Welcome to Gaia! ::

Well well well...if this wasn't a wonderful treat. The huge shaggy form had paused mid-step to catch a whiff of something just delicious on the wind. Only just awake again after a gorge-induced 'nap' of several years' time, the god-lion was eager to re-explore his homelands. Of course, in his mind the entirety of both mortal and godly realms belonged to him, and him alone. Mkodi had gone, and left him and the other gods...and they, they were weak, and stupid, and plotted against him. He'd trusted them at first, but now? Not a chance. It was paranoia that had led him to the mortal realm to begin with, a place where little could harm him, nothing could kill him, and he could deal with those he found bothersome with the swipe of a claw. The wonderful, amazing, delicious hatred he'd found there had made him stay.

And this scent? It was its own vintage of hate, perfectly bottled up in a slew of mortals and ripened with age. It was nearly perfect (though he'd always found the hatred of mortals was lacking in body...) and on a whim, he determined he MUST have a taste.

The behemoth made no attempt to hide himself as he waded through the high grasses. Animals both prey and predator scattered before him, to his enjoyment. Shortly enough the stink of the mortals' 'boundary' filled his nose. A pride? He scoffed and continued on unhindered. In the dulling light of the evening he was quite a sight, his form lit from behind by the last vestiges of sunlight, and from within by his own burning.

The God of Hate had come to visit.



Though dusk settled in deeply through the day, the darkness that begun to encompass the area did little to waver the spirit found behind the vibrant orange eyes clearly marked on the young teenage form. With a pelt that matched the dimming skies of the surrounding atmosphere, the only distinguishable notice that there was another presence in the area was the muffled giggles of her self-amusement.

"I'm a genius! I can't wait to see me doing THAT to them... And then their expressions afterwards. HA," the form spoke to herself, words childlike but figure expressing an older age.

But through her chortles and humor in solitude, ears flickered upwards in acknowledgment of something rather... interesting was not the word, but sensing another's presence did intrigue her interest. Perhaps it was someone from the Mizimu spying on her, despite her talents in sneaking away from a prank she pulled, or her craftiness in general. She turned to the source, sly smile at the ready in excitement of the stranger that beckoned to her.

Her hopes dropped, but a new awe filled it when she saw something very dark moving through the grasses - and quite fast towards her. Though dark, she squinted and seemed to see... something fiery peaking out from within the large form. But it wasn't possible that fire could be contained inside an individual, could it? Smile widening, she sprung up from her spot in an inspired gait towards the black stranger - it had to be something fascinating!

"Whoooo aare yooou?" she called out - if it wasn't something worth her time, she could at least get away pulling a small trick on the stranger.



Oho...so the welcoming crew had already turned up. The god was at once amused and irritated. He'd meant to discover this pride, and now he had, but it being so near the borders, his surprise was ruined. It would have been much better to sneak upon them unawares...no matter. A fresh pulse of molten...something (rock? blood? materialized hate itself?) seeped to the surface of the cracks in his body, momentarily illuminating his massive bulk before drizzling down his front, to drip into the air and cool into nothing but a few dark stones before hitting the ground.

The pride member's voice gave much away about her when it reached his ears. She was a female, of course, and not fully mature. She stank of mortals, making his nose twitch, and he huffed a plume of smoke into the twilight sky. She was harder than some to spot, being a lovely dark color...Indeed, a little imagination and he could almost imagine she was one of his own brood. A bit too small though...

His jaw tightened imperceptibly as he drew up a few yards away from the resident female. Though not the source of the hatred he sought, she certainly had the taint of its scent about her. Yes indeed he'd come to the right spot. With no signs of fear, he snorted again. "I am Neltharion. And what do they call you, whelpling?"



Traveling paws froze as something seethed out of the approaching big thing ahead. She stopped, blinking, and gaped in both surprise and awe. Things like that didn't happen in the Mizimu often, especially now that the war was over. She had to admit, she missed the tension that floated through the air during those times - but she was very young then, and had no part in the war itself. She wanted the mayhem, the loud roars of fighting lions, the trickery that underlined it all...

