At the end of the second week since his birth and reincarnation, Kael began to feel…off.
It was night time and Kael had just finished drinking his milk. His mother lay on the ground, dozing off, while her two daughters and son ran rings around her.
The other lionesses and their cubs had also prepared to end all activities for the night.
Kael's older brother was also present, except he was already sleeping about a meter away from them. Kael was still a tiny little lion, so even a meter was quite large for him.
Kael rested beside his mother's head which was almost the same size as his entire body. His eyes were closed yet he kept turning and twisting.
Sometimes he would accidentally kick his mother's head but she would just ignore it before closing her eyes and going back to sleep.
His siblings eventually tired themselves out before sluggishly dragging themselves to Kael and snuggling with him, tapping into his body warmth.
When he had his first-night rest, Kael was very uncomfortable with this style of cuddling up against each other before sleeping. After all, he was used to sharing his bed with no one in his past life.
He would always look the the distant pride leader, who could sleep alone without any disturbance. The only time he cuddled with any lionesses was when he wanted to, not the other way around.
If not for the risk of exposing himself to nocturnal predatory birds that he couldn't see at night, Kael would have preferred sleeping on his favorite boulder.
But now, Kael was not worried about this. Rather he was troubled with the itching pain that had come up on his body that night.
He didn't know why but this very evening, his entire body hurt. To him, it felt like his blood vessels were burning hot.
His heart pounded against his chest cavity with so much force that the vibrations could be felt from the ground.
Kael continued writhing in pain, if not for his fur, he would be sweating profusely.
After more than an hour of this painful episode in his life, the pain slowly began to subside.
'What was that?...' Kael thought to himself while panting for breath. He rolled on his back so that his head would rest on his mother's neck, he used her as his pillow.
Kael opened his eyes to gaze at the cloudless night sky with its countless stars. He felt the cool night breeze brush upon his light brown fur.
Whatever had happened to him and caused him so much pain had rendered him drained of energy. He could only lay in this position with his front paws hanging in the air.
Looking at the bright stars, he was reminded of his past life. He wondered what would happen to his dead body in that messy apartment of his.
It would probably take some time before anyone noticed his absence, considering his almost negligible lack of contact with the outside world.
Thankfully, he didn't exactly miss anyone so he wasn't too hung up on the idea of anyone missing him.
Soon, Kael found himself drifting to sleep with the thoughts of his past life the last thing on his mind.
#######
"WE HAVE WAGED A WAR THAT CAN NEVER END!"
At the top of a silver cloud, a majestic golden lion stood with authority and power. His magnificent aura spilled over to fill the whole world.
All beasts could feel its very presence as though the lion stood right beside them.
"THE LIONS HAVE DECIDED TO MAKE AN ENEMY OF THE UNIVERSE ITSELF. YOU DARE TRY TO CONQUER ALL THAT IS UNDER THE HEAVENS!"
A voice came from nowhere in particular. It penetrated the ears of the golden lion. The golden lion in return simply closed his eyes.
"VERY WELL THEN." The lion opened its mouth to speak, "IF THE HEAVENS CANNOT TOLERATE US, WE SHALL HUNT IT DOWN. THE HEAVENS SHALL KNOW WHAT IT IS LIKE TO BE THE PREY OF LIONS!"
Space itself seemed to crack under the sheer might of this golden lion's words. Far beyond, the walls that held the void away from the material realm showed cracks on it.
Below the cloud that the golden lion was standing on, there were two forces at war with each other.
If one stared closely, one would see that on one side were lions, both dead and alive. Either in the middle of a fight or about to enter one.
And what were they fighting? Kael couldn't quite see what they were. The memory was lacking details.
Kael couldn't get a good grasp of what was happening before he was drawn out of this dreamscape.
He found himself standing in his lion cub form in a chaotic place. There was no light or darkness here, yet there was color, mostly gold.
Hovering in no particular pattern were illusory lions, in different positions and stances.
'Where is this?' Kael wondered to himself. He was confused, very confused. One minute, he was sleeping, next thing he knew, he was watching a golden lion declare war on an invisible enemy.
But soon he quickly calmed down as bits and pieces of information started flowing into his mind against his will. It was like hearing sound no matter how one covered his ears.
Kael looked carefully at his surroundings. There were eight illusory hovering lions, all seemed life-like yet didn't seem to be alive at all.
Their eyes were opened and they took particular stances or positions. It seemed like they were frozen in action.
The first lion, as golden as the rest, had a dark gold mane and a dirt gold body. His eyes were a mix of black and gold. His claws which were exposed even as he was in a sitting position, revealed their metallic glint.
Compared to the seven other golden lions, this lion looked impressively older. Its jaws and mane joined together to form a beard that fit his lion-like face.
Looking at this large lion from the body of his little cub form, information on who this lion was flowed into Kael's mind.
"Alan, the first Primordial Lion,"