The first thing I remember was being pushed out of my warm, comfortable safe place into a cold blindingly bright light. I closed my eyes to block out the suddenly overwhelming lights and sounds. I let out a cry of complaint and was hit on my bottom. I was then placed on a fur rug and handed to the warm person who smelled like my safe place. I began to sniff closer to the sweet smell of milk. 

I found it and began to drink to comfort myself. I was almost content until I was pulled away from the warm embrace. 

I opened my eyes and saw a large beast man with spotted furry ears and amber eyes staring at me with hatred. I don't know what I did to earn his hate, maybe it was jealousy. I looked over back to my safe place and whimpered. The female who was currently feeding another cub looked at me and smiled. 

Ah, that is the most beautiful smile I have seen and is such a stark contrast to the male who is holding me by the scruff of my neck. He placed me on the fur rug again and pulls the other cub away from her. 

She looks at me lovingly and spoke. "Hello one, your mother is tired now. I will feed you more once I wake up. Get some sleep with your brothers." 

I guess that is my mother and these other cubs are my brothers. Even though I was born first, they seem to be bigger than me. I whine thinking that they are going to steal the milk from me. The male looks at me with a stern face and speaks to me, "Stop whining. As the leader's cubs you are expected to be stronger than other cubs. Your mother is tired. She will feed you again later." 

With that warning, he carried my mother away and washed her as she fell asleep. I guess that my father is the leader of the tribe. My brothers start to open their eyes and we stare at each other before we cuddle for warmth. We are all used to each other since we spent time together in the safe place. 

Two starts to fidget, but I lick him until he falls asleep. I guess as the oldest it is my responsibility to keep them in line. 

How am I supposed to keep them in line as the runt of the litter. My eyes started to get heavy with all the thoughts in my little head. Nap time!

I woke up hungry and started to meow to get my mother's attention. I was roughly picked up by a different beast man than earlier and handed to my mother.

She was awake and cleaned off. Her mates were feeding her fruits while she fed me and Two. Three kept meowing until I was pulled away from my mother's milk. I was still hungry and Two got to keep drinking. Life is not fair!

Just because they are bigger, they get to drink more milk than me.

I meow to my father and he understands my complaints. "Life is not fair. In this world the strongest get more and survive longer. If you want more milk, you should grow up faster."

I huffed in disgruntled annoyance. Why is my father so mean and unfair? Once my mother ran out of milk my brothers were placed next to me. I was still hungry and meowed to let my mother know.

She doesn't seem to understand me and looked annoyed and tired. She motioned to another Cheetah beast man, "Take them away. I want to take another nap. I need peace and quiet."

He picked me up by the scruff of my neck and carried me and my brothers outside. This is new to me, so I stop meowing to observe my surroundings.

I am overwhelmed with the new smells and sights. Curiosity overwhelms my hunger temporarily and I notice my brothers looking around as well.

I look at them and motion to the other beast men. 'Look at those beast men. They all have spotted furry ears and tails like our father, but they are smaller and don't have as many stripes on their faces.'

I mentally communicated with my brothers. They nodded in understanding and looked at the other beast men. Two responded telepathically, 'That must be why our father is the leader. He is bigger and has 2 stripes. He said the stronger survive better.'

Three nodded in agreement. I thought to myself that size is not the only thing that matters. I can't let my younger brothers grow faster than me. I will work harder to earn my stripes faster than them.

The Cheetah beast man who was carrying us put us down and spoke, "Don't go too far. Stay in the village or your mother will be sad."

We all meow in agreement. We don't want to upset our mother. She is so kind and warm. I want to keep her happy. We will explore on our own while she naps.

We wobbled a little at first, but soon learned how to walk. Being a cat beast man has it's advantages. I have a natural grace. I was distracted by a butterfly and start to chase it. I ran into a beast man wearing a long deer skin.

I rolled backwards and shook my head to clear my eye sight. He leaned over to check on me. "Are you ok? You must be the chief's new cubs. I am Dr. Tony, the village healer."

He smelled different than the other beast men. There were strong spices in his hut and it made me sneeze. I backed away and decided to explore the village some more.

Tony watched the young cub wobble away and smiled. He hoped to have cubs and a mate of his own one day, but he was a weak stipeless male and females didn't want him as a mate.

He became a healer because his father was a healer and taught him since he was young. After his father died he became the village healer.

He was too busy healing females to hunt and level up. Beast men paid him with fresh kills so he didn't need to hunt for food.

He spent most of his time gathering medicines and grinding them into powders to make teas.

Nick wondered around the village until he reached the edge of the tribes territory.

It didn't smell like the beast men in the village. He looked up and saw a tall mountain with large flying beast men at the top. He wanted to go up, but remembered the warning his mother's mate gave him and decided to go back home.

He hoped his mother was awake and would feed him again. He worked up an appetite with all his explorations.He picked up his speed to race home.

He hoped to beat his brothers home to get more milk. He had to grow up faster than them and become stronger.