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Sunset's whisper led the king and Sunset's Ray to the edge of their territory and pointed to the mountains. His homeland was located there. The travelers were initially wary of the cold north wind, but nevertheless climbed the stone slopes and discovered the cave. A blizzard howled inside. Constellation Lion and his companion entered the building and found themselves in a maze. There was a squeak somewhere deep inside.
That's how the future regent appeared in the pride. Needless to say, fate deprived him of luck? Damn, he's not even the future king, he's just a temporary replacement! Knowing this, pride treated him with pity and did not take him seriously. Only Sunset's spirit urged King Moonrise to make the others respect the regent. But Little Moonrise wasn't going to use force and submission like Sunset liked to do. So he didn't do anything at all. The cub grew stronger and matured. By the time he reached adolescence, something unexpected happened: the one who always fell face-first into the mud, had no authority among his own.. challenged the sub-male. By the way, Sparkle of Night was the king's right paw and also the same as the king, a constellation. Challenging him cost the teenage lion his life. But that was not the case!
For a second, it seemed to the old-timers of the pride that the chilling roar of Sunset swept through the lands. Then King Moonrise and Sunset's Ray realized why the whisper had sent them to the mountains: Sunset had foreseen that a cub would appear there, similarly hardened by ice caves and snow. This allowed Sunset to establish a connection with Regent and channel his inexhaustible powers into it. «Don't worry, I won't let them call you a loser. You are the Regent, but you will allow the true king to gain strength so that he can fly as high as possible to the sun».
After a personal conversation with King Moonrise, the regent stopped responding to Sunset's whispers and began to communicate more with his pride, apologized to Sparkle of Night and began to learn the basics of pride management from him.
When King Moonrise left earth and ascended back to the Night Falls, the Regent proclaimed himself King Midnight. And when it came time to accept the heavenly essence, choosing the side of the Night Waterfalls or the Heavenly Abode, Midnight made a stunning decision. He renounced the heavenly gift. "How could you not notice that all the troubles are related to heaven? What if your leader is an ordinary lion?"
Having refused the gift of heaven, Midnight stopped hearing the voices of spirits, including Sunset's whispers. Midnight was free from the influence of spirits. He decided to lead his pride away from these lands full of invisible souls. They walked for an awfully long time and reached the mountain meadows, completely untouched by anyone. All the lions in the pride were constellations that descended to earth from the Night Waterfalls, and they could not accept the fact that they had to leave the sacred place, to leave the spirit of Sunset wandering alone. They were even more surprised when King Midnight introduced the rule: NO ONE DARES TO MENTION HEAVEN WHILE IN HIS PRIDE'S TERRITORY.
Midnight was going to become as great a king as Sunset, without having a heavenly essence.
Not all the lions agreed to accept the new order. Therefore, Mute Midnight drove all the constellation lions away from the snow-covered meadows. He allowed only those who renounce their faith to return. No one returned, and he realized that they were all traitors who needed to be exiled immediately.
For three long years, Midnight gathered lionesses around him. They were all united by their anger and hatred of the heavenly lions. The newly minted Queen stood out with particular dislike. Although it was difficult to call her a real queen. Hardened by harsh snows and rocks, the lionesses dealt a decisive blow to the Old Pride and took the Warm Grotto into their possession. Two traitors, who had been spies all this time and were preparing an assassination attempt on the king, were thrown from a high cliff down onto sharp rocks. Their bodies were pierced through and left to be devoured by birds of prey and mountain scavengers.
At the request of the queen of Cry of the Void, King Midnight took pity and accepted the lionesses from the Old Pride to himself, promising protection. However, he did not allow them to enter the main territory of the pride and sent them to the outskirts of the valley, where it was very difficult to find food.
It was the king who put an end to the heavenly Lion dynasty. He was supposed to be the regent, as the spirits predicted. However, everything went wrong as a child: he was abandoned by his mother in a cold cave surrounded by ice and snow, so he wanted to conquer the mountains that once almost killed him. Then all the lions of the pride did not want to take Him seriously at all And waved Him off, supposedly the regent was not the king, but only an insignificant replacement. Then Sunset promised him greatness, and Moonrise told him to listen to his mind, not the whisper of the Spirit. In the end, Moonrise recognized him as king, and then Midnight maliciously laughed at the spirits.
The following years of his reign passed in complete silence: the lions of the main pride lived in a warm grotto, and the remnants of the lions of the Old Pride tried to survive in the devastated valley. The wandering lions did not want to join them, and King Midnight visited them once a month to make sure that there were still lionesses in the Valley who "guarded" the border.
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