CHAPTER ONE
“Mister Tenant, your days are numbered. Hope you have packed your load” Tete said mockingly as she passed by his side and patted his rump with her paw.
“Get off me,” he snarled.
He leaped up to lunge at her. But out of the corner of his eyes, he caught sight of her mother and his other three stepmothers watching them keenly.
His anger rapidly subsided and he walked away from his half-sister.
“Hey Didi, where are you running to? You scared of your own tail?” Tete called out.
“Enough! Tete,” her mother snapped.
“I was just joking with him.”
“Enough! I said.”
“But Didi is still going to leave, right?”
”Yes, our custom demands we send him away from the Pride. But, don’t make an enemy of him, for your paths might still cross.”
“He won’t last a day on his own,” Tete replied.
“Never say never,” said her mother quietly.
“He is a wimp.”
“Your father was once like him.”
“My father is a warrior,” Tete said.
“Yes, he is. But he was not born one. He became one.”
“Didi does not have the balls.”
“He will grow it.”
“How?”
“Lack of options often makes a hero of the weakest of us.”
“He can’t even hunt on his own.”
“He will learn.”
“Who will teach him when he leaves the Pride?”
"Time and chance happen to us all. Life will teach him using hunger and loneliness."
“I still don’t agree with you mum. You don’t know Didi.”
“I have been a Lion longer than you have been my child. I know Lions and I know a warrior when I see one.”
“Hmm.”
“My child, your father is my 3rd husband. I have seen many things that your mind is yet to understand. So be careful not to make an enemy of your brother.”
“Even if he comes back, I will be ready for him.”
“No my child, if he comes back, he will be too much for you.”