Tiger Pride

CHAPTER 1: Stripes on the Savanna

Her paws were sore, but she did not mind much. The lush grass was soft beneath her feet, aside from occasional patches of thick scrub and rocks. Naturally, she would have preferred to bed down in the moonlit grasses beside Dejen, but even as a queen, her responsibilities constantly outweighed her preferences.

She was patrolling the western border of their current domain, keeping an eye out for any rogue lions who might seize the opportunity of the late hour to venture into Haki territory. There had been too many raids on the herds they hunted in the recent past, and Dejen, the pride's king and Thema's husband, had finally decided to set up a patrol to curb it. Three more lionesses had taken up sentry duty to the north, east, and south, and so far, the night had been peaceful.

The moon's gentle light radiated down from the center of the sky, casting a whitish, ghostly glow along the tops of the trees that sparsely dotted the land. It shone over Thema's lithe, powerful body, accentuating the rippling muscles beneath her tawny coat as she lumbered across the landscape. Her golden eyes flickered alertly. She snapped the end of her tufted tail from side to side.

She paused her stride as an unusual sound tickled at her ear. She turned her head to the right, ears raised. She turned her head to the left. The tufted tail flicked suspiciously.

Definitely the left.

Thema dropped into a crouching position and inched toward the source of the noise, which had originated from a distant patch of grass. She moved in liquid strides. The moonlight danced in her eyes, giving them a piercing glow.
Her nose began to twitch as she drew nearer. She could smell something...but it wasn't the scent of another lion. Not that she could tell, at least. In fact, it was oddly foreign.

She paused a few feet from the patch of grass that the noise had come from. Her belly was on the ground now. Her legs were coiled beneath her, muscles compressed and fully prepared to launch her at whatever creature might be lurking in the shadows. Thema drew back her lips, unveiling her white dagger-fangs. This could be a ruse the Mwako pride had concocted. She could be staring down certain death for all she knew. Yet, the thought didn't faze her. If this was a trap, she'd be sure they paid for their mistake in full when the time came.

Then she heard it again. The sound froze the beating of her heart and every one of her limbs. The flickering of her tail ceased. Her eyes focused sharply.

It was a light, high-pitched mew, as if it came from something small. Thema drew her ears forward and listened again.

Mew!

Thema had yet to birth cubs of her own and experience maternity. However, as the soft cry pierced the evening silence, a powerful instinct swept over her. She rose out of her crouch and swiftly nosed her way through the tall grass.

Her paw brushed against something and a loud squeal of distress made her flinch. She lowered her head to search for the source. She flinched again when something brushed against her right paw.

A tiny form lay next to her forefoot. Thema immediately recognized it as the squirming figure of a cub. Her first thought was that the Mwako lions had left it here to trick her into taking it, which would force them to break their already-fragile peace treaty with the Haki pride. She certainly wouldn't have put it past them. However, as she bent down to get a closer look, she slowly realized that this was no lion cub.

And yet, it wasn't a cheetah cub, not the cub of a leopard, as she would have expected. Its puffy fur was a bright shade of orange, slashed by stripes of black. A few white patches stretched across its face and forehead.

Thema was puzzled. She'd never seen such a creature in the savanna before. It looked different from the other felines she'd encountered in her lifetime. It raised its head to her snout and mewed pitifully, and she knew she couldn't leave it here to die, ruse or not.
Still, as she fastened her jaws around it gently and lifted it, she worried about the reaction of her fellow lions, including her husband. If it wasn't their kind, it had no place among them, he had warned to her of abandoned cubs they'd come across in the past.

Even so, Thema was determined to put up a fight this time. Forgetting about her post, she loped across the silver-lit fields, clinging carefully to the crying bundle in her mouth. One way or another, she was going to find a way to save its life.