Taka just shook his head. “Do not try to atone for my sin. I will pay my debt to the last drop of blood. I will start with you. You will have a comforter in your time of grief.” He kissed her cheek softly. “When your time comes, we will sit together forever and never be apart again. Till then, be my brave little girl.”
“Taka, Honey Tree, I must know the truth. Did you kill your brother?”
The lion looked at her sadly. “Remember the good times, Lannie. Remember the blissful moments. Those were the truth.” With that, he faded quickly. She had her answer.
CHAPTER: IN MEMORIUM
The search party quietly headed back without their Pride sister. Even the cubs were hushed as the lionesses slowly made their way through the grasses with their heads and tails hung low. Simba, who had stayed at Pride Rock to guard against the last of the hyena stragglers, saw the group approach. One look at their posture affirmed in his mind that Elanna was lost to them. Silently, he made his way to the queen mother. “I’m sorry mom...” he said softly to her as he rubbed against her gently.
Sarabi looked up at her new king, her eyes still wet with tears, “At least I have you, son.”
It had been a long time since Rafiki had been able to walk out alone without the confines of his hyena jailers. Even through the somber mood of the night, he was determined to make the most of his new freedom. He went to each of the pride members and blessed and stroke each of them in turn. He even had a special blessing for Timon and Pumbaa. Slowly, he began to fill in the gaps in the last two years of his life. He quickly ran out of his jerky as he gave all the cubs a treat...and even the lionesses he remembered as nothing but a cub.
As he went through the pride, he treated their wounds. True to his words, there were enough herbs for the lions of the pride, even if he would have nothing for his aching joints that night. It had been indeed fortunate that no one was seriously hurt, the worse injuries being some cuts and bruises. The hyenas that followed Shenzi were quick to leave after they passed their sentence on the former king and upon seeing their cousins fighting with the lions. Still, in the distance, their sounds could be heard, mocking the newly freed pride.
As the evening passed into night and the lions were able to rest their sore bodies, it was time to remember the lost member of the pride. Sarabi, being her sister, called the group together for a memorial to their fallen pridemate.
Rafiki stepped into the circle of lionesses. Everyone knew how he felt about Taka, and for this reason he was the only one left alive that could speak the opening words freely.
“Great Aiheu, we commend to your care Elanna, and pray that she will be reunited with her husband. And may Taka....” The mandrill leaned heavily on his staff as tears streamed down his face. “Grant them peace. Forgive him as I have forgiven him. He loved me once. He really did love me.”
As Rafiki stepped away, Isha came forward. “She was gentle and kind. And how she suffered! I wish I’d known her better.”
Ajenti did not step forward, but she stammered, “Me too.”
Nala crept to the center of the circle. “She really loved children, though she had none of her own. She was always very nice to me. She was always sad, but one time she sang to me. She had a very pretty voice, you know.”
Nala edged back to Simba who nuzzled her and pawed her face.
As the turn passed from lioness to lioness, most remembered her strength. How, even through the mental isolation from her pride, she stayed faithful to her husband to the very end. How even through their scorn, she still loved everyone. The cubs remembered how kind she was...how she would always want to give them affection and how she would, the few times that she could, always had a story for them.
Finally, it came to her sister, Sarabi.
Sarabi sighed softly as the memory of her sister and their cubhood comes back to her mind. The wind whispered quietly among them. Her face remained motionless except for the slow blinking of her eyes. The other lionesses began to stir uneasily, looking to one another uncertainly as they sought an answer to her silence. Thus it was that they all started nervously when she spoke.
"Elanna...." A wan smile creased Sarabi's face and she looked up finally, her gaze passing through the gathered pride into a haze of time into which only she could penetrate. A half sob, half laugh escaped her and she looked down again, staring through the air. "I keep thinking of a day, back when we were cubs..." She sniffed and wiped her eyes with a paw, smiling. "Once she saved my life. We were lost in a cave, and though I never told anyone about his, I nearly drowned--or worse--in the haunted cave under Pride Rock. She pulled me from the water. And how did I repay her?” New tears welled from her eyes. "I'd give anything to have her back here again...oh gods, I can't even remember what she smelled like before those damn hyenas defiled this place." She shivered, gripped by the terrible agony of her grief. "I'd give anything to be able to look her in her eyes...and tell her I'm sorry!"
