It was early evening or late afternoon with the golden sunlight still shining and illuminating the beautiful landscape of Marakele National Park, South Africa; located in the heart of the Waterberg Mountains. This area was in-between the dry western and moister eastern regions of South Africa, so the climate was fairly tolerable to the animals that roamed here. The natural environment consisted of vast mountain landscapes, grass-clad hills and deep valleys. The fauna consisted of elephants, rhino, leopards, lions, various types of antelope, and brown spotted hyenas. But most notably the National Park was renowned for it's inhabitance of endangered cape vultures; because this location contained the world's largest breeding colonies. So this area of Africa was very sacred.

In one of the flat grassland locations south west of the National Park, a pride of 12 lions; one young lion and 11 lionesses; crowded around a dead mountain reedbuck carcass that had been killed a short time ago by the hunting party. As this was only a small pride, one was enough to feed them all; so everyone was enjoying their essential source of intake.

Two members of the pride, however, were not joining in on the feast. A little distance away, a middle aged male lion and a younger male lion appeared to be fighting each other. They were constantly circling each other and trying to go for the strike; or attempting to block or dodge it with certain defensive techniques. Other times one would be grabbing and performing grapple moves to get the other onto the ground and gain the advantage; then once that happened, the lion who got his opponent down would go for the pin and hope he would stay down "long enough for the count" and earn victory. 

But these two lions were actually sparring in training mode for fighting and self-defense. Neither of them were seriously hurting each other because their claws were retracted. Therefore the middle aged lion was training the younger lion to be strong and agile so that he would grow to become a potential leader and defender one day; but also to be fit enough to survive. Naturally the older lion gained most of the advantage as he knew all the right techniques to be able to outsmart his sparring opponent. But the younger lion had to know each little trick that his teacher was performing by witnessing and feeling it himself so that, in turn, he would physically be able to do it.

The younger lion went for a strike but the older lion dodged it then grabbed his arm and pulled him down to the ground. Once he caught him off guard with that counter, he then put his arm across the neck of his opponent and pushed hard to shorten his air supply. The young lion was held down good and barely able to breathe through the hold, so he tapped his paw on his opponent's shoulder  to indicate that he gave up or submitted and then the older lion released the hold and got off of his who he had just beaten.

"That is an effective counter-attack when your opponent is striking well." The elder lion said to his spa partner. "This is where key defense comes in: You will have to develop several counter-attack maneuvers to catch them off guard. If you are able to outsmart your opponent, your chances of gaining advantage in a fight become greater instead of trying to use brute strength."

"Therefore by using defense and counter attack maneuvers...," The younger lion added, catching onto the teachings of his lesson. "...you will be able to conserve your stamina that you will need to use against your opponent when he or she is tiring to then take advantage and go for the winning strike."

"Correct. Now that one that I just took you down with; I call it the 'counter-strike take down'. It can be used when the opponent attempts to strike and hope for some effective blows. In this situation I would only recommend using it when the attacks from him or her are strong and effective in the way that you are being weakened or fatigued. Once they build that confidence from supposedly gaining the upper hand and they think they have you beat, that is the perfect psycological distraction needed for you to take advantage of and defend the upcoming attacks with whatever counter maneouver you have. You will save so much more energy when you defend more than attack because overuse of brute strength against worthy contendership tires you out faster and therefore wastes of any such chance you may have of winning in the fight."

"I see." The young lion replied. "So what are some other useful defense techniques?"

"There is the 'counter pin' maneuver where your opponent pounces and attempts to pin you directly. When he does, you react by inserting your hind legs into his abdomen and push to flip him over and land on top of him to then get the pin yourself. This can be done in several ways: Either insert your claws into his abdomen to lock them in and land on top of them or leave them retracted to throw them over your head. It is preferable to throw them more, especially early or in the middle in the fight, because again you will save your energy. Then once you have the advantage and the opponent is weakening but still attempts to pin you directly, you can use the flip to get him on his back to finish him; or go for the final blow when you have him pinned."

The young lion anticipated the information as best as he could as he was very determined to get as educated as possible to one day become a true competitive warrior.

"Now let's practise some of these maneuvers." The elder lion concluded.

The younger lion obeyed and began attempting the counter-attack moves that he had just been taught about. He was able to pick up on the overhead throw and counter-pin fairly quickly but it took him a couple of times to get the 'counter-strike take down' maneuver correct as it was a more complex move to perfect. So the elder lion took him through the move in stages to help him get it right. Eventually the elder lion attempted to strike him again with a side swipe and the young lion immediately grabbed his forearm, pulled it sideways and forced it down to the ground, taking its owner with it. As soon as the trainer was brought to the ground, the trainee placed HIS forearm across the throat of the trainer and pushed hard to restrict the airflow. The trainer started to breathe with difficulty and when air got even shorter, he tapped his paw on the ground to submit. The young lion then released his hold and got up; his trainer slowly following suit. The young lion had succeeded in perfecting the move.

"That was well executed, Kopa." The elder lion impressively responded, catching his fresh breath of air now that he could breathe again while finally mentioning the young lion's name. "You reacted quickly and used a good amount of force to get me to the ground. The finishing choke hold was also very strong."

"Thanks, Uncle Mheetu." Kopa replied, also mentioning the elder lion's name and stating that he was his family member. "How am I progressing?"

"Efficiently. A few more training sessions to refresh your memory on these maneuvers along with more sparring and you will become a true competitive warrior. You might then prove yourself a worthy leader one day."

"You really think so?" Kopa replied hopefully.

"It is in your blood. Your father and grandfather's genes run deep in you. They were very strong and willing and were capable of challenging any lion who had the guts to take them on. So I believe in you, Kopa."

Those words of encouragement were just what Kopa wanted to hear, and, at first, inside he was feeling very satisfied with himself. But the sudden mention of his father made him think about his old home. This thought also brought back some unpleasant memories of his past; hence the reason why he roamed away from his ancestral land. I miss mum and dad so much. He thought. If only they knew I was still alive. If only they knew how badly I want to come back but why I can't. And If only I could see her face one more time. He was also thinking about the one girl who, so he thought, he had loved when he was a cub. Deep down he still loved her, but he knew that they could not be together because of the rivalry between their parents, and hence the reason for his departure so that he could keep her safe from all such risks.

However much this bothered him, he tried not to show it at this moment to Mheetu as he knew it would be okay to talk about this but just not at this time. He had to keep focusing on his lesson. Mheetu still noticed him drifting off for a moment, though. He was under the impression that the mentioning of Kopa's family may have brought about the ghosts of the young lion's past, and the elder lion already knew about it all as well as the fact that his nephew would rather want to put this behind him and move on with life. Maybe I should have just left his family out of this. He therefore thought with slight guilt. My mistake.

"Well, it really means a lot to me." Kopa, in-between his thoughts, replied to his uncle's previous statement.

"Thank you."

"You're welcome." Mheetu replied proudly, also pushing his thoughts aside and focusing back on his current task at hand. He was feeling slightly relieved that Kopa had not reacted in a bad way because his family had been mentioned.

They continued to spar for another half-an-hour to the point where the sun was starting to set over the horizon and the sky was fading to darkness. Both fairly fatigued but fit and healthy at the same time, they ended their session and headed back to their pride to set themselves in for the evening feast.

*

That evening, the moon was three quarters full and was enough to