Chapter II

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It was dawn when Longtooth, Laval and Leonidas got on their speedorz to perform royal visits to tribes that might help them in the upcoming conflict. Their first destination was the beaver tribe.

"So, you're saying you want us, the beavers, to upgrade your city walls using wood, we get nothing in return, and we have to risk our lives defending your city?" One of the beavers asked.


After Laval secured an alliance with the beavers the three lions made their way to the wolf camp to meet with Worriz.

"So, do you think you could help us win the war against the crocodiles?" Laval asked while the two leaders ate wolf food.

"Well, we'd do it if the crocodiles didn't have that stupid pledge. Otherwise, we'd do it." Worriz said while eating his food.

"Is that a no, then?" Laval asked.

"We'll just hide and hope the crocodiles don't find us. If they do, be ready!" Worriz said as he bit the bone of the wolf food in half. "But they won't, of course" Worriz added as he threw the bone into a fire.

"So he said no?" Longtooth asked Laval when he returned from the wolf camp.

"So, you are too lazy to help us?" Laval asked.

"Yeah, pretty much. You can see yourself out." Bladvic said as he fell asleep a few seconds after Laval woke him up.

"So, you'll be giving us trinkets and treasures if we help you against the crocodiles?" Razar asked.

"I said Chi." Laval answered as he showed the ball of Chi he kept in his hand.

"I feel like we already get Chi every month..." Razar said as he showed his Chi.

The three lions drove back to the temple in silence. As they walked along the bridge a familiar blue eagle landed next to them.

"Seems to me like Crominus has assembled quite a large amount of allies." Eglor said as he wrote something down in his notebook.

"Do you really think Crominus will share his Chi with you?" Longtooth asked. The three continued walking in silence as Leonidas slowly started walking the other way.

"Well, I like my chances. Did you even get anybody to support you? I was following you the entire time." Eglor said as he started erasing something in his notebook.

"We got the beavers and rhinos. The wolves and bears refuse to help anyone so it's really just between you and the ravens." Longtooth explained.

"You know, I think I remember you from when Lagravis was in charge." Eglor said.

"Well, I'm sure Laval will become just like him in no time." Longtooth said, looking at Laval.

"Let me know when that happens." Eglor said as he flew away. The two lions stopped to admire the night sky in the direction the blue eagle was heading.


The next day was supposed to be market day. The market was full of guards, but not many of the usual tribes showed up. The wolves and crocodiles were missing, but so were the eagles. Only the bears, rhinos and ravens showed up.

"So, what happened to the other tribes? Don't they want to sell their things? I'm pretty sure I haven't seen a raven since the market opened..." Laval said as he and Longtooth were taking a stroll through the market.

"I'm pretty sure the crocodiles are hosting their own market day, not sure how they're going to host the races though."Longtooth explained. The two passed a rhino stand with nothing in it.

"You know, we came here with all these rocks to sell but we went to, uh, make more and suddenly there's nothing here, including the rocks we left to get!" Rogon said when the lions got close enough to the stand. The lions looked at him, but didn't say anything. Instead, they went to the gate to see if anybody had come for the race. To their surprise, every single racer in Chima came. Laval could see Crominus and his son Cragger arguing in the distance.

"Welcome citizens of Chima, to the monthly race for the golden chi." Longtooth said while reading a piece of paper, before walking down the stairs in silence. "Today,  riders will compete for the powerful golden orb on a course chosen by the golden chi itself" Longtooth took a second piece of paper during the middle of the sentence. "Today the Chi has chosen... hey, I recognize that one! The terrible trail of torture?" Longtooth said as he looked for the lion elders behind him. They both nodded.

"I'm sorry Laval, but my dad made me do it, it's nothing personal, of course." Cragger said when the contestants got to the starting line. Cragger was close to Razar, Gorzan and Eris, while Laval was closer to Rogon, Bladvic and the beaver. Worriz was in the center.

The racers kept the same structure up until the first obstacle, the jungle gates. When the racers got out of the gates, the beaver was gone, which gave the crocodile side a chance to attack, with Worriz joining them. The lion and friends were barely able to defend themselves from the attacks when the racers approached the ring of fire. While everyone was barely able to get past it, the gorilla was left a bit behind. Noticing this, Laval signaled to Rogon, who was closest to the enemy, to attack Gorzan. Rogon surprisingly understood what he had to do and rammed Gorzan, eliminating him from the game. This, however, gave Cragger an opportunity to strike back. When the animals approached the regular sized ramp, Cragger bumped into Bladvic, which, considering he was asleep, made him crash into the wall.

>The log mash was the next obstacle. Instead of trying to ram into Laval, Worriz decided to focus on not crashing into the log. This gave Laval an opportunity when he noticed the log was heading to the right. When they were just in front of the log Laval sharply turned left and then right, knocking Worriz into Razar and Razar into the log mash. Only four riders and one obstacle remained. The riders all followed Worriz who was in the lead and grabbed the Chi. When he smashed through the wall while being followed by the other animals, there was an empty path to the finish line next. The Chi powered Worriz had to decide who to eliminate from the race first, and he looked at Cragger. Cragger got worried and pulled out The Pledge, given to him by his father in preparation for the race.  Worriz had to act fast and immediately after reviewing the legitimacy of the document made a sharp left turn. While it was supposed to hit Laval, Eris blocked the wolf with the wings on her speedor and they both crashed into a wall on the next right turn. The crocodile, trying to store the Pledge into his pocket without crashing his speedor to avoid having to drive with one hand and holding a piece of paper in his hand got rammed by Laval and the lion then smoothly passed the finish line with the crocodile crashing into a rock.

A majority of the crowd cheered for the lion, and the blue eagle soon landed next to Laval.

"That was an impressive victory, we might side with you after all." Eglor said as he wrote down more things into his notebook. Laval smiled and nodded as the eagle flew away.

Despite his embarrassing loss, Cragger went up to Laval to congratulate him on his victory.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean for it to be like this, can we meet at the forever rock tomorrow? I want to talk to you." Cragger said. Laval nodded, but he didn't smile.

At night Longtooth and Laval drank some lion juice on the stairs and reviewed some things Longtooth wrote down in a book.

"Today was a very successful day. We got the eagles to potentially support us and we have one more Golden Chi." Longtooth said as he took a sip of his juice. A few seconds after Longtooth finished his sentence a raven showed up in front of them, Ripnik.

"We have decided to go with the crocodiles. They have given us trinkets and treasure and they will give us more after the battle. You have given us nothing but rocks." Ripnik said and flew away just as quickly. Longtooth took a long sip of his juice.


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