Embercurl (395 words)

One of Ashkarn’s wild granddaughters, Embercurl was originally given the name ‘Shadowcurl’ (for the lovely lavender-grey shades of her fur) by her tigon mother. Shadowcurl’s sire, a sly and cunning Ferus king, took great pride in his daughter: he saw the Tiger side of her heritage as a potential asset for the kingdom and his own reign specifically, and he delighted in her spirited personality as she aged and grew to physically resemble him more and more. One of her sire’s sycophantic followers, a supposed soothsayer, even prophesied that the medallion-like golden markings which Shadowcurl inherited from her sire foretold great blessings and prosperity for the pride.

Unfortunately, this prediction did not turn out as Shadowcurl’s sire may have hoped. A terrible wildfire swept through the grassy heart of her father’s territory, engulfing the pride’s dens in deadly flames. Nearly as lethal as the fires themselves, Shadowcurl’s sire raged and snarled outside of the endangered areas, ranting at the sky in fury that such ill fortune would dare touch his domain. Shadowcurl gaped at her father in stunned dismay for a few moments, then leapt into action, mustering the pride’s lionesses in a daring effort to rescue the pride’s cubs trapped in the burning dens.

Though Shadowcurl’s efforts were largely successful, in the rush to save the final group of her half-siblings, Shadowcurl at last succumbed to smoke inhalation and collapsed – wheezing her dying breaths lying before her father’s paws. Her sire, deeply embarrassed by his daughter’s courageous actions and sacrifice in the face of his own incapability, turned from Shadowcurl’s body without a word and led his surviving pride away.

However, Shadowcurl’s story did not end there. The great powers of the savannah and Shadowcurl’s lion ancestors rewarded her heroism by granting her new life – an eternal, undying life. As she awoke from what she had thought to be her final slumber, her fur brightened from its previous shades to take on the hues of the flames she braved. Now alone, Shadowcurl set out to explore the world beyond her father’s kingdom, and eventually joined a new pride, with a ruler more worthy of her loyalty than her father had been. In honor of the actions which set her on her new path, she chose to change her name to Embercurl and has gone by that name ever since awakening into her new life.

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