***Chapter 5***
"Aspire to be like Mt. Fuji, with such a broad and solid foundation that the strongest earthquake cannot move you, and so tall that the greatest enterprises of common men seem insignificant from your lofty perspective. With your mind as high as Mt Fuji you can see all things clearly. And you can see all the forces that shape events; not just the things happening near to you."
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Kiota stared at Kya for several moments, waiting for her to elaborate. It can't. What did that even mean? Did her pride collapse? Break apart? Starve? He stared into her piercing eyes, but she didn't continue. Instead, she laid her head back down onto her paws and closed her eyes. Kiota wanted to pry for more information, but something told him that it would be better to just let it go. If she was this distraught about the memory of the event, he doubted that she would be able to readily discuss it.
He sighed and laid his own head down on the ground. Back to the dreams. He thought with mock enthusiasm.
The night passed as it usually did, though Kya did wake him as she said she would. He dreamt his distressing and confusing dreams as he always did, with all the same people in the pool. They looked as they always did, but Kiota saw them slightly differently. He felt more uncomfortable than usual as he looked at the changing reflection. Empathy? No, it couldn't be empathy.
Tanai's team woke readily; none of them seemed to be too bothered by waking up early. Within a short amount of time, they were all on the trail again, heading with haste to Toyo's kingdom.
"Sleep alright?" Tanai asked the two travelers as he walked over to them.
Kiota uttered a low growl of irritation, but Kya interrupted him. "We slept fine, how about you?"
"Fine, but I'll sleep better when this is all over."
"Are you worried?" Kya asked with concern on her face.
"Not tremendously… but there's a lot that could happen."
Kiota nodded in understanding. "You don't know how Toyo will respond."
"Exactly. There's not much that he could do to our home since we're so far away, but-"
Kya cut him off. "But you and your unit are here and within his reach."
He nodded. "Toyo might decide to just try to kill us for standing up to him."
"Have you ever met him?" Kiota asked curiously.
"No, have you?"
"Yes."
Tanai waited a moment for the rogue to elaborate, but when it became clear that he wasn't going to, he pushed further. "What is he like?"
"Power hungry… and enthusiastic."
"Enthusiastic about what?"
"Enthusiastic about anything that could give him an edge; more troops, better position, me."
"He wanted you?"
Kiota nodded, not really sure why he was telling this to the other lion. "I was the best… he wanted me to train his troops and be his second in command."
A lioness walked up beside them. "It's pretty noble that you declined."
Noble? The word sounded strange in his mind and he almost laughed aloud. There was nothing noble about how he decided to refuse Toyo's offer. He just hadn't wanted to be committed to the king.
"Good morning, Tint." Tanai greeted. "And yea, that is pretty noble."
Kya snorted. "It wasn't noble."
Tint looked taken aback. "Why not?"
Kiota spoke before Kya could reveal anything more. "I did it for me, not anyone else."
She shrugged. "Still, the last thing Toyo needs is more soldiers. You may not have done it for anyone else, but you did probably end up helping someone."
"Maybe." He said neutrally.
Tint looked at him for a moment in curiosity, then turned to Tanai. "Mardok and Fila came back from the scouting mission a little while ago."
The Pridelander's expression lightened instantly. "Good, did they find anything?"
"Not really, seems to be clear sailing for at least the next day or so…"
"…But?" Kya said slowly, sensing the continuation.
Tint shrugged uncomfortably. "It's probably nothing, but they found tracks and some other signs of..."
"Lions?" Tanai offered.
"Maybe, but maybe some other cats instead."
He was silent while he thought it over. "Any real signs of danger?"
"No, just some paw prints and trampled grass."
He nodded. "Then let's keep going. Put the unit on alert though, I don't want to be surprised."
"Yes sir." She agreed before falling back to the rest of the unit.
Tanai looked slightly troubled, and Kya was troubled because he was troubled. "Are you worried?" she asked him.
He was silent for a while. "No… but I don't want to take any chances. I'll be back."
With that, he turned to go attend to his unit. With Tanai gone, Kya and Kiota were left alone once more.
"You had the dreams again last night?"
"What gave it away?"
She shrugged. "When you started whimpering, it was pretty obvious."
"I was not whimpering!" he said with a tinge of anger.
"Fine, you weren't whimpering."
They walked along in strained silence for a while, neither really knowing what to say to the other. Kiota glanced at her, only to see her do the same thing at the exact same moment. They both quickly returned their gaze to the ground in embarrassment.
