(Hazbin Hotel) Book 2: The Radio Family, Welcome to Hell!

Chapter 255: The Little Lion Cub

Leonidas's earliest memories of his life were of walking and looking up at the friendly sky and feeling soooooo alone. Even with his mother with him he knew death was just around the next bend in the river. All of his friends and the rest of his tribe were gone. His father killed.

His mother was spared from rape, thank goodness. Despite her beauty it was her fierce jaw shattering punches that got their captors thinking twice—but it also got her fingers broken.

His mother and him were tied up by the rival tribe and forced to walk towards their uncertain futures. Why they spared him he doesn't know...leverage he guessed?

The son of the rival tribal chief from the land of Kush is a good bounty. He's overheard the rivals jabbering about selling them into slavery to the Egyptian slavers.

At least it's not the Chaga—they are not his people. They're descendants of Stygians who once ruled over Kush, they are the minority people of Kush. Most Chaga are extremely tall and light skinned, though usually darker complected than their Stygian cousins. The exact reason for their initial migration to Kush from Stygia is unknown, but likely involves disputes.

The Western lands of Kush is open savannah, where their tribes graze their cattle. To the south and east lie thick steamy jungles. Beyond the jungle is desert; to the north lies more desert. Kush contains the Mandingo coastal tribe; the Baghirmi; the Dangola and Bornu tribes of the grasslands; and the Tibu, a desert tribe intermixed with Stygian blood.

He knows of each tribe and sneers at the Tibu for mixing bloodlines with the Stygian. The Stygian are outsiders...oppressive monsters that don't belong.

His people are the Gallah! They are tall, dark skinned tribals that greatly outnumber the Chaga and are subjugated by the ruling class which causes a great amount of tension in the region—unfortunately.

They are the original inhabitants of the area and are by far the most numerous!

He's not biased if it's the truth...

The Gallah do not hide their emotions very often. They are expressive people who will laugh if they see humor even when others do not. Which is why he knows it's dire when his mother would sing to hide from the pain of her broken fingers, the fear of death, and the hunger they suffered from daily.

She'd sing to give him strength.

Most Gallah are hunter gatherers who live in villages of clay and white mud dwellings. They are only very rarely nomadic because the temperature is constant and hot in Kush. The Gallah revere the aged, utilizing their wisdom in life experiences for council. They revere astronomy and the changing of seasons. Life revolves around hunting and spearing game.

Leonidas looked up to the sun as his guide. The sun is strong and though the heat is overbearing he never insulted it's power. The tiny suns at night are his guide as well.

He'd pray to Apedemak, a fierce god that's depicted as a three-headed lion god with four arms. However, he is usually depicted as a man with a lion's head.

Apedemak is the war god of Kush.

He remembered playing as the god in their tribal dances with his papa. The Little Lion Cub  they called him, for that is his name before he was to earn a place as a warrior—with a warrior's name after his first successful hunt.

Gallah are most happy when hunting, their lives revolve around it quite literally. They are typically joyous folk who do not take life too seriously despite their modest means of living.

His mother was always fearful of the death of her child and would give him a majority of her portion of food and water because she wanted him to live. She was getting weaker and at night when the captors were asleep or on guard he would always manage to get a rock and find a dead tree to get grubs and other bugs for his mother to eat.