Pride of the Plains

by Colin Dann

  ‘So you’re the only survivors?’

  ‘It appears so,’ Kifaru affirmed. ‘And more by luck than anything else. There was a kind of battle here between different men. The ones who had done the killing were driven away before they got round to killing me and my son was born in comparative safety. Though there is never complete safety anywhere at any time. We are always vigilant.’ That brought Moja’s plight back to mind. ‘You can stay nearby if you want to,’ she told the lion cub. ‘I’ll do what I can for you – which isn’t much. Rhinos are not provided with the best eyesight. But I can smell danger early. It might be that my bulk could deter some of your foes as well as our own.’

  Moja was considerably comforted. He didn’t feel quite so alone as before and he accepted the big animal’s offer gratefully.

  Meanwhile, on the other side of the river and some distance away, Battlescars had sighted Huru and Kimya and was hurrying towards them. The lionesses greeted him affectionately, rubbing their heads against his and sliding their bodies alongside his flanks. Battlescars reciprocated joyfully. The small pride was his favourite and now his only one. The cubs bounced around in excitement too. Eventually the inevitable question was asked by Kimya.

  ‘Where’s Blackmane?’

  Battlescars flopped down on to his belly. His head dropped. ‘My brother is dead,’ he murmured dolefully. For a moment there was silence. The pride members were stunned. Then, in a rush, Battlescars was bombarded with questions and, while he explained about the tremendous fight with Challenger, the sisters began to notice his latest wounds.

  ‘These are the work of that young upstart?’ Huru asked with surprise. She could see that some of the wounds were the most severe Battlescars had ever suffered.

  ‘He’s no upstart now,’ the old male growled in answer. ‘He has learnt a thing or two and he’s very strong. He killed my brother.’ He turned his head and looked away towards the northern horizon. ‘The large pride is no longer ours. No longer mine,’ he corrected himself. ‘I surrendered it without a fight. I didn’t have the stomach or the heart to do battle for it without Blackmane.’

  Huru was secretly delighted that they had Battlescars all to themselves now, but refrained from saying so for fear of wounding his self-esteem. But she realized that having only one adult male in the pride posed a problem. She and Kimya would have to share him. ‘It’s good to have you back,’ was what she did say. ‘We’ve had our work cut out looking after the cubs by ourselves.’

  Battlescars looked at the youngsters properly for the first time since his return. He noticed that his biggest cub was still absent. ‘Moja must be dead too,’ he said resignedly.

  The lionesses didn’t contradict him. Kimya in fact had remained virtually silent since the first greetings were over. Blackmane had been her mate and she was truly saddened by the news of his defeat. Yet at the same time she couldn’t help thinking about the powerful young male who had defeated him. Battlescars had taken punishment too so the younger lion had obviously fought heroically. She wondered what would happen if he should choose to mount a fresh challenge at some later stage. Battlescars was ageing visibly and, although victorious last time, would be seriously tested if the moment should come when he must fight on his own. Despite everything, she couldn’t suppress a feeling of excitement at the prospect.

  ‘Was the young lion badly hurt?’ she asked as Huru started to lick Battlescars’s gashes.

  ‘Oh, yes. He was well and truly beaten,’ Battlescars answered categorically. ‘He crawled away afterwards and went into hiding. I doubt if he’ll come looking for me for a while.’ His confidence was returning as he spoke and he felt the loyalty of his pride members as they surrounded him.

  But Kimya said, ‘If he’s young and strong he’ll recover and he will come back. What else can he do? He will want a mate and a pride for himself – he will challenge again and again.’

  Huru glared at her sister. ‘Perhaps you’d welcome it?’ she snapped, suspecting Kimya was jealous of her closer tie with Battlescars.

  ‘No,’ Kimya replied, though she wasn’t really sure herself. ‘I’m only speaking the truth and Battlescars knows it.’

  ‘Yes,’ he admitted. ‘You are right. But I’m not done yet. I don’t intend to give up my last pride. Whoever might try to take it from me will find he’s got the battle of his life before him.’

