teeth at anything that looked even faintly canid, covering them with his and their own blood mingled in pain and death. When it was done he stood on as dog as he breathed for the last time. He looked over to where the bitch had watched. She was gone. Nengwe collapsed on to the ground, knowing that two dogs were still to come. He closed his eyes.

A big voice boomed, “What do you want us to do with this one?”

Nengwe’s ear twitched. Mtundu tried to get up, but sat still, defeated by pain from his ribs. “What are you doing here Kudlavu?”

“We were just passing.”

“Just passing eh? Pull the other one.” Mtundu doubled up, gasping for breath.

“We told you we’d cover your back. We can’t come in there to you, so what’s it to be?”

Nengwalamwe turned his ear round, and then pulled the rest of his head after it. “Hmm,” he gasped, “if I were your size I’d do whatever I want, and then some. She’s yours; do with her as you will. I have to look after my friend.”

The bundle in Kudlavu’s trunk shouted, “You’ll ‘effin’ pay for this lion!” The elephant his trunk around the squirming dog. “Mufthrrt…” The dog fell silent.

The elephants walked backwards until they could turn. Once out of view Nengwe and Mtundu heard a dog’s yelp, a bone-snapping crunch and then a dull thud. No one ever saw Elizabeth again.

 

24.All You Have to do is Roar

 

Deep among Silent Rocks, using routes only she and her mother knew, Falana ran and jumped back to where she had left her mother. Shaha lay amid a pool of blood, much or all of it her own. Falana rushed to her, licking and sniffing at her. Old wounds seeped and new ones ran.

Shaha looked up, and struggled to her paws. “Go help Mtundu. Nengwe can’t do it, he’s injured too. You have to do it.” She stood stiffly and painfully, her shoulder dripping blood. “I’ll be alright. I slowed them down didn’t I?”

“But mother!”

“We did it, didn’t we? I will see another king on Priderock.”

“Yes, mother. We did it, the dogs are gone. “

“Go to Nengwe now. He needs you.”

“I need you mother. I need you.”

“Go on. I’ll be all right. I’ve made… other arrangements.”

“Mother, what are you saying?”

 “You know. My time here is nearly over. Please Falana, please don’t come looking for me. I won’t be here.”

Falana left, looking back pleadingly at her mother. Shaha shooed her away with loving, but fast fading eyes.

As Falana slipped away, Shaha collapsed, breathing heavily.

Falana rushed back to Nengwe and Mtundu. Nengwe was up, teetering on unsteady legs. Mtundu still lay on the ground. Falana walked over to him and, standing over him, leant down and scruffed him between her teeth. She carried the baboon back to the cave following Nengwe whose progress was agonisingly slow, pausing to catch his breath over and over. The lion dragged himself to the cave and flopped down exhausted, afraid and in pain. Falana set Mtundu gently down beside him. Once the pair had settled to exhausted sleep she got up and went out, back to Silent Rocks.

 

***

 

Falana returned soon after the cloudless dawn. Nengwe was awake but still in the cave in much the same place she had left him. She inspected his wounds. The bleeding had long since stopped. She set about cleaning the worst of the dried blood from him.

 “Are you OK Nengwe?”

“No, but I’ll survive.”

“Look at you! You’ve been through it, haven’t you? Where does it hurt?”

“Where doesn’t it, Falana?” The lion looked around anxiously. “Where’s Mtundu? I thought he was here. Wasn’t’ he? And your mother?”

“She’s gone Nengwe.”

“Gone? Gone where?”

“I think she’s gone away.”

“Why? Where?”

“She told me to look after you. She said she’d be alright, but I think she… she just wanted to.... She’s gone Nengwe.  Can I lie with you? I don’t want to be alone today.”

“Of course.”

She lay down beside Nengwe.

“There’s one more thing. Unfortunately I have to tell you Mtundu…”

“What? Him too? Why did it cost so much blood to end this? If only I had stood up to them sooner. He’d be alive today, and your mother too.”

