Emaweni webaba
Silale maweni
Webaba silale maweni.

Homeless. Homeless.

A line of creatures, long and lithe, golden, grey and brown. Lions leaving the Pridelands. Rain still lightly falling, they trudged across the ashes of the plain in the moonlit night. These were the supporters of Scar: Zira, his confidante and mate in all but name, her children and sisters, and those few others who had admired Scar and prospered under his rule.

Without Zira they might have made peace with Simba, their new king, and remained on Pride Rock, but her impassioned words and deep hatred had stirred them to rebellion. Simba, still wild from his battle with Scar and all the memories his rediscovered home awoke in him, banished them all to the shadowed lands beyond his territory, chasing them down from the rock with bared teeth and proud roar.

Moonlight sleeping on a midnight lake.

They halted by the waterhole so thirsty animals could drink. Throats full of ash and smoke, most lapped greedily. Small splashes echoed in the quiet night and ripples spread across the black depths, breaking the reflection of the full moon into a million fragments of silver.

To Zira it was as if the water's surface had been broken by Simba's roar, and the reflection was her power and happiness shattering. She scooped at the water with a forepaw, trying to bring the fractured image back together, but only succeeded in distorting it further.

Two small cubs, the youngest creatures on the exodus, chased each other to the water's edge and played in the shallows, giggling. Zira snarled and cuffed the boy around the head, making him sit down in the mud and cry.
"Kovu, Vitani, save your strength. We have far to travel tonight." Zira said more gently, picking the female cub out of the pool.
"Where are we going, Mother?" she asked, water dripping from her long fringe.
Zira raised her head and looked towards the craggy rocks on the horizon.
"To the Outlands." she said.

Homeless.

Zira looked back over her shoulder, eyes blazing. How dare Simba cast her out of her home? She tightened her grip on the scruff of tiny Kovu, shaking him roughly to relieve her own frustration. The cub squealed in protest, and his mother guiltily shifted her jaws to a more comfortable position.

We are homeless.

The old lioness Myana lifted Vitani in her soft mouth. She could hardly see through the mist of tears, and fixed her eyes on Zira's swishing tail. The last thing this aged creature needed was to leave the place where she had been born, had played and become an adult. Though she had disliked Scar's rule she had put up with it uncomplainingly, as a low-ranking lioness should. As for Zira, she loved the troubled creature like a daughter, had been by her side at the birth of both her litters, and would have followed her to the ends of the earth.

Halfway down the line a lone voice lifted in a wail of sorrow, again and again. Ngani, a small lioness with honey-blonde fur, was mourning her lost love Scar. The crippled king had taken no notice of little Ngani, his heart set on his sister-in-law Sarabi, but her love had only grown greater with each rejection. With Scar's fall it was as if the whole world had tumbled about her tawny ears.

At her side was a young adult lion with a frazzled mane and a hollow belly, who nuzzled her and whimpered. This was Zira's son Nuka, who had lost his best and only friend in Scar.

Where could they go, these outcast lions? They followed Zira, not out of any great faith in her as a leader, but because they had no other options. Dazed with shock and grief, they were only too grateful to stop having to think and travel blindly behind the powerful lioness. Most had never strayed more than a few miles from Pride Rock and were already in unfamiliar territory, sniffing strange scents and treading foreign earth. But they had not yet gone far enough from their old home for Simba.

The moonlight sleeping on a midnight lake.

The water was calm again, broken only by an occasional insect landing briefly on the surface. Zira saw that several of the lions had lain down by the waterhole, heads on paws. She too felt the urge to stay here and rest, listening to the musical lapping of the water and the night song of the bats and insects. But she mustn't. She urged the others back on their feet with shoves and little snaps.

"We can't stay here! We're right out in the open! And as soon as any Pridelands animal comes here for a drink, word will get back to Simba that we haven't left his territory, and he and those other traitors up there will come down and kill us!"

Kovu's ears drooped and he whimpered.
"That's right Kovu, kill us. Because Simba is a bad lion." Her muzzle an inch from her son's, Zira drove home the message with a small smack.
"Now move!"

The two cubs staggered along, Vitani grabbing her mother's tail in her teeth and enjoying a tow until she was shaken off with a growl. The adults weren't in much better shape than the infants, but they were better able to envisage the future. To the cubs it was as if they had always been travelling wearily through the night, and always would be.

Somebody say ih hih, ih hih, ih hih.

"I'm tired, Mother," Kovu said at length. He dragged his paws in the dust, the pads raw. He panted: ih hih, ih hih, ih hih.
"Me too." Vitani whined, pushing her lower lip out in a pout. "And I'm cold." Zira stamped the ground with her paw.
"We have to keep moving! The desert will be freezing soon. We must find shelter." With a groan for her aching teeth she picked Vitani up by her scruff.
"I can carry you a little way. Nuka, take Kovu."

