Become a Cheetah
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The scent of blood and the circling vultures finally attracted uninvited guests.
The first to arrive was a lioness. Luo Qiao recognized her, he had seen her twice before in the territory of the Oros pride. She looked like she was in bad shape, much thinner than the last time he had seen her, her ribs clearly visible.
The lioness, Lanni, also recognized Luo Qiao. No matter what, the impression Luo Qiao had left on her was too deep to forget. It was the first time she had encountered a cheetah who dared to charge at her alone.
Although he might have just been bluffing, she had indeed been scared off at the time. This made the lioness feel ashamed, but she also admired his courage. However, most of her attention was now focused on the giraffe carcass lying on the ground.
She hadn’t had a proper meal in a long time.
Seeing the lioness, Parson and Jairo both stood up, lowered their heads, raised the fur on the back of their necks, and assumed a threatening posture toward her. Lanni hesitated. She didn’t want to fight the cheetahs right now, not because she was afraid of them, but because she was more interested in eating.
Luo Rui instinctively tensed up at the sight of the lion. Luo Sen, however, recognized the lioness’s scent and licked Luo Rui’s blood-stained face.
“It’s okay. Dad’s here. We don’t need to be afraid of her!”
Luo Rui felt reassured, and the two cubs continued devouring their meal, not even sparing a glance at the lion.
Hearing Luo Sen’s words, Luo Qiao felt both proud and conflicted. Did his sons see him as some kind of superhero—no, super cheetah?
“Kill her!”
Parson began growling at the lioness, and Jairo naturally sided with his brother. This lioness was clearly a lone wanderer, and she looked extremely weak. The brothers didn’t want to miss such a good opportunity.
Seeing that the two cheetahs and the lioness were about to clash, Luo Qiao quickly told the cubs to keep eating, to eat as much as they could as fast as they could. Who knew when their next meal would be?
So, the lioness and the Parson-Jairo brothers stood off against each other, while Luo Qiao and the two cubs buried their heads in their meal, and the vultures watched from the sidelines.
Three minutes later, the lioness and the Parson-Jairo brothers were still growling at each other, while Luo Qiao and the cubs continued eating, and the vultures still watched.
Five minutes later, the cheetah brothers and the lioness all turned their attention to the three cheetahs who were wolfing down their food.
Luo Qiao looked up, the fur around his mouth stained red with blood. He tore off a piece of meat from the giraffe’s skin, chewing as he spoke. “Not fighting anymore? Then let’s all eat quickly. Once the lion pride or the hyena clan shows up, none of us will get to eat. You’ll be crying with nowhere to go.”
Hearing Luo Qiao’s words, the lioness and the cheetah brothers all felt like they had been acting foolishly.
So, five cheetahs and one lioness each took their own spot and buried their heads in their meal.
A lion and cheetahs sharing a meal might sound unbelievable, but this was the rule of the savannah. To fill their stomachs, sometimes everyone had to compromise.
The cheetahs took the best parts, but the giraffe was large enough that the lioness had no trouble finding a place to eat.
Finally, Luo Qiao and the two cubs were full. The cubs’ bellies were round, and from the side, they looked like two fluffy balls. Luo Qiao was worried, could their little legs even carry them now? But after this meal, they could last at least three days.
Parson and Jairo were also full. Cheetahs ate quickly, and since they didn’t need to rest long after this cooperative hunt, they saved a lot of time.
The lioness looked up at the cheetahs, and seeing that they had no intention of attacking her, she continued eating.
Luo Qiao led the two full cubs away from the giraffe, planning to find a shady spot to rest. Parson and Jairo followed behind him.
The cheetahs lay down under an acacia tree, the two cubs snuggling up to Luo Qiao, rolling around and acting spoiled. The father and sons huddled together, licking each other to clean their fur.
After watching for a while, Parson spoke up. “Do you want to live with us?”
“Huh?”
Luo Qiao looked up, stunned.
Meanwhile, the lioness left by the giraffe carcass ran into trouble. Over twenty hyenas surrounded her. Perhaps she had been careless, allowing these scavengers to take advantage.
The lioness sat on the ground, growling threateningly at the hyenas.
The hyenas hadn’t yet realized that this lioness was a loner. They huddled together, using their shrill cries to intimidate her, trying to finish her off before other lions arrived.
The lioness was now a trapped animal. These hyenas were fully capable of killing her, but they didn’t dare act recklessly. After all, an adult lioness was not to be underestimated. The careless ones were always the first to die.
The leader of this hyena pack was Nabi. She had recently driven Nali out of the clan and taken the throne as the new leader. Now, she needed to solidify her authority.
Nabi began her attack on the lioness. She circled behind the lioness and bit her hind leg, then quickly ran away. The other hyenas seemed to take this as a signal to attack.
One after another, they lunged at the lioness. Wounds began to pile up on the lioness’s body, but she fought back bravely. One hyena was bitten on the hind leg, and another had its eye clawed out.
However, facing so many hyenas, it was only a matter of time before the lioness was seriously injured or killed.
Suddenly, a deep, powerful roar echoed across the savannah. The hyenas’ attacks faltered. The strong male lion, Oros, appeared before the hyenas and the lioness.
His massive, muscular frame and thick, dark golden mane struck fear into the hearts of the hyenas, who had been driven and hunted like stray dogs by the lion pride.
The hyenas instinctively feared Oros’s presence. They huddled together, growling lowly as they backed away. The lioness, Lanni, didn’t feel any sense of relief either.
While she might have had a slim chance against the hyenas, encountering the lion pride that ruled this territory meant real trouble for her.
Lanni had been wandering for a long time. She knew all too well what would happen to a lion who strayed into unfamiliar territory.
Oros’s appearance was like a death knell for both the hyenas and Lanni. The hyenas might have been able to take on a lioness, but they never dared to provoke an adult male lion, especially Oros, the ruler of this territory. He was the nightmare of every hyena here.
But at this moment, Nabi did something unexpected. Instead of running away, she stubbornly pawed at the ground, leaving a clear scent mark. This was an act of defiance. No one knew if she had lost her mind or if driving out Nali had inflated her confidence, but she was actually challenging Oros!
Nabi’s actions were suicidal. She thought her defiance would inspire the hyenas to stay and fight Oros with her, but these creatures were already terrified of Oros. Even her own followers now thought Nabi had gone mad.
Oros would never let anyone who dared challenge his authority go unpunished, especially not a despised hyena. He pounced on Nabi.
Realizing the danger, Nabi turned and fled, trying to outrun the lion with her speed and stamina. But halfway through her escape, a lioness suddenly appeared: young, strong, and completely different from the besieged Lanni. It was Rosa.
Rosa used her front paws to knock Nabi off balance, and Oros seized the opportunity. He bit down on Nabi’s neck, and the hyena’s pitiful howl echoed across the savannah, carrying far into the distance.
While Nabi was challenging Oros, Lanni took the chance to slip away, only to run into Tina and the rest of the lion pride, along with the cubs. Without any signal, three lionesses charged at Lanni.
Lanni had no way out. No matter how submissive she acted, these lionesses wouldn’t spare her. She had no blood ties to them, and in their eyes, she was just a competitor, a threat to be eliminated.
Lanni tried to struggle, but in the end, the lionesses bit through her throat. As she closed her eyes and collapsed into the grass, visions of her distant homeland appeared before her—a lush, fertile land with herds of wildebeests and zebras running freely.
Back then, the terrible disease had not yet destroyed his lion pack, and he had not yet been driven away by the other lion packs and wandered alone...
Shana released Lanni and stood up. Tina casually glanced at the dead lioness before leading the pride toward the giraffe carcass not far away.
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