Chapter 40. Ants are us

"To the lions they are food, but to a king, they or subjects that we must protect." Asafa said as he looked at the Gazelles.

"We must protect them? Why, don't we hunt and eat them?" Mohatu seemed bewildered by the answer his father had given him.

"Yes we eat them, but what would happen if we ate all of them?" Asafa asked.

Mohatu's face lit up in understanding.

"Then there would be no more gazelles for us to eat and we'd starve!" Mohatu said as he realised.

"And that's why, we protect our borders, if other lions come here they'll eat not only the gazelles, but all other animals that is our food." Asafa said.

Mohatu seemed to look at the Gazelles with understanding.

"As kings, we must make sure that the animals that live in the pride lands are always protected from other predators, and as kings, we must make sure that we don't hunt too much of what we have, if we do, we will doom the other animals and ourselves." Asafa said seriously.

Seing that his son kept silent and understood, he continued.

"Look!" Asafa said as he pointed at the Gazelles, making Mohatu once again focus on them.

The Gazelles that were drinking all halted as they seemed to hear something, all of them suddenly started running as their ears picked up something.

"See how the mothers are the last ones, as they make sure their children are not left behind?" Asafa asked. Mohatu nodded.

"That's because they also have love for their families and friends. They have their lives and their experiences." Asafa whispered a she bowed down to Mohatu's level.

Mohatu seemed to understand as his eyes widened.

"So we eat them... But we must also make sure that they can continue living in peace as well..." Mohatu whispered.

"And not only do we eat them, they also...." Asafa stopped here and looked around to make sure no one was close by, as if he wanted to reveal something huge to his son.

His son perked up his ears as Asafa came closer once again and whispered, "they also eat us!"

Mohatu turned his head and looked very sceptically at his father as if he had gone mad.

"HAHAHAH" Asafa laughed out as he hugged his son closer.

"DAAAD STOP IT, You tricked me!" He said as he felt tricked by what his father just claimed.

That's when Asafa calmed down and grinned at his son.

"I didn't trick you, this is the great secret of the kings!" Asafa said in a cheeky grin.

"Yeah right!" Mohatu said with an eye roll, yet he was still content with what he had learnt today, it was something of great importance.

"Mohatu, I'm not joking." Asafa said suddenly.

"Huh?" He turned to his father with a frown.

"I am the king of these lands, and I protect it and eat from it what I need to survive... But one day, I'll grow older and I'll die." Asafa said seriously.

Mohatu's eyes widened.

"What! Dad, I don't want you to die, promise that you won't leave me!" Mohatu expressed fear and worry

"Mohatu... Let me tell you something that my father once told me, look at the stars." Asafa said in his deep, wise voice while looking upward.

Mohatu followed his gaze and looked up.

"The great kings of the past look down on us from the stars..." Mufasa explained.

"What, really?" Mohatu said as he stared at the stars.

Asafa secretly looked at his son, and when he saw his expression, Asafa chuckled a she remembered how his father had this very talk with him and Simba when he was younger.

"Yes, and one day, you'll take my place as king. So whenever you feel alone, remember that those kings will always be there to guide you, and one day, so will I..." Asafa said, a he sat beside the much smaller Mohatu as they both looked up, staring at the stars.

"By that point, my body will become earth, and turn into grass, which the gazelles consume to survive, and you'll be protecting them while I'll be feeding them." Asafa said.

Mohatu turned to his father and finally understood.

"This is the circle of life, and one day, your son will take your place and you'll be looking down on him from the stars." Asafa said.

Mohatu understood, and he looked down while tilting his body towards his father.

Asafa hugged Mohatu closer as they sat like that until the sun rose.

When the time had come for them to return, Asafa gave a final advice for his son.

"Mohatu, always remember, being king doesn't mean that you're able to do whatever you want, it means that you obliged to protect these lands." Asafa said.

"Even if I don't want to?" He asked.

"You can't avoid this, you are part of these lands, and this is part of you, just like I am part of you." He said in a smile.

Mohatu looked a bit confused, but seemed to get the gist of it.

Seing the confusion on his son's face, Asafa put a paw on his head.

"You will understand when you are older."

Asafa and Mohatu returned to the pride rock, and the lions had awoken.

Asafa continued his duty of strengthening the borders and taking care of matter regarding the pride lands.

The cubs played as usual but they all noticed that their eldest sibling seemed out of it.

They even found him staring at an ant nest, just looking as the ants worked and ran around.

Mohatu had learnt something great, the circle of life. With his new understanding of how other animals also have their lives, families and ambitions, he found great interest in other animals, an interest he had never had before.

Even ants seem so interesting to him now.

The cubs looked at eachother.

"You think his brain broke?" Kiara asked.

"Maybe he wants to eat ants?" Zawati, the youngest girl answered.

"Oh who cares, let's play hide and seek!" Simba said to his siblings. He was named after his uncle before they knew Simba was alive.

"Don't you think it's because of the secret meeting he had with father?" Tukufu asked with a small frown.

They all knew that Mohatu had gone on a small trip with their father, because he was the next in line.

"Who cares about that, let's play play play!" Simba rolled his eyes.

"I'm just saying don't you find it weird that we weren't allowed to follow?" Tukufu said.

"You're doing that thing again, overthinking... Mohatu is going to become king so it's obvious that father will spend alone time with him" Imamu said, getting bored of Tukufus fixation. Imamu was the closest to Mohatu in personality, but he wasn't protective of his siblings, instead, he had a rivalry with them.

Little Mufasa is the only one that seemed to not care at all.

"Let's go to uncle Hamu's kingdom!" Zawati came up with a fun plan. They all agreed.

They ignored Mohatu and walked toward the small lake behind the pride rock, where their funny uncles and aunt were. This place was named Hamu's kingdom according to their snake uncle, Hamu.

They always enjoyed playing with Timon, Pumba, Hamu and Imani. Even Simba, their uncle was spending most of his free time there.

As they walked, Tukufu halted and lookedbback one last time at Mohatu, a look of bitterness flashed in his eyes before he turned around and followed his siblings.

Tukufu has kept a secret, he found his siblings dumb, and he barely enjoyed their company as they were always shouting and saying dumb things.

Even his eldest brother Mohatu, who he considered the smartest of the dumb cubs, was someone he looked down on.

And today he found Mohatu just staring at an ant nest without having the slightest interest in them, which made him feel that Mohatu was even dumber than usual.

'Why would someone like him, be the crown prince, but not me?' that thought had been on the back of his mind for a long while now, but today it had implemented itself strongly in his heart.

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Ya punks! Today I released two chapters as part of my evil plan to win your hearts!!! 👿 Then when I've won your hearts, I'll smash them apart mwahaha