Silence gripped the group as the former queen looked up to the sky. "I hope you are happy, sister, with your husband. I wish you all the joy in the next world that you never had in this one." She drew a deep breath and uttered a mournful roar, venting her pain in a cacophony of sound echoed by her pride sisters as it swept across the savanna into the depths of the night.
CHAPTER: STRANGE PREY
After a long night with very little sleep, Elanna was unable to lie still any longer for she suffered from a different emptiness. She had eaten well for the times of Taka’s pride, but still that was poor, and she had been given even less over the last day. Taking Taka’s words in her dream to be a sign, she started off to quench her desire. Hunting had been denied her for over two years by her overprotective husband. She remembered the lessons taught long ago, but she was woefully out of practice. First would be to find some prey to test her luck with her old skills.
That didn’t prove so difficult since the terrible draught had not scorched the land beneath her feet. Silently, she made her way toward a small herd of impala. How she wished for her sisters to be behind her to back her up. But oh, if she DID succeed, what a bounty would be hers! It had been a long time since she had seen so much food. She continued to stalk the prey, hoping against all hopes that she would be able to get her wish.
Finally, after closing the distance farther than she had hoped, she burst from cover and rushed. The excitement of her youth came back. She felt so alive, so exhilarated that she began to understand what she had been missing the last two years.
The herd separated, just as she remembered from her lessons of so long ago. In front of her was a lone impala, unsure where to go. Elanna wasted no time in closing the distance and taking her prey down, ending its life so she could continue hers. Elanna panted and said her blessing as she began to tear into the body of her prey.
Just then, the familiar whoops of hyenas began to close in on her. Before she knew it, a group of hyenas closed in and surrounded her and her prey. At first, they are silent, looking over the lioness and the prey beneath her. Finally, in common speech they said, "Our share! Our land! Part is ours!"
She snarled at them as she stayed protectively over the life giving meat, "Krekh toh! Barekh moh amspach Elanna!"
The hyenas were startled for a moment and backed off, looking at each other. "Hfff! The scholarly type! But, my dear bakhret, even from our own kind we require our share of everything killed on our land."
The hyenas began to approach her, but as it appeared that Elanna would lose her work and maybe her life, a rustle was heard in the grasses. The rogue lion came out of grass, looking at the lioness, her prey, and the hyenas. He moved out more looking intently at the hyenas and growling, “You wouldn’t be making trouble for her, would you? I advise you to leave and now before I make sure you don’t come near here again--EVER.
The hyenas looked at their numbers and decided not to risk their lives for such a meager meal. With curses, both in their language and common speech, they disappeared into the night.
With
a grunt of satisfaction in his work, he moved to Elanna.
Suddenly she snapped at him, "This is mine!"
"You're quite welcome," he said with a bow. "Maybe we can do this
again sometime." With that, he turned and began to disappear into the night.
Elanna watched as the rogue faded from sight. Finally she called out, "I'm sorry. Would you share with me?"
The lion turned around and began to trot back towards her. "How can I refuse an offer like that? But you go first--you look a bit thin, my dear."
Elanna dug in to the still warm body of the impala. Her stomach, unaccustomed to this food, had shrunk from long fasts and meager meals. As her insides began to rebel, she moved away from the meat and purged the food from her body, crying as she did. The male, not wanting to miss the free meal, dug in, his eyes still on the crying lioness. Finally, his hunger quenched, he moved closer to her and sits down.
"If you’re wise, you’ll eat a little grass, then take a few bites. With time you’ll get your appetite back.”
