Legacy of the Pridelords: Oaths of the Past
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Story Description: Anyra learns from the past in order to prepare for the future.
** ***Legacy of the Pridelords Chapter 4: Oaths of the Past*****
The two lions played with each other until noon, when they made their way back to the pride. Like before, Veran met them alone.
Almost alone. A cheetah lounged near the old lion. He got up when he saw them approaching, his scrawny form eclipsed by the great pride leader.
"Go now. Be swift. Tell the swamp king his daughter will be ready."
"Ready for what?" Anyra asked as she watched the cheetah depart.
"I will tell you shortly. Son, accompany the messenger to our border. Make him feel welcomed in our lands. Cheetahs have always been remarkable allies."
"As you say, father."
Anyra didn't even give her mate a licky farewell. She went straight to Veran, looking him straight in the eyes. "What is it? Did something happen to my father? Is he-"
"He is well, young one. Misses you quite a lot, actually."
"He's the one who..."
"Mrrhm, yes," Veran growled softly as he turned towards the heart of his territory. "Come with me. There are some things you need to know about the truce that's keeping the lion prides united."
He led her towards the base of a shady tree. A place to rest, were it not for the concerns gnawing the insides of her stomach.
"Sit."
"I prefer to walk. Calms my nerves," Anyra circled the tree for the fourth time since she got here.
"There is no reason to be nervous."
"Then tell me!" She growled, louder than she intended to. "I need to know how my father feels about my absence. He doesn't know when I left. I...I lacked the strength to tell him myself."
"I'm sure he understands."
"No, you're not," the lioness started pacing all over again. "I was very close to him. As close as I am to your son. We used to spend so much time together...and I betrayed his trust by leaving without a proper farewell."
Veran considered her words. "I met your father a few times."
"You did?" the lioness' paws fused to the ground.
"Mrrr, yes. He was the first one to accept the renewal of our treaty. This peace between the lion prides had been sealed many generations ago, but some of our fathers wanted to break away from the choices settled by their own sires."
"He never told me this..." Anrya crawled towards the old male, pushing her head into his considerable mane. "So my father continued the peace then?"
"Yes. He understood the importance of unity, and was the first who pledged his pride to the cause. Together, we went from pride to pride, sealing this unity in the same way our ancestors did. It is thanks to our father that we enjoy this age of peace."
"How is he doing? Did he say anything about me?"
Veran turned his head to look her in the eyes. "He wants you back, young one. Not as a visitor...but as a token of our renewed peace. You see, we needed a way to keep the prides together. What good is peace when everyone seals the borders of their territory? A pride that grows alone is a pride who never learns the value of friendship. So to maintain this peace and remind everyone the benefits of this union, we all agreed to send a member of our pride to appease a king in need."
"In need? In need of what?" Anyra tilted her head with confusion.
"Companionship. Love. A long walk through the savannah. Anything he desires."
"And my father wants me?"
"He requires you," Veran said. "I do admit a measure of weakness in this particular choice. You are his daughter, but you are also my son's mate. It does not feel right to send you away."
"He's my father!" the lioness snarled. "I don't care how angry he is. He won't hurt me."
"No, my dear, that he won't do...but he will spill his seed inside you, or at least require you to pleasure him in whatever ways he desires."
Her fierceness dulled its edge. "Mate...mate me? But...he can't. He's family."
"I am afraid the rules of our treaty are less specific than you desire. A king can have anyone he wants, as long as they belong to a different pride. That includes my son, or even me. If I accept this, you will return to your former pride not as a daughter, but a token of peace, to serve the whims of your father."
"What happens if you decline?"
"The prides may turn their backs on me. Call me liar, traitor, maybe even return to their warmongering roots. I can't risk war, but at the same time, I cannot have you bear the cubs of your own father. I will do anything I can to protect you, even if that means-"
"War?" Anyra cut in. "You risk your pride's life. Your son's life. For what? A few days spent with my father? That is foolishness. I choose to go."
"You understand what that choice implies?"
Anyra kept her stance. "As long as it keeps the prides united and my mate safe, I don't care."
The older male nuzzled into her neck. After a few rubs, she too pressed her head into his bushy mane. He smelled different than her father, but he felt just the same, a pillar of strength that could support her wavering paws. Growls slowly dwarfed the chirps of the birds. Big as he was, the male had no qualms enjoying the simple pleasure of playing. Rolling on his back, he pawed at Anyra's head, and the young lioness delayed not in giving herself to such a kind, fatherly figure.
"You are so small..." the male said, then rolled his raspy tongue along the female's head. "I love my sons dearly, yet I always wanted to have a daughter. She didn't have to be a huntress, or a particularly witty sort. She could be small, like you..."
"I always admired my father," Anyra rested her head against his mane, her breath ruffling a few of the darker strands. "Though I care about my mothers equally, I preferred to join my father into some of his adventures. Patrolling around the borders of my territory, learning about the world around me...I wish I can bring those times back, when my father's paws felt like the this tree," the lioness gazed at the scratched trunk while the warm pads of a paw slowly caressed her back.
"It is normal to appreciate those who are better than us. That's how we learn to improve. Become even better than them."
"I don't want that. Hunting never intrigued me."
"Yet you must hunt in order to survive."
"Catch rabbits is what you mean," the lioness playfully nudged the old lion's chin. "My father told me about a female's duties, and I will fulfill them, but right now, I just want to love him. And my mate. Even...even you..."
