*squeal* My first ever SoA! I can't believe it! The plot behind this girl had me hooked from the beginning - what would it be like to grow up when your mother is cursed to starve so that you and your siblings can live, and your father is the god who cursed her to do so?
And miracle of miracles, I did not start writing this a few hours before the deadline, which is what usually happens what with my mad procrastination skills and all. Yaaay~ *shot*
Cub's Name: Kijani’laana
Meaning: Green curse
Blurb on Personality: She’s really not a bad cub, overall. But she’s not particularly courageous or altruistic either, and the realization of this in comparison with the example of her mother will make her bitter and reckless, with no sense whatsoever of her own self-worth. She loves and honors Hai still, in some ways more so after realizing what she has done for them, but that love is tainted by her growing envy of the courage that leads Hai to continue on.
Note: Her seer powers would probably start to manifest late, closer to when she is full-grown. Luckily for her; they aren’t likely to be pretty.
Prompt # and Response: 1
In spite of the ribs showing through her coat, your Mom had done the best she can to hide her curse from you and your siblings. However, you manage to find out about the curse. How did you find out? How do you feel about it? What, if anything, do you plan to do about it?
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How had she not noticed?
“Mama? Um… I saved you the heart. It’s the best bit.”
Her mother had told them about her war with the vultures. How they had pecked and clawed at what they thought was a carcass just too stubborn to stop moving, and she had retaliated by decimating their numbers, until one morning she had faced down the fierce-beaked flock and made her Pact. I leave you some meat, you leave me be.
It had never occurred to her that the dullness of her mother’s coat was no part of that illusion of death walking.
It had never occurred to her that the ribs delicately outlined against corpse-pale green were real.
“But it’s the best bit, and I saved it all for you.”
There had been few such stories over the moons; each one, though often flawed and imperfectly recalled, was a gem to be treasured in their hard lives. Stories about Hai’s own life, stories she had learned from wandering lions, even one she had made up specially for them. But never would she tell them the story of how they were born, no matter how much they pleaded. All Kijani knew was that her father’s name was Jaddis, and he was a god.
Had known.
“You can’t not be hungry, Mama. I’ve been watching, and you haven't eaten anything all day.”
It wasn’t a bad life, overall. With six mouths to feed and only one huntress, things could be lean at times. But they had each other for company, and that was enough.
And then, in a rare show of generosity in a growing young cub, she had made the mistake.
“…Mama? When was the last time you did eat?”
Cursed. The word shivered across Kijani’s mind like the death rattle of a dying wildebeest, and the vultures circling inward to claim the spoils. Her mother was cursed to be constantly hounded by the cries of famine, to know no nourishment if the cubs the god had given her were to live. There had been no love in their creation, only pride and spite.
No love, and yet love had come somehow. Love shone through the cracked and splintered pain in Hai’s eyes even now as her paws slowed, muscle wasted from her body. And now Kajani’laana sat still as a stone, watching carefully for the first time the pale form of the lioness as her children squabbled over the remains of the kill. The cub’s dark eyes were unusually serious for such a young age, and sad.
Until now, Hai had just been… well, her mother, an unquestioned source of nourishment and love. She had never before realized the strength of will it must take just to keep going, bring down prey and watch her cubs fill their bellies, force herself to keep from tearing into the beautiful red meat beside them.
And then, out of the unexpected love and understanding that welled up in Kijani, came the last thought.
Kijani was no hero. She was not courageous, or brave, or self-sacrificing. She was no hero, and she knew hunger all too well. If Kijani had been the one cursed so, she would have fed herself, leaving the cubs to die. And there was nothing she could do to help now; Hai would have to break the curse on her own. She was nothing.
It was a mean little thought, but there it was.
Her eyes narrowed, and she ripped away at skin and flesh until bone cracked between her teeth.
Nothing.
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