VoK Prompts

No one had expected the disastrous battle against the titan to mean the end for their pride. Now few and scattered Dian was doing her best to keep those who remained in her sights together. Osin tucked close to Milo's side as the lion looked far younger in his fear. This was a disaster that they would not recover from alone. Once again faced with the crumbling reality of her safety net and the life she once knew the lioness trudged on. Looking through the crowed again as if her pridmates would magically reveal themselves, claiming their horrendous joke so she could probably scold them.

Milo could only watch in weighed sorrow at his pridemates anger and denial. Keeping the young Osin close so that he would not lose him in the crowd. His hawk scouting ahead with no luck on finding any others. It wasn't until Dian had come across the fallen body of their founder did she break. This pride had been her escape and although she never spoke of her past it was easy to see the haunted look in her eyes. A lion who has already been through far too much in her youth now battle weary and broken.

Dian did not realize it was her making those mournful sounds until she felt Milo and Osin lean close. Offering their support as they held desperately to what remained. She wasn't sure how long they sat vigil for. The sun long gone and battlefield all but abandoned the silence was interrupted by a strangers approach.

His arrival was slow and calm, head bowed as he grew close and understood why these three had been sitting so still. "I am sorry for you loss. The victory of today will never lessen the wounds of the heart." His comment was somber as he made sure to not intrude into their space. Choosing to sit at a small distance, as if joining their vigil, and saying farewell to someone who was but a stranger.

"Why?", the voice so soft Milo would have never believed it came from Dian had he not been there to witness. "Why do you care? You do not know them..."

The stranger blinked in surprise before his expression shifted to a sadder one Dian could not decipher. "They may have not been my pridemate, but we all fought as one today. Knowing them or not I know they did all they could,  and that they deserve a proper sendoff at the very least... a battlefield is no grave." Only then did she realize his paws were dusty and caked in dry mud. "Not every pride was lucky enough to leave here without loses, and many had no one left to take them home..."

After his words permeated the air around them the small group did not speak further. Standing vigil for a life they had no more, and the lives lost, but not abandoned. Mono as they had come to learn had no pride to return with. The silent acceptance though never spoke was cemented when he left alongside them. It would take awhile for the grief to heal, but as they stood together they knew home would exist one day again.

The pride of the Oasis Basin was strange to Dian. A pride so willing to accept those lost or abandoned seemed too good to be true, but as she watched her first cubs grow and thrive in such a strange new world she felt calm. This place was a sanctuary for her old soul. Somewhere she prayed the darkness she knew could never touch. A rare smile eched across her scarred muzzle as the sound of Mono chasing Milo down with a flower crown echoed across camp. Her own placed careful not a few moments earlier in celebration of her announcement.

[637]