Young Suha wandered through the pride lands, mulling her thoughts over in her head. She had a story she wanted to tell, it was one she had made up all on her own. She’d practiced it and practiced it, but…well, she didn’t want to tell it to her daddy if it wasn’t any good! She needed to find someone to practice on, someone who would be able to tell her if it was any good or not, but she was too nervous to tell her siblings. She thought she might tell Anwar, but somehow the idea that he might mention it to Rahim made her all nervous, she didn’t want them to know she couldn’t tell a story properly!
Finally, her pale eyes settled on an oddly familiar pair of long dark ears.
“Kisun!” she called happily, bounding towards the hare. They’d only met once before, but Kisun was a rather nice sort of creature, and she wouldn’t be likely to tell anyone in the pride about Suha’s story, because Kisun was a rogue. She was only passing through after all. Plus, she surely would know lots of stories… she could help!
Dainty white paws passed carefully over the earth, long black ears flicking back and forth. Just because she was enjoying herself didn’t mean she wanted to get eaten after all. But the knowledge that there were rather a lot of lions about here did absolutely nothing to stop her looking for a ‘partner’ to play a game of butterfly tag with.
Only, there weren’t any butterflies in any of these flowers. She’d found a bee, but she didn’t much fancy playing with that, her paw had gotten all swollen last time she’d tried it. Kisun was about to give up on the butterflies and try something else instead when her sharp ears caught a bright friendly little voice. Oh…it was the cub. Sultan’s daughter or something. Name started with an ‘S’…
“Hullo,” she said cheerily, deciding that names weren’t all that important when there might possibly be fun to be had!
Grinning from ear to silver-tipped ear, the cream colored cub practically danced across the ground. Oh yes, Kisun would be a wonderful first audience! And if she did a terrible job, then the hare would simply laugh at her or something, and then go away back into the rogue lands. And no one in her pride needed to know what a terrible storyteller she was!
“I…I was wondering if…if you’d listen to a story?” Suha asked tentitvly, “My daddy always tells such wonderful stories, and I wanted to try and make one myself, only I’m afraid it won’t be good. Can you tell me” the little Banu implored, her ears perked forward hopefully, her light eyes huge and hopeful. Kisun wouldn’t mind, would she?
Aha! So the cub did want something. Well, it wasn’t quite as exciting as a real game. But the poor little thing seemed ever so hopeful… how could any creature with a heart say ‘no’ to that sweet little face? Besides, a story might be interesting. And if the little cub made it up herself, then it would be one Kisun had never heard before. Surely that would be entertaining in it’s own right.
“All right then,” the hare agreed, plopping down to lay on her belly, bright blue eyes attentively on the little cub. “Go on, tell me your story.”
Oh good! Suha positively beamed, sitting down herself as Kisun flopped on her belly. She was so excited and nervous, she hardly knew how to start now that the time had finally come!
“Once upon a time,” Suha began in her best storytelling voice, because all stories had to begin as such, “There was a beautiful Banu with fur as white as a cloud is fluffy and the prettiest blue eyes you’d ever see,” she decided, thinking of her mother’s eyes. “Her name was Spierwit, and in spite of being so very beautiful, she was also the sweetest and kindest Banu you would ever hope to meet. Everyone loved her…except for one other pridemember.
“Her stepmother was jealous of Spierwit because she wished to be called the most beautiful in the pride. But no matter what she did, or how well groomed she was, her stepdaughter was still called the most beautiful.
And so Spierwit’s jealous stepmother began to think of a way to get rid of her…forever...”
Here, Suha paused dramatically, watching her audience intently, hoping that they were just as intent on finding out what had happened as she was when her daddy told a story.
Kisun watched, mildly surprised by the way the young cub’s voice seemed to change so readily. The shy sweet little voice turned into something much more confident and adult, and it was really quite fascinating. She had been really quite serious when she claimed she wanted to make sure her story was good. Of course, listening so intently to her voice had made Kisun miss the first few words. But no great loss, right? It sounded good, that had to count for something. Yep.
…oooh, was that a butterfly? Blue eyes slide to one side, followed by a turn of her head as the hare tried to pinpoint the bright flash of color…
Anxious that her audience seemed to be distracted, Suha pressed on hastily, hoping to catch her attention back with more of the story.
“One day, her stepmother met a scruffy old rouge on the outskirts of their territory. And that was when the idea came to her. She used her own beauty to trick him into agreeing to do anything she wished, and flattered by the unaccustomed attention, he fell for it. Once she had his word, she demanded that he take Spierwit out deep into the rougelands, and kill her.
“Trapped by his own tongue, the rouge felt he had no choice but to obey. Quietly, he snuck into the pride and, with the help of the stepmother, dragged Spierwit away. His sharp teeth left scars on her neck, but once he’d brought her far far away from her home, he simply could not kill her. ‘Run away,’ the old rouge told her when Spierwit woke up again, ‘Your stepmother wants you dead, run away deep into the rougelands and never return.’
“Poor Spierwit didn’t know what to do! Being a good banu, she’d never been outside the pride’s territory before. But she was so frightened and upset by her stepmother’s betrayal, that she did as the rouge advised. She ran far far away, until she was so tired and lost that she collapsed in the desert sands...”
