415 A forest dispute
Selena stopped in the middle of the forest inspecting the grass. “Acid again, only one thing could cause such destruction,” She said smelling the trees.
From the amount of acid she was expecting a black dragon similar to Morena, she had the thought of calling for help but she quickly changed her mind.
‘Gracie has returned to the mansion, I can’t go back as well as this thing might kill someone’ She feared the dragon might attack her village the moment she leave to call help. Even Cain whom she used to call was recovering, she has to take care of this on her own.
She transformed into her jaguar form and kept chasing the smell, this monster was destroying Cain’s forest.
The more she ran, the more she started realizing that fighting alone might not be a good idea. She took her time thinking about how she could hunt a dragon.
Remembering their fight with Morena, she needs to tear the dragon apart to kill it, that won’t be easy.
‘I won’t kill the lion king and the tiger chieftain, they can help!’ Selena got the brilliant idea of recruiting the strongest two available warriors.
But no matter how much she thought, an uneasy feeling stayed in the back of her mind, the thought of forgetting something important.
“Fight!” A man yelled and the crowd of beast people cheered. The Lion king stood facing the Tiger chieftain. They have to be at the same location at the same time which leads the people to think they are going to fight.
The Lion King and the Tiger chieftain were in reality rivals, childhood friends who only competed and strived to become better hunters.
The two men looked around, how come that such a large crowd gathered? This was supposed to be the badgers’ village but a lot of other demi-humans were present.
“We should leave.” One of the lions’ king wives told him. Lions never like badgers. They only stopped here to drop their hunts and get some water after all.
“See you later, please be careful.” The lion king told his old friend the tiger chieftain as he turned to leave.
They have never intended to personally fight over the place. “You also be careful, I’ve been finding a lot of acid pools lately. It might be just Slimes but don’t let your guard down.” The tiger chieftain said.
“I know, I’ve been looking into the matter.” The lion king said as he was about to leave.
“Fight! Fight! Fight!” The crowd started shouting after a single man. Both the lion king and the tiger chieftain stopped in their places.
The people were the ones pushing them to face each other, but neither of them wanted to fight “Listen, I know it’s the tradition but can we just not do it?” The tiger chieftain said looking at the crowd. In his mind it was stupid to fight over the Alpha place, he never wanted the spot.
“Booo! Coward! Coward!” The lion demi-humans started insulting him, they only shut up when the Lion King glared at them. Something seemed off so he signaled to his wives to spread and keep an eye on the crowd of people.
“You generated a lot of hate for yourself, are you okay with this?” The Lion King said with a sad face.
“It’s not like I care about what people think, I only care about what my prey think.” The tiger chieftain replied. “Take the position and end this charade.” He didn’t mind surrendering the position to the Lion King.
“This is precisely why you should take it, a hunter must stand at the top and I must admit that no one is better suited than you!” The Lion King said with a big smile.
He might not say it out loud but, he was a fan of his as well. The lion king admired the tiger chieftain’s skills and powers, in his eyes, he deserved the spot more.
“No you become the alpha, I’m going back to hunt!” The Tiger chieftain turned around to leave but the Lion King grabbed his shoulder.
“Stop, you become the alpha. My time is better spent with my wives, I mean hunting.” The Lion King growled with a forced smile. The reason he was hunting with his wives was that he liked spending time with them. They rarely aimed at large or powerful animals as they like to enjoy a hunt.
“Leave me alone, you just want to spend the time fooling around with your wives. I hate dealing with people, can’t you lot just let me alone for a bit?” The tiger chieftain growled.
The argument quickly developed into a heated screaming, it finally became, and the loser is going to be the Alpha.
The crowd was confused, neither the Lion king nor the Tiger chieftain wanted the position. They each hated it since it will take away from their pressure time.
As they were about to fight, a shudder caused their fur to stand. They could feel it unlike the others, a monster was glaring at them.
The wind blew calmly as the two looked toward the trees. Walking out of the darkness a woman approached with black ears and golden eyes. They immediately identified her as a black jaguar.
‘What is this monster, I can’t see behind her, my instincts are screaming to not take my eyes from her.” The tiger chieftain has fought many battles and got closer to death more than a few times. This was the same, he could see his demise at her hands.
‘The way she walks, her eyes, she isn’t looking at us.’ The lion king was able to understand that something was off but he couldn’t speak.
“Hey, you, who are you?” The tiger chieftain screamed. The lion king glared at him as if saying ‘Can’t you shut up, look at her’
“Take everyone one and run, you aren’t my prey anymore-gaw,” Selena growled glaring at a hooded person that was standing between the crowds.
She slowly walked past them, “Come on, show yourself, you’re stinking-gaw!” She kicked a stone toward the hooded figure.
The hooded man managed to catch the stone with his bare hand and smiled. “What are you talking about?” The man said taking his hood off.
The person seemed to demi-badger with a gentle smile.
Selena didn’t wait and leaped at him with a straight punch.
Thud! The man catches her fist and punched her away. Selena’s body rolled to the ground before she could regain her balance and roar.
The man’s body swell and shifted to reveal a massive black dragon. “Who are you, woman?” The black dragon growled, enraged at Selena who ruined his plan to control the forest.
“Woman are you all right…” The lion king screamed looking at Selena just to be surprised seeing her body morph.
Selena transformed into her jaguar and started walking toward the dragon with heavy steps. “Get out of my forest-gaw!” Selena roared as started running at full speed.
Thud! Thud! She leaped at the dragon.
The dragon turned around swinging his tail at her but she dodged and swing her paw at him.
The claw strike left a gaping wound in the dragon’s tail.
ROAR! The dragon breathed a blast of Acid at Selena.