The first thing that Chaltuu ever heard was a simple sentence, really, four words total. But she didn't know what it meant- it was all just blabber to her.
Pointless blabber.
"Red fur!" the voice screamed. "A curse!"
Chaltuu's ears weren't supposed to open at birth, they should have opened at four weeks old at most. But that ear-splitting howl of pure desperation did the job well. Being the tiny cub she was, literally less than two minutes old, she squirmed and gurgled, but not the gentle sort of baby coo; one filled with fear, and nothing but fear.
That small little grunt melted into a wail as Chaltuu was violently torn from her mother's belly. Suddenly everything was cold; she shivered and cried, not having her mother's soft, gentle warmth to surround her. Now everything felt like ice to her.
She felt herself being dropped onto the ground and her tail scrunched up from the cold bitterness. She shuddered and instinctively curled into a ball, trying to preserve heat. She whimpered quietly.
Craning her flat ears, Chaltuu heard indistinct chatter; not that she understood it.
"We'll find out what to do with her later, Kivuli. Just let her back in," a feminine voice said.
"No, Uangaze; red fur is a curse. The moment she dies, all bad luck and horror will be lifted from our shoulders," a deeper voice rebuked.
"Kivuli, stop!" the female, this "Uangaze" cried. "Just... stop."
Chaltuu heard a snort and felt teeth meet her scruff. In just moments she had been returned to the belly she recognized so well. She purred; not really a purr, but a low, nearly-inaudible rumble.
"Kivuli," Uangaze said, her voice serious and stern. "I share your beliefs." Chaltuu could feel a disgusted gaze resting on her back. "She will bring nothing but trouble. But we cannot kill her."
Kivuli snorted. "Whatever. Nurse the cub, Uangaze, and once that... thing... is weaned we'll put her up for adoption. One of the lionesses can take her."
"I'd rather we didn't," Uangaze said.
"Fine," the newborn heard Kivuli say. "But she will never be seen as our daughter."
The day Chaltuu opened her eyes was a day she'd never, ever forget.
It was still snowfall. The white flakes were falling to the ground, and soon the entire ground was covered in the cold whiteness.
Chaltuu, with her eyes still loosely shut, was pawing at the... strange stuff in wonder. "What's this?" she queried.
"It's snow," Uangaze grunted. Chaltuu's mother wasn't as bad as Kivuli; the lioness still looked out for Chaltuu, nursing her and grooming her- reluctantly. Uangaze neglected Chaltuu, threw her off to the side, treating her as if she was a burden instead of a daughter.
Chaltuu chuckled. "I guess it'll last for a while."
"It will," Uangaze replied. "Time for your nap, Chaltuu."
After a long, dreamless doze, Chaltuu woke up and blinked. She winced as light shone into er eyes, blinding her for a moment. "Ow!" she grumbled, squinting her eyes. She muttered inaudibly and covered her eyes with her paws for a brief moment. Slowly and surely, her eyes started to adjust.
"Mother!" Chaltuu yelped excitedly, prancing around. "Mother!"
A large, bubbly feeling rose inside her; finally, this was the moment! She could see.
She leaped towards her mother- and crashed straight into Kivuli.
"Watch it!" Kivuli snarled.
"S-sorry," Chaltuu stammered. "I-I... sorry, F-Father, I-"
Kivuli rolled his eyes and headed off. He flicked his tail to meet with a bunch of other lionesses, most likely to do something productive with his precious time, like organize a hunting party or a border watch.
Chaltuu's heart split. Her shoulders sagged and she sat down with a little thump. Why didn't Kivuli, her own father, love her? And why didn't Uangaze care about her?
Sitting down, Chaltuu glanced up at the bluish-grey sky, sighing again, inwardly.
"Why the long face?"
Chaltuu rolled her now-opened eyes and spun around to face her mother.
"Oh, you've opened your eyes!" Uangaze exclaimed, though she didn't sound all that enthusiastic.
