Guess who? :D
Hi guys. So after a huge debate with myself, I've decided to do this. I'm re-writing my first story, The Pride of Man. I've come up with a few ideas that I want to add into Heart of Man, but it requires a lot of tweaking in THIS story to make it fit well. And given that I still gag every time I read just the first chapter of PoM, this needed to be done. Expect quite a bit of new material from this, this chapter included :) I'm hoping to be able to update weekly since I've got time now!
Enjoy! R&R please!
The Pride of Man
By SimbaFan A.K.A. Johnny
Chapter 1 – And So It Begins
I'm not really sure where I'm supposed to start my story. It's a long one and it's not exactly the happiest, that's for sure. Finding the right place to begin it isn't exactly easy. But I suppose I can give this thing a whirl.
I guess the best place to start would be before I ever left the States. Back when life was relatively simple and much less furry.
My name is Ayden. Ayden Michael Sumpter. Yeah, I know it sounds funny, but hey, at least it's original. I'm not sure where my parents got the name from, but I do know my back-story at the very least.
My parents had taken the liberty of pulling my younger brother, Spencer, and I out of public school around the time I was in 4th grade to home-school us. Spencer, being 4 years behind me, immediately started Kindergarten in home-school. I, on the other hand, was pulled from my social life in public school. Mom and Dad always said that home-school was better for us; that we'd learn more. I suppose it's true. I mean after all, a school teacher doesn't have time to go into detail about every lesson or answer every question their students have. Not that most kids have questions about lessons, but that's beside the point. Coupled with the fact that Mom and Dad were degree-backed teachers, Spencer and I were basically several grades ahead of our own within the first year.
For all the intelligence and smarts home-school had to offer, the social life was, unfortunately, not idyllic. See, you really don't have an opportunity to make friends when the only students in the class are yourself and your brother. Which is not to say I didn't have friends; I just didn't make any new ones. Most of the friends I had were from elementary school, and they were moving on with the lives they were building in high school. So I guess you really couldn't call them friends. Friends are people who ask you if you want to hang out on weekends, or go to a movie with, or come over to their house to play a game or two. I was lucky if my 'friends' ever said 'hi' to me whenever I, by off chance, caught them on their way to or from school. Well who wants to stay friends with somebody they knew as kids anyways?
Spencer and I developed a close bond in the absence of outside social influence. And our parents, while being teachers and mentors, also became our best buddies. We were a close-knit family. We did everything together.
Being home-schooled meant that the curriculum consisted of whatever my parents saw fit to do with us, so long as it matched California's code of conduct. And as long and complicated of a code it was, we were able to use that to our advantage. History lessons about pilgrims sailing across the ocean turned into field studies of actual replicas of ships from the 1700's. Marine Biology lessons meant a stop by the coast at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. But my personal favorite was the surprise trips Mom and Dad always planned each summer.
Mom and Dad ran a landscaping business. With Dad's dedication to a job done in a timely manner and Mom's clever layouts and keen eye for tasteful outdoor décor and landscapes, they were able to rake in quite a bit of cash. Every year since I was 10, part of that money was put aside so that we could take an annual trip to Africa. In 5th grade, when we were studying Egypt, our Africa trip took us to Cairo, Giza, and other famous cities and landmarks within the country. When I was 12, we were studying rainforests, and ended up trudging through the lush, humid rainforests of Madagascar that very same summer. And when I was 16, which is where the story starts, we were studying lions.
So picture, if you will: a sunny Tuesday afternoon in June. It's 100 plus degrees in the shade, dead center of the California valley. Now place in a relatively new suburban house, same exact model as the hundreds of houses around it. We're in my bedroom. It's not too big, not too small; just spacious enough for one teenage boy. The walls are plastered with posters and pictures of bands and movies, and a few random doodles I had drawn and felt were important enough to stick up for display. My bed laid side-long, cattycorner from a plain white-wood door that led to the rest of the house. To the left of the door were two rolling doors that opened up to reveal a small closet stuffed with clothes. Between the door and the closet was a wall-mirror, dimly reflecting light from the window over my bed back through the room. Across from the bed was a dresser for the rest of my clothes. On the top of the dresser was a small TV, and to the left of the dresser (my personal favorite) was a thin bookshelf that stretched from the floor all the way up to the ceiling. The shelves were stuffed full with book after book.
