Name: Adaeze
Species: Lion
Gender: Female
Pride: Pridelander (daughter of Scruffy but born in the Pridelands)
Personality: As a cub, Adaeze is a sweet girl, who harbors inner feelings of insecurity, that constantly prompt her to show her brother (Mosi) and the other cubs of the Pridelands that she can be just as brave and tough as they can. She has a bubbly and playful attitude most of the time. As an adult, however, Adaeze changes drastically. She becomes very cold, rigid, and much like one of Zira's outlander soldiers. After Kuwasha ran away, Adaeze was heartbroken, and began to change into the adult she is now. Her only friend/loyalty is to Upendi, the Queen of the Pridelands, and to some extent, Mrithi, Upendi's son, and her nephew.
Description: Very pale cream color, with an even paler muzzle, toes and underbelly color. She has dark tannish upper eyeshades and very light creams under eyeshades. Her inner ears and tail tuft are the same color as her upper eyeshades. Her ears are a darker cream color. She has a pridelander muzzle with a black outlander nose, and red eyes. Her fur gets a little darker/duller when she grows up.
Other: Adaeze is not my character, she is my friends, but I have permission to use her.
History: Adaeze and her brother Mosi were born to Scruffy in the Pridelands, shortly before Kiara and Kovu's cubs were born. Their father is a rogue. Adaeze grew up shadowed (at least, in her mind) by her brother's 'go-getter' personality, and often felt jealous of his confidence in himself. Yet it's that weaker, sensitive side of herself that allowed her to see past Kuwasha's (Kiara and Kovu's son) fur color, and befriend him. The two of them became very close--always standing up for each other against Mosi and the other cubs--and Adaeze eventually developed a crush on him. She didn't know if Kuwasha felt the same way, so she kept it to herself, but was happy nonetheless. However, after her brother went blind, during a dare-gone-wrong, Adaeze didn't get to see her friend as often, because she had to be her brother's eyes, and look after him with her mother. This, sadly, was where she was the day Kuwasha ran away. And part of the reason she grows into such a cold adult. Adaeze feels, deep down, that she was unable to protect him--she wasn't there to help him stand up for himself against Kivuli. Maybe if she was, he wouldn't have run away. At the time, however, Adaeze is too shocked/heartbroken to process anything other than the fact that the cub she loves is gone.
After Kivuli's banishment, Adaeze decides to shut out the world, and in turn, shut off her heart. She lives each day as a soldier of the queen--Upendi--while pain from loss slowly eats away at her.
And when Upendi announces her plans to secure an heir, Adaeze does nothing to stop her from forcing herself on the blind Mosi. Mosi was a bully, too--he shouldn't be allowed a choice in Upendi's--and her--decisions.
But when Kuwasha comes back to the Pridelands, alive and now an adult, Adaeze doesn't know what to think. Kuwasha has a mate now, and cubs of his own....but he's still back, and even though he's now friends with Kivuli, a part of her is happy. Which is an emotion she hasn't felt for a very long time. And because of this, she ends up avoiding Kuwasha: confused, and surprised and not sure what to say to him after so much time has passed. In the end, Kuwasha finds her, and as the two reunite, the wall around Adaeze's heart cracks for the first time in years. She actually cries, nuzzling her old friend and sobbing how happy she is to see him again and how devastated she was when he ran away--she thought he was dead.
As Kuwasha and Kivuli slowly mend the Pridelands back together, Upendi and Adaeze mend as well--gradually. Adaeze even decides to try to mend ties with her brother, who she hadn't spoken too since Upendi forced herself on him.
In the end, when Kuwasha leaves, he asks Adaeze if she'd like to go with him. She thinks about it, and for a time, almost agrees to go with him. But then she sees Laina (Kuwasha's mate) interact with him and their cubs and she realizes that she has to stop living in the past, and that he's clearly in love with Laina, and she should move on as well. So Adaeze stays in the Pridelands as Upendi's right-hand lioness, but is much happier now, knowing her love is alive, happy, and healed from his past torments.
Position: Pride sister.
Crush/Mate: She's in love with Kuwasha, and probably always will be, despite learning to move on.
Children: No.
