#been talking earlier about certain memories that gets cheezi to remember and it's bittersweet haha

[handfulofmuses]

Cheezi was born as a sickly cub when the prey already was starting to slowly decline in numbers. His mother tried to take care of him at first but she eventually abandoned him when the cub was too exhausted to keep walking and passed out, assuming the little one wouldn’t make it any longer. It was not worth the energy to feed another mouth for her when there’s not enough food around anymore.

Ed was the one who found him and decided to take him under his wing, although due to his sickness the little cub spend the majority of his time sleeping or shivering, sometimes even unable to stand on all fours or even apathetic. There were times when it seemed like the little one wouldn’t make it, but after a while you could see his condition improve. More energetic and no longer in need of sleeping his time away, Cheezi became more curious over his surroundings and wanted to play more with his father and certainly learned how to bother Banzai. Only communicated through gestures or sounds and was half of the time a quiet cub.

Still, the two of them generally kept Cheezi at a distance from the lions or other hyenas because of his weaknesses and still having a tendency to be sick at times and letting him play with other cubs was too risky as well with his condition. But at least it seems to be improving each day.

Unfortunately, the events of the fire came and they got separated. Alone and frightened, the young one tried to search for them. All that came out of it was getting chased away from other animals since the hyenas became a nasty reputation after all that. So he couldn’t even look after Banzai and Ed in the places they were usually, nor return to his den.

It was not long until he met Janja who was lost as well, so at least he was no longer alone. Together, they also stumbled across Chungu, another cub that was separated during the events.

Cheezi was still unable to talk, some small words here and there, Janja doing most of the talking before Cheezi himself ended up becoming the talkative cub that he is today.

His memories as a sickly cub slowly began to fade. Not just because he was growing older but because a lot of these memories became repressed.

Losing Banzai and Ed was a painful memory and the memory was associated with the fire and other animals being hostile towards him. So when things started to become a little better with Janja and Chungu, the young one after a while forgot what he was searching for.

Until one day, two hyenas with a familiar, comforting scent appeared. He just cannot quite place what it is, but there is a feeling that he knows them. Something about them feels safe and the more time he spends with them - let's just say that certain sounds or enviroments will lead to some memories suddenly appearing again.

Cheezi feels a bit confused - but also bad about forgetting them. Mostly because he cannot grasp the concept of repressed memories. Why would he forget someone that meant so much to him?