Umande, sobbing, ran screaming past her pride sisters. “Kako’s dying!! Get Mabatu!!”
“Which one??”
“Both of them!”
Umande and Shennanii rushed back to the Pride Kopje and saw Mabatu and Baba going over some star lore and laughing, blissfully unaware of the tragedy unfolding near the termite mounds.
“Come quick!” Mandy shouted. “It’s Kako! Hurry!”
Mabatu and Baba tore across the grassland. The peaceful stars were beginning to come out, and a hush was settling across the land. Crickets serenaded the newborn moon and a distant hyena was heard serenading his lady love. With maddening consistency, the flow of life did not pause even for a minute as Kako lay gasping in a pool of her own blood.
Mabatu drew near and shuddered. She started to say something to him, but she looked over and saw Baba. "Be strong. Remember the promise."
“Even now?”
“Even now.”
"You were a good friend to me."
"So long, my king.”
"Yes, my friend. So long."
Baba drew near. Tears streamed down his cheeks. “Oh Momma!”
“My little boy! Oh, but you’re not little anymore, my handsome lion. Be good to Isha.”
Isha fell to the ground and wailed in anguish. Habusu and Lisani huddled next to her and sobbed.
“Don’t die! Please don’t die!” Baba lay his head against her side like a helpless cub. “Oh gods, I can't lose you, I just can't! Get up, Momma! I’ll take you to the shaman! Get up, Momma! Please!"
Mabatu touches his mane softly with a paw. "Nothing can stop it now. Don't spoil her last moments with you."
Baba looked into his mother's eyes. "I love you, Mom! You hear me? I love you."
She managed a weak smile. "You have no idea how much I love you," she said. Her eyes looked over at Mabatu, then closed.
The lionesses sat about stunned. Mabatu got up stiffly and nudged his Prince. "Baba, you lead the roar. She was your mother. I have to go patrol the border now."
"Right now?"
"Yes. I'm sorry." He stroked Baba’s mane. “I remember when my mother died. I know what you’re feeling my son.”
CHAPTER: ALONE
Mabatu left the group and headed off into the trees. He rounded the other side of a small kopje and collapsed.
With his cheek pressed to the earth, he reached out with his forelegs and extended his claws, digging them deeply into the grass and pulling back to plow furrows in the grass. "Kako!! God, why didn't you take me instead?? Why, why??"
His stomach knotted, and tears flooded his eyes. "I must stay in control," he stammered. He raised his head up and pulled up into a crouch, then tried to stand. He bit his lip to keep from crying, but couldn't. "I'm in control. I can do this!"
He raised up on his forepaws, then crumbled to the earth, rolling on his side and curling into a ball of misery, sobbing. "I must stay in control," he hissed through clenched teeth. "I must!"
For many moments he lay there and shuddered, too weak to move. Then with a supreme effort, Mabatu actually struggled to his feet. He turned about and started to head back home. His legs trembled so badly he could hardly control them, and his joints were weak. "I can't let Baba find out," he said. “He must never know.”
His stomach hurt, and tears streamed down his cheeks. He took a couple of steps, then collapsed again and lay helplessly as his body was wracked with powerful sobs that with passing minutes died down to a soft, plaintive utterance like the cries of an infant cub separated from its mother.
"Why, Aiheu?" he whimpered. "Why did you take her from me? Didn't you think I could be trusted?" He rolled on his back. "I was weak for a moment, but I overcame it! I could have withstood temptation!” He covered his eyes with his paws. “Help me! You have to help me! If you still love me, give me strength to go on!"
Just then, Umande breasted the wall of grass and shrubs. She smelled the fresh earth and saw the look on his face. "Oh Dad!" She wept and nuzzled him. "Daddy, I love you so much! So much!"
He pawed her face and kissed her. “My little Mandy! You don’t remember your Mom too well, but honey tree, she loved you with her whole heart! She used to call you Mimo.”
“I remember. Just this morning she called me Mimo, right before we went....” She broke down and wept. “This morning she was so alive! So warm and alive!”
“I know!” Mabatu rubbed his head against her cheek, but then he started. “Are you alone??"
