Entry 204: "Purification"

    I woke up with the golden shadow of the sun in front of me. I yawned loudly and raised my head. I was still thinking about him. That lion, Vumi, is still on my mind. Somewhere in my mind tells me that I shouldn't trust him. I really didn't to begin with. I regretted telling him my name. I was especially scared of the way he teases me. What's the matter with me? Is it just nothing? Everyone had already left the den; I overslept again. But, at least, my darling Zuhura was still beside me. I stood up and nudged Zuhura. "Hey, Zuhura, wake up. Rise and shine," I purred. She slowly opened her eyes wearily and yawned. "Morning, Daddy," she greeted groggily.

        "Get up, baby. You still want to walk with me today?"

She nodded and stood up. But, I lied down briefly on my belly. "Come on, you can ride on top of me until you wake up completely." Zuhura proceeded to climb up on my back without a word. After she got comfortable, I stood up and walked out of the den and down the stairs of the promontory. Like I promised, I headed toward the oasis to see if Vumi's doing okay.

    Looking at the blue sky, it seemed that it's still a bit early in the morning. The sun has still yet to reach its peak in the sky. Soon, I thought to myself and was reminded of my fear from yesterday. Taka still hasn't returned yet. Where could he be? Is it really a coincidence that he would disappear and Vumi would appear out of nowhere? "Sire!" someone called. I looked up and saw Zazu flutter down from the air onto my shoulder. "Morning, Zazu," I greeted glumly.

        "Sire, I will try my best to find him from up above for you; I promise!"

        "Oh no. I couldn't ask you to do that. Just resume with your usual duties."

Then, after he fluttered off me, I flashed my best smile and reassured him. "Believe me; Taka will be home before you know it!" Then, I walked off with that smile, hoping Zazu would get the message. Then, he disappeared. My smile quickly faded and I sighed. I shouldn't have lied about how I really felt about this, but Zazu doesn't have to do that for me. "Daddy?" I looked behind my shoulder to answer Zuhura. "Are you really okay about Uncle Taka?" she wondered.

        "I could never lie to you. Actually, I'm very worried. I still don't understand why he would leave without any word."

I sighed and regained my big smile. "Don't worry about it, kid; we're not going to let this ruin our day. So, hold on tight." With that, I quickly dashed from the spot I stood over and ran at a moderate speed with Zuhura crying "Whee!!".

    After a bit, I found myself at the oasis. "What are we doing here, Daddy?" Zuhura wondered.

        "We're here to see that lion from yesterday," I said. "But, be careful. I don't quite trust him yet."

I walked in and stood in front of the pool. There was Vumi, fast asleep on his side. I walked closer but not too close for Zuhura's sake. My shadow loomed over him, and I guess that woke him. He looked up and smiled, "Oh, Mufasa, you've come."

        "Well, of course. You thought I wouldn't?" I greeted.

        "Charmed. Oh, who is that darling little cub there? Is she yours?"

        "Oh, yes, that's right. Her name is Zuhura."

        "She's a beautiful little thing, isn't she?"

I felt Zuhura hop from my back and I looked to my left side to see her tilt her head at Vumi. "He's fatter than when I saw him yesterday!" she commented rudely.

        I scowled, "Zuhura!"

Vumi chuckled heartily and eyed both of us with that same peculiar expression. "Her innocence is so apparent. I take it that she's like your female counterpart. Hmm, yes, quite a pair you'd make." Then, I noticed something. Now, he wasn't look at me this time. He was completely focused on Zuhura! Feeling a bit frightened for her, I stepped over Zuhura to obscure her from view. "Thank you for the nice compliment," I replied. I saw Vumi frown at me for a moment, but he restored his sly grin and laughed. Then, my ears picked up another sound and I quickly turned around upwards to the trees. The limbs shook, and the leaves were heard. Someone was up there. Then, I heard laughing that seemed to echo around me. But, I recognized that silly "hee, hee, hee" laugh. I smiled, "Okay, you can come out now." Upon reply, a figure dropped in front of me with a loud thud. It was Rafiki!

        "Greetings, young king!"

