[1st POV]
The Serengeti was wreathed in green.
I did not know how much time had passed. My condition had made it virtually impossible to keep count of the days. At the beginning, I slept for weeks. After I got better, I would occasionally sleep for days.
The only thing I knew was that the battle was over. I had done my job and protected my pride and my kingdom, and that made me king.
The long dry season had passed, and now it was the wet season.
The pride lay across the top of an open hill that provided a splendid view of the land below. Specifically, it overlooked the Mara River, which was boiling and raging with water and activity. The migrating herds had returned, and for the past few days, they had been crossing the river to get back to the Serengeti.
This event would last for weeks. Herds that numbered in the thousands, be it zebras, antelope, wildebeest, and so on, would cross the river. And as their predators, we were welcoming them back after months of absence.
My pride, which stretched across the hill, surpassed 50, although the number was still closer to 50 than 100. It was hard to keep track of them now. We welcomed new cubs every so often. After I recovered but was still too weak to move around and hunt, I would spend my days mating with whomever I desired.
The lionesses numbered close to 40, and the adolescents neared 10, while the rest could be called cubs.
If the situation were different, my pride would've bulged in number. But with the West, South, and East having their own kings and kingdoms, most potential members went to them instead. It was something I didn't mind since I already had my hands full with my super pride.
The largest pride in history.
My so-called new Empire stretched throughout the whole of the Serengeti, including the land beyond the Serengeti in the South and the recovering Pridelands. Three lion kings aided in maintaining this land. Zael in the South and the land beyond the Serengeti, Azvan in the East, and Kovar in the West.
They had their own prides and ruled as any other king would.
Except I remained the most dominant among them.
My individual kingdom consisted of a small land in the central Serengeti, mainly the giant watering hole and the area surrounding it. And also the land in the North, which was the most prosperous since it sat close to the Mara River that never dried.
When the dry season came, the North was the last to experience drought and also the first to receive the prosperity brought by the wet season. If the dry season lasted for four months in other areas, the Northern lands experienced it for only two months.
"So what do you think, Simba?" I asked my faithful brother.
"It's incredible," he answered with his eyes glued to the river below.
He came during the dry season, so he never saw the Serengeti at its full glory. This was also the first time he saw the migration of the herds since nothing like that existed in the Congo or the Pridelands.
The Pridelands was truly a great land, green all year round. But when it came to peaks, even the Pridelands could not hold a candle to the prosperity of the Serengeti.
After being pushed to death's door in the last battle, Simba had faithfully stayed by my side. It was noble of him because he wasn't acting like a second king. He simply protected my kingdom while I couldn't, without asking for anything in return.
There was no second king here, similar to Mufasa and Scar. But unlike them, we were both helping each other out.
Simba told me that he wished to return to the Pridelands. He wished to rule the land of his father if I allowed him.
But I rejected the idea.
Sure, the Pridelands had probably recovered from the drought, and perhaps it was green all year round. But the animals that once stayed there had not returned.
It would still take more years for the ecosystem to return to its full glory. So, in the meantime, I wanted him to stay by my side.
And I also wanted to rule the Pridelands more than even the Serengeti, to be honest. It was my home, where I grew up. And when I imagined myself as king during cubhood, I imagined ruling the Pridelands.
It was something I needed to decide later down the line.
The whole pride watched the migration take place. Hundreds of prey crossed the river, and there was a fight for survival as the Mara River was littered with crocodiles. The crocs had been waiting for this moment for months, so they were fully prepared to eat as much as they could.
We also frequently saw individual lionesses cross the river in search of a new pride. We showed no welcome in our body language, so they moved to other lands. They'd probably join other kingdoms in the Serengeti.
Right now, our life was as close to perfect as one could come. So there was no need for change. For the next few weeks, we wouldn't even have to go hunting as we could just take our food from among the migrating herds.
