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He's been known as a self-absorbed and selfish lion from his cub years. The lionesses that watched over him, had a constant issue of getting him to do something. He, personally speaking, didn't think he was lazy per se. He just knew what was more important at hand, and that definitely was not helping Brass with cubs. Yes, she had become like a mother figure to him, but she would not stop dragging him to the nursery! He was wanting to go and explore so badly that he was concentrating on not snapping at his adoptive mother.
"No, no, that's not how you do it." Brass chastited Paki, alright that's it.
He gently set down the newborn cub with its mother and left without turning back, even when Brass was calling out to him. He wasn't made for this! He wanted to be like Sterling or Brimstone, out in the open wild not stuck in a cave.
He kept on wandering and did not even realize he had gone far from the cave. Well far, as in, he could still see the lake and all the lionesses. But for a 10 month cub, it was pretty far. Paki sat down then and there, for one to stop himself from going further and two, well, to brood over the topic a little longer.
That's when he heard a noise. A whine? No, not close to be a whine. He stood up and made his way to the sound. Jumbling around for a little longer he came to a small clearing, and a deer, caught in a trap.
"Oi!" Paki called out. The deer flinched toward his direction, before letting out a small cry of pain. The spikes of the trap digging in further into its once shiny coat. Paki wasn't going to lie- and hell Brass's nature was probably rubbing off on him- but he didn't want to be the reason for this creature to hurt more.
"Don't worry I'm not going to hurt you. Are there anymore traps?" Paki said, quieter and softer so the deer wouldn't get scared as much. The deer kept on staring at him for a little longer, seeming to be trying to decide whether or not to so anything. Its eyes flicked around, before giving Paki a barely there nod. Paki slowly made his way to the deer, still alert for any traps. Surprisingly there weren't and soon he was standing before the small fawn.
Paki laid down, taking a long but more effective route. "No worries, I'm not going to hurt you." He said and after a little while, gave the fawn a tentative lick, where there was no open wounds. The deer let out a surprised sound but didn't move, probably hurts too much, Paki concluded. He let some minutes pass by, letting the fawn get used to his presence, before he made his next move.
He moved slowly, letting the fawn take in all of his movements. Paki took a look, the trap was bound to a sturdy pole. So that is where he's going to start his several hour rescue.
Hours pass, the fawn was finally freed. Yes, sure, he should have asked for someone's help, but even in their territory, hyenas, servals, vultures, you name it lurk around. Besides, the fawn must have been alone for several days already, leaving him would be too cruel. The fawn was finally freed, but now what? He hadn't thought of what to do, after he freed him. He took take him back to the Pride, but for a small cub like himself, it was too far.
A rustle in the bushes caught both of their attentions. The deer let out something close to a whine, while Paki took a defensive stance- huh, lessons with Bismuth are actually useful. Paki let out a warning growl, and surprisingly a serval- cub- came out. He looked, well, lost. Usually servals don't wander off so far. But taking a look, the serval is about Paki's age. So Paki, as a smart little cub he is, decides he was abandoned or his family was killed by the poachers.
"Um... I know I'm trespassing but I, um, was wondering if you could help me." The serval wouldn't look Paki in the eyes. The fawn behind Paki, wouldn't stop shaking, but it seemed he was getting tired- and thank you Brass!- Paki knew that wasn't good.
"What is it that you need?" Paki asked, hoping the serval would give him a straight answer. "Please, take me into your Pride. I don't need much, and I'll work with the Pride too! I just, want, want a place to call home." He says quickly. Paki knows his adoptive father- Resfeber- he's a kind lion. But taking in a serval might be too much.
"Come on, you'll come with me, its up for my father to decide. In the meantime, help me out with this guy." Paki steps back to reveal the still shaking and barely conscious fawn.
"O-oh, are you planning on eating him?" The serval tentatively asks, but still makes his way slowly to the two.
"No, he got caught in a trap. I'm taking him to the Pride as well, we could at least make sure he won't die in the next 3 hours." Paki said and bent at the fawn's eye level.
