Chapter 55: Your Majesty

As Kael woke up, the first thing he saw when he opened his eyes was to cold black stone floor.

The light from the entrance of the cave coupled with the multiple rune markings on the walls lit up the interior of the cave.

The cave was currently empty with sounds of movement coming from outside.

The dizziness Kael felt slowly faded away as clarity washed over his conciseness. He stood up from his lying position, immediately noticing that things were a bit different.

As he looked down, he noticed that the distance between his head and the ground was longer than before, it had increased, and it wasn’t by a small margin.

Everything in the cave looked like it had shrunk by a couple of factors, including the rune markings.

He raised one of his front paws up to take a step forward. Immediately, he paused out of caution.

He could feel the unbridled power coursing through his limbs like dam water that had just been released. He could feel that if he didn’t control it, the result wouldn’t be funny.

With vigilance, he gently took one step forward. As his paws pressed upon the cold stone ground, his golden claws involuntarily came out.

As they scraped the stone floor, they pierced into it, creating small cracks around the claws’ tips.

Kael didn’t feel any resistance as his claws sank into the ground. It felt like they had pierced marshmallows.

He took another step, this time more controlled. His claws didn’t sink into the ground again and his paws held firm.

As Kael made his way to one of the runes on the wall, he could estimate how tall he had grown.

Before now, he could look straight at these rune markings without raising his head or bringing it down. Now he was bending his head as he was ahd down to see the rune markings.

His golden eyes revealed a thoughtful glint as they reflected the magic runes.

He continued walking toward the cave entrance, a h of his steps leaving a deep thud sound as he moved.

Katari, who was closest to the cave entrance at this time heard the resounding footsteps coming from the depths of the cave.

From the very faint tremor she could feel from the ground, Katari could tell that what was walking out of the dim cave had a lot of weight.

And from the scent that wafted through her nose, she immediately knew who the owner of the footsteps was. After all, she had diligently watched over him for the past months.

Her eyes revealed her eagerness and desire as the golden figure started getting closer to the cave entrance.

"Large." Was what came to her mind as the figure stepped out of the cave. And at this moment, apart from desire, a feeling of dread came over her.

Kael looked down at the body of this ’little’ lioness before him. Instantly, he recognized her as Katari.

From Katari’s standpoint, he estimated that he was close to six feet tall or more from shoulder to foot. He couldn’t really tell at this point cause Katari wasn’t a normal-sized lion herself.

"Hello Katari," Kael said, breaking the lioness out of her stunned state.

"Your Majesty!" Katari said as she immediately took a bow, seeing it fit to do so in the presence of this being.

Before her stood a majestic golden lion of immense size, almost double her size if not more than. His limbs were like ancient pillars used to support the heavens, they moved with raw strength and vigor.

His paws were wide enough that they would cover Katari’s entire face.

His tail was as long as his body, swishing around with the dark gold tuft of hair at the end.

On his neck, head, and shoulders, a dark and fluffy mane wrapped around with a darker shade of gold.

His eyes were like two white orbs with gold rings and a black dot in the center.

The aura he emitted was one of regality and royalty.

"Your Majesty?" Kael asked, his voice had taken a deeper tone like he was more matured.

"That is how kings are referred to in lion clans, your Majesty," Katari said, her head still bowed.

"Hmm, did N’bayé tell you this? We aren’t a lion clan yet though," Kael said, even though he actually liked being referred to like that.

"It’s just a matter of time, your Majesty, we might as well begin now," Katari said, a level of boldness overcoming her for a moment before retracting and leaving her embarrassed.

"Where are the rest?" Kael ignored Katari’s statement for now.

"They are out hunting, N’bayé said that you could wake up at any moment and you would be very hungry when you do so."

Hearing this, Kael’s stomach grumbled as if to confirm Katari’s words.

"How long has it been?" He asked.

"According to N’bayé, today would be the one hundred and eightieth day," Katari answered.

