Post by Melisizwe on May 22, 2009 21:50:54 GMT -5
Mwambula: a plant with poisonous roots and the name of a small clan of hyenas led by a ruthlessly dominant female, Muni. Her chosen male, Heji, was the strongest of the few males in the ragtag pack and quickly rose above the others. Muni saw this, and knew Heji would give her strong pups. Muni’s rule was absolute. She ate first, and took the best parts of a kill. She dictated the clan’s every move, and oversaw the growth and training of all young pups. She kept Mwambula’s strict traditions of naming alive, a one to two syllable name ending in ‘i,’ given to a pup weeks after their birth in a public naming in front of the whole clan.
Her last litter with Heji was small. Two girls, one black as midnight and the other with a wide, wild look behind her eyes were given their monikers fitting to their personalities; Wii, the wicked, and Geni, the strange. The pups grew quickly, and from their introduction Wii displayed her power over her sister. When the two could make the journey with their own paws, Muni led her clan south through the wastelands, claiming the empty range on the northern border of a great scar in the earth. Lush, green lands beckoned the leader ever south, deeper into the gorge rift to claim a corner of the southern bounty as her own.
It was not easy. Great Mufasa and his ilk kept them confined by the gorge walls with tooth and claw, but Muni resorted to her deceit and cunning to outwit the powerful lion King and steal his precious herd beasts. Mwambula thrived. The problem with a strong clan, however, is the constant struggle to keep power against the younger generation. Even though Muni ruled absolutely, a young male, Hafsi, decided to test his boundaries. With a brutal viciousness of a stupid adolescent, he attacked, subdued, and mated with Muni’s daughter Geni. For his crime, the dominant female tore out Hafsi’s throat and left a mangled corpse behind for the vultures as a clear warning what happens to those that disobey. Geni, and her pup, were spared, and in her young adolescence she named her first born daughter Shari, raising her to the best of her ability.
A few seasons came and went with the fury of the new rains, the battles with Mufasa’s lionesses constant and no side saw fit to relent. Salvation for the aging, tiring Muni came in the form of her wicked eldest daughter, and her plan to ally with Mufasa’s brother and dethrone the King who stood in the way of their reaping a rich bounty. Wii’s alliance was tenuous and extremely dangerous, but Scar allowed the clan to encroach south into his brother’s lands and the hyena’s moved quickly.
When Mufasa was thrown from the lip of the gorge by his brother, power among the Mwambula was shifted. Vicious and hungry for power, Wii slew her mother, and the old and useless Heji was driven away to the north lands to starve alone; fitting punishment for a weak male who did nothing to protect his dominant mate. Strangely, although Wii did not trust her sister, she appointed Geni second in command (an act truly never seen among hyenas), and many, even Geni, believed that it was nothing more than a ploy to satiate her own desire for power, allowing Wii to keep what she had taken.
But power was not steady. Jahanum, a rising dominant male taken by Wii, also had a litter with the Strange one. Wii was furious, and threatened to kill Geni and her unborn pups, but knew that if she did so she would risk losing the protection that her sister offered. The warning was clear, however, and left Geni with many deep gashes and punctures.
Seasons passed under Scar's reign, and Mwambula reaped all the glory that the Pridelands had to offer them. They grew fat on herd beasts, and lazy in their uncontested territory. Each sister had a successful and healthy litter, but Scar's brutal reign over his lands quickly dissolved upon his murder, and with renewed vigor, Simba and his ilk drove the clan to flee south across the dry riverbed. Many were slain in the retreat, including one of Geni's young pups, Kali. In her blind and passionate rage at losing her daughter, Geni attacked and killed her brutal sister, breaking her neck and ending Mwambula's chapter in the Pridelands. The last word from Wii's bloody lips, "...tr-- traitor..." haunted Geni's dreams.
