Reincarnated As A Lion In Another World

Vixy and Igor quietly munched on their roasted fish as Kael and the lionesses waited for them to finish eating. The group rested under the green canopies that were formed by the tall trees. The temperature was okay and the soft breeze made them feel well rested. The songs of unknown birds filled their ears, not in a noisy way though. The songs enhanced the ambiance of the forest environment. "You must know your way around this forest quite well," Kael said to the two foxes. Vixy licked her mouth as she swallowed the last piece of the roasted fish, "Yes," She answered truthfully. "Good, we'll be looking for a good den for us to take over…" Kael began, garnering the attention of all the lionesses. They looked at him with anticipation. Vixy and Igor listened attentively. "We have basic requirements, of course, it should be close to a river or another water body. Preferably a cave and the opening should have enough exposure to sunlight…" When Kael was describing this place, he remembered the type of artificial caves he had seen in Bethel's and Noel's memories. Of course, as a human, there were some things he wished to add, he had his own ideas. Vixy and Igor tilted their heads in confusion as they listened to Kael. Weren't these requirements too much for a place that was supposed to occur naturally? "So, have you seen such a place?" Kael asked. The lionesses all turned their heads to look at the two foxes in a crew manner. Vixy searched her memory, but she still couldn't find a place like what Kael described. She shook her head, earning her a disappointed look from the Ol-mytee Pride. This disappointed look made Vixy feel infinitely close to death for some reason. The light of interest in Kael's eyes died away as he started thinking of what other use he could have for these foxes. He felt no emotional connection to these foxes and he held himself back from doing so to maintain the level-headedness to make use of these foxes well enough. Vixy seeing that the way Kael was looking at her had changed, she panicked. "What are we going to do?" She asked her partner, Igor, on a private telepathic channel. Igor's eyes went wide as he responded "I don't know, I was about to ask you," "Me?" "Yes, you are the smart one." Vixy's ears dropped low in disappointment. They sat in silence for a couple of seconds before Igor suddenly perked up again. "Wait, don't these monsters look familiar to you?" Igor asked. Vixy looked at the lioness with the corner of her eyes. "Yes, they look like those big striped guys with orange fur," Vixy answered. Igor shook his head vigorously, "No! I mean, haven't we seen their kind before?" A look of sudden realization appeared on Vixy's face as she instantly remembered what Igor was talking about. "Yes, yes, yes, we've seen one of them before. At the mountain cave far away, one of them with strange markings." Vixy said, making Igor nod his head to confirm. "Wait!" Vixy immediately called out to Kael. Kael refocused his gaze on Vixy, "What is it?" He asked. "I remember that there is a mountain quite some distance from these outskirts. It has everything you want…but…" Vixy trailed off. She had the mind to deceive Kael and his group but she was smart enough to scrap that plan. There was no guarantee that Kael would fall in battle just because she withheld information, she would be a goner if that was the case. "But what?" The light of interest appeared in Kael's eyes again, and so did the lionesses. "Well, there's an occupant there already, we assume so," Vixy said. "Explain," Kael frowned, he didn't like the way she was beating around the bush. "Dozens of full moons ago, we wandered to a new region, there we found the edge of the world, beyond the land was nothing but water. We saw this vast expanse of water with our own eyes, it was both majestic and frightening. We backtracked hoping to find our way to the forest outskirts again. We may have mistracked as we ended up encountering a mountain after four days of travel." Kael wondered to himself as he listened. The vast expanse of water they saw was likely the seawater that surrounded this continent. 'Their four days of travel would likely be two days for us. But why would the ocean be so close? I would have expected a month of travel to go from here to any ocean. Unless this forest is just a strip from a bigger forest to the left or right.' Vixy continued talking, oblivious to Kael's thoughts. "There, we saw another creature, just like you. She looked just like this mysterious one, except with some differences," When referring to the 'mysterious one' Vixy looked at Katari. "What kind of differences?" Kael asked. Vixy's eyes clouded as she tried to remember every detail. "She was big, bigger than you if I must say." Kael's originally elevated mood instantly plummeted. What did it mean if a lioness was bigger than him? Especially in this early stage of power building, it meant that she was stronger than him. "...Oh, and she had glowing markings on some parts of her body." 