Chapter 4: Young Explorer
Feathers rustled as a pair of secretary birds rose, squawking into the air. The orange patch around their eyes shone brightly in the sun as they flapped away, still shrieking in agitation about the lion cub who had disturbed them. Mheetu ignored them as he continued to stomp across the savannah, fuming about the attitudes of all his so-called friends. As the grey birds spiraled upwards the yellow cub became a small dot that soon disappeared in the vastness of the savannah plains.
"I don't need anyone else, I can play all by myself," Mheetu muttered, pushing his way into a patch of taller grass. But the yellows cubs anger was cooling down as he ranged further from Pride Rock, finding new places he had never visited. "Hey what's this?" the young cub wondered aloud as the grass suddenly opened up before him. "Cool! A tunnel!" he squealed happily and army crawled into the runway. His delicate nose picked up a familiar scent and the image of a chubby, sandy colored rodent sprang to mind. "Rock Hyrax," the cub murmured as he identified it, realizing these trails running through the long grass were the paths the little mammals took traveling from burrow to burrow. "Is this what ants feel like?" he asked suddenly inspired with imagination so that his sparkling in excitement.
"The mighty guard ant has been sent out on a dangerous spy mission. Without the vital information he has been sent to retrieve the colonies attack will fail, and the invading forces will conquer the kingdom!" Happily content the small cub wandered the paths for hours, playing the heroic ant warrior battling his way through enemy tunnels. His game brought Mheetu to the edge of the great plain, the open expanse of shortly cropped grass where the herds of the Pride Lands normally roamed. The lack of cover made hunting difficult for the lionesses but the young cub wasn't interested in food as he trotted among the large herd beasts in search of water.
Lapping thirstily Mheetu didn't notice the elephant calf until it's shadow fell over him. "What are you?" the baby squeaked, startling him momentarily as it tentatively extended its trunk toward him.
"I'm a lion cub," Mheetu answered, gently tapping the elephants nose with a velveted paw and laughing as young animal snatched it back in fright. "Haven't you ever seen a lion before?" The baby elephant shook his head, making his big ears slap against the side of his head.
"Biko!" Mheetu heard a female voice calling, "Biko where did you go?"
"Here momma!" the little elephant chimed back, adding a little high-pitched trumpet at the end to make sure she heard.
"There you are," the mother elephant spoke soothingly as she ambled up, stroking his head with her trunk. "Come on now, it's getting late. Time to go home." Suddenly she caught sight of Mheetu, and lowered her head down to him. "And are you out here alone little one? Better get back before your mother worries."
"Yes mam," the lion cub responded, and suddenly realized how close to the horizon the sun was. "Uh oh, mom is going to be worried," he said, setting off in a trot, then slowing to a stop almost immediately. "Wait…" the cub told himself, stretching up as tall as he could to see. "Where did Pride Rock go?"
It took balancing solely on his hind legs for a minute but Mheetu finally spotted his home—really, really really far away on the horizon. "Man!" he grumbled to himself, setting off at a run, "I went a lot further than I thought! Mom's going to be so mad!"
"Mrs. Sarafina I have your daughter," Zazu announced as he fluttered his wings a final time before landing on one of his favorite perches near the cave entrance.
"Nala!" the lionesses exclaimed as she rushed outside, catching her daughter in a hug. "I was so worried when Zazu came back screaming about how you cubs were in the elephant graveyard! What were you thinking?"
"Momma…" the little lioness started to explain but Sarafina cut her off,
"Wait! Where's Mheetu?!" She shot a fretful glance at Zazu who could only sputter, still slightly disoriented from the shock of being put in the birdie boiler. "Oh my…" Sarafina began to gasp in agiation
"He wasn't with us," Nala said quickly before her mother experienced a total meltdown.
"Thank the kings," Fina breathed in relief, but concern returned swiftly to her face. "But where is he then?" She looked down at her daughter with a stern expression, "He was supposed to be going with you….Nala?"
"Well…umm…you see…" Nala cringed under her mothers' fierce gaze, trying desperately to smile but not succeeding as Sarafinas' gaze grew more and more stern.
By the time King Mufasa returned with Simba, Sarafina had finally finished telling Nala off; first for going into the graveyard when it was obviously such a dangerous place, and secondly for ditching her brother. The little lioness had been sentenced to threes days of grounding where she was not allowed to venture past the sunning rocks at the base of Pride Rocks. Darkness had fallen when Nala heard the distinct, heavy paw steps of the king and felt her mother rise and pad over to meet him.
