Chirionn

Unseen Origins

• Biography

  While most lions grow up in a pride, surrounded by others of their own kind, Chiri was never afforded this luxury. Her earliest moments...were of the turbulent sort. A tiny newborn cub, squirming about, crying out for the mother that now lay dead against the side of the extinct termite mound that had sheltered her through the previous night's ordeal.
  
  The crying and such seemed to catch the attention of what could have potentially been a very swift end to the defenseless little one; a spotted hyena. The young female had had a litter of cubs a few weeks prior...but lost both of them to leopards only a few days ago. Ravenous beasts. As she stumbled upon the tiny, crying lion cub in the termite mound, her maternal instincts seemed to switch on. She took the cub, and brought her back to her clan, and though she was initially met with scorn and confusion for bringing a lion cub home with her, she raised the little one as her own. It is from this hyena, and the clan, that she received the name "Chirionn."
  
  She lived and learned amongst the hyenas for most of her life, but she always knew she wasn't one of them. She knew she was a lion. She saw lions on the savannah all the time. And the clan didn't hide the fact that she wasn't one of them from her. Oh, quite the opposite, in fact. She was an outsider. And this was one the many reasons the female hyena made one of the most difficult decisions of her life.
  
  Before Chiri had reached her second year -- capable enough to find a pride on her own, a pride who could do a better job of teaching her to be a lion than a clan of hyenas ever could -- she ordered the young lioness to leave the clan and never come back. Damaging for everyone involved? Yes. But it was necessary. For the good of the clan. For the good of Chirionn's future. She was a lioness, not a hyena. And so, she said her goodbyes that night...and left.
  
  
  And so began the tale...