[3rd POV]
The sons of Leo.
Aslan, Asafa, Shaka and Kion.
They were the male cubs from the first generation of Leo's children. They were a living, breathing and growing legacy of a great king.
At three months old, they did not yet know of the great burden that came from their blood.
A burden called power.
But they were starting to figure that out as they grew older.
The Serengeti was experiencing the beginning of the dry season.
The grasslands stretched wide and open, their colours muted under a sun that lingered longer each day. Green had not vanished, but it had thinned, retreating into patches where the soil still held memory of water. The rest had turned pale gold, stiff and sharp against the wind.
Asafa, Aslan and Shaka lay tangled together in the shade of the tall grass. The earth was warm below their bellies which was a much needed comfort because of their soft fur. Their bodies were still round with milk and infant flesh.
Although one would immediately notice how big these cubs were for their age. They were all bigger than their peers. It was a mix of a good diet and genetics.
They had royal blood in them.
And like said, they didn't know that yet.
But the land knew. The world seemed to know.
A breeze passed through the grass, waking up the small cubs. Shaka lifted his head first. He was the quietest among the cubs, and he seemed to spend more time in his thoughts than in the real world.
But after a few seconds of silence and not wanting to be the only one awake, he intentionally nudged the others to wake them up.
Aslan yawned wide beside him, rolling onto his back without a care in the world. He was broad already, the biggest among the big cubs. His paws kicked lazily at the air as if the sky itself belonged to him.
Seeing that Aslan was just going to turn and sleep again, Shaka crawled over him. His teeth nipped playfully at Aslan's ear.
Asafa also stirred awake in the grass. He blinked slowly, golden eyes calm and innocent. He rarely rushed things. He was rarely the first to react. When he moved, it was because he had already decided.
"Wake up!!! We are going to miss the hunting party!!" Shaka said loudly, right in Aslan's ears.
That snapped the two of them awake instantly. They got up from the grass and ran towards a small mound beyond the tall grass.
On the small mound of dirt, there was a rabbit burrow.
"Kion!! It's time to wake up!!" Asafa said, yelling through the opening of the burrow.
"The adults are going to hunt! We need to see them off! Do you want to miss that?" Shaka said, putting his head on the other side of the hole.
But there was no reply.
The three cubs deadpan, looking at the seemingly abandoned burrow.
"Move aside, you two," Aslan said, getting into a pouncing stance.
Shaka and Asafa moved away from the burrow, and Aslan immediately dived into the dark hole.
Shortly after, they heard a scream.
"NOO!!!!"
When Aslan came out from the burrow backwards, he had a tail between his teeth. He was pulling out the last son of Leo from the burrow.
"Leave me alone, AHHH!!!" Kion screamed, his small claws scraping at the inner walls of the burrow.
He was nearly successful in returning back to his safe cave but Shaka and Asafa helped and the three of them were able to pull out Kion.
The cubs fell backwards and tumbled together.
"I hate you all," Kion said, looking away from direct sunlight as if he loathed its existence.
"Cool. But we need to see the hunting party, lets go!" Aslan said and nudged Kion.
With unwillingness written all over his body, Kion had to follow them as the four sons of Leo made their way to where the rest of the pride slept.
....
Leo's pride had 34 female lionesses in it. It was the largest documented lion pride in history and they lived on the largest territory ever documented in lion territory.
The whole Serengeti was theirs.
The four cubs stood at the sidelines while the hunting party for today bowed before the king and reported first.
What they were going to hunt, where they were going, who's going to lead etc. Sometimes, the king would request a particular beast he would like to eat.
To the four cubs, the whole spectacle was something they could never get enough of. All these awesome adults that could kill any beast in the Serengeti.
And the mighty king they were under.
Their father.
The cubs stole glances at their father.
A behemoth of a predator that dwarfed the giant rock he was sitting on. There were bandages on his arm but that did nothing to steal from his magnificence.
