Ch 6: Scar
Midnight stood hopefully at the tip of pride rock, looking at king Ranre. He was flanked by his queen, Allana, and the two princes. Cane looked dismayed, but Saigon remained unreadable. Midnight's eyes flickered from one to the other, wondering why their emotions were so different. King Ranre looked unemotional, but his eyes held a cold fury Midnight had never seen before. Gathered all around Pride rock were the animals of the kingdom: elephants, zebras, and every type of predator and prey you could think of. An exited chatter spread among the king's subjects, moving like an electric wave though the crowd.
King Ranre's booming voice put an end to any talking. The savanna fell into a wary silence that made Midnight's fur stand on end.
"Outlander, you've been awaiting my opinion for days now, and I give it willingly." A roar of neighs, trumpets, and chattering spread across the group. "Exile!"
Midnight stared at the king before leaping forward. She was blocked by two lionesses, but remained snarling at Ranre.
"What? I came to you for help! You can't just push me away like some piece of old meat!" she snarled.
"I will have none of this!" the king retorted angrily. Midnight lunged past the two lionesses, unsheathing her claws and readying herself to pounce on the king. Suddenly, Ranre's huge brown paw shot out, lashing Midnight across the face. She roared in anguish as she felt blood spatter to the ground and sting her eye, turning her vision red. Midnight turned and bolted, skittering down the step-like boulders. She could feel blood drip down her cheeks and seep into her fur, sending a lancing pain up and down her temple. The sharp sound of stone clattering of stone reached her ears and she had to duck as a large shard of rock came hurtling towards her. Midnight began to flee for her safety, head held low.
"Outcast!" she heard a lion say.
"She black as night, the color of death and deception!" she heard another roar.
But one voice rang out past the others: the agonized voice of Cane. "Sana! Sister!" he roared. Midnight couldn't even bear to look back to see how Ranre was reacting to his behavior. She reached the group of zebras, snarling slightly as they let her pass, rearing up on their hind legs in anger.
"Get lost, troublemaker!" she heard one neigh cheekily. She fell to the ground as one kicked her in the ribs, but soon got to her feet and fled into the tall savannah grasses, pinning her ears back in an attempt to block out the noise and the thud of her heart.
Finally, Midnight had reached a quieter place: the watering hole. In all the excitement of Ranre's decision, it had been abandoned. Midnight walked up to the water, looking down into it to see how badly the king had wounded her. When she saw her reflection, Midnight gasped. A scar ran across her eye, bleeding slightly. Just like Kovu. Just like Scar. Silently, Midnight began to weep, letting the tears run unchecked down her cheeks. She covered her head in her paws and shook uncontrollably, trying to wipe away the blood from her wound.
Midnight woke, her face searing with pain, and touched the cut gently with her paw. Please don't let it scar over, she thought sadly. She wrenched her paw away from her face, looking down at the wound and grimacing. Then she remembered what had happened earlier and her eyes welled up with tears once more. She couldn't go back to Pride Rock, couldn't get any help for her pride. Midnight trembled and let loose a shaky sigh. The black lioness jerked back as a soft hand was placed on her shoulder. She turned to see Penzi, a grave look on the mandrill's face.
"Poor, poor child," the shaman said sadly, shaking her head. Midnight let her head hand limp, and Penzi gave her a reassuring hug. Midnight shook and a few more tears rolled down her face, but she wiped them away. Penzi let go of the black lioness wiped away the wetness in Midnight's fur.
"Come, child. I have extra space in my tree. You can stay there until your wounds have healed," Penzi said softly. A confused look crossed Midnight's features.
"But it's only a cut across my eye. Surely it won't take that long to get better?" she asked in a thick voice. Penzi shook her head.
"Maybe your physical wound won't," she said, "but your emotional scars have been cut all over again. It will take much longer for these to heal." Midnight's good eye lowered to the ground as Penzi words struck true. She felt as if her heart had been ripped open. Penzi patted her shoulder comfortingly and sighed. Gently, she began to lead Midnight towards a large Baobab tree in the distance.
Midnight clawed her way up Penzi's tree, her ebony claws scraping to smooth bark. She looked up at Penzi with her one good eye, trying to gauge how far up the shaman was. Now that she could only see out of one eye, her depth perception was off. She placed one paw in front of the other delicately, tilting her head to the side in an attempt to see how far away she was from the next branch.
Midnight sighed happily as she pulled herself into the main section of the tree, padding into the center of the hollow and looking around for Penzi. The mandrill had pulled herself easily into the tree and had set to work on a bowl of herbs. Penzi scooped some up and walked over to Midnight, smearing the herbs around in her human-like hands until it had turned into a blue-brown paste.
"This will help cleanse your cut and make it heal faster. Brace yourself. This is going to burn slightly," the shaman said softly. She began to spread the paste on Midnight's cut and the area around it while the black lioness dug her claws into the wood beneath her. It was all she could do to stop roaring in pain as the paste seemed to burn away her fur. When Penzi was finished, Midnight shook her head to clear away the pain, but it continued to burn. Penzi grabbed a strange striped fruit and cracked it open, scooping out the insides and mashing it into a pulp. "Eat," she said firmly, placing the pulp on the ground. Midnight wrinkled her nose and swallowed the pulp, sticking out her tongue in distaste. Like almost all other lions, Midnight was impartial to fruit.
The black lioness lay down and placed her head in her paws, closing her one good eye. Penzi stroke her fur as the lioness began to slumber, muttering under her breath.
