Chapter 14: Bonding

  On a bright midmorning, a sleeping child was rustled awake by a rummaging sensation in his trousers.

  Vendus’s eyes opened gently. Warm sunlight landed softly on the left of his face as his upper body rose to sit up.

  “Hu– Huh?” He moaned groggily.

  Peering down at his waist was a youthfully chubby creature. It sported black-fur that hid its dense forming muscles, and the creature's face displayed a deceptively adorable visage, presenting a row of whiskers, a cute nose, and a unique shade of ethereal, light blue eyes.

  Upon seeing it, Vendus jumped, scampering backwards.

  He didn't quite think about what it was doing, but rather how it was now awake.

  Last night the pitiful creature was still trembling and shaking. Without much thought, Vendus sought to stay with it just a little while more…and ended up falling asleep during the process.

  Furthermore, in his sleep…he embraced the animal like it was the softest pillow ever.

  Of course now that it was awake, it was no longer a soft plushie, but a carnivorous beast— a potential, mini-murder machine…

  And right now, it seemed to be chewing on something…

  “M— My sausage links!” He blurted out. It was the same food he stole from Ruby.

  “I was saving those!”

  The lion cub was a creature of higher intelligence, but it was still not privy to human language. It looked at Vendus, surprised he was awake, and yet kept chewing.

  Dangling, bouncing and spinning slightly, the last link of sausage rose upwards and into the black lion cub’s mouth.

  For some reason, Vendus felt a profound sense of loss. A tear almost shed from his eye.

  Before one could though, the black lion cub pounced on him. Despite its injuries it moved, and moved fast.

  In the blink of an eye it was upon him— Vendus didn’t even get the chance to flinch or feel afraid. Without actually experiencing an apex predator, most people overestimated the seconds they'd prevail in surviving against one.

  Luckily though, this one was not aggressive, nor particularly starving.

  It had its claws retracted so as not to eviscerate Vendus, but its significant weight still barrelled into the boy’s chest.

  “OOF!”

  Vendus wheezed— the air was all but knocked out of him.

  Despite the lion cub being about the size of a medium-sized dog, it weighed much heavier. Due to their genetic-makeup, predators often grew muscle mass naturally, yet even then, the muscles that the black lion cub grew were at least several times as dense. So too, was that the case for the cub’s bones.

  Not realizing the damage it had done, the lion cub casually lowered its head, and nuzzled its face affectionately towards his benefactor.

  In the process however, both his paws pressed heavily on Vendus’s weak, immature body.

  The boy was no longer sitting up, but laying on the floor in defeat and misery as the cub stood on top of him. It wanted to jump on him a few times in a gesture of, “What's wrong?”

  But intuitively, it stopped itself and got off of the poor boy. Luckily, Vendus’s ribs would not be fractured or broken today.

  Regaining his breath and strength, he finally sat up, and met the lion cub eye to eye.

  Normally such a gesture was an act of aggression or challenge in the animal kingdom, yet Vendus's pure black eyes only saw brightness, curiosity, and warmth.

  Looking at them, Vendus noted how the shade of the cub’s eyes was absolutely mesmerizing, and not like any other color he had ever seen before. They weren't the color of the sky nor the ocean, and they were lighter than the deep richness of sapphire, yet were just as brilliant if not more so.

  In response, the black lion cub also gazed at Vendus’s eyes. Although it didn’t think in human speech, its intelligence, reasoning, understanding, and mental capacity was no less than any other human’s. The cub noted the boy’s deep black eyes, and the way this odd creature shared the same habit as his mother did— staring for long moments into its eyes.

  Eventually Vendus broke out of his stupor, as the lion cub tilted its head puzzlingly.

  Thinking to himself, Vendus thought, ‘...Are beasts usually so heavy?’

  ‘...No! That’s not the important question I needed to ask myself!’