At that very moment, I was laying on my bed, fully immersed in one of my favorite books, "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire". It was probably the eighth time I'd read the book since its release two years prior, but I was completely entranced by the spell the books had placed on me. I was in the middle of Chapter 31 when a knock rapped from behind my door.
"Come in!" I called, placing my bookmark in the pages. The door opened, and in stepped my father.
The man could have been my twin, if not for the fact he was taller than and twice as old as I was. A man pushing 40, he had auburn hair the exact shade of my own with occasional flecks of gray. His nose was pointed, just like mine, and his shimmering blue eyes sat framed behind a pair of rounded-square glasses.
He stared around my room curiously. I guess he didn't find what he was looking for, because he looked back up, scrutinizing me. "Bud, I know you like that book, but you need to start packing! We're leaving tomorrow afternoon!"
"Oh please, Dad," I said with an eye-roll, "it's not that hard. A stack of shirts, some pants, socks and some clean underwear and I'm good. It's not like it's going to take me hours to pack up. Besides, I was gonna head off to a movie later tod-…"
"I'm not joking son." Dad cut me off sternly. "I don't care what you planned to do. If you're not packed in the next hour, there will be consequences, starting with that book going in the trash." His face lightened. "Your mom's making me pack too, so you're not alone."
He smiled before turning and walking out of the room, closing the door behind him. Heaving a sigh, I laid my head on my pillow, staring out my window into the sky. The clouds swirled in the breezy sky, every now and then obscuring the sun. My mind always found shapes in the clouds if I stared long enough. Procrastinating even further, I figured if I wasn't allowed to read, I'd just stare at the clouds now.
Maybe it was due to our recent lessons being about lions, or maybe the sphinx from my book just lingered in my psyche, but instantly, the first thing my mind formed in the clouds was that of a lion with mane like wildfire. I stared quite surprised at the big cat, shocked at how well formed it appeared; much more so than any cloud I'd ever seen before. The sharp muzzle, the indents within the face for eyes, the strong, wide paws, the chiseled muscular body; it was as clear as day. I lost myself in thought as the lion moved lazily across the sky in the breeze. It was increasingly strange that the lion retained its' shape, despite the fact that the clouds surrounding it were swirling incessantly. As the lion's face passed over the sun, a strange phenomenon occurred; the eyes suddenly glowed with radiant, golden light, and the head turned.
It stared at me.
My eyes widened as I stared back at it, bewildered at this strange occurrence. I blinked intentionally, thinking maybe it was just a trick of the light. But when I looked back out, there was the lion still, looking quite plainly at me. Pure awe filled my mind as I stared back into the glowing golden eyes…
A sudden loud knocking at my door made me to jump. Quite violently too, because next thing I knew, I slipped off my bed and landed with a loud THUD on the floor, banging my head against the wall.
"Ayden!" The muffled voice of Spencer, my younger brother, came from the other side of my closed door. "Dad sent me to make sure you're packing!"
"Yeah, yeah, I'm doing it! Cool your heels!" I yelled back, nursing a throbbing lump on the back of my head.
Standing up, I looked out the window for the glowing lion. But I was shocked to find that it was gone without a single trace. There was just a large cluster of clouds obscuring the sun from view. I cocked my head to one side, thinking maybe the lion just shifted positions, but no matter how much I changed my point of view, the clouds just remained shapeless masses of suspended water particles.
I looked away in wonder, thinking about what had just occurred. My eyes rested on my Harry Potter book. With a smile, I sighed and shook my head.
"Too much reading…it's getting to my mind."
I crossed the room to my closet and, without another thought about the lion, started pulling out clothes to pack.
I skipped out on seeing a movie due to the fact that I had a lot more to pack than some random clothes. By the time I stopped procrastinating and had packed all the necessities for a full-blown safari in Africa, dinner was ready on the table. I washed up and headed downstairs to the table, where Mom had laid out a fabulous feast of beef stroganoff and green beans.
