preface: re: annon, I'm glad you appreciate the shades-of-grey approach (and boy did that book ruin the expression for everyone). Expect more of it; it's a big theme, and plays a big part in the climax, if ever I get to it. Re: ograndebatata, as to your wish that no one gets hurt: well now... And did Mheetu make a smart decision? I'll leave you to decide after reading!


When Mheetu met Noki

"The Elephant Graveyard? Really?"

"Sure. I did promise I'd take you to see it one day, didn't I?"

They way she said it, Zira didn't sound all that enthusiastic. Mheetu was overjoyed, however: something good would come of this trip after all, and when he got back home, he could maybe even make the others jealous by bragging of his exploits in the Elephant Graveyard.

The day before, Zira and Tuli had proposed to all the cubs they meet up with a hyena-buddy of theirs. Chumvi and Nala had been very much opposed to the idea, and they drew the other cubs along with them. But because he was angry with them for entirely unrelated reasons, Mheetu resolved to do the opposite of whatever it was they wanted, and he thus ended up being the only cub to agree to the meeting.

Whomever would have expected such childish behavior from a child? As it stood, he'd almost immediately regretted his decision anyway.

The realization had come as he lay awake at night, mulling over the previous day's events and feeling sorry for himself. His decision would likely only serve to make him even less popular with the other cubs. Much as he disliked them right then, they were still his pridemates, and he was therefore very much stuck with them. Then when he finally did get a little sleep, he dreamt of terrible creatures with dark snouts, vicious fangs and big ears chasing him, threatening to eat him. What Nala told of before, hyenas chasing her to try and kill her, finally hit home.

Would he actually be fine, meeting one of them? Would it be safe? Maybe it was a kind of trap. You never know with them, after all. Maybe he should just call the whole thing off...

When a new day dawned, however, Mheetu had to deal with the other cubs giving him the cold shoulder once again. It was enough to motivate him to carry through with his plans after all, afraid or not. So when Zira came for him in the early morning, off he went.

He was so anxious he felt like throwing up all the way there.

Until she mentioned the Elephant Graveyard, that is. Never mind that it was the exact spot where Nala had had her near-fatal encounter before: the mysterious aura of taboo that still surrounded the place was enough to make Mheetu disregard any objections he might have had before. So it came that he was in high spirits by the time they reached the sandstone ramp leading down into the shadowy valley.

Normally, the area's perpetual darkness would have provided a welcome relief from the hot savanna sun, but that day there was no escaping the oppressive, humid heat that blanketed the Pridelands. Zira, however, simply shrugged it off, used to worse, and Mheetu was too engrossed with his surroundings to notice. When the unearthly sight of a giant elephant skull suddenly loomed ahead, perched atop a mound of bones, appearing out of the darkness like a specter from his nightmares, the cub's eyes went wide and his mouth fell open.

Zira's expression betrayed only ennui.

"Whoa! Zira, Zira, look! It's huge! Look and there's the tusks, and there's a big hole in the middle, that's so weird..."

Mheetu raced ahead towards the eerie landmark. Zira made no effort to catch up, however, as her attention was drawn in stead by the dark shape that lay in the shadow of the steep rock face to the right of the elephant skull. While the cub scrambled up the pile of bones to peer in and see if there was still anything left inside the skull, she went off to the right to have a closer look.

What she found were two hyenas fast asleep, a cub and an adult. The cub lay nestled up against one of the adult's paws, and had fur of a dark-brown hue all over, with only hints of the paler fur of adulthood peaking through. The older one, meanwhile, lay entirely sprawled out, as animals who are suffering from the heat are wont to do, and his mouth was slightly ajar, with drool pooling underneath. Zira could not have told him apart from the next hyena if she tried.

Having Zira tower above you is a sensation in of itself, and not a pleasant one.

The grown hyena stirred, lazily licking his chops and half-blinking his eyes, before suddenly shooting awake when he realized just who the shadow overhead was. He let out a panicked yelp and quickly grabbed the cub closer to him, then frantically tried to back away. Wildly trying to scramble up a sheer wall of rock went about as well as you'd expect, and he was eventually left cowering before Zira, trying to make himself as small as possible, while still tightly holding the cub. The young hyena, meanwhile, gazed at her in an awe, wide-eyed and petrified.

Zira only rolled her eyes, and sighed: "I hope we didn't keep you waiting too long."

