FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

A Biography of a Human

Chapter Twenty-Four:

“Clash of Prides”

Dawn came. The warm disc of Felide hatched forth from beyond the sandy horizon, across from to the towering trinity of slumping stone blocks. Its light kissed the landscape with its radiance, shooting out from the sandy banks on the East and bathing the world in a yellow glow.

Dawn had arrived and it was announced by the rumbling roars of our Pride. A call to arms and a warning of impending attack to the pride below us, their settlement of mud and walled enclosures lay just ahead.

Soon their males would assemble, ready for the coming clash, with the females holding the defenses within their settlement. It was a ways off, the battle, though I could not bear the idea of waiting, my nerves were wrecked as it is.

It was to be quick, I knew it well. It was the nature of the lions. Rapid conflict followed by retreat or surrender, no fight to the death. A decisive skirmish, a quick one-move strike.

Lion males passed by my tent, dressed in tight vests of leather shingles sewn tightly together, resembling the feathers of a bird. Each towering feline was toting their tools of war: some with brutal stone maces, others copper axes. Though primitive, they were still nonetheless lethal, and even if one’s mace head shattered in the heat of battle the lion still had their natural weapons: teeth and claws.

My mind took me back to the far away past at the sight of battle-ready lions. I imagined myself as one of those ancients who faced such a horde of beasts in their great crusade.

That great contention of fur and flesh.

I felt fortunate I was not going to face such a force and was only to be an onlooker when the time came for it to unfold. Unlike Gernan, I could not sleep. I tried and was successful at first but then woke up again later that night and could not bring myself to return to sleep again. I spent the whole night wondering how close it was to day break but I had no clue whether it was near or far, so I sat in the dark of the tent, wide awake as I listened to the rhythmic breathing of my wolven Master which helped calm my nerves to a degree.

The sheer boredom was enough to drive one insane, perhaps I was already was by that point in time? I wanted to hurl, my stomach felt so unstable, just sitting there in the dark, wide-awake with a mind spinning like a dreidel. It was truly torture and every moment of time felt like it would go on for eternity, I was even starting to think that the sun would not rise!

I was starting to wish that the both of us had been executed by the Alpha! But when dawn came I was filled with joy, knowing the world had not really ended with the sun vanishing in the depths of night. But alas, dawn brought another worry: the battle and its outcome. Thus, one torture was succeeded by another, but at least I could spend that time with Gernan, who I gently woke up.

Sadly, we didn't get to spend any time together as he was called to be with Aha’hor to discus the battle, whereupon I would be alone again with my dire thoughts ready to rip me asunder. I hid this from him, I was not going to make him worry over me at a time like this despite how much I would have liked to have been selfish and pitched a fit like I was a child again.

I did not stay there alone for long because my mind thought of someone! The lioness! I needed someone! Anyone at all! I just could not stand being alone! I got up and marched through the camp, passing by the bustle of lions and lionesses getting ready for the inevitable and paying no heed to any of them, not that they would lay a claw upon me for I had the pride leader's scent on me, telling everybody and anybody I was his.

That was not on my mind though, only the fact that I needed to find comfort, and there she was in front of me. Nith’hatep, dressed in a leather chestplate over her unclothed upper body, the camel hued fur spreading over the shoulder straps; as she rested within her tented dwelling, playing with her cubs who climbed and bounced on the facets of her armor.

Her densely furred ears snapped towards me, picking up on the sound of my steps on the gravel beneath my feet. This was followed by her penetrating gaze locking on me as her two cubs also became aware of my presence. They were all looking at me standing there in a moment of uncertainty until my dark thoughts returned, as if reminding me that I still wanted to do this.

I barreled forward head-first while tears bloomed from the corners of my eyes as I squinted them shut from the stinging sensation. My head collided with a warm surface, just as the tears burst forth from my eyes uncontrollably! I felt weak and infantile! My growing backbone that I thought I had, faltered and I felt pathetic again! How could I Master my strength if I could not tame the demons of my mind, who poked and prodded at my worries and fears!?

I was not weak though! The past few challenges proved it loud and clear, but even the strongest being has a breaking point and it takes time to push that point of fracture further and further away from one’s self. I was still coming into my own even though my thoughts then were contrary to it.

