CHAPTER: A PROUD FATHER

Distraught from the death of her friend, Uzuri sneaked out to see Ugas. He would remind her of all that was beautiful and kind and soothe her heartache.

Indeed, the moment she caught sight of him, her heart was filled with joy. “Ugas!”

“Uzuri, my angel!” He nuzzled and pawed her. “How hungry you look. Please come dine with me, dear.”

“I’m not here to stay long, my love. I just had something to tell you.”

“By any chance, is this about cubs?”

“Twin sons.”

“Twin sons?” His eyes grew large. “Are you serious??”

“Wasn’t that what you wanted?”

“Yes, Uzuri! Yes!!” He practically wiggled with joy. Ugas came up on his hind legs and sprang at her, wrapping his arms around her neck and wrestling with her. She was smaller but had youth on her side. She held back some of her great strength to keep from overwhelming him all at once. And when she felt him beginning to tire, she finally let him push her to the ground. As she lay with her back pillowed in the soft meadow grass, he stood over her and tickled her chest with his nose. Looking into her beautiful eyes with his warm smiling face, he said, “Go retrieve your sons. I want to look at them, smell them and nuzzle them. They will know their father loves them, and Uzuri, we’ll be a family at last. A family!”

Her face lost its smile. “I can’t,” she said. “I must go back, beloved.”

“But why? Think of our sons, Zuri. Don’t they need my love too? I would raise them to be Princes and they would get respect they will never have out there.”

“Don’t be upset, my love.” She reached up and fondled his neck, following his mane down his broad chest. “Someday we will come to you. Someday we’ll be a family.”

“When?” He drew his face down to almost touch hers. “What time I have left, I’d like to spend with you. When you’re gone, I don’t live, I only exist. Don’t you think I’ll make a good father?” He saw her tears start. “Oh, honey tree, I didn’t mean to make you cry.” He kissed away her tears. “I was so lonely tonight. Must you go now? So soon?”

“Not right this moment, anyhow.” She patted the ground beside her with a paw and Ugas lay next to her. She pushed her face into his soft mane and put her paw on his chest, feeling the tides of his breath and the reassuring rhythm of his heart. Her tears began to flow freely. “You poor, dear thing! I feel awful about this. You must think I’m a terrible wife.”

“That’s a foolish thing to say,” he said, putting her paw in his powerful jaws and giving it a little squeeze, then stroking it gently with his warm, pink tongue. “You know, I’m tempted to play on your guilt, but I won’t. I want you to stay, but not out of guilt or obligation. I want you to need me the way I need you.”

“But I do,” Uzuri said. “I swear it.”

Ugas glanced over at her. He fondled her cheek with his paw. “If you think one day you’ll wake up and have nothing holding you to Pride Rock, you’re mistaken. It will never be easy to leave.” He pulled his paw back. “You’ll keep finding one more reason to wait. It will always be one more week, and the weeks will turn into moons. But I’m old, Uzuri, and when I’m dead all the tears in the world won’t bring me back.”

“I thought you weren’t going to play on my guilt,” she said.

“I’m not. I just have this terrible dread that when you’re gone I’ll never see you again.”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” she said with a deep sigh. “Nothing will keep us apart, dear. You’re the only lion I’ve ever loved, and the only one I ever will love.” She got up and shook off. “I’m sorry, but I have to go. My cubs are hungry.”

“Our cubs,” Ugas reminded her.

“I know.” She nuzzled him. “Darling, I will come back. I promise you.”

“Soon?”

“Soon.”

“I love you. Never forget that.”

She looked back at him sadly. “I love you too. Wait for me.”

 CHAPTER: THE WINDS CHANGE

Uzuri was true to her heart. Once her feet were set on the path she did not stop until she arrived. Out of her love for Elanna, she kept an eye on Taka whenever she could.

She heard a rumor from Ber that some of the hyenas were plotting to kill Taka, but they needed a way to make it look like an accident--or suicide. It panicked her, not so much because of Taka but what it would do to Elanna. Little did she know they were planning to kill Lannie as well, or she would have really done something desperate.

To settle her mind, she went to see Taka--something very few lionesses would ever do, for his mental state had deteriorated to a barely suppressed madness.

He was not in his usual place. She bullied one of the hyena guards to tell her where he went.

“The cistern place, I thinking,” he said in broken leonine. Leonine from a hyena! Indeed, the occupation had lasted longer than she’d thought.

“Ka’del chul,” she replied in perfect hyannic. Now it was his turn to be surprised.

She ran down the slope of Pride Rock along a path covered with hyena footprints. Going around to the lee of the stone, she saw the dark-maned lion huddled by the side of the water, talking to his reflection. “No way out. There’s no way out. If there is a God, please help me! But how can there be a God? How can there be a God with so much misery in the world?? If I were God, things would be a lot different around here, that’s for sure!”

“Sire?”

“What??” He looked up, more afraid than angry. Tears had stained his cheeks. “Oh, Uzuri, it’s only you.”

“What’s wrong?”

“Did they send you to find me? Did they put you up to it--all those lionesses that want to know if I’m totally mad??”

“That’s not fair!” Uzuri upbraided him, something only she and Elanna could do. “Lannie was worried about you. She asked me to keep an eye on you.”

“Spy, you mean?”

“No. If I was spying on you, would I call out? I could see you quite well from over there.”

“Yeah.” He wiped his eyes with a paw. “You do think I’m mad, don’t you.”

“Well, I think you’re hurting.”

“Hurting.” He laughed bitterly. “I’m going to die soon. Not that I dread being dead one bit. It’s dying that frightens me.”

“Surely you’re not going to kill yourself??”

“No, nothing that noble. My friend, I know my star lore well. Well enough to know that the rumors are true, not mere whispers in the reeds.” He sniffed. “Uzuri, you believe in God, don’t you?”

“Of course I do.”

“Then if you swore something by Aiheu, you’d consider that binding for all times, wouldn’t you?”

“Of course. Where is this going, Taka?”

“You looked after me for Elanna. Now I want you to swear that you’ll look after her for me when I’m gone. I want you to swear by Aiheu.”

“I don’t have to swear it. I love her, and as long as I have breath in this body, I’ll take care of her.”

“When I die that the others will want to hurt her because she was my wife. You must protect my Lannie. She gave up everything for me, and that kind of devotion must not go unrewarded. Don’t let them hurt her, Uzuri. They’ll listen to you.”

“I’ll do my best. I promise. If it makes you feel any better, I’ll swear it to Aiheu.”

With a pronounced trembling in his limbs that made him look far older than he was, he drew up alongside her and nuzzled her. For a moment she could see the frightened little cub that used to call her Zuzu. “I said some unkind things about you in the past,” he said. “When you remember me, I want you to remember that I felt regret. Say a prayer for me from time to time.” He nuzzled her once more. “Now be a good girl and please leave--I should like to be alone now.”

Uzuri nodded and softly padded away. She had no way of knowing that Shenzi would crush the life out of him later that evening.