The Outlanders: D&D Chapter 2

“Kendi!” Her father bellowed. She had been standing on Pride Rock almost all morning, motionless. She had been staring into the horizon, wondering how Dmitri was doing. She jumped at the sound of her father’s low voice. “I see I have startled you.” Keifer chuckled. Kendi just sat there. “Why are you not hunting with the other females?” the male questioned. “Ugh do I have to?” Kendi complained. Keifer laughed, “I remember when you were a small cub. You couldn’t wait for me to take you on your first hunt. But that was a long time ago.” Her father paused. He took a deep breath and said, “You are a fully grown lioness now. And I think it’s time you found yourself a mate.” Kendi had been half asleep during the whole conversation but when the word “mate” was said her eyes widened. Her true mate was Dmitri, but she couldn’t tell her father that. “B-but dad, I…” She tried to make up an excuse. “I don't need a male to be happy.” Bingo! That should work. “Yes but you have been seeming rather gloomy these past couple of days and it wouldn’t hurt to have, as you kids call it, a boyfriend.” Well that excuse didn’t work. Kendi didn’t think she’d get out of this one unless she told the truth, but that was not going to happen. “Anyways, I took the liberty to find you one.” Keifer said with a big grin, feeling so proud of himself. “YOU WHAT?” Kendi shouted. “I told you I don't need one.” Keifer, ignoring Kendi’s last statement, went on. “I talked to a lot of males looking for a lioness, like you. And I picked the best of the best for you. You'll run into him sooner or later, and you'll know it’s him. Now, be a dear and go hunting.” Keifer nuzzled Kendi affectionately. And without a complaint she went off. She needed something to keep her mind off of everything that was going on.

         Kendi ran off to the savannah to meet up with the other lionesses hunting. But instead she ran face first into a medium sized lion. “Excuse me!” Kendi said while trying to pick herself up from the ground. The male turned and looked at her. A large grin and smidgen of cockiness swept over the lions face. “Oh hello! You must be the beautiful Princess Kendi!” The male proudly said. Oh great, it’s the lion my father picked, Kendi thought. “Let me guess, you’re the dude my father chose to date me. Well listen up, I don't like you already and I never will!” Kendi wanted to make it clear. She might have sounded mean and rude when she said it but she didn’t care. She wasn’t in the mood for annoying males trying to show off.

         “Ooh, playing hard-to-get, I see how it is.” The lion purred. “The name’s Maro! If your father didn’t choose me for my looks…” Maro paused to give Kendi a cheesy smile, which to her looked like he was constipated. “…It was my awesome personality.” Maro continued. Maro really wasn’t a bad looking male. He was a light brown lion with a dark navy blue mane and 3 cream-colored dots under each eye. He also had a couple blue striped on his shoulders and dark brown stripes on his shoulders. And his eyes were a beautiful green. But it was his personality that was horrible. Kendi rolled her eyes as he was gloating about how awesome he was. Kendi sighed, and started to walk away. Maro realized she wasn’t too fond of him talking about himself, so he jumped to try to save this potential relationship. “Hey, I’m sorry.” Maro said as he walked in front of her to block her from leaving. “Please don't go.” Maro pleaded. Kendi sat in silence, waiting. For what? She didn’t know. Maybe for him to move out of her way.  “I-I…” His face change from hopeless to trying to act cool. “Would you like to see me take down an elephant?” Kendi rolled her eyes. Sadly she was stuck with this one. Unless that elephant flattened him like a pancake, Kendi joked in her head.

         “Dmitri!” Dante yelled. There he was, the same place where Dante left him, on the edge of the cliff near their den. Dante sighed and said, “C’mon wake up!” Dante nudged Dmitri’s side. He didn’t even flinch or blink. “We have to hunt, now get up!” Dante said with a little anger in his tone. What does he even see in that stupid Pride Lander anyway? Dante thought. He was beginning to sound like his mother. Dmitri slowly stood up and looked at Dante blankly. Dante just wanted to tell him so bad about what happened between the Pride Landers and Outlanders. But there was no time for that, they had to get hunting. Dante motioned for Dmitri to follow him, and Dmitri dragged behind. By now Dmitri’s cuts had scabbed over. They came across a small puddle and Dmitri looked at his reflection, and then washed his face of any dry blood.

         “Shh!” Dante whispered. “Look over there!” Lying there, in plain sight, was a zebra carcass. Sure it was missing a head, a few limbs, and a bunch of chunks out of the torso, but it was very rare to see a zebra, let alone carcass, in the Outlands. Dante, excited by the delicious food, sped after the carcass. “Dante! Don't!” Dmitri loudly whispered. Dmitri quickly ran after him. Then all of a sudden they were surrounded by hyenas. “Well, well, well, what do we have here?” Kenzie, the female hyena said. “Looks to me like we got some whittle lions trying to take OUR food!” a male hyena growled. They were all spotted hyenas with very plain grey fur. It wasn’t the first time Dmitri and Dante have come across these three hyenas. The female hyena was Kenzie, The male hyena was Fanzai, and the slow odd male was Fred. “Your food?” Dante questioned. Dmitri and Dante were always scared of the hyenas when they were cubs, nut now they’re adults, and much stronger now, right? “Yes our food! Everything on this land is ours, right Fred?” Fanzai said. “aslkdjfksdjf!” Fred chuckled. “Right! So if it’s food you want, your going to have to fight for it, which is a waste of time because we always win.” The hyena laughed.  “We’ll see about that!” Dante lunged forward and swiped Kenzie across the face. The fight broke out and Dmitri stood aside “guarding” the zebra, as he called it. Anyways Dmitri felt too weak to fight. He hadn’t had a decent meal in a while.

         After a long ten minutes of slashing, gashing, tearing, and biting, the lions became victorious. Without any last words the hyenas ran off to the Elephant Graveyard. Wiped out and panting, Dante put Dmitri in charge of carrying the meat home. Dante had a few cuts here and there, nothing too serious though.

         Dante was the first to arrive at his den while Dmitri was still lugging the heavy meat. He walked up to the entry of the cave and heard two voices. One was his mothers for sure, but the other he had not heard before. It was a very low male voice. Dante listened in on the conversation. “So, wheres the food?” the low male voice asked, sounding impatient. “I-I’m sorry. I don't have any.” Diara said, trying to sound strong but Dante could hear the fear in her voice. “You know how this works. You give me food and I give you protection!” the male voice growled. “It was a slow week, plus your stupid hyenas keep stealing-“

         “My stupid hyenas? Ha! There doing what’s best. This place would be much more peaceful without lions.” Was the strange male voice a hyena? It couldn’t be a lion. “Now tell me, WHERE IS THE FOOD?” this time the male sounded a lot angrier. Dante decided it'd be a good time to check to see if everything was alright. He saw a large male reaching his arm up, claws extended, pointing at the cowering lioness below. Dante thought it’s be a good time to cut in. “Mother?” the male appeared to be a tiger with a black mane. He had grey fur and dark grey stripes. The tiger quickly put his paw down and tried to cover up what really happened. “Sorry miss, I’ll be on my way” and like that he was out of the cave. “Mother?” Dante said. “We have food.” His mother just slowly walked outside the cave.