Season 1 Chapter 3

After watching her brother walk off to redo his hunt, Jahzara turns around and walks back to her friends. “Well Raza is gone, and Malik is busy so what shall we do?”
“Hmm… we could play hide and pounce?” one of her female friends says.
“We played that yesterday Abeda” Jahzara replies.
“What about just being normal pups and behaving?” another says, lying on his back.
Jahzara sighed “Berhanu, why do you always have to pick the most boring choice?”
“Maybe because Malik says don’t cause trouble and I dunno… we are critically endangered and should be safe? Raza doesn’t get mad at you for nothing Jahzara. I don’t like it when your hurt” the third friend replies.
“Shut up Ajani!” she quickly says, “Your just jealous I can get away with more then you!”

The arguing goes on back and forth for ages before Jahzara interrupts them “I know where we can go!”
“Where?” Ajani replies, cocking his head.
“THAT place” she replies with a smirk causing the others to gasp.
“Jahzara… you’re not talking about-”
“Yep I am!” she states before standing up “It’s not too far and we’ll be back before anyone notices we’re gone”
Abeda stands up “sorry but I’m not breaking the rules and going there”.
“Me neither” Berhanu also replies, standing next to Abeda.
Jahzara looks to Ajani “AJ you coming?”
“Well…” Ajani replies nervously, looking to his other two other friends who shake their head and then to Jahzara “You are my best friend, and I don’t want you getting hurt so I might as well go with you so you’re not alone”
“YES! Thanks Aj!” Jahzara replies, nuzzling him causing him to blush lightly “we’ll be back soon. If Malik asks, make something up”
The other two friends gave nervous glances to each other “Jahzara… are you sure this is smart? This might be the most dangerous thing you’ve ever done”.
“Guys!” Jahzara replies with a groan “Raza goes near there all the time and he comes back fine! He’s gone to a different place to hunt this time so he won’t see me”
“I don’t see that logic but if you want to do that then you do that. Raza doesn’t even know where you’re going… what if something goes wrong?” Abeda said.
“Guys I’m fine! Come on AJ let’s go!” Jahzara says to her best friend before running off.
“O-ok Zara” he replies before following her “I’ll… do my best to look after her” he nervously replies to his remaining friends.
Berhanu looks to Jahzara already off in the distance “You better Ajani- You know what, I’m telling Malik. She’s going to get herself killed if no one stops her”
Ajani took off after Jahzara, Berhanu making a beeline for Malik.

Elsewhere, Malik is preparing to have an important meeting with a neighbouring territory. A few minutes later a young brown female lioness with blue paint on her head enters the den flanked by a male lion with golden fur, a red tuff and a blue marking on his head.
“Hello? Anyone home?” the female calls out.
“Queen Rani! It’s so nice to finally meet you!” Malik bows to her.
“Thank you Malik” Rani replies, gesturing to the male lion next to her “This is my mate, Kion. I must say we got a few strange looks when we approached the den”
“My apologies. We don’t see lions very often so you can understand some might be nervous” Malik leads Rani and Kion into the den and to his spot deep in the cave.
“I understand” Rani chuckles “Do you know why I’ve come?”
“The egret that came said you wanted to talk about my pack. He said you want to discuss our species.” Malik could sense this could be a potential trap, so he was treading very lightly.
“That’s Right. I understand that Ethiopian wolves such as yourselves are incredibly endangered from humans and disease and there are fewer and fewer of your kind left”
“That is correct. Just last week we lost a few pack members. We are dwindling away. Food is hard to find round here” Malik replies, knowing full well Raza is currently hunting for the pack.
Understanding the struggles the pack faces, Kion responds carefully “We came here today in peace to make you an offer”
“What kind of offer…” Malik replies. He’s been proposed offers in the past; some backfiring bad so he proceeds with caution.
“Your species and pack are in danger of dying out. That’s not a lie. My offer is for you to move your pack to our land” Kion continues.
Malik can see the concern he has in his eyes “And what would we gain from that? Last time we did that we were stabbed in the back and almost lost the pack!” He stands up and gets in front of Kion “Who do you think you are? Are you challenging me? Are you doubting my leadership and my ability to manage my own pack!”

