Identity
In my pride I stand alone. Not because I’m the king, no it’s because I challenge our way of life.
               In the jungle I walk with my mate. Though she is not a male, she keeps me warm and happy. This is not understood in my pride. They don’t understand how two females can be in love.
               They don’t like it and they often voice their opinions when we turn our backs to them.
               The king doesn’t like me because I’m not like regular females. When he yells I don’t roll onto my back and show him that I’m sorry. I roar back at him and challenge him to fight me.
               But he would never fight me. He knows I’m the strongest in the pride. I had to beat all the others so I could become a warrior. After I beat the teacher, I became the teacher.
               I taught the warriors all I could, but the rarely listened to me. They found me annoying, so I left the position to the oldest warrior.
               The only ones in the pride that like me, besides my family, are the cubs. They love that I play with them rather than push them aside as the others do. Their parents try to keep the cubs away from the diseased ones as the queen calls us.
               The queen hates me the most for I refuse to follow her example of how a female in the pride should act. I even push aside the time to be with our gods.
               The king must have found me very annoying for he made me and my mate leave the pride. We left quietly, didn’t argue with him. We knew in the back of our minds this was going to happen.
               We walked for days before we came upon others like us. Others tossed out of their pride for being different, unlike the rest. We gather more people each day, and soon there will be enough of us to challenge the prides. And we will not be defeated, for we will no longer be pushed aside, tossed under the rug, and made fools of.
               Me and my pride walk together, heads held high, and walking beside our mates, whether they be male, female, or otherwise. All are welcome to our pride. Though we may seem terrible, wrong, diseased, or anything else people say about us. We are not. We are like you, we breathe, we fight, we eat, and we love. We do the things you do to survive; we just protect and love things different than you.
