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Name: Taraji Swahili Meaning: Hope Nicknames: not yet...

Species: lion Gender: female Age: 6 month (at start of role play) Pride: lost / no Pride Family: she only knows the name of her mother "Malaika" (Kiswahili "Angel") who is somewhere in a zoo of the humans.

Appearance: soft light reddish fur, crystal white eyes, small, weak (discriptions for start of role play) Markings: dark birth mark on the forehead (lion astrological sign) Alignment: good Personality: shy, soft, clingy, sensitive Special abilities: Visions (even if she is more scared by them at the moment - she can not really control them)

Background: Taraji or Tamu (cute) how her mother called her sometimes was born in captivity. Her mother Malaika got caught by humans for a zoo. Her father was killed at this attempt. The hunters stayed a while in the pride lands of her father to hunt other animals. four month later her mother helped her to escape. Lead by a vision of a pride land she was all alone and just walked and walked in the direction her vision showed her. She nearly died due she was only three month old and never learned how to hunt. Sometimes she found some bugs or anything other animals left to eat but most of the time she was starving and only the hope kept her alive. As she reaches the pride lands she is near to death from starving. Her only hope is finding some nice lioness (or lion) who would adopt and raise her.

Prologue -- A hope of life There are stories which start happy and those which start sad. Unfortunately this story is one of the last. And so I will start a few months ago, beginning in December 2008...

A loud roar howled over the steppes. The roar belonged to the king of the pride who reigned over this part of the savanna. The shots of a few guns echoed and the roar stopped.

Malaika turned her eyes to the ground. They were overflowing with tears. He only wanted to stop them capturing her and he died. He would never see their cub. Her legs began shivering and were unable to hold her any longer. She clashed on the ground of the cage. Around her the humans were cheering and laughing. They caught the white lioness and even killed the lion that had killed three of them. Engines started and the cars with the cages began to move. The sun began to settle and darkness did not only grasp at the land but also at Malaika's heart. What fate laid ahead her and her child? Where would the humans bring her? She tried to sleep but did not manage to until the morning dawned. The cars were still moving.

The sun was at the zenith as the cars stopped at a little farm. Malaika did not resist as the humans dragged her out and put her into a big cage next to the farm. She waited for her fate to come. Not eating, not drinking and just waiting for the dawn to come. At dawn the cars left again, perhaps for even more animals to hunt? Malaika did not care. In this night -- the darkest night in her life -- she gave birth to a little lioness. The fur of the little cup was slightly reddish and it had a birth sign on her forehead, the astrological sign for a lion. Something started moving inside of Malaikas heart as she saw her cub. Could this have been a sign to her - an omen about the future of her cub?

Malaika hid the cub in a corner under straw and started to eat the meat that the humans had thrown into her cage. She wanted to live for her cub. No matter what would happen to her. She gave the cub the name Taraji - which means hope - because hope was the only thing she could give her.

The days were passing and with them the weeks and month. Other cages around the farm house were filled with animals from the savanna but Malaika did not even try to talk to them. She just cared for her child -- still hiding it from the humans' eyes. 3 Month passed and the humans started to transport the other animals away. Malaika did not allow any human to step into her cage and so they were not yet able to get her out. But she knew that she could not resist forever. She had seen some other animals being shot with a big feather thing and starting to sleep right after. Even not knowing what this was she was afraid of this being her destiny some time soon. So she spends every night with teaching her child.

Taraji happened to have a very rare ability. Since she could talk she was telling Malaika about weird dreams of a land and a big rock. She told her mother that she had seen lions there and asked her about it. Malaika realized that her daughter had visions of her fate. She believed that these visions would save her child after the humans took her away. So she taught her: "Tamu Taraji -- my cute little hope! There will be a day when I will not be with you anymore." -- "Why not mum? Where are you going?" The eyes of the young lioness were piercing her mother searching for an answer. Malaika sighed. "The humans here will take me away. They do not know about you. I hid you so that they would not take you too. I suppose the time will come soon. They will drag me out here. I want you to promise me that you won't try to help me or show yourself when this happens." The eyes of Taraji were filling with tears. "But why mum? Why do you have to go? Why can't I come with you?" -- "See my daughter" Malaika sighed again and took a deep breath. "I cannot evade them taking me away but your destiny lays in freedom. Your dreams will show you the way. The land you see in your dreams is not my old home. It is a land even I do not know. Follow your dreams and I believe that you will find a bright future. Do never look back, just at the path before you. Then you will reach the land of your dreams and find happiness."

