Reincarnated As A Li Chapter 41: Forest

"Finally," Kael announced as they saw the foreign terrain ahead.

It has been one month since the incident with Kael, but not forgotten.

The Ol-mytee Pride had rushed ahead beside the river, intending to reach a destination they had never been to as soon as possible.

An unknown number of animals fell for their hunger, leaving behind nothing but bones as evidence that a powerful pride had passed by.

Across the past month, they had encountered two more lion prides. One of them was quite large and the pride leader had to be dealt with separately to ensure that the rest added their identity marks to the Primordial Record.

The other pride was a small one like the first one that they t. None of the lions and lionesses that they t had awakened their lionhearts so it wasn’t hard for the Ol-mytee Pride to overpower them.

Now, the Primordial Record had more than twenty marks on it with three of those marks specifically belonging to pride leaders.

Kael did not have any use for these identity marks apart from a ans to know who had submitted to him. The words he left, [Kill a gazelle, Reward: 1 stone] were still there. He had confird that the lions with their identity marks on the Primordial Record could actually see this.

He wondered what would happen if they actually killed a gazelle. This wasn’t the migration season so it may take a while to see a single gazelle anywhere.

But for now, he was more focused on the scene before him.

He and the lionesses had entered a region that had a lot more vegetation than usual. There were more trees and so of the trees Kael had never seen before.

The farther in they went, the more trees they saw until they found themselves inside a forest.

Nalii took in deep breaths, feeling particularly comfortable in this environnt.

Zabita’s eyes scanned the trees and her ears picked up every strange sound that she hadn’t heard before.

"The birds are abundant here," Zabita said as she sank her tal claws into soft soil. This environnt didn’t really soothe her psyche but she felt that she could bear it.

The sll of sothing burning suddenly filled their noses. They turned to see Eidels flaming tail lighting up a nearby bush.

She looked at the tongues of fire in amazent. The glow of the growing fla reflected in her beautiful eyes. She wanted to observe it so more but a golden paw descended to put out the fire hurriedly.

"Don’t do that again," Kael said sternly, the seriousness in his voice made Eidel sit up imdiately. Kael knew that this was how forest fires started, who knew how many trees would be burned down before the flas finally died down?

Kael didn’t plan to find out as he felt that this forest could be of use to him. Eidel silently put out the flas at the end of her tail.

"Let’s follow the river," Kael said as he headed in the direction he could hear the sound of flowing water.

The river bed here was different, it wasn’t as murky as the one in the vast plains. He could see the stones at the bottom of the river.

They followed the river, heading deeper into the forest region. Kael felt just as comfortable as he felt in the plains, he didn’t feel any particular dislike or like for where he was now.

Soon, they heard a small splash from the river. They all snapped their heads toward the source of the sound in a creepy manner.

They were just in ti to see a small fish leao out of the river against the current.

Kael was surprised, he quickly walked over to the edge of the river with the lionesses behind.

Unbeknownst to them, on a tall tree a few ters behind them, a neatly woven spider web encompassed the space between two branches.

On this white silk spider web was a small spider, sitting there and calmly observing the nine strange creatures.

Its eight black eyes reflected the figures of the lion and lionesses and the whole surroundings.

There was sothing peculiar about those eyes. The way they stared at the group, it was filled with a certain level of intelligence that most spiders would never have.

anwhile, Kael looked into the river to see multiple little fishes. So were red and so were silver, all were swimming against the current, easily creating small waves every ti they moved.

’I’ve not had fish since I reincarnated actually,’ Kael thought as he licked his lips. These kinds of fish were not easy to see in the plains, usually, they would have been eaten to extinction by the crocodiles.

"You guys must be hungry, let’s catch so," Kael said to them telepathically as he stepped into the river one paw at a ti.

Everyone was curious about these little fishes, everyone but Katari. Ever since the incident with the crocodiles, she was very cautious when it ca to entering any river. Once bitten twice shy.

Kael’s eyes darted left and right, looking for the right fish. Then suddenly, he plunged his head super fast into the water, stunning the lionesses with this action.