The southern lands were bordered by an unending desert and shifting sand, and Geni lead the tattered remains of her clan deep into the scrub lands. She was not the leader her sister was; she relied on her brains more than her brawn, and hyena's are not used to such command. Her main goal was to keep her clan away from the pride, or rather, the pride away from them. Mwambula, now the Uchawi, turned their backs on the north lands and focused its attention on itself. Mnara was forgotten as Geni carved with tooth, nail, and cunning to rebuild a destroyed clan.
The Strange died as honorably as a warrior-hunter can. A failed hunt left her lifeless with a crushed skull, and quickly and as ruthlessly as hyenas know how to, her youngest and strongest daughter Eiji claimed dominance. In a rare display, Eiji was unchallenged, but more like her aunt than her mother, the new dominant female was ruthless and unforgiving. Her distaste from tradition saw Uchawi breaking from many old founded, dusty practices, the most prominent being the ritual of naming. Eiji struck that from the law, though rumors were quick and vicious when her eldest son Tarii was named. Still, the last vestiges of what was once Mwambula were all but gone.
The isolation from Mnara to the north was clearly evident when the rains came, for the rushing river blocked the hyena's path north as well as the lion's path south. The Uchawi did not mind, and did not care what the Mnara thought of it. Eiji lead the clan deeper into the scrubland to the southwest, but upon their arrival at the edge of the desert sands she met with a force that she could not match. Twin sisters, Nthanda and Kwesi, came from through the deep desert, overcoming and killing Geni's daughter and forcing many of the young males into their submission. Only Wii's son, the aging Bozi, was strong enough in both physique and brain to impress the sisters and their rag-tag clan. Bozi formed an uneasy alliance between the members of the two small clans, and Uchawi's ranks grew.
Each dominant sister pair had a strong litter of pups, Nthanda with three and Kwesi with two, but when those litters grew to be fine young adults, Uchawi's dominance struggle was dramatically shifted. Nthanda's son, Ayo, killed his mother in a jealousy-driven, lustful rage for her sister, his aunt, Kwesi. He brought the female down, overpowered her, and bore her a litter of three pups. The clan didn't know what to do. No male had taken control before, and the confidence in a once strong and capable leader, Kwesi, was completely shattered. She remained the dominant female, however, for none would question Ayo and his madness and risk death.
Greed drove the male north to the southern river crossing, and when the rapids were shallow he ordered the Uchawi to swim or be slain in a vicious effort to claim the richer savanna on the other side. No one remembered the Mnara, having lived seasons in their isolation to the south, and fearfully they dove into the water. Ayo wasted no time in scouring the landscape for prey and potentially a few unrelated, fresh young females for him to take, to show that males were no less strong, but his ill-fated charge ended at the claws of a huntress patrol. The lionesses were fearless and strong, killing Ayo and chasing his remaining clan back across the river from where they came.
Forcing the clan away from the crazed male's short and tenuous rule, Thema, eldest daughter of Nthanda and Bozi fought and won her dominance and quickly fled the southern scrublands and found some sanctuary in the northwestern plains. Free from the corrupting influence of weak minded males, and further still from the threat of the Mnara lionesses trying to follow them across the river, Thema began to bolster the ranks of her weakened and distraught clan.
Dominance suited Thema, for she ordered her strongest females out into the lands, as far as their paws could carry them, to find, subdue, and force any hyena they could find to swell the Uchawi ranks. It was difficult, painful, and agonizing, but Thema was ruthless in her orders for she knew that such a small clan, with such weak blood, could never survive. Of these rogues, Udo, charmed her not only with his physical toughness, but had the brain to match. After the failure of Ayo, however, the dominant female made sure that no male, not even her chosen male, would be stupid enough to try such tricks again. A successful litter of five graced Thema and her mate, and as age settled in on the dominant pair, a new paw seized control.
