Chapter 19: Boyfriend

Dark and Jayden ran side by side without speaking. For once, Jayden's heart was pounding for an entirely different reason than usual. Cubs get lost and into trouble on a regular basis, but something about this situation gave her a bad feeling. They came into a clearing just before the waterhole, and Jayden was just about to suggest they split up. The words, "We'll cover more ground," were on her lips, but before she could speak them, Dark said, "Look," and pointed with his paw. In the dirt were fresh paw prints. Some were small and some were big.

Jayden rushed to the prints and while being careful not to step on them, she smelled the small prints, then the big set. "It's hard to tell but It must be Afia, she's the only cub in the Pride. The big ones I don't recognize at all." Jayden reported.

"I'm going to get Kovu just in case. You stay here and look for more clues." Dark said, then sped tried to follow the paw prints in the dirt. They were hard ot see but she could see the big ones go on while the little ones stopped.

"Afia?" Jayden started to call. She could be nearby. "Afia!" She trotted along in the direction the larger paws went. When they disappeared, she didn't know which way to go, so she tried to cover a large area around the paws.

Suddenly she heard, "Help!"

"Afia!" Jayden ran as fast as she could toward the voice. A screech came next which made her run faster, "I'm coming!"

In just a few seconds, Jayden found the cub, but she wasn't alone. Holding Afia down to the ground with a large paw was a leopard. Jayden recognized him right away.

"You!" It's that same leopard from before!

"Help me, Jayden!" Afia squeaked from below the big cat's paw. She was squished flat on her belly from the pressure, her legs flailed helplessly to the side.

Jayden became enraged, and leaped into the scene. She shoved the big leopard roughly in the side, trying to push him off Afia. "What are you doing?" She screamed at the leopard.

The spotted cat stood solidly, still holding the small cub under his paw. She scrambled furiously and tried to bite him. His claws dug into her fur a little as a response.

"Get back." the broad faced cat demanded.

"Let her go!" Jayden tried to shove him again, and was about to bite him when he lifted his other paw and with it, rammed the side of her head.

Jayden snarled and rose up to retaliate, when the leopard said, "Stop or I'll kill her!" His claws extended further. Afia screeched again and Jayden's heart lurched.

"Stop! She's just a cub!" she tried to plead, "She's done nothing to you!"

"Not her, but you! You broke my tail!" the leopard said with a break in his voice as if just talking about it hurt. Jayden remembered how she'd gotten the leopard to leave her family alone long enough to they could pass through his lands, and it was by chomping on the cat's tail.

"It was already broken! That's why it hurt so bad!"

"You hurt me! So I will hurt your precious Pride by taking your cub."

"This is ridiculous," Jayden shouted, "We were just passing through your lands to get here, you were the one being unreasonable. We had to chase you off so we could pass, if you got hurt, then its because of you!"

"Then if this cub gets hurt, it's because of you." the leopard retorted, then lowered his head, teeth bared. Before he reached Afia, Jayden jumped in. She unleashed her fury and managed to push him off the cub. Afia scrambled up and out of the way. The leopard leaped on Jayden and mauled her neck with his teeth. She roared in pain, then claws his shoulders to try to get him to stop.

Get his tail! she told herself, but she couldn't get him to release her neck.

A tremendous roar sounded behind Jayden and her opponent, and suddenly the dagger-like teeth were removed from her neck. She inhaled deeply when she was released. She hadn't realized she was holding her breath.

Dark had returned and was fighting the leopard. The brown lioness shook her head and then looked around her legs for Afia. Afia ran straight to her, looking how Jayden had never seen her before: Scared, quiet.

The cub hugged Jayden's leg and she quickly squeezed the small body with her paw in a hug, then ushered her away saying, "come on." Jayden had to get Afia away from the battle as fast as she could, but it was hard. She wanted to stay and help Dark.

Her thoughts were interrupted by a small voice by her paws, "Jayden you're bleeding."

"I'm fine. Let's get you to your mom. We must hurry." Jayden picked the light orange cub by the scruff of her neck and ran back home. It wasn't long until Kovu bolted past her, Tome hot on his heels. They headed toward where Dark and the leopard fought.