“Stop beating yourself up about it. Anyway, if you had let me finish I’d have told you he’s going to be all right. He’s outside playing with some stick.”

“He is? He is!” Nengwe tried to stand up, but his near forequarter couldn’t hold him.

“Whoa, steady tiger! Stay still, you’re in no shape to go running about just yet.”

“Shaha’s gone… I’m going to miss her. She taught me everything.”

 “Nengwe, she said when we came back here that she had something she had to do: one last thing. I didn’t understand what she meant. When I last saw her, there at Silent Rocks, she said, “it’s done”. I thought she meant the fight, but now I think it was whatever she came here to do. Maybe though, she’s out there still.”

“Maybe Falana she just wanted to let go.”

“Why did she have to go and throw it all away? Why? Why now?”

“I guess she…” Nengwe closed his eyes. “She did it for us, for you. This land is your land, not mine. I’m just the lion from over the mountains: all mane and roar and can’t hunt to save his life.”

“Don’t worry Nengwe, I can hunt for two.” She pressed her flank to him.

Soon they were asleep, both knowing that for the first time their future looked brighter than the past, and that no one, baboon excepted and even expected, would disturb them.

 

***

 

Two day later Mtundu came to the cave at dawn. He stood in the light at the entrance, supporting himself on his stick.

“Wake up, wake up, it’s another great day Fuzzbutt!”

“Mtundu! What are you doing here?”

“Yeah, I guess I am here ain’t I?”

“It’s been a strange few nights for all of us.”

“Strange, yeah. Have you ever tried danglin’ from Falana?”

 “No, I can’t say that I have.” Mtundu winced and bent over, breathing painfully. “Does that hurt? Say, where is Falana? Have you seen her?”

Mtundu whispered through grit teeth. “Yeah, it hurts a lot of the time. Less now I can get the weight off some. See I found another use for this thing. Oh and she’s outside, somewhere.” He appeared somewhat worried.

“Mtundu, just get in here and take all that weight off.”

“No Nengwe. Look, they’re here.”

“Who?”

“Those ‘few’ friends I told you about who want to see their new king.”

“New king? Who’s that? No, they were meant to be here to see me die, but I guess they don’t know that. Well if they really want to see me they’ll have to come in.”

Mtundu was cagey, “Ah, it ain’t that easy. There’s a few more than a few.”

“Come on, are you saying this cave isn’t big enough? You’ve got to be kidding!”

“Errrr, well…”

“It’s not? Ok… so they can stand outside on the rock.”

Mtundu tried to show bigger by opening his arms wide. The pain struck him and he abandoned the attempt.

“No? So where will they fit? How many are there?”

“A lot. A real lot. They’re outside.”

“A lot? How many are ‘a lot’?”

“A lol’a lot.”

“Real more than a few?”

“Oh ya, more than a few, many more than a lot. A lot more than a lot I’d say. Come on, get that fur off your paws and come on. It’s a great morning and it’s all yours.”

Nengwe shook his head, thinking it’s all too much for any lion in the morning, and anyway what was Falana up to? He got up, stretched as best he could and haltingly followed Mtundu’s uneven footfall out of the cave and into the glare of dawn. Soon they were out on to the promontory.

 

***

 

 

Falana slipped north out of Silent Rocks just after midnight. She barely saw the animals of all species moving with one unknown purpose. She had spent much of the time walking against the flow. All acknowledged her, none but a very few talked to her. She found some dried blood, leading away to the north and followed the spatters but the trail soon ran cold.

She turned back to the rock; it was now little before dawn, the air still and minutely damp. She saw more blood, fresher this time, smeared over the ground, and a drip trail leading away. Whose was it? Could it be her mother’s? If it were, which way had she passed, to or from Silent Rocks? How old was it? All she knew was that the trail led toward the great rock and all the animals gathering round it. The trail faded and vanished but the lioness carried on into the throng which parted all around to let her pass as the dawn approached. There were animals of every kind everywhere Falana looked, but she didn’t see most of them, she was focussed only on finding her mother.

Approaching the base of the boulder

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