Shadowland
Chapter 3
Those of the Savannah
I am not Walter Disney, nor am I related to Disney in any way, except for being a fan of his work. Shadowland, Chapter 3: 'Those of the Savannah' is property of Troy Wong, a.k.a. Chookooblash, and is not to be resold or posted on any other site without my permission.
The extract from 'The Lioness Hunt' (opening poem) was taken from The Lion King on Broadway, by Lebo M.
I hope you enjoy reading my stories. Long live the king!
We baba zingela siyo zingela baba
Hunting, yes we are going hunting
Zingela siyo, zingela baba
Hunting, yes we are going hunting
Hi baba qhubekeni siyo zingela
Let us go and hunt
"Girl, I don't know what you're on about. Look over there! See? Seer Waturi doesn't even look worried. He always looks worried!" Vienna yelled at Kyomaraju, in a friendly manner, as the talkative, loud voiced wildebeest child's parents grazed, not too far away from the two. "You've gotta stop worrying yourself, Kyo. You're gonna be worse than those pesky hornbills if you don't watch yourself."
"Okay… It's just that-" Vienna stopped her from finishing her sentence to enforce her own advice.
"But-"
"A-tah!"
"Vien-"
"Nuh!"
"Hey-"
"No, no, no, no! There's nothing hunting us down. I'll even step outside the middle of the herd to prove my point..." Before 'Kyo', as she was known by her friends, could stop her, Vienna was half was through the crowd of fellow wildebeests that were blocking her path to the outside of that protective barrier, with the strongest of the herd outside to protect the rest while feeding, and the weaker inside to be protected.
Children were always placed in the middle of the crowd- no matter how tough they really were. This included Kyo and Vienna, two that were part of the closest circle of friends in that wildebeest herd. Kyo was a wildebeest that had had a particularly stressful life, despite the fact that she was only a few months old at this time. She had been found on the border of the Dark lands and Amber Valley, young, weak, and all alone. Nobody, to that day, knew what had happened to her parents, and neither did she. Even Seer Waturi was baffled when he tried to read her past. It was almost like her parents never existed.
"Hey! Vienna! Vienna!" Kyo called, as she, too, made her way through the crowd of grazing wildebeest to find her 'act-before-you-think type' friend.
"At this point, one of the wildebeests in the herd ahead lifted its head up and looked directly towards Sapphire."
Meanwhile, on the edge of the barrier opposite from where the two young girls were heading, the herd's seer stopped munching the grass that was just barely alive, and lifted his head from the ground that had been sucked of its life by the blazing sun. Waturi turned to the left. He couldn't see anything, but he definitely could sense another presence there in the grass. The rest of the herd, on the other hand, had no idea whatsoever of the possible danger that was lurking nearby, in the grass somewhere to the left of Waturi.
"She didn't know if it could see her or not, but immediately, it let out a call, and the mass of horns and hoofs ran."
Seer Waturi bellowed a warning signal, and immediately, the whole herd ceased grazing, lifted their heads and bolted away from that particular patch of grass that was now behind them, and misted by the dust their hooves had kicked into the air, all in a matter of one or two seconds. All these animals had to be fast, and more importantly, fast-witted, if they were to survive for any amount of time.
"Sapphire knew that this was their only chance… Without a word, she bolted after them, the other lionesses following."
Previously hidden in the tall, dry, yellow grass that grew in harmony with the short, green grass; good for eating, was a hunting party of lions. One, that seemed to be the leader, jumped out with amazing speed, giving chase as soon as her paws regained contact with the ground.
"There were at least ten of these, either the old, or the sick."
A large number of the wildebeest in the herd started to fall behind. A plague had recently swept through, not only this herd, but most of the other herds in Amber Valley. That included non-wildebeest animals, as well. Most others had managed to overcome the wave of sickness with ease, but this large family had yet to pull through. These wildebeest that were falling behind the rest; the stragglers, were those that had not fully recovered yet, and along with them, the aged.
Every wildebeest herd had a circle of Elders; in normal circumstances, around four to seven. These Elders would have had to have been around for quite some time to actually be considered an Elder, and as a result, they would have experienced many things, and so would have had valuable knowledge to pass on to their descendants, though this title wasn't something that older wildebeests would really strive for. It would just come naturally, you could say. Strangely enough, despite all their years, these Elders were exceptionally fast, and strong, sometimes even the strongest in their herd, though, Elder Loki of this herd; Yoru's herd, was in fact amongst those at the front line, or rather, the back line of the most vulnerable.
