Kira opened her eyes to see her mother, Goddess, looking down at her. "Hello mother!" Kira chirped happy to be alive, "You're very pretty!" Goddess responded, speaking grandly, "Why thank you young one!" Goddess and Kira's litter mates played together happily until one fateful day.
"Momma?" Kira asked into the empty air. "Wheres momma and my litter mates?" She thought. Goddess and her litter had been playing in a clearing when all of a sudden Kira found herself standing alone. "Momma? Momma!?!?! MOMMA!?!?" Kira yells into the forest, getting increasingly more frantic. She runs through the forest searching for her family or at least someone in her pride with no avail. She had not yet learned how to get back to the pride. She lay down defeated. She had searched for hours and was now utterly lost. She let her head fall to the ground and slept.

As she slept, a monkey came up and kept her safe until she awoke. When she woke, she panicked. "Ah! Who are you?!" She scrambled up to her feet and hissed at the monkey with her ears pinned. "I'm so sorry young one! I didn't mean to startle you! I mean no harm! Only to help! I do not have a name but I live in The Giving Tree where cubs like you can find homes!" Still tense but not as wary, Kira stood up tall and asked, "And why would you help me?" The monkey stepped forward slowly, not wanting to scare the frightened lioness. "Well I love helping lions like you! And you would be able to get a new family!" Kira looked down sadly and said, "But what about my old family? I love my mom and my sisters and my brothers and my dad and my friends." "I'm sorry sweetie. There's no way to get you back unless they come to the Giving Tree and take you back. But you'll get a new family who will love you very much!" The monkey kept trying to get her to like the idea of a new home so she would stop worrying about the old one. After some convincing, Kira snuffed into the dirt, "Fine. I'll come with you." And that began the journey to the Giving Tree.

Once they got there, Kira looked around scared. There was way too many cubs and teens here messing around and she could get hurt. The teen boys were wrestling and every so often you would hear a yelp from one of the piles of boys. But then she looked up. The tree was beautiful! It had so many glittering items in it! And look! There's some food at the base of the tree! Just then she saw some pride leaders of surrounding prides looking at the goods and lions for adoption. Some were scary, others looked nice and some looked like a mix of the two. "I wish I could be adopted by that one" Kira thought as she looked at a kind faced female, decorated in all of her beautiful wears. She was definitely a powerful leader. Then the lioness darted forward to a carcass from the pile, and she was gone into the forest. "Darn." Kira thought, "If she choose me, I could have a had an awesome family. She looked over at the other cubs her age and trotted over to them. "Hey guys! What's it like here?" Most of the cubs ignored her, sad because they couldn't find their families, or had been abandoned. Another female cub came over to her and said, "Hi! It's great here! We get lots of food and get to play all day!" She looked like what Kira heard other lions call a "fodder". She didn't know what it meant though. The other cubs listening in grumbled in objection. They obviously didn't think it was great here. "That's cool! Where do you guys sleep?" Kira asked. "We all get taken inside the tree. That way we don't get eaten by any predators!" The cub said. Kira stepped back at this. "She's very happy about everything. Even about predators." She thought. "Well I'm going to go sit down and rest. Thank you." Kira said to the cub. "Ok! We can sit down together! By the way, my name is Sandstone!" The cub, Sandstone said cheerfully. Kira thought "Oh that's just lovely. I'm not going to sleep or get any alone time while she's around."

The next morning Kira awoke to a furry face looking down at her. "Ahh!" She yelped, not remember who Sandstone was for a second. "It's just me silly!" Sandstone said. Kira was hoping that this was a dream and she would wake up next to her momma and litter mates, but sadly this was not the case. Kira got up and walked over to a small pile of food that was around where the other cubs slept. "This was their food source" Kira suspected. She ate a goose carcass in silence while Sandstone bounded over to her. Sandstone exclaimed, "Oh I love food!" While picking out a rat carcass from the pile. As she ate, she started speaking again, with bits of meat flying from her mouth. "I hope I get chosen today!" Sandstone exclaimed. Kira said, "Me too." Not so enthusiastic. She missed her old family. She missed the den she used to sleep in with her momma. She missed playing the game the pride cubs called "paw tag" She got up and went over to the tree to watch the pride leaders pick out items and food. She also watched the other leaders pick out cubs and teens to take home. "Look!" Kira thought "There's the female from yesterday!" This time she was looking at the cubs and teens. Kira sprinted towards her and the cubs she was looking at. Kira skidded to a stop right in front of the female and said happily "Wait! Look at me! You-look-so-pretty-and-kind-and-sweet-and-awesome!" The last part of what she was saying was all one word because Kira was so excited. "Well hello little one!" The female said gracefully and with a sweet smile on her face, "I'm looking at you! What did you run over here for little one?" This close, Kira saw how pretty the leader was! She had lots of decorations and an animal following her! "She must be a very powerful leader if she has that many decorations and an animal that trusts her so much!" Kira thought. Then she spoke a bit calmer, "Hi! I lost my family and I'm looking for another one! Will you take care of me please?" The female looked at her thoughtfully for a moment. "I'm sorry but I cannot take you today. I would gladly take you in but I need to ask my pride first! I never take in a cub without the permission of my pride! Right now I have permission to take one of the ones I was looking at a few days ago. I promise I will come back tomorrow to tell you what they say!" A little disheartened by this news, Kira looked down at the ground. "Well thank you. I hope they say yes! I really really really want to come home with you!" The female responded, "Of course little one! And if I cannot come back tomorrow I will definitely come back the next day! My name is Fiesta by the way!" Fiesta walked to one of the other cubs, talked to it for a second, the cub jumped up and followed her as they walked into the forest again. Kira thought kind of selfishly, "Oh I wish that was me. I want to be taken to a pride that will love me." She walked back to where she was eating and gnawed on the bones.
~The next day~
Kira woke up and looked at the sky. It was beautiful! There was many colors in it. Her momma had always called this time "the sunrise". "Whatever it was called, it was pretty" she thought. She got up, ate, and went over to the other cubs and teens looking for homes. She waited a few hours, playing with the other cubs when she spotted Fiesta. She ran over as quickly as her little legs could carry her and slammed into the big females chest. "Well hello there little one. I'm glad to see you're so happy!" Kira replied, "Oh yes of course! You're awesome!" Fiesta smiled then said, "My pride came to a conclusion about taking you in. We deci-" "Will you take me???" Yelled little Kira. Laughing, Fiesta said sweetly, "Like I was saying, our pride came to a conclusion to let you join!" "Oh my gosh! Thank you thank you thank you! You won't regret letting me stay with you!" Fiesta and her pride had really liked Kira so they decided to let her stay. "You're welcome. Now what's your name?" "It's Kira your majesty" Fiesta scowled at that, "Don't call me that. Im a leader but all of my pride members have as much say in what happens as I do." "Im sorry miss. I didn't mean to offend you." Fiesta replied, "It's alright young one. You didn't know. That's you're first lesson! There's much to learn in my pride. Now let's get home."