The terrified hyena seemed to calm down a bit as Zira spoke, and cautiously righted himself.

"O-oh... You must be the lioness bringing the cubs..."

"Who else where you expecting?"

"N-no one! It's just that you caught me unawares..." He would have added that waking up to the sight of Zira was utterly frighting, but was fittingly frightened into reconsidering by her unyielding glare. In stead, he looked around for a moment, then inquired: "So, eh, where are the eh, the lion cubs?"

In stead of answering him directly, the lioness turned around and bellowed: "Mheetu!"

The young lion's head duly appeared out of the elephant skull's huge nose-hole.

"Zira! There's nothing in here, it's all empty. How lame is that?"

"I don't care. Get your ass down here, now!"

Mheetu made his way down with ample aplomb, obviously enjoying himself as he hopped around in the osseous detritus. Like the well-behaved cub that he otherwise wasn't, he meekly went to sit down next to Zira. Then he puffed out his chest; his good cheer from getting to visit the boneyard translated into unwarranted self-confidence, which Zira was quick to notice.

"I present to you: Mheetu, would-be lion."

That deflated him somehowwhat. Mheetu let his gaze pass over the hyenas – it was the first time he'd seen any of them up close. They looked weird, with their squat bodies and thick necks. Their forepaws were too long, their backpaws too short, and their ears almost comically large. Still, looking at the adult hyena made Mheetu almost reflexively uneasy: huge, yellowy fangs peeked through behind dark lips, and a large number of scars gave him a fierce look... if it hadn't been for a long thread of drool that still clung to his chin.

He shifted his focus to the hyena cub. The youngster was still partly concealed behind the adult's paws, though he was starting to edge out of cover, driven by curiosity. Mheetu had never seen one of them before, up close or from a distance. He was struck by the fact that the cub was mostly dark-furred, wondering: do they come in different colors, maybe?

Then their eyes met.

By all accounts, there was nothing special about them – the color was a deep, dark brown, fairly common among hyenas, though less so among lions. Maybe it was something about the way the other cub was looking at him, then? Mheetu found it hard to look away.

"So... just the one?" the older hyena suddenly asked.

"Why, you think you could eat two in one sitting?" Zira retorted. If she meant it as a joke, no-one was laughing.

"What? No! I mean, I just thought..."

"Look, friendo," Zira interrupted him, "What were you expecting, huh? All lion cubs in the Pridelands suddenly lining up to come pall around with you mangy scavengers? Consider yourselves lucky that even one was stupid enough to show up..."

The lioness suddenly turned her gaze towards the hyena cub and grinned maliciously. He shrank back, terrified.

"... and by stupid, I of course meant that he's a paragon of tolerance and sociability, ain't ya, Mheetu? Go ahead, introduce yourself to these fine folks – tell 'em why you're here."

Suddenly put on the spot, the young lion punted, silently cursing Zira and her unflagging penchant for needling others.

"Uh, hi, I'm eh, I'm Mheetu... and, uh..."

"I already told them that. Go on, tell them what you told the other cubs yesterday, about what made you want to come here today."

Has there ever been an opportunity to make others feel worse that she hasn't latched on to with both paws?

"Oh, right. Well, I was just saying to the other cubs that eh... you know, we're all living in the Pridelands together now, so it wouldn't be a bad idea if we all got to know each other better, and eh, you know, eh, all get along, lions and hyenas. I mean, our king let you in, right? And he's the king, that's saying something! So you can't be all bad, am I right?"

Mheetu swallowed, then cast a sideways glance at Zira. She was grinning, and gave no indication she was about to save the young lion from his rambling and transparently disingenuous speech. But Mheetu being Mheetu, he wasn't just going to wait for things to happen, and took matters into his own paws: he quickly changed the subject.

"Hey, mister?" he asked the adult hyena, managing to overcome his fear and revulsion. When he got the other's attention, me made a gesture of sweeping his paw across his face. After an instant of confusion, comprehension dawned on the hyena's face, and he aped the lion, finally wiping the drool from his chin.

"Oh – thanks, kid! I hadn't noticed... You know, maybe time we introduced ourselves, too. I'm Kuzinga, Kuz for short, and this here is Noki."

"H-hi..." the young hyena managed, before turning his eyes to the ground.

