Chapter two
The History of Wakanda
"What is this metal, Shuri?" Catra asked as she picked up a piece of that funny metal from one of the work desks, "I've never seen anything like it before"
"It's called Vibranium, the strongest thing in the universe" Shuri responded from another work desk, where she was working on two unusual devices, she put her tools down and approached the Etherian, "how it got here though, is quite the story…" she then proceeded to press one of the beads on her bracelet, causing one of the black tiles on the floor to rise up to form a table, and on closer inspection, Catra could see that it was actually not a tile, but black sand. Shuri pressed a few buttons on the side of the table, causing the sand to ripple,
"cool sand," Catra announced, but with a single smug smile from Shuri, Catra gave a deadpanned look, "This isn't sand, is it?"
"Nope, its Vibranium" Shuri responded, "would you like to hear how we Wakandans got it?" Catra thought for a moment, but her curiosity got the better of her, so she gave a small nod, and as she watched, the sand on the table began to float and form what looked like a planet, "my… my Baba used to tell me this story" Shuri sniffed sadly , making it clear to Catra that this girl must have lost, whoever a Baba is, "millions of years ago, a meteorite made of Vibranium, the strongest substance in the universe, struck the continent of Africa." At this point the sand formed a falling meteorite with a blue tinge to it, which plunged into a specific part of the planet, causing all the sand to return to the table, which then took the form of a landscape of trees, bushes and animals with a larger form of the meteorite slap-bang in the middle "it affected the plant life around it," Shuri continued as the blue from the meteorite spread across the landscape before Catra's eyes, "and when the time of man came, five tribes settled on it and called it Wakanda." At this, five hands formed from the sand and joined together in a pentagon shape before melting back to the table and replacing the scene with one Catra was very familiar with… war! "the tribes lived in constant war with each other, until a warrior shaman received a vision from the Panther Goddess Bast," at this, one warrior turned to face a giant panther with glowing blue eyes, he kneeled before it at this, "who lead him to the Heart-Shaped Herb" a bed of purple flowers then formed in front of him, he reached into one of the plants, pulled out its centre and swallowed it whole, causing the purple to flow though his body, "a plant that granted him super human strength, speed and instincts." And as Catra watched in awe, the people around this warrior stopped fighting and made X's with their arms whilst bowing their heads, and all the while, the warrior had a mask form around his face that looked like a panther, "the warrior became king and the first Black Panther, the protector of Wakanda." Catra couldn't help but feel a connection to this Black Panther guy, she did have similar powers to him. but then she noticed some of the people weren't bowing and were walking towards some mountains in the distance, "four tribes agreed to live under the king's rule" Shuri explained, "but the Jabari Tribe isolated themselves in the mountains." As Catra watched, the sand quickly formed a great city around the area of Wakanda, "the Wakandans used Vibranium to develop technology more advanced than any other nation," at this point, the sand shifted away from Wakanda and showed what was going on outside it; more wars, slavery, destruction and death, "but as Wakanda thrived, the world around it descended further into chaos," the sand quickly formed Wakanda again, surrounded by thick jungles and those steep mountains, "to keep Vibranium safe, the Wakandans vowed to hide in plain sight, keeping the truth of their power from the outside world." at this, some form of shield formed over the city and replaced the scene with more jungles that perfectly hid the whole thing from view, before it all dropped back to the table as still sand once again.
Catra was speechless at this revelation, and she started to wonder if there were places like that on Etheria, places that hid from the Horde and herself.
"I'm sorry," Shuri said, "I didn't mean to upset you" she didn't even realise that she had been crying, she did that a lot lately. During their mission to bring magic back to the universe, Catra started having flashbacks to how evil she had been, how many friends she had made suffer. She didn't want to tell Adora about it, so she had gone to Glimmer, who agreed to help her through something called "therapy" in which Glimmer would shut them both in the sleeping quarters and she would sit on a chair next to Catra who would lie on her bed and talk about what was bothering her. It was unusual, but it did work wonders to have someone who would listen to her problems. The only downside of this therapy was that Catra would usually end up crying as she remembered all the people that she hurt. So yeah, seeing all the wars that had played out on this planet already was enough to remind her of her past life.