"We're taking you back to my Pride so they can help you. Try to not fall asleep." Paki cooed gently, giving the fawn one lick on his head, before the serval and him began to make their way back to the Pride.
Well, that had gone better. Paki had expected for the lionesses to decline on treating the fawn, but instead Brass had taken him and immediately began to apply different herbs. Paki stayed with the fawn for that time being. The fawn had given him the most scared and betrayed look, and Paki didn't have that cold of a heart to leave him. So he, instead, stayed with the fawn as Brass tended to his wounds. Licking that fawn's face now and then, to calm him down.
"He should be alright now. You had found him in time, otherwise he would have bled out." Brass informed Paki, the fawn already asleep, snuggled closely to Paki.
As Brass was making her way out of the nursery, Paki called after her, "Brass, I'm, I'm sorry."
Brass looked at him, surprised. "What for?"
"I shouldn't have stormed out, like I did earlier. I know you want me to learn everything about the Pride, but, but sometimes I just get cooped up. And I can't sit still as long as any other lion, so, what I'm trying to say-." Paki tried his best to explain.
"I'm sorry." He finally sighed. No use of bringing his dislikes into the conversation.
Brass made her way to him and licked the top of his head. "I forgive you. But next time, tell me when you want to leave." She said.
"I'm sorry too, I shouldn't have been selfish and at least should have noticed your restlessness."
Paki shook his head. "Don't apologize. It doesn't sit well with me, when the 'Grumpy Brass' is apologizing to me." Paki turned the last part into a joke without meaning to. But instead of hearing a full lecture for the next hour, Brass instead laughed. She smiled at him and made her way out of the nursery.
"You're fine. This is the nursery of our Pride. The lions here won't hurt you." Paki explained to the very confused fawn. He had woken up not too long ago, but wouldn't calm down until Paki came back from taking a walk.
"That is not for you to decide." Paki, feeling the fawn shrink behind him, turned to see Resfeber. "You are yet to be the next king, you shouldn't be the one to make decisions." Resfeber warned, Paki let out a growl. Despite being only 10 months old, he knew that his father wanted strong leader.
"Sorry to say, father, but you're not the one who had been helping to free the fawn for the past 3 hours. I should be the one to decide what happens to him." Paki retorted, huffing.
Resfeber's lips slowly quirked upward into a smile. "That's my son. So, care to enlighten me?" He asked and sat next to Paki and the fawn.
Paki explained everything up to the point, stopping sometimes to nudge the fawn to stop him shaking.
"I see. Well, I'm sure you already know this but, there are some humans that are bad. Those are called 'poachers.' They hunt any animal for the skins, tusks, anything really. But in the process don't use the carcass correctly. We lions eat everything and use almost everything. It is a respectful way of showing that the animal's death is not for a wasted cause. The humans, however, are wasting the carcasses left and right, especially this month. This little guy must have been poking his nose around an area that was not meant for him. The herd probably couldn't do anything other than leave him." Resfeber explained to Paki.
Of course Paki knew this fact. He had seen far off and smelled the number of animals that were killed.
"Why?" Paki's only question that kept floating around for number of days now.
"Who knows. But it is very likely that they will not stop anytime soon. So, any humans that you see, kill them. Yes it sounds very cruel. But they are responsible for so many wasted deaths, that if only 20 of them die, it wouldn't make up for the 3 deaths of our kinds." Resfeber explained, Paki nodded. Indeed it does sound cruel, but Paki knew that he would do anything for his Pride.
"Oh, and there was a serval with you-" Resfeber began.
"Don't kill him! Is he dead, how long have I been here?" Paki cut Resfeber off abruptly. Resfeber looked at him, before he broke down into soft laughter.
"Don't worry, he's fine. He explained himself to me, and what you had said to him. He's part of our Pride now. More specifically, he's your guardian now." Resfeber said.
"Wait, what?" Paki knew his face was probably confused as f*ck, but this was a first.
"Brass had informed me of your restlessness, the serval- his name is Kivu- is now to accompany you anytime you want to go to the outskirts of the Pride." Resfeber said, through his laughter.