    Rafiki went and wrapped his long arms around my neck and hugged me tight. I hugged back with a big smile. "Hey, Rafiki," I greeted back. "I appreciate you coming to check on our wounded guest."

        "Of course, you silly thing! For once, it is not you needing one of my appointments!"

I chuckled uneasily with a straight face. He's never going to let me live down my several injuries way back then. "Well, anyway, I need you to check on Vumi and see what you can do with him. Vumi, did you want something to eat?" I asked.

        "Well, I can go on without another piece of meat, but…a nice, luscious zebra would be nice," Vumi purred.

        "That's fine. I'll be going hunting," I said before looking down to Zuhura. "Now, Zuhura, you stay here; you can't have you in the middle of hunting. Rafiki will protect of you until I get back, so do what he says. You can help him out if he thinks you can."

        "Protect me from what?" Zuhura wondered.

        "Don't worry about it."

Then, I looked back to Rafiki and nudged him. He bent down with his ear to my mouth, and I held up my paw to our mouths. "Now, Rafiki, watch Vumi closely. I still think there's something wrong about him. So, I trust that you can protect Zuhura until I get back to pick her up. Got it?" Rafiki nodded and pulled away. I walked off to go hunting.

    After a while, I stood on top of a rock, looking back and forth. I tried to pick up a scent of game but was coming up with nothing. I assume that the grazing period was over. But, suddenly, a scent caught my attention. I looked west and spotted the creature I was looking for. There was a small group of zebras grazing the grass. I purred softly and hopped off and behind the rock. I proceeded to crouch to the ground until my belly barely touched the ground. Then, I slowly stalked through to make my way close enough for me to actually strike one of them. I had stealth on my side, and I crept closer as quietly as I could. So far, so good. They didn't seem to notice me. I was heading up a small mound, so I was barely obscured from view. I stopped and crouched lower, curling my shoulder blades and readying myself to pounce. Unsheathing my claws, I bared my fangs slightly and got ready to leap! "DADDY!" That cry caught me off guard and I ended up crashing headfirst into the ground! I got back up to see that the zebras were running off. Damn! I looked back to see Zuhura running at me. "Daddy!" I scowled angrily and turned to her, ready to scold her when she got near me. But, I looked to the left to see that a zebra from before was galloping towards Zuhura! I gasped and roared, "Zuhura, look out!" Then, I quickly dashed at my top speed. Zuhura noticed the zebra coming and stopped, crying out. The zebra was dangerously close to her, almost about to trample her in his panic. Desperately, I leapt at it with my claws and fangs fully barely and roared! I pounced the zebra and sunk my fangs in its neck. I pinned it down hard until it was unable to get away. Then, he stopped moving; he's good and dead.

    I let go of it and slurped the blood off my mouth. I sighed in relief, thanking God for the strength to help me save my daughter. Speaking of which, I looked over to her and saw her shivering in fear. I turned to her and put my paw over her. "It's okay now. Chin up. You're okay," I purred. I felt Zuhura calm down, and she stood back up to look up at me. "Thank you, Daddy," she said.

        "It's fine. But, I told you to stay with Rafiki; why on Earth did you follow me and almost get yourself killed?" I quietly growled.

        "I'm sorry. It's just that…it's that weirdo lion back there."

        "You mean Vumi? What about him?"

        "Rafiki had me help out crush some leaves for him while he went to get some tree sap for something. Then, Vumi said to me that he knew everything that took place here years ago. He knew that you killed Ru-gal and everyone who was affiliated to her knows about it. I thought it was strange he would say that, so I wondered if he were one of those affiliate guys. But, he said instead that he thinks it must be a completely seductive feeling to know you killed a beast as great and well known as Ru-gal and you must feel pretty proud of yourself. But, I said that he won't let it go to his head and that you were great to begin with. Then, he creeped me out when he said you act so self-righteous that he would love to see you scared and frightened when that same self-righteous overshadows the one closest to you." I didn't change my current indifferent expression, but I was intrigued mentally about this latest development. I purred as I went to pick up the zebra, "So, he said that, did he?" I threw the zebra on top of my back when Zuhura scowled to herself. "What was that?" I wondered.

