[3rd POV]
(Documentary : Episode 1)
[Name : Dr. T. Soma Tonson
Role : Lead researcher and ethologist.
Nationality : Indian {from Nagaland, Northeast India)
Age : 62]
"Would you believe me if I told you that it was never our intention to make this documentary?" an aged man said while sitting in front of the screen.
He gave off a wise scientist vibe with his well-kept grey hair and formal attire. Although he was Indian, he had eastern asian features, as did most of the population in North East India.
"It might come as a surprise, considering the immense fame Leo had gained in recent years, not just among a few people but on a global scale. But our first encounter with Leo, as you will see, came entirely by chance," he said.
"When we began our expedition in Serengeti, Leo was not even in the equation. The primary objective of our expedition was something else, it was to film and study the three kings," he said.
The scene showed the crew living in the savannah beside the lion pride that was led by three kings. It also showed the kings in question, shifting through the daily life of this massive pride in the Serengeti that had caught the attention of scientists and ethnologists.
"Three dominant males, ruling over one of the largest prides in the eastern corridor. It was the perfect case study for understanding coalition power, hierarchy, and legacy within lion societies. We learned a great deal from them, especially about pride dynamics and how cooperative dominance functions within such a rare trio," he said, and you could hear the passion in his voice.
"We were trying to make a documentary about them at the time, and why wouldn't we? We thought for sure that these lions were legends in the making. But our hopes and expectations were obviously destroyed by one single male," he said with a thin smile.
"Leo," he said.
The scene showed a young Leo when he was just two years old, which was around the time when the humans first encountered him. The pictures and videos were the first documentation they had in their archive.
Leo, at just two years old, which was barely a young teenager in a lion's age, was walking around the Serengeti with curiosity in his eyes. He was observing everything in his vicinity as if checking out new land.
At such a young age, he was already the size of an average male lion. Although a juvenile, he was already carrying himself with a certain regality.
At that age, he was nothing compared to what he grew up to be. His pictures were clearly juvenile when compared to his viral photos that had taken the whole world by storm.
But you could see the hint, the foreshadowing of what he would become.
"Would you look at that, it's hard to believe he was two years old at that size. It took us an embarrassingly long time to realise he was juvenile when we first found him. For the longest time, we thought he was a full-grown adult. But then he just kept growing. Hahaha," he said in vivid awe and admiration. His laugh sounded like one of disbelief even now.
The scene moved to show the development of Leo over the passing years. How the lion grew more and more monstrous until the photo stopped at the viral image that every people were familiar with.
An absolute unit, an impossible beast.
"Anyway, we will get to that in future episodes. But now let's talk about the beginning of this story," he said, and the scene changed to the earlier photos and videos of Leo, when he was just a teenager of two years old.
"We were already a few years into our first project about the three kings. We had made incredible progress, and the pride was well-documented. It was like any other day, half of the crew had left our camp to film and follow the Serengeti pride while four of us remained in camp," he said.
"And that's when he appeared. Leo came directly to our camp like a curious cat observing his new surroundings. We never knew of him before, were never aware of his existence. This caused us to believe that this was one of the earliest days Leo spent in the Sernegeti region," he said in a knowing voice.
"Unknowingly, the Serengeti welcomed her greatest king," he said with a wide smile that was excited to tell a tale to the viewers.
"And Leo found us, not the other way around."
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[Name : Hana Park
Role : Zoologist and Big Cat Specialist
Nationality : Korean-American (from Seattle}
Age: 34]
"Ten years had passed since the first time we met, but I remembered the day like it was yesterday," a woman said while sitting in front of the camera.
She was a Korean woman with sleek black hair tied in a ponytail. She was in her mid-30s but she looked like she was in her early 20s, sharing the Asian superpower of looking young even at an older age.
You could tell that she was soft-spoken and effortlessly feminine on first impression. She gave off the vibe of the perfect wife who died at the beginning of revenge movies.
A few scenes showed her living in the savannah along with other big cats. Her daily life with the crew as they studied the three kings of the Serengeti.
"It was morning, it was not early anymore, but none of us expected to encounter a lion at that time, especially not when the Serengeti Pride was far away from the camp. Our driver Malik was the first one to see the lion, and the commotion caused me to leave my tent. And that was when I first saw him," she said.
"At first, I thought it was an ordinary stray male that had stumbled upon our camp. But upon a closer look, it became clear that the lion was not ordinary by any means. Leo was one of those beasts that get weirder the closer you look and becomes magnificent when you understand him," she said with a hint of wonder in her voice.
