The Lion King: The Rightful King

The Hunt

The sun shined high above the sky, noon has struck and the heat was rising. There a lone lion sporting a large mane from his head to his chest, strolled along the borders of the Pridelands. Makosa, the ruler of now four prides and the one responsible for Simba's death, was on patrol of the land. He walked calmly to preserve his energy and yet remained vigilant in sight of anything suspicious.

Moments later, the peak of Pride Rock was visible to where Makosa was standing. He had completed his patrol but to his disappointment, he had not found Kovu or someone that Kiara might meet. But he thought that if it isn't bothering him then it can't be that much of a problem.

As he strolls towards Pride Rock, he came across a herd of buffaloes. A lone buffalo was isolated from its heard. It caught Makosa's attention. He then decided to go full on hunting for his leisure. He was not in a rush as Pride Rock was right around the corner and this was a perfect opportunity to him. The buffalo was large, it looked like it was in its age of prime and its size made it look intimidating. But all of this was nothing to Makosa, he was confident that he could take it down all by himself.

Meanwhile, in a nearby hill came Vitani along with Shika and Kiburi and with the rest of the hunting party.

"Wait, guys stop. Isn't that Makosa?" Vitani said and ordered.

"That's him alright." Shika said in a disgusted tone.

"What is he doing?" Kiburi asked.

"I think he's trying to take down a buffalo." Shika answered.

"You're kidding? That's a death wish. If you were to hunt a buffalo you'd need two or three of yourself to do so. Hunting a buffalo alone is a risky move." Vitani explained.

Makosa crept up slowly to the buffalo. As it was eating in the grass he positioned himself to take the buffalo head on. Vitani and the others were confused, everybody knows that when you're in front of the buffalo you get the horns and instead of keeping yourself away from the horns, Makosa thought otherwise. Vitani tried to guess what he was planning, this tactic of hunting is something she has not seen before.

Makosa pounced forward but refrained from attacking. It startled the buffalo and started chasing Makosa. Vitani finally knew what he was doing, but still questioned him. Makosa was trying to make buffalo use all of its stamina to worn it out. Buffaloes aren't the fastest animals around but they can charge up to you very quickly if you're not careful. The buffalo was on the offense, trying to land a hit to Makosa but he was too agile for the buffalo to keep up. Every pass of Makosa landed a scratch at the buffalo, more specifically at its legs. Something about his movement made them wonder. The way Vitani sees it, he runs way faster than the average lion, it just seemed so unnatural for his size. His movements were precise and executes them swiftly. Vitani is somewhat fascinated by him doing both the roles of a lion who would distract the prey and the one who would land a hit at it, both are important when hunting large prey. But at the same time it frightens her. If he could do that all by himself confidently, who knows if they'd get to see another day if they decide to take him head on. In conclusion, they all think he's good, and that makes him incredibly dangerous.

The buffalo started to slow down, Makosa took the opportunity to jump on its back and used his claws to grip himself on top of the buffalo. Slowly but surely, he inched himself to the back of the neck of the buffalo. Makosa then clamped his jaws on the back of the buffalo's neck and using his weight he let himself roll over down to the ground along with the buffalo. The buffalo no longer moved as Makosa had broken its neck.

Makosa stood from the ground and looked at the animal he had just hunted all by himself. He chuckled and then slowly turned into a laugh.

"My goodness am I good!" He said in amazement.

He didn't bother to feed on the deceased buffalo he had just taken down. He simply walked away giving himself a pat on the back as to what he has achieved. Apparently what he did was only for the exhilarating experience. Vitani's group were confused as to why would he waste his time hunting a buffalo all by his own and not eat it in the end. Vitani thought otherwise, she thought if he only kills for the sake of entertainment, then there must be something wrong with the mind of Makosa, perhaps a mind of a psychopath but she couldn't tell. None of the things that she thought could prove her point.

"Hey!" Makosa called.

Vitani and her group looked at him at the foot of the hill. Makosa walked over to them. As Makosa reached the top of the hill, his size was menacing for everyone. He towered everyone including Vitani. The others tried their best to remain calm but the expression on their faces give away the subtle feeling of fear and uncertainty. Vitani felt the terrific feel of his presence, his size alone was menacing enough, and the recent stain of blood was a little disturbing. Vitani seeing him in person and knowing what he can do made her genuinely afraid but her facial expression managed to hide this.

"What do you want?" Vitani asked out of annoyance.

"Mind doing me a favor?"

"A favor? And what's that?"

"Take your group and bring that buffalo back to the den." Makosa ordered.

"Don't you know that you should carry your own food?"

Makosa chuckled. "It's not for me. Just do what you're told. In fact I saved you all the time to hunt."

Vitani was confused on how Makosa is acting, his presence screamed uncertainty, like he could attack everyone of them if he's in the mood to do so, but now he's acting nice..... too nice. Makosa looked at her smugly and a small grin was up in his face. Vitani could feel that something was wrong just by looking at him. His presence didn't feel normal. It's triggering her instincts, she could feel her claws slowly coming out of her paws.

"Vitani was it?" Makosa asked.

Vitani said nothing and did a small nod in response.

"I'll see you soon." He said

"Sure. " Vitani said with uncertainty and gave an order to the lions behind her.

Makosa walked away afterwards, it left Vitani curious on what could be happening inside his head. "He's doing all of this for fun?" she thought. A part of her was concerned, a feeling she never usually deals with. After that, Vitani then joined with her group and help them and gossip for a moment.

"Vitani, you alright? You don't seem like yourself." Kiburi asked.

"I'm alright."

"You froze for a moment." Shika added.

"He's weird, I felt it in my gut. Something about him just felt so wrong."

"You seem concerned about it."

"It's not that, it's the feeling of his presence."

"It's strangely disturbing." She continued.

"I don't think I've ever seen you that concerned, Vitani." Kiburi said.

"I'm not concerned, I just can't put into words to what I went through earlier."

The word Vitani was looking for was afraid. Vitani was known in the pride to be one of the most fearless huntresses and almost never compared to the word "fear" but Makosa just gave her a demonstration by just standing infront of her. She didn't want to say the word as it may not have a good impact to her hunting party.

It's a good thing she didn't......

END OF CHAPTER