literature

Zira's Story: Part 3

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Penda looked on as the little black cub snuggled up at Zira’s side.  Nyonda’s eyes eased closed as he settled down.  He looked so peaceful and happy just to be there with his friend.  Zira shifted a little bit next to him, seemingly unconsciously, to fit her body more closely to Nyonda’s side.  Her eyelids squeezed tighter shut for a moment when his long bangs tickled her face.  She smiled in her sleep and gave a small moan of contentment.

The lioness’ lips twitched into a smile as she watched the cubs.  It was clear that they loved each other as dearly as brother and sister, perhaps more.  Just seeing the two cubs cuddling together so sweetly filled Penda with longing.  It reminded her of a vibrant past that had ended too soon and too long ago…



She’d grown up in a fairly small pride.  Her parents hadn’t seemed all that interested in her, though she’d never known why.  She had no fond memories of the other cubs at all.  Her upbringing became manifested in her personality: she became stubborn and unpredictable.  Arguments broke out frequently.  Finally, when she was an adolescent, she decided that she’d had enough and ran away.

Living on her own, she just managed to survive by hunting small critters such as mice.  After just a few weeks of this harsh life her ribs were beginning to show.  She stubbornly forced herself to get used to it, though.  She had to be tough.  For several months this went on, and all the while she refused to acknowledge that she was steadily becoming weaker and weaker.  She ventured into completely unknown territory, though she was far too tired to notice the scenery.  She stopped hunting and soon became ill.  One day in the searing heat of noon, while she was barely able to walk to search for water, her body gave up and collapsed in the dust.  Her mind shut down.  And the next thing she knew, she was drinking from a clear stream.

Her rescuer was named Ninaku.  He was a young adult from the Wildfire Pride.  He’d been patrolling the border when he’d seen Penda out in the desert and carried her to the stream.  After brief introductions, he helped her settle down in a sheltered spot by the bank, promising that he would return.

Penda stayed by the stream for almost two weeks while she regained her strength.  Every day Ninaku returned with food for her, and every night he returned again to check up on her if she was asleep or talk with her for a while if she couldn’t sleet.  At first he sternly prohibited her from leaving her resting place for anything, but after the first week he reluctantly agreed that she was strong enough to take short walks along the creek.  Once she asked him why he was helping her so much.  At first he said it was his duty, but after being pestered again and again for a better answer he confessed that he couldn’t bear to see a lion that he knew die.

She soon began to look forward to his visits.  She’d never had a friend before, and she craved more time to talk with him.  Over time they told each other everything about their lives.  Ninaku’s mane had just recently become full; any day now the pride would kick him out.  He didn’t seem to mind, though.  In fact, he sounded almost excited to journey to new places without his relatives breathing down his neck.

“And what’s more,” he said, fixing his emerald-green eyes on hers, “you can come along with me, if you want.”

“Are you serious?” she asked, completely surprised.  “I’m not going to be quarantined here anymore?”

“Unless you want to,” he replied.  “But I would advise against that, because I wouldn’t be able to stay with you.”

Something twitched in Penda’s belly.  Had he really just said that?  Why did she feel so happy all of a sudden?  A few moments later she realized that she’d been staring silently into his eyes.  She blinked and tried to talk again.

“Of course I’m coming with you!  There’s no way I’d stay here all by myself.  You’re my best friend, so I’m sticking with you.”

Oddly enough, the verdict came the very next day.  When Ninaku came to the creek that morning, much earlier than usual, he was practically skipping with joy.  After informing Penda of the news with an ecstatic cry of “WE’RE FREE!” and assuring her that he considered her travel-ready, they were off.

They spent every minute of their adventures together.  Penda quickly learned how to hunt larger prey with Ninaku’s help.  They journeyed through treeless plains, flourishing riverbeds, cathedral-like acacia groves, and even once a small jungle.  Gradually, though, the scenery began to slur together in their minds.  All they saw was each other.

Penda had never been happier in her entire life.  The embarrassed looks became subtle nudges as they walked.  Then came the nighttime licks, then the nuzzlings, then the embraces…

And then there was the fire.



