Chapter 70 70: Time to conquer

[3rd POV] (3 years 2 months old) The sun rose on the horizon in all its brilliance. The light banished the darkness of the night into shrinking shadows, and the chill of midnight became a forgotten sensation beneath the warmth of the first rays. The green grass of the plain swayed like an ocean. The green trees danced along with the morning wind, their leaves rustling softly. It was the perfect start to a perfect day. The harsh Serenegti was the kindest during this time of the year. Grim soared high above the land, riding the warm currents that rose from the open plains below. The scenic view of the Serengeti was even more magnificent from such height and Grim was one of the few lucky animals that could experience it all. The world beneath him was alive with motion. Zebras trotted in herds, warthogs rooted near patches of mud, wild dogs raced in formation, and hyenas weaved through grass in search of food to scavenge. Life thrived in the wet season. But Grim simply flew over all these incredible sights. In a land that looked like paradise, he had a place he needed to be. And that was beside the king. FWOOOSH!! Grim expertly changes his trajectory in the air. He did not even have to flap his wings, he simply glided with his long wingspan. It would be correct to say he was swimming in the air. Eventually, Grim reached his destination. His sharp eyes spotted the lion walking through the tall grass of the land. He was hidden and perfectly camouflaged, but it was hard to escape Grim's eyes. Grim swooped low and glided right above his king with a screeching sound. It was a way to declare his presence to the king and also signify that he was immediately onto doing his job without being told. Grim took himself higher to the sky with a flap of his mighty wing. Then he flew towards the watering hole at a distance. It only took a few seconds until the lake came into view. There, Grim did what he was supposed to do and scouted the entire area. When he found that nothing was amiss, he slowed down his flight and smoothly glided around in circles. When he didn't return with any news, Leo would take that as everything was perfectly fine and in place. Grim watched from above as Leo slowly came towards the lake. He did not bother hiding his presence and strode forward in a slow, regal pace through the tall grass. The animals around the watering hole immediately took notice of him, and they froze. But no one ran, no one dared move too much without permission. They watched with bated breath as Leo made his way to the shore of the lake. The crocodiles that were sunbathing on the shore moved and ran back into the water to hide in its depths. A slow growl left his throat. He lowered his head and took a drink of water. In the meantime, all the other animals that were drinking from the lake stopped. They did not drink with him. They waited for Leo to finish. Although not official yet, the land itself has accepted Leo as her king. The effect of his presence alone was proof that he was above every other animal in the Serengeti. He was a creature at the very top of the food chain. Grim could not help but compare to the first time he met Leo. The young teenager who came to the Serenegti with a naive mind and full ambition. He would have never expected him to change so drastically in the span of one year. Now, Leo stood as the biggest lion in the wild, and his strength was beyond any other. Leo himself seemed to be thinking about something similar as he looked at his own reflection on the lake. It had been a full year now since he first came to the Serengeti. His mane looked like a storm cloud that spread wide around his head and shoulders. It was almost fully black like the night. When the wind blows on the mane, it moves and looks like a dark flame around his head. His body was mostly solid muscle with barely any unhealthy fat. His bulbous shoulder and wide chest gave him the thickness that no other lion should have. His forearm looked like it had ropes wrapped around the bone. His paw was twice the size of the other lions' with claws that fit perfectly with the huge paw. Leo continued staring at his own reflection. He seemed to be deep in thought. But after a while, he turned around and left the watering hole. Grim followed Leo from above as he wandered through the savannah. Today was not hunting day, so Grim did not have other duties except keeping an eye from above. After nearly an hour of walking, they came upon the huge herd of buffalo. Leo was able to track them down even without the help of Grim. But the vulture was left confused. But he didn't question anything and continued to observe. He was ready to be called by Leo any time now. But it seemed Leo did not have any intention of hunting the buffalo because he did not stalk them. Instead, he simply walked around the edge of the herd. But the reaction of the buffalo was wild to see. The bachelors who stood at the edge of the herd to be the first line of protection backed away when they saw Leo approaching them. They were not running away like other prey would but you could see from their body language that they wanted nothing to do with Leo. That alone was a phenomenal achievement, considering buffalo would not bat a single eye at even a full pride of lions. But Leo had taught them to fear predators in the past six months. The buffalos were dumb but not clueless about what was happening in the recent months. They felt like prey in the presence of Leo. It was an incredible sight to see the giants flinching back from a cat a quartet their size. On the other hand, Leo did not even glance towards the herd. His belly was still full from the meal of yesterday and he was in no mood for hunting or eating. Instead, he continued walking. He walked for hours in the savannah. At that point, Grim was truly perplexed about what his king was up to. Until finally, in the early afternoon, Leo stopped in front of one particular tree. The tree did not stand out to any of the other trees but if you had a good sense of smell, you could smell the scent of the Mbali brothers on it. Indeed, Leo had walked to the region of the Siringet Pride. "Grim," Leo finally called his name. The vulture flew down almost immediately and landed beside Leo. "What is it, my lord?" "It's time," Leo said. "I am going to take the Serenegti" And then he proceeded to put his scent over the tree. It was a small act, like a small spark. But that was the start of something much bigger. The season for growth had come to an end. Now it was time for harvest. ... ... [IMAGE] ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Author : I think that will be all for this week. It's better to stack up chapters and post consistently next week where we will finally enter the take over arc. The cliffhanger in this arc is quite rough. I will try set up power stone goals to skip these cliffhangers. In the meantime, it's been a while so let me insert my patreon. The advanced chapters not complete but we will be wrapping up the takeover arc tonight and the full advance chapters will be posted before the end of the week. There will be polls regarding what Leo will do with his new pride and kingdom building and also exclusive video edits of the animals and elements of the story. So it's a good time to join. Support the story and get these benifits on patreon : Emmanuel_Capricorn.