Chapter 18 18: Promise fulfilled

[1st POV] I walked through the Pride Lands, the beauty of which never ceased to amaze me. Dry grass brushed against my legs as I moved, brittle stalks whispering with every step. The morning sun was already high, casting a white glow across the savanna. The morning was filled with the song of birds and animals. There was an absence of a mighty roar that would echo when Mufasa was alive. Could you believe that Scar was too lazy to wake up early and patrol his kingdom? He released his roar only in the evening. The earth beneath my paws was cracked and warm, littered with hoofprints and dried dung. It was proof of the life that passed through here before me. It was almost instinct to notice these tracks and follow them. You could never go wrong with following a herd. Who knows, one of them could get injured and fall behind the herd and I might just get a free meal. The wind changed as I walked at a constant pace and I caught the scent of something large. The smell was thick, leathery and pungent. I turned my head towards the smell and sure enough, I saw two rhinos lumbering beyond the slope in the open plain. I crouched slightly to not be seen. They were not threats but I didn't want them to see me either. I observed them from a distance. They were gigantic and had horns that still managed to look big in their frame. With their head along with their whole body low and close to the ground, you could tell that they were immovable. Just for reference, currently I am around 130–140 kg and the rhinos were easily three tons. That means they were easily more than 20 times my size. Each step they took left dents in the dirt. Watching them was like watching boulders roll uphill. Solid. Unstoppable. I couldn't even begin to imagine what it would take to bring one of them down. A lion was king of the jungle but we sure ain't the biggest or the strongest. I moved away from the rhinos after looking at them from a safe distance. The terrain was flattening for a stretch before breaking again into patchy bushes and termite mounds. Some of the mounds rose taller than me, their surfaces riddled with holes. It was a nightmare for people with trypophobia I'm sure. The faint skittering of insects was audible if I stood still. "Simba is probably having those for dinner," I said with a chuckle. I'll admit I kind of miss him and his reckless antics. I hope I see him again in the future. I continued my journey and saw a lone giraffe on the way. The tallest animal was nibbling leaves from a thorny acacia. Its ugly blue tongue ate the leaves without being pricked by the thorns, it was an interesting sight. I feel like I would have a greater chance taking down a giraffe than a rhino. Or maybe that's just me underestimating the giraffe because it has such a long neck and therefore bigger target. Nevertheless I knew my chance of taking either of them down was nearly in the negatives, for now. In the future though, if hairless monkeys could take down larger prey then I was determined to take them down also. A pebble rolled beneath my paw, and I glanced down to see a trail of ants walking in line on the uneven ground. I also noticed a beetle rolling a dung ball with comical determination, pivoting, adjusting, nudging and never stopping. It was almost inspiring, in a strange way. Every creature here had a job, a role, even if no one was watching. The grass grew denser and taller again as I continued my exploration. I had to part it with my head as I pushed forward. I could hear the sharp shrill of cicadas hidden somewhere among the stalks. Tiny grasshoppers leapt out of my way, some brushing past my legs, others vanishing before I could spot them. The terrain was never the same for long. It was incredible how diverse the Pride Land was, to the point it was fantastical. I followed a familiar path worn into the land made by hooves. The smell of water pulled me forward. It wasn't fresh, not exactly, but I could hear that it was full of life. My sharp hearing already told me every creature that was in the watering hole before I even saw them. When I reached the watering hole, the air shifted. It was humid here, filled with the thick scent of mud and algae. My eyes immediately locked on a crocodile that lay half-buried in muck, and under the sun. I paused for a bit because it was the only animal I didn't expect. It was not making any sound after all. I looked away after a while and gave attention to the family of impalas that stood at the opposite end. One stepped forward, dipped its head, hesitated and then drank the water. The others followed the brave one. I also leaned down and took a few sips to quench my budding thirst. It never hurt to drink more water. I didn't stay long in the watering hole. The sun was climbing, and I wanted to cover more ground. As I walked, the land opened up again, sloping downward into a shallow valley. Here the grasses were shorter, greener, perhaps they were fed by an underground stream. I didn't want to dig just to find out. A few trees dotted the slope, some twisted with age, others broken by elephants. One had scratch marks on its bark, claw marks to be exact. It was small so perhaps it was a leopard. I went to the tree to examine it properly and that was when I caught a familiar scent on the tree. A smell I couldn't possibly forget. "Oh," I paused and then grinned. "I guess I know what I am going to hunt today." ,,, ,,, ////////////// (Three days later) There you are. There you fucking are. I remember you. How could I possibly forget when you've carved an eternal reminder on me? "Hello," I whispered under my breath as my eyes locked onto the kitty cat lying down in the clearing. It was a leopard, to be exact. One with a distinctive scar on his eyes and a familiar scent on his body. It took three fucking days to track it down. Suffice it to say, I had underestimated how difficult it would be to track a leopard. But I never gave up out of pure hatred and grudge. And now here I am. I finally found him. I was in the middle of stalking him and I had been successful so far. He was lying under the shade of a tree, cooling himself down after what I assumed was a failed hunt with how rough his breathing was and there was no meal in front of him. I slowly crawled up to him as stealthily as I could. You'd be surprised how close I managed to get before he spotted me, clearly a predator was not used to being the hunted one. Eventually, he caught my scent in the wind and he quickly turned towards me. Eyes and ears forward, and both senses spotted me almost immediately . But by that point, I had already exploded out like a ferocious beast. My four limbs worked together to push me to my top speed in just a couple of seconds. My size, my build and my technique, all of them were refined and forged to make me the perfect ambush predator. I wasted no time in lunging at my prey. Much to my delight, the leopard decided to climb up the tree instead of running away. He might have a chance if he ran but his fate was sealed the moment he decided to climb onto the small tree. I didn't follow him up the tree, instead my powerful hind legs pushed me up into the air. Muscles that had to make up for the loss of tail were bigger and more powerful than they were supposed to be. I was able to leap 20 feet in the air with ease and I grabbed the leopard right off the safety of the branch. He crashed onto the ground with a thud. Air was knocked out of his lungs, causing him to writhe and gasp on the ground without moving. I capitalized on that chance and pushed him down on the ground. My claws anchored onto his flesh and a low rumbling growl rolled off my throat. "We meet again, pussy," I said. "You!!!" he cried and tried to claw me but his attacks had no effect on me. Similar to how mine had no effect on him a year ago. "Remember my promise?" I asked and he replied by releasing wild angry sounds of a cat. "With this, I finish what was left undone," I said and put weight on my paws. His ribs caved in and I opened my jaw and clamped down on his neck. After one brutal pull, his neck broke and he stopped moving. Day by day, I got better at taking lives. ,, ,, [IMAGE] ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Author : It's a new week so give stones to support this story.