TALL-GRASS PRAIRIE

Underneath a grand tree, the Flaming Lioness nestled her 'cub' intimately as she groomed him, they both seemed very calm and relaxed as the moonlight shone down on their bodies tempting them into a slumber. The Flaming Lioness heard some noises prompting her to open her large eyes, and to her surprise found her cub munching on the corpse of a rodent. His eyes in ecstasy as he happily ate the meat, crunched on the bones and seemed quite content with his meal; this scene made the lioness realize why her cub only ever drank a little bit of milk. The lioness instinctively knew her cub was maturing very quickly since his appetite for milk deteriorated while his desire for meat emerged, which was sooner than a regular cub.

The lioness' hunger appeared as the bloody smell wafted in her nostrils, her stomach rumbled indicating it was time for a hunt. Lifting her body off the grass, she nudged her cub as a way of ordering him to stay hidden in the tall grass while she moved off to hunt. The young man learned a few things after encountering the other Flaming Lioness' and their cubs, the lad knew that the nudge meant he should remain here and the lioness would carry him back if he attempted to follow her.

As he watched her departing back, a sense of crisis welled up within him as he wondered if she would come back. Unable to fight his urge, he got up and moved toward the direction of the lioness as quietly as possible with his eyes scanning for her presence. He silently moved through the grass while keeping as low as possible to the ground, finally spotting his mother not too far away. The Flaming Lioness laid prone while the tall grass hid her body, she appeared to be intently looking at something off into the distance. The young man traced her eyes and saw in the distance that there were a few canine-like animals, 3 to be exact, with massive tusked jaws and a brown body with black spots. They were focused on eating for and did not notice the lioness creeping slowly towards them, the small pack of Rock-Tusk Hyenas happily ate away at the corpse as they gazed warily at the surroundings.

The lioness' tactic was simple, creep and close the distance to her prey and then go for the kill. The lioness detected movement behind her and became incredibly alarmed, turning around she noticed her cub sneakily creeping toward her excitedly. The lioness let out a low growl of frustration and placed her paw on his body pinning him to ground, not knowing what to do she nudged him and gave him a warning growl to stay hidden in the grass. The young man let out a low snarl and laid on his back just as he had learned from the other cubs, the meaning behind the gesture was an admittance of submission to his mother. The lioness licked his face intimately and then turned to the direction of the hyenas only to notice they were staring toward their position, the hyenas had taken notice of them and began slowly moving toward the grass cackling wildly.

The Flaming Lioness knew her location was compromised and slowly stood up out of the grass, her fearsome face slowly rising out of the grass terrifying the hyenas who stood in their tracks. The hyenas turned around in fear and began cackling in terror as they ran in the opposite direction, the Flaming Lioness let out an angered roar as they ran appearing to be very angry at their escape. The lioness turned around to look at the culprit who inadvertently helped them escape, astonishingly, she realized her cub wasn't there. Suddenly the hyenas let out a loud high-stressed cackle, turning to look at their direction she saw her cub holding on to the back of one of the hyenas, his hands wrapped around its neck and his mouth biting into its throat.

The other two hyenas were about to attack the young man to save their pack member, fortunately; the lioness noticed their intent and let out a furious roar which sent them scampering away cackling stressfully. The lioness approached her blood-soaked cub checked him with a few probing licks and nudges to make sure he was not harmed and then broke the neck of the dying hyena with a stomp. Together the lioness and the youth took greedy bites from the flesh of the hyena and joyously ate, the young man did not eat much already a bit full from his previous meal leaving the lioness to consume most of the hyena. After eating the pair moved back to the tree where they rested bathed in the light of the moon, the youth comfortably nestled in the lioness' fur and fell asleep peacefully. As he peacefully slept, the lioness carefully looked at him and seemed to be in wonder at his quick growth; her tail wagging side to side signalling she was quite pleased.

***

THE NEXT DAY, TALL-GRASS PRAIRIE

After the lioness discovered her cub's predatory instinct had awakened, she did not rush immediately back to the pride and instead took him on hunts and challenged him daily. The lioness' challenge consisted of sneaking up on him and pinning him to the floor, and the youth imitated her and tried sneaking up on her many times only to fail each time. Although the young man was already quite adept at stealth since he had learned from the Shadow Cat, there were many more vital aspects he discovered; such as masking smell. Thanks to his high cognitive abilities, the youth figured out that after he ate the blood on his body carried a strong scent that other beasts would be able to detect. The young man tried many methods to rid himself of the bloody smell, but only two seemed to work, either he would wash his body with water from a lake or; he would roll himself in the dirt. He tested these scent masking tactics on the lioness and found that covering himself in dirt or mud was more effective than washing with water. Water removed the bloody smell but did not hide his scent as the dirt/mud was capable of doing, he also learned that the dirt helped cover the golden symbols on his body which were very eye-catching.

