Ta-daaa, a little surprise for all Bentley-fangirls out there: a little sneak-peak into his childhood :D! But don't worry, there's no spoilers regarding Bentleys story in this one, just a little random thing I wrote while sketching on ideas for the three hyena tribes in the SWG universes Africa :P (The Brown Ones, the Spotted Ones and the Striped Ones; they're all three very different tribes of the "Bouda" people)
Bentley/Mteremo and his sister Etana; bugging the hell outta their aunt Almasi xD!
So yeah, this is a one-shot, my very first one so far xD!
…
The hyena went down on her four paws and peeked inside the hollow roots of the big tree. Nothing.
Suddenly the leaves behind her rustled and she heard giggling. She quickly snapped around. The jungle behind her was empty, only the trees and shrubs. No signs of life.
The huntress slowly stood up straight, her sensitive ears flicked with every sound. She closed her eyes and held her breath, focusing on her target, moving around here. Somewhere.
The shrub to her left shrugged, it's long, pointy leaves brushed against each other with a soft, rustling sound. The huntress' mouth was faintly tugged up in a lopsided grin. She got down on her four again, staring at the bush. The next time it rustled, and the giggle was heard again, she pounced. Leaping through the air and onto her unsuspecting prey; the young hyena cub yelped in surprise as the much older hyena landed on top of her.
"Gotcha! Little monster!" The huntress said and grinned, showing her white, sharp fangs. The cub tilted her head, staring up at her aunt with a puzzled look before started giggling again. The huntress frowned. "What's so funny? I won! Again!"
"RAWR!" The huntress turned around, just to see another cub pounce at her from the above tree, landing heavily on her back. The two hyenas tumbled to the side, the cub landed on the older hyenas chest.
"Noo, aunt Almasi! I won!" The cub said, even younger than his sister. Almasi the huntress frowned before she sighed and rolled her eyes.
"Alright, alright! YOU won, you little monster!" She threw her arms up. "Can you please get off me now, I would like to breathe again?"
The cub snickered and folded his arms, sitting with crossed legs on his aunt. "Say it!"
Almasi raised an eyebrow. "Why should I?" She would've crossed her arms, if it weren't for her nephew sitting on her chest. His sister also decided it was a good idea to sit behind her little brother.
"Say it, aunt Almasi! Say it or we'll sit here 'till the Great Mother takes you away!" Her niece said with a giggle.
"No way!"
"Yes way!"
"Come on! Say it, aunt Almasi!"
"Nope!"
"Yees!"
"Not in a million years, kiddo!"
"Say it! Say it! Say it! Say it!"
"ALRIGHT! Fine! I'll say it!" Almasi sighed and rolled her eyes. "Mteremo and Etana, son and daughter of Mwindaji the hunter, are both better warriors and hunters than anyone ever under the reign of Afaafa our Queen, including me!" Mteremo and Etana, the two cubs, cheered and jumped off the older hyena, letting her sit in an upright position. "And now..." She snickered and quickly threw her arms around the two cubs, reeling them in. "It's time for you two little warriors to come back with me to the village and go to sleep!"
The two cubs looked at each other with horrified expressions on their faces. "Oh no!"
…
After a lot of struggle, Almasi managed to drag her niece and nephew back to their village and to their fathers hut. Sure, no kid liked to go to bed, but come on! Those two little monsters sure knew how to put up a fight!
Gee, how can Mwindaji stand these two?! Almasi thought to herself as she stomped through the village, a kicking Etana thrown over her shoulder and a writhing Mteremo under her arm. It's on rare moments like these that I'm happy I lost mine to the Great Mother...
"We'll go to bed in ONE condition!" Etana said and pouted, sitting on her bed with her arms crossed over her chest.
"Really, little one?" Almasi put her hands on her hips. "You think you're in position to make demands right now?"
The cubs nodded. "We wanna hear a bedtime story!"
The huntress flinched. "A what now?"
"A bedtime story! Tell us a story!" The cubs said in unison.
"Umm, when your father left me with you after leaving with his hunting pack, he didn't tell me ANYTHING about any storytimes!" She raised an eyebrow. Thats great, I'm just soo good at this kind of stuff! Not...