'FUCK!' Kael instantly knew the type of lion that Vixy was talking about. His mood got worse again. Vixy's face lit up with fascination as she said, "And as we watched her from afar, we witnessed the most amazing thing. She actually transformed from one form to another. It was weird to see a creature change shape like that. If we didn't see it with our own eyes, we would never believe it. She walked on two legs like a bird, her front paw moved around so flexibly that we were entranced. Even after transforming, the glowing markings remained on her body. The only time we had seen something like that was with the Howling ones and the eight-legged monsters. I have heard of similar things happening to other animals but I never thought I'd see one happen so close." When Vixy finished, Kael had a storm of mood swings. At first, he was cautious and sad, then he became excited, then cautious again. From her words, he could tell that this lioness was very powerful. What excited him the most was her ability to transform. He knew without a doubt that that was the unknown lioness changing into her humanoid form. He had hoped to one day be able to transform into a human, not because he found anything better in a human body besides the hands but because of the familiarity. He could only contain his perverted excitement when he imagined the lionesses in humanoid forms. Kael was very much aware that the lionesses all saw him as the father of their future children, and they looked forward to doing it with him. But Kael had eyes beyond that so he wasn't in the mood nor the mindset to entertain sex with lionesses while still being a lion. Not that he couldn't, he just hadn't gotten himself into the right mindset. This would change if the lionesses could assume human forms though. Another thing he got from the fox was that they had heard and seen other creatures transform like this unknown lioness, albeit from a distance. "And why weren't you able to see the wolves up close when they transformed? What made that lioness different." Kael asked a crucial question. "Wolves? Lioness?" The fox tilted her head, confused. She had never heard these terms before. Kael face-palmed in his mind, "I mean the howling ones and that one that looks like us." He said, sometimes he forgot that these animals didn't go to school and didn't know their own names, talk less of others. "Oh," Vixy mindfully kept those terms to heart, "The wolves are always in groups with the strongest usually surrounded on all sides. They have scouts that would find us before we got too close. The…Lioness?...Yeah, the lioness was pretty much by herself." She finished. Kael nodded, secretly fascinated by Vixy's intelligence. 'So a lone Lioness huh?' He thought to himself. "Tell me about the wolves," Kael asked. He was still interested in the lioness but everything in due time. Vixy seemed wary after Kael asked this question, "The Wolves? They are vicious predators who have dominated a part of the forest for a long time now. They divide themselves into something the spirit howlers call packs. Some packs are small, some are very large. But each wolf is strong with sharp teeth and claws. Luckily, the Howling ones don't see us as food and usually ignore us or chase us away. The only ones who have been able to keep the wolves in check are the big furry guys, the striped ones, and the eight legs who showed themselves recently." Vixy was becoming more talkative the more she stayed here even though she was very much afraid and Igor noticed this. He could only show his displeasure with a frown. "You will tell me about the current state of the forest while we head to the place of that lioness," Kael said as he stood up. The other lionesses followed, they were more interested in finding this new den and meeting that lioness. "Aaah!" Vixy almost broke into tears, she thought that they would let her go now that she had told them what she knew. If she had known, she would have just kept her mouth shut and not told Kael about the mountain. But if she did, she might have quickly lost value in Kael's eyes, and then… This group of lions may not be so kind that they would flinch when going back on their words. They had just begun walking with Vixy and Igor at the front with Katari and Diane right behind them when Kael suddenly stopped. He felt a sicky sensation coming over his body, he felt the Primordial Laws tugging at his very being. He instinctively opened the Primordial Record in front of his face, the one that had the identity marks of lions. One of the three pride leader marks was glowing and the words he wrote, [Kill a gazelle, Reward: 1 stone] were also glowing. 'Someone finally killed a gazelle?' Was the only thought that could come to Kael's mind.