ZWÖLF
Die Schlaftabletten
Kopa awoke the next morning with the sun shining on his face through a crack in the rocks. He figured that he was the only one in the cave, and that his mother, Hermann, and Markos had all gone outside, but when he groggily opened his eyes, he saw that he wasn't alone. Someone else was lying next to him, twitching her tail and looking at him intently.
"Kopa! You're awake!"
Kopa shook his head and blinked a few times.
"Vitani? When did you…"
"Last night, don't you remember?"
"Sort of, I thought it was just a dream…you made it all the way here?"
"I had some issues getting past security; there's a long story behind that, but no matter, it's…oh my God, Kopa, what did she do to you?" Vitani worriedly eyed Kopa's neck where Zira had left a trail of bite and claw marks too small for Hermann to re-suture. "I'm so sorry this happened," she said, licking at what little exposed skin there was, "if I knew that she was going to do this, I would have—"
"It's not your fault, Vitani. I'm just glad you're here." Kopa stayed lying down as Vitani kept licking his cuts, not quite able to tell her that it stung. "I know you didn't have anything to do with it." He could see that in the corner, lying half-on-half-off another mattress, Markos was still unconscious.
"Is it really bad?"
Kopa frowned and nodded his head. "Hermann says it's healing, but it still hurts a lot. It's not all bad, though... I got this neat-looking shirt to wear so that I stay warm at night and keep my bandages clean. It's from Germany, the same place Hermann comes from."
"Can you take a step forward?" Vitani asked. Try and get up, what's the worst that happens?"
Kopa had his doubts, but wanted to impress his friend. He tried to put some weight on his front legs, only to quickly lie back down with a grimace. It seemed he couldn't do much of anything without setting off one or more of his injuries. "Sorry, Vitani," he said gloomily. "Can you go find Hermann? He's got something he gives me which might help some."
Out on the rocks, Hermann, who had a clearly-visible print of the words "Universität Stuttgart" diagonally across his face—in the same lettering as one of the shirts in his improvised mattress—set about securing the pride's next meal. "Everybody watch that gazelle over there," Hermann said to a group of lionesses. "See it, the one grazing by that little hill? Now, I took the liberty of putting a little something in that puddle of water by the reeds. Let's wait and see if he goes to get a drink." Sure enough, the gazelle picked its head up and ambled over to where the water had collected on the ground.
"What's he going to do?" asked Nala, who had decided to let her son sleep in. "What's in the water?" Hermann simply smiled a wry grin as he watched the gazelle drink.
"In five, four, three, two…and…"
The gazelle fell over with an audible thud. "Extra-strength sleeping pills," Hermann exclaimed triumphantly. "I thought that trick was dead long ago! It certainly makes hunting easier, that's for sure." He was still gloating over his handiwork when Vitani surprised him from behind.
"Hermann?"
"Yes?"
"Kopa's up, he says he needs something or other that you have; I didn't catch what it's called."
"I know what it is he needs," Hermann said. "Thanks for letting me know. Nala…and everyone else…I'll be back in a minute."
Vitani followed Hermann as he started to walk back inside. "Is your leg okay?" she asked, seeing that Hermann was walking with a bad limp.
"Actually, not really. I took a bad step last night after you two went to sleep—there was a hole in the ground I didn't see with my flashlight—and my ankle didn't appreciate that very much. And of course, it had to be the ankle they did two surgeries on, and not the perfectly good one on the other leg. Did you two sleep OK last night?"
"I did, and Kopa didn't even move until he woke up this morning, so he must have felt the same way! I owe you one for putting me up overnight, even if you did tell your crazy friend to shoot me."
Vitani walked on ahead of Hermann, who couldn't move much faster than he was already going. When Hermann finally made it inside, he saw that Markos was still sprawled out asleep.
"Markos, wake up, the Reichstag burned down again."
"Huh? When?"
"Good, you're up…how about giving me a hand, seeing as I can't do much besides plod along at the moment? This leg of mine feels like it's falling off. Guten Morgen, Kopa…sleep well last night?"
"Yeah, I didn't even wake up until a few minutes ago!" Kopa said.
"Still pretty sore though, I take it?"
"Uh-huh."
"I think we can fix that, especially as it's far too nice a day to spend inside. Feel like taking a bit of a walk?"
"I don't know…I can't walk too well."
"Have you seen me trying to walk this morning? Trust me, the bar isn't being set very high, and it'll be a lot easier once this stuff kicks in. Markos, grab me the usual for him, and enough aspirins to kill an elephant for myself."
"We're out of aspirin; you must have stolen an empty bottle." Markos threw an empty metal flask aside that clearly had claw and teeth marks on it. "And whatever was in here—rum, I think—has already been drunk by someone other than you or me. Serves you right for trying to—
"Why's the rum gone?"
"Isn't the aspirin more important?"
Markos shook his head in disbelief, begrudgingly fetching Hermann what he needed, and then took a seat alongside Kopa. "Kopa, say this. To Hermann," he said quietly, whispering something in German. Kopa repeated it aloud a few words at a time.
