Name: Nakai
Gender: Male
Race: Lion

Physical Characteristics

Eyes: blue-gray
Fur: white
Age: cub
Build: has more muscle than an average cub
Unique Markings/Scars: A curved line of black dots under his left eye, he has a very short tail, and his left front tooth sticks out of his mouth

Personal Characteristics

Place of Origin: A zoo in Africa
Strengths: Swimming, Has good Endurance, Good Willpower
Weaknesses: Clumsy, Bright Sunlight, Not good at making decisions, Timid
Personality: Nakai is a very cheerful young lion and can be very pleasant to be around. He is also probably the most timid lion despite being more brawny than your average cub. His first instinct is to run from danger and ask questions later. He won't make a move to talk to anyone first but will wait until the person comes to him. The only time he ever tries to fight is if he is cornered and there's no other way out or if someone else weaker than him is in danger.

History:
Nakai was born in a small zoo in Africa. Where he came from they were trying to do a breeding program where they could get white lions. Nakai was one of the white lions they successfully bred but he had a few flaws they didn’t like (i.e. his light gray tail tuft and fur tuft, the dots under his eye, his overly short tail, and his tooth that hangs out). When he was old enough to leave his mother they shipped him to another zoo that was having money troubles. The owner of the other zoo thought that Nakai would bring in more people but he didn’t. It quickly went in debt and they were getting ready to ship the animals to another zoo.

Nakai had seen wild lions out in the savannah and he envied them. They could run around as long as they wanted and they could eat whenever they wanted too. He wanted that too. He asked his “friends” if it would be a good idea to try and escape the zoo. They laughed and told him his fur color would keep him from catching prey and he was too clumsy to get very far. All of what they said was true; he had been bred for looks not ability to survive in the wild. His fur was thin and it kept him cool in hot weather but it was white so his skin started to burn if it was noon as the sun was at it brightest then. Even if he was the best suited to live in the wild how could he even escape. Dejected, he went to sulk in a corner. That night when the humans left food in their pen he noticed that the lock to the door wasn’t all the way closed. Nakai easily opened the door but sat and thought before leaving. Would it be easier to leave or stay? He was given food, shelter, and a little space to run (not that he was good at it anyway on account of his tail being short) but here he was teased about how he looked, he had people and animals alike stare at him all the time, and he never felt like he truly belonged… In the end he decided to leave.

Once he left progress was slow. He could only travel from the afternoon to dawn, and whenever he tried to run he ended up tripping over his feet. Despite this, he never turned back or regretted leaving. For food he had to find leftovers and eventually he learned to follows vultures although he had to chase them away to get any leftovers. After a while of living on his own he was starting to learn how to run on his own four feet without tripping every second. One day while he was out scavenging he ran into a group of hyenas. It was a good thing that Nakai was learning how to run with his short tail or else he would have been caught. The hyenas chased him all the way to a river. Nakai was going to try and run away from it but he ended up tripping and falling head over tail into it. The hyenas thought the cub would die anyway so they left. Nakai however was far from dead. He found out that day that swimming was one of his strengths. The water didn’t drag down his thin fur and it cooled him down. His tail didn’t even hamper him here, so he decided swimming would be easiest to do from now on. One day it started storming while he was swimming but he stubbornly kept on. Soon waves were making it harder to keep going but by now it was impossible to swim to shore and he was at the mercy of the waves. Soon he was washed on shore unconscious at the watering hole. A patrol of pridelanders found him and took him back for care. Soon, he was back to normal. He was going to leave when he decided that staying in the pride was good for him, at least until he was old enough to take care of himself properly.