Till We Find Our Place
The Cub, East of Hell's Backbone, heading towards the Bone Forest:
Simba rested with his head on his paws and watched Upweke nibble at leaves. The sun had only just come up and the world was still cold.
Upweke eats differently. It wasn't like the chomp and tear of the zebra and unstoppable ravaging of the gnu. Simba watches how the big antelope ate threw one blurry eye. His lips fluttered over tiny shoots as he nibbled gently in delicate silence.
Simba remembers the noise of the herds eating, it was like a constant snarl moving over the plains all day and night.
Here it was silent.
As Simba lay waiting for the new light to warm him, he imagine himself back home, on top of Pride Rock with Nala stretched out beside him, their purrs in rhythm as they dozed.
Just as he was slipping away into light sleep, Upweke reared up on his hind legs and stretched for the highest branch. Dew that had pooled on the underside of the leaves shook and came down in a shower. One particular droplet landed heavy as stone between Simba's shoulder blades. Instantaneous he was awake again, and the old, warm dream was shattered.
He glared at Upweke, but the overgrown goat just looked down at him like he was an interesting cog of dirt, all the while munching on the nubby leaves from the grey tree.
Upweke's eyes darted across the horizon, searching for something to look at while avoiding Simba's glare. This was something the Kudu had learned to do early on when dealing with the young lion. The cub's two red eyes, steady and eerie...
Upweke thinks predators don't realise how creepy they are to the other animals. Their eyes are too close together at the front of their heads, and when they yawned without consideration of their companions, displaying teeth and a black void.
Most of the dew that had fallen onto ground had sunk into the sand by now but some now grouped together on the rocks.
It was a measly amount to Simba, but for the tiny lizard who sunbaked beside the cub it was perfect. Originally this lizard would have been quite a striking guy, but in his old age his scales had dulled and almost lost their colour completely.
"Hey lizard," Simba said as he prodded his paw at the creatue. The ancient reptile stirred and cleared his throat, which made only a slither of audible noise. "You should drink while there is water around," Simba told him.
The little creature grunted before falling back to sleep.
"The lizard drifts, I'm afraid he will not make it home," Upweke grumbled from his place on the other side of the tree. "We must start moving."
Simba watched the still lizard closley. The scaly creature had been lively three days ago, back when Sili had brought him over. He talked loudly and with a twinkle, and didn't sit still for long.
The lizard was adament his death was upon him. An animal of his age knew these sorts of things, apparently. And now he wished to die surrounded by family.
This was a feat he could not achieve alone. He was a small creature, and slow, and so, so old.
Gods so old, Simba thought.
But I knew Upweke might take me to my home tree, the lizard had said. They say good things about you in the undergrowth. They say you crossed the Wastelands in five days. Faster than an eagle, they say of you? That true mister Scar Face?
Upweke had agreed, saying he was already heading that way soon to meet a friend. He asked Simba to come with him, saying something along the lines Sili needs a bloody break from you.
On the first day of travel the crazy old lizard rode among the thick fur between Upweke's shoulder blades, but he was cramped and exhausted from holding onto the fur by the time they stopped to sleep at midday. He then proposed that he could ride in Simba's mouth.
At first it felt weird; he was scaly and tasted like sand and fleas. Simba kept his mouth wide open, and after awhile his jaw hurt. Simba learned that if he stretched his jaw just so, he could rest his teeth together in an unusual way that left space for the lizard's head and tail.
The crazy creature disliked the feel of Simba's tongue as much as Simba disliked the feel of him, so they were both extremely happy when old Vieil worked out the position of lying across his teeth and staying above Simba's spiny tongue.
"I bet no animal has seen the spines of a lion's tongue and lived to tell about it!" The lizard and shouted, and he laughed like it was the biggest joke in the world. "Look at me, carried by a king!"
