By the time they reached the heart of the Asante territory, Lumina and Luna could feel many pairs of curious eyes following them, invisible in the tan grasses. When they reached the pride den, which was a pile of rocks riddled with caves, the entire pride was gathered around one impressive male. He was very large compared to everyone else and he had a very dark and long mane to go along with. He looked like the adult version of Umbar. I’m guessing that’s Mansa, Lumina figured.
Mansa quickly took notice of the approaching group and walked over to meet them. “Hello father,” Umbar greeted, he was being much more respectful to him than he was to Lumina earlier.
“Who are they, Umbar?” Mansa asked; when he spoke, everyone in the area could hear his powerful voice.
        “These two strangers are friends of Emmy’s and are asking if you can let them join our pride.” Umbar said, lowering his head in a respectful manner. Mansa carefully glanced over Luna and Lumina. He didn’t look too pleased with what he was seeing.
        “What’s your name, striped one?” he asked, looking at Luna straight in the eye.
        “My name’s Luna,” the tigress answered, lowering her eyes.
        “Look at me,” Mansa growled. Luna reluctantly looked up.
“What’s with all the metal you’re wearing?”
Lumina? Lumina glanced up at Emmy; the tan lioness nodded.
        Don’t tell anyone about the Professor, or any of the humans. These lions hate anything that’s even been close to humans. They’ll kick you out, and probably me as well. Lumina blinked to show that she understood.
I heard too. Luna chimed in.
“Well?” Mansa asked impatiently, his temper was slowly rising.
        “I’m attracted to shiny things,” Luna replied brightly.
Mansa raised an eyebrow and looked at her suspiciously. He then turned to Lumina and said, “And you? What name do you go by?” Lumina looked him straight in the eye and replied,
        “My name’s Lumina.”
“And what’s with the fur; marking; and gold metal?”
“Well, where we’re from...” She said nervously, glancing at Emmy. Emmy nodded encouragingly.
        “…many of us look like this. It’s because we live around blue rocks.”
Mansa glanced at Emmy for a moment.
        “And Emmy lived around tan rocks?” he sighed. “Alright, you two can stay for now. But if anything goes wrong…”
“Yes! Thank you!” Luna yelled happily, almost jumping. Mansa glared at her and she immediately stopped,
        “I’m sorry…” She said quickly, looking down at the ground before she glanced at his eyes again.
        “Whatever…” he growled. He stood, and jutted his face into Luna and Lumina’s.
        “But don’t you two make yourself too comfortable here. I’m only accepting you because you’re friends of Emmy.” he snarled, showing his long fangs.
“Y-yes, sir, we understand.” stuttered Lumina.
        “Good,” He pulled his head back and turned to his pride, which stood all around.
        “Ladies, as you have probably all heard, we have two new guests in the Asante pride that go by the names Luna and Lumina.” He paused to make sure that everyone was listening.
        “I would like for everyone to teach these two how to hunt as you have been teaching Emmy.” The lionesses groaned, and began muttering.
        “But lord, we don’t mind teaching Emmy, but we can’t teach these freaks!” complained one of the lionesses.
        “They’re just going to draw the attention of those twig legs!”  said another.
“Stop your whining!” he roared.
Everything went into a dead silence. He looked at the lioness that had led everyone in complaining.
        “Lalibela, I want you to teach them and that’s an order!” he snarled.
        “Yes my Lord… as you wish.” She bowed her head down and moved away from him.
        “Come on girls, we better get some shut-eye if we are going to teach them.” She said, starting to walk away. Many started following her, muttering under their breaths. When Lalibela walked by Luna and Lumina, she gave them an angry stare.
“Just because we’re going to teach you how to hunt doesn’t mean we’re going to like you…” she growled quietly, and walked off.
Luna and Lumina watched them disappear into the largest den, and then looked at each other.
        “Man, where did the love go?” joked Luna.
        “Hehe… I don’t know but they sure have an attitude problem… especially that Lalibela…” confirmed Lumina.
        “So what do we do now?” asked Emmy, joining in the conversation.
        “Might as well get some sleep too. We’re pretty tired after all the running we did.” yawned Luna, settling on the grass.
        “Good idea…” sighed Lumina, laying next to Luna and curled up into a ball.
        “Eh, I’ll go to bed too…” Emmy stretched her muscles and laid on her back with her stomach in the air...
On the highest rock, the pride’s lookout, Mansa and Umbar were watching the newcomers. They stood out from the grass like an elephant in a desert.
        “I want you to keep a close eye on those two, especially on that blue one…” he whispered.
        “Yes, Dad.” Umbar whispered back. He leapt from rock to rock until he was back on the ground. He glanced up at Mansa on the lookout, and admiration flashed across his face. Then the young male padded off to find his mother in the den and curl up next to her.

