NOVEL NEXT Chapter 10: Lit a Fire
Leo eyed his females, casting occasional covetous looks over at the newer females who were slowly coming around to his presence. Unfortunately, mating was off the cards now: none of the females were in heat. With any luck, the two he’d been mating with would be pregnant with cubs, but he wouldn’t be able to tell for a little while yet. When their scents started to change, he would know.
His brother had been very busy over the last three days since they had been chased off their territory with their tails between their legs; the memory still rankled. It should be the lions claiming new land, and seeing off those mangy scavengers, not the reverse.
Still, he had to admit that it had lit a fire in Dominic – and in the females from what he could tell. But it was Dominic who had really been working hard.
They’d been doing very little sleeping – in comparison to normal, that was. If they hadn’t been hunting, his brother had been working on his Abilities. And then as soon as the females indicated that they were willing to hunt, he’d been taking them out in groups of four.
Leo knew that his brother had been a bit concerned about leaving the two prides together for the first time, and Leo had had to admit the same worry, though not for the same reason. Dominic had been worried that the two prides might start a fight while he was gone; Leo had been uneasy leaving those juvenile males with his females. They might not have shown any tendency towards violence or challenge as of yet, but what if his presence was the only thing holding them back? What if they killed the cubs?
Fortunately, nothing had happened – so far. The lead female, the one his brother called ‘Isis’, had only come out with them once since they had both agreed that leaving her protective and dominant presence with the females should help calm any hostilities, if they occurred.
The one Dominic called Sekhmet, however, had accompanied them every time. Leo suspected that his brother was keen to get her over the next threshold as soon as possible. He thought that Dominic was hoping that her intelligence would take another qualitative leap at that point; Leo felt the same way. It would be nice to be able to converse more with another lion. His brother had become far more important than Leo would have ever thought a hairless monkey could be, but he was still not a lion. He didn’t think in the same way and it left Leo feeling surprisingly lonely at times.
He shook his mane. I can lick my claws when I’m not in control of our body, he said to himself decisively. It seemed like his brother had been teaching him bad habits. Or perhaps it was the relaxation of not being in control, however frustrating that could be sometimes.
Now, which females to take this time? All of them had increased by a level, none by two, so it made it a little difficult to choose.
‘Definitely take Sekhmet – if our hunting tonight is good, it should guarantee that she will tip into Tier 2.’ The suggestion came unbidden, but Leo accepted it anyway – it made sense. ‘And what about Isis? She’s still the lowest of the group and we’ve only taken her out once in the last few days.’
‘She is a good influence on the two prides, though,’ pointed out Leo, a little unsure about that suggestion, so counter to his earlier thoughts.
‘She needs to be at a good level to maintain that influence, though, doesn’t she?’ Dominic questioned, though it didn’t sound like he was really asking.
‘That is true,’ mused Leo.
‘The prides have been good together so far. And they didn’t cause problems when we took her out yesterday. I think it should be fine.’ His brother certainly seemed confident. In the end, Leo decided to go with him.
‘Then that’s two. Perhaps we should also take the more sensible young female – she is already level 8 and therefore not too far from Tier 2 as well.’ He felt a sense of agreement come from Dominic.
‘Yes, I agree about Anuke. Maybe Neith too, then?’
‘She has cubs. I doubt she will want to leave them without the matriarch present to help protect them,’ Leo disagreed.
‘Fair point…Menhit, then? She doesn’t have cubs.’ Leo considered the suggestion.
‘Yes, I will take her,’ he agreed after a moment of thought.
Heading in, he greeted the pride with head-rubs, even the cubs, and then invited the four females he’d decided to take out with him. They followed him eagerly, by this point fully aware of what it meant to be chosen.
The others seemed a bit disappointed, but didn’t complain. They would probably do some hunting themselves, anyway, but they didn’t seem to target the kind of creatures which would give them many Prey Points, instead still going for the herbivores which they would have hunted before the System arrived.
Neither Leo nor Dominic had managed to communicate to them the need to hunt carnivores – probably partly because carnivores didn’t taste nearly as nice as grass-eaters and the females were still feeding from their kills the way they had always done.
Leo did sample meat sometimes, since it was still a pleasure to do that, but his brother had been a bad influence on him. Now he just had a few titbits to taste, and then waited until the rest of the pride was finished to Consume what was left of the carcass.
