[.henloimmabirb.]

on the fifth day of winter my true love gave to me... a Reindeer!

Edits: Reindeer antlers + back ridge with head tuft


A winner has been chosen! Congrats to Ravenshadow17!

Username: Ravenshadow17
Lion Name: Stjar
Lion Gender: Male
Pride: Soul Pride
Pride Status: Coalition Male
Prompt:
Stjar sighed heavily and looked up at they sky. The clouds all but blocked the sun and the snow was a constant, nearly blinding companion this morning. The entire pride had all but holed up in their nests but now it was early afternoon and Stjar was restless. He was fine with the pride being unproductive for a day. Everyone always worked so hard, they deserved it. But instead of enjoying the snow or even relaxing, his pride was wallowing in their nests like a bunch of newborn cubs afraid of some frozen water.

Making up his mind, Stjar headed over to his Queen's nest. "Malkia! We must do something! The pride is wasting away in melancholy!" He declared, his voice rousing the love of his life from her sleep. Malkia looked up and blinked her eyes.

"Stjar, by the ancestors, what are you talking about? The weather is too dangerous to hunt in, and staying in our nests to keep warm is the most rational decision. We have plenty of food stocked up as well." She explained, confused beyond belief.

"Exactly! It's the most rational thing to do but it is not the most festive! It's the first snow of the year Malkia! And the first snow since we entered our new territory in the gorge!" Stjar exclaimed, trying to get the sleepy lionesses mind awake.

"You want to do something to celebrate? Like what?"

"I don't know! We have endless snow so something to do with that? We could build something, or dig tunnels, or even just race around in it and create patterns with our feet! Regardless! We should make a new tradition and get the pride out of their heads and out of their nests!"

The queen thought for a second before she stood up. "Morale has been rather low today. Taibhse! Come here!" The queen's voice cut threw the snow and within seconds the black furred general was at her side.

"What is it my queen?" Tai asked swiftly, bowing his head in respect.

"We need to boost morale and create a new tradition to celebrate the first snowfall. Any ideas?" Malkia asked. The general glanced at his queen and her mate before a large grin spread across his face.

"Leave it to me."

Just as the afternoon was beginning to age, shrieks and laughs could be heard breaking out across the Soul Pride's den. Lions were roused awake either by the commotion or by Tai, Stjar, and a few other lions they recruited dropping moss filled snow on the heads of their pride-mates.

Soon the entire pride was racing around the den, kicking up snow and pouncing on each other. Each lion trying to force the other to get 'splashed' with snow. Malkia watched with a smile. It was good to see her pride in such high spirits, and to see some of her most stoic members act like cubs again.

Suddenly a weight dropped on the queen's back and she ended up with a mouthful of snow. She rolled over and playfully and pawed snow into Stjar's face. He laughed and ducked away, racing into the fray that was their pride. Soon the entire pride was exhausted, and curled up togethere under the stars to rest.

"So, a good new tradition?" Stjar asked from where he was curled up against Malkia.

"Yes!"
"Absolutely!"
"Can we do this every year?!"
"Why not whenever it snows!"
The voices of the pride joined in eagerly.

Malkia smiled. "There's your answer."

If reindeer play games, maybe lions do too! What games does this lion enjoy playing during the winter? Do they have a favorite game? You decide! Prettying up is welcome, but it will not effect judging. <3
Answer the prompt in at least 400 words or 1 piece of art.

ends December 24th on CS rollover!
Best of luck to all entries and happy holidays! c:

Code: Select all

[b]Username:[/b]
[b]Lion Name:[/b]
[b]Lion Gender:[/b]
[b]Pride:[/b]
[b]Pride Status:[/b]
[b]Prompt:[/b] (400 words or 1 art piece)

[-Isabella-]

Username: Isabella45
Lion Name: Raiju
Lion Gender: Male
Pride: xxXxx
Pride Status: To be determined
Prompt:

Of all the winter and holiday activities his pride hosts Raiju most loves participating in the Ice Race and Winter Dance.

