them all. 

“-At some point I’ll have to go and meet him.” That was Elewisa speaking. Gainell finally returned to the present, and watched as Areesa nodded to his brother. “I’m sure he’ll want to meet you too. Perhaps we can visit him and the pride together when we’re old enough to travel on our own!” She got a murmur of agreement from El, and then the two of them turned their gazes on Gainell. 

The lion smiled sheepishly at the pair. 

“What’s on your mind, brother?” 

Gainell almost didn’t tell him. 

Almost. 

“How I might prove to father that I am the best option for crown prince.”

El raised an eyebrow at that, but his face otherwise remained neutral. Instead, the lion yawned and stretched before making a comment, though it was directed at Areesa.

“Didn’t you say that some of the younger lionesses were having trouble hunting?” 

Areesa nodded. “Seems to be a problem. They’ve been giving away their position and driving the prey away before they have a chance of catching it.”

Elewisa then turned to look at Gainell again, as if to say ‘well, here’s something you could do’. Gainell considered it, and realized with slight envy that it had only taken his brother seconds to come up with a solution to his dilemma which he had thought over for weeks. Gainell entertained the idea of appointing Elewisa as one of his advisors when he took the throne, but quickly decided against it. El was too unpredictable of a lion. 

“This was fun. Thank you both for the company. I must go.” Without waiting for a response, Gainell took off in the direction of the kajobe. He was beginning to formulate a plan, and he would need to rest up and awake early tomorrow if he was to execute it well. 

Waking up at such an early hour was not something that Gainell did often. Of course, he definitely wasn’t the first one awake. His brother El was beginning to go about his day just as Gainell stirred. Gainell wondered what his younger terror of a brother was doing up so early, but couldn’t bring himself to ask. He couldn’t get involved with El’s shenanigans when he had such important plans to execute. He had barely enough time to get himself a drink from the water pool before the first hunting party had set off, and he diligently followed them. 

Many of these lionesses were ones he hadn’t really met- he only ever interacted with Zuri and Tiifu, his mother and the lovely Areesa. It suddenly dawned on Gainell that one of those young lionesses could be her. Of course, he was referring to the one and only Sutar- also known as his betrothed. The idea didn’t sit well with Gainell, that his mate was already picked out for him, but the young lion had no intention of going against his father’s wishes. If Kovu asked you to jump, you didn’t defy him or question the order. You asked how high, and from where, and then you proceeded to go through with it. 

So lost in his thoughts, Gainell soon lost track of the hunting party. Darn! the prince thought, sticking his nose up into the air with the hopes of catching a scent. He was never one for tracking. That was the domain of his dubious younger brother, and in any case, the wind was working against him. 

Gainell opted instead to track the prints in the dirt. The freshest bunch belonged to large animals with hooves. He could smell their scent though- Zebra. The young lion padded through the grasses as quietly as he could manage, grateful that his pelt allowed him to more easily blend into the savannah. It didn’t take him too long to find them. A large travelling herd, now surrounding a watering hole. 

If the lionesses were nearby, he couldn’t see them, but that didn’t matter. He knew that they would be near enough to catch a member of the herd. All he needed to do was make certain that the herd was worried about the lion running after them, and they would never see the lionesses coming.

A perfect plan.

Or so he thought. 

Gainell’s eyes landed on the prize: an oddly colored zebra who’s stripes were almost golden. What a catch that would make! Crouching low, the lion inched his way closer and closer, step by painfully slow step. He needed to get as close as possible without alerting the herd. He needed to jump up in their midst, for maximum scare of course. 

The blood pounding in his ears made it impossible for him to hear anything, but he was loving every minute of it. The adrenaline was intoxicating, and he finally understood why his brother liked hunting so much. 

Two more steps.

There!

Gainell jumped out of the grasses with a roar, his unsheathed claws managing to snag on one of the legs of the golden Zebra. 

