Lion Guard: King of Life

Chapter 1: A King's Duty

The sun head reached center-sky over the grassy plains of Africa.

Light spread across the tall and yellowish grass as a series of rustling disturbed what would have been peaceful vegetation.

Out of the grass came two cheetah cubs followed by a limping adult-female.

Ahead of them was a pass that went through a series of rock formations.

"Come on, mom, we're almost there!" One frantically shouted.

"I'm trying. Trying." The cheetah moaned. Neither cub could bear to look at the large gauche in their mother's side as she struggled to move.

"You can make it mom! It's just up ahead!" Both nudged her forward, desperate to keep her going.

Finally, they reached the entrance to the pass but found their path blocked.

Directly ahead of them were three adult lions. Two males and one female. All three had dark-brown fur and manes. The lions were eating a large wildebeest between them.

"No kidding." The lioness chuckled as one of the males laughed with her.

"Just you wait, Kanda. One day you'll beg for me."

"I look forward to that spectacle, Idan." The second male continued to laugh as the first glared at him. That was until Idan saw the three cheetahs. Their playful demeanors quickly changed when they saw the fright in the cubs and the wound on the mother.

"Woah, are you ok?"

"Please, our mom's hurt! We're trying to find the Tree of Life!" One of the cub's pleaded despite her fear of the lions. The three lions saw how frightened the cubs looked of them and Kanda slowly approached.

"Calm down, we're not going to hurt you. My name is Kanda, this is Idan and Gael."

"Hello."

"You're looking for the tree of life. You came to the right place, we're from the Kingdom of the Tree of Life. It's just through this pass, we can make you." Idan said.

The cubs gave more hopeful looks.

"We're close, mom!"

"Please, we must hurry, they aren't far behind."

"They?" Gael tilted his head slightly.

The ground shook from a series of hoof steps that flowed like a river.

The cubs quickly pushed their mother behind the lions as their pursuers revealed themselves. Idan, Kanda, and Gael saw an entire herd of buffalo emerge from the grass. The leader lowered his large horns and huffed in an aggressive manner.

All three lions could see the fire in his eyes.

"There they are!?" The leader huffed as he dragged his right hoof across the ground.

"Excuse me, can we help you?" Kanda asked.

"This doesn't concern you lions. Step aside." The three saw his intentions quite clearly as the buffalo looked at the frightened cheetahs.

"Well this is our home, so it kind of concerns us." Gael growled.

"My name is Gage. I am the master of this herd and that cheetah tried to hunt us!"

All thee lions raised an eyebrow as if this was meant to be some kind of earth-shaking news.

"Yeah, buddy, ever heard of the circle of life? We need to eat too." Idan growled.