The Lion Menace

The Lion Menace is a short story written by Dustin Zhang.

Plot
Since it is so short a story, it would be better to simply do a retell.

When Lions Steal
Once upon a time, there was a place in Africa, that was ruled by Kiburi, son of Kiongozi. The place was called the Prairielands. Now, Kiburi lived with his pride, and one day, they discovered that their hoarded food was missing. Nobody had seen the snatch, but it was judged, because of some tracks, that it was stolen by a lion. The next day, two lionesses went out hunting, and they didn't come back. Filimbi had accompanied them, and he alone managed to return, with some of his tail feathers torn out. Kiburi sympathetically asked him what had happened. Filimbi replied, "I was out with those two lionesses of yours, Kiburi, and at Messenger Point I went scouting for a good place to hunt, and I disturbed a herd of wildebeest. There you have some of my missing tail feathers. When I got back to Messenger Point, I saw: 1) The mud by The Mkuu River, 2) An obnoxious noise that seemed to be far away, and 3) The lionesses gone. I saw tracks leading to the Wild Lands, past the Northern Rise, and I followed them, by the air most of the time. But I had scarcely gone thrice the distance between Emperor Rock, and the Waterhole, when I ran into a pair of renegade lions! There you have the rest of my torn feathers. That is my story, and I have spoken." To investagate further, Kiburi decided to set traps. The traps were loaded with meat, as bait, with a line attaching it to a rock, on a stick, at the bottom of a ditch covered with sticks and grass. A long vine with a sack at the middle was held back by the rock, with the latter held back by the line attached to the heavy meat. If a lion happened by, and pulled on the meat, it would dislodge the rock, and the vine, set free, would launch the sack onto the lion, and hopefully trap him inside it after having previously tied stones onto it. Unfortunately, the traps didn't seem to work. Either the meat was taken unharmed, or the trap set off but didn't catch the creatures. Meanwhile, the lion pride was experiencing more meat taken from the stores. One day,something inexplicable happened. A group of renegade lions had been spotted a few thousand yards below border islet, and they had immediately sneaked off, when nobody was watching. The next day, Kiburi, Filimbi, and a few other lionesses happened upon the foriegn lions. Kiburi and the others gave them a courtious greeting, but were taken aback when they were recieved in a negative fashion. However, Filimbi fainted dead away, when the lions revealed the two lionesses that had gone missing, bound with vines, and gagged, being held hostage by them. The lions claimed an immense territory in the Prairielands immediately, and, in exchange for the prisoners, demanded that Kiburi give them their meat. However, when Kiburi gave them the meat, instead of handing over the hostages, the lions demanded more meat, and more meat, and more meat, with the threat of killing the prisoners, and taking new ones. Naturally, that ended in having Kiburi's pride needing to do thrice the work. When they had taken twice as much meat as they could carry (and forced some of Kiburi's lions to carry most of the load), they went away, taking the prisoners with them. However, the lions weren't far away when one of the lionesses heard them say;"Tomorrow, let's come back and work them some more."

Investigations
It was as the lions said. Very soon, Kiburi and his pride were obliged to wake up at four in the morning, and continue work through six in the evening without so much as a rest. Once, Kiburi took Kifalme, his mate, aside. "There is something fishy about these lions," he said to her. "They have already taken more than quadruple the amount that they need. Why do they come to us still, when they have enough food to survive through the entire dry season, now? I think that it's a bad omen for our pride." Kifalme replied, "They're greedy, that's why, but I agree that it is a bad omen. I think we should consult Huruma."