Revenge

Heavily panting, he stumbled through the dust the fight had whirled up, away from the bloody corpse of his attacker. In high tension his eyes hurried from one side to the other, searching the area for his allies or other foes.

They had come at his pack without a warning. Five or six, he hadn't had the time to count. The lionesses had instantly retreated, trying to shield and protect the cubs, while the males had stood their ground and met the enemy.

A roar, furious but in triumph sounded not far from him. He exhaled in relief. It was his pack leader's voice. Their foes were defeated, either dead or fleeing.

Slowly, the dust began to settle and the moonlight enlightened the dry savannah. Now seeing clearly, he spotted his pack leader and a few steps further one of his sons. Both were speckled in blood. On the other side of the battlefield he saw the other son. No one else was still standing. Fear crawled back into his mind. One of them was missing! Where was his brother?

"Where… where is…?" The question was aimed at no one specific and he answered it himself as only seconds later his searching gaze stopped at one of the four unmoving bodies that lay on the ground. "Mafuu!" Forgetting his own wounds, he rushed towards his brother… and stopped the moment he saw his face.

The lion's eyes were closed, his expression nearly peaceful. If it hadn't been for the pool of blood slowly dripping from his torn mane, one could have thought he was just sleeping. He had seen many deaths, had even been the cause of some of them. Hyenas, cheetahs, leopards and other lions, ferals and gifted alike, with all sorts of gruesome wounds, but this sight struck him harder than everything he had experienced so far. "No", he whispered while tears formed in his eyes and lay down, placing one paw on the fallen lion's shoulder. There was no mistaking. His brother was no more.

"Oh Taka… I'm so sorry."

He hadn't noticed Dhaka approaching. The pain and compassion in his voice were honest, but the words hardly reached the other lion.

Taka didn't reply. He just lay there with his dead brother, his mind and body turning numb. What was he going to tell their mother? Back then the father he had never known had sacrificed himself for their lives and now… his death had been in vain.

He was still by his brother's side when the lionesses returned. Like with Dhaka, he had neither heard nor seen them coming. Only when one of the lionesses collapsed next to him with a desperate outcry, he noticed them.

"He… he was already dead when I found him", he managed to say and swallowed heavily.

"Oh, my baby… my poor baby!", his mother sobbed, digging her face into her dead son's mane.

"It is my fault", Taka declared with a toneless voice. "If I had stayed closer to him… maybe if I… Now father's death was in vain. I dishonored him. I failed him… I failed you…"

"No!" Kunja lifted her head an looked her remaining son straight in the eye. Her face was smeared with tears and Mafuu's blood. "That's not true and you must never believe it! Your father did what he did to buy both of you the chance to grow up. You both became strong and good lions he would have been proud of to call his sons. And maybe, if one of you had been killed that day, now I would be left with no son at all!"

His mother's words didn't relieve him from the pain but he saw the reason in them, so he didn't reply. Without another word they lay there comforting each other, while the rest of the pack quietly joined them to mourn their fallen companion.

It was close to midnight, as they snuck towards the other lions' lair. The peace between the two packs had been broken last night and Mafuu's killer had not been among the dead, so their leader had decided to launch a counterattack to get revanche. The fight wouldn't last long, Taka was sure of that. Three of the other lions were already dead, the rest wounded. Quickly, he decided on a target. One of the males, limping on one foreleg and with two deep cuts across his face. He wasn't sure why, but he thought him to be the most likely one to be his brother's murderer. For a moment he heard no other sound than his beating heart as it pumped pure hate and bloodlust through his veins. Then the pack leader gave the signal. Roaring, the four lions busted out of hiding.

The attack hit their enemies with full force. The guards – both females – had little to no time to warn anyone before they were taken down by Dhaka and his brother and as expected, the two males were already too weak to properly defend themselves. Soon they lay in the dirt, dead or dying but Taka didn't let go of his foe. Caught in his rage, he dug his teeth deeper and deeper in the other lion's flesh incapable to decide if the weak movements of the body were a desperate attempt to get free or the twitching of a corpse that had not yet noticed it was dead. His gaze already moved around to find another target as he noticed the den only a few steps away from where he stood… and the wide-open eyes that stared at him from its darkness. Followed by a fearful scream, the small shape of the lion the eyes belonged to emerged from it and darted towards him. He felt a pricking in one of his ears, shook his head, got rid of it and pinned the wriggling being to the ground, raising a paw to finish it off.

"NO!" The voice was so full of fear and despair that it nearly caused him physical pain. "Please no!" Instantly his eyes were on the den again and he looked straight in the tear covered face of a lioness.

Furious, he raised his paw even higher and growled at her. With another outcry, the female made an attempt to crawl out of the den. She shivered with fear. "Leave him be! Take me instead! Oh, please, do with me as you like, but spare him!"

Finally, her pleading reached Taka's head. Slowly, his lips relaxed and covered his bared teeth again and panting he looked down.

The claws of four small paws tried to dig into him, but were hardly long enough to reach his skin. Between his toes, a small fluffy head poked out. He saw a tiny muzzle desperately fighting for air and big eyes nearly popping from the little scull. The eyes… he knew these eyes from only moments ago. They were the same he had seen before his teeth had reached the lions neck that now lay unmoving next to him. He lowered his raised paw and released the pressure from the cub's body.

Gasping, the little one crawled backwards towards the lioness, who now had managed to get out of the den and instantly curled up around her quivering child. She looked at him, with both gratitude and fear. Then her eyes found their way to the corps and she lowered her head while a new stream of tears rand down her face.

"Why?", Taka asked her out of a sudden. "Why did they come for us?"

"To save our pack", the lioness replied though her sobbing. "Three nights ago, an inquisitor came to us. He said, due to the drought the king has lowered population tolerance in our territories. He gave us a week to deal with the problem, or else, he would. We had no other choice. May the dead forgive us…" Shaken by violent hiccups, she pulled her cub even closer and nuzzled him.

The last remains of rage faded from his mind making place for other thoughts. An inquisitor… Terrorcats… Left them no choice… They had seen no other way… And her face… her words… He had no memories of his father's face but now everything on this lioness reminded Taka of him. Slowly, he turned around and walked over to the other males of his pack, who herded the other lionesses of the defeated pack, to tell them what he had just heard.

AN: Turns out getting their own paws dirty isn't the only way terrorcats have to get it their way...

I had this chapter mostly done a while ago actually but well, you can't put chap 3 before chap 2 right? Anyhow, after a month of what felt like a writing cold turkey I'm back! Exams are over (for now) Woohoo!