Chapter 44 44: Next morning

[1st POV] I have absolutely no intention of leaving my home. I knew it was stupid considering the kings could return and jump me 1 vs 3, but there was something in me that did not want to leave this at all. The kopje was mine, I have thought of it as such already and leaving it now just because I was scared would be like giving away my food. My ego couldn't take it. It was one of the main differences between a lion and a human. The sheer disgust at the idea of giving up things that were mine. In all seriousness, I would have to abandon it if it meant survival, but as long as I could, I want to keep making this my home. So when I returned back to my cave, I lay down and slept through the night instead of running away. Due to my exhaustion, the sleep was quick and without a dream. When I opened my eyes again, it was already morning. It felt like I closed my eyes at one moment and woke up in the next. "Hello there," The first thing I saw when I woke up was a vulture standing right in front of my eyes. He tilted his head down so that his eyes were just in front of mine. I blinked once, and then twice. "Good morning, Your Majesty,". I finally moved with a yawn. The vulture quickly hopped away from me but continued staying close. "Good morning Grim," I said. "I heard about what happened last night from the other birds. Are you okay?" he asked, even though there was no real concern on his face. I thought it was nice of him to ask. "I'm fine, I didn't suffer any serious injuries. Scatches at most," I said. The reason I stopped the fight was because of a bad stomach, not anything else. "Do tell me if you feel something's wrong or are about to die. I call dips on your eyes and tongue," he said with a soft flap of his wings. I paused and then sighed, "That's nice to hear. I'll be sure to inform you if I am going to die," He nodded with a smile after that. He seemed almost proud of himself and kind of exuberant. Some animals had no filter at all. "And you heard it from other birds?" I asked. "Oh yes, nothing gets past our eyes. And there is a lot of gossip in the air, so if one bird saw it, everyone knows about it," he answered with a nod. "Did they say I win?" "They say you fought off one of the kings," he said. "I feel like I kinda did more than that," I said and stretched in place. That made me realize I was sore in many places from last night. I did not want to get up just yet. "Grim, please go out and see what the three kings are up to. If they are coming towards me, then you should inform me. I will be sleeping in today," I said, and without protesting, the vulture took to the sky. It was always so convenient to have a bird working for you. They were many times more useful than hyenas could ever be. I moved to another place that offers better shade than the cave and slept through the morning. I only woke up again in the afternoon. I was way more relaxed than the first time I woke up, so I decided to head to the watering hole. But while I was on my way there, I noticed something following me. Or should I say someone? The humans were following me. They thought they were slick by staying extremely far away from me, but I saw them. It was not hard to notice a big ass vehicle that wouldn't disappear in the horizon. When I reached the watering hole, which was a dried-up river, I saw a few animals around. I considered hunting one of them when I saw a herd of zebras near the shore. I vomited a lot last night, so I wanted to eat more to refill my belly. I was not hungry, of course, but I didn't grow this big when I ate only when I was hungry. Sometimes you had to force down the protein. The only thing that stopped me was the fact that I was not feeling all the way there. I suffered no wounds, but I doubt I could chase down prey at the moment. I would give myself another day before I go out to hunt again. I dipped my head near the water and had a drink. I saw a few crocodiles swimming towards me, but I did not move. I just stared at them while drinking, making sure they knew I could see them and did not run. I dared them to do something to me with my eyes and body language. The big crocodiles had a chance at making me their dinner, but they didn't even try. They gave up before doing anything and disappeared into the murky water. It just goes to show how far mentality can carry an animal. It's why some animals develop bluffing as a defence mechanism. When an animal looked like it could beat you and was prepared to fight you rather than run, most of the time, the enemy wouldn't try something. Surviving in the wild was hard; injuries, even though not fatal, could lead to death. For example, two leopards fought and one of them won, but at the cost of an injury on the leg. The winner could not hunt because of this injury, so he died of hunger. So, although an injury was not fatal, it could still cause death. Therefore, animals, especially predators who had to hunt their food, would not risk it if the prey fought back, even if they knew they could eventually take them down. This caused them to be somewhat of a coward if it didn't come down to a life-or-death situation. You would often see tigers fleeing from a smaller bear that was willing to fight, or a leopard giving up when a deer turned and fought back. If the fight did happen and both sustained injury, one could not hunt and would starve, while the other could recover while eating grass or fruits that did not need hunting. It was simply way more risk for the predator. This was where lions were different. A male lion had a pride and females to hunt for him, even if he was injured. This gave them the privilege of having an ego and the freedom to fight whenever there was an opportunity. Lions could be reckless without much consequence, and bravery was closely related to recklessness. That's how we evolved. At this point, all male lions had an ego of their own that increased with age and experience. Even was not spared, I would've moved my home otherwise. "What would that make me? An aware idiot or true lion?" I said to myself and stood up. It was rather inefficient to drink water with the tongue, so it takes a lot of time. I looked around and observed my surroundings. My nose took in the scents of different animals while my ears listened for anything new. When I found nothing of interest, my focus locked on the human vehicle far away on the horizon. It was barely in my field of vision; they were creating a massive distance between us, but I still saw them. I narrowed my eyes and saw that they were pointing a camera at me. I guess I have officially stolen their interest after what happened last night, and they wanted to film me now. I saw no harm in that as long as they didn't interfere with my life. But if they were going to do so, I wanted to check on them once more. So without wasting time, I head towards them. .. .. [IMAGE : I think this one is really cool] ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A vote would be appreciated