PRIDE'S DEN, THE NEXT DAY

A silhouette quietly slept in a cave, pale white skin that seemed devoid of blood, hair that resembled crimson flames that stretched down his back, golden symbols of sparks etched upon his body; his breathing steady and quite relaxed. Nestled next to his body, a Flaming Lioness accompanied by 2 Flaming Lion cubs, the Flaming Lioness groomed them all and kept watch over them. The Flaming Lioness did not have golden symbols on her body and appeared to be quite young and weaker than the Matriarch. Across her right eye was a scar in the shape of a claw mark, her right eye was grey and did not reflect light indicating she was blind in her right eye. The Flaming Lioness' eyelids seemed heavy as if she would fall asleep soon, the atmosphere of the cave was quite chilly and quiet seducing its inhabitants into a slumber. The lioness felt movement from the cubs and noticed that the Matriarch's cub was awake and staring at her, the lioness licked his face and his alert expression faded. As if in sync, the other cubs awoke but did not seem confused as if this was completely normal; some even tried feeding on her milk.

Soon the cubs stared their playing and began nipping, wrestling and fighting each other. The young man noticed that they actively avoided him but did not know why, after carefully observing them, he realized they seemed quite scared of his size and intimidated by his golden symbols. Through the youth's experiences, he knew that the Flaming Lions placed a great deal of importance on golden symbols and strength and through this interaction; he understood his situation more. Still, not wanting to be left out, he stretched out his hands and begun to hug the cubs intimately and groomed them. The cubs did not struggle but still seemed scared, only after a while did he realize the cubs had already submitted to him and instinctively considered him a potential King candidate.

The youth lost all interest in playing with the cubs when he noticed their demeanour, feeling a bit sad, he unwillingly got up to leave the cave and look for his mother. He did not reach very far when he noticed the single-eyed Flaming Lioness chasing after him with an aggressive posture and a happily wagging tail. The Flaming Lioness pounced on him playfully and mouthed his torso, being careful not to put too much power in her actions in fear of hurting him. The young man was surprised and laughed as he wrestled with the lioness, as the two continued their playful tussle the lioness became a little careless with her power. To her surprise, the young man did not seem bothered by the increase in her strength and seemed to still be at ease and having fun. After playing for a while longer, the Flaming Lioness left to keep an eye on the other cubs and decided to let the young man go where he wanted as he was quite strong.

After exiting the cave, the juvenile looked around and took notice of the surroundings; he noticed the number of Flaming Lions were much less than when he had arrived. It seemed rather deserted in comparison to before, wanting to know the reason why; he began walking towards the exit of the ridge since he knew they were not at the den. Upon trying to leave, he encountered a few older Flaming Lions that wanted to stop him from exiting the ridge because they were responsible for guarding the entrance to the den. The elder Flaming Lions seemed to have many old injuries and weren't as they were in their prime, so this job was more suitable for these aged Flaming Lions. Most of the time, these elder lions would scare off a few intruders or chase a curious cub back inside the den, so this situation wasn't the first time they prevented a cub from leaving.

Surprisingly, the cub disappeared silently and was no longer within the vicinity; thinking the cub retreated to the den the elder lions returned to their post. A little distance away from the elder lions, the juvenile was covered in dirt and carefully hid inside a small depression in the earth; a mischievous smile on his face he waited till their attention diverted and quietly slipped passed them. It did not take long before he once more appeared on the sun-kissed grassy plains, looking around he saw no Flaming Lions which was different from yesterday. The youth was considering which direction to head off in when an ear-piercing furious roar caught his attention, his instincts kicked in and before he knew it; he began vaulting towards the direction where the noise originated.

The youth's full speed was magnificent, crossing the grassy plains with ease closing distance between himself and the origin of the roar. The youth's facial expression was not peaceful but instead quite menacing, the reason being that he was able to discern the nature of that roar as a cry for help. Not long after the scene that appeared before him was a mature Flaming Lion surrounded by 2 Rock-Tusk Hyenas. The hyenas carefully rotated around the Flaming Lion with a perfect circle so that the lion's back was always exposed, their trademark laughing evidenced the fact that they were quite stressed despite outnumbering the lion. A closer look by the youth revealed that a third Rock-Tusk hyena was lying dead on the grass, and the Flaming Lion seemed to have suffered since he had a fresh wound near his neck.

