Naja

Naja watched as the Pride lions entered her Oasis. This was her place and she did not trust these strangers. She knew, as a guard, that they were here to ask for military help. She only knew what she was told though, and she was not told much. Need to know and all that, she guessed. She turned away from the parade through the marketplace and made her way down to her post.

Early the next morning, she was told that they would have many new charges in the holding cell. She was greatly confused as they had not had a lion in there for a while, and now they would have "many"? She shook her head to dispel the thoughts. She would do as she was commanded, whether or not she had an explanation. She trusted her superiors and would gladly follow them where they led her. A pair of golden eyes approached down the hall as she moved off to start her rotation. She acknowledged the fellow tracker's presence, then moved past her on the opposite side of the corridor.
"Hey there Naja. Don't you think you're being a little slow for a guard?" the other lioness quipped.
"Good morning to you, too, Artesa," Naja said as she continued on her way. She was used to the pokes and jibes from her shift-mate. Naja grew weary of it sometimes, especially if the sneers hit close to home, but today she was more occupied with thoughts of the Pride in the Oasis.

As she rounded the corner to the main tunnel, she saw a group of lions being escorted down toward her. She stepped back into the doorway of a nearby room to give them space to pass, and was surprised to see that they were all Pride warriors. Her eyebrows raised as she looked at one of the guards in the rear of the procession, but he just shrugged at her and continued on his way. A while after they had passed, Naja stepped out into the hall once more, only to then be stopped by one of her superiors.

"Naja, you and Artesa will be guarding the prisoners. They are to be kept under strict supervision." Although confusion whirled in her mind, Naja trusted that they knew what they were doing. "Yes, Sir," she said with a nod and turned to make her way to the cell.

She heard their protests, threats, and snarls before she rounded the corner to them. She created a ball of light that allowed her to get a good look at the captives. They were all powerful looking, healthy lions. She noticed that a few had apparently put up more than a verbal fight and had wounds to show for it. Her brow furrowed in thought as she put out her light. The dim light of the halls unnerved her sometimes, but it was best to keep her eyes use to the darkness. She turned once more to begin her rotation in the corridor that led to the cells. It was so quiet there that Naja could hear her own soft footfalls, and her enhanced hearing ability made any other noises immediately apparent to her. She walked her course for an hour before she realized that she had not seen her fellow guard, Artesa. Weren't they both supposed to be on this rotation? Her eyes picked up a familiar golden gleam in the dim hall ahead and she called out,
"Hey, Esa, I was wondering where you were. I was getting worried."
The brown and gold lioness trotted forward and said, "I heard something down the hall," she panted. "I thought it might be someone trying to break out the prisoners, so I went to look around."
Naja was immediately on the alert. "Did you see anything?"
Nodding, Artesa said, "I did. A large Pride male was entering the tunnel through a heavy grate. We need to stop him, but he is obviously a metal elemental. He bent those bars like they were blades of grass."
Naja looked down at her own armor, entirely made of metal. She did not relish the idea of going up against this lion, but she would do what she needed to do.
As if reading her thoughts, the other guard said, "I'll help you get out of your armor, then you help me out of mine and we will go after him together."
Naja was highly uncomfortable with the idea and was about to protest when she too heard a sound in the corridor ahead.
The other lion looked frantic. "Come on! We have no time!"
Naja nodded and together they removed her armor quickly. She turned to help Artesa with her armor as well, when suddenly the lioness leaped at her. Naja was so caught off guard that she lost any advantage her greater size would have given her. The smaller lioness leaped and twirled like a crazed thing, opening deep gashed and puncture wounds all over the purple lioness's now-exposed skin. Naja desperately cried out to alert anyone who was possibly nearby, but then the smaller lioness clamped her jaws on Naja's windpipe, silencing her. The loss of blood, the pain of her many wounds, and now the lack of oxygen caused the large lioness to  slump to the ground. Her vision faded to black and the last thoughts she had were of betrayal and confusion. It was not the Pride that should have been feared at all, was it? Her demise came at the paws of someone she had trusted. Someone from her Oasis. And why did they take all of those Pride warrior prisoner? Had they done anything? No.

Her Oasis was not the idyllic place she had believed it to be. Even here, shadows and deception lurked.

After the attack on her in the Oasis, Naja felt fearful of her once-beloved home. She had trusted and had been betrayed. For many years she would suffer from PTSD, which would cause her to hide away from the world and suffer panic attacks. She decided to leave the Oasis when the Pride did, when the lion Klay asked her to return with him. She was interested in getting to know the kind and compassionate lion that had saved her life. 

The journey back to the Pridelands was long and hard on the lioness, as she had not had much reason to wander far before. They arrived, exhausted but safely, in the Pride after several days of walking. Naja was pleased to see the lioness Khaalida there after she had been there for a few days. She got to know her and came to regard the black lioness as a close friend. 

She also encountered another lioness, the beautiful lava elemental named Valhalla. Klay had mentioned her to Naja, saying that they had been mated before but had ended things with each other. That particular meeting had distressed Naja and left her feeling sad and self-conscious.

A little over a year after she arrived, Naja and Klay were mated. Naja had been happy that Khaalida had given birth to a litter of four beautiful cubs. Naja and Klay both agreed that they would help Kha with the cubs while she had to be away, although most of the care would fall to Naja since Klay had his own Patrols to run. They had their small den enlarged to make room for the four cubs who would be there sometimes.

Around that time, Naja began to notice that something was wrong. She felt tired often, got dizzy, and just had a general feeling of discomfort and unease. She did not tell Klay for fear of causing him to worry, but one day they were out for a walk away from the pride and Naja began to have real problems. She was not able to hide it from Klay then, and they decided to get Naja home to a healer. On the way back though, she experienced terrible pains in her belly and fell unconscious. Her elements were going haywire in response to the panic she felt, and as self-defense her poison element coated her skin, even as she lay unconscious. Despite this, Klay managed to get her back to the pride in time to get her to a healer.

While the healer was able to stop whatever sickness she had, it left her damaged, but this is something they would not find out until later.

March 2018

April 2018