The two lions circled each
other, low growls coming from deep in their throats. The rest of the
pride was watching, excitement and anxiety alight in their eyes.
Kion had to win this fight or
else he would lose his pride.
His family.
But the problem was that he
had to fight his older, three-year-old brother Kopa.
They had been inseparable
from day one. They had played together, hunted together, caused
trouble together.
But that all changed when
their father Magnar died.
Magnar being the king of the
pride, it was right for one of his heirs to become king after he
died. Kion wanted to become king so he could take care of his family.
But Kopa had always dreamed of becoming king to have power.
And he wasn't going to let
anything stand in his way.
With a roar, Kopa lunged at
Kion, barreling him onto his side. Kion struggled under his older
brother's weight, his sheer size one of his many advantages over
Kion.
Not only was he bigger, but
he was stronger, faster, and more skilled at fighting than Kion,
giving him the upper paw.
Kopa sank his teeth into
Kion's shoulder, a painful bellow escaping Kion's jaws.
I'm not going win!
But then, the weight lifted
off of him.
Panting, Kion scrambled into
a sitting position and stared in disbelief at what he saw.
His mother, Kira, was onto
top of Kopa's, digging her claws into his brother's back, her
teeth biting his spine. Kopa let out a blood curdling howl and bucked
her off of him.
Rounding on Kira, who was
already on her paws, Kopa growled, "What are you doing?! This is
not your fight!"
"It is when you know that
from day one one of your cubs is power hungry!" She tried taking a
step towards Kopa but was surrounded by some of the pride's
snarling females.
Kion couldn't do anything but
silently agree. Kopa had always shown signs of wanting power. He had
always showed kindness to Kion, but never to other lions around their
age. He had always bossed them around: telling them to do this, or
telling them to do that.
"Well," Kopa snarled
back, "that's how life works out here!" Yowling, he leapt at
their mother, but before he reached her, Kion flung himself at his
brother, knocking him to the side. Landing on his paws in front of
Kira, Kion was shocked by his courage. But quickly snapping back into
focus, he faced Kopa who was rising to his paws.
Looking at him with hungry
amber eyes, Kopa snarled, "So that's how it's gonna be? Little
Kion saving the day."
"I'll never let you hurt
Kira," Kion said ignoring the thick sneer that laced his brother's
voice. "Not while I'm still breathing."
"Then I'll make sure you
stop."
Time seemed to slow as Kion
and Kopa leapt at each other, claws extended and maws gaping ready to
rip their opponents throat out. Time went back to normal as
adrenaline surged through Kion as he met his brother in midair, the
two falling to the sandy ground in a heap of snarling, clawing fury.
Satisfaction itched at Kion
as he felt his claws rip through pelt, a howl sounding seconds after.
But then one came from him as Kopa sank his teeth in his hind leg,
severing muscle and hitting bone. Kopa drug Kion off of him and
tossed him away, Kion slamming into the ground with a bone crunching
jar and rolling a few times before coming to a painful stop.
His
vision flickered: black, bright, then something dusty brown
approaching him slowly. When he was finally able to put his eyes into
focus, to his horror, Kopa was slowly padding towards him, blood
rolling down his chin from when he had bit his brother in the leg.
Kion tried to push himself up, but couldn't.
Coming to a stop before Kion,
Kopa put a massive paw on his head and leaned on it, Kion grunting in
pain.
"This is where you die,
brother," Kopa said over Kira's pleas of cessation of this
violence.
Kion didn't know where it
came from, but at that moment, a burning flame of sheer will seared
in his belly, making his confidence soar.
"No," he said through
gritted teeth. "This is where you
die!" And with a
roar, he swung his good hind leg up and kicked Kopa in the face,
slashing his right cheek and sending him reeling. Shoving himself up,
he hobbled on three legs as fast as he could and tackled Kopa,
sinking his teeth into the back of his neck. Gripping harder than he
ever had, he bit down and jerked his head to the side, a loud snap
piercing the deathly
silence of the savannah. Dropping his dead brother on the ground, he
stood there, panting.
I did it he
thought. I'm the
king.
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