Cubhood: Chapter 5
The events vaporised into mist before his eyes, and Scar was left standing before Ammit and Kivuli yet again.
"Fascinating." Scar said, sarcasm dripping from his voice. "Can I go now?" He asked.
"I'd say fascinating. It seems clear that all your later atrocities were merely the manifestation of unresolved trauma from your childhood re-emerging in your psyche and causing you to lash out at the world. I can't see how you could possibly be held accountable." Ammit said brightly. Kivuli looked at him.
"What trauma?" He snapped.
"Well I'd have thought those scenes we just witnessed were enough to traumatise anyone with their nauseating sentimentality. It traumatised me certainly." He said, pulling his mouth into an expression of raw disgust.
"Not a fan of cubs?" Scar guessed ruefully.
"On the contrary. I usually find them deliciously tender." Ammit said. Kivuli stared at him, and swallowed, clearly unable to decide whether he was joking or not.
"So you had a quite a few friends growing up." Kivuli said. Scar nodded.
"You could say that."
"Mufasa, Sarabi and Sarafina… And this Nguvu and Imani as well."
"Yes… And Zira… Kasi… and Jicho too..." Scar said, thinking for a moment. Then shook himself in irritation. "What does it matter? None of them were there for me in the end, were they?" He spat.
"No. You died alone. Friendless and unmourned." Kivuli said harshly, and Scar recoiled as if slapped in the face, but snarled in anger. He let out a mirthless laugh.
"So what?" He said. "I didn't need them in life. Who says I needed them in death? They were useless anyway. They couldn't have stopped what happened. They were weak… All of them were weak in the end. Even Zira…" He said in disgust. Kivuli looked at him with undisguised contempt.
"They were there for you when you were a cub. You were the one that changed." He said. Scar snorted.
"Everyone changes. Every minute of every day. No one remains the same for a single second." Scar said, sounding slightly bitter.
"So how did you change, Scar? How did Mufasa?"
"I told you. I grew up. People change. Friendships die. Zira came to the Pridelands. The… Lion Guard happened." He was quiet for a moment. Then spat on the ground. "What a joke that was. Then, years later… Sarabi fell in love with my brother. Sarafina became a mother. And My Brother… became King." He sighed. "People change."
"No one changes like you did."
"That because I didn't just change. I died. You don't understand what that feels like. To have everything you are ripped from you, to be stripped bare and left naked at the cold mercy of the world, as all that you thought was true is ripped away. You don't understand what that's like."
"No." Kivuli said. "I don't. Help me understand that Scar. If nothing else. Help me understand how Taka died." Scar was quiet for a moment. Then Ammit interrupted him.
"Hold up, hold up. You said Zira came to the Pridelands." Ammit said, sounding interested for the first time.
"Yeah… What of it?" Scar said.
"What, Zira, the murderous psychopathic lioness you mated with? You don't think maybe that might have been a significant event in your history that perhaps we ought to consider?"
"I don't like thinking on the past… But I suppose you know that already, don't you?" Scar snapped. Ammit grinned, and Scar sighed. That was true enough. Zira's entry to his life had been a significant event, if only because of what she later meant to him. Scar smiled a rueful smile.
"I wonder if I can show it to you…" Concentrating, he called up the memory to the front of his mind. Then his body clenched as if in paralysis, and the world turned to white, flooding with white mist yet again. After a few moments it subsided.
"Ouch." Scar said flatly as the paralysis stopped and he regained control of his body. It hadn't hurt as much as all that, but it was an unsettling experience nevertheless. The ugly twisted form of Ammit came towards him.
"Well, you managed to call up a specific memory. Impressive. Give yourself a round of applause."
This time Scar did not even bother to respond to Ammit's jibe and focused his attentions on Kivuli instead. Kivuli was pointedly ignoring his more demonic counterpart, and was looking around at a familiar scene. This time, they were once again away from Pride. The cubs were all older now. Much older, though not what you'd call adolescents. The tufts that crowned the heads of the males were much longer and thicker than they'd been before, though still not what you'd call manes. And the females were still awkward and lithe, lacking the grace and elegance adulthood and experience would afford them. Not that any of the males were even close to being old enough to notice – or care. The lion cubs were in a loosely packed group, encircling what looked like a single something. Closer inspection revealed it was in fact two somethings, locked together in a pin, rolling on top of each other and grappling at each other with unsheathed paws.
