chapter 10: show
A/N: Woooo! 10th chapter! Believe it or not, I'm actually managing to stick to my intended schedule of weekly updates with this story, so far. It's kinda difficult, considering that these chapters tend to be rather long, and I really hope the quality hasn't suffered much as a result. However, I have also noticed that this story is getting much easier to write as I progress, so I'm hoping I'll be able to keep up the weekly updates over the summer.
A small line of light illuminated the rocky floor of the den, reflecting directly back into Riza's eyes. She winced slightly, squinting a bit to reduce the brightness. Obviously, the night was over. That had passed long ago.
But the bright morning sun was not what woke her. A loud rumbling noise was being emitted from beside the lioness, which she could hear over even the continuous roar of the waterfall. She noticed that Mohatu was purring in his sleep, using Mari's extended forepaw as a pillow for his head.
Of course, that was hardly surprising. She looked around carefully, thinking about whether or not to wake the other two lions by telling them she needed to leave for a moment.
Considering that she would not be gone for long, she decided not to. She let her first paw slide off the rock gently, and the rest of her body followed shortly after, plunging into the cold water.
The sound of the splash woke the other two lions, but by the time they realized what had happened, Riza was long gone.
"Jeez," Mari exclaimed. "Is it really morning already?"
Mohatu's eyes opened steadily, while his wide smile faded away.
"...and what were you so happy about?" Mari grinned, leaning forward to stretch her spine out before the long walk ahead.
The lion stood dead still for a moment. "What?"
"You were purring all night," Mari explained.
"Oh," Mohatu replied, looking at the rock below his paws for a split second. "Was I?"
"Yeah. It was kinda loud, too."
Not surprisingly, he was thinking about her. Judging by his posture before he was awakened, that fact was rather blatant, and he knew it.
But, despite not seeing Riza anywhere in sight, Mohatu could not bring himself to tell her the truth. The question caught him by surprise, and he was not prepared to answer it in any way.
Quickly, he tried to tell a lie. "My nose is a little congested. I was probably snoring."
Without any further inquiries, Mari dropped the subject. "I guess so."
Yet, whether or not she knew the truth was hidden beneath her voice. Instead of dwelling on the issue, the lioness quickly prepared herself to jump into the frigid water. "Come on," she added. "Let's meet up with Riza and get outta here while we still can."
"Alright," Mohatu nodded.
The two lions swam back under the cliff at roughly the same time, emerging seconds later below the fall. The heavy water poured down on Mohatu's mane, making clear trails deep in his fur until it dripped off into the river. It was quite cold, but it did have the unexpected advantages of cleaning the dirt and mud out of his thick coat, and rinsing away the majority of his scent.
"Ugh!" Mari walked back over onto the grassland, groaning and shivering. She wiped her paw across her eyes to dry them, so that she could see clearly.
As she opened her eyes again, she found no trace of the lioness anywhere on the horizon. "I have no idea where she went," Mari said with a light tone of irritation.
"Should we give her a few minutes?" Mohatu asked, following Mari's path onto dry land. "She probably just had to use the tree, or something."
"If she doesn't return soon we should probably just leave," Mari answered. "I'd rather not linger around here."
As his fur began to dry in the sunlight, Mohatu looked to the late morning sky as several birds flew above in a 'V' formation, whispering to himself. "She'll be back..."
Yet, a chill of nervousness suddenly fell down Mohatu's spine as he began to consider the situation further. "Actually, I think we better go." he suggested.
"Huh? Why?" Mari asked, cocking her head to the side.
"If Riza is in trouble..." Mohatu began slowly, attempting to speculate with dilating eyes. "That means we are too."
"You mean-" Mari paused, immediately discovering the answer to her own question.
If Riza had been found, the secrecy of their mission would easily become compromised. Mari knew all too well that, under no circumstances, could that be allowed to happen. Not even Mohatu understood the true importance of keeping quiet.
If Rex knew what was going on, the entire kingdom would go berserk. It would be insane. Of all the things that could happen, it would be the worst possible thing.
"Ah, crap..." Mari swore. "Fine. I'll follow the tracks, but we need to stay hidden."
Riza's ears twitched as the sound of pawsteps approached her. Quickly, she ducked her head into a nearby bush, trying desperately to remain hidden from the lions.
But she was too late.
"Isn't there somewhere you should be?" one of the lions asked. His furious, condescending voice was that of no lion other than the king himself. The two obedient felines who stood beside him were, presumably, his elite bodyguards.
The last syllable echoed in Riza's mind until she fell through the depths of insanity. She was not prepared to speak to the king directly, especially given the circumstances.
"Where is Usama? Why have you returned without him?" the king demanded.
Riza stood up and stepped away from the shrub courageously. "Usama is dead," she stated with an dull, blunt tone.
Rex scowled, drawing closer to the lioness. "How is that possible?"
"They were prepared for our attack," she replied. A slight intonation of fear could be heard in her voice, as she became dwarfed by the much larger leonine shadow.
"So you disobeyed your prophet's orders?" Rex yelled, clenching his teeth together angrily.
The king glanced over to his bodyguards and nodded. Without ever speaking a word, the two warriors guarding him leaped at Riza, and pinned her to the ground within an instant.
"No... no, no! If I didn't return I would have died!"
Unfortunately, the lioness's pleading tactic was far less effective against the king. Rex stepped towards her, completely unfazed by her cries. "There is no room for weakness out here," the king added ruthlessly. "The punishment for failure is death."
With the lioness's limbs pinned down, she only had one option left to buy her own survival. As the king proceeded to slash his paw across her throat, Riza began to describe the situation.
"It... it wasn't that simple! They had help! The lion we were fighting against—he... it was a massacre! He was-"
Before Riza could finish speaking, the king had already begun his painful execution. He started by drilling his claws into the sensitive areas around her throat.
