chapter 1: show
Secret Retreat
Chapter 1: Final Slash
The golden hue of the morning sun started to rise from the eastern horizon. With its presence came the many sounds of dawn—the singing of birds, the galloping of herds, and the croaks of insects and lizards all brought a lively feeling of serenity to the air. Light bled into the cracks and caves of Pride Rock, quickly resulting in twitchy ears and tails within the internal catacombs of the spire. Predictably, a symphony of yawns sprouted from the mix, as well.
After no short amount of time, the entire horizon was rustling and rumbling with the activities of lions and hyenas alike. The many lionesses struggled to keep up the kill count on their hunts, while the legion of hyenas enjoyed a more luxurious life than ever before. No matter the hour of day, the throne room remained occupied by Scar and Scar alone. With few exceptions, every other creature was out and about, trying to make ends meet from dawn until dusk.
The new king was quick to assert his place on the throne, but not a single lion had the guts or the authority to challenge him. His rise to power was smooth and swift, and though the Pridelanders had been falling into a decline of happiness ever since, no lion dared to place the blame on him. No lion... except for one.
Far from the happenings of the typical morning, a young, cubbish Nala paced upward, around to the alley out back. The shadows of Pride Rock through which she trekked were very much different from the commons. It was far more of a dangerous place to be, with its rocky slopes and rough ridges. It was an entirely different environment on the western half of the promontory, and it was an environment Nala learned to love.
Since the death of her best friend, Nala struggled to cope with her loss. Because her mother and the remainder of the huntresses remained busy through most hours of the day, Nala was forced to entertain herself. By the unfortunate circumstances of nature, she was thrown out into a cold, harsh world, and left with only the scraps of affection her mother could provide at the beginning and end of each exhausting day. That was it.
For the longest time, Simba's death had brought Nala great despair. Her mood tumbled into a continuous state of depression, while her hopes withered away. The vast world itself condensed into a dull shade of grey, and the only sense of comfort Nala could find during the day came from the darkest alley in the back, as strange as that was.
At this point, it was becoming very much a routine of sorts. Every morning, Nala walked with her mother down to the waterhole for a drink, and then ran to the den on the far side of Pride Rock. There, she was free to roam—free from Scar, free from hyenas, and free from the worries of adult life. Naturally, Nala found comfort in the darkness of solitude. However, more importantly, she also found something else.
Someone else, to be exact.
With the sun barely above the horizon, Nala trotted into one of the dens out back. Her weight bounced lightly on her paws, while her short little cub tail waved through the air behind her. Eventually her pace slowed, as she approached the whiskers of a shady female lioness inside. Catching her breath, Nala's energy died down to a lower level—but she still placed her forepaws above the elder's muzzle like any cub would do, depressed or otherwise.
"Good morning, Callista!" Nala greeted her older friend. She released a purr from her throat, while she waited for the sign of a twitchy eyelid.
Naturally, the sleeping adult lioness exhaled a sigh from her nostrils, which consequently sent a shiver down Nala's spine. For Callista, it was too early for this sort of thing. Not now, she thought. Not today.
Nala backed away, but then leaned forward to throw herself over Callista's ear. "Come on," Nala smiled. "Get up! I wanna play!"
After a long pause, Callista finally opened her eye. She twitched her muzzle, and felt a pool of drooled saliva below her nosepad. Although she was having pleasant dreams of the days to come in her sleep, Nala's rude awakening quickly brought an end to her fictional world of happiness. But it wasn't her fault; she was just a cub. She didn't know any better.
No one knew any better.
"You're awake!" Nala announced with a smile planted firmly onto her muzzle. She rolled over onto her back, and reclined into the warm and cozy comfort of Callista's silky neckfur.
"Right..." Callista sighed. Her voice was short and sparse, hardly sublime in the least. Her words carried little emotion, for she spoke only the bare minimum necessary. "I'm awake now."
