[Leo's POV]
"Sixteen lions. Are you sure there were sixteen lions?"
I stood at the top of an elevation that overlooked my pride. The surroundings were starting to be a golden colour instead of any green hue. This was because we had been travelling south of the Serengeti, where the dry season was much harsher.
It had been four days since we began moving.
"Yes, my Lord. It was sixteen that crossed into the Serengeti," a vulture answered, the one who took Grim's place during his absence.
I chewed on my teeth for a bit, gathering my reactions into thought.
How to say....
That was a bit underwhelming.
Taking into account their number alone, I would probably be able to defeat them after I regained my full health. If I round up all of the hyenas under me and include my growing giants that were Jumbo and Mambo, I have more than a small chance at taking 16 lions down.
On the same thought, if these lions were exceptional like the four musketeers, the chance of winning would be minuscule. I guess it all depends on the quality of these lions.
But if someone as intelligent as Scarface was leading them, there was a higher chance that these lions were strong. Perhaps I made the right call in the end by retreating south.
My females were either with cubs or pregnant, so including them in this conflict would be wrong. The only reason why my pride followed me into battle with Scar was because of the hyenas and also because Scar used his own pride to fight.
Things were different in this case since it was only male lions, technically, challengers. It wasn't a king warring with another king, it was challengers warring with a king.
With the vultures working as a messenger, the hyenas in the Northern area already retreated as well and would soon be closing in on the pride. Soon enough, they would stay close to the pride and act as a sort of protection for the pride and also an army that I could command at any time.
Almost everything was going according to my desire. One thing I would complain about is my body. I was not nearly close to being in a perfect condition.
But even that, I reckoned I would be fit as a fiddle given another week.
"You may go, continue to provide guidance for all the hyenas," I said, and the vulture was gone with a tremendous flap of wings.
I headed down the hill afterwards and returned to the pride. The number of my pride had already surpassed 50 members including the cubs and they were only growing. They occupied a huge portion of the land even while at rest.
The scents were so multiple that it couldn't possibly be all familiar hit my nose including the smell of dead bodies. When I followed the scent, I could see a few carcasses amid the pride. The prey were only hide and head at most, and some of the cubs were chewing on the broken bones, strengthening their teeth in a playful process.
The females greeted me warmly. None of them came up or moved from their spot, but their body language was all inviting as if begging me to come and lie with them. I passed them all as I had my eyes on my favourites.
"Leo," Nala greeted me, pushing her front body up, half standing, almost, so that she could nudge her nose against my chest. She aimed for my nose but fell short since I was much taller than her while standing.
"Oh, who do we have here?" I turned my eyes to the cub that was struggling to escape from Nala while she focused on me.
"Aslan?"
"Father," Aslan said, half of his torso was under Nala's as she trapped him.
I smiled a bit. The cubs were comfortable calling me father instead of the king now that they had grown beyond just imitating the pride.
"Your son is in the middle of grooming." Nala said, turning her head at the cub. She bit him by the scruff and pushed him down.
Aslan struggled to get free under my gaze, and Nala began cleaning him by licking at his fur. I noticed quite a few of them coming off with each stroke. The cubs were growing and shedding fur as they did so.
My first cubs, all of them, were closer to one year old than not.
"I remember you not liking grooming when we were cubs as well, Nala," I said with a chuckle, "You can't say you are surprised your son feels the same."
"Please don't," Nala sighed and continued to pamper Aslan.
I felt tiny claws climb up my body from the back. It took a few seconds, but after he was on top of my back, he ran towards my head and launched an attack.
The cub bit down on my mane and clung to it.
"Asafa," I called out fondly.
I felt another set of jaws clamp down on my front paw. I brought up my limb, pulling up the small cub in the process as well.
"And if it isn't Shaka," I said, looking at the two cubs that tried to take me down.
I laid the two cubs down and rolled on them as gently as I could. My weight crushed them, and they immediately lost their hold. When I lay down on my back, their laughter could be heard. They didn't stay down for long and immediately climbed onto my chest and attacked my softer hide.
They were taught well.
Their mother, Zuri, came up to me while the two cubs were busy wrestling against each of my paws. She leaned down and gave light bites on the side of my face.
It wasn't long before Aslan was done with his grooming session and he immediately joined his brother to play fight with me. The two mothers watched fondly for a while as I played with the cubs.
But maybe watching the father play with the children was a shared turn on to every female. Zuri and Nala joined in on the wrestling.
"Not you too!!" I groaned when I felt a more powerful shove against my body.
"We can do it if we all work together," Zuri said playfully, hugging my head upside down and completely suffocating me against her chest.
Nala on the other hand, went way low and tickled bit my abdomen.
I reacted like I would if this were an unusual fight. I rolled, pushing everyone off my body so that I could run and create distance.
I ran around the pride and took out the fastest one, Asafa, by swooping him up and throwing him lightly. I used the strategy I would use in my fights usually, except in a very small scale.
We were just playing after all.
But it was during this kind of playful fights that my cubs would learn. Cubs were not taught as babies would. They learn through imitating, and they would imprint on these small moments I had with them.
