Something Absolutely Useless

A bunch of absolutely useless fan-characters which I made for and her TLK-verse.


Payu: protector, guard, asshole [Sanskrit]
Pride Affiliation: Bachelor Pride (Land of Thieves)
Relations: semi-mate to Utete and other countless lionesses; father to Dhaifu and other countless female cubs

Once upon a time there was the mighty Empire of the Sun. It used to have strict breeding rules. Only the pure gold lions could have cubs. It is not surprising to say that many of royal subjects did not like it. For decades they were planning and waiting for an opportunity… and finally the opportunity came. The Sun King died and his sons started to fight over the empire. The traitors acted carefully. They manipulated rouges to make it look as if the outsiders were the ones who stolen a part of the empire. The cover works so good that nobody ever suspects the existence of the Bachelor Pride – a pride consisted nearly only from lions (only the members of the royalty have a right to own females) who each year roam across the Africa, pretending to be random rouges in order to spared their genes everywhere.

Payu is the last male direct deceased of the founding fathers of the pride. At the point he is young the Bachelor Pride is ruled by his grandfather. The only female is his grandmother as Payu’s mother fled shortly after he was able to survive without milk. That’s why whole pride makes fun of lion’s father – he wasn’t even able to keep a stupid female! As a result, the King decides to skip Payu’s father and name Payu his heir.

Payu, despite being the future leader, is not very self-assured. He is extremely short (like a teenage lioness), never develops a full mane (what you see at the picture is all what he ever gets), and has a tendency to gain weight. His lack of self-assured and complexes show in quite particular way. Instead of being meek or shy, he’s quite an opposite. He keeps repeating himself that he is the greatest lion ever, the smartest, the wisest, the strongest, the kindest, the mots gentle, the best hunter, etc. Finally he believes and becomes the greatest pretentious prig ever. Payu decides that as awesome lion as him needs to have a mate, so he start his hunt. He is sure that he’ll manage to find a perfect bride not wicked like his neglectful mother, nor pathetic as his grandmother. (She is huge – a Barbary – and could easily beat his grandfather, but instead she serves him as a slave. So what she was brainwashed? It’s totally her fault!)

Pridesitsters seeking for strong male who could gift them with healthy cubs turn away laughing when they see Payu. But there are many lionesses who are searching for something more – for romantic feelings and a lifelong mate. With them nearly-maneless lion is greatly successful as he can be a real sweet talker and quite intelligent too. Unfortunately, every his “episode” with a lioness looks exactly the same. He claims that he seeks for intelligent, strong-willed mate who would be equal to him, but in the same times Payu unknowingly – even to himself – uses all brainwashing and spirit-breaking techniques he was taught since he was a cub and for with he has quite a talent. The result can be only one. When each time Payu arrives with his bride in the Bachelor Pride, she is only an empty shell of her previous herself. Of course, Payu fails to see where the true cause of the problem lays. He thinks that all of these lionesses tricked him on purpose. They pretended to be smart, intelligent and full of life but in fact all this time they were just as pathetic as his grandmother. However, he “forgives” the treachery and stick with a broken lioness for some more time, hoping she will be at least good enough for breading. Sadly, each of the lionesses gives him only daughters. Every. Single. One.

Such shameful act as bearing female cub cannot be unpunished, so each time Payu gifts both mother and daughter to the rest of the pride. They can do with them whatever they want, even with the cub. Why should he care? They are not even his real children, only females. It’s not like he is responsible for them or something.

The king is extremely pleased with his grandson’s actions. Long ago did he see that old rule about only the nobles owning females was wrong, but he did not know how to gain so many well-trained lionesses. But now, thanks to Payu’s treatment, they had many of them. The kings joy is so great that he decides to pass his crown to the grandson and leave the pride to make his last breeding trip across the Africa. Before leaving, he tells Paya a secret – something what may help him if his denied out of heritage father ever tries to give him any troubles.

