Author's Note: Thanks for the reviews! I really do appreciate them!
Chapter 3
"What do you thinks wrong with her?" A husky, spotted cub asked of his equally brutish younger sibling, who was at present occupying his interest with a dung beetle working its way through its newly discovered and freshly made home.
The first cub, irritated by his brother's attention deficit, swung at the other cub's hind quarters. The second cub let out a yelp and, having lost the beetle, responded in frustration "what?!"
"Look, you dope," the eldest pointed to a pair of cubs walking side by side across the dry lands "it's that freak.. and its brother."
"Oh!" the dim cub appeared to snap out of a trance "Yeah, so it is."
"What do ya say we rough em up a bit?" he asked with a devilish grin.
He didn't wait for an answer, and started trotting towards Lela and Ahi who were quietly making their way back to their home, fresh from a day of playful adventures. The hot, parched lands served as a more interesting playground for cubs and provided a chance to practice the skillful art of camouflage.
"Hey freak!"
Lela and Ahi both turned their heads in response, and both at the same time shrunk back down in annoyance.
"Ugh, it's those stupid fat brothers again" Ahi moaned, turning a sympathetic eye to his sister "We can just ignore them if you want".
Lela sighed. She knew her brother would defend her, even with physical force, if he had to. But right now, she wanted nothing more then to get back to her mother and the safety of the oasis. "Can we?"
"Of course" and he sped up his pace, hoping to dodge the hurtful taunts of the other cubs.
"Hey FREAK!"
Twas no use, both cubs had caught up and initiated a familiar slew of insults.
"Hey freak, where'd your spots go? You get them scared off a ya?" The older brother kicked dirt into Lela's face. Ahi immediately leapt in front of her, baring his fairly sharp teeth in a defensive stance.
"Back off warthog" he growled.
"Ahi, just forget it lets go" Lela pleaded.
"yeah, better listen to your pet freak"
"Yeah!" the younger cub egged on, lacking any real insults of his own.
"I said BACK OFF!"
"You gonna make me ya freak lover?"
"If you don't shut up on your own!"
"Go on and try.."
"Ahi, don't" She begged again.
"C'mon loser, go on off with your half leopard half chimp sister"
There was a lull in the commotion, the eldest brother and Ahi stood glaring into each other's eyes silently. The pause felt like an eternity for Lela, but in reality it was only a few seconds before Ahi attacked the other cub in a fit of rage.
Juvenile roars and angry growls resounded from the violently sparring cubs. Ahi slashed at the cub's throat, but having missed swung and fell forward. The other leopard attempted the same, but only scratched Ahi's left front leg and too stumbled awkwardly.
"You stupid JERK!" Ahi bellowed, forcefully pushing him down and pinning him to the ground.
"Well what's this?" A deep, masculine voice echoed from a short distance. The fighting cubs ceased, stunned and slightly dumfounded, and pulled apart from on another to look for the owner of the menacing voice.
A figure; great, dark, and intimidating made its way to the foursome. Its movements and gestures emanated strength. A thick, coarse, dark mane fell onto powerful shoulders. Rippling, defined muscles were visible and with every heavy step would bulge out as if at any moment they would rip through his pelt. He was pure male, crudely sensual and arrogant. He was a Rogue.
"Such a big disturbance for such…" he inhaled deeply and breathed out the words "small things".
"S..sorry sir." Ahi stammered out. He wasn't entirely sure why he was apologizing, not to this intruder. All he knew, all he needed to know, was his immense size.
"Yes well, it's never a great idea to bring such.. attention to yourselves." There was something completely sinister in his words, something wicked.
"You're right sir." Ahi said once more, submitting fully to the stranger's might.
The Rogue didn't feel the necessity to look down at the cubs. You've seen one leopard cub you'd seen them all, he thought. He merely saw a mash of spots, grass and dirt cowering in his presence. Oh, how he enjoyed it so.
"Of course I'm right," he scoffed "I can crush little termites like you and think nothing of it".
The cubs said nothing.
"What, something stunt the rest of you? You think King Ekuka would tolerate such insolence?!" he roared angrily, sending the cubs into a shaking fit.
Such a powerful sound, Lela thought to herself, so.. familiar.
"ANSWER!" they felt the hotness of the beast's breath, a foul stench of rotting meat stung their nostrils. They four of them buried their heads under their paws, awaiting what was to come.
The only thing the cubs saw was what looked like a flying object over their heads. They heard something hit the ground, hard and suddenly the air above them became cooler. They looked up and saw a miracle; Chui pinning the giant Rogue down, her blazing sharp teeth snarling centimeters from his eyes.
"Your.. King," she spat "Will rot. As will you, you filthy usurping pig."
The once frightening animal, now completely stunned, said nothing and gazed into the mouth of an infuriated mother.
"What? Something stunt you?" she angrily imitated the feeble thing under her.
