Chronicles of the Pride Lands cotpl-1

by John H. Burkitt

  It was nearly noon, time for Taka's nap, but Mufasa gamboled up like a box of rubber balls, so full of cubhood enthusiasm that he was about to burst. His mood was contagious. "Taka, you just gotta see this! "

  "Gotta see what?"

  "What is it, son?" Akase purred. "Another hedgehog? A meerkat perhaps?"

  "Well, it's--" His tail twitched. "Yeah, a meerkat."

  "What's so great about a meerkat? We see them all the time, " Taka said, sulking. "It's almost noon. It's hot enough to melt your brain, if you had one."

  "But this meerkat is DIFFERENT, " Mufasa said with a sly wink. Taka saw the way Mufasa's tail twitched, something that always happened when he told a lie. He half-smiled with a toothy, wry grin.

  "Different, eh?” Taka was shaken out of his self-pity. “Well, I guess so. Is it okay, Mom?"

  "If you're back soon. You’ve been kind of under the weather today."

  Almost before she could finish her sentence, Mufasa and Taka bounded off like a shot, startling a flock of noisy guinea fowl into a conniption. They headed through the deep grass of the plain, stopping once in a while to stand up above the grass like furry jack-in-the-boxes.

  Deep in grass though they were, young Sarabi saw them fording the broomsedge and knew there must be something up worth seeing. She hurried across the rocks and plunged into the green waves. Before long, she joined them, panting.

  "So what's up?" Sarabi asked.

  "Oh, nothing, " Mufasa said. "We were practicing--stalking." His tail twitched.

  "Every time you're up nothing, " Sarabi said, "You're up to something."

  "We are going to look at--a meerkat, " Taka volunteered.

  "A meerkat?" Sarabi asked, a little unconvinced. She saw his nose twitch, a sure sign that he was lying.

  "Well, this one is different, " Taka said.

  "Then I want to see, too, " Sarabi said.

  "Good work, lame brain, " Mufasa half-snarled. He cuffed Taka soundly on the cheek. Taka growled and cuffed him back. These were done with the claws in, like the well-bred lions they were, but they started wrestling full-tilt.

  Muffy was stronger, and he fought cleanly. Taka was a determined opponent, and before long he started snapping at ears and tails. As the fight threatened to turn really ugly, Sarabi started running little circles around them, distressed.

  "Stop it! Stop it right now! " Sarabi was highly indignant. "We'll never see that stupid old meerkat at this rate--if there ever was one."

  She had no effect. The snarls began to sound more serious. Taka was losing, as he usually did, but he wasn't giving up. "Say Uncle!"

  "Not till you--ow! --stop calling me names! Just cause you're bigger than I am doesn't make you smarter! "

  Sarabi shouted, "I'll tell your mother if you don't stop! You're both lame brains sometimes."

  "We're just funning, " Mufasa said, on top.

  "Yeah. We didn't mean anything, " Taka said, wiggling out from beneath, and giving Mufasa one last hard swat with his claws out.

  Sarabi looked Taka over, and seeing a small spot of blood on his right ear felt very motherly, began to clean it with her tongue.

  Taka could always count on her sympathy, but he wanted to look more grown at the moment. "Doesn't hurt."

  "You're bleeding."

  "Oh, it's nothing. Really."

  "Yeah, really, " Mufasa said, cleaning a nasty cut on the back of his paw by himself. "Well, if you insist on coming, there's this honey badger near the forest. He's white--whiter than clouds. You remember when N’ga and Sufa were fighting over that white lioness because she was magic and could grant wishes?"

  “You mean Minshasa?” Taka thought a moment. “Oh yeah! But you can’t marry a badger. Or can you?”

  “I don’t want to marry it. I only want a wish.”

  “What are you going to wish for, Muffy?”

  Mufasa smiled an embarrassed smile. “That’s why I wanted you to come. I want you to sit with me when I join the great kings of the past. Dad wants me to be King when he dies.”

  “I heard him. I was hiding behind a rock when he told you.”

  “You shouldn’t spy on people, ” Mufasa said sternly, but he added, “Maybe you won’t be a king in this life, but if the badger really gives wishes, you’ll be a king when you die.”

  “Really?” Taka was in transports. “You’d do that for me? What a neat idea! ” He was very demonstrative, and he nuzzled Mufasa. “You’re the best! You said wanted to give me half of the Pride Lands. I heard you.”

