Chapter 37:
During the time that Timon, Sly, and Kito were searching for the Makunga Mob without Pumbaa, Shani was wondering through the mob's tunnels, so that she could remember which way led to where. Yesterday her head was being jammed with so much information that it was amazing that her head did not swell. So much had happened in the last two days, and she had a feeling it was only the beginning of something more. With a tired sigh Shani stopped walking when she approached a fork in the tunnel. She massaged her temple with another sigh, trying to remember where they both led to. "OK… did the left lead to the latrine or to the south wing? Did the right lead to the second level or to where they mix up the clay? Ohhhh, why couldn't they wait to give me the tour when my head didn't hurt so much?" she asked herself with a grumble.
"They were in a rush, I guess." Shani's ears twitched when she heard a voice approaching from behind. She recognized the voice, so she was not worried that it could be a meerkat she had yet to meet. Nuru, with a new staff in his hand, stepped up next to Shani and looked ahead, as if he could see the fork in the road himself. "Let me guess… you're lost again, aren't you?"
"Yeah… I was a little tired and stressed out last night to remember the entire tunnel," she admitted with an embarrassed smile. "So much to take in and so many names to remember… If it were you--a younger you--wouldn't you feel the same way?" She turned her head to look to the older meerkat, who put a paw to his chin, considering how he would have handled it all. After a moment he removed his paw from his chin and nodded with a soft grunt. Shani softly chuckled, feeling a little more at ease around Nuru, now that there was not as much tension between them. Now that she knew that he was blind, Nuru did not have to pretend that he could see in front of her, and he felt a little more relaxed. "So," Shani continued as she cleared her throat, "how's your leg? The one you hurt today, I mean."
Bending over a bit to rub his left shin, Nuru replied, "It's better. It only needed two more hours of rest, and Naysun to massage it."
"That's good to hear. … Speaking of Naysun, do you know where she is? I haven't seen her since we got back. I thought she was going to take me aside and teach me something…"
"It's possible she's gone to Yasmin's grave," Nuru softly snorted as he stood normally, tapping his fingers on the top of his staff. He softly sighed as he turned his blind eyes away from Shani. "I wish she wouldn't go there so often… she's punishing herself for what happened that day… wishing that she had taken her place when Kano…" He trailed off as he suddenly felt a sickening pain in his stomach, causing him to rub it in hopes to make it go away.
Shani lowered her eyes, feeling sorry that she somehow managed to bring up such a painful subject. It had only been three months since it happened, yet it still seemed so much fresher in the eyes of those who loved Yasmin the most, particularly her brother and sister. After a moment, Shani cleared her throat and thought it best to change the subject. "So… how did you get your staff back? I would've thought that--"
Nuru arched a brow at Shani, unseen through his thick bangs. He was a little relieved that the younger meerkat had decided to change the topic for his sake, but he did not decide to show it. "Living out here with my condition, you think I wouldn't keep a few extra staffs around in case something happened?" He turned an eye to her with a faint smirk. "That was the fifth staff I've lost this year alone…"
"You've lost five staffs?" Shani's eyes widened as she turned to face him completely, her mouth gaping in shock. "How could you have lost five staffs already? Did you run into more of those 'snake' things?"
With a slight chuckle Nuru shook his head. "No, nothing like that… though it was the first snake I've lost my staff to this year." Shani lightly gulped… had he done the same thing before? "Most of the time they're not strong enough sticks to be used as walking staffs… they would break or chip easily, or break over someone's back." Shani clamped one of her eyes shut and winced at the thought. Just imagining it left butterflies in her stomach. "… Let's move on," he cleared his throat, sensing her uneasiness.
"Please. … So where do these two ways lead to?" she gestured to the fork, relieved. With a soft sigh Nuru was about to step forward to feel his way around, but when he inhaled through his nose he stiffened, and then he sniffed the air. Shani stared at the back of his head, wrinkling her brow. "Nuru? What is it?" Nuru did not reply as he sniffed the air several more times, and then he softly growled as he turned around to face the opposite direction.
"What's the matter, Nuru, lost or something?" Shani's ears twitched at the new voice and froze. She recognized the voice just barely, as she had only briefly met him the night before. With a soft gulp Shani shifted her feet to turn her body towards the voice, where Nuru was facing. Standing before them with his arms crossed over his chest was a meerkat with dirty hazel-colored hair, the dirt giving it a hint of near green which nearly matched the color of his eyes, his fur lightly tanned. "You normally don't linger…"
Nuru forced a smile (albeit a strained smile) and a chuckle as he leaned his weight against his staff, his shielded eyes sneering at the newcomer. "I don't linger, Kali... I'm only reminding our lost scout where the latrine is. It's nothing you don't already know, so why don't you go find someone else to bother?"