"Daddy!" Afia called, and reached out to him as he passed.

"He's taking care of the intruder right now." Jayden explained, and within seconds, Kiara and her friends Toni and Kanai came rushing over to her.

"Oh, thank you!" Kiara practically shouted as Jayden put her cub on the grass. The orange cub tackle-hugged her mother's arm and Kiara gave her huge licks over her head and back. "My Afia is safe." The loving queen murmured.

"We heard the roars and went to get Kiara and Kovu." Toni told Jayden

"It's good that you did, because I need to get back there to check on Dark…" Jayden said as she turned to leave.

"Wait," Kanai stepped up. "You should really let Tali look at your neck, it's bleeding."

"No, I'm fine," Jayden insisted, stepping away. "I'll be right back." she dashed off before the lioness could say anything else. She didn't get very far when she saw Dark approaching her at a trot.

"Dark!" She hurried to him. "Are you okay? What happened to the leopard?"

"Kovu and your dad are fighting him. They told me to head back. They looked like they had a handle on the fighting. Besides, I wanted to check on you, are you okay?" He moved his muzzle close to her neck wounds to inspect them.

"I'm fine," Jayden said again, though now she was beginning to feel the stings on her neck. "What about…" Jayden's question went unfinished. Of course Dark was fine. There was no blood on him, not a scratch.

"I think we should get those looked at." he said gently. He slowly reached out a paw and lightly touched her own. The touch was gentle and kind. She couldn't stop looking in his grey-blue pools of eyes. After a second, she nodded, and together they headed back toward Pride Rock.

Before they could get there, Drayden ran toward them so fast it was as if his paws were on fire.

"Are you okay?" he asked, sniffing her wounds.

Jayden pulled away, "Yeah I am, It's not that bad."

"You need to see Tali, come on." Drayden said and lead the way. Dark started to go with her but Zuna and Clous had walked up to Dark then, and were asking him what was going on.

So Jayden let Drayden lead her to the den where Tali was checking on Afia. The light brown lioness examined Jayden's wounds. There were several puncture wounds around her neck and some scratches on her body. The neck wounds were bleeding a bit, and Tali had to lick it away to clean it.

"The bites are shallow. He didn't have a completely firm hold of you." she reported, "Good thing he hadn't, otherwise he would have done some heavy internal damage. Although I can tell there will be some bruising around the wounds, but that's minimal compared to what could have happened." She looked Jayden in the eye.

She nodded, feeling fortunate. "What about infection?" she asked.

"I'll make some medicine for you, but you'll have to get someone else to apply it for you. And to clean the wounds as well. For now, please rest while I prepare the medicine." Tali exited the den without saying more.

"She's really good at this." Jayden said, meaning to think it, but it came out loud.

"Yes, and you're really lucky nothing worse happened, you know that right?" Drayden spoke up beside her.

Jayden turned to him. Why did he sound so stern? He had a strange look to his eye. He sighed, "I just worry about you. I don't want anything to happen to you."

"Well thank you." she replied, "But I'm okay. Bad things happen, I was just glad to be there to help Afia."

"You should rest." Drayden gestured with his head in the direction of her bed.

"Sounds good." she said, moving away, but Drayden said,

"Your wound is dripping." And he leaned in and licked her neck over one of the small puncture wounds. "You should probably press a paw on it you know. To help stop the bleeding."

Jayden blushed and nodded. She said nothing more and moved toward her bed. She actually felt a bit tired.

She lay down and pressed a paw over the lightly bleeding wound. She closed her eyes, but peeked out a few seconds later to see if Drayden had left. He had.

I am not even going to think about what he just did. The lioness thought, trying not to feel flustered. Despite her wishes, she did end up thinking about it and decided Drayden definitely had feelings for her. Maybe he loved her. It complicated things, so Jayden didn't like it.

She rested for a short while until Tali came up with the medicine. It was a goopy liquid with little leaves chopped up in it. Jayden wondered if Tali had chewed it in her mouth. Tali applied the medicine to Jayden's stinging wounds. Mairu came by to check Tali's progress and nodded with approval. Mairu seemed to agree that Tali was proficient with medicine.