Not even a month passes from the old king’s abdication, when the pride starts to whisper. Payu has ho son, nor “true” mate. And the leader can’t leave the lands of the pride. Maybe they should make his father a regent so Payu could seek for a bride once more? The young king treats this as an act of treason and attacks his father. Poor guy, he didn’t know what happened when his son pinned him to the ground. Payu, spiting terribly, yells right to his father face all grandpa had told him.

That’s how the Bachelor Pride learns the terrible truth. Payu’s father didn’t brainwash his mate. She was gray-pelted lioness who fled her pride because she didn’t like the way the females treated males there. In fact, she was the one to brainwash Payu’s father. She made him believe that lions and lionesses were equal. They even planned to change the Bachelor Pride into twisted pride where everybody would have equal rights and the leader would be chosen in public elections. Lucky, Payu’s grandfather heard them talking and put stop to this madness. When he was sure that Payu was able to survive without his mother, the old king killed the lioness and hid her body. Later, lied that she had escaped and announced to the pride that this is the reason why his son won’t become king.

The pride is shocked. They knew that Payu’s father was kinda funny in his head, but how much they had no idea. To everybody great disgust the lion shows no shame and does not begs for forgiveness. Instead, he keeps repeating: “S-she loved me… She really loved me…”

Outraged Payu kills his father. After the death the lion joins his mate as she resigned from having a star just to be together with him in the blackness.

Time passes, Payu still has no heir. With age his mane nearly completely fell off and he had gained so much weight that now she looks as female pregnant with eight cubs in the last month of pregnancy. But he does not worry. He finally understood where he went wrong. He totally picked wrong females! They were all weak, spoiled by living in regular prides. He should have look for his perfect bride within populations with better gene pool. Luckily, he just have spotted the right female. Here in the Bachelor Pride. While other lionesses’ eyes are dull and empty, hers are sharp and bright. She is obedient, but fulfill orders in such way to not to overwork herself too much. Also, she manages to get for herself bigger portions of the food than the other females. And Payu is sure she has some good genes.

She’s his granddaughter after all.



Utete: fragility, reed [There is a tale about the oak and the weed. The weed bounds even when the gentlest breeze blows, but when a great storm comes, wind brakes the stiff oak while the flexible reed survives.]
Pride Affiliation: Bachelor Pride (birth), Rouge (choice)
Relations: semi-mate to Payu; mother to Dhaifu

Utete from the beginning was a smart cub. She quickly notices that actions of adult lions do not appear to have any sense. One day a lioness brings from the hunt zebra and she gets a prize. Next day, the same lioness brings the same game from hunting and she gets punished, while at the same time other lioness brings nothing and gets prize. Also, Utete notices that males often bit females randomly, without any reason. A lioness may sit quietly and still get smacked. Where is sense in that? Apparently there is, and female cub finally finds it.

She realizes that because of such treatment lionesses “learn” that they have no influence on what happens to them. They are successful on hunting they get beaten, they are not they get beaten too. They sit and to nothing, they get extra-food. No matter what they do, things happen at random and females cannot control it. That makes them extremely passive. If not ordered to do something, they will simply lie down and quietly take all the beating. [This isn’t my imagination. This manipulation technique bases on Martin Seligman's experiments and theory of learned helplessness. If you want to learn more: [link] Utete is extremely intrigued with this finding and decides to check if in the Bachelor Pride there are more stuff like that. Firstly, she just observes and draws conclusions. Later, she starts following and eavesdropping males. She even sneaks in for some lessons which male cubs get. (Being honest, it wasn’t very hard. She is just a female cub, she could be invisible as well.) Finally, little Utete learns all of Bachelor Pride techniques of manipulation. When she was a cub, it was purely a fun, but as she grows, lions start to notice her… and try to break her. What once was fun now becomes a self-defense. She knows how the brainwashing works, so she knows how to avoid it and at the same time pretend to be super-obedient. At males’ presence she lays down with dull expression, but at the same time she makes it sure to be enough far away from the lions to avoid smacking. When ordered to go hunting, Utete never comes empty-pawed but also do not show that she is a good huntress so males prefere to tell other lionesses to do the job. And every time she feels that THAT is coming, she makes sure to have a laid before she becomes truly fertile so no male would force her under him when she really could end up with unwanted cub.