"Father ALWAYS tells us a bedtime story!"
"I bet he does..." Almasi muttered bitterly and sat down between the cubs on Etanas bed and sighed. "Alright, hit me with your worst!"
"Huh?"
"What do the little warriors want to hear, then?"
"I don't know!" Etana said with a shrug.
"Wait, I want to hear grandmas story!" Mteremo said and grabbed Almasis arm. "Pleeasee, aunt Almasi!"
"Yeah! I want to hear it too!" His sister joined in and grabbed the huntress' other arm and tugged at it. "Tell us! We know you know it!"
Almasi sighed. Thank the Great Mother my pack isn't here to see me like this... "Are you two sure you want to hear it? It's pretty long, can't you ask your father to tell it instead?" She winced.
The cubs shook their heads simultaneously. "Nah, we want you to tell it!" They said with large, round, beaming eyes. One pair brown as the earth, the other red like blood. "Pleasee, aunt!"
The huntress flattened her ears. "Alright then. I guess I could... But ONLY if you two promise to go to sleep afterward, is that understood, little ones?"
"YAAAY!" The two cubs cheered loudly and had a little fight over who gets to sit in her lap. The huntress winced and whispered a short prayer to the Great Mother. This was going to be a long night!
"Far away from here, over on the wide savannah; Spotted Ones territory, there was a village, quite like this one, yet very different: it was a Spotted village after all! In this village, there lived a female, a very young and pretty aspiring warrior. Her name was Zuwena, daughter of Hazina..."
"That's grandma, right?" Mteremo giggled, proudly basking in his aunts lap; a spot which he won.
"Sch!" His sister, slightly annoyed over her little brothers victory. "Let her speak!"
Almasi chuckled. "Thank you, Etana!" She said, the little girl stuck her tongue out at her brother in a teasing fashion. "Now, where was I? Oh yeah...!"
"First I should tell you all something about the Spotted Ones: while our females gets to choose freely whom she want as her mate, the Spotted ones gets a predestined soulmate picked out for her by her mother as she's born..."
"But, why can't they choose for their own?" This time it was Etana who interrupted the older hyena. "That's not fair!"
"I don't know, that's just the way it is for the Spotted Ones! It's normal for them, I guess. They probably think we're weird too...!"
"But, why what if she doesn't want that mate? What if she wants another one, someone much nicer and cuter?"
"That's just too bad for her! Now, Etana, may I please continue?"
"Yeah, 'Tana! Stop interrupting her!"
"Me?! Shut up, Mteremo!"
"No! You shut up!"
"How about you BOTH shut up or I'm tying you to your beds and leave you WITHOUT any story tonight?" The two cubs mumbled something incoherent and nodded grumpily. "Alright, very well then..."
"Even Zuwena got a soulmate picked out for her when she was born. And she was lucky; her mother made a wise choice! Her chosen mate Fadhili, the first-born son of one of the Queens brothers, and her grew up like best friends and sometimes it was like they both shared same soul. He became a very skillful skin-carver, while she became the most fierce hunter in her hunting pack..."
"Uh, aunt Almasi?" Mteremo asked. "What's a skin-carver?"
"They, umm..." Almasi pondered for a while. How do you best describe it for a couple of cubs without scarring them for life? "They're like skin-painters, only difference is that they cut the skin without filling the cuts with ink, so they become like, big scars shaped like different patterns. I don't know, it's some kind of warrior thing..." She glanced at her niece and nephew and saw the horrified looks on their faces.
"But, doesn't that hurt?!" Etana exclaimed, her overdimensioned ears pressed against her neck.
"A lot, I guess. But I bet that's why they do it... Sick bastards..."
"Why would they do that if it hurts so much?"
"I don't know, Mteremo! Do I look like a Spotted One to you?!"
"Yeah! You kinda do, actually!"
Etana nodded in agreement with her little brother. "But not as much as father and uncle Fahamu does!"
"Alright, let's drop this already!" Almasis ears flicked in annoyance. "Let's just get this over with so you two can go to sleep, BEFORE your father comes home, alright?"
"Sure!"
"So, Zuwena and Fadhili lives their life together, as happy as they can get. And it doesn't take long until Zuwena finds herself carrying a child.