I need my children to be strong.
Because in this life, you can only have what you can take and keep what you can protect.
And I swear, I will keep this pride.
..
..
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(3 days later)
[3rd POV]
The sound of distant roars woke up the pride in the middle of the night.
As the cubs and the females stretched up, they noticed that the king was already up and looking towards where the sound came.
The sight immediately calmed most of their worries.
But the price of their confrontation was paid by the tight face Leo was making.
"My Lord?" Eshe was the closest to the king since they had mated only just a few hours ago.
"They are growing bolder each day," Leo said. From the echo and the sound of the roar, one could assume that the enemies were not near enough to be a threat. Night was quiet, so the roars travelled far.
But loud or quiet, near or far, the nerve that those roars hit on Leo remained the same.
"We will set our time earlier tomorrow," Leo said instead of returning the roars.
Although Leo did not retaliate immediately, those lions were only stacking spears over their head.
The rest of the night passed peacefully, and the pride set out towards the south once more. At this point, they were really in the southern Serengeti. They'd probably stumble upon Leo's old kopje if they travelled two more days.
The land was as dry and unforgiving as it could be. The pride really only had buffalo to hunt in this area.
Leo was not hunting anything, focusing only on recovering and saving his strength, so life was not so easy on the pride.
..
"Father? Are we running away?" Asafa asked during the day of travel.
Leo was at the end of the pride, walking alongside his two sons, Asafa and Aslan. The other cub looked at Leo's face too, as if the question asked was something he had in his mind as well.
"Yes,"
Contrary to their expectation, Leo admitted to the act.
"What? Are you surprised?" Leo asked with a small smile while looking at his sons.
"A little bit, yeah," Asafa said, his ears dropping. The upright and proud posture he had while walking with the king faded.
"It's okay to run away," Leo said, "There's no shame in knowing your limits. As long as you do not run away in fear and end the story with running away,"
Aslan and Asafa looked towards the pride that was walking in front of them. They searched for fear in the pride but found none. What they could see was only the pride moving forward, almost like a group of animals that went on a vacation.
The other cubs were especially joyful and excited since they had never seen the southern part of the Serengeti. And this feeling was contagious and shared among the whole pride.
There was no fear in the racing cubs or the lioness that walked at a steady pace, assured of their safety.
"Do you know why no one is afraid?" Leo asked, and the cubs shook their head.
"Because your mothers know how this will end. They've seen it many times before," Leo said, "And not long from now, you will see it too."
The firmness of those words spoke to the hearts of the cubs. They wondered whether they could say anything at all with that much certainty. Perhaps if they were to say that they could walk ten steps, they might be able to imitate that mountainous tone.
Perhaps it was because of that. Even though they knew and have confrimed that they were running away, and that a threat that their father, the one who can fell giants, was unable to deal with, was on their tails, the cubs searched and searched but could not find the fragments of what was supposed to be fear.
They wondered whether they could ever be like that. To be a king, like their father. A presence that literally chased away fear even in the most dire situation.
Indeed, for these cubs, their father was their greatest hero. A perfection whose fraction on power they would spend their whole life to imitate.
"No one in the pride is afraid, but what about you, my lord?" Aslan asked after a stretch of silence. Leo turned to his son. His question came as a surprise.
Asafa was confused; if the rest of the pride were not afraid, of course, their incredible father would be too. The question made no sense at all to him. The answer that came from the king was even more so.
"You have keen eyes, my son. To tell you the truth, I am afraid. I fear for all of you. It would be safe to say I am terrified and blame myself for not seeing this outcome sonner," Leo said.
Before the cubs could properly digest the information, Leo continued.
"My father taught my brother an important lesson once: 'Courage is not the absence of fear but the action taken despite it'," Leo said. "I think there is an important lesson there. Make sure you carry those words in your heart. All living beings are plagued by fear; remember that. It's only a matter of overcoming that fear which separates the brave from the cowards,"
"And also remember this. Overcoming fear is bravery, but to control fear instead of being controlled by it or simply overcoming it, that will win you all your battles," Leo said.
"The enemies are what they are now, too big for even I to destroy, rightly because they are afraid of me. They control their fear, and instead of just rushing at me in foolish courage, they decided to band together to kill me. Instead of ignoring or running, they let the fear of me guide them into unaggressive strength. The only trick is to never let fear change your final goal, but to change everything else."
The words barely made sense to the two cubs, but they didn't miss a single word. Leo felt a little embarrassed to say all these and act as he knew it all, but his childhood needed guidance.
In a lot of ways, rather than his knowledge or past life experience, it was these types of philosophy and wisdom that one could see on the internet and deem corny or unrealistic that allowed him to stand where he is now.
He couldn't pass down his human knowledge, his superior perspective on things or his experience, but he wanted to pass down this part of him that he could.
And what he said was true as well. It was precisely his fear that he would absolutely annihilate his enemies instead of leaving fate to chance. It was also fear that this might happen again that he would take any means to make sure this didn't happen.
In his lack of ambition, his fear would push him to achieve more than he ever imagined.
..
..
[IMAGE]
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