The lioness closed her eyes, shrieking in pain. "MOHATU!" She cried the lion's name to get his attention, but also to tell Rex what he wanted to know at the same time.
While Riza roared across the savannah out of torment, another lion felt a surge of agony puncture his own heart. Instinctively, Mohatu ran forward with all his strength, ready to pounce on the lion and bring an end to the conflict once and for all.
He could hardly believe that the lion he saw claimed to be the prophet. The thought that all his pride's troubles could be brought to an end with a quick slash of his claws was simply mesmerizing. It was irresistible.
Either the king was going to die, or Mohatu would die fighting.
"No!" Mari whispered, trying as hard as she could to hold on to the end of Mohatu's tail, with both her mouth and forepaws pinning it down. "Now is not the time. We have to go! Now!"
Mohatu turned around, finally able to control himself. "She's going to die!" he whispered hastily.
Was he really going to let that happen? What sort of lion would sit back and watch while another was being executed?
"We're all going to die, if you try to kill him," Mari retorted quietly.
"But..." Mohatu mumbled with a hint of despair and sadness.
"Remember," the lioness scowled, suddenly finding a way to explain. "Remember what happened to Leo and Rex. Killing him won't solve the problem. It will only make things worse."
Mohatu's jaw lowered slightly, while his breathing became much more fluid. "You're right," he said, flattening his ears slowly.
As the lioness released her grip of Mohatu's tail, she picked up a rock and threw it over Rex's head. The sound of the impact caught his attention for a moment.
"Come on! Let's go!" Mari whispered.
Mohatu hesitated greatly, but had to make the choice.
He had to leave Riza behind.
The sacrifice was to save the Pridelands as a whole, Mari, and ultimately himself as well. With a slow stroke of his paw, he turned his back on the lioness he had tried to save the day before.
Subsequently, the duo began sneaking through the savannah, almost as if they were stalking prey. Unfortunately, they were the prey. Stealth was their only hope of survival. Mari and Mohatu fled quickly and quietly with their tails hugging the ground between their legs.
Meanwhile, Rex's gaze shifted back over to his latest victim. As her cries of pain faded away into a permanent rest, a strange thought occurred to the king.
Very few lions could have fought Usama and won, and many fewer against Usama's entire task force. Some lion was helping his enemies, and it had to have been some lion with a significant amount of combat training.
That constraint left only a few possible options, in regard to the lion's identity. No lion the king knew could have pulled off such a feat—other than himself, or his deceased and forgotten brother.
Whoever this 'Mohatu' was, he would inevitably become a thorn in the king's paw. Rex would have to remove the threat quickly, before it caused him even more trouble while he attempted to ascend the throne of his ancestors.
"Sheikra!" Rex ordered.
Upon hearing his name being called, an African hawk swooped down from the hazy sky above. "What can I do for you, sire?" he asked coldly.
"Tell Ganji to meet me at Pride Rock immediately," the king demanded. "I need to talk to him... in private."
The obedient bird of prey nodded. "As you wish, milord."
"Okay, change of plans," Mari whispered as the duo hid in the shadow of an acacia tree. "If we can just make it to the gorge, we can sneak through the cactus field to get to the desert."
Mohatu raised a paw into the air to stop her. "Whoa, whoa, whoa! A cactus field?"
"No one is going to expect that," Mari retorted. "As long as we move carefully, it shouldn't be too bad."
"You're insane," the lion spat.
Mari rolled her eyes. "Insanity is charging at a lion with a burning stick in your mouth."
Mohatu's heart sank even farther into the ground. It seemed like a good idea at the time, but the fact that Mari thought it was stupid hurt him more than he cared to admit. "That wasn't one of my better ideas..."
"Well, this is our only idea."
"Alright, alright... we'll do it. It's still insane, though."
The lioness exhaled heavily. "You know, when you've been through as much as I have, you kinda learn how to survive in these sorts of circumstances. If it's insane, but works, then it isn't insane."
"Okay, fine," Mohatu dropped his comment so that his companion would calm down. "So, are we just going to make a run for it?"
"Hmm..." Mari whispered, scanning the horizon carefully for any sign of movement. "It looks clear... but that doesn't mean we aren't being watched."
"They'd have to be insane like we are to follow us into a cactus field," Mohatu replied. "I'd say whether or not they follow us is irrelevant."
"I suppose you're right," Mari conceded. "Follow me, and don't stop until we get to the briars."
As she finished her words, the lioness leaped from the grasses. In only a matter of seconds, she was cruising through the Pridelands with tremendous speed.
In spite of being heavier and having a much clunkier posture, Mohatu managed to keep up with Mari's tail as she carved a wake through the golden grasses.
Suddenly, after several minutes of running, the grass vanished from beneath Mari's paws. She dragged her claws through the hard, brown dirt, kicking up a cloud of dust behind her as her momentum was brought to a sudden halt.
Likewise, Mohatu skid through the dirt beside her.
While the two lions tried to catch their breath, the landscape took it away. They were standing at the very edge of the widest and deepest canyon known to lionkind.
Over the time period of many millennia, the flow of water had washed away many layers of rock below the savannah. The sheer size of the gorge was breathtaking, and the brilliant shades of brown and red only added to the awe of the landscape.
Mohatu kicked a small rock off the edge, and watched as it bounced off the cliff below. By the time it hit the very bottom, it was too far away for the sound of the impact to be heard.
"My God..." Mohatu muttered, as he finally managed to overcome his speechlessness. The same chill flowed again through his spine: the chill of imminent death.
Yet, little did he know that two other lions were running towards him, from across the golden waves of savannah. After eying the two leonine interceptors, Mari padded over to Mohatu, who looked back nervously.
