“But I do,” Uzuri said. “I swear it.”
Ugas glanced over at her. He fondled her cheek with his paw. “If you think one day you’ll wake up and have nothing holding you to Pride Rock, you’re mistaken. It will never be easy to leave.” He pulled his paw back. “You’ll keep finding one more reason to wait. It will always be one more week, and the weeks will turn into moons. But I’m old, Uzuri, and when I’m dead all the tears in the world won’t bring me back.”
“I thought you weren’t going to play on my guilt,” she said.
“I’m not. I just have this terrible dread that when you’re gone I’ll never see you again.”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” she said with a deep sigh. “Nothing will keep us apart, dear. You’re the only lion I’ve ever loved, and the only one I ever will love.” She got up and shook off. “I’m sorry, but I have to go. My cubs are hungry.”
“Our cubs,” Ugas reminded her.
“I know.” She nuzzled him. “Darling, I will come back. I promise you.”
“Soon?”
“Soon.”
“I love you. Never forget that.”
She looked back at him sadly. “I love you too. Wait for me.”
CHAPTER: THE WINDS CHANGE
Uzuri was true to her heart. Once her feet were set on the path she did not stop until she arrived. Out of her love for Elanna, she kept an eye on Taka whenever she could.
She heard a rumor from Ber that some of the hyenas were plotting to kill Taka, but they needed a way to make it look like an accident--or suicide. It panicked her, not so much because of Taka but what it would do to Elanna. Little did she know they were planning to kill Lannie as well, or she would have really done something desperate.
To settle her mind, she went to see Taka--something very few lionesses would ever do, for his mental state had deteriorated to a barely suppressed madness.
He was not in his usual place. She bullied one of the hyena guards to tell her where he went.
“The cistern place, I thinking,” he said in broken leonine. Leonine from a hyena! Indeed, the occupation had lasted longer than she’d thought.
“Ka’del chul,” she replied in perfect hyannic. Now it was his turn to be surprised.
She ran down the slope of Pride Rock along a path covered with hyena footprints. Going around to the lee of the stone, she saw the dark-maned lion huddled by the side of the water, talking to his reflection. “No way out. There’s no way out. If there is a God, please help me! But how can there be a God? How can there be a God with so much misery in the world?? If I were God, things would be a lot different around here, that’s for sure!”
“Sire?”
“What??” He looked up, more afraid than angry. Tears had stained his cheeks. “Oh, Uzuri, it’s only you.”
“What’s wrong?”
“Did they send you to find me? Did they put you up to it--all those lionesses that want to know if I’m totally mad??”
“That’s not fair!” Uzuri upbraided him, something only she and Elanna could do. “Lannie was worried about you. She asked me to keep an eye on you.”
“Spy, you mean?”
“No. If I was spying on you, would I call out? I could see you quite well from over there.”
“Yeah.” He wiped his eyes with a paw. “You do think I’m mad, don’t you.”
“Well, I think you’re hurting.”
“Hurting.” He laughed bitterly. “I’m going to die soon. Not that I dread being dead one bit. It’s dying that frightens me.”
“Surely you’re not going to kill yourself??”
“No, nothing that noble. My friend, I know my star lore well. Well enough to know that the rumors are true, not mere whispers in the reeds.” He sniffed. “Uzuri, you believe in God, don’t you?”
“Of course I do.”
“Then if you swore something by Aiheu, you’d consider that binding for all times, wouldn’t you?”
“Of course. Where is this going, Taka?”
“You looked after me for Elanna. Now I want you to swear that you’ll look after her for me when I’m gone. I want you to swear by Aiheu.”
“I don’t have to swear it. I love her, and as long as I have breath in this body, I’ll take care of her.”
“When I die that the others will want to hurt her because she was my wife. You must protect my Lannie. She gave up everything for me, and that kind of devotion must not go unrewarded. Don’t let them hurt her, Uzuri. They’ll listen to you.”
“I’ll do my best. I promise. If it makes you feel any better, I’ll swear it to Aiheu.”