As Lumina slept peacefully, she dreamed of simple things such as rivers; the grasses; and stars. But she was rudely awakened by Lalibela.
        “Wake up freak,” she growled, almost kicking her awake. Lumina shooked her head awake and looked up at her.
        “Good, you’re awake. Now get up and follow me. We don’t have all day to teach you, you useless bag of flesh.” she snarled and walked off, almost whacking Lumina in the face with her tail. Someone woke up on the wrong side of the grass… Lumina thought irritably. She looked over her shoulder and saw that Luna was already up. She noticed that she looked nearly as irritated as when Lumina had called her a zebra.
        “She kicked you too, eh?” Lumina asked her.
        “Yeah… that damn lioness thinks that she’s the queen of the pride or something…” Luna growled, curling her lip a bit. Emmy walked up to them and started leading her friends towards the hunting grounds.
        “That’s because she is the queen of the pride.” Emmy commented; she paused to let out a yawn before they continued walking. “She’s Mansa’s favorite lioness out of the whole Asante pride.”
“Wait, what do you mean by that?” Luna asked, not completely sure of what she was saying.
        “Mansa mates with every single one of the lionesses, but he likes Lalibela more than the others, giving her the privilege to be queen.” she replied. Immediately both Lumina and Luna stopped walking and looked at Emmy wide-eyed.
        “What? Why are you guys looking at me like that?” questioned Emmy, letting her ears droop down.
       “Don’t tell me that you and Mansa…” Lumina started, but she couldn’t even finish the sentence.
       “WHAT?? Hell no! did you really think that Mansa and I…” gasped Emmy,
       “Well, you said that he’s mated with every single one of the lionesses so we couldn’t help but figure…” muttered Luna. She still wasn’t in a good mood because of Lalibela.
“EMMY! TELL THOSE USELESS FURBALLS TO HURRY UP!!! OR WE’RE GOING TO MISS OUR BREAKFAST BECAUSE OF THEM!!” screamed Lalibela from a far distance. Emmy smacked Luna over the head and said, “C’mon guys, we better get going before she gets in her bad mood…”
“That’s her ‘good mood’??” both Luna and Lumina said in unison. Emmy rolled her eyes as Luna rubbed her head, shooting Emmy a murderous look.

                                                       ***

The first day of learning how to hunt wasn’t as bad as the two new members of the Asante pride thought. That is, it wasn’t that bad if they just ignored Lalibela’s lectures, which she gave every fifteen minutes after her pupils missed catching a meal. Luna did manage to capture a large hare and Emmy helped bring down a sick impala. As for Lumina, all she was able to catch was a small mouse. But she almost wished she hadn’t caught it; the other lionesses humiliated her by laughing about her ‘big catch’. It’s my first day. Maybe I’ll do better tomorrow. she hoped.
Unfortunately for her, two weeks passed and she still hadn’t made any improvement. Luna on the other hand began to hunt alongside Emmy and the rest of the pride, while Lumina watched miserably from a distance.

