Chapter 3: The Pride

'If I remember correctly, lions usually take three to four years to reach adulthood,' Kael thought, contemplating to himself.

He sat alone on his favorite boulder, watching his siblings and his cousins play around with each other.

Kael liked being by himself to think. He would rather hang out with the more serious-minded adults, but he learned through some beatings that he was only welcomed when they wanted him.

Especially the other mothers, they were very harsh towards any cubs that were not theirs.

The cubs, still innocent, were oblivious to the pride dynamics.

'If I want to have a good life, no, if I want to have the best life as a lion, I'll have to establish my own pride.' As Kael thought about this topic, his eyes narrowed as he gazed upon the distant sleeping figure of his father.

The pride leader was currently lying on his side amid the lionesses.

At this time, two young male lions that hadn't yet grown their mane sauntered over to the group with swagger.

They stepped on the paws and tail of every lioness they walked past, earning them angry growls until he reached the pride leader.

Without a single atom of respect, they dropped down by his side and began rolling themselves on the dirt ground.

One of the lions in particular was bold, using his hind legs to slightly kick the big lion's tail.

The pride leader who had been resisting ever so menacingly, gently opened his eyes, revealing fierce ruby pupils.

The pride leader was by no means small, he was almost double the size of these two young lions. His peculiar size was one of the things that made Kael understand that this pride leader was not exactly normal.

Kael wondered what gave his older brother and cousin such boldness to go and disturb the pride leader.

Although the only thing he knew about lions was surface level, he had taken his time this past week to study them closely. From their behaviors to their hierarchy system to the pecking order.

The pride he was in, he named it the Hot Lion Pride because of how the area around the pride leader always seemed to mysteriously have a high temperature.

He also divided the roles of each lion and classified them as best as he could. At the top of the hierarchy was the Pride Leader, who in this case was his father.

Then below the pride leader were the consorts and eunuchs. Kael called them consorts and eunuchs because they really acted like that.

In the pride, all the adult females who wished to stay under the protection of the pride leader had to become consorts. That is, the pride leader had the right to mate with them and they would help the pride leader extend his legacy.

The adult males on the other hand who were not as strong or as supported as the pride leader and didn't have the guts to challenge for the position of leader, could only become eunuchs.

Not that they were castrated or anything, they just didn't have the right to mate with any females within the pride.

They could possibly encounter a rogue female lion outside but that was speculative as Kael didn't know how that would play out.

Irrespective of what they did anywhere, they all had to report to the pride leader.

Then at the lowest spot were the young ones. The sub-adults, juveniles, and cubs were at the lowest spot.

They only got to eat if there were any leftovers or if their mothers thought to bring them food.

All in all, there were just three stages in the pride social hierarchy. The leader stage, the followers stage which were consorts and eunuchs, then the offsprings stage, the cubs, juveniles, and sub-adults.

The Hot Lion pride had a total of eleven adult females, six of whom were mothers. Two adult males, his father and his uncle, both of whom were hardly seen. In this case, Kael's lion uncle occupied the eunuch position.

Then there were close to twenty offspring including four sub-adults, most of whom Kael expected to die before reaching adulthood.

From what he remembered, the offspring would at some point either leave the pride, become a follower of the pride leader, or challenge the pride leader for his position.

To Kael, it seemed like his older brother was getting too bold and would soon try to challenge his father.

From the two sub-adult lions currently testing the patience of the pride leader, one of them was Kael's biological brother, and the other was a cousin from another lioness.

How did Kael know that that lion was his brother? Well, it was from the way their mother treated them. She was extremely tolerant of this older brother of his compared to the other lionesses.

Even when they slept, this older brother never forgot to sleep near them.

Kael lazily looked down from the boulder at his siblings and his cousins playing around on the dirt ground.

'That does look kind of fun…' A weird thought he didn't know he could have wandered into his mind.

The more he stared at their playing forms, the more these thoughts wandered into his head. Before he knew it, he was getting excited.

At some point, Kael didn't know that he had positioned his body in a form as though he was ready to pounce on a defenseless prey.

His instincts were taking over and his eyes widened with extra vigilance. One of the cubs playing below wandered near the boulder after being pushed by another cub.

It heard the sound of soft paws on solid rock and looked up. Seeing the cub turn to him, Kael could no longer hold himself, his little muscles erupted with strength as he lunged himself at the cub.

He threw all his weight at it, causing the little cub to fall and get pinned down. Kael pressed one of his paws on the cub's head and another on its ribs.

The cub could see Kael's golden brown eyes from the corner of its own. It was surprising that this cub who usually didn't like interacting with anyone had taken such an initiative to play around. In its eyes, Kael just wanted to play.

Only Kael knew that he had stopped himself just in time from biting down on the cub's neck. Not that it would have done anything since he still didn't have any teeth.

He was confused, 'What was that?' he asked himself. Simply attributing it to lion instincts, he simply walked away, denying the little cub the chance to play.