The animals tendency to called all lion's kings, even the lionesses, never failed to make Simba pause. Sometimes it made him sad, at the memory of his family, or angry, at the memory of his family. Sometimes he forgets, and thinks that they have figured out who he is, or recognised him. And he'll freeze for a millisecond and his eyes would dilate.
The lizard told long rambling stories to pass the time on the second day. There was the one where he and his friend Jay walked for three nights straight, but when they turned around they could still see their home tree. He'd told that one about five times.
There was one moment on the second day of travels when the conversation actually switched.
"Say Scar Face, what sort of animal are you?" The lizard asked out of nowhere. "I'm old but I've never seen one like you. You must be far from home."
Upweke thought hard about his response. Simba could feel it from the small silence before he answered, and the deliberate way he pronounced the sounds he always struggled to form considered he was down a cheek.
"They call us Kudu, and there are two of us. I'm of the Mkubwa kind. We're bigger."
And your beards are longer, Simba thought. He would have said it but for the small problem of a lizard in his jaws.
"We live in herds, ten to forty usually, and though the gnu are more numerous, and the Impala faster, our species is considered the greatest of the antelope for our beauty as well as our strength. Most of us live in the lands east of here, which is where I came from, but a few bloodlines live in the south and we are greatly respected there."
"They're crazy in the south," the lizard remarked. Simba remembers Zazu talking about it, and saying something similar, a memory that feels so far removed.
"Watch what you say old lizard, little lion there is from the south," Upweke warned the crazy old lizard.
"Well no wonder he left and ended up here, in this shit hole!"
"This is your home, isn't it?"
"Yeah, but I can still tell shit from the mud. Never mind I've never seen that much mud in my life," the lizard shouted, and after which, of course, he proceeded to laugh like it was the biggest joke in the world.
As the sun got higher and the air heated up on their second day, Upweke lead them into the shade of some leaning rocks, and they collapsed into the sand. Simba gently lowered the lizard onto the ground, then yawned, stretched and baby-roared without thinking, happy to have his mouth back.
It was the first time he had baby-roared since the gorge. When he turned back around, half way through licking his nose, he noticed that Upweke had straightened, and that the lizard was considering him from the corner of his one good eye.
Simba ignored them as he went about digging into the sand to get at the colder ground underneath. Sleep came to him quickly - understandable when you considered that on top of being a small child, he had been walking all day and night.
When he woke up the shadows were long and the air was sweeter. Upweke was standing nearby chewing his cud. The old goat shook himself, sending countless flies into the air in buzzing storm before they landing back down on the Kudu.
"How do you stand the flies?" Simba asked Upweke while looking at him through one eye. The other one was closed because of the amount of flies buzzing around his face.
"They are thirsty, and look for something to drink, just as we do. They are small, so anything would do for them. Even the surface of your eyes," Upweke turned to him and smirked.
"Ew," Simba grumbled. Evil goat. Evil flies.
"If you fight them, you will die, and they will win. Know what battles to fight little lion, wasting energy can be deadly out here. But I'm sure you know that."
Upweke wanted to walk through the night and reach the lizard's home tree as soon as possible. Apparently some bird had gotten word the friend he was meeting, and she wanted to meet as soon as possible in the Bone Forest.
Upweke's friend could not afford to wait any long. Apparently she had a big family to feed.
The smooth but hustling running pace they struck was a travelling trot for Upweke, but for Simba it was more like running for his life as he tried to keep up to the large steps the antelope effortless took.
There are many different stages Simba goes through while running. The lungs get cold, then the muscles burn before becoming numb. Even his tail tires from swirling about with ever leap. Keeping his balance had been easy in the soft play areas as a cub, but going from sand to grit to hard grass, over roots and rocks, all while shadowing a Kudu. It was a hard task to complete.
Sometimes Simba thinks that Upweke does not realise how young he really is. Once Simba reaches the numb stage, it is hard to keep his body moving at the same speed with the same strength. Then there was the next wall, which Simba was not keen to cross. It was hard to pant properly with the lizard in his mouth, jamming himself between the spaces of his teeth as he tries to not be flung out.
