Chapter 13: The Growing StormIt was after dark when Notai was awakened by fervent activity. Yunhee was still laying next to her, but her mother was gone. She looked around trying to take in what was going on, but she was still groggy. Lionesses were scampering back and forth, many voices were talking at once and the general chaos was making her head spin. The first thing she became fully aware of was the fact that Yunhee was leaning very heavily against her, the white lioness shrunk to the ground, her eyes nervously following the activity. The next thing the princess became aware of was the fact that someone was injured in the back of the den, and everyone was crowding around to help. Notai lept to her feet, startling Yunhee, and uttered a single syllable under her breath.
"Kimi."
"It's not her," Yunhee said quietly.
"What do you mean it's not her?" Notai demanded, "It has to be her."
"No, it's a young male. They called him-"
"Sky! I almost forgot about him I was so worried about Kimitar," Notai said making her way toward the back to try and see. "Is he alright?"
No one seemed to hear her, so Yunhee responded, "He didn't look so good, but they seem to think he'll recover."
"Alright back OFF," Vitani's voice echoed from where the wounded lion lay, "Give him some space, wouldya? There's nothing else we can do for now." At her words, the crowd began to dissipate. As they did so, Jongeni who had been amongst the crowd, stopped seeing that Notai was awake. Tears filling his eyes, the young male closed the distance between them nuzzled the princess.
"You're ok," he whispered, pain in his voice. Yunhee felt awkward watching them, and looked away. She wondered if they were mates, or if they were intended to be.
"Yes, I'll be fine," Notai said, "but I'm worried Kimitar's-"
"Gone," Jongeni said with a sob, cutting her off, "she's dead..."
Notai's heart sank. She'd known that her sister's chances had been slim, but she'd held on to the naive hope that she'd pull through. She felt almost instantly entirely numb.
"No... it's my fault..." she breathed.
"Don't blame yourself..." Yunhee said in her quiet voice, trying to comfort the princess. But Notai didn't seem to hear her and just addressed Jongeni again.
"Where is she?"
"All we found was blood, lots of blood. It wreaked of death... and the scent of her..." he sobbed.
"Then I won't give up on her! I can't. She could still be out there, the smell of death could've come from our kill, and some of the blood, too-"
"Don't you get it? Your sister's gone! And she isn't coming back! Why did you two run off anyway! What did you expect to prove? Did either of you stop to think about the things that might happen to you? Did either of you realize you could be killed? And did you think about how that would affect the rest of the pride? Did she think about how it would affect me!" he snapped. The two stared at each other in a shocked and hurt silence for a few moments, and then Jongeni turned and stormed out of the cave. Notai's eyes followed him, and she noticed her parents sitting outside; her mother weeping and her father trying to comfort her. It couldn't be true. They hadn't found a body, so Kimitar could still be alive.
"Why are they all giving up on her? She could still be out there!"
"Maybe I can help," Yunhee piped up, "I'm familiar with the lands around here. Maybe I could find her."
"Thank you for offering," Notai said, walking back over to the albino lioness and sitting down next to her on the cool rock floor, "but you won't know her if you see her or smell her. It would be no good unless I went with you."
"Can't you though?"
"After what happened last time I left here in a party of two? No. My mother wouldn't allow it even if I wanted to leave.. and as much as I want to find Kimitar, I don't think the two of us could do it alone."
"Surely someone would be willing to help us."
"Like who? Look at them all, they're convinced she's dead. What else can I do?" the distraught princess bawled, falling to the cold stone floor of the den. Yunhee looked at her sadly, wondering how she could help her new friend.
---
Kimitar's eyes widened as she caught the faint scent of her sister and an unfamiliar lioness at this stream. She tried not to let it show that she recognized one of the scents here as she lapped up water. Nafsi was sniffing the area with a strange look on her face as they waited for the dark lioness to drink her fill. Did the gray lioness recognize the other lioness's scent or something?
"Aiden, you smell that?" she asked her son, flipping the tuft of hair out of her eyes.
"Yeah, Yunhee was here not long ago. She must still be close."
"Indeed. That, and it seems her scent is all over this place, older though. She must be living close to here."
"Really?" Kimitar asked, joining in their conversation, "That's great! Maybe you'll be able to find her soon."
"Yeah, but we'll have to rest first. Let's go lay under those trees so we don't get trampled in the night by animals in desperate need of water," the older lioness said dryly. It was clearly meant as humor, but neither Aiden nor Kimitar laughed, or so much as chuckled. The trio just quietly made their way to the shelter of the trees on the edge of the jungle they'd come close to. Kimitar and Aiden laid down near each other in the shelter, but Nafsi made her way a litter further into the trees.
"What is it like, living in a pride?" Aiden asked. Kimitar looked up at the sky, thinking of her family.
