The Scavenger-King

Story by starforge on SoFurry

, , , ,


Within the den only thunderous snores could be heard, echoing off the rocky walls of the cavern before erupting back into the early morning air. The floor was strewn with perhaps a half-dozen feline frames sprawled in relaxed postures, heads lolled back as the small pride slumbered heavily, their bellies and figures bloated soft and wide, the carcasses of a few fine gazelles picked clean in the center of their sleeping circle. They had been hauled back to the den; hordes of flithy, scrawny scavengers would be stealing mouthfuls all night, otherwise! Among them all, none was fatter than the pride's leader, a true behemoth of a lion, supporting a pair of females upon his bulky frame as a mountain supported hills. Accordingly, his snores roared above the rest, crescendoing with each meat-scented exhale, deafening his sleeping bedfellows to all outside their cavern walls.

Far beyond, past the thick brush and towering trees of the forest, the earth began to shake. Slow and soft, the thunder swelled with the rise of dawn, each ray of light shaken forth as quakes began to rattle the canopy. Birds squawked and took to the skies as distant crashing and crunching echoed far and wide, each sonorous THOOM! signaling the death of a chunk of the forest. A shadow swelled across the forest as the titanic impacts rocked every corner of the green shelter, converging upon the lion's den as the quakes began to crumble the earth itself.

The pride began to stir only when their stone walls began to bounce beneath each titanic impact; by then, of course, it was much too late. As dazed heads lurched upwards there was a resounding CRACK!, and above the felines the rock ceiling split, the cliff above crumbling as it was bisected and raised into the air. Before their slack jaws the landmass was hauled, before being tossed aside, landing with an earthshattering crash somewhere far back into the trees. Frozen in terror, the pride could only stare with ice in their veins and fangs in their hearts, looking up, up, UP at the newest, deadliest predator in the jungle.


The hyena's lips curled upwards, exposing yellowed, gargantuan fangs. A titanic rumble rippled through the upper atmosphere while his toes crunched through the soil, crushing trees as others did blades of grass. Below it was echoed by the rich, wet gurgles of his mighty belly, the bottomless pit booming its wrath down towards the unfortunate souls below. Bones creaked and furred flesh cascaded as he crouched above the landscape, further decimating the canopy as the head of a gargantuan, fleshy shaft plunged to earth.

A titanic fist reached down into the meager pit of a den, scooping up the mewling, pitiful felines in a single monstrous set of fingers, yanking them high into the air as the newly-minted titan loosed a deafening, cackling laugh. How frail and feeble they looked in his grasp! He beamed at their baffled, frightened stares, drinking in their terror as he held them before his vast, cavernous jaws. They had once been his titans, his gods...and now their whole world was his.

His great belly rumbled once more, and the hyena smirked. Thick lips opened wide, and the shrieking, flailing lions tumbled into the saliva-drenched tunnel with a flick of his palm. He suckled upon them for a time, sloshing them about his jaws, savoring every last struggle, every iota of their taste. They didn't deserve a quick demise; those who had cause so much terror and suffering had earned an ounce of their own treatment, after all.

Then, with a wet, titanic GL-LK!, they descended to his belly, and with a windy belch he sealed their fates. The behemoth sighed with pleasure and lurched back into motion, crushing a second swath through the forest, his hand upon his belly. The lions had made a decent morsel, perhaps. But the new king of the jungle still needed a proper meal.