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LESSONS LEARNED

Your Name: Zero And Below
Cub's Name: Tupu Nyota
Meaning: 'Empty Star' in Swahili
Future Rank: Apothecary
Prompt Reply:

Quote:

As a cub, an event happens that makes a lasting impression and teaches him and important lesson about life. What happens and what did he learn?

'It wasn't long ago when I used to think being ill was a curse' He thought solemnly as he dwelled on his diseased pride, he was thankful for being healthy 'But now I look at it as a blessing' He shifted his way through the grass to a spot of an old dead tree. The roots were black and gnarled into the deep brown earth. He made his way there to lay, something about this tree was so beautiful underneath the appearance. It was the sign of life, many new things would grow here. All kinds of new plants and herbs that would be used to help his pride.

As he looked out into the dark night he saw shining brightly above him a single star. It shone brighter then any of the others and he soon recalled what made him think so positive about his life. How truely blessed he was.

Tupu Nyota had always roamed around the pride as though there was no point in living. He was never taken to the tohught that he was surrounded by diseased lions. He excluded himself from them as though he could catch it one day. He felt like there was no point in doing anything anymore to help them. He became very distant and quiet to everyone, even family. Not that his mother even cared much about him. I mean he was mainly watched by Auntie bird, and even she wasn't much help to him. Everything just felt so heavy and he carried all their problems on his shoulders. So much guilt tore him away from his pride.

It wasn't long before he met a fellow lioness cub who had a charming smile and glow about her. He made even his dark hollow eyes light up as she talked. He never had to say much, she always had something to say. And when he did she was always there to listen. He confessed to her how he felt useless in this pride, and she would always assure him that one day he would find his purpose here. She always seemed to know the right things to say and she always took care of him. They promised they would take care of each other through thick and thin no matter what.

That time came when she fell ill, she had never been detected of any illness's before and suddenly it hit. And when it hit it hit her hard. She was so sick they didn't give her much time expectancy to live. Tupu Nyota could not bare to lose his closest and dearest friend. He had promised he would watch her and she him. There was not much he could do though being so young but he would try. Every day he tried to give her food and water but she ate and drank very little. He spent almost every sun and moon by her side or trying to help ease her pain. He felt angry when he heard her cry and whimper and soon started to blame himself. He would do everything he could to save her.

One night He woke to her shallow breathes, they were becoming deeper and slower as though each one was a battle. He stumbled closer to her side where she opened her eyes and whispered "You have purpose in your life...find it...find it for me" She fell back asleep and Tupu Nyota spent the night awake listening to her.

When the sun came he realized he had fallen asleep, he looked over but something was not right. He realized he could no longer hear her breathing and he was horrified when he realized the cold still body that he was resting by.

He quickly got to his feet and started shouting for help. He pushed his nuzzle close into her and started whispering come back, but he knew she would never come back. A tear fell down his face as he nuzzled her cold still body. He wished he had done more so that he could feel her warmth and see her smile and hear her laughter.

Her words rang through his head not letting him ever forget them. He knew that this was his purpose to care for those he loved, to care for his pride, and help himself. He would do everything he could to try and heal those and find new ways to heal them. He realized how valuable life is, how important every single soul is. He would do it.

Just for her.

Tell me something you like about K'A: I have always admired the concept of the Kitwana'antara. A pride once blessed by the gods and now cursed to a disease that makes every day a battle and every breathe a struggle. It's this fearlessness and Sorrow that the pride offers that makes it so intriguing. It's the reality that not everything is perfect and even the best of prides are tainted. It's the story of battle, hardship, and love that makes this pride so amazing and beautifully constructed.

Your Name: SSBrosM
Cub's Name: Adisa
Meaning: One who is clear
Future Rank: Hunter
Prompt Reply: For a future plot to stay in the pride, I would have Adisa make friends with a few of the members, which treat him like family and he would think of them as such. However as he grows up, someone's death affects him, showing him that the disease is a problem. He would resolve to help out in whatever way possible, and becomes an apprentice to another hunter. In this way, Adisa learns that although the pride is in trouble, by being out there and being able to do something for them, bringing fresh food in, etc., that he can do something (and it is an important role too) to at least ease the pain a bit of those he cares for.
Tell me something you like about K'A: I just love the idea of this pride. So much drama, but not really bad drama, because it's a bit more realistic in a way.

If we do enter again do we have to repost what we like about the K'A or keep it the same?

