Chapter 41. Roar of a beast

A few weeks had gone by, and new worry had come to Asafa's attention.

The neighbouring leader Tukufu, father of Zahara and grandfather of Zawati and Tukufu had an invasion.

He got badly harmed and there are rumours of other lions that are eyeing his position.

Asafa understood that if Tukufu was harmed, he would neither be able to protect his pride, nor his position.

The animals were often moving between territories, and a few of them had been to Tukufu's territory before they came here with the news.

"Thanks for the news, you can go now." Asafa dismissed the birds that had come with the news, they nodded before flying away.

Asafa turned around and went back into the den where Zahara was resting, he looked at her but didn't know how to break the news.

"Zahara!" Asafa said as he walked in, gaining the attention of the resting lioness.

As her ears perked up, she opened her eyelids and turned her head as she looked at her king in wonder.

Asafa walked beside her and sat down.

"I've got bad news." He said, which made her sit up.

"Your father was injured in a battle not so long ago, it seems serious." Asafa said and let her pick up the underlay meaning.

She looked at him, and he could see the hint of worry in her eyes.

"Will he be fine?" She asked, her tone seemed slightly nervous.

"I don't know..."

She seemed like she lost her words for a while as silence overtook them.

After a little while she looked at him again.

"Do you think it is possible to visit him?" She asked.

Asafa frowned while thinking. They couldn't just walk into their territory, especially since the king seemed to have lost his authority, but seeing the worry on her face made Asafa want to find a way.

*Sigh* "fine I'll find a way." Asafa said, as he stood up and walked out.

"Zazu!" Asafa shouted as he walked out, hoping the bird was around.

Soon a blue bird flew towards him in hurry.

"You called your majesty?" He said as he landed near Asafa.

"I need you to fly to Tukufu's territory and send him a message." Asafa said.

"Yes, I'll do it now!" He said, wanting to fulfill his command. Just as he was about to fly away, Asafa interrupted him.

"You haven't received the message yet." Asafa chuckled.

"Ah right, sorry about that." He said awkwardly, If birds could blush, Zazu would be blushing right now.

"Tell Tukufu that I'm visiting with his daughter in 3 days."

Zazu nodded before flying away.

Asafa chuckled slightly at the fact that Zazu was always very fast to listen to orders.

Asafa wasn't sure what to do about the situation, this is the life of lions. You grow into your prime, youre strong, then you grow into old age, and the young overpower you...

But in the end, even though Tukufu gave away Zahara, his own daughter for the sake of the pride, Zahara didn't feel bitter about it, she understood the life of lions, and she still held respect for her father.

Asafa would honour his wife by allowwing her to visit, although this is very dangerous. Right now, there is a political shift in Tukufu's pride and he might get usurped any second, if they arrive at a hostile environment, Asafa can't guarantee to protect his wife while being attacked by many opponents.

He would be fine, but even he can get overwhelmed by numbers, allowing the hostile lions to attack his lioness.

Later that day Asafa took off with Zahara towards the neighbouring lion pride. Asafa left Simba in charge of the pride lands for as long as he was gone.

It took them a few days to reach the borders of Tukufu's territory, at that point Asafa stepped forward and roared a mighty roar, so that they would be aware of the fact that they were here.

A normal lion's roar can only reach 8 kilometers, but Asafa's mighty roar could reach about double that.

Which is why, when the lions of Tukufu's pride heard the roar, they thought a mighty beast had come to life to destroy the world. All of them felt their instincts shout at them to not fight this superior beast, and submit for the sake of their survival.

Only Tukufu understood what's going on, so he stood up and walked with his weak legs as he tried to go to he boarders.

Many of his pride eyed him with suspicion and greed as they saw him walk, only one lion seemed to look at him in worry.

One male lion walked forward to Tukufu.

"Leader, where are you going?" He asked in worry.

This was the same lion that was held by Asafa's strong jaws when Tukufu tried to invade the pride lands a few years earlier.

Had his leader Tukufu not acted fast and made a big personal loss, he would have died. From that day onwards, he had become very loyal to Tukufu.

The others in contrast only felt their greed overflow when they saw that Tukufu had become older and had received heavy injuries to his legs, he had lost his ability to fight, and soon, a restructure of the lion hierarchy would take place.

So everyone was on their toes, this affected not only Tukufu, but all the members as they seemed to be on their guard.

Many fights broke out between different lions in the pride.

This was normal for a pride, everyone has their place, they know who is first to eat of their food, and who is second, third and so on until the last lion.

But since there will soon be a new leader, the whole structure is showing off their might so they can get as high of a status as they can.

The only reason Tukufu hadn't yet been overthrown was because many of the lionnesses were his daughters and a few were his sons. But even they were looking on with greed.

"King of pridelands has cometh to visit me with his queen." Tukufu said as he kept limping forward.

"Leader, allow me to receive them!" He said worriedly as he saw his leader struggle with walking.

"... Then, so shall it be." Tukufu looked at him and said before turning around.

The male lion hurried to where the roar had originated from.

All the lions looked at each other in surprise, they had heard what Tukufu had said.

This was a cause of worry for them since a legend had been passed around these parts ever since the failure of Tukufu to take over the pridelands.

The lions returned humbled and in loss, the leader had even given away the only 3 females that had not gotten pregnant, including his own beloved daughter.

Soon, the lions spread what had happened in their battle, and legendary stories about the king of pridelands spread, but most lions just took them as that, stories.

They believed that the warriors had come back and exaggerated their stories so that they wouldn't look so shameless for their loss, after all, what lion is as huge as a mountain and can fight 100's of foes?

But the roar they had heard made all of them feel a shiver in their spines, and the ones that felt the most fear was those that had fought Asafa directly.

One of them had four big scars on his neck where his mane refused to grow out, he was on of those that was looking at Tukufu with greed, but right now he was worried, because he knew the truth about Asafa's strength.

Even if all their pride attacked Asafa, they might be able to defeat him, but the first 10 to attack will die for certain, that's how strong Asafa is.

Everyone looked at eachother, feeling that things migh become complicated.