Veran's paws pressed her tighter against his warm, fluffy chest. "Rest, young one. Think. If it is love you seek, then I shall try to bargain with your sire. Rules cannot be changed, but perhaps we can bend some of them so you can live the life you want."
Anyra's heart fluttered. She knew this lion for less than a day, and he was already willing to risk so much for her. She licked along his chin, then warmly rubbed her head against his before looking into the male's calm gaze.
"My mind is made up. If my father requested my presence, then I shall go and do whatever he asks me to. I deserve that for disappearing on him. He loved me, and I betrayed him."
"Oh, young, silly lioness...it takes a lot more than a mistake to wash away a parent's love. I kept my sons warm during the nights. I walked with them as they took their first steps, advised them, watched how they turned from the young cubs that I knew into proper lions. They are a part of me, and that will never change, no matter which path they choose."
A lump formed in her throat, and the more she stared at the male beneath her, the more she thought about her own father. "I've seen that. You and Veranor..."
"I know, dear one. I know," the male said calmly. "I lived far too many seasons to ignore the whispers of the wind."
"Then why...why didn't you..."
"Stop?" Veran started caressing her head. "I have never denied any pleasures to my sons, and I was not about to start doing so just because we had an unexpected visitor. He was enjoying my touch, I was enjoying him, and if you wanted to join, we would have welcomed you within our embrace."
"To mate?" Anyra asked as lewd warmth traversed her golden fur.
"If you desired, yes, but I was thinking of simpler pleasures. My son never told me if you did anything together."
"N-no," Anyra stammered. "I mean yes. We tasted each other's scent, but we never did more than that."
"What about your father?"
"Mrrr?" Anyra growled, slightly confused as the male stared expectantly at her.
"Oh...excuse me. I forget prides set their own rules. Perhaps he wanted you to discover this on your own."
"Mating? You're talking about making cubs?"
"Pleasure, dear one. It is tradition in my pride that the father takes the first release of his sons upon his tongue, tasting their seed to know if they are worthy successors to his reign. The mothers do the same for their daughters. I assume you are untouched, then?"
"I...I licked myself. To clean. But I never...I don't think I can pee seed, pride lord."
The lion growled, amused by her innocence. "You will learn, my dearest. A long life awaits, filled with more possibilities than you can ever imagine. I would show you how females react to pleasure, but our time together is almost at an end. Your father had summoned his token, and I must prepare you for the cycle of unification."
Anyra cocked her head. "What do you mean prepare me? I know the way back."
"And walk back you shall...covered in your pride's scent, as is the custom."
The lion's great paws slowly unwrapped from her back, and Anyra slid on her side, watching how the great male towered above her.
"My dear, you're looking at me like a rabbit that's about to get pounced," the male's barbed tongue rolled along Anyra's cheek. "The rite is simpler than you realize. You sit there on the ground, and I stand above so I can mark you with my scent."
"That's all?"
"That is all," the male said with his calm voice. "Now stand as still as you can, and roll only when I ask you to. It is imperative you wear my scent upon your entire body as a sign of respect and fealty to your new pride."
Anyra dipped her head and pressed her belly against the hard ground. The ritual commenced with a steady trickle of urine that quickly permeated the air around her. She heard the male's paws shift along the ground, raking grasses and lines into the dirt as they often did when a lion marked his territory. Veran did the exact same thing to her, his warm urine spraying in short, uneven bursts upon her golden fur, slowly going from her rump all the way to her head.
She closed her eyes when the bitter substance coated her muzzle. Anyra never found the taste particularly pleasing. Even breathing was a challenge with a few pungent particles latched onto her whiskers. She should have expected a king's musk to be as strong as his stature.
What she failed to anticipate was the simple command that followed.
"Roll on your back," the lion pawed at her side. "I need to cover you whole, dear one."
Anyra saw his sack as she shifted. It looked so heavy from here, two sizable fruits snuggled together in a tawny pouch that probably felt very enticing to the touch...though not as enticing as the tapered head of the lion's member. It was wet, firm, with tiny protrusions surrounding the twitching tip.
A drop made its way between her eyes. Anyra sealed them shut just in time to protect herself against the hot spray that followed. The lion wasn't holding himself back at all. Spurt after spurt splashed on and around her muzzle, barging its way through her unprotected nostrils.
Anyra sneezed with all her might. Drops of sharp urine sailed upon the wind along with particles of her own saliva. Her nostrils cleared, but that comfort came at a stinging price.
"Keep still. I'm almost done."
Hard to when the inside of your mouth tasted like a swamp. Anyra tried her best to keep her wry head in place as the male moistened her. He sprayed her belly, went over her paws...
Then spat two quick jets right against her gender, the warmth of his urine triggering an unreasonably strong response from her lips.
"Grawwwrrr!" Anyra grabbed at the air as her muscles twitched with four consecutive spasms.
"It's over. It's done," Veran's warm voice draped over her ears. "Rise now, our prized token. Follow the way of peace. May your touch calm the king and your love shield his heart against violence."
"He won't hurt me."
"That is how the saying goes, young one. Fear not your father's wishes. We all want what's the best for our successors...even if that means sending them away to other prides so that their seed can take root into foreign soil."
Anyra bowed her head. "Thank you, pride lord. I will return swiftly."
"You will return when you need to, mate of my son. Walk well, and carry my scent across the wind. Only when you reach the swamplands you are allowed to cleanse yourself in the water. Not before."
The lioness gave a firm nod, and with that, Anyra turned her back to her king's gaze to set her eyes upon the distant lands of her own pride, where another kind of king awaited her arrival.
** ***End of Chapter 4*****
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