Chapter 4
A surprise, a fight, and a Simba look-alike
From their reactions is guessed I hadn't hidden my thoughts very well. Tatony looked slightly offended and confused. The cub had dazzling blue eyes. It was the first thing you noticed about her. Her fur was closer to my color than her mother's, but she still had small brown speckles dotting her entire body. Even though she was very young, I could tell she was strong.
"I'll name her Lakae," Tatony announced.
"It's a beautiful name," I purred.
"Is there something wrong with her? You looked totally disappointed when you saw Lakae," Tatony asked nervously.
"What? No, nothing's wrong with her. She's an amazing cub. She just reminded of something," I trailed off at the last part.
In a way she did remind me of Kiara. I hoped this cub wouldn't be nearly as troublesome though. I have to start at square one again, there wasn't going to be a boy, or at least at any time soon. A moan from behind me made me turn my head. The wounded lioness was beginning to wake up.
Tatony drew her cub in tighter to herself. I could easily understand why, I wouldn't want a stranger around Kiara either. Mita looked pretty proud of herself at the moment. Her green eyes slower flickered open. She looked completely dazed. After a quick glance around the room, she was on full alert.
"Where am I?" She demanded, trying to push herself up.
"Don't worry your safe. My name is Mita. I saw you take a nasty fall down the gorge and brought you back here." Mita explained in a very mother like tone.
After a moment to process the information she said, "Thank you for helping me. Do you belong to a pride?"
At the last word her voice seemed to crack. Did she belong to a pride? Right now we needed the information, not her. I stepped forward slightly. Lakae goo-gooed and gaa-gaaed in the background
"Um, well it a complicated story. I guess we don't really. This is what's left of our pride." Mita replied.
"I have time," She growled.
After being beaten to the pulp and laying on the ground, she didn't really have much authority over us. Mita toke a deep breath, and then glanced at me. I gave her a small nod of approval. The lioness began into the long explanation. The injured lioness listened intently. Mita finally finished her story.
"Now it's your turn," My eyes were locked on hers.
"I really don't have much to tell," She shrugged.
"Well, tell us what you do have to tell, start with your name," I commanded.
"My name is Ocio. I am, well, was from the Teon pride. Our pride was a proud one. We had a king and a queen who were the wisest and strongest anywhere in Africa. It is gone now though… It was taken from me by fire. It burned everything, there wasn't any food left, and many lionesses even died. Of course, that didn't destroy our pride. A group of rouge lions did. There were about 7 male lions and 11 female. They were the most evil lions I had ever seen. They would prey on the hunting lionesses, and we had already lost our queen. We were vulnerable. After about a month they outnumbered us. Me and my mate attempted to run, but-" Ocio choked.
Tears filled her eyes. Ocio's mate must have been murdered, like mine. A sudden burning passion to help her ignited in my chest. I would help her return to full health. Once our pride had grown, I vowed to help her run out the rouge lions in her pride lands. Nobody deserved to be run out of their home, I would know.
"They kept some of the pretty lionesses. Most of the cubs also. It was horrible," She continued shaking her head.
"How long has it been?" I dared to ask.
"About 10 sunrises," She whimpered.
"Simba was my mate." I stated blankly.
Ocio snapped her head in my direction. Her eyes were brimming with sorrowful tears. My vision began to blur as tears filled my eyes. An unspoken feeling passed between us. We both understood how easily our loved ones could be brutally taken in front of our eyes. She stared at me curiously for a moment.
"So, ah, you're the queen?" She guessed.
I small chuckle escaped my lips, "Yeah, I am,"
"You know, I'm expecting a cub," Ocio stated like she had just remembered it.
Those words hit me hard. This strange, hurt lioness that had just entered my life carried a possible life changing cub. My eyes darted to her stomach. Now that I looked at it, she was noticeably pregnant. She could have the cub in as soon as a week!
"That's great!" I purred.
I already liked this lioness. She seemed to be kind, and when needed, someone who would stand up for herself. I remembered the small cub that had already been born. It deserved attention too. I turned towards Tatony and cooed at the cub. Lakae was adorable. The rest of the day passed swiftly, and before I knew it, morning was upon us.
The glowing sun rose slowly over the horizon. Everyone was already awake and ready to leave. I was the most anxious to leave. Moving on meant potentially meeting more lions and starting my pride over. The pitter-patter of my paw steps seemed to echo across the gorge. Behind me were the Pride Lands, in front was unknown territory. I wondered where Ocio was from.
"Ocio, what direction is the Teon Pride" I asked.
If possible, we would avoid the area. Meeting rouge lions would not be a very pleasant experience. Tatony was carrying Lakae in her jaws gently. Mita and Chakaa were deep in conversation. I saw Ocio take a quick look around.
"In that direction," She indicated the direction with her paw.
