AUTHOR'S NOTE – It's me again, with a brand-new chapter! But first, like always, here's my shout out for the reviewers of chapter 6:
Kovu115, Nala5, Kovu 01, GreatMarta, Bribles, Hackage Returns
Thank you, thank you, thank you! It's so great to hear you like my story! There're quite a few reviews I'd like to comment a little bit.
To Nala5: It's great to get a review from you again – don't worry, I understand very well how busy you must be, preparing for college. Good luck and lots of success for you!
To Kovu 01: Thanks for your nice compliments! I promise I will read your stories soon – right after I uploaded this chaper! They sound really interesting! I just haven't found the time to do so yet.
To GreatMarta: Yeah, I know, I really got some kind of a sick fantasy here, lol. I was really considering not to write about such a cult, but then I thought: There must be some good reasons why Nivio is traumatized, why he doesn't talk about his past and why he prefered to live on his own (until he met Lina & Takita, that is). So, I just couldn't leave out such things, as horrible as they are.
To Hackage Returns: I'm really happy to hear you liked TLK3D and this story so much. As for the waiting… I'm really sorry, but I simply can't write my chapters faster. If you were a student at university, like me, and you had so much work to do for it, you wouldn't have much time to write a fanfiction, either. If I updated my stories every day, all the chapters would only be about one sentence or a few paragraphs long. Wouldn't be great, would it? Or they would lack quality immensely. My stories are like they are, because I take my time to write them. Sometimes, the chapters take more time than I think they would, but I can't help it. I'm sorry if you don't like to wait, but I think it will be worth the wait.
On a last note, Kovu115 suggested I could include a "Previously on Nivio: The Cubhood of Loner" section to sum up what happened in the last chapter(s) at the beginning of each chapter. I think I might try that, though that means, the author's notes at the beginning will get even longer. But maybe it will be easier for you to remember what happened that way. Okay, so this time, there will be a short summary of all the chapters until now.
PREVIOUSLY ON "NIVIO: THE CUBHOOD OF LONER" – Nivio, the son of Roho and Kinja, two former Outlanders who joined Simba's Pride after the war, was lost in the jungle when his parents were attacked by a gorilla and he fell down a waterfall. He was only an infant then, but he survived, because Jamili, a monkey, found him and took him in. While he enjoyed caring for Nivio, Jamili's wife Chuki didn't like the little lion, because she thought Jamili neglected her and their daughter Salina. So when she got the chance, she gave Nivio to the leopard Rubani. He lives together with his clan near a mountain, and this clan believes in a strange thing: They want to find a leader among them by searching other big cats' cubs and letting them jump over a huge fire for them. Nivio secretly watches such a "fire test" that night and sees how another lion cub dies. He begs Enia, the only cub in the leopard clan, to help him escape, so he won't end up doing the "fire test" for Rubani…
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Chapter Seven: Escape
The morning after, Nivio felt totally tired. He hadn't slept very well that night. It was very hard for him to look into the leopards' eyes and not show his fear. When all the leopards had gone to guard the borders of the territory or to find food, Enia finally approached Nivio again. She didn't want the others to see them talking together, because they might suspect she told him about their cult. This time, not even Rubani watched them, as he was taking a stroll around the borders.
When Enia sat down next to Nivio, there were a few moments of silence first. But then she started: "After the other cub… failed the fire test, Rubani was pronounced as the new leader, I think. And the law says the current leader must inspect the borders himself every morning. Afterwards, he takes the cub who he claims to be the one with him and doesn't let it leave his side. So, this time of the day will be the only time the two of us get to talk."
At that, Nivio was startled. "I'm not allowed to leave his side any more? The whole day long? Then I can only escape at night!"
"But only if your escape doesn't take longer than one minute."
"How do you mean?"
"Rubani guards your sleep. When one of them finds a cub, he makes sure it doesn't run away. They stay awake every night – of course, they fall asleep from time to time, but only for a few seconds or a minute or so."
Now, Nivio looked more desperate than ever. "Then, how could I have one chance to escape?"
"I don't know," Enia sighed. She thought for a little while. "I guess you'd have to think of something to make Rubani feel exhausted. He has to sleep or else you don't have a chance."
A few minutes of silence passed again. Nivio thought hard, but no idea came to him. All he could think was he had to escape before Amiri, the leopard that had left the day before, found another cub. For when that happened, Nivio would have to do the "fire test" the following night, and he knew he wouldn't make it. This thought made him tremble with fear. Suddenly, he remembered that little black cub that had died in the "fire test" the night before. He remembered the fear and terror in the cub's eyes.