Utete’s strategy works just fine for many years, but then… Then HE notices her.

Of course, she knows who he is! She’s not stupid! Utete’s mother is just his spinning image, being honest, half of the pride is. He is Payu. The ruler of the Bachelor Pride. Hers grandfather. And he wants to have cubs with her.

Normal ways of avoiding males do not work. The king imprisons her in small cave and at the only entrance he puts loyal guards. Each day he comes and rapes The lioness, no matter if she smells like fertile or not. He even some continues to do so some time after it becomes obvious that she is with a cub. Utete desperately tried to find a way to kill the old fart, but cannot think of anything what wouldn’t get her killed as well.

Ironically, it is the cub who kills him. Payu dies of heart attack after seeing that the newborn is a girl.
After their leader’s heirless death, males start to fight over a crown. Utete uses it run away with her daughter/aunt. She hopes to raise her to be strong, independent lioness. Sadly, quick enough it becomes obvious that Dhaifu is hopelessly stupid and slow. Utete tries as hard as she can but all of the efforts are in vain. Finally, she becomes desperate. Much as she hates to do it, she uses old brainwashing methods of the Bachelor Pride but in completely new way. This time she does not want to break a spirit but to raise it. After some years, it looks as if she succeeded. Dhaifu finally seems to have some spine, so mother… kicks her out of home. Don’t get Utete wrong. She loves her daughter but she always dreamt of travelling and even after she escaped her old pride she couldn’t because Dhaifu hated changing surrounding. Now Utete finally can be free. She roams all across the Africa. Hairless apes many times attempt to catch her, but she is always able to outsmart them. Sometimes she travels alone, sometimes other rouge females join her, but never with males. In fact, each time Utete meets lonely lion she kills him at spot as she believes that all males are monsters and world would be a better place without them.

Meanwhile, Dhaifu is kidnapped by the Romans. When one of the gladiators tries to mate with her, she fights back as that is what her mother would want. To her great shock the lion hits her. She does not understand. Every time she done something would please her mother she was rewarded. Why now she gets punished?

You see, Dhaifu was never taught to think. She was only TRAINED to follow a certain pattern. And now the pattern changes. She gets punished for something what should have been rewarded. It’s like a whole world would suddenly broke apart. As a result, she gets a major mental breakdown and later is afraid to do anything because it may turn out to hurt her.

If you are interested in what happened to Bachelor Pride, it fell apart. Many lions and lionesses were killed in the civil war. The ones who survived mostly became rouges and, eventually, also died. But some travelled to different land from which they originally came from. There they met with the king of Hidden Valley Pride and told him that the experiment did not work out.



Vaimalya: clearness, cleanliness, spotlessness, pureness [Sanskrit]
Pride Affiliation: Sun Pride (birth), Lowlander (secret mission)
Relations: mother to Bhaktimat, (sister to Masa’s mother, perhaps?)

Vaimalya comes from the old family of Sun Pride nobility. She is a Sun Lander through and through. She worship the Sun and believes that the only sun-pelted lions should be allowed to breed. Everyone who is not golden enough is just a useless scum. The king of the Sun Pride is a personification of the god and should be worshipped and never questioned… yada, yada, yada.

Vaimalya’s ancestors were not only the regular nobility but also the most powerful Sun Warriors. She herself was too young to join the expedition that the Sun King sent with his two sons, but her mother was one of the soldiers. She went on the war and never came back. Later orphaned Vaimalya learned that her mother’s death was fault of prince Dahati’s incompetence. She knew it. She knew that this little runt couldn’t be trusted. Just look at his pelt! It isn’t ever gold enough!

Her anger and haters even grow when the terrible is announced. Traitorous pseud-golden prince killed her beloved Emperor. Vaimalya craves for revenge and when the war breaks out she’s overjoyed. Now the bastard is going to pay!

She desperately tried to join the troops but she is still denied as being too young. She lays down, sulking down in depression when queen Sheikh comes to her. Her Royal Highness asks what would Vaimalya sacrifice for the Sun Pride.

