The History Of Juris's Pride

That night Juris slept very lightly waking up at the slightest movement in his pride. He wanted to make sure Arjana didn’t try to sneak off and worn the pride. But as the night began to fade and the sky’s lightened Juris got up and growled nudging the others awake. “It’s time we attack the East Pride, let’s go.” He turned to Arjana and motioned with a flick of his tail for her to lead the way.

Arjana got up from where she had been lying all night unable to sleep. More than anything she had wanted to sneak off and worn the pride about what was about to happen. But she knew that Juris would be expecting that and she was terrified of what he may do to her if she tried to warn them. He wouldn’t kill her, not yet since she was bearing his cubs but once they were weaned he might. She needed to stay safe for her cubs for though she hated Juris she already loved her cubs.

As Juris motioned for her to lead the way she quickly stepped to the front and led the way. She ran as quickly as her pregnant body would allow her, with her head hung low in regret for what she was about to do. Arjana wished she had never told Jupiter about the pride, she would never be able to forgive him for betraying her trust.

The pride followed Arjana and walked in single file so as to hide their numbers from anyone who might be out patrolling. Every time Arjana began to slow down Juris would nip at her heals and growl at her. It wasn’t long that they passed the border marker and Arjana threw her tail up to tell the tribe to slow down. Now that they were in an enemy prides territory they needed to be as silent as death itself. Crouching down Arjana and the others slowly walked forward watching where they put every step so as not to make a sound. At last the enemy pride came into view. They were all sleeping, as far as Arjana could tell they had hunted and fed well in the night. She could see the remains of not only an antelope but also a young zebra.

Juris stood up with his head held high and stepped forward one step at a time signaling to his pride mates with his tail to split up on either side of himself. They had already discussed their plan thoroughly the night before. Juris himself would go for the king of the pride himself, Tonraq would take on the younger male, Jupiter would take control of the lionesses until Juris had finished with their leader, and Arjana would go and kill all the cubs while their moms where distracted. Once close enough Juris let out a loud roar that would be able to be heard for miles than leaped at the sleeping king with claws and teeth bared.

The large black maned lion was startled awake by the loud roar of another lion. But before he had the chance to react a heavy weight landed on him crushing him and knocking the breath out of him. He refused to go down like this and began rolling over and over trying to shake the male lion off of his back. He felt claws and fangs tare into his fur and mane. He did his best to claw and bite this intruder, he could hear cries or pain, roars of angers and whimpers of fear coming from his pride surrounding him. He needed to protect his pride. As a last resort he dropped acting like he was going to give up, and hoped the attacker would fall for it.

Juris had his claws tangled in the black lion’s mane holding on tightly as he tried to pin him. When the lion collapsed to the ground he could have fallen for it but Juris knew what the lion was doing it was the oldest trick in the book. Instead Juris took this chance to shove him further into the ground and sank his teeth into the lions neck, he heard him cry out in fear and pain just before he bit down with all his strength crushing his wind pipe. As Juris waited for him to take his last breath knowing he was as good as dead now he heard Tonraq’s celebratory roar nearby. Juris lifted his and joined in as the king dragged in one final breath and died. With a flick of his tail he leaped off of the dead kin and walked over to his son.

Arjana heard Juris’s roar to attack and leaped forward not to the lioness for Jupiter would take care of them but towards their cubs. She went for the youngest litter first for they would be the easiest to kill. Their mother was busy fighting Jupiter and wouldn’t be able to save them. She reached into the crevice their mother had tried to hide them in at the last second and began pulling the cubs out one at a time. Tears streamed down her face and she apologized to each cub before killing them making sure it was quick and painless not wanting them to suffer. There were six little cubs that had just begun to open their eyes now lying dead on the ground around her straining the once green grass red with their blood.

