stickily humid. Shafts of hazy-misted moonlight slanted through the treetops, filled now with swooping, whooping and clacking calls. Shadows rustled and cracked in the nearby bush. Mtundu at last stirred. Nengwalamwe eased over to let him stretch and get up. The lion let the monkey take a few unsteady steps forward before voicing his thoughts.

“Who are you?”

“Eh Nengwe? Wha’dya mean who am I? Ya ‘naw who I am.”

“Are you my friend, or my enemy?”

“Whoa now! Ya’ll frightening me now. What’s got inta ya all a’sudden?”

“I don’t like having my tail pulled Mtundu. So, who, or should I say what are you?”

“I’m your friend, that’s who. ‘Course I am. Cummon now, whaat’is all about?”

“You’ve been asleep a long time.”

“Yeah, nearly getting’ drowned kinda takes it out o’ya.”

“Where are we going?”

“Back, you know that Nengwe.” Mtundu’s shoulder twitched as he shuffled from foreleg to foreleg. “We’re going back.”

“Are we going to be met when we get there?”

“How am I supposed to know?”

“Yes. Exactly. And do you?” Then glanced down to his dark tail tuft. It flicked and jerked. For a moment Mtundu looked as if he might run, but he stood his ground. Maybe he realised he would be struck down before he’d even turned. Maybe he decided this was indeed the time to explain. Maybe…

“Yeah. They won’t be there. They don’t know we’re here.” Nengwalamwe raised a forepaw, extending his claws as it came up.  “Look Fuzzbutt, they don’t think we’re here. Honest, they probably think we’re still on the other side; still running away.”

The lion’s sides breathed twice. He lowered his paw, letting his claws return. “Tell me more.”

“Like what Nengwe?”

“Like everything, from the beginning. When did it start?”

“From the beginning. Yeah, it started then.”

“I wondered why a monkey like you would hang about a lion like me. At first I thought you were mad, or ill. I mean, why would a monkey want to get himself eaten like that? Putting yourself in my way all the time. But then, everything here was upside down and sideways. Who knew what normal was anymore? Not me.”

“We’re… how ya say…”

“Spies?”

“Naah, intelligence gatherers.”

“You, intelligent!?” Nengwalamwe smiled for the first time since the waterfall.

“Yeah, OK, OK. Look baboons are everywhere right? Chattering away here, squabbling over something there. Playing around trees, scurrying around rocks. Running across tracks. Ya know. We get around.”

“OK. So?”

“We hear stuff, we see things. No one takes any notice of us. ‘Oh it’s only another of those baboons again.’”

“Right….”

“So, the stuff we hear is… kinda valuable to the dogs, ya see? Ya, ya all right’ so we’re spies.”

“You too?”

“It’s kinda the family business. Ain’t no way to get out o’it.” Nengwalamwe humphed and nodded. “My older brother tried, but the dogs found out. Got ‘im real good.”

“How?”

“They’ve got animals to do that sort of thing for them. The sort who’ll do anything and not ask too many questions. They… they did real bad stuff to him… left him dying there as a message to everyone. Then…” He hung his head, breathing heavily. “Then you came and ended it for him.”

Nengwalamwe said nothing. Silence seemed to say it all.

“That’s when Miss Elizabeth decided I should be the one to trail you. Kinda punishment I guess.”

“Trail me? You literally stood in front of me! You’re either mad or stupid. At least that’s what I reckoned. I could so easily have caught and eaten you. Why not just follow me?”

“Because… ya know this is gonna sound really stupid… I knew you were on the right side. You weren’t from round here. You weren’t part of this madness. Nengwe, I thought you were a real lion.”

“I guess you were wrong.”

“Oh no Nengwalamwe, I was right. I’m still right. You do care, that’s why you’re not running away.”

“Not running away? What do you call this? What are we doing right now?”

“We’re going back.”

“Into a trap most likely.”

“No Nengwe. No, they think you’re long gone and me with you most likely. They don’t know we’re going back. They don’ know where we at. That way they’ll leave Falana and Shaha alone for a while.”

