Chapter 3: The Flint that Births the Spark

Hello everyone, I'm back with another chapter of the Story of our Exile. Sorry it took me so long to get to this chapter, numerous small things came between points of writing this chapter where I was planning stuff for some of my other fanfics down the road, I wrote a new one shot fanfic about a month ago, I read some other fanfics, and other things non-fanfiction related that distracted me from this, but I'm back now. I hope you all will enjoy this chapter and please don't forget to leave and review, now enjoy.

Uru, Ahadi, and Amani were approaching their friend Trumpet's elephant herd. Uru looked back towards Amani. The young hyena was running several dozen feet behind them.

"Amani come on, we're almost to the elephant herd!" Uru shouted toward the young hyena.

Ahadi smirked back at the Amani.

"Yeah, hurry up slowpoke!" Ahadi shouted.

"Ahadi, don't be rude." Uru said.

Uru decided to stop to let Amani catch up, so she skidded to a halt, Ahadi following her example. Amani caught up with them, panting and legs shaking. He fell flat to the ground from being so out of breath.

"Uru, are we almost there yet?" Amani asked.

Uru quickly ran up the hill behind them and looked over the ridge. Sure enough, Trumpet's elephant herd was there.

"Yep, just over the ridge. Come on, let's find Trumpet." Uru said.

"Oh, I don't think I can take another step without water." Amani said.

"Okay than. Ahadi, carry Amani." Uru said, looking towards the older lion.

"What?" Ahadi exclaimed.

Ahadi sighed and gently picked Amani up and put him on his back.

"Alright, let's find this elephant friend of yours." Ahadi grumbled.

Ahadi got up on the ridge with Uru and both lions slid down the ridge's slope. Amani almost slid off of Ahadi's back, so grabbed onto his mane. Ahadi gave a small grunt of discomfort.

"Stop pulling on my mane, you leftover muncher." Ahadi said.

"Sorry." Amani simply said.

Uru and Ahadi ran through the elephant herd, looking for Trumpet. Uru returned the occasional greeting to other elephants of the heard and quickly avoided accidently getting stepped on once or twice. Ahadi however wasn't so lucky and got his tail stepped on and nearly bucked Amani off as he jumped and yowled in pain.

"Oh, sorry." the responsible elephant apologized.

"Grrr. You big, clumsy, long-nosed lump! Watch where you put those big, dumb feet of yours!" Ahadi growled before continuing to follow Uru.

Uru eventually spotted her and Amani's elephant friend, Trumpet, and ran up to him.

"Hay, Trumpet!" Uru called.

A teenaged elephant looked towards Uru and greeted her.

"Hay, Uru! How's it going?" the elephant asked, ruffling her head with his trunk.

"As far as dry season days go, not to bad." Uru replied.

Trumpet looked and saw Ahadi coming up to them to with Amani on his back.

"Is Amani okay?" Trumpet asked, concerned.

"Yeah, he just needs water." Ahadi replied.

"Yeah, and hay Trumpet," Uru said, looking around before whispering up to her elephant friend. "Amani said that the other day, you told him about a small pool of water you found that you wanted to show me and him."

"Oh yeah, I did and have been waiting to show you two." Trumpet whispered back.

"Can you take us to it?" Uru asked.

"Of course, follow me." Trumpet said.

"Oh, and one more thing Trumpet." Ahaid added in. "Can you carry this guy; I don't want to risk him pulling on my mane again."

"Hay, I was about to slip." Amani protested.

Trumpet just wrapped his trunk around Amani and put him on his back before he and Ahadi could get into some childish argument. Trumpet than led the two lions to the small pool of water that he had found. It was hidden within a small grove of trees, keeping it well hidden; and thick, dense leaves protected the watering from the scorching sun, leaving it cool.

"Finally, water." Amani sighed once he saw it.

Trumpet wrapped his trunk around Amani and threw him into the small pool of water.

"In you go!" Trumpet joyfully shouted.

Amani screamed as he flew through the air into the water. Water went up his nose and into his open mouth as he fell in. The young hyena quickly resurfaced, coughing and having some difficulties to stay afloat at first. Ahadi couldn't stop himself from laughing at Amani's misfortune. Uru and Trumpet both glared at him.