"It... it was nice," she said, "You're never on your own, and you have your family there with you all the time. And friends, too. There's lots of fun to be had... but it wasn't all great for me. I look like someone who... caused a lot of trouble for the pride, so they paid more attention to my sister. Some of them were even a bit rude and mean to me because I resemble that lion."
"Scar?"
"Zira."
"Oh, I had forgotten about her. My mother and I didn't hear much about Zira, she was before my time, and mother mostly knew the story of Scar. I don't know much about your pride's history," Aiden said.
"My
former pride," Kimitar said under her breath.
"Right, sorry. So your resemblance to her, is that what caused this... uh..."
"Do you mean is that why I can't go back?"
"Yeah."
The dark lioness pawed at the earth for a moment, thinking of the best way to answer. Finally, she said, "In a way... it sort of had something to do with it. There were other... circumstances as well, though."
"What happened, if you don't mind my asking?" he asked.
"I do mind," she replied shortly and stood, walking a few steps away from him before lying back down. The conversation was over.
---
"I'm telling you, we shouldn't have taken the kill from those lionesses," the hyena called
Awiti was telling her clan's matriarch as they drew nearer to the Pridelands.
"You're not still on about that are you?" the matriarch asked in an annoyed tone.
"Why not? Lions take our food all the time," another hyena piped up.
"Ah don't mind the lion-lover, she'll never let it go."
Awiti sighed. It would take a lot to get through to them, but she was used to that. They never much cared for the things she had to say. They liked her well enough it seemed, they took care of her, she wasn't always treated this way, some times they were very nice to her, in fact, and they refused to leave her behind. However, because of the lion-shaped mark on her rump, she was usually ignored in matters of this sort. She tried again to reason with them.
"Lionesses never travel together in solitary pairs. They belonged to a pride, probably the one based at Pride Rock, and they will come looking for the missing lionesses, especially if the one that got away gets back to the pride. They are going to attack us, and if their whole pride comes after us, we won't be able to overcome them all. Attacking those two was foolish," she insisted.
"Yeah, and aren't you the one who convinced us that the one wasn't a threat?" demanded the matriarch.
"She
isn't, her pride is! That's why I tried to convince you to let them both escape. If that darker one died out there we'll be dead for sure! We have got to get away from here before the pride finds us," Awiti argued.
"Let 'em come! It's about time we teach those lions a lesson. We should be running things, not them! Look at what they've done to us! We're barely hanging on, it's time to take what's ours."
"Matriarch, please. I don't want to see you die, I don't want to see anyone get hurt," the younger hyena pleaded. All of the hyenas around her burst into fits of laughter, some of them dropping to the ground and rolling on their backs. Awiti rolled her eyes, waiting for the laughter to die down and give her another chance to speak. When the matriarch's laughing ceased, she looked Awiti in the eyes.
"Your concern is touching, but I think we'll manage just fine. We don't even know they'll come after us, it's just
your speculation," the leader said, dismissing Awiti's theories.
"What if our roles had been reversed?" she demanded, "What if two of our females had made a kill and the lion's pride had stolen it, and killed one of the females? Wouldn't we go after
them? So why wouldn't they come after us?"
"Because we're already going after them, sweet-cheeks," the matriarch chuckled, staring towards Pride Rock. The clan moved up behind her, all of the hyena eyes focusing on the home they'd once had, a home some of them had never known. Scar had given those lands to them, and then he'd betrayed them and lost the lands back to the other lions. It had been theirs, and the matriarch was determined that it should be theirs again. "We once owned these lands. Under Scar, we had what we needed. It was only because of that lion that everything went south. We will have this land back, but this time, we will not follow any
lion's ordersㅡ we will rule ourselves, and we will drive them out!"
Awiti's jaw dropped in astonishment. "What? We can't do that!"
"Why not? Because you feel sorry for those monsters? What good has a lion ever done for us?" snapped the matriarch.
"No, I mean we can't do that, we'll all be killed," the other hyena insisted.
"Just because you think so highly of lions doesn't mean they're all that," the matriarch snarled, "You can either help us defeat them, or run into their loving arms and see what that gets you!"
"We can't overpower them..."
"Either shut up and deal with it or get lost. We don't need weak links bringing us down."
"Fine. I can't watch as you get everyone killed," Awiti said sternly, walking past the matriarch and towards Pride Rock.
"If you leave, you're not welcome in this clan anymore!" shouted the matriarch.
The rebellious hyena stopped and looked back at her leader, "And if I stay, I'll die for sure. I'll take my chances reasoning with lions before assaulting them." With that, she began to run into the Pridelands, ignoring the shouts of her clan behind her. Hopefully the lioness who had escaped would have made it back to Pride Rock by now, and the one she'd convinced them to spare was hopefully alive and well too. If so, she might be able to convince the lions to spare her, at least, if not the clan. She had no other options at this point if she wanted to survive. She hoped the lions would be more willing to listen to her than her clan was.