[1st POV]
First and foremost, we were going to win this war one way or another. Let's get that fact right out of the way.
The only problem I had now was at what cost: would I win this war?
It was effortless to win a war, but to do so without losing anything was outright impossible. And I happened to be a king who was not willing to pay the price of victory.
I wanted to win, but I wanted to do so in a manner that would cost no life. If even one lion lost their life in this battle, I would personally consider that a loss.
Now, to do so, I had to come up with a remarkable plan.
The short discussion I had with the veteran lionesses bore no fruit. In the end, they all went to eat the giraffe I had hunted down without reaching any conclusion.
I was kinda frustrated because of that, but there was not much I could do. I shouldn't expect much from them. I was the one with a past life as a human; I should be the one coming up with plans.
In the meantime, I told Grim and the other vultures to study the enemies more carefully. I wanted to know everything that was going on in the Prideland. I wanted to know the relation between them. I wanted to know how Scar was managing such a huge number of hyenas. I wanted to know where they were stationed.
I needed to know everything.
Zuri came up to me after the rest had left to eat. By the time the rest of the pride started their meal, she was already done.
"You seem to have a lot in mind," she said when she reached me.
I broke out of my thoughts and greeted her with a smile. My body language changed as I opened myself to welcome her with not a hint of rejection.
"Yes, I do," I said when our bodies made contact.
"Am I disturbing you?" she asked.
"...Absolutely not," I said and put a nail to every other thought. Those could wait for later.
I kind of wished that she were the one to find me instead of Nala. My guilt only increased when I thought about our untimely reunion, which was right before the conflict.
In my mind, I always thought we would reunite after I'd done everything and taken back the Prideland from Scar and his hyenas. But different from what I expected, I had to do the whole rescue mission instead.
"You don't have to be so eager, you know," she said, her voice had a smile. "I feel like you are trying too hard to give me attention. I am here by your side now, and I'm planning to stay here forever. We don't need to rush."
How she knew that, I don't know. Maybe she had exceptional emotional intelligence for a lion.
"I know it because you told me," she said, and this time with an actual laugh. "God, you have the most expressive pair of eyes in the world."
I blinked. "I do?"
"Yes," she said. "I think it's your way of making up for something you lack."
She was talking about my tail. The tail is one of the most important parts of communication for a lion. Although we could talk, animals communicate most with body language, not words.
I shook my head and changed the topic. "You've had your fill?"
The answer was obvious, but she nodded all the same. "Yes, it's the first time I've had giraffe. Their taste is just incredible."
I gave a smile. They were indeed delicious, but not really exquisite. There were better meats out there. "Wait till you try a cape buffalo."
She paused. "Buffalo?"
"Yes, it's our main source of food back in the Serengeti," I said. "And they are quite different from the ones in the Prideland."
"You hunt buffalo regularly?" she said, surprised.
But then she thought about it for a little while and came to her own conclusion. "Sorry, that was a stupid question. With the size of the pride under you, it might not be impossible to have buffalo in every meal. You also need prey that size to feed everyone."
She looked back at my pride that was feeding on the giraffe. Just looking at them eat, you would think they were as starved as Zuri when, in actuality, it had only been four days or so since our last meal.
On the other hand, my eyes never moved. My smile turned a little smaller as I thought about how much she did not know about me. It had been so long, it would take us a while to know each other as well as we used to.
"Actually, I used to hunt buffalo alone when I was a rogue," I said, and that snapped her head back at me.
"..Seriously?"
I was a little confused about how that was surprising when she knew I took down a giraffe alone. But I guess she also underestimated a giraffe just like I used to, since it was all neck and, in theory, was full of vulnerable spots.
"There are so many things I want to tell you," I said, my voice sounding needier than I expected. I sighed.
Zuri only chuckled and rubbed her head on my lower jaw. "I told you before, no need to rush. We can tell each other everything we want to say, we have our whole lives, right?"
I stayed silent for a while before agreeing with her. "You're right. I'll never let you go again."
Her smile widened.
"Even if you wanted to," I added.
She laughed.
"The same goes for me. I will continue following you even if you want me gone," she said.
It was my time to laugh, remembering how I told her not to follow me when I was kicked out of the pride.
"So, what were you thinking before I came and disturbed you?" she asked after I stopped laughing.
"You did not disturb me," I repeated. "I was just thinking of strategies I could use to finish this war with the least amount of casualties."
"I can help you with that," she said.
"Really?"
"Yeah," she nodded. "When you live for so long with the animals you hate, you naturally begin contemplating the best and most effective ways to kill them."
I hummed. "What do you have in mind?"
Her smile turned into a grin.
..
..
