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~Newborn cub dialogue~
"She's perfect. Absolutely perfect. If only she were a primal, but still...I shall not mar her flawless flesh with my fangs." Such oddly wholesome words were reserved for little Nusu as soon as she arrived, clearly the first and only daughter that Kuongezeka valued beyond hunting and breeding in the nursery. He was so adamant about it that he made his sons promise him that she wouldn't leave the Royal Den, that her fate was to seek out worthy males who would gift her with strong offspring. Perhaps, in a twisted sense, he was also reminding his heir that it was his responsibility to fill his pride full of breeding females with the same black spots they shared, the "mark of courage" that set them apart from all other prides in Africa.
~Cub dialogue~
The king's children are cautious of you, likely to be some of his final litters. As such, there are new power struggles happening all over the territory; scavengers are fighting where they didn't before, and even humans are becoming more involved in the lives of all the animals in this kingdom. Surely the enemies of Kuongezeka can sense his failing strength as his body ages, and so he must patrol and fight more than ever before his son takes the throne. It's because of these tense times that you don't see this little one when you arrive to check in either the Pride Den or Newborn's Nursery.
Wherever the children are at this time, they're well hidden, probably watching to make sure you leave anyone alone who needs it and that you're not here to take out any anger on them...although they don't blame you if you want to knock some brutal sense into their father.
~Adult dialogue~
The former princess is suspiciously silent when you enter her chosen chamber, evidently praying not to the Chaos Serpent, but to whatever or whoever is apparently stabbing him with stone blades. As such, you're not able to truly have a conversation with her, but you do hear her speaking in a hushed tone with others who can only be the immortal lionesses of this pride.
"Do you see now? The Serpent is a lie! As surely as he is a liar himself, his very form is a lie! You can stab, slash, bite, tear and pull him apart, but it's not enough to be a 'chosen one' like Inkohlakalo! No, his essence, his very blood, can and will infect what it touches like contaminated water. Kill the snake, kill them all if you choose, because it doesn't matter; he'll be back next year. If you want to understand your enemy better, you need to study all sides of it, both living and dead."
The more you listen, the more you realize that Nusu is more than just a former princess who has lost her place: she is preparing for the future and challenging the very laws of nature, the turning of seasons, starting with the Chaos Serpent. She talks of Inkohlakalo, the most fearsome and bloodthirsty leader the pride has ever known, with contempt, like she knows a better way to spread suffering and misery. But when the voices of Mjuvi, Sababu and Vuka are heard answering her, another piece of the puzzle drops into place. Maybe it is impossible to have a completely good or truly neutral leader in the family, but perhaps their end goal is to have a bittersweet mix of love and hatred, mercy and ruthlessness in the same king.
But to do that, they'll need more than just demons and lions combined for the ultimate king, Inkohlakalo's "intended" heir...
~~
Sole cub from Lishe's second litter, "Nusu" is the Swahili word for half or halfway, earned from the vibrant array of markings but the sad lack of the primal gene. Besides the fact that her older half-brother had been chosen as king, even Lunga's offspring weren't willing to summon a hellish ritual to change her gender and cause an uprising. Instead, she would live as a warrior princess, providing an additional challenge to the ruling males of her generation. Ironically, Lunga's children, her half-siblings, did conduct a ritual to change her eye color to Demon, thereby actually summoning a true demon to bind to Nusu under disguise. For the lioness, this meant living with a strange voice in her head that told her what to do. Interestingly, she was hellbent on destroying any traces of the Chaos Serpent while raising up other demons instead, proclaiming that "there is more than one kind of evil in the world". So, while she detested the snakes in June, she secretly chanted to darker beings that wanted control over everything, not just the end of the sun.
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