With a pronounced trembling in his limbs that made him look far older than he was, he drew up alongside her and nuzzled her. For a moment she could see the frightened little cub that used to call her Zuzu. “I said some unkind things about you in the past,” he said. “When you remember me, I want you to remember that I felt regret. Say a prayer for me from time to time.” He nuzzled her once more. “Now be a good girl and please leave--I should like to be alone now.”
Uzuri nodded and softly padded away. She had no way of knowing that Shenzi would crush the life out of him later that evening.
CHAPTER: REBIRTH
Until the final dark days of Taka’s reign, most of facets of pride life continued to operate, but in a more subdued and somber manner. Cubs were born, Beesa died and was duly mourned, a lioness came of age and earned her annointment of blood and a lion was given his mantlement.
Toward the end, however, there was not so much life as existence. Thoughts turned toward Aiheu and the life beyond the world of Ma’at. Before the futile mockery of a hunt that almost never succeeded, Yolanda would lead her pride sisters in prayer and nuzzle each of them `tearfully, not knowing if they would all return safely. One of them, a young female, broke ranks during the hunt and ran madly for the border screaming “Aiheu abamami!” She was never seen or heard from again.
Since that fateful escape, patrols of hyenas enforced a no-hunting zone near the borders, making it more difficult to abandon the crumbling kingdom when the borders and a new life were calling alluringly.
And yet Nala did. “If I don’t come back by next moon, don’t try leaving one by one. Settle on one night and leave as a group. Fight like fire and fly like the wind. Let Taka and his hyenas rot together, but for God’s sake go!”
She was determined to get help. Indeed, by the grace of Aiheu she received it.
Simba’s return infused the pride with new life and hope. The hyenas were gone--at least the ones that supported Shenzi--and fairness returned to the conduct of life. Without Taka’s violent mood swings, Simba was a very accessible King, and day by day the pride sisters saw in him the marks of his father. To say there was none of Ahadi in Taka would be unfair, but only Elanna’s tenderness could look inside and see it within him.
But there was no change overnight in the bleak landscape. Animals that avoided the boundaries of the pride lands in their migrations now felt confident to walk across Simba’s land rather than detour through Ugas’ and Mabatu’s kingdom.
Getting them to stay was another matter. One-who-brings-rain visited the land when the evil had been driven from it. The fertilizing drops quenched the dying thirst of the land and wakened seeds long buried in the desolate soil. Those sparks of new life realized the fulfillment of Aiheu’s promise, and they ached for long overdue freedom, straining at their bonds and breaking free to push up new leaves for sunshine and fresh air.
Within a few days, the brittle gray savanna began to show a green haze that tinted the bases of last year’s burned grass. And within a moon, the appointed time for the escape, lush grass was thriving on the nutrients in the ash strengthened soil. Antelope and zebra came to graze on the verdant treasure. Giraffes plucked new green shoots from the wakening acacias and rabbits began to clear out old burrows of their ash and mud. And to the careful ear, the sound of singing birds broke the long silence with messages of hope and joy.
The golden t
ide of rebirth was climaxed by Simba’s roar from the promontory. “Listen all of you! Nala is with child!”
CHAPTER: IT STARTS
Togo and Kombi once thought all males were like Taka. Simba’s good natured sense of humor and gentleness made a deep impression on them.
In particular, they watched the way he treated Nala, and the way she reacted to his attention. They were curious about this sort of relationship which seemed to bring Simba so much happiness.
Their mother nodded and smiled. “That’s the way I feel about your father. Someday you’ll have a wife and cubs, and you’ll be that happy.”
That was probably the most she had ever told them about having a father, and she made no signs of elaborating on that statement. But it did stoke their hopes somewhat.
Isha thought she was in for another prank when Togo and Kombi showed up at her resting place.
“What are you up to this time?” she asked, somewhat impatiently.
“Nothing,” Kombi said innocently. It was when he looked like he was not up to anything that Isha suspected him most.
“And why are you up to nothing by my spot? Go do nothing somewhere else--I’d feel much safer.”
