Lion and Krystal
The hot sun seem to burn brightly down on the surface of the earth, but the air was cooling and refreshing. The majestic kingdom stood tall over the green plain near the northeast Mediterranean Sea. 8000 people in all and 1% of those people were criminals. Goats, jackals, lions, birds, and other kinds of animals were flooding the streets spreading culture and news. The ruler of this kingdom was my father, Zelon. He ruled very justly and treated his people kind. I, his only son, often went among the ordinary people making friends who cared about me and not the title connected to me. My nickname was often 'Leo' or 'Rat Cat'. It was interesting for them considering that I was a rat with the name 'Lion'. One of my friends was a wild little tigress named Krystal. The way we met was this. One day, I was walking alone down an alley. First mistake. Then suddenly, these two thugs surrounded me.
"Give us your money," one of them said. They didn't know that I was the prince and I knew I needed to keep it that way. Unfortunately, I was stubborn and refused. This was before I had my Lion Warrior powers. One of them grabbed my collar and pinned me to the wall. "We'll get that money out of you, one way or another."
"Then you're going to have to fight me." a voice from behind said. The two thugs turned around and saw a young tigress looking angrily at them. The two chuckled.
"You think you can handle us? I'm so scared." They dropped me and started walking to the female tiger. She and I quickly glanced at each other and I saw in her hands smoke bombs. I nodded my head ready to run. The tigress threw the smoke bombs to the ground and a screen of smoke surrounded the two thugs. While the thugs were coughing, I ran past them and ran with the tigress away from them. We ran until we bolted into her house and locked the door. We sat there trying to catch our breath.
"I think we lost them." She said looking out the window. She sat back down and looked to me with a smile. "You're lucky I was there to save your butt." I chuckled breathlessly.
"Yeah, I am thankful that you came. But I have to ask you, why were you carrying smoke bombs?"
"I always carry them. I know that this town isn't as dangerous as it is but I'm a little suspicious. I don't trust people easily." she said.
"Then why save me?" I asked. She lightly punched me on the arm.
"I may be suspicious but I'm not cruel hearted."
"But you trust me enough to let me in your house? Even though you don't know me? Man, you are a strange sort of kindhearted." I remarked. She smiled as she laid her head back.
"I'll take that as a compliment." By this time we had regain our normal breathing.
"But really thank you. Oh, I didn't get your name."
"I'm Krystal. I live with my uncle. He's only home at midnight. So what's your name." she said getting up from the ground. As I got up, I tried to come up with an answer. This was before I had REAL friends. I tried in vain to ignore it and act as if I didn't hear it. But...
"Hello," she said as she waved her hand in front of me, "Hey, what's your name?"
"Um... I'm a little...embarrassed by my real name. How about you just call me Xavier?" I said. It wasn't a lie. I really was embarrassed with my real name because everyone would bow and treat me differently. Krystal stared at me for a while and sat down at the table.
"Okay, so, Xavier you mind telling me why you're traveling through here?" she asked as I came over to sit next to her. I could easily see that she was 15 just like I was.
"I decided to get some fresh air. Where I am, I feel like a prisoner sometimes, but my father allows me to go out sometimes."
"Why does he keep you inside so much? It must be very lonely." the tigress asked. My rat tail moved from the ground to my hands as I picked at it. It was a sensitive topic for me.
"Well, you see I don't really go out for my own personal reasons. I always feel that I will never really be accepted by people so I stay inside most of the time." I replied. Back then I was trying to get sympathy.
"You won't," she said bluntly. So much for sympathy. "I mean that you will never Really be accepted by people. You can't just stay inside because you're afraid of not being accepted."
"But most of the 'friends' I know of, they just pretend to be my friends because of who I am."
"Why? Are you wealthy?" she said cheerfully. I looked at her with a 'really' kind of look. It was true that I was very wealthy but the fact that anyone would ask that so plainly surprised me. "I'm kidding, but I think you shouldn't be afraid of being social just because you get 'pretend' friends. I say keep looking. I mean you're a strong, handsome, cute, and brave person." she said. She realized what she said and blushed a little. I decided to play with her a little.
"One: flattery will get you nowhere. Two: if I were brave, you wouldn't have had to save me. Three: you wouldn't be saying that if you knew who I was." I shouldn't have said that. Krystal turned her whole chair towards me and looked me dead in the eyes, not flinching or blinking once.
"Well, that just brings up another question, Xaviar," she said putting emphasis on the fake name, "Who are you?" I looked into her eyes to see if she was going to be like the others, but I didn't find any of that pretending in her so I took the risk.
"I know that you will never believe me when I tell you this, but my real name is Lion, as in Prince Lion." I looked at her wondering if she was going to either believe or just laugh. Her eyes widen but she just looked away.
"That would explain the clothes you wear. Those are fancy clothing so that what made the bandits come after you. Next time make sure that you aren't as obvious as regular princes. But just because you're a prince doesn't change that fact that we are friends." I smiled and stood up to go out the door when she stopped me. "Wait," she said as she was blushing making me blush, too, "If you're free tomorrow, maybe you and I….and my friends can hang out."
"Okay," I said and from that day on we began to be great friends. Even my father liked her. Then later down in life when I was about 20, I asked her to marry me. She said yes. That's how Krystal and I met.
"I was not that lovey-dovey when you came," Krystal said turning away and folding her arms. Lion hugged her from behind and said.
"I didn't say you did," he said making her blush redder than her orange fur could disguise. They still loved each other after 600 years. "Anyways, that's how I remember it."
"But how did you meet my dad," asked Lily.
"Now that is a different story," Lion said.
