#kunaya

And it also Men's Mental Health Awareness Month

i've been subconsciously making her very intelligent, moreso than the average cat, able to communicate with the kids in all but human speech and grasp situations almost as well as they do -- and i never stopped to think about why. but then i had this awesome idea: what if kunaya is special?

my headcanon is that at least one of kunaya's parents was a spirit animal. somebody's black cat spirit animal. and there's a very morbid explanation for how kunaya wound up with the hawkers as a baby. if you recall, the hawkers were so notorious in eura because they killed people's spirit animals and sold their hides, believing them to have magical properties. so, kunaya was barely more than a newborn when her mama, a spirit animal, was killed by the hawkers. they decided to take the kitten as well as the cat they were going to turn into a pelt, hoping to make a profit off both. maybe kunaya was from a single-kitten litter or had siblings who tragically died/were sold before they encountered finn, abeke and meilin.

because of her Noble parentage, kunaya possesses a much higher level of intelligence than an ordinary beast. not as much as a true spirit animal, but pretty damn remarkable all the same. she has a longer lifespan and better health, too. the same is true of all animals who are offspring of spirit animals. (they also have higher potential to become spirit animals themselves, but not in a mystical appearing-from-the-beyond way, more like in a close proximity type of way. i am still figuring out how this works though. who knows, maybe one of abeke and shane's children will bond with kunaya or a descendant of hers.)

i really think there was a missed opportunity there. shane attempting to get abeke back -- and abeke epically turning him down -- would be a good segue into them meeting on opposite sides of battle in blood ties. it would also be the smarter move on the conquerors' part, because who really thought devin and karmo on their own would successfully convince abeke to return? the better idea would be to send shane along, abeke's closest friend during her time with them.

of course, abeke wouldn't just refuse, she'd likely try to get shane to join the side of right with her. she can't get him to understand, but there's hope that their friendship will endure -- which is confirmed when shane blocks his own soldier's blow to save her in the next book.

and imagine... shane-kunaya meetup. imagine he holds her in his arms and smiles like a kid at christmas and seems so happy to see abeke... then their conversation slowly turns dismal as they realize "oh, i guess we're enemies now".

it would also be great if shane was in hunted because maybe then we'd see some of the bond that he and tahlia were supposed to have during the war. assuming he was present at the dinner with zerif and the "false four" that abeke and meilin spied on. it would also be cool if those four kids were kind of shane's assignment. it would make ana's death and tahlia's disfigurement more impactful to him -- they were his responsibility and he failed them.

random girl (no reference)