She was not done yet though she still had one more litter she had to kill. Arjana’s heart was breaking with every cub she killed. More than anything she wished it was her own life but deep down she knew she needed to survive, she couldn’t die if her cubs were to survive, but not only survive but to thrive. Nearby she heard a cry of pain, not physical pain but emotion and Arjana knew the mother of the young cubs had seen that her babies were all lying on the ground dead. Arjana turned and watched as the mother turned towards Juris in rage and ran at him. Arjana let out a crying knowing she had no chance of defeating him. As Juris stood next to Tonraq he swiped one of his large paws at her knocking her to the ground than quickly killed her. Arjana let out a whimper and shook her head sadly. Maybe the mother had wanted to die as well for surely she must of known she hadn’t stood a chance? Arjana looked to her mate hoping he would say it was enough but she could tell by the cold look in his eyes he still wanted her to kill the other litter.

Jupiter had managed to get a young lioness to submit to him she couldn’t be more than a year old. He had been trying to get one of the mothers to submit when she had cried out in distraught and took off towards Juris. His heart sank as he watched their king easily kill the heart broken mother. But Jupiter didn’t have time to dwell on the dead lioness for at that moment he noticed the mom of the other litter charging at Arjana as she headed towards the other litter. He growled angrily and leaped at her, he clawed her side and told her to yield.

Her cubs were in danger she had been fighting along said her best friend Jasmine when she had heard her friends heart rent cries as she spotted her cubs dead on the ground. Before she could stop her Jasmine had charged at the rival king and was killed. Now she spotted the pregnant lioness heading towards her own cubs. Rage and fear quickly built inside her and she charged towards her ready to kill her and her unborn cubs if she must to protect her own cubs. But halfway towards the rival queen she felt a heavy weight land on her and pin her to the ground. She roared in furry and thrashed about trying to break three. “Let me go at once or you’ll regret it, I’ll fillet you alive,” she roared angrily.

Arjana heard the roars from the other mother but knew her pride had her back and continued towards the cubs that had hidden beneath a leafy shrub and were quivering in fear. Crouching down she crawled under the bush and spotted four cubs hiding from her. Unknown to her there was a fifth cub hiding in a small cavern under the root of the bush just barely big enough for the youngest and smallest of the litter to hide in. Her brothers and sisters had hidden her there and scraped leaves and dirt over her to hide her. They told her to be quiet and stay hidden no matter what. Her littermates were determined to save at least one of them and she was the only one who could fit in the crevice. The eldest brother born a several months before them had taken off at the first sign of battle like their mom told them to.

 “I am so sorry little ones, I don’t want to kill you but I must do as my king tells me to do. If you can I suggest you run but the battle is all but over and I doubt you would get very far, and I can’t promise the others will make your death as quick or painless as I will. Especially if it’s Juris or Tonraq that catch you.” A few moments later the bodies of four six-month-old cubs lay dead on the ground beside her. That day she had taken the life of to many. Unable to bear it Arjana collapsed on the ground with grief and began to sob. Why, why must they do this? Why must Juris be so cruel? She wished for a different king, one who was wise, kind and had a big heart.

Once the last remaining cubs were dead Jupiter looked down at the lioness he had pinned with sad eyes. “Your cubs are dead, there is nothing left for you here anymore. You have two options, one I can kill you here and now and you can join the rest of your pride that died today in the afterlife, or you can join our pride and maybe someday in the future bare a new litter of cubs. I am sorry for your loss but you don’t need to lose your life as well.”

The lioness keened softly hearing her babies were all dead now. Why, why had this happened to them. Almost her entire pride was killed, all that was left was her and her two daughters that were barely a year old. She needed to survive for them if for nothing else they needed her now more than ever. “I’ll join the pride for the sake of my remaining two daughters,” she croaked in a voice void of any emotion.

Sighing with relief that he wouldn’t have to kill anyone in this fight today he slowly got up and released his hold on the queen. Jupiter was lucky he had managed to get the two young lionesses to submit without much trouble and had even managed to get the last remaining queen to submit. He was the only one in the pride who hadn’t had to kill anyone today.

As the sun rose up in the sky it shines it’s light down on a blood-soaked battlefield. Together Juris, Tonraq, and Jupiter herded the three lionesses away from the battlefield not even allowing them to bury or say goodbye to their loved ones. Arjana trailed behind with her tail hanging so low it trailed the ground. Juris was at the head with his head and tail held high proud of the deed they did that day.