  “Yeah. But it’s not going to happen, so don’t tell anyone I said that.”

  “I won’t. It doesn’t matter now, but it was really neat. You’re the best, Muffy! ” He laughed and took a swat at his brother. The two of them got into a wrestling match, giggling and squirming. Both of them did their utmost, butut as usual Mufasa quickly won, pinning Taka.

  Mufasa had to smile a little inside. He was glad he didn’t wish for something selfish. Still holding Taka down, he said, “Look, when Dad tells you I’m the new King, you act surprised. You’d better. You know he’d cuff you good for spying on us.”

  "I want to be where Taka is, " Sarabi said. "Either I get to sit with Taka, or I'm telling on both of you! "

  “That’s going to be my wish, ” Taka said. He squirmed out from under Mufasa, went and nuzzled her. “Now what are you going to wish for?”

  Sarabi gave Taka a quick tongue touch on the cheek. “You’ll find out.”

  With this settled, the three cubs headed toward the burrow at the edge of the acacia grove.

  SCENE: THE BURROW

  The entrance to the burrow was a forbidding black hole. Mufasa started to enter it, but the opening was barely large enough for a regular cub to squeeze in properly, not really enough to maneuver in. Mufasa was a bit large for his age, and he had no hope of getting down there. He suggested that they call the badger out.

  “Hello in there! ”

  There was no reply.

  “Come out, badger. I can hear you breathing in there, so I know you’re at home.”

  They waited several moments. Nothing happened.

  “Let’s go, ” Sarabi said. “Looks like he’s a no-show.”

  “Wait. I think he’s holding out on us.” He yelled down the hold, “I'm Prince Mufasa—I’m going to be King someday, and I’m making you my prisoner. If you want to get free, you’ll have to bless me and my friends! "

  They could indeed hear the sound of muffled breathing coming from the depths of the tunnel. Carried by the walls of the burrow, it sounded loud like the sound of the sea in a shell, and it was quick, almost urgent and upset. They didn't know if he was afraid or angry.

  "Maybe he's deaf, Your Majesty, " Taka said with a laugh. "You pulled me all the way over here for a hole in the ground? I bet it's a rabbit. Just a scared little rabbit! And YOU called ME a lame brain! "

  "But there was a white badger here, honest! " Mufasa looked at Taka, then at Sarabi. "You do believe me, don't you? I mean, does this smell like a rabbit to you??"

  Taka sniffed carefully of the opening. He'd never smelled a honey badger before, but he knew it was not a rabbit. It was strange and pungent, and full of possibilities. "I've come this far, " Taka said. "If I'm going to get my wish, I guess I have to go in there."

  "You'll never do it, " Mufasa said, looking at the dark hole with a barely repressed shudder. "He sounds really angry. Besides, it's dark in there, and you're afraid of the dark."

  "Says who?"

  "Says me, that's who! You always think the hyenas are going to get you. Sometimes you won't go to sleep till high moon, then you have bad dreams."

  Taka was deeply stung. Often he would wake with the same nightmare of being ripped apart by hyenas. Akase, always listening with a mother's ear, would be there quickly to comfort him with warm kisses that smelled like lioness love and let him rest his head on her soft belly until he fell asleep to the music of her breath. He never knew if he also woke Mufasa. Now, there was no d
oubt. Taka's stomach knotted. He looked at the hole and knew what he must do.

  Sarabi could see the fear and cuddled up next to Taka. "Don't do it if you don't want to. I sure wouldn't."

  "That's cause you're a girl, " Taka said, but he looked at her kindly. Then he faced the dark hole. "I'm not afraid of the dark. I'm not afraid of the badger. I'm a lion, and lions aren't afraid...” He looked over at Muffy. “...no matter WHAT their brothers think."

  With stooped shoulders and head held low, Taka angled down the steep passageway. As he reluctantly headed down the dark shaft, inch by inch, he kept talking. "We're not going to hurt you. We just want you to give us a wish, see? There are three of us, so that’s three wishes." The sound of breathing from the depths grew faster, as did Taka's. “Three wishes ought to be real easy for someone like you. I mean, what’s three wishes for a real Nisei?” Silence. “Please say something. Anything.”