It seemed like the thing that was coming towards her wasn't stopping for anything; perhaps it was likewise excited to see her. So the teen lioness stayed in her spot, tail waving and eyes staring more focused than they usually are on anything - her heart was racing with energy. Things were getting more and more clear and amazing when the dark figure moved to close in - the smoke that billowed into the air, the monstrous form, and the sheer presence of... him - whoever he was.

When he introduced himself, she noted his name with enthusiasm - like her mother, he was what the Mizimu called a greater spirit! He even looked vaguely familiar, with a black body and sort of orange marks accenting himself. But they couldn't be related; mother never said anything about a brother or grandfather - she only knew that she was also related to Anansi, who was only brown and seemed a little less impressive than the normal.

"Neltharion," she said respectfully with a dip of the head (which was rare for her, even to her family), "Greater spirit, hmm? Call me Suka! Or sucker, whichever you'd like to think."

A giggle came with the addition and revelation of her adopted nickname, though she was well aware that she played the opposite role in trickery. She looked at where the god's gaze had been on earlier - behind her laid the base of the Mizimu lands. What interest could something like Neltharion have in them? Ever since the conflict, the lands had become more wary of strangers, though she was sure the Mizimu would readily welcome any form of spirit that wandered through. That was just the nature of those fools.

"You're not related to my mom, are you?" she suddenly decided to ask, before inquiring again right after, "What do you do? You look pretty intimidating, don't you? But I'm used to stuff like that, you know. My mother's the mischief goddess and I'm from the Mizimu. Even if you were made of blood, stuff like that would be normal."

Suka hesitated before resisting the urge to roll her eyes and giggle when the god before her went straight for the point she would have thought of last. Perhaps the Mizimu was an attraction for the greater spirits indeed, and that is why they did what they did. After all, her mother did seem to be quite fond of the happenings within that land. Maybe it was the same for Neltharion - the revering nature of the pride must have sparked some desire within greater spirits to actually go and receive the benefits of their worship.

No worries - if he was just using her as a tour guide, she'd definitely do her best... Then again, some second thoughts formed on tricking or deceiving the big brute of a god in any way; was this version of a greater spirit something with which to trifle? Perhaps she would find out, or perhaps she would just unleash him to the rest of the pride and observe. She was the first to find him, so that had to have given her an edge in something, should he prove valuable to future events!

"Suka," she corrected with a sweet, amused smile, "And yes, the Mizimu'Tungika."

She contemplated inquiring him why exactly he wanted to abruptly go, but it didn't seem likely he would answer straightaway. Maybe she would find out later.

Suka stalled, starting a skip around the front path of Neltharion, tail waving with slight giddy in the air, "Are you suuuure you want to see the Mizimu? It's kind of boring, now that the warleader Sakata is in power or something. You really should have come a few weeks ago. There was a lot more action then, and lots of losers died. Ha!"

She stopped then, bounding a few steps towards the Mizimu, "I mean if you're sure, then let's go. You don't know what you're getting into, though... A whole lot of boring where there once was a whole lot of fun. You look like someone who could liven the place up a bit though, huh? They'd love you, as a greater spirit. Even if you were the greater spirit of destruction or something!"

Neltharion seemed quite determined to go to the Mizimu - so much that it made Suka pause for just a split second in her tracks to wonder. Her visions never told her of anything involving a rather large thing like this greater spirit. Then again, all her visions told her was how she would pull particular pranks... Maybe Neltharion was not one she would soon prank in the future. A slight chill ran down her spine; maybe this kind of greater spirit was not one which she would do her usual course of actions. Something more sinister than she imagined must have embodied him, for the air soon grew less cheerful and bright for Suka, in all her carefree yet manipulative nature.

"Fine, fine," she assented in as melodic a tone as she could play, "Don't trust me in finding disappointment."