A mane so dark it stole light from the rays that landed on it. A scarred body that was muscles to the bone. His face showed faint scars when light shone on them, hinting at the incredible battles he must've fought and won.
But those scars were faint, as if they weren't worthy to leave permanent marks on him.
"Go now, all eight of you. Prioritize your safety over some dead meat. And call me if trouble finds you," Leo said, his voice low and rumbling. If you didn't have ears, you'd still understand him by the vibration washing over your body.
The hunting party for the day, led by Sheela bowed before setting off to hunt. The rest of the pride stood on the side, giving them a sort of path to their journey.
After they left, the king released a single roar for good luck.
It looked effortless but it thundered out, shaking the earth from the vibration. The cubs saw it coming, knew it was coming from experience. But the hairs on their backs stood in unison. It was just primal instinct warning them.
After the hunting party was gone in the horizon, the pride scattered once more to do their own thing.
"Ok, I don't think I hate you. I'd hate to miss this," Kion admitted in the end.
"Right? That was so cool!!" Aslan said, "I wonder how much longer I have to wait before I can hunt with the adults,"
"We're only cubs. We need to be at least one year before following them," Shaka said.
"But that's like seven months of more waiting," Aslan whined.
"Nine actually,"
"Even worse," Aslan said.
The four cubs walked away together, staying as a sort of group. They did their best to lie low in the grass to not be spotted by their mothers, who would obviously steal them away to clean them or cuddle with them all day long.
As cubs, they didn't want to cuddle and sleep the whole day. They wanted to explore.
"I have an idea," Asafa said, stopping suddenly.
The others turned to him with their heads tilted.
"Let's follow the hunting party,"
"That's a horrible idea. Didn't I just say we can't hunt until one year old?" Shaka said immediately.
"Yeah, but we aren't going to hunt. We are just going to watch them," Asafa said.
"The party is already miles away by now. We can't catch up," Kion said, opposing the idea.
"We have this," Asafa said with a smirk and pointing at his nose, "Promise I can track them easily,"
"That sounds stupid. I'm in," Aslan said with a wide grin.
"Well, I'm not," Shaka said.
"Me too," Kion said.
"Well, both of you are weaker than us," Aslan said, "I guess in a two for two, our decision rules over yours,"
Even as cubs, there was already a hierarchy among the group. It was just nature doing its thing. The cubs were learning about hierarchy in a social group.
Shaka released a sigh, "I guess, its fine. The vultures are always in the sky anyways,"
"Then its settled!!" Asafa said, laughing.
And with the veto power deciding what they were going to do for the day, the cubs followed after the hunting party that left south of the Serengeti.
..
..
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[3rd POV]
(A few hours later)
"We're lost, aren't we," Shaka said, deadpanning as the cubs moved through the Serengeti that now looked completely unfamiliar to them.
For these young souls, the Serengeti was basically heaven. It was small, but equally large in scale. It was safe, where other predators fled immediately when they caught their scent.
Not their scent per se, but the scent clinging to them from cuddling with their father.
But now, the world didn't seem so safe.
"We are not, I'm still tracking them," Asafa insisted, sniffing the ground like a hound dog while the rest of the cubs followed behind him.
They continued walking a few more minutes before they eventually came upon something. Asafa looked up with a smile, finally reaching the thing he was tracking.
A pile of shit.
"....."
"....."
"....."
"..."
"Really? Was that what we were tracking for the past hours?" Kion asked.
"I'm sorry!! There are so many interesting things here!!" Asafa said, quickly defending himself.
"And out of all those scents you followed the smell of poop," Shaka said, his face pale and eyes widening with disbelief.
"Okay, I'm done with this adventure. I'm rebelling," Kion said before looking up at the clear sky and screaming.
"Hey!! Vultures!! Sir Vultures!! Uncle Grim!!! Anyone there!! Can you bring me home!! I want my MOTHER!!" Kion looked up at the sky, jumping and screaming.
But the sky was awfully clear today.
