History wrote:There was no foretelling the horrible path that lay ahead of Mitul- in fact, many who knew his family would have thought he would live a happy and privileged life. How wrong they were. Mitul was born in the pride to a family of three: his mother Madhavi who had the element of death, his father, Tanvir, who was cursed by his elemental control over hate, and his brother, Sahib, a young lion with the ability to control Light and who was adopted by Mitul's parents as a cub. Of course his name was not originally "Mitul", but was actually "Kiaan." His parents hoped that giving him such a powerful name would gain him respect and the expectation to be powerful within the pride. However, Mitul would never get the chance to fill the role of his name.
Mitul's parents absolutely adored him from the moment he was born. They gave him everything he wanted, from attention to training and everything above. Perhaps it was this spoiling of a cub that led him to grow so haughty as he grew older. However, this added attention to Sahib's new brother did not sit well with the adopted cub. He began to despise Mitul, especially when the younger cub began to grow arrogant and rude. While Mitul never intentionally rubbed the fact that he was favored in Sahib's face, there were moments where he'd try to boss Sahib around. Or when the two argued he would threaten to tell their parents, knowing fully well whose side they would take. Nonetheless, Sahib was no violent lion, nor did he have any ill-intention toward his foolish brother. So when tragedy struck, he decided to support his brother when no one else would.
Mitul's father fell ill, plagued by a disease brought on by the recent wars. A year later, he passed, leaving a 15 year old Miltul, a 162 year old Sahib, and a mother crippled with grief. Madhavi was particularly rattled by her mate's passing. Having the element of death, she was cursed with the constant vision of her mate. While some would think being able to see a deceased loved one would be a blessing, the incapability to speak to him drove Madhavi mad. Mitul was often there to witness his mother's bouts, watching as day after day she slowly lost her mind. Often times she would mistake him for his father, for he bore the same coat and mane as Tanvir. Because of this recognition, she would often turn into a sobbing mess when Mitul was around or she would act towards him with hatred, unable to bear the sight of something so close to her mate but so far. Mitul's element of hate only made her aggression toward him worse. His mother's new attitude toward Mitul was absolutely devastating to the young cub. He faced a drastic change in character, going from outgoing and visibly haughty to quiet and unsure of himself. Sahib saw this change in his brother and began to realize that things could not go on as they were. He hoped to ask the Pride Alpha for help, to ask him to find someone to take in Mitul, but the Alpha was too busy with the ongoing war to pay heed to a weak cub and a sole warrior. Their mother's behavior towards Mitul was only getting worse and worse, coming to the point where Sahib worried for Mitul's safety. The family had become so isolated from the rest of the pride, that there was no one there to take notice in the downfall of the family, nor anyone left for the survivors to turn to. With no other choice, Mitul's brother had to make a choice: leave the pride and raise Mitul on his own, or remain in the pride and risk their mother's eventual wrath. Whether it was Sahib's pride, his good will, or his fear for his adoptive sibling, or something else- compelled him to give up everything for his brother and enter the Unknown lands.
The two brothers left on a rather warm night. They had snuck out of the caverns when Sahib came to fetch Mitul once their mother had left to visit Tanvir's grave. Mitul felt bad for deceiving his mother so, but despite his love for his mother, he knew that she was no longer the loving and wise lioness that he had been raised by. The two had crept silently into the darkness, the stars the only light to illuminate their path. They thought they would escape easily, but fate had never been kind to Mitul. From out of nowhere came Madhavi. For a moment she appeared normal, approaching the duo with a concerned look on her face as she peered at them, trying to figure out their identities. "What are you to doing out here?" she questioned. "The dead are particularly active tonight... My dear Tanvir walks with me. He won't talk to me though..." she took a step forward and her eyes locked onto Mitul. "Talk to me!" She was insane, Tanvir's soul had already been given to the Lake of Eternity.
Mitul backed away, tail tucked between his legs and ears pressed firmly against his head. What was he supposed to do? She thought that he was his father! Where did she even come from? When Mitul gave no response, Madhavi stepped closer, sniffing the air as she did so. "You!" she snarled, her pupils dilating. Mitul took one more step, two, and then he was running, his older brother nudging him to move faster. But he was not fast enough. In one leap, Madhavi was on top of Mitul. Her weight caused them to roll into a rock, stunning the two of them. Mitul was able to free himself, but Madhavi was not done yet. She grabbed onto his tail with two paws, digging her claws into his flesh. The skin tore more as Mitul struggled.
"You can't leave me again!" Madhavi yowled. Suddenly, the weight tugging on Mitul's tail vanished as Sahib barreled into the crazed lioness.