When she wasn’t hunting with the rest of the pride or talking to her daughter, Penda would lie down and stare out into the savannah.  Every leafy tree reminded her of his sparkling emerald eyes.  She would imagine that he stood there before her, looking down at her with the smile that she knew so well.  She would reach out to him with her paws, hoping in vain that he might actually be there, but every time she was disappointed.
If it weren’t for her treasured Zira, Penda would have left the pride long ago.  She simply wasn’t comfortable being around so many people.  She wanted so badly to return to the wilderness to seek Ninaku out.  But her same love for him also kept her here with Zira.  Ninaku wouldn’t possibly have wanted his only child abandoned for his own sake.  He was much too loving for that, and so was Penda.

Zira grew too quickly, or so it seemed to Penda.  Her best buddy from cubhood, Nyonda, grew right along with her.  With Ni and Malka added to the picture, Zira now had more friends than her mother had ever had.  Penda wasn’t really sure if she was happy for her daughter or jealous.  More likely happy.

Penda realized that she’d grown to love Nyonda.  His shy but playful personality strikingly resembled Ninaku’s.  Penda could tell that the little coal-colored cub cared enormously for Zira, just like Penda’s mate had cared for her.  With luck, they might even become more than friends later.  She couldn’t think of a better possible future mate for her daughter than that sweet little black-furred cub with the long bangs.

If only Ninaku could watch his daughter grow up too!



“Uh-oh,” Zira muttered, turning to Malka.  “Did you hear that?”

“I sure did,” Malka whispered back.  “There’s something behind us.  But come on.  How bad can it be?”

“GRAAAAAH!”

Something dark and hairy suddenly jumped out at Malka from behind a bush.  He yelped in fright and ran away, the creature close behind him.  It was very muddy and had leaves and twigs matted in its fur, completely obscuring its face except for the open, sharp-toothed, slobbery mouth.  In a few seconds it stepped on Malka’s tail.  The brown cub was terrified as the monster hovered over him.  Hot smelly breath billowed over him.  The creature slowly raised its grimy paw…and pushed the mass of fur and leaves up and away from its face, exposing two twinkling blue eyes.

Malka suddenly began to laugh.  “Nyonda!  I knew it was you the whole time!”

“Oh you did, did you?”  The older male closed his mouth and wiped the drool off with the back of his paw.

Zira trotted up from behind, chuckling in her low voice.  “I must admit, that was pretty fun to watch.  You should have seen your face, Malka!  You looked like you’d seen a ghost!”

Malka glared at her, though he couldn’t hide his smile.  “You were in on the whole thing, weren’t you?”  Zira responded with a mischievous, toothy grin.

The little clump of black fur that once adorned Malka’s forehead had now grown into a considerably large tuft.  He was quite proud if it; it was a comforting assurance that he was growing older and more respectable every day.  Someday he’d have a mane to call his very own, but that day never seemed to come soon enough.

Nyonda, of course, was much closer to Malka’s goal than Malka himself.  Over the past few months the fur along the back of his neck had begun to grow longer and longer, as well as becoming a shade darker than the rest of his already-dark fur.  His bangs were so long now that he could push them to the left side of his nose and have them stay there without falling back in his face.  This gave him a perpetual one-eyed look, but Zira, Malka, and Ni had gotten used to it quickly.  His voice seemed to be getting deeper, too…and oddly enough, so was Zira’s, but not nearly as much.  Her voice was a smooth alto now.  Nyonda showed every sign of becoming a strong, deep bass, but right now his voice was still cracking every other sentence.

“Come on, Nyonda, we haven’t got all day,” Malka whined.

“Just…one…minute…” Nyonda answered.  He was sitting up balanced on his hind legs, attempting to pick the leaves and twigs out of his hair.

“Maybe getting it wet will help,” Zira thought aloud.  “Why don’t you let that go for now?  We can go down to the river.  You need to wash the mud out anyway.”

Nyonda gave a final grunt of frustration and dropped back onto all fours.  “Okay, okay.  I’m coming.”

The three trekked through the grass towards the river.  It wasn’t a long walk, and in a few minutes Nyonda was crouching on the bank, trying to get his hair wet but not lose his balance.

“Oh, here, let me,” Zira huffed after watching Nyonda struggle for a few minutes.  He seemed to be trying to use a paw to comb through his bangs while they were in the water, but he couldn’t lean down far enough to reach the current.  Zira waded into the river—luckily it wasn’t very deep—and walked around Nyonda until she was facing him.  “Malka, do you think you could hold his butt down?” she called to the younger cub.  The latter snickered a bit but obliged, walking up behind Nyonda and half-climbing on him to keep him from falling into the water.  “Nyonda, you can put your paw back now.”  Nyonda consented and pulled his paw back, feeling Malka’s extra weight on his back and knowing that his friends wouldn’t let him slip and fall.

