ALL NOVEL Chapter 44: Is The Way
Of course, it wasn’t as easy as that. There were several things Dominic needed to settle before they could go running off to the dungeon, no matter how much he’d like to just up and leave.
Checking over the rest of the Pride and making sure that they were prepared for him to take a leave of absence was one thing. Walking among the group of lions, resting after hunting, he once more catalogued the new signs of increased level that a few of them now sported. Fang was well named as he was now sporting teeth that looked rather more reminiscent of a sabretooth tiger than a lion. Even when his mouth was closed, the tips of his upper canines still poked out past his lips.
Luna was also starting to resemble a tiger a little, though not an ancient one. Instead, Dominic could see the black marks of stripes on her fur. He had to guess that she’d been given the same option he had at the start of all this and had chosen to take features of other felines currently in existence rather than enhancing those she presently had.
‘Not a bad idea,’ Leo mused in the back of his mind.
‘To have chosen to take features from other felines?’
‘To have stripes,’ corrected the lion. ‘Her fur is too pale to be well-camouflaged. Stripes will help her blend better. We don’t need them.’
‘Well, they might help a bit,’ Dominic pointed out. ‘We’re getting too big to be all that well-camouflaged ourselves.’
‘And risk the females not wanting to mate with me?’ Leo sounded aghast at the thought.
‘What, you think they’ll be turned off by a few stripes? Weren’t you just saying that it was a good idea that Luna is getting them?’
‘It’s completely different when it’s on the male,’ insisted the lion. ‘The females don’t have to look pretty for us – they just have to be in heat. Which, speaking of, I smell that a couple of our new females are soon to be. Perhaps we should put off our trip a little?’
‘No,’ replied Dominic determinedly. ‘You know that this trip will help us in two ways – both of which we need. And the longer we leave it, the more chance there is that someone will get there first and then where will we be?’ What he thought quietly was that if they stayed for this heat, the chances were that another lioness would enter heat soon after, encouraging Leo to stay for even longer. In the end, they’d never get going, and if the knowledge gained from Selessa was to be trusted – which Dominic had every reason to believe it was – they really needed what they’d find in the dungeon.
‘You know, we wouldn’t have had this problem if you’d just held onto that Lightning Discharge scroll instead of using it immediately,’ Leo grumbled.
‘We’d still have to go to a dungeon, even if not that specific one,’ Dominic pointed out. ‘And since that’s the only dungeon we’ve come across, the result wouldn’t have been much different even if I’d kept the scroll for later use. Besides, it’s saved our tail a few times. Anyway, you promised you’d stop complaining about that when I went along with you on the Acid Spit thing, remember?’
The lion grumbled again, though this time rather incoherently, and then subsided. As they continued through the Pride, checking on the individual members, Dominic recalled what had happened when they had returned from collecting the pride from the fringes on the previous day.
With Neith and the second pride’s matriarch, Simbi, helping to gather and keep everyone together, they had made their way through the forest without any issue. Leo was leading but Dominic had kept a close eye on the branches overhead with the lion’s peripheral vision. Fortunately, there hadn't been even a hint of a kesh up there.
Good – they weren’t meant to be in that section of the forest so not seeing any of them indicated that they were following Dominic’s orders.
Getting back to the clearing had involved a round of greetings between the different parts of his Pride. Dominic had been glad to see that all the lions greeted each other with almost equal happiness – the fusion of the two prides had gone better than he’d hoped. He’d felt some disgruntlement coming from Leo’s direction, though, when he’d noticed that the lionesses from his original pride were greeting the three young males with almost as much enthusiasm as the other lionesses. Dominic didn’t agree, especially when he observed that Prince was given the briefest greetings with Lionel and Fang being far more welcomed. It seemed like a new hierarchy based on contribution to the pride was developing, which he was happy to see.
The amesheks had been another question, of course. The lions hadn’t seemed to know what to do with the odd-looking wolves, and the amesheks had seemed a mixture between stand-offish and uncertain.
