I only own the OCs!
Leopard the Warrior of Africa
Annoyance and Laughter-
It was one of those things that Shani and Makunga could always agree on. Zorillo could be very annoying. It would sometimes be just a little, to very in a matter of minutes as well as offensive when Zorillo just kept talking. Right now, Makunga just couldn't help but laugh uncontrollably as he and Chui watched Shani chase Zorillo after the polecat commented on how Shani could be mistaken as her father's younger sister.
Father and son, hunting lessons-
Chui was most likely the most curious cub Makunga ever met, along with probably the most innocent as well. While at one of the resting stops, the adult male lion let the cub play with his tail before giving a small hunting lesson to the cub, Zorillo being the practice target as the polecat was trying to catch a butterfly.
"Ok, now, stay low to the ground," he said, placing Chui's tail directly on the ground from its previous position from being up in the air. Chui smiled deviously, his green eyes focused on Zorillo.
"Ok, stay to the ground, got it."
"Shh... not a sound," Makunga whispered, almost focused on Zorillo and looking back at Chui to make sure he was doing it right. "Ok, that's right. Now… just three more steps forward… lock onto the target. That's it. And... Now!"
"AAAHHHHHHHH!" Zorillo found himself face down in the mud, the brown leopon cub on his back. Shani came over from the close river and giggled at the sight before looking at Makunga.
"Was that really necessary, Makunga?"
Makunga smiled proudly taking the cub off of the polecat's back, literally. "Well… I have to teach my son hunting lessons as well." It took some minutes for Makunga to realize that he had called Chui his son, yet it seemed that when he tried to apologize, Chui said that he didn't mind him being his baba.
Strength-
If there was anything Shani had well noticed about Makunga when it came to appearance, his muscles were one of them. Even for his age, Makunga seemed to be a rather strong fighter, most likely would have been the second best fighter, since Zuba seemed to be the only one to beat him in a fight. Shani had never exactly known how strong Makunga was until they were found by, you guessed it, Jasiri.
It had been in the middle of the night, while at their fifth resting spot, when Zorillo woke up her and Makunga. "Someone's out there," he said, pointing outside the underbrush they were sleeping in. Makunga kept her and Chui, who soon then awoke a little bit dozy, as he tried to detect a sound. It seemed to have been almost an hour until the scent of Jasiri came, along with the sound of light footsteps. Chui clinged close to Shani, who in turn looked to Makunga in fear. Jasiri's paws could be seen just outside where they were, as if he was waiting for them to come out. It seemed just as they thought he was walking away, the lion suddenly looked into the underbrush and growled at Makunga.
Next thing Shani knew, Jasiri tried to make a grab for her and Chui, only to get Makunga out from the underbrush biting at him. Zorillo got in front of the lioness and her cub as the three watched in horror as the two males fought. Jasiri tried to pin Makunga down, only to have the older lion kick him back and claw and bite at his shoulders. All of the sudden, Makunga was knocked down by the younger lion, giving Jasiri the chance to try and get Shani and Chui.
"Run you three, Run!" Makunga had yelled out before beginning to fight the pale golden lion again. Zorillo, Shani, and Chui manage to get out from the underbrush and run off further up the past, Shani stopping to look back at Makunga before Zorillo tried to push her along.
The next morning, Shani had refused to continue without Makunga. She didn't know why exactly, but she wanted to continue the journey with him, never leaving him behind. That and Chui was starting to miss Makunga a great deal.
It was about twenty minutes, yet felts like hours, before any of them caught sight of Makunga, now with more serious wounds and scars that were bound to keep him from hunting anything. The rest of the day was then spent with Shani and Zorillo bandaging up the lion's wounds and Chui hugging onto him.
Nuzzles-
Ever since his fight with Jasiri, Makunga often woke up with nightmares of what had happened if Jasiri had succeeded in taking Shani and Chui back to the reserve. After one of these nightmares, he tried to get up, only to see Chui holding onto his leg while asleep.
"He really missed you after you told us to run." Makunga looked over to see Shani beside him, her emerald eyes filled with concern for him. Makunga tried to put up and smile as he looked back at the cub.
"I think that can be very obvious," he replied, trying to move his leg without waking the cub up. Shani smiled at him before placing her paw within his. Makunga looked down at it and then at her, a small blush seemingly appearing on his face. Next thing Makunga knew, Shani began nuzzling him.
"You really had us worried."
Adventurous-
For the next three days, Makunga couldn't help but notice how Shani explored the new environments they passed through. Once at another resting spot, she came back with some branches stuck to her fur after playing hide-and-seek with Chui. As Makunga helped her get the branches out from her fur, Shani seemed to have been blushing.
"I really need to stop being this adventurous."
Makunga looked down at her and smiled a bit as he smoothed out her fur tuff. "Actually, it kind of makes you cute, in my opinion."
Arrival-
Shani, Zorillo, Chui, and Makunga all looked in awe at the sight of the waterfall, the lush green grass, bushes, and trees, and the way almost everything looked peaceful in the crater they just entered. They didn't see anyone else however until they came right into the middle of it where the main waterhole was. And the sight of the pride amazed them even more.
Most of the members were of course lions, but here and there were leopons, ligers, tigons, liguars, lipards(female leopard and male lion hybrid), jaglions (lioness and male jaguar hybrids), liligers (lion and liger hybrids), and litigons (lion and tigon hybrids). It didn't take long for their presence to be known, most of the cubs looked eagerly at Chui as the four entered the crowd. Makunga noticed some of the males looking at Shani and felt the need to tear them to pieces. Soon the leader of the pride, a huge white litigon with red eyes walked up to them with a small reddish gold male leopon cub with a reddish brown mane tuff beside him.
"Well, I must say, I knew that some members of the reserve would want to join the pride, but I'd never thought that we would have the alpha lion's eldest daughter, her son, and the rival of the alpha lion to come and join," the leader said, staring them down as they looked at him in surprise.
"Um... well, then I guess we just made your day, sir," Shani said, a bit shocked that this litigon knew about them.
"Please, just call me Tau. And I suppose that your father knows of you three being here with a polecat?"
Makunga and Shani looked at each other at this. They knew that this question was more of asking if Zuba had agreed to this matter, not if Zuba knew his daughter and grand son had ran off with Makunga and Zorillo. "Um…."
"Runaways?" Tau asked, clearly reading their expressions carefully. "Well, I guess then it would explain your wounds then, sir. I'm guessing that he sent some one and you put up a good fight judging by those wounds." Makunga looked a bit uneasy at this. 'Is this guy a mind-reader or something?' he thought.
Chui then spoke up, looking up from behind Makunga's leg. "Mama wanted to come here so that I would stop being teased by the other cubs in the pride and Kunga and Rillo were helping us get here. Kunga got banish just a few weeks before him and Mama and Rillo's a good family friend, Mr. Tau, sir." Tau looked down the cub and then at Shani and Makunga. Shani felt herself blush before looking at Makunga again.
Makunga sighed and looked at Tau. "It's a bit of a long story, Tau. What Chui said is a bit of a summary." This seemed to amuse Tau as he sat down.
"I think the pride would like to hear it then."
Me: FINALLY, I HAD AN IDEA FOR ANOTHER CHAPTER!
Everyone: *looks at Me*
Me: sorry, stress.
Alex: okay…..
Chui: Everybody please review! ^^