“Sounds like good advice,” she said, still sick. She nibbled half-heartedly at a few clumps of green grass.
“Are you a rogue lioness?"
"No. At least I wasn't." She sadly looked down.
"I hope I didn't offend you. I'm a rogue male--of late." He approached her closer and though she shrank from him at first she let him touch her cheek with his paw. "My dear, you look like a ghost. If you don't mind, we can help each other."
"How?"
"Well, I can drive off the hyenas and flush game. And you can talk to me."
"That's it?"
"Hey, it's the silence that gets to me. I can't stand it. I even talk to buzzards. And when they’re not around, I talk to myself. All the time."
"Well, I can talk," she said. "And if you help me hunt, you may eat your share. Deal?"
"Deal! I am Kubali, by the way. And you?”
She tried a small bite of the impala, chewing it carefully and uncertainly, then swallowing. “My name is Elanna.”
He smiled. “Elanna! What a beautiful name.”
CHAPTER: SOMEONE TO LEAN ON
The day’s event had taken their toll on the two lions, and when the sun had slipped below the horizon, they quietly searched for a clearing which to bed for the night. Upon finding one, Elanna lied down in the short grass and Kubali did the same, a few passes away. Kubali, long accustomed to the solitude, fell asleep rather quickly. Elanna wasn’t so lucky. As he mind filled with visions of her Taka, she softly wept.
Kubali’s ears were pricked on this weeping. Looking over at her for a few moments, he rose up and moved towards her. Hearing no protest on her part, he lied down next to her, still keeping a small gap between their bodies. Almost absentmindedly, Elanna turned and draped a paw over him, which brought forth a soft purr from him. Felling his warmth, they finally drifted off to a quiet sleep together.
Morning came quickly for the pair. Elanna woke first, and while she was thinking of her Taka and how nice it was to see him wake in the morning, her paw wandered on him. She softly stroked his mane, as she once did for the fallen king.
Suddenly, she realized she wasn’t at Pride Rock anymore. She turned her head to see her paw across Kubali’s mane.
"I'm sorry!"
"Don't be. My nurse used to do that." He sighed. "I bet he was special, this mate of yours."
"He's dead."
"Oh...." He touched her face again. "That's why you were crying
last night. I haven’t known you that long, but I already hate it when you cry."
Elanna pawed his shoulder gently. “Look, Kube...Kublia...uh...”
“Kubali.”
“Yeah. You’ve been very sweet to me, but I don’t want you to get any unrealistic expectations. I need a friend now, and I think you could be that friend. But I don’t know if I could ever fall in love again.”
Kubali smiled gently and touched her nose with his. “I need a friend too. Someone I can lean on when the trail is long and weary. I wouldn’t take a chance of ruining this.”
Elanna smiled, relieved, and returned his nuzzle.
Over the next three days Elanna and Kubali worked hard to prove their friendship would never blossom into romance. It was a tense time for both of them, a time of guarded words and cautiously touching only when necessary. They would allow themselves a good morning nuzzle and, when they made a small kill, a congratulatory pat on the shoulder. Still, it was done timidly and with great restraint.
Then on the fourth day a remarkable thing happened. They stopped being afraid and decided to enjoy their friendship.
Elanna was sunning herself on a small kopje that morning when Kubali came and laid beside her. “Lannie, we have to talk.”
“My husband called me Lannie,” she replied. “It makes me feel uncomfortable to hear it from anyone else.”
“Fine. Lots of things make me feel uncomfortable. I think we’re both pretty miserable.”
“Are you saying we should part?”
“No. I’m saying we should stop being miserable.” Kubali said, “I’ve been holding back from you. Surely you wonder about my past.”
“I try not to.”
“See there--that’s what I mean. This secrecy is tearing us apart. I mean, if we’re really friends, let’s be honest with each other.”
“Are you saying I’ve lied to you?”
“No. You have to say something first.” Kubali looked around with building frustration. “Look, I have a sordid past. If I can tell you what I did to wind up here, you can tell me, can’t you?”