"Yes. I was not followed." She came and laid her head in his soft mane and pawing him desperately. "I couldn't stand it anymore. How can I call Mother my friend?? She was so much more than that! She has to be mourned properly--we can't let her Ka slip away like that."
"You're right, you know." Mabatu looked about and kissed Mandy gently. "Let's do it right. Baba will think I'm proclaiming the border if we’re careful."
Mabatu and Umande got up and climbed to the top of the rock. They waited for Baba's roar of grief, and they picked that moment to answer. "I love you, Mother!" Mandy cried.
"Beloved, my heart is dead!" Mabatu shouted. Tears coursed down his cheeks and he drew in a deep breath, releasing it in a loud, long roar. Umande raised her nose to the sky and joined him. The foundations of heaven were shaken, and the sound of their pain echoed off the distant hills in a hundred eerie permutations.
When the sound finally died down, Mabatu kissed Umande. "Well, Mandy, let's go mark the boundaries. I think I'll need someone to lean on."
"Are you sure you can make it?"
"I have to make it. She died with such courage, surely I can find the strength to pee on a shrub." His voice had renewed strength, but a tear still managed to escape and roll down his cheek. "Honey Tree, I've made some sacrifices for my children, but they were paid back many times over. You are such a comfort to me. I love you."
"I love you too, Dad."
CHAPTER: NO SWEETER REST
Baba remembered that his new father would sleep in a certain place, but about one moon after his mother died, he noticed that Mabatu made a mysterious pilgrimage. He would reappear in his usual place each morning, but apparently did not spend the night in that spot. This intrigued Baba and one night he determined to follow his father.
Quietly tailing him, Baba watched as King Mabatu walked, ears drooped and tail hanging limply. The King crossed the broad meadow, the creek, and beyond to the termite mounds and the place where Kako died. By her bleached bones--or what was left of them--Mabatu fell on his face and rolled on his back. “Kako!” he sobbed. “Kako! My little Kako!”
Baba, against his better judgment, walked to Mabatu and touched him with his paw.
The old king jerked around. “What are you doing here??”
Tearfully, Baba stroked his mane with a paw. “You don’t have to hide it from me anymore.”
“Hide what??” Mabatu asked fearfully.
“You loved her, didn’t you?”
Mabatu sighed. “Yes, I loved her. Her ties to your father were stronger than death itself. And I loved her stronger than death itself. She knew that--she asked me to be strong for your sake. The poor Nisei, always looking after us, even at the boundaries of death itself!” He pawed Baba’s mane. “Ask me no more about it, Baba. Not if you love me.”
“As you wish, father. But tell me: you come here every night, don’t you.”
“Yes. And when I die, I want to die here. It’s a beautiful spot to meet Aiheu in. Yes, a beautiful spot for anything. Kako and I were apart in life, but we will be together in death.”
Baba wept. “If I have to drag you here myself, you will rest here.”
Mabatu nuzzled him tenderly, then lay in the grass and said, “Son, you have a wife whose fur is warm and soft. Leave me with the dead and go treasure the living while they may be found. I’ll be OK, I promise.”
CHAPTER: A BLESSED EVENT
Isha responded to Baba’s love by kindling new life within her. Baba had never witnessed pregnancy before, and he spent many days
in anxious pacing as the evidence of his new family began to show.
“This waiting is killing me!” he said after two moons.
“What do you think it’s doing to me??” Isha asked. Then she laid on her side and motioned for him to come over. “Lay your head against me here. Now listen very carefully.”
Baba settled against her belly, straining to hear the sounds of new life. “Hey!”
“Did you hear anything?”
“No, but something moved!”
“Not something. Someone. Your child.”
Baba raised his head, a look of such beauty in his eyes that Isha had to reach out with a paw and stroke him. “Life is a miracle,” he murmured. “My beautiful Isha! I love you so!”
Isha did not follow Kako’s lead and hunt when she was having contractions. But she did hunt right up to her due date, taking a position as beater and leaving the main kill to the unburdened. Even that made Baba nearly split his hide. Mabatu had to reassure him that Isha knew what she was doing.