Turning to Enia again, he asked: "That other lion cub… when I first saw it yesterday morning, it looked so frightened and scared. Did it know about the cult?"
Enia shook her head. "No," she replied. "I haven't told him, and I think he hasn't watched a fire test, either. I think it's the atmosphere in this clan. Sooner or later, every cub they find gets scared by the way the members of this clan act and talk. When my mother and I joined them, I was pretty confused and a little scared after a while as well. Even before I had watched that fire test for the first time."
Nivio wanted to ask her something else, but Enia got up on her paws and whispered, turning around: "Rubani's coming back. If you succeed at making him sleepy tonight, wake me up. Then I'll help you."
With that, she slowly went away. Nivio looked all around him until he saw Rubani approaching from the border as well. Again, he thought about what he could do to exhaust Rubani.
But before he came to think of something, Rubani was standing in front of him, smirking: "Alright, the borders are safe. Now, you come with me and never leave my side. I wouldn't want to lose a special cub like you."
"What's so special about me?" Nivio asked him, acting surprised.
"Well… you are the one, I'm certain of that. I'm convinced you are going to make me the eternal leader of this clan, when the time has come to prove it."
"What do you mean, prove it?"
Rubani smirked once again. "You're one curious little cub! All I can say is: You'll see when the time has come."
Of course, Nivio was not surprised by this answer. Somehow, he wondered why the leopards only did the "fire test" when another one of them had found another cub. But it was probably because there wouldn't be any leader if they did it right away and there was no other cub around. And he should be glad about it, because if they did the "fire tests" right away, he would already be dead by now.
"Well now," Rubani said after a while. "Let's wait until Mkuru finds some food for us."
-xXOXx-
All Rubani and Nivio did now was walk around the territory side by side. They hardly talked a few words. About one hour later, Mkuru came back from his hunt and he brought a big antilope with him. He was pretty frustrated, as just until the night before, he had been the leader of the leopard clan. And now, he had to follow Rubani's orders and hunt for him. But fortunately, Rubani allowed him to eat a little piece of the prey himself. Then, Rubani and Nivio ate as much as they could. The rest of the antilope was for the other members of the clan, but only if Rubani allowed them to have something. The first one who was allowed to leave his post at the border and eat for a while was Akida. Again, Akida fixed an angry and jealous gaze upon Nivio as he passed by. He still couldn't get used to the thought that Rubani had brought the lion cub he himself had found first.
Rubani and Nivio soon lay down beside the stream. It was obvious that Rubani didn't want to do pretty much, so he wouldn't get too tired at night. As Nivio was lying in the grass near Rubani, looking around, he spotted Enia and her mother eating from the antilope. Apparently, the two of them didn't have to follow any orders, except for the orders never to leave the territory or to tell anyone else about the cult. After all, they didn't really belong to the clan, they just had decided to live with them. And this, without them knowing, had been a decision for ever. After they had eaten enough, Enia's mother lay down near a tree and watched Enia as she was hunting a butterfly. This sight made Nivio feel a little sad. It reminded him of how he used to play with Salina, and how Jamili and Chuki had watched them. Well, actually, only Jamili had watched them, with a smile on his face. Chuki had always frowned and looked away quite often when he and Salina had played together. Nivio sighed at these memories. But suddenly, he gasped. He just got an idea.
Nivio stood up and, with a happy smile on his face, turned around to face Rubani. Rubani looked pretty puzzled when he noticed Nivio's smile. "What is it?" Rubani asked.
With a cute smile, Nivio asked back: "Will you play with me? Pleeeease!"
Now, Rubani was completely confused: "Wh-what? Me? Play with you?"
"It's so boring here! I really want to play!"
"Well… I don't know. You know, it's a long time ago I played with any one."
"I saw that cub playing," Nivio said pointing at Enia. "So, I wanna play, too. If you don't want to play with me, I can go play with her."
He started walking towards Enia, but Rubani commanded: "No! You stay here! Remember, you never leave my side!"
"You can come with me and watch us, can't you?"
Rubani hesitated. "No… I don't think it's a good idea… for a lion cub and a leopard cub to play together."
"Why not?" Nivio asked, but of course he knew that Rubani just wanted to keep him away from Enia.