Eventually, Simbi, being the leader she was, had stepped forwards and sniffed at the closest ameshek. Dominic had tensed in his mental space and had felt Leo do the same with their physical body. They had watched avidly, ready to intervene if necessary. Even if the leader of the Pride had no direct control over either member, they were big enough and close enough to be able to get between them if necessary. It had been a relief to realise that none of their Abilities would work on the other since selecting that Pride ability – Immunity.
Actually, Dominic considered in hindsight, perhaps that wasn’t entirely true. Certainly Immunity stopped the negative effects of an Ability from working on a Pride member, but it didn’t stop all Abilities from working. Potentially something like Pounce could still work on enhancing their claw or fang attacks.
For a moment they had just stood there, sniffing at each other. Or, in the ameshek’s case, waving its antennae around a bit. Then, after briefly touching noses, they had turned away almost simultaneously.
Alright then, Dominic had said to himself, a little surprised at the interaction, though glad that it hadn’t devolved. One by one, all the newly arrived lions and amesheks had ‘met’ each other, though there had been none of the expressions of pleasure with which the lionesses had greeted each other.
Movement caught Dominic’s eye and brought him out of his reminisces. He turned his head to see a golden shape padding towards the forest. Alone. He thought he’d been clear that none of the lions were to go out into the trees on their own. Not until they knew that it was safer, anyway.
He turned and started trotting towards where she was, only to be abruptly cut off by Isis and Sekhmet, of all lions. Though he was more than twice their size, the difference greater between him and Isis than between him and Sekhmet, he didn’t want to trample on them so pulled up quickly.
‘Who is going into the forest?’ he asked them. ‘It’s not necessarily safe yet. We don’t know if the kesh are the only potential threat. I thought I’d been clear about that.’
‘You were clear,’ Sekhmet responded calmly, confusing him with her calm yet intent demeanour. Her eyes were fixed on him almost warily.
‘Then why is she going?’ Dominic asked. ‘And why are you stopping me from pursuing?’ Just to test it, he stepped to the side; Isis and Sekhmet both moved with him. By that time, the lioness had disappeared into the forest and was barely visible as a spot of sandy movement among the undergrowth. ‘Let me through,’ he growled, displaying his teeth and looming over the two lionesses threateningly. Leo seemed to be in full agreement with him, growling in the back of his mind.
‘No,’ he heard Isis say calmly. The straight refusal surprised him and made him pause for a moment, his growl dying away. Sekhmet explained the matriarch’s refusal.
‘Cubs are arriving.’
Cubs…Oh. Oh. Abruptly, Dominic knew what was going on. He had enough connection to Leo’s knowledge to understand what this was about. The growls from the lion in the back of his mind died away as his companion made the same connection faster than he did.
The lioness must be Menhit and she was sneaking away to give birth to her cubs, the realisation answering both his questions of why and who. Which…that was the way it had always happened, but things were changing.
‘We need to change her mind,’ Dominic told the lionesses earnestly. ‘It’s not safe for a lioness to be on her own with a bunch of cubs to protect.’ Barely being able to hunt because of the need to be near the cubs as much as possible, therefore gaining few levels….she’d be easy prey. And that was even assuming she lived long enough to actually give birth to them. ‘Why can’t she give birth here where the pride can protect her and the cubs?’
The two lionesses seem to hesitate for a long moment.
‘Not safe,’ Isis replied, sounding regretful.
‘What? In the pride?’ Dominic asked incredulously. ‘How is it less safe than going off on her own?’
‘Too much competition,’ Sekhmet answered him, just as sad at the thought as Isis. ‘Other cubs drink milk – newborns starve. Other males kill cubs. Other cubs too rough. Safer later.’
‘See,’ Leo said privately to Dominic, ‘This is why I don’t want those almost-adult males around.’
‘We can stop all of that,’ Dominic said to both his companion and the two lioness. ‘The pride members are far more intelligent, far more reasonable than before. Surely we can get the other females to keep their own cubs away from Menhit? And don’t tell me that anyone would just let the other males go and kill the cubs? Most of the lionesses are stronger than them now – some significantly stronger. And I’m not going to let it happen either,’ he told them firmly. ‘Come on, so many things are changing; why can’t this too?’
