Life After The Fall

Close Call

Just so everyone knows, this fanfic is of the Pride as anthromorphic animal-people (except for prey animals cuz, let's face it, lion people eating herbivore-people is just plain wrong and borderline cannibalistic), though they still live where the originals did. Enjoy! 

                "Kovu, how am I supposed to learn to hunt if I can't see anything?" Kiara complained from behind his hands.

                "Will you just trust me?" he snapped playfully. "Now, tell me. What do you hear?"

                "Um, the wind?"

                She felt him take a deep breath then let it out.

                "Besides the wind, Kiara."

                "Oh. Right," she mumbled. Her ears strained, searching for any sound. For a moment, it was just the wind whistling in her ears, and then she heard more. A bird to her right, pecking at the wood of a tree. Farther, a cheetah-woman arguing with her mother. Farther still, she heard the gentle lap of water against the bank... no, scratch that. The gentle lap of a large beast slaking his thirst.

                She reported her findings to her mate.

                "Very good," he commended, pleased. Kiara grinned. "What else?"

                "Um, I hear the earth, moving..." She thought about that a moment. "Zebras!"

                "Correct." He took his hands from her eyes and pulled her to the ground. He took her hand and pressed it into the dirt. "Do you feel that?"

                She frowned, then concentrated. The earth beneath her fingers vibrated, alive, pounding in rythm with a thousand hoof beats.

                "Yes," she breathed.

                "This," he said quietly, "is hunting. It isn't all about stealth. It's about the earth and the air, the movement and sounds. It's all a part of it. Once you learn to utilize those things, you can hunt."

                "But how do I use them?" she said, confused.

                "With each breath you take, you make a sound. Your breathing can betray you, as can your own heartbeat. Each step you take shifts the earth. They can feel that. You have to be careful with everything."

                "That sounds an awful lot like stealth," she said doubtfully.

                "It's not, though, and that's the beauty of it!" he said excitedly. "It's like the pride, just one part of a whole! And if you understand each individual part, you have an unstoppable pride!"

                She smiled at him, shaking her head.

                "My mom's a great huntress and all, but I swear, you make a really great teacher."

                Kovu blushed.

                "Not really," he said. "I'm just trying to explain it the best I can."

                She arched a brow.

                "Yet again, you make a really great teacher."

                His blush fading, Kovu grinned wickedly as they stood. He pulled her towards him, pressing his body to hers.

                "Then I guess that makes you the teacher's pet, huh?"