[3rd POV]
(Maasai Mara)
The Maasai Mara was dying.
Not in some dramatic, sudden way. Not with fire or floods or screaming skies. It was dying slowly, quietly, the way living things did when stretched beyond what they were meant to endure.
The grass had lost its softness months ago. What remained was brittle, yellowed, and sharp enough to cut paw pads if pressed too hard. Dust clung to everything. It settled in fur, in the nostrils, and in old wounds that never truly healed for the lions living here.
A consequence of Leo's dominance.
All lions had fled the Serengeti and were now fighting for the Maasai Mara. You might think that since Leo was in his father stage, and not killing as many lions as before, the lions would be safe.
No.
His presence alone had led the species to slaughter each other for limited land and resources. He was driving his own blood extinct while doing nothing.
The fact that he had and would have many cubs in the future was the only saving grace.
...
Two lions lay pressed into the earth. They were two of the many rogue lions living here and fighting for opportunity.
"These two showed more promise than the previous duo," Scarface said as he looked at the two challengers grovelling on the ground.
They were not down due to severe injuries, more like completely exhausted than anything.
Their bodies struggled to regain lost strength. They had no more fuel in the tank. Perhaps if they had not been starving before the fight, they would be able to get up.
"You don't say," Baraka deadpanned, his body full of red and injury from the fight.
He stood over the challengers, his massive body still tense, still ready despite the damage he had taken. Deep claw marks crossed both sides of his ribs. Blood soaked his fur so thoroughly that his original colour was almost impossible to see beneath the red. One eye was swollen nearly shut. His muzzle was split, teeth bared in irritation rather than threat.
He looked like something dragged out of a battlefield. Meanwhile, Scarface was all clean and unharmed.
The two challengers were named Ash and Vesh. They were young, but not inexperienced. Five years old and nearing the peak of their prime. They had shown brilliant resilience and intelligence against the might of Baraka, nearly taking him down.
Baraka was supposed to be the strongest among all of the lions in the Maasai Mara. Although he would never win in a fight against Scarface.
But the point is, even though he would not win, Baraka was bigger, stronger, faster, and meaner than Scarface.
He was the strongest lion based purely on merit, not result.
So it spoke a lot that he was struggling against these two lions who were not fully healthy and had starved for weeks even before the fight. Under proper guidance, they had the potential to be much more.
"Stay down," Scarface said to the two challengers trying to rise.
"Stay down and listen to me," he said. The two challengers finally slowed their movement and just lay there.
"You fought well," Scarface began with praise. "Too well for me to find it reasonable to turn you into corpses today and never let the world see what you could have been."
"Kings."
Scarface began pacing around them. His presence was domineering and held a charm unique to him. It was the same character that made him the leader among his brothers.
"The two of you are strong and in your prime. You should be the kings of your land and have your own pride to command. If this was any other time, that would be exactly what happens. So answer me this, why is that not the case?" Scarface asked.
Silence. A weird kind of silence fell on the battlefield as the two challengers looked at each other, confused.
"Hm? Don't you have answers?" Scarface inquired.
"I don't know what you're babbling about, old man. We are not strong enough, and that is all there is to it," Ash said from the ground. His name was fitting because his body was the colour of ash, unlike the other lions.
"Oh, but that's where you are wrong. You are strong enough," Scarface said.
"It's just that the shortage of land and resources has made the competition so tough that even exceptional lions like you cannot thrive," he said.
He towered over the fallen lions, letting them see the seriousness in his face. He was not mocking them. He was not being sarcastic. What he said, he believed to be true.
"What do you mean?" Vesh asked, his teeth bared in irritation.
But Scarface did not answer and simply asked another question. He did not want to tell them the answer. He wanted them to find it on their own.
"Tell me, why did you come here in the first place?" Scarface asked.
"Don't screw with me. We came here to fight for this land. To become kings," Ash answered.
"I understand. But why here out of all places? Why have you come to fight for this corner of dry grass? A place you know full well is ruled by a large coalition of lions?" Scarface said.
"You're not stupid. At least I don't think you two are. You have seen the shortage of prey here. You have seen the competition. There were wounds already on your bodies even though we'd never met. That meant you had to fight rogue lions, not even kings. That was how many lions are fighting over this land," he said.
"So why come here? Why not fight for some other land?" Scarface asked again. "Why not become the king of, I don't know, the Serengeti? That land is in the wet season right now, green for the taking. The Serengeti is also more than twice the size of the whole Maasai Mara."
Silence.
The two challengers looked at each other, frowning hard now.
Then they turned back to Scarface.
"You know why," Ash said as he pushed himself up and glared at Scarface.
"Don't take us to be naive just because of our youth," he said and turned to show the old scars on his body. They were huge scars visible even through the new blood and the fresh wounds sustained in the recent battle.
Scarface looked at that. At the impossible claw marks that were too wide to be that of a lion's.
