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The large male is surrounded by brightly and oddly colored cubs, playing, eating, napping, wrestling with his long tail. He seems unbothered, fast asleep, paws twitching lightly as he dreams. What a laid back guy!
Lion pride lore:
A large male lion sits before a warm fire, his pride spread out around him. The fire crackles, reflecting in his unusual yellow eyes with thin and sharp pupils, and the chattering of cubs dies down to a natural hush.
"Long ago...." He begins, watching lionesses settle cubs into their warm sides as their little faces, slightly different in shape and form of typical lions of the savanna, look up at him shining with interest. "A mighty being fell from the sky."
"It was a strange animal, three times as big as the ancient Barbary lions, with a long body covered in sharp, shiny scales, long dark claws, wickedly sharp teeth and fierce looking, unnaturally yellow eyes." Several sets of brightly, unnaturally yellow colored eyes stared at him avidly as he begins the tale of the origin of their clan.
"It fell from the sky during a raging monsoon that left whole forests uprooted, deserts flooded, and animals dead or missing by the hundreds. The ancient clan of Barbary lions, our ancestors, huddled together in a cave near the top of a forested hill, shivering with fear and cold as the storm roared around them louder than the sound one thousand lions could make even if they all roared together."
"I could roar louder than that all by myself!" Boasted one of his sons by his mother's side, and was swiftly hushed by her and the other cubs.
"It was one of the cubs who saw it first." He continued in a hush, so the cubs had to lean forward to hear him. "A dark form, twisting against the sky, amongst the wind and darkened clouds, it's silhouette lit up by the fierce and bright flashes of lightning, only to be lost again as sheets of rain thicker than the boaob tree fell to the ground and the wind bent the forest back and forth as violently as a stork with lively Mongoose in its beak."
"Soon the others saw it too as the sinewy form became larger and larger as the wind whipped it in the direction of the hill on top of which they were sheltered, it's battered and broken wings useless against the onslaught of the storm, until with a SLAM scarcely hear above the howling winds, it landed against the soaked and muddied ground below them....... seemingly dead."
The adolescents shuffled impatiently in the light of the fire, having heard this story before, countless times, but always eager to hear it again and again.
"'It's alive!' One of the lionesses said, and they all watched as the being began to slowly twitch, one arm weakly reaching up to grip at the muddied grass and soil. But the unrelenting rain had made the ground soft and shifting, even the many roots of the grasslands could not hold onto the mud the ground had become, and upon its landing the being had further loosened the soil, which now began to slide down the hill in great piles. The being tried to find purchase, and that was when, at the bottom of the hill, the flood came."
He paused for dramatic effect, noticing that many of the cubs were holding their breath.
"Far upstream, across the plains, the raging waters of the river broke through a Cliffside and surged over and around, flooding the nearby forest, rooting animals out of their homes and scaring the monkeys into clinging desperately to the trees. It made its way down the plains, first a wave, then a torrent, finally a flood of dirt and trees, dead animals and debris, until it reached the bottom of the hill and continued eventually to the desert. If anyone were to fall into it, they would be swept away and drowned, or battered against logs and rocks. This...... was going to be the strange beings fate, as the lions watched from the cave above."
Like all stories, this one was meant to have many lessons, and introduce the cubs to the harsh side of nature, to the inevitability and sometimes suddeness of death.
"Did the lions save it?" Said a small voice, the same cub from before, trembling with fear. This time no one shushed him, eager to hear the answer.
"Of course they did, dear." Said his mother, giving him a reassuring lick on the forehead, while she, and a few other lionesses, eyeballed him with slight exasperation. He was a good story teller, but with a bit of a flair for the dramatic, and a few cubs were definitely going to have nightmares for the next few days.
The King let out a soft chuff, and shook his large mane to ease some of the tension amongst the young ones. "Yes of course they saved it, before half the hill slid into the water, before it could be swept away, the strongest members of the pride surged out of the cave, into the storm, and grabbed the being up by its long arms, by the long beard of fur on its face, anywhere that teeth and claws could reach, and with their help its long limbs finally found purchase, and they helped it limp up the hill to where they were sheltered, where it collapsed as soon as it was safe and fell into a deep slumber."
