The History Of Juris's Pride

A Deal Is Made

As Juris and his pride with their three new members made their way back home Pacific was hiding up in a tree a couple mile away from where his pride had been sleeping. He hadn’t wanted to run from the fight but as the cries from the battle filled the air fear had taken over and he turned and fled hoping his family would be ok. He had run until he had found a tree he could easily climb and hide in knowing the intruders would not even know to look for him hopefully. 

As the sun rose in the sky he stood one of the branches watching for any sign of danger. But no one ever came looking for him either from his pride or from the intruding pride. As the day passed he began to relax and laid down and even managed to catch a couple hours of fitful sleep dreaming of the attack on his pride. Finally, as the sun began to set Pacific got up and climbed down from the tree and slowly began making his way back to his pride hoping to find them at worst injured but alive.

The walk back felt like it took ten times longer than it did when he fled that morning. Finally shortly after midnight he spotted the large Baobab tree that his pride had camped under the night before and picked up his pace until he was running. Immediately he knew something was wrong for the smell of blood was so heavy in the air and there wasn’t a single sign of movement anywhere to be seen. Pacific slowed down to almost a crawl as he slowly made his way closer. Reaching the tree he stopped dead and let out an anguished cry as he saw the bodies of his pride mates lying scattered on the land. From the youngest of Stonehill’s newest litter to Stonehill himself they were all dead. He noticed his mother and two sisters bodies weren’t there they must have been taken by the enemy pride. 

The rest of the night Pacific spent digging large deep holes to bury his pride in. It was a dirty task but he couldn’t leave his family here to rot and be picked off by hyenas and birds of prey. As the nights sky slowly began to lighten into dawn he noticed that only four of his younger siblings were lying dead one was missing. And after a quick look Pacific realized which of his siblings it was. His eyes darted around wondering if she had tried to run and was killed further from them but as the sun began to rise and he saw no sign of her hope began to grow in his chest. “Lila… Lila… LILA WHERE ARE YOU? IT’S ME PACIFIC?” At first Pacific spoke in a normal tone but it quickly began yelling hoping that if his little sister was hiding she could hear him and come out.

Lila lay hiding in the small cavern her siblings had hid her in hearing everything as each of her siblings were killed. She could hear the lioness sobbing her apologies and hear her littermates begging her not to kill them. She listened as the enemy pride talked among themselves but she couldn’t hear what they were saying. Than there was silence. Nothing not even the sound of birds chirping or the sound of a bee buzzing by reached her ears. To afraid to leave her hiding place she refused to move or call out of fear someone may hear her and come back to kill her as well. Eventually Lila fell into a deep but restless sleep, when she woke up she swore she had heard someone call out her name, and she had a feeling it hadn’t been the first time they had called out to her. Lila’s eyes widened when she heard Pacific call out to her, she would have known her brothers voice anywhere. She let out a loud cry of her own, “PACIFIC, PACIFIC I’M IN HERE!” Struggling to her paws which felt heavy and stiff from lying down on the cold dirt floor for so long she began to scrape and crawl towards the entrance. She poked her head out of the tree root and let out a startled cry when she saw a head staring at her than realized it was Pacific. She pushed herself the rest of the way out than darted over to him and buried her face in his fur. “Your alive, I can’t believe your alive,” she began to cry heart wrenching sobs. “They’re dead, they’re all dead, they killed them all.”

Pacific was starting to think that the enemy pride had taken Lila with her for some reason. Maybe their mom had agreed to go peacefully if they had let her live? Who knows? But than he heard something, looking around he spotted a small bush a short distance from the tree moving and then he heard it Lila calling out to him. He darted over and shoved his head under the bush just as his sister poked her head out from under a crevice under the bush. A huge smile spread over his face as she burst out and buried her face in his fur and began to cry. Pacific place a paw over her shoulders and pressed his little sister to his side. He was so relieved to see she was ok. “Are you ok? Did they hurt you?” He pulled away and looked down at Lila and checked her over for any injuries but other than a couple of minor scratches from the bush she seemed to be unharmed. “I’m so glad your safe I thought they might have taken you or something.”

Lila shook her head tears still streaming down her face. “No Rock, Lily, Turnip, and Sky all hid me in that crevice when the enemy pride was distracted they gave their lives so I could live,” she sniffed trying to stop crying.