Imani was the first of the lion cubs, and within a few moments, it became clear that the lighter, golden cub, was Mufasa. The young prince was beneath Imani, and struggled under the pin. With a shout, he kicked out and knocked away Imani's legs, who stumbled, and lurched. Mufasa used the moment of imbalance to shift his weight and break free of the pin. He rolled and climbed back to his feet in a single movement, and then threw himself at Imani. Imani gave a snarl, and dug his heels deep. Mufasa gripped at him, but Imani knocked him back down, and swiped at Mufasa, who leapt back nimbly and avoided the blow. Imani growled in frustration. Mufasa was the heavier built of the two cubs. Imani's advantage should have been in his nimble speed. But to his annoyance, Mufasa was keeping up.
Mufasa panted. He was out of breath, and dripping in sweat that stung his eyes. His hair tuft hung over one eye, but he as staring at Imani intently.
When Imani finally made a move, he tensed just for a moment, and then Mufasa moved like lightning. He crashed into Imani's side and knocked him to the ground, and planted his own limbs firmly on Imani's, pinning him to the ground. Imani grunted, and squirmed for a full minute before letting out a breath, and letting his head roll back.
"You win…" Imani said.
And at that the assembled cubs let out a cheer, as Mufasa dismounted him.
Scar, Kivuli and Ammit watched from one side, invisible and incorporeal as they had been every other time they'd seen such visions of the past. Scar once again mused at how the cubs had aged.
"Looks like your taste in games had changed…" Kivuli noted. Ammit laughed.
"What? Hide-and-seek not enough for you?" He asked.
Scar shrugged.
"Tastes change over time. Not that I was ever especially fond of this… game." He said sourly, pointing with a jabbed claw towards the cub. Imani climbed to his feet and trotted away, sighing in exhaustion. He settled next to Taka who was alone among the various cubs of the Pridelands in not enjoying the spectacle with everyone else. Taka was looking bored. Kivuli noticed that whilst time appeared to have added some muscle and length of bone to the other cubs, Taka remained lithe and lean. He snorted at Imani as he sat down.
"Finished making a fool of yourself?" He asked. Imani laughed.
"A fool? Me? For a moment there I almost had him!" He said. Taka raised an eyebrow.
"Seven times I've watched you go toe to toe with Mufasa. You lost all seven of them. I was beginning to wonder if you'd injured your head at some point." He said. Imani laughed.
"What? Because I was stubborn?" He asked, smirking.
"Because you were foolish. You couldn't beat Mufasa, you've never been able to. Why bother humiliating yourself over and over again?" Taka asked in genuine confusion.
"Maybe I'm an optimist?"
"I think you're an idiot." Taka decided.
"Ah. You know me. I just can't shy away from a challenge." Imani said. If he was offended by Taka's pronouncement, he didn't say anything. He merely lay down to get some rest. Mufasa had finished and turned to Taka, giving a coy grin.
"What about you, little brother? You want to try?" He asked him. Taka's lip curled.
"And what, precisely, gave you the impression I wished to humiliate myself in such a way?" He asked. Mufasa grinned.
"Oh come on. You never join in the bouts. Not unless you think you're going to win." He said.
"Why would I fight if I think I am going to lose?" Taka asked, his perplexed tone giving way to annoyance now.
"You don't know if you can win otherwise." Nguvu interjected. Taka looked at Nguvu. Of all the cubs to have changed in the intervening time between the two visions, Nguvu had grown the most. Already the oldest cub among them, his own tuft was tall and thick as was the tip of his tail. Taka rolled his eyes.
"I said no! Quit it." He said.
"You could try with me?" Nguvu suggested. Taka laughed at the absurdity of that as a concept.
"Nguvu, I watched you take on Sarabi and Sarafina at the same time yesterday. No thank you." Taka said, looking bored again.
"Come on Taka! What's the matter? You love playing games. Or are you scared it will mess up your tuft?" Mufasa said, making a playful swipe at Taka's back, trying to goad him into joining in with the cub's fun. Taka's tuft did look a shade better groomed than Mufasa's equivalent fur. Though Mufasa meant no malice or cruelty with the playful jibe, Taka just snarled crossly, and instead swiped back, with his claws drawn scratching at him.
"I said no. Back off!" He warned, stepping away. Mufasa rolled his eyes.
"Fine. You're no fun." He said, and turned to Nguvu, who looked ready for another match.
Shaking his head, Taka got up and walked away from the other cubs.
"You going somewhere?" He heard Sarafina ask him. "I know you don't like playing this one with Mufasa and Nguvu… You could try with me if you like?" Sarafina offered him. Taka snorted.
"Oh yeah. Great idea. Prove I can beat a lioness two thirds my size. That'll show Mufasa." Taka snorted sarcastically. Sarafina huffed, offended.
"Oh? Well I guess if you're too good to play with a girl then you can play by yourself." She said.
Nearby Ammit snickered.