An idea suddenly came to their heads. They both grinned at each other and nodded.

"Hay Ahadi, I call this one the 'lionapult.'" Trumpet said.

Before Ahadi could respond, Trumpet grabbed him by the waist with his trunk and threw him into a further, shallower part of the pool. Ahadi laded painfully flat, but overall unhurt. This time, Uru and Trumpet laughed at Ahadi's misfortune.

"Ugh. Hyenas, princesses, elephants, and their 'lionapult.'" Ahadi groaned.

Once their laughing fit was over, Uru looked up to Trumpet.

"Alright Trumpet, now do me please." Uru asked.

Trumpet grabbed Uru with his trunk and threw her into the water like he first did with Amani.

"Alright!" Uru said as she plunged down into the water.

When she resurfaced, she looked towards Amani, who was smiling for the first time today, but only slightly.

"Thanks Trumpet, this swim is just what we needed." Amani thanked.

"It was my pleasure you guys. I should be getting back to the herd now before they start to miss me. Have fun in there." Trumpet said as he walked off.

All three waved good-bye to Trumpet before they began to decide what water game to play.

"Hay, how about we play croc attack?" Uru asked Amani.

"Sure, but who's going to be the crocodile first?" Amani asked.

"You are Amani. You suggested we get Trumpet to bring us here in the first place." Uru said.

"Oh, okay." Amani agreed.

"Yeah, you'll be the croc and I'll be a member of the legendary Lion Guard, coming in to save the day and the croc's victim." Uru said.

"Ha! And who is going to be the croc's victim?" Ahadi asked.

Uru and Amani just stared towards Ahadi.

"What are you two staring at?" Ahadi asked.

Ahadi suddenly realized what they were staring at him for; he was going to me Amani's victim.

"Typical." Ahadi sighed and whispered to himself.

Meanwhile, somewhere else in the Pride Lands, King Mohatu and Prince Cheza were walking around. Mohatu had asked where Uru was, having not seen her when he got up, so his son, Cheza, and brother-in-law, Heshima had informed him of what she was up to and that Ahadi was with her. The two lions were near the watering hole, overseeing the animals there. Mohatu looked on proudly at the animals. When everyone figured out that this dry season was going to long overstay it's welcome, Mohatu had been greatly worried.

Dry seasons always caused problems with the animals, especially when it came to resources like water. When he had placed the limiting laws on how much an animal should drink, he feared that he might face resistance against it, but all animals had agreed that it had seemed fair. Because of that, the Pride Lands was prospering through their hardships. Mohatu was trying to look for Uru as he observed the animals, but couldn't see her.

"Cheza." Mohatu addressed.

"Yes father?" Cheza asked.

"I thought Heshima said that Ahadi was taking Uru to the watering hole to meet Amani, but I don't see them." Mohatu said.

"They're probably out in the savanna somewhere playing or maybe swimming in some hidden pool of water." Cheza said, a joking tone coming out at the hidden pool of water statement.

"Indeed so." Mohatu agreed with a chuckled.

Mohatu began to turn away from the watering, deciding to leave the animals to drink in peace.

"Come Cheza, let us patrol the rest of the kingdom to make sure there's no problems among the other animal herds or any invaders." Mohatu said.

Cheza turned and followed his father into the savannah to be on the lookout for any trouble that would need their attention. Finding trouble in the kingdom that needed to be solved was however hard for an animal like Mohatu though. He was getting old and he could not always know when trouble was happening and needed to be fixed. Sometimes Mohatu had the birds of the kingdom help him keep an eye out for trouble and report it to him if it needed his attention. That move is what helped him stop a fight that was happening at the watering hole a few months back.

Mary, the hyena matriarch as always, was testing the limits and hunting near the watering hole when hunting there was forbidden. She and her hunting party had killed a couple animals and would have continued if he hadn't stepped in and eventually convinced her to stop. Mohatu sighed when thinking of that. He wanted to be a good king for his kingdom and he was, but when it came to Matriarch Mary and even her mate, Chief Cletus, those two hyenas could push him to near boiling point to where he wanted to strike them for disobeying him, but he was able to restrain himself from doing so. Mohatu deeply missed Mary's parents.