  —7—

  The Sisters

  For the first time there was a slight uneasiness between the sister lionesses. They continued to hunt together as always. There were hungry cubs to feed as well as themselves and Battlescars, who still demanded the best meat from their kills. The male lion was content now to move around very little. He was recuperating, and enjoying the company of the cubs who found him a more tolerant parent and playfellow now that his interests were restricted to one pride. He showed no preference for Huru over Kimya. Neither the one nor the other was his favourite. But although the sisters had once before shared a male companion, Huru’s lack of enthusiasm for him had avoided any rivalry. Now things weren’t so relaxed. When Blackmane had been around Huru had had most of Batdescars’s attention because Kimya had had Blackmane’s. Huru believed Kimya was jealous of her now that Blackmane had gone, and she found herself watching her sister suspiciously when the pride was at rest.

  The cubs were growing quickly. They were healthy and strong. Mbili and Tatu, being older, were a little bigger than Nne, Tano and Sita. All of them were inquisitive and eager to follow the hunt. Day by day they learnt more as they watched their mothers’ tactics. Huru and Kimya used speed, cunning and perfect co-operation. They had become the most successful of all the hunters in the game park, and were full of confidence in themselves; not only as hunters but as parents, too, as they reared their five cubs in safety and harmony. Yet their rivalry over Battlescars had the potential to disturb the pride’s equilibrium.

  Many days passed before the lions stumbled across the remains of Blackmane. The entire pride had gone to the pool to drink after gorging on a kill. Shreds of hide and the unfortunate beast’s skeleton were all that remained, and would have been overlooked had it not been for Battlescars’s memory of the fight that had taken place there. Wisps of black mane hair were the most compelling evidence that this was all that was left of his brother. The old male was very quiet as he sniffed at the remnants. He remembered Challenger and found himself scanning the surroundings for evidence of him. But the young lion was long gone by then. Battlescars’s noble head dropped between his shoulders as, with open mouth, he panted in the extreme heat. He remembered the long companionship of his brother and relived in his memory the terrible battle which had destroyed him. Now Battlescars knew he must gather his strength one more time. He sighed deeply.

  ‘Sisters!’ he called. The lionesses were drinking. ‘Here’s a tragic sight.’

  Huru and Kimya, their jowls streaming water, strode to the spot, followed by the cubs. Kimya knew instinctively what she was looking at. ‘Blackmane,’ she whispered. ‘How sad to see such a noble beast reduced to this.’ The cubs crowded round, their boisterousness lulled for once. Sita said, ‘Is that my father? Who did that to him?’

  Blackmane’s other cubs, Nne and Tano, were silent. They stared at the remains, unable to identify with them. They couldn’t relate the sight to the image of the powerful male lion they remembered as their father. Mbili and Tatu’s ties of blood with the pitiful skeleton were less strong than their cousins’. They could only wonder at the huge skull with its massive teeth which lay underwater at the edge of the pool.

  ‘He looks as though he’s lying in wait under there,’ said Tatu.

  And Blackmane’s open jaws, through which he had expelled his last breath, did appear to be ready to swallow something.

  ‘Foolish cub,’ Kimya muttered. To Sita she said, ‘Your father was killed by another lion while fighting bravely for all of us.’

  ‘Yes,’ said Battlescars appreciatively. ‘That’s how it was.’

  The pri
de walked from the waterhole. Battlescars was the last to leave. ‘How I miss our comradeship,’ he murmured.

  Sometimes Huru and Kimya saw the cheetah Upesi, who had been a neighbour in the refuge centre, hunting in the same territory. They didn’t compete for the same game. The smaller cat took less bulky prey than the lionesses and they left her alone. When prey was plentiful the cheetah lost fewer of her kills to lion. However, the ever-present hyena packs were always ready to capitalise on her hard-won successes. Upesi’s cubs were growing, too. She kept them well hidden and Huru and Kimya rarely saw them. The lionesses still marvelled at Upesi’s breathtaking speed in the chase. Nothing could rival her and the sisters sometimes interrupted their own activities to watch her. Battlescars, however, was unimpressed.

  ‘Imagine using all that energy and then losing a kill,’ he grunted. ‘And how often does she make one? Hunting individually is a thankless task. I should know.’

  ‘Oh? How should you?’ Huru teased him. ‘I thought you only ate what we brought you.’

  ‘That’s the best arrangement,’ he agreed, unperturbed. ‘A lion should be left free to defend the pride, so the females must keep him well fed. But don’t think I don’t know about hunting. I’ve done my share. As young adults my brothers and I survived several seasons on our own.’

