Guma
A smell of blood was in the air, the scent of a successful hunt and a fresh kill. It was hard for Guma, not to drool as he sniffed it in, trying to figure out where it originated.
The soft but pesky sound of a paw continuously tapping the ground made him stop his research and look to the side. Chadi was sitting next to him, his left foreleg shivering in excitement. That was only one of his many annoying attributes, but he had learned to deal with it. With a swift move he kicked the noisy leg.
"Hey! I thought we were friends!", the other male yelped. "What was that for?"
"For annoying me!", Guma growled. Actually, he considered Chadi and his brother more as henchmen than as friends. "No wonder you're no one's favorite."
"That's true", Chege laughed and poked his younger sibling with a paw. "But… neither am I… or you."
By the look on his face, Guma guessed that the trail of thought leading to this conclusion had consumed all of the little amount of intellect stored in Chege's head. "But other than you two zebra brains, I'm about to change that!" Once more he sniffed into the air. Now he knew where to go. "Follow me, guys."
Shortly after, Guma had found what he had been looking for. Slowly he crouched through the long grass, took cover between some bushes and strained his ears. Judging by the voices he heard, they were three, a male, a female and a cub or younger lion. "Stay in cover and circle them, boys", he said with a quick glance over his shoulder. "Let them know, there are more of us, but keep your mouths shut. Let me do the talking." With that said he stepped out of the bushes and walked towards the three lions laying around the freshly killed antelope.
The sound of his steps alerted the male, who jumped up and turned around.
"Well, well, well, what have we here?", Guma said with a faked but – as he hoped – friendly looking smile.
Protectively, the lion positioned himself in front of his family. "Kara, Moto, stay behind me", he said without losing eye contact with the intruder. "We don't want any trouble, so stay clear… hyena!"
Still smiling, Guma looked back at him. "Neither do I, rogue. I assure you", he answered perfectly calm. "May I ask who you are?"
"I'm Ifu and this is my family", the lion hesitantly said. "Now, may I know, who you are, asking me that?"
"How rude of me. The name is Guma, humble servant of her majesty, Queen Siyogwaya, who rules these lands and all its inhabitants." He took a prouder posture. "And as such, I'm afraid, I have to point out that by killing prey on our land you have committed poaching."
The puzzled look on the lion's face was enough to proof, that his words hadn't failed the desired impact. For a second, he turned away from Guma to look at his mate. She seemed to be just as surprised by the news as he was. "We didn't know that", she tried to explain herself and looked down at the dead animal in front of her.
As if it had been planned, just after she had spoken, the grass close to her moved. Startled, the lioness flinched and pulled her young one closer to her.
"Oh, no need to be scared, my dear, I believe you. Otherwise, I'd already have ordered my companions to take you down." Guma's fake smile turned into a real one, as he saw, how Ifu's eyes widened and began rushing from one side to the other, searching for more hyenas. Now he knew, he had the upper hand. The lion in front of him was far more nervous than he pretended to be.
"So, you're willing to forgive us?", Kara, the lioness carefully asked.
"I am. We're not in a crisis and our lands bare more than enough food to feed our clan and the other predators living here, so we have prey to spare. But it's not up to me to decide it." He began walking up and down in front of the lions. "Hunting without our queen's permission is still prohibited. Considering the fact, that you have already killed this antelope without it, I would highly suggest you to offer it to her majesty as a gesture of your good will and apologize. I'm certain she would understand your mistake and forgive you." He stopped walking and took a step backwards to give the couple some space. Finally, Ifu dropped his guard and began mumbling with his mate. After a few moments of talking, the lion turned back to Guma and nodded.
"Wait, what?" The young lion stepped between his parents. "You'll do as he said? He obviously is lying to you! Queen is not a hyena's title! It's not for filthy scavengers, only for true hunters!"
Now that he had clear sight on him, the hyena noticed, that he was indeed older than he had expected. The fiery red hair tuft on his head, that already extended over his neck to the shoulders and his height indicated, that he already had left the cubhood years behind. Maybe he was close to be considered a young adult, but neither did Guma know for sure, nor did he care. What he knew was, that he highly disliked the way this juvenile spoke.
"Yes, we will do as he said. And where have you heard such nonsense? Most hyenas are hunters just like we are, and yes, there are kingdoms ruled by them." Kara looked at Guma and tried an apologetic smile. "I'm so sorry for his behavior. Usually, he is quite calm and friendly."
"For sure he is", Guma growled and glared at the young lion. "Just make sure, he doesn't talk to the queen like that. She might accept your apology, but she won't tolerate an insult like that."
