What would Shaka think when he saw her? He would still love her, for he was a good and gentle lion, but her beauty was gone forever. And most likely she would never hunt again. What a foolish waste! What a stupid thing to do! And that is if she even lived to see him again. All of her cleverness, all of her boasting and bragging was now a reproach to her. “What a fool I was! ” she thought. “What an idiot among fools! ” Now she would be a charity case, an example that parents would hold up to their daughters when they acted recklessly.

She staggered forward, trying to hold her head up. It was not easy. Her neck was strained, her panting dried out her throat, and her eye was running on the side where she had been kicked. “Keep going, girl, ” she thought. “I can’t stop. I have to find Rafiki. Please, gods, let him be home! ”

The sun tormented her. Flies were gathering in hosts to plague her, and she could not raise her paw to swat at them. In fact, she could barely raise her paw to step forward.

Her eyes began to go out of focus, and she could not compensate. The world was growing darker, and the image of distant trees began to sway and shimmer. “No, I can’t die! I have two children! I have to get home! I have to get home! ”

Blood had covered her chest, running down her legs. The smell of it entered the side of her nose she could still breathe through. Surely it had travelled other places by now.

There were footsteps in the grass around her.

“Who is there?” The words came out almost unrecognizable as speech so she painfully and slowly uttered. “Who...is...there??”

“Just us.”

It was a hyena voice. “Help me. I’m the wife of the Prince Consort.” The words burned like fire. “If you...get me to Rafiki...my husband will...reward you. Imagine...all you can eat! ”

“That’s what I’m imagining right now.”

“No! Don’t do this! In the name of God! ”

“Nothing personal, dearie, ” the voice said. As if at a signal, a hunting party came out of the grass and attacked her.

It was Shaka’s turn to do border patrol, a job he didn’t like thought he didn’t really hate it either. It did take away time he could be spending with his family. He would have been playing with Sarabi and Elanna, but instead he was defending the Pride Lands against enemies that rarely ever show up.

He amused himself by remembering the long passages of the Leonid Saga he had memorized as a youth from his father. Shaka was good at reciting verse, and he was a living encyclopedia of lore and ceremonial prose. He sang to himself Sarabi’s favorite song.

“Hello there! ” shouted Zazu. “Sorry to interrupt Your Highness, but there are hyenas on the eastern meadow! They’ve killed something.”

“Thanks, ” Shaka said. “I’ll get on it.”

He was looking for a little excitement anyhow. Chuckling to himself about the impression he’d make on the hyenas, he loped across the savanna and plunged through the reeds. “Let them hunt on the Pride Lands, eh? Not as long as I’m on the job.” His easy but massive lope made up the distance rather quickly.

At last he spotted them, eating quickly as if they knew it was a matter of urgency.

He roared at the hyenas. They growled, but withdrew from the carcass and stood back a few yards.

“My Gods, it’s a lioness! ” He didn’t recognize her until he got close enough to turn what remained of the face with his paw. The final look of horror still hung on her shattered face.

“Avina, ” he whispered quietly. Her torn body lay open under the barren sky, and flies buzzed around. “Avina! ” Shaka looked up to the sky, drew in a deep breath and shrieked, “Avina!!! Oh God, Noooooo!!! ”

His grief and rage were competing like two rabbits trying to enter the same hole at the same time. For the vital moment, rage won out. His eyes red with hate fixed on his target. “Dirty stinking murderers!!! I’ll kill you!!! ”

He took out after the hyenas at full tilt. For a lion, his onslaught was something terrible to behold. But he was built for power, not for speed, and was unable to catch up with the lighter-built hyenas the way a lioness might have. Instead, he kept up with them.

The scavengers flew across the savanna swiftly as evening swallows. They put on one final spurt and with great relief crossed the border into the elephant graveyard where their grounds began.

They stopped for a moment to look back—a foolish mistake. Shaka kept coming. He ran over the invisible line that delineated his authority. He half-ran, half-stumbled down the slope and into the dusty realm of the dead. Finally, one of the hyenas stumbled over a pile of bones and headed to a terrifying stop.

Shaka was on top of him very quickly, bearing the hyena’s small body down with crushing weight. “You killed my wife! You ripped out my heart, and I will rip out yours! I give you a moment to pray to your god.”

Before he knew what was happening, Shaka was surrounded by hyenas on all sides. They seemed to materialize from the dust and emerge from the skulls and caves.

“Let him go! ” said Amarakh, the ruling Roh’mach. “You are trespassing on our lands. You are holding one of my people.”

“He’s a murderer! ” Shaka narrowed his eyes at her. “He killed my wife in cold blood, and he was on my land! She had two cubs, Amarakh. Two cubs that won’t have a mother coming home tonight! She was alive when they ripped her! Alive! ”

“I will investigate it. I know him. He’s a trouble maker anyhow, and you can be sure I will punish him if he’s guilty.”

“IF??” Shaka looked down at the trapped hyena. “I saw him over her body. Zazu saw the kill. You tell her. TELL HER, VERMIN! ”

The trapped hyena squeeled in fear. “Somebody help me! ”

“You can’t extract a confession to a murder by death threats.” Amarakh glared back. “This is my land, and I give you my word we will investigate within the customs of our law. But you must let him go. Leave—now! ”

“I do not believe you.”

“You are not in a position to negotiate, ” Amarakh said. “Leave at once. I will see your brother the King tonight. We will talk.”

“You are right, ” he said. “You are absolutely right. I am NOT in a position to negotiate.” Shaka looked up at the sky. “Aiheu abamami! ” he cried in his deep grief. Then he quickly dropped his head and bit with tremendous force, snapping the hyena’s neck and almost severing his head. The body twitched spasmotically before collapsing with eyes staring sightlessly into space. A deep gasp whispered through the assembled throng. Then with bitter rage, the crowd closed in on Shaka.