The Ice Race is a game mostly the younger lions of his pride play on the lake when it freezes over.
Once it is deemed sturdy enough to be safe for walking on, lions split into teams of two to four lions per team and each team has to find what they think is the best way to get across the ice.
Whoever gets across the lake quickest wins and receives their prize on the other side.

He enjoys the game because it requires no small amount of strategy to be able to get across the ice and they are only allowed to use whatever they find within a certain space around the lake to help them along.
And even better once the game is over everyone comes together to enjoy some snacks and maybe have a snowball fight or two! It tends to turn into a whole day of fun and games, and of course good food.



The Winter Dance, may end as a dance, but it starts out as a game. Every lion who attends and wishes to participate receives a ribbon of a certain color and pattern.
It's then their job to find the lion who has the only matching ribbon to theirs. They then have only a half hour or so to figure out a dance/performance routine they will perform in front of the others.
At the end of the dance the best routine is the one that wins.
Couples can participate, or even just friends or family working together. It's always interesting to see what everyone comes up with!
Once the pairs have performed the whole pride is free to come together and perform the traditional dances they've done since before anyone can remember.

To Raiju it's a thing of beauty, new ideas and tradition all mixed together in a game couples, families, and friends can all enjoy together.

While he enjoys both games, the Winter Dance is definitely his favorite of the two. Even when he was a young cub he couldn't wait for the day when he'd be old enough to participate. While he likes playing games alone, even more he enjoys playing with a partner or team.
To him having a partner or team is half the fun of the game!

(400/400 words)

[minifun990]

Dropping out, goodluck everyone

[wildly-unaware]

Username: -wild-
Lion Name: wip
Lion Gender: Male
Pride: None // New Pride
Pride Status: Founder
Prompt: wip!! <3

[justamindset]

Mark

[Tiger♥Bear]

Username: Tiger♥Bear
Lion Name: Kushonwa
Lion Gender: Female
Pride: Pekee Pamoja
Pride Status: Wanderer
Prompt:

Christmas was Kushonwa's favorite holiday. The cold wind didn't really bother her. With her thick mane that lined her spine, the winter weather wasn't really a problem. The antlers were a bit of an odd feature, but she loved them. They made her unique and reminded her of her reindeer friends up north where she was from. She loved to travel and that's how she ended up in Ukumbi wa Paradiso this Christmas holiday. But this was part of her own personal mission. Her own game. Every Christmas she took it upon herself to be Santa's little helper. She would gather up 12 gifts and bundle them up in a discarded burlap sack. During her travels, she would scout out a pride and observe it's members. This wouldn't take longer than two days. It was like a sixth sense when she found a lion in need of a present. Then it was a game. Sneak in and deliver the present undetected. Sometimes it was easy. She could always wait until everyone was asleep but that almost seemed like cheating. Instead, she would wait for her moment. Wait until the coast was clear to creep forward and leave the gift in a spot that would be noticed. There were a few times in the past when she had been caught and had to make an excuse for being there in the first place. It was believable that she was just passing by. It was obvious she wasn't from around the area. In some cases, she would have to get creative. Climb trees and hide among the leaves if there were any left during the season. Stay perfectly still as she crouches behind a boulder. One time she had to make do with a lake and hold her breath till she knew should wouldn't be seen. It wasn't a normal game and not one she had seen anyone play, but she took joy in bringing joy to others. Especially when they were unaware it was her. She had even witnessed on a few occasions a domino effect. The lion or lioness she gifted would be seen passing on a gift of their own to another. The joy that spread during the season was her ultimate goal. All in the name of anonymity. It has more meaning if they didn't know she was doing it. Most of those she's encountered don't even know her name and that was fine. They didn't need to know her to appreciate what she was doing. They didn't even know it was her doing it...most of the time. This game of hers was something she was learning to perfect and she was going to continue leaving gifts for those she passes.

(453 Words)

[LoSt In PrOgReS]

Username: Lost in progres
Lion Name: Frose
Lion Gender: Non-binary (They/them)
Pride: Eternal snow
Pride Status: Hunter
Prompt:
Frose loves to race! Races are held mostly during winter, to get the cubs energy out during the exciting times.

