Emmanuel_Capricorn
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TLK : Chapter 102
🕑 Added 2025-08-13 17:08:09 +0000 UTC[1st POV]
(3 years 5 months old)
ROAR!!
ROAR!!
ROAR!!
Indeed, it gets tiring sometimes.
But hey, a king has to do what he has to do.
ROAR!!
ROAR!!
It's funny. Most of the lions in existence probably wished they could be in my position. It was exciting to me at first as well, but after three months, those exciting activities became a hassle.
People are so quick to grow ungrateful.
ROAR!!
ROAR!!
ROARR-COUGH!!
"That should be enough," I said to myself, my thorat feeling a bit parched due to the heat of the sun.
It's the dry season again, meaning problems which never occurred before were happening all over the land. Including my parched throat.
I must be tens of kilometres away from my home at the moment. The sun was still low in the sky, indicating that it was still early morning. But the heat that was already in the air promised a hellish day to come.
"Fantastic," I complained and shook my mane to allow air to circulate beneath all that thickness.
Although it looked cool and protected me in battles, the mane felt like wearing three layers of a sweater in summer. It just goes to show how everything has its pros and cons. Nothing in this world can be perfect; even a king has to have his flaws.
I felt an ache in my muscles, which I have come to find pleasant after years of constant training. I opened my mouth in an intentional yawn, playing around with my sore jaw muscles and how wide I could open them.
How wide I could open my mouth directly relates to flexibility, so as I gained muscle in my jaw, I had to make sure it remained flexible.
You don't want to have a turtle mouth for the sake of a stronger bite force. For lions who battled often, how wide one could open their jaw was a vital part of a clash.
I had never slacked in my training in these past three months. I had a few breaks here and there due to being seduced by the females and taking recovery breaks after a lion challenges me. But other than those days, I had been consistent.
And yet I had shown barely any progress when it came to my speed and stamina.
Take today, for example. Although I have been using my patrols to jog around the savannah, the amount of area I covered and the duration of my distance run remained roughly the same if not slightly better.
Now, there could be a few reasons why this was happening. At first, I thought I had hit my genetic ceiling. Maybe this was all that was achievable naturally. There was no more room for me to grow.
Maybe I had peaked.
But two months later, I realised that that wasn't true at all. You see, it was very difficult to notice your own growth until it became really obvious.
So the real reason why I had not seen improvement was not because I had reached my limit, but quite the opposite. I couldn't stop growing.
At the stage of a lion's life where they usually slow down their growth or outright stop growing, I was showing no signs of slowing down.
For this reason, I could not improve my speed and stamina. For each more stamina I gained, I had to carry more weight. For every speed I attained, I had to move with a heavier frame.
I must've gained at least 30 kilograms in the last three months. In this context, the fact that I retained the same stamina and speed was a huge improvement. It meant that for each muscle I put on, they could carry their own weight.
Being too big could be a disadvantage, but it seemed I was not heading that path yet.
Although I'll admit, I was very concerned when my last challenger looked like a cub in my eyes. Overcome by curiosity, I could not even feel anger. I didn't kill him instantly and instead took time to observe him carefully.
And it was in that moment that I realised I was around twice the size of that lion. Granted, he was smaller than most, but I was still twice as big.
Do you know how weird it felt? To be so much bigger, so much stronger, smarter, and fiercer than those considered your peers?
It felt like their pathetic existence was a stain on my own. It was not even pride. I don't think so. I was just better, superior.
And that was today, and still growing.
Imagine tomorrow. Imagine my prime.
Maybe then, the world will see me as something more than just a lion.
....
One thing I liked about my morning patrol was the isolation. Although I enjoyed others' company as a lion, I still liked these alone times where it was just me and my own mind.
It gave me a chance to think in peace. I could hear my own thoughts. I could reflect and assess my current physical and mental situation.
The walk back to the pride was slow. I was not sprinting or jogging anymore since it was easy to get overheated under the sun. I walked at my own pace and I joined my pride after nearly two hours of walking.