        "Daddy, I don't like him," Zuhura pouted.

        "Don't worry about him, child. He can't do anything in his condition. I believe that he could never move from that place again. So, give him whatever pity you can muster, like I did for Ru-gal. Now come."

With Zuhura beside me, we both headed back to the oasis.

    Moments later, Zuhura and I just dropped off Vumi's zebra. Rafiki was already gone and wrapped all four legs with leaf ties with tree sap in between. I have no idea what that was supposed to do, but Rafiki worked miracles before. Now, we're heading back to Pride Rock. But, we took our time with a short walk together.

    While we walked, Zuhura was behind me before she padded up to my front legs. "Hey, Daddy?" she called.

        "Yes?" I replied.

        "Why is Uncle Taka going to be king after you? Wasn't the child of the king next in line?"

        "Well, I guess it's because of you. If you were a boy, then it would be different. You're just not my successor."

        "Oh," Zuhura murmured sadly. "You must hate me."

        "Oh no! On the contrary, I love you so much! You're still my daughter, and you can still grow up to become a new queen. My bloodline will still live on through you."

        "What's a queen do, anyway?"

        "Well, I think your mother should explain that, being that she'll go into better detail. But, a queen is supposed to be the teacher of young huntresses, the negotiator when you face opposition, the lead huntress that makes the plans and tactics for the pride to follow during hunts, and a loving primary mate for the king. There's a bit more a queen does, but that's about it."

        "That sounds like work."

        "It does, but I think you can squeeze in a bit of harmless fun while you're at it. We're not always active the entire day."

        "Oh well; it doesn't matter. Just watch me! I'm gonna become such a great queen that I'll walk circles around the king! I'll be the most famous and beautiful Lion Queen around!"

        I laughed, "I'm sure you will."

I chuckled while I head nuzzled Zuhura. I can't put words together to describe how much I loved her. But, I sure wish I had a boy.

    Suddenly, I picked up a thundering sound above me. I looked up and saw that the clouds hid away the sun and the sky itself was enshrouded by darkness. I purred, "It's about to rain." Then, a strange scent came to my attention and looked back toward where I left Vumi. As I took a good whiff of this scent, I recognized it as… "Fire?" Upon saying that, there was a loud and big explosion in the distance! At first, this explosion was simply a big flash of light. As it dissipated, another explosion followed, taking the form of a large crematorium of fire! I gasped and couldn't look away for obvious reasons. The fire blazed until it probably reached the clouds. The fire spread further and further along the land I left. Suddenly, a giant gust of wind erupted as an aftershock of the explosion and blew against me hard! I held my ground barely with unsheathed claws, crouching over Zuhura to protect her. The wind was awesome; its strength was unreal. But, I managed to keep my eyes toward the crematorium. Then, I noticed that the fire isn't spreading towards me as fast as its spreading horizontally. With the fire moving that fast, it should've come at me. I realized that this isn't natural forces at work. It's some sort of unnatural phenomenon. Then, as the wind finally died down, I felt a raindrop falling upon my nose. I looked up and smiled in awe of the perfect timing. The rainfall quickly came onto my land and proceeded to make everything completely wet and drenched with life. I found myself head to toe wet and refreshed. Then, as I thought, I looked to see that the rain is slowly beating away the large wall of fire. Soon, this odd sight Zuhura and I witnessed disappeared.

    The rain continued to beat across the grasslands. Almost every creature ran for shelter while a few others welcomed it. But, I didn't run for shelter. No, I was walking toward where the fire was. My curiosity was brought forth with Zuhura following under me. Other animals were as curious as I was and ran ahead of me. I looked down to see my girl when she asked me, "What…was that, Daddy?"

        "I'm not too sure, darling. But, we'll find out soon," I replied.

I made it through a large crowd of animals who stopped before one point. They were all in complete shock in what they saw, as was I when I first laid eyes on this aftermath of the phenomenon. The land that burst into flames was completely barren and free of any kind of nature! The grass was gone, as well as the water. All that was left is a dead, cadaverous land. I blinked and looked around several times to see that everything is the same all around. "Whoa, what happened?" Zuhura gasped. "Get a load of this!"

