Heiko sighed and scratched at the ground, deep in thought. Her mind wandered to her past, years ago…

Heiko waddled around in search of a friend, after being told to ‘stop being annoying and go play with the other cubs’. Her tiny paws trampled the grass as she strolled over to the first cub she spotted.
“Hi!” She said with a huge grin. “I’m Heiko!”
“Aaah!” The dark cub yelped, jumping. “What? Hello! Hi! Um, what?”
Heiko giggled. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you. Wanna be friends?”
“I’m not scared!” The cub flared. “I was just… surprised, that’s all.”
“Okay,” Heiko said with another giggle. “What’s your name?”
“Oh… it’s Cokalt.”
“Cool! I’m Heiko.”
Cokalt smiled a little. “I know. You told me.”
“Heiko!” A shocked voice cried out behind her. Heiko tilted her head and turned around.
“Mom?” She asked. “What? Is Meadow being dumb again?”
She yelped as her mother’s paws grabbed her and pulled her away.
“What are you doing? Why are to talking to that… cub!?”
“You told me to hang out with the other cubs,” Heiko said, confused.
“No, b-but I meant the good cubs! Not things like those!”
“What did Cokalt do?” Heiko asked, slipping away from her mother only to realize that Cokalt was gone.
“She’s cursed. Dark lions are bad luck, Heiko, you should know that,” her mother growled.
“O-oh,” Heiko mumbled. “Okay. She… she seemed nice, though.”
Heiko heard her mother sigh as she set out again to find someone to play with.
Maybe… maybe she’d meet Cokalt again. She hoped to. The cub seemed nice.

——

“Are you nervous?” Heiko asked curiously, sniffing her friend gently before laying down by her side.
“I… I don’t know. I’m excited, I guess. I have a feeling… she’s going to be special.”
“She?”
“It feels like a girl,” she said, then laughed. “It’s a bit silly, but somehow I can feel it.”
“I don’t think it’s silly,” Heiko told her, watching her shift into a more comfortable position. “It’s just your instinct, maybe.”
Cokalt giggled, then clutched her stomach. “I can feel her moving,” she whispered lovingly, and Heiko smiled at her.
“I’ll be right here, by your side,” she whispered back. “I can’t wait to see her.”

——

Everyone was screaming.
A tiny cub whined, mewling pitifully.
Heiko stood frozen.
The cub was black as coals, black as the night, darker than the darkest lion Heiko had ever seen.
A cursed cub.
“Guards! Guards!” the midwives screamed, pointing at the cursed child. Cokalt’s child.
Fierce lions stormed into the cave, roaring as Heiko stared in horror.
They ripped the cub from Cokalt’s paws and pinned the screaming mother to the ground.
“Cokalt!” Heiko finally yelled, her friend’s cries breaking Heiko from her trance. She rushed at the guard on top of Cokalt. “Stop it, you’re hurting her!” She yelled, snarling as she defended her tired friend.
Cokalt rushed at the lioness holding her cub, snarling as she attacked. The lioness, who Heiko realized in horror was Snow, cried out, hissing. “Stay away, heretic! We’ll cleanse you of your cursed child, or you’ll have to die with it!”
Cokalt snarled back as Snow scratched her and turned away, only to crash into Heiko, blocking the doorway.
“This is wrong, Snow,” Heiko whispered softly. “Don’t do this. She’s just a cub.”
Snow snarled. “Do you want to die with her? This cub will kill our pride!”
She unsheathed her claws and attacked Heiko, dropping the coal-black cub.
With a yelp, Heiko dodged the first blow, but the lioness’s sharp claws caught her side.
Heiko roared in pain and kicked out with all her might. She heard a loud grunt from Snow, and without thinking grabbed her and slammed her head against the stone wall. Snow collapsed to the ground, a wound on her head bleeding heavily. Heiko staggered back and stared in horror at what she’d done.
A mewl from the cub broke Heiko from her trance as she glanced at Cokalt and her cub. She rushed to her friend, gently licking the wound on her nose.
“Cokalt,” she whispered, tears coming to her eyes. “What do we do?”
Cokalt looked like she was holding back tears herself.
“Go,” she whispered back, gently untangling the cub from her paws and passing her to Heiko. “I’ll… I’ll be fine.”
She smiled weakly at Heiko, who staggered back.
“I can’t… I can’t leave you here,” she gasped, grasping her friend’s paws.
“You have to. I’ll just slow you down. And don’t you worry— I’ll be fine. I promise.”
Heiko hesitated, but suddenly, loud roars erupted from the tunnels behind them. Heiko took a step back, hesitating again, then shot a tearful look at Cokalt.
“I’ll… I’ll remember you,” she whispered before escaping out of a different entrance.
She thought she could hear Cokalt’s voice, whispering back one last time.
“Thank you…”
Heiko wiped away her tears as she clutched the dark cub in her jaws, running as fast as she could.
The cold air hit like sharp claws against her fur.
And Heiko ran.
Her paws pushed against the frozen ground, cold, shaking, terrified.
Heiko hesitated as she reached the border.
Was this really the right thing to do? To throw away her whole life just for this… this cursed cub?
Heiko shook her head. No. This cub wasn’t cursed. And it didn’t deserve to die.
She took another trembling step.
She’d grown up in this pride, took her first steps, learned to hunt.
She had killed for her pride… and now they were out or kill her.

