Norman's Pride

Prologue

"He's too young, he'll die, Gator!"

"He should have thought of that before he disrupted the hunt again!"

A little lion cub lay in the entrance to his parent's cave. The cub's ears were back and he had curled into himself so much that he looked like a turtle who had gone into its shell. He hadn't meant to do this. He hadn't meant to make his dad angry. He hadn't meant to make his parents fight.

What's wrong with you? The cub snarled at himself. Why do you always mess everything up?

The cub had known he shouldn't go with the huntresses, he had just been so eager to learn to hunt! To be able to contribute to the pride!

But why did you do it again? The lion sighed, shifting his trembling paws further under him. I know why. I wanted to prove that last time was an accident, that I really am a good hunter!

The little cub was well known by his pride for being a nuisance. His sisters bullied him and the older females in the pride despised him.

"He's nothing but a clumsy furball!" One would sneer.

"I don't know why Gator lets him stay," another would reply. "He's just taking food from our bellies!"

The words, as much as the cub tried to ignore them, hurt. They hurt worse than a thousand bee stings.

"They're just being plain hateful," his mother, Swing, would always tell him. "They know you're special and that makes them jealous, just ignore them."

But the cub couldn't ignore them. He wanted so much for the pride to love him... Desperate for approval, the cub snuck after a hunting party, determined to make a kill.

I can't be taking food from their bellies if I catch my own food! The cub decided. They'll see I'm useful this way!

His plan had backfired horribly. When the party discovered a herd of zebras, they had all dropped down into the tall grass. The cub followed their lead. But, as a young zebra had crept closer and closer to where he crouched, the temptation to spring overwhelmed the little lion. With a loud caterwaul, the cub pounced. Only... He missed his mark completely and went rolling into the middle of the herd of zebras. His mother had only just managed to grab him before he was trampled. The pride had been livid. A whole hunt ruined by one foolish little cub!

The cub's dad had been angrier than all the others.

"You will remain at camp until I say otherwise," the leader had snarled at his son. "You're too young to hunt. You will never need to hunt, Norman! You're a male! If you'd just learn to behave like a normal male, one day, you'll be able to get a pride of your own, and the females will do all the hunting for you!"

But the cub, Norman, didn't want someone to hunt for him. He wanted to know how to hunt! He wanted to have a place in his pride! So, the next hunt, he had disobeyed his father and tagged along once more. This time, Norman forced his paws to remain firmly on the ground and waited until the lionesses started the hunt. He then raced out into the chaos and bounced on a zebra's back. Grabbing the mare's neck in his teeth, Norman bit down hard. The zebra bayed loudly and bucked into the air, dislodging the young lion. Norman was thrown into the air and landed with a thump on the hard savannah ground. The lionesses, distracted by his arrival, didn't make even a single kill.

So, that's how Norman had managed to mess up two hunts within the span of two days...

Had to be some kind of record, really.

"You're such a clutz, Norman!"

Norman looked away from the cave and his bickering parents, and towards the rocks leading up to the leader's den. Two tan cubs with amber eyes were sitting at the top stone. The two were eyeing him with malevolent glee sparkling in their gaze.