[3rd POV]
The watering hole was vast.
To the cubs, it looked like a piece of the sky had fallen into the earth and decided to stay there. The water shimmered under the sinking sun, reflecting gold and pale blue in slow ripples disturbed by massive shapes moving within.
Elephants.
Dozens of them.
They stood half submerged in the shallow water, bodies like living hills, skin cracked and wrinkled like ancient stone. Some sprayed water over their backs with long trunks. Others stood still, eyes half closed, enjoying the cool relief from the dry heat. Their low rumbles vibrated through the ground, a sound so deep it felt less like noise and more like a presence.
The cubs watched them in wonder.
Aslan stopped first, his paws digging into the dirt. His ears flattened slightly, instincts screaming danger even as curiosity burned brightly. Asafa skidded to a halt beside him, nose twitching wildly as he tried to process the overwhelming scent. Dust, water, grass, those were familiar. But the scent of the elephants was new.
They'd never seen such giants before.
Kion bumped into him, too busy staring to realise Asafa had stopped. Shaka followed next, too focused on the sight to realise Kion had stopped.
"Those are massive," Kion whispered.
They didn't know what else was massive.
"Genius observation," Shaka said, "Those are elephants. The largest creature that roams the land,"
"You know them?" the three other cubs turned to him.
"I've heard of them before. My mom told me stories about them," Shaka said, a little smug, "They travel in herds so those are probably all females."
"Wait, so they don't have a king?" Asafa asked curiously, "So who's the leader?"
"Apparently, the oldest female becomes the leader," Shaka said.
"That's kinda lame,"
"True,"
"My mother told me that elephants were probably the only thing the king wouldn't hunt," Shaka said, adding his knowledge.
The cubs turned back to the elephants, this time with even more intense gazes.
They had seen big animals before, giraffes, buffalo and even hippos from a distance. But these elephants were different because not only were they larger, their father wouldn't hunt them.
That meant their size did not lie about their strength.
Aslan swallowed, his chest puffing out slightly despite himself. "I think father could still kill one."
"Yeah," Asafa said quickly. "Father could kill anything."
But still, curiosity did not die.
"Come on, let's get closer," Asafa said, stepping forward. Aslan was quick to follow him as well.
"I think we are close enough. We should leave," Shaka quickly said.
But even then, he was the only voice of reason. Despite himself, Kion followed behind his two brothers.
"Guys. guys, GUYS!! Come on!! This is a bad idea!" Shaka said, quickly running behind them when they wouldn't stop.
He bit at Aslan's tail, trying to stop him. But the bigger cub resisted the pull and dragged Kion along with him without even paying attention.
When they were at the banks of the lake, the herd shifted. One of the larger females turned her head, dark eye settling on the cubs' position. The cubs froze completely now, every muscle locked.
But the elephant did nothing. She simply watched them for a long moment, pulling her trunk out from the water to take in the scent of the surroundings. Then she turned away again, dismissing them as irrelevant.
But while most of the elephants did not care for the cubs, a calf stumbled into view from between the massive legs of the adults. The calf was much smaller than the adults, with ears too big for its head and a trunk that swung clumsily as it tried to mimic the movement of the adults around it.
Another calf appeared. Now there were two of them.
When they saw the cubs, they came running out from the water to check them out. It seemed that they were just as curious to observe them.
The calves wandered out from the water and came before the four cubs. Although both groups were literally babies, the size difference between them could not be more different.
The elephant calves were literally ten times bigger than the small lion cubs. One leg from the calf was bigger and thicker than the entire torso of the cubs.
But still, it made for an adorable sight when they came face to face.
The cubs and the calves stared at each other. For a long moment, they held their breath in captivation with each other.
The calves tilted their chubby heads.
The cubs tilted their heads back.
Finally, the two calves took a tentative step forward.
Kion and Shaka took a step back to maintain a safe distance. Asafa and Aslan stepped forward and growled low in their chests.
The calves froze, trunks curling slightly, then they relaxed when nothing happened. They took another step. Then another. Each one was slow and careful.
"Can we leave now?" Shaka whispered.
But Asafa and Aslan only mirrored the baby elephants as they too took steps forward.
When the two groups of two were face to face, there was an awkward silence.
"Hi," Aslan said.
The calves looked at each other before one of them said back, "Hello."
"Why do you have a tail on your face?"
"Why don't you have a nose?"
The two groups asked questions in sync.
"It's not a tail. It's my nose. A trunk," the elephant replied first and reached out its tiny trunk.
The trunk moved clumsily, missing the target a few times before it bumped Aslan on the nose.
Aslan yelped and fell backwards.
The calf squeaked in surprise, then immediately stepped back, ears flaring.
Asafa burst out laughing. "You got attacked!!"
"I was not!" Aslan said quickly.
"But you sure flinched like it was,"
"I did not,"
"Just say you are scared of the baby elephants."
"I am not,"
The two brothers went back and forth, much to the calves' amusement. When they laughed, the argument stopped, and they turned towards the elephants.