"Are you going to tell me what happened to your pride?" he asked finally; the question had been lingering in his mind all day.
"No." she said simply with surprising anger.
"Fine."
"Fine."
God she was dense. He thought to himself. He absolutely hated how she would just want to talk about anything and everything, but when the conversation turned to her and her own history, she closed up faster than a venus fly trap. As if her incessant attitude wasn't enough, her attitude changes were enough to drive anyone insane. However, Kiota could not deny that his attitude towards her was changing. He didn't necessarily hate her anymore, but he did hate everything about her. Though, even that was becoming harder to identify; sure he hated her attitude, but what exactly about her attitude that annoyed him was becoming more and more lost as they spent more time together. All he knew was that he did not like her.
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"This was the area, sir."
Tanai nodded. "Thank you Mardok…" he replied as they passed through the savannah. They had been right about the signs; paw prints and trampled grass dotted the landscape as if a small group had passed through recently.
The unit moved silently; all conversations halted in case of an ambush. They moved quickly, but imperceptibly to any outside observer. Kya tried to be as quiet as the rest of the unit, but she didn't have the experience or training that the others had. As a result, she sacrificed stealth for speed; occasionally breaking a twig or breathing harder than she should have.
Kiota glared at her occasionally in a vain attempt to silence her, but it couldn't be helped.
"I'm sorry!" she mouthed silently.
He just scowled and returned his attention to the unit's movement.
Suddenly everyone halted at the signal of Tanai's tail. The sharp flick made everyone drop, and the two travelers followed in suit. Soft rustling ahead made them all tense; was it some of Toyo's troops? They stayed there for several moments, unmoving and waiting for the unseen threat to reveal itself, though as soon as they stopped, so did the sounds.
They waited for many minutes in a vain attempt to hear more of whatever was ahead. Eventually it became obvious whatever they had heard was determined to remain as quiet as they were, so Tanai motioned for two nearby soldiers to advance through the brush towards the source of the noise. The two lions crept softly, all eyes of the entire unit upon them, but they didn't seem nervous at all. They had clearly been scouts like this before.
Had Kiota not been watching them advance, he would have found it extremely difficult to identify their pale fur and visually follow them as they blended with the foliage around them. He wasn't sure exactly when, but soon enough they disappeared from sight. Everyone was tense as they waited for something to happen.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!" A piercing shriek pierced the air making everyone rise to their feet in a flash. Tanai was the first into the brush, followed closely by the rest of his unit.
Kya tried to follow suit, but Kiota was between her and the cry and he wasn't moving. Better wait until we know it's safe. He figured.
Several more high pitched screams erupted from an unseen location, making his ears twitch irritably. Once they died down, he walked forwards cautiously. Kya pushed past him aggressively, eager to help their new friends. In a flash, she disappeared into the brush, leaving Kiota alone on the trail.
Fine. He thought bitterly. He didn't really know why, but he started off after her. The grass slid past his face like rain during a storm, making him squint slightly to preserve his vision. He abruptly burst from the brush into a small area of matted grass. Not too far away sat almost 10 or fifteen lionesses and cubs surrounded by Tanai and some of his fighters. The rest of the unit was spreading out in all directions, probably looking for others.
As he approached, Kiota observed the sheer and complete fear that was splashed across the faces of the young lions. The older lionesses held their cubs tightly and glared at the surrounding soldiers with determination. Soft whimpering could be heard from even the older cubs.
"Who are you?" Tanai asked calmly, even sympathetically.
"P-please…" one teenage lioness said softly. "Don't hurt us…"
Tanai blinked in surprise. "We aren't going to hurt you; I just want to know who you are."
Some of the fearful lions exchanged confused glances. "Aren't you one of Toyo's hunters?"
Kya stepped up beside the Pridelander. "What?" she cried incredulously. "Of course not!"
Relieved sighs escaped the lungs of some of the weary lionesses, but most remained at least confused.
"My name is Tanai…" he began slowly. "We're from a long ways away and have no connection with King Toyo."
An older lioness stepped forwards from the group with the look of a hunted animal on her face. "You're serious?" she asked in a near whisper. "You aren't here to kill us?"
Tanai shook his head confusedly. "Why would anyone want to kill you?"
She was quiet for a while, a small boy cub trembling under her feet. "I'm sorry… we've been through a lot in the past week…"
"Well you're safe now." Kya assured her. "We won't let anything happen to you."