"He's all right – just takes a while to get going, 's all," Kuzinga interceded, and he produced a forced smile, tussling Noki's hair. The young hyena didn't seem to appreciate it much.

Mheetu looked at the cub with a perplexed expression. He'd been afraid of meeting this?

What a dweeb!


"Man, this heat is really something, huh?"

Zira sighed. Talking about the weather: both the first and last refuge of the unimaginative. She ignored Kuzinga, and in stead took the opportunity to look around her. Everywhere she looked were steep rock faces topped with jagged edges, every now and then broken up by narrow gorges or gaping, dark caves. A maze of ridges loomed overhead, walkable but inaccessible from the ground. And everywhere she looked, the place was steeped in gloom, even moreso now that thick clouds blotted out the sun.

What a shithole.

Zira trudged on apathetically. She and Kuzinga were walking in front, with the cubs following close behind. Taking the lioness' disinterested silence as a cue to change the topic, the nervous hyena inquired why Zira had showed up to the boneyard, and not her friend Tuli, as he'd been expecting.

"I'm not good enough for ya?"

"No, no! It's just, I don't think I've never seen you with us hyenas before..."

"You say it like it's a bad thing."

Zira let her words hang in the air for a bit before she continued, starting to feel just the teensiest bit of pity for the hapless hyena walking next to her.

"It's actually a tad complicated. Tuli's been spending quite a bit of time with you and yours, and the other lionesses have started to take notice. They are none too thrilled about it. If she suddenly took off with one of the cubs, I reckon it would cause quite a stir – imagine if she actually let you monsters near their precious babies!" Zira giggled, "I, however, am under no such suspicions – quite to the contrary: turns I'm the best hunting-teacher the cubs have had in a generation, so I suddenly have plenty of credit with the rest of the pride when it comes to the cubs. Nobody even batted an eye when I took Mheetu for a tour of the Elephant Graveyard."

"Wait... so his mom doesn't know he's meeting with us?"

"Of course not. He wouldn't be here if she did."

"But what'll happen if she finds out?"

"Don't care."

"But what if something happens to him?"

"Won't happen. And if it does, I'm pretty sure you hyenas will be the ones in trouble, not me."

"Sounds like you got it all figured out," Kuzinga sighed. He continued after a short moment of silence: "I guess it's the same everywhere, then."

"What?"

"Most hyenas don't want anything to do with you lions either, if they don't outright hate your guts. A couple of guys even attacked me once, accused me of being a lion-lover... I don't even think they're bad folks otherwise, but... I dunno."

"O boy, attacking you for your beliefs? Seems like I'm in the company of a genuine martyr here," Zira sneered, "Is that what gets you up in the morning, fighting for our great and glorious future together?"

"Get bent."

"Tsssk, learn to take a joke. Anyways, if you guys hate lions so much, why come live with us?"

"Mostly for the food, I think. I mean, just look at this place!"

"Point well taken," Zira admitted, "So what excuse did you have to use to get that little bugger out here, if we lions are so lacking in popularity?"

"Oh, none. His mother was fine with it."

"No concerns I'd hunt both of you for sport?"

"Males don't count for much anyway, I doubt they'd miss us," the hyena remarked bitterly, "Besides, Noki's mother struck me as an eminently practical lady; I bet she thinks the chance to make some inroads with the next generation of Pridelanders is well worth the risk. Gives her family some more strings to pull, or something – I'm not good with girl-stuff like that."

That last remark mystified Zira, but she wasn't quite interested enough (that is to say, not at all) in hyena society to inquire further. Feeling like she needed a break from chit-chatting with Kuzinga, she turned around to see how the youngsters were getting along.

Lightning rent the sky. For the briefest of moments, the otherwise veiled Elephant Graveyard was set in cold, clear white light. Booming thunder followed on lightning's heels, shaking the land to its core, as a prelude to the crash of rain suddenly coming down in a torrential deluge.

The cubs were nowhere to be seen.


Ever had the feeling like someone is looking at you? It's a strange thing, when you think about it; it's not like looking makes any noises, or disturbs the air or anything – you can't even bend a blade of grass just by looking at it. Then whence that feeling so powerful and unmistakable?