The next day Juris ordered Jupiter to patrol their new territory and mark the borders. With him he had one of the new lionesses named Midnight that Juris had claimed from the East Pride. After much begging Juris had giving her permission to return to bury her family but only if someone went with her. Jupiter had volunteered to help hoping to gain the lionesses trust and hopefully make Juris think he was possibly interested in her so he wouldn’t worry about him and Arjana as much anymore. Jupiter tried to talk to midnight a couple of times during the walk but he couldn’t think of anything to say to her. She had just gone through a huge trauma and was morning the loss of most of her pride.

Midnight walked a little behind Jupiter, her tail hung so low it brushed the ground. She wished more than anything she could go back in time and change the ending of the battle. But that wasn’t possible, the best she could do was return to the place she had once called home to bury her loved ones. She was just glad it was Jupiter with her and not Juris, he had wanted to go but Arjana had gone into labor in the wee hours of the morning and was struggling. She hoped Arjana would be ok even though she had been the one to kill her younger siblings she had done so against her will. In fact, it was the stress of the battle that had caused the queen to go into labor earlier than expected.

Catching sight of the baobab tree in the distance Midnight felt like she was going to be sick. But than she spotted two very familiar lions standing there together. Her eyes widened to the size of a disc and she took off running towards them passing Jupiter and forcing him to run after her. She began smile and purr happily as she recognized not only her litter-mate Pacific who had taken off at the beginning of the battle but also their younger sister Lila. “Your alive, I can’t believe my eyes, your both actually alive. As she reached Pacific she buried her face in her brothers neck than nuzzled Lila. “I’m so happy to see your both ok.”

Jupiter had spotted the two lions as well and was about to charge at them to chase them off when Midnight charged past him. Was she going to chase them off instead? He quickly ran after her to give her back up if needed, but instead of attacking them she cried out to them and buried her face in the males and nuzzled the young female cub. She obviously knew them and must be part of her old pride. This wasn’t good Juris wouldn’t be happy to hear that two lions had survived their attack. Juris himself had made sure there wasn’t a single living lion in the area. How had he missed them? Stopping a few tail lengths away he decided to give Midnight a moment before questioning the two lions.

Pacific heard someone cry out to them, at first, he was filled with alarm afraid it was the enemy pride returning and his body tensed and prepare to fight to protect his baby sister. But when he saw his litter-mate Midnight his body automatically relaxed and he let out a sigh of relief. As she buried her face in his fur he noticed another lion with her, he had the scent of the enemy pride. But he didn’t seem to be a threat at the moment. “Your safe, what are you doing here? Did you escape where is Sunset?”

Lila froze with fear and ducked behind her brother when she saw the two lions charging towards them. She didn’t recognize Midnight at first until she drew closer. Even though she knew her older sister wouldn’t harm her she was still scared of the other lion. Her whole body shook with fear as she waited to see if the lion with Midnight would attack or not.

Midnight gave a forced laugh, “yea I’m safe… for now at least until I anger Juris or Tonraq. They’re cruel and heartless lions. Anyway, as for what I’m doing here I came to bury our pride which I had assumed would include the both of you.  No I didn’t escape I have been claimed by Juris, both Sunset and I are now part of his pride and to become future mates for the males in the pride. Sunset is back with the other pride helping Arjana give birth to her cubs. Juris would never allow both of use to come out of fear we might try and flee. But we would never leave our mom there either all three of us escape together or none of us do.”

Jupiter waited and let them talk for a few moments but after a few minutes he slowly approached them and cleared his throat. “Mhm, I’m sorry to interrupt but this isn’t good, you shouldn’t be here, you should have left and never come back. Now I have no choice I’m going to have to take you back with us and Juris will decide what to do with you. If I don’t he’ll smell you two on us and punish us for letting you go. If you try to run I’ll be forced to attack you and Midnight will be forced to help me and that won’t help anyone. But if you come willingly I might be able to convince Juris to let you join the pride… for now.”

Pacific and Lila looked to the other lion with fear as he stated that they had no choice but to go with him and Midnight or they would be forced to attack. Lila’s eyes widened with fear and she let out a small whimper and pressed herself closer to Pacific’s side. Pacific knew Lila would never outrun them and he knew Midnight would never be able to hurt him or Lila so he made the only decision they had to go with him. “Ok we’ll go but only if you promise our safety. I know you said he may allow us to join for now but if he doesn’t you have to promise you will convince him to let us go. Can you promise me that? That neither Lila or myself will be harmed?”