When he starts to lag behind, Upweke slows as well. They come to a walk and the Kudu peers at the wobbly Simba with curiosity. Often Upweke needs to stop completely and let Simba lie down and pant.
"You're doing a lot better."
Simba didn't expect the praise, his numb body warmed up in pride at the compliment.
As they travel through the night, the lizard dies.
Without a guide to point out which tree is his home tree, Upweke decides to leave the body behind and head straight for the Bone Forest.
Simba stays by the lizard's body longer than Upweke does. The reptile's body rocks a bit in the strong night winds, and Simba jumps in fright. He is alive!
No, he isn't.
The Cub, in the Bone Forest:
The Bone Forest was a place Simba had heard a lot about.
The birds said thousands of bare trees stood there, all white like bones, their canopies interwoven so tightly they scratched and squeaked against one another constantly.
The squeaking was particularly bad today as the winds continued to strengthen. The forest was spooky, and something smelt fearful and wrong about it.
When Simba licked his lips, this rough tongue came away coated in the fine dust and sand of the wastelands. Every animal had it, no matter how much they cleaned, always in their fur and between their toes. Simba looked more like his mother with every passing day, but that was only because the dust was hiding his golden fur and turning him the same colour as the ground.
Then, he figured it out. The smell, the way the forest made his skin crawl...for reasons and memories that flashed back into clarity just as the shadows in the distance took form and moved in an awkward lumbering gait.
Hyenas.
"Run! Upweke, run!" Simba screamed, darting in front of Upweke in some half formed idea of shielding the vulnerable prey animal, before sense dug in, letting him know he was the more defenseless one.
No father to protect you now.
Upweke stepped over him as he calmly walked on, oblivious.
"Hyenas, they're coming," Simba hissed.
"Well I certainly hope so."
Upweke walked on, and Simba couldn't move, couldn't...couldn't even function because he was stuck repeating Upweke's words and the amused look he had on his torn up face.
Simba tried to follow obediently, not wanting Upweke to get too far away. After travelling together for so long, it felt unnatural to not be shadowing the now-evidently-crazy Kudu. Two big hyenas came jogging towards him, a third came out of the trees to the side. One of the biggest hyenas Simba had ever seen, and probably the biggest hyena to stalked the face of the earth, came jogging towards Upweke while the rest kept a distance, and even while moving towards each other, they were already shouting greetings. Simba could see the big hyena laugh and slobber something that made Upweke snort so hard the dust around him flew up into the air.
Simba's belly now scrapped the ground, he was hyper aware of everything the hyenas did, looking for the instant they turned and shredded Upweke to pieces. Not that he could get there in time, or do anything to stop them if it came to it. His ears were flat against his head, and his legs shook in a volatile combination of exhaustion and horror.
A cold, soft nose ghosted over his flank, and Simba spun in a whirlwind and snarled, his paw outstretched and his claws digging and raking across whatever had surprised him. Simba watched the big beast skip away, howling in teasing humour rather than pain. Around them, there was more, three, four, five. Lying in the ground and panting, scratching at their fleas...watching him.
He couldn't believe it. Upweke was insane. Simba could not think of a creature that he feared and hated more, his dreams always ended in him being surrounded, against a wall. Sometimes Nala was there, and she screamed at him to do something, anything, be useful for once in your life. But sometimes she wasn't there. Instead it was his father, standing up above and watching him. And he would scream for help, but his father would just stare.
He would always wake up just as they lunged to finish him, screaming and howling.
"Little lion," Upweke's voice was right next to him, and shook him back to reality. In a quick scope of his surroundings, Simba realised that Upweke had come over to him, along with the monstrous hyena, who watched him with deep orange eyes.
"I can't- I can't," Simba said, his shaky breath rattling his voice so much that he was sure they couldn't understand a word.