But, there's someone in the village that just the mere sight of them makes her sick with anger: Aailyah, daughter of the Medicine Man. Her fangs were sharp as her eyes and her heart was colder than the white snow of the mountains. There was a rumor circulating that every now and then she'd go mad and strike her mate!
She had asked Hazina if Zuwena could marry her firstborn son, Akida. But Zuwenas mother refused to allow it, as she saw there was evil growing in the childs heart. Evil he inherited from his mother. And she was right, as Akida grew, he became a huge, massive mountain of muscles, violent and cruel to everyone he saw stood below him. And he didn't have the brain the Great Mother gave a grasshopper!
So one day, Aailyah order her big lug of a son to kill both Zuwena and Fadhili. He managed to kill Fadhili, but failed to kill her.
And who became framed for the murder, if not Zuwena! But instead of executing her, as she was carrying a child, they threw her out. Making her an outcast. With no tribe, no love and no home, pregnant and still hurt from Akidas attack, she was forced to wander into a strange land: the jungle of the Brown Ones. Our jungles! There, in the wilderness, she gave birth to her child. But to break her heart even more, the child was dead. Just like her mate, his life had been claimed by the mad Aailyahs son and was now with the Great Mother..."
A loud sob from Etana interrupted the hyena, who just started to think it was funny to tell the story.
"B-but, that's so unfair!" The little cub pouted and wiped her eyes with her arm.
"Yeah!" Mteremo said, his large,pointy ears pressed against his neck. "They had no right to do that! They should've known that she'd never do anything like that! And they should've punished the REAL killer instead!"
"Well..." Almasi said with a shrug. "It's like I've always said: Life's a bitch and then you die. Now shut up you little maggots and let me finish!" Who got the patience to be pedagogic when you're trying to get your brothers two spoiled kids to sleep?
"Zuwena had given up. Everything she loved had been taken away from her. She had been falsely accused by one of the villages, no the entire tribes, most powerful family for murdering her mate, who just happened to be one of them. Nobody would believe her when she claimed to be innocent. Why? Probably because Aailyah and her highly influential family said so.
She was more dead than alive when she was found by a hunting pack from a nearby village..."
"OUR village, you mean?"
"For the love of the Great Mother, Mteremo..." Almasi growled and narrowed her eyes. "Interrupt me one more time and I'll collapse on the ground and cry. You both are torturing he here, you KNOW how much I hate to tell stories and I've got a feeling that you're interrupting me to drag out on the time, am I right?"
Etana giggled. "You're lying, aunt Almasi!"
"Huh?"
"Yeah, dad has told us that after every successful hunt, you always pester others with your tall stories and..."
"Hey c'mon now! Not after EVERY hunt and... Wait..." She frowned at her niece. "Tall stories? He call them tall stories?"
The cubs nodded.
Next time I see Mwindaji, I'll punch him in the face... "They're NOT tall stories!" She mumbled and crossed her arms. And maybe kick him in the balls... "And now I'll continue the story without any interruptions and then you'll go to bed like two nice, obedient cubs, deal?"
The two cubs looked at each other with the same mischievous grin and nodded. "Sure!"
"The hunting pack was led by none other than our queen Afaafa, but before she became our queen of course. They brought the dying Zuwena back to their, ahum, our village and a volunteering family nursed her back to health. Although she remained a mystery to them, as she never spoke a single word to anyone for a very long time. And when she did began to speak again, it was only to the youngest son of the family: Khalfani. And yes, before any of you maggots interrupts me again: it IS my father and your grandfather!
Khalfani became her friend, and when the council were discussing whether to send her away, as she now where deemed to be fit enough to fend for herself again, he defended her and asked them to let her stay.
She wouldn't tell him why she became an outcast, and when he asked her about her injuries and her scars, she would turn away and be silent. Over time, she began to grow feelings toward Khalfani, feelings she had only felt for one other male: Fadhili. And when she realized that, she tried to keep her distance from him as much as she could..."
"Why?" Etana tilted her head.
Almasi closed her eyes and counted to ten before ignoring the cubs question.
