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0/1 months old:
Born under the shimmering stars, on a warm April evening everyone knew that he, Winchester, will be the future king. Born with a mutation Winchester knew that he was special, and that his specific looks and his reign would separate him from the other lions his age, and would make him be treated differently. But there was one cub that wasn’t afraid to play rough and put Winchester in his place when needed. She was a girl named Wrath. Being born on the same day and in the same cave, and both their mothers being good friends they had a lot in common. They both loved going hunting with Brefon, jumping locust and annoying their mothers. Despite Wrath’s name she was actually a very nice and caring friend to Winchester.
3 months old:
Because Wrath's mom was the lead huntress and very strict, Wrath had to go on hunts with her mom. Winchester was jealous, because he wanted to do interesting stuff with his best friend. But he couldn't because his mom said that he could only start learning to hunt when he was an adolescent and he still needed to learn the basics.
Winchester wasn't happy with that answer, so while the other lions went hunting he decided to go hunting by himself. Winchester spotted a scruffy, old boar by what Brefon called ''The Ancient Waterhole'' that was about a mile away from Winchesters den. Slowly and swiftly moving through the tall, sun dried grass Winchester was right behind the boar and ready to pounce. But because his coat was very noticeable in the brownish-green grass, the boar spotted Winchester and charged with speeds that the small cub could never out-run. Even tho he tried his hardest to outsmart the boar by taking sharp turns and snapping his small, sharp teeth at the big animal, the boar eventually caught up to Winchester and thankfully only scraped his tusk against Winchesters right hind leg and his left front legs shoulder. If the boar would have been a bit more dedicated to actually harming the cub, the outcome wouldn't have been so good.
Winchester ran home as fast as his little legs could take him. Gasping and panting he finally reached the den, and saw his furious mother who thought she could trust the future king of making the right decisions and controlling his urges. After a long lecturing, a lot of yelling and a long grounding, you could say, that Winchester learned his lesson.
5 months old:
After Winchester’s grounding, his mother decided it was time to wean him. It went fine, because Winchester had always been a pretty independent cub. So when he was free of his mother, Winchester decided he wanted to go swimming in “The Ancient Waterhole” and then sunbathe on one of his favourite rock, which would get very warm after being out in the scorching sun. He decided to invite his friend Wrath to join him and after a few minutes they started their adventure. After about 45 minutes of talking, play-fighting and trying to catch a runaway fluffball they arrived at the waterhole. Winchester heard Wrath mumble something about a rotten egg and that was enough for both cubs to start sprinting to the water to see which one would make it there first. Because Winchester tripped over his own foot, Wrath made it to the water first, but as soon as she got in the water she screeched and jumped out on Winchester, which resulted in a fight that Winchester surprisingly won. After they had finished fighting, they decided that they will put the swimming off to a much warmer, summer day. A while after sunbathing on Winchesters favourite rock, they decided to walk back home. While on the way home they saw a stray adult lion in their territory, which when the very much bigger and stronger lion looked at the cubs, they saw that half of the lions face was ripped off, probably by hyenas or a rival lion, with just the lower jaw hanging on by a thread. The lions body looked uncomfortably muscular and the lions legs were unusually long, it was something that both the cubs hadn’t ever seen before. It looked like some kind of a hybrid that, what Brefon called, “humans” would mutilate. When the lion spotted the cubs, it started charging towards them probably looking for an easy meal, because it could definitely not chew anything bigger than an average size cub, with the state of its jaw. But the lion would most definitely be able to rip both of the cubs in to shreds in less than a minute. Winchester and Wrath ran for their lives, but they could hear the lion gurgling and screeching, coming towards them closer and closer by the second. Because Winchester had gotten faster he could run a bit faster than Wrath so when the lion came close enough, it caught the small cub in its long, misshaped claws and bit down, as hard as his jaw allowed him to, on her neck. Winchester heard his best friends screams and immediately turned around to help, but it was too late… she was dead.
He could see Wraths small, broken spine sticking out of her neck, leaking rivers of blood. In his rage Winchester charged at the lion screaming and roaring as loud as he could. The lion was caught off guard and Winchester had snapped its jaw off completely. In agony the lion gurgled a roar and jumped at the brokenhearted cub. Thankfully one of the sub males, Khalfani, had been close enough to hear Winchesters agonising roars, he ran and pounced on the mutilated lion. Because Khalfani was a heavy and muscular lion, the impact on the big animal was enough to kill it. When Khalfani saw the little cub lying on the ground with a broken spine, he immediately told Winchester to follow him and then picked the little girl up in his mouth. When they stopped, Winchester couldn’t understand where they were but then he realised, they were at the place where Wraths big brother had been buried.
After they buried Wrath, Winchester couldn’t imagine the grief that Wraths mother will be going through, with both her kids being dead. When they were walking back to the dens, Khalfani told Winchester that grief doesn't always have to be a bad thing and as he is going to be king, that he should start to get used to it, because when he is the next in throne, death will surround him and he should not let it get to him. Khalfani isn’t a bad lion. Hes just looking out for the next king.
Winchester never did tell anyone that he felt guilty, for Wraths death, because it was him, after all , that convinced Wrath to go with him.
6 months old:
When Winchester had accepted Wraths death, he snuck away from his caregiver to put a piece of his mane on her grave, so a piece of him will always be with her.
—-You settle down to munch a nice, fat, gerbil. Or....not. •Winchester• nyoomed over, grabbed it, and nyoomed away. Awwww...
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