How I miss being able to cry like that…

With a mind racing in all directions, I internally screamed out, “Xander! You must not cry! Hold it in! Do not shatter like glass!” a steely sense of calm washed over me.

“Pesh’ef! Is it truly you!?” a deep feminine voice touched by concern delivered itself to me from above as I started to lift my head out of the humid space that was her covered lap, the wetness of my fleeting tears now drying atop the shrinking fluster of my cheeks.

“Is this the same human who dared to stare at me as though you were the pride leader!?” her pentagon-shaped face was etched with shock, tainted with a slight disappointment in the glimmer of her gilt eyes.

Pride swelled in my heart, seeing her look that way at me filled me with a need! A need to pull myself together and show the power I had possessed before! My dark eyes burned with a sense of certainty as I stared up, lifting myself erect.

“I am strong! You dare say I am weak!?” I stated firmly, stopping myself from going into a reason for a few seconds as I felt a stutter coming. “This was just a crack of emotion! I was just overwhelmed by the coming battle!”

The disappointment that was once within her vanished and was replaced by a sense of acknowledgment like that of two equals, for I made no pretense of ever wanting to rise above her even in that moment of slight breakdown.

“Child_..._you speak the truth,” she cooed in a rumbling wispier, her paw lifted and was now stroking the underside of my chin, which was now stubbled from the years of being unable to get a complete shave, as her other paw cupped my bare shoulder. “We all have moments like that and you are still young, cub of skin, and you will be able to hold your own more as you age.”

I nodded my head as I listened carefully to her lesson, taking it all into my memory. Nith’hatep, she had a spark within her that brought forth the memories of my firebrand mother! It was as though she was speaking to me through this lioness, it was strange but comforting.

Funny how at that youthful age I managed to control my emotions and recover a firm character unlike one particular wolf I know, who acts like a scared puppy and can’t even raise a knot, and don’t even get me started on that snake he chose to call his!

Oh yes, I know there's a good chance he could be reading this, perhaps one of the first to discover it. In fact, I hope very much that he reads the next part.

I am more wolf than he could ever be and I know lots of wolves that would agree! Even my most vile rivals would attest to that! He is a disgrace to his Fathers and he will soon be a disgrace to the entire world!

What am I doing! This is not about them! It's about my parents!

Oh, Mother and Father. If only we could have lived out our lives together on our little paradise of Safehaven, the little speck of humanity in a world of claw and fur. What comes to pass is what has come to pass, there is no changing it, but if you are looking down upon me, just know that you birthed a son who will make sure your names with be mentioned alongside mine in the annals of history.

And you too, Gernan…

You were the wolf who imbued the aura of a wolf into this human body of mine! That’s what they will say of you.

Three moved forward in the twilight space of sand and foliage, it was an organized mob of lions, each clad in their freshly-tanned leather vests and bearing shields of the same material, all while welding the weapons of their order. Three blocks of lions that were further subdivided into even more groups, each marked by a wooden pole topped with a feral best and a placard of the type of weapons used by their members.

From my vantage point from the camp, I could see where Aha’hor was. Though his marker was not different looking than any of the others, I knew it was his due to the beast atop it being a falcon with a club in its talons, his symbol.

The meat of the forces, big lion brutes with massive bodies wielding skull crushing maces, shock troops. They were mixed with numbers of spear and ax lions who formed ranks just behind them and covering their flanks, their deadly weapons fashioned from the available copper; even pots and jewelry of the pride were melted down to add to the number of arms. Lastly at the front were the bow lions, agile felines with arms that should snap my arm like a twig, their straw woven quivers holding a plethora of flint arrowheads along with a small number of copper tipped ones.

There had to be about a hundred or two on our side, all ready for battle and full of energy, just itching to break out into a flurry of motion. While the other side was complacent in their mess of warriors scattered out with no order or logic. They felt smug superiority at these overdressed lions and their neat rows of troops.

Spearmen, axemen, all mixed in no order, each one bare-chested with a few pounding their multiple-nippled chests in thuggish boasts of their own feline masculinity, sounding out like deep fleshy drums from afar.