"Calm down little cub we won't lay a claw on ya," the monstrous hyena's voice was so croaky and strong that Simba couldn't tell if it was male or not, but the two swollen teats told him female, and one with new cubs back in the burrow.
But the dangling penis told him male.
Simba looked away from the confusion and to Upweke. Who was currently nibbling at a prickle in his leg with not a care. With a deep breath Simba tried to lie to himself, and be convinced, at least for now, that he was fine. Upweke would protect him, wouldn't risk his life like this, wouldn't –
That hyena was too close! Too close! Simba sprung for Upweke's legs and crouched there. A ferocious snarl he didn't know he had hissing out from between his bared teeth as he swiveled every which way, glaring at the five, six, hyenas from behind Upweke's legs.
The monstrous confusion sniffed in his direction and muttered something in the ear of the hyena beside her.
"Apologies Fisi, I wouldn't have brought him along if I knew he would react like this," Upweke walked backwards and licked the snarling cub's head. Simba tried to relax, for Upweke's sake. Squirming back a tiny bit so that Upweke's front hooves were either side of his shoulders, Simba lay his head down on his paws and licked his nose.
Licking his nose always helped distract his mind, and it helped to shake him back down to ground. If he could just focus on his nose and his paws in the dirt, maybe he could trick his brain into glossing over everything else.
"Sorry Upweke," Simba whispered. Upweke grunted.
"In hindsight, I should have told you. I just didn't expect you to have any fears of them," Upweke's humble confession almost made Simba completely forget about the circling hyenas. Until the confusing monstrosity started to talk.
"You grass-rippers all think lion's are it. King of beasts. They don't feel fear, they can't be stopped, and they're untouchable. Most of you have them as your gods. But us meat-rippers know they fear and die as easy as the rest of us." She lowered her head to get a better look of Simba. "Especially the cubs."
"Can we move on to business?" One of Upweke's hooves lifted and set down in front of Simba in a protective gesture.
"Course. Business," Fisi said with a smile full of half cracked teeth, it was a wonder she was still able to conceive pups at her age, but everything about this creature was a wonder. "We've been running that giraffe you told us to target. He's had no sleep, and hasn't stood still for two days; I have my strongest girls on rotation, looking after him," she giggled along with the others. As they did, a sound made a few turn around.
Simba pricked his ears and made out the dragging of something heavy, and the mutters of two hyenas.
From between two trees a pair of brothers dragged the carcass of a red and half eaten lioness. The sound of Fisi talking was only just loud enough for Simba to hear over the rushing of blood to his head.
Above him Upweke made a noise of disgust.
"How do you hyenas always manage to do the complete worst things?"
The hyena Fisi laughed.
"Relax Upweke, relax, I would never," she looked to her clansmen. "When are we ever in the habit of offending the one Kudu who keeps our clan so strong? No, this kill," she inclined her snout to the lion carcass being dragged nearer and nearer... "this kill is for you, and your little Wasteland laws, Upweke."
One of the brothers unhinged his jaw from the lion carcass and looked to Fisi.
"A trophy of war for you to sniff at, mother, and you too Scar Face. He was getting too close to that miracle vulture's healing cave, that one you're so protective of, so me and the brother here took care of him for ya," they came and dumped the body down before their mother, who more frustrated than she let on about the lack of social manners. One of the lion killing brothers, the one who had said nothing so far, opened his great maws in a laugh before he started to talk.
"Lion meat isn't as good as I remember, maybe he was just a particularly stri-" he yelped and jumped as his mother swiped at him quicker than a viper.
"Shut up! Can't you see our company? Bone head." The hyenas started to circle and howl as they argued.
Under his breath Upweke grumbled hyenas before gathering his voice and calling out.
"Fisi, about the giraffe," the kudu said, bringing the matriarch's attention back to him. "I've been telling you to finish him for nearly a year, it's frankly taken you very bloody long." Fisi snorted and laughed.