Mheetu neither knew nor much cared. He just got the unmistakable feeling that someone was looking at him, and turned his head sideways. The young hyena walking next to him had his eyes turned to the ground. Mheetu knew he'd been looking, though. The lion pretended to turn ahead again, but in fact spied the other from the corner of his eye. And indeed, he caught Noki giving him a furtive glance, though he looked away again as soon as he noticed that Mheetu was keeping an eye on him.

"Hey man, why do you keep looking at me?"

After an awkwardly long while, Noki answered weakly, still staring at the ground: "I-I'm not."

"Yes you are, I could see you. You ain't never seen a lion before?" Only after he said it, did Mheetu realize that no, maybe he hadn't.

"I did, once..." Now the young hyena did look at Mheetu, "They were bigger, though, and angry. I've never seen a lion cub before..."

"Likewise. Hyena cubs, I mean... You don't have to be all skittish, you know. I don't bite."

With that little bit of encouragement, Noki went wide-eyed again, and he looked the lion up and down, before asking: "Mheetu?"

"That's me."

"What happened to your ear? It's like there's a bit missing."

"Oh, that's no big deal," Mheetu boasted, "I got it in a fight, 's all."

It seemed scarcely possible at this point, but Noki's eyes grew bigger still, and Mheetu didn't fail to notice. He rather enjoyed that he was able to so easily awe the other youngster, and he decided to play up his bad-boy credentials. He sat down and, with a single outstretched claw, lifted his upper lip, showcasing his chipped fang.

"See that? Same fight. The scars on my nose too."

"Whoa... Does it hurt?"

"Not anymore it doesn't – but at the time? Hell yeah! But I can handle it; like I told you, no big deal..." Mheetu then proceeded to regal Noki with a highly sensationalized account of his fight with Chumvi, carefully leaving out the myriad parts that reflected badly on himself, and playing up Chumvi's size and strength. At the end of it, you'd think he went up against Mufasa himself.

"So, yeah... I gave as good as I got, but he could have well killed me, you know?"

"Well I'm glad he didn't!"

"You and me both. So what about you, Noki? No offense, but you don't look like you've been in a lot of fights..."

"I..." For a moment there, as he cast his eyes downward again, it looked like the hyena was reverting to his previous, uncommunicative state. After a few moments, though, he mustered enough confidence to face Mheetu again: "I've never been in a fight... not a real one anyway. I've had the others snap at me a few times, but that's just to scare me away."

"So why do you never fight back?"

"But I don't want to! I don't want to hurt anyone. Besides... it wouldn't do any good: all the other cubs are older and stronger than me."

"Yeah, that isn't really fair..." Nala should have been there to hear Mheetu say it. "But still, you just let others pick on you all day?"

"No, mostly they just ignore me..."

Mheetu frowned. Any other day, and he'd have put Noki down as a loser only worthy of contempt, at best useful if he needed someone to be the butt of a joke.

It wasn't just any other day, though: the young lion had for the past few weeks gotten to experience firsthand what it was like to have others "just" ignore him all the time, what it was like to be excluded. And Mheetu knew for a fact that he himself was not a loser, but that he'd just had a stroke of bad luck (it would take some more time to realize that most of it had been self-inflicted), meaning that his hyena companion needn't necessarily be a loser either.

Maybe all Noki needed was a bit of guidance? A mentor in cool! And who better than Mheetu, coolest, smartest, and toughest cub in all the Pridelands?

"Hey Noki... what you say we get out of here, huh?" the young lion whispered conspiratorially. His companion responded with a look of confusion.

"What'd you mean?"

"Shh, not so loud... I mean we ditch those two old farts, and explore the elephant Graveyard all by ourselves!"

"Isn't that dangerous? Won't that get us in trouble?"

"That's the whole point!" Mheetu grinned, "If the other cubs turn their back on you, you just have to learn to make your own road, ya know? Break the rules, and be a rebel!"

Noki hesitated briefly, but then an utterly benign grin spread across his face. "A-all right! Let's do it!" he replied with enthusiasm bordering on the naive. The sentiment must have been infectious, because Mheetu was caught by a strange fluttery feeling himself that seemed to briefly dispel his myriad worries.

Then, surprising Mheetu with a sudden burst of initiative, the hyena beckoned to follow him as he rapidly made for one of the many small openings and crevices that dotted the rocky slopes of the valley they'd been walking through. The lion hastened to follow the other as he disappeared in a narrow tunnel. Inside, the darkness was total, and Mheetu struggled to locate his companion.

