Heavenly 𝖊𝖑𝖞𝖘𝖎𝖆𝖓

It takes time...to be remade. To be rebirthed from the nothingness and yet unending expansion of space. She was but a cub when she was led to the portal. She was told she would see new lands. New experiences that lions could only dream of. That she would do so much for her pride if she stepped through.

She wasn't told that step would steal her soul.

Lost to the nothingness, Elysian ceased to exist. Her body was taken by the stars. Cradled by the wings of dragons she should have been able to see. Cradled and encased until plasma streams and starbursts could awake the long silent heart. Eyes opened slowly. Once filled with life and color they were now as white and glowing as the stars around her. Fur was darkened by cosmic dust, or forever marked in white from the shell they had made. Novas spread across her in cloudburst webs.

She stood tall, her roar echoing among the celestial beings that saved her. Her soul...was returned but her body had grown. And she was given a choice. Remain here in the realm of stars, guiding the whispers to their rest. Or return to the pride that sacrificed her and do with them as she pleased. Elysian stood silent, the very portal that swept her away opening before her. She had debated staying. Why return to a pride that deemed her worth nothing more than death?

And then a cub...no older than she had been...prepared to step through as a hungry Interstellar Drakontos approached slowly. Watching. Waiting...and she moved without thought. She grabbed the cub by the scruff and stepped through the portal, setting the young one down gently.

"Where is Rig? Where is the King?"

She snarled, claws digging into the earth. Earth...how long had it been since she had felt the dirt. The grass. The wind...

"Rig lies in the stars, as he had for generations."

A lioness nearby answered, and turned towards her.

"Then who reigns now?"

"Zeus..."

"Bring him to me."

Lions scattered, the cub curled up beneath her paws in fear. She lowered her muzzle gently, grooming her fur and nuzzling against the cub until a Primal lion approached her. Though he was taller, she held no fear.

"Who are you? Why did you stop her from entering the celestial lands?"

"Because for most, the portal brings death. You would have seen her devoured by a being even the wyverns do not challenge."

She spoke softly. Calm. A breeze from the heavens.

"And how would you know?"

"I know, for I was one sent through. Rig would have known me as just a cub. He told me I would do my pride great service. I passed before I even saw the galaxy before me...but I have been reborn. Remade. I have been called many names but I am Elysian, Goddess of the Sky and daughter of the stars. And no more shall die to the greed of kings."

Zeus was dethroned, struck in a flurry of light and wind before he could react. And so the pride came under her reign. Never truly solid but never ethereal, she leads her lions with gentle love. But those who wished them harm were met with the fury and rage of the dragons that rebuilt her. No more cubs sacrificed to the nothingness. No lions left without aid. Elysian became their everlasting guardian for generations to come."