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~Introduction dialogue~
The sky is dancing with birds and purplish colors as you crest the hill that brings you to this gem-eyed lioness. With her coloration matching both land and sky, it's no wonder that she blended in so perfectly until you were right in front of her. Her eyes are something completely different; they're so dazzling and brilliant! She smiles as you approach, then nods at the youngster who is busy with body paint and natural trinkets. Upon close inspection of the ground, you find him drawing in the dirt a rough layout of one of the submales' patrol routes.
"Welcome," says Mbali. "Come take a seat at my side if you wish. Don't mind the owl or the rat. They're my...little helpers, yes. I use them as symbols. We all start as mice before we open our claws and spread our wings, like owls." She chuckled kindly. "The children are not in my charge, but they need education all the same, so I'm one of their teachers. Barafu might be good at training them how to kill, but what animal in which herd, depending on the season and location--all of these details are left to me. She teaches brutality, and I teach...punctuality. Yes, that's it." Another gentle laugh.
The gem-eyed lioness is required to remain where she's at in order to perform her tasks, so she can't get up to show you around, but she gives you directions if you need it. The waterhole is open to you if you're thirsty, and there's even a bit of an unfinished kill you can pick off if you so choose. Maybe she'll have beautiful daughters with those eyes that you can single out one day!
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A lioness claimed five days after Valentine's Day, "Mbali" is the Swahili word for far, which is accounted to her having arrived from another territory far away from Isiphepho's. Her gem eyes were the first seen in the pride, combined with clean genetics that made her an instant member in the king's favor. Despite her personality, Mbali never strived to be a broodmother or any kind of guardian, but she seemed like an unexpected treasure just by herself; with her appearance, more tourists and rangers kept an eye on the pride in general because she was starting to generate a popular image for lionesses in Africa the same way Cecil had done for lions in the past. There was even the farfetched concern that perhaps her children would be captured alive and trained as animal actors, but Mbali herself wasn't worried. If even one of them was a mutant like their father with her eyes, then she'd have the start of a promising legacy.
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