"You guys are fun, you wanna play with us in the water?" the calves asked.
This time, it was the cubs' turn to look at each other. They matched each other's grins and then nodded enthusiastically.
"Sure!"
What followed next was the beginning of an odd friendship between lions and elephants. It started innocently and small, but perhaps this little new connection could lead to something big in the future.
They played in the shallow waters. It wasn't too far off from the herd of elephants but it was still separated. They splashed water on each other. Two distinct creatures were learning about each other in the most efficient way possible and that was through the language of the body.
The cubs tested the elephants, seeing if they considered biting the tail as an insult. Play fighting and figuring out if there was a way to fell these baby giants.
The elephant calves were doing similar things. Testing the durability of the cubs, seeing how hard they could play with them. In their eyes, the cubs were small but sharp. If they were hammers then the cubs must be small knives.
"Hey, we never told each other our names!" Asafa said, his fur completely drenched at this point.
It was only recently that they learned elephants could suck in water through their trunk and spit huge volumes from there like the adults. The cubs tried to copy but they only choked on water. They couldn't do that.
On the other hand, the cubs could swim. Even in waters that were deep enough that they couldn't stand, they were able to swim. The elephant calves were not able to do that yet.
"My name's Toru," one of the calves said, a male from the name.
"And mine's Noru," the other said, a female from the name.
"And I am Asafa," he said and gestured towards the brothers.
"Aslan,"
"Kion,"
"Shaka,"
They introduced themselves with smiles on their faces.
"And we are the sons of king Leo," Aslan added in the end, quite proud from his tone of voice.
"The King Leo? I know him!" Toru said almost too excitedly.
"You know our father?" Asafa asked curiously.
"Of course. The whole of Serengeti has to have known him. I heard the big mother say we must avoid the northern territories because the lions reside there," Toru said, sharing where he knew the name from.
The cubs played for hours, sharing bits of knowledge and learning about each other. The cubs told them about how they eat meat and the elephants were oddly interested in how meat tastes like.
The cubs felt the same about the vegetative diet of the giants too.
"The plants taste different in different places." Noru said.
Shaka thought about that. "Our meat tastes different too. Depending on what it ate."
And also their daily lives. Elephants lived in herds that travelled all across the land. The small shift in location that the lions did throughout the Serengeti was nothing compared to the travel range of elephants.
"We mostly just stay in one place," Kion said. "Because the Serengeti belongs to the pride and we live here,"
The calves considered that.
"That sounds nice," Noru said.
"Are you kidding? Travelling all the time and seeing different things every day sounds way nicer!!" Asafa argued.
But eventually, as the children played around, the sun was slowly setting in the western horizon.
And in the shy sunlight of the afternoon, the herd and the cubs noticed a subtle shift in the sky. The clouds were no longer in the sky, but instead, it was beginning to be filled with familiar birds.
The vultures came.
At first, it was just one dark shape circling high above. Then another. And another. Soon the sky was dotted with them, wide wings gliding effortlessly.
Shaka noticed first.
His head snapped up. His ears perked up. "Guys."
Aslan followed his gaze and a smile could be found on his face, "They're here! We're not lost after all!"
And shortly after the appearance of the vultures, a low sound rolled across the plains like thunder.
A roar.
"It's father!!"
"It's father!!"
The cubs cheered, easily recognizing the familiarity of the roar.
The elephants on the other hand reacted differently. Their heads snapped up. The playful atmosphere shattered like glass. They backed toward the herd, trumpeting softly. The adults moved at once now, forming a loose wall around the calves.
The matriarch stepped forward, ears spread wide and walking out from the shallow water where they had rested too long since the calves were enjoying themselves with their new friends.
Leo did not appear over the horizon yet. But his presence was already there and everyone could feel it.
The cubs ran out of the water, slipping between the legs of adult elephants.
"It's okay," Asafa said. "He's just coming to get us."
"We're here!! We're here dad!"
The cubs released small sounds of their own to announce their presence to their father. It was an imitation of a roar but their juvenile age made it sound the furthest from a roar.
"I promise he won't hurt anyone," Aslan said.
The roar came again after hearing the cubs' presence. The roar was much closer this time too.
The grass parted in the distance and a massive feline shape moved through it.
Leo came out, his body a little limping but in no way looking weak. He stopped when he was in view and stood there, chest puffed out and watching the herd and his cubs from the distance.
The cubs bid farewell to their new friends and ran along to their father's location.
When the cubs came one by one, Leo bent down and nudged at them one by one, smelling for blood, looking for injuries.
After finding all his cubs safe and sound, he let them retreat behind him.
Leo turned back to the elephant herd and gave a small bow of thanks before leaving with his cubs.
The elephants watched them go.
The vultures slowly dispersed.
The watering hole returned to calm.
It was the first ever documented scene of Leo going face to face with elephants.
Children really do bring a ton of new things in one's life.
..
..
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Author : Okay, this fr the great return. I'm back in my prime, don't doubt me. Or do, it's justified.
Advanced chapters on patreon for interested and for doubters.