Chapter 10 10: First prey

[1st POV] The grass was still heavy with dew. The air was cool and chilly under the blush of sunrise. I did not know staying still could be so exhausting until now. My limbs were starting to cramp and my muscles coiled under my hide as I hid behind the bush, staying low enough for the grass to conceal me. My golden eyes stared unblinking at my prey. In the meantime, I was trying to mind control the damn animal to come my way. 'Come this way, come this way, come this way. This is the shorter path, come this way,' I chanted in my mind. A few dozen meters away was a rabbit just outside its burrow. The rabbit was standing upright, its ears stood tall and changed directions rapidly to listen for movement around it. Its stubby nose twitched as it took in the scent around it. I was staying downwind, so I was sure it couldn't smell me. Its eyes, though, were something I paid no mind to. Even when the rabbit looked my way, I knew I was too far to be seen. The greatest sense of the rabbit was its sense of hearing and smell. Its big fluffy ears had a purpose other than looking adorable. I'd discovered that much after countless attempts at catching them. I had lost count of how many times I tried to catch one of them, but I always failed. But after countless failures, I finally developed a proper strategy to catch them. Trying to sneak up on them was useless. Their sense of hearing was too good to not hear you coming from miles away. And it was just a matter of wind direction before your scent reached them. So, I concluded that the best strategy was to ambush them. They couldn't hear me coming if I stayed still. But ambushing a rabbit was easier said than done. Which was why I'd spent countless mornings studying their behavior before deciding where and when to ambush my prey. Rabbits were most active during dawn and dusk. They would check their surroundings multiple times before they even came out of their burrow. And even if they did, they would run back into their burrow the moment they felt threatened. Only after hours of seeing no predator and feeling comfortable would the rabbit even move away from the safety of its burrow. I'd been stalking the rabbit for two hours now. I began when it was completely dark, and now it was sunrise. But I knew all my effort and patience would pay off today. The rabbits needed water. They could quench their thirst from the dew on grass, but the last time this particular rabbit visited the watering hole was two days ago. So it needed to visit the watering hole today. I had discovered the prominent path the rabbit took to go to the watering hole through its scent and other days of observation. The bush I decided to hide in was right along the path the rabbit would often take to go to the watering hole. So I lay here, waiting ever so patiently. The rabbit was extremely timid and fearful, but necessity pushed it. It needed more water, or it would be dehydrated. It crept forward slowly along my predicted path. It would stop suddenly, standing upright to search for any danger. Its body turned, ready to run back to its burrow. When it found nothing suspicious, it would continue on its way. 'Come on, come on. A little closer, a little bit closer,' I thought in my mind while I unwound my muscle fibers, ready to pounce. 'Come to papa.' When the rabbit was within my range, I pounced from my hiding spot. The rabbit had no time to react as I sank my teeth into the back of its head. It struggled fiercely, fighting for its life. Its little legs pushed against my chest to try to get free, but my jaw clamped down with no intention of letting go. I was biting into its muscles, not just its skin, so I was confident in my hold. The rabbit was small compared to me, but it was still decently big. I wrestled for a bit, applying and learning techniques at the same time as I tried to pin it down. In the end, I learned new ways to use my claws to pin my prey. My claws dug into the brown fur of the rabbit and held it down. In that moment, I released my hold and then quickly bit at the neck of the rabbit for a fatal attack. When I bit at the neck, the rabbit struggled even harder. To my surprise, the rabbit continued moving even after a minute had passed. That was when I learned something new. When the adult lions bite at the neck of their prey, the aim was not to break their neck or rupture an artery to let them bleed out. The aim was to suffocate the prey by biting down on their windpipe. Immediately, I adjusted my bite, and it worked. The rabbit released strangled noises from its nose, and after less than 30 seconds, the rabbit passed out. "My first successful hunt," I said with pride after I killed the rabbit. I had hunted insects, lizards, and frogs—which all tasted horrible, by the way—but this was my first time killing prey that had real meat. After that, I tore open the skin of my prey. The meat and organs that greeted me were like a juicy, appetizing gift. I dug into the rabbit, I tore open its guts, and lapped at the thick red blood of its insides. It was delicious, even more so since I caught it with great effort. After I ate most of the rabbit, the sun was high in the sky. It was already late in the morning. The heat of the sun was getting annoying, so I decided to go home and eat in the comfort of the den. ... ... //////////////// "Leo, what do you have there?" Sarabi asked when I reached the den. She and a few other lionesses were basking in the morning sun outside the den. I dropped my food to reply. "A rabbit." "A rabbit? Where did you find a rabbit?" My mother asked with a curious tilt of her head. "Don't mock me, Mother. It's my prey," I said. "You successfully hunted a rabbit?" one of the other lionesses asked with a dumbfounded face. "Yes." "That's impossible," they said collectively. This time, I was the one dumbfounded. "Why?" "Unless it's on the rare occasion that the rabbit is injured or wandered too far from its burrow, it's almost impossible to catch a rabbit," my mother replied. "They are too cautious, and they have good hearing, so it's impossible to sneak up on them. And in a chase, they are too nimble and far too small for lions to catch," one of the lionesses added. I deadpanned. I knew that, which was why I ambushed it. "I guess I got lucky," I said without explaining myself. "I guess you did. Enjoy your meal, Leo. It won't be often you get to taste a rabbit," my mother said, and I picked up my food and went inside the den. The world was not exactly Disney, but the animals were also smarter than they were in my past life. But they were not smart enough to devise strategy as easily as I did. Most of their strategies were passed down from generation to generation and refined throughout the years. It was one of the greatest advantages I had over the other animals. They were smart but were still deeply connected to their primal sides. I was the exception. I could think and strategize better than anyone. After all, in my past life, I was the apex of creation. A creature that hunted animals a hundred times their size and casually drove beasts to extinction. And I inherited that essence. I was a creature with the essence of humanity and the body of the king of beasts. When thinking of it like that, I couldn't help but grow even prouder. I felt like I was destined for greatness. "I can't wait," I said and split open the skull of the rabbit to eat its soft brain and bitter eyeballs. ... ... [IMAGE] --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Author : This is short so I update two chapters ✌