-Name-

Penda

-Meaning-

“love” in Swahili

-Titles and Nicknames-

Golden terror (gave this to herself as a cub), Penny (By Elewisa)

-Pride-

Pride Lands (later in life)

-Siblings-

-Mate-

Khan (‘true love’)

-Personality-

Penda is caring and often can’t turn away when she sees someone in need. She is somewhat of a people-pleaser and will flit back and forth to ensure everyone is happy. She hates being forced to choose sides and prefers a life of hunting, napping and fun.

-Story-

Penda’s cubhood is mostly littered with scattered memories. She does not recall her parents at all, and her brother never spoke of them to her. While not being much older than her, he was always like a parent, finding them food, teaching her things and keeping her protected from the elements. Penda, being the adventurer cub that she is, would often wander off while her brother was away hunting. On a particularly sunny day, the young leopardess ran into a young lion cub who was being cornered by a honey badger. While not being too big a fan of lions in general, Penda couldn’t bring herself to sit back and do nothing. She momentarily blinded the badger by throwing sand in its face and quickly dragged the smaller cub up a tree where they couldn’t be seen. The cub turned out to be a prince by the name of Elewisa. As payment for saving his life, Penda accompanied Elewisa back to pride rock where she asked the Queen (Kiara) for the finest gazelle her pride had hunted that day. Kiara was so shocked at the bravery of the cub and grateful that she had protected her son that she allowed Penda to choose a piece of fresh prey to take back with her. Elewisa followed Penda thereafter and would often seek her out to play and hang with. Eventually Penda began to accept his presence and the two become the best of friends.

Being that she was now spending so much time with Elewisa, the young leopardess was bound to run into many more lions along the way. In particular, she was often locked into heated arguments with Elewisa’s youngest brother Khan, who would too often play pranks on her. While she did not hate the youngest prince, she also was not his biggest fan and often avoided him. Her brother was especially wary of her hanging around so many lions, and so Penda attempted to pull back.

On a hunting trip of her own, Penda ran into some rhinoceroses who were none too pleased to see her. She ran off but couldn’t outrun them. She would have been trampled had it not been for Gainell, Elewisa’s oldest brother who grabbed her and pulled them both into a cave. Penda was grateful, having never met Gainell, but the oldest prince simply scolded her and stomped off.

As the princely battle for the throne raged, Penda was forced into many situations where she had to pick sides. Her and Khan’s small hope of friendship deteriorated the closer she got to Gainell. When Gainell took the throne, Penda was happy that the in-fighting was done with. It wasn’t until Gainell forsook his youngest brother and his followers that Penda realized things were far from over. She helped Khan and his followers escape to the outlands and returned to find Gainell becoming more and more destructive. Eventually, she asked Elewisa for his help to escape as well. The second prince took her to Khan, and the three of them hatched a plan together to overthrow Gainell and replace him with Lapin, the half-brother. When Khan returned in full force, Gainell willingly abdicated and was demoted to a cub-sitter. He and Penda eventually made peace with eachother. The leopardess ended up spending more and more time with Khan on the outskirts of the pride lands, and eventually the two realized their feelings for each other.

-Relation to TLK-

After saving one of the sons of Kovu and Kiara, Penda went back to pride rock where she demanded from Queen Kiara a reward for her assitance, and Kiara gave her one; she later becomes a member of the pride of Kovu’s sons.

Art © me