Chimera Rising: Beast King Ascension [How a human-turned-lion went from Zero to Absolute Ruler]

'What is it?' Leo's brother asked, sounding groggy and annoyed at having his rest interrupted. When he saw the message in front of Leo's eyes, the lion sensed his brother's attention sharpen. 'Oh, hell.'

'There are intruders in our territory, are there not?' Leo demanded imperiously. It said something about the situation that the former-human didn't tease him in any way but just started speaking.

'Seems so. Apparently they've held the Place of Power uninterrupted for a whole day now. If they hold it for another day without being dislodged in some way, they'll gain control over the Place of Power by default. At least, that's what this notification seems to indicate.' Dominic's tone was grim. Leo bared his teeth, his hackles rising slightly despite the increased stiffness of his fur.

'Are our females still alive?' Leo demanded, pulling up the Pride status for his brother to read. That was the first main consideration. The second was the fact that if they lost the Place of Power, they also lost the ability to interact with Selessa – at least until they got it back.

'They're still alive, the amesheks and Shrieker too,' his brother answered after a slight pause, his presence emanating relief. 'We need to get back there,' he continued with determination.

Leo snarled slightly, looking around at the resting Pride, allies, and elves. The male lion with whom he had been speaking before the message had appeared now looked wary and tense – he'd pushed himself into a position where he could easily respond to an attack. But he didn't look about to launch an attack himself, so Leo disregarded him for now.

'We're leaving half of these behind then? Because we would already be back there if we didn't have all of these creatures slowing us down. The elves are the worst at that!'

'Let me take control,' Dominic answered with just as much determination. 'I'll speak to the ulla and buffalo leaders.'

'And how's that likely to help?' Leo demanded, his snarl increasing in volume. The other lion started bristling, his own hackles now rising. 'I'm not angry at you!' he snapped at the other male with his Telepathy to keep it private. 'I'm talking to my brother!' Oddly, that didn't seem to clarify things.

'You've just confused him more,' Dominic sighed with annoyance mixed with a hint of amusement. 'Look,' he said, reaching out to the lion himself. 'There are two of us in this body, and we don't always agree. If you want to know any more about it, speak to Sekhmet. We're busy at the moment.'

'Right,' the other lion replied with wary confusion, but he seemed to take the words as his cue – or perhaps excuse – to leave and backed off just a little too quickly to be considered casually.

Leo paid little notice to his departure. 'The last time you spoke to those herbivore leaders, you just rolled over and showed your belly to them. If you'd insisted on them carrying the elves at that point, we'd already be back!'

'We were in less of a hurry at that point,' Dominic growled. 'I decided that it wasn't worth pushing. We're still very new allies, and the buffalos for one have a bad history with lions and humans. It's understandable that they wouldn't want to be carrying humanoids at the behest of a lion.'

'But I thought the whole point of them swearing allegiance to us was to help!' objected Leo. 'What's the point of having allies who do nothing for us?'

'Yes, but there's a difference between asking for help against a common enemy and asking them to let potentially dangerous beings onto their backs. I just preferred to save up a bit of that goodwill for when we actually need it.'

'Which is now?' Leo checked – it wouldn't be the first time he'd misunderstood his brother, after all.

'Which is now,' Dominic confirmed.

'Go ahead then,' Leo instructed his brother, already starting to pull back from their body. He could have argued to keep control, but he was curious about what his brother intended to do. And he was definitely interested to know whether his brother would live up to his words.

He had been opposed to the way Dominic had handled their new allies from the start. His brother was all understanding about the historical issues which might impede their relationship and didn't seem keen on pushing things too much, but Leo was far more suspicious that the grass-eaters were testing to find just how far they could push him. And so far, that was far further than Leo was happy with. He'd tolerated it so far because, though Dominic didn't always seem to realise it, he did trust his brother in most cases, unless his brother was utterly wrong – as did happen. But with his females and territory now in danger, if his brother didn't act in a way which would protect them, Leo would force his way forwards and do it himself.

So, he watched closely from behind Dominic's eyes as his brother padded closer to where the ullas and buffalos were. Unsurprisingly, the grass-eaters had found commonalities between their groups even if they also appeared to compete at times. Dominic didn't go over to the leaders directly, though, but sat down on an open space of grass nearby.

'Leader of the ullas, leader of the buffalos, I need to speak to you urgently,' he said in the Pride chat, his tone calm, but authoritative. So far, so good, Leo decided.

They waited. Both of them observed through their shared eyes as the ullas and buffalos shifted uneasily, and then the two leaders emerged from their herds, stepping cautiously towards the large lion.

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'What is it?' the buffalo leader asked with a low rumble.

'The situation has changed. We need to get back to my territory as soon as possible. I need you to carry our slowest and weakest members.'

'We already discussed this,' responded the ulla leader. 'We are not comfortable carrying meat-eaters on our backs. You indicated that you understood that.'

'I did,' replied Dominic, his tone calm and level. Leo was interested that he could feel no uncertainty in his brother. That was unusual. 'I still do. But as I said, the situation has changed. I can no longer give you the space to slowly come to trust that we will not attack your vulnerabilities. The fact is that we need to travel at speed, and you can offer that to those who wouldn't normally be able to keep up with the majority of us. I promise that we will not take advantage of you and remind you that if I'd wanted to kill you, I would have done so before. But if you are my ally, then you will help me with this now.'

