The History Of Juris's Pride

Two years passed, on Tonraq’s second birthday he declared it was time they began searching for lionesses to help grow they’re pride and make it stronger. Together the two patrolled their borders looking for any signs of rogues that they could invite to join their pride. They patrolled the borders every day for two weeks before the scent of a lion and lioness came to them on a breeze. Cape opened his mouth and breathed in… the scent was strong and was coming from within the border line. “Trespassers,” he growled. Part of him was angry but another was excited maybe they wished to join his pride? Together Juris and Tonraq took off following the scent. It wasn’t long before they spotted the trespassers lying beneath a tree just inside their border. Juris opened his jaws and let out a roar and he ran up to them. “Why have you trespassed onto our territory? Unless it’s to join our pride, you should leave at once.” Juris growled angrily.

Tonraq growled and crouched ready to pounce upon the lion and lioness at a moment's notice. He bared his teeth and sank his claws into the ground.

The lioness cowered beside the lion pressing her side into his. They hadn’t realized they had passed the border they had been running and playing when they spotted the tree and decided to take a break before continuing on.

The Lion pressed his side into his mates to comfort her. “My apologies for trespassing we hadn’t realized we had passed your border. We have been looking for a pride to join though since ours had been killed by a large group of hyenas. We’re the only surviving members of our pride.

Juris listened closely to the large blue winged lion and nodded. “Well, I am sorry for your loss but in the future, you should be more careful.” Turning he looked at the lioness she was a beautiful light brown with tribal markings. “If your looking for a pride you have come to right place for, we are looking for new members to expand our pride. But only on one condition.” Juris approached the two lions and began to circle them, he shoved the male away from the lioness and circled her. He lashed his tail signaling for Tonraq to keep the male away.

Seeing the signal Tonraq leaped forward placing himself between the two lions. “Stay back if you know what’s good for you…” Tonraq realized they have yet to trade names. “Whatever your name is.”

Juris purred softly, “your quite beautiful, how would you like to become my mate and bare my cubs.” There was a slight growl in his voice to warn her it wasn’t an option.

Jupiter leaped forward trying to get to his mate, “leave Arjana alone she’s, my mate.”

Arjana looked to Jupiter just in time to see Tonraq swipe his paw at him leaving a slight scratch as a warning to back up. She let out a soft cry.

“Arjana, a beautiful name for a beautiful lioness. I am Juris king of this pride. This is my son adopted Tonraq” Juris pressed himself against her.

 “But I love Jupiter I don’t want to be your mate.” Arjana looked at Jupiter and tried to push herself past Juris and Tonraq to get to Jupiter.

Juris shoved Arjana down to the ground and pressed his paw on her side to keep her down. “If you want to save your mate… what’s his name Jupiter? Then you will become my new mate. I will even allow Jupiter to join the pride and be at the bottom of the pride forced to do all the dirty jobs but as long as he obeys me, and Tonraq I shall allow his to live and not kill him. Or I could just kill him now if you try and refuse my generous offer of becoming my mate again.”

            Arjan let out a cry upon hearing what Juris said. She could either try and refuse his offer and have Jupiter killed before her eyes or accept his offer and have Jupiter become the lowest ranking member in the pride and still possibly be killed in the future. Fearing for Jupiter’s life she let out a small sob than bowed her head. “I’ll be your mate; I’ll do anything just don’t kill him please.”

 Jupiter roared in anger; he knew he had no chance to fight off these two lions, but he couldn’t let Arjana accept the deal. “No Arjana you’ll become a slave to him forced to bear his cubs.”

Arjana refused to look at Jupiter if he was to have a chance to survive, she must never speak to him again unless it was to give him an order.

Juris laughed and lifted his paw from Arjana’s side, “I am so glad you came to your senses and agreed. Together we will make strong cubs that will make our pride even stronger.” He turned to Jupiter, “you may leave if you don’t wish to stay, or you can become a part of the pride at the bottom of the totem pole… or I can just kill you right here and right now so you will be no trouble to the pride in the future. I am particularly fond of option three, but I’ll let you decide.

