The golden sun beat down relentlessly on the dry, sprawling savannas.
On top of a massive, sun-baked boulder, a giant golden lion was currently completely sprawled out on his back.
His massive paws twitched in the air, his mouth wide open as a loud, earth-shaking snore rattled out of his chest.
A single fly buzzed around his nose.
The lion’s nose scrunched up. He let out a lazy, rumbling growl, snapped his massive jaws at the air, and missed entirely.
With a heavy, dramatic sigh, the lion rolled over.
Where the beast had just been lying, a tall, incredibly muscular young man now sat up. He had wild, untad golden hair that flowed all the way down his broad back, deeply tanned skin, and golden eyes.
He was also completely, utterly naked.
Jin Xuan, the proud son of the Golden Mane Tribe’s Chief, let out a jaw-cracking yawn. He stretched his thick arms above his head, unapologetically scratched his stomach, and looked up at the sky.
"Ah, what a terrible nap," Jin Xuan grumbled to himself. "I am practically exhausted."
His stomach let out a thunderous growl.
Jumping down from the boulder, Jin Xuan sauntered over to a pile of bones and half-eaten carcasses near his sleeping spot. He grabbed a raw, blood-soaked antelope leg, sank his sharp teeth into the cold at, and ripped off a massive chunk.
Blood dripped down his chin and sared across his chest. He didn’t care. To the Golden Mane Lions, wiping your face was a sign of weakness.
"JIN XUAN!"
A thunderous roar echoed across the plains.
An older, even larger man with scars crisscrossing his chest stomped over, kicking a discarded ribcage out of the way. This was Jin Hai, the Chief of the Golden Mane Tribe.
"Are you still eating? You lazy cub!" Jin Hai barked, slapping the back of his son’s head. "The sun is beginning to set! The Mating Brawl is starting!"
Jin Xuan chewed his raw at slowly, looking entirely unbothered. "Do I have to go? Picking a mate is so much work. You have to drag them to a cave, you have to roar at other males......can I just sleep instead?"
"You are my son! The future Chief!" Jin Hai roared, grabbing Jin Xuan by the ear and dragging him forward. "You will pick a strong female to birth strong cubs! Now hurry up! They are already fighting over the warthog carcasses to show off their strength!"
Jin Xuan let out a groan, letting his father drag him toward the center of the savanna encampnt.
The Golden Mane Tribe’s "camp" was nothing more than a series of large rocks, so dug-out dirt pits, and piles of dry grass.
There were no houses, no clothes, and definitely no plumbing.
When they reached the watering hole, a dozen female lions in their non-beast forms were fiercely wrestling in the mud, throwing each other into the dirt and roaring to catch the attention of the strongest males.
Jin Yan leaned against a dead tree, chewing on his antelope bone, completely unimpressed.
"Look at them," his father bead proudly. "Look at Wan Ning! She just bit the ear off a hyena yesterday! What a woman! Go claim her!"
Jin Xuan sighed, tossing his bone into the dirt. "She slls like dried mud and old blood. And she has more chest hair than I do."
"What does sll matter?!" Jin Hai yelled. "We are beasts!"
"I don’t know," Jin Xuan pouted, crossing his massive arms. "I just... I want a female who is different. Soone soft. Soone who doesn’t roar at when I try to sleep. Soone who slls like......flowers or sothing."
His father looked at him like he had lost his mind. "Flowers? What is wrong with your brain? Did you eat a poisonous frog?!"
Jin Xuan groaned, running a massive, dirt-stained hand down his face.
"I did not eat a frog, old man. I am just saying, what is wrong with wanting a female who doesn’t look like she just crawled out of a swamp?"
"Everything!" Jin Hai bellowed, throwing his hands in the air. "You are defective! A Lion who wants flowers! The ancestors are weeping in the heavens!"
Before Jin Xuan could argue further, a shadow fell over him.
He turned his head slowly.
Standing right next to him was Wan Ning. She was a towering, heavily muscled lioness. She was currently completely covered in thick, gray mud from the wrestling pit, and there was a very fresh, very bloody scratch across her nose.
She grinned, baring her sharp, yellowish fangs.
