Edwin P.O.V:
It was about an hour since I had coffee with Beshte and Ma Tembo and it was getting dark outside. I still had 45 minutes until the meeting, so I decided to do a little dusting in my office. I heard a knock on the door, which stopped dusting for a bit to open it, and I see that Ma Tembo was on the other side….in her anthropomorphic elephant form.
"Oh hi Ma Tembo, how's it going ? Don't worry I'll be down on the lower floor in a little bit, I'm just cleaning some dust from my desk." I said as I was finishing off wiping the dust off my desk.
"Okay no problem, just checking on how you are doing. I also wanted to say that I enjoyed talking to you and Beshte over coffee." Ma Tembo said.
"Yeah, I had a good time too, we should do it again sometime." I said.
"We should, maybe we can invite some of our other colleagues from the lab. Just out of curiosity, what did you and Beshte talk about while I was at the florist?" Ma Tembo asked.
"Oh nothing much, just work stuff, the whole Jasiri thing, he told me about some of his experiences in the army and...about that Kion guy, did you know that he used to date Jasiri?" I replied.
This response caused Ma Tembo's expression to change to a saddened one.
"Yes, I am I took it Beshte told you the specifics of that?" Ma Tembo said.
"Yeah, he told me about their rough patches and the….physical altercations." I said, whispering the last two words.
"Yes….I practically saw the effects of that relationship on her nearly every day they were together. Sometimes, I still ask myself what happened to that young lion. He used to be such a sweet and caring lion as a cub and adolescent….but now he's a temperamental, violent, selfish and abusive and his father seems to be doing very little to deal with it other than exterior damage control to maintain their exterior image. How Kion got this way, some say its trauma from the coup and drought, some say its insecurities from adjusting to the human world or the army, and others theorize that the Tree of Life's healer might have not actually healed Kion because she was involved in the planning and the execution of the coup. I am still disappointed that he nor either of his parents will be attending the meeting because I think they would have really needed this with Kion's temperament tendencies, Simba's infatuation with greed, power and….other women, and Nala seems to be distancing herself from her family completely in most occasions. On the bright side, at least Kiara and her mate Kovu are coming, they seem to be the only ones interested in trying to improve relations between human and hybrid coworkers….which reminds me, if you ever bump into them….never mention Kion around them, it's also a conflicting subject for them." Ma Tembo said.
"Yeah...I'll take note of that." I replied in a casual tone, which provoked a light smile on Ma Tembo's face.
"Thank you, I'll see you in a few minutes." Ma Tembo said as she left my office.
"You too!" I replied. After about two minutes, I finished dusting around my office, so I decided to start heading down to the meeting.
I grabbed the bouquet of lilies that I had on my desk and headed out my office door, turning the lights off and locking the door behind me. I walked down the small hallway to exit into the main hallway of the floor. I was walking towards the stairway as I heard another set of footsteps approach the stairway. I turned my head to the right to find the source of those footsteps…..which turned out to be just Jasiri in her hyena form carrying a similar bouquet of lilies, except her flowers have light green streaks in the flowers.
"Hi Jasiri, are you heading to the meeting too?" I said.
It seems that my sudden question startled Jasiri a bit.
"Ahh-...oh hey Edwin! You gave me a bit of a scare there. And yes I'm going to the meeting...your flowers look beautiful." Jasiri said in a calm tone.
"Thanks, yours too! Also, I really like your scarf, it compliments your eyes very well." I said.
"Aww, thanks! I like your shirt too." Jasiri said as we both began to walk down the stairs.
"So how was work for you today?" I asked.
"Oh nothing really eventful, just prepping fossils for exhibition, guiding interns and preventing Makuu from yelling at the interns again." Jasiri said, after which we slightly laughed at the last part as we went down the stairs.
After walking across the main floor, Jasiri and I went to the second stairwell that leads to the lower floor and we walked towards the back hallway to see that several employees have arrived, both human and hybrid...with the latter, like Jasiri and Ma Tembo, in their anthropomorphic forms of their native species. I notice that similar to me, everyone is wearing business casual clothing and there seems to be slightly more humans than hybrids, but perhaps that could be caused by the absence of most of the CEO's family.
