out of his revere when he heard a howl. He cringed. He knew the howl and what it stood for. The shaman’s presence was required at Pride Rock. He quickly gathered his medicines and jumped out of the tree.

            The journey had been hard and silent but both animals made it safely. While the hyena joined his companions Rafiki made his way up to the cave. He paused at the entrance but in the darkness he could see Scar’s hunched form, his mane hanging around his shoulders, his head lowered.

            Rafiki cleared his throat. “You called for me, your highness?” he asked carefully. He remembered a hyena who had addressed Scar in the wrong manner. The king had been in a raging mood that day and smacked the hyena into the cave wall, near killing it. Rafiki had taken care of the injured animal telling him that he suffered a broken rib.

            Scar didn’t lift his head. “Check the cub,” he said in a growl.

            He nodded silently and approached a very tired Zira. He leaned downward and began his examination. Rafiki was shocked, thinking he was seeing a ghost. The cub resembled Scar when the king himself was a cub, newly born. The same beautiful and handsome brown pelt, though this was little darker… The mandrill wondered what color the cub’s eyes would be. Rafiki shut his eyes. The cub looked like Scar so he guessed that the cub’s eyes would be green but with a possibly darker shade of the color.

            “Rafiki, how is it,” Scar asked in a hiss.

            The mandrill jumped and leapt away from the queen and cub. He turned, his head bowed. “He is well, sire. De cub is in perfect health.”

            Scar didn’t reply. His shivers increased.

            Rafiki sensed that Scar knew that the cub was not his, yet the likeness… but it wasn’t possible. Everyone knew it. They all had to stay clear of Scar in recent months. The last cub Zira had was a girl, a successor Scar did not want. Then there had been the cub before who was named Nuka. Nuka was a good cub and tried to please his father but Scar disowned him, saying that Nuka would never be his heir because he wasn’t quick to catch things as he was. He said he never wanted him and was ashamed that Nuka was his son.

            When the second cub, the girl called Vitani, by Zira herself, had been born, Scar’s refusal to name her the heir was due to gender.

            After these ‘failures’ Scar assured Zira that he would have an heir. And here the queen had once again given birth. The question that was floating around now was who the father was.

            Rafiki trembled and not from the silent tension. A rogue lion, but how, when? Rafiki shut his eyes. He couldn’t think about that. He heard a grunt and from the edge of his vision, he saw Scar walk past him to Zira and the cub. Rafiki watched and wondered.

            “Scar… my love,” Zira managed to speak. The birth had tired her but when she heard the cub squeak after he was cleaned, she had been relieved. She was not ashamed of her action. She loved Scar so much that she would use a complete stranger, a rogue, to give him a worthy heir.

            The king looked down at the cub, studying it. What amazed him was that the face reflected his own. The cub would be strong. The evidence of that was clear. He heard Zira speak his name and looked at her. For the first time since he found out about her pregnancy, he allowed himself to smile. He nuzzled her, purring with love. He moved around and lied down beside her. Together they looked down at the cub.

            Rafiki saw the scene. Though he and everyone else were living in dangerous times, the mandrill felt a smile at the corners of his mouth. It was as though there really was a glimmer of real happiness from the rulers. He hadn’t seen such affection between them since the days of Mufasa and Sarabi’s reign, right before he presented their one and only living cub, Simba. But unlike the deceased prince’s presentation, where it was full of life, love, hope and peace, the soon to be presentation of this cub would be the opposite. No animal would be there to greet him or bow to him nor would the sun shine down to anoint him.

            A moment later, Scar spoke. “Let it be known, Rafiki that this cub, my adopted son, shall carry on my name. His name shall be…” He paused and turned to Zira, who looked up at him with her eyes and giving a weak but strong smile. Scar turned back to the mandrill. “His name shall be Kovu, Prince of the Pridelands, my heir and the future king.”

            Rafiki nodded and Scar told him to leave. As he returned home, and gathered his paints around to add the new prince to the tree wall of Prideland royalty, he felt a deep and terrible shudder.

            Scar’s legacy would surely live forever…

The old mandrill snapped out of the memory as he heard Arif call his name. He shook his head. He felt that he’d relived that night all over again. He looked at himself, seeing his knees shake, his hands quivering.

            “Rafiki, are you alright?”

            “Yes,” he said weakly. “Yes, I’m fine, Arif.” He looked at his apprentice and tilted his head. “De question is now, are you alright?”

            “Actually, that’s why I came to you,” Arif admitted sheepishly. “Rafiki, if you don’t mind can I be excused today? For some reason I can’t concentrate on anything…”

            Rafiki put a hand on the lion’s shoulder. “It’s alright, Arif. I know de reason. Dese past weeks have bothered you and I must say, that even though de burden you’re carrying is hard, you will find a way to embrace it and not feel guilty. I’ve had my share of secrets too. That’s just part of being a shaman. Go and take de day off. Nothing’s going to happen anyway. Go on, you need to rest.”

            Arif smiled and hugged his teacher; Rafiki wrapped his arms around the lion’s neck. “So do you,” Arif said gently and with another caring smile, he leapt out of the tree.

            Rafiki watched and prayed that the elder prince would be well. He wished he could know what it was that Arif had to keep secret. He lowered his head. “Ancestors, if you gave him a message it is for him and no one else. Give him de strength to endure it…”

            He walked to the tree wall, gazing at the faded paintings of past leaders. He brushed his forefinger against the images until it came to rest on the image of the current leader, King Baraka.

            Rafiki touched the image with his whole hand. “Will you ever find a mate, Baraka,” he said softly.

            No wind came, no trees rustled. There was no reply.

            The mandrill shivered. He hoped something good would happen. He feared that if Baraka never married, or married the wrong lioness, the Pridelands would fall. He trembled. After Scar’s reign, he never wanted to see the kingdom shrouded in darkness again.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

The hours passed and the sun was starting to sink. Arif was walking home with two animals, a lioness and a cub. The sun’s sinking light turned the lions’ coats into different shades of their fur color.

            “Did you enjoy your time with Etana?” Arif asked his son.

            Adabu nodded. “I sure did, Father. She’s really nice and she tells good stories. I think Adisa, Njozi and the others will like her too.”

            Arif smiled. “I’m glad, son, I’m glad. Maybe Etana could cub sit you and the others one day.”

            “That’d be nice,” said the cub.

            “I’d be honored to cub sit for your cubs, Prince Arif,” said