        It was late afternoon and Emmy ran ahead of the pride, trying to trip up a gemsbok by biting at its legs. Luna and four more lionesses were patiently waiting for the perfect moment to ambush their prey from the other side of the field. The gemsbok panicked as it tried to get away from Emmy that it didn’t realize that it ran directly into the lionesses’ trap.
        “Prepare to become a steak!” Luna yelled as she lunged for its neck. The gemsbok screeched to a stop but it soon met its horrible fate as all the other lionesses piled on top of it, sinking their teeth into its flesh.
The lionesses continued quickly finished off the gemsbok, then sent one of the lionesses to fetch Mansa. They weren’t allowed to eat or even get near it until he appeared and ate. He lumbered his way over to the carcass and started eating his way to the bones. As soon as he began, the other pride members started feasting along with him.
Lumina flicked her tail happily, bounding over to find a spot alongside the lionesses. But one of the hunters, named Akilah, lunged at her. Lumina jumped back in surprise.
        “You know the rules: if you can’t hunt, you’ll get the scraps. So back off!” she snarled, blooded that once belonged to a living animal was now all over her muzzle and dripping from her chin.
        Lumina sighed hopelessly and folded her ears back as she turned around and walked towards a lone tree nearby. Emmy saw what had happened and nudged Luna.
        “Hey, something’s wrong with Lumina. I don’t think she got anything to eat.” she whispered. Luna lifted her head and spotted Lumina.
        “Hmm, why don’t we bring her some food before all’s left is bones?” Luna suggested.
        “Okay, don’t let anyone notice us.” said Emmy, and she ripped a large chunk of meat in her jaws.
“Duh,” mumbled Luna, grabbing a chunk as well and following Emmy.

They stole away from the rest of the pride, and ran quickly over to Lumina before another lioness could stop them.
        “Hey Lumi, we brought you something,” Emmy said, placing the meat in front of her paws. Luna tried to mutter something around the chunk of meat in her mouth. Emmy rolled her eyes and smacked the back of Luna’s head again, causing her to spit out the meat.
        “Hey! What the hell was that for?” Luna growled, narrowing her eyes at Emmy.
“We can’t understand you if you have all that food in your mouth. And you looked like you were trying to eat it instead of giving it to Lumi!” scolded Emmy.
“I wouldn’t do that!” she protested.
Emmy rolled her eyes. “Oh really?”
“Uhh… well… I was going to take a small nibble…” admitted Luna. Lumina couldn’t help but laugh.
        “I appreciate the meat, really. But I need to learn how to catch my own food. I may have been the Professor’s pet, but I know I can hunt like you guys.” Lumina got up and started making her way towards the hunting grounds.
        “Hey! Where are you going?” Emmy asked.
“I’m going to learn how to catch a decent meal,” Lumina called back, not turning around.
“Does that mean that you don’t want the meat?” Luna called out.
“Luna!”
“No, I don’t want it. Thanks though,” Lumina yelled back and she disappeared into the tall grass, though you can still see spots of blue among the grass.
Luna looked at Emmy and noticed that she was tapping her hind paw, not looking very pleased.
        “What? She said that she didn’t want it and it would be a shame if it went to waste…” in a moment’s notice, Luna bent down and gobbled up the two chunks of meat. All Emmy could do was roll her eyes again and sighed in annoyance while Luna gave her a mischievous grin.

Lumina sniffed around the hunting grounds, hoping to find a rather easy target for her to chase after. She quickly froze in place when she spotted a shape through the grass. The lioness lifted her nose into the air and realized the scent was a rabbit. She noticed that it was limping along slowly. Hmm… maybe this time I’ll be able to catch something other than mice. Hopefully this won’t be too difficult for me…
She quietly snuck up on it, trying to get close to her prey as she could. She then crouched down and got ready to pounce.
        
        SNAP!

        A branch snapped under one of her massive paws, and the rabbit flinched. Dammit… she thought sourly as the rabbit disappeared in the blink of an eye.
        “Oh no, you’re not getting away that easily…” she said to herself and took off running after it. She had her eyes locked on the rabbit and chased it all around the hill.

        From the other side of the hunting grounds was another predator chasing after an old zebra. But this predator was a peculiar kind. She had cloudy gray fur and black on her paws, ears, nose, and tail-tip. She snarled loudly in frustration as she snapped at the zebra, trying to get a hold of it. She expanded her large, black-tipped bird wings and gave herself a couple powerful strokes to run faster. But the zebra still managed to outrun her.