"Ww-what are you doing?" Mohatu asked.
The lioness spoke quietly, keeping her mouth almost entirely shut the entire time. "Just... keep your head down."
Mari grappled onto the larger lion, and with a quick push, the two began tumbling down the cliff as one enormous wad of fur.
"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?" Mohatu screamed, suddenly finding himself facing the sky above with nothing below to hold on to.
But that changed all too quickly.
"Ooof!" He grunted, beginning to roll down the cliff.
"Aaaah!"
"Hnnggg!"
"Ahhh! Dammit dammit dammit!"
Eventually, the ground leveled out, and the two lions rolled away from one another, tumbling in completely different directions.
The duo slid to a halt, with both felines suffering from several minor bruises. As Mohatu slowly crawled back onto his paws, he became aware of that fact while the world continued to spin from dizziness.
"Ugh!" Mari groaned. "That was a little bit worse than I thought it was going to be."
"Are you hurt?" Mohatu asked, ironically while he was asking himself that very same question.
"Only a little," the lioness winced. She limped herself back up on all fours, before trying to survey the land to see if her attackers were stupid enough to follow.
"Don't you ever do anything like that ever again," he replied, looking much more worried than angry.
Mari spat a faceful of dirt out of her mouth. "We were being followed," the lioness argued. "But, don't worry. We're never coming down here again."
Without warning, the lioness began trotting over to the other side of the gorge. As Mohatu's vision steadied, he took note and proceeded to follow.
The canyon branched off into two paths. One of the paths remained incredibly wide and open to the scorching sun, but the other end of the fork was short, narrow, and shaded. It was the perfect escape.
At the end of the pass, the path opened up into a mind-numbingly large field of briars. Both lions paused for a moment, savoring what little time they had remaining without thorns poking and scraping into their skin.
"So, how are we going to get through that?" Mohatu asked with exasperation.
"Just..." the lioness eased forward, bringing her body as low to the ground as she possibly could. "...very carefully."
As Mohatu followed, a thorn scraped the top of his mane. He tried to pull through, but the branch wouldn't move.
So he pulled harder.
Eventually, the tension in the branch overcame its strength, and with a loud crack, it snapped. Now free to move again, Mohatu continued to follow the lioness, dragging the branch with him as it stuck to the top of his head.
It was only a matter of time before the same painful experience repeated itself. Before Mohatu was even a few paces into the pit of hell, he had already acquired a plethora of spiky branches with his brown coat.
As the lion glanced over at Mari, he noticed that she didn't look all that much different. There was one stuck behind her ear, another on her shoulder, and two that stuck to her hind legs.
the lioness sighed. "You know, of all the places to burn... why did Rex have to ignite the jungle?"
"If I became an arsonist, this would be the first place to go," Mohatu added deviously, squinting his eyes with frustration. Needless to say, the lion felt a sadistic hint of relief as he began to imagine the path ahead bursting up in flames.
"Today would be a good day to become one," Mari joked to lighten the mood.
As they both knew, even the most challenging obstacle course could become quite easy with a little bit of fire to level the path.
Before Mari and Mohatu made it through to the end of the field of briars, the sun was gone and their coats of fur were littered with prickly plants.
Suddenly, the reality of the situation struck a devastating blow to Mohatu. This was not the adventure he had hoped for. In fact, that thought was quite an understatement.
When he finally lowered his head under the last branch, he breathed an enormous sigh of relief.
Immediately afterward, he brought his paw up beside his nose to inspect it. For the entire hour before, putting weight around a certain spot on his paw was perhaps the most painful experience of the week. Obviously, that meant a lot, considering all he had been through.
As Mohatu analyzed the underside of his paw, two things caught his attention. Not only was a thorn jammed into the rough surface of his paw pad, but he noticed that one of his middle pawtoes was half-mutilated, missing a claw as well. Although it seemed strange, he did not think much of it.
But the thorn was too small for him to get his teeth around. For several minutes, he struggled to remove the pesky splinter from the edge of his large paw pad.
"Got one stuck there?" Mari asked, sitting beside him with her own fair share of barbs clinging to her fur.
"Yeah," the lion groaned.
"Let me look at it," she said, stepping closer.
Mohatu set the paw on the dry, cracked ground, with the pad facing upward, while the lioness inspected the wound carefully.
"Hmm..." the lioness muttered, examining the paw. "Looks like it's stuck in there."
"Gee," Mohatu replied sarcastically. After all he had been through, not even Mari could lighten his mood.
The lioness placed one of her paws over his to apply pressure, in an attempt to squeeze the thorn out. As she noticed that it wasn't working, she used one of her claws from the other forepaw to wiggle it around.
Eventually, she applied pressure at the right angles, and the barb shot out, swiping the lioness across her nose along its flight trajectory.
"There," she snorted. "It's out."
"Great," Mohatu replied, bringing his paw up to scratch an itch on the top of his mane. Unfortunately, there was a thorn stuck there too. "That's one out, but there's still a lot more."
Mari groaned before resuming her own grooming. "This is going to take all night."
"We should probably walk a little farther away," Mohatu suggested, as he pulled yet another twig out of his coat with his teeth.
"That might be a good idea," the lioness agreed, rising to her paws. "Just... out of sight from here."
Shortly afterward, Mohatu began walking further, looking up at the stars to guide him. The Leo constellation was all the way to the east, with its tail barely hanging above the horizon of dirt.
"Isn't it weird how everything always moves from east to west in the sky?" Mohatu asked.
"I guess," Mari muttered, hardly even paying attention. "Never really thought about it before."
"It's almost like we're all moving around in a circle... or something."
"But, if we're moving, wouldn't we feel like we're moving?" Mari asked easily.