"It's not easy feat to kill a giraffe, especially a killer like that one. He murdered his own family, and I heard his father was a savage beast, not as savage as him, but savage enough to be a terror to kill. Especially as a giraffe, they aren't fighting animals. How would he even have killed them?"
"They got a lethal kick, but after they've lashed out they nearly topple over," said the lion killing son who had not nearly had his nose slashed off by his own mother.
"He wouldn't be fazed with stepping on my precious hunties and slipping their ribs between each other, and I didn't get this old and fat from being stupid."
One of the beasts who had spent the whole meeting cleaning rocks from in-between her toes sat up and spoke with such confidence that Upweke figured her to be the next in command after Fisi.
"It'll be a feast when it's done. I've personally been overseeing the whole hunt, and he will be down sooner rather than later. You should bring the baby lion along Upweke, he needs to run with his own kind again. We'll even let him deliver the killing blow. It'll be the funniest thing in the wastelands. What do you say little lion?" They all laughed and then turned to listen to the cub's response.
"You hyenas would sooner rip into me, than into that giraffe," Simba managed to say, barley, for his voice was suddenly small.
For some reason they found that insult to be hilarious, and laughed so loud it rang.
"Awh, the lion don't trust us Grandma. What are we to do?" The hairy second-in-command sniggered to Fisi the Cunning, who sighed.
"Obviously the baby lion has suffered at the jaws of hyenas. We need to let him know that not all hyenas are cruel bastards."
"Aye, some of us are cruel bitches."
"There is nothing a hyena hates more than another hyena. Even my beautiful family has had its fights among herself. Whoever those hyenas were, they are not us. And if we ever met, only one family would walk away. Even cubs that suckle the same mother, and began in the same womb, will lock jaws and look to kill the other over simple things like scraps. There is never an animal more at war with herself, than us."
"That just made me hate you more," Simba snapped.
"When you are big lion, you will understand. When you're big like him," Fisi inclined her head to the dead lion that lay among them. The little lion almost spat the next thing he said.
"I'll grow way bigger than that guy. My mum could have thrown that guy like a rag. And my dad... he's the biggest lion I had ever seen."
A Lawkeeper of the Wastelands, standing above a King
Upweke knew that it might be the adoration of a young child talking, but something told him the cub was telling the truth... the chilling truth.
"I'll grow way bigger than that guy. My mum could have thrown that guy like a rag. And my dad... he's the biggest lion I had ever seen."
His face felt cold as all the blood drained, and he tried to carry on normal, but adrenaline pumped through him just thinking of a lion that size.
Simba may be fine now, young and small and able to be stepped on and stopped easily should he turn to his monster instincts. But Upweke knows he will never completely trust the young lion, not in the same way he would trust these trained hyenas. If he ever did get to such a size...
Upweke knows a disaster when he sees one. There was something highly unnatural about raising a killing machine. And sometimes Upweke had to fight the need to stomp the cub into the ground and be done with it. Everyone would be so much safer if he did. But his promise to Sili, and the innocence of the tiny cub always drew him back.
This was not a healthy relationship. This cub needed to be with his own kind, before some animal with a courage that Upweke lacks did the right thing and finished the cub. As humanely as possible, Upweke tried to say, but knew he was kidding himself. Lions had never stopped to kill humanely. They had started eating his mother's leg while she still screamed and kicked.
Upweke had to shake himself out of those memories. He looked down to check on the cub. He had his head on his paws, and looked up to Upweke as he looked down to him.
Two red eyes, hard as stone, not a flicker of fear or milky strain of pause in them.
He had to go. The cub had grown dear to him. He needed to go before the unthinkable happened. Prey that knew what it took to survive, and when stuck between jaws and claws, it was the prey who survived. It would be hard, but it was what was best for the little lion.
The hyenas murmured among themselves and the second-in-command walked closer, her head cocked one way and then the other as she regarded the tiny cub hiding behind his feet.