Sekhmet and Isis were both significant influences in the Pride – getting them on-side was important.
‘So much changed, this stays the same,’ Sekhmet answered finally, her tone firm. Isis looked just as immovable. Dominic cast a final glance at the area of forest where Menhit had disappeared and then growled.
‘No, I’m not accepting this,’ he told the two lionesses. Before they could react, he leapt in the air and used Quick Strike to launch himself forwards. Hitting the ground running, he used his enhanced speed to outpace them rapidly. The two lionesses pursued for a little, but then obviously gave up.
He searched the area he’d seen Menhit disappear, but struggled to find her traces. She had Sure Feet which also had the unintended effect of reducing the user’s effect on the area around them. Dominic was able to pursue her for a little while, catching hints of her scent on the breeze and the odd broken bit of foliage from where she’d passed too close to a bush. He was not a tracker, though, and before he’d found her, the traces of her presence had disappeared.
Finding himself with no next clue to follow, Dominic growled and roared his frustration, half-hoping that Menhit might come back. Then remembering the Pride chat, he felt like an absolute idiot.
‘Come back to us,’ he sent to her, but she didn’t respond. ‘We’ll make sure you and your cubs are safe, I promise. Safer than you will be alone,’ he continued. There was still no response. ‘Please come back to us!’ he sent finally. Then with no other options than to find out in time whether she would return or not, he sighed and sharpened his claws aggressively against the nearest tree.
‘You’ve been quiet,’ he accused Leo angrily as he started heading back to the clearing.
‘It’s what pregnant females always do,’ Leo answered with what felt on the surface to be uncaring, but was underscored by the same helplessness Dominic felt. ‘Anyway, they’re not my cubs,’ grunted Leo, with the air of one searching for an excuse.
‘But she is your ‘female’,’ Dominic shot back at him, hot fury stabbing through him. ‘What if she dies?’ he demanded. ‘It’s an even more dangerous world now than it was before the System.’ His leonine companion was silent.
Returning to the clearing, Dominic found Sekhmet and Isis waiting for him. The two lionesses fell in alongside him, walking at his shoulders.
‘Is the way,’ Isis assured him with the air that this should be reassuring. It wasn’t.
Perhaps he was being too human about this. All three lions seemed to be in agreement over Menhit leaving greater safety for the uncertain wilderness. With no other options unless Menhit herself decided to return, Dominic turned his mind to other matters.
He was uneasy leaving the area after having so recently gained control over the Place of Power. As had been seen earlier, the amesheks and lions were only very tentatively considering each other as allies. Then there was the matter of the kesh.
Even if he hadn’t seen any hint of the monkey-like creatures since their confrontation in the clearing, he still didn’t know whether they were only playing along for now because they didn’t want to fight him, or if they genuinely would hold to the agreement. For all he knew, his leaving would invite the full force of the kesh to descend upon the Place of Power and attack everyone within the clearing.
Besides those two main issues, there was also the fact that he’d just taken over new territory that he knew very little about with unknown enemies, unknown resources. Basically, everything was unknown.
However, he also knew that he needed to get something from the dungeon, and if someone got there ahead of him, he might lose his chance. The alternatives which were clear in the knowledge Selessa had given him were all a lot harder and more time-consuming. Not to mention that he’d be able to kill two birds with one stone by doing it this way.
No, he needed to leave, but that didn’t mean the rest of it fell by the wayside. After all, he wasn’t alone anymore. He wasn’t even alone in intelligence which was so superior to the rest of his pride that he might as well have been alone. No, he needed to delegate a bit.
Turning the possibilities over in his mind, Dominic approached his Pride. They were sitting in distinct groups, but to a beast they all raised their heads and looked at him when he approached.
‘Leo, help me out with getting the right kind of non-verbal impressions, please,’ he requested. A sense of agreement and support nudged at him as the lion prepared to do just that. ‘Right everyone, I’m going to be leaving for a bit of time. To deal with the various challenges facing us, this is what we need to do….’
