[3rd POV]
"I am the one who is going there. The rest of you are just following your king," Leo said in a voice that did not leave room for any argument. It was the kind of authority that was just there without having to put any effort.
For a lion, size, mane, and strength determined your worth. All of these Leo had in spades. So everything he did held a certain command that other lions might have lacked.
"I am going home to fulfil a promise," he added with a voice that was not any deeper but the words were.
His words would've been absolutely ridiculous coming from any other lion, any other lion. Although subtle, there was a difference between how the lionesses viewed themselves and how the lions viewed them.
To the lion kings, they were trophies that they earned from their victory. They were rewards. The lionesses became theirs when they defeated their rival.
But the lionesses never saw themselves as such. They belonged to the land where they were born. The kings only earned the land and along with that came the females and the pride.
If the pride or the lionesses truly belonged to one lion king, they would follow him even in defeat. But they did no such thing so there was a clear difference between them.
It was why Sarabi or Sarafina did not consider running away at all after Scar's takeover. They belonged to the land, not one king. And whatever lion ruled the land would also rule them.
So logically, if Leo were to leave them, he could do that. But the pride would not follow him. Instead, a new king would come and claim them along with the land in his absence.
There was an error in his logic.
But no one said anything. No one among 18 lionesses corrected his logic.
They all just eyed each other in secret, communicating through their eyes and collectively just nodded their heads. They would not insist on staying in the Serengeti if Leo wished to leave. They would follow him wherever he went.
Now what did that imply?
It meant that the pride identified themselves more as belonging to Leo than they did to their own home and the land they were born in.
It has been half a year since Leo took over the pride and during his short reign, he was able to mould the pride fully to his liking and completely imprint his ownership on them.
Now, how was that possible? Let us take a moment to analyse it.
Although it would be the dream to say the lionesses had completely fallen for him and his kindness, that would be only a fraction of the truth.
The real reason was competence. Leo was a great king and an even greater lion. The lionesses did not need any evidence to realise that Leo was the most remarkable lion to ever walk the world. His presence was enough proof of that.
First of all, he was strong. He was able to defeat the Mbali brothers - whom they all thought were invincible at the time - by himself without any other help. If that was not enough, what they saw during the past five months could convince a rock of his unquestionable strength.
Over a hundred lions had challenged him during his short reign. Each one had their own strength, their own story, their own coalition. But all of them fell with the same kind of helplessness against him.
It was obvious to every lioness that their king would not fall in the face of any other adversary. He stood at the very pinnacle of what was possible.
But more important than that was his rule. Strength was one thing, but the privileges that came with being under his rule were the thing that convinced them.
The most obvious thing was his intelligence. He was smart enough to rule the pride. This trait alone was rarer than most would expect since it was the strongest that became king, not the smartest.
But what was even rarer was his empathy. He was kind and understanding. He was just like their old king Baraka in this regard. He had pride and ego but those didn't control him. Sparing their cubs was one show of that, the older lionesses remembered even Baraka did not show such kindness.
He even had enough empathy to forgive and accept lionesses like Eshe who thought they would have a hard time under his rule because they outright rebelled and attacked him at the start of his rule.
In this ruthless world, empathy was a weakness. But Leo was strong enough to be kind and understanding.
Food was another thing special about him. They were already a large pride but the amount of food they had would be able to feed numbers triple their size. Leo was not like other lions that leave all the hunting to the females, he joined them in hunts and took down beasts of unimaginable size. Under his rule, the pride had no choice but to thrive.
His tactic of being a nomadic pride and making sure they got their exercises and training was also another thing that made them thrive. Eating healthy and staying fit obviously led to many health benefits.
They did not know the exact implications or what caused it, but every lioness knew that they were stronger, healthier, bigger, and they definitely felt better. They were truly happy under him.
There were also other things that made them happy to have him as their king. One example was his fairness in sharing his affection. That was non-existent in other lions. Most kings had their favourites with whom they spent most of their time while the older or least favourite females became neglected.
Leo made sure every member of his pride was appreciated. Keeping the people under you happy might seem like the most basic thing to the human mind but for lion kings that do whatever they want, it was a foreign concept they never bothered trying.
Leo's human mind helped him in more ways than just hunting or fighting.
Mating with him was awesome too. Usually, females only sought out males when they were in heat and wanted to get pregnant. That was kind of the whole point of nature. But with him, the lionesses found themselves seeking him out even though he had expressed his desire to not have cubs so soon.
They held immense respect and admiration for him, more so than they ever had for any other lion in their lives. There was budding love and deeper connections with him too but the respect they had for him was the main reason why they would stay with him.
They wanted him to be their king. They didn't want anyone else.
On Leo's part, he had been intentionally changing their traditions as well. From being nomadic to changing their entire diet and routine. He had been letting them be more positive towards change and the positive effects of such changes.
All for the preparation of this moment.
...
"Will we return to the Serengeti?" Tala asked, wisely. Since no one wanted to object to going with him, they at least had to know what they were signing up for.