"Okay.. Okay I'll go.." he said in a hushed tone. He had been taken by surprise, pinned to the ground and at the mercy of mere she-leopard.
"If I let you go, you will turn and not look back here. Ever. You understand? Tread outside your land again and I'll make sure you never make it back to Ekuka's precious shithole".
"fine.. fine".
She stepped off of him, forcefully pushing her hind paw into his grown before fully removing herself from him. He let out a painful grunt, and just lied unmoving for a few seconds, still recovering from the shock. He got up, didn't bother shaking off and quickly hurried from the scene. She watched him intently until his figure became nothing more then a speck in the horizon.
"You two," she spoke to the brothers "I'll take you home. Go to your mother and stay with her tonight".
"Mother, what if he comes back?" Lela asked, fear invading her voice again.
"He won't," she said simply "He'll be too ashamed to return. He won't even mention it to Ekuka".
"The king?"
"Yes…" Chui spoke slowly "The king.."
--
The cathedral of lush vegetation, an oasis surrounded by flat savannah and desert, was broken by the piercing rays of the rising African sun. The earliest hours of morning sent the normally deafening jungle into an eerie silence as it was too early for the day hunters to rise and too late for the nocturnal risers to hunt. Ahi and Chui slept fitfully, the young male curled into his mother's underbelly, each savoring the last hour or two of permissible idleness. Her breath, slow and relaxed, foiled her son's quickened one, brought on most probably by fantasies of a future hunt. Chui raised a tired paw and gently caressed Ahi's soft pelt. She went for Lela, expecting to feel a familiar warmth, only to touch the cool dewy grass. Startled, a wave of panic coursed through her, and she quickly raised her head.
Relief washed over her as she saw the silhouette of her daughter a few yards away. The new light seemed to create a halo around the contours of her frame, yet left her body a shadow. What little movement she made appeared to be in slow motion. The mother leopard was momentarily awestruck by the cub's beauty; so much like her mother.. It's as if she's a visiting spirit. .
Chui tenderly rose to all fours careful as to not wake Ahi and, ignoring the usual morning sluggishness, made her way to Lela's side. She was sitting, staring at the ground beneath her. She'd only glanced up long enough for Chui to see she had been crying.
"What's wrong?" Chui asked of Lela, her voice so soft and full of genuine concern it'd melt even the harshest of beasts' hearts. It was such a simple question, Why are you crying Lela? She would have given her a straight answer, if she had one.
"I don't know." Her voice trembled.
"Is it something Ahi said?"
"No."
"Something I said?"
She shook her head.
"You just feel like crying?" she bent down and nuzzled her neck. "Hmm?"
"I guess I.." Lela paused "Feel strange".
"Are you not well?"
"I.." she searched for the words. She turned to look at the slumbering Ahi, then back up at Chui "Feel different".
With that, Chui understood.
"Oh Lela, spots mean nothing.. I love you regardless of what your pelt looks like, as does Ahi."
"I know, mother."
Chui was relieved to hear her use that word; mother. It meant ignorance of the truth. She mulled the idea of telling her everything, right then and there. She thought of breaking down, recalling the old mandrill handing the newborn to her. She'd lost Ahi's twin to one of Ekuka's "bored" Rogues, and at the time felt it her duty to raise the princess in hopes of retribution and vengeance. Yes, the thought of raising a warrior hell bent on slaying the murdering bastards sent shivers of pleasure down her spine that only a mother scorned could know. She'd wanted to be honest from the start, she'd wanted to say Lela, you did not spring from my womb. You are not a spotless leopard, rather a noble lioness. You are of royal descent, rightful heir to the kingdom once ruled by the great Simba. His blood runs in your veins. Now go, take back what is rightfully yours. Reclaim your birthright.
But as Lela grew, so did her love; and the fear of another loss. Here, an opportunity presented itself for honesty, and yet she couldn't. The thought of telling her, worse the thought of losing her, made her stomach twist.
"You know Lela, perhaps your pelt looks different than mine," she began "But under this fur is flesh. And under the flesh is blood and bone. After we take off the fur, we are all the same."
"But mother, I can't take off my fur. It's stuck to me." She responded with the sweet innocent ignorance of the young. A misunderstanding, thought Chui, the simplicity of youth, of always taking everything in the literal.
And yet as she ran the cub's words through her head again, she realized perhaps Lela wasn't as blissfully unaware as she had assumed.
Chui knew that well the intentioned maternal words of wisdom she offered to Lela wouldn't sustain as a viable substitution for the truth for much longer. And the truth was simple; to tear off her pelt was to kill her. No beast can survive as just an entity of blood and bone.
"Lela.." she breathed, unable to conceal the building despair in her voice "I.." she paused, looking down at the cub she'd raised from infancy, feeling the hot flood of dread filling her head and curbing her ability to speak. No.. Not yet. I can't lose her yet..
Calling on all her strength, she swallowed every aching emotion in her being and mustered out the words "I love you."
And that was the truth.