“Everything!” the young lioness replies without hesitation.

“Even your honor and good name?”

“Everything!”

The queen smiles. “Good.”

Several months later, after a special training, Vaimalya comes to traitors’ territory. She pretend to be only poor, orphaned refugee who wish to join them. The idiots, fooled by the Vaimalya’s young age, believe her. And that’s how her career as a spy begins.

She carefully gathers all pieces of information, even the ones which seems to be not important. She memorizes everything carefully and waits until queen Sheikh calls for her.

Vaimalya waits, and waits, and waits. Wavuli – grandson of traitor Dahati is born and there are sill no news from the queen. The spy starts to feel old and stiff. She’s terrified that soon she would no longer be able to fulfill her duties. She decides that she needs a successor. But how to find a proper replacement? Finally, she decides to turn to thing she always believed in – her noble blood. She needs to have a cub.

It turns out to be not as easy as she thought it would be. Living in cursed Lowlands, it’s hard to get a suitable male who could produce sun-pelted cubs. When “prince” Wavuli’s mane is nearly full, she stops to be picky. She needs a cub. NOW!

Finally, she gets what she wanted – a daughter. It’s a real miracle as at this time Vaimalya is ancient. At first, she is a little disappointed. This is supposed to be her heir? This little half-bred with those black ear-rings and orange… stuff on her head? But later she sees that the child inherited her noble skull shape and takes it as a sign from the Sun. Yes, this cub is her successor indeed. As soon as little Bhaktimat (the name she gave to her daughter) will be old enough, her training shall start.

See, having children at extremely old age has a major drawback. You are not around long enough to see your kit reaching adulthood. Before her time comes, Vaimalya manages to teach her daughter many things, but not the most important – their true purpose. The young one still does not know that their true loyalty do not lies in Lowlands. She does not even know that so-called king Dahati in fact was incompetent fool, traitor and a murderer. Vaimalya opens her mouth to tell Bhaktimat everything.

And right in this moment she kicks the bucket.

[If Rinjapine decides that Vaimalya indeed is Masa’s aunt: Masa was born after the fall of the empire, while Vaimalya left the pride before this event. After she went on her mission, the queen announced that the young lioness is a traitor who willingly decided to join the Lowlanders. That’s why whole Vaimalya’s family pretends that she never existed and therefore Masa never has a chance to hear her aunt’s name.]

[Also, the “Secret mission” could have been a scam. For example, the queen noticed that her mate was giving Vaimalya dirty looks, she might have wanted to get rid of the rival.]



Bhaktimat: devoted, loyally attached [Sanskrit]
Pride Affiliation: Lowlander
Relations: daughter to Vaimalya

Because when Bhaktimat’s ancient mother dies before the lioness has a chance to hit her teens, king Wavuli and queen Ujana take her in and treat as their own. While Vaimalya did not lived long enough to acknowledge her daughter that she is supposed to be a spy, the old lioness managed to fill the cub’s head with all this crap about worshiping the Sun and the importance of being sun-pelted. As a result, Bhaktimat worships Ondoka with all the power of pure fangirl love. Still, she is painfully aware that she’ll never be his mate. Young prince sees her as his sister and that’ll never change. (Being honest, he might have considered her as his lover if not this… unique skull shape. Her nose… I mean, forehead… I mean… CREEPY!) She fully accepts that. She’s completely OK with him marring someone else… as long as this lioness is worthy of him.

To Bhaktimat’s great displeasure, one of the lionesses who joined Lowlands together with queen Ujana makes eyes at the sun-blessed prince. The displeasure turn into horror when the fangirl realized that the Living-Sun-On-Earth-Ondoka also seems to take liking in this unholy muddy-brown creature. The golden lioness immitedely runs to the king and begs him to put an end to this profanity before the royal golden blood will get polluted by this… muddy-brownness!

Wavuli gently smacks her as if Bhaktimat was a naughty cub. He tells her to stop talk nonsenses and informs that his son will marry whoever he wishes as there is no lioness betrothed to him. And that’s how a plan forms in the Bhaktimat’s head.