"Noki? I can't see anything here! Where are you?" he hissed.

"I'm up ahead! Just move forward, it only goes one way..."

So the lion did, inching carefully forward, until suddenly he snout bumped into something warm and fuzzy.

"Aah! Noki, is that you?"

"Who else?"

"I don't like this – I can't see where I'm going. We'll get lost crawling around in the dark here."

"Don't worry," the hyena reassured him, "I do a lot of tunneling back at the den. If you just memorize the passages and junctures, you don't actually have to see things, you can basically count where you are..."

"Well maybe you can," he replied skeptically, not actually understanding what Noki wanted to say, "But the only cave I've ever been is the den back at Priderock – I can't find my way around here!"

"Just stick with me..."

"What if we get split up?"

"Just grab hold of my tail then," Noki offered, "If you let go, I'll come back for you."

"All right, just stay still so I can..."

I bet I'd look pretty ridiculous if anyone could see me now, Mheetu thought, as he clumsily brushed his muzzle and whiskers by the hyena's fur, utterly blind, looking for a tail. Another through that suddenly struck him, now that they were stuck close together in such a cramped space, was that Noki actually didn't smell.

It was a well-worn insult lions and hyenas liked to throw at each other, that they stank – so common a description, in fact, that Mheetu hadn't even considered it an insult, but just assumed it as a statement of fact. But Noki seemed to put lie to that truism.

Not to say that the hyena didn't have a smell – everyone has, after all – but just that it didn't strike Mheetu as all that unpleasant.

What a weird thing to think about...

"All right, got it," Mheetu eventually mumbled through a mouthful of bushy hyena tail. With him now blindly following Noki, literally, the duo made their way through a succession of tunnels. Every now and then, the hyena would halt and make them back up because they reached a dead-end, or when the incline became too steep. Mheetu just had to trust that the other cub was able to remember where they came from and where they were going, because he had not a clue.

Then suddenly, light! Or whatever passed for light on that gloomy day. The tunnel ended at a crack in the outer rock-face, looking out over a narrow valley lined with fairly steep but amply ridged walls. Though they couldn't tell in the twilight, the rocks had a darker hue until about halfway up. The floor was strewn with all kinds of bones, dead wood, small rocks – all types of debris piled up in randomly scattered heaps. The youngsters slid down the wall to the bottom of the valley.

"Finally, fresh air! That's enough tunnels for one day..."

"I liked it! It was fun to explore someplace I hadn't been before. Also..." Where at first Noki sounded giddy, he now again turned mousey, "... I liked that you were there with me."

"I don't think I was a lot of help though, all I did was follow after you and get in the way," Mheetu replied obliviously, prompting sniggering from the hyena. "What? You're making fun of me now? I'll show you!"

Giggles turned to a shocked yelp, and in the blink of an eye, Noki was on his back, pinned to the ground. "Who's laughing now, huh? Try to tunnel your way out of this one!"

The hyena's surprised expression soon turned to a furtive grin, however, and he he suddenly lunged at Mheetu's face, deftly grabbing the lions upper muzzle and nose between his jaws.

"Aaah!"

"Haha, got your nose!"

"It hurts!" Mheetu tried in vain to pry Noki's muzzle open with his paws, but he might as well have been trying to split a mountain. As soon as the lion's paws were off him, Noki was able to throw his opponent sideways.

"Okay, okay, you win! Man, you've got a monster's bite..."

"That's nothing!" Overly eager to impress Mheetu, the hyena sauntered over to some nearby bones arranged in a pile, and grabbed one of the thinner variety – a once-upon-a-time rib, maybe, "Here, check this out!"

With a sickening crunch, the bone between his jaws first cracked, then splintered entirely. He spit out the fragments. "These are all old bones, so they break easily – also, there's nothing in them. But there's good food in fresh ones! I'll only be able to break those when I'm older, though..."

Mheetu was duly impressed, though he reflexively refused to show it. In stead, he innocently dared Noki to demonstrate again, "But on a bigger one this time." Then, as the hyena ruffled the bones with his back turned, the lion pounced again. Now flat on his belly, Noki had no way to bite at his assailant, and was left squirming impotently.

A sudden flash of lightning broke up their friendly tussling. Both cubs cringed at the roar of thunder, but it was Noki who fearfully pressed up against Mheetu for support.