Gernan, who stood next to me, has an anxious look on his face as looked over the soldiers next to me. Gazing sideways to him, I reached out my hand and clasped it around his shoulder in assurance of his spirit. “Don’t worry, Master! We will win this!” I recall saying to him as he nodded his long profile in acknowledgment.

“I still worry, Iskander. I have never performed a flanking move with infantry before, only with cavalry,” Gernan brought up as he gestured to the wings of infantry siding the cohorts massed around Aha’hor.

“Master Gernan, this is a small-scale battle, we are not dealing with the Grand Republican Army of the Foxes here! Plus neither does the other side have horses to utilize, don’t worry!” I reassured back firmer, giving my voice an authoritative flavor to it.

A broad voice bellowed out from across the battlefield and it was clear it was the leader of the River Turtle Pride, which they called themselves, who was speaking, I could barely pick out the words being said, it was so faint, but Gernan’s sharp, wolfish ears did after a moment of focusing on where it was coming from.

“Look at you, fellow pride leader! Look at you! Look at that army of yours! Who do you think you are, a moon-dog Alpha or a red-dog Doge now!? An army of lions dressed like dogs! What a joke! You are a shame to the Mother Lioness!” Gernan said, his ears twitching in focus as he relayed the contents of the low unintelligible growls back to me.

“Go back to your dusty savannah, dog lover, and lift your tail for your Masters! You have given my pride a good laugh, this is the best joke I have ever witnessed!” Gernan further whispered back to me, not wanting to loudly relay such insulting words too loudly.

“Gernan, listen for Aha’hor’s reply,” Gernan nodded his long head and continued on focusing past the conclusion of the Turtle Pride leader’s childish taunt.

A shout rang out at our side, just a single word roared out that I could not hear, I turned to Gernan and he just replied with “Attack.” I snapped my head back to the scene, not daring to miss what would happen, this was it!

A cloud of arrows took flight like a swarm of locusts flying out to devastate a crop of farmlands, artificial bolts of lightning to rain down terror. There is no sight like that of a group of bowmen all firing at once, it's truly amazing.

The lions of the opposing side had no shields and fell in droves, not expecting such an organized move. Bows and arrows were mostly the tool of the lion huntress, rather than that of a fighting male, not that it was never used in war, just like this in such an organized mass was new for them all. The lions on the other side would have thought of it as a coward's weapon if it were not for the fact that quite a few of them were now either dead or wounded by the hail of death.

The River Turtle Pride mobbed forward in vengeance, clashing with the front line of Aha’hor’s warriors, the sounds of pounding leather and rock erupted with backing of shouts and roars as the club wielders did there work on the mixed mass of the other's army.

The opposing side mustered in the center, piercing forward and hoping to reach where Aha’hor was. It started to become harder and harder to tell which side was which now that the two masses became one and it was starting to look like Gernan's carefully laid plans were falling apart! The winged flanks looked like they were abandoning their place and converging to the center.

“Damn it! They are going to lose an opportunity to close in on them from the side! What are they thinking!?” Gernan screamed as he pounded his temples with his fist in frustration and just when I thought it could not get any worse…

The falcon standard of Aha’hor fell! My heart dropped like lead in water! He had fallen! They had reached him and slain him! It was all over now, and Gernan just went silent.

“I’m a dead wolf!” he uttered out mournfully, knowing full well who the blame would go to when it was all over.

Running my hands over my face to regain my will, I grabbed Gernan’s forearm and started pulling him with me, which was not an easy task with a large wolf! “Gernan! We have to go! Now! If we stay you will die!”

“Come! Come on!” I repeated back as he stayed still like a weight, not budging at all despite my efforts.

“Gernan! There is no time! We have to run and run now!” I shouted trying to break him out of his daze looking out over the battlefield “They are going to kill you when its over and then me!”

“NO! Wait! Look!” stopping, I looked back and saw the falcon standard re-hoist itself. The sight of it sent waves of relief across me.

“Oh, thank Canis! He is alive!” Gernan furthered as I stopped all my efforts to compel him and I too voiced the same words of thanks to the divine for making this be just a mistake.

“The standard bearer must have dropped it in the heat of battle then, Gernan?”

“Must have! Looking at what is going on he must be still alive, if he was really dead we would have seen it in the reactions of Aha’hor’s lions, but they are still pushing on,” my wolf Master answered as he pointed out the actions he was describing which were playing out exactly as he said.

