Chapter 7: Brown Rat

It has been three weeks since Kael was reincarnated as a lion. Today marked a very special day for him.

Ever since a week ago since he got the primordial lion bloodline inheritance, he has not been able to fully access the memories of the previous Primordial Lions.

Any time he tried to access them, he wouldn't be able to see anything that was happening in those memories. Everything was too foggy or blurry in those memories.

Defeated, he let go, seeing as there was not much that could be done about it at the moment.

But there were other things to occupy himself with, like today, he discovered that his teeth had begun to shoot out of his gums.

Along with this development came a nagging desire to bite something. Earlier this morning, he had subconsciously bitten his mother when he was drinking his milk.

This had led to some strange looks from her but it was by the way.

Currently, Kae was looking for his prey. Of course, he was too small to go hunting like the regular lions, but there were small prey he could work on.

He remembered that this area was also home to some rodents, particularly brown rats.

Kael crept up on a small hole by a thick tree. This tree was thick and gave the impression as though it was fat, all its branches were at the top, leaving the truck bare and almost climbless.

At the base of this tree, a small hole was was present. Kael crawled slowly towards that hole.

He was careful not to make any noise, alas he was inexperienced in the fine art of hunting. His paws were all over the place, his body was not lowered enough and there was no grass in the place tall enough to hide his body.

By the time he was getting closer, the little rodent inside the hole stuck its head out curiously. It was the head of a brown rat, it had wide circular ears and a pointy nose. Beneath that nose were two long teeth.

Kael froze when he saw the brown rat. Their eyes jammed, and the rat didn't move either. It stared down at the cub that was too close for comfort.

This rat had been living here for a long time. It was too small of a prey for the big lions to possibly care about. Unless they were pushed to the brink and absolutely starving, they wouldn't even give his form a second glance.

And the rat was smart enough to leverage this situation, it had built its home near the lion's place of rest.

It was aware of the fact that all the other beasts that would want to hunt it for food would be too scared of the lions to attempt to get near the thick three.

It had even started a family hear, thinking that things would probably be like this for the rest of its short life. It had completely forgotten that lions also had cubs, and those cubs were small enough to consider a brown rat a sufficient meal.

What was worse, no adult lion would ever stop the cubs from hunting these rodents.

Kael's black pupils shrank within their golden enclosure. His paws pressed on the ground as his muscles tensed.

The brown rat felt the tension too, it refused to tear its eyes away from the cub. Kael too was patient.

'Why am I doing this again?' Kael asked himself. Yet the itchiness from his teething gave way and broke down any intent to turn back. This would be a failed attempt, but he still moved.

With the swiftness the lion race was blessed with, Kael erupted with speed and plans for violence.

He moved fast, his paws were in the air in no time as his hind limbs shot him into the air. A few more milliseconds and he would have pounced on the brown rat.

But the brown rat was faster than this young feline. All it had to do was stick its head back into the hole it came from, and it did so.

Kael found himself losing balance as he lost his target. One of his paws touched the ground while the other entered the hole, further destabilizing him.

*Rawr!*

Kael let out a loud growl due to the slight pain and the frustration. This was the first time he felt actual pain since his reincarnation.

His loud growl attracted the attention of the nearby lionesses and cubs. The lionesses didn't react much, just a glance.

The cubs however were quite curious. They were all born around the same time with the highest difference in age being a day or two. This meant that they were all growing their baby fangs around the same time.

Although their itchiness to bite something wasn't as profound as Kael's. Many of them would just bite onto tree bark or small sticks to pass the time.

Kael did not just want to bite something, he wanted to bite something to death. The sensation from his mouth was mind wracking and his tongue would once in a while feel a sleek feeling. It was as though the teeth he felt with his tongue were no ordinary teeth.

What Kael didn't know was that, unlike the rest of the cubs, his teething phase was accompanied by a desire for fresh meat.

The cubs ran over to where Kael was. By now Kael had already gotten his paw out of the hole.

As soon as the cubs came close, they could smell the funny scent of the brown rat, just as Kael could.

Kael sat by the hole, patiently waiting, the brown rat couldn't stay in that hole forever. That's what Kael thought.

The cry of another cub on the other side of the tree caught his attention. He turned to see the most surprising scene.

The brown rat that he had been waiting for by the hole was now running frantically in the midst of confused lion cubs. And it was running away from the lionesses.

'Of course, other holes…' Kael's thought trailed off as he immediately ran after the brown rat.

The power of groupthink showed itself at this moment as cubs who didn't even know what was going on ran with Kael.

They were eager and excited to participate in this activity.

Kael ignored them, he simply trained his gaze on the brown rat and pursued it with an unfamiliar intent.

The cubs, upon seeing that Kael was so focused on the rat, also became focused on the rat. They too began pursuing the rat.

Kael's older brother, who was playing with his fellow sub-adults, was also drawn by the mass of cubs running after one little brown rodent that wouldn't even fill his belly.

He was intrigued, this was an impressive scene indeed. The sight was similar to regular lions hunting their prey, except this was at a smaller scale and also very sloppy.

The brown rat ran round and round, running rings around the tree and then going back and forth away from it. At this point, it would only be a matter of time before one of them ran out of stamina.

On cue, some of the cubs stopped running after some time, tired from the running. The cubs that were still running after the rat were the biggest and the oldest among them.

Kael was not the oldest, neither was he the biggest, yet he led them at the front, nearly outrunning the other cubs by a small fraction.

Despite his mysterious advantage, he knew that in time, he would also get tired. It wasn't like it was a must that all cubs caught their first prey successfully.

Kael's mind churned, he thought of a way to come out on top of this.

Suddenly, the rat attempted to make a sharp turn like it had been doing. This would throw the cubs off the trail and make them have to turn around to begin the chase again, further widening the gap between prey and predator.

Kael caught on to this move with his sharp eyes, and without thinking too much about it, he made a detour in the same direction.

The brown rat had also made the sharp turn and was heading straight for another hole. But to its dismay, one particular cub was hot on its tail and was closing in.

Kael had done right, when all the other cubs had been thrown off the trail and were looking to pursue again, he hadn't needed to stop. His detour had simply given the rat enough rope to hang itself with.

It got closer and closer to the hole, and Kael got closer and closer to his prey. They kicked up a small dust stream as they went at it.

Right before the rat could enter the hole, it was just a few feet away. Kael's body came slamming down in one pounce, bringing with him the full weight of his cub body.

The brown rat squealed as Kael's tiny claws pricked its skin. 

Now that Kael had caught the rat though, he didn't know what to do. He was caught in a dilemma.

'How do I kill this thing?'