"Chill, man, it's just rain," the lion commented, awkwardly trying to reassure his companion while not being entirely at ease himself. They were both quick to regain their composure, though as the cool rain that came rushing down in a flood actually felt really nice after such a sweltering day. It wasn't long before they were splashing around with abandon, making a mess amid the various puddles that quickly started to form.

The water didn't just come down from the heavens, though: before long, many of the slopes and ledges turned to small streams that emptied into the valley. Mheetu was the first to figure out it felt really good to go stand under one of these waterfalls, and have the torrent crash into your body, or face: "Wharrgarbl!"

Noki looked on with a questioning look, his head cocked to one side, then suddenly started to scramble up the wall. Once halfway up, he hopped into the stream and let it propel him downwards, where he crashed into Mheetu, both of them laughing and cheering all the way. Now Mheetu was compelled to try try the waterslide too, of course.

The cubs were having the time of their lives.

All the while, going unnoticed by both, water started to pool in the center of the narrow valley. It started of as discreet puddles, though they quickly linked up to form a thin stream, flowing down the almost undetectable slope of the valley floor. Fed by water now flowing in from the surrounding uplands, the stream quickly swelled, picking up speed and force as it did, stirring the debris scattered all around.

By the time the cubs noticed, the only parts left untouched by the surging river were the very edges of the valley, and already it seemed dangerous to cross the raging, churning waters to the other side.

"That wasn't there before," Mheetu stated the obvious, indicating the newly formed stream, "This doesn't feel right – I think it's about time we bailed."

Noki wisely concurred, and the cubs clambered back up the side of the valley towards the cave whence they had come. Neither of them was entirely sure where they were, so it seemed best to simply retrace their steps. In front of the tunnel, Noki froze, however, refusing to go further.

"What's keeping ya?"

"Shh! Listen..."

Mheetu moved closer and put his ear above the darkened opening. An ominous drone emanated from the hole, accompanied by the rushing of air.

"The tunnels are flooding." Where the rain had felt pleasantly cool before, it now chilled Mheetu to the bone, and tight feeling gripped his stomach.

They couldn't go back.


When he looked at Noki, he could read the panic writ on the hyena's face; all the day's excitement had gone out of him, and he helplessly stared back at Mheetu – as if the lion had any clue of what to do now! The awful truth was that both cubs stood powerless before the awesome power and cruel indifference of nature.

Mheetu knew this full well... and yet he didn't panic, nor did he feebly break down and give up, for at that very moment a feeling was kindled deep inside him, one such as he'd never felt before, yet that would never leave him again.

The young lion didn't realize it at the time, of course. He just did what came to mind, and wrote it down to a kind of survival instinct. He put one paw firmly on the back of the hyena's head, and as he pulled him just that bit closer, looked him straight in the eyes.

What is it with those eyes?

Then, with all the steel he could put in his voice, he declared as if it were a matter of fact: "Don't be afraid, all right? I'll get us out of here, no matter what. Just stick with me, and I'll look out for you."

Mheetu had no idea where he was, no idea where he was going, and no idea what to do in general. He knew this. Noki must have known it too. Yet at once, the hyena calmed down, and seemed perfectly willing to take him for his word.

Now that he had made himself the decider, Mheetu first task was to decide where to go. Just staying put wasn't an option; the water was rising too fast, and the rain didn't show any sign of abating – even if it did, a backlog of water might still have swamped them. They had to get to higher ground. Going up the walls wasn't possible, and there were no safe ridges in reach. Knowing that water always flows downhill, he thus resolved to just follow the waxing river upstream, for lack of better alternatives.

They trudged ahead, wet and miserable, grimly silent. The rain continued to beat down mercilessly, and the river only kept widening, becoming ever louder as it did. Swept up in the wild water was all the trash they had previously seen littering the valley, turning the stream into a deadly white churn that promised to grind anyone caught up into it to a pulp. To be dragged along by the water promised certain death.

And still no suitable exit. Even though they were now almost hugging the edges of the ravine, water already started to lapping at their paws.

Mheetu pressed on. What else was he going to do?

Then finally, when their paws were already submerged and moving forward against the raging current was becoming difficult, a way out beckoned. A large chunk of rock had broken off from the side of the valley, and the newly formed, serrated hollow would allow them to climb all the way up to a small cave well above the high-water-mark indicated by the discoloration of the stone. From there, they could probably clamber further on into the upper reaches of the Elephant Graveyard. From where they were standing now, that would be plenty.