Her older son slouched up. "Me? Carry that little dirtbag? Nuh-uh."
"Just do it Nuka!" his mother hissed, lashing out at his cheek. Nuka gave a startled yelp and grabbed his younger brother, jerking him up none too gently and holding him in an inexpert grasp.

Somebody sing Hello, hello, hello.

They passed through a cold valley, high rock walls on either side. The ground was hard and studded with sharp stones. Zira looked up from the depths at Pride Rock, still visible in the distance. She thought she could almost glimpse the dark shape of Simba watching from his lookout, forcing her onward.

Her paws made an eerie double thump, as if she were being followed. Ears flicking, she glanced repeatedly over her shoulder. Behind her Myana murmured a few words of comfort to Ngani, and her voice rang hollowly around them.

Kovu raised his head. "Hello?" he called. Hello, hello, hello responded the rock walls.
Vitani giggled. "Echo!" Echo, echo.
"Quiet!" hissed Zira, ears flat against her skull. Nuka crunched down on Kovu's scruff.
"Yeah, quiet you! Uh - why do we hafta be quiet?"

Zira turned to him, a flicker of fear behind the anger in her eyes. The single word she spoke was enough to silence Nuka:
"Hyenas."

Somebody say ih hih, ih hih, ih hih.

Ngani sat down suddenly, shaking. Myana cocked her head.
"Are you all right?"

The other lioness could only sob dryly, no tears coming. Head hanging, she cringed and stared at the dust.
"I can't...ih hih, ih hih...believe he...ih hih...Scar...he's...ih hih ih hih ih hih..."

Zira dropped Vitani, who sprawled on the ground looking displeased.
"He's dead, Ngani." she said brutally, lashing her tail.
"Hih...ih hih..."

Zira's paw caressed the grieving lioness. Despite jealously guarding her own claim on Scar, and never having a high opinion of poor little Ngani, she could now at least share the pain. She squeezed Ngani's shoulder.

"He's gone, Ngani, and that's something we're all going to have to get used to."

Somebody cry why why why.

Ngani still looked at her paws, tracing a design in the ash. A lion's face. A single tear dripped from her nose and struck the drawing's eye, making a dark scar.

By now everyone had gathered round Ngani. Nuka dropped Kovu on his head and rubbed against the small lioness, on whom he had secretly had his eye for some time.

"There, there," he said in his most grown-up manner. To his surprise Ngani struck him with a clawed paw - it really wasn't his night.
"Why? Why? Why?" she wailed, looking wild-eyed up at the moon. "Why did he have to die?"

"Because his part in the Circle of Life was done," piped up a high voice. Zira swung round and eyeballed her younger son.

"Where did you learn that little piece of information?" she hissed through her teeth, her eyes mere slits.

Kovu realised his mistake. "From S - Sa - " He took a trembling step backwards.

"SARABI?" Zira roared, bowling the cub over. Her paw hit him again and again while he squealed and pleaded. Vitani growled at her mother and even Nuka looked uncomfortable.

"Listen closely. Sarabi is the mother of Simba. Simba is our enemy. Mention either of them again and you'll get far worse. Do you understand?"

Kovu could only nod silently.

"Good." Zira turned on her heel and paced onward without looking back. Her allies followed in a shocked silence.

Little Ngani, forgotten, wiped the tears from her muzzle with a paw. She gazed for a few seconds at the face of Scar in the dust, then smoothed the image over and followed the rest.

Strong wind.

The hair along Zira's back was whipped awry by an icy wind laced with the last of the rain. She flattened her ears and lowered her head against the blast. Her haunted imagination turned the wind into the spirit of Mufasa, stern and disapproving, tormenting her until she left his son's lands. Kovu and Vitani were shivering, their soft baby fur no protection against the cold of the African night.

"I'm sorry, Mufasa," Zira said silently. "I'm sorry you had to be the eldest. I'm sorry you sired Simba and deprived Scar of his reign. You were a good lion, but stupid. And so you died." The wind sliced fiercely up her spine, and she growled.

"But I am alive!" she screeched aloud, causing the others to look at her in puzzlement.
"I live and you are gone! I won't let the ghosts of the dead torment me!" She turned her back squarely to the wind and plodded on, ears pressed against her head.

Destroy our homes.

Myana's paws were plastered with fine grey ash. She shook it off in a cloud and seemed to see the ghosts of countless plants and small animals, dead in the fire that had swept the dry grasslands, fly from her grasp. She had seen fires before and knew that next year's spring would bring fresh life to the dead land. But would any of the pride be there to see it happen? Game would be scarce for the next few months, and winter was approaching.