  Huru and Kimya exchanged looks. They remembered their early days fending for themselves alone. They still had that in common. But their inseparability now was dictated by habit rather than by desire. Kimya guessed Huru suspected her of jealousy. She often felt her scrutiny when the pride was drowsing. And she was jealous on occasions when she imagined Battlescars was ignoring her. However, so long as the cubs’ welfare was her and Huru’s priority, resentment on either side remained muffled.

  One day, while matters were still in this unsatisfactory state, the sisters met up with an old friend. Ratel, the honey badger who had grown up with them at Lingmere Zoo in England, had come looking for them. He, too, had been kept for a while at the Kamenza animal refuge centre before being released into the wild, and his path had crossed with the lionesses’ on a few occasions since. Now he had a problem he thought they might be able to solve, and together with his mate Clicker had searched long and hard before finally locating them. At last, using the utmost caution, the badgers approached the small pride.

  The cubs were lying with their mothers under an acacia tree whose umbrella shape provided a wide area of shade. The wet season was over and the day was blisteringly hot. The honey badgers had looked for Huru and Kimya mostly by night, but on this day Ratel had smelt lion and had continued the search after dawn broke. Clicker was less confident than her mate about deliberately going up to the lionesses without a reliable bolt-hole nearby.

  ‘It’ll be all right,’ he kept telling her, ‘they’ll recognise me. They’ll remember my call. You can stay back a little if you wish.’

  Clicker certainly did wish, and the closer they got to the pride the further behind she dropped. Ratel began his calls: a sort of chirrup or a rattly whistle. The lions were all dozing and his cries didn’t disturb them. He moved nearer.

  ‘As soon as they see my black and white coat they’ll know me,’ he assured himself.

  Clicker called, ‘That’s far enough! Be careful! There’s another big lion coming to join them.’ She hastily scrabbled for cover in some prickly scrub.

  Ratel hadn’t reckoned on the big male. Battlescars had been sleeping on his back in some grass but the heat had proved too intense and he was heading now for the shade. The lionesses woke as Battlescars padded in, giving his throaty growl of greeting. Kimya yawned and sat up. She saw the honey badger and roused Huru.

  ‘Look, sister. Is that—’

  More calls from Ratel interrupted her as the badger hurried to identify himself. Now Battlescars looked too and the cubs began to show interest.

  Huru said, ‘Well now, what does he want?’

  ‘Let’s go and see,’ said Kimya.

  ‘I’ll go and see,’ Battlescars snarled, already irritated by the heat. He began to run forward. Ratel looked round for cover but he was too slow. The lion bounded up and took a swipe at him. Ratel slipped to one side and squealed, ‘Lions! Sisters! It’s me. Quickly!’

  Kimya was the first to react. She owed Ratel a favour. She had once badly wounded him by mistake, when she had mistrusted him and attacked him when he had actually been trying to help her. She ran in front of Battlescars, who was preparing to deliver another blow. ‘He’s a friend,’ she told the male. ‘An old friend from—’ She was about to say ‘our zoo days’ but remembered that would be meaningless to Battlescars. ‘—from way back,’ she explained. ‘Before we knew you.’

  Battlescars was uninterested but his aggression faded. ‘Really?’ was all he said in a bored tone before he strolled back to the acacia and slumped down.

  ‘Thank you,’ Ratel gasped. ‘I didn’t know about him.’ Now he was surrounded by curious cubs who gambolled about playfully, putting out paws to pat the strange creature, then skipping off before he could react.

  ‘Why have you come, Ratel?’ Kimya asked. ‘It was dangerous.’

  Huru biffed the cubs away and sat down beside her sister.

  ‘I – we – want your help,’ Ratel told them. He looked behind him but failed to see Clicker, who was still hidden. ‘It’s all right!’ he called. ‘I told you.’ He was aware of the irony in the remark, considering he had nearly been killed. He looked at the lionesses sheepishly. ‘We’ve had trouble,’ he continued as Clicker emerged with caution.

  ‘What trouble?’ Huru asked.

