Salacia

Gender: Female

Elements: Earth and Disease

Alliance: Pride

Future Rank: Mole

(Adopted) Mothers: Damsel and Oriel (deceased)

Edits: CHIMERA | Rodent ears | Hairless tail | Custom tail spikes | Scars | Long and exaggerated whiskers | Disease-prints

*The prints are a sort of disease, but when purple does little harm to anything living (plants, other lions etc) and they disappear after a few seconds. Salacia can turn the prints black, filled with illness that would need to be cured by another disease or poison elemental LoC. The black prints can kill any plants that it comes in contact with or other lions if they ingest it or if it gets into an open wound. It shouldn't effect a lion if they only touch the black prints but it's best to avoid it anyway.

*Chimera: One side based off Blue Agouti, the other Pink Eyed White (not Albino!) [rat color genes] If/when she ever breeds, Random Number Generator will determine which side gets passed to her litter.

Story

One Sickly Cub

The dusk was gloomy and somber. A fine drizzle was carried by a whipping breeze that scared prey and kept them safe at home. Salacia's mother passed her cursed Disease element to her daughter, something that was not likely nor wanted. The older lioness had always struggled with her health. She tried her best to eat enough food when it was available and to assist in hunting when her body allowed. Truth was, Salacia's mother was born to die, and so was Salacia herself.

She was born in a litter of four but she was the only survivor. The mother was heartbroken from the moment she knew she would have cubs, as something inside her always told her not to allow it. Somehow, she sensed her unborn children would be doomed from the start and she couldn't bare the burden of bringing such suffering into the world. It happened though, and the frail woman eventually gave birth to four cubs.

The father was a more determined type who saw much hope for a large family. Born of Fire, his ambitions burned hot and never died! He alone delivered the cubs of his beloved mate and did more than most fathers would know how to do. By the time the fourth cub had been born, the others were clean and warm in their father's pelt. When his eyes met hers, his smile showed pure and utter happiness as hers began to fade. He pulled the lioness close to her cubs and himself, holding his entire family in his arms for the first, and last, time.

The tired man sat hunched over a pile of freshly turned soil and stones. He heard burying the dead had sentimental value. This was the only way to ease his soul. Leaving his mate, the grave behind, he thought of how wrong things were now. Food was scarce even before he had cubs to care for, but that wasn't even his problem. One of his cubs died shortly before its mother, and another cub grew sick beyond curing just days after. It was then that he decided he couldn't do this alone; he couldn't raise a family without his only support, his love, at his side. He didn't give up though, there was just no way he'd let his entire family die. By the time his thoughts ended, he was looming over his two living children. One was sound asleep with a festering open wound on her shoulder, and the other was struggling to keep his heart beating. The determined father had been feeding them mashed berries and pre-chewed meat in an attempt to keep them alive. His son had refused the last two meals.

With a heavy heart the gentle male trudged onward with a lone cub on his back. He was started to lose a significant amount of weight himself, and had no time for hours of hunting like he used to. If he died here, so would his daughter--the only thing he's lived this long for. He got her through the weening stage somehow, but now his fire was burning low and dim. "I know we're close, dear. I just don't know if I could see you the whole way." he peered over his shoulder at smiled into his cub's big, beautiful eyes. The Pride was close by he knew, but never had he been there. His strength was finally failing as he felt his legs giving way under his weight. "This is where we part ways. I'm so sorry I couldn't do more for you, my sweet. Your mother would have been so proud to see you've made it so far." The once headstrong male blinked the mist from his eyes and gave the sickly child a long, last nuzzle. He still had some strength in him, and still had some daylight on his side. With his final effort to save his family, he roared and screamed in the most agonizing and desperate howls to draw as much attention as he could before he departed back to where he came from. It only took a few hours of prowling and investigating for a devoted Tracker lioness to pick up the sounds of hungry cub whimpers within the radius of the commotion.