that?”

“Yes Nengwalamwe, I do. I think Falana does to, for what it’s worth. But you can’t do it alone, you need friends; allies.”

“I have no friends. Well, I’ve got Mtundu, but he’s not going to be much use in a tight spot. Oh and there’s Yali, but somehow I don’t think she’ll be around when the time comes. A cub and a monkey, that’s all.”

“You’ve got more friends than you know, and I feel there’s more to your friends than you realise. I’ll do all that I can, and don’t underestimate cubs. I was a cub once you know.”

“Funny, I can’t imagine you as a cub.” He sighed.

“You don’t need to Nengwe.”

“And Falana?”

“Falana does what Falana does. Have you tried to alter the course of a river? Just remember, the river that runs through these lands is small, almost nothing. Further downstream it joins with other rivers, becomes part of them and together they flow on and on, united and mighty. You’d be wise to do a bit of meandering yourself Nengwalamwe.”

“What do you mean? Meandering?”

“Take your time. Give Falana time to… be Falana. She knows what she’s doing. You can’t hurry love, and you certainly can’t hurry Falana.”

“Shaha, time is one thing I don’t have any more. Elizabeth and the dogs are coming for me. If you and Falana are in their way they won’t care. They’ll simply take you down and keep right on going.”

“I’m not leaving, Nengwalamwe. I was born here. I played as a cub here. I grew to an adult here. I bore Falana here; and others too. This is my home, I can never leave.”

“Well, at least take care. Please look out. Trouble’s on its way.”

“I never go looking for trouble.”

“I can believe that Shaha, but it finds us all just the same. I’ve got to go. I need to talk to Falana. Do you know where she is?”

“I’m sorry, I really can’t help you.”

“Well, thanks for telling me all this stuff. Though I don’t know how it’ll help. I’ve got bigger things to worry about just now.” He nodded to Shaha. She got up and slipped down behind the rock. She soon emerged beside Nengwe who, leaning forward, rubbed his neck against hers. “Let all your hunts end well Shaha.” He held himself there, for the first time feeling her pulse in her neck and the warmth of her flesh. Then he pulled back and began to turn to leave.

“And tell that baboon of yours I want to talk to him. Don’t worry: he’ll be alright, I’ll look after him, and no, I won’t eat him.”

Nengwe walked off, back toward his great rock. Shaha watched him go. Once out of earshot she said quietly, “Falana? You can come out now.”

Falana slid out of the shadows.

 “How did you know mother?”

“You know I am everywhere, I see everything,” Shaha said still looking away to the lion’s rock. “That and you reek of sweaty Impala. How much of that did you hear?”

“Enough. ‘I can never leave’ my backside! We were down in the Nyangali for two rains!”

“He’s going to find you.”

“No, he won’t. I’ll go to him when I’m good and ready.”

“You’ve been ready for days.”

“That, mother, is why he’s not going to find me. I can’t believe he’s going to get himself killed for me.”

“He won’t get himself killed if we’re there to help. And he’s right; Elizabeth will want to take us this time. She won’t want to make that mistake again. Anyway, I thought you liked him.”

“Nengwe? What if I do? He’ll just get himself killed like… like…”

“No, he won’t. He’ll stand on that rock and everyone will see him: King of the Pridelands, and you can be at his side. You and a scruffy baboon…”

***

Nengwe walked over to Falana’s knoll, half expecting to find her lying alone on the bare patch of earth which she cleared through lying on it night after night. His suspicions were wrong; he called softly, almost furtively, hoping that no dogs were nearby: she was not there. He settled down and waited. Around him the night carried on: hyenas noisily brought down an impala; a gemsbok was born; a wild dog bitch wandered alone, confused and torn. Life went on.

Nengwe dozed in the final hour before dawn. He lay on his near side for most but from time to time turned onto his back and underside. At each twist his legs assumed a position even more uncomfortable than the last. At length he lay still, more or less squarely on his back, his offside hind leg partially raised so as to allow the warm, moist air to bathe his fully exposed underside from neck to tail. He enjoyed the feeling of openness and coolness on his spotlessly white, short underfur.