It rankled a bit, since his instincts told him that he was conceding to the females and cubs, but he recognised that without heavy meat in his belly, he was able to be more active and energetic. Plus, there were advantages to Consuming the carcasses such as percentage progress towards various Abilities.
There was still a part of himself which demanded he take control of the carcass, gorging until he was full and showing exactly who the dominant male of the pride was. He did his best to satisfy it by eating the tastiest parts before he let the females come near. It worked – most of the time, anyway.
Heading away from the pride, the four females following him, he stopped as two other females came near. Immediately he was on guard – these were females from the other pride.
Soft growls came from the females behind him, but the two approaching them didn’t show signs of aggression. Instead, they looked…like they wanted something. Reaching out Leo connected his mind with the closest lioness, sending her a sense of a question.
She responded with an image, that of lions going away, then coming back bigger and faster with sharper teeth. Then another impression of scent and appearance: the female herself going away then coming back, bigger, faster, and with sharper teeth.
‘Is she asking to join us?’ Leo’s brother questioned curiously.
‘It appears so,’ Leo agreed. ‘What do you think – should we let her?’ There was a moment of silence while Dominic thought.
‘I don’t see why not,’ he said in the end. ‘This is a step towards integration, I think. Maybe add them to the Pride so they get the benefit of the shared Prey Points, otherwise they’re unlikely to get much benefit, given that they’re probably below level 5.’
‘Very well,’ Leo agreed, then focussed on sending out invitations to the Pride, as he had observed his brother doing multiple times now.
There was a moment of pause before the invitations were accepted, perhaps because the females weren’t too sure about what they were or what to do about them. However, they were accepted in the end.
Leo connected one by one with both females, sending a sense of welcome to their hunt, but also a warning to follow instructions: these females still seemed quite young, and he had no desire to have another pride member like the one his brother called ‘Jenkins’.
That settled, they headed out, all the lions focussing on their surroundings, looking for either prey or threat.
Leo knew it would be some time before they came across something suitable, and he might have to employ his brother’s method to attract prey in the end. For now, he just enjoyed the feeling of the night breeze through his fur and basked in the knowledge that there were six lovely females following him through the savannah.
*****
Dominic relaxed in the study. He’d managed to make a useful change to it – adding a TV. Not for movies or TV series, though he’d love that too, but to show the view of his physical body, at the moment controlled by Leo. It had taken a bit of mental adjustment to not feel sick when he looked at the moving image, but somehow it had helped to remind himself that, though he felt like he was in a physical body, he really wasn’t.
Like with a normal TV, he could also increase or decrease the volume, thereby being able to tune in more or less depending on his desire at the time, or what he could see happening with his body. It wasn’t a connection to Leo’s thoughts – he had to concentrate on hearing those – it was just a connection to his physical body’s sight and hearing. Useful for when he wanted to just know what was going on but also relax a bit.
I deserve to relax tonight, he decided. He’d been going full-pelt for the last three days, only sleeping when his body stopped regenerating stamina so efficiently and his mind started feeling muddled. When Leo had asked if he could take over for a bit, Dominic had hesitated, but then decided that giving the hunt over to the lion might actually be a good idea. It would be hitting two birds with one stone: give the lion a chance to stretch his physical legs, and give Dominic a bit of time off.
Maybe I should pass hunts over to Leo more often, he mused. He didn’t think that passing training over was a good idea – it was probably a toss up between whether the lion would keep working or whether he would just lie down for a nap. But hunts were a different question.
Lying back on the sofa, he mused over the successes of the last few days. Frankly, he regretted not training sooner. While he hadn’t wanted to use Second Wind until he had a sure-fire way of rebuilding his health afterwards, he could easily have worked on his other Abilities. And even with Second Wind, his new discovery about being able to activate it only for stamina meant that his fears about accidentally killing himself while training were groundless.
It was true that training against first the rhino carcass and then trees – and other bodies since – was not as effective as using the Abilities in battle. On the other hand, he could far more easily concentrate on the Ability itself; as well as making progress towards the next level with all of them, he felt like he understood them all better.
Pulling up his screen, he concentrated on it showing the changes since he started training. Eyeing it, he hummed with pleasure.
