The New Path

Taka's Secret

     Takas day was hard enough. He had a not so good living place and all of the other animals scorned at him or just ignored him or glared at him. Taka had nothing to do today but to hunt to get the food he needed if he wanted to eat tonight.

But getting food to eat was a challenge, the hunting lioness would hunt up and it would cause some of the other prey to get away. So some nights, Taka would go to sleep on an empty stomach.

Unfortunately, he wasn't able to find any prey so he is going to be hungry tonight. 

It was already dark when Taka was walking back to his place. While walking back, Taka thought about his life situation. He desperately wanted to change everything that happened. If only he was smart enough to not challenge Simba for the king spot, he probably would've lived a happier life but his entire life is going down hill.

That was when Taka felt a presence in front of him. Taka looked up to see a group of three leopards.

The three were glaring at him. Taka sighed and put on a smirk and spoke in a sarcastic voice:

"May I help you?" 

One of them growled and the leopard in the middle walked up, he seemed to be the leader.

"Yes In face, you're standing in your way." The voice of the leopard sounded familiar and it made Taka raise and eyebrow.

"Are you by any chance...Makucha?" Taka asked, which put a confused face on Makucha but nodded yes.

"Ahhh...good to know, anyways, ya know you can just walk around me, right?" Taka said, trying to see if this guy was actually stupid and the leopard only growled at me him.

Kion was just walking around the lands in the dark after being once again ignored by his family, not caring at all. Kion did not know where to go, he had nobody to turn to.

Kion was then interrupted from his thoughts by some commotion, he looked up to see his uncle being surrounded by three leopards.

Kions eyes widened. Was his grandpa being attacked? He has to go down and help him! 

Kion was standing on a hill with a few trees and rocks, straight across was his uncle, but they were super close so Kion decided to hide behind the rocks. He wanted to listen in to what was happening, to make sure he wasn't getting the wrong idea.

"Move outta our way!" A leopard yelled. He looked as he saw his uncle smirk at a leopard to his right.

"Oh yeah? What're you gonna do about it?" Taka asked and that angered them even more.

"Thats it!" Makucha yelled and charged towards Taka, Kion was shocked and scared at the same time but all of those feelings were quickly swept away when he watched his uncle send a kick with his back leg to the leopards jaw. Knocking the leopard down with a bleeding mouth

"Argh" Taka groaned out, sure, he knew a few martial arts fighting, but he was still a bit old for his age and using movement such as martial arts can put a toll on the body.

Kion watched in amazement as he just saw his grandpa kick an enemy in the face. 

The other two leopards were astonishment but they were brought when Makucha yelled out in pain:

"What're you standing there for, get him!" 

The two were hesitant but then charged straight forward. The first leopard swung his paw in a fist gestor and tried to punch Taka, but Taka used the palm of his paw and blocked the attack with his right front leg and used his left one to pull the leopard towards him and use the knee of his back left leg to knee him in the chest, making that leopard gasp for air on the ground.

The second leopard charged straight forwards and was followed with a punch, Taka quickly ducked down, dodging the punch and slithered to the back of the leopard like a snake and grabbed his left leg and twisted it. Kion heard some bones cracking from that and it made him cringe at the sound.

After the two leopards were on the ground in pain, Makucha quickly got up and ran behind.

"Behind you!" Kion screamed out, Taka quickly looked at Kion behind the rock with a lot of emotions running through him. Surprise, confusion and anger. Why was Kion there? How much did he see? But Taka was able to grasp what Kion said and Taka quickly delivered with a large kick with his right leg to the face of Makucha, sending him back down on the ground.

Taka was now looking at the three leopards down on the ground.

"Next time...move around me." Taka hissed, and decided to walk off, ignoring Kion was even there.

Kion was staring at amazement, he just watch his uncle kick the butts of three mean leopards using some sort...karate? That's what it looked like to him. Kion was too caught up in his thoughts until he noticed that Taka disappeared. He looked around and saw no one there, he wanted to look around and find him but he realized it was way too late so Kion decided to run back to Pride Rock.

At Pride Rock

Kion quickly ran up, panting for breath. He didn't care though, he was too focused on that fight. After Kion caught his breath, he thought for a moment. The way that Taka fought was amazing, he wondered if he learned some of what Taka did, maybe he would finally the attention of his family.

"Where were you!?" A voice yelled out, Kion jumped as he looked to see his mother, Nala there, looking at him angrily.

"W-What?" Kion asked, surprised why his mother yelling at him.

"Where. Were. You? Do you have any idea how late it is?" Nala said, still keeping her voice sharp and she showed how angry she was.

"I was-" Kion tried to explained but Nala cut him off.

"No, I don't want to hear your excuses, you're grounded for three days. If you sneak out or come back late again, you will grounded longer, am I understood?" Nala asked. Kion whimpered as he nodded with a yes.

Nala went back to Pride Rock and left Kion all alone.

Kion walked into the lair of the Pride Lands where he usually slept. Kion was taking off his jacket when he heard the laughter of his family in the other upper room of Pride Rock. 

Kion didn't say anything but his mouth was twitching with a single tear streaming down his face. He quickly wiped it away. Why was he crying? Should he be happy that he has a family? Or that fact that his family just didn't care at all?

Kion quickly ignored those thoughts as he prepared to sleep for the night. But little did he know, the next day was going to be the start of his journey to great success.