The youth silently slid into the grass, his predatory instincts kicking in as his eyes locked onto the hyena's necks. He noticed one hyena in particular that kept glancing at the lion's neck stealthily and also cycled to the lion's back more enthusiastically. The other hyena showed more aggression and the youth knew that this particular hyena was the distraction, so he ignored it and focused on the other one. Creeping while prone, the young man stayed very low to the ground with the tall-grass hiding him entirely; unknowingly his long fingernails began to secrete an oily liquid. The confrontation between the hyenas and the lion continued to escalate; with the hyenas attacking and the lion defending. The hyenas were quite adept with teamwork and knew how to create openings for each other to get a shot at the lion's body, little by little they left small wounds on the lion and retreated safely. The hyenas knew very well that the lions were fearsome predators that could kill them without being able to resist on a one on one fight, over the years they learned how to fight against lions using numbers.

The lion was bleeding heavily, his body covered in small wounds and he appeared to be losing energy, the vigour in his eyes did not disappear and only seemed to be growing making the hyenas instinctively back off. The hyenas knew that the most dangerous moment had come, the lion would attack with his full strength without regard for his life and possibly kill one of them before he died. They backed off and begun stalking the lion from a distance maintaining the same circle pattern of rotation, instinctively they knew patience took priority now and to wait a while before attacking again.

The Flaming Lion which was growling furiously suddenly noticed something in the bushes behind one of the hyenas, before he could make out what it was; it flew out of the bushes and grabbed onto a neck of a hyena. The lion watched in surprise as he saw the Matriarch's cub tear a chunk of flesh from the hyena's neck, blood instantly flowed; the hyena seemed to have lost all its energy and fell to the ground twitching. The lion did not stay stupefied, he burst forward at an incredible speed before the other hyena could regain his senses and as if venting his frustration maimed the hyena's body with his savage paws and ripped his neck apart. The Flaming Lion then sauntered over to the Matriarch's cub, who began feeding on the hyena's corpse almost immediately; and gave him a friendly greeting of sniffing and nudging. The young man then noticed the Flaming Lion didn't eat much from his prey and instead began to carry most of it back in the direction of the pride. The youth followed suit and began to drag his kill back to the lion's den, seeing his strength the lion was once more surprised and lowered his pace to match.

They didn't move far from the battle location when rustling sounds in the grass caught their attention, turning to look they noticed many Flaming Lionesses and a few Flaming Lions carrying prey arrived at their site. It would appear they heard the commotion from the battle and hurried over, seeing the heavily wounded Flaming Lion, they began to lick his wounds and groom him. Some of the lionesses groomed the young man to check for injuries, after making sure he wasn't hurt they eyed the prey that he caught; quite surprised that a cub could hunt. As the young man began feeling a bit smug, he suddenly felt as though he was being stared at by a predator; he turned to the direction of the stare and noticed it was his mother. The Matriarch walked over aggressively and pawed him to the floor, looking at him threateningly before picking him up and carrying him off back to the pride. His expression was incredibly humble the entire way back to the lion's den.

***

THE YSADRIEL KINGDOM

A group of people were gathered together in a glamorous dining hall, men, women, teens and children all finely dressed in wealthy clothing. The walls contained many pieces of art, ancestry murals, portraits and spectacular robes were in display cases giving the atmosphere a place rich with history. There were maids and servants on both sides of the dining hall lined up perfectly in order of height and gender, their expression's filled with pride displaying an air of professionalism. The foods on the table looked scrumptiously delicious and made of different kinds of meats and ingredients; there was no dish on the table that looked even remotely similar. The people at the dining hall seemed to be having quite a ball as they laughed joyously with their peers, except for the older men who preferred more serious conversations with their mead.

Sitting at the head of the table was a middle-aged man with a head of shoulder-length grey-black hair, beard, and moustache that twirled upward in a spiral. His eyes were wrinkled but remained full of vigour, a golden crown of jewels sat comfortably upon his head which matched his exquisite golden robe with shades of gold.

"King Harald! I, Reginald the 5th, won't invesht a shingle dime into that Black Foresht anymore! You have my word ash King of Yshadriel! *Burp*" King Reginald stated drunkenly as he banged his mead cup on the table and burped.

King Harald was dressed in an intricate robe with blue-gold patterns and an overcoat with the symbol of a winged creature. He seemed a bit younger than King Reginald as he had more black hair than grey, his defining features were his sharp nose, broad mouth and beady eyes.

"You can't be that way Reg, who knowsh what the future holdsh! *Burp* If I King Harald lived near the Black Foresht I would inveshtigate in it with every shingle coin I had!" replied King Harald in a similarly drunken manner, his eyelids seemingly too heavy to keep his beady eyes open.

The two continued to drink mead and argued over the possible benefits and losses of investing in the "Black Forest".