"You're back, my king," Nydia came forward to greet me first. She had moved quite a bit away from the pride just to welcome me.
She was the lioness who led the charge against me when I first took over, but now she greeted me with a wagging tail. She was so eager to earn my favour and approval, to the point that her body reset her biological clock, and she came in heat for me even though she had a cub.
I heard that she was one of Roku's favourites back in the past. She admired intelligence over strength; to her dismay, I had both. Yeah, I might not have been Einstein when I was a human, but for a lion standard, I was much smarter than most.
She gently smacked her head on my shoulder and rubbed herself along my length. On the other hand, I continued walking and she followed behind me.
The other lionessess also got up when I reached the pride. They came to make physical contact with me while I tried my best to reciprocate to all.
After that, I took a seat right where I wanted, and the whole pride adjusted to where I sat. They lay in circles around me. It was not intentional, but the byproduct of each female trying to be as close to me as possible.
Those who thought themselves my favourites sat closest to me. These are mostly the young and beautiful lions who never bore cubs for other males. Virgins basically. The prime females were next and the older lionessess and those not in heat were the furthest away from me.
The sun continued beating down on us as I lay down to rest. We were sitting under the shade of three trees but the morning sun was positioned in such a way that it still reached us. But by noon, we would be under a better shade.
There was a lot of grooming in lion society. I was not forced to groom anyone, but the females around me used their rough tongues to clean me.
They cleaned any wounds I might have had, any lice, ticks or other insects that might have gotten on me during my patrol. If I were clean of all those, they would clean dirt and dry leaves off my fur.
What can I say, being a king has perks worth dying for. Literally.
But as I settled there, body melting from touch and the sun becoming gentle with inactivity, I felt a rush of cold instinct through my spine.
My eyes opened abruptly.
"Where are the cubs?" I asked.
It was quiet. Too quiet.
"Oh, they went to the watering hole this morning," Lela replied.
Her words answered my question, but not my concern. "Alone? Are there any adults with them?"
"I don't know. I am not sure..." she said. But another lionessess answered, "Kali is with them,"
Now that was something I wanted to hear. It definitely helped calm down my surge of sudden panic, but still, it was not enough to warrant peace.
"I see. Thanks, Asha," I nodded at the lionessess.
After hearing that, I relaxed again. Although I was the king and reigned unchallenged in this land, nature was still the God,
The dry season was when nature was harshest. In the case of the watering hole, for example, the dry season was when the Nile crocodiles were the most active and aggressive.
Water was rare in this time of the year, so the crocs knew instinctively. Their body knew it was time to hunt, and entered its prime hunting state.
I remember stopping my water training and swimming during this time last year because of the aggression of the crocodiles.
I closed my eyes and took a nap.
A few minutes. Maybe an hour.
Then I woke up to bad news.
My fears were realised a bit too late. I was concerned, true but concern without strict action was like clouds without rain.
I opened my eyes, and the cubs were in front of me, drenched in water and a sprinkle of blood.
They were not too young now. The youngest was eight months old. Most of them were sub-adults. They were old enough to know better now, which was why even their mothers were more lenient.
The fear in their eyes made me pause, the remains of panic on their faces and rough breaths told me everything without saying anything at all.
"Why are you still afraid? Calm down," I said while rising.
"What happened?" I asked, but already knew the answer.
Nine cubs went out. Only seven came home.
...
...
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Author : Do tell me if Leo's monologues are annoying. I try to hint at his growing pridefulness, but if that gets too hard to read, I can adjust and just limit the pride part to actions like when he fights or hunts.
I can write it so that he is still very much human in his mind. Tell me what you thought of the monologues in this chapter.
Comments
Tobiah Millar
I enjoy Leo’s monologue and pride, its shows us he’s not just a human with a lion body but as much lion as he is human
Isabel Guillermo R.
Thanks
