“One morning dawned to find the plains empty.” Elanna bowed her head and tears began to stream down her face. Lisani snuggled closer against Habusu in the awful quiet, and her eyes reddened.
“Lannie, are you all right?” Habu asked.
Elanna kissed him. “I’m sorry. Really I am. I just get emotional when I tell that story, Honey Tree. I’m sorry.”
“Oh Lannie!” Lisani cried. “Are we all going to die?”
“No, hon. Don’t say that.” She rubbed her eyes and said, “I feel much better now, really I do. Let’s finish the story, shall we?”
Elanna regained her composure. “Aiheu had instructed the gemsbok to leave the land and journey to another kingdom far away which he had prepared for them. The lionesses began to desert the land as well, saying, ‘Shall we remain here and die with one who loves us not?’”
“I hope Nala comes home,” Habu said.
“So do I,” Lisani said.
“And us,” Kombi said. “Do you think she will?”
“I hope so,” Elanna said. “Well, the king railed bitterly against God for the curse; each day his pride numbered fewer and fewer, their reports becoming more and more bleak. Many things did he learn to eat, and days came when he would have been glad to eat anything, but there was nothing. Then finally, he awoke one morning to hear only silence. His cries for help were pitiful, but no one remained to hear them.
“Utterly desolated, he shrank in a corner of his cave, the taste of fear strong on his drying tongue. Weaker and weaker he became, his cries for help becoming hoarse, feeling his body's grip on his soul become weak as the water was drawn from him with each breath he exhaled. At last in utter misery, he cried out, "Oh gods, kill me! Aiheu, release me form this torment, I cannot bear it any more!"
Elanna’s chin began to quiver. “Poor, dear creature! He wasn’t evil--he was just an overgrown cub that wanted to be loved by someone! Somewhere along the way, he got on the wrong path, but his heart was good!” She looked up at Taka as he sat unmoving upon the promontory and trembled. “Who can say what pain and suffering he felt inside? What lonely thoughts he carried in his heart?”
Lisani left Habusu and snuggled against Elanna. Habusu then lay against Elanna’s other side and nuzzled her. Togo and Kombi looked down, depressed.
“His ear twitched as he heard the gentle pad of footsteps. A voice spoke to him in the hyena tongue, and he shrank back. ‘At last, it pleases Aiheu to release me from my suffering.’
“’I do not know what pleases Aiheu,’ the voice said plainly. “But it would please me to ease your suffering.’
“He opened his eyes and saw very dimly a lioness bearing a zebra haunch. ’Bless you, child!’ Hungrily he devoured the meat, muttering thanks to Aiheu and the stranger. ‘I would have perished without your help.’
"’Milord values my presence, then?’
"’I value you well!’ He said, ‘Your voice is familiar, but tinged with some great sadness. Who has harmed you?’
“’I was scorned by my betrothed. He saw no value in me but my hunting skills.’
“’Stay here, then. I will appreciate you.’
“’But does my voice not still croak like a raven? Is my face not too round? Only don’t worry, my betrothed, I do not laugh harshly anymore, for all the joy has gone out of my life.’
“Negeb fell before her and sobbed. ‘Tashi, Tashi! How I wronged you! Heaven and Earth have condemned me, and justly so!’
“’You feel sorry for me?’
“’I feel sorry for myself, that I have lost the love of a noble and gentle creature. But for your prayers each night, Aiheu would have slain me.’
“’He spared you for my sake that we might be married someday. You have not lost my love.’
“He nuzzled her and said, ‘I long to see your lovely round face and your beautiful small eyes. And your sweet raven’s voice I would hear always....’”
She looked up at Taka again. Her eyes followed the curves of his body and the sad set of his chin. “’....and you shall laugh again, so swear I before Aiheu that I will put joy back in your life.’” Elanna reached out toward him with her paw. “Joy and love, my darling! Love that will last till the last beat of my heart. Love that will overlook your faults and build you up when others tear you down. Love that looks past the scars and sees the beauty! Oh gods, just look at him! He’s worrying himself into an early death and all they do is heap abuse on him!”
Lisani started to cry and paw Elanna’s tear-stained cheeks.
Elanna tried desperately to cover and go on with the story. “’The land is dying,’ Negeb said, ‘and I am dying with it. It is no good to stay here.’
“’Perhaps the Lord will have mercy on you for my sake. I shall remain.’
“And so at last they became husband and wife. And Aiheu saw true repentance in the lion's heart and relented. He allowed One-who-brings-rain to return and make the land fertile again, and called back the animals and birds. Oh, and what a beautiful sight it was, my cubs!”
She looked out over the dust-choked landscape with its leafless trees writhing in mute agony in the dry wind. “When the rain came, it smelled so sweet and dry earth soaked up the water and the grass turned green again!” She ran her paw through the dust. “Oh to see the green grass and the flowers one last time! To feel the rain pelt on my fur again and watch the waterhole grow broad and deep again the way it was when I was a cub! Can you remember when the water was deep enough to reach the base of the shrubs? Can you?”
“I can,” Lisani said, tears coursing down her cheeks. “Oh, Lannie!”
“Look at me going on like an old fool! I’ll never finish this story if I keep wandering like that!”
“You’re not an old fool!” Togo said. “Don’t say bad things like that--it’s not true!”
Elanna stroked him with a paw. “No, you’re right of course. I just feel old. Bless your heart, Honey Tree. You were always good to your Aunt Lannie.” She waited a moment until she was properly composed before she continued.
“The land healed itself of its scars, and Negeb thereafter acquitted himself nobly, with Tashi as his queen. And though Aiheu blessed the land and its inhabitants, each year he called the animals away for a time and One-who-brings-rain withheld his gift to remind Negeb of his obligation to the gods. And so it is till this day.”
"Did Taka do something bad?" Habusu glanced nervously at the dark lion brooding up on the promontory above. "Is that why Aiheu is punishing us?"
Elanna drew close and nuzzled him behind the ear. "No, Habu. Aiheu isn't mad at us. The drought is a part of life, and so are the rains that follow behind it. In this way, Aiheu reminds us of our place in the Circle of Life, that we are all equal in his eyes, king and commoner."
Lisani peered up at Elanna. "Even cubs?"
Elanna kissed Lisani on the tip of her nose. "Yes, even cubs."
"And Taka too?"
"Of course, even Taka too. Aiheu loves us all, hon."
"Good." Lisani craned her head back up to where the king sat still, watching the horizon for some unknown sign. "I hope God makes it rain soon to remind him. I think Taka's forgotten it."
Elanna kissed the cubs again and sighed deeply. "I hope so, too." She managed a smile. “Why don’t we do something happy? How about the Sufa Song! Does anyone know all the movements?”