""Run, Kiaan! Run!" And so Mitul did as he was told. And ran.
He didn't look back until he was at least two miles away from the confrontation. How he had made it that far, he did not know. He didn't know what happened to Sahib, or if his mother still pursued him. What he did know was that he was beyond exhausted and before he could get his bearing, he had collapsed to the ground as the world fell away beneath him. Dreams of shattered light and a weeping lioness tortured his slumber...
When Sahib awoke the next day, he was not where he remembered he had fallen asleep. Instead, he found himself in a cave. His surroundings were strange, decorated with taxon pelts and caffer hide along the wall. The smell of tanned leather and fire was thick in the air, causing the young cub to gag at the stench and squint his eyes against the sting of smoke. When Mitul took a look around, he inevitably made eye contact with large sturdy lion who had been inspecting something metallic that he been crafting using one of his elements. The lion had immediately stopped what he was doing and without a word, walked towards the frightened and confused cub. Mitul had not known what to make of the ginormous being before him, but he didn't have the courage to move, let alone speak. The beast of a lion simply sat there, looking at him with expectant amber eyes. This went on for a few moments, giving Mitul enough time to take in every detail; soot covered his coat, blending into the naturally black hairs. Some of the rust-colored stripes bled through, although most of the fine hairs were covered completely by black near the paws. He had his obsidian hair cropped short with the ends smoldering like little embers. however, the most prominent feature of the lion was before his silence. The lack of noise was interrupted by voices approaching the cave. five rather odd looking lions entered the clearing. They were all young, with three being female and the other two were male. Each had a red symbol painted somewhere on their body. They would later tell him that each symbol was personal to the individuals who bore the mark, and that they had earned them when they had become full members of their squadron that had been stationed in the cave that they were currently in. The beastly lion who smelled of smoke had one too: right on the top of his snout just before his nose was some sort of u shape with two dots in the middle. When they saw Mitul was awake, and having a rather awkward stare down with the soot-covered lion, they made haste to introduce themselves. The three females were Vin, Faerin, and Amell, while the two males were Galu and 'Delirious'. They introduced the large male that Mitul met first as Vox, stating that he was mute after a prison guard had cut out his tongue for attempting to escape. They didn't elaborate, but there was no need for Mitul was too naive to question them any further. When they asked Mitul for his name, he would not respond with even a noise. He would simply stare at them with his large orange eyes. So, the lions left him alone for about four days. During those days, Mitul kept to himself and cried, at last allowing himself to grieve for his dead father, his broken mother, and his brother, who he knew to be so close and yet so far. On the last day of solitude, he promised himself that he would stop crying over what happened back in the pride. A fine resolve built itself in his mind, ushering him to become stronger so that he would survive. Surviving was all he had left anyways. Of course, that idea was something that he had to work towards... as he found out the days following up after he opened up to the group.
His first words to the new lions was him telling them that "I don't need your help. My brother will come for me." Mitul had always been a very proud cub, and he wasn't ready to face the fact that he was stuck there with the small group. The group told him that they had found him within pride lands when Amell and Galu saw him after chasing a taxon into the pride lands. At they time, they believed that Mitul was some abandoned cub because of how far away he was from the caverns in which the pride kept their young ones. While Mitul remembered enough to know that that was not the case, he never found it in himself to tell them otherwise.
Because of the lack of information and Mitul's protests towards being their 'friend', they called him "Mitul," which, according to Vox, meant "limited friend," which he had quietly scraped the name into the stone floor once he tired of hearing his comrades continuously asking the cub for his name. Mitul didn't disagree with the new nickname, so "Mitul" stuck.