"All children think of their parents as the best in the world. But if you're parents are so amazing, why are you here?"
"I... I... ran away."
"Why?" She pressed, still walking forward. The cub pressed closer to his hooves, only one eye poking out from behind his leg.
"I did something bad, and, my father told me never to come back." He sounded broken, and Upweke wanted to lick his head and comfort him again, but that went against his brand new conviction to see the lion away to a better, more natural life.
"Ah, those cranky males. In our species the males are the placid ones."
"What's the saying? The hyena doesn't need god to give her balls, she grows her own."
As the hyenas talked, Upweke dwelled on the cub's words. It was rarer than rain that the cub talked about his past, and he tried to fit the new information onto the scrappy minefield that was the cub's life.
"We've been taking care of our side Scar Face, now yours," brother grunted as he scratched his half eaten ear.
"West gorge," Upweke said while turning to speak directly to Fisi. He would be damned before he had to answer to any of those boys. There was a reason the female hyenas ruled the pack. "Down yellow paw trail, by that boulder covered in shit from the hawk's nest."
It had been Sili's idea in the beginning. With many of her patients, she could do nothing but make dying less painful. Bodies piled up, and once a long time ago disease had broken out and killed all those she tended to, and nearly her as well. Taking the dead away wasn't good enough. She had needed someone to get rid of them for good, before they became ripe and stained the land with illness. There were plenty who could do the job, but she needed a predator she could trust.
Luckily Upweke had known someone all too happy to oblige. Fisi wasn't a bad beast, in fact, she could be quite honorable in her own way. And after Sili had saved the life of one of Fisi's hyenas after a difficult birth, the vulture had the clan's complete protection.
"Good," brother hyena grunted. With a sly glance to Simba he added, "there had better not be less there because of his greedy mouth. Lions always eat more than they need."
"There is less than last time, but not because of him. He hardly eats anything at all. The weeks were good to Sili, and nearly all her patients have recovered. I give him nothing anyway, Sili, she cares for him."
"Healing every finch and ant that crawls to her feet not enough? Now she's mothering a lion."
The jab was appreciated by most the hyenas, who laughed, but Fisi the Cunning, who had been quiet for awhile, had just run low on her last ounce of patience.
"All right, meeting over!" She snapped. Jumping to her feet and baring her teeth to get a few of the lazier ones up as well. "All of you scurry back to your holes. And boys, take this body away. I need to discuss important matters with Upweke."
Most walked off, clustered in groups as they finished their conversations. Fisi trotted towards Upweke, her gait more of a waddle from old age, fatness, and the damage of countless hard pregnancies. She gestured for him to follow and he carefully picked his feet from around the cub and walked after her.
"You stay there little cub, you will be fine," she said sweetly to Simba as he glared from his tiny height.
He followed Fisi quite aways before she stopped and spun around to him.
"Who is he?" She demanded fire in her eyes as she looked more alive than she had in years.
"Who?" Upweke echoed, at a lost with what she meant. She stared, and her mouth moved, but only vulgar swears and oaths against his ancestors came spewing out.
"I know you for a wise Kudu. You have suffered hardship, you know hardship, most importantly, you know how to survive hardship. Why do you think I forbid my hunties from Kudu? I respect your wisdom, you advise my clan well, I trust you. But this? You getting old? Perhaps I should have served my godly purpose and not strayed, old age makes the prey crazy. Poor Kudu going crazy. You deserved to be hunted down for this cluelessness." She closed her eyes and breathed deeply before beginning much calmer. "What do you know of the cub that travels with you?"
"He was saved by Sili, she takes a lot of pride in him, and I had promised to her to look after him when she was busy. Which is a lot. And," here Upweke paused for a bit, before going on to say what he wanted to anyways. "I suppose I've taken a liking to him as well. I mean, it's not every day you become the father figure to a lion." Fisi scoffed as his words just as the last left his mouth.
Upweke couldn't help but agree with her. "But I... I have recently decided he cannot stay."
