happened.

            The old baboon eyed him suspiciously and Arif smiled at that inwardly. What was so important or urgent that Rafiki lowered his own dignity to the point of waving his hand in the Prince’s face, much less yelling his name when the lion was sitting near him?

            “Rafiki, what’s wrong?” Arif asked, seeing the frustration in his master’s eyes turn to concern.

            To answer the question, the elder shaman walked to the tree wall that held the paintings of past and present Prideland royalties. He came to the side that had Kiara and Kovu’s family line. Arif sat down, eyed the paintings of his parents, and turned to his teacher. “I don’t understand, Rafiki. Why did you –”

            The baboon pointed with his forefinger to the painting of Baraka, as he was the current king. “Dis,” he said, voice shell shocked.

            Arif studied the form closely then looked to his parents. He did a double take and understood. Where all rulers of Pridelander blood had a mate beside them, Baraka’s hadn’t. It’d been that way for almost a year, but now… Was Arif seeing things? This had to be a trick…

            “Rafiki, did you –” He saw Rafiki shake his head.

            “I was just watching de wall, thinking of those kings and queens I served, and when I came across your parents’ line, looked on your brother’s painting, here that was.” With the same forefinger, he pointed to a fresh outlined form of a lioness across from Baraka’s.

            The prince’s mouth fell open. “What does this –” he began, but then he remembered the words of his ancestors as they floated to his mind.

            Think of it as a test. The late Prince Nuka had said that. If he passes, the Pridelands won’t have to worry…

            Arif’s eyes lit up in fascination, and luckily Rafiki didn’t notice. Baraka was passing the test! He was falling in love without being aware of it! This outlined form proved it! Arif’s heart leapt for joy. Surely this was a sign from the ancestors! They had been watching, and pleased that things were turning out well they had made this. Arif knew that when the form was finished it would be Etana.

            “Arif…”

            Rafiki’s voice once again cut through the lion’s thoughts and he snapped out of them.

            “What? Oh, sorry, Rafiki. I’m not really –”

            The baboon smiled. “With it today, oh yes, I’ve noticed. Why don’t you take de rest of de day off? We won’t be having patients today, and if we do, I’ll be fine.” He wrapped an arm around the prince’s neck. “Go on now.”

            Arif smiled, bowed his head, turned to the tree’s opening and leapt out.

            Rafiki waved goodbye and turned himself back to the royal wall. He watched Baraka’s painted form, then the form of an unknown lioness. What did this all mean? Who was this lioness? Was she supposed to be Baraka’s mate and the new queen?

            He shivered. The air was turning cold and it was still mid morning slowly going into afternoon. He turned from the wall, walked to the opening of the tree, and looked up at the sky. The clouds, where earlier they were a lightly colored grey and soft, they were hard, the light grey now a darker shade. His shivering increased and he sniffed the air.

            And has Arif headed in the direction of the place his children and Saada would be residing, he couldn’t help but feel a chill run all the way through his body. His thoughts were the same as his master’s at the Tree of Life.

            A storm was coming and it was not going to be kind to the Pridelands.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

Hasira walked, her eyes cold. Why, why had she gone to her mother’s grave? She’d sworn over and over again she wouldn’t! What had persuaded, and ultimately drove her to it? Did she miss her? How could she? Her mother had verbally and physically abused her, and made her into the cold, heartless person she was today. To pay tribute to someone like that was unthinkable, but it wasn’t a tribute Hasira had paid. She never would, yet now…

            What did the visit mean? She hadn’t meant -. In the moment, she wondered if it was time to forgive and put the past to rest… She shook her head. What a foolish notion! Forget the past? For her, and even Dailia, it was a straight impossibility. When she arrived at the site, she couldn’t speak. What could be said about the lioness who hated not only her own existence but the existence of her oldest child?

            Whatever the reason, it was unfounded and unquestionable. No one would ask where she had been anyway. The sky was almost completely covered in darkening clouds. The faint smell of rain entered her nose. Hasira breathed it in. She loved the rain. It was one of few things in life she actually did love.

            Now her mind was in a fog. It was her own fault, she knew. She hadn’t thought clearly. Like always, when she didn’t want to be around anyone, which was an everyday thing, she’d wander the Pridelands and usually hunted something to eat. But this time, she didn’t. Her stomach growled a little but she ignored the pangs. Usually, at the first sign of a hunger pang, she’d satisfy it by hunting. Now, she didn’t feel like it, not even after putting her mind, without awareness, into a state of remembering a painful past. Hunting wouldn’t do that. The tension was too much.

            Maybe, perhaps, there was something or someplace that would ease the tension she was feeling. Hasira walked a few more steps and broke into a sprint, then, a few sprints later, into a full-fledged run. She ran hard and fast, her heart pounding with each stride. Her breath came in short gasps. She also loved running. It gave her a sense of freedom like hunting, which always thrilled her. Her mother didn’t teach her. Princess Kiara had. For that Hasira was grateful and always would be. To her, the Princess Regent was the mother she and Dailia should have had.

            But should haves and what ifs didn’t change her reality, or the life she was born into. The hard truth was she and her sister had a mother who had no business being. At a young age Hasira and Dailia knew something was wrong with the lioness the other adults called Weusi. They also knew what the name meant: darkness and darkness she was, maybe not on the outside, but on the inside, it was present. No one else saw it personally, but Weusi’s daughters did and suffered from it.

            Hasira’s jaw clenched hard and before she knew it, she was home. Her paws ran up Pride Rock’s stone steps and she found herself standing on the platform that led into the den. Her heart pounded increasingly. She blinked. She hadn’t intended to run home either! It felt as though she wasn’t in control of her own body or muscle functions. Was there something wrong with her, wrong with her mind? How could that be possible? She was always in such good condition.

            A month after her mother died, Hasira went to Rafiki to get her own head checked out. She wanted to make sure that she didn’t suffer the same fate as her mother as she grew. She also told Dailia to do the same. The mandrill shaman told the sisters after the examinations that they would be alright, that the chances of them suffering their mother’s fate were slim to none. The sisters were relieved, but it didn’t change the fact that one was scarred for life because of their mother’s unjust and wrongful treatment.

            Hasira took a sharp, deep breath. Maybe a rest in the den would calm her nerves. She would never go to her mother’s grave again, not if it made her unaware of her actions. She stepped inside the dark cavern. In doing so, she grew cold. Without warning, Hasira made her way into the cave she hadn’t been in for so long. It was the cave she and Dailia grew up in, where the torment began, where their joy of being cubs became a