That’s more like it, Zira thought as she guided Nyonda’s head down to the water and began to run her claws through his bangs.  It was amazing how much immersion in water helped.  The twigs and leaves came free quickly.  The knots took more work.  A cloud of dirt particles filled the water around Zira as she fidgeted with Nyonda’s unruly mane.  Carefully she combed through his black locks.  When she felt a snarl beneath her paws, she meticulously separated the strands, trying her hardest not to hurt him.  Despite her best efforts, every once in a while Nyonda gave a pained-sounding grunt.  Each time this happened she flinched and relaxed her paws, mouthing a silent “Sorry.”

Once she hit a tangle so big that her temper finally snapped.  She wanted to scream in frustration and just yank out this horrible, untamable fur!  But somehow she forced herself not to.  Her best friend was attached to that fur.  She clenched her teeth, wishing with all her might that she wouldn’t give in to the sudden temper flare.  All that came out of her mouth was a tense groan.  She made herself handle the rest of the knots as slowly and gently as she could, and slowly her frustration eased away.

Finally Nyonda’s bangs were clean and snarl-free.  For good measure she cupped water in her paw and ran her claws through the black scruff on his neck as well.  Since the fur there was much shorter it only took a few seconds.  Eventually she told Nyonda to sit up.  He obediently scooted backwards on the bank as Malka let him go.  Zira climbed back up on land and shook herself.

“That took longer than I expected,” she muttered, “but I think it was worth it.  Look how nice your mane is now!”

Nyonda fingered his dripping bangs.  “It’s all stringy.”

“That’s because it’s wet, Smart One.”

Nyonda shook his head from side to side to get rid of the excess water.  He gave the wet hair a surly look and sighed.  “Oh well.  When it’s dry it’ll look a lot nicer.”

“I’ll comb it if you want,” Zira offered.

He gave her a questioning glare.  “I’m perfectly capable of combing my own fur, Zira.”

“Well, sorry, I was just offering…”

“Oh, no no no, it’s okay!  You can comb it if you want, I didn’t mean…”

“No…I’m sorry.  I-I shouldn’t have snapped.  It was a dumb suggestion.”

“It wasn’t a dumb suggestion at all, you were just trying to be helpful.”

“Hey, guys!  Look at this!”

Nyonda and Zira looked up.  Malka had spoken, they were sure.  They did a double take.  He was out in the middle of the river!

They blinked.  The grinning cub couldn’t be standing on water.  He was afloat on something; they couldn’t tell if it was a tortoise shell or part of a tree.  But however he was staying up, he was whizzing along with the current frightfully fast.

“Whoo-hoo!  This is so awesome!” he shrieked.  He was going so fast that his ears and head tuft flapped in the wind.

Zira and Nyonda took off down the river, eyes wide in fear for their friend.  It seemed like the faster they ran, the faster he moved away from them.  It wasn’t helping that Malka was trying to go even faster by swishing one of his paws through the water.  They shouted his name several times, though each time their voices sounded more and more strained.  

The bank was uneven and scattered with the occasional rock.  Because his legs were longer, Nyonda kept getting ahead of Zira, but she refused to let herself drop behind, churning her legs all the faster.  She’d just put on a burst of speed when her forepaw slipped into a rut in the ground.  As her momentum pushed the rest of her body forward, her paw stuck.  Her wrist twisted in the mud.  With a squeal of surprise and pain she fell to the ground.

“Oh, crud,” she muttered under her breath.  They couldn’t stop now!  They had to catch up to Malka!  But as she tried to stand a searing pain shot through her arm.  Her mouth opened in a silent scream.  Her eyes burned.  She eased herself back down to the ground and gingerly tried to lift her paw.  She gasped as it cleared the ground.  Just the slightest touch made her wrist feel like it was on fire.  She couldn’t even set it down.  Tears trickled down her cheeks.  Oh, great.  Now she was crying.

“Zira!”  Nyonda skidded to a sudden stop above her.  “Zira, are you okay?”

Just when she thought things couldn’t get worse.  Here she was, playing the weakling again.  How come she was always the damsel in distress?

“I’m fine!” she spat.  Her hysteria-edged voice didn’t sound at all like she wanted it to sound right now.  “I just…”  She sniffled.  “I just tripped, that’s all…”  Why the heck was she acting like a sad, sorry crybaby?