"Oh! Pfft! Don't worry about it" Catra stated whilst quickly wiping her tears away, "so, if there is a royal family in Wakanda, who's the king now?" Again, this caused Shuri to drift off a bit with sadness plastered on her face,
"Our king, T'Chaka, was murdered a few days ago"
"Oh, I'm sorry" Catra announced in surprise,
"It's ok, T'Chaka's son will be crowned king in a few days as the queen is too old to rule on her own" Catra thought for a moment before asking,
"Did T'Chaka have a daughter?"
"Yes, his youngest child," Shuri smiled as if she was hiding something, "is there something wrong with that?"
"Oh, no. There's nothing wrong" Catra assured her, "it's just highly likely I will meet her, it's like a curse I have: wherever I go, I always end up next to a princess" Shuri chuckled at this,
"Well, I can't guarantee you will meet the princess later, but I believe that in order for you to stay, you will need the Queen's permission"
"Of course," Catra deadpanned whilst facepalming, why wouldn't she have to encounter the royal family already?!
Catra decided as soon as she entered the throne room that she should just expect to be amazed by the staggering beauty of Wakandan architecture. The room was circular with a polished stone floor. It had golden pillars along the edge of the room and a ginormous window showing what Catra assumed was Wakanda's capital city. In the middle of the room was a small square of cracked red clay, on which sat about eight chairs, all in a circle. One of which was larger than the others and had golden highlights. This must be the throne. And sitting next to the throne was an adult woman with slightly lighter skin than Shuri, who was wearing an odd black dress with a black shoulder mantle that could be compared to that of a peacock's feathers. She was also wearing an odd black hat that looked a bit like an upside-down tutu. She was also wearing oddly shaped golden earrings. Catra could only assume this was the queen.
"Shuri?" the queen asked in a curious tone whilst eyeing Catra as if she was looking at a bomb, "Ngubani lo?"
"Le yiCatra ye-Etheria, kwaye ingumphambukeli" Shuri responded, Catra felt slightly awkward as she had no idea what they were saying, "ndimfumene engaphandle komda, akanayo enye indawo anokuya kuyo", the queen glanced at Catra once more before saying,
"thetha", the Etherian quickly turned towards Shuri hoping for some help,
"speak" she whispered. Ok, this was a crucial moment for Catra's growth, she remembered what her friends had taught her about royal etiquette, first she bowed to the queen before saying,
"I am pleased to meet you, your… queenly…ness…" oh First-Ones! She was already struggling with how she was supposed to address royalty! "May I say that I'm sorry for your loss" she hoped this would be classed as being kind in Wakanda. "I am sure that your son will make a great king and if you were to give me sanctuary for the time being, I will be more than willing to protect your family if you wish" she didn't know why she said that, but she meant it.
"Your name is Catra, right?" the Queen asked as the Etherian straightened up,
"Yes, your high… er… majesty… um… queen?" she still couldn't remember what title to use! First-Ones, this was the worst first impression ever! But the queen unexpectedly chuckled at this,
"just "your highness" will be fine" she told her, before turning to Shuri, "do you trust her, Shuri?" the girl smiled as she looked at Catra, and nodded,
"Yes mama" she told the queen,
"Then I guess it will be fine for you to stay, Catra" the queen nodded at the alien who's tail flapped joyfully as she smiled,
"Thank you so much your highness…" she then realised what Shuri had said. Her eyes widened and her jaw dropped as she pointed at Shuri before pointing at the queen whilst stumbling over her words in shock "you're…? You mean…? YOU'RE THE PRINCESS!?" she then flumped to the ground with a mutter of, "I told you I was cursed"
No matter where Catra went in the She-Ra franchise, she almost always ended up alongside a princess, so I figured it was some kind of curse to her. I hope I got the Xhosa right.
We are now at the start of the Black Panther storyline, I believe this was a good way of showing the introduction to Wakanda from the film. please leave a comment to say how you think the story will go.