  ‘A bird steals our food,’ Ratel explained. ‘A big, fierce bird with talons and a hooked beak. It can run fast overground as well as fly. It follows us and pounces on our kills. We’re – we’re starving. And that’s not all—’

  ‘It’s a goshawk,’ Clicker interrupted. She knew more about birds than Ratel. ‘It sits on a branch and chants. I think it’s mocking us. And we—’

  ‘We had young,’ Ratel interrupted. ‘Like you, lions. We had a den in some rocks.’

  ‘I remember it,’ said Kimya.

  ‘The bird killed the babies. It was always around. It waited and waited and got them all, one by one. We moved to another den. But it always follows us.’

  ‘I’m sorry for you,’ said Huru. ‘But what can we do?’

  ‘Give a show of strength, perhaps,’ Ratel suggested.

  ‘Hm. Not very effective with a bird,’ Huru said. ‘We have trouble ourselves with vultures.’

  Kimya had been thinking. She wasn’t happy in the uneasy relationship with her sister. Also she did feel she wanted somehow to make amends to Ratel for that injury in the past. Maybe this was her opportunity.

  ‘Where is this bird?’ she asked.

  ‘Wherever we are,’ Clicker answered impulsively. ‘It follows us around.’

  ‘But it’s not here now, is it?’ Kimya pointed out.

  ‘No, no,’ Ratel answered impatiently. ‘We travelled mostly by night. What she meant was, it’s always around our den.’

  ‘And where’s that?’

  ‘A rocky place with a fig tree on top.’

  Kimya’s ears pricked up, and so did Huru’s. It sounded very like the first den they themselves had found after their release into the game park. ‘I think I know it,’ said Kimya. ‘Perhaps I could come to help. What do you think, sister? Could you cope with all the cubs for a while?’

  Huru yawned widely, displaying her huge teeth. Clicker scampered away again and then stopped, feeling foolish. Huru thought a spell without Kimya could be beneficial. It could serve to lessen the tension between them. But she didn’t feel like making it easy for her. ‘I suppose so. If you must go,’ she said.

  Ratel was delighted. ‘Wonderful! Thank you, lions. Shall we leave at dusk?’ he asked, turning to Kimya. ‘My mate and I could take the opportunity to feed now.’

  ‘Dusk it is,’ Kimya agreed. She turned to Huru. ‘It won’t be for long,�
� she assured her. ‘I’m grateful to you, sister.’

  —8—

  Great News

  The honey badgers grubbed around for insects and carrion and whatever small prey they could find. Clicker made sure she was well out of reach of the pride but Ratel ignored the presence of the lions while he was busy. Only Battlescars reminded him with a half-hearted roar now and then that he didn’t want the smaller animal to come too close.

  Kimya was ready to move as the sun began to set. She licked her cubs fondly but she had no qualms about leaving them in Huru’s care. The sisters had raised their young together, sometimes suckling each other’s as well as their own. So all the cubs were just as happy with either lioness as guardian.

  Ratel and Clicker trotted off in their usual sprightly way with the lioness plodding along comfortably in their wake. Every so often Clicker would glance behind to make sure she was still there and not planning some kind of trick. Kimya was perfectly content to follow and was at ease until she knew she was beyond the limits of the small pride’s territory. Then she trod more quietly and kept her wits about her. The honey badgers’ den was not actually very far distant; they had wasted days searching for the lionesses in the wrong direction. The three animals reached the rocky outcrop without incident and in thick darkness. Although it was a cloudy night and moon and stars were obscured, Kimya recognised fig tree rock at once.

  ‘How strange you should have settled here,’ she said. ‘It holds memories for me. It was the first real den my sister and I had in this area.’

  Ratel wasn’t terribly interested. ‘The bird will probably be perching on the fig tree as light breaks,’ he informed her. ‘It sits there and waits for us to stir.’

  ‘But as you’ve been absent for a while perhaps it won’t still be around,’ Kimya suggested.

  ‘We shall see. I doubt if it’s shifted itself. It likes the way we hunt,’ Ratel growled bitterly. He and Clicker scuttled into their den.

  Kimya climbed up the rocks. She lay down among the old fig’s trailing roots and thought for a while about Huru. She remembered how they had sheltered here together in the early days of their life in the savannah country. How close they had been then! Kimya felt sad as she pondered their present relationship. Was there an estrangement? If there was it could only be on the surface. She knew that if she were in danger Huru would be the first to come to her aid, as she would for Huru.