___

Standing at what had been decided to be the starting line, Frose grinned. She was sent a stern look by Quary, the lioness had been telling her to just let the cubs win. Clearly, Frose wasn't gonna be doing that. She already had a longer route than the cubs! The four cubs stood next to her, only Umbris had decided to not join.

Hearing Quary shout the starting signal, Frose dashed off. Running like this felt truly amazing. To Frise, it was the only time she could truly be free. Right now, she had nothing holding her back. Like a bird flying out of their nest for the first time. And like a bird, Frose didn't look back. She just kept running. The sound of snow crunching under her feet made it even better. Looking behind her, she could see just how far she had come already.

[Jantzi01]

Username: Jantzi01
Lion Name: Mchezo
Lion Gender: Male
Pride: [url=https://www.chickensmoothie.com/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=103&t=4193104]The Ushirikiano Pride]
Pride Status: Guard
Prompt: (400 words or 1 art piece)

Mchezo loves to play games. It's even in his name, which apparently means game in the northern language. During the Holiday Season, he hosts a bunch of games and contests. If he had to choose, his favorite of them would be the Ice Coloring. You have to create a sort of stained glass window, but with panes of ice, and natural dyes that he and the healers collect throughout the year. In order to dye the ice, they soak it in water mixed with the colors, and connect the smaller panes together using tree sap and extra spiderwebs that the healers aren't using. The lions have a couple weeks to make a 'window' based on a certain theme that is randomly chosen by grabbing a bunch of stuff from the forest. Whatever the lion's paw lands on after closing their eyes determines the theme. The contest ends on Christmas day, and is judged by a randomly selected lion. Mchezo claims that the judging lion 'comes to him in a dream' around a week before it starts, but no one ever believes him. It's so popular that sometimes a few of the more creative lions will have several mini contests over the course of the winter. When all of the entries have been judged, the winner will have their 'window' be put on display in the center of the pride's camp, or have it hanging above their cave. The winner also gets to be the one to randomly decide the theme next year. Mchezo collects all of the 'windows' and stores them in a secret place in the forest, where they never melt. Every year towards the end of the contest, the older 'windows' are brought out of storage and put on display, at least one hanging on the entrance of every cave. The 'windows' will stay out for the rest of the winter, and sometimes new additions will be added. Then all of them get put away, back into the forest. Mchezo says it's something that his old pride from the north used to do, except it was much colder, so the 'windows' would stay up all year long. They apparently never melted, even during droughts or heatwaves. Apparently, they looked beautiful, and one day he wants to go back and collect a few to have in the Ushirikiano Pride gallery. He hopes that his new pride enjoys it as much as he did.
404 Words

[epilogue]

Username:
Lion Name:
Lion Gender:
Pride:
Pride Status:
Prompt: (400 words or 1 art piece)

mark!

[ToxicShadow]

Username: ToxicShadow
Lion Name: Rasha
Lion Gender: Female
Pride: Oddity Pride
Pride Status: Third Commander
Prompt:

Rasha is a fan of peaceful games that require thought and strategy, namely things similar to board games, word games or number games. Something she can do while resting her tired paws, while still exercising her mind.

Thus, with the help of Zuka, whom has the power to manipulate plants and flowers, she created a game that they simply refer to as "Lotus Tiles." The pieces of the game are made up of beautiful lotus flowers that have been pressed and manipulated into small discs by Zuka. The game, itself, is not all that different from a game of chess or checkers, with the purpose being to move your pieces around the board and eliminate the pieces of the other players before they manage to eliminate yours. However, up to four players may play at one time, though it can be played with only two or three players. The more players, the more thought and strategy the game requires, thus, making it all the more difficult and delightful for Rasha.

Whenever Rasha has a spare moment from her duties as a commander, she always manages to wrangle someone into playing a match of Lotus Tiles with her; it is her ideal game for winding down after a long day's work. And, during her off days, she may be found playing the game all day long, idling her time away with it.