"One lioness, Gharah, had ran ahead, and was already closing in on one of the old, weak ones. She leaped at it once, failing to grab onto something, and losing precious metres."
Sakoa turned to his left, and to his horror, one lioness had nearly caught up to him. This one was not the leader, though, which was fortunate, as all species of hunting parties would normally have had their best hunters as their leaders. This lioness leaped at him, but he could still run faster than an average lion could travel through the air, and the only things that the predator's risk achieved were two lost metres.
"Sapphire passed her, and caught up with the prey, attempting a new hunting technique."
Every wildebeest that had met Sakoa throughout his life had grown to love him almost instantly, and so it would've been so many more times harder for his herd, who had spent so many years with him, to see him fall at the hands of lions who saw him as a mere meal, not being able to help, prevented from doing so by their one, overpowering animalistic instinct: to survive.
Seer Waturi's real abilities were triggered in times of stress; this was definitely one of them. Though he didn't turn around, what flashed before his eyes was the demise of one of the herd's greatest. The leader of the hunting party had caught up with the Elder, as just like time had done so long ago. In the blink of an eye, Sakoa had gone from running, to lying on the ground, knocked down by that leader lioness.
Sakoa heard the sound of his own rubs crack on impact, a horrible, crunching sound. The one that had knocked him down spared no time. She went for his throat, claws extended, jaws open wide, and growling. Just like that, Sakoa was gone, and his herd had virtually disappeared, in their place floated a cloud of dust.
"Before the doomed wildebeest could turn to see who was running beside it, she had batted it down to the ground with a swift, but strong movement of her right paw. Once it was on the ground, she wasted no time, pouncing on it and going for the throat. In moments, it was over."
xxx
Deep in the tunnels belonging to the Mesa Meerkat family of the south, snoozed a little rodent. However, despite the fact that this was clearly a meerkat tunnel system, this little rodent was not a meerkat. He was a little gopher, who, with what some would call a lack of originality, went by the name of Gopher.
Meerca, an animal that actually belonged in these tunnels, approached the sleeping gopher, trying hard not to wake him up. Meerca was a small sized meerkat, with a brown nose, and paws of the same scorched colour.
"WAKE UP GOPHER WAKE UP!" someone screamed from behind her, in a loud, yet high tone of voice. It was Levi, the guy with an uncanny ability to appear behind people, and, furthermore, scare them to death. Meerca jumped, and Gopher woke up immediately, screaming at the sight of the two meerkats right in his face; giants, compared to his size.
"Levi, you idiot!" Meerca screamed back. "He was sleeping!"
"Hey, it's his fault if he falls asleep where I'm supposed to, and I just so happen to wake him up after a hard night of sleeping with Ruby, when my bed was occupied." Levi replied, smiling a childish smile.
"Yeah, you liked that, didn't you?"
That loud meerkat just nodded, still smiling his signature smile.
Gopher was still trying to catch his breath as he spoke this sentence, "Levi? Look, I checked with Chilli- this den was free."
Meerca 'oh-ed' silently, then upon realising what this meant, turned to stare back at Levi with that look that could've sunk the Titanic.
"What? What? Why are you looking at me?" he replied, slightly panicked, waving his arms around in the air.
"Your room is next door." The female meerkat told him, pausing for a moment after each word, to emphasize her point, angry in place for her gopher friend.
"Ohh…" Levi replied, with the sound of embarrassment in his voice, joined by a hint of fear towards the end of that single word. Immediately after this, he literally fled through the tunnels, finding the shortest route out of the caverns, to avoid Meerca's trademark fearsome wrath.
Meanwhile, outside, the other meerkats of the family that weren't still sleeping were lazing around in the shade. A handful of the children, however, were playing amongst themselves in the sun. It was amazing. They seemed to be resistant to heat while they were having fun. A few of the older, though not-quite-adults of the colony sat by the baobab tree; the largest tree in quite some distance, benefiting from its shade.
Julia laughed. "It's true! You two are so cute together!"
"Right, Julia. Right." Troy replied, sarcastically. His eyes were half closed, as they always were, when he was bored. That meant that his eyes were half closed all the time.
"But it is true!" she continued, against his will. "You and Stella should get together!"
"I hate the name 'Stella'. Not only that, but she annoys me. Like you, when you talk about myself and her in the same sentence, or string of sentences."
"Whatever." Joolz replied, frustrated, as she got up and began to head towards the main entrance to the tunnel.