Undaunted, Kombi sat in front of her. “It’s like this. You know how moms are. They won’t tell you any of the good stuff.”
“Oh?” Isha’s ears flicked forward. “And what is the good stuff?”
“Lionesses. You know--lionesses.”
“Yeah, I know.” She folded her paws and the tip of her tail twitched. “Do you want to be more specific?”
Kombi looked at a loss. He glanced over at Togo who looked equally nonplused. “Just start talking and I’ll tell you when you got it.”
Isha laughed. “You mean....” She drew close and whispered, “....lionesses?”
“Yeah!”
“Well, why didn’t you say so in the first place!” Isha spread her claws and groomed the end of her paw nonchalantly. “That’s a big topic, but I’ll fill you in. You see, there will come an age when you will be walking along big as the world and along will come this cute little lioness. You’ll stop in your tracks and stare at her, and even though you’ve seen her dozens of times before, she’ll look different to you because you’ll be looking with different eyes. You’ll think that she’s special somehow, and you’ll want her to think you’re special too.”
Togo and Kombi watched her raptly, their full attention riveted by the topic. “What happens then?” Togo asked.
“You’ll know when it happens to you. It’s nothing to be ashamed of or afraid of. It’s Aiheu’s gift to you to fall in love with someone. If that someone loves you back, it’s even more wonderful. That’s the kind of love that brings light out of the darkness.”
“Neat,” Kombi said. “When is it going to happen to me?”
“That’s one thing I can’t tell you,” Isha said. “When you finish going through puberty, you’ll understand.”
“Thanks,” Togo said, rubbing against her. “Has it ever happened to you?”
“A few times,” she said, smiling coyly.
Armed with all the information they needed, the experts in love went on to other pursuits like playing tag and baiting a poor hedgehog to distraction.
The hedgehog was protected by spines which hurt their paws. They were not old enough to know to tip the unfortunate beast over and attack the underside, but they were old enough to age the hedgehog several years in a few moments.
Finally the hedgehog darted into some reeds and skirted away.
“Darn,” Togo said. “I was hoping we could keep it.”
“And what would you do with it? Teach it tricks?”
Just then, Vianga came slinking out of the grass with remarkable grace for a lioness in that long-legged age. “Hi, Togo.” She smiled at Kombi and winked. “Hello, hot stuff.”
“Uh, hi Vivi.”
She strutted past the two lions with a flip of her tail that brushed the tip of Kombi’s nose.
Togo watched the playful ballet of her shapely thighs as she headed on to the watering hole. His mouth hung open.
Kombi said, “It just happened.”
“What?”
“I finished going through puberty.” He got up and padded after her.
“Hey Kombi, wait for me!”
CHAPTER: ALL’S FAIR IN LOVE AND WAR
Togo lay glumly at the foot of Pride Rock, sprawled ungainly across one of the stones that lay tumbled at its base. He stared bleakly at the trembling tips of the savanna grass and wondered if puberty was worth the agony he was going through. Perhaps Rafiki had some obscure potion that would calm his jangled nerves and keep him from staring at HER.
He groaned a put a paw over his face. “Oh, Vianga! Why won’t you love me just a little? Why won’t you give me a chance?”
By day he had fantasies of her sunning herself on a rock. When he closed his eyes at night, her smiling face pursued him into the depths of feverish dreams from which he awoke from trembling and calling her name. He couldn’t pass her by without feeling his heart race. He would want to gaze into her liquid amber eyes, nuzzle her cheek, rub against her side, and yes, place his paw on her left shoulder to make her his forever. Only one thing separated him from his goal.
Kombi.
Togo’s jaw clenched as he thought of his brother. Kombi must have the favor of the gods, for every time Togo tried to impress her, Kombi would one-up him.
Togo, who was not as dim as he seemed, was only painfully shy. When she was away, he would think of witty and charming things to say, but when she looked right at him--which she rarely did--all that would come out is, “Nice weather we’re having."