"Not if we're moving slow enough, I suppose," the lion speculated. "It would only be one rotation every day."
"That..." Mari tried to consider his idea. "I don't know."
"Of course, I have no idea what those sparkling dots are anyway, and much less of an idea why we don't see them during the day."
"Yeah..." Mari muttered, looking at the ground before continuing. The ancient kings probably had the answers to such questions, but, being the more primitive lions that they were, neither of the two possessed a very strong background knowledge of the subject.
"We don't really know anything..." Mohatu sighed.
"Look, I'm sure everything will make sense, once we get to Lea Halalela," Mari reminded. "That's why we're doing this."
"Yeah," Mohatu exhaled sarcastically. "But it's just as likely that we'll find more questions than answers. Especially if things keep going like this."
Mari paused for several moments. He was right; things weren't exactly going as she had envisioned them, either. Her attempt at trying to be optimistic had failed miserably.
"Mohatu... I..." the lioness tried to apologize. As much as she knew Mohatu was going to tell her it wasn't her fault, she knew in her heart that it was. Nearly every decision that had been made up until that point was hers.
Not only had she brought Mohatu into the entire mess to begin with, but she was using him. She never thought she would feel guilty for it, but it was what was happening. It was eating her away from the inside out, and there was nothing she could do to prevent that.
Sensing the discomfort in Mari's voice, the lion knew he had to say something. "You've had some bad ideas, but it wasn't your fault..."
Yep. She was right. That was exactly what he said.
"Yeah... I know," Mari lied, before lightening up slightly. "Please, if I ever suggest running into a cactus field again... just kill me," she tried to laugh, but her mood would not allow it.
"No, seriously," Mohatu replied. "This would probably be a lot worse if you weren't with me."
For a brief moment, Mari's heart began to soften. She looked back at the field of spurs again, while holding in a cute mew. As the lioness caught her breath, she noticed they were far enough away to stay hidden.
"I think this is good enough," she announced, changing the subject and sitting down on the brown desert sand.
The lioness began to relax in the sand, and consequently, her feelings of guilt and sadness increased tenfold. She was not only using Mohatu, but he was blissfully unaware of it, too. Nothing she could have told him would have made him understand that.
In an attempt to distract herself, Mari began to lick the remaining barbs out of her fur.
Mohatu simply sat and watched, admiring her beauty while she wasn't looking. After she allowed Riza to die, pushed him off a cliff, and forced him to crawl under a field of cacti, he was beginning to have second thoughts.
She definitely wasn't perfect.
Nevertheless, she did attempt to save his live three times in one day. That was plenty more than he could have asked for. Even when she was covered with thorny twigs, she was still cute.
Mohatu sat down as well, making a cradle in the sand with his growling stomach. Reluctantly, he began to clean the garbage out of his fur too.
Out of the corner of her eye, Mari began watching Mohatu for a change. He was lost, alone, malnourished, and certainly in dire need of grooming. As he sat in the sand, casually cleaning himself under the night sky, Mari found it increasingly difficult to contain her feels.
She secretly pitied him and his blissful ignorance, in a strange way.
But as strange as it seemed, she almost wished she could be him, at the same time. Even in the state he was in, the lion's abilities were beyond that of any ordinary large cat. Unlike the lioness, Mohatu's potential was nearly limitless.
The complete silence allowed Mari's thoughts to gather and fester even further into her mind. She wanted to say something to him, but she had no idea what it would be. He looked so miserable, and in the lioness's heart, she knew she wasn't actually faring much better either.
"Mohatu?" Mari called softly.
As the lion turned around, his eyes lit up noticeably.
"I..." Mari stuttered, beginning to turn away. She had no idea what she was going to say. In fact, she hardly even knew why she called the lion's name in the first place.
Mohatu's pulse went up suddenly, for reasons he could not explain. There was a strange tension in the air, just from reading the lioness's sad and nervous body language. "What?" he asked casually, trying not to sound demanding.
"It's just that..." Mari sighed, anxiously scratching under her ear with her paw. "Nevermind," she concluded lazily, as she rested her head above her forepaws. "It's nothing."
Mohatu's tail twitched from one side to the other. He hated seeing her look as depressed as she did, but he also knew that he would likely be of little consolation in his current state. "Are you sure?" He asked.
No, she wasn't. Something was bothering her, but even she wasn't entirely aware of what it was. "I guess I..." she began mumbling.
Mohatu cleaned his paw, while waiting patiently for the lioness to continue.
The lioness eventually blinked her eyes, trying not to get too emotional. "I was going to say... I'm glad you're here too."
Suddenly, Mohatu looked away to hide a satisfied smile. Based on the way she was acting, the lioness's comment was only the tip of the iceberg. Now, he was almost certain that Mari liked him for sure. There was a good chance that she felt the same way.
As the lion continued grooming himself, Mari's embarrassment faded away while she noticed his faint smile. Her spirits lifted slightly as well.
With an unexpected jolt of energy, Mari stood up and walked closer to the lion. "You've done a lot for us, over the past few days..." she began, her voice gradually growing calmer.
Mohatu picked the last barb out of his fur with his teeth, and spat it out in the sand beside him. He then looked up to the lioness standing on the other side.
"...and I guess I never thanked you for that," Mari continued. Gently, she nuzzled her head across the lion's thick, brown mane.
As a yawn trailed Mari's words, she decided to sit down beside the lion. "I know things are only going to get worse from here, but I will try to help you as much as I can," she added warmly, resting her head in the sand beside Mohatu's shoulder.
Not too surprisingly, Mohatu began purring with an uncontrollable rumble. He sighed happily, and his muscles relaxed despite a total lack of movement.