The hard stones embedded in the ground beneath began to push and grumble at his back. He realised that Falana might not come before he would have to return the great rock. The spot where Nengwalamwe laid, atop a knoll some five lengths by two, had once been covered by soft earth and thin grass. That had been before Falana took to lying there alone, watching the evening fall.

Nengwalamwe had come to the now bareheaded knoll in the hope that Falana would return. It occurred to Nengwalamwe that despite his once clearly voiced disregard for lionesses, he actually needed them far more than they needed him. These were moments when he felt incomplete, as if he had stopped growing too soon and had been stuck forever without his mane.

His dreamless sleep was interrupted by Falana licking his cheek. She had finally decided to come to him. He murmured softly, “Falana, I need to tell you....”

“Shuushh!” came a young lioness’s voice almost in his ear.

Nengwe started, opening his claws as his heartbeat climbed rapidly. He opened his eyes and peered into the stillness of the night, but all he could see was a fuzzy greyness. The muzzle drew back, resolving into: “Yali!”

“Shuussssssshhhh..... keep it down, we don’t want the whole savannah to know.”

“Yali!” he shouted in a whisper that carried no more than a length. “What the - what are you doing here?” Nengwe stared hard at the cub. “Go home. You’re a bit young to be out at this time of night.”

“I told you once before: you’ll find I’m a lot older than you think Nengwe. So tell me, do you love Falana?”

“If I tell you will you go home?” Nengwe asked pointedly. “I thought you said you didn’t know Falana?”

“Oh, I know all sorts of things. You’ll never know what I know you know.”

“OK, OK. Yes, I.... I… I don’t know. Now will you go? Falana could be along any moment.”

“Yeah, yeah. Will she have your cubs?”

“Cubs? You’re far too young a cub yourself to ask about that sort of thing. If I ever find your parents I’ll them a thing or two about what you get up to.”

“Will she?” Yali insisted with soft eyes.

Nengwe sighed softly. “No, I don’t think so. She’s not interested in all that. I don’t know what she is interested in. There’s so much about her I don’t know.”

“Oh, she’s not so hard to understand.”

“Really? And what would you know about it?”

“Silent Rocks.”

Nengwe peered at Yali in confusion.

“Silent Rocks are a whole load of boulders right?”

“Yes, of course they are.”

“No, Nengwe, they are all one big rock. Most of its underground see. We only see the bits that break the surface. Falana’s like that.”

“I know she can be hard, but she’s not made of stone.”

“No, no, that’d be silly. No, when you’re on the rocks, you can only be on one at a time, and you have to go down to the ground and then up again to get on another. Well, you would if you were me. You’re bigger an’ all, you can maybe jump from one to the next, at least for a bit.”

“And that is Falana? How exactly?”

“There’s different Falanas, just like there are boulders. She keeps each of her rocks apart; it’s difficult to go from one to another, unless she wants you to. No one of them is Falana, all of them are Falana. Unless you can get to all the rocks, and go from one to the next easily, you’ll never know her.”

It seemed like the meaningless babbling of a cub, yet it made some sense. Even Shaha said she didn’t really know Falana. What if she had been hurt so much that she put the bits of her life onto each of these rocks so that they couldn’t and wouldn’t know about the rest? If anything did happen to her, she could limit the damage to just that rock. She would go from one to the next, but each wouldn’t know about all the others, only some, and maybe not even knew that others existed. It could be her lonely way of protecting herself.

Then again, what could Yali really know about Falana? What indeed could she know about? Not much about Shaha and Falana for sure. Ah, but then Shaha did warn not to underestimate cubs.

Then another thought struck him. If she knew so much about Falana, could she know about the other lionesses he and Mtundu had seen from the bluff? Whilst it was not unlikely for there to be