Kina of the Pride Noslapfio by Dujuru out of Kreelae Age: 16 Ht: 8'5" Wt: 925 lbs. Species: Casid (sand) Lion Gender: Female Alignment:Lawful Good 1- As a young cub, Kina was marked as unusual. It wasn't her greater than usual size and strength. It wasn't her insisitance on wearing clothes. It was her mane. Normally a casid lioness does not have a mane. Kina did and with it came a series of distinctions. Her size and strength were roughly equal to any male, about 2 and 5 times greater respectively. She was much more aggressive and violent than her smaller sisters and she constantly ran into no shortage of fights. Many of these bouts ended with near fatal results for her or her opponents. From the age of 6, Kina was a handful that her father, a famed teacher and warrior named Dujuru, took great pleasure in trying to mold and direct without quelling the fire of her soul. Kina was far from his first daughter (casid female/male ratio is about 17:1) and not even his first or nearly first child (she's 18 of 22 daughters and 21 of 27 overall) but seemed to be Dujuru's favorite daughter as her spent the most time with her (she was also the only one with mane). Kina learned to fight and not to fight from her father but all this was nearly shattered when she was 10... A rival consortium of extremely rare "Onyx" lions had singled out Dujuru for a severe humiliation for not bowing to their wishes and siding agianst a new Parliment for their enclave to secure it agianst a then, very corrupt Caisd Leonus Dominion government. Later on, Kina would learn that Dujuru wanted the enclave to join the Aphkian Imperial Union as a territory, afforded full protection and commerce opportunities...plus freedom to allow their children to have new options for their lives. Having refused to vote against the new Parliment, Dujuru had made some powerful enemies, few of whom would dare challenge the old master or his lethal wives to an "honor bout". But these Onyx Lions, whose fur is as black and shiny as crude oil with silver eyes and pearl-shine teeth and claws (these guys looked very expensive just to make presentable) where elite fighters for other concerned parties and made little work out of Dujuru's wives and most of his children...including Kina. Dujuru continued his refusal to side with a new parliment and continuation of their sad and limited lives. For this, he was blinded and left as a cripple. This was for some years a devastating blow to the pride Noslapfio. Kina, one of the strongest of his daughters, took this very poorly 2-The pride lost a lot of crediblitiy with Dujuru's blindness. But that never stopped him from teaching and training his children, especially an ever more outraged Kina. As time went on, Dujuru learned to use his other senses to shocking effect. But he still lacked the ability to fight well enough to re-establish his honor amongst his peers. Kina, now 13, was a strapping and powerful lioness. Her training seemed more to prepare her to protect and lend a merciful hand than the all-out brutality "sand" lions were known for. She wanted to learn to kill so she could avenge her wronged father. She wasn't alone. All but 6 of her sisters, four of the youngest and two of the eldest, and one brother, the youngest, wanted to go after these Onyx lions. The cubs all sought more war-like training and found it for a casid panthress, Lurimuro. She taught the most vicious and deadly arts to the cubs but put one limit and the training: "I know you are here against your father's wishes. He is a wise leader and a wiser father. I will not allow you to use these new skills to kill until he tells me you may. If you do use these skills to kill any sentient being who does not draw first blood on you, then I will kill you." Somehow, Kina was the only one who didn't care. She'd slay those Onyx lions herself...all of them... Kina practiced hard to push her skills beyond Lurimuro's. It wasn't hard for her, she has a genius for all forms of combat. She could now kill with anything - even by breathing hard on her opponent - as natually as drawing her claws. But this did not escape her father's attention. He spent more time with his "most favored" daughter reinforcing his teachings of self-control and "counter-violence". But Kina had it "locked" on the brain that she would slay those lions. At roughly 14 years of age, Kina had gone off to challenge these onyx lions and destroy them. She felt thoroughly invincible...and for the most part she was. No one lion or lioness could take her in a fight and live. Kina found the Onyx Lions who maimed her father and challenged them to a "final honor bout"(to the death). These lions were no longer just fighters, they were killers who made sport of Imperial and Assembly soldiers and important persons. Kina did not know this and was later informed by her mother, Kreelae, that she had killed the assassins who would have made a likely successful attempt of Aphkian Emperor Jonathon Sarvic's life saving her people from a war of extinction against a power who even the elder races avoid irritating. The Battle was blindingly violent and one-sided. A comparitively plain but well-muscled lioness cub with a deep brown mane, slaughtered a dozen massive ripped oily black lions like practice dummy before a sword. Kina was not prepared for the destruction she had caused and couldn't see herself after this point in her young life. She put her own claws to her throat. She had totally annihilated dozen master killers like sedated food animals. She was too powerful too soon. She was afraid of what she had become... She closed her eyes and dug in her claws... A voice, gentle but strong, came to her. She opened her eyes to see Dujuru, her father, standing beside her. Though blind, he seemed to look straight at her. She couldn't talk fearing even the sound of her own voice. Dujuru knelt down and held her to comfort her. "I konw what you have done. I knew you would do it. You are strong enough to good out on your own..." The words gave little comfort for the suicidial lioness but he continued, "I am certain you will make a good and honorable life for yourself..." Kina turned to her father