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🌿 Rosalee: The Kind-Hearted Herbalist 🌿
Rosalee is the third daughter of Jask to stay within the pride. When she was born, to a rogue lioness who’d stopped in the territory to have some fun, Jask immediately noticed the tiny cub’s stark resemblance to themself. Her pelt was the same reddish hue, and even most of her markings were the same as Jask’s. The most notable difference was that where Jask had bright green, almost reptilian eyes, the cub held the sweetest brown gaze imaginable. The ruler spoke to the lioness, and it was agreed that the little cub, dubbed Rosalee, would stay with her royal parent when she was old enough to be weaned. Her mother would then be free to roam the land once more.
Rosalee never really bonded with her mother. She had been gone from her life too soon to make much of a difference. However, the young cub quickly bonded with Jask and with her older sisters, Maudeline and Viktoriya. The twins, now nearing the end of their days, were delighted their parent had kept another of their cubs, and the sisters doted on the little one as if she was their own. As the cub grows, she finds fascination with herbs and healing, having seen some traveling shamans mixing up some salves. This prompts Jask to form a new role: Pride Herbalist. It would be different than Wanda’s Sorceress title, as it would fulfill a different need in the pride. Though the two arts were different, Wanda did teach Rosalee the small bit she knew of healing with herbs. Rosalee’s skills grew and she met many other pride members while honing her craft.
In fact, her Herbalist duties are how she became close with the colorful lioness Juliette, who was only slightly older than herself. She’d treated the lioness for many a scratch, and the two became fast friends. Her kind nature was perfect to balance Juliette’s snark and sarcasm, and the two often spent time together. Yet there was another who would eventually enter the little group, a sub-male named Monroe. The primal male was chosen by Jask to succeed Loki as sub-male and protector of the pride’s borders. Monroe and Rosalee bonded in mere moments, and the pair started spending more time alone together. Juliette was happy for them, and the love between the pair flourished.
Jask saw this and was pleased for their daughter. She couldn’t have chosen a more good-hearted male to fall in love with. Monroe was everything Jask had hoped for for a mate for the lioness, he was a good friend, fiercely protective and above all, loyal to both her and the pride, so he wouldn’t try to usurp Rosalee’s parent.
Monroe even started learning Rosalee’s trade, after an alarming and mysterious curse was put on Juliette one night. No one knows who had cursed her, but it was a long few moons before Rosalee came up with an antidote to combat it, and it was even longer before the colorful lioness was back to herself. Monroe was a huge help to Rosalee during this time, and he started helping her with her Herbalist duties more and more regularly, in between his own sub-male duties.
Eventually, as it always happens, the subject of cubs is brought up between the two, one day while they are out finding herbs. Both lions knew they wanted cubs, but as a sub-male, Monroe would never be able to have biological ones. So, the pair decided that, in time, they would turn to other rulers, giving Rosalee the chance to conceive, and giving the couple a chance to be parents.
All seems to be going rather well for the couple, right?…Though a face watches them secretly from the shadows, growing in her anger.
As time passes, Rosalee bears three cubs. A set of rosette-pelted twins, Alchemilla and Helleborine, who had claws fit for the greatest hunter, was her first litter. Her second contained only one…the lavender-eyed Delphinia. Rosalee looks into her tiny cub’s seemingly knowing gaze and a feeling washes over her. This one, she would do great things. Monroe seemed a bit skeptical, but Rosalee knew it to be true.
Oh, fate is a cruel mistress, showing one what they cannot see for themselves. Rosalee, through the bitterness and built-up rage of the Mage Adalind’s mind, is left reeling when she sees Juliette fall that fateful night. And then…as if it couldn’t get any worse, she hears the tear of claws through skin, and sees blood fly from her mate. She lets out a cry, rushing to him and throwing herself on top of the larger male’s body.
In his last moments, he proclaims his love to her, and she lets out an earth-shattering scream as his eyes drift shut. The Dark One had turned away, seeing it fit to leave the Herbalist to her misery. Rosalee’s once kind brown gaze shifts, something final setting in her brow. She darts forward, her claws slashing through the grotesque lioness’s eye. Adalind reels back, not having expected the gentle Herbalist to fight, perhaps. Rosalee knows she must be a sorry sight, can feel the tears washing down her face, can taste their saltiness as she hisses at the one who has made her life a living hell.
A crazed laugh, a chilling voice,
“Did you think you were sly, little fox? I was going to let you go with your life, and -this- is the thanks I get? Fine. Suppose you’ve nothing to live for anyways. Why don’t you join your mate?”
Rosalee hears the words, almost giving up. The Dark Mage was right, what -did- she have left? Her thoughts drift to the twins, and her tiny daughter. Them. She had to live, for them. Her voice chimes out into the darkness of the den.
“You’re…wrong”
Her fight renewed, the rosy-pelted lioness channels her grief and fury into her claws, fighting Adalind with everything she had. But it was not to be. While the elixir on her claws had been used up, Adalind was still adept in combat. She lands a strike on Rosalee’s neck, grinning as she drags her paw down through the flesh and soft tissue.
Rosalee drops to the ground. She isn’t afforded a final moment, like the other two had been. She bleeds out quickly, leaving behind three daughters, one barely old enough to have stopped nursing.
🌿 🌿 🌿
*’The kind-hearted Herbalist’s fate has been sealed,
Her fall from grace, caused by a rift unable to be healed’*
*’Now, the trio can reunite among the stars,
Comforting each other, mending their scars’*
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