Hermann could only shake his head and laugh. "Do you have any idea what you just asked me?" he said.
"No…what was it?"
"Well, we will have to tell Markos that no, I am not whining about my leg, and no, I would not like to buy a ticket for the 'pain train' for five Euros, but I appreciate his pretend concern for my well-being." That's the first time Markos has said anything in English since I can remember, Hermann thought.
Shortly thereafter…
"Meine Damen und Herren, Achtung, Achtung!" Everyone stopped what they were doing and looked toward where Hermann's voice had come from."I hate to interrupt, but I think you'll all be able to forgive me for it. Markos, Kopa, Vitani, this way, please."
Every eye was on Hermann and the entrance to the cave behind him as three figures gradually emerged in a line. Kopa stood in between Markos and Vitani, proudly sporting his German soccer shirt and ever so slowly stepping forward as he leaned on his friend's shoulder. All Hermann could do was watch and smile as cheers erupted from behind him. "Dreimal Hoch für Kopa!" Markos exclaimed. "Auf seine Gesundheit! Hip-hip…"
"Hurrah!"
"Hip-hip…"
"Hurrah!"
"Hip-hip…"
"Hurrah!" Hermann got a little too wrapped up in the last cheer, and accidentally launched his cane into a group of lionesses behind him. "Sorry," he said, "could someone give me that back? I can't walk without it, especially today."
Vitani ran out from where she had been standing next to Kopa and grabbed Hermann's cane in her mouth. "So, you really need this thing to walk?" she said.
"Yes, you know that I do," replied Hermann.
"Wouldn't it be a shame if someone took it? Someone like…me?"
"Don't even think about it. Wait, where are you going? Halt! Komm mal her!"
As Hermann tried to chase after Vitani on one leg, much to the amusement of everyone else, Nala ran up to Kopa, barely able to contain herself. It was quite enough for her that Kopa was simply alive, but to see him taking his first real steps since the night of the attack—even if he was doing so in a German soccer shirt—seemed almost too good to be true. "Mom, stop!" Kopa said as his mother licked the top of his head over and over. "You're embarrassing me, and you're going to knock me over!"
"Too bad," Nala laughed, "what are you all dressed up as, anyways?"
"I'm a German football player, of course!"
"You mean that game Hermann used to play?"
"Yeah, did you know he was going play professionally before he hurt his leg?"
"I remember he said something about that…personally, you should be thankful he got stepped on and became a doctor instead!"
Hermann had finally gotten his cane back from Vitani, not because he caught up with her, but because she had finally tired of playing catch-me-if-you-can and dropped the cane on the ground. "I never thought I'd find someone more predisposed to shenanigans than you," Hermann said breathlessly to Markos, "but I think I have…she's got four legs and a tail, and goes by the name 'Vitani'."
"What can I say, I just rub off on people," Markos replied with a grin. "Anyway, now that all the introductions have finished, I think I'm going to jump in that pond over there and cool off for a bit. Anyone up for joining me? Hermann, ask them if they want to come along."
"He wants to know if anyone feels like going swimming," Hermann said to the two cubs. "And I think I'm going to go with him; it's kind of hot today."
"Mom, can Vitani and I go? Please?" Kopa asked Nala.
"Well, I suppose if Hermann says it's OK, it's fine with me, but I'd feel better if someone took you down there as opposed to you walking yourself," Nala replied.
"It's fine, it'll actually be good for him…helps to keep everything clean and such," said Hermann. "Maybe he can sit on Markos's shoulders."
"What did you just tell her about me?" Markos said to Hermann as soon as he heard his name mentioned.
"Nothing, I just designated you as the cargo plane, that's all. Seeing as I can't do much right now besides carry myself along, we haven't got much of a choice," Hermann replied with a smile.
"OK, fine, what am I supposed to carry?"
"Kopa."
A few minutes later, the four were walking out toward the pond. Hermann and Vitani strode along under their own power, while Kopa constantly kept telling Markos to walk slower so he wouldn't fall off. After more than a few close calls and several "two-headed troll" comments from Vitani, everyone arrived at the pond, whereupon Markos promptly let Kopa down and dove in.
"Aren't you going to take that shirt off?" Hermann asked. "Why would you go swimming fully-clothed?"
"Do you see a washing machine around here?" Markos replied, floating on his back. "It's either this, or attracting the vultures with the stink." Hermann had to agree that almost a week without a shower had left both him and Markos—and all their clothes—rather rank. He took off his shoes and socks, and set his cane down where he wouldn't forget to pick it back up; Vitani had already gone in and was busy chasing Markos around.
"Those two certainly seem to be enjoying themselves," Hermann said to Kopa, who was eager to jump in himself. "Just hold on a minute and let me take all that wrapping off; I'll re-do it when we get back, but you should leave it off for now."