Leo was reluctantly impressed. So far, his brother hadn't shown any signs of folding. It reminded him slightly of the negotiation with the elf when they had left the dungeon – even though Dominic had understood the elf's need, he'd still put their own Pride's interests above the humanoid's.

'And if we don't?' asked the buffalo stamping his hoof and snorting. Dominic lifted his lips slightly and bared his teeth.

'Then you are not my allies,' he answered simply. The two grass-eaters shifted nervously, indicating that they had heard the underlying threat. After all, if they were not allies, that would make them predator and prey again – and there were a lot of predators around who might easily be happy to make a meal out of a bunch of grass-eaters. 'Allies help each other,' Dominic continued after a slight pause. 'You joined us because you recognised that there is safety in numbers, especially with the wave of dungeon beasts which are soon to flood the land. We all have different parts to play in the battles to come – and this is one of yours.'

Leo wondered for a moment if the grass-eaters fully understood what was to come – he knew his brother had tried to explain about the dungeon overflow, but wasn't sure how successful the explanation had been. Leo wouldn't have bothered to try, but it hadn't been up to him. Still, safety in numbers was something the grass-eaters should be very familiar with – and it was as true now as before the world had changed.

'Of course,' Leo's brother continued, his mental tone flatter than Leo had heard it before. 'If this is too much to ask from you, then we can end the alliance right here and now.'

Their spatial awareness picked up several of their females coming over to stand behind them. They must have realised something was wrong from their body language or scent – though their initial conversation had started in the Pride chat, the subsequent communication had been made through Telepathy. Leo guessed that perhaps Dominic was trying to keep it private for some reason. He didn't understand why, though – Prides were there to support each other. As was now being made obvious as their females physically stood with them.

And not only their females. One by one, they were joined by the winged canines, the vibrating canines, and even the primates. The other allies kept their distance for now, but Leo could tell that they were watching. The same was true of the elves, though they smelt particularly wary, enough to even overcome the scent of exhaustion which had been hanging around them for the last few hours.

Leo was particularly satisfied when his new little brother came to stand near them too. He wasn't able to be directly next to the dominant lion because of Sekhmet, Jenkins and the big female canine who had taken the closest positions to Leo, but he wasn't far behind them, and the females he had brought to the Pride stood with him too.

'So, what is your decision?' Dominic asked calmly, as if he hadn't suddenly been joined by practically the whole of his Pride. It wouldn't take much for the Pride to fall upon the grass-eaters – and the prey beasts had to realise that. Leo suspected that the leaders of the grass-eaters understood that there was no middle-ground.

And though Leo knew that Dominic didn't want this to turn into a fight – neither did Leo, considering how urgent their call to the Place of Power was – he was pleased that his brother was mentally prepared for it to become one. Already, he could sense Dominic's mind ticking over various strategies to try to bring the battle to a close as quickly as possible, and with as few casualties as possible. That was both complicated and eased by the fact that allies didn't benefit from Immunity – it would enable them to hit the grass-eaters harder, but at the same time meant they might accidentally strike some of their other allies too. If so, they might end up in a much bigger battle than preferred.

Finally, the ulla stepped forwards with a gusty billow of hot air huffing from his nostrils.

'We are allies,' he confirmed. 'We will carry your two-legs.' He didn't seem pleased about it, but he had conceded. For Dominic, that was enough. Leo personally thought that the ulla should be more appreciative of being allowed to even be an ally, and the leader himself had even been accepted into the Pride itself! Being the pack beasts for their members should have been an honour!

'Good,' Dominic replied, still sounding calm and level. 'And you?' he asked, now only directing his words at the buffalo. The big grass-eater hesitated for a long moment, lowering his head and tossing his horns one way and then the other. He seemed like he was debating whether taking on the whole Pride was likely to work or not.

'You know,' Leo commented privately to Dominic, 'if he does attack us, we'll be well rid of him. Any beast stupid enough to not realise that the odds are this stacked against it is a beast we don't want as part of our group.'

Dominic didn't say anything, but Leo could sense that he reluctantly agreed.

Finally, the buffalo leader stepped forwards too, stamping his hoof.

'We are allies. We will carry your two-legs – if you carry at least one yourself,' he challenged.

Leo snarled at the sheer temerity of the beast. To his incredulity, Dominic didn't treat that demand with the disregard that he should have. Instead, he seemed to be considering it.

'We are not grass-eaters! Who ever heard of a lion being a beast of burden?' he demanded of his brother.

'Well, we do talk about riding a tiger,' Dominic answered with a hint of humour. 'But honestly, it's fair enough. We're strong enough to carry one without taking any strain from it. And it's a good way of showing the ullas and buffalos that I'm not just going to treat them as servants or something – that I'm willing to do whatever they are.'

Despite Leo's continued disapproval, he turned to the buffalo leader and accepted the demand. The only satisfaction Leo got out of the situation was when the ulla and buffalo leaders seemed to be surprised that he had agreed, and that was limited.

With the agreement of the leaders, it didn't take much time to get going. The elves took a little bit of convincing too – none of them were used to riding anything other than a cart – but before too much time had been lost, they were off again. And this time, at a much faster pace with no expectations of stopping anytime soon.

Now they were moving, Leo found questions buzzing around his head like flies. What had happened to the group they had left behind? His brother had said they weren't dead, so where were they? And why hadn't that flying canine come to warn them as he'd been ordered?