The zebra in question let out a high pitched scream, and two hooves flew in his direction. Gainell managed to duck, pulling his claws out of her leg and rolling away to safety.

The lion sat there in glee, waiting for the chaos to unfold, until he realized that the herd was not moving. No, the golden Zebra was shouting orders, and he was now being surrounded on all sides by angry faces. Gainell felt himself gulping, unsure of why this had gone so wrong. 

They were supposed to be running. Screaming. Getting caught by the lionesses.

The golden zebra stomped her way over to where Gainell was still crouching in the grasses, snorting impatiently. “How dare you attack Dhahabu?” One of the standing Zebras directed at Gainell. The young lion sat there for a moment, his mind racing as he tried to piece together what was happening. He had heard that name before, spoken by his own father. The horror that began to shadow his face let the Zebra know that he had realized what he had done. Indeed, Gainell was mortified. He had attacked the leader of the herd, a zebra well known throughout most of the lands, and he knew that he would not be getting out of this one easily.

“What’s going on here?” A lioness called, shoving her way through the gathered zebras. Gainell looked up to see it was Zuri. The pretty lioness didn’t need too long to figure it out. She let out a sigh and gave a small shake of her head to Gainell, knowing as well as he that his father would have words with him about this.

“Dhahabu, on behalf of the pridelands I humbly ask you to accept my sincerest apologies. Gainell meant no harm- he likes to joke around.” She emphasized those words with a quick glance of warning his way. Gainell nodded along to her story. The zebras were already upset, and that anger could very much be the end of him if they found out he had intended to hunt their leader. 

“I wish to speak to the king!” 

He wished he had been trampled at the sound of those words.

Zuri had no choice but to comply, escorting the golden zebra and her guard to the kajobe with Gainell in tow. The young prince sat and watched in hopeless despair as the eminent Dhahabu recounted every painful detail of Gainell’s assault. He couldn’t even bring himself to look at his father’s face, knowing full well that it was a mixture of apology for the zebra and rage for him.

When reparations had been made, and all were dismissed, Gainell was made to sit in wait for his father to finish all of his duties and then be dealt with.

He was not ready for what was to come. 

Gainell was the GOOD son. Never went against his father’s word or questioned orders. Never bothered his father or added any stress to the already stressed out king. His entire identity was founded on being the perfect son. It was El that always got into trouble, not him! What would happen to him now?

Tears stung his eyes, but he quickly shook it off. His father hated tears.

“Do you know what I had to do to stop Dhahabu from demanding you get trampled on for what you did?”

The voice was quiet, but Gainell could hear the rage behind it. Refusing to meet his father’s eye, the prince shook his head no.

“I gave her herd freedom to roam the pride lands for the entirety of this season without fear of being hunted. Not a single one of them. You cost this entire pride a food source.”

It was like getting his chest slashed by razor sharp claws. Gainell continued to stare at his paws.

“Elewisa is a known trouble maker, but I expected more from you. And to think that you want to become king-ha!”

Those proverbial claws were now digging in deeper to his chest.

“As punishment for your insolence, you will have no rights to eat a fresh kill. You may eat once everyone else has eaten, and only the scraps of what’s left. If not everyone has eaten, then you won’t be eating either. Understood?”

Gainell nodded his head, ears pinned all the way back and eyes holding back a flood of tears.

“You have disgraced me, now go.”

So Gainell went.

On his way out that Kajobe, the prince promised himself something: No matter what it took, he would become the king.

Chapter Four

It had been weeks since Elewisa’s adventure-gone-wrong, and for those few weeks the little prince had been convinced that his father had simply not heard the news. He had continued on with his usual mischief and let down his guard, believing himself to be safe from his father’s wrath. This morning had been no different than all the previous mornings since his adventure. He had awoken at dawn, because the birds were always so loud and he was the lightest of sleepers. He had gone and gotten himself a small meal to start off the day, and had then gone and checked up on his beloved Areesa, who was by now back from Rafiki’s tree, her eye healing. He had