The Lion King: Dawn Of The Nations

Episode 30: Breakage

Jenuk ran like he never did before, with his paws aching and his lungs at their limit, his hind leg was bleeding by the bite of his brother. "I´ll catch you, brother!" Jakir warned with a ruthless chuckle. "I´ll catch you!"

"Jenuk, please! It´s not funny!" Jenuk replied, his breathing was heavy and quick.

"It´s not meant to be! This is life, Jenuk, you fight or you d…!" Jakir gasped and widened his eyes, stopping his steps rapidly and briefly sitting down, then he got into his paws again and started to walk backwards, with his ears lowered and a face of fear.

Jenuk hid behind his mother, who was walking towards Jakir. "Fight or what, Jakir?" Jaira got closer to him. "Fight or what!"

Jakir trembled and stopped walking, laying over the ground and lowering his head. "Nothing..."

"No, tell me!" Jaira grabbed him with her jaws and threw him, making him to land strongly over the ground. Jakir coughed and groaned then looked at his mother, who was walking around him. Jenuk had gone to the cave which was already near. "Jakir!" Jaira insisted.

"Or die!" Jakir exclaimed with tears on his face. "You fight or you die!" He started to cry as his mother´s eyes of scold and rage were unbearable for him.

"Are you stupid, Jakir?! What were you thinking?!" Jaira approached him. "Starting fights, hurting our gentile hosts! Hurting your own brother!" Jakir didn´t say a word. "Answer to me!"

"Sorry!" Jakir exclaimed, still sobbing. "I was bored, that´s all!"

Jaira´s eyes widened. "And that gives you the right to do what you did?!"

"No." Jakir spoke softly.

"Jakir!" Jaira´s rage had grown.

"No!" Jakir got into his paws, keeping his glare on hers.

Jaira looked at him for a long moment, with a frown of disappointment and anger. "You sleep outside, ten days." She turned and started to walk away.

Jakir gasped. "Mom! It´s cold at night!" Jaira looked at him over her back, managing to end the discussion with her authoritarian glance. Jakir stood there, still affected by his mother´s scold as the trembling of his body didn´t stop.

Meanwhile, in the cave, Jasiri was laying on the ground along with her cubs and mate, licking the wounds of Jara, while Janja did the same with his son´s. "Shhh...it´s okay, sweetie...it´s all over." Jasiri reassured, licking her bleeding forehead. "I´m here."

"Dad, I wanted to fight at first but...my sister." Jaye spoke between sobs of guilt.

Janja chuckled reassuringly. "You did the right thing, my son." He kept licking his wounded face. "I´m here, I won´t let anything happen to you or your sister."

Jenuk was sitting on the opposite corner of the cave, looking at them with a guilty glare. Jaira entered the cave and walked towards him. "Let me see..." She made him lay down. "Oh..." She gasped when seeing his trembling hind leg, covered in blood. She growled. "That little beast..." She said with anger and started to lick Jenuk´s leg.

"Where is Jakir?" Jenuk asked.

"Outside." Jaira responded.

"You punished him?" Jenuk inquired, gasping after his mother licked a painful spot on his wound.

Jaira kept licking his wounded leg. "He must learn his lesson, Jenuk." After finishing, she straightened and smirked at him. "Rest, son." She turned and walked towards Janja and Jasiri with shame. "I´m so sorry. This shouldn´t have happened." Jaira lowered down her head while shaking it. "Maybe we should leave."

"Oh, Jaira." Jasiri got into her paws and walked towards her. "They´re just kids...these things happen."

Jaira sighed. "I´ll make sure he learns, Jasiri." She looked at Janja and the cubs. "You have a splendid family. We don´t deserve to be here."

Jasiri looked into her ashamed eyes for a moment then she got closer to her and stroked her neck with hers. "You´re family too, Jaira. You and your cubs." She backed away, keeping her glare on hers. "We are in this together."

