Chapter 6: The Plagues
When King Mamlaka refuses to heed the words of god and his brother Kovu, god struck down his kingdom with all of his wonders. After the river turns to blood, the frogs begins to storm the ground. Everywhere, there were frogs, hiding in every corner, every bushes and every trees, the hyenas and the king's subjects ran in fear and cowered as the frogs begins to over turn their lives. When the frogs died, the flies came, insects carrying disease with them, boils and sores follows as the flies descended upon the herds, foods was poisoned by these insects and diseases, to make matters worse, the locusts flew in like a huge black cloud, devouring anything that's green, leaving nothing left to eat. The starving herds were dying one after another, their suffering grows but none shaken the stone cold heart of Mamlaka, as the shall not kneel before the demands of slaves. God then sends down a rain of hail, fires burn the grasses destroying the plains engulfing anything in them. Finally the greatest fear that all creatures dread, darkness, all over Mamlaka's kingdom, darkness was absolute, nothing can be seen, torches have to lighted up to see the way, no one can tell whether it's day or night.
Kovu say on a rock looking at the palace where he grew up, he sighed at the sight, pitty that he can't save the people from abject miseries that is now upon them. He came to the palace, looking back at the nostalgic memories, graceful rooms of alabaster stones, sweet perfume smell of incense, now nothing but a shatter shell of its former glory. kovu went to the one place where he can always find his brother, the stones where they always hangout. "Mamlaka? Mamlaka?" Kovu shouted out, trying to find his brother, then he heard his brother's voice on top of a rock. "Oh let me guess. Let your people go?" Mamlaka was sipping a glass of fine wine when Kovu came in, the dark lion at his grey brother, he was hoping that they can have a meaningful conversation. "I thought that i would fine you here." Mamlaka angrily threw the glass of fine wine at Kovu with a grunting sound. "Get out!" Kovu's hope soon diminished to nothing. "Mamlaka, please, we must bring this to an end." He pleaded but the king look away, "I remember when we were younger, we switch the heads of the gods in the temple of Ra." Kovu tried to make a conversation with Mamlaka, reminding his brother a cubhood memory. But seeing how Mamlaka coldly ignored him, Kovu decided to leave.
"If i recall correctly. You were there, switching right along with me." Kovu stop when he heard Mamlaka replied to him, jumping down from the rock to meet Kovu face to face. "You switch the hippo's head on the crocodile, and the crocodile..."; "On the falcon" Kovu remembered what he did at the temple when he was cub, it make Mamlaka infuriated when the grey lion mentioned what happened afterward of the event. "Yes! The priest think it was a terrible cataclysmic event! Father was furious for two months! You always getting me into trouble!" Mamlaka walks away into a dark room with Kovu following behind, "But then you were always there. Get me out of trouble. Why can't things be the same again?" Just then Mamlaka heard his son next to him. "Father, it's so dark. I'm frightened. Why is he here? Is this the lion who did all this?" The grey lion hardened when he heard his son asking the reality of what was going on here. "Yes but one must wonder, why?" Kovu swallow his fear and took some courage to reason with Mamlaka. "Because no kingdom can grow on the back of slavery. Mamlaka your stubborness is destroying everything. It would only cease if you let my people go." Mamlaka heard it again, "Let my people go." If he gives in then he will bow down before the god of the slaves, then there will be nothing left for a great pharaoh to be proud of. "I will not be frightened. I am the morning and evening star! I am pharaoh!" The grey lion declare defiantly in front of Kovu, but his courage is now nothing but a facade. "Something else is coming! Something worse than anything you've seen before! Please, let go of your contempt for life before it destroys everything you hold dear. Think of your son!" But despite Kovu's best effort, the pharaoh's ego remains undeterred. Seeing how helpless he is to change the situation, Kovu left his brother to bare what he had brought onto himself.
That night Kovu came back to his pride where the slaves were preparing a passover meal, a rather abundant meal that they haven't seen in a long time. They all painted their settlement with the red blood of a sheep. They fear and at the same time they were anxious about what is going to happen to them and their former masters. At Kovu's family's house that night they received an unexpected visitor. They heard someone was coming to their den, but of all the persons they could have met that night, it was Zira. She has aged well and want to meet her son. "M...mother...How have you been?" Kovu tenderly purrs Zira as the aged lioness gave her son's forehead a lick. "I've missed you so much Kovu. When you ran away it broke my heart into thousands of pieces. But now that you are back, i've seen that you are a more of true son a mother would have than Mamlaka." Kovu welcomed his adopted mother into his home, he let her had dinner with his brother and sister, along with his wife. But outside of his home, the last plague was ravaging the land, Mamlaka's subjects were dying left and right. Their first borns were killed, when the common people were done, then came to the nobles and even Mamlaka's own son. The boy died on his bed, his soul was sucked away from him, leaving him a lifeless body. At dawn the next day, Kovu came to Mamlaka again who was hardened by the lost of his cub. "You. And Your people have my permission to go." Mamalaka finally broke, he gave in to the slave's demand. He didn't even turned to face his brother at all. Kovu was standing behind him, wanted to share his sympathy with his brother. But when he reaches his paw to his brother's shoulder, the grey lion shrugged the dark brown lion off. "Leave me!" Mamalaka coldly resisted Kovu's sympathy, forcing his brother to leave in sorrow, knowing that their brotherhood had been broken when god rains down his fury on Mamlaka's kingdom.
Kovu went back to his people who were preparing to leave, they gather in front of Kovu and awaits his wisdom to guide them. "Where should we go?" Nuka asked Kovu, he, Vitani and Kiara were anxiously waiting for his answer. "We go east. The promised land is there, waiting for us to claim it. Let us go to where god has chosen for us." Then the people follows Kovu to the east, a land was waiting for them there, Kovu was at the front of them all, leading them like a true king, a noble leader. "Avir harim tsalul k'yayin Vereiyach oranim Nissah beru'ach ha'arbayim Im kol pa'amonim. U'vtardemat ilan va'even Shvuyah bachalomah Ha'ir asher badad yoshevet Uvelibah - chomah. Yerushalayim shel zahav Veshel nechoshet veshel or Halo lechol shirayich Ani kinor. Chazarnu el borot hamayim Lashuk velakikarShofar koreh behar habayitba'ir ha' 'arot asher baselah Alfei shmashot zorchot Nashuv nered el Yam Hemalach B'derech Yericho " The people sings for their liberation as they follows Kovu through all treacherous terrains, they know that as long as Kovu is here, they have hope to reach the promise land that was waiting for them.