Jupiter knew they had lost this battle. As Juris listed his options, he knew what he would decide for option three was a definite no, and he had a feeling if he picked option one Juris would find and kill him later so he wouldn’t be a future threat. So, he really didn’t have an option at all. “I choose option two, I’ll join the pride and do whatever you say.” Jupiter’s voice was a whisper and he stared at the ground as he spoke.

Juris sneered at Jupiter he was going to enjoy taunting the male and making him watch as Arjana became his mate. He would have to make sure Tonraq kept a close eye on them to make sure they didn’t interact other than if Arjana was giving him orders. Now that he had a mate, he would have to think about expanding his territory. Four miles was enough for now but once the pride began to grow, they would need more.

           

 A few days after claiming Arjana as his mate he decided to send his pride out to search the territory outside their pride to see where it was best to expand to. He sent Arjana to the east, Tonraq to the north, Jupiter to the west hoping he would fall into the quicksand pits that lay that way and never be seen again, while he himself headed south.

  But after less than an hour of traveling Juris was forced to come to a stop when he ran into the border of what smelled like a very strong pride. He quickly backed away from the border. He was going to have to tell his pride to stay as far away from the southern points as possible to cause any possible trouble in the future… at least until they were strong enough to take over their pride. Juris laughed to himself at the thought of killing all the males and claiming the lionesses for his pride eventually.

Jupiter traveled quite a way out of their territory to the west in search of territory to claim but there wasn’t much this way. For some reason there wasn’t really any large prey this way. Slowly Jupiter continued heading west and was thinking of turning back soon but he had a feeling Juris would be furious with him if he didn’t go further.

Out of nowhere vulture dived at the ground several feet in front of him than before touching the ground flew back up it did this several times confusing Jupiter. Why wasn’t it landing? Shrugging Jupiter continued forward only to have his front right paw begin to sink a few feet farther. He thought it was mud at first but when he shifted his weight to it he realized it kept sinking. This wasn’t mud but quicksand. Jupiter let out a cry and struggled to pull his paw back out from it but he managed eventually. Quickly he back stepped several feet than looked back up at the vulture that was now hovering above watching him and he realized it had been trying to warn him. “Thank you friend I will let my pride know to stay clear of this area.” It never even came to his mind that Juris might have already known about the quicksand and had been hoping he would sink to his death in it.

 Meanwhile Tonraq traveled about a mile or so from their territory to the north and had begun to be filled with hope. There was so much prey out this way and no other prides and dangers that he could see. But after about another half hour he spotted a rather large human village in the distance. Tonraq knew this place was no good for his pride, he could hear the bleating of sheep, the long deep moos of cows. Licking his lips as the scent of the livestock reached him and he slowly began to approach the prey that was scattered farthest from the town. Juris would be so proud of him for catching and killing some prey to bring back to the pack. They could come here to hunt when prey in their territory is scarce, but they wouldn’t be able to hunt here too often or risk angering the humans.

Spotting a young lamb Tonraq crouched and slowly stalked it through the tall grass. Slowly little by little he crept towards the young lamb until he was close enough to leap. Bunching his hind quarters, he pounced onto the lamb pinning it to the ground and sank his teeth into its neck killing it. The sound of humans screaming made him realize he had been spotted. He grabbed his kill and took off running as fast as he could away from the town. Soon the town and the humans were out of sight and hearing. They were too slow to catch him he chuckled softly and slowed down to a quick walk as he made his way back to the pride.

Off to the east Arjana had discovered a small pride living a few miles away from their border. She lay crouched in the tall grass watching them. They were bigger than Juris’s pride, but it was mostly made up of lionesses and their cubs. There were only two full grown lions that she could see. It was obvious to her the large of the two with the black mane was the king for he sat with his head held high watching the older cubs play. While the other lion looked much younger and hadn’t completely grown in his mane yet. She feared that if Juris learned of this pride he would surely attack and claim their territory for himself. Could she do that to these lions knowing full well he would have all the cubs killed as well? No, there was no way she could do that to them. Slowly she creeped backwards until she was far enough to turn around and make her way back to her pride promising that Juris would never learn about this pride at least not if she could help it.