and making fun of her. In spite of himself, he growled.

            An awkward moment – if it was awkward in any way – passed. Baraka’s lower lip quivered. He looked up at Etana. She was still turned from him, probably gathering more memories or washing the pain of the recent.

            “Etana,” he asked quietly, but loud enough so she could hear, “are you alright?” You fool! Of course she’s not! She just told a hurting moment of her life! Be respectful! He bowed his head, aching to see her like this, and this was the first memory.

            The memory and the words tore at her. She hadn’t thought talking would bring all this. She shut her eyes, the pain overwhelming.

            Blind one.

            From Hasira, it did not bother her. Hearing it as a cub was different than as an adult. Nowadays she let the words in until they sank from her mind. She tried it now. She relaxed and concentrated though Baraka’s concern filled her ears. She ignored it. The pain had to go first. Silence filled the clearing when Etana opened her eyes again. The pain was gone and she remembered the king’s words. Sighing softly, she turned to him. “Yes, I’m fine. That memory… I didn’t think it’d have such an impact. It’s been years…”

            He walked up a few steps. “It’s okay. Take all the time you need.”

            She managed a chuckle. “If you really mean that, we’ll be out here all night.”

            “I do mean it. And if we’re out here all night, so be it.”

            “Okay…”

            “Do you want to stop for awhile?”

            She shook her head. “I can’t. There’s more…” They lay down beside the waterhole.

            “Alright… tell when you’re ready.”

            They drank from the waterhole and when their throats were quenched, she began again. “After that day, the two cubs never bothered me again. Jelani’s defense, including the others’, made them back off. I was grateful and things were okay. However, my father…” She stopped and hurt welled up.

            He saw and knew. Her father chose one cub over the other, chose the second over the first, breaking tradition in royal view and family. Baraka sensed the hurt and allowed himself to share. In her own way, maybe she was asking him to.

            “Your father had no right to disown you,” he said softly.

            Etana scoffed. “Yeah, well… he did…”

            Once again, Baraka closed his eyes. He tried to keep his own emotional fury down all the while imagining the North Mountain Lion King and the young princess who tried so hard to get her father’s love and acceptance…

The night was cool, the perfect night for a star gaze.

            King Dharau considered it his private time. As a cub he shared these moments with his parents. As a young adult he shared it with Adila, but respectfully. For them, it was time alone, to think about their futures. Now he was here alone. He’d have wanted his family joining him but that would mean his daughter being there too. He didn’t want her anywhere near him. Since his cubs’ birth he wasn’t sure how to love his daughter. Sometimes he wondered if he ever could.

            “She’s blind,” he reminded himself. “She’s too much like my father!”

            Dharau searched the stars desperately. Surely his parents were among those who were good throughout life. His father was a gentle lion, always caring for others. Many in the kingdom believed he could heal through the words he spoke to the weakened and pained. Dharau was trying to live up to him, but he was failing. He knew one of the reasons.

            His father loved all the cubs in the pride, even the ones who were not his. Raising Adila, a lioness that lost her mother, and never meeting or knowing her rogue father, was proof of that. She was the old king’s adopted daughter. Dharau smiled. Maybe that’s what made his relationship with Adila deep. For their whole lives they shared the love from royal lions. And once again, they were sharing the blindness on Dharau’s side of the family, and within their own.

            Dharau trembled. He wanted so much to love Etana but his heart wouldn’t allow it. If she was a male, perhaps he’d be alright. His blind father raised and taught a seeing male. Surely couldn’t he, a seeing male lion, could do the same to a blind female. What was the difference? The question plagued him and he feared nothing could be done. With no guidance or hope, he couldn’t teach her. And with that, she could not be his heiress.

            “Father… I wish you were still alive,” he whispered. “Please, help me.”

            He felt a gentle rub at his shoulder. He turned with a grim face. It was her. She was nuzzling him kindly. He felt a small ounce of love but it quickly turned to hatred. Of all animals, why was she here? Jelani, he would’ve been happy with, even Adila, but Etana… Dharau suppressed a growl.

            “Dad, are you okay?” asked the gray cub, her head tilted in confusion and worry.

            Dharau stared into her blind eyes. His chest constricted. He couldn’t speak. Instead, he rose roughly and walked away. He had to be anywhere but there, and away from her. He couldn’t trust himself. The last thing he wanted was physically hurting her. His ears flickered, hearing paw steps behind him.

            “May I join you?” she asked.

            He flinched and growled. “Leave me alone, Etana. Go home.”

            She made another rub against him followed by a purr.

            Dharau pressed his eyes shut. He told himself not to get angry… “Etana…” There was another growl, a louder one. He tried to keep it down. “Go home now!” With a back paw, he pushed her away.

            She rolled in the grass, her face contorted with pain. She knew better than to ask again. His touch caused hurt. She could feel the anger and the want to cradle her close. She also felt the uncertainty of it all through his movements. He wanted so much to love her but fear and anger got in the way. This pained her even more. With tear filled eyes and a lowered head, she turned and left.

            Dharau watched regretfully. Again the emotion was replaced by heated anger. “She’s blind!” The words repeated themselves in his mind. He felt like crying, like roaring. Why was he like this? He loved his father… He stayed outside the rest of the night. He couldn’t go home.

            Etana, however, found the cavern her family lived in and fell into her mother’s welcoming embrace. They knew what had happened. With Jelani’s comforting words and her mother’s gentle loving purr, she was calm, but her own heart was in a pain so deep they wouldn’t understand. Her father hated her. She didn’t need the words spoken to know. She felt it in the earth, and in the way his back paw touched her face. The touch was hard, unfeeling, and cold.

            Burying her face in her mother’s foreleg, she cried…

Baraka opened his eyes. His heart sank and he wiped a few falling tears with a paw. Her words, the images in his mind… It was all so overwhelming and emotionally draining that he drank from the waterhole for relief.

            Etana’s ears fell, her father words echoing, “Leave me alone” What kind of father, king or not, would say that to his own child? Weren’t fathers supposed to