and returned to embrace as he uttered the last words she would hear from him for more than 15 years, "You have disobeyed my will. Leave my home a do not return until I have died." Kina bawled in her father's arms surrounded by the dead for almost a hour. She left in tears wandering away not sure where to go... 3- Life on her own was nowhere near easy for the young lioness baring the spector of suicide like a timebomb in her lap. She tried avoiding people to avoid her first response: to kill. But she constantly found herself fighting off relatives of those onyx lions she killed or bounty hunters or assassins. Most of them died as brutally and easily as her first kills. At times, she would not wash the blood from her hands and clothes. This only drew agents of the law to her and more fighting and killing. She was quickly spiralling out of control and she couldn't stop herself no matter how desarately she tried. If she had given up she'd have likely become like the "Black Beast", a virtually unstoppable super-fighter destroying and killing to feed her growing skills and powers... Again in a rare moment of peace, she stripped bare naked and put her claws to her throat one more time. Again a voice came to her. A gentle motherly voice. Not Kreelae's or any of her other mothers' voices... Kina sat still, her razor sharp claws ready to clean her throat to the bone, "whose there?" Desparation and fear saturated her words. "Someone who doesn't want you to die...Let me give you a home. Friends. Family. A future with hope and peace..." Before, she could refuse or kill herself, Kina found herself looking at a great feathered dragoness, Menikomenqolui. Even though she was almost a hundred yards away, all the lioness could see was a pleasant goddess-like dragon face with loving eyes. "Hope and Peace..." The lioness removed her hands from her throat and just passed out. "Your fighting out there is done, child. Your fight within has just begun..." 4-Kina, a few weeks short of 14 years, had begun her new life as a new member of the Mystic League. She was easily very nervous around all the comparitively tiny youths from more than a dozen other species all gathered to learn magics. Kina was, as a matter of upbringing, oppsed to sorcery and magic. However she found the competitive regimes the students imposed on each other too tempting to resist long. Kina had little trouble making friends. Many of the students approached her to befriend her. It was an entirely friendly affair and she quickly lowered her defenses. Especially for a Tonnian Sabre-toothed cat named Sura... Kina latched to her like a sister. Almost immediately, Kina realized she was romantically drawn to the physically equal girl. This was awkward for her since she personally expected to fall for a guy before a girl. But Kina didn't fight it and a lesbian love affair of school legend was born. The "tomboy twosome", as Kina and Sura were soonly known, quickly surpassed most of their classmates (Rae Iksaki, at this time, was an exceptional student but not the goddess yet that she would be - in fact, Rae wasn't even close to being as strong as Kina). Most being an important term as Mau was easily the strongest by a wide margin...a fact that would be the bane of the school. But well before Mau would do the unthinkable, Kina and Sura were two of the most sexually explicit in the League's history. They were caught more than once pleasuring each other in public places and could rarely go more than a few hours without at least "kissing" each other (FYI: as felis-types, except saidians, are not known for kissing like humans one needs to imagine some tender nosing - eskimo kissing - and licking). These acts led to some sanctioning that led to their taking their lusts behind closed doors (where they belonged). The two often admitted to wild, violent, sex that made more than a few people either curious or afraid... As her training progressed, Kina's body was growing larger and more powerful by leaps and bounds. She continued her practice of dressing fully, and often like a male, as a daily routine. She even styled her mane to be more "butch" but couldn't help letting it grow out into more feminine styles as she grew up. Her sex drive soared with her powers but found herself longing more and more for male companionship. Sura sensed this and actually tried to help by introducing her lovemate to many males of most every felis-type race. Kina found none of them to her liking...not even enough for a one-night-stand. Sura had spoiled the lioness. This along with other personal factors led to Sura leaving the Mystic League for a number of years, "I don't want you to think I don't love you anymore, Kitty'n (Sura's pet name for Kina). I just believe you need a man more than you want more right now. Go find that guy that'll make you forget about me. If I'm not here you'll find him without a doubt and fast, too." Kina and Sura parted well and some say the earthquake the night before Sura left was one heck of an orgasm... 5-"The Day of Betrayal", as it is known amongst the students, was the time Mau chose to break every rule of the school and go on a murderous rampage slaying more than a dozen people. He had proven too strong and skillful. Kina had managed to fight the Aphkian Wolf to a halt for a short time but even her deadliest skills were proving useless against atypically acute Aphkian genius. Mau was about to get the upper hand on her until Rae jumped in and saved her friend and classmate. Rae's powers were vast and formidable but only just a match for Mau who quickly outmaneuvered her. Illia joined in with Noxi's quidance and drove him away. Kina was amazed at how strong the tiny puppy-girl was and clearly becoming. Rae and Illia were amazing but Kina found her own powers lacking and so joined with them to train and hopefully be able to defeat Mau the next time they fought. But it became very apparent that Rae and Illia were light-years ahead of any curve and were quickly outstripping any limitations the universe could hope to impose on them. Still Kina remained a close friend and the most skilled fist in Mystic League history... More to come...