Msaada

Msaada is a female lappet-faced vulture.

Appearance
A huge and intimidating vulture, Msaada has a wide wingspan and long legs. Her features are round and filled-out, with a rather large, bald pink head balanced on a thick neck. Her eyes are beady and dull green with pale yellow sclerae and small, round pupils. She has a long, thick, multicolored beak that is patched with dull yellow, rain-cloud blue, and grayish purple, with the tip being vermilion. She has ragged, night-black feathers covering most of her body, and beneath these feathers are softer, paler strands that are white in color. Some of the feathers on her wings and tail are a silvery blue, making her stand out in a flock. The feathers at the back of her neck stand up slightly, forming a sort of ruff.

Personality
Msaada is slightly distant and reserved bird, even with her own son. She cares for him and likes to spend time with him, but has no patience for activities such as storytelling or cuddling, preferring games and races instead. She is competitive by nature and is always challenging others to some sort of contest. Despite this more aggressive side of her, Msaada will never turn her back on an animal in need. She isn't the most intelligent of birds and knows little healing, but if there is an animal that can be saved, she will do her best to rescue them- a quality unusual in a vulture, most of which are willing to finish off easy prey. She sometimes hunts small animals, even takes pleasure in it, but only if those animals stand a fighting chance. She is rather gruff and blunt, not very skilled at offering comfort and always saying things straight, but both her caring and spiritedly ruthless natures have won her friends, whose company she generally enjoys, regardless of her reserve.

Early Life
Msaada hatched in the Drylands.

Adulthood
One day, Msaada came across a male vulture, and the two had a single egg, which hatched into her son, Heshima, whom she nicknamed Heshi.