บท 12: Chapter 12: Mother's Instinct
All that transpired happened some distance away from the river. The buffalo was taken down some three hundred meters away from the river bank.
A lot of Hippos and other bystanding animals saw everything that happened. From the lion roars to the buffalo cries, they heard everything.
The buffalo herd that had about a hundred members moved restlessly. They were torn between going after their companion to chase away the lions or just ignoring the whole thing.
Eventually, the biggest female of the herd, the buffalo matriarch, gave a sorrowful grunt before turning away.
Seeing their leader abandoning the downed buffalo, the other members took no action to show reluctance. They all followed the matriarch to wherever was their next destination.
Kael watched everything unfold with the intent to learn. He was aware that these buffalos would soon forget that something like this ever happened and go back to their regular lives.
*ROAR!*
It was at this time that the pride leader showed himself, appearing with his brother out of a bush.
Apparently, he had been watching, waiting for a moment that would require his heavy-handed methods.
The Pride leader made his way to the kill, where the other lionesses were already beginning to rip into the body.
The vultures above had already begun diving down. None of them dared to near the fallen buffalo, not yet.
As soon as the pride leader arrived in front of the dead buffalo, he dug into the carcass. His brother also joined in, tearing off his share from the hind legs while the pride leader went for the ribs region.
While eating, they didn't forget to chase away the other lionesses. Uncle in particular was very active when it came to chasing away his brother's consorts.
The pride leader didn't really have to do anything, his threatening presence and the low growls he emitted were enough to prevent anyone from coming close to him.
Kael was just realizing how big the pride leader was now that he compared him in size to the buffalo. He was really large, Kael estimated that a lion so big would be able to bring down a bigger buffalo with its weight alone, given that it could catch it first.
And a lion that big would definitely have a huge appetite.
Confirming Kael's thoughts, after the pride leader was satisfied, he stood up, exposing a large gap almost half the size of the entire buffalo's rib section. Its insides were cleanly eaten out, leaving a hollow space within.
Organs like the heart, liver, and kidney, had already been eaten away.
As the pride leader left, his brother followed him quickly. He was not the pride leader, the respect the lionesses gave him was only limited to when he was with the pride leader. If Uncle didn't follow his brother, he would have to face a painful awakening from the hungry lionesses.
As soon as the two lions left, the lionesses instantly pounced on the carcass. The mothers among them ripped the dead animals to pieces as they ate their share. One or two vultures would land on the dead buffalo to tear off a strip of meat before flying away.
The mother lionesses took the pieces of meat they had reserved and walked back to the cubs one after the other.
Kael, seeing his mother coming to them, carefully climbed down from the tree to join the other cubs.
The cubs had already gotten excited after seeing their mothers coming to them.
As Nalii came closer, Kael saw that the meat she had brought was from the neck of the buffalo. Beside her, another lioness had the large bloody head of the buffalo in her jaws.
Kael's older brother, Pavel, also grew excited to see Nalii. But the meat Nalii was having in her mouth wasn't going to be enough for all of them.
When she came before her children, she dropped the blood-soaked meat amid the little cubs, subtly ignoring Pavel.
Kael, Eidel, Burdo, and his last sister who he called Ruda, dug into the meat. Kael was not as rushed as they were, even after so long, he still preferred to eat with elegance in mind. Although the blood that began staining his fine fur slowly removed any image of elegance he wanted to keep.
Pavel panicked. He was hungry but there was no space in this food ratio for him to have one. Not having a choice, he growled at Ruda to move away.
Ruda didn't move, she too wanted to have a satisfying chow down of this succulent meat. Besides, her mother was there, nothing to fear.
Pavel was having none of it, he didn't like the idea of someone eating while he was starving. Without giving a second or intelligent thought, he attacked Ruda. He snapped his teeth at her and used his paws to aggress her away.
He was already about to bite her when a paw with its claws sticking out flashed across his face. The force of the attack was such that Pavel didn't even bother to check who it was, he just made as much distance between the attacker and his face as fast as possible.
The owner of the paw was none other than Nalii, his mother. She bared her teeth at her eldest son while covering her four cubs.
Kael stopped eating to observe this closely, he didn't know if his mother was defending him because he was still young or if she was fed up with Pavel.
He hoped that the care she showed for him was not just instinctual, but there was no way to know. Pavel must have also gotten the same treatment when he was little, yet he was here, receiving a strange hostility from his mother.
Pavel himself had begun to act with a sense of entitlement that annoyed the pride members. His laziness was only being pardoned due to circumstances and his value with watching over the cubs.
Out of the four sub-adults in the pride, Pavel was one of the two males, and the other two were females.
For the females, it was very likely that they would just join the pride or form another pride with any male they fancied in the future. A reverse pride was possible but very unlikely.
The males on the contrary would either have to challenge the pride leader or get exiled. They could even die in the process of challenging their pride leader.
Seeing the leader of this Hot Lion pride, it was very certain that most lions would lose in a fight with him.
Pavel had a difficult future ahead of him, he just didn't know it yet.
Filled with indignance, Pavel turned away, not daring to challenge his mother. He followed other sub-adults who had also been chased away to the buffalo carcass.
If they hurried, they would be able to fight for scraps with the vultures.
Kael lowered his head again to continue chewing on the meat under the watch of his mother. His mind however churned.
'Pending the awakening of my Primordial Lion powers, I have to create a bond with the pride members. The bond must reach beyond just instincts, it must be genuine, it must…'
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