challenge. It wasn’t triumph, nor joy; it was pain, unending pain. He was drawn to it.

Then he was there; at the hollow’s edge. Below, out of view from the rock, lay a lion. On his side. His legs out straight and shaking, shaking, still then shaking again. His mouth hung open, panting. Eyes greyed; open but unseeing. Dying.

Another lion came. Strong, frightened. Caring, uncertain. He wanted to stop it. Did not know how. No one to stop it: shaking, drooling, staring, dying.

Thunder. The buzzards flew. The lion ran off. He stood watching. The man came. He too stood. The un-living lion saw nothing. Just breath rasping, gasping his life out. Head raised. Not much. Too much. Eyes plead. For release.

The man looked away. Looked back. Stick raised. In an instant thundered the life out. Dying no more. At peace.

Then he was walking. Beside the lioness and the lion. Going to the rock.

“Your grandfather is dead.”

The lioness stopped. Head hanging. The lion looked back.

“Three days. It wasn’t long, he didn’t suffer.” He lied. She knew.

“What killed him? The man?”

“Yes… no. I don’t know.”

“Was it like the others?”

“Yes. Yes, it was like the others. The man helped him. Spared him the worst. We few are all that’s left.”

“We are one?”

“You and I?”

 

***

 

Nengwalamwe suddenly felt something cool splash over his closed eyes. He was surprised to realise that he could open them a little and look ahead. He felt almost alive, his head still felt as though a rhinoceros was sitting it on but the debilitating weakness of his trek to the waterhole had left him. He felt the sun square on his off flank, when he fell the sun had been almost directly ahead. His thirst was unabated and burned into him stronger than the sun. He tried to get up, for a moment the mud held him back, then his returning strength won the battle and he rose to his paws.

One leg at a time he pulled his paws slowly from the drying mud and moved forwards to the soupy water’s edge. He carefully drew forward so that his hind paws almost touched his front. He leaned out over the still water and reached down to the surface. He lapped vigorously, splashing almost as much of the water over his muzzle as that he managed to drink. For over a minute he drank, luxuriating in the taste of the water, never had he appreciated just how good it was to drink. He let the cooling water run down his nose and even into his mane. He didn’t care about what he looked like, he just cared that he was alive.

“Bet that hit the spot, eh, kid?”

Nengwalamwe lifted his head, water running down from his chin in threads that quickly turned to drips. He looked across the surface, his eyes following the ripples that spread away from him. Coming to the opposite edge of the pool he saw that baboon sitting watching him. His head felt so painful when he moved that he immediately dismissed all ideas of chasing the monkey.

“What are you doing here?” he asked tiredly.

The baboon spit a stream of water past his ear and grinned. “Drinkin’, same as you. What’s it look like, I’m havin’ a bath or somethin’?”

Nengwalamwe grimaced as the light breeze turned a little bringing the baboon’s scent over the water, “Not that you couldn’t use one.”

The baboon pulled a face. “Ingrate. That’s a fine way to talk to a guy who’s busy savin’ your behind.”

“Saving me? YOU? You couldn’t save me, I’m a lion.” Nengwalamwe was sure his head was about to explode and hoped that a simple pretence of power would impress the monkey.

The monkey rolled his eyes. “You think water splashes over you by itself, huh?”

Nengwalamwe now realised that it must have been the baboon that had woken him. Before he could stop himself he did something quite selfless.

“Thank you - for saving my life I mean.”

"Wellll..." The baboon shrugged uncomfortably. “I mean, I didn’t save your life, you just had a bad touch of the sun. You’da been OK come sundown.”

“Yeah? Well, I’ve still gotta thank you. And yeah, I needed that for sure, like I need something else too.” Nengwalamwe’s eyes gleamed. “Say Bald-arse...”

“What, Hairball?”

“Are you sick?”

The baboon looked agitated and fidgeted uncomfortably.

“No, I’m doin’ great, whatd’ya want to know for eh?”

“Oh nothing really, I just was wondering if you might drop dead so I could eat you.”

The baboons fidgeting burst into a dash to one side of the side of the pool, from where he could scurry away if the lion made a move on him.

