Name: Aibu

Meaning: Shy

Age: Adult

Parents: Unknown

Siblings: Unknown

Mate: Jina

Pups: Unknown twins

Personality: Quiet, dependent, kind, clumsy.

Likes: Slow walks, climbing trees, his family.

Dislikes: Lions, hyenas, being alone, being left behind.

Story: Aibu was born in a large meerkat colony, along with his three siblings. Aibu was always the quietest and slowest of them all, rarely going out of the den. He grows up to be a dependent meerkat, always needing help and always being around older meerkats, something that could turn out badly most of the time.

When a lion pride moves close to their territory, Aibu's colony seems forced to move and they leave as soon as possible. Aibu, as always, tries to stay as close as possible, but stays behind and completely loses track of the colony. Alone for the first time ever, he is forced to travel alone, always trying to join new colonies, only to get chased off and, sometimes, with a few scratches here and there.

As hunger starts to kick in, Aibu tries to hunt. Being clumsy, he lets most of the bugs escape. But with some effort, he caught a few, enough to make his stomach stop rumbling so much.

In one of his clumsy hunts, he sees a young female meerkat, around his age, walking by. She didn't appear to notice him and, tired of being alone, he follows her around. He stays unnoticed for a while, until he is caught off guard. She attacks him and he admits he was the one following her all the time. She tells him to get lost, but he ignores and continues to follow her. Until she finally gives up and lets him come along. He happily introduces himself and she tells him her name: Jina.

Aibu doesn't like Jina's nomadic life, since he had been roaming himself for long enough. But he admires her bravery and courage, which makes him have deeper feelings for her. Little he knew, the same was happening to her. She finally expresses that by deciding they should stay in a den they could claim as their own at least for once.

When Jina gives birth to the twins, Aibu feels like the happiest meerkat ever. He tries to not be very overprotective of them, as whenever he tried, Jina would snap at him. But even having two pups now, Aibu still feels dependent of Jina. Jina hates that, of course, leaving Aibu by himself most of the time, so he can learn how to take care of himself... and the pups.

When Jina sacrifies her own life to save him and her pups, Aibu feels as if it was his own fault. He did try to help for once, but she didn't want him to. The twins, still too young to understand, often ask him where their mother went and why they had been roaming around, jumping from den to den, since she had disappeared. Aibu never tells them the truth, nor tells them lies, making the pups even more confused.

Aibu seems himself forced to tell them the truth when they complain about having to eat bugs when they were supposed to be drinking milk. He comforts them as he notices they are about to cry, telling them everything would be alright and apologizing for not telling them earlier.

Months go by and the twins were now teens. Aibu never settled himself in a certain den, nor came back to their old den. He learned how to be dependent and spent the whole time just like Jina: jumping from den to den. And now that the teens were getting older, maybe it would be time to at least try to join a new colony.

Just like as expected, Aibu and his pups were chased off by most colonies. Until he finally finds a colony where both him and his pups are accepted. He stays until his pups are adults, then leaves and goes back to his nomadic life. He had done his job. He successfully raised his pups to adulthood and finally learned how to be dependent. He didn't have anything left to do. But most important of all, he was happy.

And soon he would be with his beloved Jina.

Relation to TLK: Mate to Jina, who is Max's younger sister.

Other: None