"See you in a few minutes Edwin" Jasiri said as she went on to talk to a group of some of the hybrids from other departments.
"See ya" I replied, after which I further began to walk around the premises, and as I walk I bump into this figure of looks like to be some kind of shrine that was around seven or eight feet in length with a total of seven or eight roles of ascending stands with around two or three dozen frames on each platform. As I approached the shrine, each frame contained a sketch portrait of an animal...I take it that these were the animals that died during the drought and the Tree of Life coup. Above these frames are three small banners, one that says Tree of Life, another that says Outlands and another that says Pride Lands.
As I approached the shrine, I felt a hand tap my shoulder; I turned around to see that it was that Human Resources guy Rafiki...in his mandrill form. It's been a while since I last saw the guy, I'm just glad that he doesn't have a tranquilizer gun this time. All he did was just smiled at me for a little bit.
"Hello Dr. Mariani, I'm glad to see you here tonight. Before you leave your offerings to the shrine, make sure that you divide the flowers fairly among each set of memorials so that all of the deceased will be equally respected." He said in a calm tone, which caused me to make sure there were enough flowers in my bouquet to do that, seeing that I had enough to place around four flowers for each section of the shrine.
"I'll make sure of that and it's an honor to be invited to be part of this organization Raf-" Isaid as I turned around...only to find that he disappeared out of nowhere.
"Wait where did that guy go?" I quietly said before I started to head for the shrine.
I walked in front of the section labeled Tree of Life, I walked in front of these portraits to see that these sketches were done in incredible detail, capturing every freckle, every hair and iota of their appearance. I laid a couple of my flowers on the Tree of Life section and as I looked at the portraits and I noticed that there was a sketch of a lion that had a mane in a similar shape to a mohawk haircut, but I dismissed it because the lion looked young and the main was probably not fully grown. But the other portraits I saw intrigued me a little bit because when I looked closely at some of the other portraits, I saw that one portrait contained that of a tiger another depicted what looked like a polar bear...I was a little confused.
"That's odd, tigers are not native to Africa and polar bears are not even close to the continent." I said quietly as I started to hear footsteps behind me.
"Oh that's because they're not. The Tree of Life was a designated safe space in which animals suffering through illness or escaping war could find a safe place in which either we can help treat their ailments or help provide a safe refuge where they can call home. Some came from places extremely far to seek theTree of Life...including the Lion Guard guard and I since learned that the Tree of Life was most likely within the boundaries of the Gujarat state in India." a voice said.
I turned around to find that the voice behind me belonged to Beshte in his hippo form.
"Really? That's interesting to hear. Though I am curious, how were you able to walk to Africa all the way to southern Asia- oh wait, the Sinai Peninsula, okay now I understand how. Also, sorry I didn't say this earlier but hi Beshte! How's it going?" I said.
"I'm good Edwin, how about you?" Beshte replied.
"I'm fine, and I apologize if my question about the tiger and polar bear was offensive in any way?" I said.
"Oh no, it's completely fine to be curious, and besides five other of the humans here including your colleague Pete asked the same question several minutes ago, but you did figure out the Sinai Peninsula earlier than the rest." Beshte said as he laid some of his flowers on the Tree of Life memorial.
"Did you know any of them personally?" I said, which might have caused Beshte's expression to sadden a little bit.
"Yeah, I knew several of the animals in the pictures, for example, I used to have casual conversations everyday with the polar bear and tiger when I was doing my daily patrols, and…" Beshte said as he then moved his hand towards a portrait of what looked like a rockhopper penguin.
"I once saved his life and after that he used to tell some of the best stories, even when I know he mostly exaggerated them….." Besthe said before moving his hand towards the portrait of a honey badger who had a small label that read the word Binga.
"Oh yeah then there's Binga, I remembered that she was super close to my friend Bunga, we used to say that they were practically twins and Bunga even told me he wanted to be mates with her at one point...but when the coup came, she fought with us against Surak, Nirmala and their army of rogues. She tried all that she could but a group of a few of the rogue lions overpowered her and they basically tore her limb from limb. Bunga was so devastated at the time….perhaps that's why he's not here today since the memories seem to have traumatised him and I guess he doesn't really want to relive those experiences again…." Beshte recalled, after which he started to gesture towards the portrait of the young lion with the mohawk-like mane.