Nala licked her older friend's ear, almost causing Callista to wince at the loud purr. The cub then began to knead her way across to the other side of Callista's shoulder, until she plopped down onto the caveground, rolling backward and clumsily dropping her tail over her head. "What do you want to do today?" she inquired from her awkward, upside-down position, with a strange sense of cheer and happiness.
Callista closed her eyes and shook her head. "Nothing."
"Aww, why not?" Nala inquired. "All the other adults are busy, even the hyenas," she stated. "We can do fun stuff today. Like play tag, or go to the river..."
Quickly growing annoyed by Nala's sudden barrage of questions, Callista stood up onto her paws. This was her last morning—and this wasn't the way she wanted to spend it. Nope, not at all. She would rather die than spend the last day with Nala. Though it sounded rude, she had her reasons. She couldn't do it.
"Nala," Callista interrupted, placing her paw over the cub's tail. "Please... just let me be. Today... isn't the right day for this."
"But how come?" Nala asked, innocently enough as it seemed. "Don't you want to have fun?"
"No..." Callista ignored the young cub, as well as her frivolous question. It did not deserve her serious consideration. Instead, she focused her attention to the wall on the inside of her den. It was a typical cave wall in most respects—dark, dull, and flat in appearance. However, as golden light started to pierce through from the outside, many series of marks became visible to Callista and Nala's collective eyes.
The marks were engraved crosses, grouped into rows of five. Ten rows ran up from the floor and down to the ceiling, in columns along the wall. In total, there were ten full columns, each containing fifty crosses. Overall, the entire wall was basically a grid of crosses, with the entire wall resembling too many marks for any lion to count individually.
Callista, however, counted them easily. As she gazed at the wall, she raised one of her paws up in the air to point and started counting from left to right. "Fifty, one hundred, one fifty, two hundred, two fifty, three hundred, three fifty, four hundred, four fifty, five hundred..." she whispered. After inhaling a breath of air, she looked at the remainder of the marks—which weren't quite numerous enough to fill another column. "Five, ten, fifteen, twenty, twenty five, thirty, thirty five..."
Nala looked up to Callista's stern and thoughtful expression. "What are you doing?" she asked.
Again, Callista ignored the cub's question. "Five hundred and thirty five," she stated, almost feeling somewhat proud of herself. There were five hundred and thirty five cross marks on the entire wall, but there was still one mark that she hadn't counted. It wasn't a cross—it was a slash. The last mark was incomplete, without another slash to cross it.
However, that wasn't going to last for much longer.
Slowly, Callista meandered around Nala and walked straight up to the cave's wall. She placed one of her paws flat on the wall, over a few of the cross marks. However, this was just for balance. With her other forepaw, she unsheathed one of her claws, and exposed the shiny black tip of a point. Like any feline's, Callista's claws were razor sharp tools of destruction. That said, she cleverly managed to find other uses for them.
The adult lioness brought her claw up toward the one slash mark, and put another slash through it. The action made a terrible screeching sound, but to Callista, it was a sound of pure beauty. "And now..." Callista announced quietly, "five hundred and thirty six." The end of her muzzle rose to a faintly visible smile. For some odd reason or another, she couldn't help but to be proud of herself.
"That's the last one..." Nala stated. "They're all crosses now." She then returned to staring at Callista's golden eyes with the intense curiosity that only a cub could have. She had seen Callista put a single slash through one of the remaining slashes every morning, but she had never seen her friend quite like this. Callista was far more focused than usual. It was as if all she was thinking about was whatever the wall represented.
Whatever that was.
"What does that mean?" Nala asked. As a cub, she didn't understand. She had no idea what it was that Callista was counting every morning, and she had even less of an idea what it was for or why her older friend was doing it. It was just five hundred and thirty six. What was so special about that?
The shallow bit of a smile Callista had on her face just moments ago quickly faded away. Of course she knew what it meant, but she couldn't say it. As she looked down at the cub, she felt nothing but a deep surge of pain. The day of the completion of the final mark was supposed to be a happy moment for her, but it wasn't turning out that way. With each passing second, the lioness grew more and more hesitant, uncomfortable with her thoughts.
