Journey to Rule Pt. 17

It was a quiet afternoon. There was no breeze and the grass sat unsettled. The dry season was coming soon and some of the grass began to go from green to a blonde or lighter shade. There was silence other than a nearby herd of zebras quietly grazing. Everything became disturbed as all of a sudden, a trio of young lioness sprung from their hiding place in the tall grass and immediately the zebras ran for their lives. Taking the lead was Ruby, kicking dust behind her as she began to gain on their selected prey. The zebra was getting old and was on the verge of becoming the vultures' lunch. She smirked as she caught up to its heels. She began to nip at them, trying to steer it towards the older lionesses where they would pounce and finish it off. This zebra was old but fast. She continued to bite but the other two lionesses behind her had barely caught up and struggled to keep up. There was supposed to be a fourth lioness helping, Aleuri. She was supposed to join them mid way since she struggled to keep up and so far she was nowhere to be seen. Ruby still fought to keep the hunt together and continued to try and steer the zebra. The zebra began trying to kick, and managed to kick Ruby in the back leg before she could move out of the way. The zebra stopped, about to buck into her after she had fallen over groaning in pain but took off after the herd once it saw the rest of the hunting group charging towards it. The zebra had run out of sight and the lionesses were out of breath. Their hunt was a failure. Uzuri, in lead of the other lionesses, padded up to Ruby. "Are you alright?" she asked as she inspected her and searched for any traces of blood or out of place bones. "Yeah it just grazed me a little.." she muttered as she tried to stand and lifted her injured leg up in a limp. Uzuri turned her attention to the other two lionesses that were with Ruby. "Are you two alright too?" They nodded then Uzuri noticed someone was missing. "Where's Aleuri? Wasn't she with you?" The three shook their heads. "She was hanging out with Midas and said she'd show up..." Ruby sighed. Uzuri sighed too, "We'll hunt again in the evening. You need to go visit Villa and her mother Ruby and make sure your injury is nothing serious." Ruby nodded and began to limp back home along with the other lionesses. On the way back, she spotted Aleuri with Midas. Right away, anger surged through her paws causing her to unsheathe her claws. She stormed over, furious. Aleuri and Midas were laughing and stopped once they spotted Ruby heading over. Aleuri's ears lifted and she smiled, "Hey are we going to the hunt right now?" Her smile faded when she realized how angry Ruby looked. "No! Aleuri, the hunt just ended and because you didn't show up, we lost our catch! How could you forget?!" she growled and Aleuri lowered her head with guilt. "I'm sorry I lost track of time and I thought I'd see the hunting group heading over to the herd grounds..." she mumbled and sounded as if she were about to cry. Ruby was not guilt tripped by this. "You're irresponsible you know that? Next time, try actually be useful to the pride for once!" she shouted and this time Midas stepped in. "Back off Ruby! You're being incredibly mean to her! It's not her fault she forgot, everyone makes mistakes and you should know that!" he spat and began to get in her face. Taking a step back, Ruby curled her lip back into a snarl. "Stay out of this Midas! When did you decide that you actually did like Aleuri? I thought you didn't want to be anything more than friends?" Aleuri blinked in shock and looked at Midas, on the verge of tears. "Ruby, just get out of here before you make things worse!" Midas nearly roared in anger and Ruby began to limp away. This was the first time she had ever seen Midas that angry. Approaching Villa's den, she could hear Tibias' and Villa's laughter. At this moment, a big wave of sorrow hit her. She realized her friends were beginning to grow up and leave her. Never had she felt so... lonely. Changing direction, she headed off towards her favorite place, a small water hole that was in the more forest-like area of the territory. The place was crowded with trees and it had a hidden place where there was a small water hole that had been created by some of the water from the waterfall when it overflowed over the banks and had made its way to a small ditch. Ruby lay down, flinching in pain as she lay her leg down. She crossed her arms and rested her head on them with a sigh. She honestly wanted to cry but bit it back. She decided to replace her sadness with anger. She heard something rustle behind her and she snapped her head around ready to sink her claws into anything that pestered her. "What the hell do you want?!" she snarled but to her surprise a small blue bird hopped out of the bushes. She narrowed her eyes and the bird looked at her with a tilt of its head. Right away she could tell it was an odd bird. She had never seen anything like it. Its pattern was unique but what really weirded her out was it didn't fly away from her or even seem to feel threatened to be in the presence of a predator. Licking her lips, she wondered if she should catch it. The bird then spoke and Ruby was surprised she could understand it. "What's got your fur in a bunch?" Shocked Ruby's jaw hung open. "You can speak?" "Well yeah, don't we all?" "But you can speak lion! You don't whistle like all of those other birds!" The bird laughed, "I can but from my cage I saw lions a lot and found out what they were saying and just learned to mimic them." Ruby cocked her brow. "Cage?" Nodding the bird seemed to be comfortable to talk to her. "What are you doing here anyway? I've never seen a bird like you and you're awfully comfortable talking to someone who would like to eat you." The bird's eyes widened, "You want to eat me?!" Laughing Ruby smirked, "You're not that bright. "I hope you know anything with claws and teeth will eat a bird, especially one that's not flying about or in a tree." The bird frowned. "My wing is injured... I broke it when I was escaping from my owner when they tried clipping my feathers..." Ruby oddly considered taking in the bird. She found herself appreciating its company. "How about you stay with me for a bit, I can teach you a thing or two." The bird back away. "But I thought you wanted to eat me?" Ruby shook her head. "I would but... You're probably the only one I've had a real conversation with in a while.." The bird had sympathy in her gaze. "Oh... okay... where will we stay then?" Ruby looked around and had an idea. "Follow me." She began to walk when she felt weight on her tail. She turned to see the bird perched on the bottom of her tail, near her tail tip. She slightly lifted her tail to keep it from dragging onto the ground and stopped at a large tree. "Here hop onto my head and jump up there. I'll be back tomorrow morning." The bird crawled up her back and hopped onto the nearest branch. "Tomorrow morning? Um.. is there anything to eat?" Ruby thought for a moment. "There should be some seed pods up there." She began to head off and could tell the bird felt uneasy but she knew there was no way she could bring it home. She limped home only to be greeted by Villa. "Where were you? You had an injured leg! Come on." She led Ruby to her den and Ruby's bad mood returned. This injury meant she wouldn't be able to hunt for a couple of days and she knew these next couple of days were going to be misery.


Base- Me
Original Art- Disney
Story and Characters- Me

Part 18---> truelightportal.deviantart.com…