Author's Note: Derived from TLK. Basically, this is the story of the Last Royal Family, in no particular order. Mist and Rain are King and Queen. Solo is their one and only cub. This series, Stars, concentrates on the lives of these lions, and although this is in no particular order, the end will be the end. It is NOT the end yet (i.e. I will end it when I have exhausted all the ideas I have)
Summary: This is what happened to Rain.
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RainRain watched the horizon with her moody eyes. Not a creature stirred in the savannah, and the wind was dead.
"The dry season will be long," she sighed, informing the lion next to her. His movements caused his pale fur to ripple, and reflect moonlight.
"How did you know I was there?" he asked, for Mist had intended to stalk behind Rain and surprise her.
"I know," she replied simply, and turned her eyes to the sky. "No rain will come. The animals will die and we shall starve."
Mist lay beside her and spoke reassuringly, "We'll pull through, Raye," he said, calling her by her nickname, "Remember the drought of two years ago? It was bad, wasn't it? And yet here we are, against all odds.
Rain looked down, "This will be worse than any in history. It will be harsher than that of Scar's reign. Besides, you're forgetting," she snapped at Mist with her last words, "Two years ago, we did not have a son!"
Mist turned to where Solo and the rest of the pride dozed. What Rain had said was true: they may pull through, but Solo was most likely to –
Mist looked to his mate.
"We'll pull through. We'll all pull through."
Rain remained silent. She did not believe it.
Weeks rolled by, and rain did not appear. The heavens were a cloudless azure, and the heartless sun parched the Earth, baked it dry. Grasses withered, and antelope died, and the rains still did not come.
Rain's hunting party met up with that of Ash's. Between them, the seven lionesses caught nothing, they found nothing, and were yearning for water.
"We will look for water," breathed Rain heavily, and led the lionesses in search of the cool substance of life. Ash concluded the party, and her beige pelt gleamed in the dry atmosphere.
In the meantime, Mist was looking at Solo with concern. The little cub had made it this far, but he was thirsty and hungry, and he wanted his mother.
"She'll be here soon, and the others too. They shall bring food. A zebra, perhaps, or a gazelle. Would you like that?"
Solo nodded weakly.
Mist found the gaze of Smoke, Rain's mother, an old and respected lioness who was too old to hunt. She rested in the shade of a dead tree, and licked her dry lips.
"It's bad," she whispered hoarsely, "They will return with nothing." Solo did not hear. It was intended that way.
The lionesses returned, with no food, but their thirst quenched. They had indeed come across a pool of water, muddy and scarce, but water all the same and they lapped it up greedily. Rain nuzzled her mate, and lifted Solo up by the scruff.
"I will give him some water. Are you thirsty?"
Mist looked straight at Rain, and lied through his eyes. Of course he wasn't thirsty. He said nothing, and Rain knew he lied, but she remained quiet too. It was pointless arguing with Mist.
That arid evening, Rain called a meeting, and with all of the pride's attention centred on her, she began to speak.
"Prey has gone. Dead, or left, it doesn't matter, but it's gone. There is no food for us, save a few small rodents that live below ground, and if we are lucky, dead corpses of gnu."
Her eyes brewed an angry dark cloud.
"We have one choice. We must take Man's cattle."
The lions roared up, some in protest, others supporting the idea. With a low rumble of a growl, all fell silent, for Smoke was about to speak.
"Generations ago, our ancestors made a pact, that as long as Lion dwells next to Man, he shall not take Man's food, for it breaks the respect. Droughts come and go, and some of you will not live to see the rains fall, but never will we take tame, padlocked cattle from Man!"
"I agree," added Mist, "Man does not take food from Lion, and Lion does not take food from Man. If Man finds out that we take his livestock, he will hunt us down."
"Have we no teeth and claws?" exclaimed an appalled Ash, "Are we not stronger than Man?"
"As King I have spoken," Mist said with an air of finality, "We search for food on our territory, and we do not take cows from Man. This is the end of the meeting."
The pride supported the King's decision, some more bitterly than others. Rain hung her head in hopelessness as she looked at Solo – weak, starving and hot. But her loyalty lay with the pride, and she did not go to the farms.
In the next week, the effects of the killing drought had started to take their toll. After a limited diet of rats and snakes, Rain lost her beloved mother. Smoke knew that she would not last to see the wet season, and was relieved to end the constant thirst. She was ready. Ash, on the other hand, was not. Death came to her as a surprise, and not up to the very last second did Ash ever understand.
The others were hungry and thirsty, and Rain's grief of losing her mother ate away at her heart each time she saw her golden cub. He was so weak now he could hardly move.
The acid sun set beneath the mountains, the sky a mass of blood red, cloudless and raw. Rain's eyes rested in the distance, she listened and she prayed. Behind her the remainder of the pride was unaware of the conflict she had inside her head. The Law was laid down back in the days of Sarabi, the powerful lioness who kept the faith during the tyranny of Scar. Who was Rain to break generations of traditions?
"Raye!" called out Mist, who was lying down beside his son, "Raye, come here and sleep. You need all the energy you can get."
The crimson of the setting star reflected in her eyes for a brief moment before she turned away and went to her mate.
She could have cried when she saw what had become of Solo. The poor cub was all skin and bones, parched from the heat. His breathing was shallow and inaudible. Rain shared a look with the King, but he failed to comfort her with his words. He doesn't believe it either, she understood finally, He doesn't think that Solo will survive.
"The rains do not come," she choked out from her bone-dry throat.