  "Hey Taka, " Mufasa said, "You don't have to do it.” He stuck his head in the hole and said, “I'm sorry I called you a dim wit."

  "It was lame brain, " Sarabi said.

  "Whatever." Mufasa snapped. "Hey Taka, come back. I was only funning about you being afraid of the dark." He grew impatient. "Taka, I SAID I WAS SORRY, all right?? Now come out of there or I'll tell mother! "

  “Don’t block up the hole, ” Sarabi said. She listened carefully at the entrance. “What’s he doing down there?”

  “How should I know? Hush.”

  They heard Taka's voice from the depths of the tunnel. It was distant, thin and stammering. "We don't want to hurt you. You see, my brother Mufasa is going to be King when he grows up, but I’m just his brother. He had this idea that if I could sit with....”

  There was a low rumbling from the depths. It sounded like a growl.

  “Please help me. I’m scared. It's so dark in here." It was Taka. Mufasa and Sarabi did not know if he was talking to the badger or to them. Mufasa tried to push his way down the hole.

  It was a tight fit, and he realized he wouldn’t be much help. He started digging.

  “Don’t! ” Sarabi pulled him back. “It will cave in! ”

  “But he’s in trouble.”

  “If he gets buried, he’ll really be in trouble.” She looked in the opening. “Taka, are you OK?”

  “Is that you, Sassie?”

  “Please come out. If you love me, come out.”

  “In a minute.”

  “Not in a minute! Right now! ”

  The sounds of breathing quickened again. There were some sounds of movement. Then silence. After a moment, Mufasa looked at Sarabi. "I didn't think he'd do it. Either he's very brave or very stupid."

  "He's not stupid, " Sarabi said firmly. "If you hadn't called him stupid, he wouldn't be down there! Just because he's smaller than you are doesn't mean he's stupid." She called out more loudly. “Please come out! You’re scaring me! ”

  Just then there was a loud, menacing growl and a cub's shriek of agony. "I'm going! Oh Gods! Let me go! Let me go, you’re hurting me! " They could hear Taka trying to back out.

  Muffy started digging furiously. “Taka!! ” Dust flew from his paws, and he managed to work his head in. “Hold on: I can see your tail! Come back a little more. Give me a few more inches! ”

  Mufasa grabbed at the tail and pulled with all his might. Sarabi grabbed Muffy’s tail, and trying not to hurt him too much gave a yank. Taka came stumbling out of the hole backward, his face covered in blood, and one of his eyes protruding from its socket. The white badger came out after him, but saw the other two cubs raise the fur on their backs and snarl. Thinking twice about its options, it reluctantly went back in its hole. Taka laid on the ground shivering. "Oh gods! It hurts! Somebody help me! I want my momma! "

  Mufasa stared at the unseeing eye in a pool of blood. It took a moment for him to tear himself away from the horror and move. "I'll get Mom--no, I'd better get Makedde." He started off, then stopped. "No, he'd have to come back here. Can you walk, Taka?"

  Taka struggled off the ground and began to limp. Blood dripped down his face and onto the grass. "I'll try. Is it very far?"

  "No. Just follow me."

  SCENE: THE PROPHESY

  “Three things there are which cannot be called back. The spilled wine, the sped arrow, and the spoken word.”

  -- MENELAEUS OF NAXOS

  It was a long trek to Makedde’s home in the baobab tree. In the hot sun, the blood began to cake in Taka’s fur, and flies mercilessly swarmed around him. His gait was unsteady, and try though he did, his bravery could only stretch so far.

  “How much further is it?”

  “Just a little more, ” Mufasa said.

  “That’s what you said the last time.” Taka began panting uncontrollably. “It hurts. Do you think he’ll have something for the pain?”

  “He has stuff for everything, ” Sarabi said. “Don’t worry, Taka. Everything will be all right.”

  “How much further is it?”

  Sarabi got ahead of him and looked into his face. His good eye did not seem to focus. She realized he was following the sound of Muffy’s feet. “You must keep going, ” Sarabi said. “Do it for me.”

  Loss of blood and the pain was sending Taka into shock, and he was getting weak in the limbs. “Sassie, I don’t think I can make it.”

  “You can make it, ” she said, leaning into him. “Taka, did you hear the one about the two wildebeests and the zebra?”

  “No.”