        "That fire completely destroyed this place!" a zebra exclaimed. "How can this be?!"

        "What could we have done to deserve this? Is God angry?" another zebra said.

        "This is NOT caused by divinity, you idiot!" an antelope shot back.

I was without words. I continued to look at this land gravely. The dead land appeared to spread hundreds of yards apart. Then, I gasped to see that I'm around where the oasis should be. Oh God, don't tell me that Vumi was caught in this! I dashed out into this new land, but it slightly still burns from the fire, so I gave myself a couple of hot feet. I stopped and looked around, confirming to myself that the oasis was indeed here. I gritted my teeth and bowed my head silently at one possibility. Vumi's legs were all broken, so there wasn't any way to run away. He was caught in the fire. I opened my eyes and gasped as soon as I saw something on the ground. It was strange. It was an outline of a leonine body on it! I blinked in curiosity and sniffed the center of the odd symbol. I scowled as I recognized that smell. It was Vumi's! Now that I think about it, I sniffed the air around me. It's the same! This burnt land has Vumi's scent everywhere. I even looked back to the outline. It must be Vumi, but his ashes are no where if he was cremated. Could it be? Is it possible that Vumi caused this??

    Back at Pride Rock several moments later, I was resting on a rock as I looked over Zuhura and her cub friends, Kayura, two other girls, and one boy. "You should've seen it, guys!" Zuhura exclaimed, throwing her arms around in gesture. "I was there when it happened. First, there was this big explosion that went 'boom' and another followed and fire went everywhere. 'Whoom!'"

        "Wow, really?" one girl cub exclaimed.

        "Were you scared?" the other wondered.

        "Well, I was, but my daddy was with me the whole time, and I knew he would protect me," Zuhura replied.

        "So, you had your tail tuck between your legs again, huh?" Kayura teased.

        "Leave me alone, Kayura! You'd be scared too if your daddy wasn't with you!"

        "What's that?!"

As the cubs quarreled, I sighed and hopped from the rock, walking away.

    I walked along the side of Pride Rock, sighing to myself as I stopped in my tracks. I rested against the rocky wall on my right side, wearing an expression of thoughtfulness. I was thinking long and hard about this odd phenomenon. How did it happen? Why did it happen? Was it a coincidence that Vumi would appear at the time of this event? I heard nearly every lioness around here talk about it. They were worried, frightened, or even not taking this seriously. I had mixed thoughts about this myself. I proceeded to walk off.

    I looked into the den of Pride Rock and found Sarabi lying over our sleeping rock with her back turned at me. "Sarabi?" I purred. I heard her gasp, and she turned her head around, her eyes filled with tears. I looked at her in worry and wondered, "Hey, what's wrong?" She turned away from me and quietly sobbed to herself. I quickly walked into the den and nudged her, desperate to make her answer me. "Sarabi, why are you crying? Answer me," I purred. Then, Sarabi stood up, her back still turned to me. But, she looked back to me with a pleading and tearful stare. Then, she twirled around, gasping out, and buried her face into my mane, wrapping her arms around my neck and still sobbing. I was taken aback by her actions, not to mention confused why she's acting like this at all. Then, she looked up at me with solemn eyes and purred, "Mufasa, I'm scared."

        "Of what? That phenomenon earlier?" I wondered.

        "No. It had me severely worried, and I spent most of my time pacing back and forth in here. So, I…I decided to take a nap to relax. But…but then…"

        "Sarabi, keep going! What is wrong with you?" I growled, shaking her to make her continue.

        "I…I saw you…and everyone one we all knew…drowning in blood. The same fire from before destroyed the land, and I…was alone. I was struck with fear to see you, Busara, Sarafina, Zazu, and everyone dead, but I nearly died when I saw…when I saw our little girl ripped apart…"

Sarabi trailed off and hugged me tighter, sobbing louder than before. I quickly hugged her back to comfort her. What a scary nightmare, I thought. But, what could this mean? What could've made her dream of such a horrible, disturbing image? I rubbed my right paw down my mate's back and purred in comfort. "It's okay, baby. It's okay. I'm still here; everyone's still here. None of us are going anywhere. You're not alone, you hear me? You are not alone." I heard her gasp out some more, but I felt her start to calm down. Her extreme shivering was diminishing. Then, she looked up at me again and purred gently, "I'm not alone. I have my friends. I have my child. And…and I have…you."

