Elanna gave a delighted shriek and pounced upon her sister, rolling about and wrestling as she tried to catch Sarabi’s flailing paws in her mouth. Her sister was most uncooperative and wriggled away, heading towards the cave opening at the back of the cistern cleft. “Betcha can’t catch me!” she shouted, vanishing inside.
Elanna stopped short at the entrance. “Uh-uh. I ain’t goin in there.”
“What’s the matter, Sis?” Sarabi’s voice floated out of the darkness. “You scared?”
“Daddy told us not to go in there. And Barata says it’s haunted.”
“Oh gods, you believe that old story? They tell you that so you won’t go in. Don’t be a fool.” Still, Elanna sat planted at the entrance like a bush. “Well, come ON, Lannie.” Sarabi giggled again. “I see it now: Mufasa the Great and his wife, Queen Scaredy Cat!”
“All right, you ASKED for it that time!” Elanna bounded into the cave, her eyes adjusting quickly to the dark. She spied the dim shape of Sarabi bounding away deeper into the cave’s recesses. “Come back here!”
Sarabi ran on for awhile longer, the turned, grinning, expecting to see Elanna’s head poke around the corner, a mischievous smile on her face as she prepared to exact her revenge.
Instead, she saw only inky blackness. “Lannie?” Her voice echoed back to her, harsh and somehow mocking in the cave’s confines. The warm glow of play faded, replaced by the dull chill of the dank walls, moist with condensation. The faint drip of water somewhere behind her and the tides of her breath were the only sounds. “Lannie?”
A faint touch tickled the back of her neck and she screamed, whipping about and striking with her forepaws, feeling the impact as they struck a dark form behind her. A yelp of pain reached her ears, and she froze. “Elanna?!”
A choking sob sounded from the blackness. “Sassie, I can’t see anything, it’s so dark, I can’t find the way OUT!”
“Well, it’s right back....” She bumped into the wall. “I guess not.”
Sarabi knelt in the blackness and nuzzled her sister comfortingly. “Don’t worry, we’ll get out of here. Come on.” She felt carefully around in the dark, until her whiskers detected an opening. Moving slowly, so that Elanna could keep up, she padded through the winding tunnels, pausing now and again to sniff carefully. Time passed in a blur, and she began to wonder if anyone was looking for them.
“Look, Sassie, light! We’re saved!”
Sarabi peered ahead. Sure enough, a faint glow was detectable in the distance. “Thank Aiheu!”
“You said it!” Elanna pushed past her, eager to escape the dreary confines of the cave. “C’mon, let’s get outa here!”
“Wait up!” Sarabi slipped on the damp floor, picking herself up slowly. “Lannie, wait!”
She padded along the tunnel, the light growing around her, but seeming wrong, somehow, a cold, pale light, not the warm yellow glow of the sun. Turning another corner, she emerged into a small room, lit with the same cold light. Elanna stood nearby, a miserable expression on her face. “Guess we took a wrong turn, huh?” she said, and burst into tears.
Sarabi stood awestruck, unable to answer as she stared at the sight before them.
CHAPTER 15: DARK SECRETS
Elanna looked despondently at the shimmering pool of water that lay before them. It stretched across the full length of the cavern, an expanse of water that seemingly glowed with its own inner light. Elanna peered about and realized the light was a reflection from the cavern walls! Nosing them, she broke a piece of something nauseatingly warm and hideously soft off of the rock surface. The smell of the luminescent fungus stung her nose, and she screwed up her face in distaste as she watched the glow die from the piece she had broken. “This place gives me the creeps.”
“Check this out!”
Elanna glanced over at Sarabi, who was bent intently over the pool’s edge, the young lioness glancing up at Elanna as she ambled over. “How deep do you think it is?”
“Who cares?” Elanna snorted. But she had to admit, the pool did look deep. The glow from the walls failed to show the bottom, only reflecting their faces in its weak light. “Who cares about the stupid pool, Sassie? Let’s get outa here.” Elanna stepped away and swatted the dead fungus at her sister.
It glanced off Sarabi’s shoulder and vanished into the pool with a sharp FZZZZT! sound.
Sarabi glanced curiously in the water, which lay undisturbed by the intrusion. “I don't see it. Where’d it go?” She leaned over the surface, her chin nearly touching the dark water.
“I don’t know.” Elanna moved to stand beside her. Curious, she picked up a pebble between her teeth and dropped it in. The same odd hissing noise issued from the water, and though they strained their eyes until they ached, the saw no sign of it sinking through the depths.
Elanna glanced at Sarabi’s reflection, the only thing she could see in the pool. It lay flat on the surface, undisturbed by the pebble, without even a ripple to mar its perfection.
Then suddenly, it DID move.
The lovely visage of Sarabi twisted and writhed in the pool’s surface, leering and gibbering silently at her, a vision from her worst nightmares. It raised a paw, as if beckoning her to jump in and join the fun, waving its paw.
Horrified, Elanna looked up to see Sarabi extending a forepaw into the water, an enraptured look upon her face. “SARABI!! NO!!”
Sarabi blinked and looked at her. “What?”
“Get your paw out of there!” Elanna backed away, a terrified look on her face. “Get it out NOW!”
An implacable grip seized Sarabi’s paw and began to pull. She gaped down horrified, her claws extending uselessly as she began to slide across the cavern floor towards the edge. “LANNIE!! HELP ME!”
A strangled cry emerged from Elanna’s throat as she ran to Sarabi and gripped her tail forcefully, pulling with all her might, her sister shrieking in pain, the sound echoing off the cave’s walls as she was pulled in opposite directions. Elanna closed her eyes and prayed, sure that Sarabi would vanish into the pool with that same hissing sound, and she would be left alone here with the ghosts that Barata had warned her about, trapped until she starved or until her sister’s ghost returned for her, as she was sure it would, it would return and drag her down too....
Sarabi’s weight shifted as the grip on her paw vanished, sending her flying back to land on Elanna, driving the air from her lungs with a muffled gasp. Scrambling to their feet, the two tore off back into the dark tunnels, running blindly through the blackness, afraid to stop for what might be in pursuit of them.
Presently, they saw light ahead again, and slowed. Elanna padded ahead, sniffing, and suddenly heard a faint voice calling her name. She turned to Sarabi, grinning. “It’s Mom, Sassie, c’mon!”
The two burst forth from the cave mouth into the warm sunlight, breathing great lungfuls of sweet savanna air as they scrambled past the cistern and upslope to where Avina sat, roaring softly as she called to them. They piled onto her, knocking her onto her side as they nuzzled her affectionately. “Mom!”
“Uff! Cool it, kids! Where have you two been? I’ve been calling you for an eternity!”
“Uhh...we were just playing.” Sarabi dredged up a grin with an effort. “Right, Lannie?”
“Sure!”
“Well, next time, you come right away when I call you. We’re getting ready to go hunting, and I want you two to come along.”
“Yes ma’am.” The two sat quietly until Avina had left. “What happened, Sassie?”
“I don't know. All I know is I never want to go in THERE again!”
“Me neither. I won’t tell if you won’t.” Elanna shuddered at the memory as the two of them headed away toward the lionesses below. During the excitement of the hunt, the two forgot about the incident, and it was never mentioned between them again. But years later, Elanna would wake in the night beside Taka, shivering, the memory of that capering face dancing in the darkness, unable to return to sleep until the glow of dawn had touched the horizon.