Moto

Moto means ‘fire’, he is the long-awaited son of Wema and Maalum, and is named a Prince upon his birth.

Moto’s mother Maalum has every intention for her son to be king, and she doesn’t hide these ambitions from Moto. His training starts well before all the other cubs, and ends well after. Once, the prince made the mistake of asking his mother why he had to work so hard, when none of the other cubs did.

“Because you are better than all the other cubs,” she told him “because you will be king.”

Unfortunately, Maalum doesn’t even get to see her son reach adulthood; her age catches up to her two months before his second birthday, when she takes a midday nap and never wakes up. She is greatly missed, despite her aggressive and unforgiving nature, because she was one of the founding members of the pride, and always one of the strongest.

Her daughter, Hatimaye, accepts her mother’s passing with as much grace as she can, but young Moto is lost without her guidance. The prince is used to the strict routine of life with his mother, and without her firm paw, finds himself floundering. For the first time in his life, he has no one to tell him what to do.

Moto wanders a bit after turning two, but eventually comes home and tells his dad he’s figured it out: he has no interest in being king, that was his mother’s dream. But, he doesn’t vibe with rogue life. He was trained all his life to be a warrior, he would make an excellent pride guard. His father is surprised, but very proud of his son for choosing a life path for himself. He promises to reach out to some other pride, and find Moto a position as a guard.

~Moto stumbles around your paws clumsily as he follows you, scampering along. Why are cubs so annoying? And cute?