There is no saying things straight-forward. Instead there are whispers, suggestions and insinuation, everything so subtle that when the king and queen decide to ask Spiritlanders for a bride for their son, they really think that it is their idea.

Bhaktimat immediately volunteers to be an ambassador. As she is closing to the Spiritlands she paints in her mind pictures of the glorious future. Not only soon she shall bring a proper bride for her beloved prince, but also on her journey she met nearly-gold rouge. She is sure that cubs growing in her womb will be perfectly sun-pelted. Maybe one of them will become a betrothed to Ondoka’s heir…

When the ambassador keeps not coming back, the whole pride grows worried. When Ondoka asks his new white-born betrothed – Ndiyo, about his adopted sister, she gives equivocal answers. He brings up the subject once more when Ndiyo’s cousin arrives. The white lion says that the great king Kirai himself decided to honor Bhaktimat and allowed her to stay in Spiritlands forever.

Out loud Ondoka says he’s happy for his sister, but deep inside he feels betrayed. She was his adopted sister and the best friend. She even claimed to have feelings for him. How could she leave him without a word? The feeling remains buried for years, but explodes with full-strength when Ndiyo’s adultery is discovered.



Balaa: calamity, plague, misfortune, grief
Pride Affiliation: Rogue (Land of Thieves)
Relations: daughter to Ondoka, Wamepotea; mother to Gonjwa

Wamepotea was not exactly a type of an exuberant lioness. Sometimes Balaa did not hear her talking for days and even weeks. And the last time she hugged her daughter was… Actually, Balaa couldn’t remember mother ever hugging her, but it wasn’t bothering her much. She had her twin-sister – a living bundle of happiness and energy. Together they played, fooled around, laughed and gave each other all this warmth their mother couldn’t. They were as happy as cubs in the Land of Thieves could be.

One day, while eating prey which Wamepotea brought, they were giggling and making faces.
“Stop” their mother said. Her voice was so quiet that they did not even notice.
“Stop that. No more” she repeated a bit louder but still fairy quite, yet here was something what made Balaa stop laughing. However, her twin did not notice that and continued to fool.

Suddenly, the once happy cub started to choke. Balaa, petrified with both shock and horror, watched as her sister slowly suffocates and finally dies. Wamepotea’s face was completely emotionless.

“See?” she said calmly. “That’s what happens to the cubs who do not obey theirs mothers.”

Being teen, Balaa continues to travel with her mother. In a perfect silence. Their time together comes to an end when the young lioness accidently gets bitten by a snake. Two days she lays unconscious and plagued by fewer before her body finally fights off the poisonous venom. She wakes up only to find out that Wamepotea vanished. Since then Balaa wanders through the Land of Thieves alone. In a perfect silence.

When she is an adult, she walks upon a stranger. He is a bit older than she, yet extremely foolish and childish. He laughs and keeps telling poor jokes all the time. The lion reminds Balaa of her sister. She wonders when he’ll choke.

Contrary to her predictions, the rouge doesn’t suffocate. He sticks with her for days, weeks, and months, desperately trying to make her smile. Finally, he succeeds. Almost.

As soon as Balaa’s corners of the mouth lifts slightly, huge male lion pops out of nowhere. Without a word he wounds her companion and rapes her. When the mad lion is gone, her foolish friend is still alive. He tries to tell another dump joke but dies before he is able to finish.

Several months later Balaa gives birth to four cubs. Soon they catch some illness and die. Slowly. One by one. All except for one single male.



Wamepotea: doomed, to have become lost
Pride Affiliation: Lowlander (birth), Rouge (choice)
Relations: daughter to Wavuli, Ujana; sister and semi-mate to Ondoka; mother to Balaa

When queen Ujana finds out that she is once again pregnant, everyone are both overjoyed and extremely worried. She is pretty old so the childbirth is most likely going to be a difficult one. King Wavuli decides to send a massager to faraway land called Grass Walls. That was a troublesome journey but he hoped that one of the mandrills will come and help her mate when the labor begins.

