We'd been walking for a while, me having to lean on Scout for support only an hour or two after entering the desert. Surprisingly, Max and Scout were both perfectly fine, obviously not affected by the heat or lack of water.
"How come you two aren't tired?" I asked.
"Elves aren't affected by the desert's harsh conditions like humans are because we live in it," Scout explained. "Max is half-elf."
"Oh," I said.
I looked around at where we were, then saw a large structure. A rock jutted out of the sand and a few more stood around it; there were at least five of them, from what I could see. I squinted to get a better look, then my eyes widened in pure terror. I repeatedly hit Scout on the shoulder to get his attention, and when he looked at me I pointed at the rocks.
"Oh my stars, Evander," he sighed. "Are you afraid of literal rocks or just having delusions?"
"They're not just rocks!" I insisted. "That's the home of a lion kingdom."
"And? We're nowhere near it," Scout shot back.
"But, we are on their territory," I said.
"How would you know?"
"Because as long as you can see the kingdom, you're on its territory. I lived with lions, don't you think I would know how to spot a kingdom?"
"Well, if anything, we're on the edge of their territory, so they might just leave us alone."
"I assure you they won't. There's at least six prides in that kingdom. Do you understand how much territory and prey it takes to feed six prides of lions?"
Scout paused for a moment, then sighed in defeat.
"Fine, we'll get off their territory," he said finally. "But cutting through it would make all this go a lot faster."
"Hey, can you two stop arguing and tell me what the heck a lion kingdom is?" Max shouted.
I turned to look at her, a bit confused, then shrugged.
I guess Mom didn't teach her what she taught me.
"A lion kingdom is basically a huge lion pride, but the only reason it's so big is because it's made up of a bunch of lion prides and a few prideless lions," I began. "There are at least six prides in each kingdom, and there's always one pride they all take orders from. It's kind of like a ranking system. Whichever pride is strongest gets to be what is called 'Leading Pride' and gets the privileges of eating first and getting the other prides to hunt and fight for them."
"What about the other prides?" Max asked curiously.
"They're also ranked by strength," I explained. "Weakest pride at the bottom of the totem pole eats last and gets no respect or acknowledgment from the other prides while the pride just below Leading Pride is like Leading Pride's right hand and gets plenty of respect. None of them have specific names, they all get to name themselves. But, most of the time, their name corresponds with a trait the entire pride shares. For example, if almost every lion in one pride has brightly colored fur, their name could be Sun Pride."
"What about the prideless lions?" Max asked.
"They're usually used by whichever pride claims them first as guards and hunters," I said. "From that point on, they only give service to that pride unless Leading Pride says otherwise."
"Cool," Max smiled.
I was a bit taken aback since she'd never really smiled at me like that. She'd only ever sneered at me, but now she was smiling. I smiled back, but I didn't have much time to think about anything else before a loud roar made all of us jump.
"What are you doing on our territory?"
BẠN ĐANG ĐỌC
The Children of Destiny
Viễn tưởngEvander, a young boy who was supposedly kicked out of his tribe and raised by flying snake-tailed lions basically his entire life, finds out that he and another kid are part of a very important prophecy that could stop the big war that's going on. B...