"And of course, I cannot forget Baliyo, who was the brother or Kion's ex, Rani and he was a member of the Night Pride that usually took the night shifts in guard duty. He was also a very close friend of mine and he was one of the nicest guys I've ever met. Unfortunately his uncle Surak took advantage of that and that led to Baliyo losing his life. I should have raised my suspicions when the rogues first entered the lands when we were doing our late afternoon patrol, Surak and Nirmala said that they were going to take the group to Kion and Rani to determine their purpose of visit. But when we met up with Kion and Rani, they said that neither Surak nor Nirmala ever came to them with a group of rogues, suddenly we heard a commotion so we heard a commotion and within an hour of conflict...Baliyo was dead…" Beshte said in a depressed tone and I just stayed silent because I didn't want to say something that will accidentally trigger him.
We eventually took a few steps forward and we ended up in front of the section with the banner labeled Outlands. I was intrigued because that was where Jasiri told me where she was from. I took some flowers from my bouquet and I laid them in front of the memorial and started to look at the portraits at that particular section and along with portraits of a few jackals and crocodiles, but most of the detailed sketches were those of many hyenas...I deduced that these hyenas were probably what composed of Jasiri's clan.
As I looked at the detailed portraits, I observed that almost half of the portraits depict hyenas with small black manes on the top of their head, while the others depict hyenas that had no black manes on their heads. I continued to peruse through the sketches, I came upon one of the hyena portraits of what looked like to be a female hyena with a short black mane. I looked at the inscription on the frame and it read the word Madoa, this makes me think back to when Jasiri told me about her past in the outlands and I recalled that she mentioned having a sister named Madoa. So I turned my head towards Beshte and gestured my hand towards the portrait.
"Hey Beshte, is this Jasiri's sister? Because I recalled that she told me that she had a sister named Madoa and I was wondering if this is the same Madoa?" I asked.
"Yeah, that was Madoa, I've met her on a couple of occasions, she was usually pretty quiet and reserved, but she was also pretty active when it comes to affairs with the hyena clan." Beshte said.
I again perused for the portraits again to arrive at another one, but this time was that of a male hyena that had a small black mane on their head. I read the inscription on the frame and I was intrigued when I found that the frame was inscribed with the name Janja. Implying that this sketch was of Jasiri's mate that was murdered during the drought.
"Okay….so this is Janja…." I said quietly to myself and continued to look at the detailed portrait of these hyenas and I can't help but be impressed by the detail that is in these sketched portraits. Almost every strand of hair was included and it almost feels like I was in the presence of these animals even when they are deceased and I had never met them before….but tonight I feel that I'm about to get to know the deceased slightly better.
Anyway, after that, Beshte and I walked towards the section with the banner which read Pride Lands. I saw that Beshte's expression changed to a more saddened one, which made me think that there was probably someone or more he closely knew in the Pride Lands. The both of us took the remaining flowers of our bouquets onto that section of the memorial.
I looked at several more detailed sketch portraits which include several portraits of herbivores such as zebras, gazelles, buffalo, elephants, giraffes and several others. I also saw several crocodiles and several lizards and a few hippos….I've noticed that Beshte was staring at this particular section.
"Hey Beshte….are you alright?" I asked out of concern. He slowly turned his head to me with a blank expression on his face.
"Oh yeah...I'm alright...I'm just looking at these portraits...Just looking at one of my dad…." Beshte said in a calming yet depressed tone. I was intrigued and I myself began to look closely at the portraits of the hippos and I approached the portraits more closely. I gestured my hand towards one of them.
"Oh okay...were you close to your dad?" I said and for some reason, Beshte started to look at me with a confused yet slightly amused look.
"Actually, that portrait is not my father, that was a family friend Nguvu, he frequently assisted my dad all the time when it came to affairs in the pod…." Beshte said while gesturing towards another sketch of a hippo with the label Basi on the frame.
