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While sharing a meal with the pride, some pride mates begin joking about Malachite's silly cub shenanigans. He laughs alongside everyone, and shares even more embarrassing stories!
You watch Malachite quietly deal with some quarreling pride mates. One of them bites him on the paw in a burst of rage. but he just pats them gently on the shoulder and licks his wounds without complaint.
Reluctantly kinged on 9/21/2019 with 327 stats.
Formerly named Malachite, then named Mayaxitn, both names lost because I'm a lazy fuck who can't log in once per year to feed pixelated lions
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do not fucking go past this please
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"Hebenus," Mayaxitn roared, stamping a massive paw upon the ground and sending showers of dust flying through the air. He ignored the sudden painful feeling of bits of earth gathering in his eyes, his rage burning away his consciousness of even the smallest of needs. "Are you even listening?"
The queen sighed loudly, melodramatically, and flattened her ears. She waved a paw, dismissing the ebony-furred lioness that had participated in Hebenus's blatant feigned ignorance of the king behind her. She turned her head slightly in his direction, a further refusal of her full commitment to this conversation - if it could even be called that.
From what little he could see of her face, however - she may as well have had demonic wings and hellfire surging from her feet. There was no glint of life in her eyes, not even one of a sadistic sort - just pure, cold emptiness. A lack of care for the existence of herself and all others. A care only for the mundane satisfaction of personal gain.
At least Cai had had her pride's best interests at heart... sometimes. But this one...
He suddenly had a horrible feeling about this.
"Alright, Moqui Marbles. You have my attention. Better make it quick before it runs out," she said callously.
"Mayaxitn."
"Don't care. Get on with it."
Genuine primal fear surged in his chest, and he had to forcibly resist the urge to call off the meeting altogether - and hope he might make it out of this field alive.
But no, he knew he couldn't back out now. This was for his pride. If it meant dying so early in his kinghood... well, it wasn't exactly preferred, but... y'know. It's the effort that counts and all that.
"I'd like to request an formal dissolution of our alliance."
Hebenus gave him a perfectly blank stare.
Mayaxitn flinched.
Several moments passed with no words spoken between either party.
The king felt himself unconsciously squirming.
He eventually couldn't take the tension, and spoke again.
"Cai said that our alliance would last until the day she died. That day has passed, hasn't it? It's only honorable to hold up to the promises of your predecessor."
He couldn't keep his voice from shaking slightly.
Hebenus stood, turned, and met his gem-like gaze very firmly and coldly.
"Honor," she muttered. "What good does honor do? What does integrity, what does righteousness, give the givers of it? Nothing. Nothing, except for a nice little feeling in your chest that you did the right thing, with a lingering aftertaste that stings of what you have lost from your kindness. How is that worth something?"
His stomach sunk a little at the reaffirmation that there would be no reasoning with words alone. "What do you want from us, then?"
"I want you to get your head out of the clouds and realize how pathetic this request really is." Her tail swung back and forth, and several bloodstained teeth showed themselves from her jaws. "Cal's parasitic leeching of your pride has rendered you terribly weak. Your old members are dying in spades, with few new ones coming in. Everything's falling apart, and we're all you have left. You will simply and wither and die as a few stragglers, outsiders, devoid of any semblance of civilization."
"At least we'd die free."
"Mayaxitn, would you get it through your thick skull that I care little for semantics? How about I be more straightforward about this - if your pride is going to die, I want to get all that I possibly can from its inevitable death and the times before, revive it, and utilize it for further expansion. At least someone benefits this way." She snorted. "If you'd like to resist, we could speed up the process a bit. I'd much prefer that, honestly, but I suppose too much unnecessary bloodshed on the part of my clan could potentially lead to my unfortunate untimely passing."
Mayaxitn nearly crumpled to the ground. "I somehow refused to believe that anyone would make someone like you an heir, much less a ruler... not even Cal. And yet... here I am. Standing front and center in front of the single most self-absorbed lion I've ever had the displeasure of meeting."
