When the cub came into the world, small and rather weak, few could believe that he would ever achieved greatness. Fumu was born into a rogue family unit. There was his father, mother, three aunts, and one cousin. Like any other rogue, they did not have a set territory and roamed from place to place. When the cub was born, he was his mother's second litter. Her first litter of cubs had already grew up and left, thus he was the youngest member and could be focused on. But some of the aunts thought that he wasn't worth the effort. While a cub was precious, having one that was ill was a strain. But Fumu's parents ignored the protests and to the surprise of everyone, Fumu began to grow, his sickness spells slowly faded and he began to gain weight.

To outsiders this would had been brilliant news, but had they knew the truth then it most likely would had sickened them. Fumu's parents...were brother and sister, littermates actually. The fact that they mated then produced offspring was considered one of the few taboos. Cousins could mate, but sibling to sibling...the pair had to most likely be twisted in the mind to want to do such a thing. The reason was that the cubs were often deformed, physically and often mentally as well. Fumu seemed to have been spared. But it turned out that his sister had to take the punishment. Fumu was ten when his baby sister was born.

Chui had a bright yellow coat, several shades lighter than her brother's brownish-orange fur. Both cubs did have the same blue eyes. The first time that Fumu saw his sister, the cub felt instant love. But it did not take long to know that something was off about the child. As Chui grew, her cub spots did not fade. This wasn't much of a problem since some lions tended to take longer to shed their spots, and some even kept their spots for the rest of their lives. It wasn't the cub spots that was worrying...it was the cub's mental state. It did not take long for it to become clear that Chui had a mental handicap, she could understand, but yet she acted like a big cub, even as she was growing into her teens. One aunt kept trying to push Fumu's mother to abandon the deformed cub. Cub-killing was considered very low, something that was worthy of damning a lion in the eyes of the spirits that had came before. To get rid of cubs that might have defects or health problems, the kindest act a lion could do was to abandon her child. But Fumu's mother refused.

The aunt's worries seemed to had come true. Drought claimed the land; resources began to dwindle. Water supplies shrunk, food became hard to find, the herds began to wander further, and the lions began to suffer. The first to die had been the cousin, then soon all three of the aunts were dead. A pride of eight had been reduced to just four. But a hunting accident quickly took care of that and soon it was just two. Fumu and Chui were on their own. The two lions wandered, keeping close to each other and sharing what they could find. Often it was not very much. Fumu felt the strain more because he was the only able-bodied hunter of the pair. Chui may had an adult build, but her mind and spirit was that of a cub. It would had been easier if Fumu had simply abandoned Chui. Leave her in one place then just walk away and let hunger and thirst finish her off. But the young lion could never go through with such a practice, and if he had then he would never lose the guilt over failing his beloved sibling. So he still pushed on for both of them and would do so...even if it killed him.