by Lilly Wilder
“I’m sure they’re happy to finally be in a place where they feel like they belong. It never quite worked out for them anywhere else.”
We walked ahead and the mountain loomed larger. I longed for the coolness of the shadow it cast. I’d been taking frequent sips, more often than I imagined, so the bottle of water was only a quarter full. Despite this, my throat still felt parched.
“So, what makes you and Dalton so special? What brought you into my path rather than other lions?”
“I don’t know if we’re that special, we’re just the right age, and, aside from Bruce, we have been the most powerful lions in the pride. Bruce is the only one who has ever bested us, but he is a loner and prefers to keep to his own company. He sees everyone else as beneath him, and he only wants to command the pride for the sake of his own vanity rather than any sacred duty.”
“Unlike you?”
Rick smirked again. “I won’t rule. Dalton has the mindset for it, but I will help him. We have been friends all our lives. I don’t think either of us would know what to do without the other.”
“I feel that way about me and Jennifer,” I said, and then horror gripped me. In all this chaos, in all this magnificent maelstrom of chaos, I hadn’t paid enough attention to what I was actually doing. “I’ve just left my life,” I said. “How long am I going to be here for?”
“That depends entirely on you. You may even wish to stay with us, but we do have ways of contacting the outside world if you so wish. Your parents managed to get a message to you, did they not?”
My panic calmed as I remembered this fact. “Yes, I suppose they did. I will need to get a message out even if I’m only gone for a few days. I can’t just leave work without any warning. I’m supposed to be proving to them that I’m a reliable employee and deserve a promotion.”
“You should not need to prove anything to them. Just by looking at you they should know you are worthy of all the honor they can bestow upon you.”
I was touched by his words and found myself smiling. “I wish it worked that way. I suppose I might as well mix the truth in with the story and tell Jennifer that I’ve tracked down my parents. She’ll be able to cover for me, at least for a little while.”
“Consider it done,” Rick said.
My legs were beginning to ache. I couldn’t remember the last time I had walked so much, although Rick didn’t show any sign of fatigue. Dalton wasn’t slowing his pace either and remained ahead of us. I raised my hand to shade my eyes from the sun and looked ahead to the mountain.
“Please don’t tell me we’re going to have to climb that,” I groaned. Rick smirked.
“No, our home lies just beyond the mountain. We don’t have to walk over it, but we do have to walk around it. I’m sure you will find it to your liking though.”
“I hope we get there quickly,” Ellie said, glancing down at her water bottle, which was almost empty. The terrain wasn’t entirely a desert. There were vast stretches of plains where long grass swayed in the early morning breeze, and in the distance she saw a herd of animals galloping across the horizon. It was as though she had been plucked from the city and placed in a nature documentary. It was a world away from the one she had known all her life, and it amazed her that her parents had managed to get this far.
“So what do you guys do for fun around here?” I asked.
“We hunt, and we run, at least when we’re in our lion forms. When we’re in human form we tell stories, we paint and craft, we work the land, we do all the things that regular humans do, just without the use of technology.”
“Don’t you find it difficult though, especially now that you’ve lived in the city for a while?”
“This isn’t our first time in the city,” Rick said. I arched my eyebrows in surprise.
“It’s not?”
“No…I’m surprised Dalton didn’t tell you, but then again he does often find it difficult talking about the past. He never mentioned Sarah?”
“No,” I said, not surprised that Dalton had decided to hide something else from me, although now my curiosity was piqued about this Sarah. “Who was she?”
“That’s a story that Dalton will have to tell you himself, but it might allow you to understand him a little better. You should ask him when you get a chance, but, yes, we are always allowed to go to the city. There are no restrictions placed on our movements, but anyone who does go to the city must acknowledge the responsibility they take on, a responsibility to protect our secrecy. But to answer your original question we don’t miss technology at all. We have plenty to occupy our time and I’ve found that your technology only serves to isolate you from the ones closest to you. There’s almost too much to do in the city. When was the last time you simply sat down and pondered the nature of your existence? When was the last time you got lost in your own thoughts?”