“If only they kept to their flanks-” unbeknownst to us at the time, Aha’hor, encompassed by the battle, saw his fellow warrior lions who were leading the side flanks in his midst to his boiling rage.

He roared at them to go back to their places and fold in on the pushing lions of the River Turtle Pride surrounding them and closing in on them. After that, he realized that to end this all once and for all he needed to slay the leader of their pride!

Rushing ahead, he pushed through despite personal danger to himself, and sought him out as our side’s lions reformed the flanks as was ordered and begun to entrap the lions of the other side.

If we had know what Aha’hor was doing at that moment, the both of us, human and wolf, would have had a mental breakdown from the stress of the what ifs. To us, his standard was still erect, but the lion himself was gone. He could have died and we would have known nothing until it was too late and Gernan was dragged away to have his muzzle caved in by the harsh clubs of a bunch of vengeful lions.

Gernan’s ears swiveled at the sound of something from the battle, distinct yelling coming from the near center of the still-living multitude of warriors of the Turtle Pride, who were starting to be enclosed by Aha’hor’s flanks as an odd sense of calm fell over both sides.

“What is it!? Tell me!” my voiced commanded out at my Master in a way I would have never done to him back at Lupercal.

“Its Aha’hor’s voice!”

“What is he saying?” I asked eagerly, desperate to know what was going on. Gernan then started back reiterating what he was hearing as I listened deep in anticipation of the next word.

“Turtle Pride! Surrender! Your leader is dead! I have killed him!” that must have been what caused both sides to stop abruptly. Gernan continued on “-shown my pride is stronger despite his words-” my wolf Master trailed off, becoming unable to pick up our lion leader’s voice from the growing murmuring from the other side’s lions. I began worrying that they would rush forward again and seek to strike down Aha’hor in this moment.

Thankfully, I was proven wrong when another strange example of lion customs emerged before us. The other side, the lions of the Turtle Pride, they threw down their clubs and axes, and fell to their knees.

This was an outcome I had never imagined! I thought it was going to be a battle to the death but it was not! They, the lions of the other side, they were acknowledging the superiority of Aha’hor’s pride and were now wishing to join!

This was how a pride gained more members! It was obvious in hindsight, but unexpected and with it, everything made sense now with the things the older lion had said to me before, his goals and ambitions.

This was the start of something! The start of a long term desire, like the wolves of the past century, Aha’hor was wanting to centralize a kingdom! This was almost exactly like what Prince Ulric’s Grandfather, and Great-Grandfather did when they turned the loose scattering of semi-independent packs of the Old Alphate into that of an Empire!

Though I had a sense this here would take much longer to accomplish than it did with the father-son team of Wuffrim I and Lycan, mostly Lycan, did in the whirlwind of the rise of the Kutlar clan.

But this was like that! Not exactly, but very similar, it was conception of a future kingdom! A kingdom of lions.

The Mediterranean was about to get another competitor in the future, not in my lifetime but it will happen soon! Most likely after this decrepit body of mine finally succumbs to the onslaught of time.

With the day won, things fell into a strange bliss of calm. Our pride, now victorious, marched into the vanquished Turtle Pride’s walled camp followed by a select number troops and his own family. The females and good numbers of the surviving males, stood within the camps walls and fell to their shins in defeat. Gernan and I were in this retinue, meeting up with Aha’hor when he returned to our camp after it was all said and done.

I took a glance over my shoulder behind me to see groups of our lions going about the fallen enemy dead, carrying large wicker baskets and axes. They were going around and cutting off a single paw of each dead and dropping them into the baskets.

Aha’hor marched into the center of the pride that was now his, there was a large fallen structure of sandy rock which he was walking towards. It, at first glance, looked like natural rock, but as I drew nearer to it I saw features: a sideways leg and a foot and leading up to a lap, all greatly weathered of course, but it looked like some ancient statue and all that was missing was the top portion.

Aha’hor arrived at the base of it, turned around and seated himself upon the upturned side of it as me and the rest of his core pride gathered around him him as he started to speak.

“This is the start! Lions of both my pride and the Turtle Pride, this is the start! From henceforth, this place shall be the City of the First Lion!” the lion spoke after a series of calling roars, which drew the attention of all who may have been trying to ignore their new overlord.

