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 Posted: Wed Jan 06, 2010 5:42 pm
Wahadi couldn’t believe it! Tana never tattled on him for anything before, but when he found him playing Swamp Killer with the other cubs he completely flipped his lid. It was so embarrassing. All of his friends acted concerned, but Wahadi knew they must have been laughing inside. Then Tana went and did something even worse. He told their mother.
Now Wahadi was sitting in the darkness of the den, head hunched as he scratched absently at the den floor, wondering what his mother was going to do to him. He never thought there was anything wrong with playing Swamp Killer. He had heard there was a real murderer in the swamps, but it wasn’t like the murderer was going to come for him or anyone he knew. Stuff like that always happened to bad lions, lions nobody really knew. That was how it seemed to him, anyway. He felt ashamed and angry at Tana for telling on him.
Kabusha had always felt herself to be a reasonable lioness. She tried not to let her temper rule her thoughts or to make snap judgements. So when her son had come to her, tears in his eyes and anger in his voice she had been concerned...then furious. His own mother was murdered by that damn monster and he was....luckily though sanity preveiled over her rage and turned to sorrow by the time she had arrived at the den.
Poking her head inside, she called softly to the little boy. "Wahadi...come here." She didn't sound angry but she did sound very very sad.
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Posted: Wed Jan 06, 2010 7:32 pm
Holding in a sigh, Wahadi trudged out of the den to meet his mother. She sounded disappointed in him. He didn’t understand why. The concept of death was as far away from his understanding as worlds beyond the stars. Someone is there one moment and then they’re gone. He stopped at the entrance to the den and sat down in front of his mother. He looked at his toes.
"Look at me baby," Her voice was soft as she gazed down at the little male, her sweet little Wahadi who so reminded her of Uko at times. "Was it true? Were you really doing such..." She couldn't even find the words for how horrible it was.
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Posted: Wed Jan 06, 2010 7:37 pm
His eyes lifted reluctantly. When she finished talking he frowned and pawed at the dirt. “I wasn’t hurting anybody… The game’s only called Swamp Killer. It’s more like tag.” Except when you tag someone they fall down dead. But nobody really pays attention to that rule. A lot of cubs cheated, so in practice it was almost exactly like tag. He figured his mother was probably more upset about the name than anything else.
The look of her face was one of pure anguish as she looked down at him. "Oh Wahadi...." Closing her eyes against the sudden tears, she looked away from the little boy so that she could control herself before she lashed out at him.
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Posted: Wed Jan 06, 2010 7:42 pm
Wahadi looked up in shock. When he saw how upset she was he started to feel really bad. He wasn’t sure what he’d done to make her sad. He still felt like this was unfair and his brother was a traitor, but when he saw her almost start to cry he felt a terrible pang of guilt. “Mama? I-it’s just a game, honest. I’d never really hurt anybody like that.” He started to get up to go to her.
"I know you wouldn't baby," Her voice was thick with tears as she tried to reassure him. "And to you little ones it is just a game but baby...it is something you of all people must never, ever take lightly or in jest." She reached out a heavy paw and drew him closer to her.
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Posted: Wed Jan 06, 2010 7:49 pm
Wahadi nuzzled his mother’s chest and put an arm around her leg to comfort her. She was still so much bigger and stronger than him. He had seen her sad before, but never like this. To see the person he loved so much and looked up to cry with so much passion made him want to cry as well, though he couldn’t say why, but he held in his tears because he didn’t want her to see him upset. “I’m sorry, mama. I – I didn’t think it was bad. Why are you crying?”
"Because baby there are some things you need to know that I really don't know how to tell you." She sighed softly laying down so she could curl around him. Oh Uko...how was she suppose to tell the little boy she loved as much as her own sons that she wasn't his mother?
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Posted: Wed Jan 06, 2010 7:58 pm
Unlike her other cubs, who were almost too big for this kind of close cuddling, Wahadi still fit nice and snug in his mother’s arms. He looked up at her, a burning coldness in his heart. He sensed a change coming, something new and terrible. “I don’t understand…”
He blinked, searching. In a very quiet voice, he asked, “Is it about my father?”
"Some of it baby....Wahadi have you ever wondered why you, Imba, and Jiti are all smaller than the other cubs? Why you don't look like them?" Gods this was breaking her heart. She didn't want things to change, Wahadi was her sweet baby.
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Posted: Wed Jan 06, 2010 8:05 pm
“I’m just little, mama. Everyone’s bigger than I am.” For some reason he felt like he was trying to reassure her. “And I do look like them, sort of. Dusan has a blue mane like I do and Tana, well, we’re both tan and have blue manes. We’re all kind of blue. Like you.”
