🔥Blazing Mane🔥's Den

You knew it was a bad idea to venture this far to the desert. And yet here you are. The wind has blown your footprints away, and now you don't know which way to go. You're thirsty, hot and scared. You try to squint in the sun in order to see anything that would even resemble a shade, but all you see is sand and rocks. All you can do is go forward.

You walk for what feels like hours. Vultures start circling you. Is this how your story ends?

Suddenly, you swear you hear something. A chatter of multiple lions and lionesses. Is it your ancestors coming to welcome you to their domain..? No! You see them! A band of living, breathing lions, just one dash away! They are walking towards what you think is west, happily chattering to each other. They seem to know where they are going.

You let out a soft roar, hoping they hear you. And hoping they don't see you as a threat. The band stops, the chatter quiets. They are all looking around, and finally, one with a red mane notices you. He looks to the others, supposedly asking what they should do about you. You wait. The sun is burning your fur. You let out another begging roar for help. Finally the one with the red mane answers. You breathe out a sigh of relief. They welcome you in.

You run, or try to at least, to them. The closer you get, the closer you see this rat-tag group of lions. One with the red mane seems to be in charge. He has four other lions with him, and three lionesses. Some seem wary, some curious of you. One of the lions is wearing what seems like a headdress. He has bones and feathers around his body. He must be the shaman of the pride. There is a big black lion with green eyes, and one white lion with a silver-blue mane. They seem like the sub-males. The last male, Maltese or Steele in color, with white mane looks too regal to be part of a pride of rogues, but seems happy to be there. Yellow-ish female looks as you with curiosity and eagerness. More brown female stands tall, but smiles to you. A grey, almost blue lioness seems more wary of you, but does not hide behind the males.

"Hail, traveler!" the red maned one says to you as you approach. "Are you lost?"

You explain your situation to them, and the whole pride seems to calm down. You're not a threat, you're just lost.

"The Sun has blessed you this day, traveler." the red maned one says. "Any longer and the sun would have turned you silly."

"We are on our way to the Oasis. Please, come with us. When the night falls, Snowstalker will show you the right way to your home." he says finally, and the band continues. You join on their side.

On the way, you are bombarded by questions from the yellow female. You learn her name is Tree Jumper and she is originally from the jungle. You tell about your life and your pride to her, and enjoy seeing the excited glimmer in her eyes.

The brown female, named Dune Dasher, tries to calm her pride sister from burying you in questions. You learn she was born a rogue on these very plains. You were beginning to wonder how she didn't seem bothered by the heat like everyone else.

As you travel with the group you learn their names and their origins, or at least the small amount they tell you. The red maned one is called Blazing Mane (fitting), and he was born to a pride far away, where the mountains spit fire. The blue female is called Diver, and she speaks of a place called "The Ocean". Apparently it is a huge lake. So huge you can't see the land on the other side. And the water of the lake is so salty it cannot be drunk. The one called Snowstalker comes from the high mountains where white frozen water covers the land. The big black one, called Boulderbreaker, was born in a human-made place called "the Mines", underground!

The longer you listen, the more you start to wonder if any of them are speaking the truth.

The two last lions, the shaman and the white maned one speak very little. All you learn are their names: Kindheart and Straggler. And even those are not their original names, it seems. They are aparently a couple and from the same pride before they joined this one, but that is all you learn.



You finally reach the oasis. You swear you have never tasted water as good as the one served under the shade of the palm-trees. You join the pride in relaxing and telling more stories as you wait for the night to come.

At first you think they wait for the night just for it to cool down, but then you learn that Snowstalker can read stars. He looks at the night sky for a while, asks you where your pride is located, looks up again, and chooses a way.

You bid goodbye to the strange pride and follow the white lion into the night. Before long, you find yourself at the border of the desert. You smell familiar scents around you. You finally know where you are. As you turn to thank the white lion, he is already gone.

You stand there for a second. Was any of that real? Did you hallucinate it all? Was there really a pride in the desert? Or were they just Ghost of the Prides once gone..?