The Lioness' decision
a story about life choices.
The Lioness' Decision Written by Sabastian Lions
The young lioness sits up on the boulder where the pride rests and looks out over the pride lands lazily. As her gaze sweeps the African plain, she finds many of the lions of her pride lounging in the tall grass around the large stone that is the pride's home. She identifies and considers each lion in turn as her eyes focused on them. This one is an older sister, that one is a younger brother, that one over there is the cousin who likes to pounce at him, (she is one of this year's cubs as well as the lioness' favorite), that female over here, an older aunt, is usually nice to her. The thoughts went on this way for each lion.
As her gaze came upon her own tail lying on the stone, the end twitching side to side behind her, she thought about it and how the tail seemed to have a will of its own. Right now just the end of her tail was lazily raising a little then dropping back down to one side, then again to the other side and back again. It moves with a slow, smooth, steady rhythm, up, over, down, up, over, down. It doesn't seem to notice or care that she is watching it, its pace never changes. Oh, she could make it move or stay still when she thought about it, but when she wasn't paying it much attention, it still moved like it wanted to, sometimes just the tip, sometimes the whole length moved side to side. Sometimes, when she was angry, the tail would thrash quickly back and forth. She wondered why it did these things as her eyes drift back over the pride.
Her eyes come upon her mother near the base of the boulder. It is because of this lioness that she could sit where she is near the top of the giant wedge of rock that is the landmark of this pride. Being a daughter of the current top male's, favorite female has some privileges. Sitting here is one such privilege. Lying near her mother is the big pride male himself. She wonders how her mother could stand him. She hates the male and has ever since that day when he spitefully attacked her. Her mother didn't do or say anything when it had happened; she knew that he did it just to be mean. After all, how was she to know that the pride was hunting that herd, at that time, on that day? Her thoughts drift back to that eventful day...
She had been playing with a young gazelle that she had found one day lying under a large clump of tall grass. It was very young, maybe an hour old. There were no other gazelles around, so she decided to check it out. At first it just lay there while she sniffed at it. It still smelled of the birth process, a mix of blood and piss and of a female in heat. She prodded at the thing and it just lay there and bleated at her. So she prodded it again and it immediately began to struggle to its feet. She instinctively stepped back as it fell at her forepaws. Prodding at the gazelle again she coaxed it up onto its feet. Wobbling and unsteady it began moving away. She followed it as it got its legs under control and began to pick up speed. Then she reached out and deftly knocked its rear feet out from under it. The baby gazelle went down in a heap and the lioness had to jump over it so that she didn't trip on it. UN hurt, the gazelle got up quickly and began running in a new direction. She ran after it and swiped at its feet again. Once more it went down in a spectacular heap and then quickly got back up and started running in the direction it now faced. Enjoying the sport, she hadn't realized that she was running into the gazelle herd, or that the pride was about to attack from nearby.
When the outer most gazelle saw the lioness running in their direction, they began running toward the main herd calling out an alarm as they did so. Quickly the entire herd disappeared into the African wilderness leaving the hunting party without anything to hunt. That was when she saw the mess that her carelessness had made. The pride would go hungry tonight. Every lion was mad at her that day, even her own mother snarled swatted at her as she passed by.
That was when the big pride male had taken his anger out on her. Ok, sure she had messed up, and she was ashamed of her actions. She accepted her punishment. But that one charged at her from behind suddenly and attacked her like she was some rival male. Vicious and brutal. She still had a mark across her shoulder from the encounter. A shudder runs up her spine at the memory. After that he would swipe at her whenever he walked by. Even if she wasn't doing anything.
Her eyes refocusing, she looks out over the pride lions again, thinking about each in turn as she sees them. Her eyes come to her mother again. The big male leans over and sniffs at the other female as she watches them. Knowing that it is near the time for her mother to mate doesn't help. She still can't figure what her mother sees in him. She glares at the big male's back, her anger welling up her emotions. Oh how she really hates him. She had decided then that she couldn't mate with him. Ever!
Having come to another decision, the lioness stretches and stands. Sweeping her eyes over the pride one last time, she starts down the face of the boulder. Deliberately moving between her mother and the big pride male, she smacks him hard with her tail as she heads out and across the grassy plain. She never looks back, but keeps walking. Walking away from him, away from the pride and away from her mother and family.