She smiled down at him gently, there was her sweet boy again trying to make everything easier. " You all do look a little alike, but baby you and your two sisters are younger than the others. That is why you are smaller."
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Posted: Wed Jan 06, 2010 8:13 pm
“Not… that much younger.” So what was she saying, that she and Tana came from different fathers? He shifted a little, uncomfortable with the idea of he and Tana having different dads, but he didn’t have to think about it for long to decide that he would accept Tana as his half-brother. That didn’t mean he had to call Tana his half-brother. He couldn’t even imagine calling him that.
But he still didn’t understand why his mother was so upset about the game. Questions, like dim, monstrous shadows crept through his imagination, too horrible to ask. He looked up at her desperately.
How could she do this? "No, you are not much younger baby...let me tell you a story. There was once a brave and beautiful lioness named Ukosa. She was smart and so loving to her mate and her mate's sister. She brought great joy and happiness to those who knew her. She even helped her sister give birth to her cubs."
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Posted: Wed Jan 06, 2010 8:19 pm
This was confusing. He thought they were talking about his father. “Did you know her?”
Kabu smiled gently, though it was tinged by sadness. "Yes I did baby now listen. You see Uko and her mate where very much in love and not long after she helped birth her sisters cub, Uko found out she too was pregant. She and her mate were overjoyed. " Her eyes closed as tears filled her eyes, the words catching in her throat. "For...for some reason Uko slipped away to give birth to her cubs alone."
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Posted: Wed Jan 06, 2010 8:27 pm
“But that’s normal, right?” he asked. Someone told him once that if a female gave birth were a male could see, even her mate, her cubs became tainted and she needed to leave the pride for their safety. He still didn’t understand why his mother was telling him this story. It was kind of interesting, though. He licked her paw so she wouldn’t be so upset.
"Normally another female will go with her, but for some reason Uko went alone." A fact that haunted Kabu every day. She would have gone with Uko willingly, her own little ones had been weaned. Clearing her throat, Kabu hugged him closer, "That was the last time anyone saw Uko alive. For you see she gave her life to protect her three newborn cubs when the killer came calling. Because of her love for them, she protected them with her body, so that they could live." Tears streaked down Kabu's dark cheeks as the image played in her mind.
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Posted: Wed Jan 06, 2010 8:33 pm
Three cubs. Wahadi suddenly went very still. The coldness in his heart became a sharp pain. He swallowed and looked up at Kabu. “M-mama?”
There were tears in Kabu's eyes as she smiled down at him gently, " You looks so much like her baby. She wanted you and you sisters so bad. She was so happy when she found out she was pregnant."
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Posted: Wed Jan 06, 2010 8:47 pm
“She… b-b-but you’re my mama… n-not…” He couldn’t say her name. Uko was just a stranger to him. He gulped, starting to shiver. Tears washed his tan cheeks like rain turning the earth to mud. “Kabu, y-you’re my mama, r-right?”
She nuzzled him tenderly, "I am your momma in all the ways that count baby. I will always be your momma....but I am not the one that gave birth to you and your sisters. Your father is my brother Unus, your birth mother is my sister Uko."
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Posted: Wed Jan 06, 2010 8:58 pm
He could not speak. He could scarcely even think. His little body shuddered with sadness and buried his face into her chest fur. How was he supposed to deal with this now? Nothing in his short life ever prepared him for this moment. “I-it’s not true! It’s not true! S-s-she can’t b-be my mama! Y-y-you’re my mama!”
She hugged him tightly nuzzling him "Yes baby, I will always be your momma but Uko gave birth to you and your sisters. She died under the killer's claws to protect you."
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Posted: Wed Jan 06, 2010 9:04 pm
“N-n-no! H-h-how c-could she?! I-I don’t r-r-remember h-her!” Wahadi had never seen new born cubs before. His earliest memory was of waking up one morning in the den with Kabu – with his mother – and a few other females and clumsily chasing after his two sisters. He used to think Tana and the others were there, too. It was hard to remember.
"I do not know baby. " She nuzzled licking his tears away. "She likely died within moments of your birth."
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Posted: Wed Jan 06, 2010 9:11 pm
“No!” he sobbed, breathing in all of Kabu’s sweet smells in one wet gasp. “S-s-she couldn’t have – I-I n-n-never…! W-w-why would s-s-somebody d-do this?! S-she didn’t – n-never hurt anybody! Why!?”
"I don't know baby, I ask myself that every day." She nuzzled him gently licking his tears. "I pray every day that she didn't suffer and that she is at peace now. Able to look down and see you cubs, proud to have such lovely strong cubs."
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