Indistinct whispers reached her ears, and the cub winced. Even though she couldn't make out exactly what they said, Nala knew it was about her little brother. Mheetu still hadn't returned and she knew that it was all her fault. If she hadn't yelled at him he would be home safe right now with the rest of them. Instead he was out alone somewhere on the savannah.
"Hey Nala," Simba whispered, tip toeing over from where their parents spoke in quiet but urgent tones. "Did you get in big trouble?" he asked quietly, amber eyes glinting slightly in the night. Nala looked up him, all set to tell him about Mheetu when Simba added excitedly, "My dad really didn't yell at all!" Nala felt a hot stab in her gut, and a rush of anger as his words.
"Go away," she growled softly, rolling over and turning her back to him.
"Huh?" the other cub murmured, puzzled. After Nala pointedly continued to ignore him though the prince padded away, his light steps barely audible amid the heavy breathing of the pride. Nala lay silently, staring out at the faint stars, unable to sleep. Finally her mother returned, lying down with a quiet sigh.
"Momma?" Nala whispered the question, raising her head to look up at the tan lioness.
"Mufasa hasn't seen him either," her mother murmured back, leaning over and giving her daughter a comforting lick. "But he's going to organize a search party in the morning first thing. So get some sleep." Nala gave a small nod, laying her head on her paws and pretending to obey. But the little lioness lay awake for a long while, watching the moonlight slowly traverse the cave floor. Pressed tight against her mothers' side the rise and fall of her ribcage told the cub that she wasn't asleep either. Mother and daughter kept a silent vigil through the entire night.
I'm sorry Mheetu, Nala thought over and over again, Please be ok.
"How much further," Mheetu groaned, too exhausted to care or notice if he was talking aloud or only in his mind. The yellow cub had long ago slowed to a walking pace, his young muscles to worn out to trot all the way back to Pride Rock. His shadow stretched out far to one side, gaining height as the sun rapidly set on the horizon. "Gotta keep going," he told himself tiredly, concentrating on putting one paw in front of the other. "Gotta get back so momma doesn't worry." Focusing on this resolve Mheetu kept pushing himself forward, hindered by the half cropped grass of the plains that brushed as his belly and tangled his paws.
Trudging along the lion cubs' thoughts drifted back to the events of the afternoon, but he was too exhausted to let them stir the embers of anger that had burned to fiercely earlier. Maybe Soma's right, he thought, about me asking for a lot of attention. He had never really thought about it before, or he had merely been convinced that he rightly deserved all the attention he got. I was always the littlest cub, Mheetu reminisced mentally, All the lionesses think I'm so cute and they're willing to do pretty much whatever I want, not so much for the other cubs though.
As he continued to trek across the savannah the young lion remembered a time the cubs had wanted to go to one of the bigger watering holes so that they could swim. Nala, Simba and the others had already begged their mothers to go and been denied. But as soon as he had asked, saying that it was hard for his short legs to handle the large rocks bordering the normal watering hole one of the lionesses had relented and taken the whole troop.
Same as Simba gets away with some things because he's prince, Mheetu reasoned, I get away with a lot because I'm so small. I guess maybe I thought the other cubs owed me something to. Maybe…maybe I shouldn't be making them change their games for me, He thought, memory flashing back to a scene where the others were having a jumping contest and he had whined until they gave up and played hide and seek instead. Maybe I should just do what I can instead. The yellow cub felt a twinge of guilt as he recalled even more times when he had manipulated someone by using his small size as a lever.
"Guess Soma really was right," he breathed aloud, opening his eyes and realizing with a shock that he had quit moving and was standing still. I'm too tired to make it home, he thought, feeling devastated. True night had fallen while he had been walking, the newly risen moon only a sliver in the sky that cast almost no light. "No!" Mheetu growled, shaking his head roughly, "I'm not going to use being little as an excuse!"
One day, he thought, I won't be so little any more. Then no one will treat me special unless I actually DO something. I might as well practice now. Full of determination he stepped out again, completely set to keep on going until he reached home—that's when the young lion finally looked ahead and saw just how far away Pride Rock still was. His heart plummeted and the yellow cub let out an involuntary groan. The giant structure was only a dark, indistinct shape on the horizon. He never would have known it was Pride Rock except for the fact that there was nothing even close to its height in that direction.
Pride will only get me so far, he thought with a sigh of acceptance. Mheetu spotted a rock pile nearby and dragged his tired body over to it. Wearily he nosed around the feature and finally found a crevice big enough for him to crawl inside. The exhausted lion curled up, his muscles so worn out that they felt like jelly, and immediately fell asleep.