I woke up to a nudge from my father. “C’mon son!” He was saying happily. “At ‘em up!” It was sunrise. I moaned and curled back into a gray spotted fluff ball. My dad shoved me once more. “C’mon! Were gonna go hunt!” “It's really early dad.” I mumbled. “No one else is up. The sun goddess is only just waking.” The sun goddess, Liza, had only begun to rise and bring light to us all. My golden eyes flashed a look at it. My gold eyes are told to be a rare blessing from her. Each of our packs spots were a blessing from all the gods, but my eyes were special. “It's your duty as king to hunt for the pack Abioye.” “But i'm not king yet.” I mumbled. “Fine!” My dad yelled. “But someday you will be! Like my father before me and-” “Yeah I get it!” I said. “Just let me go to sleep.” My dad bared his teeth at me and left. “Yeah right” I thought. “King.”

The idea of being king made me shiver. I wanted to be a adventurer, not a king. I wanted to venture beyond the barrier tree. “The tree” My father told me. “Is to keep us from our sworn enemies the lions who forced us to this side of the tree hundreds of years ago.” I didn’t know why they forced us to this side. It was so nice. We had so much food here and, from what i've seen, they seem to have none. We have large lovely plants on our side. They seem to have none. No elp, no zebra, nothing, just a bare grassland. “Well” I said to my father that day. “Why does there seem to be no lion?” I questioned. “They’re far away from us.” That was a bad answer. “But why do we never see them?” “Because.” “Because why?” “Because Abioye, they fear us now, so stop asking questions with obvious answers.”

I never asked again. My father already scowls at me enough, the last thing I need is more yelling and fighting in my life. But, of course, that's what I got later in the morning. I was eating breakfast from the other side of the carcass my dad was on so he couldn't talk to me. After a few moments I looked up only to see him eyeing me sending. He sent the message that “this food would've been here sooner if you weren’t a lazy kid and if you were actually responsible!!!” I rolled my eyes at him and walked away from his devious. He was about to yell at me, but the royal messenger, Posleine, rushed up to him. I ran to my favorite place, the border tree.

I sat beneath the border tree, looking out onto the distance, wondering if, just maybe, the lions would be kinder than my father. I wanted run away, to the other side of the tree. But I knew they would find me, take me back, to hear my father yell about how stupid I was. Then I heard it. Not a bark like my father would make to begin an event. No. This sound was much grander. I jumped up to see what it was. Gold creatures, a whole pack of them, charging for the tree. “This is amazing!” I thought. “I...I...I I’m gonna get run over!!!” As they came closer I realized they weren’t stopping. I decided that I knew what they were (even though I didn’t) and ran as fast as I could, barking like a maniac. “FATHER! GODS! THE GODS ARE HERE!” I screamed. “What?!” My father said. Then he saw the creatures and scowled.

“Those” He said. “Things are lions.” “Said well.” Said a booming voice from behind me. A majestic creature behind me had a confident smile on his face. His gold mane and body gleamed in the light. The others who surrounding him looked exactly like him. Besides for his golden eyes. Then I realized something. “Your eyes” I said. “Are gold! Like mine!” He froze right in his tracks. “That's not possible.” He said. “Only lions have gold-” He paused, thought for a moment and changed the subject.

“Great leader of the hyenas!” He boomed. My dad rolled his eyes. “We are not here for another war! Though certainly we would win it!” He laughed. My dad barked in pure anger. “You liar! Your just scared to have another tree war with us because you know we would actually win!” “Whatever.” The lion king said with a roll of his gold eyes. “Even though we would actually win. Anyway we come in peace! We wish to share the land with each other! Our side is barren and running out of food. We need a new home.”  I gasped. “No Abioye! Don’t give him the satisfaction of gasping!”

Then I heard a giggle. Not from a hyena or it would have been louder. Then I saw her. A little blue eyed lion with a wreath of flowers in her hair trying to hold back her laughter. I stared at her for the longest time. She looked my age but thinner. She smiled at me. I smiled back walking up closer to her, and closer, and closer, until “Woah, woah, woah Abioye!” I heard my father's voice and felt his teeth pulling me back. “What was that?!” I didn’t know how to answer so I just shrugged.

So they argued and I left. I stared past the tree again, thinking about the war. I was hoping we wouldn't settle for another war. I could hear my dad now: “This is a great learning opportunity to be king!” I sighed and continued to stare. “Hey you!” I almost jumped out of my fur. It was the little lion girl. “Oh my gods!” I said from shock. “Don’t do that again!” She giggled. “Your funny!” I got a happy feeling from making her smile. I smirked. I wanted her to like me. She seemed amazing enough. “So what's your name?” I asked smugly trying to act cool. “What's yours?” She said giggly. “I asked first!” I laughed. “Ok, ok.” She laughed. “I’m Ledisi.” The name of light.

