Here, the first chapter! I hope you enjoy it. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to bed. It is 2 am from where I am and staying up late is really messing me up. Good night.
Chapter 1: A New Beginning
The sun rose out into the Indian sky, signifying a new day. Before that, a tiger named Mustafa roared out to call all the animals to Ambush Temple, a large temple made of stone where the tigers lived. It's surrounded by jungles and forests, plains of green grass, and rocks. The temple is ruled by a king and he rules over the Ambush Lands, patrolling for any danger and for the safety of the animals. His wife, the queen, recently gave birth to a cub and he was happy for his cub was going to be the future king after him, so he roared out to call the animals to see his son and their future king.
The animals woke up to the sound of the roar and to the sunlight in their eyes. All kinds of animals, from the biggest elephant to the smallest ant, heard the roar and went to the direction of it. Birds flew, elephants walked, blackbucks leaped, deer ran, even the camels from the plains and deserts heard the roar and walked into the jungle. All the animals crossed from land, water, and sky to reach Ambush Temple. A great Indian hornbill named Zaceev flew over to see the multitude of animals walking over to the temple and he landed on the balcony where the king stood on. The tiger's fur was orange colored with white underparts and dark black stripes. His eyes were red, which made him look menacing even though he was a respected king.
The hornbill was the king's advisor and he bowed down before the tiger king. The bird looked up and saw the tiger nod and smile back at him. Mustafa looked over to see herds of animals crowded near the temple. There were Asian elephants, camels, sloth bears, rhinos, Axis deer, blackbucks, water buffalo, gaurs, peafowl, langurs, parakeets, leopards, junglefowl, and all sorts of wildlife. There was one animal that he saw was coming over to the temple. It was a black gibbon that carried a stick with fruits tied to it. That was Ripun, the priest and he came over to bless the newborn cub and present him to the animals. Herds of gaurs saw him and knew he is the priest, so they let him pass. Herds of deer, buffalo, and antelope saw him go and respected him as Ripun was a devout and religious animal.
Ripun climbed up to the temple, watching his step and reached the balcony to see Mustafa. The gibbon and tiger hugged as they saw each other. They both went inside to see other tigers waiting for them. Sitting on a stony throne was Sahiba, the queen. Her fur was the color of tangerines, white underparts and soot-colored stripes. Her eyes were sparkling like rubies. The king nuzzled his wife and the queen was holding their newborn cub, with fur the color of oranges and less stripes. They had named him Singham.
Sahiba licked him to wake him up and the cub turned to look at Ripun, who was smiling to seeing the adorable cub. He took his stick and shook it like a rattle near the future king. Singham reached out his paws to touch the fruit. Ripun then took one of the fruits and ripped it in half. He took some pasty juice in the fruit with his thumb and put it on the cub's forehead. The gibbon then took dirt nearby and put it on the cub's face. The little baby sneezed, and his parents smiled at their son.
Ripun then took the cub out of his mother's paws and walked over to the balcony. When the animals saw Ripun walk over to the balcony with Singham in his hands, they were ready to see their new king. When Ripun met the railing, he showed the cub to the rest of the animals. Everybody cheered. The deer and antelope jumped, the elephants trumpeted, the monkeys screeched, the wild donkeys brayed and stomped the dust with their hooves, the peafowl cried, about every animal who attended the celebration cheered in their own way. Singham stared at all the animals cheering and applauding for him.
In the skies, a beam of sunlight shined down on Singham and the animals saw that it was a blessing from above. Every single animal bowed down in respect for the little cub, from the small ant to the large elephant. Mustafa and Sahiba walked over to Ripun who was still holding the cub as the beam of sunlight shined on the future king. They believed that their son, Singham, would make a great king in the next generation. But there is someone who would stand in his way of becoming king.
After the presentation was over, all the animals left and Ripun gave Singham back to Sahiba and went back to his tree. In another part of the temple, in the back, there was a mouse coming out of a little cave sniffing the air and cleaning its face. It stopped when it smelled something dangerous. It ran off quickly, but a large paw with black, sharp claws emerging out of it stomped on it. It belonged to a tiger with fur the color of fire and eyes the color of light green, like the color of mossy water shining in the sunlight. What was distinctive about that tiger was the scar on his left eye. He was nicknamed "Scar" because of that.
