"Leave, while you still have your lives!" It felt like his voice had shaken the entire savannah as it echoed loudly, a showing of his dominance in comparison to the measly hyenas. The lion who had intervened into the fray was huge and could very well possibly rival my father and Blaze in size. He had dark coloured fur and his mane followed the same scheme, with a visible scar along his right or left eye, I wasn't sure at the time. He looked battle hardened but young, like he had one too many traumatic experiences before his time.
"This isn't your business runt." The other hyenas busted into laughter as Larry dissed the adult lion. Some wouldn't know this but as a powerless lion, I knew how it felt to be called a runt and that was basically what the name was reserved for in those days, us powerless lions.
The lion stood tall, ignoring the fact that I'd sized him up to protect myself and pushed past me. The Hyenas doubled back a bit, clearly intimidated by his presence. "Do I have to repeat myself?" I didn't see his face but it sounded like a clear raise your eyebrow moment, if my entire body wasn't beginning to ache I may have even laughed.
Larry made grunting noises and growled at him whilst the others laughed and they all eventually ran away after attempting to find an opening to get to me.
"Are you ok?" He turned around and shot me a concerned glance and for a moment it felt like I could trust him wholeheartedly, but I had to remind myself he was a stranger.
I obviously wasn't ok but you know, it was always an impulse to ask with people like them and from that short question alone he reminded me of Artemis and my mother. "Y-yeah, I-I'm good."
I struggled to get the words out and eventually just let myself relax, becoming one with the ground you could say.
"Don't die on me now kid." Unlike the rumble I'd heard from him before, his voice was rather gentle and reassuring, but I still heard the tone of a mighty beast.
"So um, are you really a runt?" I asked out of curiosity. I really couldn't help myself but I guess I had a bit of my mom in me as well. I raised my head and looked him in the eyes. He smirked innocently but it looked like he'd gotten that question a million times.
"Runt from birth, runt throughout life and runt till the day I die." His reply wasn't what I expected but he didn't sound ashamed to be referred to as a powerless lion. If anything I wished I could sound that confident when people addressed me like that.
"What about you kid? I suppose since you're not too far from the Agni pride's territory you're one of the blessed?" He turned away from me, looking in the direction of the moon and it suddenly clicked that it was the direction of my pride's territory, not to mention I was curious as to how he knew about my pride. And not really wanting to answer his question I changed the subject.
"How do you know about my pride?" He didn't look like he was there to kill me, if he was he would've done it by then and since he was asking me questions as well, I took the chance to get some information out of him.
"Everyone knows about that pride kid, it's one of the five great prides is it not?" He gave me an eyebrow raise that almost made me chuckle as it looked exactly as I'd envisioned from before.
"Point made." I lowered my head once more to the floor but dared not to close my eyes, after all I couldn't just trust a complete stranger.
"Try not to wander off again um- what's your name kid?"
"Apollo." I muttered quietly, my chin grounded to the floor beneath me.
"Nice name Apollo, call me Ren if you like but my name is Reiner." He gave me a warm and reassuring smile before walking past me on the floor once more. It looked like he was just passing through the territory.
"Catch ya later Apollo, and do me a favour and don't send word to the big guy. Won't like to hear I'm wandering around his turf." He laughed for a brief moment before carrying on. I got up and sat down, a bit surprised at how soon he was leaving.
"Where are you going?" I asked, he appeared to still be in earshot so I assumed he could've heard me.
"Wherever the wind takes me kid, wherever the wind takes me. And oh yeah, try to stay downwind and head back to your pride, hyenas can be a stubborn bunch." He continued on his way walking to as he said, wherever the wind was gonna take him.
As soon as he blended into the grass I got up. My entire body was shivering in pain. I didn't notice much before with all that adrenaline pumping through me but now wasn't time to be a wuss. I had to get back to the pride before I became a dinner item for some other predator.
My front and back legs were battered and bruised, but luckily no bones felt broken. I was tired and almost sleepy but I managed to will myself up and limped towards the direction Reiner was looking before.
"Oh yeah." I said out loud as I'd remembered that Reiner had recently reminded me to stay downind. I crouched under the tall grass, taking my time in not only an effort to be quiet, but an effort to minimize that pain that was making its presence known with every step I took.
