“And when The Eclipse matures, she will have a choice to make. To bring peace and prosperity to the kingdoms… or to tear them apart.”

The prophecy shakes the foundations of the celestial species as a whole. The Lunar Empire and Solar Republic adopt a quick policy. Their political marriages, their unions of their lions, are to stop immediately. The Spaceworld, however, they are intrigued. They watch with peeled eyes, looking at every move the two kingdoms make.

However, no one notices the Solar Princess Tefnut sneaking out at night, meeting a dark, handsome lion. No one notices the starlit walks, where he brings darkness over them. And no one notices where the Lunar Prince Apedemak goes during the dusk, only that, by the time day rolls around, he’s exhausted. They don’t notice the way the stars seem to shape themselves into hearts, or two stars being moved close together.

No, no one notices a thing. Not until Tefnut is of marrying age. Not until she refuses a partner, saying that if her father didn’t need one, then neither does she. The true meaning is revealed when they force her to the Earth, taking her to that damned bat, and it speaks words. “She’s pregnant! I hear one little heartbeat!”

They don’t act. Not until the cub is born. Tefnut speaks nothing of who the father may be, but it’s revealed by her pale coat. The warm undertones mark her as a Solar Celestial, but the pale gray…

Apedemak steals his lover and daughter away in the dusk. He abandons his people, and Tefnut abandons her’s. Of course, search parties are sent. Spaceworld mercenaries are hired, by both kingdoms. The order is always the same. Kill the cub, bring them back to their homes. And they never come back. Maybe the mercenaries run off with the money, but when the first burned husk is found, one that looks very similar to Apedemak, it becomes clear. The runaway royals, they’re as good as dead.

The Kings and Queens of the kingdoms grieve, but they give up their search. The cub with the power to end it all, or bring a new age, is forgotten. She doesn’t matter, not anymore. A dead cub can’t change anything, after all.

And that’s how the story goes. Until the banished Spaceworld Prince Apollyon comes to Earth, looking for refuge, and he, instead, finds a lioness that doesn’t look like she belonged to any specific kingdom. But he realizes, when a gruff Lunar lion tells her to leave, and she calls him father (despite the warmth in her coat), that he may have just found something. He may have found his key back to the throne.

He may have found the Eclipse.