My Pride - Season 2 Concept. English version

Chapter 2 - Journey

Chronological order of the beginnings chapters: 4, 5, 3, 1=2=6, 7=8=9, 10

Enormous swelter coming from the sun, only living creatures in the field of view are three cubs in the middle of Stretch.

"Mum, mum, where are you? Mom... MOOOOM!"

Hover woke up violently, covered in sweat, in the middle of the night. Farleap and Powerstrike were sleeping well next to her, but they didn't even feel that she woke up. Hover had never felt so weak, but why? She tried to go to sleep once again, succesfully. The sleep was much more peaceful this time.

That day's morning Hover woke up despondent, something was bothering her. Farleap and Powerstrike felt that, but Hover wasn't eager to tell her companions about it. She decided not to trouble their minds during that important journey for them, in search of Nothing - Hover's love, Farleap's sister and Powestrike's daugther. The most important for three lionesses was to find her. Nothing else mattered.

Endless dunes of Stretch seemed to absorb every single thought of lionesses' minds. Farleap and Powerstrike had never been so far outside of the pride territory before, so they had to rely on Hover's skills and knowledge. She wasn't fully focused on the task though. Hover still didn't manage to cut off from the nightmare from a few days earlier. Huntings, so important to be succesful because of the small number of animals that would be eatable, often ended as a failure due to Hover's lack of focus. Farleap and Powerstrike tried to get to know what is going on with their friend, but they always got the answer that "Everything's allright" or "It's nothing too serious".

The dry season was at its zenith, the sun was burning the ground and heating up sand. There was no escape from this heat, especially since three lionesses found themselves on a plateau. Many thoughts raced through Hover's mind, she looked around. The place seemed oddly familiar for her.

"What does it mean? I know this place..." said Hover.

Images of the past flashed before her eyes, they covered the reality. Hover lost her strength and fell.

"HOVER, HOVER, WHAT'S HAPPENING? DO YOU HEAR ME? SAY SOMETHING!" Farleap knew that something wasn't alright, but Hover didn't answer. Powerstrike, who was looking for a water at the time, heard Farleap's calling and ran to her as fast as she could. Hover's eyes were opened, she was breathing, but she wasn't reacting to any of Farleap's questions. She only managed to say: "Why..." before passing out.

The night had come. Farleap came to Powestrike and unconscious Hover exhausted, with water in her mouth from the nearby pond, which Powestrike found earlier. She spitted out that water on Hover's face.

"She woke up, thank you, Cansu," said Powestrike.

Hover got up and said:

"Where are you now.... Why..."

Farleap and Powestrike looked at each other, asking themselves the same question in their minds. Was Hover hallucinating?

"Hover, what's going o-" Powestrike started, but Farleap interrupted her.

"I'm gonna talk with her" Farleap  declared. Powestrike seemed to be a little bit confused. Is Farleap not trusting her? She didn't protest anyway.

"Hover, what's happening to you? You're off color for a few days now and now THAT. What is going on?"

Hover sighed protractedly and then she began to speak, she was in big mental pain.

"I was born and raised on Stretch, as you have probably guessed. I never met my father, I only had mother." Hover stopped for a while and after quite a bit of time she started once again. I had two sisters. They had their names since their birth, not like in prides. Our mother never told us about her past, we didn't know if she lived in any pride. But even if she used to live in a one, then there was no pride live in her mind. My sisters were called Dust and Sand. They were as like as two peas in a pod. Light yellow fur and blue eyes, just like our mother. I, I wasn't given the name of Hover. That's the name I chose later. My mother and sisters called me Dune. I liked that name. Neither me nor my sisters asked my mother about her real name. We were calling her Mom all the time. When I was still a cub, I was playing with my sisters there. Our mom told us to stay here while she would go find some water. She was doing that very often, so we weren't suprised. Hours passed and she still wasn't back. We were waiting for her for like two days and then we decided to follow her footprints, but the track ended short after that. Three cubs were left alone on Stretch without nobody to protect them. For some time we managed to stic together and survive, but one day a group of No-Manes saw us. I noticed their presence first and that's th enoly reason I am sitll alive. I ran away, but my sisters..." Hover needed a brake to relieve her emotions through crying. "My sisters did not. They killed them, I don't know what happened later, but they probably..."

