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Elren
Outsider taken in, bought from the market.
Moody, Serious, Scittish.
Elren padded behind the stranger lioness in sullen silence. What could she say, anyway? "please let me go? don't bargain me off to the nearest king? i'm not worth it?" It wouldn't change anything, least of all the fact that she'd just been bought from the market. Three hundred silver beetles. She scowled. Such a little fee to hold the life of a lion in one's paws. The King who'd sold her hadn't barely glanced at her as he gave her price. It made her want to gouge his eyes out, but maybe that wouldn't help her get away from him and his damned pride. Maybe being bought was the escape she was looking for. But, probably, it wasn't.
She'd been lying in the sun with a couple other cubs - no shade, no water, for hours on end, alongside all the other goods on display. Then, late in the afternoon, a strange lion had showed up. They must've come a long way to barter, for their taste in accessories marked them as being not from around here. And his pelt - a strange cheetah-like pattern, but even stranger, the otherworldly colours it boasted. She'd only caught a little glimpse of his eyes, for his face had been hidden behind a black mask, but they'd been nearly as stunning, as well, almost gem-like.
She supposed it didn't matter, for what he'd do to her would remain the same. An exotic trinket, perhaps to be bartered in foreign lands for exotic looks.
The lioness she followed veered away, toward the shade of a tree to rest. She was the one who'd accompanied her master to the market, sent to pick her - and other goods - up. She carried a leather satchel slung around her neck, filled with spices and other little goods. "Come on," she called over her shoulder. Elren glared at her back, but followed and flopped to the cool dirt under the tree. She glanced to her side. Like her master, the lioness was clearly not of these lands. Her pelt was dark, darker than any she'd ever seen, with a pale underbelly and faint swirling of colour and darker speckles. Even her voice was soft and lovely, and Elren hated herself for thinking that. But it was true.
After a moment, the lioness spoke. "it won't be too much longer now, little one." Her forepaws shifted as she spoke, displaying deadly claws and flexing powerful, lean muscles in her shoulders. Beautiful, but deadly. Why Elren hadn't tried running for the past few days, for this one would surely catch her if she did.
She frowned at the title. She was over a year old now. Definitely not little. As if reading her thoughts, the lioness laughed.
"No, I can see you're not little. You seem quite capable of defending yourself. Tell me, what was it like in the pride you came from?"
Elren frowned. A strange question, but why not give the lioness an answer? She had nothing else to do anyway. "Well," she started carefully, "I wouldn't say I came from there. That I was a part of that pride, I mean. Because I wasn't."
"Yes," the lioness said, nodding, to her surprise. "I thought so. Prides over in these parts a so much rougher, I'm not surprised you feel that way. Still, it saddens me to hear my suspicions confirmed." Indeed, her eyes gleamed with sadness. Where did this lioness even come from???
"I didn't catch your name before." the lioness continued, "I'm Nahali. It's nice to meet you."
This confused Elren more. Seriously, she'd just been bought and this lioness was exchanging niceties? Natalie looked expectant, though, so she supposed there wouldn't be any harm in giving her name. Maybe this was a sign - maybe the lioness was convinced she would stay in the Pride she was being taken to. If so, then there wasn't much point in withholding her name anyway.
"I - Elren." she said quietly, stuttering over the name.
Nahali cocked her head. "Were you given that name, or did you pick it yourself?"
That hit too close to come. Ellen didn't reply, remembered the cold stiffness with which her mother had treated her. In the eyes of her mother, her father, and everyone else, she was simply 'Cub' short for 'Cub to be sold, random number'. Hers was fourteen. Was fourteen, she told herself. She wasn't part of that anymore.
Nahali simply nodded. "I'm sorry I didn't ask before," she said apologetically, "I realised I was a bit short on time to meet up with the others. But we'll be there tomorrow."
They sat in silence for a while, but it wasn't awkward. She was more than happy to sit and rest for awhile, but it seemed like too short a rest when Nahali stretched, and rose. With her tail, she beckoned to Elren, and reluctantly she rose, and again followed her into the savana, her old home growing further and further away behind her.
~~~~~
the next day
Ahead, through the dry dust floating around and tall grasses, a waterhole shimmered into view.
~~~~
nearly two years later ~ Nuumea
Elren watches Nuumea, now five months old, bounce around under the acacia tree. The Pride she now resided was located far away from where she originally come from, and the distance showed in their strangely-coloured pelts. She herself had been called beautiful with her exotic looks, but to her she was the normal one and everyone else were practically purple in their foreign, strange looks. They all had dark or grey pelts, mottled with white and sometimes flooded with icy or sunset-like colours, but this cub in particular was special. Her pelt was as dark as anyone else's, but it glittered like no one else's did, except Shazad's, the only male in the Pride. He'd been born during the famine of both food and money, so when he was born there wasn't enough lying around to buy the water and change his gender at birth. By the time they did manage to acquire one, he was already too old anyway, but something about the way he'd explained his tale to Elren suggested that he was glad as he was.
Nuumea, named after the specific, esteemed colour of her coat, was special like Shazad was, except there was one big difference: she was female. In Elren's old Pride, if she could say she was part of it, the little cub would have used as only a prized breeder and trophy, but here... Here, she would be almost revered. She would easily be one of the most beautiful lionesses in the Pride, but if she proved to have the skills like Zora, and in turn Kinnara did to be a great hunters, she would be a Queen.
The cub, whom Elren was begrudgingly sitting while the mothers were away, flopped over her paws happily. The lioness allowed herself a ghost of a smile.
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