Raised by Lions

Chapter 1: To Find A Fawn

Ibuki walked through the halls of the old building. There were cages on either side against the walls with a small pathway through the middle, the dead bodies of herbivore kids all scattered in the cages. By the looks of it, most of them probably died of starvation.

Hino and Dolph were just a few paces behind him. The group that owned this livestock market suddenly disappeared about two weeks ago and they still owed the Shishigumi money, so the boss sent them to check up on the situation.

"Why d'you think they just up and left?" Hino commented, glancing into a cage with a bunch of dead rabbit kids. The place smelled of decay and dried blood.

"That's what we're here to find out, dumb fuck, keep up" Dolph commented, clearly annoyed at having to be here.

They made it to the end of the hallway and found an elevator and stairs beside it. The elevator looked rickety and like it would fall if just one of the three lions got into it, so they took the stairs and followed it down to the floor below.

To no one's surprise, it was filled with cages similar to the floor above them. They walked through, checking the cages absently. Quiet pattering caught their attention and made them stop in their tracks for a moment. It was too light to be any sort of carnivore

Ibuki sighed and walked towards the sound. They might as well investigate. In one of the cages, sitting opposite of some dead bodies, sat a little fawn. Ibuki quickly realised it was a red deer fawn, no older than 7 maybe. The little fawn stared back at Ibuki with big amber eyes, like most of these kids probably did when someone shows up to buy them.

Dolph and Hino soon caught up and spotted the fawn as well. They frowned when they saw the kid. "Should we kill it?" Hino asked, looking at Ibuki. Dolph went over to the door, grabbed the bars and pulling it off it's hinges. Placing the door against the wall, he said "might as well have a snack while we're here"

Dolph reached in and tried to grab the kid. The fawn started flailing and jumped up, running away from the massive clawed hands. "Ahoo" the fawn cried out. Ibuki wasn't surprised, most of the livestock kids were illiterate.

"Hold still! This'll be over quicker that way, kid" Dolph finally grabbed the kid. He seemed underweight, but still flailed and kicked. "Haaah!" He cried out. Dolph moved away from the cage, the fawn now trying to bite his hand but his blunt teeth did little to the lion holding him. It was a mild annoyance rather than what the fawn probably hoped it would do. Ibuki noted the kid was a fighter. Even if he was outmatched, for some reason he still tried.

Ibuki caught sight of the kid's eyes and something in him jumped, not his instincts but something else. The intensity and hatred in those eyes surprised him. Glancing to his clanmates, he realised Hino was disinterested and Dolph was looking at him to see if he got the go ahead to eat the kid. Honestly, Ibuki wasn't sure why Dolph was doing that. The latter didn't need his permission to eat.

"Hold up a second, Dolph" Ibuki said, voice level as usual, even the kid seemed to calm down at the sound of Ibuki's voice and the fawn's attention was on the lion. "Isn't it strange he's still alive when the others are all dead? We haven't found a single other live kid here."

Hino hummed, pointing into the cage "look at his buddies" the other two lions looked over and their eyes landed on something they hadn't noticed before. There were bites taken out of the other bodies, blood pooling underneath them and some organs hanging out. They then looked back at the little fawn, who now looked guilty. There was some dried blood smeered on the clothes he had on and on his hands.

Ibuki stepped closer, meeting the fawns eyes again "Did you eat your friends?" They knew the truth, but wanted to see if the kid would admit to it. "Aah!" The fawn yelled, head nodding. "Oh, so he does understand us? He's smarter than most livestock kids then" Hino commented.