"All right…" The meerkat called Kali lightly smirked as he stepped forward, unfolding his arms as he turned his gaze over to Shani, who seemed uneasy. "You know… we were never properly introduced last night." He was referring to when Naysun was showing Shani around the tunnel and Kali wanted to speak privately with Naysun, so Shani was handed over to Hafiz. Shani lightly groaned as Kali took her paw and held it close to his face. "As you already know, I'm called Kali."
"… Shani… my name is Shani…" she replied softly.
Upon hearing her name Kali brought the back of her paw to his lips and softly kissed it. "Shani… it means 'wonderful…' and I can already see that it suits you very well…" He released her paw with a grin when he noticed he left her speechless. Shani was speechless, and found herself blushing. From what she has seen so far Kali was much different than Kano, at least much less threatening. He didn't seem like anything she had imagined, like someone who would take part in Yasmin's death. Even when he leaned forward to nearly touch noses with her, he did not look threatening. "… You look familiar… are you sure you're only a year old?"
"… V-Very s-s-sure…"
Nuru stood to the side as he listened to their exchange and the tone of Kali's voice, and it caused his blood to boil, his face reddening. He clenched his paw around his new staff tightly as he tried to calm himself down. "… Kali… quit flirting with her… it's embarrassing…"
Kali raised a brow as he turned an eye to look towards Nuru. "You're still here?" He put a paw on his hip as he leaned back away from Shani to turn to Nuru. "What's the matter, Nuru, is she too young for me? In my original colony my own parents were about four or five years apart."
"Like I care about age," Nuru scoffed. "I meant you're already trying to court my sister and now you're acting like she's nothing by flirting with a younger meerkat!"
"Who, me?" he pointed to himself, amused, and then he chuckled. "Flirting is such a misleading word. Of course I plan to court Naysun… I only wanted to meet our lost scout, to see if she was as suitable as Kano described her to be." Nuru's brow deeply furrowed as he struggled to not lunge at Kali. "She really does remind me of someone I once knew... too bad…"
Shani wrinkled her brow at Kali, her curiosity getting the better of her. "Who?"
She did not have the time to hear his reply when Nuru suddenly wrapped his paw around her wrist and began to pull her towards the right tunnel. "You'll have all the time to chitchat later, pup. You've got work to do and I don't want to be responsible for you being late. Kali, always a headache." Shani blinked and muttered a few objections as Nuru lead her down the tunnel. Kali stayed at the fork for a few moments, watching after them. With a soft snort he turned around and walked back the way he came.
When he was sure they were alone Nuru released Shani with a sigh and glanced back the way they came. Shani rubbed her wrist as she watched Nuru. "What was that about?" she asked, confused. "He seemed nice enough…"
"He wasn't so nice when he beat me with my own staff when he and Kano came along," Nuru growled in return, ruffling his bangs and exposing his scarred eyes to Shani. "You have to be careful around the bosses, Shani... try to avoid being alone with either of them if you can." He turned to face her, his blind eyes staring at her. "They already seem to be too interested in you…"
"… What do you mean 'interested?'" Shani wrinkled her brow and tilted her head. "And while I'm thinking about it… what's flirting?" She blinked and tilted her head to the other side when Nuru narrowed his eyes at her and sighed.
"Doesn't even know what flirting is, I can't believe-- What did your parents teach you?" Shani frowned in reply, even though Nuru could not see it. Sighing again he straightened his bangs back to normal, shielding his scarred eyes again. "Judging by what Kali just said Kano seems interested in you as a potential mate, even though you're quite a few years his junior."
Shani nearly choked on his words, appalled by the thought of herself and the intimidating mob boss. "What! That creepy--? He's old enough to be my grandfather, for the love of grubs! Oh, that's it; I will not be able to sleep tonight!" She shivered with disgust and rubbed her arms, trying to dismiss that disturbing thought. Nuru very faintly smirked, a little amused by her reaction. "A-And Kali…?"
Nuru shook his head with a furrowed brow and his eyes shut. "I'm not sure, but if Kano has his eye on you then I doubt Kali will get involved. He was just curious about you because apparently you remind him of someone he knew. But he's more focused on Naysun anyway." His paw clenched into a fist, which shook violently. "If Kali marries Naysun, the meerkat who was to take leadership after Yasmin, then he'll unknowingly take leadership of the colony away from us."
"What do you mean? Hasn't he already--?"
"He and Kano haven't officially taken over, not so long as my sister and I are still alive. We're not strong enough to challenge them ourselves and expected to win; otherwise we would've stepped forward some time ago. No, we need other methods to get rid of them before Kali tries anything. I just hope we can manage another week for Timon."