Jayden was still feeling tired, her thoughts all muddied, so she went to sleep.

When she woke up later, it was night time. There were many lionesses including her friend, Zula all around her sleeping. Jayden wasn't sure what time it was, but she had to get up to stretch her legs and possibly get a drink of water. She wasn't even thinking about Dark until she saw him approaching Pride Rock's steps as she was coming down.

"Oh, hey." she said, surprised, but happy to see him.

"Hey. How do you feel?"

"Alright, my neck doesn't sting as much since Tali put some medicine on. How does it look?" Jayden stretched out her neck, hoping Dark would move close and put his face near her's. Maybe even some of his mane would brush her cheek. She'd get a full waft of his rain-like scent.

Dark looked at the wounds but didn't move close. "Looks clean." he said simply. The sudden way he said it made Jayden think Dark had seen Drayden quickly clean the wound. Had Dark been in the cave at that time? She couldn't remember.

"Good. Well I was just about to walk to the waterhole to get a drink."

"I'll go with you." he said right away.

"Thanks." she smiled.

The two walked quietly for a little bit. She passed some dark bushes and quiet trees. The breeze was even quiet tonight; everything was still.

"Did my dad and Kovu chase that leopard off?" Jayden asked.

"Yeah, it didn't take long with those two fighting him. You know how good they are at fighting. They must be the best two fighters in the Pride right now. Well our "Joint Pride" I should call it while you're family is here. They got Ol' Spot to run faster than any animal I've ever seen."

Jayden giggled. "Well you're a good fighter yourself. You can be third best in the pride."

"Nah, come on. Kivu's better. Then me." he joked.

"Clearly you've thought about this!" she smirked and he chuckled.

Jayden sighed, "I can't believe we led that leopard here. It was several days away from the border that we passed him, he followed us that whole way and we had no idea."

"It's not your fault. He could have followed your scent. He seemed like an extremely stubborn type of animal. I don't think he is all too bright." Dark's gentle voice explained.

I wish I had been able to beat him myself. Jayden thought. I thought I had discovered a new talent in myself. I thought I was a pretty good fighter once I concentrated enough. I just need more practice. Maybe I should ask Dayya or Zula to spar with me.

Jayden and Dark had made it to the waterhole, and she took long heavy drinks. A few other animals were about. Some zebra and gazelle were up too late, some drinking at the water, some just standing eating grass. Dark watched them and Jayden watched Dark.

The next day, Drayden was waiting for Jayden outside of the cave. She wasn't expecting him, but went along with him anyway. Zula met up with them and the three of them went for a walk around the border. Despite Jayden's wound, she still joined the hunting party when it was time for lunch. She knew if she didn't go, her mother would have said something-wound or no wound. Jayden did trip once and miss a kill but quickly got back into the swing of it during the second half of the hunt. Nothing that elicited another nod from her mother, but she was still proud of herself none the less. Trying to rag the kill back made her neck bleed though, so the other lionesses took care of that.

During lunch, Drayden came over and licked her wounds briefly again. A few lioness who were eating nearby snickered or made other amused noises, and Jayden blushed. She hoped Dark hadn't been around to see it, but she wasn't about to raise her head and start looking around.

After lunch, Drayden called her over to the side so he could talk to her in private. She suspected what this conversation would be about, and her heart pounded as she went with him. They stopped under a nearby tree and Drayden looked at her with his ice blue eyes.

"There's something I want to tell you." he started. "Well I've been wanting to tell you for a while."

Jayden returned his gaze.

"I care about you a lot. A lot lot. And I hate when you get hurt."

"You say that like it happens all the time." Jayden said, not sure if she should sound joking or serious.

"Well there's this, " he gestured with his paw at her neck, "And you sprained your paw a little while ago. And it always seems like you get hurt when you're around that Dark lion."

"What's Dark got to do with it?" she blurted.

"I don't know." He said, then shook his head, "We're getting off track here." he sighed. "What I'm trying to say is: I want to take care of you and you should let me. As your boyfriend."