They and Mohatu had been good friends when they were younger and they were wise rulers. Mohatu couldn't help but think that due to Mary's way of ruling a hyena clan and her attitude, she was slowly bringing down the clan her parents and ancestors had built. Mohatu however had hope in Uru's friendship with Mary's son Amani.

"You know son, thinking of Uru and Amani. With times like these and the current relationship between the lions and hyenas of the Pride Lands, it's a good thing that she and him are friends." Mohatu said.

"Yes father." Cheza agreed.

"You see son, the relationship between us lions and hyenas have always been complicated. We lions compete with many other predators like cheetah, leopards, and many other animals for territory and food, but hyenas have always been the ones we compete with most." Mohatu said.

"And why is that father?" Cheza asked.

"Nobody really knows." Mohatu said, shaking his head. "It's just been that way since the beginning of time, before and after lion, hyenas, and other animals abandoned the old way of things. We lions and hyenas have however grown through the hundreds, even thousands of generations, we Pride Landers most of all some would say."

"Like how our kingdom was founded. King Kwanza is given the Pride Lands and taught how to rule by the old hyena matriarch, Mambwa?" Cheza asked.

"Yes, our kingdom only exists because of the kindness a hyena showed to a lion and in doing so, you and I and the rest of our pride were born thanks to the rippling effect of Matriarch Mambwa's kindness." Mohatu stated. "So, you see son, two different creatures who are supposed to be each other's sworn enemies instead of showing hostility showed kindness to each other and created a friendship that if nurtured and guided the right way can last for far longer than just one or two lifetimes."

"Yes father, I think I understand." Cheza replied. "It's just that… what about Mary.

Mohatu sighed.

"Well you see Cheza, it's like fruit." Mohatu said.

"Fruit?" Cheza said with a laugh.

"Yes, I know it might sound silly and childlike, but sometimes silly and childlike things can have the greatest lessons of wisdom in them." Mohatu agreed. "As I was saying, those types of friendships between different animals is like a fruit. Talking to them to get to know them are the planting of the seeds and growing of the tree and fruit. The more you talk to the different species, the more it ripens until it's perfect. Sadly though, as time goes by it'll begin to rot and lose its flavor, but it is not the end. New fruit will grow and it may rot to, but it'll begin anew again and again and again and again just so long as you nurture it and guide it." Mohatu explained.

Cheza was on the ground laughing and snorting like a pig. Cheza got a hold of himself and stood up

"I'm, I'm sorry dad. I don't mean to laugh, it holds a very good point, but comparing it to fruit is just so hilarious." Cheza said, holding his chest.

"It's no harm son. I laughed the same way as you did when my father told me, who did the same when his father told him, and his father before him. I think he mentioned that it was something Matriarch Mambwa told King Kwanza." Mohatu said, laughing himself.

"Yes father, I see now. Matriarch Mary and Chief Cletus are the fruit at its rotten stage, but Uru and Amani's friendship is the fruit about to grow back." Cheza said.

"Yes, they are." Mohatu agreed.

Father and son continued to move on. They came to the top of a hill and saw the hunting party, led by Queen Juli not too far off. They were coming on a wildebeest herd. There were two groups of three on the left and right to surround the wildebeest while Queen Juli brought up the rear with a group of four lionesses, herself included. There was however one other lioness among them.

In the way back of the group, a few paces away from them was a lioness. She was older than Cheza, but younger than all the huntresses. Mohatu looked to his son as he noticed him eyeing the lioness in the back of the hunting group.

"Give the hunting group a couple minutes before going down to greet her." Mohatu suggested.

Cheza just nodded in understanding. Within a minute, the hunting party rushed the small wildebeest herd and quickly caught one as the young lioness ran along with them to observe.

"Alright, you can go to her now Cheza." Mohatu said.

Cheza quickly ran down the hill and to the hunting party. The eleven lionesses were congratulating each other on the successful hunt. They all noticed Cheza coming up to them and turned to greet him.

"Hello Prince Cheza." all the huntresses greeted

"Hello back everyone." Cheza said, returning the greeting. "That looked like a pretty smooth hunt."