Rani could sense the tension that was rising between the two males. She stands up and stands next to her mate “I understand if you don’t trust us yet, but if you move to our land, I can guarantee your pack and species will be safe. Many endangered animals come from all over to seek safety. We only ask for you to respect the circle of life. My mate and his friends protect the land during the day and myself, and my group protect the land during the night, providing protection day and night”.
Inside Maliks head was spinning. On the one paw, he could accept and be guaranteed safety. On the other paw, this could be another trap which could nearly wipe out his pack again. “What’s your land called?”
“The Tree of Life” Rani replies “like my mate said, the Tree of Life is a safe place for anyone who seeks safety. If any of your pack is injured or sick, we have a healer who uses power from the tree itself and can heal any injury”.
“Is there a time limit to move?” Malik questions again.
“No of course not” Rani responds “Take as much time as you like to think of what to do. Like my grandmother told me, it’s better to take a while to make a good decision then to rush a bad one and regret it later”.
“Thank you” Malik replies “I’ll give it a thought. Do you wish to stay longer?”
Rani gives a chuckle “Thanks but we must get back to the Tree of Life. My Uncle can only manage so much”.

Just as the three are about to leave a ball of orange fur flies into the den and slams into Malik “MALIKMALIKJAHZARAHASGONEJAHZARAHASGONE!”
Malik gives the queen and prince a nervous chuckle before bending down to the cub and whispering to it through clenched teeth “Berhanu what are you doing you little shit! Do you want to make me look stupid!”
Rani gives a concerned look “is everything ok?”
“Yes everything is fine!” Malik replies quickly before looking back at the pup.
Rani looks to Kion and whispers “Kion doesn’t this look a little dodgy?”
Kion nods “Yeah. Let’s just see what happens.”
Berhanu, still panting looks at Malik “Jahzara and Ajani are going to THAT place! We told her not to go but she went!”
Kion, Rani and Berhanu could see the hackles on Maliks fur stand up causing Berhanu to whimper and Malik whisper “that insubordinate little shit!”
“Are you sure everything is ok Malik?” he hears Kion say. “I don’t mind helping if you need me. This sounds important”.
“No no everything is fine! Just the little ones causing mischief” he chuckles again, his hackles lowering but his body tense in anger, Kion and Rani noticing the side glare Malik is giving the pup “Thanks for coming and I’ll think about that offer” he walks out the den indicating for Kion and Rani to follow. Both felines follow Malik out the den.
“Well..” Rani says, still a look of concern on her face “If you need us, you know where we are”.
Malik blinked in surprise. In all the commotion and talk he forgot to ask were exactly the tree of Life is. “Where exactly is the Tree of Life?”
“Wait till night, look for 4 stars in a diamond in the sky. Go towards them and you’ll find our land” Kion answers, chuckling a little.
“Thank you your Majesty” Malik says, bowing to Rani “consider our packs allies”
“Thank you Malik. I hope to see you at the Tree of Life soon” Rani replies before both felines begin their journey back to their home. Once out of earshot Rani turns to Kion “Did Malik seem a bit off to you?”
“Yeah he did but at the end of the day it’s his pack and he’s in charge. We are just guests in his territory after all” Kion replies to his mate
“I know” Rani goes into deep thought “but why talk that way to a kid?”
Kion shrugs “guess these incidents happen a lot? Everyone handles situations differently.” Both rulers continued their conversation as they returned home.

Checking the rulers of the Tree of Life were gone and out of earshot, Malik turned around, glaring at Berhanu. slowly walking towards him “don’t you EVER come running in like that again unless the entire pack is in danger! You hear me! You embarrassed me in front of royalty!”
Berhanu whimpers in fear “But Jahzara-”
“I CAN’T DEAL WITH THOES FUCKING SIBLINGS ANYMORE! I’m fed up with them!” Malik roars at the frightened pup, pacing up and down the den. “First Raza and now Jahzara! If our kind wasn’t so endangered and we needed both siblings to give offspring they’d have been kicked out the pack long ago!”
“But… won’t you go save her?” Berhanu whimpers.
“No. I’ll get her sorry excuse of a brother to do it when he’s done failing to hunt for the pack. It’s on him for failing to teach her to follow the rules and behave and he needs to start pulling his weight around here.  Now get going and don’t even think about going to rescue her! She must learn one way or another!”
“O-Ok” Berhanu replies quickly before scampering off.
Malik gets to the entrance of the den and looks at the view, giving a big sigh “what am I going to do with them” he says to himself.