"OK, I guess that's all right," Kopa said, hoping that whatever was covered up wouldn't look too gruesome exposed. He was pleasantly surprised to see that both of his front legs sported only a thin line where Hermann had stitched the cuts back together, and little else indicative of injury; certainly not the battlefield-esque wounds he had been expecting. Hermann was simply glad that Kopa didn't think to turn around and have a look at the rest of himself, which, although well on its way to healing, was not nearly as tidy-looking as his legs were.
"Right, you can go in now," Hermann said once the last bits of wrapping came off. "Watch this…give me a ten!" He took a half-running start and crashed stomach-first, with all the precision and poise of a drive-by shooting, into four feet of water.
"Five and a half points, if you're lucky," Kopa said as he stepped gingerly into the pond, slowly but surely going in up to his neck as the initial stinging from the water subsided. He had his eyes closed in contentment and a relaxed smile on his face, thinking of nothing but how cool and soothing the water felt, until he heard some familiar voices from in front of him:
"Marco!"
"Polo!"
"Marco!"
"I thought your names were Hermann and Markos?"
"We are Hermann and Markos, Vitani; it's just a game. Kopa, aren't you going to swim at all?"
"Maybe," Kopa replied, enjoying simply standing in the pond without doing anything more. "I kind of like it over here…you guys swim for a while."
As the early afternoon sun slowly began to descend, Vitani was still chasing Markos around, and Kopa was lying in the shallows, resting his head on a flat rock. Hermann had set about trying to clean off the week's worth of dirt that had accumulated on his clothes and hair. Even though he wasn't able to get most of it out, he couldn't deny that he was enjoying this little excursion regardless.
"This is great, it's like having our own private pool out here!" Hermann exclaimed to Markos. "And nobody else in sight for miles…just me, you, the crocodile over there, Kopa…"
"The what?"
"The crocodile, can't you…oh crap! Markos, Vitani, run! Kopa, stay there, I'll get you!"
Kopa laughed at Hermann's reaction. "Relax, Hermann," he said from where he was lying by the bank, "he's lived here for years; everyone in the whole pride knows him. Hi, Roberto!" The croc gave a small nod of his head in recognition, and then went back underneath the surface.
"'Roberto'? It has a name?"
"Of course, why wouldn't he have a name?"
"What I meant is, why is his name Castilian while everyone else around here has a Swahili name?"
"I don't know…he told me once, but he's kind of hard to understand. Something about escaping from a zoo in Spain, whatever that means. He's a nice guy, though, even if he stays underwater for most of the day. Hey, look, there's a gazelle over there."
Hermann turned around just in time to see another gazelle keel over. He must have taken a drink out of the same puddle as the first one, he thought.
"Why did he just fall down?" Kopa asked. "Is he asleep?"
"Yes, he is," replied Hermann. "I put some sleeping pills in a puddle of water this morning so that your family could have one of those guys for dinner tonight, but it looks like more than one gazelle drank the water! Oh well, he'll wake up soon enough—
"Ooh, qué delicioso." CHOMP.
"—Ugh, never mind. We just fed Roberto."
On the way back home from the pond, Kopa was trying hard to simply stay awake on Markos's shoulders, even though the afternoon sun had just started to go down. All things considered, it had been a rather full day for him, but he decided to keep himself up by asking Hermann about Germany.
"How do you say, 'My name is Kopa' in German?" he asked.
"You say, 'Ich bin Kopa', or 'Ich heisse Kopa'; both mean the same thing."
"What about, 'I am a lion'?"
"That would be, 'Ich bin ein Löwe'."
"Lowe?"
"No, Löwe, it's like…OK, forget that, there's nothing in English that makes that sound. Think of it as a halfway between an o and e.
"Where's Stuttgart?"
"About halfway between Ulm and Mannheim, in the southern part of the country. Say, looks like we're back home; Markos, go ahead and let him down." Hermann chuckled to himself that he had just used the word "home" to refer to where Kopa lived, and not his own hometown in Germany.
Kopa carefully stepped off Markos's shoulders and slowly walked inside with Hermann, who was trying his best to not look overly-fatigued as he put on some new wraps and then helped Kopa back into the German soccer jersey. When Markos came walking in with Vitani shortly thereafter, he saw that Kopa had already wormed his way inside Hermann's sleeping bag, and that Hermann was sitting down on a nearby rock, obviously tired and sweaty from all the walking on his bad leg.
"You look like you've just run a marathon or something, Sterlitz," Markos said. "Want something to drink?"
"Since you're asking, yes, I could do with a drink. I haven't had much of anything all day," Hermann replied. Markos handed him a canteen, and Hermann gulped the contents down in a matter of seconds. When he put the flask back down, he saw that a familiar, sinister grin had crept across everyone's faces. "What?" he asked confusedly, "what's so funny?"
"I learned how to say something in your language today," Vitani said. "Kopa taught me. It's 'guten Nacht'."
"Ah, good, but it's only the evening; you wouldn't say 'guten Nacht' until around…no, you can't be serious…"
Markos, Kopa, and Vitani all replied in unison, "Five, four, three, two…"
Thud.