"But I bet you both know what the two other Bouda tribes thinks about the Spotted tribe. Zuwena was often avoided or ignored by most of the Brown Ones around her, except for the family who cared for her and the hunting pack who found her. There were many who wanted her out of the village, and Khalfani had been forced to step up for her more than once. Despite that she for some strange reason tried to avoid him, he still wouldn't turn her back on her. For he too, ever since the first time he lay eyes on her, had feelings for her..."
Etana giggled. "Awwe, that's soo cute! Don't you think, Mteremo?"
Her little brother made a gagging sound and the two cubs began to laugh.
Almasi looked at them with a bemused face. I'll never get to leave this hut if those two are gonna keep interrupting me... Haven't Mwindaji got some sort of gag around here or something?
"What're you thinking about, Almasi?" Mteremo asked his aunt and tilted his head when he noticed that she had been quiet, even though they interrupted her... again!
The best way to cook your little brothers kids... "Nothing, just keep your food hatches closed from now on, okay?" She muttered and waited until the two cubs nodded before she continued the seemingly never ending story.
"Meanwhile, back in Zuwenas old village, there were a few group of people who believed she was innocent: her family.
Hazina set out to find the truth about what happened between her and Fadhili. They said Zuwena got mad and decided to kill her mate, and the wounds she got was from when Fadhili tried to defend himself. Hazina refused to believe that story. She had watched in pride as the destined couple grew up alongside each other, the way they looked at each other made her feel all warm inside, and she knew that she had made the right decision.
After the... incident, Zuwena were brought home to her mothers hut where she slowly regained consciousness. She couldn't remember the face of the attacker, but that, Aailyah said, was just because there was none!
When everyone heard that Fadhili had been taken away by the Great Mother, the whole village mourned. But nobody mourned as deep as Zuwena, which made it even harder for Hazina to believe that her daughter gone mad and killed him. And as she was expecting a child, he would definitely have the upper hand!
Determined to find out what really happened, she got a hold of the one that was last seen in the area: Akida. She tricked the giant into revealing everything to her and to restore her daughters honor, she challenged Aailyah to a duel, where the defeated gets banished..."
"What? Banished?! Why not to the death?" Mteremo frowned. "I mean, they're the Spotted Ones, right? Everyone knows Spotted Ones kills for fun!"
Almasis left eye twitched before she grinned at the cub. "First of all, don't forget that the Spotted Ones are Boudas, just like us and the Striped Ones they follow the words of the Great Mother. For them, life is just as sacred as it is for us. But yes, you've got a point there: the Spotted Ones are not as strict when it comes to life as the rest of us, they believe that death sometimes is the proper punishment for murder. Life for a life..." She leaned down closer to the cub. "And now, ZIP your howling screamer!"
After a fight that was said to have lasted the entire day, Aailyah admitted herself defeated and left the village. She headed for the jungles, just like Zuwena. Driven mad with humiliation for her lost battle, she decided to search for Zuwena and if she was still alive, kill her.
It didn't take long until she too were found by another hunting pack, this time led by Khalfanis sister Barke. Uncertain what to do with another lost outcast of the Spotted Ones, she took her back to the village to ask the council.
On their way there, they met Zuwena and Khalfani. As soon as Zuwena saw the other Spotted One, her memories of the night her mate were killed returned to her and seeing the mother of the killer made her heart fill up with hate. When Aailyah saw the outcast, she wanted to kill her so badly that Barke and her pack had that to join forces to restrain the mad hyena. Frustrated, Aailyah started to tell them lies, a false story of how Zuwena was known back in their home village as a heartless murderer, and murdered her own mate and their child in cold blood. She told them that Zuwena had tried to murder her son when he interfered and almost succeeded.
Zuwena was trembling with anger and fear when she tried to defend herself against the older hyenas lies. But she thought that the Brown Ones never would believe her, and for that, she was scared. Scared to become an outcast once again, and scared that Khalfani would hate and shun her.
But something happened, something she didn't think would happen: the Brown Ones didn't believe in Aailyahs lies, and threw her out of the village, far away from the borders with the promise to kill her if she ever got close again.
Of course, we Brown Ones would never kill another Bouda like that, but being raised in a Spotted village, you are more prone to believe in threats like that! Aailyah promised that she would be back someday, but to this day, no one has seen the madcat!
