Chapter 2 – A Difficult Choice
-„Mufasa. Mufasa, wake up! It's time to go!"
-"Huh? Dad? Ohhh, but the sun isn't even up yet…"
-"The time is right, then. As I told you yesterday. Come, my son! And be careful not to wake anyone up."
Taka listened to his father and brother's whispered conversation, pretending to be asleep.
What are those two planning? – he thought to himself sneakily. - They're wrong if they think they can keep a secret from me, heh-heh…
He'd already caught Ahadi and Mufasa talking in private the day before, but the king's refusal to give him any explanation only made the prince more curious. So as soon as the lion and his older cub walked out of the den quietly, he decided the time was right for a little stalking practice. Remembering everything he'd learned about moving around soundlessly, he rose from his mother's side, and then…
-"Taka! Where're you going?" – asked a familiar voice.
That wasn't too good… but at least it was just one of the other cubs.
-"Errr!" – the prince groaned in irritation. – "Shhhh! Sarabi, why don't you just go back to sleep?"
But the juvenile lioness didn't seem sleepy at all.
-"You're going to follow the king and Muffy, aren't you?" – she whispered, smiling naughtily. – "In that case, let me go with you. Unless you want me to wake up your mom, that is!"
The disappointed Taka rolled his eyes…
-"Uhhh! Must you be such an annoying… Oh, alright, very well. But be quiet! Puh, females…"
The two of them left the cave without anyone noticing. Following Ahadi and Mufasa's scent, they started climbing to the top of Pride Rock.
-"This is strange" – Sarabi pointed out. – "Why would they go all the way up there this early?"
Taka answered dismissively, trying to rush her.
-"I don't know, but I'm going to find out! Now hurry!"
Once they reached the very summit of the tall ledge and saw that the father and son were already there, they quickly hid behind one of the rocks.
-"It's so pretty up here! And look, Taka- the sun is about to rise, too!"
The younger prince, seriously irritated by the female cub's behavior, gave her an angry look.
-"Shut it, Sarabi! I can't hear anything! Listen!"
Then also she noticed that Ahadi was saying something to the older prince. Despite feeling a bit bad about eavesdropping, she yielded to Taka's request.
-"Look at the rising sun, Mufasa!" – the two hidden cubs heard the king saying. – "Everything the rays of the sun touch, is our kingdom. And also the time of every ruler rises and sets, like the sun. Someday, the sun of my reign will set, and the time for my successor to take my place will come. According to the ancient tradition of our ancestors, the crown always passes to a king's eldest descendant. And because you, Mufasa, are my eldest, I have brought you here to tell you that, after my time is up, you shall take my place as the king of the Pridelands."
Now Sarabi clearly understood that these words were not meant for them to hear… She turned toward her friend, seriously afraid.
-"Taka, we shouldn't be listening to this! Taka, what's wrong with you? Taka...!"
But Taka wasn't listening to her. What his father had just said struck him like a bolt from the blue.
What?! Mufasa is supposed to… become king? Just because he's older? And… and what about me?!
-"Taka!" – he felt Sarabi pulling his paw, barely keeping herself from screaming. – "What's wrong with you? C'mon! Let's get out of here! Wait, you're not… are you crying?"
Taka clenched his jaws as strongly as he could, but still he couldn't stop his tears from flowing.
-"This… this is so unfair!" – he hissed, pulling his paw out of Sarabi's grasp.
-"Taka, no! Don't go there, are you crazy?! Oh my…"
But she couldn't stop him anymore. To Sarabi's great horror, the prince walked out from behind the rock where they were hiding and went straight to his father, interrupting his conversation with Mufasa.
-"Taka! What are you doing here?" – asked the king, totally confused.
-"You're not allowed to be here!" – Mufasa snapped at his brother. – "You're ruining everything!"
-"Ruining? Ruining?! For whom? For you, who's supposed to be the new king just like that, without a reason?" – Taka said, thundering with rage. – "I'm the one who's feeling ruined, Mufasa!"
-"Taka, please! Try to understand!" – Ahadi attempted to touch his younger son's shoulder, but the cub pushed his paw away.
-"Understand what? That you favor him instead of me just because he's older? And why can't I even have a chance to become king?"
Now Ahadi was starting to become angry himself.
