First blood

Roars and screams sounded through the savanna. It was still early in the morning, just moments after the first light of the sun had appeared.

"Seriously? How impatient can a lion be?", Shauri growled, visibly angered about the rude awakening. "His last fight wasn't that long ago! Couldn't he have at least waited with feeding his stupid ego until we all woke up by ourselves?" She walked over to Ushindi, who seemed as sleepy as the rest of the lionesses. "We've been walking for days and now he can't even grant us the rest we deser…"

"That's not me!"

Shauri froze, as she heard Askari's voice right behind her.

"Believe it or not, but I like to sleep as much as you do", he said as he passed her. Then he turned to Ushindi. "What's wrong?"

"Sounds like someone is in some serious trouble", his friend answered. "We should go check it out."

"Eager to save a damsel in distress, huh?" Askari grinned at him.

"Nothing wrong about that. Let's go!" Together they ran off into the direction the fighting noises came from.

As a few moments later the two males climbed a small hill, they saw the fight where all the screaming and roaring had originated from. Or at least the outcome.

At the bottom of the hill there were four lions. Two of them – a male and a female – lay on the ground, pinned down by the other two. Both of them were males.

Hissing, the captured female tried to get free, but the lion standing over her was too strong. He shifted his weight onto his front paws and dug his claws into her pelt, what made her cry out in pain.

"Stop whining", her tormentor growled. "Just stop resisting and it will be over soon."

"Get away from her!"

"Shut up!", the other victorious lion said. "Dead lions don't talk." With one of his paws, he smashed his captive's head on the ground. Then he turned to his accomplice. "We should get this over with before the pride notices what's going on. I don't want any witnesses."

"Second that", the other one agreed and bend down towards the lioness's neck.

"Why are you doing this?", she sobbed as she felt his breath on her skin. By now she had stopped trying to get free, noticing it was in vain. "We didn't do anything to you! Please…"

"It's nothing personal, you know?", the brute said unmoved by her despair. "Good night, sweetheart." With a morbid grin he opened his mouth, but his teeth never reached their target.

Before he could do any more harm to her, Ushindi hit his target with full speed. Now all the training fights with his friend paid off. Before the unsuspecting rogue even noticed what was going on, he was ripped away from his victim and was thrown to the ground. Covering him with blows, one more powerful than the other, Ushindi gave him no chance to offer any resistance. "No witnesses, huh? Well, too late for that, asshole!" Sure of victory, he looked over to Askari, who currently dealt with the other rogue. A mistake, as it turned out. His apparently defeated opponent used the chance. With a quick twist of his body, he got back on his legs and kicked sand in Ushindi's eyes. Coughing, Ushindi lashed out, but blinded by the sand he missed the rogue who turned around and ran. "NO! Get back you…!" Ushindi managed to blink the dirt out of his eyes. Seeing that his fleeing opponent was already too far away, he turned to the other fight that was going on.

Askari looked like he had the time of his life. For the untrained eye it was probably hard to notice, but Ushindi, who had witnessed all of his friend's previous fights was sure to see what was going on. This wasn't about winning anymore. Askari was toying around with the remaining rogue… or at least until the guy noticed that his buddy had left him behind.

Suddenly aware of his situation, the rogue tried to escape the fight.

"Ok, playtime's over!", Askari growled as his opponent struggled to get away from him.

"Let… me… urgh!" Slowly the rogue began to panic, as the dark furred lion slowly managed to pull him into a deadly embrace.

"Surrender now, or I'll make you!", Askari growled with his teeth clenched into the other one's mane, trying to grab his neck.

"Argh! Get… off!" The rogue tried to hit Askari's face, stumbled and they both fell to the ground. Now in full panic, he threw everything he had left against his opponent, giving him a hard time holding onto him. It nearly looked like his efforts paid off, as suddenly…

A loud snap was heard and the rogue's body slackened. Shocked, Ushindi looked down at his friend, who let loose of the body.

Panting, Askari got up. Not entirely sure what had happened, he stared down at his fallen foe.

Unable to read the expression on his friend's face, Ushindi came closer. With a paw he poked the motionless rogue.

"Is… is he…?"

Suddenly, something else came back to his mind. He turned away from the corpse and walked over to the lioness that was still laying on the ground. "Doesn't matter", he said and bend down to her. "Are you ok?"

"I… think so", the lioness mumbled as she hesitantly allowed him to help her up, her eyes still focused on the dead attacker. "Th… thank you."

A groan was heard and she managed to turn away from the corpse. The lion, that also had been on the ground during the fight got back on his feet, a painful expression on his face.

"Karama!", the lioness gasped and limped over to him. Ushindi followed her and together they managed to grab him right before he could fall down again. Carefully they made him lay on the ground again.

"Better stay there until help arrives", Ushindi advised him. "You really don't look ok!"

Karama nodded exhausted. "But I'm alive. We are alive, thanks to you and your friend over there."

"Thank us later." Hearing someone approaching from behind, Ushindi turned his head around. Tekelea and the other lionesses had arrived and carefully approached the battlefield. He looked back at the two injured. "Don't worry, they're friends. Just tell us where we can get help and what even happened to you."

After Ushindi had send Ruya and Heba to the place that Raha, the lioness described as their pride's lair and had listened to their story he walked over to Askari, who still stood in front of the dead rogue. Tekelea stood next to him, seemingly unsure what to do or say.

"Their names are Raha and Karama", he began repeating what he had learned. "They're the prince and princess of this kingdom. They were on patrol when this guy and the other one ambushed them. The two were lingering around in this area for a while now but hadn't done anything suspicious until now. They attacked without a warning and took them by surprise. When Raha was taken down, her brother surrendered after they threatened him with killing her. Bad idea as it turned out."

"I didn't mean to kill him." Askari's expression remained unreadable. What he said didn't sound like an excuse. It was just a simple statement.

"Hey, it's ok", Tekelea tried to comfort him and carefully headbutted his shoulder. "He deserved it. He tried to murder these two poor fellas over there. You saved them."

"Yeah…", Askari mumbled, seemingly lost in thoughts. "I… guess so."

"Want to meet them?", Ushindi offered. "They'd like to thank their savior."

"Sure…" He shook his head like to get rid of a twig stuck on his mane. Then he licked a little blood off his muzzle and nodded. The weird expression on his face was gone. "Sure, why not?"

AN: (Attempted) murder mystery! And how does Askari cope with the... situation? And nope, Cheza is not a thing anymore (I guess most of you know by now what kind of guy Ushindi is)