The look of pure relief and gratefulness spread across the old lioness's face. "Really?"
Tanai nodded in agreement. "Stay here for the moment; I need to talk to my squad leaders."
She nodded blankly while Tanai left. Kiota and Kya watched as he engaged Hatra and several others in some conversation. From the looks of it, he was setting them up in a perimeter around the field.
Kya turned and looked at Kiota apprehensively. He just stared back without emotion.
This wasn't good. He thought irritably to himself. If Tanai was as kind of a leader as he seemed to be, these disheveled lionesses and cubs would undoubtedly be hanging around them for quite a while longer. It wasn't that he disliked them, it was hard to hate such a miserable crowd, but he did not want to be attached to them. They were slow, would require maintenance, and worst of all, they would be annoying. He groaned inwardly as Kya began to tend to some of their needs including food and water.
"Kiota," she called much to his displeasure. "Can you go catch something for them?"
"No." he replied simply. "If there was anything nearby, it was probably scared away by the screams."
A couple young lionesses lowered their gaze in vague embarrassment. "Sorry…" one whispered quietly. "We thought…"
Kya looked at her curiously, waiting for her to continue, but the unnamed lioness just shook her head and resumed her silence.
Kiota wasn't surprised, if they had experienced something bad enough to make them paranoid of any passing lions, they certainly weren't going to explain it to the same strangers that had scared them senseless.
"What happened to you?" Kya asked softly.
They won't tell you. Kiota thought to himself. Just as he predicted, the crowd remained silent.
"We can't help you if we don't know what's wrong…" she added sympathetically.
To Kiota's surprise, the old lioness from before rose to her feet. "I'll tell you… But alone." She said miserably, gesturing to her family. "They don't need to relive the event."
Kya nodded in understanding and the two walked to sit under a nearby tree. Though he didn't want to be near Kya right now, Kiota could not deny that he was curious about this crowd's history. What were they running from? He followed the departing lionesses and sat down beside Kya.
"My name is Lela…" she began softly. "I am… was the queen of my pride."
Footsteps from the side made Kiota look to see Tanai approaching them. He nodded to her to continue and sat patiently to listen.
Lela took a deep breath and closed her eyes. "We were a smaller sized pride… at the base of the mountains. We never bothered anybody, and nobody bothered us… until Toyo's troops came."
"They wanted you to join them?" Tanai asked.
She nodded with visible grief. Clearly this old lioness had been through a lot; her fur was matted and her eyes were fearful despite the dark lines of sleeplessness. Whatever Toyo had done, it was certainly worse than just a conquest issue.
"Yes… but they wanted more than that. Toyo wanted our children."
"What?" Kya and Tanai asked in shocked unison. Kiota was surprised as well, but was careful to not let it show.
"If we were to join him, he promised that the rest of us would be left alone except for an occasional tribute, but we had to give all our fighters and all of our cubs to his army."
"What good are cubs to the army?" Kya asked incredulously.
Tanai shook his head in dismay. "Train a soldier from birth, and he will fight for you forever. I've seen it before, but not like this."
Lela lowered her head. "Toyo gave us a week to accept… if we refused he promised that we would all be killed and our cubs would be taken by force."
"You left." Kya whispered.
It was a touchy subject to say the least, and Lela winced at Kya's words. "We had no choice... all our fighters, including our king, stayed to give us time to escape. They didn't stand a chance against Toyo's army. We ran and ran, but they could still find us even here. If anyone from Toyo's kingdom finds us, we will all die and our cubs will be forced into his army."
"That's why you were so afraid of us…" Kya said softly. "You thought we were part of Toyo's army."
"There aren't any other military forces in the area… We figured that it had to be his troops."
Tanai's face was the expression of pure pity. "I'm so sorry." He offered. "You did the right thing to protect your children… your husband and other fighters were very brave."
A lone tear from the former queen's face fell; it was a surprise that she had any tears left to shed. "Thank you, and yes… they were."
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"What are we going to do?" Hatra asked Tanai urgently. "We can't just leave them here!"
Tanai shook his head. "We won't."
"But we can't bring them with us either!" Kya countered. "We're heading straight to Toyo's Kingdom; they'd be killed as soon as they stepped into their sight!"
