Sikio couldn’t decide if she liked roaming around on her own or not. On the one hand, it was a lot of fun, and she got to see a lot of new things. She’d also met a lot of interesting lions, some she really enjoyed the company of. On the flip side, she’d met several lions, and other animals, she would not enjoy meeting again, and hadn’t particularly enjoyed meeting the first time around, if she was honest. There had been a leopard who had tried to con her, pretending to be wounded so she might hunt for him and he could get a meal for nothing. And it might have worked, too, if a lioness who had recently been scammed by the very same leopard hadn’t been there to warn her of the potential trouble.
“That leopard is a no-good crook,” the lioness had told her, “don’t listen to a word he says.” And she took the advice to heart, heading back to the leopard without a kill and explaining that she didn’t really believe he had been wounded at all. The leopard had played dumb at first, holding onto the claim that he was wounded and that it was only because of his dark fur that it couldn’t be seen. Eventually, though, she managed to tire him down, and he left grumbling about he didn’t need to stay there wasting more time, and there were plenty of other animals he could con out of a free meal. She supposed she believed him- there were probably a lot of gullible creatures, moreso than she was, who would see his act and want to help him. She had almost fallen right for it.
Then she had met a hyena not too long late, who was actually friends of the leopard and wanted to know where he was. When she explained that he had tried to scam her, and she didn’t really care if he was found or not, the hyena got very offended, calling her all kinds of names just for the sake of it. She had been so wounded by everything he had said that she hadn’t stuck around t o endure it any longer than she needed to- she ran away from the hyena and left him to deal with his problems on his own.
But there had been some kinder lions, too, mostly telling her where she was heading and what places to look out for. Apparently there were parts of the lands that weren’t safe, and they didn’t want her falling into trouble. She had met a very nice, if not a little strange, wild dog who had kept her from wandering into pride that took females as slaves. Of course she had thanked the wild dog profusely- she had not wanted to lose her home to be forced into some other pride! The wild dog had simply smiled back at her, dancing off as though she hadn’t been nearly as helpful as she really had. There had been plenty of other nice animals too, of course, but none stuck out in her mind so much as that weird little dog.
Her exploration of the rogue lands had also led her to many other pride lands and borders, where she had met a variety of different lions with different definitions of family. One pride she had accidentally stumbled too closely to had chased her off, a group of hybrids condemning her and saying she was not welcome there.
Which was fine- she hadn’t wanted to stay.
Another pride seemed to be comprised of many females, and no males, and they offered her shelter and found. Very kind of them, but she couldn’t stick around for long there, either. Somehow, she imagined she wasn’t very safe there. They seemed to be a warrior pride, and she was not the type to enjoy battle. She had snuck away from them in the early morning, before anyone came to check on her.
There had also been a couple prides that seemed much like her own, where they simply lived together and basked in the concept of one giant family, no strange beliefs or weird customs. No segregation of species or gender. Those were the prides she liked best, but even then they were not all so welcoming to outsiders. Probably for the best, she imagined. Considering what she had seen of the rogue lands, she was surprised her pride did not have better security.
It seemed to be needed.
Especially with lions like Angusho out there. She had met him only briefly while on her travels. A massive older lion with a graying coat and mane. His sharp green eyes had held nothing inside of them but malice. While she had been walking, he pretty much cornered her, demanding to know if she had seen a lion named Jeraha. When she told him that she hadn’t, she was greeted with sharp claws along her shoulder, making her whimper in pain and fright. He had been so terrifying, so over-powering. He had demanded again if she was sure she had not seen a gray lion with green in his mane and a skull marking with a snake on his shoulder. When she again claimed she hadn’t seen him, this time in tears, Angusho seemed to believe her, and let her alone, dashing off as quickly as he appeared.
She had never been so frightened in her life, and in that moment she had strongly considered going back to the comfort of her own pride. But she couldn’t. Not when she knew she still had more to explore. How could she go crying home just because some lion had been mean to her? She would never forgive herself if she let fear get the better of her.
So she had continued her journey, though in her mind she had become torn on how good of a journey it was. Perhaps she wouldn’t be able to think of it as fun again until she put all the bad things behind her. Especially the dark lion with sharp green eyes.
If she could just stop thinking about him, everything would be fine.
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