That time I reincarnated as a lioness

Prologue

???'s POV

        I gagged on the blood filling up my throat as I stared up at the starry heavens above me. How strange. Even though I'm going to die I don't feel sad or regret. I only feel numb. Then again  very few things have ever made me not feel numb for years now. I was born in America, my mother's birth country. I lived there for about two years before my family moved to Japan. Two years after that my mother died in a car accident. She died trying to protect me. We were heading home and a car swerved off the road towards me. My mother pushed me out of the way but ended up getting ran over in my place. The driver then drove off, not checking o my mother at all. A hit and run. I called out for help from the people around us as I tried to keep my mother awake. Even back then I knew that if she fell asleep she wouldn't make it............................She didn't stay awake. 

        After that my life began to fall and I began to feel nothing but numb. My father blamed my mother's death on me instead of the driver who hit her and drove off. He began to abuse me, saying it was my fault she was gone. When I started school, the other kids looked at me like I was beast among humans. The teachers noticed my bruises and cuts from the abuse, but whenever they would ask me about it, I would never say anything. Because at the time..... I was also blaming myself for my mother's death. The other kids heard about my mother's death and started saying that I only brought misfortune. They started bullying me. At first it was just excluding me from activities and harsh words but over the years it got worse and worse. It was in middle school I discovered my love of the stars and animals. It was a field trip to the local zoo which had just gotten a lion cub to start the lion exhibit. 

        They had decided to place the exhibit in the middle on their planetarium. Everyone in my class was excited till the saw the lion cub. They started badmouthing it and calling it a freak because it wasn't a normal lion cub apparently. When my teacher managed to get my classmates to move on I went forward and looked at the cub. I was amazed at what I saw. The lion cub was pure white. It looked beautiful in my opinion. I then saw something shining above the exhibit. I looked up to see what looked like a full-grown lion made of stars shining above the exhibit. I saw the twinkling of the stars and the way they connected to make a picture of a lion. It amazed me and made me interested. That's when I heard a voice behind me. 

       "It's based of a piece of art by an artist. They were inspired by the constellation Leo" the voice said. I turned around quickly to see one of the zookeepers of the zoo. But I didn't recognize her from the field trip made in my elementary school years. She must have noticed because she chuckled and pointed at her name tag. It said that she was the head keeper of the lion exhibit. Meaning she was a new hire who specialized with lions then. But something she said stuck with me. Constellation? Leo? I looked back at it and then at her, trying to ask her what she meant but seeing as I was bad with words I didn't know how to ask. She must have catched on because she laughed a little before coming next to me at the fence of the exhibit. 

      "A constellation is a picture made from drawing imaginary lines between stars. Leo is the name of a particular constellation that depicts a full-grown lion. It only shows up during certain times though. That makes it one of the twelve celestial zodiacs. Those zodiacs are seen between certain times in the year. There's twelve of them, one for each month. And leo is said to be the king of the zodiacs. The kingly lion who rules the heavens. It's a great constellation in my opinion. Which is why I've been thinking of naming the little cub there Leo" she said pointing at the young white lion cub who came over when he saw her. I looked at it and then at the picture. I then looked back at the cub as I muttered something that caught her attention. 

      "I think that's a good name. It gives him something to inspire his growth and make himself great" I muttered as I looked at the pure white cub. She looked at me and smiled softly. She patted my head softly making me look up at her. 

     "I think so too, kid. You know...... I've been looking for a volunteer apprentice around your age. This zoo has a volunteer program for kids your age to become a zookeepers apprentice in your free-time. Want to become my apprentice, kid?" she asked me making me shocked. I thought about it. Me be the apprentice of a lion zookeeper? Getting to spend time helping with the white lion cub? It sounded amazing. And I told her so. After that I began volunteering at the zoo as her apprentice. I got to spend tons of time with Little Leo, which was a nickname he earned in the years of his youth. I learned a lot about lions and constellations over the years I worked there. It made me start to open up. It helped me make friends among the fellow volunteer apprentices. 

     But it was in my final year of highschool that everything came screeching to a halt. Those friends had just been using me. And when they no longer needed me...... They decided to kill me. They had thought that they could blame my death on Leo but they didn't think that the head of security, the manager, and my mentor would be in the exhibit with me. When Leo roared at the so-called friends of mine for stabbing me in the chest, it attracted the three who saw the knife in my chest and Leo defending me from the so-called friends. My mentor came over to me and took the knife out as she tried to keep pressure on my wound. But it was already too late. The knife had pierced my heart. I was dying. And as I died I reflected on my life and what I loved about it. 

      If I could be reborn as anything......... I hope to be reborn as an albino lioness born under the constellation Leo. Because throughout my life, the things that had really made me happy....... Were the times I was with Leo and learned about constellations....... But I guess.......... Things like that........ Are just....... fairy tales..................

"Body specifications made. Species confirmed. Species is Zodiac lion- Leoness"