"Stop it," Aslan said, trying to stop Kion but the cub kept shouting.
"Stop it, please! You are attracting the wrong kind of attention!!" Aslan put his large paw over Kion's mouth to shut him up before any predator showed up.
"Don't do me like that," Kion said, biting at the paw of Aslan before quickly moving away, "This is your fault. You were the one who agreed with that idiot,"
"I realize that and I'm going to fix it. So just...calm down for a moment," Aslan said.
Aslan turned towards Asafa, "Can you find us a way back home?"
"Uhhhhh....no?" Asafa questioned back, body curling and ears dropping.
"No? You tracked the poop. Can't you just, untrack the poop or something?" Aslan asked.
"That doesn't even make sense," Shaka was almost crying.
The legacy of Leo.
The brightest cubs the lion species has to offer.
They were bright indeed.
"Don't worry guys. I'll let out a huge roar and our parents will come and find us," Aslan said, still taking leadership.
He roared under the eyes of his brothers.
What came out was almost a meow.
Another attempt. A bit better this time.
And another.
And then another.
His voice cracked, it was getting worse.
"Ok, I think its the dry season. I think I have a cold," Aslan said, coughing in embarrassment.
"It's dry season, its warm and hot," Shaka said. "And its official. We lost our pride. We are rogues now, alone to fend for ourselves,"
"That's actually kind of cool when you put it like that," Asafa said, his ears perking up again.
"Please don't start, we are going to starve to death," Shaka said.
The cubs began to wander around the Serengeti once more, this time led by no one in particular. Everyone simply followed each other and oddly enough, that made them move forward, going even further from their pride.
After another hour of wandering, the despair was already over. The cubs almost forgot they were lost as they explored a part of the Serengeti they'd never seen before.
The Serengeti was not really filled with dangerous predators. Mostly because they avoided Leo. And scavengers were also virtually absent because the vultures dominated the whole region.
So mostly, it was just the giant prey animals that the cubs saw.
They watched small isolated herds from a distance. Like wildebeest that moved like a living organism through the grass. They were small herds that lagged behind the super herd migration.
That was oddly interesting for the cubs. They only ever saw these animals dead. It was their first time seeing them alive.
To the cubs, it was all fascinating.
They moved on, weaving between patches of tall grass and open ground, stopping often to stare at things they did not understand. A group of ostriches sprinted past them suddenly, their long legs kicking up dust as they vanished into the distance. The cubs flinched, hearts racing, then laughed awkwardly when nothing came of it.
"Hey Shaka, since you are so smart, what do you think we will be when we grow up? Do you think we will be like father?" Asafa asked as the cubs continued to move through different terrains.
"Probably. He is our father. Or maybe we will grow up to be just like other lions," Shaka said.
"Really? You think lions exist? Have you seen one?" Asafa asked. In their life, the only thing they knew were lionesses.
And their father.
Who was a lion apparently but again, not really. He doesn't even have a tail. They heard lions look a bit like their father but smaller and have tails.
Other male lions were just like a mythical creature to them.
"Of course lions exist," Shaka said, "What kind of a stupid question is that? The more you talk the more I feel dumb for letting you lead,"
"Really? But I heard father killed them all," Asafa said, ignoring the insults because at this point, it was almost natural.
"He killed all of the other lions in the Serengeti, not the whole world obviously," Shaka said.
"Cool," Asafa said, "I can't wait to grow up and see what a real lion looks like,"
"...Me too,"
The cubs continued to move. The sun was already falling down to the other side of the horizon.
But it was in this moment that they heard a sound they've never heard before and smelled a scent that was different from everything else.
They were near a watering hole.
"Whoa, what are those?!" Aslan asked.
It was a question every cub had when they gazed upon a herd of elephants from the distance.
"Let's check it out!" Asafa said, bolting forward immediately.
This time, curiosity gripped every cub as they made their way towards the watering hole and the elephants that bathed in the shallow waters.
..
..
[IMAGE]
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