TLG: happy ever after

Chapter 10: The king has returned

Author's note:

Aaaaand I'm back! Missed me? ;)

The month of suffering is officially over, yay! While I was inactive, the story has reached 1k views! About 60% of that was gained just within 1 month after I'd uploaded Chapter 3. I'd say that's pretty cool. However, I find Wattpad statistics to be extremely confusing (and kinda unreliable tbh), so what matter most is your feedback. I'd like to thank everyone who's voted and commented so far, I do appreciate you a lot. Without you I'd feel like a madman talking to myself on the internet lmao ;) Also, just a couple of hours before I was going to post this, one of my readers commented "Pls update". I consider this to be the ultimate wattpad writer experience, no amount of likes could beat that (a couple of hundred votes would be really cool, though xD).

I'm now as free as I'll be this summer. Not sure how much I'll write, but I'd say that posting 4-5 chapters until the end of July sounds manageable, hopefully even more! Anyway, here's a new, almost 4000-word-long chapter for you! Hopefully it's worth waiting for :)

As the following morning came, the sun started rising. Its rays were shining upon the kingdom, reaching even the most well-hidden places. Entering the lions' den the bright light reflected off a few shiny rocks on the ground. Some of the vines that grew along the Tree's walls seemed to glow a little, though not as much as when the healing power of The Tree of Life would be used.

Sensing the arrival of the new day the king slowly opened his eyes. He spent a couple of minutes blinking and stretching, trying to wake himself up and get ready for his daily routine. After finishing his little morning ritual Kion got up, excited and full of energy. Leaving his bed, no matter how early, had never been a problem for the young lion.

The queen, on the contrary, was still laying on the pedestal, struggling to even keep one eye open. The previous night ended up being a long one for Rani, she barely got any sleep. The lioness had come back to the Tree rather late after the failed mischievous spy mission, and the guilt for her actions took a toll, keeping her up until early morning. With multiple groans and loud yawns, which clearly indicated dissatisfaction and fatigue, Rani finally pulled herself together and managed to sit up, staring at her front paws.

Having watched this painfully long scene Kion noticed his partner's distress. "Did you sleep at all?", he asked with concern in his voice and tilted his head a little.

"Not really.", the queen answered honestly.

"Do I need to know what happened last night? What was very strange, not going to lie."

"Trust me, you don't.", Rani rubbed her eyes, desperately trying to make them function properly. "I'm fine."

The golden-furred lion understood that she wasn't in the mood for talking. However, he was hesitant to let her go on patrol in such poor physical state. "You surely don't look fine. You're exhausted.", Kion's response sounded serious yet caring. The king moved closer to her and said softly: "I think you should sleep in today. I can manage the royal duties myself."

"You can't be serious?!", Rani glanced at him. She was always known as a very hard-working lioness, skipping her duties to relax was never an option. "It was my decision to stay up last night. I won't let myself be lazy while everybody else does their jobs.", the queen dismissed her mate's idea.

Kion sensed some tension, Rani's temper started to show due to her tiredness. Knowing how stubborn she was sometimes, he decided not to argue. Instead, the king made another suggestion, trying to reach a compromise. "I'm sorry, sweaty, I'm not going to make you stay here all day.", he murmured and tenderly caressed the lioness' cheek, showing that he wouldn't push her. This display of affection helped Rani ease up a little, so Kion continued. "I just think you could really use a couple more hours of rest right now, you can join me after that. We don't want our subjects to worry about our health, do we?"