That was quite a journey indeed, but the shaman and his assistant make it just on time. And thanks the Great Spirit they do, because this childbirth is not going to be smooth. More than a day passes since the queen lays in labor and still there is no cub.

“The cub is doomed” the assistant says.

The shaman turns to the king. “As a child my assistant fell from the tree right on his head. Since then he is as dump as a hyena, but this time he’s right. The cub is already lost. Now we have to do everything we can to save the quee--”

In this moment the newborn starts to cry. It’s a perfectly healthy girl.

Wavuli is mad at the mandrills and calls them useless, but Ujana tames his anger. She herself finds the whole incident amusing so she names her daughter Wamepotea what means both: doomed and lost.

The years pass.

The old king and queen are no more. Wamepotea seeks for her older brother as she knows he suffers greatly because of his mate betrayal. She wants to cheer him up a little.

The young lioness finds Ondoka talking to some strange golden lion. She knows that this is impolite to eavesdrop but she has a feeling that this is important, so she stays hidden and listens.

It’s turns out that the stranger is a the crown prince of Highlands and wants to put an end to the hostility between their kingdoms. And so he asks Ondoka to betroth him to his sister or daughter. Wamepotea is so excited by this proposition that she nearly comes out of her hiding place, but her brother snarls at the Highlander and says that he has neither sister, nor daughter, nor any other female relative.

When the curly-manned lion is gone, Wamepotea stops hiding.

“What have you done!” she yells at her brother. “Why did you lie?! Do you know what a great opportunity it was?! I AM your sister! We could--”

“Sister? Sister!” he snapped at her. “You dare to call yourself my SISTER?! The Great Spirit knows with which rouge our bitchy mother breed you!”

Not thinking what she is doing, the princess slashes him across his face.

“How dare you to speak like that! Have you gone mad…” She looks in her brother eyes and realizes the truth. He indeed went mad. But it’s already too late to run. He pines her to the ground.

“What a great opportunity it was.” He mocked her voice. “What a great opportunity to breed. You want to breed, bitch? Then you’ll breed!”

When he finish, he leaves her there alone, lying bleeding and broken. When she is able to get up she goes to the land from with her mother came – the Land of Thieves. There she gives birth to two cubs – her daughters… and nieces. She tries to love them but all she can feel is…

…nothingness

Years later, when the last remaining of her daughters is bitten by a snake and does not get up, Wamepotea assumes that Balaa is dead. So she goes to the nearest cliff…

“Master! Master!” The shaman – the same who many years later helped Lowlander queen in labor – open his eyes. “What? Wha--” He sees his assistant. “Oh, it’s only you. What is it this time? You got scared of some bird again? Just be quick. I’m trying to take a nap here!”

“I told you.” The younger mandrill’s gaze is absent as if he was looking at something distant. “I told you that the cub was doomed.”

The body of princess Wamepotea hits the ground.



Aroša: cause to stray/seduce/mislead, cause to separate [Northern Sotho]
Pride Affiliation: Lowlander (birth), Rouge (choice)
Relations: daughter to Wamuhu; half-sister to Songa, Ahadi, Hautša, semi-mate to Haiba, mother to Choyo

Wamuhu was just an infant when his mother was exiled. He may not have many memories of her but one thing he remembers perfectly – Ndiyo’s fluffy fur. Just the same kind of fluffiness as the one he recognizes in newborn Aroša. Wamuhu is not the only one to see the resemblance. Many of the lionesses who knew the infamous queen are still alive. And so they look in silence at their king towering upon the cursed cub. The silence continues as he unlashes his claws and raises his paw to make a deadly blow. Aroša’s mother shivers afraid that the abomination which came out of her womb will not be the only one killed today. Wamuhu stares at his daughter. He sees the bitch who betrayed him and his father. He sees the lioness who cuddled an infant him and licked away his tears when he cried. He sees the one he hates with all his of heart. He sees the person he longed for nearly all his life. He sees his mother.

The silence remains.

The lion slowly puts his paw down and walks away.