“Actually I’ve decided that I’d rather not get lost in my own thoughts, because nothing good seems to happen to me while I’m in them.”
Rick found this amusing. “I think there’s something to be said for a more streamlined life, a life where we’re not always bombarded with information and entertainment, because it leads us to being distracted and we don’t get a chance to properly explore ourselves.”
“My parents thought the same thing, although apparently books were different,” I said ruefully.
My breathing became heavy and I wanted to take a break, but I also didn’t want to show any sign of weakness in front of the lions. I maintained a good pace and, thankfully, we came into the shadow of the mountain, which was wide and tall, and made entirely of red and brown stone. Its peak was jagged and rough, and I did wonder what secrets it contained. But we didn’t have to go up the mountain, only around it, and what awaited me made my mouth drop in awe.
The grassy plains rose up into tall trees and a small pocket of a forest. There was a large lake at the bottom of the mountain, into which a waterfall fell, and it was surrounded by vines and moss. In the distance I could see thin spires of smoke rising through the air, and I heard the chatter of voices.
“A long time ago we used to live in the mountain, long before I was born. The caves were our home then, and we stood atop the peak looking out over our kingdom,” Rick said with pride. These people had a long history and there was something sad about the fact that their kingdom had grown smaller as humanity had expanded. It was a miracle they had managed to stay out here, undiscovered, for this long.
There were more questions I had, but they were driven from my mind as we reached the periphery of the forest and a party came out to meet us. Most of them were strangers, but there were two I recognized; Mom and Dad, the parents who had abandoned me to go on their foolish quest in search of a myth, the parents who had left me unprepared to face life in the wide world, the parents I had resented for most of my life, yet now that I saw them, I was filled with happiness at our reunion. I ran up and looked at them in disbelief, and they showed just as much joy as they ran up and embraced me together. Our family was together again, and until that moment I hadn’t realized how much I needed them.
Chapter Eleven
I was sitting in a small hut, in the middle of a primitive village that looked as though it was directly from agricultural times. The huts were made of thick dried mud and stone, and they were dotted around a clearing where everyone gathered to welcome Rick and Dalton back. The two lions had left us with some privacy, and Mom and Dad took me to what they now considered home. It was a small place, but it was filled with books, just like the home I remembered had been. Mom and Dad looked happy and healthy. Their skin had a healthy glow and they were lithe, their muscles defined. Love still glowed in their eyes, as well, and I felt unfair for holding a grudge against them for so long. They had given me some water, which was served in a wooden bowl, and they looked at me with pride.
“We’re so glad they managed to find you,” Dad said.
“It wasn’t as easy as you might think,�
�� I replied. The conversation had a staccato rhythm to begin with, as we got used to each others’ presence again. Mom reached out her hand and squeezed mine gently. A flood of emotions crashed through me and I almost burst into tears instantly.
“What happened to you? How did you get here?” I asked, wanting to keep myself distracted so my emotions could remain on an even keel.
“That’s a long story, honey,” Mom said. Just hearing their voices again took me back to childhood and reminded me of what I had missed.
“But it’s a good one. When we left you we had nothing but the open road ahead of us and a few stray clues. At first it took us ages to get going, and there were more than a few moments when I thought we should turn back. It didn’t seem like we were getting anywhere, but your Mom reminded me why we were doing this and how important it was to get to the truth, so we kept going and eventually we had a breakthrough. We followed a trail of breadcrumbs across the state and let me tell you, it’s no wonder that nobody bothered to search for them before, because it was a hell of an ordeal and we had to go to some shady places to get the information we needed, and the less said about them the better, but then we pinpointed them to this location and we did it. We found them.”
“I’m surprised they welcomed you, given how much they like their privacy.”