Leo answered immediately, having thought of answers last night.
"Yes. We will return to the Serengeti. And you don't have to worry about others claiming our land, I will take it back before the rain returns," he said with a nod.
The Serengeti was kinda useless during the dry season anyway.
"So it's almost like we are migrating like the wildebeest. But we move south instead of north," Tala said.
"Correct," Leo answered.
"Can we know what we are going to do back in your homeland?" Amara asked.
It was a good question.
"I am going back to kill the lion who killed my father and my brothers. But this lion has under him an army of hyenas, so you will play an important role in helping me fight against them," Leo said.
Now that was weird, but they'd seen weirder stuff, so they didn't react outwardly.
"You said lion? As in one?" Lela asked, her voice incredulous.
Leo gave a nod and every lioness relaxed. If they were going to fight one lion king and hyenas, it would not be much of a fight in the first place. Hyenas were weak compared to the lionesses and so was a single lion compared to their king.
The pride asked a few more questions after that. In the end, everyone had nothing to complain about and they were satisfied.
Grim flew in circles above Leo and began releasing alarmed sounds. Everyone except Nala knew what that meant.
Challengers were close by. Leo had skipped his patrol last afternoon and this morning, due to this some challengers had become bolder and made their way closer to the pride than they should.
"If that is all then I shall leave. Take this time to know our new member and like I said, welcome her. She means a lot to me," Leo said and at that point, no one wanted to pick on the lioness.
Nala on the other hand dipped her head shyly, her face blushing as much as a lion could.
Without any further pause, Leo stepped down from the small mound he was standing on and jogged away from the pride with Grim guiding him. Every member of the pride watched him disappear before they moved to other things.
The lionesses came up to Nala. She straightened up, her posture stiff and she had a forced smile on her face.
They all came to observe her scent. They remembered her smell and the older lionesses left after learning that Nala was a young female not their age.
Instead, these lionesses left Nala with the younger females of their pride. Let the young interact with the young. They took their spots a little distance away but their ears still listened. They would get to know about Nala indirectly with her talks with the younger groups.
Five lionesses circled around Nala. They were Nia, Nydia, Tala, Lela, and Asha. They were some of the younger lionesses among the pride. Three of them actually being virgins before Leo took over. Two of them were old Makaii's favourites.
"Hello," Nala said, awkward in a way that she tried too hard to not be awkward, "Hi, it's good to meet everyone,"
"That's weird," Instead of introducing themselves, they continued smelling her, "You have his scent all over you but not this part,"
Lela lightly banged her butt on hers.
"Did you not mate last night?"
"What?!" Nala was immediately flustered, "No no!! Why would you think that?"
"He has such a favorable impression of you, I thought you must have a divine pussy," Lela shrugged.
Nala opened her mouth, aghast.
"Don't be so vulgar Lela, you're scaring her," Tala stepped in, "Clearly she and the king shared a past so that's why he cared for her,"
"I'm assuming you were born to the same pride?" Tala asked.
"Yes. We were friends-we are friends," Nala answered.
"Is that even allowed?" Lela asked, "I thought you had to mate with the king before you even get into the pride?"
Tala shrugged, "Normally, yes. But this is our king we are talking about, I'm sure stuff like that doesn't really matter to him,"
"Oh sweet, you think we can get him when he returns then?" Lela asked while turning to Tala.
"Why is that the only thing in your mind? Do you not have any other thoughts except mating with the king?" Tala asked.
"Well forgive me for being in heat. Is it too much to ask for a young, beautiful lioness to become a mother?" she retaliated.
"You can't seem too eager Lela, that only makes you annoying to the king rather than attractive," Tala said.
"Excuse me, please refrain from giving me advice until you get him more than me," she said.
Nala watched them bicker among themselves with a strange look. The other lionesses took that time to finally introduce themselves.
"Hi, I'm Nia," the smallest lioness introduced herself.
"And I'm Nydia," another came and said her name.
"Asha," she nodded.
Nala acknowledged them and focused on Nydia. She was one of the lionesses Leo told her about, he said they would get along because both were excellent hunters.
"Wow, you are really skinny. It makes me not look forward to our travel," Asha said bluntly while Nala was still looking at her.
It was not really a comment on appearance but more on function. She was a hunter and being as skinny as Nala was not really good for power in hunting.
"Don't say that, we never know. Maybe the land has lots of prey and they just don't hunt buffalo. Remember, we used to be like that too before the king taught us how to hunt the giants," Asha said.
"Can you tell us more about your home? I am really curious about the land and the mothers there that were able to produce a lion like the king," Asha asked.
Nala replied, "Only if you tell me about yours,"
Leo said a lot but he definitely did not say enough about the pride.
"Sure," The three of them answered.
They all moved to a more level ground and lay there. How Nala was going to fit in with the pride was still unknown but it was not a bad start.
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[IMAGE]
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Author : As script writer for teachers day, I was busy so I apologize.
But doube update. For yesterday and today.