[1st POV]

'This is fun,'

I thought to myself while I ate the food near the campfire.

It was a mix of everything, clearly showing the diversity among the researchers. There was a burrito made from existing ingredients, a can of soup heated on the can itself, a can of some kind of meat - probably beef because it smelled like buffalo, a bunch of bread with jams and butter, jerky of all kinds, old boiled eggs, roasted vegetables and a few more which I could not identify.

Maybe they didn't have breakfast for some reason this morning, but they were going hard at lunch.

The foods were quite nostalgic for me, it was the food I ate in my past life before I fed on raw meat and blood. The taste was not quite the same, probably due to different taste buds, but the textures and smell remained the same.

The humans stood frozen like idiots as I ate everything. I was bullying them, and I was having fun doing it because I knew exactly what they were feeling.

I ate most of the food and left the rest as trash. I head towards the tents next to which there were five. One of them was twitching ever so slightly, and a smell was coming from there. There was one person inside.

I eerily circled around the tents, making my movements more dangerous than necessary. I was moving like the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park.

I checked the tents one by one and left the occupied one for last. There were different things, all too familiar yet distant to me.

I stumbled upon a storage that had a lot of nutritional bars. I ate them whole and spit out the wrappings after chewing a few times. I did not like the taste, so I didn't eat much at all.

But I ate all the bars that had protein bar written on them.

After I was done, I finally went to the occupied tent. I could literally hear the man inside holding his breath when I came near him. I stood in a certain angle where my shadow was cast over the tent.

I took slow steps around before I stopped. At this point I could hear the poor man's heartbeat.

Holding back a grin, I moved away. I made sure that my shadow disappeared from he walls of the tent.

One second, two seconds. Three and then boom.

I turned abruptly and, with a roar, I tore the tent with a swift wave of my paw. The man released a guttural scream. It was a scream so real and terrified that it caught me off guard.

The scream was so tearing and terrified that even the other humans flinched and released their own scream or bellow. They probably thought I was attacking the man with the sound he was making.

My ears cringed as I thought maybe it was not such a good idea to scare the man. His scream was annoying.

But then I doubled down. I jumped optop of the man, pinning him between my feet, and his scream also doubled. He could probably tear his throat if he kept going.

"NO!!!"

"WAIT!!!"

"AHHHHHH!!!!"

I heard the others scream as loudly as the man. I even heard a woman screaming at the top of her lungs in terror. I did not see them, but some of them were aiming whatever weapons they had at me. A dagger and a spray?

I growled deeply and put my paw on the face of the man, effectively shutting him up. Lions had the ability to retract their claws so my paw was harmless as I covered his mouth.

I adjusted my paw a bit becuase it was big enough to cover his whole face and more. I covered only his mouth and nose.

His eyes went wide enough to pop out his eyeballs, but the screaming stopped. I remained in that position for a few seconds before I slowly uncovered his mouth.

His mouth was wide open in that screaming position, but no more sound came out. His wide eyes slolwy gained clarity. Panic drained from his face, quickly replaced by fascination.

A few seconds of silence, and it was clear that I was not planning on hurting anyone. I knew what they were; I was not some dumb animal that was full of unpredictability. I was not quick to respond to their panic with agression.

What stood before them was a very sentient and smart animal that had decided not to cause them any harm. I came in peace.

I moved away from the man and headed towards the rest of the humans. The two men who were aiming whatever they had in their hands dropped their items when I glared and showed my teeth.

They raised their hands in surrender.

The two of them were new, so I remebered their scent. I circled around them once or twice, brushing my muscles against them and letting them know exactly how much smaller they were by pushing myself and standing briefly on my hind legs.

I was around 10 feet when standing as upright as I could on my hind legs. A whole 3-4 feet taller than the average lion.

After I was done checking them out and displaying my dominance - which almost came instinctively at this point - I headed towards the people whose scent I remembered.

The old Jackie Chan-looking man was still the same, except he no longer had a thick beard, only a moustache. I remember the black man who was extremely scared of me and the brown young man.

I observed them closely for a few seconds each before I finally turned my attention to the last person.