One day, Isha excused herself from the hunt. Worriedly, Baba asked her, “Are you all right?”
“It’s time,” she said.
“Time for what?”
“Time for Habu’s mantlement,” she said pointedly. “I’m having contractions!”
“Oh.”
When the full realization hit him, he nearly went into histrionics. “Where are the midwives?? Don’t you think Rafiki should be here?? They’re out on the hunt at a time like this??”
“Just relax and it will all be over soon,” Isha said. She could tell it was going to be a difficult delivery, and she wished that Rafiki could have been there to give Baba something for the pain.
“What are we going to do?”
Isha grimaced and breathed deeply. Trying to remain calm, she said, “Bring Mabatu here. My midwives will be midhusbands.”
“But I don’t know what to do??”
“I’ll talk you through it, Honey Tree. Just relax.”
Her water broke, and labor began in earnest. Throughout the stressful process, several cries of discomfort broke the stillness of the night, but Isha tried hard to ignore them. She brought out one, two, and finally three cubs.
“Remove the sacs,” she told Mabatu. “You can do it.”
He reached out with his paw, claws extended.
“No, use your teeth.”
“My teeth??”
“Hurry or they’ll suffocate!”
Grimacing with disgust, Mabatu pulled the membranous sac from each cub. “Eew!”
“Now Baba, you help lick them clean. Hurry, Baba! You wanted to help, didn’t you?”
Baba parted his lips and managed to part his tightly clenched teeth. He touched the first cub with his tongue and licked toward the face. After the initial shock, he relaxed and began to groom more vigorously. Mabatu took one of the others and began to groom. “It’s not SO bad.”
“Of course not,” Isha said, taking the third one and grooming quickly but lovingly. “Do you realize these are your children, Baba? And your grandchildren, Mabatu?”
“Yeah!” Baba said. “My children! Look how small and fragile they are! Look at those tiny paws and that little pink nose!”
Isha smiled proudly. “Two sons and a daughter. The sons will be N’ga and Sufa. But I’m unsure about the daughter.”
Habu came up. He regarded the small bundle of fur and said, “I’d like to name her Jona.”
A pained look came to Isha’s face. “Why that name, my son?”
“Because she was my friend. She was very special to me.”
Isha put her paw on his. “She was very special to me too. That’s why no more of my cubs must ever have that name. I already have two Mabatus to keep track of, honey tree. Let’s think of something else.”
Habu said, “Maybe we could call her Penda?”
“Rafiki’s little girl.” Isha thought for a moment, then smiled. “Yes, that is a good name. It means ‘beloved,’ and she will be.” She looked around at the three generations of males and nodded. “You were there when I needed you. I don’t know what I would have done without your help.”
CHAPTER: OUR BODIES BECOME THE GRASS
Lisani grew into quite a beautiful lioness. Isha looked at her appraisingly one day and said, “Beesa would be so proud of you. I know I am.” Habu noticed as well, and while his cubhood devotion remained undimmed, it took on an additional richness of depth and meaning as he longed to bond with her and raise a family.
Miss Priss was an apt pupil, quick to master hunting skills and put them into practice. She was rather young when she made her first kill and was doubly proud when Isha put the blood on her cheek. All she had to wait for was Habu’s mantlement.
Habusu enjoyed something that was a rare privilege for Ahadi’s line. He had a grandfather. King Mabatu doted on him as much as he did Isha’s newer cubs.
King Mabatu had lost his wife, but it would be unfair to say his last years were dark. Far from it, he would roll on his back and sweep his paw at Aiheu, thanking him for the love that was the comfort of his old age.
Still he never forgot Kako, and a day never passed that he didn’t express his grief in his own special way. The day of Habusu’s mantlement, when he watched Habu pledge to Lissie, Mabatu could almost feel Kako’s presence next to him. It was a peaceful feeling, and after the ceremony, he sought her out.
