Demura glanced toward her adult daughter Taima, as they stood on the plateaus surrounding their den. They overlooked the valley below with its slowly dwindling sources of prey, and there was naught but silence to betray their emotions.

Taima had grown into a fierce huntress. She would have surpassed her mother as the pride's matron, had the small family not been usurped and the pride's male--her father--defeated. The youngster was now only seen as the lowest in rank among the females for being of "old blood"...and was even overshadowed by her new little half-siblings in the eyes of the new rulers.

Taima didn't care. She never wanted to be a mother and forever under the command of these new males. She only knew killing, fighting, and providing the rest of the family with a hard-earned meal.

That was what had Demura worried. For her daughter's happiness and for the future of the pride.

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Just another random sketch, based on another random story I had formed in my head that may never come into written fruition. But who knows, with me. x3 It is told from the point of view of the matron in a pride of sabertoothed cats, Demura, as she deals with helping to keep her family together in a world slowly ruled by the oncoming Ice Age and the ever-growing threat of early Man. It's actually partially narrated by her and told otherwise in the fashion of a nature show that follows the family. I imagine perhaps that Nigel Marvin traveled back in time again. :B

I dunno how the rest of the animal geeks saw social standings of sabertoothed cats, but I do find the theory that they lived in pride-like groups and hunted together like lions, a-la Walking with Prehistoric Beasts, quite feasible.

Anyway, might be colored later.