“Oh I see.” Rafiki sighed.
Fabana fell before Uhuru. “Krull, oms merketha besath! Beshum Taka gatha om Shenzi pardu om I’bu! Roh’kash ne nabu!”
Krull tried to comfort her as best he could. “Fabana, Roh’kash ne nabu. Disi blechuri m’oh, okash.”
Rafiki breaks in. “That is so sad! Your own daughter!”
Fabana stares at him. “Bet’ra hyanikha?”
“Bih hyanikha,” he said with a nod. “And without a strong accent, I might add.”
“Is there nothing you don’t know?”
“Plenty. Like why your own daughter renounced you?”
Her ears pricked up in anger. “Because I renounced her first. She is a butcher and an ingrate. She would kill Taka by driving him insane and pushing him to suicide. No daughter of mine would do that to her own brother.”
“Then it’s true, isn’t it? You adopted him.”
“Yes. Now they will probably tell him I’m dead or or that I’ve run away.” She looks at Uhuru. “Krull, in the name of the gods, please get a message to Taka telling him what had happened to me.”
“Not a good idea,” Rafiki says. “If your heart is still tied to your family, and I suspect it is, you must not tell Taka. Out of love for you, he would have Shenzi put to death. Do you want to make that kind of choice? Son or daughter?”
Fabana drew in a deep breath. “Oh gods!”
Rafiki scratched his beard thoughtfully. “My lady, you are a victim in all this like I am.”
“You’re one to talk. You put a curse on my Taka and all this is your fault. All your....”
“Now you listen here!” Rafiki cried, grabbing up his staff threateningly. “I won’t hear that again from you or anyone else! I breathed into him when he was born. Gods know how much food I scrounged for him when he was a young’un. I loved that boy like my own son--more than I loved Mufasa. I still do, but given a chance I would take this stick and beat him to death, understand? I pity you, but not enough to share this tiny baobab with your constant whining!”
Fabana looked down, her ears drooped. “I always knew he’d die young. But if you ever get the chance, please don’t beat him with the stick. Put him to sleep with one of your herbs. And promise me you won’t let them rip him alive. That’s his nightmare, you know.”
“I know. I’ll do what I can.” He reached over and rubbed Fabana between the ears. “Maybe we’ll get along after all.”
Fabana began to scratch energetically. Rafiki said, “Oh no!” He reached and got some fleabane. “You leave the little buggers outside when you stay here!” Krull grinned as Rafiki seized the protesting Fabana and began to rub the elixir into her fur.
CHAPTER 49: THE SIGN
Fabana overheard Rafiki's exultant shout and rushed in to see the mandrill capering about, chuckling and dancing, Krull sitting across from him and grinning widely. “What is going on, here?!”
Rafiki whooped and danced over to her. “Look!” he said, holding up a handful of milkweed floss and dust. “Just look at it!” He held it up to her face for close inspection.
She exploded in a sneeze, sending him into more gales of laughter. “What’s so great about a handful of dust?”
“It is the sign! Simba is alive!”
Rafiki uas unknowing of the shock his words had on the hyena, for Fabana had been at the ceremony when Taka took power. She had heard the lament issue from his own lips of the death of his brother; she had heard the grief in his voice as he described the lifeless body of his nephew lying next to him. And now...she shook her head, eyes growing wide as she heard Rafiki exclaim to the newly named Uhuru: “We go to the King!”
Her protestations went unheeded, and when the two eluded their hyena guardians and set out to find the rightful king, she accompanied them determinedly. If she could not change their minds, she would change Simba’s.
The going was slow and tortuous, as none of the three were prepared for the rigors the desert threw at them. The scorching heat compelled them to take shelter in the daytime, and this provided ample time for thinking. Too much time for one particular hyena. Fabana agonized endlessly over the elegy Taka had given for his brother and son. He had been sincere; she would have sworn it. That foolish ape must have misread the signs in the floss, if there were indeed any there to be had in the first place.
As they trekked on, the knowledge beat at her as harshly as the desert heat. Why lie to her? She had heard him praying at night, begging the gods to forgive Taka, forgive. She had seen the paintings on the wall of the baobab of the cub, and, while ignorant of the markings around it, had understood their meaning clearly enough. The mandrill practically viewed Taka as one of his own family. The knowledge beat at her like a hammer, and finally, unable to stand it any longer, she went to Uhuru.
He listened, a grave but sympathetic look on his face. “So what do you want to do?” he said at last.
“I don't know.” She bent her head, looking at the ground. “But if what he says is true, then my child has sinned teribly. When Mother Rroh’kash calls him to her, there will be a reckoning.” Her breath hitched.
Uhuru patted her consolingly. “Don't despair. I have spoken to Rafiki, and the son of Mufasa promises to be a just and kind soul. I will stand with you, Fabana, and plead Taka’s case with you. Perhaps together, we can convince Simba to find forgiveness. He is a child of Aiheu, after all.”
“Thank you!” Fabana nuzzled him. “By the gods, my boy may be lost, but he will find his way again. He must.”
CHAPTER 50: REMEMBER WHO YOU ARE
As they picked their way through the jungle, Fabana stumbled over a vine for what seemed like the thousandth time. “Where are you GOING?”
The answer proved disturbing to say the least. Rafiki was led by something ambiguous; a voice might tell him to turn here; a sign in the gnarled wood of a tree compelled him to go around an obstacle instead of over it. This was disconcerting to Uhuru and Fabana, who were used to tracking real smells, sights and sounds. Fabana lost her paitence when the mandrill stopped for a moment, closed his eyes, then pointed. “That way.”
“Oh wise one, shouldn’t you keep your eyes OPEN when tracking?!” she snapped.
Rafiki glanced around at her, grinning. “Sights and sounds are more of a distraction. They drown out good judgment.”
“Good judgement seems to be seriously lacking, here!”
Uhuru stepped in front of her. “You speak from ignorance. You should see what he’s capable of!”
“That’s exactly what I’m afraid of.” She sighed and followed them.
Presently, Rafiki called them to a halt. “We are close now. You must stay behind.”
Fabana shook her head, inscensed, and Uhuru balked. “Why have we come all this way to stop now?”
“Uhuru, you are my brother in truth. My heart wants you by my side, but I know in my head that you must not interfere, for your training is incomplete. Fabana, you want to plead your case before Simba. I must do this for you, my dear. I will try to protect Taka, but I must not interfere with the justice of the gods.”
He sat down. From a gourd, he took some saffron yellow seeds. “I must be careful while I mix this. No talking please.”
“What is it?” Uhuru asked.
Rafiki half laughed. “It’s so funny, you know. Every time I tell someone ‘no talking please,’ they answer me with a question?” He slyly winked at the hyena to show there were no hard feelings. “This will put me in closer touch with the spirit realm. But it is very powerful. Too little and all I have are side effects. Too much and I will convulse and die. This other package contains an emetic. If I convulse or fall down, I may not be able to take the dose. You will have to hold me up and dump the entire dose in my mouth, then give me plenty of water. Got that, Uhuru?”