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3 DAYS LATER, TALL-GRASS PRAIRIE

The Flaming Lioness rested beneath a towering tree, her tail moving side to side quite relaxed as her eyes scanned the surroundings for 'predators'. A rustle in the grass drew the lioness' attention, when she turned to look she noticed it was a rock; at the same time, a silhouette swiftly flew out of the bushes from the opposite side and hugged her neck. The lioness seemed quite surprised that she had been successfully 'hunted', she pinned her cub to the ground and intimately licked his face quite pleased with this outcome. After resting for one more day, the lioness did not pick up the young man this time and instead motioned him to follow behind her; meaning she had respected his strength and trusted him to protect her back.

The Flaming Lioness and the young man moved at a slow pace, the further into the prairie they got, the more Flaming Lions they saw; meaning they were much closer to their destination. Soon, the mother-son duo walked up a mountain and encountered the entrance to a ridge with many Flaming Lions lazing around who turned to look at them. Some of the Flaming Lions had playing cubs around them, who paused to look at the mother-son duo in curiosity. The gazes of the Flaming Lions displayed both respect and fear when they gazed at the youth's mother; they lowered their heads in submission when they saw her. This type of behaviour was familiar to the young man as he had seen it before in the Queen Forest Adder's memories, indicating to him his mother was the Matriarch of this Flaming Lion's pride.

They continued moving up the barren ridge trail and after a short while encountered an expanse of barren land with many caves at the top of the mountain. Here resided many Flaming Lions lazing around, some with their cubs and others with their mates; they seemed to enjoy sunbathing and frolicking with each other. The arrival of the mother-son duo drew the gazes of the whole pride, the Flaming Lions got up and roared wildly to the sky acknowledging the presence of the Matriarch.

A much more powerful roar came from one of the biggest caves on the ridge, a gigantic silhouette with sharp golden gleaming eyes and a body wrapped in golden symbols exited the cave. This Flaming Lion was much bigger than the Matriarch and was at least 10 meters long from head to tail, the golden symbols on his body were much more detailed than the young man and appeared like meteors, and on its head were red gems that formed almost like a crown on his head. This Flaming Lion had a domineering presence, cold eyes filled with savagery and tiny sparks of flame came from his snorting nose. In his presence, the Flaming Lions all showed deep fear and respect similar to the Matriarch indicating that this particular lion was the King of this pride.

As the King Flaming Lion looked at the Matriarch, his aggressive presence begun to fade a little and his body language became much more relaxed and gentle. The King noticed a silhouette hiding behind the Matriarch that drew his attention, his eyes locked on to the golden symbols; he appeared quite excited as he slowly moved over. At first, he seemed quite confused by the cub's appearance that was very different from a regular cub; but the golden symbols on his body confirmed that this cub was indeed his. The King and the Matriarch identified each other, sniffing and intimately rubbing on each other's coats with their bodies like a pair of lovers.

Then the King moved over to the young man, sniffing and grooming him on their first meeting and getting familiar with his cub, he also nudged him a few times. The King did not care much for his cub's strange appearance and seemed to place more importance on his cub's smell, his symbols and his strength. The King noticed this cub of his was quite strong and did not topple over when nudged, instead firmly holding his ground and even displayed some dominance. The King seemed quite pleased with the return of the Matriarch who left to give birth and his newly arrived cub, after spending some more time with them he returned to his cave.

The Matriarch nudged the young man indicating he should follow and led him over to a bigger cave where the other lionesses and cubs stayed. The young man feeling tired and disinterested in anything else, nestled into the Matriarch's fur and fell asleep quietly.

***

INSIDE THE YOUNG MAN'S BODY.

Tiny emerald coloured serpents moved about in the young man's bloodstream, bones and flesh; a closer look revealed these serpents to be the nanobots that vastly changed in appearance. These nanobots appeared to look exactly like the Queen Forest Adder that indicated that the nature of these machines had evolved further after the ore phenomenon on Earth. After consuming a great deal of life energy from the Queen Forest Adder, these nanobots appeared to have become more organic and surprisingly, were capable of multiplying. The nanobots inside of his body were in constant motion as they single-mindedly and continuously strengthened the young man's body. They worked on his bones, flesh and skin and continued to temper his body and make it stronger, his claws and teeth became sharper and more durable evolving his body to an even more fearsome killing machine. They also created nanobot 'eggs' which they stored in the bones, flesh and skin; these eggs were transparent and inside were smaller emerald coloured nanobot serpents in hibernation.