The Pridelanders and company stood in a small circle not too far away from the refugees. Kiota was among them, but he kept silent. He didn't feel much sympathy for the runaways, but many of them did make him uneasy. It was as if some strange emotion was trying to emerge from the depths of his soul, but couldn't quite materialize on the surface.
Tanai nodded slowly at Kya's comment. "We won't take them with us… but we won't leave them alone either…"
Everyone was quiet while they waited for him to elaborate.
"Kiota…" he said finally. "How difficult is it to reach Toyo's kingdom from here?"
The rogue thought for a moment before responding, not wanting to give an inaccurate answer. "Pretty easily; just keep heading west through the savannah for another day or so… We've been on kind of a trail if you've noticed."
"It will lead us directly there?"
"Yes, there aren't any more obstacles."
He was quiet again as he thought to himself. "Kya, Kiota… you both have been a huge help to us; can you do one last thing?"
The lioness stepped forward intently. "Of course, what is it?"
Kiota narrowed his eyes subtly at her enthusiasm. At least find out what the job is before you commit us completely to it!
Tanai allowed a short smile cross his face. "We can find our way from here, would you take the refugees back to the place that you found us?"
She cocked her head to the side in confusion. "Why?"
"Me and my team will go to Toyo's kingdom and finish our business there. Afterwards we'll come back the way we came and regroup with you and them. We'll take them across the desert and to our pride for their protection."
"Are you sure that you will be able to find us again?" Kiota asked doubtfully.
"Yea, now that we've gotten a little accustomed to the area, we'll do fine."
He was about to ask another question, but Kya cut him off. "Of course we'll do it."
Kiota groaned inwardly at her eager acceptance; he really didn't feel like playing babysitter.
Tanai nodded in gratefulness to the two travelers. "Thank you; it's nice to know that there are still people like yourselves out there to help people when they need it."
Kya's eyes were gleaming with pride from his commendation. "It's nice to know that there are still people like you who will stand up to kings like Toyo."
He nodded in appreciation, then glanced over her shoulder to where the refugees sat not too far away. "They still need to agree to it though…"
With that, he led the group of lions over to Lela and the rest of the traumatized crowd. He explained the idea slowly and thoroughly to them; the refugees stayed quiet throughout as they listened intently.
"You're sure that we'll be safe across the desert?" Lela asked when he finished.
Tanai nodded. "Yes. Toyo can't hardly touch us where we are, there's no way that he would be able to even catch up to you."
She nodded slowly, considering the offer. "So you will meet up with us and take us with you when you cross the desert?"
Kya stepped forward. "We'll take care of you until then."
Kiota stayed silent throughout the whole discussion; he really didn't like how it was all coming together but he wasn't going to be the reason it all fell apart. He didn't want to be the refugees' escort back to the desert, and he didn't want to be alone with Kya again, but he wasn't being given much of a choice. He wasn't really sure why, but he just couldn't bring himself to refuse the job. Maybe it was because he kind of liked Tanai, maybe it was because the refugees were slightly pitiful, maybe it was even because Kya was so set on it. Maybe it was a combination of all of them, but he didn't know. All he knew was that he didn't have the willpower to refuse the task they needed him to perform.
For better or worse, the decision had been made. The refugees readily agreed to the plan once they were sure that it would all work out. After that, everything happened surprisingly fast. Tanai's unit picked up camp and was ready to leave in a matter of minutes.
"Thanks again for all your help." Tanai said to Kya and Kiota before he left the area.
Kya grinned. "We're glad to do it… we'll see you in a few days."
Kiota nodded in agreement but didn't say anything.
"Well it means a lot to them." He shot them a final smile before turning away toward his unit.
The two travelers watched the fighters shrink into the distance as the sun began to sink from midday. Once they had disappeared from sight, Kiota turned back to the refugees who were busy eating from a pair of carcasses brought to them by the Pridelanders. They were a pretty miserable sight to say the least. He shrugged and was about to walk away when Kya stepped in his way.
"What?" he asked her neutrally.
For a moment, she looked to be at a loss for words. Then she regained her composure and began, "Thank you."
He blinked. "What?"
"Thank you, Kiota…" she repeated. "For doing this."
"I wasn't given much choice in the matter, but sure." He growled as he pushed past her.
"You could have said no," she said as she fell into step beside him. "But you didn't. Thank you."
Suddenly he had to know. He had to know why it all mattered so much to her, why she was doing this. He stopped and looked her in the eyes with unfocused anger. "Why do you care so much about them?" he said, gesturing to the refugees. "What have they ever done for you?"