One problem for the cubs, however: the hollow was on the opposite side of the newly former river. Mheetu could still see a chance for them to get out, though, because the boulder that had split from the ravine wall was stuck firmly in the middle of the valley. From an overhang on their side, they might be able to jump onto the boulder, and then on into the hollowed-out wall. Of course, as the boulder narrowed the passage, the river gushed forth with particular force there, rendering the successive jumps all the more daunting.

Noki seemed to be thinking the same thing, only commenting: "It's a long way to jump."

But they had no choice. Both cubs clambered onto the overhang, then edged towards the side. Below them, the water thundered on mercilessly.

As his gaze went back and forth between the boulder and the river, Mheetu noticed his mouth had gone dry, and his breath was quickening. He looked back at Noki. The hyena cub was shaking slightly. Mheetu realized he was, too.

"I- I don't think I can do this..."

"We can't just stay here."

"But it's too far!"

"We'll... we'll be fine. You can do this!"

"How would you know?"

There was nothing reassuring Mheetu could think to say next. Out of ideas, he just put his chin on Noki's neck, the way lions sometimes do. A slight shudder went through the young hyena.

"You can do it. You have to! Hell, you just made a new friend – it wouldn't be right if you would bite the dust right after, you know?"

Yeah, I said it! Eat it, world, this lion is friends with a hyena, and he's not about to let a little rain get in the way!

"A-all right. I think I'm fine now. I think I... I'll try."

Probably about as good as it was going to get qua self-confidence for Noki, Mheetu figured. That left one important thing to be decided: who should go first? If Mheetu stayed behind, he could reassure his friend all the way, until he actually took the leap. But if that would also mean Noki would be taking the biggest risk, since it wasn't yet clear if the jump was actually at all feasible...

"I think... I think I should go first. That way I'll be sure if... if it actually works out. But if I make it to the other side, you have to promise me you'll follow, all right? No backing down. If I'm going to do this, I need to know you'll be ready."

"I'll follow you, I promise! I... I'll go wherever you go!" Then, surprising Mheetu, Noki quickly nuzzled him. It was over in a flash, but left the lion slightly dazed.

"Man, you say the weirdest things sometimes," Mheetu blurted out at length, smiling dumbly, "All right... now... Wish me luck!"

The jump itself was easy. The landing, not so much. Touching down on a curved boulder polished by wind and rain, all slick and wet, was an almost impossible task – so much so that Mheetu simply decided to skip it. Or rather, his instincts decided it for him: as soon as his forepaws touched the glib surface, all the cub's reflexes pushed him into a touch-and go, and he pushed off the boulder with his back-paws in turn, landing safely on the other side with some room to spare.

Mheetu was so impressed with himself he immediately let out a celebratory hoot, and struck a pose.

"Woohoo! Take that... eh... rain!"

Then he remembered Noki, and all the air went out of him again. He turned, and saw his friend still sitting forlornly on the other side. And now, finally, Mheetu did feel panic, and helplessness, and despair. All he could do was sit and watch.

And shout.

"Noki! You can do it! It's easier than it looks!" More followed, all in the same vein. It served as much to give Mheetu and outlet as to encourage Noki.

The hyena took a few steps back. A short, running start, and he pushed off from the ledge...

Hyenas aren't nearly as good at jumping as lions are.

Noki only barely made it onto the boulder, scrabbling hard not to fall backwards, into the raging torrent. He ended up sprawled out, as he desperately fought not to slide down the slippery rock. Mheetu had fallen silent meanwhile; at the sight of the hyena almost slipping backwards into the water, he'd been poised to jump back onto the rock, but now he was reduced to spectator again. It felt to him nothing so much like like his chest was going to collapse.

Noki started slowly getting up, steadying himself on shaking limbs. He cast a hopeful look at Mheetu. Then suddenly, he took the second leap. But one of his paws slipped, and he didn't get enough momentum to make it all the way. He'd only just managed to put his forepaws on the edge of the farther shore, but his body swung down.

The hyena felt himself slipping, and raging water tore at his heels. Scared of what was to come, he closed his eyes. All feeling went out of his paws.