"You must stay strong," replied Mist, too worried and exhausted to say much more.
"Solo is dying," Rain announced upon exhaling hot breath. She felt her partner's head rub against her neck. Mist stayed silent, for he could not deny the hard truth: that there wasn't much time left for their son.
"Sleep," he whispered as he turned to look away.
The moon was high up when Rain's eyes fluttered open. She had an awful dream of her son's death, and she couldn't distinguish whether it was fear or premonition. Rain had the gift of foretelling the weather, and to some extent the future. She could tell when the herds would move, and when the sun will shine. Each night since the drought started she would face the sunset, and she would look for a sign of an end to the heat. She found none.
She looked at Solo with pity and anxiety, for the cub was suffering, and she could do nothing to help him. Nothing apart from one thing.
Silently as the wind, the Queen crept away from the Pride, her mate and her child, and padded south to the farmlands.
The farms were an hour's walk away, but humans and lions kept their distance, and it was not often that either crossed the mutual border.
The lioness slinked through the tall grass under he dead night, the farms and the farm buildings in sight, and froze under the sound of human voices.
Men talked in their strange language for what seemed like forever, but really it was very brief. Her heart beat faster and faster, she could hear the thump loud in her ears, and she was sure the Men could hear it too. They couldn't. After they finished talking, they stepped inside the house.
Rain could see the white cattle easily, they stood in the deep green field lined with metal trenches filled with water. The cows were rather fat for the unfortunate season, and Rain studied them one by one, trying to see which she could catch best.
Time slowed to a halt as Rain snuck up toward her chosen prey. She put the remainder of her energy into her legs, took a deep breath and sprang forward.
The cow she picked was standing away from the others, and it didn't even make a sound as she tightened her jaws around its neck. Warm liquid bathed her muzzle as she felt its life drain away. It was over.
Mist awoke suddenly, and first stared intently at Solo, who was still breathing. He then looked for Rain, relieved that his son was still alive, but within seconds realised that she was gone. He shook one of the lionesses to get her to wake up.
"Where is Rain," he demanded, with a worried expression on his face.
Rain carefully dragged the cow under the barbed fence, when a shrill bark tore through the silence. It was Man's tame hyena. It barked again and again, and Rain saw the lights flicker on in the house. The cattle herd now realised what had occurred, and were mooing stupidly, pressing the earth with their hooves. The lioness gripped the cow hard and ran.
Some human shouting and a loud bang followed, and she heard something whiz past her. There was a smell of singed fur, and she barely understood what was going on. Putting her last efforts into her body, she ran even harder.
Another bang, and this time there was a pain in her side, sharp and burning. Nonetheless, she kept running. There were a few more bangs, but she was too far away for the bullets to reach her. The Men had evidently given up pursuit, and only the distant barking of their tame hyena, their dog, reached Rain's ears.
Her head became heavier, and it was hurting her to breathe. Her veins were pumping fire round her body, and her legs felt as though they were made of lead. She must have been running for a while now. The cow was a dead weight in her grasp, but she wouldn't drop it. Not now. There, up ahead, she saw Mist. He wasn't supposed to find out, she thought miserably, Now he will be angry with me, but what I did was for Solo's sake. So that he may not die.
Mist saw Rain run up towards him, but there was evidently something wrong. It was in the way she moved, and not just because she carried a cow.
"Rain, what did you do?"
She walked up to him, and put her kill on the ground.
"I'm sorry," she panted, "I didn't want to do this, but Solo…" Rain looked at Mist with her large eyes, full of pain but also hope, "I went to the farms. But look, I killed a cow, and now there is a chance that our son will live."
"Were you seen?" he asked, nuzzling her.
"Only at the end. But I ran, and they couldn't catch me. Their dog," she pronounced that word with disgust, "Their dog raised the alarm."
Mist watched Rain as she talked. Something was definitely wrong.
"Well," he said finally, "Let's go home. Are you alright?"
"Oh yes," she replied, "I'm only dreadfully tired."
The lioness took a step forward and collapsed.
Mist was with her immediately, and as he looked her over horror materialised on his face. She had been shot. There was an awful wound at her side, and even in the colourless night he could see the grass on which she lay bleed red.
"Rain!" he almost shouted, devastated at the thought that she was going to leave him, "Oh Raye, what have you done?"
She lifted her head up to face him, and she stared into his eyes, her own sparkling like dewdrops on the grass of dawn, or stars in the midnight velvet of the heavens.
"I'm sorry. Forgive me, I didn't mean to upset you. I wanted to stay and see our son grow and become king, I wanted to stay beside you and be with you and love you, but I made a mistake, didn't I?"
He rubbed her head with passion and sadness all mingled into a feeling that Mist had never experienced before.
"Don't go," he whispered, tears falling down his face, "Don't leave me…don't die…"
Her eyes shifted to the starry sky above, and she smiled.
"The rains are coming. You are all saved. The rains come."
"I will love you forever, Rain," he promised, "I will always love you."
"I will watch you from the stars," she murmured, "You and Solo. But now the rains come."
Her heavy eyelids fell shut, and the King sat by the side of his Queen for a long time. She had given her life to save their son and the pride, and she would watch them from the stars. For the moment, the stars watched the King in despair, pacing around the body of his mate, and the stars shook when he roared to show his grief.
Rains did indeed come the following day, and they stayed, and the land was fertile and alive, and Solo got stronger. Mist was pleased to see the rains, but his own Rain was gone.
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