The History Of Juris's Pride

A few days had come and gone since Juris had sent his pride out in search of territory. Jupiter hadn’t fallen into the trap at the quicksand pit like he had hoped he would. This had angered him, but he couldn’t just kill him outright he had promised Arjana not to harm him as long as she continued to obey him. If he wanted to kill him, he had to make it look like an accident. Arjana was doing exactly what she was required to do, and it was only a few days ago Juris had discovered she was pregnant with his cubs. He had been proud to hear this he knew his cubs would make the pride strong. Tonraq had discovered a large farm town and had even brought back a lamb for him. Juris had thanked Tonraq by giving him some of the meat before taking it for him and Arjana. While Arjana said that she had found no good territory to claim. How could that be that they were surrounded by bad land? He didn't believe it not for a second. He had a feeling Arjana was hiding something, but he hadn't had the chance to go and explore the east for himself yet. And now that Arjana was pregnant with his cubs, he needed more territory more than ever.

Later that day Juris left the pride to go and patrol the territory, it wasn’t long before he spotted two very familiar shapes of Arjana and Jupiter in the distance. Growling angrily, Juris stomped towards them. But as he grew closer, he realized that they were arguing and quite heatedly at that. He smiled and let his golden-brown fur lay flat once more. He liked to see that they were fighting and wanted to figure out what had caused this sudden and happy rift between the two. “WHAT IS GOING ON?” He roared cutting off their words and startling the two lions.

Jupiter hated yelling at Arjana it broke his heart even though they both knew the fight wasn’t real. They had spotted Juris approaching and had quickly pretended to be fighting so as not to receive his anger. “What is happening Juris, is that your mate and my queen has been lying to us. There is territory to the east, but it is claimed by a pride. Tell him Arjana, tell him what you told me.”  He hated doing this to Arjana, but it had been the very first thing to come to his mind. She had told him about the other pride a few days ago and they had agreed to keep it a secret from Juris and the rest of the pride. But he had to tell Juris something that would be believable.

Arjana’s eyes widened in disbelief; how could he do this to her? But she quickly pushed it down and let the anger return before Juris could see. She bared her teeth and growled angrily at Jupiter.

Arjana flinched and gave a small whimper as she was hit in the side of the head by Juris’s paw sending her sprawling across the ground quickly followed by the pressure of his paw pinning her to the ground. She let out a soft cry and nodded her head at his demand. She struggled to his paws and quickly followed him with her head and tail hanging low.

Jupiter bowed his head respectfully as he watched Juris take his anger out on his mate and the lioness that he loved. He wanted to close his eyes and look away, but he forced himself to remain still and watch. When the two finally left and were out of sight and hearing he let himself relax and let a soft sob escape him. “I am so sorry Arjana,” he whispered to himself. Jupiter wished he had managed to come up with something else but at such short notice it was the first thing that had popped in his head.