"Well, with the dry season and sparse resources, it's made all animals weaker and easier to hunt." Cheza's mother pointed out.

Cheza nodded in agreement before he looked towards the youngest huntress. She had dirty blonde colored fur, her underbelly was a so light yellow that it looked white, her ears were rimmed black, and she had brown eyes. Cheza looked towards another lioness who looked exactly like her, just without the black rimmed ears.

"Sadie, do you mind if borrow Kwanba for a little while?" Cheza asked.

"Go right on, your mother, me, and the rest of the girls can take it from here." Sadie replied.

Kwanba gave Cheza a small smile before booth of them began to walk off as the hunting party dragged their kill back to Pride Rock. When they were long out of earshot, Cheza began the conversation.

"So Kwanba, how was the hunt?" Cheza asked.

"It went well. I've got my stalking, slow, quiet, steady breaths, and pouncing perfected. I've accompanied and observed the hunting parties over several dozen times. From what my and your mom says, they think I'm ready for my first solo hunt next month when I turn three."

"Wow, that's amazing Kwanba, but are you sure you want to take it next month?" Cheza asked.

"Sure, why shouldn't I?" Kwanba asked.

"It's just that the short dry season has overstayed it's welcome for months when it should have been rainy for the past couple months since it's the rainy season and next month it'll be the long dry season. That'll last for five months and it'll making hunting more hit and miserable than usual." Cheza explained. "So, wouldn't you want to wait until the next rainy season when the air will be cooler and more suitable to hunt and prey will be mor in abundance?"

"Yes, I see that Cheza, but I don't think I can wait that long. Dry season or no dry season, I'll be up to it." Kwanba said with confidence.

"Well, it's a good thing to see that this overtime dry season hasn't broken your spirit." Cheza said.

"Oh, come on, a little hot day during your first solo hunt never hurt anybody." Kwanba replied.

The two friends laughed before Cheza asked as question.

"Hay, why don't you show me a few hunting skills?" Cheza asked. "Who knows, they could come in handy one day."

"Sure, male lions don't usually hunt, but maybe we can have the pride issue you a solo hunt as well. You are the future king after all." Kwanba enthusiastically suggested.

"Sounds good to me." Cheza said.

"Alright, how about we get Uru to help us out with it to. I could help teach her to and we can all practice and learn how to hunt with a small hunting party?" Kwanba asked.

"Sure, okay. But I don't know where she is." Cheza said. "She and Ahadi went to meet Amani by the watering hole, but they weren't there when me and dad stopped by."

"Oh well, I guess that means we'll just have to practice ourselves, but we'll keep an eye out for them." Kwanba said. "Now come on, I know the perfect field to practice in."

So Kwanba led Cheza to a field with tall grass. They came across a small herd of zebras running in fright before they arrived.

"I wonder what caused them to panic and run?" Kwanba wondered out loud.

"Some other carnivore must have been hunting and either succeeded or failed in pursuit." Cheza guessed.

Kwanba continued to lead Cheza towards the field. She gave him a few pointers before she had him turn around and count to a hundred as she hid herself somewhere in the field to be hunted. When Cheza finished counting, she moved downwind so Kwanba wouldn't smell her. He soon found tracks that belonged to Kwanba and followed them. He soon found her drawing in the dry ground with a claw.

He studied everything before he pounced at her silently. He was about to successfully land on her before suddenly…

"AHHH! Somebody help me!" a voice cried.

Cheza and Kwanba both looked into the distance as the sound of that voice. Kwanba had moved out of the way, causing Cheza to fall down hard on his jaw.

"Who was that who screamed?" Kwanba asked.

"It sounded like a little girl's voice." Cheza said as he got back to his paws.

"Yeah, but who?" Kwanba questioned.

Cheza listened more carefully until the scream came again. He gasped when he realized who that scream belonged to.

"That's Uru!" Cheza realized.

