Naani is no ordinary snow leopard. She is a spirit guardian blessed by the gods with intelligence, abnormal size, long life, and magical abilities. In exchange, the gods and goddesses charge spirit guardians with tasks to hold to for the hundreds of years they may live. Naani had three charges, but with the destruction of Lynnfield and lack of yearly pilgrimages, she’s down to two: Protect the Eastern Forest of Emestria and she forgot the other one.
Although a spirit guardian’s lifespan is unknown, The Nice Man believes Naani is toward the end of hers. She has trouble remembering to do things and is very set in her ways. She refuses to learn the name of anyone younger than 200 years. Without the yearly pilgrimage and the people of Lynnfield, Naani spends most of her time patrolling the forest and resting at The Nice Man’s dead tree cave; he gives her crunchy water snakes to eat.
Few snow leopards exist in Emestria anymore, having been hunted close to extinction for their beautiful and warm pelts. That is another reason Naani spends a lot of time with The Nice Man. He also helps remind her of things she should or should not do. She isn’t supposed to kill men, but when she finds a flower-haired person being hurt, she springs to action, fighting the crunchy, shiny-skinned mudhairs.
Author’s note: If you can tell by this post, Naani has unique ways of describing things. Since her world view is limited to what she knows despite having intelligence greater than a normal animal. She was really fun to write. I enjoyed thinking about how she would describe things that weren’t part of her natural world.
You can check out her cut chapter here.
- Naani’s lexicon:
- Mudhairs – people with black or brown hair, usually Emestrians
- Sunhair – people with blonde hair like The Nice Man’s friend that is gone
- Flower-hairs – people with light red hair, almost pink. They were the priests of Lynnfield that Naani used to escort on pilgrimages.
- The Nice Man – Miro
- Bald reindeer – horses
- Dead-tree caves – houses, huts, cabins, etc.
- Crunchy sea snakes – sea serpents
- Stacked-rock cave – castle, fortress, manor house, etc.