Chapter 2
But little did Taka know Uru already knew he was up to something.
Uru sat half in shadow in the mouth of the cave, her bright green eyes cutting the darkness as she watched her son and his eternal tagalong Zira gamboling down from Pride Rock. . . . well, Zira was gamboling. Taka almost never bounced or rolled like the other cubs. In fact, Taka only seemed to act his age when around his mother. No, Taka swaggered down from Pride Rock with the usual haughty walk, Zira bouncing at his side and occasionally annoying him with kisses and bites and swipes.
Uru sighed. She loved her sons equally and yet Taka was so much closer to her . . . perhaps it was their similarities, not just in appearance but in personality. Uru was a dark lioness, her fur so brown it was almost black. She and Taka shared the same long face, the same bright green eyes, and the same superiority complex.
"Shall I go now?"
Zuzu, King Ahadi's majordomo, had spoken. The little hornbill sat at Uru's side, watching with narrowed eyes as the cubs disappeared into the tall grass. Uru had already spoken with Zuzu and given her the order to tail the little prince and his tagalong and report back to Pride Rock if anything serious happened. But most importantly of all, Zuzu was to keep out of sight and never let Taka know he was being followed.
"Yes," answered Uru quietly, her bright eyes focused on the spot where the cubs had disappeared.
Without another word, Zuzu took wing.
"Where is Zuzu off to?"
King Ahadi stepped out of the shadows of the cave, watching with a bewildered frown as his hornbill advisor glided low over the grass.
Uru merely answered without looking at her husband, "Zuzu is taking an early breakfast." She could lie as coolly as any jackal caught with the pride's lunch in its teeth. She looked at her husband and gave him a loving, reassuring smile. It was better if Ahadi did not know the truth. There was already such tension between him and Taka . . .
Ahadi grunted, licked his wife under her eye, stretched, and went at his heavy looping walk down from Pride Rock. He was silly in that way and tender, always kissing her like a cub and throwing his paw over her side as they slept . . . how angry and betrayed he would feel if he knew she'd just lied to him . . .
But Uru was not only a wife but a mother. It was her duty to project not only her husband, but her son. . . . even if that meant protecting them from each other. Ahadi could never know of Taka's little misadventure or it would mean trouble for them all.