"Jin Xuan!" Wan Ning roared, her voice loud enough to make his ears ring.
She struck a pose, aggressively flexing her biceps. "Look at my muscles! I crushed a wild boar’s skull with my bare thighs today! Be my mate!"
To prove her worth, she reached behind her, grabbed a mangled, half-eaten warthog leg, and slamd it down into the dirt right at Jin Xuan’s feet.
A cloud of dust puffed up, coating his toes.
Jin Xuan stared at the bloody leg. Then he stared at Wan Ning’s hairy, mud-caked chest.
He blinked slowly.
"I would rather sleep on a patch of poisonous cactus," Jin Xuan deadpanned.
Wan Ning’s face fell. She let out an offended, ear-piercing roar, stomping her foot. "You are too picky! You will die alone without a strong female to protect your cave!"
"I am fine with that. Bye bye."
Ignoring his father’s furious yelling and Wan Ning’s aggressive chest-thumping, Jin Xuan simply turned around and walked away.
By the ti night fell, the savanna was completely consud by chaos.
The Golden Mane Tribe’s Mating Brawl had escalated.
Massive bonfires made of dry brush had been lit, casting eerie, flickering shadows across the plains.
Lions and lionesses were roaring, wrestling, and violently dragging each other by the hair toward the rocky outcroppings to consummate their matches.
To a normal beastman, it was a glorious display of strength and fertility.
To Jin Xuan, it was just incredibly noisy and entirely disruptive to his sleep schedule.
"Too loud. They are all too loud," he grumbled, kicking a rock out of his path.
Seeking so peace and quiet, the young Lion Prince wandered away from the encampnt.
He didn’t bother shifting into his beast form, his normal legs were long enough to carry him quickly through the tall, dry elephant grass that bordered their territory.
Jin Xuan walked for a long ti, the sounds of the roaring tribe finally fading into the background.
He found a nice, flat patch of soft grass under a baobab tree. He let out a satisfied sigh, ready to completely pass out for another twelve hours.
But just as he closed his eyes, the wind shifted.
Jin Xuan’s golden eyes snapped open. His ears twitched atop his head.
He took a deep breath, his chest expanding.
It wasn’t the scent of dry earth. It wasn’t the pungent sll of the wrestling mud.
It slled sweet.
Driven by an instinct he didn’t even know he had, Jin Xuan dropped into a low crouch.
He crept silently through the tall grass, his golden eyes scanning the darkness. The scent was getting stronger. It was intoxicating. It made his blood run hot and his fangs ache to bite sothing.
He pushed past a thick cluster of grass and froze.
There, illuminated by the moonlight, was a silhouette.
It was a female.
But she was nothing like the females in his tribe. She was incredibly tiny.
She had no muscles, no scars, and no mud on her skin. In fact, her skin looked soft, glowing in the silver light.
And she was wrapped in so kind of strange, smooth, colorful outer skin that covered her chest and legs.
Jin Xuan held his breath, completely srized.
The tiny female was currently squatting on the ground, aggressively pulling at a leafy green plant with both hands.
"Stupid System," the female muttered to herself, letting out a frustrated groan that sounded like music to Jin Xuan’s ears.
"A ’Midnight Foraging Quest’ for so stupid savanna herbs. Do you know how angry Hei Yan is going to be if he wakes up and finds missing from the tent? He’s going to tear the whole camp apart!"
There was silence. Then—
"I prefer the snoring over getting eaten by wild animals in the dark!" the female hissed back, wiping sweat from her forehead.
Jin Xuan didn’t understand a single word she was saying. Who was System? Who was Hei Yan? It didn’t matter.
All that mattered was that she was here. She was in his territory. And she slled exactly like his dreams.
Mine, Jin Xuan’s inner beast roared. Soft female. Mine!
Unable to control himself for a second longer, Jin Xuan’s powerful leg muscles coiled tight.
He launched himself out of the grass.
He pounced, aiming to pin the tiny female to the ground, fully expecting her to submit to his overwhelming Alpha strength. He was a Lion! The King of the Plains! No female could resist—
"AHHHHHHHHH!"
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