-"Son, I'm warning you. As I said, the ancient tradition of the royal family is to…"
-"Oh, who cares about your stupid traditions! What was this whole show good for, anyway? Taking both of us to lessons, treating us as equals…? It's unfair! You're no just king if you treat your own son like…"
Taka didn't have time to finish. Unable to bear with his audacity, Ahadi slapped him on the face with the back of his paw. And even though the blow wasn't very strong, he immediately felt sorry for doing that…
Especially when he heard the gasp of a female cub that walked out from behind one of the rocks.
-"Sarabi…!" – said the king in shock, understanding that she saw his angry outburst.
This was not good at all. Both of the cubs shouldn't be there. Looking at his heir's startled expression, Ahadi breathed heavily.
-"I'm sorry, Taka" – he addressed his younger son, whom Sarabi was now helping to stand up from the ground. – "I didn't want you to find out this way… Please, take your friend back to the cave. Mufasa and I will be down as soon as we're finished talking."
Taka did obey, but before he left, he looked at his father and brother in a way that sent a shiver down Ahadi's back.
Oh Great Ancient Ones… - thought the king, sadly. – Please, help him understand!
An hour later, Ahadi and Mufasa climbed down as well. As they entered the den, they noticed that most of the lionesses were already awake. Taka was hiding by the queen's side, and didn't want to talk to either of them.
-"I think you ought to give him some time" – Uru said to her mate. – "Don't worry. I'll take care of him for now."
Her smile was supposed to be reassuring, but Ahadi couldn't get rid of the internal feeling of bitterness that haunted him no matter how hard he tried not to think about it.
If only I hadn't lost my patience! – he scolded himself.
Before taking Mufasa out for another lesson, he stopped by Sarabi's mother. The cub clung to her fur, expecting to be punished. But all the king said to her was this.
-"You shouldn't have been up there today, little one. But no matter, we can't reverse what happened now. Although later I'm still going to have to speak to you about what you've heard, my dear…"
Leaving her wondering, Ahadi walked away to take care of his duties.
For the next day or two, he tried multiple times to apologize to Taka. And each time, his younger son refused to speak to him, insisting to be left alone with his mother. He neither attended the lessons anymore, nor played with the other cubs.
The king felt greatly troubled. What could he do now? In spite of his power, there was no way he could change the traditions of his ancestors. He spoke about that to Mufasa one time.
-"Don't worry, father" – his heir consoled him. – "You know Taka. He'll be grumpy for a few more days and then he'll be back to normal when we take him out to a good lunch. You'll see!"
-"Do you really think so?" – Ahadi sighed, without much conviction. – "Perhaps I should have told him earlier… Now he feels cheated. As if I made a difference between you and him."
-"But you haven't! You never did! He's only imagining things!" – the prince stated strongly.
-"Well, perhaps the system of royal succession isn't the best… But you know it's been keeping the kingdom together for generations."
-"Isn't the best? Why do you think that, dad? I mean, what kind of real claim does Taka have for the throne? He's just acting like a jealous brat, nothing more. And besides, you know I'm stronger than him…"
This time, to Mufasa's great surprise, Ahadi reacted quite violently.
-"That doesn't mean anything! Neither your bigger muscles nor your earlier birth give you any personal merit, my son! That you need to remember if you don't want your boasting to ruin the relations with your brother completely!"
Understanding the justness of this remark, Mufasa hung his head apologetically.
-"I-I'm sorry, father… I didn't mean to…"
-"Forget about it. Now let's get back to our lesson."
The thing was that Ahadi loved his sons equally, and he felt very frustrated that he couldn't do anything about which one of them was going to become his successor. The though bugged him unbearably to the extent that he couldn't get any sleep at night. Just a few days ago, everything was fine, and now his own son wouldn't even speak to him! But he didn't want to simply leave matters as they were, pretending that all would figure itself out somehow. He needed council, and so he decided to go speak with the wisest lion he knew.
He rose from sleep earlier than usual in order to get to the Lair of the Lion Guard before its members would leave to carry out their daily duties. He found them as they were exercising and wrestling with each other to stay in shape.
-"Your majesty!" – the five lions greeted him as he entered the cave, rising from the ground as fast as they could to bow before their king.
-"Good morning to you all. Forgive me for coming unannounced, but could I please have a private word with my brother-in-law?"
