calling all my lions!

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it was late in the evening when the trumpets of elephants serenaded the plains. asha had been lounging in a low hanging tree, its limbs weathered from time and it was an easy thing to climb upon. her sister had been near, too. anxious, excited at the new arrival of Uhuru in their territory.
asha was too.
she stood at once, letting out a ghastly yawn, and began to bellow. loud, commanding, for her others to join her as they would rally.
it would be a test of strength— not for them, no, but for uhuru. he had claimed to kill the hyena nest, cut it from its head, and now she would wish to see how he graced these arid lands with its most apex of prey; elephant.
she gathered upon a knoll, waiting, listening. the elephants were not far.

this was the most dangerous of hunts.

this exceeded that of buffalo. it outpaced the hunting of stabhorn antelope. even the hunts among crocodiles when desperate did not carry so much weight of death as this.

it was a test to end all tests.

uhuru had spent time among those great toothed denizens of the waiting waterholes. the eyes of elephants were not so apt in the darkness, while those of lions came alight. the threat to calves were crocodiles in such an evening.

we shalt bar them from water, make them charge. make them thirst. make them defend. anger them. they shalt fight us in thirst, and we shalt cut away their calves.

She’d fallen asleep sunning her belly in the afternoon light, her hocks drifting apart in a pose that was hardly flattering, but affordable for one who felt as secure and safe as Juliet. Now, felt the heat of a mild sunburn prickle at her skin, but thought little of it. She’d pencil in another tanning session tomorrow and do it all over again, now that the pride had a king to fight their battles for them.

She sipped the evening air as one would savour the first drop of hot coffee in the morning. Hunger sharpened her senses, and her usual languid airs were replaced with a focused energy. While she was a woman who enjoyed the luxury of slumber, the advent of a hunt was what truly invigorated her.

She roved with short, heavy strides to join Asha and Uhuru, greeting both with a heavy headbutt to the chin, running the entire length of her body up the lioness’s side and down the length of the king’s, before she circled and sat alongside the pair.

A king hunting was not completely unheard of- but for a king to take charge and decide the plans? She had some reservations. Fending a herd of elephants from the water’s edge when they were thirsty would put them against mighty beasts, in a head-on clash. Juliet’s tail flicked; she wondered how far a bull elephant could throw a big guy like Uhuru. If they went with his plan, she might get to see it happen.

She looked to Asha. Hunting elephants was a risky endeavour but this strategy might mean less sprinting. She tried to weigh the benefits and drawbacks. Elephants were fiercely protective of their young. They had tonnes of weight to push, shove, squash a body beneath their feet- tusks that could gore a beast, trunks that could make a tree bow. Their skin was as thick and tough as the riverbed in the dry season.

For a common sense cat like Juliet, taking down elephants was for the desperate. Not a flaunt of power, but a last ditch effort to kill something when the herds moved on.

But she had heard whispers of the white bone. A treasure that could grant foresight, that could point the way to water even in the worse droughts. It was said to have been picked up by the rumbling giants that roamed the Savannah- but that its powers could be gleaned by any who seized it.

And being just the right combination of curious and superstitious, Juliet was intrigued by the idea of such a thing. It would be worth the investigation, at least, to see if one of the elders of this herd carried it- and if they could kill a calf in the process…Perhaps there was more to be gained than lost.