#mkuu

TLK: I can't help but wonder

I can't help but wonder what your world must be If we're like each other, if I have your strength in me All this time I've wondered if you'd embrace me as your own 20 years, I've wandered, for so long I've felt alone

There's no Heaven or Hell in my TLK lore. There's an afterlife, however, where spirits can reunite (if they want to). This piece it's about one of those reunions, Mkuu finally getting to meet his son, after so long. Nuka is embarrased, because he thought he failed his mother and his father, but Mkuu doesn't care: he finally has his son back and he will wait forever if he needs to.

I got asked for more Mkuu art and I wanted to show him being happy with Zira and Nuka. As I said before, Mkuu honestly loved Zira and hoped for her return after she left. He never looked for another mate and died not knowing the only thing left of their love was Vitani, the daughter he never got to meet.

Am I really a curse?

Mkuu was very old when it happened. A sick wildebeest asked the current leader of The Thornbush Pride about the Tree of Life, a sanctuary that was said to cure every disease, that a cape buffalo from another heard have came from it seasons ago, completly free of their illness. Mkuu didn't know and dismissed the herbivore away, without knowing he got infected from that same disease. Dalili, though, knew about the encounter, since she followed her uncle around for her training as a future leader. Worried about the only family that seemly deeply cared about her, Dalili relunctantly asked Nia if she knew about this "Tree of Life" so they could send Mkuu there. Nia replied that yes, she has heard the stories about this sanctuary from her father, but they were all just that: stories, and that Dalili should let the course of The Circle of Life to continue, that it was time Mkuu joined The Lions of The Past.

Dalili didn't believe that bullshit: the spirits wouldn't take another relative of hers. She was going to prove Nia wrong. So she went to Kulinda and asked about these "Moonflowers" that were on the painting of the cave Dalili found years ago. Kulinda was also old and didn't remember exactly, but she knew the plants could help, but there was a catch about them she couldn't recall. Dalili didn't care about that, as long as it cured her uncle.

Dalili found the plants and gave a couple to Mkuu. For a few days, he seemed to get better. So she asked to herself: "why dónt I give him more flowers so he gets better faster?". And so she did. And Mkuu felt stronger and more alive than ever!

“Ayubu! Cousin! Help me!”

Sadly, this is the moment Tanglemane loses his leadership to the two barbary twins, Mtemi (left) and Mkuu (right).

Tanglemane could have actually won, hasn’t him been poisoned by his cousin a few moments before. Yes, Ayubu convinced an Indian Cobra named Naja to put some of its venom on Tanglemane’s share of food. His plan was to challenge Tanglemane once the venom started to kick in, so Ayubu could win the leadership of the pride “fairly”.He didn’t count on the two rogues that decided to attack the pride at the same time.