Somewhere deep in the savannah, the hyena chief, Cletus was skulking through the savannah. After he and his mate, Matriarch Mary talked about their son, Amani this morning and decided to have another child, hopefully a daughter, to replace him as heir to the clan since they thought he was unworthy. He was currently searching for a zebra heard so he could take one back to Mary for an old hyena birth blessing ritual, which had been part of hyena culture since the first hyenas walked the earth. When a female hyena became pregnant, her mate would go on solo hunt for the type of animal his mate liked the least. The female was tasked to eat the entire animal, skin, meat, organs, bones, and all within five days and was given an hour to rest if she got to a point where she couldn't eat anymore, she was also able to sleep during the night as well, all while her mate watched over her.

Hyena society believed that if the female finished her meal within those five days, the pup weather it was female or male would be strong. If the female didn't finish, it was believed that the cub would be born weak or stillborn, radical hyena traditionalists would even kill the pup out of mercy if that happened. The ritual didn't stop there however. If the female did finish, any and all family members, close and distant relatives, would dip their paws in the still wet blood if there was any and place their paws of the female's swollen belly to represent their bonds as family and than the female's mate would lick the blood away clean from the female's belly and face. Next, the female would go on a solo hunt of her own for the animal she liked best and eat it with her mate, this meal didn't have to be eaten within a specific amount of time.

When the pup was born, both parents would cut a small wound on their chests and smear the blood on the pup's forehead like some sort of painted on crown and hold it up to the sky. Some called this old tradition gluttonous and some parts of it brutal, but it was to spiritually give the pup strength. The lions however had no such ritual, all they did was roar loudly. A similarity the lions had with the hyena tradition however was that instead of the parent's own blood they would crack open some gourd or some kind of fruit and smear its juice along the cub's head before sprinkling them with dust.

"I bet the lions who decided to do that just decided to be a bunch copycats." Cletus said to himself as he thought that.

Cletus took a moment to laugh at his own pun before continuing on his solo hunt. He soon enough found a herd of zebras. He watched for a while, waiting for one to come close enough so he could put the chomp on it. Much to Cletus' bloodthirsty excitement, what appeared to be the herd's leader was unknowingly coming his way. This was perfect for the hyena birthing ritual.

Cletus thought that with the herd's leader, there was no way that his and Mary's new pup wouldn't be born a strong and healthy girl. However, in the Pride Lands, hunting herd leaders, their heirs, pregnant mothers, and the young was strictly forbidden.

"Oh, who cares?" Cletus said to himself while sinisterly grinning from ear to ear. "I'm sure this guy has got a son to replace his stripey butt, plus me and Mary need him way more than his herd does and they'll panic and run too quickly to even know it was me. If Mohatu confronts us, we can just say it might have been some clanless hyena who happened to wander into the Pride Lands. Now, here stripey, stripey"

The zebra herd leader soon came within pouncing distance of Cletus and had it's back turned to him, which was perfect. If he landed on the zebra's rump, he'd force it to the ground, giving him more time to grab onto it's neck and snap it. Everything seemed to be going Cletus' way today. Cletus stalked a little closer before he made his pounce, paws outstretched. Cletus' hunt was about to be successful until…

"Mstari, look out behind you!" a voice shouted.

The zebra leader looked behind him and saw Cletus sailing through the air towards him. The zebra kicked up at Cletus, striking him in the chest with his hooves. Cletus was sent at least a dozen feet back while Mstari and his herd quickly panicked and began to ran as far away as they could from Cletus. Cletus was clutching his chest in pain. Miraculously nothing was broken, but it was throbbing with pain and would no doubt leave a mother of a bruise.

The sharp edges of the hoof had also broken the skin, causing some slight bleeding and there might have been some internal bleeding, but there was no way for Cletus to tell. Cletus watched as the zebras galloped as fast as they could. There was no way he was going to catch them, especially with his throbbing chest.

"Man, that was close. That hyena almost took down Mstari." the voice that warned the zebra leader said.

Cletus' ears perked up and flickered as he heard that voice; it sounded like a young female. Cletus growled as he painfully and slowly tried to stand up. He was going to make whoever that voice belonged to and whoever it sounded like they were with pay for ruining his hunt.

"Oh, he seems like he's hurt. Come, we should go help him." the same voice said.

"Are you sure that's wise. We ruined his hunt and he got hurt because of us." a new voice that sounded familiar to Cletus, said.