Elanna looked about, surprised. “Just how sordid?”
“Then we have a deal?”
“It depends,” Elanna said, rolling over to look at him in the eyes.
Kubali sighed nervously. “Where shall I begin? Well, I think it started when I was a little cub. My mother died the day I was born, and I was raised by nurses. My dad is a king, you know. I was the heir apparent, and I guess I had free rein to do what I pleased.” He laughed nervously. “Oh yes, it pleased me to do a lot of selfish things--a whole lot! The lionesses got fed up with me and one day they said my polite little brother would make a better king--or else.”
“Or else?”
“Or else they would leave. Dad banished me.” Tears came to his eyes. “I’ll never forget the look on his face when he said good bye. It will haunt me for the rest of my life.”
“Poor Kubali!”
“I deserved it, though. I really messed up my own life, and I have no one else to blame. Now I have to make a new life for myself, and I’ll be different. I begged Aiheu for a friend. Someone--anyone--that would end my awful loneliness. I swore I’d be better. I meant it too. Then I saw this feisty lioness facing off a whole group of hyenas. I knew that you were the answer to my prayers.”
Elanna kissed away his tears, a rather intimate gesture of friendship. “Your honesty puts me to shame. Really, I should have told you more about myself. You’ve been so kind to me.”
“Am I kind? I wondered if I was doing well.”
“Better than well, my friend.” She nuzzled him. “My husband was a king. His name was Taka. He was never popular, but I loved him. I loved him the way snow loves the mountain peaks, and you know the snow would never leave the mountain peaks lest it should melt and die.”
“What did he do to be so unpopular?”
“Well he....” She sighed. “He was not completely sane. He did a lot of strange things. Very strange. But it was not his fault. I did not know that he had killed his brother to take the throne. Not till after the hyenas ripped him alive.”
“Whoa, you poor dear!”
“I loved him, but I wouldn’t have stayed with him. Not if I’d known. Still the knowledge has not killed my love. Somehow I cannot turn years of love into hate. Now you know why I have not fallen in love with you. When he died, my dreams of love also died. He was killed and I live in exile, a wanderer with no place to lay my head.”
&
nbsp; “Wrong. Lay your head on my mane, dear. It doesn’t matter if you love me or not. I have enough love for both of us.”
She laid her head on the soft fur of his mane and sighed peacefully. “I’m glad we had this talk. And I didn’t mean what I said before--call me Lannie. You’ve earned the right.”
“It’s not a right, it’s a privilege. A privilege to be earned daily. Your suffering is over, Lannie. Over and done.” He stroked her gently with his paw.
CHAPTER: HAVE IT YOUR WAY
If calling Elanna ‘Lannie’ was a privilege to be earned daily, Kubali did his best. The truth had freed them to enjoy each other’s acceptance. Elanna became to Kubali more than just a mystery, however alluring. She became a person with strengths and weaknesses, and compassion like a river bearing away his sorrows to lands unseen. In return, Kubali treated Elanna with a gentle humility he didn’t know he had. He devoted himself to making her feel important and cared for.
With each passing day, Kubali and Elanna drew closer to the inevitable moment when one or the other would use the word “love” to describe their feelings.
With all the truth and experience, however, small quirks showed up in their behavior. Elanna found Kubali’s snoring intolerable when he lay on his back. Often in the night she would shove him over with a paw, hoping to find peace. And Kubali noticed to his irritation that she always deferred decisions to him. It was nothing much really, just a ‘You decide’ or a ‘We can do what you want’ every so often, but it bothered him. And for him, this was one problem that a simple shove of the paws would not rectify. He decided to let it past and wait. She get use to the freedoms, he thought to himself.
One day, they went on a hunt together. Quietly, before they were close to any prey, he jokingly nuzzled her and said, “So...what do you feel like today, my fair lioness? The savanna is filled with choice prey.”
She smiled up to him, “Oh...I don’t know...you pick.”
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