“We lions have been at the mercy of others long enough! First, the red-dogs create their big kingdom of traders! Then the moon-dogs, their reborn ‘Alphate’! Why not us, brothers and sisters? If we stay the way we are, so we shall soon be slaves to those spotted mutts lead by females who have cocks!”

I wanted to listen on and would have if it was not for my foot catching on something that was near the base of the upturned stature that was now being used as a throne. Interested now, I looked down, my foot must have kicked away some of the lose dirt and exposed something. It was black, like coal, but smooth and once must have had a mirror-shine.

It hit me that this might be some kind of pedestal, but whatever it was, something else caught my eye. A reflected glimmer in the light which I knelt down to examine, the speech of the lion leader’s voice turning into a murmuring fog above me.

It was a bright metal plaque that was fused with the solid base. There was words write in on it, the first two lines had nothing I could understand, perhaps another human dialect.

But the second ones I recognized! It was the same words I knew of from back home, though my memory of my home’s writing was rusty, I could make out what it said despite some of the vast differences in this form of spelling certain words,

“....Statue…...Rameses the Gr(eat?)…...set….…by the……..….New Pharaonic State… Year….2152……..Years…..War….” was all I could make out from the badly weathered text. Was this the name of a bygone human nation? It clearly looked like it, a lost piece of history from an ancient civilization!

I could have stayed there forever, looking at this piece of our lost history, but my trance was broken by a palm pressing on my back.

“Oh! Gernan! Sor-” I stopped when I got up and faced not the familiar gray muzzle and yellow eyes of my Master, but that of sand-blown, short-muzzled face and encompassing eyes colored over with opal haze, framed by a wild looking mane that contrasted with his ivory white tunic.

This was the priest, a lion who offered up his vision to Felide in long spans of gazing unto her shining disc. I was taken by shock and bowed my head in a respectful manner, along with my knees slightly too.

“The cradle is quiet...the cradle is quiet….and there is a second sun high in the sky...” is what he said, nothing else and nothing more. He went on his way, vanishing from sight in the crowds of lions around me.

Those words and their meaning, whatever they were, haunted me deeply even back then. It was otherworldly and felt as though these were the words of something greater, as though this priest was just some kind of mouthpiece for that.

The cradle, the cradle...could it be that?

I had nothing do with that! I know you types! You think you know me, but you don’t! How dare you assume such lies! I know you are, as you read this! I may be long dead by that time you do, but I can tell you are thinking that!

Lies always seem to outlive the truth.

The warm evening breeze wafted past me, the sounds of rapacious festivities echoed out in the distance behind me. The camp, Aha’hor’s new city, though it did not look like much of one now, cast out rays of red glow from bonfires lit within the center of it, as lions danced in joyful celebration. They downed down copious amounts of their primitive ale as they joked and roared out with laughter.

I wanted to get away. Gernan retired to bed early and I was not sleepy yet myself and I longed to be near the river bank to withdraw from it all unseen, though not completely.

What did I have to fear? It was just a short walk under the twilight sky. How assured I was, as I walked closer to the sound of the gentle flowing river, through the grasses that grew taller and taller as I drew closer to the water banks until I saw the vast expanse of the river, all blue and gorgeous in the fading light of the dying day.

I kicked off my sandals and dipped one foot slowly into the water, worried about how it would feel, while cursing myself for being so timid when I used to just jump into the waters back in Safehaven without fear.

The feeling was wonderful! It felt like it had been forever since I let myself relax like this, I sat down and let both of my bare legs dip into the cool refreshing waters, though it was a bit cold at first touch it matched nicely with the hotness of the days down there.

It was bliss I tell you, bliss! I just closed my eyes and felt such a wonderful sense of serenity as the burdens of the past few years of our lives magically lifted themselves off me. I exhaled all of my fears out, followed by inhaling a fresh mix of vegetation, the clean scent of the water and the fertile black silt on the banks of this mighty course!

“Well, well! Look at you! My father's little plaything, all alone!” my tranquility shattered at the snide, deep voice. My heart skipped a beat as I tried and failed to get up, slipping back onto my rear as I looked up behind me at the massive frame of a lion that loomed over me now.