In only a matter of seconds, the loneliness that both lions felt began to fade away. Yet, it was not until hours later that the two finally collapsed under the clear night sky, exhausted and deprived of sleep.
--- --- ---
A Kingdom Reborn: The Legend of Mohatu
Chapter 10: A Thorn in the Paw
A small line of light illuminated the rocky floor of the den, reflecting directly back into Riza's eyes. She winced slightly, squinting a bit to reduce the brightness. Obviously, the night was over. That had passed long ago.
But the bright morning sun was not what woke her. A loud rumbling noise was being emitted from beside the lioness, which she could hear over even the continuous roar of the waterfall. She noticed that Mohatu was purring in his sleep, using Mari's extended forepaw as a pillow for his head.
Of course, that was hardly surprising. She looked around carefully, thinking about whether or not to wake the other two lions by telling them she needed to leave for a moment.
Considering that she would not be gone for long, she decided not to. She let her first paw slide off the rock gently, and the rest of her body followed shortly after, plunging into the cold water.
The sound of the splash woke the other two lions, but by the time they realized what had happened, Riza was long gone.
"Jeez," Mari exclaimed. "Is it really morning already?"
Mohatu's eyes opened steadily, while his wide smile faded away.
"...and what were you so happy about?" Mari grinned, leaning forward to stretch her spine out before the long walk ahead.
The lion stood dead still for a moment. "What?"
"You were purring all night," Mari explained.
"Oh," Mohatu replied, looking at the rock below his paws for a split second. "Was I?"
"Yeah. It was kinda loud, too."
Not surprisingly, he was thinking about her. Judging by his posture before he was awakened, that fact was rather blatant, and he knew it.
But, despite not seeing Riza anywhere in sight, Mohatu could not bring himself to tell her the truth. The question caught him by surprise, and he was not prepared to answer it in any way.
Quickly, he tried to tell a lie. "My nose is a little congested. I was probably snoring."
Without any further inquiries, Mari dropped the subject. "I guess so."
Yet, whether or not she knew the truth was hidden beneath her voice. Instead of dwelling on the issue, the lioness quickly prepared herself to jump into the frigid water. "Come on," she added. "Let's meet up with Riza and get outta here while we still can."
"Alright," Mohatu nodded.
The two lions swam back under the cliff at roughly the same time, emerging seconds later below the fall. The heavy water poured down on Mohatu's mane, making clear trails deep in his fur until it dripped off into the river. It was quite cold, but it did have the unexpected advantages of cleaning the dirt and mud out of his thick coat, and rinsing away the majority of his scent.
"Ugh!" Mari walked back over onto the grassland, groaning and shivering. She wiped her paw across her eyes to dry them, so that she could see clearly.
As she opened her eyes again, she found no trace of the lioness anywhere on the horizon. "I have no idea where she went," Mari said with a light tone of irritation.
"Should we give her a few minutes?" Mohatu asked, following Mari's path onto dry land. "She probably just had to use the tree, or something."
"If she doesn't return soon we should probably just leave," Mari answered. "I'd rather not linger around here."
As his fur began to dry in the sunlight, Mohatu looked to the late morning sky as several birds flew above in a 'V' formation, whispering to himself. "She'll be back..."
Yet, a chill of nervousness suddenly fell down Mohatu's spine as he began to consider the situation further. "Actually, I think we better go." he suggested.
"Huh? Why?" Mari asked, cocking her head to the side.
"If Riza is in trouble..." Mohatu began slowly, attempting to speculate with dilating eyes. "That means we are too."
"You mean-" Mari paused, immediately discovering the answer to her own question.
If Riza had been found, the secrecy of their mission would easily become compromised. Mari knew all too well that, under no circumstances, could that be allowed to happen. Not even Mohatu understood the true importance of keeping quiet.
If Rex knew what was going on, the entire kingdom would go berserk. It would be insane. Of all the things that could happen, it would be the worst possible thing.
"Ah, crap..." Mari swore. "Fine. I'll follow the tracks, but we need to stay hidden."
--- --- ---
Riza's ears twitched as the sound of pawsteps approached her. Quickly, she ducked her head into a nearby bush, trying desperately to remain hidden from the lions.
But she was too late.
"Isn't there somewhere you should be?" one of the lions asked. His furious, condescending voice was that of no lion other than the king himself. The two obedient felines who stood beside him were, presumably, his elite bodyguards.
The last syllable echoed in Riza's mind until she fell through the depths of insanity. She was not prepared to speak to the king directly, especially given the circumstances.
"Where is Usama? Why have you returned without him?" the king demanded.
Riza stood up and stepped away from the shrub courageously. "Usama is dead," she stated with an dull, blunt tone.
Rex scowled, drawing closer to the lioness. "How is that possible?"
"They were prepared for our attack," she replied. A slight intonation of fear could be heard in her voice, as she became dwarfed by the much larger leonine shadow.
"So you disobeyed your prophet's orders?" Rex yelled, clenching his teeth together angrily.
The king glanced over to his bodyguards and nodded. Without ever speaking a word, the two warriors guarding him leaped at Riza, and pinned her to the ground within an instant.
"No... no, no! If I didn't return I would have died!"
Unfortunately, the lioness's pleading tactic was far less effective against the king. Rex stepped towards her, completely unfazed by her cries. "There is no room for weakness out here," the king added ruthlessly. "The punishment for failure is death."
With the lioness's limbs pinned down, she only had one option left to buy her own survival. As the king proceeded to slash his paw across her throat, Riza began to describe the situation.
"It... it wasn't that simple! They had help! The lion we were fighting against—he... it was a massacre! He was-"
Before Riza could finish speaking, the king had already begun his painful execution. He started by drilling his claws into the sensitive areas around her throat.