The next day Taraji recognized that her mother was right. She woke up by the loud noise of metal doors being shut. Through a few stalks of straw she peaked out of her hiding. She saw the doors of the cage wide open and her mother was lying in a smaller cage on top of a car. She seemed to sleep. Taraji wanted to jump out and call her but at the last moment she remembered the words of her mother. She was not supposed to show herself to the humans. With tears in her eyes she stared at the car that slowly moved away from her. She took a last glance at her mother before she lost sight of her. Taraji was all by herself. She just kept laying in her hide-out waiting for her mother to return even though she knew that she will never come back. The moon came out very early this night. Taraji had fallen asleep and now tried to remember what happened. A small glimmering light fell through the windows of the house. Everything around was silent. Taraji was all by herself. Her mother was gone and she had to go on a journey to the place that her dreams had shown her. She did not move. She did not want to accept the fact that her mother would never return. The moon was near to set as she left the big heap of straw. A small piece of meat waited near the door of the cage. Her mother must have placed it there. It was sliced. Her mother knew that Taraji, with barely two teeth out, would not be able to slice it. Taraji sucked at the stripes. It took a long time until she reached the last stripe. After she ate everything she took a good gulp of water and then found nothing to delay her departure any longer. With a heavy heart she sneaked out of the cage and turned to the star that was shining brighter than any other. Then she started moving her feeds as fast as she was able to and ran. The rest of the night she did not stop. Ever following this star she was sure that the direction of the land of her dreams would be guided by this star. At the dawning she hid herself behind a big rock for a rest. She wanted to follow this star and during the day she was not able to see it. She was afraid of missing the direction and so she decided to only travel at nights. But this was not the only reason for her to stop this early after her depart. Her heart was still with her mother. Tears overflowed her eyes and for hours she was unable to sleep due the pain in her chest was to strong. But finally she fell asleep while the sun started to reach its highest peak.

A strong thunder woke her up rudely. Taraji jumped on her feet and her eyes were looking around in panic. What had happened? The rain already drenched her to the bones. Everywhere around her the thunderbolts flashed over the sky. This was the first thunderstorm for Taraji and she was hopeless. Nowhere to hide and no one to help her caused a big fear in her lonely heart. She began to run. Trying to run away from the thunderstorm she took the right direction without thinking by instinct. Totally drained she abdicated on the ground between two withered shrubs. Only a few raindrops were still falling down. The thunderstorm was far away behind Taraji. She survived this hell, this nightmare of her. Even if it was not close to dawn she fell asleep instantly. In her sleep again the one dream appeared. A warm sun shone there over a lot of green grass. Lions were playing near a big see and before the sun the silhouette of the big rock threw its shadows on her. Her guiding star shone bright as she woke up again. The moon was not out but Taraji did not need the moon to find her way. She just followed the direction of her star. Everything around was silent. She only heard her paws on the hard surface of the savanna, the wind in the few clumps of grass and the chirp of a lonely cicada somewhere. So she walked until the sun dawned and her stomach began to rumble. Out here she had no food. With her barely 3 month she was too small to hunt. She stopped between a few very big clumps of grass and lay down. Her tongue started to stick on her palate from thirst. As Taraji's body hit the ground her mind went back to her mother. Tears started to run over her cheeks. Very soon the tears dried and no new came due Taraji's body started to run short on water. Like this Taraji cried without shedding tears for half of the night until she was tired from crying and fell asleep again. The days passed. One night after this morning she found a small puddle of water. Near the water she was able to find some grubs. Even if she really was creeping out of them it was at least something to eat. These meals kept getting more and more rare. She found a puddle every two or three days but she only found food once a week at most. The small cub became thinner and thinner. Her energy left her more and more and she was near to death. The vultures were circling around her when she tried to sleep at day and sometimes hit her with their beaks. The let up when she then jumped on her paws but it was unsure how long the small cub would last.

The sun began to dawn red. The day started wonderful. It has now been exactly two month since Taraji began her journey. The cub had no strength left at all. She hadn't slept for two days strait and the last time she had crossed a puddle was three days ago. She also hadn't eaten something for more than a week. Short, Taraji was on the end what her body could bear. She did not even look left or right. She just walked forward with her eyes shut. Only her will kept her running. But at the same time the sun rose on the horizon and threw its bright light on a big rock just half a mile away Taraji collapsed. Her strained legs gave in and her thin body hit the ground. Her reddish fur glimmered in the red light of the sun. Her end dawned near without someone to help her. Little did she know that she reached the place of her dreams! In the land of Simbas Tribe the small body feebly lay on the ground waiting for someone to safe the flickering life of Taraji...