"He's probably not part of your clan. Maybe he just discovered the Pride Lands and doesn't know the hunting laws and it's only right to help him if he's badly hurt because of us." the first voice said.

Cletus heard the two strangers walking towards him.

"Hay mister, are you alright?" the first voice asked.

Cletus didn't respond, he just continued to try and stand up. One of the strangers tried to reach out to help him up, but he sharply turned towards them with a savage snarl on his face. One of the strangers gasped when they saw Cletus' face and it was his son Amani and lion princess, Uru.

"Da- da- dad!" Amani exclaimed fearfully.

"Amani? Princess Uru." Cletus exclaimed.

Cletus' initial surprise to have come across his son and the lion princess subsided, replaced with his previous anger at his ruined hunt.

"You ruined my hunt you two tail biters!" Cletus angrily growled.

Uru and Amani fearfully backed up as Cletus advanced on them while snarling.

"Do you two realize what you did?" Cletus growled.

"Dad, we're sorry we ruined your hunt, but you were about to take out the herd's leader." Amani tried to reason.

"Yeah, and there are other herds to hunt. Like, there's an impala herd just over the next ridge." Uru explained.

"Impala's won't do me any good!" Cletus snapped.

"W- why?" Uru asked.

"Because this hunt ain't no normal hunt!" Cletus said.

"Not a normal hunt, but what's the difference? Hunting is hunting." Uru said.

"This is a ceremonial hyena hunt that's part of the hyena birth blessing ritual!" Cletus said

"Hyena birth blessing ritual?" Uru questioned.

"Yes, the male hyena hunts for his mate's least favorite meat and brings it to her to eat within a certain amount of days than she goes on a hunt of her own and a few things between those so the pup is born strong." Cletus explained.

"So, wait, Amani's mom is pregnant?" Uru asked.

"No, but she will be later tonight." Cletus said.

"Why did you and mom decide to have another pup dad?" Amani asked.

Cletus turned his attention to Amani.

"Because of you." Cletus said.

"Because of me?" Amani questioned.

"Yes. Your mother and I are fed up with you never listening to us and sneaking out to meet up with this little serving wench. So, we decided to have another pup, hopefully a female, to replace you." Cletus ranted.

Uru looked towards Amani. The young hyena looked reasonably hurt by his father's rant. Amani knew he wasn't the exact child his parents wanted, but he never thought they would decide to have a pup that would replace him as heir to the clan. Cletus saw his son's hurt expression as well, but continued the rant.

"Your mother and I did the hyena birth blessing ritual before we conceived you and we won't make that same mistake again so hopefully we'll have a stronger and far more worthy heir to the clan." Cletus declared. "But thanks to you two, my perfect hunt was ruined. A herd leader was perfect for the blessing ritual, it would have assured my and Mary's success and who knows when I'll get a perfect hunt like that again."

The veins in Cletus' neck were bulging as he dug his claws into the ground and growled. Cletus glared down at the young animals and opened his mouth to further scold them for ruining his hunt when he began to focus more on Uru. An idea suddenly came to his head. The idea wasn't exactly hyena tradition, but he didn't see how it would ruin the hyena birth blessing ritual and he didn't think Mary would see it either.

"But you know, that might not be a problem anymore and do you little milk suckers wanna know why?" Cletus asked.

The two nodded nervously.

"Hyenas and lions here in the Pride Lands and in some other lands may have friendly relationships, but that doesn't look past the fact that our kinds have been natural enemies since our first ancestors." Cletus began to say, eyeing Uru. "So, why don't I just take you to Mary so she can eat you for the hyena birth blessing ritual to give our future daughter and the clan's future matriarch strength."

Uru and Amani grasped as Cletus said that.

"The blessing ritual calls for the female to eat her least favorite meat, but when it comes to lions and hyenas being natural enemies like I just explained, well, why wouldn't that work just as well, maybe ever far better." Cletus further explained.

"But, but dad, you can't do this. Uru is the princess." Amani said.