"You abandoning him?" she yelped, surprised.
"No, I am just aware that I am not suited to keep him, nor is Sili. She is sick and wastes from not eating right, one of the reasons why I look after the cub so often. She may die soon, and with her the healing cave will go, and with that, the food for the cub will go, and with his food gone, I do not like the looks of what could become of him."
"What? You fear him starving in front of your eyes? Or you fear him turning on you?"
Upweke was ashamed to say the truth.
"Typical grass-ripper," Fisi scoffed. "Do you know how much food that cub should be getting?"
Upweke couldn't say that he did.
"His own weight! Good tough meat, marrow from fresh bones and rich, ripe livers. What has he been getting? Do you know?"
"I believe a rodent a day, and..." Upweke thought about it deeply, " on the journey here he didn't eat anything."
"How long was the journey here?"
"Well, it was... close to three days, or there about."
"Dear god."
"I never thought they needed that much food, they say a meal a week is the right about for a lion."
"An entire carcass a week, a lion will sit down for an afternoon and strip their kill to the bone. They will eat an unbelievable amount. But that is an already grown lion, growing lions need more. He has so much growing to do, and it will happen so rapidly you won't believe your eyes. I won't watch him be stunted by you ignorant grass-rippers, I ought to take him into my clan now, and raise him right."
"Sili would be distraught, she loves the cub. But I have to agree."
"Sili weakens by the night. She is in no fit state to be raising him. Let me take the cub into my clan, she can fly if she wants to see him, just tell her where the den is, and she can visit unharmed."
It was a good proposition, but why? It was far too kind for a hyena. Upweke eyed Fisi anew. What was she up to?
"I can't help but feel this is all too convenient. You would never take in a cub that wasn't yours, especially a lion. Your sons just killed one with glee."
"My motive Upweke? My motive? Let's put it this way, shall we? How long have you and Sili been caring for this child?"
"About a half cycle of the moon."
"So thirteen days or so?"
"A bit more, but yeah, that it about right."
"Alright, and you have noticed nothing, you haven't clued in on who he is? It took me ten bleeding minutes and you probably would have continued from new to full moon and all the way back to new again without a clue."
"What you see before you right now is a stunted and weak lion cub. Maybe you think all lions normally look like that, but this cub here should be double the size. Should have healthy thick legs, and a small hanging gut. Royal lions eat more and they grow more and I can assure you th-"
"Royal lions?"
Fisi was so annoyed she snarled and spun in a circle, head to the dirt before snapping it up to Upweke.
"That animal there is the bloody rightful King of the Pridelands you twit. Have you not been hounded by those owls? The birds speak of a dead prince, but the owls ask the animals if they have seen a lone cub. What does that scream to you? Someone powerful wants a cub, an important cub."
He had been visited by owls, three of them, back before the little cub came into his life, but he had thought more about the strange proposals and deals they were offering him, more than the mention of a lone cub. By the time Sili introduced him to the cub, he had forgotten the lesser details of the meetings completely.
"We should take him back then, to his rightful place."
"No. You heard him. His family doesn't want him anymore, he was chased off. What we should do is raise him, and make him strong. When he returns as a full grown lion and reclaims his rule, then we will profit no doubt. Could you imagine? The Pridelands King, owing us his life? Viewing us as his true family?"
Upweke couldn't believe his ears. Fisi was jumping to conclusions, Sili's cub was no royal lion.
"You mean to serve yourself over your King?" He meant to say it teasingly, but it came out harsh.
"I'm a hyena aren't I?" She laughed humorlessly, looking up to the clouds for strength, like she couldn't believe what he was implying they do instead.
"In the old ways, the hyena were the lion's loyalist officers," Upweke reminded her. "But I suppose the whole world has strayed since those times, and so must the subjects in order to survive."