The cubs sighed almost as one, and the King continued his story.
"It rained for two more days and one more night, and only on the third day did the rains subside to a trickle, the water began to receed, and it was safe to venture out of the cave. But the lands were much changed by the great storm, and the strange being slept on without waking for fourteen more days and nights. The pride tended to its wounds the best they could, and groomed the mud and sticks out of its strange, short fur. The lions, meanwhile, enjoyed the plentiful corpses of prey, eating their fill of drowned Antelope, fish stranded in puddles, and frogs by the pawfull until their stomachs were as round as a bush pig's. The monsoon brought tragedy, but also great boons of food and water for the survivors. Grass and trees grew where there had only been sand, and new rivers formed bringing food and water deep down into the dry plains and former desert."
"The being from the sky woke surrounded by playing cubs, whose excited chatter brought the lionesses and the King to stand before it. It had survived the great storm, but it's wings and one of its limbs was beyond repair. 'Do you speak?' Asked the mighty King, as the lionesses ushered the curious cubs to safety. But the being was wracked with pain, it's throat parched from thirst, and it was not of this plane, so it could not speak the language of the Savannah. Even after it was provided with water and food, it could not communicate with the lion pride, instead trying to speak to them in its own language, haunting tones filled with sadness and longing."
"Days passed, and then weeks. The being healed, unable to fly with only nubs where it wings had been,, or use its hind leg, but still able to stalk and strike prey, and watch the cubs with fond amusement as they played in its long back fur and rolled in its coarse facial whiskers. Every once in a while it would look up with longing at the sky, beyond which it's own world and people existed, where it would never see again. Time passed, as it does, and as lions were born and died, as the King grew old and his Son took his place, strange things began to happen to the new cubs that were born to the pride. Some were born with striking slitted eyes, or long furred whiskers, or thick tails with bony spikes, or even patches of scales on their limbs and faces. The being, who had learned the language of the savannah and could now speak, explained their understanding of the origin of these strange features.
'I am a Dragon.' They said, their voice ringing out melodocally with both high and low tones overlapping. 'A being of magic, neither male nor female, long lived, from a far off place between here and starlight. You have saved me, brought me into your pride, and my magic recognizes you as mine, as family. Undoubtedly the presence of magic, unusual to this world, has influenced you and your children in the physical sense. You are becoming me in ways, as I have become one of you.'
And so the dragon continued to live amongst them for many seasons, as their species was a long lived one, and their magic continued to influence our pride long after it had passed and was laid to rest in the ancient cave where the pride and Dragon first met. To this day the magic of the dragon is within us, it makes our senses sharper, gives us our unique looks and skills beyond which a normal lion is capable of.....but we must always remember the origins of our gifts were from love and kindness, and not abuse them to take advantage of others, lest the blessing of the Dragon leaves us."
The pride was silent as he finished his story, the children sleepy but contemplative. While most of the children had unusual features such as draconid eyes, long facial hair, scaled skin, or feathered tails, most of the lionesses had plainer, typical lion features, as they had come from outside of the pride. The dragon like lions of this pride had spread across the vast plains in the centuries since the dragon had fallen from the sky, and his was only one pride of many who were descendents of that ancient clan. Traditionally, the one who most embodied the spirit of the Dragon became pride Leaders, whether that meant physically or otherwise. His very brother was the King of the pride in the lands adjacent, though only his spirit resembled that of the stories of ancient dragons. He himself had inherited his mother's draconid eyes, thick tail, extended ears, and horned features.
"Alright children, it is time for bed." He declared, to much sleepy protesting and whining. Eventually everyone settled together to sleep for the night...... though he ended up with a pile of cubs later that night when they woke up from nightmares of being washed away in floods and their mothers dropped them off by him for soothing so they could get some sleep. He accepted them without protest......... he deserved it.
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