“Well, it wasn’t exactly us, who found them. Apparently our efforts hadn’t gone unnoticed and they had been observing us for a while. They knew we weren’t going to be a threat to them, so they took us in and taught us all about their culture. It’s been amazing Ellie. They’re such a proud, wonderful people, and it’s such a shame what’s happening to them.”
“Yes, thank you for volunteering me for this by the way. It’s good to know you still think of me,” I replied dryly.
“Of course we think of you darling,” Mom said softly, “when we heard what was happening here we just…we knew we needed to help and we thought that you might be willing to help as well. We both know that deep down you’ve wanted to be a part of something like this.”
“With all due respect, you don’t know me at all. You haven’t been around for a long time, and even when you were you didn’t pay that much attention to my own ambitions,” I said, holding out my hands.
“That’s unfair,” Dad said.
“Is it? What on Earth made you think that I would want to come here and have babies with someone I barely know, to help save their society? I have sympathy for them, but it’s not exactly something I want to jump into. God, I can barely make enough right choices to keep myself safe, let alone take care of a child. What were you thinking when you told them to come and find me?”
Mom and Dad glanced at each other. “We were thinking that we wanted to see you again,” Dad said, his tone faltering. I didn’t want to get into an argument with them, but there was something about them that touched a nerve and I hated myself for it. I softened and tried to see things from their point of view, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that they had taken liberties with my life once again.
“And I’m not sure you know the full extent of what’s happening here,” Dad said. “What did Rick and Dalton tell you?”
I gave them a summary of everything I had been told and Dad rocked back, exchanging a meaningful look with Mom.
“They’re in danger of dying out Ellie. This place is historic, and it’s prime hunting ground, so the other prides will take it whenever any sign of weakness is shown. At the moment they need fresh blood. They’ve been complacent for too long and they haven’t been able to raise the next generation yet. Other prides are already getting wind of this and if they come to challenge this pride they might well win, and drive the current pride away. If this pride can’t prove their strength and that they have the ability to maintain these hunting grounds they’ll lose it and be driven away, driven all the way to the shadows.”
I didn’t know exactly what he meant by the shadows, but it didn’t sound good and I had no idea things were so dire.
“And they haven’t been able to find anyone to provide them with new blood?” I asked.
“Not yet,” Mom shook her head and sighed. “It’s so sad, as well, because they’re such a lovely people and they’ve been so kind to us. They’ve shown us nothing but good hospitality and they’ve been here for so long. It’s their home, and it’s not fair that they could be driven out.”
“But why? Why would other prides come to take this from them?” I asked.
“It’s fortunate you’re asking us this question and not them. They take their privacy very seriously and it takes them a long time to trust anyone enough to open up to them. Lions are very territorial and like any alpha predator species they prey on the weak, even when it comes to their own kind. If weakness is sensed, a stronger pride will try to take over, and we’re starting to get to that point now. That’s why it’s imperative that you at least consider this proposal. They need someone like you Ellie, and I know we haven’t been around much the past few years, but I think you might need this too.”
I looked away, hating them for thinking that they could speak as if they knew me intimately, when they hadn’t been a part of my life for so long, but I hated them more because I suspected they were right. I wasn’t about to let them know that though.
“You don’t know what I need,” I said. “You haven’t been around. You don’t know what I’ve been through.”
“We know you’ve been hurting,” Mom placed a hand on my forearm. I looked away, biting my lower lip.
“How? How do you know?” I asked harshly.
“Because we’re your parents and we know these things about you,” Dad said. “I know we haven’t always been perfect, and there have probably been plenty of times when you’ve wished that we were better at this whole parenting lark. But what you have to realize, Ellie, is that some things are just built into us. We’re your parents. There’s no changing that, and we can sense things from you, like the fact that you’re in great pain, and I’m truly sorry that we weren’t there to help you. Do you want to talk about what happened?”