Chaltuu's shoulders sagged even lower. Her ears flattened and she shuffled her paws awkwardly. Inside her heart was pounding, pressuring her to say something in response. But she didn't want to snap or spit an insult at her mother, or say something that she would regret later. She tended to do that. Then again, her parents didn't want her, so she didn't really know why she was so considerate of their feelings, if they didn't care about hers.
"You should tell your father," Uangaze said.
"And why is that?" Chaltuu responded coldly. "After all, Daddy is busy."
Without another word, Chaltuu turned and stormed away.
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More time went by. Slowly as a snail trying to win a race against a cheetah.
One night, while grooming her fur and picking little dirt and nits out of it- not that she actually was trying to clean herself, she was simply bored- Chaltuu rested her light green stare on the stars.
Chaltuu sighed inwardly. Her red fur was a curse; Kivuli said so himself.
And her green eyes were a curse. Green eyes in their pride was not uncommon, nor shunned, as Kivuli himself had green eyes. But pale green eyes with red fur was a curse. That's what she was told.
Chaltuu rasped her tongue along her paw once more, then gazed at the stars.
Stars. Why were they called stars, anyway?
Stars, stars, stars...
Chaltuu stood, growling to herself. Why did she even try to take the time to attempt, fruitlessly, to make her parents see that she wasn't just a hex? It wasn't like it mattered.
Each and every boring, long day, Chaltuu did the same thing over and over again:
Wake up, have Kivuli yelling for her to do her chores, sit in the back of the cave and do nothing but stare at the grey walls and pick at the dirt, eat a small portion of the day's catch, and go to sleep.
The same routine, every day of every moon.
Over the passing time, Chaltuu had grown to hate daytime. And not the common nocturnal-ness of a lion, where they will spend some time in the day but prefer nighttime, after she got an awful sunburn and had to wait for three dull, lengthy weeks for it to heal, she started to despise the sun and the day. She had grown out of watching the clouds pass through the sky- it was a pointless thing to do anyway.
The moon was like Chaltuu; ignored, detested, thrown to the side, nighttime dwellers. The only thing that they didn't have in common, the moon was a beautiful thing. Chaltuu wasn't. Her father told her each and every day, as if reminding her, that she was a hideous monster. And having nothing to oppose, Chaltuu was forced to believe him.
Chaltuu trotted away and gazed at all the stars. She wondered how they were made, why they were up there...
Her round cub eyes were curious and inquisitive. One day she would find out why they were there.
A few days went by. Chaltuu was being pestered and teased by Hamadou, a cub two moons older than her.
"Heeeyyy, Red!" Hamadou sang, prancing around her. "Red! Reddy! Oy, Re-ed!"
Chaltuu kneaded the soft earth with her sharp, blunt claws, imagining that the ground was Hamadou's back. She flicked her ears. "Ahem."
"Reddy! Reddyyy!" Hamadou chanted. "Reddyyy! Reddyyyyy!"
Chaltuu growled softly to herself. No matter how much of a complete idiot he's being, she reminded herself silently, he's just being what he is. An idiot.
The chanting continued and this time, multiple of the cubs joined in.
Chaltuu's temper was rising like the lakewater in a flood; quickly without ceasing or faltering. Her ears started to twitch irritably and her tail scrunched up. She rolled her pale green eyes and growled. "Hamadou."
Minutes went by and Chaltuu's temper boiled over. Snarling, she launched herself at Hamadou and sank her teeth into his shoulder.
Hamadou screamed and writhed under Chaltuu's paws. She bared her fangs and bristled, her claws digging into his chest.
"Chaltuu!" Kivuli roared. He stormed over and slapped Chaltuu across her muzzle. She failed her attempt to duck and felt her father's claws ripping across her face. She yelped and staggered clumsily to her paws.
Fortunately the scratches weren't deep. So there was no danger of scarring.
Chaltuu panted as a tiny bit of blood was drawn from the clawmarks. She wiped it away and glared at her father. Her eyes were narrowed to slits, her muzzle wrinkling, jaws parting slightly and showing her keen teeth. "I hate you!"