"I can, I can go to the outskirts?" Paki couldn't believe his ears, his overprotective father was letting him go to the most dangerous grounds of the Pride?
"What about him?" Paki looks back at the fawn, who had snuggled up to Paki and fallen asleep again. Resfeber smiled at his son, it wasn't common to see Paki being concerned over another creature other than the Pride.
"He can stay with us. He won't survive long out in the wild, without all of his four legs." Resfeber nodded at the missing limb. The fawn had struggled against the bounds too much, that it cut to his bone. Brass and Henna both had to work on the leg for an hour, trying to think of a way to save the limb, but it was inevitable. In the end, they had to break that last part of the bone, that was barely hanging and wrap the limb.
"I'm very proud of you, Paki." Resfeber, suddenly says, making Paki snap his head up at him.
"Why...?" Paki couldn't help but ask. Resfeber smiled.
"You had done something out of pure kindness. You could have left the fawn out there, and let someone else get to him or eaten him yourself. And Kivu, you could have left him where he was or killed him for trespassing. But look where both of them are now." Resfeber got up to leave.
"It is a good thing that I named you Paki." Resfeber said, as he walked out the cave.
"Father, what does it mean?" Paki called out, Resfeber turned and smiled.
"Witness."
The fawn- Lateef- healed quickly with the help of the best Tenders in the Pride. Within several months, Lateef was back up on his hooves, limping about happily, trying to learn how to walk again.
"Oi, slow down, there's a ledge up there." Paki called out, Lateef slowly limped to a stop, before laying down onto the soft grass huffing.
"What? Still bad at stopping, aren't I?" He asked. Kivu and Paki got along quickly, learning that they had many things in common. Lateef was next to join them into their small group of friendship. He had, at first, been very stubborn about talking. Then again, he was probably scared out of his mind to be living with natural predators. But soon, he learned that they wouldn't hurt him, and began to talk more often.
"You're getting better, but I really don't need you to have anymore scars or you dying from falling off the edge." Paki joked, getting a chuckle out of Lateef, and a disappointed huff from Kivu.
The three friends spent the day laying at the top of the hill. A rainy season had hit their area not too long ago, and all three wanted to feel the rain battering gently on their coats for a little while. They had spent the day talking about everything and nothing.
"Lateef, your right!" Paki called out, swiping a merciless paw at his own opponent. "Kivu, above!" Paki ordered once more, Kivu nodded before taking a running start, jumping onto Paki's back, and landing in higher land.
Resfeber was long dead. The Pride had prospered as much as Paki's strength would let him. But now, it had been a year since Resfeber died, Paki himself was 4 years old now.
Back in the fight, Paki had already taken down good number of 8 humans. They had tracked one of Paki's lionesses, and now they decided to attack the Pride. Paki grinned- good. What the humans didn't know, is that the Pride was the strongest in the west. They had picked a fight with the wrong Pride, and now they won't let them go, until every one of the humans was dead.
"Ducat! Three escaping up ahead!" Paki called out, Ducat nodded and powered through the group of people trying to hold down Ducat and went after the other three. Paki looked around himself, most of the humans were already dead, so now he was mainly on defence for others.
Paki looked up at a screech. Oseye, Paki's last friend and guide- a Pale Chanting Goshawk- was doing rounds above, making sure no other Pride or enemy ambushes them. Oseye, dove down, spreading her wings when she got to close proximity of the ground.
"A group of humans, north of here, are ambushing Fuchsia and Sepia." Oseye informed him, before spreading her wings again and flying up.
Paki immediately took action, running to the two lionesses. He then took a long route around, creeping up behind the humans with rifles. The group looked back, afraid, when they saw Paki coming closer. They screamed something- something that Paki didn't understand- and Paki then snapped each of their bodies into halves.
He walked up closer to the edge of the cliff, where he was, to survey the area. Most of the lionesses saw him, and began to make their way to him.
That is when a shot rang out, and pain exploded in Paki's shoulder. He looked up, ignoring the pain, and saw the last human above him. Paki let out a raging roar, and began to go after the last human.