“No. It wouldn’t do any good. It was just…just a bad relationship. There’s no point in rehashing the past,” I said, not wanting to talk about Andy at all. Mom and Dad looked at each other again, communicating secrets with each other without saying anything at all. I suppose, in a big way, I was jealous of them for having that kind of connection. For all the mistakes they had made in life, and for all the things I wish they had done differently when it came to parenting me, one thing I couldn’t deny them was the fact that they loved each other and they would have moved the earth for each other if it was necessary. They were a team in every sense of the word, a true partnership, and nothing could break the bond between them. It was something I admired about them, something that I aspired to myself, and I couldn’t quite figure out how they had done it.
Whenever I’d asked them about how they’d met, it had always been told as a meeting of two star-crossed souls, as though the universe had moved them like chess pieces to come together and love had blossomed. So many things could have been different. They met at a parade. They’d lived in the same city all their lives but they had never crossed paths until that fateful day. If either of them had left their houses just a few moments later, or if they had taken a different route to the parade, or if they had been forced to stand somewhere else, they might never have bumped into each other, and as a result, I would never have been born. Sometimes I was completely in awe of how the universe worked. There was such a delicate rhythm to its balance and it was impossible to tell whether everything was fated or happened completely by chance. I wasn’t sure what I believed, but when I looked at my parents I couldn’t shake the feeling that they were meant to be together.
“Look, I don’t know what you expect me to do here,” I said, clasping my hands together, “but I can’t just give up everything in my life to come out here and give myself to this pride. I’m not like you. I like my life in
the city. I like my job and my friends, and I’ve been working hard to make some progress. I think I could really be somebody and I’m not ready to throw it all away. I don’t even know why you’d think I’m worthy of these lions anyway. I’m nothing special. The only reason I’m here is because you’re my parents.”
“Ellie, you are special. Believe me, we only suggested you. The lions didn’t have to choose you. They found you. They came after you. They deemed you worthy. You’ve always been special, and I hate that you can’t see it. Maybe that’s on your Mom and me for not showing you properly, but you’re intelligent and kind, you’re determined, you’re just…you’re everything. The hardest thing we ever had to do was leave you in the city. We wished you would have come with us, but you made it clear you didn’t want to. But this was our calling, and we’re so happy that you’re here with us, now. We know you might not want to stay, but at least be patient and see what this life has to offer you,” Dad said.
“And you have to admit that there are some quite charming people here,” Mom said, with an insinuating look in her eyes. I rolled my eyes at that, for there was already plenty of history between myself and Dalton, and Rick for that matter. I intended to leave, as soon as possible, now that I had been reunited with my parents. This life wasn’t for me. I wasn’t the type of woman they were looking for. I had my own ambitions and my own dreams in the city. I wanted to be like Jennifer. I wanted to have a career and sort my own shit out before I had a family. I wasn’t ready for anything like this, but before I left I had a few loose ends to tie up and since I was already here, I figured I might as well enjoy the place and get a sense of why my parents liked it so much.
*
When we left the hut, I almost screamed, because I saw a number of lions walking around. For a moment I had forgotten that it was their natural habitat, but eventually my heart stopped racing. The lions were sleek creatures with manes of different colors, and it was easy to tell the women apart from the men. We walked into the middle of the clearing, where meat was sizzling on a fire. Huge carcasses were rotating on spits and the fat was dripping down, making the flames hiss. My stomach rumbled and I was told that the lions hunted all their own food. I waited there, before being given a thick cut of meat, which was delicious. The juice stained my hands and ran down my chin. I looked back towards the lake and saw that some people were bathing inside. Lions and humans mixed together without any kind of awkwardness, and aside from my initial instinctive fear, I felt no threat from the lions at all. They seemed so happy and free, and it gave me some sense of what Rick and Dalton had given up during their stay in the city. As a resident of the modern world, it shamed me that they had to hide themselves out here. The wider world would never be able to understand these people, so they were forced to make a life for themselves out here, and they had managed to find happiness. It was laudable and even enviable that they had been able to cultivate a happy environment while being shunned from the wider world.