"Trying to take over the Serengeti is the same as running off a cliff. Every lion knows that now. The stories are written in blood of those who didn't believe in those stories," Ash said.
"I was one of them. When I was younger, me and my blood brothers went there. We were so arrogant, so confident of taking land owned by a single lion. We thought that since we were three, nothing could stand in front of us," Ash said as he told the story, and Scarface listened carefully.
"Only I survived."
...
"Me too," Vesh said as he pushed himself to the side, showing his underbelly and the nasty scars that still remained to this day.
"I lost my brother the last time I was foolish enough to venture into the Serengeti," he said.
Scarface showed an angry snarl.
"Leo. You are talking about the lion Leo."
Both challengers seemed to flinch at the name, as if it was a name that should be feared even when uttered aloud.
"Leo, Leo, Leo, Leo," Scarface rapped like a madman. "The thing that ruled the whole of the Serengeti. The king so greedy he swallowed everything whole without giving anyone else a chance. He would let prey die of old age before letting outsiders get a full belly."
The two challengers looked at him like he was crazy.
"Do you know the situation of the Maasai Mara?" Scarface asked. "It is so much smaller than the Serengeti, but nine lion prides have to live here somehow. Me and my pride occupy half of it, and the other half of the land is shared by eight lion prides, when in history no more than five prides used to exist in this land."
"You might fear him, but you can't deny it. Leo is the problem," Scarface said. "He is a problem that needs a solution."
The sheer anger and determination were something they had never seen before in another lion. Scarface sounded bitter, yet sure. His eyes were furious, yet firm in their goal.
"What are you getting on with this?" Ash asked.
Scarface turned to walk away and answered.
"I'm building an army that consists of many kings with no land to rule. Half kings that wish to be whole. Lions strong enough to rule but denied the chance," he said.
"It is a coalition of brothers the likes of which the world has never seen. Our goal is to free the Serengeti of the monster known as Leo and share the land between us. Reclaim what was stolen from us," he said.
"A monster?" Vesh asked while still on the ground.
"You do not believe him to be a lion, do you? You've seen him. You've fought him. I did too, and I can attest that he is no lion. He is not even a beast," Scarface said.
"Leo is a mistake of nature. A curse on the living. A curse for the lion species as a whole. And my plan is to correct that," he said, turning back to them and taking a moment for his words to sink in.
"So join me, Ash, Vesh. Let us stop this useless fighting between us and turn towards the true and real enemy," he said, his voice clearer, almost a whisper.
"We will free the Serengeti of its monster. And then we shall split the land between us. We can go back to our old ways, fight each other for pride and something worth bleeding for, not just scraps," he said.
"I am going to restore balance in the ecosystem, and I could use your help," he said.
The two lions looked at each other once more before giving a hard nod.
Ash helped Vesh to his feet, and then the two of them stepped in front of Scarface. His eyes seemed contagious as the two challengers met them.
"Revenge will only be the thing that makes this sweeter," Scarface said.
..
..
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[3rd POV]
The walk back to camp was slow.
All the lions except Scarface had been in an intense battle, so they had to stop multiple times during the journey back. But now they were nearing the so-called camp.
Ash and Vesh knew it because they felt a presence.
Ash felt it first. His ears flicked back, nostrils flaring despite the ache in his chest. He slowed without realising it.
Vesh noticed a moment later.
"Do you smell that?" he muttered.
Scarface did not answer.
They crested a low rise, barely more than a swell in the land. And then the camp came into view.
Ash stopped dead.
Vesh's breath caught in his throat.
Below them, spread across a wide stretch of open ground broken by rocks and sparse acacia trees, lay lions. Male lions like they were big pride.
They weren't acting like rogue males either, they act like they were together. They act like a proper coalition.
But the sheer magnitude of their number was astounding.
Thirteen male lions.
Ash counted them twice to be sure.
Seventeen, including them.
They stood or lay in loose formation, some resting, some watching the plains, others grooming scars with slow, practised movements. Their manes varied in colour and thickness, some dark and heavy, others ragged and thin from past hardship. Every single one bore scars. Old ones. New ones. Marks of battles survived, not avoided.
These were not cubs playing at dominance.
These were grown lions. Full males. Kings, or lions who should have been.
"…That's not possible," Vesh said quietly.
Ash didn't answer. His eyes were locked on the sight before him.
In the Maasai Mara, two adult males tolerating each other for more than a few days was rare. Three invited bloodshed. Anything beyond that simply did not exist. Males killed each other for less. For territory scraps. For pride rights that barely fed them.
And yet here they were.
Seventeen of them, standing together.
"Don't be too surprised, the numbers will only grow," Baraka said while moving past them to join the group.
They felt something cold slide down his spine.
Fear at first, but then a satisfaction unlike anything before.
Yes.
This will be more than enough to kill that monster.
What stood before them was not a pride or a coalition.
It was an army.
It was the personification of nature trying to correct a mistake and restore balance.
..
..
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