////////////////////
Surprise, surprise, the sweetest cats often have the evilest ideas.
Zuri was completely right when she said she could help with the planning. It seemed I only needed a person with whom I could bounce off ideas to get some innovative ideas.
Zuri and I found those talks to be oddly boring as well. It was not sharing each other's stories or talking about personal feelings, but it brought us closer again.
When the other lionesses came to join the discussion, the plan got even more refined. We were clearly at a disadvantage, so the main core of the strategy was to hide behind the safety of hit-and-run tactics.
We were smaller in number. We were less than 25 fighting lions, so meeting 400 hyenas in a straightforward battle was not a wise decision. There was bound to be a loss of life if we did that, and we couldn't afford that.
But our smaller number also meant that we could move faster and coordinate better. With the help of the vultures in the sky, we would be virtually impossible to deal with for the uncoordinated hyenas that did not even have a solid leader.
We needed to play by our strength and exploit their weakness to the limit.
But that also included not starting the conflict as soon as possible. They were in a wasteland, stuck on a plateau. They didn't have proper access to food or water, and we wanted them to suffer those consequences for as long as possible.
The pride moved towards the main escape route of the Pridelands, and we camped there. In another attempt to harass them, I gave the vultures the same task I had given them before my battle with the Mbali brothers.
Make sure none of our enemies got food to eat in the rare case that they found an opportunity.
Three days quickly passed as we waited patiently for the enemies to get weaker. During this time, the huge meal that we had from the giraffe was also digested. We were in the perfect state, where we were not hungry and there was no undigested food in our system.
It was also enough time for me to recover from the wounds I got from the giraffe. My higher testosterone meant that I could recover rather quickly, so I would be in perfect condition by tomorrow.
The plan was to sneak into the Pridelands tomorrow and finally start the battle.
There were a ton of things that we were planning to do to cut down the number of hyenas. Nala and Zuri were very familiar with the whole kingdom's geography, so we also planned to use that as an advantage.
For example, some lions would lead the hyenas into the gorge. The same gorge in which Mufasa died.
We could then set up an ambush in that tight space. The place would make sure that no matter how many hyenas there were, they would only be able to come at us in controlled numbers.
There was also the option of some lionesses staying at the top and throwing down rocks to crush the hyenas. And that was only some of the ways we were trying to use the land to our advantage.
It was the third day since we rescued Zuri and Sarabi. Since we were planning on finally stepping into the Pridelands tomorrow, I told everyone to get a good rest and conserve their energy.
I lay at the centre of the pride, surrounded by many females, but most of my focus was on Nala and Zuri, who were on either side of my body. I could feel their warmth as they lay around, cuddling with me.
And yet I could not find it in me to relax.
Maybe it was the anticipation, or maybe it was my instinct screaming at the wrong thing.
But...
Something seemed off.
My eyes scanned the surroundings carefully. I lifted my nose in the air, taking in the scents. I also used my other senses to get a feel of the world.
I couldn't find anything.
And then I looked up. I noticed at once the unnatural behaviour of the vultures flying in the sky.
It was not long before I saw Grim flying towards me in a hurried manner. Vultures had long wingspans and barely needed to flap when they flew. But Grim was rapidly flapping his wings to fly as fast as he could towards me.
I stood up immediately. My actions roused everyone in the pride, but I didn't care about that.
I stepped between the bodies and ran out of the pride to greet my subject as soon as possible.
Grim did not slow down even when he was close to the ground. He did not land; instead, he crashed into my body with full force. I tried my best to give him a soft landing, and that helped immensely as he was unharmed.
"Grim, what is going on?" I asked.
The vulture quickly got up from the ground. He did not take time to smooth his messed-up feathers, and he said, "It's the hyenas, my lord."
I narrowed my eyes.
"They are coming," he said, and took in a deep breath. "All of them."
I paused. There was no panic on my visage as I simply stared towards the plateau. If Grim reported this as quickly as he appeared to be, we still had time to react. It was not an ambush or anything like that.
But that didn't make the information less devastating.
What was the saying again? No plan survives first contact.
In my rage and anticipation, I had planned different ways in which I could attack and approach this war. But did I ever pause and consider what if they attacked us instead?
..
..
I did.
But this was much worse than if we had been the ones to attack.
Well, I would like to say this caught me off guard, but not really. I may laugh at Scar as a king, but I always regarded his cunning highly.
Well played.
"So it starts. A day earlier than expected," I said.
And then...
ROAR!!!!
I declared the start of the war.
..
..
[IMAGE]
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Author : Late yet again!! Sorry for that.
Here is today's chapter. Following this I will post the two extra chapters.
In total that's triple update today. Thanks for the stones!!