As she neared, Levi ran out, screaming, soon followed by Meerca. "AH! GET OUT OF THE WAY!" he yelled, frantically. Levi had no chance of escape, and in seconds, he was on the ground, being given a thorough bashing by his female 'friend'. "MERCY! MEERCA! ARGH! MERCY!"
"Should we help them?" Paul asked Troy, somewhat worried for the wellbeing of the guy who was smashed to pieces before him. He had been a rogue until Chilli, the primary female of the family that Paul had asked to join, had displayed some rare behaviour, allowing him to do so.
"They're always like that. Don't worry about them." Troy told him, plainly, as if the act of violence happening in front of him happened every day. Well, in fact, it did happen every day, sometimes more often. The others had also learned to ignore the two's behaviour. In time, Levi's bruises would heal, and Meerca's head would cool down. "Just sit back, and enjoy the show." He continued, finding a comfortable position in which to lie down, and putting his hands behind his head, resting on them. Everyone else watched on with him, except for Jasmine and Robert, who were running into problems of their own, on the other side of the tree trunk.
"Look, Jasmine… Your mother's been giving me trouble over the past few weeks… She doesn't want me to be around you any more."
"What? No. No… I should've known she would do this! She never wants me to be happy, and she's using her high position and power to do it!" Jasmine shouted angrily, getting ready to storm away.
"Calm down, Jasmine-" Robert was interrupted by his quick-tempered female friend, whom, he was intimate with.
"No! I won't calm down! I'm going to go up to her right now, and tell her that she can't interfere with our lives anymore!"
"Jasmine!" he yelled, in that particular tone of voice that could stop a herd of wildebeest on a stampede. That stopped her rambling on right away. "That's not all…"
"What?"
"Chilli said she's going to force me out of this colony as soon as she can. She doesn't want anyone grooming me, or helping me find food. She doesn't even want me talking to you people…"
"Robbie, I don't care what she thinks or what she says… We'll stay here as long as we can, then when she starts getting violent, we'll run away together! It'll be perfect!"
"Jasmine, listen to me on this one. I can't escape this, but I can stop you from being dragged down with me. Stay away from me from now on, okay?" Robert looked around cautiously. He thought that he had heard someone coming. "I should go now."
"Wait!" Jasmine pleaded. Robert had already started to walk away. "… So, this means we won't see each other again?" she finally managed to say, after a long pause, close to tears.
Robert turned around to face Jasmine, looking her in the eye, as echoes from the ongoing battle shot through the air, coming from the other side of the tree, or rather, slaughtering of Levi. "Go for in between his legs!" someone could be heard yelling. There were no screams, but shortly afterwards, cheers and applause erupted from the audience. Meerca must've fulfilled the request, and very well, too.
"We will, Jasmine… We will." And with that, Robert left, down into the tunnels, just like Julia had done earlier.
xxx
Maloumba looked over the land with his daughter, Charlotte, from their favourite spot, atop the highest cliff in the land; Ivory Cliff, by the giant boulder. That boulder's surface was incredibly smooth, and glossy, just like Maloumba's tusks. Charlotte was only five years old, and so her tusks were yet to grow.
"It's beautiful…" Charlotte said, under her breath, scanning the landscape for anything unusual. She came to this place every day with her father, and if anything so much as moved a metre, she would notice. Out there, in the distance, were seven acacia trees; one sat on the horizon. Very near to the cliff face was a huge baobab tree, the largest tree in quite some distance, which marked the place where she had her first encounter with meerkats.
"Just as always…" replied Maloumba, smiling a smile of content; the content that came from raising such a successful family. When the plague that wiped out so many wildebeest came months ago, no elephant in his tribe showed signs of sickness.
Before he could say anything else, his messenger hornbill, Lola, flew frantically to his shoulder, yelling words that were beyond understanding.
"Lola! Lola, calm down. What is it? What's wrong?" Maloumba asked her, using a slightly worried tone of voice. Lola, unlike most of her kind, didn't overreact over little things, such as too many dung beetles appearing, or the temperature dropping a few degrees. He knew there was definitely something wrong.
"W-Wild dogs! Huge hunting party! A-At the ridge! The ridge!" was all she could say.
Maloumba just looked at her for a moment, and then told Charlotte to get behind him as he headed to the site of the drama with Lola still oh his shoulder.
xxx
"Hiero! We gotta get out of here!" someone yelled to Hiero, from behind. "We're never gonna take down one of these elephants!"
"Stand your ground!" he barked; the hunting party's leader. There were at least twelve others of his kind coming over the ridge that covered the only safe entrance to the cliff. They were being pushed back by the circle of elephants surrounding the young that were still vulnerable to predators, though one child had been left out.