Kira said goodbye to all of the cubs she has played with and talked to. Sandstone had been very sad about Kira leaving but was happy for her too. Kira and Fiesta walked to the forest. When they reached the edge, Kira looked back at the tree. "That tree is so pretty" She thought. It had so many items and so much food at the base of it for everyone to take. Then they both walked into the forest. Fiesta asked her a couple questions about how she got there and how it was back home. Kira responded accordingly to the questions and was sad thinking about her old family. "I know my pride won't be like your old home but I hope you like it." Fiesta said to her. They walked on in silence for a while. Then Fiesta said, "We're entering my territory now. And we're almost to the dens." Kira exclaimed, "Yippee! I can't wait to meet your pride! Are they nice? Are there other cubs like me? Will they like me? What do you guys eat?" Fiesta looked down smiling. "That's a lot of questions! They're very nice. They're are other cubs like you, they will like you, and the lionesses go hunting for food then we eat what they bring back." They both kept on walking until Kira heard voices. "Is that the pride?" Kira asked. Fiesta replied, "It sure is. You could go ahead if you want." Kira ran ahead and made it to the pride. She was going so fast that she didn't realize she was about to run into a lioness. She slammed into the lionesses leg. "What?" The lioness looked down menacingly. Kira scrambled backwards and fell on her butt. "Oh hi there little one! I'm sorry! I thought you were another one of the cubs that has been terrorizing me all day. Where'd you come from?" Fiesta, hearing the commotion, ran up to them out of the forest. "This is our new pride member. Kira, this is Cali. Cali, this is Kira. Cali was beautiful! She was something her mom called a "Patches" lioness and if she could remember right she was a "Parches Charred" "Let's get you introduced to everyone" Fiesta said kindly. They walked around the dens for an hour or two meeting everyone. "Everyone here is so nice!" Kira thought. Awhile later, Fiesta said, "Well you've met everyone! How about we go find a nice den for you to sleep in!" They both walked over to a calm looking den. Inside it had a few of the lionesses she had met in the start of the day. "In here you can sleep, play, and eat. Most of the cubs and teens play outside but some play in here. Especially the younger ones. These lionesses will keep you safe from predators. They're very kind. Now let's get you settled. They both walked over to the lionesses. "Will you let her sleep with you Serephine?" Serephine was a yellowish lioness with pink stripes. "Oh course Fiesta! I would love to let her take a nap with me any time!" "Thank you" Fiesta responded. "Good night Kira. I hope you like it here." Kira replied, "I love it here! Thank you so much for letting me stay here!" Fiesta walked out of the den and left her and Serephine to talk for a bit before they both fell asleep, Kira curled up next to Serephines tummy.

The next day, Kira woke up thinking she was home. That she was curled up next to momma. But she wasn't. She was in another pride curled up next to someone else's momma. She got up, found the food pile, and ate. Then she found the other cubs and played with them for the a few hours. Fiesta came up to her and asked, "Do you want me to show you the other things about the pride?" "Sure!" Kira said. So they walked around for the rest of the day. When it was time to sleep, Kira went back to sleep with Serephine. The next few months went mostly like this. Kira waking up next to Serephine, playing with the cubs, then being taught important information by Fiesta the rest of the day.

Kira began to feel sad. She missed her original home. One day she went up to Fiesta and asked, "Can I leave? I'm almost 2 years old and I want to find my family." "Well it might be dangerous but you can if you'd like. I'm not going to force you to stay. I'll tell you what. I'll send you with a protector. He's a brown piebald and he will protect you for as long as you need him." "Thank you so much!" Kira said, "When can I leave?" Fiesta looked down sadly. This little one had been such a joy to have around the pride. She would miss her. "You can leave in the morning. Pack as much food as you can bring with you. Hunting around here is hard these days and I don't want you going hungry." Kira asked, "But what about the pride? Wont they go hungry?" "No. Hunting in groups is much easier than alone. We'll be alright." "Thank you so much for everything Fiesta. I wish I could stay but I can't. I have to find my family." "Oh it's alright little one. Please don't worry about us. If you ever need somewhere to stay we'll welcome you back." Kira thanked Fiesta again and went to pack. After packing she slept next to Serephine for the last time.

In the morning, she said her goodbyes to everyone and found the piebald submale, later she found was named Broan (pronounced Bro-in), Fiesta had sent her with. Fiesta had said a much more elaborate goodbye that morning than what she had said the night before. Then her and Broan walked out into the forest ready for their adventures.