Chapter 2 indlela sa bazalwane
"Alright , so Mufasa told me the abridged version of your little kitty-fight." Said Igunya with a smug smile.
She had choosen these words to instill precise irritation in the two cubs.
Having been previously put in charge of taking care of a variety the prides cubs, for a few evenings whenever the lionesses had gone hunting.
As such she knew a few tricks to get the little ones to obey her, without having phisically ground them.
She knew that every cub could be easily baited into obedience with the recognition of supposed grown up behaviour.
Reafirming their childishness could also help, be it through indicating that the previously mentioned maturity seems to be lacking.
In short, most cubs obeyed more easily if it meant that they were already big boys, just convayed with more nuance.
This was excactly what Igunya wanted to inwoke when calling Kuhisha and Simbas conflict a kitty fight.
"Kitty Fight ?" Responded Kuhisha and Simba in unison.
"Listen here. Perhaps Princess Simba isn't the most experienced fighter but it was..."
Started Kuhisha, only to be interrupted by Igunya. "Did you just 'listen here'd me?'. Young lion, i watched over you before, so you should know what happens if you keep this up ?"
She said with just enough hint of threat in her voice. Kuhisha swallowed. "Eugh. You gonna literrally ground me for an hour."
He responded. "That's right no manners ,equals no freedom of movement for you. The same applies to you "
She said turning to Simba." Simba just nodded.
Igunya could be very motherly in her aditude , but you better not cross her or she would become more authoritarian than the king himself.
"Alright, as i was saying," continued Igunya
"I know what happened beetween you two and I was therefore ordered to watch over you two while you partake in the indlela sa bazalwane.
It means the 'way of the brothers'. It's a tradition from a reeeaally long time ago." Igunya said.
"To the king and queen, twins were born. One young lion named Maji and one named Moto.
Maji and Moto were hard to tell appart right after birth and so the king couldn't make a decission on which one had been born first.
He therefore said that he would decide on it once the cubs had grown older.
The cub which showed the attributes of leadership would be named the future king.
As the cubs grew older they got along with one another marvolously and always were at each others side.
That is until they came to realise that only one of them could be king.
They started to argue and one day arguing wasn't enough, so they started to fight.
The fight went on for hours. It took place right amidst this rock formation." Said Igunya as she pointed to arena like rock formation.
"When the first rays of the sun touched the pridelands the next mourning , both Moto and Maji had passed out.
They were covered in bruises and scratches. Both of them came to it at excactly the same moment.
Now that they saw what they had done, with every bruise and scratch throwing shadows in the in the morning sun they were aghast.
They stared at each other for minutes before they finally appologized to one another an then started to talk.
They talked of that which had made them fight.
Becoming King. They both realized that neither of them really wanted to be King as of right now for they both held a deep worry in their hearts.
They worried that they might dissapoint their father.
So they talked for another two days, only leaving the spot to drink and eat until they had drawn the conclussions they needed to draw.
Moto would leave the tribe many years later and become leader of his own tribe.
Maji became King of pride rock and the rest is obviously history."
Igunya finished the story with a satisfied smile.
"So i take it you want us to talk things out ? Wouldn't it sufice if i just said sorry to Simba ?" Interjected Kuhisha.
Igunya looked at Kusisha with bemused doubt.
" As if you would actaully mean it.
I was a kid once too and I know full well that if I actually wanted to apologize to someone I would just do it.
Being forced to apologize just meant that you weren't sorry. So to answer you question, Kuhisha , no it wouldn't sufice.
However you are right, you two are supposed to talk things out. The indlela sa bazalwane normally takes three days to complete.
You will mostly just interract with with one another during this period of time.
Short visits from friends and of course your parents are allowed. But the point of this tradition is for you two to come to an understanding.
You don't have to end up loving each other but mutual respect should be the prefered outcome."
Igunya paused to sort her thoughts and was about to continue when Kuhisha started to talk again.
"But what if princess Simba gets scared during the night and cries for his mommy?" Taunted Kuhisha. Simba shot him an angry look and growled.
"Fu** you Kuhisha you're just a dumba**" Igunya sighed and interferred.
"Listen here you two. You can both still fight about which one of you two is the biggest mamas boy but for now you two will hear me out.
I'm almost done. I myself will watch over you two for the duration of the ritual.
Trying to run away will prove futile given that, even if you manage to evade me, I'll still tell your parents and we will be back to square one.
Fighting in the physical sense will not be allowed.
It might have been part of the initial ritual but for obvious reasons you two will not be allowed to fight untill you collapse.
I will lead you at least once a day to the waterhole where you can have a drink and eat.
We will obviously go together to the watering hole. Obey these rules and the three days will go by like nothing.
With that is said, have fun. You are free to roam inside the rock formation at your will"
Finished Igunya and started to climb on top of the arena shaped rock formation.
Kuhisha and Simba still stood there, taken a bit aback by Igunyas directness.
"Come on you two, no need to be shy. You'll have to next three days to get used to it"
Encouraged Igunya with a surprisingly motherly smile.
"Alright, ladies first." Taunted Kuhisha as he guestured Simba to move.
Squinting at Kuhisha in anger and growling at him menacingly Simba replied.
"I'm not walking in first because you told me to I do it cause I want to"
Kuhisha followed suit grinnign victoriously as he once again had provoked the prince of the pridelands.
Kuhisha, a cub with sizeable tuft of white fur on his head, regarded Simba with contempt.
In his eyes Simba was just a spoiled brat.
Someone whom he could easily verbally outmanouver. A hoity toity cub who was only asking to be put in his place.
Kuhisha knew he had struck gold when he had found out about the princess hobbies such as singing ,dancing and most importantly hunting.
Setting his gang on Simba was easy , especially when the prince became ever so easily deffensive.
Kuhisha felt a certain rush in the knowledge that he could easily wind up the future King of the pridelands.
Ganging up on him during the last few days had merely been the cherry on top.
At times he asked himself if there was also jelousy motivating his actions but he almost always disregarded thoughts like these.
Though at times there were nights when the doubt would linger like fog in the morning.
Kuhisha stepped into the middle of the rock formation where grass had grown masively.
Igunya walked along the the outer rim of the formation and watched the cubs like a sentinel.
Kuhisha decided to ignore her for now and lay down putting his head on his crossed front paws. He observed a bug crawling through the tall grass.
He knew that if he went full force on Simba now, his later insults would bare less fruit.
The sun began to set over the pridelands and the stars came out.
Neither Simba nor Kuhish had said a word since they had entered the formation.
After a while both cubs fell asleep.
Agunya watched them snooze. "One could almost forget about how obnoxious these two can be ." She wispered to herself
Then she jumped down and lay infront of the formations entrance and fell asleep herself.
End of chapter 2
Chapter 3: Verba hac nocte