“They will? Are you sure?”

“Yeah, pretty sure. They don’ dare mess with Shaha. Never have. Falana… well, yeah, they’ve not always let her alone. That’s why they left the last time.”

Nengwalamwe’s eyes darted about. His ears twitched round. “What? Left?”

“Yeah, they’ve only recently come back. A while before you showed up. They were both born here, and they’ll always keep coming back, no matter how often they have to go away.”

“Why? Why did they go? Where?”

“No idea where, but why? Maybes it was because they killed Falana’s mate and her cubs.”

“Her cubs? She’s had cubs?”

“Yeah. She’s probably not wantin’ to go through all that again, so it ain’t past supposin’ she’s not keen on males these days, if ya’ll see wha’ I mean.”

“Who killed her mate? The dogs?”

“Oh yeah. Sure they did. It took nine of them but he sure went down a’right. It took a while, but Miss Elizabeth enjoyed every moment of it. Says he begged to be killed in the end.”

“…And her cubs?”

“No one knows what happened to them. At least no one’s tellin’. Some say Falana left them on that knoll she lies on and when she got back they were dead. Some bits gone too…. That’s why she lies there, waitin’… but they ain’t never gonna come home.”

Nengwalamwe sat up, looking down on his paws. He closed his eyes. “Come on Mtundu. We’re leaving.” He got up and walked off. Moments later Mtundu hurriedly struck out after him. For some time neither spoke. Eventually, with the bush thinning around them they came to a stream running down from the cliffs. Nengwalamwe stopped.

“What have I got myself into Mtundu?” He looked the baboon square in the eye. “What madness is here in this place?”

“When we get back, we gotta make it count. Nengwe, do ya understan’it? We gotta take them down. There’s no way else to end this. The dogs, especially Elizabeth, they ain’t for backin’ down, and they ain’t gonna give up.”

“Eddie said I’d have to take them down one by one. How many are left?”

“Ten maybes more.”

“How many took down Falana’s mate?”

“Nine. He was all that too, and it weren’t like it was hard or nuffin’.”

“So, I can’t just go in there all claws out, can I?”

“Naah. We’re gonna have to play this clever; take our time.”

“We? Are you on my side now?”

“Well, OK you, and yeah, I’m on our side. I’ve always been on your side.”

“Even when you’ve been telling the other side everything I’ve been saying, everything I’ve done and everyone I’ve met?”

“Yeah… but I didn’t always tell them everythin’ right and somethin’s I said were way wrong.”

Mtundu stepped closer to the lion and placed a hand gently on the lion’s forepaw. He slipped his head under the lion’s chin, snuggling under. Had Nengwalamwe wanted he could have crushed the baboon instantly. Instead he raised his free foreleg and slipped it over the baboon’s far shoulder, resting it. Each felt the other’s body moving in time with their breath, Mtundu felt moments of Nengwe’s slow and calm heartbeat through his forelegs. No one was going to eat anyone just yet. While the conversation had stopped for now, there would be much more to say later.

17.The Lion, the Bitch and the Clawed Lobe

 

Crossing the stream, the pair moved onward. Around them unfamiliar animals watched and wondered from what they hoped was a safe distance. The lion and baboon saw few of them, yet they were there; in the trees, under the bushes, behind the rocks. Some barely knew that the larger of the two was a lion, the others simply marvelled at the magnificent mass of fur the shone in the sun and the muscle that rippled effortlessly beneath. The strange beast’s paws seemed to hang on each step, it placed them flat and even on massive unseen pads. All knew that, like as not, equally impressive claws dwelt between the smooth fur of its toes. Strength and power flowed on its scent and scattered all in its path. In its wake shuttled another beast, one totally unlike the great beast. Grey green matted fur; no, matted hair fell from its body. Legs swung about in all directions. Beady eyes peered blankly ahead along the long ridge of its nose. It looked not a little like a larger form of many of the monkeys that lived,

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