"This was my father...Basi...and to answer your previous question...yes I was close to him...you can say he was also one of my closest friends. My mom died when I was young, and as I grew up, my dad and I used to talk about nearly everything together...the circle of life, life's obstacles, food sources, dealing with difficult situations...you name it. I did everything I could to save him but the water just kept drying out too fast and his body just couldn't handle the frequent dehydration or rationing of food sources and his body eventually just gave up on him. He was also still troubled by failing to protect some of the other members of the pod, while the remaining hippos of the pod just left the Pride Lands entirely, leaving the two of us the only two hippos there until he died…." Beshte said as he moved his hand towards what looked like an elephant calf approaching their mid adolescence.
"I was also close with this elephant, Mtoto, but...would it be okay if I don't talk about him right now because I get sad every time I recount his passing and I don't really want to damper on what is supposed to be an uplifting occasion." Beshte said as we both left the shrine and disposed of the wrappers our bouquets came in.
"Okay, no problem, I completely understand...so, now changing the subject. I was looking at the portraits in the shrine and I can't help but be impressed by the amount of detail carried out in each portrait. That Rafiki guy must be one hell of an artist...I'm impressed." I said, and Beshte's expression started to lighten up.
"Yeah, he is quite the artistic talent, he painted all of the paintings that recorded the Pride Lands history when we were still regular animals. But he actually only sketched the portraits in the Pride Lands section from the shrine." Beshte said, which caused me to become a little curious.
"Really? Then who sketched the portraits in the other two sections?" I asked.
"Well, from what I've been told, Makini sketched the portraits of the Tree of Life section, while I think Jasiri actually sketched those in the Outlands section. Each of them sketched the portraits of the deceased using only their memories and several pencils during their free time." He replied, which sparked my curiosity even further because I knew that she sometimes sketches for a hobby, but I did not know she had this much talent in sketching.
"Really? I knew that Jasiri sketched sometimes in her freetime, but I have no idea that she went to this extent with it, she's quite skilled as an artist." I said.
"Yeah, based on what she told me, she seems to have an impeccable memory." Beshte said.
We continued to walk around the area, talked to a few familiar faces around the museum and at one point, I saw someone that I've never seen before talking with Makini and Jasiri. It was a woman….or lioness I should say that seemed to have a similar fur color to Kovu, but it was slightly lighter and she was wearing a black skirt with a plain black blouse while holding a bouquet of yellow flowers, probably daffodils. This mystery lioness seems to be close to Jasiri and Makini based on their mannerisms around her.
"Hey Beshte, what department does that lioness work in because I have never seen her around the museum before?" I asked and Beshte just developed an awkward expression on his face.
"Oh her...yeah, you've never seen her because she no longer works here. She left years ago to pursue a career as an elementary school teacher." Beshte said.
"Okay, so what's her name?" I asked, which seemed to cause Beshte to become slightly uneasy for some reason but I do not know why.
"Oh yes…..her name is …..Rani…." Beshte said in an awkward tone and I was surprised when I heard the name based on previous items Beshte and others have told me.
"Wait?...That's Rani?...As in Kion's ex-wife Rani?..." I asked, and Beshte just nodded in response.
"Wait?...If she doesn't work here anymore then how does she know about this meeting." I asked.
"I have no idea to be honest….but I do know that she did grow closer to Rafiki and Makini while she was he, so they possibly sent her an invitation as a guest." Beshte said.
"Well...I guess we know why Kion's not here...you told me that Jasiri and Rani placed restraining orders on him and he would be violating both of them if he attended this event." I said.
"Possibly but I got a feeling that even if the restraining orders were not an issue or if he was invited, I still doubt he would even come because his personality has changed so much over the years and I'm not sure if he would ever be the same lion I once knew as my close friend." Beshte said.
Third Person P.O.V:
While Edwin and Beshte continued their ongoing conversation, Jasiri, Makini and Rani were casually talking to each other.
"...so yeah, that's what my weekend was like." Makini said.
"Okay, that sounded interesting, and about what you said about that lady in your yoga class, I never knew a leg can stretch to that angle." Jasiri said.
"Okay, now changing the subject, Jasiri, from what I hear, you are into this human that works here." Rani said in a mischievous tone.
"Oh yeah Jasiri…..tell us all about you and Edwin…" Makini said in that same tone, with each member of the group letting out a small laugh.