"Of course." The lioness nodded and looked at her son, but instead of following her example Moto simply stared back at the hyena. At least, until a growl of his father made him obey.
"Good boy", Ifu said. "I'll carry the food and you stick to your mother, understand?" Then he turned to Guma. "Would you allow us to take advantage of your kindness one more time and lead us to your queen, hyena?"
"With pleasure. Follow me."
They entered the hyenas' lair and were promptly greeted by a vulture. The lions flinched, as the bird rushed down and landed right before them, but Guma didn't even blink. He had spotted Fupa long ago circling around the baobab on the hill, where the clan resided.
"Hey Guma", the vulture said.
"Hey", the hyena returned the greeting. He always had been on good terms with the bird and not without purpose. It never could be a disadvantage to be close to the queen's majordomo.
"Who are your new friends?"
"Some rogues who stumbled through our lands. I thought I'd introduce them to the queen."
"I don't know if it's the right moment for that. It's a little… tense up there." With its long neck the bird nodded into the tree's direction. "Siyo had quite an argument with Masoka. Once again."
"Thanks for the warning. We'll be careful", Guma assured, but not without warningly glaring at Moto. "Now, would you please announce us?"
"Are you still sure, we should bother her?" The vulture's warning seemed to trouble Kara.
"It will be fine. Trust me."
"And why should it be fine?", Moto asked and glared at the hyena.
"Because, young lion, females of every kind tend to calm down with some food in their stomach. And luckily, we brought some, didn't we?" He winked at him. "That's a lesson you shouldn't forget. I bet your father would agree with me." Amused he watched, how both the young one and the lioness turned around to Ifu, who, still with the antelope between his teeth, gave them an awkward smile.
"Wll, h's kinda right", he mumbled and nodded.
"Sure, I am. Now come on, don't want to keep her waiting, huh?"
Just as Fupa had said, Siyogwaya seemed to be in a very bad mood. With a grim face she sat in the shadow of the baobab and glared at Masoka. The male lay a few steps away from her and angrily stared into the other direction.
"What is it?" She managed to loosen her eyes and turned to him. "Make it quick. I'm not done yet with my mate over there." The way she said it, the word sounded like an insult. Masoka gnashed his teeth and Guma bit his tongue to avoid a giggle. This day was getting better and better.
"Of course, your highness", he said and bowed down in front of her. From the corner of his eyes he could see, how the lions behind him did the same. Then he looked back at the queen and introduced them.
"We really didn't know we were on your lands, your highness", Kara assured the queen, after Guma had told her what had happened. "And we're so lucky, that your people were kind enough to give us the chance to explain us to you."
Still with an angry face, the queen glared at her.
Insecure, the lioness looked down and searched for Guma's eyes.
"The prey", he whispered to her and nodded encouragingly.
"Right!" Kara turned to her mate, who stepped forward and placed the antelope at the queen's paws. "This is the animal, I've killed. Please accept it as our apology." She bowed down once again.
Now Guma could clearly see, how Siyo's expression changed from angry to hungry, as she lowered her head and sniffed at the antelope. Then she looked at the lions and nodded. "I guess, your offer proofs, that you had no bad intentions when you came to this kingdom. You are forgiven."
The relief on the lions' faces could not be missed.
"Furthermore, I grant you the right to hunt on my lands. If you want, you're allowed to stay, as long as you respect our laws."
The lions' jaws dropped and even Guma looked surprised. That was way more, than he had expected.
"T-Thank you, my queen! Thank you, so much!" Smiling all over her face, Kara looked at her family. "You're trust means a lot to us!"
"Yeah, yeah", Siyogwaya said whilst trying not to look at the food in front of her. "You're free to go now."
One more time the lions bowed to her, then they turned around and left.
"Not you."
Guma, who was about to follow them stopped. "My queen?"
Taking a big bite of the antelope, Siyo gestured him to come closer. "You're Guma, right?"
Watching her happily chewing the fresh meet, he nodded.
"You've done very well, Guma. A conflict with these rogues could have been pretty nasty. Actually, I wouldn't have thought that a simple border guardian could handle such a situation like you did." She glared at Masoka, who snorted in annoyance of what he heard. Then she turned back to Guma. "Keep up the good work and you'll be rewarded."
AN: Let's have a look at an other kingdom far away from where we startet. Meet Guma, a very clever and only sometimes good boy! He's going to be the main character of a sideplot that will tie into the main one eventually.