A few days had passed since Simba had allowed me to stay. But I still didn't try and talk to him much in case he was still unsure about me.
I soon met the pride as well, but luckily they weren't quite so cautious when first meeting me. They soon became fascinated about what sort of lives humans lived. I had non-stop questions about every single thing I told them about my life.
"What is this thing called electricity?"
"What are these things called houses?"
"What's a car?"
"How do you talk to each other from miles away with a small object called a phone?"
I eventually got a headache from hearing so many voices at once.
"Look couldn't you all save these questions for later?" I said. "It can get tiring"
They all looked slightly disappointed.
"Please John" one of the lionesses said giving me a sad look. "Humans just sound so interesting"
I chuckled and rolled my eyes.
"Later" I said.
Their faces just looked sadder. But suddenly Kiara spoke.
"Can I just ask you one last thing John?" she said nervously.
"Ok go on" I said.
"What is that large stick you keep carrying on your back?" she said. "Surely you must get sick of hauling that round everywhere?"
For a second I was confused until I realised she meant my rifle.
"Oh you mean this" I said picking up my rifle off the floor.
"This is called a rifle and it's a weapon humans created to defend ourselves"
She tilted her head and looked puzzled.
"Why create such a weird look looking weapon?" she said. "It doesn't look like it could do much damage to an enemy if you hit them with it"
I laughed and tried to explain.
"No Kiara, this isn't for hitting" I said picking up one of the spare clips and pulled out one of the bullets.
"It fires these things called bullets" I said showing it to her.
She almost scoffed when she saw it.
"It looks harmless enough, it's tiny" she said sounding amused.
I then gave a her a "Seriously" sort of look.
"I wouldn't say that straight away" I said. "These things travel incredibly fast, so fast you couldn't see them even if you tried"
I then held up the bullet. "Imagine this hitting you that fast"
She then looked less amused.
"It would probably tear you apart" she said.
"Exactly" I said.
(Later on in the day)
Me and Nala were lying in the long grass watching an antelope herd. She had offered to try and teach me how to hunt in case I was ever in need of food.
"You want to try and stay undetected so you can get as close as possible" she whispered.
"But you have to be careful how you step, it is easy to give yourself away by making too much noise"
I nodded in agreement before whispering.
"I have my own way of hunting"
She looked at me and raised an eyebrow.
"How?" she said.
I then began to slowly slip my rifle off my back and showed it to her.
"With this" I said.
She looked slightly amused.
"If you say so"
I knew the rifle was fully loaded, which meant I had eight shots to get a good kill.
"When I fire this, I would recommend you cover your ears Nala"
She looked puzzled.
"Why?" she said.
"Because this weapon is really loud and you might lose your hearing otherwise" I responded quickly.
"I'd feel terrible if I deafened you"
She looked surprised and quickly put her paws over her ears, waiting for me to fire the rifle.
I began to line up the shot with one of the antelopes and then held my breath. I then slowly started to squeeze the trigger until the loud bang of the rifle echoed for what seemed miles around, and cause Nala to nearly jump out of her skin.
It hit the antelope straight in the neck and it fell down dead straight away. The rest of the herd saw this and ran away as fast as they could.
I then lowered the rifle and stopped holding my breath. I wasn't sure whether to feel pleased for having a successful hunt, or feeling like a murderer for killing an innocent animal.
I turned to Nala only to see her smiling.
"I must say that weapon of yours saves you a lot of energy" she said jokingly whilst smiling.
"I guess" I said quietly.
She then got up and began to head over to the antelope.
"Are you going to help me move this?" she called.
I didn't like the idea of moving a dead animal, but if it meant I was going to have something to eat I was up for it.
"Ok" I sighed and walked over to her.
(About an hour later)
We were met by the beautiful sight of the sun setting over the horizon when we arrived back at pride rock carrying the antelope.
"Can't say I'm not impressed by your first hunt today John, I couldn't have done better myself" Nala said.
"Well I kind of cheated to how you would normally do it" I said.
"Remember I'm not as fast and as strong as a lion and…"
Nala just laughed slightly and interrupted me.
"That doesn't matter you still succeeded in catching the prey didn't you"
I just shrugged. "Yeah I guess"
"You don't have to be fast or strong, as long as you succeeded in the hunt you should be pleased with yourself" Nala said.
I smiled slightly at the feeling of accomplishing something, but then again I did feel bad for killing an innocent antelope. But I wasn't going to tell Nala how I felt and come off as being a softy to her.
The sun was nearly gone by the time we reached the edge of pride rock and the pride emerged from the cave to see what me and Nala had caught.
They all immediately ran to Nala and seemed pleased about finally having something to eat. But when Nala explained that I was the one who killed the antelope and she just watched, they all looked at me with surprised expressions, and began whispering to each other.
"A human managed to kill an antelope"
"He may be tall, but he doesn't look strong enough to succeed a hunt"
"Surely he can't have caught it"
I must admit I did feel quite stung by the comments.
"Are you always this quick to underestimate someone?" I said.
They then realised what I meant and looked embarrassed.
"Oh uh we didn't mean it like that"
"No it's just we weren't expecting this"
I just laughed at them trying to make up excuses to avoid the embarrassment.
"I don't care what you say really" I said loudly over them.
"I used my rifle anyway so I guess you could say I cheated"
They all stopped and looked at me.
One of the lionesses turned to another and whispered. "I knew he wouldn't have done it by himself"
I heard the comment and simply rolled my eyes. I wasn't going to keep on trying to defend myself. I was more hungry than anything and just wanted food.
"Look does it matter who killed what, I'm just hungry" I said.
They all nodded in agreement and immediately started to eat away at the antelope.
I was going to use the hunting knife the poacher had stabbed me with to cut a piece of the antelope. I still had to find a way to cook it though, as I wasn't going to eat it raw because I could get sick.
Before I could start cutting a piece of meat, I saw Simba walking down from the cave to join us. To my surprise, he was smiling at me.
"I heard everything John" he said.
"I must say I am impressed that you had a successful kill on your first attempt"
I was surprised. "Are you serious Simba?"
He continued to smile. "Absolutely, you did well for a creature that has never hunted before". He then went to take a bite out the antelope, but turned to me before he did. "Maybe you'll master it one day and not have to use that weapon of yours"
I just shrugged, and we both went to eat.
But I suddenly realised I was smiling myself.
"This must be the most cheerful I've been in days" I thought to myself.
And I really was.
Hi everyone,
Sorry for the late update, it's just life's been really busy lately,
I hope this chapter didn't seem to rushed,
I really appreciate all your positive reviews :)
I'll see you again soon in the next chapter,
Bye for now,