A moment of recognition flashed across my mind as I remembered those eyes of his! It was the same eyes full of lust from before, it was Poison Serpent, Weha’djet! The younger son!

“Come here!” he growled out as he clutched my now-stained collar that my Master bought for me years ago, and violently dragged me back, my legs withdrawing from the water I once enjoyed. “It's so unfair that father gets you all to himself! How come he gets all the fun?” he mused to himself as I froze in a state of shock as the implication of what he was getting to sunk in.

“Well not anymore, heh heh heh...” the beast finished, his twisted chuckles filling me with a sense of oncoming dread as my fighting spirit started to kick in and I tried to get up to try and stop this, “I’m getting the feeling I will really enjoy this, human!”

I got up and was about to shout, but only got the first sounds of “Help!” out before a firm, warm ball shoved itself into my open mouth. My sense of taste buzzed about the new object as a sour taste emerged boldly and a deep muskiness started to offend my nose.

“There! We can’t be having you screaming now, little human, looks like my loincloth does the job quite well!” his thick leathery paw pads twisted my body around to face his towering form, though he was not as tall as his father he was still quite large.

“Now let's get a good look at you!”

In swiping motion my clothing was ripped from me, though not rough enough to cause any damage to them. I started to fight back, with my sole free hand I slapped and punched the rock-face that was his bare cream-furred chest.

“What feisty prey! I thought humans were all weaklings,” he coyly said as I struggled out from my gag. He used one paw to move two of his padded fingertips down my waist, the cold claw tips gently grazed the skin. “Felide! You feel like silk! Now I get why we Chimera let you all live and not kill the lot of you!”

I writhed around, shaking my body in a frenzy as my wrist was kept in firm place by the brutal feline male, who was completely nude as well. His genitals! I thought of way out! My legs were free, all I had to do was kick.

“Uh-uh-ah!” he rudely said as he grabbed my leg before I could even have a chance to thrust it forward and strike him in his furred orbs.

In a flash, I was twisted around and thrust on the damp marsh grass before me, my face colliding with the ground hard. A feeling of numbness washed over my nose as blood started to trickled down it.

A heavy weight pressed itself over me and the sensation of fur laid upon my bare back and buttocks as he lined up above me.

I felt the horrid sensation of his thing readying itself! Terror, fear, it was all here now! My familiar unwanted companions in my life coming for a visit when I thought all was good again! I wanted to scream but my voice was blocked, my ways out were blocked, I succumbed to pitiful muffled sobs, coming to terms with that I was lost.

Long, prickly wetness slid over my lower back and onto my neck, stopping there as warm air blew over my neck the smell of beer and raw meat overcame that of his musky underwear.

The pain! The unfathomable pain! It felt like sand within me! I wanted so howl in pain, my throat became raw and horse, burning and stinging as my ability to breathe felt as though it was about to falter!

Growls and grunts rang out above me, reminding me who was in charge, the in and out of pain withdrew slightly as his precum began to coat my rear, though the now ticklish barbs still burned as they raked over the areas they once felt like shards of sand on.

I closed my eyes and started to block out everything, I focused on happy thoughts, the best I could manage as he continued his rape of my body. I was going to go into a corner of my mind and stay there until it was over. Then, an explosion within me signaled the end of it all, I felt relief that I was going to be free at last.

Everything went cold, freezing! I inhaled and water poured up my nose! I was downing! The gag in my mouth was yanked out and soon my my mouth filled with cold water! The whole time my body was being shaken around in the this hellish bath I was getting.

Then finally, air. I could breath and coughed out what water remained in me as my blurred vision fixed itself to form the cruel lion who towered above me.

“Can't have you smelling of me when you crawl back to father now?” he rumbled in an almost joyful tone at what he was doing to me and I was only given a moment to get air before I was again thrust under the waves.

Then it was over, I was left hacking myself out, soaking wet, cold and full of fearful shame at what I let happen to my body! I watched that vile lion, Weha’djet, walk away into the darkness in the direction of camp, walking with a brisk sense of superiority, having taken out years of frustrations from being the lesser son on my body.

All I could do was curse under my breath.

“I hate you! I hope you die” I said lowly as my eyes narrowed to a slits.

“I want you to die!”