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Shujaa was a kind lioness but very brisk. She requested to join Achilia's pride with two young lionesses in tow, stating the three of them were excellent hunters, would be uncompromisingly loyal and that that was all he needed to know.
A little surprised by her behaviour, Achilia accepted them as new members and that was that.
Except it wasn't.
Achilia started to notice that Shujaa was watching him. He would look up just in time to see her look away, or would catch her in his peripheral staring from the corner of her eye.
One morning, he broke his routine by getting up well before the others and travelling to the waterhole. He skipped through a rocky outcrop, sure she was following him, circled silently back, and pounced on her.
Pressing her down, he demanded she tell him why she had been snooping around.
Shujaa stilled, then relented.
Way back when he had been Adhabu, the third golden prince, she had been betrothed to him. Despite being more than two years older, the King, his father, had selected her from a trove of other females submitted from neighbouring prides, hoping to get some more golden genes into their pride's bloodline.
And after he left, none would have her. She was technically his property, whether she wished it or not, and only the most vulgar of lions would try to disobey that law.
Achilia was shocked and appalled. He'd had no idea he had affected another lion's life in such a drastic way. He reeled back and sat away from her, staring out to the rising sun.
Shujaa said simply that she was more than willing to be his mate. She simply wanted somewhere to call home. As for the two lionesses she had come with; Kasi-Ya-Nuru was a promising young huntress that Shujaa had fostered from her pride when her parents died, and Bahati, she had found at a few months old, starving and barely alive, shortly after she left home.
Finally, Achilia sighed and gave her a small smile. He asked her that in the future, he only wanted the truth from her, even if it was confronting, or hurtful. And he told her she may choose any mate she wished; as King, he could release her from her betrothal.
Shujaa contemplated what he had said, and accepted, but added wryly that her rank from her own pride demanded only a pride lion should have access to her...and that she considered his other males far too young.
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Shujaa became the second lioness to join the ranks of the Elders. Being a bit of a crotchety loner, not many of the pride came to seek her counsel, though they /did/ respect her. It wasn't long, however, before the younger members of the pride came to her for hunting advice, and for any training she could provide. Even in her senior age, she was still a skilled teacher and it wasn't long before King Sikia had appointed her overseer of all the hunting parties - if they were to survive the terrible drought, a pride so large living in the jungle, they would need every ounce of cunning they could muster.
Shujaa means 'brave' in Swahili.
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