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Oleander was the first son of
Rose. When he was born, to Rose's surprise, he turned out to be much bigger than she expected him to be. He also had a short tail and long fangs, definitely too long for a young cub like him... He turned out to be blessed with a primal mutation. Rose was worried when the herbalists first told her that, but they quickly reassured her that it's not dangerous. It just meant that he will be bigger and stronger than his pridemates, isn't that great?
For Oleander, it wasn't. He felt out of place in a pride full of lions way smaller than him... When he was a cub, the caretakers often forbidden him from playing with others. Unaware of his strenght he was too dangerous for his small and fragile friends...
Fortunately, his mother quickly noticed the problem and asked a primal lioness,
Hatari, to teach her son. With her help, Oleander learned how to express his kindness and softness despite his huge size. He still felt pretty insecure about it, but at least now he knew how to deal with it.
As he grew up, he befriended
Amethyst, the Combat Master. She was bigger than other lions despite not having any mutations. When she was little, her size sometimes caused her problems too. They understood each other really well.
By spending time with Amethyst, Oleander became a pretty good fighter. He never liked fighting though, he used his skills only when he had no other choice.
Soon
Snake, King Hawk's advisor and former mentor, noticed Oleander's potential.
The young primal felt truly honored when Snake asked him to stay in the pride.
He started training Oleander just like he trained Hawk before, and soon, after a long discussion with the king, Oleander was announced to be chosen as King Hawk's heir.
The pride was surprised by this decision. Hawk became king very recently, it was too early to choose a successor... Oleander also felt like the decision was a little rushed, but he wasn't complaining. He was very grateful for the opportunity that the king gave him.
Oleander's training was going smoothly. The young primal was only surprised that the king wasn't taking a part in it at all. Snake was the only one to actually train him, but Oleander wasn't complaining. Snake was an awesome mentor!
Difficulties arose when a friend of Oleander's mother,
Soul, began to interfere with his training. She constantly pointed out his mistakes, provoked him, even suggested that he was not good enough to become the future king. Oleander, disconsolate by Soul's behavior, complained about her to the king, but to his surprise, Hawk not only did not punish her, but even showed his approval. He believed that constructive criticism would have a positive effect on the young lion...
When
Crackle, Soul's son was born, everything got even worse.
Just like his mother, Crackle seemed to enjoy bullying Oleander. King Hawk still had no problem with it. Oleander tried to fight back, but since Crackle was way smaller and younger he couldn't do much. Attacking lioness or a cub wouldn't be appreciated by the pride, no matter how mean they were.
At some point a group of new lionesses arrived at The Lake Land. They were sent to Hawk's pride to join it by their previous king, but when they saw the current situation in the pride they refused to join it. At the time the rebellion against King Hawk already started to form. The new lionesses didn't want to take part in a conflict they had no idea about, so they decided to live outside The Den until everything calms down.
Oleander started to visit them from time to time to check if they are doing alright. During those visits he befriended one of the lionesses,
Spring, who was kind of a leader to her companions.
After a while, Hawk was finally overthrown. Oleander, as his heir, became the new king of The Lake Land. He allowed Hawk and his allies to stay in the pride, but he asked
Luna, the Stealth Master, to keep an eye on them.
Heather, who was a queen during Hawk's reign, now became Oleander's advisor.
Oleander knew that he should choose a queen to rule beside him soon. Hawk's old allies wanted him to choose
Marble, Hawk's daughter, but Oleander wasn't so sure about it.
He got a better idea when he visited Spring and her sisters again. She told him that they didn't want to join his pride because they got used to Spring as their leader. Oleander decided to solve this by making Spring his queen. The lioness wasn't sure about it at first, but soon she accepted the offer and finally joined the pride.
At first everything seemed to be fine. The pride accepted Oleander and Spring as their new rulers and a new era of peace has begun. That was until Spring noticed something... Her old companions seemed to have some troubles with settling into the pride. They constantly argued with its old members... Spring's job as a queen was to keep the pride peaceful, so she tried to calm everyone down, but she ended up only joining the fight. The lions she was supposed to lead accused her of favoring her former companions and ignoring the troubles they were causing. Oleander stepped in and tried to stop the fighting, but then Spring's sisters accused him of taking the side of his old friends. It only kept getting worse and worse, until Oleander's sister,
Briar, decided to intervene. At first Spring's side was distrustful of her and expected her to act like Oleander, but to their surprise she took no side. She was willing to listen to everyone and understand every perspective. She ended up solving the conflict and bringing peace to The Lake Land once again.
Briar has been struggling with finding her place for quite a while now, so to honor her achievement Spring and Oleander created a new role just for her - Mediator. From now on her job was to solve conflicts in the pride and keep it peaceful.
Oleander was especially fond of primal lions, and he never thought twice about accepting a lion of this kind into the pride. He was also glad to welcome lionesses with any other mutations, or with no mutations at all. He wasn't careless about it though. Before allowing someone to stay he tried to find a different pride for them, he kept only lions who had no other place to go or who impressed him somehow.
Oleander was always kind to everyone he met. He was wary of everyone at first, of course, but he never greeted anyone with aggression.
Everything was peaceful and quiet, until another comflict arose. The king was slowly aging, but he still haven't chose a heir to take over the pride when his gone. The king refused to choose one because he simply couldn't find a perfect one. He didn't trust anyone to take good care of the kingdom. The lions in the pride didn't like it and started pressuring the king to choose someone. He still had years of life before him, but he needed to start teaching someone, or the next king will be unprepared. To calm the pride, Oleander chose five candidates to teach. But since there was five of them, he couldn't focus on anyone, and their education was pretty sparce. And, after all, only one of them could become the king. That was when Crackle stepped up and offered to search for one perfect heir for Oleander and then help teaching him. Oleander normally wouldn't trust Crackle, since he was once a close ally of King Hawk and the biggest and only rival of Oleander, but now , since the king was desperate, he agreed, not knowing what was the other lion's plan.
Crackle brought countless young lions before the king, but none of them had this spark that Oleander was looking for.
Unfortunately, the sudden focus on finding a heir made Oleander neglect his other duties. Queen Spring and the Council of the Wise tried to keep the pride in check for him, but none of them had enough authority to succeed. The organization that King Hawk's advisor, Snake, introduced years ago, has turned into uncontrollable chaos. Oleander finally tried to fix it, but it was too late, and his mind was still mainly occupied with finding a heir. To make things worse, a sickness fell upon The Lake Land, infecting multiple lions, Oleander being one of them.
He now needed a heir more than ever. His reign was coming to an end.
He sent all the lions that were still healthy to search for a succesor. Unfortunately, some of them found out that they're sick only after they already left, and never came back home...
The kingdom was slowly falling apart.
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Oleander