Nengwalamwe laughed gently. It hurt. “Hey, it’s OK, I wouldn’t try to catch you. Not now… I owe you my life.”

“Catch me?” the ape shouted back defiantly. “Forget it Fuzzbutt, you’d never do it. Anyhow, you ever heard of the code of the waterhole?”

“Yes, course I have,” for a second or two Nengwalamwe struggled to recall his father’s lessons by the Kolata. He couldn’t quite remember anything about any waterhole code. “Bald-arse, quit calling me Fuzzball.”

“Why? You got a name then?” The baboon looked surprised, as though he had not expected lions to have names.

Nengwalamwe winced, and then replied quietly:  “Nengwalamwe.”

“Really?” The baboon scratched absently at his arm with dexterity that astonished the young lion, picking off and popping an insect into his mouth. “Wow, that’s my grandfather’s. Was, kinda - he’s dead.” The baboon looked away adding: “Sort of.”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t know. What happened to him?”

“Somebody decided to have him for dinner.” The baboon seemed reticent. Then he gestured to Nengwalamwe, adding, “You know.”

“Eaten by a...” Nengwalamwe’s voice tailed off as he realised what the baboon must have meant.

The uncomfortable silence that followed was finally broken by the baboon’s cough. “Yeah, well if you’re done drooling water everywhere, we’d better get you cleaned up.”

“Cleaned up! You clean me up? What for?” Nengwalamwe almost attempted a laugh, but the rhino in his head kept on charging. “You got me like this in the first place.”

“Hey!” The baboon backed away a couple of paces. “That weren’t my fault.” For a few seconds he sat watching the lion. Then he did one of the most extraordinary things Nengwalamwe had ever seen. He ran forwards and leapt high, landing in the centre of the pool. Nengwalamwe looked on, totally bemused, until the splashes reached his face. The he recoiled, standing up straight, ears pressed flat against his head as he lifted it above the spray.

“What are you doing? Hey, I almost got wet for crying out loud!”

Nengwalamwe thought that he might not be the only animal to have been touched by the sun that day. The baboon seemed to have gone virtually mad and was splashing around in the water. He even seemed to be enjoying it!

“Come on in Fuzzball! It’s really cool!”

Nengwalamwe grimaced. “What? Are you mad? Why in the stars would I want to go in there? It’s dangerous!” Yet the baboon did seem not to be in any danger, other than from the ravenous lion standing close by that is. He actually seemed to be positively enjoying splashing around, he seemed to be… no, it couldn’t be… the baboon was playing!

“Come on, it’ll wash the mud off, it’ll cool you down and its great!”

The young lion felt the mud hardening on his underfur. He had not yet managed to get himself fully clean from the last mud bath. What had he to lose but his dignity? If it helped to scare away the rhino in his head then that would be no bad thing too.

“Is there a bottom?”

The monkey gaped mockingly at him. “No! It’s bottomless, ya doof. Of course there’s a bottom, whadda I look like, a fish? I can stand up in it. Come on in, you’ll love it, no one’s lookin’.” The baboon stopped and peered at him mischievously. “Hey… you ain’t afraid of water are ya?”

Despite Nengwalamwe’s rhino he was sure he could not let a challenge like that go by unanswered. He backed up a few paces and crouched to spring.

The baboon’s grin vanished like lightning. “Hey, not so faaAAAHHHH!”

The lion ran forwards and jumped, landing on the water full length, sending water everywhere. The baboon shut his eyes tightly and gritted his teeth, “...st!” The water surged and rushed over the ape rolling up the muddy sides of the pool, exposing the silty bottom, then turning and slowly filling the pool again. The lion slid along the mud, coming to rest with his nose touching the crouching ape’s side.

“I guess I found it huh?” said Nengwalamwe smiling. For a while the ape sat tight, saying nothing. Then he too risked opening aneye.

“Oh yeah, you found it all right,” he said, shaking water out of his ears. “Boy, you sure now how to have fun don’t ya?”

“Now what?” asked Nengwalamwe as he swished his tail, covering his back with cool

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