Zuwena felt that the Brown Ones, who had taken her in and defended her when her past came back to kill her, deserved to hear her story. So one night she gathered the family that took care of her and told them everything. She wasn't sure how they would react, but to her relief, they didn't seem to think any less of her. Quite the contrary, the family talked together and decided to adopt Zuwena into their family, making her a Brown One just like them. When she heard that she now could choose her own mate by herself, she immediately chose Khalfani. He accepted her and they lived happily ever after and together had three children.
Their first-born, a daughter, became the most beautiful and fierce huntress in the entire village! Everyone loves their daughter just like she were their own and there's no and never has been a Bouda more dependable, brave, strong, fast, humble...!"
The two cubs were clutching their ribs while they laughed. Mteremo had fallen down from Almasis lap and were now rolling around on the floor, laughing hysterically.
"Humble!" Etana giggled.
"Brave!" Mteremo continued between the laughing attacks.
Almasi crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes. "You find something amusing?" She snarled. "Now, the story is over and it's time for you two little monsters to go to bed!"
"Not yet, aunt Almasi!" Etana said and wiped the tears of laughter from her eyes.
"N-not yet...?"
"Nope! Now we're hungry!" Mteremo sat up from the floor and grinned.
Almasi nearly fell off the bed. "WHAT?!" She exclaimed. "NO! You promised to go to bed, and now you'll go to bed if I so have to tie you up like a prey! Come here!" She dove after Mteremo, but the cub quickly vanished under the bed and crawled to the other side.
Etana followed her brothers example and bolted off the bed, the two cubs leading their aunt on a wild chase throughout the small hut. The cubs screamed with laughter while the adult hyena chased them under loud curses. Eventually she managed to outwit Mteremo and captured him as he tried to escape her claws.
"GOT'CHA!" She exclaimed and threw the cub over her shoulder. "That's one! Just one more and then I'll see if I can find a cauldron large enough to..."
"Errm, have I missed something here?" Another voice said as a head poked in through doorway. "But why are you planning to boil my children? They hardly have any meat on them!"
"DADDY!" Etana and Mteremo exclaimed in unison.
The hyena who just entered staggered back as first his daughter dashed up to him and threw herself around his neck, causing him to go down on one knee. She was shortly followed by her brother, who writhed loose from his aunts grip and joined the group hug. Their father fell to the ground with a barking laugh.
"I thought you weren't supposed to be back until tomorrow?" Almasi raised an eyebrow and folded her arms across her chest.
"Well, that was the plan..." Mwindaji pried his daughter away from his neck to allow himself to breathe. "... But one of us HAD to go and run into a warthog, and you know how grumpy they are this time of the year! Anyway, long story short: that poor klutz is now at home, getting a couple of broken bones tended at..."
His sister narrowed her eyes. "Let me guess, it was Fahamu?"
Mwindaji grimaced and got to his feet, still with the cubs dangling from his neck. "Yeah..." He said and ruffled Mteremos thick, dark brown hair with one hand. "Who else?"
Almasi chuckled. "Anyway, I need to get home before Bin wonders where the heck I am..." She rolled her eyes and nodded to the outside. "But I gotta talk to you first!"
Her brother nodded and had to use some sort of unearthly strength to pry the cubs away from him. He told them to stay, but judging from their mischievous grins they had other plans. The two hyenas stepped out into the cool night. Since they both were part Spotted, they and their brother Fahamu looked different from the other Brown Ones in the village. Almasi had the yellow fur, black mane and red eyes like a Spotted one, but she lacked spots except for on her face. Her brother had more brownish fur and grayish brown mane with his trademark: a long strand of hair dangling down from his temple. And their brother, the middle child, was like a mix of the two: brownish yellow fur and black, stubby mane. He was the only one of the siblings with the earth colored eyes of a Brown One. Yet, even if the three siblings looked very different. both from each other and from the rest of the tribe, there were no doubts about them being related. The children of Zuwena had all inherited their late mothers proud posture, her hunting skills and her long, straight mane. From their father they got the same cheerful spirit, wits and sense of humor.