Scar picked up the mouse as it tried to scurry away from the tiger. He brought it up to his face and said, "Life's not fair, is it? You see, I, well I, shall never be king." The mouse got on the fingers of the tiger and crawled away, but Scar managed to catch the mouse from scurrying away and gave a little chuckle. "And you," Scar spoke to the mouse, "shall never see the light of another day. Alvida (Goodbye)." The tiger opened his mouse and was about to put the mouse in it but was stopped by a Punjabi accented voice. Scar hated that voice and knew it was from his brother's advisor, Zaceev.
"Didn't your mother ever tell you not to play with your food?" Zaceev asked to the tiger who put the mouse in his paw to prevent it from escaping.
"What do you want?" Scar asked with annoyance.
"I'm here to pronounce that king Mustafa is on his way, so you better have a good excuse for missing the ceremony this morning."
As the tiger was distracted by the hornbill's annoyance, the mouse slipped out of Scar's paws and ran out of the temple room through a crack. "Oh, now look, Zaceev. You made me lose my lunch," Scar spoke in fake disappointment.
"Ha!" Zaceev scoffed. "You'll lose more than that when the king gets through with you. He's as mad as a mother bear."
"Oooh, I quiver with FEAR!" Scar spoke in sarcasm and in a creepy tone. Zaceev didn't like it at all when he saw Scar creeping up at him and with that sinister smile he gave.
"Now, Scar, don't look at me that way." Zaceev backed up a little, then flew away screaming "HELP!" as Scar opened his wide mouth and closed it with the bird inside him. Before he could devour him, he was stopped by a voice that sounded deep and intimidating yet regal.
"Scar?" The scarred tiger turned to see that it was his big brother, Mustafa, who was standing in the doorway. "Drop him."
The hornbill's beak poked out of Scar's mouth and said, "Impeccable timing, Your Majesty." Scar did as Mustafa told him to. He opened his mouth to release Zaceev. The bird gave out a disgusted groan as he saw all around his body was saliva.
Scar walked over to his brother and spoke in a sarcastic tone, "Why, if it isn't my big brother descending from on high to mingle with the commoners."
"Sahiba and I didn't see you at the presentation of Singham," Mustafa spoke with a glare on his face.
"That was today?" Scar acted surprised. "Oh, I feel simply awful." Scar scratched on the temple's stone bricks making a screeching sound, causing Zaceev to cringe. "It must have slipped my mind."
Zaceev then began to fly in front of Scar's face. Scar wasn't gonna take anymore of Zaceev acting brave in front of Mustafa. "Yes. Well, as slippery as your mind is, as the king's brother, you should've been first in line!" Scar snapped his teeth in front of Zaceev and the hornbill flew back in fear and hid behind Mustafa's paw.
"Well, I was first in line, until the little hairball was born," Scar spoke to Zaceev, who winced when he saw the tiger's face go near the bird.
"That hairball is my son, and your future king," Mustafa firmly said to Scar.
"Oh, I shall practice my curtsy," Scar spoke in a sarcastic tone. He then turned to walk out the exit of the room.
"Don't turn your back on me, Scar!" Mustafa growled. Scar was starting to get on the king's nerves.
"Oh, no, Mustafa," Scar turned to look at his brother and walk out of the room. "Perhaps you shouldn't turn your back on me."
Mustafa roared and ran in front of his younger brother who froze when he saw his older brother's furious glare at him. "IS THAT A CHALLENGE?!" Mustafa shouted.
"Temper, temper. I wouldn't dream of challenging you."
"Pity," Zaceev added as he got between the two tigers. "Why not?"
Scar answered Zaceev, "Well, as far as brains go, I've got the tiger's share, but when it comes to brute strength, I'm afraid I'm at the shallow end of the gene pool." Scar then left the temple room, walking into the jungle to who knows where.
"There's one in every family, sire," Zaceev sighed. "Two in mine, actually. And they always manage to ruin special occasions." Zaceev flew onto Mustafa's shoulder, watching Scar go off.
"What am I gonna do with him?" Mustafa asked to himself or to Zaceev, who knows.
"He'd make a very handsome throw rug," Zaceev said with a grin.
"Zaceev!" Mustafa joined the grinning bird with a smile forming on his face.
"And just think, whenever he gets dirty, you can take him out and beat him."
Mustafa laughed at the joke as the tiger walked back to the main temple with the hornbill flying with him.
Later that night, the rains had come falling onto the Ambush Lands. Far from the temple in a giant banyan tree, shaped like a mushroom, lives Ripun the gibbon. In the protective roots of the tree, Ripun was painting a tiger cub on one of the roots. He used the paste of the fruit to rub on the painting of the tiger's forehead.
"Singham," the old ape chuckled. He smiled more for he knew the tiger cub was going to do great things for the kingdom.