"Oh, great going, Scarface. Smooth." He said. Scar rolled his eyes. Taka, for his part, just snarled something at Sarafina, and continued to stroll away in the opposite direction.
"Why don't you like playing with the other cubs?" Kivuli asked him. Scar rolled his eyes in irritation.
"I didn't not like playing with the other cubs. This is a single instance, of me not wanting to play a single game. I wouldn't draw too much from it." He suggested.
"So why didn't you want to play in this instance?" Kivuli asked him. "You seemed happy enough when playing hide-and-seek with the others." He said. Scar snorted in response.
"You might have noticed if you were as perceptive as you are irritating, that the Creator, whilst blessing me with exuberant good looks, dazzling intellect and inordinate skill in many endeavours, didn't deem it fit to bless me with particularly significant genes in the brute strength department." Scar commented. "Mufasa on the other paw, was the elder brother and already had something of an advantage in terms of strength. As if that wasn't bad enough, Nguvu was literally called the Strongest for the back half of his life!" He snapped.
"So you didn't even try?" Kivuli asked.
"What was the point? There was no glory or fun to be had in beating Sarafina or Sarabi when Nguvu could take on the pair of them together. Prone as I am to generous displays of physical aptitude, I was not inclined to spend my cubhood humiliating myself by rolling around in the dirt like a warthog." Scar said.
Meanwhile, in the vision, Taka had continued and found himself near the northern border of the Pridelands, bordered by the Great River. Beyond the river lay the red blasted wastes of the Outlands, a wasteland of dry barren rock, dust and termite mounds. Cooler and less sandy than the dessert that marked the Pridelands southernmost borders, it was nevertheless an inhospitable environment that was as unpleasant to look upon as it was to live in. Somehow, Taka still found himself looking over the edges of the Pridelands' borders, the limits of his father's influence. The edge of the Kingdom.
He hopped from the edge of the Pridelands onto one of the stones that lay across this shallower, narrower part of the Great River. Then to the other, and set foot on the Outlands, feeling the reddened dust under the toes of his paws. He let out a sigh.
"And just like that…" He mused. "I am just Taka. Not Prince Taka. Not Ahadi's Son. Just Taka. Huh. I wonder why it feels so different." He commented to himself. Scar rolled his eyes at what he perceived as his younger self's melodrama – but there was no audience but himself. Whatever Taka was feeling, it was real. It was genuine. Why had he come all the way out here? He hadn't really been looking where he was going, much less having a clear destination in mind. Now that he had had calmed down, the annoyance he'd felt at his playmates had worn off somewhat. He probably shouldn't have snapped at his friends, especially the girls. He glanced up, and blinked. The sun was lower than he'd expected it to be. He'd been walking for some time. The others would have probably begun to head back to Pride Rock by now. If they got back, and he wasn't among them, his parents might be cross.
He took a breath, and turned back to cross back out of the Outlands again and return to the Pridelands. He was stopped however, by the sudden and unexpected shout of pain that echoed behind him. Taka whirled around as he heard yet another scream, and he crouched low. Then gave a soft growl. There was no one in the Pride out here; all the cubs were back at Pride Rock. Yet the sound was unmistakably a female in distress. He knew he ought to run, but the shouts of fear grew louder. Knowing it wasn't his best plan, and giving a short groan as he did so, Taka gave a growl and rushed quickly towards the sound of the struggle, ignoring every instinct. Someone was in trouble.
It didn't take him long. Once he looked for it, he could taste the metallic tang of blood in the air. That sent a shiver through his heart and almost made him pause. Nevertheless, he continued and, following both the scent and the loud screams of fear and pain, he ran further into the Outlands. The Outlands were deceptively flat when seen from the top of Pride Rock, but up-close there were plenty of canyons, crevices and valleys as well as innumerable outcrops of rocks, and stones, and dozens upon dozens of termite mounds, stone stacks and other structures that made it an intriguingly varied environment of red blasted land and dangerous terrain.
The source of the screams soon made itself known.
A lioness, no more than a cub, was running for her life, and nearby, streaked in blood and half mad with panic, a male cub ran. The two were being pursued by half a dozen black shadowy figures, and Taka felt the vice-like grip of fear on his heart as he recognised their species.
Hyenas.
Their coats were pitch black in colour. The Black Clan, the dominant power in much of the shadowlands, and apparently in parts of the Outlands now. Their territory was sweeping in size, but encompassed little vegetation. And no vegetation meant no herds. It wasn't uncommon to see hyenas poaching in the Pridelands, even hunting for sport! They were ruthless, aggressive, and when they wanted to be, murderous.
And their intent was pretty clear. The cubs were running for their lives, and the hyenas were already spattered in blood and some sported injuries well beyond the capabilities of the child to inflict.