        Both predators were so concentrated on catching their prey that they didn’t realize that they were running straight at each other.
        “You’re mine!” said Lumina, licking her lips as she was getting ready to taste fresh meat. But the victory of catching her first decent meal was cut short when the rabbit made a sudden turn to the left and her eyes met the other predator’s mismatched eyes of blue and green.
        “What the hell—” Lumina cried out, just before she skidded to a stop. The other predator tried to slide back too, but they crashed into each other nonetheless.
        “Ow… what just happened...?” the gray hybrid muttered, groaning in pain. She was lying across Lumina’s flank; her wings were spread across the ground uselessly.
        “Urgh… get off me will you?” Lumina growled. The newcomer groaned, and stood to her paws, pulling in her wings. Lumina did the same, minus the wings. When Lumina’s head finally stopped spinning, she looked up at the hybrid. Lumina hadn’t paid attention to her features until now…
        “Rain…?” she asked quietly.
        “Lumina!” Rain purred, tackling her blue-furred friend.
        “Where were you all this time??” Lumina asked excitedly.
        “I’ve been looking for you and Emmy, learning to hunt, trying to fly....”
        “Fly?? Oh, of course, your little wings, they never were strong enough for you to use,” Lumina exclaimed, glancing enviously at the large, powerful wings that extended from Rain’s back.
        “I still can’t quite fly, but they help when I need an extra burst of speed,” she giggled.
        “Emmy will be so jealous of you.” Lumina said, raising an eyebrow and laughing.
        “What have you been doing? And Emmy?”
        From there, Lumina explained everything that had happened from the moment that she got captured by the blackcoats to the day was accepted into the Asante pride. During the whole explanation, Rain’s tail was swishing excitedly and her ears were moving back and forth like little radars picking up the faintest noises.
        “Wow… so much has happened!” breathed Rain, her head whirling with Lumina’s story.
        “How have you been surviving, Rain?”
        “Berry bushes.”
        “Okay then...”
        “Yeah. You don’t wanna know.” Rain grimaced. Lumina chuckled, and then suddenly, Luna’s voice rang out across the savannah.
        “LUUUUMINAAAA!”
        Rain’s head shot up. “What was that? Someone’s calling you,” she commented. Lumina stood up on her back legs for a second, scanning over the tall grass. As she dropped back down to the ground, she thought she saw the sun glint off of something silver.
        “I’m here, Luna!” Lumina shouted back. Soon, they could hear a crashing in the grass, and the tigress stumbled into view.
        “There you are! Something serious has happened,” Luna panted.
        “What? What’s the matter?” Lumina said quickly. Luna was about to answer her when she spotted Rain. “Who’s that?”
        “Hi, I’m, Rain, a friend of Lumi and Emmy.”
        “Could we save the introductions for later? Luna, you said that this was serious.” Lumina said.
        “Emmy’s been kidnapped!” squeaked Luna, her eyes widening.

        The wind blew over the quiet savannah as Lumina and Rain stared at Luna.

        Lumina’s ears laid flat against her skull, and she snarled, “Who did this?”
        “The blackcoats! They just came out of nowhere and snatched her away!”
        “How the hell did those blackcoats found us?” Lumina’s tail was twitching in anger and fear at the same time. And I wonder what Mansa makes of it?
        “I don’t know Lumi… I thought that we were far enough away from them. I wanted to throw my lightning-balls at them, but the pride would suspect something and they took off too fast. Mansa didn’t want to risk any of his lions in a chase as well.” Luna stopped to take a breath. Her body was quivering nervously. “But here’s the thing,” she continued. “These blackcoats were wearing white coats! I’ve never seen them before; they weren’t from my lab.” Lumina and Rain just looked at each other in fear.
        “It’s the Professor’s labcoats…” Rain whispered fearfully.
        “Who’s the Professor?” Luna asked fearfully.
Lumina turned to look up at the sky thoughtfully.
       “The Professor is our creator. We escaped from him, and now he wants us back.”