Since this day the king seems to completely ignore Aroša and other pridemembers do their best to follow his example without causing the little girl’s death. Even Aroša’s mother, as soon as her daughter is able to survive without milk, tries to spend with her as little time as possible. But to everyone’s horror Aroša does not grow into a cub who would let ignore herself. The child is mischievous, naughty, full of energy, loud, cheeky, and has no respect for anyone or anything. She runs all over the Lowlands causing troubles. Once she even disturbs her father’s nap! Terrified lionesses react as fast as they can. They try to take Aroša out of Wamuhu’s sight, keeping apologizing and assuring the king that this will
NEVER happen again. The lion says nothing, just watch in silence. There seems to be neither hate nor anger in his look, but something in this look causes some of the younger lionesses to pee themselves.

After this incident pridesisters tell Aroša about Ndiyo and her terrible crimes in hope the story will work as a warning and the cub will change her mischievous way. The result is quite the opposite. Aroša gets absolutely fascinated with “granny Ndidi” and, having no other strong female figure in her life, she sets idolized version of the ex-queen as her role model. At first, the pride is horrified, but later lionesses only shake their heads in resignation. [Is there such thing as “shake head in resignation” in English?] The cub is already lost. There is no sense to bother.

Since that day Aroša’s life becomes even harder than it already was. In the past pridesisters weren’t exactly generous when I came to feeding her, but at least they made sure the cub won’t starve. And now... All she get chance to eat are stinky left-overs which nobody else wouldn’t even look at. (There is no sense to waste precious food on some funny-in-head brat who sooner or later is going to die anyway.) What is worst, nobody seems to be paying any attention to all kinds of mischief caused by the princess anymore. Being told off because of caused troubles was Aroša’s only way of interaction with other lions and now lionesses don’t even snarl angrily just look at her with some kind of irritating pity in their eyes and after some time even this ends. Aroša could be as well an air. (Time and energy are even more precious that food.) When one day the spawn of Ndiyo disappears, the pride – Wamuhu especially – is relieved. They hope that hyenas got her.

In the meantime “the spawn of Ndiyo” wanders away from her homelands hoping that hyenas will get all Lowlanders. Through past months in order not to starve she had to catch herself some additional pieces of prey. She believes that the hunting skills which she developed will be enough to survive on her own.

At the beginning she is doing just fine. She catches gophers, meerkats and many different kinds of critters. But as she grows her body starts to thrive for bigger game. Finally, she makes a decision which change her whole life. She decides to go into pawprints of granny Ndidi. She decides to become… a con-lioness! Since then she roams all across the lion realms causing all kind of mischief on her way. One day she is a long lost daughter to some king, other the last heir to the Sun Empire, prophet who communicates with the Great Spirit, an ambassador of some new lion kingdom or lioness hunting down dangerous criminal. Anything to get a dinner… or just for pure fun. She simply loves to make pride-mates jump at each other’s throats and never feels bad about it. For a really long time Aroša manages to get away with anything. Until one day she wanders into SavannaLands.

The job at Westerner Pride could have been an easy one if it wasn’t for the future king’s brother. The brat already started to develop his mane and should be soon exiled from the pride, but namby-pamby rulers of the land have no guts to separate their precious boys.

Haibe takes dislike for the wandering lioness the moment he sees her. The charming stranger managed to wrap whole pride around her paw but she can’t fool him. The younger of two princes warms her that she’ll keep a close eye for her. While her staying he watch her discretely from a perfect hiding pleace.

In the meantime Aroša boils under her pelt. Young lion is not very good at spying and the lioness is more than aware of him constantly watching her. How does this brat dare! He did not even grow a proper mane and he acts like some damn sheriff. She could be his mo…! Ekhm, older sister. For some time former Lowlander plays the role of perfectly innocent lioness, hoping that the prince will simply get bored and leave her alone. But finally, after many weeks of acting she becomes too frustrated and comes up with a plan to get rid of watchful Haibe. At least temporary.

Aroša challenges the young lion to eat fermented fruits contest in hope that he will get punished for inacceptable behavior or at least faints for a long enough period for her to desert with all of the pride’s food. However, the outcome of the competition is quite surprising, for con-lioness especially. The prince turns out to be a tough guy so they are eating and eating, and eating, and eating…

Next day Aroša wakes up with a splitting headache… and Haibe lying next to her.