Darroul was just able to fend for himself against two of the wild dogs behind a tree, but his luck soon turned. Next to this tree was a small swamp. The soil surrounding this swamp was loose and crumbled easily, allowing its water to escape, making puddles or sludge in the surrounding area. As Darroul stepped back to avoid the jaws of one dog, his back left foot got stuck in a puddle of mud that sucked him in, not allowing him to escape. The two dogs neared.
"These elephants are too much for us! You're gonna kill us all if you keep us here!" screamed Domin, the pack's alpha female from the top of a boulder, to Hiero.
"I said stand your ground until I tell you to do otherwise!" he shouted back to her. "I'll make sure no one gets hurt!" Hiero continued, almost trying to convince himself. "Forward! As a unit!" he proceeded to say. The whole pack began to close in on the elephants, growling, barking and snapping their jaws, coming over the ridge, though that barrier of muscle and tusks didn't look like they were going to budge.
Seconds later, a booming trumpeting sound exploded out from behind the circle of elephants as Maloumba burst through the wall, trumpeting again, throwing the front part of his body into the air in a horse-like manner. The earth shook when his feet impacted the ground. The elephants of his tribe trumpeted, cheering him on, supporting him, and scaring the dogs to death.
The sight of a male elephant, four metres high at the shoulder with tusks the size of tree trunks that shone like the sun was just too much for Hiero, let alone his pack. "Fall back!" he growled at them, looking back. They didn't seem to be able to hear him over the barrage of elephant roars, whose source was so close to their ears. "Fall back!" he yelled at the top of his lungs, turning around and running, as Maloumba's feet smashed into the land again. His whole pack heard him this time, and followed him in fleeing.
Maloumba only then spotted Darroul, on the ground and bleeding still stuck in the puddle of mud that he had fallen into. He rushed to the young calf's side, making the two wild dogs that had injured him flee faster.
"Darroul! Darroul, speak to me. Tell me you're alright…" No answer came. "Darroul?" Still, no words were spoken by the calf. Maloumba painfully accepted the truth, and stepped back in respect as the circle of elephants behind him broke and approached.
xxx
As the wild dogs fled back to wherever they had come from, Diego the leopard watched on. He was a solitary animal, who could take down an antelope by himself, and loved to laze amongst the branches of trees. The rays of sunlight landed and danced on his emerald green eyes as he looked up to see if he could get higher into the tree he was sitting on. He didn't want to get the attentions of the twelve odd dogs that were coming his way at that moment; no doubt he was strong, but he surely couldn't take on that many vicious carnivores at a time.
"Good one by the elephants…" he said to himself as he found a foothold and hoisted himself up the tree trunk. Soon enough, the dogs came running towards his tree, then by it, then away from it.
Diego hadn't spoken to anyone else for years. He'd basically lost the skills of social interaction, and now just avoided it altogether. His mother would always tell him that depending on others when you're an adult spelt weakness. Independence was strength, for all you rely on is yourself when you are independent. When dependent on others, you may be capable, but what of your other counterparts? Will they always be as capable as you? If they go down, you'll go with them.
Those pieces of advice, or rather, orders, got to Diego somewhat more than it did to his brother and sister. He only ever played with them several times; his fun laid in watching others, and observing their behaviour. What would they do if this happened, or, perhaps, that? How will they react to this? Diego was not about physical activity. He was about mental exercises.
Diego was wise. He knew not to bite off more than he could chew. He was observing very closely what happened at the ridge of Ivory Cliff. From the first hour of stalking to the death of Darroul, he knew that Hiero was in way over his head. Wild dogs couldn't handle elephants. Nobody could. Diego would only hunt wildebeest, antelope, zebra, and other medium sized hoofed animals, occasionally stealing from species that he considered lesser than him, like lions, cheetahs, vultures, crocodiles, and, of course, wild dogs. He was too smart for them to ever catch him, in his mind.
And so the sun had risen, and now it had set. Sapphire, Orion and Coyle had made it all the way into the Grey Mountains, where they had now found a cave that they could sleep in, though it would only fit two of the three of them inside. Orion volunteered to stay outside for the night; they needed someone to keep watch, anyway.
This would be the hardest night for Sapphire in her entire life. Not because of the trauma that she had just experienced or because of the unfamiliarity of the foreign place she was sleeping in, but because of the nightmares that would disturb her sleep. She would later find out that these were more than mere bad dreams, but visions of the past, present, and future, which would build her up, preparing her for things to come, or destroy her on the spot.