And there were barely any challengers as well. With new kingdoms established all over the Serengeti, any challengers always tried their luck first on the other kings instead of me. Even if they were thick-headed lions, the hyenas that lived in my kingdom made them want to move to other lands.
At this point, I didn't even need to fight. The only thing I needed to look out for was other challengers overthrowing my current kings. When that time came, I just needed to pay the new kings a visit and make them come under me.
Life couldn't get better.
But still, I needed to fight. Not to get a better life, but to secure it for many years to come. As soon as this migration was over, I would cross the Mara River and make my presence known throughout the Maasai Mara.
To make sure no enemies came, I needed to go there first. Defeat them and never give them a chance to band together again.
It nearly cost me my life the first time. I'd make sure there would never be a second.
I planned to make Simba rule the Maasai Mara. Perhaps he couldn't do it for the entire land, but establishing a kingdom in the South would suffice. We would be neighbours separated only by the Mara River.
"Have you given any thought to my proposal?" I asked Simba, sitting next to me.
A wave of silence befell us. A breeze ran across our fur and manes as if to fill the void. He turned to me slowly, and we locked eyes. I knew what he was going to say before the words left his mouth.
"I did," he nodded. "But I want to do it on my own. I can't have everything given to me."
He turned away and stared into the horizon.
"If I were going to rule over the land beyond the river, I shall do it on my own. I want to carve my own kingdom out of that land, just like you did years ago."
My lips stretched into a pleased smile as I looked upon my brother. I couldn't be prouder. If this were a story, this would've been a great turning point for his character. It worked well for me as well. I wouldn't have to lift a finger, and my wish would be accomplished.
But...
"I absolutely refuse."
"Huh?" Simba looked shocked.
"Sorry, brother, but you might want to shift that to next year's project. I need to go there and let off some steam," I said.
As if I was going to do nothing to the land that bred threats to my life. Absolutely not. I needed to go there myself.
"You can do as you wish after I am done with it," I said.
"You're so greedy, brother," Simba said.
I needed to end my story before he began his.
A final roar of conquest before I took a step back and settled down. That's what I wanted. I needed to see for myself, at my prime, what I could do before I let all this violence go.
Indeed.
Turning six years old soon, I was going to be at the peak of my prime.
"One final conquest, huh," Simba said with a grin. "You do you, brother. I will hold the ground while you do."
And with that, it was decided.
A month later, after the mass migration was over, I crossed the Mara River and stepped onto the foreign land of the Maasai Mara.
...
...
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[3rd POV]
The land was virgin.
It had never known the touch of the anomaly. The balanced ecosystem had only ever had an indirect relationship with the king beyond the river.
But that ended today, as the apex of apex predators walked its greenscape.
Leo, at 6 years old, was at the absolute peak of his physical prime. His body had grown once more after the months of eating and resting from the aftermath of the battle. But unlike what one would expect, he was not at all fat or chubby. Most of the food he had eaten went toward healing his body and strengthening it further.
A lion who had lived as a king longer than not, since he was less than 3 years old.
His body was the final product of hurdles and impossible tasks. A proof of survival against odds as high as fate could stack.
His mane, wreathed in black, was a testament to the hormones of dominance. His body was scarred all over, with the lack of a tail. What seemed to be the broken remains of a chipped body had matured into something that looked as though it had been carved with precision.
Giant paws the earth had not seen in perhaps thousands of years left marks upon the land. Even taking into account all paleontological evidence, the pawprints would still remain the absolute outlier in sheer size.
A big cat without a tail, only seen hundreds of thousands of years ago in the Smilodon, now walked the modern land.
Walking with a confident burden that exceeded 500 kilograms, Leo's stature was unnaturally low. It was originally a gait that made up for his lack of a tail, like a cripple walking. But now, it looked perfect in its crippling stance, better even than any other gait. Initially developed for the purpose of making up for a disadvantage, the gait had become only an advantage with no flaws.