"Well… okay, I guess I can play with you, if you want," Rubani finally said and stood up. "So, what do you wanna play?"
"Let's play hide-and-seek!"
"No, you shouldn't leave my side. What else would you like to play?"
"Um… then we'll play tag. You have to run after me!"
"Oh – okay, but just don't run outside the borders of our territory!" And more in a whisper to himself, Rubani added: "Boy, no other cub has ever asked his owner to play with him…"
Then, Nivio touched Rubani's shoulder and shouted: "Tag! You're it!" With that, he ran towards the trees.
"Wait, not so fast!" Rubani called after him and followed him as fast as he could. The other leopards, who noticed them one after another, all watched in confusion.
-xXOXx-
The whole day long, Nivio had been trying to make Rubani play with him again, but he had only succeeded one more time. After the first time they had played tag, Rubani was already totally exhausted. He really wasn't used to this. For the next few hours, he had refused to play again, but later in the afternoon, Nivio could persuade him to play another short game of tag with him. At night, Nivio had closed his eyes immediately after he had laid down next to Rubani. Fortunately, he wasn't very exhausted himself. But still, he hoped he'd stay awake long enough. His heart was beating too fast to sleep anyways. He was extremely nervous and frightened. He didn't want to open his eyes in the wrong moment, when Rubani was still awake.
After about half an hour had passed, Nivio slowly turned around to face Rubani and opened his eyes a little bit. And indeed, Rubani seemed to be sleeping. Nivio waited for another few moments – Rubani didn't move. Carefully, Nivio fully opened his eyes and stood up. Again, he waited, his heart pounding like crazy. But at this moment, Rubani was really sleeping. Nivio was relieved. It was still dangerous for him, though. Cautiously, Nivio went over to where Enia and her mother were sleeping. He poked her shoulder and whispered into her ear: "Enia. Enia, wake up."
Enia quietly groaned and turned around. Her eyes fluttered open and she asked sleepily: "What is it?"
Nivio shushed her: "Shh… Don't wake them up. You wanted to help me."
After a little while, Enia finally knew what was going on. She nodded and got up on her paws. Cautiously, she and Nivio made their way through the sleeping members of the clan and away from them. Enia led him towads the stream. Suddenly, a strange feeling overcame Nivio. Somehow, looking at the water streaming underneath him made him feel uncomfortable, and he didn't know why.
Enia whispered: "This is the only way to escape where they can't follow your trail. I don't know where this will bring you, though."
"Back to the jungle maybe?"
"No, I don't think so. The jungle is southwestern of here, this stream probably goes to the Northwest."
"Can't you come with me, Enia?"
Enia gasped, but then she shook her head. "No, I can't. I can't leave my mother behind with them, do you understand?"
Nivio nodded. He wanted to say something, but suddenly, he and Enia froze. There was a scream from further away: "No! Where is he? Where is the one? And where's Enia, that little brat?" It was Rubani – he woke up!
Almost panicking, Enia said: "Quick! You must go now! Or they'll get you!"
"But…" Nivio had tears in his eyes. "Won't they kill you if they find out you helped me?"
"I'll tell them I was trying to hold you back. Don't worry about me! Go!"
But Nivio still didn't move. "Enia… thank you so much! I'll never forget what you did for me. Thanks for…"
"There's no time, go!" Without warning, Enia pushed Nivio into the stream.
After a few seconds under water, Nivio came to the surface, coughing, trying to breathe. The water was streaming very fast, it was a great effort for Nivio to keep his head above the water. When he first got over the shock, he turned his head into the direction from where he had come. The figures on the shore were becoming smaller and smaller to him. Apparently, Rubani had reached Enia by now. Nivio really hoped for her she wouldn't get hurt or even killed. Words could not express how thankful he was. Somehow, he felt like he hadn't really thanked her. And somehow, he thought he would be going to miss her. It was sad he had to leave her, as they would have been good friends. But not in this clan. There was no friendship in this clan, and no safety.
Unfortunately, he didn't know if he was going to be safe now. At this very moment, he was taken away by a very fast stream in the middle of the night. And he didn't know where this journey would be ending. All he could do was hope…
End of Chapter SevenXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX
AUTHOR'S NOTE – I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Okay, as my author's note at the beginning had been very long already, I'm gonna keep this short. I just wanted to say: Please review and be patient until the next chapter will be uploaded! See you around! ;)