After their initial introduction, Mitul began to become comfortable with the group. He didn't like Vin much, and Vox was his favorite even though he was sure that the monstrous lion absolutely hated him. However, one day, young Mitul, eyes teary, asked Vox why he disliked him so much. For the first time ever, Mitul witnessed what looked like surprise and then amusement cross Vox's face. Galu, who was nearby, answered for him, saying that it was because they both had the element of hate that naturally they could never get along with each other. He had always thought that the lion was a metal elemental, but it seemed that Vox had more power than he realized. Mitul gave the obvious response, and asked "why," to which Galu only shrugged, responding that it was the way of life. Despite them theoretically being unable to stand each other, Mitul began to enjoy the tension between himself and Vox. As he grew older, he found himself hanging out around Vox and picking up on the lion's odd habits and his hidden language. Despite having no speech, Vox was very vocal with his movements and grunts. He became somewhat of an assistant to the blacksmith, grabbing the necessary materials when they were needed. He even "helped" Vox make a gold nose ring, which Vox let him keep for his efforts even though it was one size too big for his small nose. Delirious, nicknamed so after his very loose, humorous, and almost lucid character, often hung around in the cave so as to keep the air clear of smoke using his air element. He was a good source of information or the curious cub because of his laid-back nature. He explained why the group was there in the cave, and what they were hoping to accomplish. He told him of how a few weeks ago, there used to be many many lions living within their cave- a few dozen at the least. He said they were a rebellion troop, preparing to return home after a successful raid. Mitul had chimed in, wondering aloud "but aren't the rebels evil?" to which Delirious quickly respondedwith a resounding "no!" and even Vox made a grunt to refute the statement. Just days before their departure, the pride had found the camp and launched an attack. All but the six of them were killed, leaving the small group to gather whatever was left and try to get back home. "We're too scared though," Delirious had said, "the pride could be waiting for us out there. We need armor, which is why we have Vox doing what he does. Even then, who knows how much longer the rebellion will last..." Mitul didn't want to believe that his home was capable of such murder, but he was just a cub, and he had yet to witness that such treacheries were all too common in his day and age.
As years passed, the group began to notice that Mitul's element was beginning to grow out of control. The grey spotted cub had never had the chance to complete his training, and his element of hate was already difficult to control even if he had full training. And as Mitul grew older, he began to realize more and more about his past and learn about the lives of his newfound friends, building a dark distaste for what used to be his life. Vox, without Mitul asking him to, began to mentor him and teach him to contain the hate growing inside of him. He also began training him to fight, even though Mitul was far too young by the pride's standards. Mitul learned to put his anger and hatred into his attacks, making him a rather quick and unhesitant student. Fighting quickly became Mitul's way of life, often dedicating many hours to sparring with the older blacksmith. He learned more humility than he probably needed after being swatted time after time by Vox's mountain paws. While he sill carried himself with a cocky swagger, he would no longer try to boss the others around or shove his natural talents in their face.
For years, this was the way Mitul's life was. The group had long ago finished preparing to leave the cave and return home, but instead the found themselves storing away their equipment for when Mitul would reach his final growth. When that day came, they rewarded him with a symbol of his own:
Vox gifted him a leather arm band and a taxon hair tail brace, which he claimed to have made him himself, even though Delirious joked that he probably got it off of one of their dead comrades. No one but he and Mitul found it funny... Vox offered to cut his hair, seeing as he couldn't hang around with Vox near fire and melted metal with such long hair. Mitul was quick to put his new pieces of equipment to the test, training with Vox and dueling with Vin, Amell, and more often times, Galu. Their celebration was short-lived, as the group was eager to return to the rebellion. They had spent many years away from the fight, one century too many. Once Vox had declared Mitul fit to have their backs in battle, they made their escape.
But bad luck was always at Mitul's heels.
A scout from the pride witnessed them exiting the cave, and returned with reinforcements.
In a split second, the world had turned upside down for Mitul. He found himself in the midst of a battle, a battle that threatened the lives of the lions that had raised him and that he had learned to call his friends. Maybe even the only friends he'd ever had. He fought valiantly, using his large frame to bat enemies away and snapping his jaws at anyone who got too close. No matter what, it was no use. He watched as Faerin was caught, and then Vin, then Galu, Amell, Delirious, and finally, Vox. Somehow, he had made it to the edge of the clearing. All he had to do, was run. And he did, but this time, he had no intention of abandoning those he considered family. He was not the weak cub he once was. He would free his friends. He only needed one thing- the help of the rebellion.
Just one week later, he was able to come in contact with one of the rebel's recruiters. They rebels were suspicious of him at first, even more so when he told them that he had "met some rebel warriors, lived with them in fact." However, with the amount of hatred he exuded when he spoke of the pride and a bit of persuasion from his element, he was able to convince them he was on their side, he was able to join the Rebellion. He would go on to prove himself to his new allies, portraying himself as a powerful and capable warrior. While it is not an official rank, others had taken to calling him "a berserker" because of his ability to take on multiple enemies at the same time due to his sheer size and strength. He took to the front lines, helping to take down the Pride's tanks so that the rebels could reach the fighters and other warrior classes. When the rebels had to retreat, he was tasked with staying back and keeping the pursuing pride warriors at bay so that they could escape. His ability to harness hatred was especially useful, for he could cloud the minds of pride members and cause confusion among large and small groups. When focused enough, he can force some individuals to turn on each other. He quickly gained status in the rebellion for his feats and what some saw as "heroic acts."
Despite his new life in the rebellion, he would never forgot why he joined. Bearing the marks of his missing family, he set his mind towards his next goals; destroy the pride, and free the ones he loves.
