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Sharing the Pain

It was now evening, Florrie made her way to her home. She was devastated and a bit teary. Her parents were already homed. They were on the 'rock couch' waiting for their daughter's return.

Florrie entered the cave in a slow pace. Covering the small yet deep scratch on her face with her paw. Mona greeted her with a hug, "Welcome back. So, how was your day?" Florrie wasn't in the mood to talk. Actually, she wasn't in the mood to do anything right now; she just wants to crawl under a rock and forget the whole day even happened.

"Mom, I don't want to talk about it right now," Florrie murmured, not looking at her mother.

Mona hmmed as she was confused to see Florrie in a depressing state. She then noticed scratch marks on her arms and body, "Florrie, what happened back there."

"Did Zuba did this to you?" asked Lars, concerned about his daughter.

"Mom, you saw what happened… He hates me," Florrie's voice started to break.

"Sweetie? I thought you and Zuba were getting along," Mona inspected Florries's arm for severe injuries but found none, "You two were snuggling, weren't you?"

"Snuggling!?" Lars was shocked.

"We weren't snuggling," a tear grew in her eyes, "We were fighting…" Florrie cried on her mother's shoulder. Lars was a little bit relieved that they weren't snuggling but at the same time furious that Zuba hurt Florrie.

Florrie burst into tears. She couldn't hold them any longer. The pain inside was too overbearing for her to handle. Lars was planning to march out of his cave, and track this Zuba down but his wife stopped him at the last second. "Lars, now is not the time to get revenge! Your daughter needs you."

Lars calmed himself down and approached Florrie. He lovingly hugged her and patted her back. Now, it was his shoulder's turn to get wet.

Florrie cried, cried and cried through out the evening. Her parents tried to comfort her in many ways but she kept on crying. "C'mon now, I didn't raised you to be this weak," Lars tried to coaxed her in his way of coaxing.

"I hate him! He's selfish, moronic, violent and rude!" Florrie exclaimed. "Can't you do something about this engagement? I don't want to share my life with him"

"Sweetie, you know I can't… Zolo already made plans" Mona responded.

"Mom! Look what he did to me," Florrie showed the small wound on her cheek, "Even before we fought, he hated me! We're two different people."

"Florrie, what Zuba did to you was wrong but he must have his reasons…" said Mona, being understanding as usual, "Give'em a second chance."

"I dunno. That Zuba is going to pay for what he did. I'll teach him a lesson that he'll never forget," Lars claimed angry at Zuba for hurting his little girl.

"Lars… Shush!" said Mona to her enrage husband.

"Can't you guys listen to me for once?" Florrie protested. "Even Zuba didn't want to be engage! So why do you even bother?"

Both Mona and Lars knew that. Zolo was the one who mentioned it to earlier today. "Okay, how about this," Mona set a proposition, "If you give one more chance to Zuba tomorrow and still can't get through to him: I and your father will try to persuade Zolo to cancel the engagement."

"Seriously?" Florrie gasped in excitement. Her parents gave her a nod. "Deal!" Florrie took her mother's offer without any second thoughts.

"But try not to be hard on him again," Mona advised to her daughter. "He just lost his mother."

"What?" Florrie was shocked. If she could recall, Zuba attacked her after she bring up something about his mom. She even heard him saying, "How dare you talk about my mom!" before he pounced her.

"His mother passed away two months ago," Lars explained. "Leila fell ill and the next thing they knew was she stopped breathing."

"Why didn't I know about this?"

"Not everyone knew about it. Only half of the pride knows. Unfortunately, we were the other half," Lars answered. "Zuba didn't want people to remind him of his mom so he kept it a secret. Zolo told us the whole story during the discussion about your engagement."

Florrie stood still. She felt blameworthy for the fight. She knew there was something wrong about him. She saw them in his eyes but couldn't identify them. If she had known about this sooner, she wouldn't upset Zuba and the whole fight wouldn't occur. I'm so stupid! It was my fault all the time! She thought.

"Zuba, I'm so sorry," she whispered silently.

Zolo came home early with a nice hunk of prey on in his arm, looking delighted. Zolo was in charge of preparing the meal since his wife passed away. Mona had told him what did she saw when she came to check their children that afternoon. He was both surprised and happy about the news.

"I heard that someone made a good move today," Zolo teased. He then saw his son with scratches all over his chest and his hand wrapped with a white fabric. Not just that, the place was completely trashed. The food from the lunch was everywhere and some rocks that they called 'furniture' were knocked over. "Umm… What just happened?"

"Florrie happened…" said Zuba, feeling bum and hurt.

"Was she rough on you? … heh heh heh" Zolo laughed. "She must be a keeper then."

"Dad, we fought! We didn't do anything other than that!" Zuba didn't seem amused.

"What! How did that happened?" asked confused Zolo.

"It was her-" Zuba was aware that it should be him to blame not Florrie. "It was my fault…"Zuba cleared his throat, "I got mad somehow and started clawin' her… I'm sorry…"

Zolo sat beside his son, rubbing his back, "Zuba, you need to control your emotions. You can't just attack an innocent lioness."

Innocent? She's not innocent! She's the one who provoked him. She should take half the blame for it. He reconsidered. However, he didn't want to point fingers. He took responsibility on his own action.

"I didn't take your advice. I was being a jerk," Zuba mumbled, stroking his wounded paw. "Now she'll never want to see me again."

"Let's face it," he hollered, "We're just not cut out for each other!"

"Son, don't give up yet!" Zolo encouraged his son.

"Listen," Zolo held up Zuba's face, "Everybody deserves a second chance. Why not you?"

Zuba groaned a little, his spirit was lifted little by little. His dad was the only support he had right now. Maybe he should try to listening to him for once.

"Thanks dad. I'll get it right next ti-" he was interrupted when his stomach started rumbling. "Oooh, I think all that fightin' had waked up my appetite."

Zolo grinned at his hungry son, "So enough with this gloomy stuff. Let's eat!" Zolo threw his prey on the 'table' and began slicing it.

Zuba got the biggest piece, as his father can't eat too many. They had a peaceful feast together. They told jokes, talked about girls and wrestled a bit. It was really a father son moment.

Too bad Zolo fell asleep early. Zuba didn't want the day to end. He was having fun playing with his old man. It had really been a while since they did anything together.

Zuba carried his tiring father to his bed, which was a wide smooth rock. Covered his dad from the cold with a cloth they found near the tourist site. He said his "I love you"s and went to his bed.

As he lied there, waiting for himself to go to sleep, he looked up at the skies. Zillions of stars shone brightly. Proving their brilliance in the skies. There were a couple of stars that caught his attention. They were different then the rest of the stars. The shone dimly, both of them were closed to each other.

Zuba took that rhetorically; he imagined the stars were he and Florrie. They're dim because of their relationship together. Zuba wanted to change that. He wanted to strengthen their bonds.

At the same time, Florrie was watching the stars too. She was outside her cave; blaming herself. She wasn't quite sure what the stars meant but she knew that she had to do something make up for what she did. Maybe the stars will revealed their brilliance if she apologize to Zuba. Then again, maybe not. She didn't want to give herself a migraine so she stopped thinking.

Both fiancées wished to the stars that tomorrow would be a new beginning for them and hoped that things would go out smoothly. The two stars twinkled for a second as if they were answering back to them.


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