"So six months huh?" Kael’s brain processed the information quickly, the dormant power within him made him act calm and collected, or else he could break something accidentally.

"I’ll wait for them," Kael said and sat down, appreciating the afternoon breeze.

He could see that the trees from the fight with the rhino hadn’t yet recovered. The area in front of the cave was mostly devoid of trees at this moment.

Soon, the remaining lionesses came back with a large stag being dragged by Diane and Zabita.

The stag had brown fur with some green first mixing in here and there. Its antlers were large and had vines wrapped around it. The carcass shared a similar aura with Nalii.

And speaking of Nalii, her horns had grown fully, looking like a mix between antlers and regular horns. They were black and had green lines etched in them.

As soon as they saw Kael’s large golden body sitting at the entrance of the cave, they were stunned.

They had been watching him grow all this time but he was sleeping and lying down in the process. Now that he was up, he looked bigger and way more imposing.

When Kael’s eyes landed on each of them, they could not help but shiver. The only one who was relatively calm was N’bayé.

"Congratulations Kael…"

"Congratulations your Majesty…"

"Welcome back your Majesty…"

…

One after another, they said their greetings, to which Kael simply nodded.

"How have you all been?" He finally asked, a more humane smile coming up his face.

N’bayé, who was closer to Kael spoke, "We’ve been fine. Some of our neighbors tried to bother us while you were evolving but we handled it and chased them away.

Unfortunately, we couldn’t kill anyone of them, not all are as dumb as the rhino after all,"

N’bayé found that she had to look up to Kael slightly, which really puzzled her. Didn’t this mean that Kael was even bigger than her?

"Did your evolution take this long?" Kael asked with worry. He remembered that when he was transitioning into a Primordial Lion at the beginning, it took him a full year for the evolution to complete.

And that was because he forced his heart to start beating the way it was supposed to, if not it would have taken longer.

But the evolution of Katari and the other lionesses after awakening their own lionhearts had happened within a few minutes.

"No, mine look slightly less than a month. But you’re a Primordial Lion, your evolutions wouldn’t be normal anytime soon." N’bayé said with a smile on her furred face.

"Hmm," Kael didn’t say anything about it again as he set his eyes on the dead stag, his stomach grumbling for food. How he had gone six months without eating anything was a mystery.

Diane quickly dragged the dead stag to Kael who immediately dug in. He ripped the chest open and easily broke the ribs as if it was made of mud, only when he had eaten the heart did he start eating other body parts.

The energy he got was like a drop in a vast lake that was ever so slowly drying up.

By the time Kael was full, all that was left was the neck, head, and some intestines.

"We’ll go and hunt more if you want," Katari offered. Kael noticed that all of them were acting extra respectful to him because of the aura. Not that they weren’t respectful before though.

Kael shook his head, "No, you guys should get something for yourself. I want some alone time with N’bayé."

The moment his sentence ended, a strange expression appeared on all of their faces. Why was this the first thing he requested after waking up?

Kael didn’t pay heed to their thoughts, he got up and walked back into the cave.

N’bayé tried to guess what Kael wanted and she felt that she knew but she didn’t think too much about it. With a calm resolve, she followed Kael into the cave.

If Kael had stayed longer, he would have seen Katari’s eyes become a bit watery before she quickly closed them. When she opened them again, they were filled with fake indifference, something she learned from N’bayé after being with her for the last six months.

"Should we go?" Priya asked with a complicated feeling arising in her heart.

"Aren’t you guys hungry?" Nalii asked, trying to change the subject but she was bad at it.

"I don’t know about you guys but I’m actually hungry," Olivia said what was truly on her mind.

"*Sigh* let’s go," Katari said, unable to hide the disappointment in her heart.

They all turned away to leave Kael and N’bayé alone in the cave.

Meanwhile in the cave.

After the duo heard the sound of the lionesses walking away, a glimmer of lust appeared in Kael’s eyes as he looked at N’bayé.

"So," He began. "Firstly I want to know how you transform into a humanoid form."