Chapter 12! And I'm getting ideas! Yup. Writer's block is taking a temporary vacation. Onto Les story!
"Obassi, are you really going to let the Prince of the Pridelanders stay here! They'll come and kill us for sure now!" Azazsi stared in disbelief at Obassi as he told her the news that Gunab would be joining their pride.
The evil king smirked a notorious smile to himself and gave his queen a sly look, "You think I haven't thought this through?" He gave a chuckle as Azazsi looked hard at him. "A cub-probably a wanderer from the deep desert-died near the end of the Pride Land borders a few days ago. It looked very much like this Gunab, so if they find that body, they'll think he's dead."
"But what if they don't! What if they recognize the strange scent and come after us again!" Umaimai was now in the quarrel about Gunab. She had been laying low for a while since she was threatened with leaving the pride, but now she spoke up, Boniko silent on the issue behind her.
"They won't. I made sure of that." Obassi said proudly. "Simply rubbing your paw on that cub, you can take his scent and rub it over another thing. And of course it'd be faint, he's been 'dead' for days!"
Azazsi tilted her head to think about it for a moment, her slick desert body moved from one side of Obassi to the other, "It might work ... but now tell us. Why do you want Gunab here? What use can he be for us? You've already shown him that you're kindhearted."
"That can be changed quickly, you do know. I've been thinking about how we need to begin training Ibzimai for hunting, and Boteshu and Qua for defense. Gunab could simply join Boteshu and Qua." Obassi said matter-of-factly.
Boniko tilted his head, "We haven't designed any sort of training for them, yet. Are you just going to train them like the hyenas trained us and our older brothers!" His jaw dropped when Obassi gave a silent nod. "You'll kill the poor things! We were at least three months older than them before Scar let them even come near us!"
Umaimai and Azazsi stood by each other, lost about this twist in the argument, their heads bopping back and forth as each of the mighty lions traded snaps and growls to each other.
Plainly sharpening his claws on a hardened termite mound, sending a loud screech throughout everyone's ears, Obassi turned to Boniko, "And look where we are now-cowering in fear from a broken pride! Scar gained control of the strongest pride in all the lands with himself and three stupid hyenas! I don't want them to be as pathetic as we are now. They need their confidence built as well as rigorous training."
"But the hyenas killed two of my brothers through that training! It was just you, me and Nuka left!" Boniko growled angrily at Obassi's heartlessness.
Obassi gave a deep sigh and examined his sharpened claws, "Boniko, Boniko, Boniko. You've been my best friend our whole lives and you still haven't figured it out?" Boniko squinted his eyes at Obassi, waiting for him to continue. "I'm not going to go and kill my sons and our new advantage."
Umaimai also squinted her eyes at Obassi, "What do you mean 'our new advantage?' Gunab? How can he be an advantage for us? What have you got planned?"
"I was getting to that." Obassi barely even glanced at Umaimai, "I won't kill him, I'll only make him stronger. With the training, he'll stick with us for sure. If the Pridelanders ever find out, we could wipe them out easily, because they will NOT find out that we have Gunab until he's at least an adolescent." They were left waiting for Obassi to reveal more of the plan, but he turned away and walked off to patrol the borders for some time.
.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.
"So, Gunab, you feeling any better now?" Dekala sat on "her" termite mound, watching over the young cubs. It had been three days since Gunab asked Obassi if he could join them, and when he asked he was exhausted and angry. Even though he was in right of mind now, Gunab still decided to stay with the Liba Pride. He believed that they were the only lions that actually listened to him since Simba passed away.
"Yeah, thanks for helping me." He smiled up at Dekala, but that didn't last long. Right as Gunab turned away, Qua and Boteshu ambushed the weaker cub and easily pinned him to the ground.
"Dang, Gunab! You are weak!" Boteshu laughed as he spoke, still pinning Gunab to the ground. "Didn't they do anything in that old pride!"
"Hey! Get off!" Gunab tried to scratch and bite Boteshu off, but failed miserably and sighed, just waiting for him to get off.
While that was going on, Qua was laughing his tail off, only to be pounced from behind by Ibzimai, "You boys quit picking on poor Gunab! He just got here, and you expect him to have any strength?" She chuckled to herself and send Gunab a soft smile which caused him to turn red under his chocolate fur.
Dekala chuckled in amusement at the cubs, remembering when her and Umaimai would play like that. Now all she was used for was to watch the cubs and hunt, but she didn't mind too much. Life was actually pretty good under Obassi's reign. He protected them, a bit brutally at time, but effectively, and they rarely went hungry, too. Yeah, she thought for a moment, life is pretty good here.
Qua burst into even more laughter, breaking Dekala out of her daydream while he yelled, "Gunab likes our sister! Gu-hu-hunab like our si-is-ter!"
"I do not!" Gunab was now on his feet, his eyes wide while he still blushed bright red under his fur. Ibzimai just chuckled and blushed under her soft white fur. She had to turn her face away so the others didn't see her own burning cheeks.