Shani stared at Nuru for a moment, feeling a little anxious herself. Although Kali seemed nice enough she could not picture the two of them together... "Doesn't Naysun have a say in it? Marriage is about choice, isn't it?"
"Usually… but Kano and Kali are still clinging to the old ways of competitions for mating rights and picking their mates, whether they wanted to be or not."
"The females didn't have a choice?" Shani frowned, offended. She already thought that the competitions were barbaric, but now hearing about how the males chose their female partners? She felt so disgusted. "How could anyone be happy in a one-sided relationship?"
Feeling that this conversation was going to drag on a little longer, Nuru exhaled and sat down, leaning back against the wall. "Back then most of the males would pick their sweethearts as their mates, so most of the time they were happy. Other times… well, more often than not there were predators and the stronger males picked the best qualified females to bring the numbers back up. It was more of 'duty' than it was love. That's how it was with my parents, at least, or that's what I was told."
Falling silent on that note, Shani sat down next to Nuru and looked down at her folded paws. "… So it's still like that?" She softly smiled when Nuru shook his head.
"The tradition died out, caused a lot of tension from the losers. And it was near the time when Scar was the King, and our numbers dwindled down even more. Since then… well, it just means more workers, more food gatherers, more sentries, and more tunnels." He brushed his bangs back briefly and sighed. "But I guess the bosses came from a couple of the few colonies that still clung to that tradition."
"Do you know why they became rogues?"
"No. Never thought to ask because I never cared for either of them, although most of us prefer Kali over Kano. But most of us believe that Kano was kicked out because of that temper of his; having lost it one too many times and taking it out on some poor soul. As for Kali…" Nuru shrugged.
Shani lightly tilted her head as she brought her knees to her chest and hugged them closer. "Is 'Kali' his real name?" she asked as she looked down at her toes.
Nuru wrinkled his brow, a bit taken aback by her question. He turned his head to face her. "Where did that come from?"
"It's just… it's an odd name… I've never heard of it before…"
"… Well, as far as I know 'Kali' is not a proper name as it is a nickname, but I've never heard of a formal version of his name. It's what Kano has been calling him since they've been here, so that's what we've been calling him. It didn't matter to me much; otherwise I may have asked why he's no longer with his colony." He then arched a brow at Shani. "Why do you want to know?"
"It's just… him saying I remind him of someone… it kind of worries me for reasons I don't know myself. I've never seen him before last night, and I'm pretty sure he hadn't seen me before. So who could I remind him of?"
"It could be anyone," Nuru replied as he put a paw on her shoulder after missing it a few times. "Probably someone from his old colony. It's probably nothing you should be worried about, so don't. … So, do you think you can find your way around from here?" A nod and an "mm-hmm" from Shani and Nuru rose to his feet, using his staff to help pull himself up. "Good… remember… don't be left alone with Kano or Kali… and I'll tell you what flirting is later."
Nodding again, Shani said, "OK… thanks, Nuru… for worring about me..." Nuru stood there for a moment, looking straight ahead, unsure of how to reply... so he did not. As she watched him disappear back down the tunnel they had walked from minutes before Shani looked back down to her feet, her mind still wondering about the second rogue boss of the colony. Kali… Kali… I should know that name… It's too familiar; like I've heard it somewhere-- Shani's eyes suddenly opened wide as a thought had struck her and gasped. Could it... no, it couldn't... there's... there's just no way! He couldn't be the same--
"Hey, Ma? ... Whatever happened... to that guy you were supposed to marry... before you met Dad?"
"... When we moved here... he stayed behind."
Softly, yet heavily panting, Shani stared at a spot on the ground, her vision of the meerkat boss she just met minutes ago melted away to a vision she was much more familiar with. No... he... he couldn't be... Makali...?
To be continued…
So, now that I didn't say there was a secret in the first A/N, are you more surprised? Mwa-ha-ha-ha-ha! It was during the developing/making of this story that I thought of bringing back Makali, Zuri's fiance from Someone Like You, who had not been seen since then. Not many people (if any) had brought him up either, and I myself wondered what had become of him. I may have, at a time, thought of only having Kano take over the Makunga Mob, but sometime I had thought of Makali and thought, "Hey... I hadn't said where he's been all this time, so why not explain where he's been since the union? Take advantage of his absence and use it!" None of the meerkats had talked about where he's been, so I thought this would work. I just hope this was an OK place to reveal this little tidbit. Well, 'Kali' had been mentioned enough times, so I'm sure it was. I just didn't want it to be revealed soon after I reveal a really juicy secret... but I'm not saying what or when! Nyeh! Until next time, have fun!