Revenge was a dish best served cold. Mama Binturong didn't know who first said that, but it was how the saying went. She wasn't sure about the temperature, but she knew it felt good to finally get revenge on Bunga. The attack had gone off without a hitch. Thanks to her porcupines, their little army was able to gather the numbers needed to finally pose a real threat to the Tree of Life. Or at least more so than they truely were. Oh, how perfect it went! They had trapped most of the Night Pride behind a boulder, then when the Lion Guard showed up, they were no match for their new numbers. Once Kion and Rani went down, then they knew they had won.
At that point, panic broke out. Without their chief defenders, the denizens of the Tree of Life were helpless against their enemies. Try as they might, they knew they would end up on the menu. As her friends commenced in their dining, Mama Binturong and her porcupines broke away. She had one target on her mind, and that was none other than the honey badger himself.
Bunga of course tried to defend himself, but with his allies defeated he went down without a problem. Mama supposed his morale was at an all-time low. And as a bonus, Mama added his little girlfriend's corpse to the pile. Now that she was done, she decided to check in on the rest of her friends. It had been some time since she had parted with them, so if anything she supposed they were done eating. Sure it left her with no idea on what "she" herself would do, but she was eager to see how the carnage had unfolded.
Mama Binturong made her way to the field where the Tree lay. Right away she noticed the corpses. Or what was left of them. Her friends certainly made good on their promise to devour the residents of the Tree. Whatever was left was mostly a mess of bones and meat. She didn't see Makucha or Ora's friends, and her porcupines had broken away from her for the time being, but she did spy three shapes. Although her eyesight wasn't what it used to be, she recognized the familiar shades of pale yellow, lavender white, and dark green.
If anything they were none other than Makucha, Chuluun, and Ora. But something seemed peculiar about them. Curious, Mama inched in closer and sure enough, they were indeed her friends, but not in a shape she expected. Well, she expected it to a degree, but this was shocking, to say the least. She cocked her head back, eyes widening at the mere sight. It appeared the trio were pinned down by large lumps. It soon became apparent to her they were not lumps but their bellies! All three of them let out low moans, but it was not from pain, but instead sounded like satisfaction.
"Oh man….now that was good eating," Makucha moaned, a burp escaping him.
Another burp sounded out, this time from the Ora lump, "I am beyond stuffed!"
Chuluun let out another moan and said, "I can't believe I ate that much!" She soon sounded off with a burp of her own.
Though shocked by this turn of events, Mama Binturong cleared her throat and said, "So? You three enjoy yourselves?"
At the sound of the elderly creature's voice, the trio began to shift, hoisting themselves up with solid groans. They managed to get comfortable, supposedly the weight of their packed stomachs keeping them balanced. But what drew Mama Binturong were their faces. All three of them looked rather dopey, jovial even. Despite the implications from the earlier moans, Mama's deduction was right in that they were satisfied.
A bone hung stuck out of Makucha's mouth. Taking one of his paws, the leopard removed it, holding it in-between his claws, "Oh hey Mama!" Makucha greeted with another burp, "How's it going?" A slight slur hung off Makucha's voice, faint but noticeable.
"I could ask ya the same thing?" Mama asked.
"Well to answer your question heck yeah we enjoyed ourselves!" Makucha announced, finishing with a brisk hiccup, "Jus all those rare animals lined up for us! I swear it was a smorgasbord!"
"I know!" Chuluun announced, adding in a hiccup of her own, "And all that running they did, it tensed up the meat! Gave it a sort of texture!" The snow leopard's voice held a slight slur to it.
"Ah yes!" Ora sighed, "And the fear and panic just added a spice to the recipe!" Ora then bellowed out a low belch.
"Oh yes, sister it was rich!" Makucha added in.
Ora chuckled, "You mean bliss brother", he then croaked out a hiccup.
"Bliss, rich! Who cares!" Chuluun cheered, "We had fun and that's all that matters!" She then made a sound that sounded like a burp melding in with a hiccup.
The trio then broke into laughter, all the while Mama Binturong watched. The trio was acting as if they were drunk. She had heard animals entering such a state from old fruit, but they were a different kind of drunk: food drunk. That or they were so satiated to the point they had lost all sense.
"You three didn't spare any meat did you?" Mama asked.
"Nope!" The three chorused together proudly.
This whole display was somewhat eerie to Mama. She had never seen the trio get along so well. She supposed she was so used to seeing them arguing that the sight of them showing any form of joviality was foreign to her.
"And I suppose you don't feel any shame in what you did to yourselves?" Mama said somewhat disapprovingly.
"Hey don't judge! We came here to feast and feast we did!" Chuluun retorted.
"Uh uh, today was a meal, "tomorrow" is going to be a feast," Makucha corrected.
Mama crossed her front legs and commented with a raised eyebrow, "You plan on doing this tomorrow?"
"You better believe it!" Ora chuckled.
"Trust us there are still plenty of rare animals hiding," Makucha added slyly.
"And we aint stopping till they find new homes in our guts!" Chuluun snickered.
Makucha then let out a deep yawn and with a dreamy look said, "Well the three of us are going to catch some z's and rinse and repeat tomorrow,"
The three villains patted their bellies in perfect synchrony, grinned at Mama, then flopped themselves down. In mere moments, the three of them began to snore. It was obvious their packed stomachs had sent them into a food coma. All Mama could do was shake her head and walk away.
Honestly, she figured she shouldn't be surprised at this sorry display. After all, her companions were young and stupid, and young people (especially ones as greedy as them) thought they knew everything. Not to say Mama wasn't a greedy sort herself, it's just she had more restraint. There was a reason there was always a sizeable stash of tuliza at her hideout. At least until Bunga ruined it. She cared enough about her figure to not ruin it by indulging in all the tuliza at once. Considering the trio made it their intention to feast like this the next day, and probably every day after that, it was no secret what was in their future. Mama supposed she would stick around if only to watch the realization that their gluttony had come to bite them in the rear. It would give her an excuse to say, "I told you so".
And with that final thought, Mama Binturong woke up.
The elderly binturong awoke with a slight snort. She glanced around slowly as she gathered her surroundings. Sure enough, she was back in the snowy realm of the Himilayas. Yawning, she got up with a stretch.
"Some dream," She muttered.
Indeed it had. For that moment, she had been given a look into what could have happened had their little army won. And she was quite glad it didn't come to pass.
It had been a week since Chuluun had given birth to her and Makucha's second child, a young girl named Yinyin. Honestly, Mama couldn't be happier for them. She knew their son Jiwe was happy to be a big brother at last.
And to think, all of this wouldn't have been possible had Kion not sent them away with his roar. Mama knew the Roar was the catalyst for turning their lives around. Had they not been so soundly defeated, they would have remained the same greedy, and downright evil individuals they had been. Makucha and Chuluun had transformed into loving parents, while she? She could probably easily pass as her "Granny Ginterbong" persona. Sure they still had traits that made them themselves, but all the former ruthlessness had been washed away.
Getting to her feet, Mama Binturong headed up the pass to Makucha and Chuluun's den. She figured it would be nice to pay her surrogate grandchildren a visit.