NIDALEE

Nobody knows how Nidalee became alone in the heart of the forest. She’s dressed in rags, sitting alone in the leafy and dirty soil, crying between trees.

Undoubtedly, that brought the cougars.

A mother, walking with her cubs, addressed the abandoned girl, catching the smell of something bold or something worth saving. The cougar took Nidalee without any hesitation, half dragging and leading her back to the den.

The girl lived then in the company of animals, playing alongside her new siblings. She existed without the connection to the human society of her kind. The woman raised Nidalee as a being of the jungle, and as the years passed, Nidalee grew into a skillful huntress. Still, since her guardians favoured claws and teeth, she understood how to take advantage of her environment. She struggled consuming honeyfruits from glowing flowers to deal with the night. She utilized explosive seeds to send the territorial murk wolves.

There were times that Nidalee started to lose control of her body. Without any warning, her feet and hands began to flicker between bestial forms and humans. Occasionally, she would fall from the den and become delirious with fever. She follows the dark silhouettes of two strangers, whispering after a chaotic but sweet voice. They carried Nidalee a sense of warmth and comfort, even though the cougars already taught her to be careful of the outsiders.

And with immeasurable cause.

It was summer rain when Nidalee first met the Kiilash. The Vastayan hunters wandered into the jungle each season, searching for trophies to show their power and prestigious kills. The adopted mother of Nidalee tried to expel them away but failed, wounded by their spears and blades.

Before Kiilash could finish the adopted mother, Nidalee jumped from the undergrowth, crying with rage and grief. Something had broken. She sensed the spirit of the forest cats within her and was moulded like never before. Lashing out like a beast, Nidalee carried down the nearest hunter with her sharp and refined claws and turned around in human form again to snatch up his spear. Some Kiilash grumbled and hissed at this sight, and to Nidalee’s surprise, she understood some of their words.

Nidalee knew that they cursed her, summoning the name of the Vastayashai’rei ancestors as they withdrew from the fight, empty-handed.

Even today, the thick jungles remain as the last truly untamed wilderness in the known world and something of a puzzle even to Nidalee. Still, in rarefied, calm moments, the huntress sees herself dwelling on her roots—and her fight with the Kiilash—and whether she will discover the fact behind any of it.