Dumisani, another young rogue from Thema's conquest quickly succeeded in her take over and took the wise Chike for a mate, producing another litter of five. When the aged male unexpectedly died, Dumisani showed little remorse for him and quickly chose another, Adwoa, and immediately became pregnant with a second litter. Heavily due to give birth to these new pups, her first litter with Chike grown to adolescents, the dominant female turned her eyes east. The dry was approaching quickly and water was scarce in her desert lands. Duminsani, unafraid to challenge the lion threat across the river, drove her clan east deep into the scrublands and toward the waterhole. She knew of the Mnara, and was unafraid to challenge them for the sake of her own power.
Her last litter with Heji was small. Two girls, one black as midnight and the other with a wide, wild look behind her eyes were given their monikers fitting to their personalities; Wii, the wicked, and Geni, the strange. The pups grew quickly, and from their introduction Wii displayed her power over her sister. When the two could make the journey with their own paws, Muni led her clan south through the wastelands, claiming the empty range on the northern border of a great scar in the earth. Lush, green lands beckoned the leader ever south, deeper into the gorge rift to claim a corner of the southern bounty as her own.
It was not easy. Great Mufasa and his ilk kept them confined by the gorge walls with tooth and claw, but Muni resorted to her deceit and cunning to outwit the powerful lion King and steal his precious herd beasts. Mwambula thrived. The problem with a strong clan, however, is the constant struggle to keep power against the younger generation. Even though Muni ruled absolutely, a young male, Hafsi, decided to test his boundaries. With a brutal viciousness of a stupid adolescent, he attacked, subdued, and mated with Muni’s daughter Geni. For his crime, the dominant female tore out Hafsi’s throat and left a mangled corpse behind for the vultures as a clear warning what happens to those that disobey. Geni, and her pup, were spared, and in her young adolescence she named her first born daughter Shari, raising her to the best of her ability.
A few seasons came and went with the fury of the new rains, the battles with Mufasa’s lionesses constant and no side saw fit to relent. Salvation for the aging, tiring Muni came in the form of her wicked eldest daughter, and her plan to ally with Mufasa’s brother and dethrone the King who stood in the way of their reaping a rich bounty. Wii’s alliance was tenuous and extremely dangerous, but Scar allowed the clan to encroach south into his brother’s lands and the hyena’s moved quickly.
When Mufasa was thrown from the lip of the gorge by his brother, power among the Mwambula was shifted. Vicious and hungry for power, Wii slew her mother, and the old and useless Heji was driven away to the north lands to starve alone; fitting punishment for a weak male who did nothing to protect his dominant mate. Strangely, although Wii did not trust her sister, she appointed Geni second in command (an act truly never seen among hyenas), and many, even Geni, believed that it was nothing more than a ploy to satiate her own desire for power, allowing Wii to keep what she had taken.
But power was not steady. Jahanum, a rising dominant male taken by Wii, also had a litter with the Strange one. Wii was furious, and threatened to kill Geni and her unborn pups, but knew that if she did so she would risk losing the protection that her sister offered. The warning was clear, however, and left Geni with many deep gashes and punctures.
Seasons passed under Scar's reign, and Mwambula reaped all the glory that the Pridelands had to offer them. They grew fat on herd beasts, and lazy in their uncontested territory. Each sister had a successful and healthy litter, but Scar's brutal reign over his lands quickly dissolved upon his murder, and with renewed vigor, Simba and his ilk drove the clan to flee south across the dry riverbed. Many were slain in the retreat, including one of Geni's young pups, Kali. In her blind and passionate rage at losing her daughter, Geni attacked and killed her brutal sister, breaking her neck and ending Mwambula's chapter in the Pridelands. The last word from Wii's bloody lips, "...tr-- traitor..." haunted Geni's dreams.
The southern lands were bordered by an unending desert and shifting sand, and Geni lead the tattered remains of her clan deep into the scrub lands. She was not the leader her sister was; she relied on her brains more than her brawn, and hyena's are not used to such command. Her main goal was to keep her clan away from the pride, or rather, the pride away from them. Mwambula, now the Uchawi, turned their backs on the north lands and focused its attention on itself. Mnara was forgotten as Geni carved with tooth, nail, and cunning to rebuild a destroyed clan.