Your Name: Fenshae
Cub's Name: Amali
Meaning: "Hope" (in Swahili)
Prompt Reply: Amali would like to be an apothecary. Growing up, she's a bit of a tomboy -- always wanting to be out in the dirt, getting messy and exploring nature. Her natural fascination/curiosity about the natural world leads her to start learning about herbs and medicine. She is, in truth, a little squeamish, and she often has a hard time with the more paws-on aspects of healing, which is why she never grew up to be a nurse. She'd rather contribute to the pride in a more intellectual capacity. Amali is also very optimistic and hopeful, and she genuinely believes that with enough work that she can find a cure. Of course this isn't possible, but it won't stop her from questing eternally and constantly trying new medicines in her quest to cure the disease.
Tell me something you like about K'A: I like the atmosphere of hope juxtaposed with acceptance and suffering. There's something almost optimistic about the melancholy, that through the shared misery of the pride that they've all grown close.

Aaaand the last one



Your Name: Fenshae
Cub's Name: Atsuko
Meaning: "Kind/warm-hearted child", Japanese
Future Rank: Nanny (yes, a male nanny...he's braced for the jokes)
Prompt Reply: In hindsight, Atsuko realized that he probably should not have been playing in that rock pile.

How should he have known about the snake, though? There really was no way of guessing. It came down to bad luck more than anything. Bad luck, but also good luck, in a way -- for what pride has more healers on hand than Kitwana'Antara?

He lay on his bed in the sick bay, listening to the sounds of breathing all around him. Some of it is rasping and labored. Some of it is so shallow it sounds like it might end, and at any moment. His own breathing is steady and calm, and he finds himself listening to it for a long while, almost meditating upon it. His paw still hurts, from where the fangs had sunken into his flesh, but the poison no longer coursed through his blood, and the healing herbs had nearly replenished his strength.

But what of the others?

Atsuko had been here for nearly two weeks now, recovering from his ordeal -- and while it had been serious, life-threatening, he had survived and would suffer no further damage. He couldn't say the same for some of his friends.

The little lion cub who lay beside him was his age, maybe a little older. She lay on her side, sucking desperately for air, whimpering with each exhalation. Atsuko wanted so badly to reach out to her, to help her in some way, but he could do nothing to help her. Nothing but pray, and hope the healer's herbs would help...and even then, Atsuko was old enough now to understand that this would not be permanent.

Lying there, listening to the sounds of anguish all around him -- some from adults, some from children barely older than himself -- Atsuko realized something profound. He didn't quite recognize it for what it was, at the time. It wasn't a thought he could put into words, but more of a feeling, a sensation. A knowledge that while he would grow old, his peers may not...that, quite likely, many of his childhood friends would wither and die before their prime.

Rather than fill him with misery, this realization filled him with an odd kind of hope. These lion cubs...they needed -- they deserved -- all the love and fun and attention that they could get, while they had a chance.

When Atsuko left, his paw fully healed and his strength regained, he made a vow to care for and protect the young of his pride, so that their small lives would be worth living.

Tell me something you like about K'A: I love Uta. Does that count? razz And active RP. That's good too. yup yup.

Entry list is updated! Keep those entries coming!

Your Name: Sunlit.rains
Cub's Name: Aika
Meaning: Love song
Prompt Reply: In the future Aika chooses to be a bard. While she isn't very good with stories, she does have a lovely voice and some skill with dancing. She believes that music brings joy and a form of healing and comfort to all those who can hear it.
Tell me something you like about K'A: I love that death is wrought throughout the pride. This probably sounds a little odd, but I love it because I think it brings out such interesting things in characters. It forces you to develop them more I think then in an environment that doesn't push the fact that ultimately everyone dies in the character's face all the time.

Your Name: Annchen
Cub's Name: Foo'gull
Meaning: It’s meant to sound a bit like “bird” in Swedish.
Future Rank: Scout --> Secret Keeper (if he is deemed worthy)
Prompt Reply: Foo'gull tends to blend into the background among his siblings and adopted siblings, not bothering to fight or bicker in order to gain attention. He does talk and play like any other cub, but he's just as content to stay back and listen in silence. As long as he's fed, warm and gets the occasional cuddle he doesn't complain. With time he will learn to go unnoticed on purpose, and as a juvenile or young adolescent he will get into some things he shouldn't. The most memorable being...

Foo'gull hadn't seen his favourite minder for a while, the gentle one who told the best stories. He had asked without getting a more specific answer than that she was sick and resting. By now he knew that everyone got sick now and then. Most of the time they came back after a while, bleary eyed and with matted fur, but this time he didn't feel like waiting for that. Perhaps she needed cheering up? He slipped off after evening mealtime, confident that no one would miss him for a while. The minders knew he never caused trouble and seemed to be less worried when he was nowhere to be seen than when one of his more rowdy siblings was missing.