"Yes, survive, that is all we do these days, in this god forsaken place. Forget your precious circle of life Upweke, life is survival, and that circle is the endless turning of the sun. The sun slows for now beast, every day, we get hungrier, and every day it continues to turn across the sky. Now, I will be taking this cub, and raising him right and if you have objects, you can go through my hunties."
Upweke knew that she could never harm him, not after all they had been through together. But she was a vile beast, and it wasn't beneath her to simply deter him. Be it a little chew on the leg, or spiriting the little lion away in secret. She had served her family well for her entire life, and with this decision she was securing power for her family. Wealth. She could have whatever she wanted if she mothered him into a good and obedient lion. And she would. She was a good mother.
He wouldn't have it. He wouldn't have the cub raised in these Wastelands among hyenas, filled with delusional ideas by the clan intil one day they sent him off to either die, or wrongly overthrow a kingdom.
"I refuse. This cub should go east, there is food a plenty there, and wise animals in every herd. They are good in the east and he deserves better than sister killing hyenas, gnawing on the few bones I throw them."
"You better watch it old Kudu, remember who you're talking to."
"Get your facts straight Fisi! Remember who you're talking to, "with narrowed eyes he swirled and stalked back to the little lion, before she could so much as lunge at him.
Sili's cub was lying exactly where he'd been left.
"Young cub, we're going. Now," the cub got to his feet, but as he started trotted across the sand towards Upweke, the cub's eyes widened, and he started to sprint.
"Watch out!" The child cried.
Upweke realised what was happening before he felt Fisi strike her claws into his thigh. Upweke craned his neck just so, and one of his long sharp horns drove hard in between her ribs. She jumped back with a scalding yelp and barked at him, before racing around and running for the little lion.
Upweke stampeded after her, and to his immense relief he couldn't see the little lion anywhere. Somehow, he had enough sense to disppear.
Fisi was old and his long leaps caught up to her short powerful ones within seconds. He dashed his front hooves down upon her, and she flipped around onto her back and raked his underbelly as his momentum catapulted him on further. He spun, and she spun, and though she had a great range of terrifying sounds, he could still bellow and drown her out. They struck and bit at each other.
Neither drew blood.
He was even biting there at one stage, but that left his neck horribly exposed. Not that she would go for his jugular on purpose. They were so loud, and the dust they had thrown up so thick that he didn't notice her hunties coming. They barreled into him at such speed that he fell on his side, hard, and the wind was ripped from him.
"Don't hurt him," Fisi coughed as she struggled to her feet. Just in time too, for one had her jaws wrapped around his neck, just behind his jaw. She came up and looked him in the eyes as he lay panting, six or so hyena's immobilizing him. "I'll never understand where you get your notions from, dear Upweke." Then she turned to her hunties. "Hold him down." They giggled and started poking him, laughing as he winced and tried to ignore them.
Fisi snapped at one hyena who was standing by.
"Wipe that droll off you face," she snarled, before putting her nose down and threading through the trees. Upweke took a deep breath, and hoped the cub had started running and never stopped.
"Simba!" Fisi roared. The name echoed across the sand and through the squeaking trees. "Simba."
Before she could roar again, Upweke drew his strength and bellowed.
"Go east, across the sand, cub!"
A hyena jumped on him, knocking his breath from him.
"You're lucky you're such an old friend of Grandma's, otherwise we would be worming our way inside you right now, chewing on that faithful heart of yours. I always have to fight for the heart, it's everyone's favourite." They looked at his chest and giggled.
Upweke told them to go fuck themselves, but they only giggled. He rolled his eyes and accepted his fate as temporary play thing. Fisi could forget getting any scraps from him in the coming months. This was a worse insult than that time eleven seasons ago, when she had helped her half grown pups ambush him in the canyon.
They're only training you silly kudu!
And now he was sure one of those very same pups stood on him as he lay in the sand, a dark smile on her face as she watched him curse and sigh.
Run little cub, get yourself out of here, because no one here understands what it means to be good anymore. They haven't for a long time.
Himself included.
