dunes are harsh, but its inhabitants are harsher, and well-adapted to the environment. a surprising abundance is found within the pride provided by its skilled huntresses, and honey is a ruthless enough barterer to secure enough universal currency to provide them with other necessities. cub births are rarer than visitors, and though neither are particularly discouraged, neither tend to stick around for very long. cubs aren't named until their first year, at which point they're either escorted to the borders or given a formal acceptance to the cooperative. relations are shared between all of the lionesses at will and without much discretion for monogamy, though separated somewhat by generation-- the older generation functions as a collective of partners, both romantic and platonic, helping to raise any younger cubs born to all members without much attention given to formal parental rights.
honey herself is well respected within her pride. she's seen as more or less a force of nature, alluring and powerful both physically and emotionally. she is well aware that her entire ruling force comes through earned loyalty, and any bloodshed that is deemed unjust or unnecessary will just as easily be turned back on her. she permits no unrelated male lions within the borders (though doesn't particularly care what happens if one of her lionesses happens to wander off for a few days), seeing them as precisely the kind of unpredictable that could threaten the balance of her reign-- where saoirse balances honey's efficient sensibility with gentle compassion, meyra executes it without hesitation, particularly where it comes to driving out intruders.
beyond her leadership duties, honeymead drops the aloof and cold demeanor while among her lionesses. she's fiercely protective, holding the voice of her pride as equal to her own. saoirse somewhat makes up for her almost-absent sense of dry humor, but honey is still seen as a fundamentally kind, attentive authority who has far more than earned the respect she commands.
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