This barren plain across which little pyres still flickered, the flat lifelessness broken only by the twisted black wreck of a tree or an oily puddle, this had been her home. Its ruined features only reminded her of how she had romped and played here as a cub with lions now long dead, and of how dear this place was to her. Now she was leaving, perhaps never to return. She wouldn't see the new shoots peeping from the charred soil, or the baby zebra totter into the dawn of their first day.

Family ties had been cut by the day's events. Sister had turned on sister, rebellious cubs who had known no king but Scar had left their parents. Homes were broken. The pride was torn apart from within.

Many dead.

Mufasa was gone. Scar was gone. Others had fallen along the way, starved or exhausted in the lean final months of Scar's reign. Never before had the Pride Rock community been decimated like this. Now it was depleted again as Zira's rebels slunk away. The face of the Pridelands had changed forever. Could either group of lions survive when their numbers were so small? Zira felt she would rather die by herself than live ruled by Simba. For a part of her had died alongside Scar.

Tonight it could be you.

Zira's ears pricked up as she heard a chattering laugh nearby. A musky scent wafted to her nose on the cold wind. The hyenas! Betrayed by Scar then chased off by Simba after living in luxury on Pride Rock, they were thirsting for revenge. How had Scar ever thought he could make an alliance with these cold, mad-eyed creatures whose jaws like flint could break a lion's leg with a single bite?

"Stay close to me, children. Nuka, you too." Zira growled, her yellow eyes flicking into the darkness. Could she make out a spotted shape running along beside them? She gave a warning snarl and lashed her tail.

Strong wind, strong wind.

Suddenly the hyenas were all around them and among them. Nuka was bowled over by the onslaught, sudden and deadly as a tornado. "Mother!" he screamed in a high-pitched voice, curling up in a ball. In a storm of grey spotted fur and flashing black legs, Zira whirled in a circle, lashing out at tails and noses to keep the hyenas off. At Nuka's cry she raised her head and was at his side in a single bound, scattering the predators.

"Where's Kovu?" she asked, looking wildly around.
"I dunno!"
"Idiot!" Cuffing Nuka's face, she glanced anxiously from side to side. Myana was standing over Vitani, growling fiercely though her legs trembled. Her other child was nowhere to be seen.

Hyenas wouldn't normally attack a full-grown lion. But at the best of times they could kill and eat a cub. Zira swatted hyenas like flies as she searched for Kovu.

There was a shrill shriek from Ngani as a hyena almost as big as she was lunged at her throat. Vitani shot out and clamped her teeth around its back foot, clinging gamely on. The hyena whipped round and the cub was sent flying, but Ngani was safe. Vitani dragged herself up, mouth bloody, looking for something else to attack.

Suddenly one of the spotted crew jumped right in front of Zira. Her grinning, jag-toothed mouth held Kovu by the head. One swift bite would crush his skull like a watermelon. Her stumpy tail wagged.

"Lookin' for something?"

"Shenzi!" hissed Zira, recognising the female who had challenged Scar.

"Believe it, baby!" Mad Ed staggered into the frame, tongue lolling. He tugged on Kovu's tail.
"Ding dong! Avon calling!"

Even with his life in danger, Kovu set up a spirited growl and writhed in the hyena's grip. His needle-sharp claws raked Shenzi's nose, and, startled, she loosened her grip. Her powerful jaws snapped together, but caught only a tuft of fur from the cub's back as he dropped to the ground and ran to his mother.

Zira had been enraged by Simba's presumption and by Scar's death, but nothing could match her fury at the creature which had almost murdered her son. With a sound that was half roar, half howl she threw herself at the hyena.

Shenzi staggered backwards and knocked into Ed. Both fell, writhing comically on their backs. Zira's black gums were visible above her gleaming teeth as she snarled and raged. She pounced at the pair with paws outspread. The two rolled one to each side, somehow picked themselves up and ran yelping away, tails between their legs. The rest of the band followed.

Many dead, tonight it could be you.

"You were lucky this time, Zira!" sang the hyenas in a shrill chorus as they racketed away.
"We will destroy you. We will take your children and crack their skulls, suck the marrow from their bones! We will get you, Zira!"

"Horrible things," Myana observed. "Don't worry little ones, your mother will protect you." She licked Kovu's ear reassuringly.
"I wasn't scared!" the cub protested, dodging away.
"Me neither!" declared Vitani, fluffing up her fur like a little cat.

One lioness lay dead: Zani, Zira's younger sister. The leader's mouth set in a grim line as she touched her nose to the still-warm body, almost ripped apart by the hyenas' claws and teeth.