The four subordinates of Upesi quickly left the lair, and Ahadi was left alone with the Guard's leader.
-"To what do I owe the honor of this visit, my lord?" – asked the brown-maned lion, standing to attention.
-"Upesi, please. No formalities today. I have an urgent matter to discuss with you…"
Suddenly, the expression of Ahadi's face became really sad.
-"What's going on?" – Upesi asked him, concerned.
-"It's Taka… You probably know how he reacted when he heard that it's Mufasa, not him, who is to become my successor."
The other lion nodded.
-"Uh-hum. He's jealous, I know. I feel for him, actually. Heh, you can't imagine how jealous I was when I learned that it was my older sister who would become queen! I mean, Uru's not even a male!"
Ahadi cocked a brow at the leader's matter-of-factness.
-"Yes, obviously… Oh, but I'm sure you took the news way better than Taka did!"
-"Are you sure about that? No offense, but you didn't know me back then!"
Upesi laughed yet again, this time putting one of his paws on the king's shoulders.
-"No sweat, Ahadi! I think I know just the right way to make our little prince feel good again!"
-"And… what might that be?" – the black-maned lion asked, suspiciously.
-"Well, isn't it clear to you yet?" – Upesi motioned with his paw, presenting the paintings on the wall of the lair to the king. – "Just make your younger kid leader of the Lion Guard! I assure you, in a couple of weeks, he's gonna be much too busy to even think of being jealous!"
Somehow, Ahadi did not share his brother-in-law's enthusiasm. In fact, he couldn't believe his ears!
-"What?! Taka, leader of the Lion Guard? I mean, yes, according to the ancient customs, that is indeed the role he's destined to assume… But he is way too young for that right now! He still needs a lot of training before that's going to be possible!"
However, despite the king's doubts, Upesi kept on smiling.
-"Don't you worry about a thing, Ahadi! I'll be right here by little Taka's side, teaching him as best as I can, step by step. I'll tell him all about the Circle of Life and the essential duties of the leader of the Guard!"
-"But what about the others? What about Nguvu, Koho, Upepo, Jabali… Do you really think Taka can lead such an experienced team of lions at this age?"
This time, Upesi snorted mockingly.
-"Pfff, you mean that bunch of old carpets? Each of them's just dying to go on an earlier retirement! Nguvu's got an expecting mate near Five Stones. Jabali has hardly enough time to take care of his three sons, and he's also getting fat. Upepo's beginning to develop joint degradation. Koho's been trying to find himself a mate for seasons now… They're ready to be relieved, trust me. One word from you, your majesty, and they'll be back with their prides in a matter of minutes! They're all good guys, they've been with me for years and they're devoted to their job like no one else, but I think it's time for Taka to assemble a new Lion Guard. Just as I have done myself when I was his age."
All of that sounded convincing… But the king had one more question to ask.
-"And what about you, Upesi?"
-"M-me?" – the lion stammered, a bit crestfallen. – "Oh, you know me, my lord. Heh-heh… I'm alone, I don't have a mate or cubs of my own… I just… I just want to do my duty as best as I can, that's all. I thought that maybe I could… train your son… while there's still time?"
Ahadi gave his sad brother-in-law a long, compassionate look... Then he said:
-"Upesi, you're the leader of the Lion Guard, the wisest lion I know. I trust in your judgment. If you say that Taka is ready to assemble the new Guard and assume the role of its chief, I trust you with all my heart."
Those words cheered him up greatly.
-"Hey, thanks, your majesty! You know, Taka's a clever kid for his age himself!"
-"Yes, I've noticed that. Do you know that he can recite the names of the former kings of the Pridelands for twenty generations back? Alright, I'm glad that's settled, then. Tomorrow, I expect you to come speak to Taka with me. The kingdom is about to receive more happy news than just the ones about Mufasa being my heir!"
AN: Yeah, so I guess this was predictable. At some point, Taka had to find out that Mufasa was destined to become king from the very beginning. Because he's greatly disappointed, in order to fix the relations in his family, Ahadi lets him become leader of the Guard partially as a consolation prize. Of course, since Taka's still a cub, he will be Upesi's apprentice for now.
Thanks for your reviews/favs, everyone! I hope that the chapters aren't too long for you to read. I await all possible suggestions.