**** TIRAMISU ***

Tiramisu was once known as Fright, daughter of Dread, a fine, dark king- whose intricate, midnight coat, adorned with small crescents, brought the pride much wealth and influence. His lionesses were daughters of great kings, and no less than a hundred cubs at a time, thiers and those purchased for great sums of beetles, at any time, lived within the territory. She cannot remember which of the many lionesses was her mother exactly; they mothered hastily, eager to return to the lives of languish they usually enjoyed. Once weaned, the cubs were shoved together in a cave of their own, watched over by their elder siblings- who had even less interest in them.

You have two choices, as a cub in the Dread pride; become one of the many, wandering and exploring, feral in the safe cub’s haven of the surrounding forests, or become a leader; to organize your own gang of cubs, and lead the most extraordinary adventures; to eat the best of the scraps the adolescents distribute, and hoard the best treasures you find. Fright made her choice quickly, and through ruthless cub-wrestling and a false facade of importance.

Close by her side was always her sister, just a month younger than her, Xena , smaller than her many siblings, and always frightened the moment a fight began. At night she would pine for her mother, and she could never push through and get enough to eat. Fright became her protector, comforting her, sharing her every meal, and trying to teach her to enjoy their freedoms, not fear the entire world outside their cramped cave.

Then, one bright morning, with a day of great adventure planned, the submales came and picked her and several other cubs from the muddle and carried them, squealing and clawing, from their home. They travelled over the boundary, and through the vast desert beyond. They stopped every so often and met a lioness, or fellow submale, exchanged beetles, and handed over a cub. Fright ached for Xena, for her little gang of cubs, for the trees they climbed and rivers they swam in.

They came to a stop in front of a mean-faced, elderly lioness, with a crow perched upon her back. She was the colour of night, and held a pouch of beetles. Fright found herself placed in the stranger’s mouth, and the lioness took off into the dark jungle, easily clearing the fallen branches and thick undergrowth, without acknowledgement of the cub.

She suddenly dropped her within a pile of cubs, contained within a pen in front of the caves. “Your name is Tiramisu, Get to know everyone”, she offhandedly informed her, slinking off. Tiramisu stood tall, deciding she would simply take over these cubs, too. It would almost be like home, if she could become their leader- make them games to play, map the jungle, find the best places to play. “I’m Tiramisu. I’ll be the boss. We’re gonna play-”

They all looked at her oddly, and went back to what they were doing before her arrival. She found herself alone, confused and very homesick.

From the shaded corner of their… prison?... emerged a bluish-grey cub, almost exactly her age, and also very alone. She felt tears pricking in her eyes.

“I’ll be your friend”, she said, nuzzling her gently. “They don’t like me much either”, she whispered with a giggle.

With a friend of her own, Tiramisu cared less and less about fitting in with her new pride. She felt the pangs of homesickness fade, as she grew alongside her best friend; as they raised their first litters together, and watched their cubs grow and find their own way in the world.

One moonlit night, Tiramisu felt a desperate need for air. She carefully left the cave, without waking her pridemates, and followed her gut instinct to a small stream near the border. For a moment, she didn’t believe her own eyes. Xena. Her Xena, drinking in the light of a full moon. Xena lifted her head, and stood in disbelief. She explained she had become lost on a hunt, and had been wandering for hours. Tiramisu bought her back to her nest, where her last litter was sleeping; Xena curled into it with her, and they talked until dawn about all that had happened since they were little feral cubs. When sun rose, the king heard her plight and accompanied her home- a pride he had done trade with before. From then on, she visited every full moon.

**** ECLIPSE ****

Eclipse was always a standoffish lioness; sometimes mistaken for shyness, her bristly demeanour leaves her often alone in her own nook of the cave, alone that is, aside from her closest companion Tiramisu.

Her disposition is not from a feeling of superiority, nor genuine shyness, but rather a natural inheritance from her mysterious mother. On a very regular day, the king Crimson Rain found her, with her beautiful coat- a depiction of the stars in the heavens, coveted by all; lionesses of such features never find themselves wondering, prideless and alone. And yet there she was, and after some great efforts on Crimson’s behalf, she accompanied him home. She never revealed her story, living her in her own shroud of mystery, at first intriguing and eventually patronising and irritating. Eclipse was her first cub; and her mother’s relations with her pridemates was not improved when Crimson celebrated and gloated over her piebald coat, inherited from him, and rare stony colouring. “Is she not beautiful?” he would ask, several times a day. “I’m sure she has my eyes”, he would boast to every visitor. The best meat was set aside for her mother, though she never hunted; the king would lay and dangle feathers for Eclipse to gently bat, eyes soft with adoration.

When she was weaned, Eclipse began to venture further and further from her mother, playing in the safety of the pride’s territory. When all was quiet, the king out on patrol, and lionesses having an afternoon nap, and little Eclipse was engrossed in some cubhood game, the eldest lioness (and previous favourite) unceremoniously carried her by her scruff to the borders of a king she had organised a trade with when the cub was yet to have opened her eyes. Beetles and cubs were exchanged, and Eclipse found herself all alone in a foreign land.

She attempted to mesh with the other cubs- she meant no harm; but could not bear when they tried to rough-and-tumble, and stained her white patches that her father had so lovingly kept spotless. She was too afraid to explore past the view of the caves, sure she would be snatched away again. She took to waiting for the sun to set, and took solace in the nightsky- if she stared hard enough, it was almost like being beside her mother again. Her eyes prickled with tears, all alone on the cold step of the cave, just steps from the purring heap of lions, and yet miles apart.

She grew this way for four months, adopting a haughty demeanour- her mother had needed no pride, and neither did she. Her past, her interests, in fact she herself, was not the business of the other lions, and she was not interested in them. She chose to be alone. She almost convinced herself.

That is, until the day Atropos bought a scrappy, cub with neatly as much front as herself home- she tried to take control within three seconds, and instead anticlimactically ended up sitting and crying alone while the other cubs did their best to pretend she wasn’t there. She put aside her mask of aloofness, and said she would be her friend. They didn’t like her either.

They grew up, side-by-side; They nursed each other’s litters when they needed a rest, and slept in their own nook of the cave. They never quite fit in; that seemed to matter less together. Tiramisu picked fights; Eclipse finished them.

Some nights, Eclipse wanders out under the nightsky; now, when she stares and feels almost as if she is beside her mother again, she feels at peace rather than sick for her home. This is truly her home now.