The lions did not take names for themselves or their cubs, but the small lioness cub called herself Safiya, for no other reason other than she liked the sound of it. She liked to watch the dolphins, the creatures that twirled and splashed the water far out in the horizon. But her attention would turn quickly to tusseling with her siblings, and by the time the dolphins became fewer and fewer and finally vanished entirely, Safiya's pride had journeyed away from the cliffs at the edge of the jungle and moved inland. 
Her father, the leader of the pride, grumbled about the hyenas taking all the prey for themselves. Her mother, one of the hunters of the pride, went out daily to hunt. She would bring back a few furry hares or a warthog or, on those rare, beautiful days, a great big buffalo from the wild grasses of the African savanna. Safiya herself lived a blissful life of eating and then playing and then sleeping tucked close to her mother and the rest of her siblings. She had herself and her pride and the golden grasslands that stretched infinitely in all directions, and she needed nothing else. Occasionally the deep rumble in her stomach or the absence of the wildebeests would call her mind, but then her short-spanned attention would flick to the swift sway of the grass and the sudden pounce of one of her siblings, and she would be happily playing again. 
One day, a sibling disappeared. 
He was really Safiya's half-sibling, a child of another lioness in the pride, but something in her still jolted when a lioness counted up her cubs and screeched and yowled that her child was gone. He was the one with the sandy tuft atop his head, she told them desperately, and she'd last seen him pouncing at a dragonfly hidden among the grasses of the savanna. But no matter how the pride tried, they couldn't find him. The lioness was distraught. He had just disappeared. 
There and then gone. 
Things changed. The pride continued further inland, not stopping until they saw the tall white spires of human buildings and were too afraid to go on. Cubs clung to their mothers and begged them not to go. Safiya's father got increasingly angry over little things like a late kill or a buzzing mosquito interested in his meal. Safiya's mother told Safiya that he was worried about his power in the pride. Safiya had no interest in such things and went back to playing with her siblings. 
One early morning, the troupe of lionesses left to hunt and came back with a large wildebeest. The pride ate happily, tearing off strips of juicy meat, when a strange lion appeared in the distance. 
He was tall, powerfully built, and Safiya's father growled when he approached. It was simple enough to guess what he wanted. The position as new leader of the pride. 
Changing status and power for lions is simple enough. You see the opponent, greet them, and then claw them to bits. The winner gets control of the lionesses and the cubs, if he cares for them. But this lion seemed like he had sharpened his claws and teeth on a rock and polished them. 
Safiya's father could not back down from a challenge, and so they began to circle each other. As they moved, Safiya thought she saw a swift glint of silver at the tip of the challenger's tail, but he kept moving and it disappeared. She attributed it to the odd way the sunlight reflected. Sometimes she could lie in the sun and make her fur look like spun gold. This was no different. The silver flashed again, once, but then vanished. 
There and then gone. 
The other cubs cowered away from the fight; at times Safiya jerked away, but she kept her eyes trained on the two fighting lions, even as gashes were sliced open and teeth torn out and her father lost an eye. After the latter event, he backed off. The challenger made to ensue the fight, but Safiya's father bent his head and admitted defeat, a miserable mess of blood and fur. 
Usually this is the point where the challenger takes the lionesses and possibly the cubs and leaves with them. But the strange lion followed Safiya's father when he took a few steps to leave. The disgraced ex-leader growled, yet the new leader gestured to him in an obvious motion. Come with us. Safiya's father shook his head. Again the new leader pointed to him, and Safiya caught another glimpse of that odd silver gleam on the lion's tail, hidden among the short tips of fur. But when he moved to gesture again, she lost sight of it. 
Safiya's father refused to come. He stood there, a humiliated ex-leader with blood dripping out of his eye socket, and finally turned to leave. The new leader made to follow him, but then froze abruptly, unmoving, unnatural. For a moment Safiya thought he was dead; but then he shook himself and turned back to the pride. Safiya watched as her father's golden silhouette became smaller and smaller and smaller and finally blended into the sun-warmed grasses of the savanna. She couldn't find his moving figure among the whispering grass any more. 
There and then gone. 
The lionesses and cubs returned to chomping on their prey, but the strange new leader growled, and they looked up at him. He gestured in the direction of the shining white spires beyond the savanna, in the direction of human territory. Safiya's mother snarled. He responded. She quieted and looked away. 
They started the trek towards human territory. Safiya turned back several times, partially to try in vain to find her father in the savanna, partially to watch as hyenas and vultures descended upon her meal. Her stomach growled angrily. Her legs screamed when they walked until dusk and then some more. Her head throbbed when they didn't stop walking even as the moon rose and then floated back down to the horizon. But when she asked to stop, the new leader growled at her and flashed his sharp white teeth, and she felll silent. 
The pale metal spires glinted faintly blue in the dawn light, just beyond the line of trees. Safiya's mother tried to stop them from going any further towards human territory, lest they be seen or caught. The new leader snarled. He didn't seem a single bit tired or hungry, Safiya realized. Safiya's mother, on the other hand, was exhausted. She gave in easily, and the pride continued onward to the tree line. 
The trees were thick, tall, a kind Safiya had never seen before on the savanna. The leaves prevented most of the hot African sunlight from streaming through, but where the rays hit the tree trunks, the bark shone polished bronze. There was a sweet breeze flowing through the trees, and though Safiya desperately wanted to lie down and go to sleep, she continued trekking obediently behind the strange new leader. 
There was a clearing up ahead, where the trees parted and thick vines bound the copper-colored trees to one another. They entered it. 
The tree bark reflected eye-blinding sunlight in bronze rays, and Safiya blinked over and over to clear her vision. Something slammed shut behind the pride, and they jolted; Safiya turned to find thick copper vines strung across the trees that had framed the entrance. She gnawed on them, but they didn't break. She tried to stick her head past the vines, but something invisible blocked her. 
A silver-clad figure stepped into the clearing from some hidden door. It was built like a human, but covered in a fine metallic shine. It went over to the strange leader and patted its mane, and again Safiya spotted that odd silver gleam at the end of the lion's tail. It looked like metal, but she wasn't quite sure what it was or why it was there. 
Something creaked up ahead, and a thick yellow gas poured out of one of the trees; but was it a tree? And were those vines even real? What was this? Safiya's small mind didn't understand. 
The cloyingly sweet yellow gas drifted towards the pride. A lioness slumped to the ground; then another, then a cub, then Safiya's mother. One by one, they fell to the ground, and Safiya could feel herself being pulled along. All her little lion cub thoughts faded to black. 
There and then gone.