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Moons passed and Chaltuu grew and grew.
Many females thought she was a wreck. It took less than two minutes for Chaltuu to groom herself, and even that was rare. She grew stubborn and even ignorant of her parents, no longer caring for their opinions.
And she didn't want a mate. That concerned the females; nearly all the time, the lionesses, especially Chaltuu's age, were dying to have a mate. Chaltuu wanted nothing to do with males unless it was a sparring match.
Chaltuu grew competitive and strong-headed. She had a massive passion for fighting. If only her father would just let her become a guardian, or a border watcher...
It was just like her father to forbid her from reaching her dream. And it wasn't a stupid little fantasy. It was a goal that she had been aiming and working hard for. She practiced fighting moves every night, every moment of her spare time, every free minute she got.
Chaltuu sauntered past the group of young lionesses staring at her. She whirled around and glared fang and tooth at them. "Can I help you?"
"What's wrong with you?" the first lioness, Naima, asked angrily. "What's your problem? You're not like normal lionesses- you're not ladylike, you never talk about boys unless you talk about the recent claw-tooth-fighty-thing, you don't groom yourself frequently, you're way too stubborn for your own good..."
"Oh, for the love of the Spirits," Chaltuu groaned. "First off, girly, ladylike isn't my thing, a'right? I'm not about to go and try to straighten my whiskers for the sake of being pretty. Second, it's called a sparring match, stupid, and I have no interest in a mate. Third, why should I care about my fur? Please refer to my first answer to your first question. Stubborn? Yes, is there an issue with that?"
Naima rolled her eyes. "Whatever, claw-tooth-fighty-thing is the same thing as a 'sparring match'. And... you're not like the rest of the lionesses."
"And you think I'm going to change myself just so I can fit in?" Chaltuu demanded harshly.
"The least you could do is flatten that dirty fur and straighten those crooked whiskers!" the annoyance yelled.
"Why should I concern myself with that?" Chaltuu spat. "In case you haven't noticed, girly, I'm not about to go make myself pretty for the sake of impressing a ' future mate'."
"Chaltuu, you are pretty! You just don't have the guts to show it!" Naima shouted.
That hit her. Chaltuu's fur bristled. "Excuse me?"
"Y-yeah, you h-heard m-me! You don't have th-the guts!" Naima stuttered.
Chaltuu towered over Naima; she was at least a head taller than the other lioness. Her heart pounded and her tail lashed back and forth, ears slowly flattening against her head, lips drawing back to reveal her glinting teeth. Her eyes blazed aggressively and her claws slowly slid out.
"If I were in your paws I wouldn't be calling me a coward, not just because I am who I am, but simply because I am not the one cowering and stammering, calling the taller and stronger of the two of us gutless," Chaltuu hissed. "Also, I wouldn't call that statement blunt, arrogant, or conceited, but honest, because you and all the others know for a fact I could take you on in a fight and the result would most likely... not be a good one, let's just say that."
Chaltuu's lip curled slowly into a smirk.
"Never mind," Naima muttered. "Just straighten those whiskers!"
Chaltuu rolled her eyes and straightened her face as Naima stomped away, nose in the air. She tilted her head towards the cobalt sky, the dark grey clouds floating carelessly past. The glittering white stars that dotted the near-black sky twinkled, the pale half-crescent moon shining.
The night was gorgeous. With the midnight sky, the translucent clouds drifting through it, the beautiful stars winking down, the moon bright and clear through the dusky clouds.
Chaltuu looked around, and then clambered up onto the tallest stone in her pride's caves area. She gazed down at the elegant savanna. The long, tall grass swayed in the gentle breeze, the rocks in the distance reflecting the moonlight, the wind humming like the tiny, long-beaked birds that picked at the wildflowers all day long, while Chaltuu herself was sitting in her den.
She sneaked a short look behind her. Her father was settling himself down beside Uangaze. He didn't turn to look at her, he just snorted a few times and rested his head on Uangaze's neck.
