The Crushing of One's Innocence.

[lapara]

Lapara walked into her den. Her cubs had turned 1 year old and according to her beliefs that was the day when a mother was entitled to tell her cubs who their father was. Her cubs were so innocent though. Should she impose this knowledge on them? Should she really crush that young innocence? Yes She thought. They have a right to know.

Laela padded into the den after her mother. She had been told that she would get a story today. She wondered what the story would be as she lay down in her nest.

Holitorn padded in after his sister. He wasn't as excited as her. So what if there was a story. His mother told them a story at the end of the day at least once a week. Even if it was a few sentences long. What was special about tonight?

Lapara sighed. "Ok... today we're going to have a very sad story. Once, long ago, there was a young lioness cub named Lily. She was barley a month old when she was kidnapped by horrible creatures called the murder apes. They locked her in a wooden thing that had too sharp angles to be natural. Finally, after a day or two in the dark, cramped place. The murder apes opened the thing, letting in blinding sunlight. They took her out and gave her to another Murder Ape. They took her inside some huge den, and showed a smaller Murder Ape called a smallen her. She lived there for a year or two and she began to grow. One day the Smallen was handling her extremely rough, she scratched it. It let out a horrible screeching noise and the Murder Apes came running. They gave her a cold look and went and got a cold looking, hard stick. She was young but she knew what it meant-death. Lily ran out of there as fast as she could, but a round, cold, thing made it's way into her hind leg. She found a pride where they treated her. It took her a year to recover. One day, about a month after she recovered, she was about to go hunting when a lion stopped her. He took her to a clearing and force-bred her. Lily ran away from that pride that day and a week later, they had all been shot. She became pregnant that day and months later, she gave birth to a cub. That cub scratched her with it's tiny claws while it was suckling, and it looked just like it's father. The other two were born the next day. The first cub was always hostile to wards her and she whispered in her mind that he was the reincarnation of his dead father. When he was 3 months old he ran away. Lily always tried to get others to follow her in her lead for peace, but the only ones who followed her were her later cubs. Now... replace Lily with Lapara and you've got my personal history..." Lapara looked down. Ashamed that she had smashed their innocence in one blow.

Laela was shocked. Her eyes grew as big a boulders. "You mean that HE'S our father?"She asked.

Holitorn looked down. His eyes brimmed with tears at the sad story. So that evil cub that hated me wasn't just a dream... He whispered.

Lapara just nodded her head at the cub's question.

Laela's eyes brimmed with determination. "I don't care. Almost all of this happened before I was born. As far as I'm concerned I don't have a father."

Holitorn nodded. He admired his sister's courage. He was sure he could overcome it... but it would take longer then his sister had taken.

[drakel]

Paws crunched outside of the den. A soft sound of braken swirling. A long lean cat strode through the plains. His ginger pelt glowed in the sunlight. The black stripes tore across it like viscouse shadows. The tiger's tawny eyes watched everything as he moved. They were brimmed with sadness. He blinked slowly, wondering if that odd shape ahead looked like a den.

Tej paused. His white paws pressed against the ground. Blinking slowly he gazed at the little spot. No matter what was in there, it didn't give him the right to intrude. But his curiosity was about to kill him. So Tej sat back on his haaunches to wait. whatever was in there should have heard him. They would come out sooner or later.

[lapara]

Lapara heard somthing like paws crunching outside her den. Wondering what it was, she told her cubs, "Stay here." and walked out of the den and saw the tiger. She unshethed her claws and growled, "What do you want?". She could hear the wind howling around her. For all she knew, he could be here to kill her or her cubs.

[drakel]

Tej's head snapped up. The tiger stared at the newly appeared lioness. He blinked. So that was a den. Was the random thought that ran threw his head. "I apologize if I scared anyone!" he called. "I am just a travler looking for my destination." he said turning fully towards the lion. Sitting back on his haunches he blinked his golden eyes.

[lapara]

Lapara relaxed. So he wasn't here with a threat. Oh well. All loners were on the same page. "Where are you headed?" She asked. She flicked her tail in signal that her cubs could come out.

Laela trotted out into the cold night and sat beside her mother when she saw the tiger. She almost growled, but looked up at her mother who was sitting calmly. She never would have called them out if she wasn't sure that the tiger was a friend.

Holitorn walked out and sat on the other side of his mother. What was a tiger doing here? Holitorn glared and tensed but he didn't growl or move.

Lapara brushed her tail over Holitorn's back to calm him. "These are my cubs, Laela and Holitorn. I'm Lapara.She said.

[drakel]

Tej smiled widly. "It is good to meet you all. Especialy the pride of the next generation" the tiger dipped his head. Looking up again, he stood, padding towards the lioness and her cubs, though he showed enough brains to stay out of striking distance. "What good cubs! Strong and healthy too" he chuckled nodding. He loked back to Larpa. "I have no destination. I am merly searching for the next peace of my life" he mewed calmly. "You can call me Tej. My full name is embarising and somewhat odd. It means hope" Tej frowned.

[lapara]

Lapara's jaw dropped. "You mean that others in other species are working for peace too?" She said before she relised how silly it was. Of course there were others for peace. Did she really belive that she was the only one? Was that so far fetched in the first place?

[drakel]

Tej smiled warmly at the lioness. "Of course. There are others who wait for the blood to stop poring. Not all wishes for this darkness creeping over our land." he said looking to the cubs. "Your cubs deserve to live in a world without unnecisary blood shed" he said kindly, blinking his brown eyes at the young ones.

[lapara]

Lapara looked embaressed. "I'm sorry. I have had so much failure trying to sway my own kind that I didn't even think that others might be trying too." She said. She looked down at holitorn and Laela, trying to imagine how much pain she would be in if one of them got hurt. She couldn't even bear the thought of it. She hadn't relised until that moment what her first reason for working for the peace was. She had thought it was because the fighting was wrong, but no. That was only her second reason. Her first reason was because she didn't want her cubs to have to endure too much pain.

Laela looked at the tiger with wonder in her eyes. She hadn't had the slightest clue that any tiger could be this nice, let alone be fighting for the peace. However she accepted in her mind without the least bit of aguement.

[|~|Lapara|~|]

OOC: Drakel? Are you ever going to respond?

[Bhu]

OOC//: Oh, PM Sheelawolf and let her know Tej is needed here. Drakel has been very busy so Sheela took over Tej until he could come back.