He moved quietly but not sneakily, as he had learned long ago that nothing drew attention more than trying to be stealthy. All minders and adults reacted when a kitling seemed to be up to something. Better to move with purpose, as if he was allowed to be here. Foo picked up his minder's scent, heavy with disease, near some of the sleeping dens, and started following it. The tracks on the soft ground looked strange and from what he could tell others must have walked the same direction as her. He hadn't learned more tracking than that yet. It was hard to tell if it was her tracks or someone else's, but her scent was there so he kept following it.

A sense of wrongness churned in his stomach as the strange tracks and scent led him far away from the dens and main social areas of the pride. He was pretty sure he shouldn't be here, even if he had never been told to stay away from this particular area, and he now crouched low in the grass to avoid being seen. He heard a noise up ahead (was that someone eating?) and dropped down with his belly pressed to the ground.

Foo couldn't pinpoint what it was that made him uncomfortable, and he started reasoning with himself. Someone was eating up ahead. Maybe one of the hunters had caught a special meal for his minder. Yeah. They might scold him for coming here, but he had already eaten and wouldn't want to take her food. Not even if she told him to take some. It was kind of rude to disturb her while eating, but he itched to talk to her. He was here now, and they would pick up his scent on the way back so he might as well make his presence known.

"Elah," he chirped and left the cover of the grass in a playful leap, "Elah, I'm sorry for following but…"

What he saw did not match the image he had painted in his head. It didn't make sense. A hyena and a dog were busy eating, their backs turned towards him, and he couldn't see Elah. Until the hyena turned around and took a few steps towards the intruding kitling.

"Elah?" he said, eyes growing wide when he realised that the... the... That fur colour and marking. It was Elah. "What have you done to her?"

He struggled as the hyena caught him by the scruff, mewling and swiping at the air in pathetic little strikes.

"You killed her," he wailed, "I'm not going down without a fight. You'll pay, both of you."

"Oh, hush," the wild dog said and watched him with something akin to regret in her eyes, "Don't yap about things you can't understand. Calm down or we will have to take care of you."

The hyena growled and the rumble travelled through Foo's body from scruff to fluffed up tail. He went still, breathing quickly but trying to calm down. Even if he yelled he was to far away to be heard and he decided to save his breath if he needed to run for it. Try as he might he couldn't make sense of this. He was suddenly and unceremoniously dropped on the ground, but didn't dare to flee.

"Ungrateful little runt," the hyena growled, "You try to run and I will break one of your little legs. The healers can fix you up, but it'll hurt so bad you'll remember to do what you're told. What do we do now? If we let him go he'll squeal."

"We have to report this," the dog said and sighed, "and we need to finish up here. I don't think one of us can manage alone while the other drops him off..."

"Murderers," Foo'gull whispered, forgetting the merits of staying below the radar.

"Shut up," the hyena barked at him and showed him forward until his nose almost touched Elah's fur, "Can't you tell she's dead from disease? We haven't even opened her up yet! Do you think the dead walk away on their own… OW! What was that for?"

The wild dog had nipped her colleague and gave him a nasty glare to shut him up, but the young leopard was too stunned to notice. It was Elah, she was dead, and skinny from her long sickness, and these two had started to... eat her?

"But why;" he said and put a paw on her undamaged shoulder, as if to make sure she was dead and not just sleeping. But he knew already. Her scent and the scent of disease were mingled with the scent of death. And as he calmed down he noticed that her body was decorated after the death ceremony. He might be young but he had already been to a couple of those, and he pouted a little as he realised he hadn't been invited to this one. The dog and hyena looked at each other, and the dog nodded. What they were about to do was forbidden, but allowing this young one to run and start spreading rumours would be worse.

"We can't just leave her here," the hyena said, slightly more gently this time, "We need to clean her bones and return them to the earth. You are going to help us before we take you to the queen."

The dog gave him a sharp look but didn't say anything. Just dig the hole even deeper, why not?

"What?" the hyena said, "This is bad already and he might as well make himself useful. Now this is what we do..."

Foo'gull survived his meeting with the queen, but was sworn to secrecy. He wasn't appointed Secret Keeper at that time; it would be ridiculous to give such an important task to a young cub. As the hyena had said to him: "If you prove yourself and earn this honour we might work together again." He hadn't decided if it would be a good thing or a bad thing, because the hyena also told him he could always break that leg if Foo decided to squeal. He wouldn't, and he would always have the deepest respect for the Secret Keepers of the pride. It wasn't easy, what they did.

Note: I know I'm stretching things a bit here, because of the vow of secrecy they take and all, but it was a fun story to write.

Tell me something you like about K'A: Would something like this happen in any other pride? I don’t think so. I love that you don’t have to invent drama, the potential is there all the time.