"And the second born and in any type of leadership that focuses on bloodline succession all you need is a first born. Also, she doesn't have the roar of the elders since she isn't a second daughter or son. So, that makes her unimportant really." Cletus said. "Besides, nobody needs to know about this. We can just say that she had an accident, a BLOODY accident. Like, she was attacked by a rogue lion, hyena, or something and that I came across the scene and tried to save you two, but I was too late to save Uru. We can inform the royal family and show a couple fake tears to make them believe us and when they bury her, I'll just dig her cold little lifeless body up and bring it to Mary so she can eat her and give strength to our newborn daughter."

Uru and Amani backed up as Cletus continued to advance on them.

"Chief Cletus please, you don't have to do this." Uru said.

"Your right, I don't have to, but I want to." Cletus replied.

"But you have no idea of knowing if your theory will work. Me and Amani can find another zebra herd for you and can even help." Uru frantically said to try and save herself.

"Sorry, but that's what you get for ruining the hyena birth blessing ritual hunt." Cletus said.

Cletus lowered himself further to the ground, ready to pounce.

"Now Uru, be a good little princess and COME HERE!" Cletus said as he pounced.

"Wow!" Uru and Amani shouted out of reflex as they jumped out of the way of Cletus's teeth.

Cletus quickly turned to take another bite at them, but Amani quickly threw rough, dry dirt into his father's eyes. Cletus hissed in irritation when the dirt hit his eyes. Uru and Amani quickly made a run for it into the tall grass while Cletus was distracted with trying to rub the dirt out of his eyes. The two tried to look for places to hide where Cletus wouldn't find them or at least be able to reach them.

"We gotta find somewhere to hide, like a narrow hollowed out log, between some boulders, or a mud pit that we can cover ourselves with." Amani frantically suggested.

"It's the dry season Amani. Any mud is going to be long dried up." Uru pointed out.

Amani gave a groan at that fact. Uru and Amani suddenly heard the rough pounding of paws not too far behind them.

"He's coming!" Uru fearfully shouted.

"I can't believe he would do this and that he and mom would do this whole hyena birth blessing ritual just to replace me because they don't think I'm a worthy heir to the clan." Amani said.

"Oh, come on Amani. Your parents don't think that." Uru tried to reassure her friend.

"You heard him back there, he flat out said they were doing this to replace." Amani said, sounding a little angry. "What do you call this whole situation, tough love?"

Uru tried to think of a response, but had none. She had never met them, but Uru knew about Amani's parents' general disliking of lions and him hanging out with her. Also, Uru had to admit that Amani's nervousness did cause him to crack under pressure most of the time and that was a quality not very fitting of a leader.

"You two can't outrun me!" Cletus shouted.

"He's getting closer." Amani observed. "And were in an open field. So, he's going to catch us if we don't find any other way to slow him down or if we don't find a place to hide."

Uru tried to scan the surrounding area again for anything they can use to their advantage, but the tall grass wasn't helping. Soon, Uru saw some medium sized boulders that they could use to hide. Uru pointed them out with her paw and she and Amani bounded over them and hid between them. Amani grabbed a roughly paw sized rock and threw it far in a completely separate direction. Uru kept her head down while Amani kept peeking over the rock to make sure his plan worked.

Much to his relief, he heard the shuffling of grass that was sounding closer start to sound further. Amani sighed as he sat down to relax himself.

"It looks like we fooled him." Amani said.

"Yeah, it looks like it." Uru sighed.

The two friends sat there for a moment before they began to crawl out of their hiding spot.

"This is the worst game of hide-n-seek I've ever played." Uru stated.

"Yeah, we shouldn't have gone this far into the tall grass away from the tree line." Amani agreed.

"Now come on, we gotta get back to Ahadi quickly before your dad realizes he's been duped, because I definitely don't won't to be stuck in an open savanna field running away from a bad hyena again." Uru said.

"Anyone else would be offended, but given my dad's intentions, you won't get that feeling from me." Amani said.

"Thanks." Uru said

"Yeah, now let's go. I don't want by dad to come back and do anything bad to you." Amani said.

"Yeah, neither do I, especially since Ahadi once told me that bad hyenas will ground up your bones to make bread." Uru said.

"Well actually, that would be a giant." a new voice suddenly said.

Uru and Amani's fur stood up at the sound of the new voice. They turned around and much to their shock, Cletus was standing behind them on the second boulder above. He jumped down onto the boulder they were on and advanced, eye Uru.