Turning back, she could very obviously see the seemingly entranced stare (or what she thought was one) on Neltharion's face, and squinted in half curiosity, half awe at the glowing ooze that dripped from his mouth. She watched the grass immediately give way for it, turning into a smoldering patch of black, and noted to quicken her pace as she walked Neltharion to the Mizimu in case that thing fell on her. This meeting sure was less amusing than she initially thought it would be.

If there had been something this god sought there, he didn't seem likely to find it. There could have been nothing in the Mizimu that would allure him, unless he wished to kill off Sakata or maybe even the queen Jinichongo, which would potentially ruin the entire dynamics of the land. But this possibility became more of one when his last words came out, and she reflected thoughtfully. She couldn't be bringing some type of destruction into the Mizimu. That would have just been too easy, and her role wasn't akin to the bringer of death. Suka remained silent, then, leaving the atmosphere bleak and solemn just momentarily, breaking the joyous demeanor she had.

"...Well, if you destroy the Mizimu, that'd be taking away any sort of entertainment that could be had," she tried to reason if that was his intent, "There are some in the Mizimu who once made things interesting. They are slaves now. They can't do anything anymore because you know..."

Her tone became grim, "They were just stripped of their capabilities to do any harm."

Despite the voiced disapproval of the god, Suka continued in her pace contentedly and took his no-nonsense attitude in stride. He was so grave, and more dry in expression than any other she had encountered before; he could have even rivaled the great Sakata in their apparent indifference. She would've only been able to act like that if it were a ploy for something - sometimes she was amazed at how unamused others were in going through life. It was simply more pleasant to reward oneself by making other's moments in life a joke, but she didn't seem capable at the moment of doing so, and the chances of her accomplishing that in the future were squashed. The god's paw was big enough to do such a thing, anyways.

"Beats me," she quickly answered his question; she did, after all, attempt to dissuade him from pursuing the pride previously.

"And plea?" she repeated in a scoff, not knowing whether to take it as a joke or not - he either was jeering her or had not been listening to her chatter, "I wasn't the one who ended the war, or even wanted to end it. Don't you listen, tough guy? But I do like that idea, though. Someone like you makes for a really good entertainer, huh..."

Suka laughed lightly, finally able to agree on one vague concept with this terror of a stranger. Her long strides didn't matter to her; her natural bulk made the effort to keep up easy, and she had always been quick on her paws; it was needed to pull some of the things she had, after all. It was however a tad bothersome that he kept ahead of her like he was the boss, but perhaps that is forgiven for this presence. Dodging and steering clear of the fresh, clearly heat-emitting glowing stuff that came out wasn't a problem; Suka felt that the two were nearing the pride's center, already past the borders that drew the god so near already.

"You want me to what? Warn the leaders?" she frowned, feeling offended once more that she was characterized as a loyal patriot of her pride, "T-that... would be a great stunt to pull on the leaders... hm!"

Suka began speculating; if she went to tell the queen and warleader that a threatening presence was to make itself known on the lands, she may cause quite a ruckus... No doubt her company's appearance would emphasize her point, but then again, he didn't seem to be here for that type of "fun" he implied.

"I'm the warleader's daughter, you know, so I can set you two up for some nice talk and stroll around the lands, if you're that type of guy..." she snickered, "But my father's not the one you want to meet, again, I assure you. Kizuka'ruya, a slave, is fun sometimes. She keeps wailing about her betrayer - the pride's traitor, and the past player of the two sides. You might like that. Those two were specifically given over for the royal cubs to sink their small, growing claws into - sad, Malaika had such a calculative mind..."

Oh, how Suka loved the way this god talked and acted! He was a fun one, she was sure of that. When she saw that she could spot some familiar faces in the distance, she squealed and saw that the two had brought someone's attention. Now they couldn't be entirely a surprise! Oh, how she wished the god knew how to surprise people. But she guessed his size and intimidating presence made up for it, a little.

"Okay, let's go - but remember, improvise if things get out of our paws!" she said happily, following the final steps of her new large companion into the pride.