"Mufasa, things are rough for this lioness. Let us hope that the one you chose shows up soon. If he does not, the Pridelands will plummet into dark times," the shaman said softly. She was silent a moment and then shot into the leaves of her tree, grabbing her staff and swinging onto the ground. Penzi began to make her way slowly across the savannah, heading in the direction of Kilimanjaro.
Midnight paced back and forth, scanning the savannah. It had been two months since she had become an outcast, and her cut had healed. Worse than healed: it had become a scar. She felt tainted. She also felt powerless. Midnight hadn't gone back to the Outlands; she was scared of what she would find if she did, but she couldn't go back to Pride Rock. She would probably be rejected again. The very thought of it all made her weak-kneed with sadness.
Now Midnight was Penzi's assistant, helping her collect herbs and berries for secret things only the mandrill could explain. She liked it well enough, but she still felt like she could be doing more. Every day she received news of a hyena raid somewhere, and it made her stomach clench.
Penzi had returned from Kilimanjaro, but hadn't said anything about the journey. When Midnight asked what had happened, the mandrill had only placed a finger to her lips and chuckled slightly.
Now Midnight stood waiting in the middle of the savannah, her tail twitching with anticipation. Penzi had told her an old friend and a new friend would meet her tonight, so where were they?
Midnight whirled around and snarled as two forms emerged from the bushes. A smile split her whiskers as she recognized one of them. "Shade!" the black lioness said happily, bounding towards her friend. But to her dismay, Shade pulled away from her.
"You were supposed to go get help," Shade said, a growl rumbling in her throat. Midnight took a step back, a sad and confused look on her face.
"I tried, but… I couldn't," the black lioness said slowly. She shook her head and turned towards the other lion that had accompanied Shade. She was about to address him when Shade burst out, her lips pulled back in a snarl.
"You couldn't come back to help the pride? You could have come back and helped the Outlanders, but you chose to stay here. You know, I thought you were one of the bravest lionesses in our pride, but I guess I was wrong. You couldn't even bring back some help from the Pridelands. You're a coward, a weakling," Shade finished, her voice rising into a snarl. Midnight pulled her lips back, revealing her teeth, but made no move.
"I guess being shunned from beings you were just starting to like really makes you a coward, huh?" the black lioness growled slowly, fury ringing in her voice. Shade's head snapped up in confusion; she had never seen her friend so angry before. "If being tainted by the symbol of traitors and turncoats makes you coward, of course I'm the most fear-filled thing in the savannah," Midnight growled, turning her face so the moonlight turned her scar ghostly silver. Shade grimaced and took a few steps backwards, pinning her ears close to her head. Midnight glowered at her, amber eyes brimming with tears.
"Sorry," was all Shade murmured before turning and padding away into the thick fronds of grass, sitting down in a bare patch of earth not too far away. Midnight's heart plummeted into her stomach, only to shudder back into place when the male lion spoke. She had been so caught up in growling at Shade that the black lioness had forgotten he was there.
"Um… I'm sure she'll be fine," he said with an awkward chuckle, his gaze flicking back and forth.
"Maybe," Midnight grumbled, knowing how unpredictable her friend was. For the first time she took a careful look at the unfamiliar male, her eye lingering over every unique feature. His mane was a dusky dark brown huge, thinning to a golden-brown at the tips of each scraggly hair. His main body fur was a tan and gray mix; somewhere between the two colors. All in all, the male wasn't exactly the most handsome lion Midnight had seen. "Who are you?" she asked impolitely, not bothering to correct her attitude. The male shuffled his paws on the ground and straightened up before responding.
"Clay, prince of the Kilimanjaro pride," the male responded. Midnight's eyes widened slightly at the news of him being prince, but why should she be surprised? Meeting princes wasn't exactly something new for her. She supposed it had something to do with his appearance; he had probably traveled for quite a few days. "I stopped by the Outlands and Shade joined me in my travels."
"Just Shade? What about the others? Was Khaz there?" Midnight asked, longing to know what was happening to her pride. The look of confusion on Clay's face made her heart sink.
"Shade was the only lioness there," he told Midnight, kneading the ground beneath his paws. Midnight's eyes brimmed with tears as she began to list off the names and descriptions of every lioness in her pride, hoping Clay had seen at least one of them. For every lioness, Clay had one response: he had never seen them before. Finally, Midnight was reaching the end of her list when the blurted out the last lioness's name.
"And Talla? She's a smallish lioness with light tan fur and she's a smooth-talker," she explained. For once, the look on Clay's face switched from confusion to recognition.
"Yeah, I remember a lioness like her. I found her about two days traveling away from where Shade was, all covered in scratches. I tried to get her to travel with me, but she talked me out of it by telling me there were others who needed my help further on in my travels. She looked like she would live, so I move on until I came here," the dusky brown lion said, his golden eyes taking on clear certainty once more. Despite the unknown whereabouts of the rest of her pride, Midnight was glad that at least one lioness was still alive. She let out a huge sigh of relief, letting her head drop wearily.
"I'm tired," she droned. "I sleep near Penzi's tree. You and Shade can stay there too if you like." She said with a cold edge, turning and padding towards the large tree. It wasn't long before she heard the rustle of grasses that signaled Clay was close behind her.
Clay and Midnight had reached the large tree and the black lioness sat down wearily under its gnarled branches. "I'm going to sleep," she said wearily, turning her back on Clay and placing her head in her paws. Soon, Midnight's eyelids were drooping and she slipped into slumber.
Just so you know, the story is NOT OVER. I refuse to end any of my storyies on a bad note. So don't worry, there's much to come.