It was in exactly the opposite direction of the Pride Lands. That left them two directions to take. The group was already walking towards one of the directions, so why not just stay in this direction? We followed the dry gorge towards the edge of the pride lands.
The sun now was directly overhead. We had already stopped twice, and I think we would probably have to stop soon again. Water had to be close...right? It was just so dry, my throat felt perched. We hadn't eaten yet either.
"Let's go up the side of the gorge," I instructed.
No one objected, but I could tell that none of them wanted to. It was just that I didn't know if we'd come across any more puddles of water. We started up the side of the gorge. It wasn't too difficult to climb with rocks jutting out everywhere. My friends seemed to have forgotten what grass felt like. They all smiled at its soft touch. In the distance I could see a light blue pool of water.
"Look, It's a water hole," I pointed to the water hole with my paw.
Everyone looked in that direction and most of them smacked their lips. It was weird how much I'd taken water for granted back at the Pride Lands. Now it felt like a gift from God. The pace was picked up and soon we were at the water hole. Oddly, there weren't any other animals, but I'm not complaining about it.
The soft touch of water seemed to soothe my whole body. I lapped at its surface hungrily. After I'd finished, I take a step back and look around. Four big animals where headed in our directions, but they were too far away to make out. I glanced back at my pride. All of them were still drinking thirstily. The animals had broken into a sprint, and I could just make out them now. Lions. There were 4 big male lions coming right at us.
"We need to go, now!" I urgently paced around them.
They lifted their head quickly. Tatony picked up her daughter in her jaws. They could all sense something was wrong, and none of them wanted to get into any more trouble. We started jogging away from the lions. We were a ways from the water hole, but still we were pursued. Fear coursed through my veins. The lions were after us, and gaining quickly.
"Run," I decided breaking into a sprint.
They world flew by me. Air whipped mercilessly at my face. I didn't care though. Right now all the mattered was getting away from them. Antelope ran away from us, they reminded me of how hungry I was. With a quick look behind me, I realized how close they actually were. We had no chance of running, only to fight now. I slowed down.
They four lions encircled us smiling. The leader stood directly in front of me. He had piercing icy blue eyes. His lips were twisted back into a crooked smile. A golden brown mane encircled his head. The lion was built, and only barely smaller than Simba was. His body was a golden very similar to the sun. We glared into each other's eyes.
"Well, well, well. Look what we have here? Five lonely lionesses traveling together." He shifted his gaze to Chakaa and Mita, "And boy, they sure are something else."
A chuckle erupted from the male lions. The lion to my left had a dark colored pelt, almost brown. He reminded me of Kovu; only this lion had an evil gleam to his face. He was watching Mita carefully. Mita glared back at him. I couldn't see the fourth lion but the lion to my right looked very similar to the lion to my left. They must be siblings.
"What do you want?" I growled in the most threatening voice I could muster.
"What do I want? What are you doing here? This is our land, and any trespassers answer to me." He threatened taking a step closer to me.
My insides seemed to flip inside of me. We weren't going to talk our way out of this one. We didn't exactly have the numbers. One lioness that was expecting a cub, 3 healthy lionesses, and one with a cub. They might have a few less lions then us but we didn't really have an advantage. All of us were exhausted, hungry, and thirsty.
They male lions crept closer to us. We took an unsure step back. This was bad. Very bad. Tatony gave a small threatening growl. This only caused the leader lion to laugh. There would have to be bloodshed. It was kind of sad that this would be the way I was defeated.
"Ocio, take Lakae," Tatony said through the cub's fur.
Ocio took the cub from Tatony. She knew what that meant. With a screech, Tatony threw herself at one of the lions. They two wrestled each other with ferocity. Claws struck the side of my cheek and I could feel the warmth of blood begin to trickle down it. My head whipped in the leader's direction. With teeth bared I hurled myself at him. Chaos broke out.
The lion and I fought mercilessly. I could feel pain as his teeth meet my shoulder. My claws swiftly ran right over his left eye. He howled in pain and thrust me away from him. It was a struggle to stand. I could tell that the rest of my pride was also struggling to fend off the lions. A sudden roar filled the air. A strong lion ran towards us. Great, this was just what we needed, more to fight off. He had fur that was the color of dead grass. His amber eyes were narrowed not at me, but at the leader lion. His light brown mane was whipping behind him. Watching him fearlessly run towards us, made him reminded me of Simba.
The two lions meet in the air. Teeth bared and claws clashed. After a few tense minutes the leader was pinned by the rouge lion.
"Please, I-I-let me go," He begged cowering at his paws.
A smile flashed across his face. The lion toke his paw off the lion. The four lions high tailed it out of there. I stared at the lion with curiosity. Who was this mysterious lion that had saved us? He turned and returned my stare.
"I wish to join you pride,"