Meanwhile, in the desert plains, the errant hyenas were walking, a slightly reduced number of them as some weren´t able to survive the unmerciful heat of the sun. Jantu walked at his mother´s side, both of them tried to stay standing by resting their sides against the other´s. "You´re close, my son." The mother said, her eyes were half closed. "You will make it."

"We will, mom." Jantu said with a broken voice. "We all will."

The mother let out a long sigh. "Not me." Her steps began to weaken. "This sun...this depletion." She looked into her son´s eyes. "It´s too m...much." The hyena suddenly fell over the ground.

"Mom!" Jantu crouched and tried to lift her, moving her with his snout desperately. "Mom, please, don´t leave me." He started to cry deeply and bitterly. Jantu licked her forehead several times, his sadness became stronger, he laid over her side while sobbing and gasping. He closed his eyes after a while, wanting his life to end already, as he had lost all hope. His ear twitched when hearing sudden laughs of fear and death, along with screams of pain and terror. He gasped and opened his eyes, noticing all the hyenas running in the opposite direction. Jantu got into his paws, hesitating, listening to his heart´s call for survival. The teen hyena looked at his mother for the last time, he crouched a bit and licked her forehead again. He turned and followed the rest of the hyenas in their desperate rush. He looked over his back occasionally to see if he could figure out what was going on. Jantu gasped after seeing a pair of hyenas getting pierced by the horn of a huge rhino. The fear invaded him right away, his weakness seemed to have vanished as his steps started to get faster, he continuously switched his gaze between backwards and frontwards. The roars of the lions, the chirrups of the cheetahs and the growls of the rhinos increased his trepidation, the pain on his paws was strong, but if he stopped running even a second, his chances of escape would be nil. Jantu witnessed how his kind was getting exterminated, the cheetahs reached his compatriots with no difficulty at all, jumping at them fiercely, ending with their lives in a blink, the lions´ strong tackles brought them down one by one and their lives were taken by their jaws.

Jantu decided to separate from the agglomeration, rapidly yet carefully running through the gaps he found between the hyenas´ desperate escape. His gaze was now fully at the front, he dodged his equals with quick, decisive movements and jumped over them occasionally. He heard a nearby scream and instinctively looked at his left side, seeing how a lion and a pair of cheetahs were tearing apart a hyena, he closed his eyes strongly and looked away, horrified, keeping running. Jantu finally exited the crowd, looking back and widening his eyes with terror when seeing the rhino and the lion that chased him from afar. He looked back at the front and started to breathe and run faster, his paws and legs still ached but he kept running nonetheless. He narrowed his eyes a bit as he was spotting a crack at the distance, having no idea on where possibly could that lead him into, it could be either a certain death or a convenient escape. Jantu had no choice anyway, so he kept breathing and running, feeling his own intensified heartbeats, hearing the chirrups and the growls getting closer, glaring at the crack that was approaching. He let out a groan of effort and pain then started to gasp, refusing to look back, only focusing on the crack that could mean death or salvation. The darkness that the crack showed didn´t stop him to jump into it.

The cheetah had almost reached him, she stopped her steps right at the edge of the crack, seeing how Jantu hit the rocky walls of the inside strongly while falling, the last hit left a part of the brown wall stained with blood, then he fell into the river that flowed inside the crack, leaving a trace of blood in the running water. The coldness of the river and the darkness of the crack embraced Jantu, the ache on his legs and the pain from his new wound were non-existent to him, the hyena only felt the rapid stream taking him to the unknown, always in darkness, carrying him and guiding his path. His head exited occasionally from the water, thanks to the uneven turns of the river, Jantu got unconsciously restful with the fresh smell of green that he had never smelled in his entire life. The darkness of the crack suddenly vanished, as well as the crack itself, as Jantu was now traveling between tall trees, robust bushes and small, gray, rocky caverns. The light of the sun passed shyly through the far leaves of the trees, illuminating the river with subtlety. Jantu kept being carried by the current, until he got stuck between a rock and a branch. After a while, his ears twitched, receiving echoing, young voices, but his unconscious mind couldn´t unveil the words behind them.