"Now bad hyenas; oh, they're much worse. They'll make a throw rug from your freshly, savagely, painfully ripped off pelt for the den." Cletus sadistically said.

"No." Uru horrifically replied.

"They'll squeeze the juice from your eyes and use them to make cocktails along with your fresh blood, use your skulls as a mask and to make puppet shows with." Cletus continued.

"How, how, but, where did you come from?" Uru stammered.

"You little brats should know better than to think you can trick old Cletus… but, uh, it was a nice try." Cletus said smoothly before he pounced.

Amani and Uru tried to make another run for it, but failed to do so. Amani got away, but Cletus managed to grab Uru by her tail with his teeth. Amani noticed and stopped for a split second, but continued to run. Cletus saw this and laughed through his teeth.

"Well princess, it seems your best friend for life has abandoned you to a horrible grizzly fate." Cletus said.

"Amani would never do that; he's going to find help and you know it." Uru defied.

Cletus just snorted and rolled his eyes.

"Princess, I know my son and believe me when I say he's not going anywhere to find help, he's looking for a place to hide and cry because of how much of a spineless coward he is." Cletus said.

"You're don't know that!" Uru shouted.

"I do know it! Besides, Amani knows that if he does tell anyone, he'll have the same accident your about to have and you know, maybe to make sure that he doesn't, after I take you to Mary, I'll come find him and see to it that that accident does happen." Cletus said.

Uru began to squirm and tried to claw at Cletus face.

"No, I won't let you!" Uru shouted.

"Oh, you're not going to let me." Cletus laughed. "You know princess, for a lion, you've got a lot of fight in you and I like a girl who's got some fight in her. Hmm, you know when I left Mary to go on the hyena birth blessing ritual hunt, I sent some boys to keep her company, you know what I mean? I also said I'd be giving some other girls some company, all so we can make sure we got any possible unworthy heirs to the clan out of the way, but you know, whose to say when I'm done giving those girls company and I give my dear Mary the company she deserves, what if we have another unworthy heir and we were one away form a worthy one. So, why don't I give you some company."

Uru looked and saw Cletus swerving his hips. Uru gasped, guessing what Cletus was getting at. Uru began to squirm and claws at Cletus even more, but kept missing. Cletus just kept laughing at her attempts to escape. Uru soon was able to heave herself up enough and scratch Cletus across the face.

Cletus screamed and let go of Uru. Uru quickly tried to make a run for it, but Cletus quickly reacted by stomping a paw on her tail and punching in the back of the head. Uru was dazed and her vision was blurry. She turned over and looked at Cletus growling down at her. When her vision became more focused, she saw four long slash marks across Cletus' face and he was clutching his left eye.

"You know, I've been called savage, uncivil, untrustworthy, and uncourteous all my life, but I do know how to treat a lady and in the company I was going to give you, I was going to be nice and gentle, but now…" Cletus said before taking his paw off his left eye.

Uru gasped when she saw what she had done to Cletus' left eye. A tear of blood ran from a yellow eye that was stained red on the right side of the eye; Uru must have broken a blood vessel in Cletus' eye.

"…Now, since you want to play rough and hard, fine, I'll play rough and hard as well." Cletus Said. "Now come on, let's get this over with so I can get back to Mary and we can produce a true worth heir to the clan."

Cletus quickly grabbed Uru by her tail and ran off.

"AHHH! Somebody help me!" Uru screamed.

And that is it for the third chapter everyone and as you can see again, Cletus is grade-A certified creep and someone needs to save Uru before he hurts her, so stay tuned until next chapter to find out if she is and what will happen to Cletus. All I can say, things are about to get intense between the lions and hyenas. As for names and their meanings in this chapter, Cheza's girlfriend Kwanba, her name is made from the Swahili words 'kwanza' and 'simba' so her name translates to 'first lion' and the zebra herd leader that Cletus almost killed, his name means 'stripe' in Swahili. Remember to leave a review and until next chapter please read and review my other works if you haven't already, good day/night wherever you are, enjoys your last few days of October and Happy Halloween to anybody incase your reading this during the 31st, stay safe out there if you haven't started trick or treating yet, and God bless to you all, peace.