  But instead…

  ‘What should I do with it now?’ The lion cub seemed to have grown attached to him. At least, judging by how it had treated him somewhat affectionately.

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  Vendus vaguely understood that if it wanted to harm him it would have done so by now, and if it wanted nothing to do with him, the cub would have just left after eating all the meat he had on him. It didn’t just eat his sausage links either, but his dried meat too!

  ‘Well...what was I planning to do before falling asleep?’

  ‘After doing my best to clean its wounds, I was honestly just going to leave…’

  ‘Umm he…or she?’

  ‘...It has to do its best, and I have to do the best I can. I just can’t afford to take care of it.’

  Vendus approached the lion cub and scratched its head as if it was a dog.

  “Sorry little buddy, I can’t really bring you along.”

  “It’s hard enough just taking care of me.”

  “Don’t stay here, okay? I wonder where your parents are…”\

  ‘Thinking about it, I guess I’m lucky they’re not here.’ Who knew if that was how he was going to go out.

  ‘Yeah, I have to leave it alone…’

  ‘If it belongs to a pride, I’d rather not get eaten…’

  After giving the lion cub the equivalent of scratchies, Vendus headed south. He took a few glances behind him to see whether the cub was following, but it just stared at him in the same spot with its head tilted curiously.

  As he got further and further away, so too did it grow smaller each time against the backdrop of the vast forest.

  For one last time he took a glance to see a tiny black blip still rooted to the same spot, and for some reason it hurt his heart to see its small lonesome figure.

  In the end however, he wrenched his gaze away from the sight, and sprinted ahead.

  Vendus’s running steps had turned audibly loud, something he hadn’t done since he made it a habit to keep his steps silent, no matter the situation.

  This was because no matter how logically he interpreted his actions, he couldn’t stop his heart from feeling differently. There was a grinding frustration inside of him of how he really should have taken the young cub with him. That it’d be the honorable and courageous thing to do, as he was taught so by those he admired, and revered.

  A relentless vexation scratched at his heart, but he continued to run forwards, at the same time trying to run from what he felt inside.

  Minutes passed by, and after totally exhausting his body out of air, he skidded on the forest floor to stop.

  Gasping heavily with sweat beading down his brow, he thought to himself, ‘...I don’t feel any better.’

  He sighed heavily, getting ready to push forwards once again. However, through the sun shining from the east, his eyes caught sight of a shadow approaching his own.

  ‘What!?’ Vendus quickly swung his head backwards in a bid to see what had silently approached, and there, causally licking its paws, was the same black-furred lion cub he thought he had left behind.

  The boy’s mind went blank for a moment, unable to process how it could be right in front of him.

  ‘Was it following me the whole time? Wouldn’t I have heard it running behind me?’

  The cub stared at him nonchalantly. It showed no signs of displeasure at being left behind, but rather looked as if following Vendus was simply the natural thing to do.

  Vendus, as innocent as he was, kneeled down towards the cub and tried to speak to it, “You really can’t follow me.”

  “What if your mom and dad come to eat me…”

  “I mean— I can’t afford to feed you.”

  “You’re so small, you have to be part of a pack right? A pride?”

  “Stay here and let them catch your scent, okay?”

  ‘Do lions even have a good sense of smell? I should have studied more…’

  Again, Vendus repeated the process of walking off while taking frequent glances behind him.

  The black lion cub continued to stay in the same spot. Its light blue eyes never left his own distancing figure, but it continued to remain where it was left.

  Unlike last time, Vendus didn’t sprint forwards but paced himself in a light jog. This way he could efficiently cover more distance, and as he did so, he tried to boost his spirits by thinking up positive thoughts.

  ‘I’m sure its pride will find him, and the little thing will be all alright.’

  ‘Yeah.’

  ‘It…might be young, but I’m sure its wild instincts will help it survive.’

  ‘It’ll be okay.’

