It was so long ago that Aurae had lost her family. Or, rather, that they had lost her. All she could remember of the incident was some strange lion coming up to her while she had wandered too far away as a cub and snatched her. She'd been so shocked, she couldn't find her voice to call out until it was too late. And than she was too afraid to make a noise or even a movement, so she swing uselessly from the adult's mouth as she was taken. Aurae had heard stories of lions killing the offspring of each other and she didn't want to become another victim of that.
Maybe it would have been better than where she had been taken.
Aurae found herself in a hostile land, treated like an object or small animal, made to serve the ones who she was to call Master. This was a very big male lion who wanted to use her in some tournament, forcing her to fight others for his own victory. At least that was the plan when she was fully grown. Until than, he'd put her through rough training to toughen her up, filling her days with pain and so much exhaustion she could do nothing but sleep when she was finally given a break at the end of the day. If she didn't comply with what he wanted, he would make his training worse for the day. So she learned to keep her mouth shut and just do as she was told.
Fortunately, she never saw the day of a tournament. He had taken her out into the roguelands for a special day when she was an adolescent, to pick fights with the locals to see how she was coming along. But his plan backfired when those locals turned on him instead and Aurae took the chance to escape. She found herself alone, but with the skills she had learned from her training, she was easily able to fend for herself. Of that she was thankful, though her family would have also taught her these skills.
Now she was an adult and still trying to find her way back home. She'd made peace with her demons. At least most of them. If only she could get back to her family, everything would be alright.
The small forest Aurae had been walking through opened up into a plains, the tall grass waving in the breeze. No different than the scenery of the past few weeks. This was the kind of environment she remembered as a cub. It made her sigh. She'd never find her family at this rate. She'd been too young and there was so much of the same, she had no landmarks to focus on. She sat down for a moment, all that determination seeping out of her as the bleak future stretched before her.
As she sat there, she heard a sound. It seemed to be coming from the tall grass to her left, a kind of scratching sound. Aurae's ears pricked forward as she tried to see between the blades of grass. Something was moving there. Something small. Her instincts flared up, urging her to run, fearing it was something stalking her and preparing to pounce. But the noise. Anything trying to be sneaky wouldn't be making so much noise. Her training had taught her that.
Than it stopped and there came from the grass a tiny voice that sounded on the verge of tears.
"I can't do it!"
It was not a threat. It was someone in need. Aurae walked forward on silent paws and peeked her head through the grass. There, she saw a hyena cub laying on the ground with paws over her eyes, while behind her sprawled the body of a dead adult. Presumably the mother.
"What are you trying to do?" she asked, taking a step closer. The hyena cub looked up and gave a squeak, scurrying to hide behind the body. Right. Poor thing probably thought Aurae was going to make a lunch out of her. She took a step back into the grass, unsure how to show she meant no harm. "I am sorry. I won't hurt you."
A pink face peered over the stomach of the body. "No?"
"Of course not. I'd like to help you."
The cub didn't move, just continued looking at her. "I heard lions eat the babies of others."
Fair. Aurae had heard the same. It was a common fear when you were younger. There really was no way she could prove herself to this cub.
"Mama died." The tiny voice was a bit muffled in the body of the dead one, but the lioness could easily hear the sorrow in it. "I wanted to bury her before...." Before other predators got the scent, was what she couldn't say. She tried to be a brave girl and not give into her despair. "But I'm not strong enough and I don't have other family." Maybe she shouldn't have willingly told all this to a stranger, but she didn't care at this point. She had no one else and she was too little to get her own food. She'd be a goner anyway.
Aurae's heart went out to this little one. She couldn't leave her here all by herself. Since she also had nowhere to go, she stuck around to help the tiny cub dig a hole for her mother. She seemed satisfied by this, oblivious to the fact the hole was hardly large enough to stop other predators from digging it back up. She was not about to burst the child's bubble.
"You know...I don't have anyone either. Why don't we have each other?"
The hyena cub thought on that for a while. Either way, she was dead, even if she didn't go with this lioness. Besides, helping her bury her mother was a lot of work to trick a lone cub with no family around.
"I guess that's fine," she answered, pawing at some pebbles on the ground in front of her. And maybe it would be fine.
"Do you have a name? Mine is Aurae."
"Melitta."
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