, the Pervert

▌│█║▌║▌║ They were running out of time, truly they were. Gatsby was sadly growing older day by day, and no matter how hard his loyal lionesses tried they couldn't trick death. An heir hadn't been chosen because in no way the lionesses could expect that their strong king would fall ill in such a short term.

Panic began settling in when the stud showed no signs of getting better, his prime wife, the one who constantly stood by his side left the den with a long face, her eyes sunken on a chilly winter morning. She looked as though she hadn't slept in such a long time, she looked tired and defeated. When another wife tried to come forward and take her place to care for the king, she was stopped by a paw. Sadness carried through the prime wife's sour voice "no need to care for him anymore." The words cut deep, and the pride had fallen into a depression with their king long gone, and no expectation for the future.

Some left the pride the next morning, somberly. Carrying with them newborn cubs. It was hopeless to try and stop them.

Shortcake stood behind. She didn't care if she were to be left all alone, that was her pride, her friends!
The lioness prepared for the trip, promising to not return until she had found an heir! Promising to dig deep and fight battles in order to bring the new king home. That was exactly what she did.

After four days she laid tired, starved, thirsty. She was walking around the dangerous parts, crevices of Hell that grew deeper as the day went by. Shortcake was losing hope, no lion was worthy of the crown until she found a tiny little black speck with smoke simmering from it. Approaching carefully, she was surprised to see that in fact, it was a cub. A weird, pitch dark cub, but one nonetheless. His eyes and moth expelled dark smoke as if he had a fire within that burned, but alas his breathing was low and if she wanted him to make it, she'd have to not only be brave, but quick.