The lion was old. So old.
His appearance betrayed this. There was no greying of fur to show how many years he had traveled the lands, there was no grouchy mood to accompany his vast wealth of knowledge. The feline body of his looked, acted, and moved young. Only a few details, like the scars that riddled his body or his gravely voice, showed some pretense that the demon was modernly ancient. This would count as a blessing to many others, but to the lion it was more of a curse.
As a youngling, he had been brutally murdered. For just a small creature, that event changed his mindset forever. Life was unforgiving. His mother moved on after that, stuffing down her feelings of losing a son with more children. Eventually he was reincarnated, brought back in the same damned arctic fox body. He was killed again, after a rather rough fever spread through his body. His second reincarnation brought him a lion body, some grand golden furred beast with a glorious white mane. This body was the envy of some, youthful and bright. Then war happened, and the beauty was slightly tarnished. Death came back again, some faceless stranger in the night bringing a dagger to his heart. Eventually, a while after that, he was brought back again. This time, as a large brute dragon with the abilities of shapeshifting, fire elemental, heat vision, and the manipulation of molecules. He didn't use the dragon nor fox body much, mostly sticking to his war-torn lion.
After being reincarnated a third time, the feline mainly stored himself away from other creatures. He wasn't able to regain his trust in others, though he greatly craved to be social again. Slowly, he brought himself to civilization, hanging around with other useless loners until he was able to slightly trust other animals. From those adventures, he heard of a medieval land with multiple regions and plenty of space. That's where his next adventure took him, though he only knew the direction of this land.
It was around noon when he arrived on the border, golden eyes shimmering in the sun. A creature of respect, he kept his large form waiting on the border, white mane drifting with the wind. The area around him smelled of recent disturbance, giving him the information that someone would come along eventually. For now, his maw stayed shut. The wind needed no information from him.