“Don’t be ridiculous, you’re anything except fine.  Here, lemme look.”  He leaned in.

Zira pulled her paw away.  “Don’t touch it.”

“I won’t touch it.  I just want to look.”

Obediently Zira extended her arm.  She flinched.  Sheesh, it even hurt to move.  “There’s no point.  I can’t do anything.  And now we’ve lost Malka.”  She scowled.  “You should have kept going.  I was slowing you down anyway.”

“You were hurt!  I couldn’t keep going if you were hurt!”  He looked down at her with such a torn expression that she felt tears coming again.  He’d had to choose between his two best friends.  Yet the fact that he’d chosen her…

Nyonda pulled his gaze away from Zira’s and looked worriedly downriver.  Of course, Malka was nowhere to be seen.  “Let’s just pray he finds his way home.”



This must be what it feels like to fly!

That was Malka’s only thought as he whizzed along with the current.  He glided over the rapids effortlessly.  The tortoise shell that he was riding on was quite large, or so it seemed to a cub like him, and it kept him afloat in even the most turbulent water.  The wind in his face was sharp and invigorating.  If only Zira and Nyonda and Ni could feel what he felt now!

He looked over his shoulder, expecting to see them, but they weren’t there.  His smile faded.  He hadn’t realized how far he’d gone.  The river was wide here.  He suddenly realized that this was where the dogs had cornered them months ago.  Zira had been so brave, Nyonda so daring, Ni so clever!  He loved them all.  They’d been there when he needed them.

Well, he needed them now!  The river seemed to be picking up speed again.  It was pushing him away from them, farther and farther from home every second.  He could do nothing but sit there on the shell as it bore him further and further through the valley.  He was too terrified to jump into the current.  It was probably freezing.

He looked ahead, down the river.  What was that sound?  He thought he heard something, though he couldn’t tell what it was.  He listened closely.  It hissed.  It was something like rain, he supposed.  But it rumbled, too, like thunder.  Whatever the noise was, it was getting steadily louder and louder.  He suddenly realized that the horizon seemed to be coming closer, faster every second.  The water was turning to white ribbons, seeming to fall away…

Realization hit Malka like a blow in the face.

“No!” he screamed.  “No, no, no!  Help!”

His cries were lost in the crashing of the water as he plummeted over the falls.  

He fell for what felt like hours, water falling along with him on all sides.  There was a strange white haze below him, like a cloud.  It grew bigger and bigger as he fell, until he passed into it, and still he fell…

The water collided with his body like a wall of icy rock.  He was pushed under the surface by an enormous force that left every muscle stinging with pain.  Malka paddled instinctively; he’d never swum before.  He had to get to the surface.  But he was relentlessly pushed under again before he’d had a chance to reach the air.  His lungs were on fire.  He tried again to swim away from the pounding of the waterfall.  He broke the surface with a gasp.  For the briefest moment he felt water sprinkling his head, and before he had any idea what was happening the cascade struck him again like the trampling of a thousand elephants…

He felt a flash of pain in his head…

The numbing battering of the water…

And then he knew no more.



“Ni!”

One of the young adult lions looked up.  His brown mane had just recently made it all the way around his face, enough to be officially called a “mane” by the older lions of the pride.  When he saw Nyonda approaching with Zira on his back, Ni jumped up from the group and ran over to the two younger lions, eyes wide in fear.

“Zira!” he exclaimed as he slid to a stop in front of them.  “Zira!  What happened?”

“I just tripped,” Zira grumbled.

Nyonda looked up at Ni.  “What she means to say is her paw slipped in a pothole while she was running and she twisted her wrist really badly.  She won’t let me look at it, so I don’t know exactly how it’s hurt.  I’m worried it might even be broken.”

“Oh, no,” Ni muttered, then looked over his shoulder.  “Tipu?  Do you mind if we bring you a patient?”

“Uh…okay,” came a female’s voice from the group of young adults.

“Great.  Here, come on,” he told Nyonda, ushering him toward the group.  “Tipu might know something.”

Nyonda felt a little embarrassed walking in on Ni’s friends.  There were two lions and two lionesses in the circle, not including Ni.  They were all adult-sized.  But Zira was in trouble, and he had to do something to help that.

