The Last Lioness: As A Cub

Chapter 2: The Survival Game.

I woke up the next morning to the sound of tapping. Rain. I groaned as I got up and looked outside of the bush to see some wildebeest in the distance. Of coarse I couldn't hunt yet I was only a few months old! So i set out looking for a abandoned carcass. The rain streaked down my sandy coloured pelt as I walked. My eyes were fixated on something in the distance. My mother? No. It was a cheetah going out to hunt. They could kill me but I needed to eat. So I followed it. I noticed little heads bobbing behind her as she walked. She had cubs. Mothers are very protective of their young, how would you feel like if i was to come up to one of your babies? Of coarse you would lash out at me. So i kept behind her and watched in the tall wet grass as she ran to hunt.
Her cubs wee a few feet away from me, i made sure that they couldn't scent me and the wind was blowing in the other direction. The mother was running faster and faster, chasing after a big wildebeest buck. Her legs expanded and she kept into the air, crashing down into the poor male.

The wildebeest fell to the ground and snorted out, he was kicking his legs frustratedly at her, trying to escape. He called at his herd but they left him. I was horrified, but I knew that it was the circle of life. You are born. You grow old. Then you die. So i watched them eat the carcass, I was drooling over it, as long as I had something to eat, I would be fine. When they wondered off I then moved in to hear the sound of hyenas and jackals in the distance. Oh no. They were coming this way! I grabbed as much meat as I could and I ran back to the thick bush, it was a tight squeeze getting in because I had grown a little bigger, I devoured the meat and then I lied down, as it was getting mid day I was getting dazey. Everything was spinning, I needed to find water. I carefully crept out of my bush and padded slowly off, I wasn't going to that part of the territory ever again....it gave me nightmares....terrible....terrible nightmares.

As I walked i kept thinking, still wary of my surroundings, but in a slight day dream. In my nightmares my mother would be roaring and I kept hearing shot in my dream. Every time I dreamt I would wake up at the exact moment when a shot went off and I saw my mother fall to the ground. I shook my head as if i was shaking the terrible thoughts out of it and kept walking.

My paws padded on the soft ground, tall grass was coming up ahead and beyond that grass was a watering hole, I would be lucky if i found it.
I stood on my back legs for three seconds then I lowered myself back down to all fours. As I took my first step into the grass, I could sense something was wrong. I backed away slowly....then I heard two loud growls and saw a lot of commotion in the grass I was about to walk in, through the thin, wiry, golden blades I saw rosettes...leopard rosettes...it must of been two leopards fighting over territory. I thought wisely and decided not to go that way after all.

I walked northwards instead, to the left of the grass and I came to another entrance. Again, I could hear the two cats fighting and howling in pain as each claw dug into each other. I took a step forward and headed to the middle of the grass. There was a muddy clearing with a crystal blue watering hole, My vision went hazier and hazier as the moment went by.

I went forward, weary that many crocodiles lived in this waterhole, and I lapped some up as my eyes darted around the pool, I looked directly in front of me, there was a dark shape, it was swimming towards me, I leapt back and ran as fast as i could.