Togo had practiced for days at jumping the small creek that trickled into the water hole, soaking himself many times to the laughter of several animals. He ignored that laughter and kept on trying, concentrating on balance, poise, and distance. It would not do to land in the mud and splatter the girl of his dreams. Early that morning, he had gotten the jump down pat, and he tried it several times, always landing with a whisper in the dry grass on the other side.
Elated, he then padded off, seeking out Vianga and talking her into taking a walk with him. The two paced down to the water, chatting idly, with Togo fighting down his irritation at Vianga’s repeated wondering about the location of his brother.
“Oh, he’s probably wandering somewhere, playing cub games.” Togo smiled indulgently. “You know how CHILDREN are.”
“I like children,” Vianga said, bending down to sniff at the edge of the creek. “I think they’re cute.” Barely more than a cub herself, she nevertheless managed to throw a dazzling smile at Togo. “I can’t wait till I have cubs of my own.”
“Neither can I,” he breathed. His heart was pounding, and he was looking into those liquid hazel eyes. It was all he could do to keep his left paw firmly on the ground.
Then a tawny shape shot past, leaping into the air to land with a solid thud on the other side. “Hey, Vivi! What’s up?”
“Kombi!” Vianga squealed delightedly. “Wait for me!” With a bound, she cleared the creek easily, landing silently next to him. They paced off together, Kombi shooting a quick grin and a wink over his shoulder at Togo.
“Hey! Wait up guys!” Togo gathered himself and leapt, watching the water flicker by underneath him, the sunlight dazzling off it’s surface in a starburst of light, the far bank coming closer...and rising much too rapidly...
“Uh-oh,” Togo muttered. He closed his eyes, wincing as he hit the water, the cold driving the air from him with a burbling gasp. Sodden and covered with mud, he dragged himself off, the soft giggles of Vianga’s laughter driving thorns into his heart. He stormed home and he’d been sitting on that rock ever since.
Togo stared at the trembling grass and sighed again. No doubt about it--love was a cruel trickster that played by its own rules.
“Hey, Togo.”
His hackles rose as he heard the voice. HER voice.
“Vi
anga?”
She paced around the rock to look at his sad face. “Togo? I, uh...”
“What?”
“I’m sorry I laughed at you this morning.” Vianga scuffed a paw in the dirt nervously. “It was really mean of me.”
Togo gaped at her. “Uh, well, it’s okay.”
“Really?” She glanced at him quickly. “You mean it?”
“Sure.” He smiled at her.
“Great. You’re really nice, Togo.”
He opened his mouth to reply, but was interrupted by an all to familiar voice. “Vivi!”
She looked over Togo’s head. “Hey Kombi! He’s right here.”
Togo turned to gaze at his brother. “What is it?”
“I hope you aren’t sore about this morning. I explained to Vivi that it wasn’t your fault, since you were...you know, born uncoordinated.”
So that was why Vianga looked at him with such a mixture of sorrow and pity! Togo struggled to take in the depth of his brother’s deviousness while wondering where he had learned a word longer than three syllables. “Uncoordinated, huh?” Togo bristled.
“Yeah! I told her that’s why I can already catch prey, and you can’t.” Kombi grinned.
“What??”
“Sure!”
“You can NOT catch prey, Kombi!”
“Can too!” Kombi’s grin turned sly. “I bet I can catch something before YOU can!”
Togo shot a flat gaze at Kombi, all too aware of Vianga’s eyes on him, measuring.... “Deal.”
“You’re on!” Kombi sniffed the ground purposefully, then dashed away into the grass. Grumbling, Togo padded off in the other direction, wondering what he was going to do now. Pushing his way onto the tall grass, he nosed about uncertainly, then froze as he heard a horrific shriek. Turning, he tore back to where Vianga sat, her eyes wide.
“Did you hear-”
“What was that all-”
Both of them were silenced by the sight of Kombi padding out of the grass, humming busily to himself, a fat savanna hare dangling from his jaws. He deposited it on the ground, grinning hugely. “Told ‘ya!”
Under the Acacias cotpl-4 Page 6