  “Well there was these two wildebeests, and one said to the other, ‘I bet I can get that zebra to laugh before you can. So he went to the zebra and said, ‘Watch this! ’ He stood on his head and stuck out his tongue. But the zebra didn’t laugh. So you know what the other wildebeest did?”

  “What wildebeest? I don’t see any.” He stumbled and lay still in the grass.

  “Get up, Taka! Come on, you got to keep going! ”

  She nudged his flank with her nose, prodded him with her paws, and even tugged on his ear. “Get up! ”

  “I can’t.”

  “You have to! ” She nipped his leg.

  “Ow! ” He looked directly at her.

  “Get up or I’ll nip you again.”

  Muffy put his snout under Taka and pushed. With a little help from his brother, Taka stood again and began to stumble along. “I can see it from here. Oh thank God.”

  Makedde, the sage Mandrill Baboon, was teaching his younger brother Rafiki how to divine the future with a bowl of water. This technique, called scrying, is the best way to tell the future. For water, they say, has risen higher than birds fly and it returns to Earth charged with the energy of the gods. This is so, for any lion sees the new green in the grass after a rain.

  Makedde dropped his work at once when he saw the blood spattered cub and his two friends. "Rafiki, mix a poultice quick! " He looked at Taka's eye closely. "Oh Master Taka, what have you done now! "

  Makedde held up his hand on one side of Taka's head, then the other. "No sight on that side. This is bad. Very bad. But perhaps I can fix it."

  Makedde got some moistened Alba from Rafiki and squeezed it on the ground. The dust became mud, and he took this mud carefully in his hand.

  “These are badger marks, ” Makedde said. “If I couldn’t see it, I could sure smell it.” He shook his head. “What on earth possessed you to play with the badgers? You know they are dangerous.”

  “It was a white badger, ” Taka said. “I wanted to get a wish, like N’ga and Sufa.”

  “Oh I see.” He frowned. “You don’t know the difference between a white lioness and a white badger! So you wanted a wish, did you?”

  “It was my idea, ” Mufasa said. “When we died, I wanted my brother to sit by me with the great kings of the past.”

  Makedde sighed. “Noble sentiment indeed. But all living things are precious to Aiheu. He gathers them all to himself and sits them where he will, not according to bravery or strength of body, but by the immortal Ka.” He washed his hands
in a basin. “If your Ka is full of love and wisdom, it does not matter if you are smaller than your brother.” He patted Taka. “Courage, little one." Taka gnashed his teeth. His good eye closed tightly and his ears went back.

  Makedde was gentle with the lion cub. The cool mud surrounded Taka’s damaged eye, not hurting as badly as he thought it would. Then with a press of his paw, Makedde popped the still-intact eye back into its socket. With infinite care, Makedde took water from a gourd dipper and washed away the mud a few grains at a time. “Don’t squint. It makes my job harder.”

  When all the blood was washed away, and the eye was clear, Makedde got a twig of Dwe’dwe and broke it in half. A single drop of resin came out, and Makedde skillfully ran it the length of Taka’s cut, pressing the sides of the wound together carefully with his fingers. He blew on it a few times to make sure the wound would stay closed.

  Rafiki brought a gourd of water for Taka. Makedde added some herbs for building blood, relieving pain, and a small pinch of Tiko Root for good measure to prevent infection. Finally he added some honey. “It won’t taste good, but it will feel good.”

  Taka found the mixture bearable, but he was terribly thirsty after losing so much blood in the heat. And it did feel good.

  It seemed like an eternity to Sarabi before Makedde was finished. She worked up the courage to ask, "Will that eye work again?"

  "Rafiki, " Makedde asked, "You heard the lady. What will come of Taka?"

  Rafiki was nervous. It was his first time to scry for another. So he looked into the water thoughtfully, trying to remember all his brother taught him. A wind came out of the west and stirred the water. It carried with it the odor of decay. The ripples died down, and he gasped. "Wait, something appears. It tells me...."

  "What?" Sarabi asked impatiently.

  Rafiki stared into the water as one possessed. His voice deepened and was labored. “The road is long and hard. Those who smile to your face bare their teeth as you leave.” He left the bowl and stooped in front of Taka. Pointing his finger accusingly, he said, “Friends come from unlikely places, then abandon you in your hour of need. He who is first to touch you shall beget your doom, and she who gives you love shall let it turn to hate."