"Apollo, Apollo where are you!" I froze as I heard the call of my name, my heart almost leaped out of my chest but it wasn't long before I recognized that voice. It sounded like my father, no, I was sure it was my father.
"Dad, Dad!" I shouted as loudly as I could, it was risky but I could hear that he was close by.
His steps were heavy, like he cared not that he too could be in danger alone out on the savannah. I was sure he heard me as the footsteps were coming in my direction. "Apollo!"
My father shouted, almost walking past me as I rammed myself against his leg.
He looked down towards his side and saw me, my barely visible blood stained fur had almost blended into the grass but it was unlikely he'd miss me anyway, I was probably smelling like a snack.
"Ap-Apollo." I could hear the utter surprise in his voice and it made me remember one of his stories. It wasn't often a cub left the comfort and safety of the pride's numbers and survived.
His eyes gleamed in the moonlight and if I didn't know better, I'd swear my dad was crying. He took his paw and scooped me up, jamming me towards his stomach and embracing me. He made no sound for a while before I made out the release of a sniffle.
"Are you crying dad?" I probably shouldn't have asked that as I expected him to release the embrace. My father never entertained people trying to make him look or sound weak but it was almost like he didn't hear me.
"What happened to you?" He gently released the embrace after a few moments and scanned my body. "You smell like blood. And my gosh you smell like you've been playing with a group of mangy hyenas."
"I wouldn't call it playing dad." I murmured, but as usual he picked it up.
"How...how did you manage to survive son?" For a moment I thought about Reiner but I couldn't just expose him, I knew how my father was and he'd track him down immediately. Probably why Reiner didn't touch me, he didn't wanna leave his scent on me perhaps.
"Nevermind that, the fact of the matter is you're ok." My dad picked up on the slightest things, including body language. I guess it came with being the leader of a pride, you had to always be capable of weeding out the fakers.
My father lied down right next to where I was standing, gesturing to me to lie down as well. "We'll move at dawn when you're feeling better." It was weird, my dad had never acted so concerned for me in the past and I really didn't know how to feel.
"Dad." I murmured.
"Yeah Apollo?" He lied down on his side, but kept on eye level with me.
"Why'd you come look for me?" I don't know if it sounded ungrateful or rude but I just needed to know. My dad was great but he'd always been a hardass and never this touchy feely.
"Why'd you run away?" It felt like a punch to the gut but my father was as blunt as Artemis. It suddenly reminded me that Artemis and the others had probably gone back to the pride and if that was the case, then he knew I'd hit Artemis.
"I um, I…" My father cleared his throat, cutting me off.
"I know what you did. And I'm not proud of it. It's not good to deliberately hit your sister out of anger, but you shouldn't have ran away."
I kept up, lowering my head under the grass because I was embarrassed. My dad wasn't saving his shots and a part of me regretted asking but a part of me also knew that he was being as easy as he could on me.
"You shouldn't have ran away Apollo, you see, every action has a consequence and the same goes for decisions, especially the bad ones, but when you run away from something, you're only giving it time to speed up and hit you even harder in the future."
I couldn't look my father in the eyes but I nodded in agreement.
"What I mean is son, it's best to face your consequences, even if the cost is dear because if you don't, no one else will."
"I wish I could be as strong as you dad, I don't think I have what it takes to face Artemis to be honest."
"I know it hurts Apollo, but being weak isn't a problem, because if you've never felt weakness then you'll never achieve true strength?"
"But what about you dad? You're so brave and strong, you've never been weak or scared."
"I have Apollo, many times. Including today."
I was at a loss for words, my dad was scared? I've never seen my dad cower before anything, be it predator or prey he always came out on top. He didn't even cower in the face of Blaze. "What on earth could scare you dad?"
"The thought that I could have lost my boy." He extended his paw and pulled me closer to his chest, licking my face. I didn't know if he saw but I was actually crying. To think I put my dad through all that trouble today.
"Dad!" I groaned as he licked my face. It wasn't very easy to stay sad with that saliva attack force that was coming from his tongue.
"I've got to clean you up. If your mother sees you looking like this she'll give us both something to cry about." He laughed, though I turned my face away in shame at the fact that my dad noticed every little detail and now I looked like a crybaby.
"Don't worry Apollo, there's no shame in crying. It doesn't mean you're weak, just means that my little cub has been strong for too long."