บท 17: Chapter 17: Katari
When Bethel clawed the air, the power that erupted forced Kael's conciseness out of the memory.
In the real world, he opened his eyes with a splitting headache that felt like hot lava had been poured into his skull.
The more he thought about that final scene, the more the headache increased. He concluded that his mind could not beat to understand how that power worked.
In the memory scene, his mind was basically connected to Bethel's. Whatever Bethel thought, he would think of it too.
Following that same logic, if Bethel thought of the process and ways it took to produce such power, Kael should also receive the same thought.
The problem was that the Bethel in that memory and the current Kael were of two different power levels. The gap between them could not be closed so easily.
This also meant that Kael's little mind would be unable to comprehend Bethel's power. Perhaps, in another scenario, Kael would have instantly died from the overload, but since this was a memory, his conciseness was automatically ejected away. Albeit with consequences.
Kael closed his eyes as he pressed his head on the ground and put his paws on his head. The headache was truly too much, he desperately needed something to reduce the pain.
A soft being gently rubbed its body against Kael before dropping to the ground next to him.
Kael opened his eyes to see a female cub lying next to him. The cub stared at him with her beautiful brown eyes, wondering what this strange little lion was doing.
Staring into her eyes, Kael could see the reflection of his face which had by now turned golden.
After one year, all the hair on his body had completely turned to a golden color. This set him apart from every lion and lioness within the pride and also came with some trouble.
At some point, the pride leader of the hot lion pride had begun paying attention to him. Kael didn't know whether it was because he was a male and would most likely try to challenge him in the future or that he was upset about the unknown transformation Kael had undergone.
Once in a while, he would notice the beady red eyes of the pride leader, calmly watching him from the distance. His gaze would always seem to come with a ruse in temperature. Kael didn't know if the other pride members experienced this feeling whenever the pride leader looked at them.
Kael sighed as he thought about this. The little lioness lying next to him was one of his cousins. He named her Katari.
Over the months, he had made a conscious effort to form some type of bond between himself and some lionesses and the cubs.
The current situation of Pavel, his older brother, was an eye-opener for him. That lion had spent so much time feeling entitled that it came as a shock when the pride turned against him.
The cubs were all more or less one year old, they no longer needed someone to watch over them like before. And even if there was danger, it could be handled well now that the cubs had stronger limbs to help them escape it.
Pavel and his buddies discovered that no one was bringing leftovers for them anymore. They starved the longer they waited and relied on these lionesses.
At some point, they began to join the lionesses during hunting but they were not used to the efforts they had to put into having a good meal. It was disorienting for them.
They soon began to fight the lionesses anytime they successfully killed their prey. They wanted to have the most share, ignoring the fact that the other lionesses also had to eat.
Of course, their actions didn't go unpunished. The two lionesses in the group were at least beaten so badly that they became docile. It looked like one of them was going to join the pride as the pride leader's consort as she was already making moves after being beaten senseless.
The two males on the other hand got it far worse. They were recovering from one injury or the other every week now. Just the sight of them would get the lionesses angry.
Even Nalii, Pavel's mother had stopped being tolerant of her son's ways the day he attacked her over a piece of meat. A good amount of the injuries Pavel had were given to him by Nalii.
For Pavel and his friend, their manes had already grown out a little well enough to be considered eligible to venture out and start their own pride but it was easier said than done.
They weren't even as big as Uncle, talk less of the pride leader.
Speaking of those two, the pride leader had also begun hammering down on the two young lions. One of the males had no choice but to leave the pride hurriedly. He could no longer handle the stress of being beaten on-site just for existing.
Pavel was the only one left. The two young lionesses that were once his buddies no longer interacted with him like before. One of the lionesses, Big Aunt's daughter, was seen occasionally crawling to the Pride leader's crotch while the other was slowly distancing herself from the pride members.
Sooner or later, Pavel would have to either submit to the pride leader and become a subordinate, or leave the pride for good.
Kael didn't want this treatment for himself. He could understand why the feelings a mother had for her child would wane with time and with the changing characteristics of the said child.
But he still had the mentality of a human. He would make an effort to bond emotionally with them to ensure a better chance of survival in the pride.
At the same time, Kael also planned on using this bond to enact something sinister that could very well damage the pride leader.
Maybe this was why the pride leader was so wary of him, Kael was making the lionesses too attached to him.
This process definitely tested Kael's will to achieve what he wanted as his dignity was trampled upon multiple times. He had to play, run, and do many things to make the lions feel attached to him.
It was also ironic as Kael, in his past life, was very antisocial. Yet here he was, making an effort to establish a social life with these lions.
Katari, who was next to him, was one of the cubs who had grown attached to him after carefully orchestrating plays and dramatic rat hunts.
However, Katari was quite clingy. She was the first and easiest to get attached to Kael, but she also stuck to him like glue. Kael really didn't know why this was so, there wasn't really any traumatizing thing that happened to cause this behavior.
Kael had to chalk it down to her unique lion personality. After all, he wasn't complaining. He kinda liked being followed around by Katari as if she were his bodyguard.
Kael shook his head to focus back on Bethel's memories. From that short memory scene, he had learned a lot of things.
First of all, there were different types of lions. And powerful ones at that. The primordial lion might just be unique from these subspecies.
Kael wasn't too sure of the names but he could vaguely recall that Bethel identified them based on something called 'Lion heart' but it was too blurry.
It was just a flash thought from Bethel and Kael barely grabbed onto it.
Another thing was the term 'Contract' that Bethel mentioned when he was talking to the opposing lions.
At that time, Kaelnfelt a spike in thinking activity and he managed to comprehend one thing from that point, the main power of the primordial lion.
For long Kael had wondered what exactly made a primordial lion so special from other lions. He always wondered what kind of power he would have, surely golden fur was not all there was to it.
And now he knew. That storm of thoughts containing information about the contracts was enough for Kael to understand everything.
The main power of the Primordials, lions or any other species, was the power to form primordial laws and utilize them.
Those contracts that Bethel talked about were not ordinary, but agreements backed by the primordial laws with him, the Primordial lion as a medium.
As for what exactly Bethel's contracts were for or what they did, Kael had no idea. Everything he knew about the primordial contracts could only be considered surface knowledge for Bethel.
This power did not just affect the individual Primordial, it also affected the entire race the Primordial belonged to in multiple ways.
The more Kael arranged his thoughts, the more his eyes sharpened with mysterious intent. The previous laziness in his eyes gradually faded away.
At least now, Kael had an idea of what to do and what he could achieve.
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