All sank into silence. No one was eager to speak, only very quiet gusts of wind could be heard. Farleap and Powestrike knew why Hover didn't want to finish her story.

"Somehow I managed to survive as a cub, but is more of pure luck and Cansu's providence than my survival skills. After like two seasons I was dooing pretty good. I came up with an idea of changing the name then. I started to hate my name, it reminded my of my mother who abandoned me and my sisters...  I thought for a while. Since I was doing so well and travelling so fast on Stretch, why not to name myself Hover? That's how I became Hover. I thought that I cut off from that part of my life, from my younger me, but somehwere deep inside I still remember how my mother hurt me and my sisters."

Hover came to the ridge of the highest nearby dune and looked to the sky, to the stars. 

"Where are you now, why..."

Farleap and Powestrike decided to leave Hover alone with her thoughts, they didn't want to disturb her in her difficult times.

Hover wasn't mentally able to go further, so Farleap and Powestrike decided to stay in the nearby area for a few days, to the moment in which Hover's mind would be back to the normal state, to the moment in which she would once again become a leader of the journey to find Nothing.

"What do you think, will she get over it?"asked unsure Powerstrike.

"Of course, she's very strong. Think, if you lost everything you've got and you had to go back and face it, wouldn't you be unmoved? Think about what Hover feels now, give her some more time."

"But I lost almost everything once!" thought Powerstrike, but she didn't tell that out loud. "Hmmm... I think you're right, she got through a lot of pain in her life, it's actually incredible that she coped with that first time around, she will cope this time too, I am sure about that."

"I've heard your conversation." Hover came back and told something, to the suprise of the two talking. "Sometimes loneliness and lonely fight with your demons of the past is the best solution. Thank you for believing in me. I will do my best now.

After a while, a whole three decided to go in the direction indicated by Hover. She was full of energy, even more so than ever before. She felt free and reconciled with the past. She was almost flying. After a short amount of time Powestrike spotted something unusal in the sand.

"Are those footprints?"

"It seems so, but they are to small to belong to the adult lion, definitely not to the adult male, I think we're safe," said Hover.

Lionesses followed the footprints, but the track ended shortly and the dusk was coming, so they decided to spend a night here. The smell of calmness was present in the hot air. The area in the field of view was empty, too empty.

"I'll stand on guard this night," proposed Hover.

"Okay, are you sure you don't want to go to sleep? I think we're safe here," Farleap answered Hover.

"Yeah, I'm sure, I feel that I need to stay up overnight."

"Well, if you say so."

The sky at night was clear, the air was a bit cold. Hover was going around the place where Farleap and Powerstrike were sleeping. It was located in the recess of the terrain bewteen the dunes, so a potential enemy would have an advantage over them. That's why Hover wanted to stay up overnight. Almost whole nights passed peacefully, only just before the dawn a strong wind came. It took a lot of loose sand with it and blinded Hover.

"Great..." Hover wasn't happy about that.

Fortunately, wind quickly died down, but a new problem emerged. Hover heard a sound of a falling sand below her.

"HOOOOVER! WHAT'S HAPPENING, WHY ARE WE COLLAPSING!" shouted Farleap.

"Oh no, quicksand" thought Hover.

She ran as fast as she could in their direction, she saw somebody on the dune on her left side, a strange lion was running in Farleap's and Powerstrike's direction too. What is he going to do, what should Hover do, attack him or help her friends. The strange lion reached the two stuck in the quicksand and shouted at Hover.

"Help me rescue them!"

Hover was shocked, but she didn't have a time to react. She helped the stranger to pull out Powerstrike first and Farleap then. Hover was exhausted, but she noticed that the lion who helped her save her friends' lifes looked similar. That intensively red, not fully developed mane, red-beige fur and blue eyes.

"Feather?..."