Requiem 433

You watch bemusedly as Requiem runs in circles in front of you. Where does that lad get his energy?

Requiem seems to be gnawing on a skull, the same one he's been gnawing for past few days. It is now scarred in teeth marks. You greet him, thinking it's time to get a new toy for him.

---

Although a Smilus rather than a Ferus, it seems to everyone that Requiem was born to kill poachers and defend wildlife. One of Amadu'o's own sons, he has had an affinity with other species of animals - and a violent dislike of humans - from his earliest days. He has the same intense, high-energy ways as his father, but he puts them to use by patrolling Sun Pride's territory constantly. Though like all lions he is a predator and a carnivore, he does not hunt when he isn't hungry, and in fact, he almost never hunts at all despite being skilled at it by male standards. Instead, he relies on the prowess of the pride's huntresses.

Other animals can tell when a lion is hunting or not. Perhaps because Requiem is almost never hunting, other animals seem to feel safe in his presence - even drawn to it. When he is patrolling, the land seems to come alive around him. Instead of fleeing from him, gazelles and antelope pause to watch him pass. Butterflies always seem to trail in his wake. Frogs sing in the trees and reptiles glide through the brush. When Requiem is around, his powerful presence pulls at the spirit of the land, and that spirit answers him through the animals.

And should he come across a poacher? Well... no one will ever see that poacher alive again unless he is both very quick on his feet and very lucky. If the hated humans can reach their vehicles, they can escape, though Requiem is not above trashing the metal beasts to get to the people inside if he can catch them before they start moving too fast to keep up with. Short of that, though, they are doomed. Guns and machetes have not saved a single poacher yet. Somehow, their attacks always seem to miss, or inflict minor wounds only. Requiem, for his part, almost never misses his mark.