Other Fan Fiction ❯ The Lion King 4: A Single Step ❯ The Lead Huntress ( Chapter 15 )

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Heya, lets get right to it.Last time: The adolescents had fun around the waterhole, when suddenly Kovu announces a meeting. He warns the pride about intruding lionesses, especially the all-black one he had just spotted. The pride's trouble with The Black Pride is still fresh on their memories.

Chapter 15: The Lead Huntress
Clouds finally started to roll into the sky the next day. Every creature in the Pride lands sighed with relief as the harsh sun dipped behind the glorious dark clouds. Everyone knew it would soon rain; it was about time!
By mid-day it was still darker than usual, but hadn't begun to rain quite yet. Rafiki predicted that from the smell in the winds and the thinness of the clouds that it actually wouldn't start raining for a few more days.
"Mufasa says it's going to be a big one." Rafiki reported to the former King, Simba who had come to visit the old baboon at his tree. The two remained friends and had still been keeping in touch.
"Simba-boy," Rafiki said suddenly, "I feel it is my time to go." He put a long grey arm around Simba's old shoulders. Simba listened. He knew Rafiki must be very old, since he had been around even before Mufasa's time. Simba assumed Rafiki would just always be there. He couldn't picture Rafiki anything but alive.
"I would like to travel to visit my old friends, so I'm going to go back where I came from. I trust Mairu will take my place, and teach the other lionesses to do the same after her.
Simba understood. Zazu, the friendly blue horn bill had done the same some time ago: He left to find his family before he got too elderly.
The mandrill and the retired King said their goodbyes. Rafiki took nothing from his tree except the staff he always carried. As he walked off, Simba watched him go. After a few minutes, Simba leapt into the tree to see if he had left anything behind. The tree was easy to hop into, it was fairly low to the ground. Twigs and branches caught in his mane, however, and he had to push them away.
When Simba whirled around to get a few leaves off his back, he spotted a section of the tree that was thick and wide, like a wall. On it were simple paintings of lion shaped creatures. He had never seen these paintings before, and realized that one of them had a red mane, like himself, so Rafiki must have been doing this since his generation. There was another orange painted lion below Simba's picture with no mane, but had a light crown over its head. Beside that was a dark colored one, with a darker mane. The two were facing each other.
"Kiara and Kovu," Simba murmured. Below Kiara's there was another dark colored lion shape. It had no mane, and no royalty mark- but something else was there. Instead of the bright colored paint Rafiki used to mark the head with a crown, he had used black paint to crown the painting.
"Kivu?" Simba's eyes were trained upon the black mark. "What could this mean?"

"Do you think its going to rain soon?" Jai asked his friends. The six young lions were laying in the tall Savannah grass near the edge of the southern Pride land boundary. This had become a new hang-out area for Jai, Ciara, Kivu, Tempest, Mani and Tali.
"In a few days," Tali said. She had her head on her paws.
"Tali, when is the hunting party going out?" Mani asked his sister. "I'm starved."
Tali suddenly gasped and quickly shot up from her laying position and immediately started running in the direction of Pride Rock.
"Right now! I forgot!" she shouted over her shoulder as she ran. She disappeared quickly. Jai chuckled at her.
"She's always in the hunting party now-a-days." Jai said, a little sadly.
"I guess they're getting her to practice." Kivu commented, "She's a great huntress and she volunteers on her own. She likes hunting."
"I can't wait until we can hunt too," Ciara said, nudging Tempest who sat beside her. "It'll be fun right?"
Tempest didn't want to admit she was a little intimidated by the thought of hunting. Ever since her accident, she had become fearful at the thought of going against another beast like that again. Instead of voicing her fears, she tried to act natural,
"Sure it will. My mother started teaching me about hunting when I was younger. I only caught mice though." she laughed a little.
Mani rolled over on his back, and scratched his belly. "Then you ladies better go catch us some food; we're hungry."
Kivu loudly agreed, and Jai only laughed. When the two girls gave the boys stinging glares, Jai said,
"I think we're on out own here."
"Oh come on, Tempest," Mani said, "Go catch us some mice."
Tempest thumped Mani on the chest with her paw. He let out a small oof! Ciara laughed. "Well us ladies are going to leave you jerks right now, if you don't hush up."
"Hey, I didn't say anything, Ciara!" Jai protested.
"Well I did!" Mani said with a laugh.
"Me too, so get to it!" Kivu joined in.
Tempest stood first, and Ciara followed suit. The two stormed away from the boy's playful laughter.
"Way to go, Jai, you made them leave!" Kivu said to Jai.
"What? ME?"
Ciara giggled as she walked beside Tempest. "Let's go watch the hunt. I wonder if they've started."

Tali ran as fast as she could to the group of lionesses that were gathered under Pride Rock.
"I'm sorry, I'm late." She panted.
Kiara, who was going to be leading the party turned to her with hard eyes.
"Tali, if you volunteer for the hunting party, I expect you to be here on time."
"Sorry Kiara..." She breathed heavily.
She turned to the four others going on the hunt. "Ready?" They nodded. "Let's go."

Ciara and Tempest watched from afar as they saw Tali and the rest of the hunting party chase a herd of African Buffalo. The buffalo's grunts were loud as their fast hooves raced away. The lead huntress, Kiara, first leapt onto the nearest buffalo. She landed on its back haunches. It cried out, and tried to kick and struggle to get away. Quickly, the other lionesses pulled on its shoulders, legs, and back to take it down. It was all over for the once mighty beast as its legs buckled, and collapsed. A lioness clamped her jaws over the beast's throat. After several minutes, it stopped struggling.
Ciara and Tempest noticed Kiara say something to her party, probably a congratulations. Then the queen left the hunting party to go back to Pride Rock. The rest of the party set off to catch more prey. Kiara passed by the watching adolescents.
"Go eat," Kiara said to Ciara and Tempest. The two girls happily obeyed, running toward the kill. Other lionesses were there also, racing to get their share of the meal. After a time, Tali joined them.
"Great catch Tali." Said Ciara, cleaning her teeth with her tongue. Tali looked very excited.
"I saw you watching. You were making me nervous." She joined in eating. "Did you see the second hunt?"
Ciara and Tempest shook their heads.
"Kiara let me lead! It was amazing, the lionesses obeyed me, and when we caught that second buffalo, it felt great!"
"Really, she let you lead?" Ciara asked.
"Yes just this once. She said usually she wouldn't allow someone as young as me lead, but she said I should get a chance to see what it's like.
"That's great, Tali!" Ciara congratulated.
After the three friends had their fill, they left the area to re-join the boys, and let them know that one of their "ladies" had indeed caught them some food.

Sorry it's short. That's why I've uploaded sooner than usual. Stick around, thanks for reading : )











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