King Mabatu slinked quietly to the Termite Mounds. He stood where the green grass swayed and flowers nodded in the breeze. On that spot Kako had gone to be with Aiheu. Mabatu stroked a tender spike of purple flowers. “From one beauty to another,” he murmured gently. “My little Nisei.” Finding comfort in the soft grass that sprang from her body, he spoke to her.
“You know, Habusu is an old married lion now. Yes, he’s taken the big step, and you should see what a good couple they make, Miss Priss and Habu. When I see them together, I remember the wonderful times we had together. Oh girl, what times they were! I’m just sorry you’re not here to see this. You would be so proud.” He closed his eyes and pillowed his head in the soft grass. Taking in a deep breath, he tasted the fragrance of the flowers. “See you in my dreams, honey tree.”
CHAPTER: EPILOGUE
Old King Mabatu had not walked the border for many days. He left the job to his capable son and grandson, and while he was not worried about safety the inactivity was a blow to his self esteem.
For a week or so, Mabatu said, “Tomorrow I will mark, but today I’m just not well. But don’t worry about me.” Then as he declined rapidly, he stopped the pretense and began to speak of Kako more in the present tense than in the past. “She will be young and fresh. What will she think of this broken-down old lion coming to meet her!”
Makaka and Anasa were taking turns monitoring his care. At first, Mabatu chafed saying, “I don’t trust these female doctors!” After a couple of days, however, he would rest his large head in the shelter of Anasa’s arms and whimper as he would not dare in front of the males. “Honey Tree, do you have anything that will help this pain? It’s all I can do just to go on from minute to minute.” She would kiss him and treat him with herbs, and before a week was out, he would be disappointed to see Makaka coming. “What have you done with my honey tree??”
Then one day Mabatu was restless. He could barely move, but he spoke incessantly about going to the termite mounds. “This is not a good place to die,” he insisted. “I need a change of scenery.”
He was so insistent that Makaka was afraid he would hurt himself in his struggles. He knew what was happening, for Baba had told him about his final wishes long ago. “Eat this. It will give you what you need.”
Old King Mabatu chewed the strip of jerky slowly, careful to swallow all of it. Despite the strong spicy flavor of the meat, he could taste the medication in it. “I hope you know what you’re doing,” Mabatu said slowly. “This stuff tastes awful.”
“It will loosen up your joints,” Makaka said.
“That’s what I ne
ed. Even now, I can see Mano standing over there.” He looked around at an empty place on the meadow. “See, the white lion does not cast a shadow. Or maybe you do not see. Mano appears to whom he will.”
While he laid still and let the drug take effect, his daughters came one by one and filed past him, kissing him and saying, “Pray for me, Daddy.” Baba and Isha kissed him, and their cubs came and rubbed on his face. Mabatu looked about at the crowd and heaved a sigh, then he smiled gratefully. “You made my life worthwhile. I thank you all.”
With a look of supreme effort, King Mabatu struggled to his feet. Isha and Umande pushed him fully upright and leaned against his sides as he took to his last trail.
Away across the long meadow, they walked under the hot sun toward the distant termite mounds. Another lion might not have endured the long trek, but Mabatu had one last thing to accomplish, and he would not die until he had done it.
He dragged himself the last final steps to the termite mounds and found the spot where he had slept so many nights. There he collapsed and sighed deeply. “This is a good place to die. Maybe a flower will grow here, and both of us will come back as one beautiful blossom.”
Mabatu wanted to tell Baba that he really WAS his father but didn’t dare say it directly. “When I am gone, talk with my daughter. She will tell you things that I would say if only I could. But son, if Aiheu allows, my Ka will remain here a moment after I’m dead. If you have anything to say to me, speak then.”
Baba put his paw over the King’s. “Is it about Mom?”
“I cannot say. But know this--I loved your mother very much, and I love you with all my heart.”
He rolled on his side and his eyelids began to droop. “Prepare me for my death. The darkness is settling in.”
Baba reached out with his paw and drew a circle around his father’s eye and touched him under the chin. As tears started, he asked him, “Are you my father?”
Mabatu smiled weakly. “I love you.” He took in a deep breath, shuddered, and released it in a prolonged sigh. His mouth hung open and urine trickled out behind him in a small puddle.
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