Mom walked gracefully into the room as I sat down at the table, a slight bounce in her step, holding a hot sheet of bread rolls in her mitted hands.
Her long black hair outlined the natural contours and lines of her face, and it fell down past her shoulders. Deep amber, almond shaped eyes, just like mine, sat perfectly above her small nose. I always thought that I had a beautiful mom.
"I figured our last meal before our big trip should be home-cooked." She said sweetly. "Your father wanted to order pizza, but-…"
"I'm glad you decided not to!" I replied with a grin, cutting her off. "This smells great!"
The sound of roughhousing came from the living room, and I pushed out my chair and stood up to see what all the commotion was. Apparently Dad and Spencer had just finished watching UFC and had started a makeshift fight of their own.
"Ayden! Ayden! Help me!" Spencer called out as Dad held him down in a sleeper hold. "I can't get him!"
"I'm fine over here, thanks." I replied coolly. Rough play wasn't exactly my cup of tea. I was much more content with a quiet afternoon with a book than playing and ending up with scrapes and bruises any day.
"Honestly boys, dinner's on the table. Knock it off!" Mom chastised over my shoulder.
Once Dad and Spencer pulled themselves together and smoothed themselves out, they walked into the dining room with broad smiles on their red faces. Spencer sat down next to me and Dad sat across from him, next to Mom. Spencer shuffled his own thick black hair and looked up at me.
"Why don't you ever play with us Ayden?" He asked. "We could totally double-team dad!"
"I rather like my body the way it is, thanks." I supplied flatly, taking a bite of food. "I don't really enjoy getting bruises all that much."
"But bruises are fun!" he cried without missing a beat.
"Spencer, inside voice please." Mom said over the table.
Spencer grabbed his drink, acting like he didn't hear her, and started to chug it down. Apparently he was stricken with a particularly funny thought, because he spluttered into his cup. After a fit of coughing and wheezing, he looked up at me with a grin.
"I'll bet you'd play in Africa! What if one of the lions started playing with you? You wouldn't get bruises, but you'd sure get bitten a lot! Oooh! Imagine all the blood!"
Mom looked quite stern from across the table at Spencer.
"Oh really nice bro'." I rolled my eyes. "Glad to know me getting mauled by a lion brings you joy." Spencer giggled uncontrollably as I looked back up at Dad. "What reservation did you say we were going to stay at again?"
"Koko Milele" He replied immediately. "It's an older reservation, but they've got a substantial population of captive lions for us to study."
"Captive lions are cool and all," I said, swallowing a bite of food, "but I want to study the wild ones. You know, see them in their natural habitat, study their hunting methods, see how the wild cubs learn from playing. All the captive ones do is just lie around all day."
"In good time son." Mom smiled. "There's no guarantee we'd see a wild pride. Besides, renting a jeep to go out into the savannah costs a lot of money. For now, we'll have to stick with what we can afford. Besides, it'll be fun just to get out of the country again."
I sighed. "I guess so."
Until this year, I really hadn't cared much about animals. But then when Mom and Dad started up the zoology lessons, their focus had been on lions. Ever since, my attention had been hooked. The power and majesty of such amazing creatures was something I had wanted to behold for myself all year long. To see that power and majesty watered down to lying around in the sun all day within a controlled environment wasn't exactly my idea of a proper study. But there was no use fighting my parents on it. As the old proverb goes, never bite the hand that feeds you. I was semi-content with what I was about to get.
After dinner, Spencer and I argued briefly over who would do dishes until Mom stepped in and made me do them. I rushed through them as fast as I could, and soon I was once again lying on my bed, continuing my journey with Harry. My eyes were slowly drooping heavily as I reached the end of the chapter. I blinked fervently, and looked out to the sky outside my window once more. The night was cloudless and the stars above twinkled. I recognized the constellation Leo straight out of my window. The clouded lion popped into my mind again, and I was left wondering if I had just imagined it.
My eyes focused on the glittering stars briefly, before finally submitting to the weariness encasing them. The twinkling lights blurred out of focus as my eyes closed soundly in a peaceful sleep.