I stared. She was the brood of the sun goddess. I cleared my throat. “I’m Abioye.” “Son of the king” She thought allowed. “I’m the daughter of the king.” “But” I said confused. “Your name means light.” “Yes but my father is the” “I REFUSE ON YOUR FAKE OFFER LION KING.” I heard my father echo. “...That guy.” I felt embarrassed. My father had called their offer fake. A peace offer. A new kind of peace for a new kind of life.

“Should we go see what's going on?” I asked, trying to seem better than my father. “I guess so.” Ledisi sighed and seemed to have a spark of excitement. “But before that, can I see everything?” I laughed. “Everything, everything?” I asked. “Abioye, I think you know what I mean.” “OK, then let's go!”

We started running towards the big rock, where big events happened, then Posleine ran in front of me frantically. I jumped back with a yelp. While trying to speak while panting Ledisi asked who she was. “That's our messenger Posleine.” “NO...TIME ABIOYE...PLEASE... LISTEN!” She seemed in distress. Probably over something dumb as usual. I rolled my eyes. I knew she wouldn’t go away if I didn’t listen to her. “Alright” I grumbled. “What is it this time?”

Posleine caught her breath and realized that we actually wanted to hear what she had to say. “Poachers” She said grimly. “The poachers want our furs, they were planning this for weeks, now they found out that the lions are here” “They're coming for everyone?” Ledisi asked looking like she might cry. “Yes.” Posleine said. “Try telling your fathers for me. They haven’t bothered to listen. They just want to duel to the death.” “WHAT?!?!?!?” Me and Ledisi screamed at the same time. Then I came to the worst realization of all. ”This is all my fathers fault.” I said grimly. I knew it was his idea, partly because he thought it would be a good impression on me: the future king. “I’ll go get them.” And with all the fear rushing through me I marched over to the battle grounds.

“Wait!” Ledisi’s scream stopped me right in my pawprints. “I’m coming too! My father must have agreed to fight which makes it partly his fault too!” “But what if you I don’t know” I stuttered. I didn’t expect this from a girl with bright flowers in her hair. “Get hurt? Look it's going to be dangerous.” “Exactly.” She said. “Plus if one of us gets hurt we can help the other! Look i’ve never done anything this exciting. I’m always alone, I have no friends, no mother, no one. And with poachers” She bit her lip. “I have to go and help.”

I knew I wasn’t leaving without her. “... Fine.” I said. “But if you dare get hurt” “Yeah, yeah you’ll hurt me even more I get it buddy.” She giggled. “Let's go save the pack!” We walked in silence for a while. I saw her happy eyes full of fear and thoughts. “Ledisi,” I asked calmly, you always have to be calm with a nervous lion. “What do you have against poachers?” I heard her voice tremble whenever she said poachers. “I” She mumbled. “I want to tell you Abioye but I” She sniffed back a tear. “You can tell me” I said softly. “It's all right.” She inhaled and exhaled. “Ok.”

“When I was a cub my mother would take me on walks, telling me about how I would be a better queen than her with my looks and happy attitude and stuff. It was one of these walks she told me ‘Ledisi soon I will be gone and you must lead the pack. That will be the day I shine down on you and you will have all of my wisdom.’ I just giggled like it was a joke. Now I hope it isn’t. We walked to a waterfall and splashed around like everyday, finding the prettiest flowers until we heard the poachers hunting call. My mother told me to run back to my father and she would be right there I did and I regret it. I reached my father and told him about what happen. He asked where my mother was and” She was trying not to cry. She didn’t need to tell me what happened, I already knew.

I didn’t know what to say. “Ledisi I” “IGNORANT HYENA! COME FIGHT IF YOU DON’T WANT PEACE.” “That’s our cue.” Ledisi said. We ran over to the area where the fight was about to take place. A dome shaped arena where lions and hyenas were chanting on their champion. We got there just in time. “WAIT!!!” I yelled as loud as I could. My father glanced up at me. “Ah my son.” He said. “Come to see the big fight for your old man?” “No!” I screamed angrily. Why would I ever come to see such a horrible thing? I was disgusted by his foolish comment. “Dad poachers are coming to the savanna! You can’t fight! We have to protect the packs!” He stood there for a moment trying to find out if I was telling the truth or trying to get him out of fighting.

“Suppose your boy is telling the truth.” The lion leader said flashing his gold eyes at mine. “We should be prepared.” My dad looked me right in the eye and was about to say something like: “I suppose we should.” But then he saw Ledisi, looked at me, scowled and continued with his fight speech. “There is nothing to be worried about! If there were actual poachers Posliene would have told me!” I rolled my eyes. “IF YOU EVEN LISTENED TO HER.” I yelled. He frowned. “No son of mine should of ever turned out like you.” I heard him say. I was about to cry. I was crushed by his "character building" comment. “Abioye, are you...” “I’m ok” I lied. “I’m sorry Ledisi, I hope my dad dies instead of yours.” My dad cleared his throat. “LET THE TREE WAR BEG-” “BAM!” A poacher call went off.