Chaltuu hopped down the rocks. Her rough paw pads sent pebbles crumbling and clattering down the larger stones. She stumbled once, landing on her side with a thud.
"Be quiet!" Kivuli hollered. "Some of us are trying to sleep, Chaltuu, we're not all ugly night owls like yourself."
Chaltuu sighed exasperatedly. That was just her father; no "Are you okay?" or no "Do you need any help?". Not even a slightly concerned glance. As a matter of fact, it was surprising that he even spoke one word to her.
Picking herself up, Chaltuu trotted to her one lone cave; her father forbade her from so much as stepping one pawstep into the "leader's cave", the den that Uangaze and Kivuli rested in.
Nor was she allowed to go into any other den. She was limited to hers and hers only; a tiny, worthless hole. The only positive to it was the lack of sunlight that the cave allowed to seep through. Kivuli probably wanted that to be a bad thing, but due to Chaltuu's loathing of the daylight, it opposed his hopes.
Chaltuu curled up on the chilling cave floor. She kneaded her claws on a clump of grass she always kept in the corner- because of the minuscule size of the cavern, it wasn't like it was too far for her to reach.
The next thing she knew there was a pain in her flank as her father jabbed his claw into her side. "Get up!"
"Hmm?" she mumbled.
"Get up, stupid piece of-"
"Language, Daddy," Chaltuu sneered.
"Whatever," Kivuli said. He spat at her. "Go look after the cubs."
Chaltuu wiped his spit off of her nose and held back a sharp reply. She bared her teeth at him and shoved past Kivuli. The sun's rays of light beat down on her thick fur. Sitting under a stone ledge, she arched an eyebrow, watching the fluffballs play.
"You be the zebra!" Dafina, the youngest lioness cub, said.
"I was the zebra last time, Dafina, you be the zebra!" Mabruke yelled. His little tuft of fur atop his head that he enjoyed calling his "mane" bristled.
"No, I wasn't!" Dafina shouted.
"Oh, for the love of Spirits," Chaltuu moaned. She slammed a paw to her face. Cubs. Cubs, cubs, cubs. They were always the center of attention. Resting her head on her paws, she closed her green eyes.
The wind was not gentle like the breeze of the previous night. It howled and shrieked, to which Chaltuu compared to a dying screech owl.
Crows and ravens cawed. Black feathers dropped before her eyes, drifting in front of her nose. The eerie silence allowed Chaltuu's craning ears to hear wings flapping violently and spiders skittering across the wet, stony ground.
Chaltuu jumped as a fat grey rat scrambled across her paw. She curled her lip at that... thing. Her tail swished, ears twitching.
The landscape was damp and foggy. Mist dragged over the depressing treetop canopies. Water seeped through mixed piles of bones and jagged rocks.
The last thing Chaltuu ever saw was a colossal, pitch-black wave of water crashing over her. It was thick and forceful; it shoved her to the hard ground, pinning her to the stones and not letting her rise to her paws, not letting her try to force her way out of this mess she was helplessly trapped in, not letting her have another chance to inhale another breath of that dank air. The filth-ridden air that may have been her only possibility for her survival.
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[A/N: Okay, that was probably horrendous. Also, if it's against the rules to post fanfictions without canon characters in, please let me know, because I have people telling me that it isn't against the rules, and I took their word for it. XD
I'm going to do this sort of thing like what they do on Fanfiction.net. c; Like the A/N thing at the beginning or ending of a chapter. I'll most likely sort of mix it..
Anyways... I hope that wasn't too dramatic or too boring. If it was, uh, sorry?
But if it was boring, or if it was too stupid, I'll try to make it more interesting next time. Right now I'm just starting out.
And this is a massive work-in-progress, but I'll try to get a chapter out every day. I'm a human too. =P
Okay, sorry for the really long A/N. Hope you liked this chapter. It'll get way better in the next one, trust me. Hehe... c:<]