It was several months after that day, on one equally beautiful, that things began to change in my life. I stood near the edges of my pride's territory, wondering what was beyond our borders. My mother was close by, and my sisters, Hidaya and Kipaji. All our names shared a meaning; "gift," for, my mother said we were each a gift to her. I thought it was rather cheesy. We had older sisters too, but they stayed away from us most of the time, finding us youngsters annoying. I didn't care, I liked to explore on my own. I jumped up onto a rock and looked around the lands across the border wearing a large grin.
I noticed a movement in the grass. My ear flicked and my eyes looked after it, catching sight of a small bug of some sort. I didn't know what kind it was, but I crouched, preparing for an assault. Seeing an opening, I seized my chance and pounced. It was then that a deafening roar filled the air, like nothing I'd ever heard. In a panic, I looked up to the sky. It was bright and hot, and it was coming towards us. The sun was falling from the sky.
In a state of total fear, I raced over to my mother and cowered beneath her, Hidaya and Kipaji doing the same. But mother looked horribly frightened too, and that severely worried us. We began to mewl in terror, and I looked around my mother's legs at the falling star. I glimpsed a ball of yellow way up in the sky out of the corner of my eye, but it didn't register that it was the sun and this was not.
Suddenly, something had snatched me up by the scruff of my neck, and bounded away. I stared back at my sisters in shock as I realized that it was my mother spiriting me awayㅡ and she was leaving Hidaya and Kipaji to die. I was too horrified to make a sound, or even to think. As my mother ran, some of the other lionesses in our pride passed by. One of my older sisters yelled out to my mother.
"Get to the Pridelands, the king may allow us shelter in his den on Pride Rock!"
My mother shook her head, flinging me around. Everything blurred and faded together.
"Mom's right," another sister agreed, "That old fleabag Scar won't help us, we just have to get out of its way!"
"Where are Hidaya and Kipaji?" the first one asked. Again my mom shook her head.
"I'm going back for them!"
"Marjah, no!"
Despite the chaos around us, my mother kept running, trying her hardest to protect her only son. I looked behind us, now that I could see clearly again. The star had hit the earth, in fact, I could feel the vibrations of the impact. Fire sprang up from the grass and trees I'd always known. The flames chased after us, almost with intent, taking the form of a lion as they did so. Paws of fire struck the earth, killing what the spreading flames hadn't already.
I cried out in terror as the flame lion began gaining on us. His mouth opened wide, revealing rows of sparking teeth. The dancing fire mane added to his fear factor. At my squeal, my mother looked back. At the sight of him, she picked up speed, running faster than I'd ever known she could. As I stared back at the burning lands I'd called home and at the monster pursuing us, I realized that me and my mother were the last two left. My sisters were all gone, my father gone. All that was left of our pride was mom and me.
The lion of fire soon caught up, and as he did, his mouth opened wide and he swallowed us up in one gulp as if we were just little mice.
✠ ✠ ✠
I came to my senses later, smoke all around me. I coughed, my head turning towards the ground. I saw my reflection beneath me, but something wasn't right. I wasn't standing in water, and he wasn't properly reflecting me. He lay on his side, whiskerless, charred, and burnt. Beside him lay the blackened body of a lioness. Looking back at my reflection, I realized I was standing in my reflection's body. A moment later it hit me that I wasn't standing in a reflection of myself, but rather, my own burnt up corpse. I was dead. I cried out in alarm and turned, fleeing the scene.
I didn't know where I was running to, I didn't know if it mattered. I just couldn't bear to stay near the charred bodies of my mother and myself, and I didn't want to find the corpses of the rest of the pride. I just ran. My eyes closed, feeling like there should be tears flowing from them, I ran. I fled until I heard a voice call out my name.
"Zawadi, stop running," said the voice. I skidded to a halt, sand flying up into the air from the suddeness of it. I turned and looked behind me to see a transparent lion. I recognized him, and backed away. This lion bore the face of the flame lion. The face of my killer.
"What do you want from me?" I demanded, trying to sound brave. I didn't. I sounded timid and weak.
"It's not what I want from youㅡ it's what they want from us," he said, gesturing up at the night sky. I looked up at all the stars with a mixture of wonder and fear.
"The Great King who sent me here... he owns my soul. I do his bidding. And he determined that this should pass," the lion said, his eyes burning red as the flames he'd been earlier.
"But why?" I spat, agony obvious in my voice, "Why did we have to die?!"
"To make you stronger."
To make me stronger? I clenched my jaws, shutting my eyes. I didn't need to be stronger, I needed my family, and my life. How could death make me stronger? How was any of this justified? It couldn't be, there was no need for it, no reason. It was just a senseless genocide. With a snarl, I opened my eyes and lunged at the lion before me, but just as I was about to hit him, he vanished and I landed face-first in the sand, a blade of grass going into my ear.
"I understand you're hurt and angry. I was too. But Kifo needs us for a reason. You'll get your life backㅡ in a way."
"Kifo?"
"The Great King who sent me. You have a duty, and you'll need the power given by this death to fulfill it. For now, you need to come with me, so you can acquire a new physical form, you'll need that as well," the lion told me. Then, before I could protest, he swept me up and deposited me on the earth somewhere else. Somewhere... otherwordly. A darkness surrounded us like I'd never seen before, and a greenish swirling light was before my eyes. It looked similar to a whirlpool in the air. As it swirled, immense pain consumed me. It felt like I was burning again. I collapsed to the earth, my eyes squeezed shut from the pain.
Then suddenly, it stopped. I remained in place for a moment, until I felt the cool touch of water lapping at my sides. I dared to open my eyes, and found myself laying in a waterhole I had often visited in my life. It was still dark, but looking at my reflection, I could tell every detail. My fur had turned the red of blood, with odd black markings in some places.
"Only a gifted few will see you this way," the lion's voice said, "to most that red will be a duller deep brownish-red."
I stared, looking at my paws, white-toed as always, though they now were black socked. The same black of my underbelly, ears, the tuft on my head. The same black as the strange marking around my neck. The same black as a charred dead body.
"Black... like my mother's corpse. Like mine," I said quietly.
"Yes. To remind you that you are Kifo's stoker, and while he may not always have need of you, you will always stoke the flames of his desires and his wrath."
With that, I felt the other lion's presence fade, and I was left alone. I stared sadly at my reflection. I wasn't a gift to anyone. My pride had been killed because Kifo had wanted me. I had been a curse. I had been just what the flame lion had called meㅡ a stoker. The name Zawadi wasn't befitting of me anymore, if it had ever been. I didn't deserve to be called a gift. My eyes narrowed, hatred burning within my small form, I stood on my paws and skulked away into the night, issuing one word from my dry mouth as I did so.
"Stoker."