The Strange died as honorably as a warrior-hunter can. A failed hunt left her lifeless with a crushed skull, and quickly and as ruthlessly as hyenas know how to, her youngest and strongest daughter Eiji claimed dominance. In a rare display, Eiji was unchallenged, but more like her aunt than her mother, the new dominant female was ruthless and unforgiving. Her distaste from tradition saw Uchawi breaking from many old founded, dusty practices, the most prominent being the ritual of naming. Eiji struck that from the law, though rumors were quick and vicious when her eldest son Tarii was named. Still, the last vestiges of what was once Mwambula were all but gone.
The isolation from Mnara to the north was clearly evident when the rains came, for the rushing river blocked the hyena's path north as well as the lion's path south. The Uchawi did not mind, and did not care what the Mnara thought of it. Eiji lead the clan deeper into the scrubland to the southwest, but upon their arrival at the edge of the desert sands she met with a force that she could not match. Twin sisters, Nthanda and Kwesi, came from through the deep desert, overcoming and killing Geni's daughter and forcing many of the young males into their submission. Only Wii's son, the aging Bozi, was strong enough in both physique and brain to impress the sisters and their rag-tag clan. Bozi formed an uneasy alliance between the members of the two small clans, and Uchawi's ranks grew.
Each dominant sister pair had a strong litter of pups, Nthanda with three and Kwesi with two, but when those litters grew to be fine young adults, Uchawi's dominance struggle was dramatically shifted. Nthanda's son, Ayo, killed his mother in a jealousy-driven, lustful rage for her sister, his aunt, Kwesi. He brought the female down, overpowered her, and bore her a litter of three pups. The clan didn't know what to do. No male had taken control before, and the confidence in a once strong and capable leader, Kwesi, was completely shattered. She remained the dominant female, however, for none would question Ayo and his madness and risk death.
Greed drove the male north to the southern river crossing, and when the rapids were shallow he ordered the Uchawi to swim or be slain in a vicious effort to claim the richer savanna on the other side. No one remembered the Mnara, having lived seasons in their isolation to the south, and fearfully they dove into the water. Ayo wasted no time in scouring the landscape for prey and potentially a few unrelated, fresh young females for him to take, to show that males were no less strong, but his ill-fated charge ended at the claws of a huntress patrol. The lionesses were fearless and strong, killing Ayo and chasing his remaining clan back across the river from where they came.
Forcing the clan away from the crazed male's short and tenuous rule, Thema, eldest daughter of Nthanda and Bozi fought and won her dominance and quickly fled the southern scrublands and found some sanctuary in the northwestern plains. Free from the corrupting influence of weak minded males, and further still from the threat of the Mnara lionesses trying to follow them across the river, Thema began to bolster the ranks of her weakened and distraught clan.
Dominance suited Thema, for she ordered her strongest females out into the lands, as far as their paws could carry them, to find, subdue, and force any hyena they could find to swell the Uchawi ranks. It was difficult, painful, and agonizing, but Thema was ruthless in her orders for she knew that such a small clan, with such weak blood, could never survive. Of these rogues, Udo, charmed her not only with his physical toughness, but had the brain to match. After the failure of Ayo, however, the dominant female made sure that no male, not even her chosen male, would be stupid enough to try such tricks again. A successful litter of five graced Thema and her mate, and as age settled in on the dominant pair, a new paw seized control.
Dumisani, another young rogue from Thema's conquest quickly succeeded in her take over and took the wise Chike for a mate, producing another litter of five. When the aged male unexpectedly died, Dumisani showed little remorse for him and quickly chose another, Adwoa, and immediately became pregnant with a second litter. Heavily due to give birth to these new pups, her first litter with Chike grown to adolescents, the dominant female turned her eyes east. The dry was approaching quickly and water was scarce in her desert lands. Duminsani, unafraid to challenge the lion threat across the river, drove her clan east deep into the scrublands and toward the waterhole. She knew of the Mnara, and was unafraid to challenge them for the sake of her own power.