Boteshu and Qua danced around Gunab, "You like our sister! You like our sister!"
"I do not! No! I don't!"
"Oh, just admit it, Gunab, and they'll leave you alone." Dekala laughed and rolled off the mound, "Or I'll have to join the song and dance with the two crazy brothers."
"Fine! I like her!" He yelled out quickly, and crouched to the ground, "Will you guys shut up now?"
Boteshu stopped in his tracks and thought for a moment, bringing his paw thoughtfully to his face, "Umm... No! Not until you can beat me in a fight."
Dekala laughed, "Don't you think that's kind of harsh? I mean look at him! Little Ibzimai could beat him!"
Qua joined in with Dekala, "Oooh.. 'Kala, that's mean!"
Annoyed, Gunab stood up and walked out of the hyena-like laughter of the three lions until they're voices were almost silent and he sat down near a small termite mound in some shade to think alone for a few minutes, like he would do at the Pride Lands when the other cubs would tease and taunt him until they caught sight of Kovu, then they would fly off, leaving Gunab alone.
"Hey." Ibzimai said from behind Gunab, startling him so much he almost clung to the mound with his small claws.
When he finally clamed down and turned around to face Ibzimai, he could tell that she was still red. "Hey..." He chuckled and put a paw on her cheek, shoving her away lightly, "What are you doing sneaking up on me!"
Ibzimai rolled her eyes up to think then rolled on her back, "Getting away from my annoying brothers. They can take some things too far at times, don't you think?"
"I've only been here three days now, and they've started to bother me."
"Ah well," Ibzimai said. "It'll get better later on. They're brothers. Mean ones. I bet one day they'll be beat up by some scrawny lioness who came out of the blue." She laughed and played with the tuff on her tail for a moment.
Gunab watched her for a moment then grabbed her tail in his mouth and smirked, dragging her a few inches away before she realized what happened, "Hey! That hurt!" She laughed and clawed at him, then swished her tail under his nose. "You like our home pretty good? Better than the Pride Lands?"
He thought for a moment, not expecting to be asked a question like that. After a short silence Gunab gave a slow nod, "Yeah, I like it better here. I feel freer, like I can do almost anything I want. In the Pridelands my boundaries were cut shorter and shorter." He drew lines on the ground, far from himself at first, then closer and closer until it reached the end of his free paw. "And it got to the point where Dad didn't even want me leaving Pride Rock!..so I ran away, to here."
"Wow, I figured, as prince, you'd be able to have more roaming ground than the other cubs." She tilted her head to look at the blemish of Pride Rock in the far distance.
Gunab scratched out the lines in the ground and grinned to Ibzimai, opening his mouth to speak, but getting cut off by the sound of Obassi's yelling. "Get over here! Boteshu! Qua! Ibzimai! Gunab! Get over here!"
Ibzimai and Gunab's ears went flat at the tone of Obassi's voice, but they hurried to meet him, and the cubs sat in a line in front of the adult lions, Dekala watched from her normal mound. Qua and Boteshu were unfazed by the tone of Obassi's voice and went on whispering and joking, only to be growled a warning by Azazsi, which quieted the cubs.
"Tomorrow," Obassi began seriously, "will begin training for all of you, including Gunab-who will join Qua and Boteshu, and Ibzimai." The cubs looked at each other in question, trying to figure out what was going on. Boniko and Umaimai just stood near Dekala, who was watching with extreme interest. "You boys will be with me and Boniko, we're going to begin teaching you how to defend yourselves and the pride." He paused for a moment, watching Qua and Boteshu's eyes light up, but Gunab only blinked, not realizing what an importance it was to the small pride. Obassi shook his head and turned to Ibzimai, "You, little one, will be training under Umaimai, Azazsi, and Dekala in the art of hunting."
"What!" Dekala almost fell off her mound, and she shot straight up, glaring down at Obassi, "Why wasn't I told of my special duties when I haven't even been taught to correctly hunt in these lands by Azazsi?" Umaimai looked wide-eyed at her little sister, warning her to back down unless she would take the risk of being hurt.
Obassi just shrugged off Dekala and glanced up at her, "It is my order, and as King of this pride, my word goes." He turned to face the cubs again, who's fur was stiffened on their backs from Dekala's outburst. "You four will probably want to get some rest. You're going to need it tomorrow; we're beginning before daybreak."
The cubs nodded silently as Obassi dismissed them. They instantly went to the den, to get as much sleep as they could before the training began. Boteshu, Qua, and Ibzimai knew how important it was to the pride, but Gunab did not, so Gunab would learn an important lesson in the months to come as the training began.
Dun-dun! So Gunab's joined the Liba Pride, permanently, and is going to train under Obassi's rule? What's in store for our little cubs, and will Ibzimai and Gunab ever admit they're sweet, hot, love for each other! Heeeheee... C'ya next chapter!