Sadly, Callista's bad feelings were all Nala's fault. And as such, the cub had to go.
Callista had to look away. She couldn't bear the sight of Nala's innocent and unknowing eyes. It was like staring into the center of an erupting volcano, and that was putting it lightly. Nala's face, her memories, and her relentless, unconditional affection... for reasons the adult lioness couldn't explain, it was all too much for her to face directly. "Just... run along now," she insisted. "You'll understand someday."
"But why can't I understand now?" Nala asked. She lowered her ears a little.
The lioness groaned under her shallow breaths. Much to her disarray, the cub just never seemed to cease her inquiries. It was as if she was going through a relentless phase of questioning everything. But why now? Why today, of all days?
Callista just wanted the peace of solitude. Nothing more, nothing less.
After a few more seconds, Callista fell back onto her paws. Her weight collapsed to the ground, and the bottom of her chin banged into the cave's floor with a lethargic thud. Just the act of trying to get past the cub's inquiries was giving her a headache and draining her energy. "I can't tell you, Nala," she said. "It's... a... an adult thing. You wouldn't understand."
Nala grinned. "Pleeeeeeease?" She stepped closer to the fallen lioness, and again rubbed her head on her shoulder. "I promise, I won't tell anyone!"
"I'm not telling you," Callista insisted. "I'm not telling anyone. Now please, just let me be alone today. Just this once..." It was a polite, harmless request from the elder, but in truth, she couldn't make the cub go away fast enough.
"But I'm your friend," Nala argued. She crawled her way over on top of the lioness, and set her forepaws up between Callista's ears. "You can tell me... can't you?"
Internally, Callista winced at the implied meaning behind Nala's words. Though the cub didn't know it, Callista assured herself it wasn't like that at all. She didn't want it to be. Nala wasn't her friend; in reality, Callista couldn't have friends. The closer she allowed herself to be with her pride, the more pain she was going to bring herself in the long run.
She couldn't allow that to happen. In truth, she couldn't ever tell Nala. Nala didn't understand in the slightest, nor would she ever understand. The young liongirl was painfully naive, and that was precisely why she had to go. Callista had to be alone. No exceptions.
"I'm sorry, Nala," Callista stated. "You're going to have to play by yourself, today."
The smile on Nala's face diminished. Based on the sternness of her companion's voice, she knew that arguing really was futile. It would not be a fun day for the cub, and she now knew there was no way around that. "Fine," she conceded. She then stepped down from Callista's head, and moved to stand on the den's floor. "But you're not a very good friend..." she whined in a defiant response of disappointment.
"I know," answered Callista, while her eyes were still closed from the pain of being around such an amicable and inquisitive cub. "But... I'm not your friend."
The focus of Nala's ears and tail immediately darted to the ground. "Oh..." she mumbled. "I thought..."
Yet again, Callista felt even more discomfort in her gut. Why was this so hard? It didn't matter what she said, she couldn't be around Nala without making herself feel awful. Her heart was at the very bottom of the pit of hell. She just needed the cub to leave her alone, and she needed it to happen now. Was it really that much to ask?
"Please," Callista insisted with even greater sternness, using what little energy she could muster. She didn't want to be rude, but she had no other choice. "Just leave me alone for today." Her voice denied it, but she was nearly begging on the inside.
Nala turned away dejectedly. "Okay..." she muttered, leaving the cave's entrance. "I'll see you tomorrow, then..."
Again, Callista closed her eyes. She wouldn't be seeing the little one tomorrow, and that much was written in stone. This was it. This was final.
As she thought about it again, a sharp pain developed in the adult lioness's gut. This time, the premise was even more unbearable than before. Nala really didn't understand. She had no idea what was truly about to happen—but that was the way it needed to be. Callista would have it no other way.
Nala didn't know anything. It was for the best, Callista thought.
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A/N: The name Callista is an adaption of the name Callisto, the fourth moon around Jupiter. The name comes from the fact that her pelt color is similar to the moon's color, and the overall appearance of the moon looks like a cat's eye.