——

“Can’t find any shelter,” Heiko murmured, shivering. She looked around and sighed, almost about to give up. How stupid was she to think she could survive on her own, after being in a pride for her whole life?
She let out a trembling sigh.
I’m going to die, she thought defeatedly.
She sank to the ground, when suddenly, the tiny cub wriggled out of her mouth and darted away.
Well, darted was definitely the wrong word. It was more like a waddle.
“Hey! You little monster, come back here!” Heiko growled, following the cub. “You’re wasting energy! Stop moving around! Come back!”
She hissed. Maybe this cub was bad luck after all. She was certainly very annoying and disobedient.
She followed her until she stopped, mewling softly.
“Now what?” Heiko grumbled at the cub. She stared up at her with wide eyes, then turned around and waddled into a little hole in the ground.
Heiko gasped, digging through the snow.
“Little cub? Where’d you… oh.”
The cub was resting in a small cave, just barely big enough for both of them.
Heiko climbed in with her and curled up, then smiled a little at the cub.
“Sorry,” she told her gently. “Maybe you are good luck after all.”
The two huddled for warmth and waited…
But the storm would only get worse.

——

“Ah, Ill-fated one…” a voice rang out from behind her, lilting and mystical. “Welcome to our abode…”
“Who’s there?” Heiko jumped, her eyes flicking to and fro, trying desperately to see through the blizzard. “Show yourself!”
She clutched the little black kitten to her chest, hoping she could hear her think. I will protect you. I promise. “Who’s there?” She called again.
A dark lioness, black as the night, appeared from between the trees, her white teeth shining as she smiled. She was smaller than expected, probably only an adolescent.
Heiko pressed herself closer to the trees, trying to press down all the horrible stories told about black lions in her pride. She knew they weren’t true now. The little cub in her grasp proved it. She mewed softly and curled into her fur, purring quietly. She apparently trusted her completely.
Heiko stared at the stranger. Now that she could see her clearly, she saw the deep red and purple colors waving through her pelt like a bloodied version of the northern lights above. The adolescent stared back, and her eyes began to glow.
Heiko’s fur prickled and her stomach squeezed, feeling as though the young lioness was staring straight into her soul.
“Wha—“ she started, glancing up at the lioness’s coat. Bright purples and blues began appearing all over her coat, twisting and curling like runes. Shocked into silence, Heiko stared, wide-eyed, as the lioness’s eyes flashed white.
“You abandoned your home, met your end, you have lost a close friend,” she whispered. “Perhaps your fate may turn around, if you take our crown.”
“What?”
“Come with me.”
With nowhere else to go and no other hope, Heiko nervously followed the young lioness further into the dark.

Heiko fiddled with her claws, her memories again bringing her back to the present. Walking out of her cave and watching her subjects with a wistful expression on her face, Heiko sighed and turned around.
She wished she could be a good leader, someone who could be trusted. But who was she to ask for their trust? A random newcomer the last king happened to like, that was all.
Heiko stifled another sigh and peeked over again, watching the tiny shapes as they wrestled and played and argued.
She would try her best to earn their trust.
And that was all she could do.

Stars twinkled in the night sky above.
Bastet let out a contented sigh, smiling as she leaned against the warm fur of the large lion next to her. Her king, Solas, who she looked up to as a father, looked tenderly at her and smiled back.
“Beautiful sky tonight,” he rumbled, his voice creaking slightly with age.
“Is it too cold? Should we get you back to the caves?” Bastet asked worriedly. “Your sickness—“
“No, no… it’s fine,” Solas purred. “The moon goddess watches over us all. I’m much better off breathing the same fresh night air she breathes.”
“Right.”
“I named you after the goddess, Bastet,” the king rumbled. “Do you know why?”
“Of course, Solas,” Bastet said with a small laugh. “But you should tell it. You’re much better at it than me.” She’d heard him tell her this a thousand times, but she’d never get tired of it. She knew it was his favorite story to tell her.
“Alright then, my little moonbeam,” he said quietly, his voice growing low and melodic, losing the croak of old age as he began to tell the story. “When your mother brought you to me, she was afraid I might be angry. That I would hate her for having a cub with a leopard.” He chuckled. “And perhaps I might have. I was young then, full of myself, and I didn’t have my head screwed on tightly enough. But when I saw you… I couldn’t be angry. It was like the goddess herself had put herself into your soul, stars sparkling in your eyes and music flowing through your voice. And as you reached up to the sky with your beautiful little paws, I loved you. And I named you the only name you could deserve. The only name fitting of a goddess like yourself.”
A cool silence filled the air, and Solas waited for a moment before he finally spoke. “I named you Bastet.”
Bastet smiled, purring as she rested her head on his shoulder.
Suddenly, he coughed, his body shaking as he did. Alarmed, Bastet stroked him gently until his coughing stopped.
“Maybe we should go inside? I think that was enough fresh air for one day,” Bastet said gently.
Solas smiled, something twinkling in his eyes.
“You really are a gift from heaven.”