The lioness closed her eyes, shrieking in pain. "MOHATU!" She cried the lion's name to get his attention, but also to tell Rex what he wanted to know at the same time.
While Riza roared across the savannah out of torment, another lion felt a surge of agony puncture his own heart. Instinctively, Mohatu ran forward with all his strength, ready to pounce on the lion and bring an end to the conflict once and for all.
He could hardly believe that the lion he saw claimed to be the prophet. The thought that all his pride's troubles could be brought to an end with a quick slash of his claws was simply mesmerizing. It was irresistible.
Either the king was going to die, or Mohatu would die fighting.
"No!" Mari whispered, trying as hard as she could to hold on to the end of Mohatu's tail, with both her mouth and forepaws pinning it down. "Now is not the time. We have to go! Now!"
Mohatu turned around, finally able to control himself. "She's going to die!" he whispered hastily.
Was he really going to let that happen? What sort of lion would sit back and watch while another was being executed?
"We're all going to die, if you try to kill him," Mari retorted quietly.
"But..." Mohatu mumbled with a hint of despair and sadness.
"Remember," the lioness scowled, suddenly finding a way to explain. "Remember what happened to Leo and Rex. Killing him won't solve the problem. It will only make things worse."
Mohatu's jaw lowered slightly, while his breathing became much more fluid. "You're right," he said, flattening his ears slowly.
As the lioness released her grip of Mohatu's tail, she picked up a rock and threw it over Rex's head. The sound of the impact caught his attention for a moment.
"Come on! Let's go!" Mari whispered.
Mohatu hesitated greatly, but had to make the choice.
He had to leave Riza behind.
The sacrifice was to save the Pridelands as a whole, Mari, and ultimately himself as well. With a slow stroke of his paw, he turned his back on the lioness he had tried to save the day before.
Subsequently, the duo began sneaking through the savannah, almost as if they were stalking prey. Unfortunately, they were the prey. Stealth was their only hope of survival. Mari and Mohatu fled quickly and quietly with their tails hugging the ground between their legs.
Meanwhile, Rex's gaze shifted back over to his latest victim. As her cries of pain faded away into a permanent rest, a strange thought occurred to the king.
Very few lions could have fought Usama and won, and many fewer against Usama's entire task force. Some lion was helping his enemies, and it had to have been some lion with a significant amount of combat training.
That constraint left only a few possible options, in regard to the lion's identity. No lion the king knew could have pulled off such a feat—other than himself, or his deceased and forgotten brother.
Whoever this 'Mohatu' was, he would inevitably become a thorn in the king's paw. Rex would have to remove the threat quickly, before it caused him even more trouble while he attempted to ascend the throne of his ancestors.
"Sheikra!" Rex ordered.
Upon hearing his name being called, an African hawk swooped down from the hazy sky above. "What can I do for you, sire?" he asked coldly.
"Tell Ganji to meet me at Pride Rock immediately," the king demanded. "I need to talk to him... in private."
The obedient bird of prey nodded. "As you wish, milord."
--- --- ---
"Okay, change of plans," Mari whispered as the duo hid in the shadow of an acacia tree. "If we can just make it to the gorge, we can sneak through the cactus field to get to the desert."
Mohatu raised a paw into the air to stop her. "Whoa, whoa, whoa! A cactus field?"
"No one is going to expect that," Mari retorted. "As long as we move carefully, it shouldn't be too bad."
"You're insane," the lion spat.
Mari rolled her eyes. "Insanity is charging at a lion with a burning stick in your mouth."
Mohatu's heart sank even farther into the ground. It seemed like a good idea at the time, but the fact that Mari thought it was stupid hurt him more than he cared to admit. "That wasn't one of my better ideas..."
"Well, this is our only idea."
"Alright, alright... we'll do it. It's still insane, though."
The lioness exhaled heavily. "You know, when you've been through as much as I have, you kinda learn how to survive in these sorts of circumstances. If it's insane, but works, then it isn't insane."
"Okay, fine," Mohatu dropped his comment so that his companion would calm down. "So, are we just going to make a run for it?"
"Hmm..." Mari whispered, scanning the horizon carefully for any sign of movement. "It looks clear... but that doesn't mean we aren't being watched."
"They'd have to be insane like we are to follow us into a cactus field," Mohatu replied. "I'd say whether or not they follow us is irrelevant."
"I suppose you're right," Mari conceded. "Follow me, and don't stop until we get to the briars."
As she finished her words, the lioness leaped from the grasses. In only a matter of seconds, she was cruising through the Pridelands with tremendous speed.
In spite of being heavier and having a much clunkier posture, Mohatu managed to keep up with Mari's tail as she carved a wake through the golden grasses.
Suddenly, after several minutes of running, the grass vanished from beneath Mari's paws. She dragged her claws through the hard, brown dirt, kicking up a cloud of dust behind her as her momentum was brought to a sudden halt.
Likewise, Mohatu skid through the dirt beside her.
While the two lions tried to catch their breath, the landscape took it away. They were standing at the very edge of the widest and deepest canyon known to lionkind.
Over the time period of many millennia, the flow of water had washed away many layers of rock below the savannah. The sheer size of the gorge was breathtaking, and the brilliant shades of brown and red only added to the awe of the landscape.
Mohatu kicked a small rock off the edge, and watched as it bounced off the cliff below. By the time it hit the very bottom, it was too far away for the sound of the impact to be heard.
"My God..." Mohatu muttered, as he finally managed to overcome his speechlessness. The same chill flowed again through his spine: the chill of imminent death.
Yet, little did he know that two other lions were running towards him, from across the golden waves of savannah. After eying the two leonine interceptors, Mari padded over to Mohatu, who looked back nervously.
"Ww-what are you doing?" Mohatu asked.