Most of the half dozen pack that chased the cubs seemed to be mere juveniles. Adolescents at best. That was something. A fully sized hyena would dwarf Taka completely. If the injuries some sported were anything to go by, they had recently fought something or someone much, much tougher than the cubs. Presumably that was where the adults were.
These… packs… were merely the clean-up crew. Sent to kill the fleeing cubs, like children assigned chores to keep them out of the way whilst the adolescents dealt with the elder lions who might threaten their territory. Cubs didn't just come out of thin air, after all.
Taka reasoned all this within a few moments of laying eyes on the Black hyenas and seeing the fleeing cubs.
"Run Zira!" he heard the male shout in terror as it turned and swiped a claw at the oncoming hyenas. It was a quick; a brutal swipe, and it almost took out the eye of the pursuing hyenas. He was unprepared though for the onslaught of slashing claws and gnashing teeth that followed. He went down in moments, and Zira – the lioness he'd called to – gave a cry of horror. She ought to run, she ought to make a break for it, she ought to have used her brother's sacrifice to escape. But she stood frozen in horror as the savage creatures leapt upon her brother.
"No!" Taka shouted over the din. He felt something stir within him. Something unfamiliar and almost alien to him, but nevertheless stirring loudly and insistent beneath his skin. He let out a loud growl that seemed unnaturally loud, and let out a yell of anger.
"NO! Hyenas! Leave him be!" He shouted. The hyenas jerked their heads towards him at the sound of his voice, and fixed their hungry eyes on him, a terrible mixture of burning red, sickly yellow and flame orange eyeballs, wide and terrifying. He forced down a shiver.
"Stop!"
"Hehe boys! Looks like another meal's just dropped in! We can make this a three-course special!" He shouted. Taka swallowed. "I order you to leave them be! In the name of Ahadi the King! My father!" Taka shouted. The hyenas jerked at that, looking up at Taka in shock. The one in the lead look at him, and then laughed.
"Oh that's right… You're Ahadi's brat are you? The runtling? Taco's or something?" He laughed again, high pitched and menacing.
"My name is Prince Taka! And I order you to leave them be! You've had your fun, now go! Unless you want to deal with my father?" Taka asked angrily. One of the hyenas looked to his partner nervously.
"Uh… Caliban. Maybe we ought to do as he says?" One suggested.
"Shut up, Charr, just shut up." Caliban snapped. "Who cares about your father? We aren't even in his lands! He can't tell us what to do here! You're not a Prince way out here, Taka. You're just another snack." He said, licking his lips. Taka growled.
"If you don't let them go –"
"What are you going to do? Come here and fight for them?" Caliban taunted. Taka growled.
"Yes."
Caliban laughed. There were six hyenas, and one of him. And Taka was the runtling as Caliban had so eloquently put it.
"You trying to get killed or something?" Caliban asked, baring his teeth. Taka gave a soft smile.
"You could say that. I mean… There's no way I could beat all six of you right? You'd kill me instantly, wouldn't you?"
"Heh. Not as dumb as you look…"
"But even so… that's probably not that good for you. Unless you want to explain to my father why you tore me into tiny pieces." Caliban froze.
"Your father has no right to –"
"He's the King! He can do whatever he wants."
"Not here he isn't!"
"You think that'll matter if I am dead? You willing to chance it?" Taka taunted. Caliban stared at him.
"You're mad, Prince Taka." He said, whilst Taka laughed, knowing he'd won. He ground his teeth in frustration. He could easily kill Taka… but if he did… Ahadi would slaughter his way through the Outlands. He wouldn't care about the old laws, or the land rights, or anything like that if his youngest son was killed.
"You're the one who's trespassed here!"
"Oh, I am far too young to understand any of that… I didn't know any better. Honest." Taka said flatly.
Caliban growled. Then jerked his head at his friend, who released the male lion, who was pinned to the ground with his neck bared. He was unconscious, and his sister looked pale and about to collapse at any rate.
"Your father won't protect you forever, Taka. Your titles and your family's strength, won't be enough one day. Then we'll see what you are really made of." Caliban said. Taka flashed a dangerous smile with a glint in his eyes. He stamped on the ground in salute as Caliban and his followers left gloomily and ran back to wherever they came from.
"I look forward to it!" He shouted after him. Then made a face into their backs. Good riddance.
He moved forward, inspecting the lion who was injured.
"Are you alright?" He asked the female, who was shaking, clearly terrified.
"I… Are they going to come back?" She shuddered.
"Not for a long while. Are you alright? What's your name?"
"My name is Zira." The lioness said, staring at him. "Please… help us…" And with that, she collapsed to the ground, losing consciousness, the same as her brother.