"Don't jump into conclusions so soon, we only went on one date so far and I would barely count that since I was still going over some insecurities about some previous relationships and you know…." Jasiri said.
"Yeah I can totally understand that…." Rani said in a slightly more empathetic tone.
"Although, I really do hope things go better with our second date because Edwin's such a nice guy and it's been a long time since I really felt comfortable with a guy and I hope that this will progress into a possible relationship….speaking of relationships….Makini told me that some guy who works at the school seems to have fallen for you? Is that true?" Jasiri said.
"Oh yeah...Henry...yeah he is a fourth grade teacher at the school, while I teach first grade. We mostly just hangout during the same teacher's lounge during our breaks and talk about our lives. He definitely seems to have feelings for me but I have no idea whether they are legitimate or on impulse because two months ago, he got out of a really bad divorce and I can relate to that because you know….and as he was telling me about all of the shit that went on between him and his ex-wife and I told him about the shit I went through with Kion and we just became really comfortable with each other." Rani said.
"That's cool, I hope it someday works out for you." Jasiri said.
"Yeah and Jasiri it's kind of funny that we both either dated or married the same lion and his violent behavior coincidentally led us to be interested in one of our human colleagues." Rani said.
"Actually Rani, I've dated a few humans before Kion and after Kion I did have one Tinder date or two, but those did not end well. Let's just hope these attempts at dating humans will work out for the both of us." Jasiri said.
The group soon walked towards the shrine with their bouquets.
Edwin P.O.V:
Beshte and I were having a casual conversation with Kiara, Kovu and a random person from the guest relations department, in which this person was a woman with long dark hair, nearly black with slightly lighter brown highlights, while wearing a turquoise, blue and green paisley blouse and black pants. I was just talking about my research, while Kovu brought up some of his work in the artifact conservation lab.
"Yeah, my research group and I have just started an extension of our initial study on the effects of changes of a surrounding environment to the molecular integrity of lichen genomes, which can help us determine the patterns of the genetic evolution of organisms that inhabit specific biomes. How is your work on those Mayan artifacts your lab received?" I asked.
"Your research sounds pretty interesting Edwin, and the restoration process of those Mayan artifacts is going well, although we did have a close call when one of my interns almost applied the wrong glue on an old vase, but luckily we found the right glue before the wrong glue was applied" Kovu said.
"It's a good thing too because the last time one of his interns screwed up on something, he ranted about it at home for nearly two days straight." Kiara said.
"Come on, Kiara, I didn't complain about it that much…" Kovu playfully said
"Oh yes you did Kovu, during that last time one of your interns messed up, you discussed it for hours with me and one of the colleagues from my department." Kiara replies.
"Yeah, I get that, my sister constantly tells me stories of crazy things that happen at her workplace and it can get a little repetitive after a while." The guest relations worker said, whose name I learned was Karla.
"What does your sister do, Karla?" Beshte asked.
"She works as an E.R doctor and you cannot believe how much stuff she tells me that happens on a daily basis." Karla said, which led all of us in the group to give empathetic understanding expressions for Karla.
"That's interesting Karla, because I've seen television shows about crazy stuff that happens in ERs and based on what your sister tells you, how much of it do you think is accurate?" Beshte asked.
"I guess that depends on the show because there are some that are pretty accurate, especially the ones that film directly in the ER, but my sister tells me that a couple of the shows that have dramatizations could be slightly exaggerated in regards to the emotions of those playing the physicians or patients." Karla said.
"Yeah, I get that, I have a cousin who's a nurse and they sometimes talk to me about the differences between real-life nurses and the fictionalized nurses on shows like Grey's Anatomy." I said.
We continued to talk for a little bit until we heard the sound of a microphone turn on and we heard a familiar voice sound out.
"Hello friends, we will begin the meeting in five minutes, please proceed to enter the lecture hall down the hall to take your seats. Don't forget to leave your bouquets at the memorial if you have not done so already." Rafiki's voice said through nearby speakers.
After hearing that announcement, most of us in the plaza headed down the hallway. I'm curious about what will go on during this meeting…..well I guess I just have to wait and see to find out.