The lioness spoke quietly, keeping her mouth almost entirely shut the entire time. "Just... keep your head down."
Mari grappled onto the larger lion, and with a quick push, the two began tumbling down the cliff as one enormous wad of fur.
"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?" Mohatu screamed, suddenly finding himself facing the sky above with nothing below to hold on to.
But that changed all too quickly.
"Ooof!" He grunted, beginning to roll down the cliff.
"Aaaah!"
"Hnnggg!"
"Ahhh! Dammit dammit dammit!"
Eventually, the ground leveled out, and the two lions rolled away from one another, tumbling in completely different directions.
The duo slid to a halt, with both felines suffering from several minor bruises. As Mohatu slowly crawled back onto his paws, he became aware of that fact while the world continued to spin from dizziness.
"Ugh!" Mari groaned. "That was a little bit worse than I thought it was going to be."
"Are you hurt?" Mohatu asked, ironically while he was asking himself that very same question.
"Only a little," the lioness winced. She limped herself back up on all fours, before trying to survey the land to see if her attackers were stupid enough to follow.
"Don't you ever do anything like that ever again," he replied, looking much more worried than angry.
Mari spat a faceful of dirt out of her mouth. "We were being followed," the lioness argued. "But, don't worry. We're never coming down here again."
Without warning, the lioness began trotting over to the other side of the gorge. As Mohatu's vision steadied, he took note and proceeded to follow.
The canyon branched off into two paths. One of the paths remained incredibly wide and open to the scorching sun, but the other end of the fork was short, narrow, and shaded. It was the perfect escape.
At the end of the pass, the path opened up into a mind-numbingly large field of briars. Both lions paused for a moment, savoring what little time they had remaining without thorns poking and scraping into their skin.
"So, how are we going to get through that?" Mohatu asked with exasperation.
"Just..." the lioness eased forward, bringing her body as low to the ground as she possibly could. "...very carefully."
As Mohatu followed, a thorn scraped the top of his mane. He tried to pull through, but the branch wouldn't move.
So he pulled harder.
Eventually, the tension in the branch overcame its strength, and with a loud crack, it snapped. Now free to move again, Mohatu continued to follow the lioness, dragging the branch with him as it stuck to the top of his head.
It was only a matter of time before the same painful experience repeated itself. Before Mohatu was even a few paces into the pit of hell, he had already acquired a plethora of spiky branches with his brown coat.
As the lion glanced over at Mari, he noticed that she didn't look all that much different. There was one stuck behind her ear, another on her shoulder, and two that stuck to her hind legs.
the lioness sighed. "You know, of all the places to burn... why did Rex have to ignite the jungle?"
"If I became an arsonist, this would be the first place to go," Mohatu added deviously, squinting his eyes with frustration. Needless to say, the lion felt a sadistic hint of relief as he began to imagine the path ahead bursting up in flames.
"Today would be a good day to become one," Mari joked to lighten the mood.
As they both knew, even the most challenging obstacle course could become quite easy with a little bit of fire to level the path.
--- --- ---
Before Mari and Mohatu made it through to the end of the field of briars, the sun was gone and their coats of fur were littered with prickly plants.
Suddenly, the reality of the situation struck a devastating blow to Mohatu. This was not the adventure he had hoped for. In fact, that thought was quite an understatement.
When he finally lowered his head under the last branch, he breathed an enormous sigh of relief.
Immediately afterward, he brought his paw up beside his nose to inspect it. For the entire hour before, putting weight around a certain spot on his paw was perhaps the most painful experience of the week. Obviously, that meant a lot, considering all he had been through.
As Mohatu analyzed the underside of his paw, two things caught his attention. Not only was a thorn jammed into the rough surface of his paw pad, but he noticed that one of his middle pawtoes was half-mutilated, missing a claw as well. Although it seemed strange, he did not think much of it.
But the thorn was too small for him to get his teeth around. For several minutes, he struggled to remove the pesky splinter from the edge of his large paw pad.
"Got one stuck there?" Mari asked, sitting beside him with her own fair share of barbs clinging to her fur.
"Yeah," the lion groaned.
"Let me look at it," she said, stepping closer.
Mohatu set the paw on the dry, cracked ground, with the pad facing upward, while the lioness inspected the wound carefully.
"Hmm..." the lioness muttered, examining the paw. "Looks like it's stuck in there."
"Gee," Mohatu replied sarcastically. After all he had been through, not even Mari could lighten his mood.
The lioness placed one of her paws over his to apply pressure, in an attempt to squeeze the thorn out. As she noticed that it wasn't working, she used one of her claws from the other forepaw to wiggle it around.
Eventually, she applied pressure at the right angles, and the barb shot out, swiping the lioness across her nose along its flight trajectory.
"There," she snorted. "It's out."
"Great," Mohatu replied, bringing his paw up to scratch an itch on the top of his mane. Unfortunately, there was a thorn stuck there too. "That's one out, but there's still a lot more."
Mari groaned before resuming her own grooming. "This is going to take all night."
"We should probably walk a little farther away," Mohatu suggested, as he pulled yet another twig out of his coat with his teeth.
"That might be a good idea," the lioness agreed, rising to her paws. "Just... out of sight from here."
Shortly afterward, Mohatu began walking further, looking up at the stars to guide him. The Leo constellation was all the way to the east, with its tail barely hanging above the horizon of dirt.
"Isn't it weird how everything always moves from east to west in the sky?" Mohatu asked.
"I guess," Mari muttered, hardly even paying attention. "Never really thought about it before."
"It's almost like we're all moving around in a circle... or something."
"But, if we're moving, wouldn't we feel like we're moving?" Mari asked easily.
"Not if we're moving slow enough, I suppose," the lion speculated. "It would only be one rotation every day."
