Back at Pride Rock, the hyenas heard the cry. They came to Taka for an explanation, but he had none. “It doesn’t sound good, ” he said.

Finally, the lionesses came trailing in slowly, eyes cast down and filled with tears. Taka looked from one to another uncertainly as they approached.

"Uzuri? What's wrong? I heard a cry."

Uzuri looked at him crossly. "Count us, Your Majesty. What do YOU think?" She shouldered past him roughly and sat down, her face quivering as she fought for control.

Lisani came gamboling up to the hunting party. She butted up against Isha, purring happily as she greeted her aunt. "Isha, where's Mom? What did she get for me? A zebra?" Her face began to drop. “Another rat?” She saw Isha’s tears. “Nothing at all?”

Isha's jaw trembled. "Lisani, Honey Tree, I want you to be a brave little girl. Very brave. Your mother....” She began to sob. “You’re going to stay with me now."

Lisani stared as she took in the pained expression on her aunt's face. Looking around, she saw it mirrored on the others as they sat, staring at nothing.

“Is she hurt?” She went to Uzuri. “Aunt Uzuri, what’s wrong??”

“Oh my poor baby! ”

Suddenly realizing that the worst had happened, she ran back to Isha and huddled against her warm body, bursting into tears. "I want my mommy! ” she shrieked. “Aunt Isha, I want my mommy! " Isha held her close with a paw. “We all want your mommy, but she’s gone.”

Kh'tel, one of the hyenas asked, "Am I to take that poor Beesa is dead?"

"You ARE to take it, " Uzuri said sternly.

"Well then, the body is corban for a moon. That is the duration, isn't it?" With barely suppressed excitement, he said, "Pray tell, where is the body? We wouldn't want to trespass."

Uzuri showed her fangs. "You sure wouldn't! ‘Cause if you touch her, you will be our next meal! "

"Your Majesty, " Kh'tel protested. "I merely tried to follow leonine custom. I resent these vile accusations."

"I'll show you vile accusations! " In a moment, Uzuri sprang on on the hyena, pinning him to the ground. Other hyenas moved closer, threatening, but she barked, "Come one step closer and I'll kill him! "

"I forbid you to hurt him, " Taka shouted. "Let him go! "

"Beesa is dead, and it's all his fault! Him and his kind! He doesn't touch her. Let the jackals have their fill, but I'll kill the first hyena that touches her! "

"I know you're upset, " Taka said. "I'm sure you know you're overreacting here. We don't want a war, now, do we?"

Hyenas glared at her. Lionesses glared at the hyenas. It was a tinderbox just waiting to burst into flame.

"Let him go, " Taka said sternly. "I'd hate to have to MAKE you let him go."

"You mean just you and I? One-on-one with no outside interference?" Uzuri had a fierce light in her eyes that froze Taka's blood. Clearly she could make good on her threat. "Are those your terms, Sire?"

Taka was clearly at a disadvantage. He squirmed inside, trying to think of something, anything, he could say and not live to regret.

Elanna said, "For the sake of the Gods, you two, concede the point. Let the hyena go, Uzuri. In return my husband will not punish you." She looked at Taka and half smiled. "Tell her you’ll let her go, dear. She’s reasonable."

Taka nodded. "Yes, yes. Elanna speaks for me. We're all friends here. We just have our misunderstandings." He stared at Uzuri. "Don't we, my dear?"

"Yes, Sire." She glared down at the still-trapped hyena and said, "We're all friends here." She kissed the hyena right on the end of the nose with a long, wet, drooling lick that made him gasp and sputter. "Mmmmm. Don't try to eat things that bite back, Hon. You might get invited to dinner."

When Kh'tel was released, he ran in blind panic from the cave, wiping his nose in the grass and trembling.

SCENE: MOST WONDERFUL OF CALAMITIES

Taka’s espousal of Elanna had come when he was supposedly mourning his brother and Simba. But one day there came the most wonderful and yet frightening change in him. He came in to see Elanna as she lay in the cool of the cave. The blistering heat had soaked his golden body with sweat, and taken the fire from his eyes and the joy from his heart.

That’s when a small miracle happened. “Husband, I know that there is not enough food to go around. But there is someone that wants to join the pride.

“Someone I know?”

“No, not yet.”

“We have so little as it is. Male or female?”

“I don’t know.”

“You talked to them, and you don’t know? Was it a cub or something?”

“Or something, ” she said. “I sensed the change in my body a few days ago, but today I’m sure. Taka, you are very clever, but you haven’t seen the light in my eyes?”

“The light in your eyes?” The hair on his back stood up. “You mean I’m going to be a father?”

“Please don’t be upset with me. We’ll have to stretch things a little, but we’ll make it somehow.”

“Upset??” Tears came to his eyes and he nuzzled her, fondling her ears and cheek with his large paw and kissing her. “I love you, Lannie. My dear, precious girl. Upset?? I’m delighted! Oh gods, I’d almost forgotten there was beauty or laughter in the world. Lannie, I will give you sons and daughters. You will fill the world with beauty.”

She kissed away his tears. “Go tell the world.”

He came running out to the end of the promontory of Pride Rock and shouted, “Listen, all of you! Elanna is with child! ” He practically danced like a cub. “I’m going to be a father! ”

Taka felt this small life would love him the way he loved Ahadi. The rest of the Pride Lands be cursed, this small treasure of his beloved would be his, fully his, and he would worship it. Be it male or female, it would be heaven and earth for him, even God. Surely there would be no unfairness in Taka’s heart. If he had twin sons, the kingdom would be divided upon his death. Never would he inflict on his own the pain and suffering he felt. And he decided something else as well, something dark and sinister. For the safety of his own, the day Elanna gave birth would be the day Rafiki died. He gave explicit instructions on this to his hyena guard. The curse would not live on in his children.

There was no parade of lionesses coming to congratulate the happy pair. Only a few hyenas came by to fawn on him, seeking to ingratiate themselves. He despised this—it made the missing lionesses all the more obvious.

Then came Fabana. She squirmed with delight. “I told you not to die, didn’t I? I told you that love would come, and it has.” She stood up on her hind legs and put her rough arms around Taka’s mane and kissed him. “I’m so happy! ”

Taka purred deeply, kissed her with his large tongue and stroked her gently with his large paw. “I wondered when you’d come. You’re the first one I wanted to tell about little Fabana.”

“Little Fabana! ” She kissed him again. “Aren’t you the big sweetie! Yes you are! ” He chuckled and rolled over like a big cub, batting at her lightly with his huge paw.

The news struck a chord of dread in some of the lionesses. Isha and Uzuri went to Kako and took her aside. There was one place near the cistern where a small damp cave blew cold air year round. A nice place to escape the heat of summer, it was the doorway to a strange underground realm that was corban to creatures of the sunlit world. Hyenas hated it because of the constant dampness, so there was not as much danger of being overheard.

“That cub could be female, ” Isha said quietly. “Then again it could be male. If it was, I wouldn’t give half a bleached zebra skull for Baba’s life. Scar will either kill him or send him off. He’s afraid of a good challenge. Pfft, I almost wish I was a male—I’d show him a thing or two! ”

“He’s only shown me kindness, ” Kako said.

“True. When it suits him, he can be a cute little kitten. But this kitten has claws, hon.”