After so many years of constant battle, Leo, like any other dominant lion king, would eventually experience a sharp decline in his physical abilities. After all, each battle wore down the natural lifespan of a lion.
But for now, at this single perfect moment, Leo was truly an unstoppable beast.
As he walked across the land, the rays of the sun peeked through his fur and over the long scars where torn hide had been stitched together. His loose hide had become many times tighter than it normally should have due to the stitches.
So it was more apparent than ever, the explosive muscles hidden beneath the skin. They coiled, loaded, and wrapped around the skeletal structure like snakes inside a body.
No lion would claim this thing as their own upon seeing it.
Maybe he would've turned into a perfect lion, one that was mighty and dignified in both proportions and power. But numerous fates had pushed him to evolve into something much more sinister, more like a monster than a lion.
A quake of thunder shattered through the sky in the form of a roar.
It was a sound that had gone unchallenged for years. The sheer confidence carried in the vibration could feel overwhelming to most animals.
It was everything anything should fear.
Animals and prey that had never heard the sound before twisted their necks in surprise. The roar echoed through the land, bouncing off mountains and valleys. As the sound rang, the only thing lost was volume. Even the faintest echoes carried dignity and unchallenged dominance.
It might seem reckless of Leo to announce his presence so confidently, but he was doing everything with a calm mind. He wasn't in the Maasai Mara to take over kingdoms or even overthrow kings.
Simba said he wanted to do that.
The only reason the king had crossed the river was to quench his desire. It was going to be his final moment and his last chance. Leo was staying with the pride back in the Serengeti, swearing to uphold the duty of a substitute king while reaping none of the benefits.
Leo trusted Simba.
So, for one final time, he could let loose.
The anger bubbling in his chest overflowed and reached the land. Like pouring a gentle stream into a glass until it overflowed. It was not an instant rage or an explosion of wrath. It was something far calmer, yet far more devastating in endurance.
Leo stuck his nose toward the sky, taking in the new scent of the land. The Maasai Mara was similar yet starkly different from the Serengeti. The prey that lived there, the trees, the landscape, all were different.
It was like the distinction between brothers. The same blood, yet somehow completely different.
He smelled and smelled and smelled as he walked deeper and deeper into the Maasai Mara. He did so until he caught the putrid smell of another male's scent mark.
Previously, the Four Musketeers ruled the southern Maasai Mara. But ever since the dissolution of the coalition and the absence of the male coalition, the northern kings had expanded their land into the south.
A small flock of vultures circled the sky. There were only a dozen or so. But the reason for the small number was that the majority of the birds had moved toward the target even before Leo could sense them.
Vultures, the heralds of demise. Usually, they circled around dying or weakened animals. It could be due to illness, wounds, or old age. They were attracted to weakness and impending death.
But contrary to all expectations, the vultures began circling a healthy pride. A pride of lions that was healthy and well-fed since the wet season had only just ended. They sang a gilded tune above the prime kings of the pride.
The kings were strong and healthy. It would be years before they even had to worry about being defeated by challengers. To them, the actions of the scavengers made very little sense.
Yet it unnerved them very much, especially after hearing the echoes of a distant roar.
"Guess I don't even need to search," Leo said to himself as he saw the vultures trying to lead him toward his target.
Then he took a purposeful step forward. It was the first step of a crusade that lasted four months in total.
During the span of those four months, Leo began from the southernmost end of the Maasai Mara and made his way to the northern tip of the land. Unlike anything observed in any other animal, Leo's rampage was simply for the sake of it.
Killing for the sake of it, without taking over a pride or claiming the land. It was an unnatural behaviour that could never have occurred in animals. After all, violence without gain was something animals never partook in.
But Leo seemed to be doing just that.
Only after crossing every inch of the Maasai Mara did Leo return home. He crossed the river once more and returned to the Serengeti, where he spent the rest of his life without crossing the river again.
...
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