Myana padded up. "Everyone else is safe, Zira. You kept us all safe," she said humbly.

When Zira turned round her face was a barely recognisable mask of rage. The words "Simba's fault!" escaped her clenched teeth.

Somebody say ih hih, ih hih, ih hih.

In the silence that followed the yelping, screaming mayhem of the hyenas, only the lions' harsh panting could be heard. Ngani was breathing raspily, a gash across her throat. She looked as if she might soon collapse. Kovu's heart hammered in his chest and he panted quick and hard, eyes slightly glazed. Zira knew he was in shock and needed to be quiet and warm.

"We're nearly there," she said firmly, looking at her followers. "Just one more big effort and we'll make it."

She lifted her paw and pointed. Ahead of them rose the dark bulk of a bare mountainside, hollowed by storm and rockslide to provide a labyrinth of caverns and caves.

"We're going there?" Vitani surveyed the eerie mass, considering. "Cool!" she concluded.

Zira spoke again. "Scar was afraid that Sarabi and Nala would lead a rebellion against him. If he were defeated and driven out, he had arranged to meet me at this place. Beyond the Pride Rock territory, it is known as the Outlands." Her gaze travelled up the dry slope.
"But Scar won't be coming now," she said softly, almost to herself. She hoisted Kovu up in her jaws, where he dangled limply like a hunk of meat. Vitani trotted beside her, peeking anxiously at her brother. The others following in ones and twos, Zira led the way to their new home.

Somebody sing Hello, hello, hello.

A few bones were scattered around the entrance to the cavern. Zira sniffed them; they seemed old and desiccated, but you could never be too careful. "Hello?" she called sharply, peering into the darkness. There was no reply save a splintering crunch from Nuka, who, hungry, had bitten hard into a dry femur.

"Hello?" Zira put her nose to the ground. No lions had been here for a long, long time, nor any other large predator. She ventured in, her bony hips swaying as she walked.

"Hello!" she tried again, her suspicious glare dashing from corner to dark corner. A dull, dead silence. Nothing breathed, nothing stirred. Satisfied at last, Zira stood on guard at the entrance and counted her followers in, one by one.

Somebody say ih hih, ih hih, ih hih.

Suddenly Nuka started scratching behind his ear, an expression of horror on his face. He scrabbled so frantically that he lost his balance and fell, still clawing at his skin with a hind leg. Zira rolled her eyes.
"What are you doing?" Nuka wriggled and screwed up his eyes.
"Ooh! Aaah! Ih hih!" he moaned, rubbing himself against a rock. Ngani lifted a delicate paw and shook it distastefully.
"Termites. Crawling with termites," she said, licking her foot.

Zira glared at them both. "Do you have anywhere else to go?" she enquired softly. "No? Then lie down and sleep."

She laid Kovu gently on the cave floor. Vitani curled up by his side and both cubs fell instantly into the deep, untroubled sleep of the very young. Gradually the rapid ih hih, ih hih, ih hih of Kovu's breathing slowed to an even, regular in-out. Zira released her own breath in a long sigh of relief, looking around at the ragged army she had succeeded in bringing here. "Sleep now," she told them, though they needed little encouragement. "We're home."

Somebody cry why why why.

The exhausted lions slept where they lay, around the walls of the vast cavern. Nuka was on his back with his paws in the air, scratching in his sleep. Myana turned round three times to smooth the earth before stretching awkwardly out on her side.

Only Zira remained awake. She found a piece of hollow bark and lined it with moss ripped from the cave walls. Tenderly she picked up her sleeping babies and laid them in the improvised cradle.

"I wasn't asleep! I'm not tired!" Vitani protested, opening one eye a crack. Fidgeting to find a comfortable position, she kicked her brother in the side. Kovu came awake with a snort and squinted sleepily around, a tuft of fur hanging over his eyes and one ear inside-out. His lip curled in a sneer of disgust.

"I hate this place! Why'd we have to come here? Why, why, why?" He banged his paws on the side of the cradle and tried to struggle out.

"Because of the evil murderer Simba. We don't want to live with a murderer, do we? We hate Simba, don't we?" Her claw pressed into Kovu's neck as she waited for his answer. Vitani nodded her fuzzy head obediently.

But the male cub backed away, frowning. "When are we going home?" he demanded.

Zira tucked both cubs in. She tidied Kovu's fur and kissed him. "Some day, when you're big and strong. Sleep, my little prince, and dream of the day when we shall return to Pride Rock!"

Despite all she had been through on that tumultuous day, the pain, the loss and anger, a wicked smile crept across Zira's muzzle as she watched her sleeping son...

Kuluman
Kulumani, Kulumani sizwe
Singenze njani
Baya jabula abasi thanda yo
Ho.