"That..." Mari tried to consider his idea. "I don't know."
"Of course, I have no idea what those sparkling dots are anyway, and much less of an idea why we don't see them during the day."
"Yeah..." Mari muttered, looking at the ground before continuing. The ancient kings probably had the answers to such questions, but, being the more primitive lions that they were, neither of the two possessed a very strong background knowledge of the subject.
"We don't really know anything..." Mohatu sighed.
"Look, I'm sure everything will make sense, once we get to Lea Halalela," Mari reminded. "That's why we're doing this."
"Yeah," Mohatu exhaled sarcastically. "But it's just as likely that we'll find more questions than answers. Especially if things keep going like this."
Mari paused for several moments. He was right; things weren't exactly going as she had envisioned them, either. Her attempt at trying to be optimistic had failed miserably.
"Mohatu... I..." the lioness tried to apologize. As much as she knew Mohatu was going to tell her it wasn't her fault, she knew in her heart that it was. Nearly every decision that had been made up until that point was hers.
Not only had she brought Mohatu into the entire mess to begin with, but she was using him. She never thought she would feel guilty for it, but it was what was happening. It was eating her away from the inside out, and there was nothing she could do to prevent that.
Sensing the discomfort in Mari's voice, the lion knew he had to say something. "You've had some bad ideas, but it wasn't your fault..."
Yep. She was right. That was exactly what he said.
"Yeah... I know," Mari lied, before lightening up slightly. "Please, if I ever suggest running into a cactus field again... just kill me," she tried to laugh, but her mood would not allow it.
"No, seriously," Mohatu replied. "This would probably be a lot worse if you weren't with me."
For a brief moment, Mari's heart began to soften. She looked back at the field of spurs again, while holding in a cute mew. As the lioness caught her breath, she noticed they were far enough away to stay hidden.
"I think this is good enough," she announced, changing the subject and sitting down on the brown desert sand.
The lioness began to relax in the sand, and consequently, her feelings of guilt and sadness increased tenfold. She was not only using Mohatu, but he was blissfully unaware of it, too. Nothing she could have told him would have made him understand that.
In an attempt to distract herself, Mari began to lick the remaining barbs out of her fur.
Mohatu simply sat and watched, admiring her beauty while she wasn't looking. After she allowed Riza to die, pushed him off a cliff, and forced him to crawl under a field of cacti, he was beginning to have second thoughts.
She definitely wasn't perfect.
Nevertheless, she did attempt to save his live three times in one day. That was plenty more than he could have asked for. Even when she was covered with thorny twigs, she was still cute.
Mohatu sat down as well, making a cradle in the sand with his growling stomach. Reluctantly, he began to clean the garbage out of his fur too.
Out of the corner of her eye, Mari began watching Mohatu for a change. He was lost, alone, malnourished, and certainly in dire need of grooming. As he sat in the sand, casually cleaning himself under the night sky, Mari found it increasingly difficult to contain her feels.
She secretly pitied him and his blissful ignorance, in a strange way.
But as strange as it seemed, she almost wished she could be him, at the same time. Even in the state he was in, the lion's abilities were beyond that of any ordinary large cat. Unlike the lioness, Mohatu's potential was nearly limitless.
The complete silence allowed Mari's thoughts to gather and fester even further into her mind. She wanted to say something to him, but she had no idea what it would be. He looked so miserable, and in the lioness's heart, she knew she wasn't actually faring much better either.
"Mohatu?" Mari called softly.
As the lion turned around, his eyes lit up noticeably.
"I..." Mari stuttered, beginning to turn away. She had no idea what she was going to say. In fact, she hardly even knew why she called the lion's name in the first place.
Mohatu's pulse went up suddenly, for reasons he could not explain. There was a strange tension in the air, just from reading the lioness's sad and nervous body language. "What?" he asked casually, trying not to sound demanding.
"It's just that..." Mari sighed, anxiously scratching under her ear with her paw. "Nevermind," she concluded lazily, as she rested her head above her forepaws. "It's nothing."
Mohatu's tail twitched from one side to the other. He hated seeing her look as depressed as she did, but he also knew that he would likely be of little consolation in his current state. "Are you sure?" He asked.
No, she wasn't. Something was bothering her, but even she wasn't entirely aware of what it was. "I guess I..." she began mumbling.
Mohatu cleaned his paw, while waiting patiently for the lioness to continue.
The lioness eventually blinked her eyes, trying not to get too emotional. "I was going to say... I'm glad you're here too."
Suddenly, Mohatu looked away to hide a satisfied smile. Based on the way she was acting, the lioness's comment was only the tip of the iceberg. Now, he was almost certain that Mari liked him for sure. There was a good chance that she felt the same way.
As the lion continued grooming himself, Mari's embarrassment faded away while she noticed his faint smile. Her spirits lifted slightly as well.
With an unexpected jolt of energy, Mari stood up and walked closer to the lion. "You've done a lot for us, over the past few days..." she began, her voice gradually growing calmer.
Mohatu picked the last barb out of his fur with his teeth, and spat it out in the sand beside him. He then looked up to the lioness standing on the other side.
"...and I guess I never thanked you for that," Mari continued. Gently, she nuzzled her head across the lion's thick, brown mane.
As a yawn trailed Mari's words, she decided to sit down beside the lion. "I know things are only going to get worse from here, but I will try to help you as much as I can," she added warmly, resting her head in the sand beside Mohatu's shoulder.
Not too surprisingly, Mohatu began purring with an uncontrollable rumble. He sighed happily, and his muscles relaxed despite a total lack of movement.
In only a matter of seconds, the loneliness that both lions felt began to fade away. Yet, it was not until hours later that the two finally collapsed under the clear night sky, exhausted and deprived of sleep.
