Name: Lightning

Sex: Female

Breed: Cheetah (Melanism)

Parents: Rapid and unnamed

Siblings: Blitz and Speed

Mate: Hasani (somewhat)

Cubs: N/A

Personality: Reserved, only does things for her brother and sister and no one else. Cares deeply about her family, and will do whatever she can for her younger siblings. Deeply depises other large breeds of cats, especially lions since they continue to chase her and her siblings away from their rightful kills, and are always seemingly stalking them. She is very biased and disciminitive, even against her own cheetah brethern. Basically doesn't like anyone who's not her sibling.

History: Lightning was born to Rapid, the first born of her litter. Blitz and Speed followed - there was another sibling in the litter, but she did not last, for she was eaten by a lion when Rapid's territory was invaded. Lightning was the only cub born with a black pelt, as a result of melanism, but was still loved and adored by Rapid. Rapid has moved her family countless numbers of times, always ending up losing her territory to a larger predator or to a rival cheetah. Despite the hectic and dangerous life they lived, Lightning, Blitz, and Speed were able to make it to adulthood, even when they lost Rapid to a fight over food, where she refused to give up the meat to a leopard.

Being the oldest, Lightning assumed responsibility, and the three siblings banded together to survive. Lightning quickly found that her black pelt hindered her hunting - she was obvious in the grass, and she could not blend in right. Therefore, the title of hunter went to Speed, but he and Blitz often traded off while Lightning waited around, since her pelt was useless. It didn't stop her from trying to hunt on her own time, and she paid for it dearly when she refused to give up a piece of dead meat to a rogue lion, and got the scar on her face as a reward. Her siblings always scold her.

One day while out hunting, she saw a coalition of lionesses take down a wildebeest. The rest of the pride showed up, and Lightning took an interest in a smaller lioness named Kanoni. She spied on them, only getting caught once by Kanoni's older brother Hasani, who was helping his sister Malaika mark their territory. He let her go, to Lightning's surprise. Why did he let her go? Cheetahs and lions hated one another. So why he let her go? She told her brother and sister what had happened, but they both responded in the same way - let it go.

But Lightning didn't, and she ended up bumping into Hasani several more times while she spied on the pride, and each time he let her go. She eventually mustered up the courage to ask him why after he caught her again. He responded cheekily, 'Because you're a cute girl'. That flustered Lightning - cute was not something she was normally referred to, not even by the other male cheetahs who came around looking for her and Blitz to mate with (which is met with little success, as they continue to brush them off).

After this, whenever he saw her, Hasani did not miss a beat to flirt with her. So what if she was a cheetah and he was a lion? She wasn't too different from him. Eventually, Lightning saw this as an opportunity to take advantage of Hasani. She agreed that he could continue to want her as his mate, but only on the condition that he gave her leftover food. He accepted, and they've proclaimed themselves as mates, but Lightning wouldn't go as far as to claim that she loved Hasani, or even considered him a mate. He was a convience to her. Still, she did like him, but she knew that it was not love.