OH, NO, NO, NONONONONONONONOOOOOOO! They couldn’t… They wouldn’t… Haibe is not an adult yet. So they couldn’t… Right?

The teenage lion nuzzles her, saying it was amazing and that he loves her.

Aroša jumps right on her paws.

“Nonononono!” she screams. “I’m screwed! The king and queen… and Jirani! They’ll kill me! Skin me alive!”

She runs as fast as her paws can carry her and not stops until she reaches the borders of the kingdom. She feels ashamed of herself for leaving poor Haibe like this. Poor child must be so confused. Maybe she should come back and explain to him a thing or two… Nah, the kid will surely be OK. It’s not like he expired trauma which will cause him to be afraid to confess his love to anybody, or worse: to believe that Jirani will kill any lioness Haiba falls in love with. That would be just dump!

Aroša continues her journey, laughing. She had many crazy adventures but this one was surely the craziest of them all. Well, at least she won’t “catch” a cub.

Soon it becomes obvious that she was wrong. Terribly wrong. Teenage lions are not supposed to be able to father any offspring, but there she is, caring Haiba’s son or daughter… What if it will be twins? Oh, the Great Spirit, no!

It takes some times to the lioness to pull herself together, but when she finally manages to do it, she says simply “I always wanted to try some scam for two partners” and moves on. Only sometimes, while being deeply asleep, she smiles gently and whispers “Haiba.”

When the boy, Choyo, is born Aroša teaches him everything about live of Ndiyo the Wonderful and the art of being a con-lion. The relationship of this duo is pretty odd. More than mother and son they are partners in a crime. But extremely good ones. Choyo even as an infant helps his mommy by warming hearts of strange lionesses or occupying their attention so Aroša can all of theirs food.

When it comes to personality, the boy took more from her mum, what causes this two to fall out nearly all of the time they are not committing some crime (try to put two strong-willed, selfish egocentrics in one room and you’ll see why). Despite of this, they care for each other deeply (in a bit twisted way, but still). Theirs partnership goes fairly well until the day when Choyo, now around the same age Haiba was while the fermented fruits incident, proudly informs Aroša that he had just mated with several lionesses and they were all over him.

Never before have the young lion seen his mother so angry. She is yelling about blowing up their cover, but he can tell there is something more about it. He openly asks about it and when Aroša refuses to answer, he pushes harder. And harder. And harder. In the end, he pushes too hard. Many nasty words are said and the duo splits up.

Since time to time the mother and the son will meet each other, and occasionally even team up in order to perform some scam, but it never lasts longer than a month or two. Something just got broken and cannot be repaired. Choyo gives up most of his con-ways and concentrates on cub-making business while Aroša is faithful to her good, ol’ scams.

The time passes. Aroša’s muscles become stiff, her once beautiful muzzle turns gray and – what’s worst – some of her teeth fell off. However, she’s good at changing weaknesses into assets. The con-lioness never hesitates to use to her advantage the fact that not many animals see a threat is such an old thing. Yes, life still is quite for Aroša. Her “charm” fails only once when she encourages extremely suspicious pride. She soon learns that the lions are so alert because of the shyster lion who tricked them quite recently. The former Lowlander is intrigued. She starts to collect info about mysterious pale lion and while she should be angry about having a rival, she cannot help wishing her son was more like him.

She brings the subject up while her next meeting with Choyo. She scolds him about being bad boy and letting “the family business” fall into alien paws.

The lion laughs. He laughs so hard that tears starts to come out his eyes. The old con-lioness is so baffled that she cannot even make any of her regular sarcastic comments.

Finally, Choyo stops laughting.

“I told you I fathered many cubs,” he says. “You also know I done my best to keep a track of them. Aroša… mother, this shyster lion, this Zimwe, he’s my son.”

Finally Aroša knows she may rest in peace. The legacy of Ndiyo is preserved and shall last as long as the lionkind itself.

Now she can go and try to find out what happened to Haiba.