Midnight gasped as she heard what Jupiter said and turned to stare at him. Would she really be forced to attack her own brother and sister? Would she be able to hurt them? No, there was no way she could ever hurt her family she would turn on Pacific before she hurt her siblings. But thankfully Midnight was never forced to make either decision for she heard Pacific agree to go if Jupiter could promise their safety. She swallowed nervously and waited with baited breath to hear if he would or could promise them.

Jupiter nodded his head happy the male who he presumed was Pacific from what Midnight had said. The little cub looked terrified, but he didn’t have time to think on that when he heard that Pacific was agreeing to come only if they could promise their safety. Jupiter looked to the ground and thought about the request than nodded his head. “I can promise that you will not be hurt if I can help it, and I can promise to do everything I can to convince Juris to let you live as members of our pride if he won’t let you leave. Now come since you have already buried the dead we just get back to the pride.”

Pacific thought on what Jupiter said and nodded his head realizing that was the best he could get. He game Lila and nuzzle and urged her to follow the lion who still hadn’t told them his name. Lila stayed close to his side as they followed Midnight.

Together the four headed pack to camp with Midnight taking the lead and Jupiter taking the rear end to make sure no one tried to run and escape. But they made it back to camp with no problems. “Wait here, I’ll go get Juris, Midnight stand guard if anything happens you’ll be one in trouble.” With that Jupiter left the two in Midnight’s paws just outside of camp and padded up to Juris who was sound asleep under the tree beside his mate and they’re newborn cubs. 

Bowing his head Jupiter gave Juris a nudge, “Juris me and Midnight found some remnants of the East Pride and they would like to join the pride. It’s a six month old female cub and a yearling male.”

Juris groaned as someone nudged him and showed his teeth so they would know how displeased he was for being awoken. But when he realized it was Jupiter he yawned and stood up. Remnants of the pride they had killed how had this happened. “Well let’s not keep them waiting, I will decide if I shall let them join or kill them right here and now.” Leading the way he glanced at the two lions and grunted they were definitely from the east pack their scent was all over them. “So, I hear your survivors from the pride with attacked. How had you managed to survive you should both be dead?” Juris circled them brushing against them trying to intimidate them. It worked on the cub who shrank even further into the male if that was possible since she was already pressing against him to begin with. He smiled glad the cub knew her place. The male though he wasn’t sure of. He kept his eyes downcast and his head low but he showed no fear. 

Pacific stepped forward and took a deep breath trying to calm his nerves. “I can answer that for you. You see my mother told me to run as soon as we heard the first roar of attack which I did, I ran for as long as I could than hid up high in a tree. As for Lila here, her littermates hid her beneath the roots of a shrub they had been hiding it. The hole was just barely big enough for her and they covered her in dirt and leaves in hopes that at least one of them would survive. We are no thread to you or your pride, please let us join. Or at least let Lila join and I’ll run from here and never return you have my word.”

Juris listened closely to the male and nodded as he told them how he and the cub had survived the attack. “Ahh,” well that made sense the male had run like a coward, and the cubs litter mates had hidden her. Knowing the male was a coward made him feel a little more comfortable about letting him join the pride. He was obviously no threat and neither was the cub. In fact the cub could be of use to them in the future once she was fully grown and was able to hunt and provide for the pride. “Fine I shall allow the cub to join, my mate will take care of her and she can help Arjana watch over her newborn cubs. As for you…. You may join on a trial basis. In one month, your fate will be decided. Now what is your name? You told us the cubs but what is yours?

Lila was so scared she didn’t want to die and she knew her life along with Pacific’s was in this horrible lions claws. When she heard that she could join and would be taken care of by his mate as well as help her care for her cubs she let out a sigh of relief.

Pacific held his breath until he heard Juris say that Lila would be raised by his mate and that he could join on a trial basis. "Thank you, Juris, I am Pacific and as I said this is Lila she is my baby sister."

Midnight let out a sigh of relief and she padded towards Juris. "Thank you, my king," she bowed her head respectfully than turned to Pacific. "Come with me I'll show you where you can get some rest."

Juris watched as Midnight led Pacific and Lila away before turning to Midnight and growled angrily. "He will be your responsibility if anything happens you will be blamed and punished. You better hope that he obeys me and my laws." With that he turned and padded back to his mate and cubs.