But in stead of the cold embrace of death, Noki became aware of warm air wafting over his face, and a by now familiar scent. He opened his eyes to the sight of Mheetu's face above him, contorted to a fierce grimace, nostrils flaring violently, eyes alight. The lion had driven his claws deep into Noki's forelegs, and straining every muscle in his body, slowly started pulling him up.

Then Mheetu uttered a primal growl, and the accompanying burst of energy enabled him to yank the hyena safely onto the ledge next to him.

"Hell yeah! Think you can take me? Bring it on!" the lion shouted at the swirling waters below, overcome by the adrenaline still rushing through his body. He felt like roaring, running, clawing, even aimlessly jumping up and down. If someone had dared him to cross the river again, he might just have done it. Wanting nothing more than to share in his excitement, he turned to Noki.

He found the hyena with his legs folded under him and his head hanging, shaking all over and breathing rapidly. Blood welled up from the wide gashes that Mheetu had inadvertently inflicted while pulling his friend up from the abyss, and it mingled with the rainwater pooling under him. It made the bloodloss seem that much worse than it actually was – much more frightening, too.

Mheetu rushed to sit down at his friend's side, and started nudging him in a panic: "Noki! What's going on? Are you all right? Oh no, please don't be..."

"I-I'm j-just a bit tired... and cold... from all the rain..." the hyena stuttered, still grasping for breath.

"It's okay, it's all right..." the lion babbled, pressing his head against Noki's neck and straining to think of something he could do to help. Then he remembered seeing a cave up ahead; getting out of the rain would be a good start. He gently coaxed his friend into getting up, which already seemed to take inordinate effort, and then carefully led him up the sloping hollow, towards the nearby cave, supporting him whenever his legs seemed ready to buckle.

The cave was fairly small, but because it was only open on one side and sloped upward, it was perfectly dry. The duo kept going until they were a few paces removed from the entrance, out of the splash of the rain. The water coming down outside made for a translucent curtain, giving a sense of being entirely separated from the rest of the world. The inside of the cave became their own little universe.

Mheetu beckoned for Noki to lie down.

"Easy now, it'll be fine – I'm here for ya... Okay... Now, I'm just going to lie down next to you, all right?" the lion intoned, trying his best not to let his own anxiety shine through, and he curled up next to the hyena, hugging his back, putting one paw under his head and the other over his chest, "Back at the den, when it's cold out, we always get together like this to keep each other warm..."

Noki didn't say anything, but just pressed his head against Mheetu's paw. They remained like that for a time.

From outside came only the sound of rushing water and the patter of the rain, while inside the cave Noki distressed breathing echoed, slowly abating as it returned to normal. Eventually, the shaking subsided too, and Mheetu was gladdened to feel the hyena's scrawny body finally relaxing some, pressed up against his own, and his chest rising and falling in a slow, regular rhythm under his paw.

Though the danger seemed to have passed, neither felt like getting up again.

At length, Noki spoke up, tearing up as he spoke: "I'm sorry for this..."

"What? Why? You have nothing to be sorry for."

"But I do... every time something came up, you had to help me out: when I panicked, when I was going to fall, now this... I'm pathetic!"

"That's such bull! I'm the one that got you into trouble in the first place, by making you sneak off with me." Mheetu's gaze drifted towards Noki's forelegs and the deep wounds he'd made there. He shifted position a bit, so he could reach them with his muzzle. "Then I did this..."

He started gently cleaning the wounds, continuing to talk between licks.

"It's true; when I first saw you, I didn't think much of you. But you're much tougher than you look, even if you don't realize it yourself. You made it out of the ravine alive same as as I did, didn't you? And maybe you did take some convincing, but it was still you that took the jump back there. And, you know, so what if I helped you out? That's what friends are for! If I had to do it again, I'd rather have you with me than any of the cubs from my pride, I'll tell you that."

When he was done, Mheetu settled himself back down, and unthinkingly crossed his paws across Noki's chest, resting his chin on the top of the hyena's head. But when he thought his friend had quieted down, Noki suddenly whispered: "But there was something else, too..."

"Huh?"

"On the other side of the ravine, just before you took the jump, and I, you know... I was afraid of what would happen, I didn't think about what I was doing, and I don't know if you..."

Mheetu's only reply was to hug him tighter.


author's notes: I'm not sure if this chapter "worked". What do you guys think, anything to add or take away?