"Call me what you will. I just have my own method of operations. They've worked rather well so far, and as such I have no plans on changing them." She turned her back again. "Leave, Mayaxitn. Enjoy your final years as ruler. When you die, the pride dies with you."
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"Oluja, please. I understand what it's like to be struggling to keep your pride intact-"
"You don't," the king growled with irritation and impatience crawling into his tone. "You're not king yet. Now, for the last time, get out of my territory of your own volition or I'll make you."
"No, no, no, I do understand... I've pretty much been taking over ever since Obsidian went insane. That's exactly why I need your help. My pride's falling apart too, and surely you have the experience to combat such an issue-"
Oluja snarled. "If I did, we wouldn't be in this god damn mess in the first place. Now, since you won't leave... Cai! Get this trespasser out of here." His eyes revealed no sliver of pity, and Malachite finally accepted that he would find no assistance here.
A young female piebald with a masculine structure padded up to her king. "Of course, my liege," she sneered, brushing her tail under Malachite's chin. It sent chills down his spine.
Oluja blinked at Cai with distrust swallowing his gaze. Eventually, he snorted in irritation and turned around, heading towards a half-eaten warthog carcass.
"Come, darling." Cai began heading in the direction of the border, her steps heavy and confident. Malachite followed.
After several minutes, Cai spoke up. "So, that bastard of a king opted to simply ignore you in your desperation. How depressing. Surely there's no hope for your pride. You're the heir to a throne of nothing. It is rather tragic indeed."
"I know your type. I'm not agreeing to whatever bullshit you'll try to trick me into."
Cai snorted, and her tone of mockery fell to the earth. She suddenly sounded more serious. "Alright, then. Let your lionesses wither away from old age, their final thoughts being only about how much they despise you for not doing something about your pride's division. That's the only outcome I foresee in this mess, since god forbid you listen to me."
Malachite sighed. "Alright, fine. What portion of our food supply do you want in exchange for helping my pride, which you probably can't even accomplish since you're not in a leadership position."
"Food? I don't give a damn about food. My lionesses are fine hunters."
"W-wait, your lionesses? Don't you mean-"
"Nope, I sure as hell meant 'mine'. Clearly Oluja can't fix either of our prides, so how about I just... step up and fix both?"
"But..."
"I know what you're going to say. Here's some advice - if you want to leave without a nasty ass scar - don't."
"A-alright. But how are you planning to take over? It's not like he'll give up the throne easily."
"Of course he won't. Which is why I need your help. Assist me in murdering Oluja, and I'll gladly form a strong alliance with your pride that will be intact as long as both of us are alive. I'll unite our kingdoms and our girls will feel better with stronger leadership."
Malachite stopped in his tracks. "I-I can't."
Cai stopped too. "Oh great, here we go. Alright, go ahead and exhale your speech about why you're so morally good that you can't possibly do it."
"Well, for starters, you're so damn untrustworthy. I'll probably accept this and you'll screw me over later on. Second... yeah, my moral code doesn't want me doing this. Three, even if we did form an alliance, it would probably shatter quickly due to our differing ideas of morality."
"All fair points. But I'm your last hope, Malachite. I'm setting this out for you once and only once. Help me kill Oluja and put order back into your pride, or don't and let it crumble to ash. As well as this, I wouldn't mind sugarcoating this story to put my pride against yours, which will just kill them off faster. It would be pretty simple, since Oluja's already pissed at you. Of course, the third option is attempting to kill me here and now. However, you risk a bloody ending yourself, and my pride will still be put against yours."
"Fine. Deal."
"Hm? Changed your mind so suddenly?"
"I don't want to do this, but... you seem the type that even though you enjoy manipulation, you don't make empty threats. I... I'll sacrifice one life for the entirety of my pride."
What am I doing?
"Excellent. I'm glad you've come to reason. Now listen here, King Malachite. Here's the plan I had in mind..."
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