One of the lionesses, the pale gray one, shifted her front paws to clear a place on the ground in front of her.  “Put her here,” she told Nyonda.  The younger lion nodded and kneeled in front of her, letting Zira slide off his back.  The lioness gently helped Zira down.  The pale brown cub gave a small yelp when her sore paw touched the ground, but she clenched her teeth in determination and settled down before the lioness without another sound.

Nyonda sat down behind Zira as the lioness began to examine her swollen wrist.  It was clear that Tipu had much experience with dealing with injuries: she inspected Zira gently and used both paws when moving her arm to keep the injured paw aligned with the arm.  He could sense the other lions peering over him curiously to see what Tipu was doing.  He began to fidget anxiously.  He felt Ni place a paw on his back.  Nyonda looked up at him.  Ni gave him a reassuring smile.  Nyonda tried to smile back, though he suspected it came across as more of a grimace.  

“Tipu is Ponya’s only child,” Ni whispered to Nyonda.  When the only reply was a blank look, Ni continued.  “Ponya is the leader of the lionesses.  Her mother, her mother’s mother, and all their mothers were queens of this pride.  They were also skilled healers, passing knowledge down from mother to daughter for generations.  Luckily Tipu isn’t self-centered enough to refuse to chill out with us commoners.”

“Ya know, Ni, I can hear every word you’re saying,” Tipu said suddenly.  Ni shut his mouth quickly, looking embarrassed.  The other three lions were looking in awe at Tipu.  Nyonda realized that they all respected her.  He heard Tipu start to speak again and turned back around to face her.

“…Obviously quite swollen,” she was saying, “but I’m pretty sure it’s not a fracture.  My best advice is rest.  No running around with your buddies.  Keep it elevated.  If the healing process goes well, you’ll be able to walk in two or three days, if you’re not afraid to limp.”

Nyonda sighed in relief.  It wasn’t broken.  Zira wouldn’t have to worry about “not running around with buddies,” either.  He wasn’t afraid to be sedentary for a few days. “Thank you very much, milady,” Nyonda said to the lioness.

Tipu growled.  “Don’t call me that.”

“Oh, uh, sorry…Tipu…”

She chuckled.  “No prob.  That’s what I’m here for.”



The first thing he was aware of was a dull ache all through his body.  A light breeze drifted over him, but it made him freezing cold.  He didn’t want to move.  He wanted to go back to sleep.  But he was hungry.  Suspecting that sleep wasn’t going to happen anytime soon, he opened his eyes and tried to sit up.

He was on the bank of the river.  Now that he knew where he was, he realized that his tail was in the water.  There was a log next to him.  This territory, though, was completely unfamiliar.  The flat land went on and on for miles, dotted with the occasional tree.  There were no mountains around.

He tried to remember what had happened.  His memory was foggy from being asleep for so long.  How long had he been asleep?  A day?  Two days?  All he could remember was the sound of rushing water, and the sensation of being crushed…

Of course!  The waterfall!  How could he forget?  He looked at the log and put two and two together.  He must have lost consciousness after going over the falls.  The log had kept him afloat, and he’d drifted a long way down the river.  It was the only way to explain why he was so wet and had no idea where he was.

There was a rustle in the grass to his right.  Malka jumped in fear.  He was far from home and now something was going to get him!  He was never going to see his friends again!

To his surprise, a cheetah’s head emerged from the grass.  The tall, lithe cat walked towards Malka curiously.  The cheetah must have noticed that the cub was quivering, either in cold or in fear.  He spoke.  “What’s wrong, kid?”

“I…I think I’ve lost my pride.  Do you know how to get back?”

The cheetah looked baffled.  “Lost?  Can’t you see Pride Rock from here?  See, there.”  The cheetah turned his head.  Malka followed his gaze.  Sure enough, there was something there on the horizon.  “Pretty easy to spot, if you ask me.  But anyway…”  The cheetah looked quizzically at Malka one last time before turning away and stalking off through the grass, muttering something about “weirdos” and “blind lions.”

Malka looked again to the horizon.  Pride Rock, eh?  Well, maybe it wasn’t his pride’s rock, but it was something to head for.  He stood up and began to journey across the plain.
Whoo, part three.

Forgot to put this in, but after Penda's bit at the beginning a few months have passed. It's a sort of interlude that I didn't feel like uploading separately.

All characters except Zira, Malka, and Ni belong to me.
© 2008 - 2024 FiliaFlammae
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Schazmen's avatar
I love this series, but I´ve noticed that you haven´t uploaded any more in a while...