Though he expected her to cringe back from his harsh question, Kya stared straight back into Kiota's eyes with that familiar determination and focus that had plagued his dreams.
She took a deep breath. "You really want to know?"
He nodded.
Kya looked at the refugees for a long time with a distant look. Her eyes shown with guilt of past mistakes and grief for those lost. Though, despite everything, she did not appear weak at all. Her shoulders were held high and her back straight. If anything, she commanded an air of resilience that would have been envied by any soldier. Whatever she was dealing with, she was almost finished with coming to peace with it.
"They remind me of my family…"
"What?"
She hung her head. "My family… we went through the same thing."
Her statement made him think back to the night before. What had she meant when she said that a leaderless pride cannot survive? "Are you going to tell me what happened to them?"
She was quiet for several moments before answering. "Yes…"
He followed her over to a nearby tree in silence, not wanting to disturb the strange air of somberness that had suddenly materialized in the humid African air. He didn't rush her for fear of making her change her mind, and instead just waited patiently, a difficult thing for him to do.
She took a deep breath before beginning. "Like I said, my family and I went through the same thing… but it didn't end as well for us. We received Toyo's demands several days after you came through and the soldiers came only a few days after that."
Kiota tilted his head to the side slightly. "They demanded the same thing of you?"
Kya nodded solemnly. "Yes. They wanted all of our cubs and younger members in exchange for allowing us to live…"
It was pretty clear to him what happened. "You refused?"
"Of course…" she said as if in a daze. Her eyes were glazed over as if in a trance and her words were barely more than a shallow breath. "…but we lacked the leadership to defend ourselves." Kya lowered her eyes to the floor. "Without my father… our fighters were slaughtered easily. They took the cubs… I couldn't stop them."
Her despair was obvious as tears began to trickle down her cheeks and quiet sobs racked her chest. "My mother told me to run away... so I did." She looked up at him with hard eyes. "I left to find you."
Suddenly it all made sense. "You blame me for everything that happened." He said in a near whisper.
Kya was quiet for a long while, just staring into space while lost in her own thoughts. Kiota didn't rush her, he couldn't. But the way she looked at him… it was just too much to take. It was his fault. Kiota didn't feel hardly any unease over her father's death, but the death of the entire pride was not something that he had been intending. It was disturbing for him to think that he had ruined so many other lives from the death of a single king.
"I'm sorry…" he said to both of their surprise. "I understand why you hate me now."
The shock on her face was clear, but she recovered quickly. "I did hate you." She began slowly. "But things have changed... You have changed."
He blinked in surprise. He had changed? Now that he looked at himself, it was certainly a true statement. He was far more tolerant of others than he had been several months earlier and his mind was on far more things than simply fighting. In fact, he didn't really even feel the need to fight; he had already pushed himself to the farthest point possible, what more was there to prove?
"I'm not saying that I forgive you for what you did to my father or my family," she continued with tears still in her eyes. "But I don't think that you are the same person that you were when it all happened."
That's the problem, he thought bitterly. There was something wrong with him that was changing who he was, and she didn't seem to get that. All she cared about was that he was nicer; he resisted the urge to sneer at her comment. Of course he had changed, but he was still planning on changing back to his true self. For now though, there wasn't much else to do. Even if it was irritating, he couldn't help but admire her strength after everything she had been through; for her to 'not hate' him anymore was quite an impressive feat.
She took another deep breath. "You're taking these poor lions on as your responsibility, and asking for nothing in return. I never thought that I would see you do that…"
He snorted. "Me neither."
"Like I said before, Kiota… Thank you." Her eyes glinted brilliantly. "You're really making a difference in their lives, and…" she stopped a moment while she contemplated her next words. "I wish that my family would have had someone like you to help them."
But if it hadn't been for me, they wouldn't have needed someone like me, he reminded himself darkly. What could he do though?
"Thank you, Kya." He said as kindly as he could. "I don't hate you like I used to, either."
As the sun sank lower into the sky, a small smile parted across the lioness' tear stained muzzle at her former enemy.
***Author's Note***
*Whew* This was a long one wasn't it? God I wish I could update faster than this! I've got the ENTIRE script written in my head, but I've only got a few minutes each night to work on it! Oh well, it's a long weekend so hopefully I'll have the next chapter up sooner. Thanks for all the reviews, please keep them coming!
-Ben