  After about half an hour of running, Vendus slowly climbed a tall tree. Not only was it generally safer to be above ground, but other than birds, he was less likely to be caught off guard by some animal.

  ‘Should I go up to the highest point to take a look again?’ He usually did a survey of the vast forest at night, so as to determine all the locations of the torch-bearers.

  Yet, there was that free and adventurous side of him, that wanted to take in that view from the very top. Even if he knew it was unproductive for him to do so, or maybe even dangerous if someone were to spot him, he wanted to take that chance.

  ‘I’ll just take a quick look. I won’t linger— no more than a few seconds.’

  The winds blew at the same time as he reached the very top of a hundred meter tree. An expression of wonder and amazement streaked across his face as he looked into the distance, seeing the vast kingdom of green nature being windswept into the direction of the west.

  Autumn leaves fell from a multitude of trees decorating the sight, and Vendus witnessed the strange sight of some of those trees, quickly growing them back in full green maturity.

  ‘Is…that normal here?’

  Feeling refreshed, he took in a deep breath before exhaling just as deep, ‘It's been more than a few moments, time to go.’

  Yet as he turned away from the beautiful painting that was the land, he jumped backwards in surprise.

  Almost losing balance, he steadied himself on the thick branch he sat on, before really coming to terms about the little black-furred creature sitting across him.

  ‘How long has it been here?’

  ‘No, the real question should be how long has it been following me!?’

  A few moments passed by as he stared at it in disbelief.

  Sensing Vendus’s gaze, and the fact that it may be blocking his path from climbing down, the black lion-cub started to nimbly jump from branch to branch, quickly making his way down the towering, hundred meter tree.

  Unlike the cub, it took Vendus about several times the duration as he pitifully hugged close to the tall tree. Once he got down he was approached by the cub, who nuzzled its cute furry face on his leg.

  Vendus put both hands on his face, ‘Oh gods, what am I going to do with you?’

  When suddenly he felt a yanking sensation on the hem of his pants— the black lion cub had lightly bitten its cloth.

  “He— Hey! Don’t play with that!” Vendus yelled.

  The prepubescent child helplessly stumbled and staggered in the direction he was pulled in. His face started to turn red from anger and a bit of shame, but the more he was pulled along by the freakishly heavy creature, the more he noticed the subtleties in the lion cub’s body language.

  Its hairs had all stood up— its strained eyes indicated neither aggression nor the desire to play, but that of panic and urgency. Most of all however, was the fact that it had now started to tremble.

  Vendus stopped resisting and let the creature take him where it wanted. In the process the cub seemed to only get more and more anxious, before madly yanking Vendus behind a thick tree trunk. If ten human adults held hands together in a circle, they still wouldn’t be able wrap around it.

  Not moments later, he heard the crying squeal of some heavy thudding animal.

  ‘A pig? No, maybe a boar?’

  ‘I get it…so that’s what spooked the little guy…’

  Still trembling, the boy’s hand lightly scratched behind the ears of the black lion cub.

  Vendus’s head peeked out from behind the gargantuan tree, curiously looking for where the creature could be.

  Yet before he saw it, the very ground started to shake. Vibrating tremors shook tens of thousands of fallen autumn leaves, as heavy dull blows pounded on the earth.

  The beast’s cries and squeals only became louder and louder until it almost felt deafening. Then, Vendus’s eyes opened fully wide. In the distance he could see a gigantic figure barrelling through the forest.

  It was colossal— bigger than any creature he had ever seen before. By comparison, it was at least several times as large as that of a normal carriage, and ten times the length. It resembled a commoner’s house on legs. Most importantly…the creature’s booming steps were approaching closer and closer.

  So close in fact, that he could make out the numerous arrows all over its body, and worse still, the gruesome, cruel sight of arrows in its eyes.

  Vendus felt whatever was inside his stomach start to rise into his throat. It was only now did he discern that the boar’s cries and squeals weren’t of aggression, but of torment, and agony.