An asian woman. Taking a good look at her, I knew she was an attractive woman. But my lion body would not allow me to feel such things for a different species. My whole concept of beauty had changed, with scent being the primary judge for soemthing attractive.

And the human smelled, not good. Her shape, although I knew was perfectly fine, looked oodly ugly to my lion eyes as well.

She was the only woman in camp. A female in a male-dominated field, I guess.

She was almost vibrating in her place. Since I began checking every human, her body language seemed to scream, 'Me next! Look at me next!'

I pushed myself up and put half my weight on the vehicle. The jeep creaked and tilted under my massive weight. I tired my best to not rest too much of my weigth in it.

"Whoa there, buddy!!" the black man in the jeep said. He was reacting much better than the last time I saw him. There was barely any fear in his eyes now.

I grinned, wanting to test how he really feels about me. I shifted to his side of the car. But he did not pull away even when I got close.

He merely raised his hand with an exaggerated smile.

Boring.

"Hey, do you remember us?" the woman asked with a smile.

I stared at her plainly. Should I nod? I probably shouldn't. That would freak them out more than I already did.

Wait, that sounds fun.

I nod.

I saw both of their faces morph into shock. Their eyes blinked dumbly for a while before they collected themselves.

This is fun.

"You remember us?" she asked again.

I nod.

"No, fuck that!! Did you just understand us?!" the man asked, his voice loud and shocked.

I shook my head.

"No, no, no. You did. You just answered us," he said.

I shook my head again. No, I didn't.

"Wait, so you don't understand us," the woman said.

I nod. Indeed, how can I understand human language?

"He is literally answering us with his head gesture," the man screamed, with equal fear and excitement.

Am I though? Maybe I am just doing whatever.

I shook my head, side to side, up and down. My thick mane followed each movement, while I enjoyed the reaction.

Now I made it look like a coincidence.

"Really?" the man deadpanned at me.

I stopped moving my head and stared him dead in the eye too.

"Stop it. There is no way a lion can understand us. He is not a dog, he rarely even interacts with people, so how can he understand us?" the woman said, and then she turned to me, "Am I right?"

I nod.

The man was now opening his mouth and pointing at me. On the other hand, the woman just had a smile.

I was not going to show too many supernatural things about me. I already had their undivided interest; no need to do more. Otherwise, the US government might just capture me and study me. That would suck.

If they studied Einstein's brain, I was sure they would be happy to study mine too.

A few more interactions later, the woman made the bold move of putting out her hand towards me.

Her hands were shaking, fingers curling and uncurling to show her nervousness. She bit her lips, clearly scared but also determined.

There it was. The human urge to pet everything and anything, no matter how dangerous.

I pulled back slowly so that her hand never reached me. When her arm was fully outstretched, it stopped right in front of my face.

But the woman did not give up, she put her hand there. She was trembling, but it was there.

I thought about it for some time.

In the end, I bent my head a little and nudged my head on her palm, like how the dragons do in How to Train Your Dragon. I felt air escaping from her as she sighed and laughed.

Her hand moved awkwardly at first before they then carefully caressed my mane. Her fingers were so small through my fur, it was like when the lionessess licked and cleaned my mane.

I let her do as she liked just enough for me to realise why cats were domesticated. And then I pulled back.

I opened my jaw wide and covered her hand. She flinched but didn't pull back. I put her hand inside my mouth, slightly nibbling on her flesh.

The gestures were a display of trust on both sides.

Afterwards, I released her hand and didn't allow her to pet me again.

"Let me try," the man said and reached out his hand as well. But I just gruffed at him and he pulled his hand back quickly.

Sorry, dude, but females and males are too different, especially in the wild. While I was okay with being soft with the lioness and the female, I was not going to do the same for other males.

Dignity has boundaries, yes.

I noticed that the woman held some of my mane in her hand and she quickly stored those away. I guess they wanted that for tests.

I pushed myself off the jeep, the two people nearly falling over when it suddenly tilted.

And then I walked away.

The cubs and the lionessess were curious about what they were, which was the reason why I came here in the first place. I've achieved my goal.

Maybe I would return later.

It was fun.

..

..

..

[Image]

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------