She chuckled, "At that moment, I was so engrossed in his appearance that I forgot all my fears. His build was the first thing that struck me, massive shoulders unnaturally developed for a lion his size, a muscular chest that was wider than you would expect and four oversized paws. It was not anything odd at first glance, the average person would not notice the difference, and they will simply think it's a lion more muscular than others. But for a specialist like me who studied big cats for years, it was a clear distinction,"
"A remarkable distinction. I learned the reason for his unnatural build when I looked at his back and noticed the absence of something. Leo did not have the long tail that most lions did, instead, there was a short stub like the tail of a sabre cat. And we immediately theorised that to be the reason for his unnatural build and muscularity," she said.
"It was adaptive hypertrophy, the body increased some things to make up for the lack of another. Tail loss in lions was incredibly rare and truthfully crippling. Without a tail, there was a loss of balance, manoeuvrability, expression and many other things. A lion's tail isn't just decoration. The loss of such a vital part of the body should spell certain death, but this particular lion - Leo - had adapted and grown around his traumatic injury. What should make him inferior made him unique and superior instead. Watching him was like watching a living miracle," she said, full of passion.
The scene shifted and showed the picture of Leo, but this time it was more focused on his back and his short tail. What people thought to be a defect looked natural on his frame. He had adapted to it perfectly.
"And when he moved, it was textually all wrong but looked completely right. He was not moving like a lion, there was a subtle difference that would go unnoticed by the naked eye. His actions were ancient, like something nature had almost forgotten, but Leo revived it," she said.
The scene changed to Leo moving around the Savanah, and then the screen split to show the movement of a normal lion. The viewers could compare the two beasts, but even then, it was hard for them to notice.
The video went into more detail and into X-rays and other cgi to show the difference between the two beasts. It was only then that the viewers noticed Leo's wider paw placement, his lower centre of gravity, and the deliberate steps. While the normal lion moved naturally like in a flow stance, Leo's movement looked robotic and almost intentional.
Calculated would be the better word.
"Our first encounter was short, and he didn't stay long. Just sniffed around, gave us all mild heart attacks, and left like it wasn't worth his time. Although we didn't know it back then, we watched history walk past us that day," she said.
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[Name : Malik Adeyemi
Role: Second camera, transport coordinator, translator
Nationality: Nigerian-Tanzanian
Age : 41]
The screen changed tone.
Gone were the polished interviews and academic breakdowns. Instead, it opened with a shaky handheld shot taken from inside the main vehicle, just behind the driver's seat. The perspective showed a pawprint. Not a normal one, but enormous, etched deep in the dirt near the truck's tire.
Then the camera turned to a black man sitting with one leg crossed over the other, his posture casual. He gave off a friendly charm about him, like it would be weird to see him not smile.
"Well, hello there. I am out here in the wild, still tracking Leo as we speak, so I can't come to the studio all the way over there in America. The producers insist on including me, so I will give my view," he said in a mild African accent.
"I don't mean to brag, but I will. I was the first person to see Leo. I was there, sitting in the jeep and drinking a bottle of water. And then he just walked right into our camp," he said with a wide smile.
The scene showed a different time period where Leo was hanging near their camp. The moment was not their first interaction, but it worked to re-enact the situation for the viewers.
"He didn't come in like a lion usually does, you know? He was not loud, not puffed up, not aggressive, but not sneaking either. He just walked towards me, like he already knew what the camp was and who we were," he said.
Malik laughed, "I am not a smart scientist or zoologist with a master's degree so I'll just say what I saw. The second I looked into his eyes, I knew Leo was a bit different from other lions. There was no twitching, no wide pupils. He didn't look confused, not as confused as any other animal was when they saw a man or a vehicle," he said.
The scene shifted again to some archived video, Leo standing calmly in front of the truck, his golden eyes fixed directly toward the lens. He stared at the camera like he knew what it was.
"You know how animals usually look through you? Like you're a part of the scenery? He didn't do that eAge on the first time we met. He looked at me, like really looked at me. Not like I was danger, nor like I was food. He just saw me for what I truly was. It was very scary at the time hahahaha,"
"We all kind of freaked out for a moment. Even after he left the camp, we couldn't get him out of our minds. Heck, I had nightmares about him for a few nights after that. But my crewmates would not stop talking about how unique he was and how interesting it would be to follow him and document his life," he said.
"Many questions were thrown around, how did he get so big when he was imperfect? From where did he come? Was he recently kicked out of the pride, or had he been wandering as a lone lion for a while? How did he hunt without a tail? He should have a problem chasing prey with his build, right?"
"Like any scientist, they were very curious, and they made me drive towards him in the end for answers. If it was any other male lion, we wouldn't have bothered and focus on our real project. But Leo had left us too curious,"
"And that was how we first started to document him,"
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