When he removed his head from the water, it was wet with soaked golden fur hanging on edge and dripping water down. In his mouth was a slightly long silver salmon-like fish.

The fish died as Kael’s golden teeth pierced into its flesh and blood dripped down.

The lionesses looked at this, stunned. Kael walked out of the river, he looked around until he saw a stone big and flat enough for what he wanted.

He placed the fish on the slab of rock, eyeing it in amazent. This fish looked like a salmon, it was silver in color and had a streamlined body like a torpedo.

"I want to try sothing, hunt more of these fishes," He said.

"Fishes? Is that what these are called?" Olivia asked as she hurriedly entered the river to catch the fish like a fat bear.

Steam rose into the sky as Eidel splashed water around while chasing after a fish. Soon the sound of water splashing resounded amongst the trees.

By the ti they were done, dozens of red and silver fishes were on the stone slab with so falling off of the slab. Kael counted roughly thirty-six.

Small streaks of orange flas appeared on his golden fur, providing a sense of heat for the wet lionesses.

Out from his nose ca small streaks of flas that hit the fish. He would take a breath in and when he breathed out, flas would co out.

These flas were mild but hot enough to slowly roast the fishes. The residual water and blood slowly evaporated, leaving a smoky and brown look behind.

Soon, the sll of roasted fish spread out, encompassing the river, trees, and reaching the noses of unintended forest critters.

Kael raised his head to appreciate his work. The forrly raw fish was replaced by a good-looking, crisp-skinned, golden-brown, fish.

He couldn’t remove the scales efficiently with his claws so he didn’t bother about it. He used his claws to pierce into one of the fish. It easily went through the now brittle scales and into the hot insides.

He cut the fish into two, allowing the smoke and the white flesh inside to be exposed to them.

Olivia had drool forming at the edge of their mouth as they stared agape. Since when could sothing sll so delicious?

"You can eat," Kael said, he knew that they were waiting for him to give them permission even if he didn’t need to. As long as he stood beside the food, they wouldn’t eat unless he told them to, it was sothing that they were used to.

As soon as he permitted them, they dug into the pile of fish. Before Kael was done with eating one fish, Olivia and Diane had already gulped three.

The fish was tasty, and although it felt a bit different on his lion tongue, it was delicious nonetheless.

Although Kael had ignored it for a long ti, he still missed spices. For lions and lionesses who had never had seasoned food in their life, raw food was the best.

But Kael ca from a life where humans had the tastiest food in excess. For now, he could only make do with what he had. Not to ntion cooked food wasn’t necessarily healthy for lions.

In the blink of an eye, Kael and the eight lionesses had almost finished all the fish, but they weren’t satisfied.

Without waiting for Kael’s request, Zabita, Ruda, and Eidel rushed back into the river.

At this ti, Kael’s ears perked up as heard a snapping sound. He looked into the forest, vigilant.

Not just him, Katari, Diane, Olivia, Priya, and Nalii heard the sound.

Their noses twitched, picking up a foreign scent. Simultaneously, their heads pointed toward the sa direction as their eyes locked onto a particular tree.

*GROWL*

Katari released a fearso growl that reverberated across the area. The growl was such that even the trees began vibrating in tune with its threatening intent.

An orange head poked out from behind the tree. Large eyes stared at the group with an innocence that Kael hadn’t seen in a long ti, but he didn’t falter, because the creature that had poked its head out from behind the tree was a fox.

There was nothing inherently innocent about a fox, especially one that was so big.

Kael’s eyes expressed his curiosity as he saw the fox eye the remaining pile of fish. However, that look turned cold when the fox stepped out of its hiding place and revealed its full body.

Indeed there was nothing ordinary about this fox. Its bright orange-red fur was very eye-catching, and its two large white-tipped ears pointed to the sky.

What was very interesting about this about this fox was the two orange, fluffy tails swishing around behind it. The tails swept about in a srizing manner.

Kael knew this was another creature that had awakened its species-specific power, its Foxheart.