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As a cub, Saber was never really happy. His father hated him and his mother constantly fought with his father to try to get him to accept Saber. Finally, one day, when he was only a year old, his mother came to him, looking scared. "Saber," she said in a frantic voice. "Your father is sending lions to kill you tonight. You have to run away." "But Mama," Saber said in a voice that was equally frantic. "What about you?" His mother was looking more scared every second. "I'll be fine," she said. "Just go! I'll come and find you someday! You know how to hunt for yourself, so you should be able to survive without me. Run! Run and never look back!" And that's what Saber did. He was running for a full six hours when he finally ran out of breath. He was covered in dirt all over, for he had fallen over a number of times. "I have to be far enough by now," he said. He tried to relax, but he just couldn't. He was so worried about his mother. "Mama is strong," he told himself. "She can take care of herself. But now I have to take care of ME." A year passed. "I should be strong enough to defeat my dad by now," he said. "Now I can go get mom out of there. He ran back to his old home, and as he got closer, he started to hear a commotion. He crouched down into the bushes and looked. He held back a gasp when he saw his father standing atop his mother's dead body. "I'm too late," he whispered to himself. "Now Mom is dead." Struck with grief, he left, feeling more guilty then he had ever felt in his life. Then, one day, far away from his old home, he heard a scream. He crept closer and saw two male lions ganging up on a lioness who looked about his age. "What're ya doin' on our territory, sweetheart?" The first one said. "I wasn't doing anything!" The lioness said. "I was just passing through!" The second lion scoffed. "Whether you were just passing through or not," he said, malice in his eyes. "Anyone who enters our territory without our permission dies!" After a few seconds, he realized his legs were moving. After he was sure that both lions would be able to see him, he let out a roar. Both lions turned their heads toward him. "Who are you?" The first lion said. "We're busy here!" Saber was angry now. They were going to kill a young lioness just for passing through! "You won't kill that lioness!" He said, baring his fangs. He lept at the first lion, knocking him over. While he was stunned from that, he whirled around and charged at the second lion, knocking him into a tree. He slumped to the ground, out cold. "Behind you!" Saber heard the lioness scream. He whirled around again, not quite in time to avoid the first lion's attack, and he ended up with gashes in his left side. Saber screamed in pain and gave the first lion a hard smack on the side of his head, knocking him out as well. "You okay?" Saber said after a silence that seemed like forever. "Yeah," she said. "Thank you. I owe you my life." Saber smiled. "Don't mention it," he said. "We should leave before they wake up. By the way, what's your name? My name is Saber." The lioness smiled back at him. "I'm Amia," she said. "You're right. Let's go." After some walking, the two lions stopped. "Hey, Saber?" Amia said. "Are you, uh, part of a pride?" Saber turned toward her. "No. I left my pride a year ago." Amia's expression brightened. "So did I!" She said enthusiatically. "So, um, I was wondering..." "Do you want to start a pride with me?" They said at the same time. Looked each other in the eye and smiled. "Yes, of course!" The said, once again, in unison. And that's how Saber's pride started.
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