        "That's right, Sarabi. We're always together, no matter what. Weren't you the one who taught me that?"

Sarabi finally smiled and nodded. My fear for her well-being quickly vanished and we hugged each other with pure gentleness. "We're strong enough to know that. Right?" I purred.

        "Yes," she purred back.

I grinned, finally glad that she was happy again. Then, something crossed my mind and I blushed. "Uh, Sarabi, darling?"

        "Yes?"

        "Come with me. We…ahem…need to talk."

Silently, I stood up and walked out of the den with Sarabi following next to me.

    We gazed at each other and nuzzled each time we wanted to as we climbed up to the very top of Pride Rock. We purred and laughed together, so much in love. I just hope it can stay this way after I ask her a question that was like an itch that just won't go away. We reached the top and, as usual, I helped her up. But, this time, Sarabi tripped for once and took me with her as she fell to her side. I collapsed over her while she laid on her back. She giggled to herself and licked me on my cheek. I grinned suspiciously, "I think you did that on purpose."

        "And if I was?" Sarabi grinned lovingly.

I briefly answered with a big kiss on her muzzle. Purring, my lioness said, "The way we're together like this…it makes me so eager to see when our little Zuhura is caught in this position." I stood up from her while she still lied on her side on the rocky platform. "But, we both know we don't want our girl to grow up too quickly. She's our…only baby," I replied.

        "Oh, I know that, darling. But…but, I can see her now…as a ultimate beauty, a mighty huntress, the apple of men's eye."

        "You always were the dreamer."

Then, I briefly thought for a moment. I wanted to ask her the question. But, instead of bringing it right out, I decided to play around the subject to get her in the mood. "Anyway, do you think we're being too childish when we moon around together? It must be annoying, at least to Taka."

        Sarabi stood up suddenly next to me and replied in a serious tone, "No, not at all. We're both selfish, and I wouldn't change that for anything. We're in love, and I don't care who knows it or even annoyed by it. We're free to express ourselves, aren't we? I'm sure not going to tell our Zuhura to reserve her feelings."

        "Yes, you're right. But, I'm jealous…I wish I could teach our child everything."

        "You can, my love."

        "Not everything. I would feel more comfortable if…if we…"

My tail slowly lashed over Sarabi's as I finally presented my hint. "…If we had a…a son…"

        "Mufasa," Sarabi gasped. "I…would love to have another…but…oh, if only we could…with no obstacles."

        Disappointment mounted over me and I replied, "What do you mean?"

        "Because of Taka. He's next in line and…we just can't betray him like that."

        "But…I seriously don't think…Taka's coming back. I feel like we scared him off."

        "Don't be foolish. You must have more faith in him than that."

Now, we've come full circle once more. Now, I was the one who's sad and full of grief. But, she was right. I still think Taka's coming back, never mind the slim chances if he did find a mate. He was in the way of my greatest yearning I had in years after my crush on Sarabi ever since I met her. As I tried to stomach my disappointment, Sarabi nuzzled into my mane apologetically. "Please forgive me, my darling. I would've love to have a son with you."

        "Don't be sorry. I was selfish to ask. I'm the one who should apologize…to you and our Zuhura. She probably wouldn't like the idea of having a little brother anyway."

        "Um, I should get to sleep. I'll be waiting for you when you're ready to turn in."

Then, Sarabi let my side and proceeded to walk back down from Pride Rock. I watched her go and purred  sadly, "Pleasant dreams, Sarabi."

        Equally sad, she replied, "Pleasant dreams, Mufasa."

Then, she walked off, out of my sight. Then, I turned to the sky with a solemn look in my face. I felt like my heart was split in two once more. My newest hope and yearning was dashed, shattered, out of my paws, nonexistent, just another unfulfilled dream…because of Taka…