When Paki saw him, he crouched down and was ready to pounce. But that is when the poacher turned around and revealed Paki's latest daughter as his hostage.
The man was speaking something, but Paki wasn't paying attention. His vision was going red with rage. He also caught movement of his friends next to him. Kivu was growling, Oseye was screeching, Lateef was making his own sound of rage. No, this man was Paki's kill- he growled, and his friends took a step back. Paki began to make his way over to the man, who still looked very smug.
The man kept talking to the stupid creature in front of him. The idea of taking one of the cubs, was great. Now all he had to do is toss the cub into a cage and the lion- or whatever he was- would jump in. But the next thing he knew, the lion was gone. The human looked around quickly, but as he was turning his head left, he was knocked down.
Paki's daughter fell from the human's hands and he caught her by her collar. Walking back to his friends. He nuzzled her cheek, making sure she didn't have too many wounds, most which were scratches. She mewled and Paki let out a comforting purr, before turning and letting that purr escalate to a full growl and then a roar of fury. The human looked up at him, complete fear taking over him. Shaking like a leaf, he tried to escape but Paki wasn't going to have any of that.
The lion slammed his paw down on the man's chest, making the human lose his breath. Paki grabbed the man's neck, flung him from side to side, before slamming him back down onto the ground. The human's neck was a bloody mess, with bones slowly beginning to show.
Paki grinned eerily, before looking at his friends and daughter, "Take her back to the caves. Let the tenders look over everyone and report to me, when I return." He said, in a calm manner, even as his paw was choking the man.
"Want one of us to hang back?" Lateef asked tentatively, Paki just shook his head.
"No worries, just want to handle this unfinished business by myself." He smiled, turning back to the man.
Paki let the group leave, giving them several minutes, before returning to the man.
"Dude, that was scary. I mean I've seen you been mad, but that was downright terrifying." Kivu spoke as Paki was cleaning blood out of his daughter's fur.
"Why?" He looked up at them, not sure what they were talking about.
All three exchanged some looks, before turning back to Paki, "Well, you sure as hell sounded calm, but your face said completely otherwise. Like, the fact that we were there was a hindrance from you killing the human." Oseye said after a moment of silence.
"Really? I didn't realize. Sorry guys if I scared you. I guess I was just stuck in my own anger." Paki looked down at his now sleeping daughter.
"No worries, you get that face every time one of the lions or us get hurt in a battle. But the fact that it was your daughter this time, it would make sense that you would be more than just angry." Kivu shrugged, everyone agreed with nods.
Each one of them splayed out onto the ground, soon falling asleep. Paki, however, was nowhere close to tired. Too wired up that something else would attack them any minute.
"You should sleep." Paki looked at the entrance to find his Queen, Andromeda. She was a simple creature, but in that, she was beautiful.
"Like I can." Paki got up and moved to Andromeda, leaving the cave. The two walked about the caves, making sure all of the lionesses were asleep and tended to.
"I know you were scared, but you need to not hold on to that blame." Andromeda finally spoke as the two sat down before the large lake.
"I know, but I should have kept closer look after the nursery, instead of running off head first into battle." Paki said, he knew that Andromeda was right, but he just couldn't stop thinking. What if he was too late? What if he never saw that human? He could have lost his daughter then and there.
"Then that is a good thing to think about next time. I'm not saying that there will be anymore attacks like these anytime soon. But you can use this experience for future battle strategies." Andromeda said, once more, looks can be deceiving. Andromeda was a simple lioness, but a smart one at that.
"Do you have any suggestions, my Queen?" Paki chuckled and placed his head on top of hers.
"Are you suggesting that I take over?" She retorted back, nuzzling up to him.
"What? Just because I'm king of the Pride, doesn't mean that I rule alone. That's why what was his name-?" Paki began.
"Дъявол." Andromeda pitched the name in.
"Yeah, him. Had a Queen. There is no way for a lion to rule by himself, unless it is a cruel dictator, or something." Paki huffed, he knows several lions that are that way- and he despises them with passion.
"I don't know what I would do without you." Paki huffed, and settled down with Andromeda.
"Me neither."
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