Almasi took a deep breath of the jungle air, breathing in all the scents before curling her fist into a ball and rammed it into her brothers face. Mwindaji yelped in surprise and staggered back, almost falling to the ground.
"Bedtime story?! You NEVER told me ANYTHING about having to tell them a BEDTIME STORY!" She hissed at her shocked brother. Mwindaji looked at her for a moment before starting to laugh. "They nagged on me to tell them mothers story, but they kept interrupting me and asking me questions! Sure, it was cute at first, but c'mon!" Mwindaji couldn't stop laughing. Almasi snarled. "What's so funny?"
"Everything!" He chortled and put a hand in front of his mouth. " They never want a story to end, so they keep interrupting, cute isn't it?"
Almasi snorted and folded her arms again. "Very!" She said sarcastically.
"Oh I can just picture it!" He kept laughing. "Lemme guess, they asked you what skin-carving is, right?" She nodded with a puzzled look on their face. "They ask me that every time too!"
"Wait, so they KNOW what it is?"
"Of course!"
Almasi looked at her little brother with a bemused look. "I'm never babysitting again..."
"Oh you're just saying that now!" Mwindaji chuckled with a sly grin. "Anyway, how were they behaving the rest of the day? I can see that the night has been... challenging!"
"Not too bad, actually. I thought it could've been worse, y'know!" She said with a shrug. "Oh, and we were playing a game of hunt, and your son climbs trees..." She narrowed her eyes at him. "Why didn't you tell me your son is a monkey?!"
Now it was Mwindajis turn to shrug. "I dunno, I guess he likes to climb?" He chuckled, but then tilted his head to the side. "There hasn't been any problems with him?" He asked.
Almasi raised an eyebrow and looked at with a confused look before she realized what he was talking about. "Oh, errm... Well, he actually had a short moment this morning, the sad kind. We were talking and somehow we started talking about Shawana and..." She scratched her black mane and stared down at the ground.
Mwindaji nodded and didn't say anything. Mteremo was one of the smartest cubs the village had seen. Everytime he outsmarted the older cubs in hunting tests and other activities, Mwindaji couldn't help but to feel hysterically proud. Even Fahamus son, Bora the white, lost every game of wits against Mteremo. Mteremo was only seven years old, yet he could build a better trap than most of the adults and his original idea of attacking from the trees came two years ago, when he and Etana were playing tag in the forest. He was an adorable, clever little smartass, yet sometimes he could be a bit.. difficult.
He's always had the nasty habit of blaming himself for everything bad that happens, and it only got worse after he found out that his mother died giving birth to him. He usually handled it in either two ways: either he'd go haywire and hyperactive, literally climbing on the walls! It wasn't unusual for him to take the whole day to calm down! Or the opposite, 'the sad kind': he'd get all gloomy and sad and preferred to just sit alone in a corner, cursing himself for existing.
This baffled everyone, especially Mwindaji. How could anyone so young worry so easily?
"How long was he...?"
"Oh, not for long! I promised him that we'd go tracking and then he cheered up"
"Good! Thanks!"
"It's alright! But I'm still not babysitting. Ever. Again!"
"Oh, we'll see about that!"
And with that, Almasi left to go home and sleep for a week. How anyone could stand to take care of cubs like Mteremo and Etana was beyond her understanding. Mwindaji watched as his sister walked away and was eventually engulfed by the dark shadows.
"Why doesn't aunt Almasi wanna babysit us again?" Mteremo poked his head through the doorway and frowned sadly.
"Of course she wants to!" Mwindaji chuckled and walked back in. "But I think you two have been a little too much for her nerves to handle!"
Etana was sitting on her bed again, her big head tilted to the side. "How's uncle Fahamu?"
"Oh, don't worry about him! He'll be fine!" Her father chuckled and sat down next to her on the bed, Mteremo climbed up in his lap and started to play with the long strand of grayish brown hair, hitting it with his paw and got it to swing back and forth like a pendulum. "And now, it's time for you two to go to bed! You've been up and at it for too long now, don't you think?"
"Nope!" Mteremo giggled.
Etana grinned slyly and hugged his arm. "We wanna hear a bedtime story first!"
The End
Thanks for reading! And don't forget to leave a review :3!