It was a butterfly!
Over there, on one of the little yellow flowers by that bush… oooh, maybe Suha would want to play butterfly tag with her? That would certainly be fun! Kisun shuffled her little white paws where they’d rested against her chest, half intending to get up and race right over to make sure the bright red and orange insect didn’t get away when she heard the cub’s voice falter slightly.
Oops. She’d said she’d listen to the story. And it was such a lovely voice the cub had developed for it, and the hare was pretty sure she’d heard something about someone’s stepmom trying to kill them. That always seemed to produce interesting results! Blinking, her ears perked with apologetic attentiveness, Kisun turned to watch the little silver-pawed cub again.
“When Spierwit woke up, she found herself in a strange place,” Suha pressed on bravely, hoping to recapture her audience’s attention, though when it seemed the hare was going to get up and leave she found herself slightly tongue-tied. “W-when she’d finally…uhm… fallen asleep, she’d been lost in the middle of the desert with nothing but sand surrounding her. But now she was laying under a small tree with a pool of water and all sorts of small flowers dotting the patch of green. Thirsty, she drank, but was still confused as to how she had come to be there.
“Suddenly, she saw a face watching her from the bushes!” And now was the time for another dramatic pause. Only she was kind of worried that Kisun was going to wander off or something if she waited too long…
She was listening! She was listening! She was! But…but that butterfly was oh so tempting…nono. Lost in the desert, waking up in strange places with no memory of getting there, it was all very…
…ah! The butterfly was going to get away!
Kisun couldn’t help herself. She bounded to her feet, eyes riveted on the tiny red-winged creature, though her ears remained turned slightly in the little story-teller’s direction. Still…she wanted to chase the butterfly! The story seemed interesting, but Kisun wasn’t really full of paitence for stories. She’d much rather be running around doing something really.
Suha sighed, saddened by the obvious failure of her words to capture Kisun’s attention. Her daddy did it all the time, he was such a good story-teller! Her story must not be nearly so interesting… maybe she should just try to sum it up quick so Kisun at least wouldn’t run off before she heard the ending!
“Two little shee-tah brothers saved her, and she helps teach them how to hunt because they were so little that they did not know how. The rouge’s bite on her back becomes a scar, and though it isn’t a pretty scar, no one ever thinks she’s ugly. But then her stepmother hears from a seer that Spierwit is still alive, and she decides she needs to deal with it herself…”
The butterfly was moving its wings as though about to take flight. Kisun felt her muscles quiver, practically dying to give chase! But the cub was still talking, though her bright warm confident voice was sort of getting a little shaky and rushed. Huh. Maybe her voice was tired or something? Good thing the story had to be practically over then…
“Sheetah? What’s a sheetah?” Kisun frowned suddenly, “Oh! Do you mean a cheetah? Big cats like speedy little lions?” she offered. After all, she was supposed to be making sure the cub’s story was good. Wouldn’t want her confusing characters and stuff, that wouldn’t be very good! Especially with her voice getting all quivery instead of all sweet and interesting. Maybe she should have made a shorter story…
Well, at least she knew the hare was listening to her. But it still made her cringe to realize she’d said something wrong. A good storyteller would never have made a mistake like that! She should have had her found by some lion cubs or something, but…but she’d wanted to use Zarha’s funny skinny fast cats with the sticky-up manes…
“The brothers are frightened of her stepmom because they are too young to know much fighting, but when she tries to kill Spierwit they band together to drive her off, but not before she manages to claw Spierwit’s face. Thinking herself horribly ugly now, Spierwit is afraid to go home even though she misses her father and her friends, because they all seemed to love how beautiful she was.
One day a long time later while she is out hunting for her young friends, now much older and she is now an all grown up, a lion that seems oddly familiar approaches her. He helps her hunt, and when she returns to the cheetahs, he follows. Finally, she realizes it is her best friend from when she was little, though he too is now an adult. Embarrassed, she tries too late to hide her scars as he tells her he is on his adulthood trial and needs to find a Banu. When she apologizes for no longer being worthy of being a Banu, since she is as scarred as a Kajira, he is confused…”
Banu? Kajira? And what was this strange adult-hood trial thing? How odd. Still, she nodded when she heard the cub’s stress on the word ‘cheetahs’ there, she had it now… and that butterfly was getting away!
Unable to contain herself to sit still any longer, the hare sprang after the fleeting flash of red, darting through a bush with a crash much larger than something her size seemed capable of making. It seemed she had quite forgotten that she was supposed to be listening to a story, or perhaps she thought it had already ended. It had taken a while after all. Surely that was it?
Besides! The butterfly was getting away!
“He tells her…” Suha trailed off, watching forlornly as the hare bounded off into the bushes without so much as a warning. Well…that was that then. But…but she hated to leave a story unfinished, even though it must not have been very good if Kisun didn’t even want to hear the end.
“He tells her that she is still the most beautiful Banu he has ever met, because it is her kindness that makes her beautiful, not her pretty fur. She is overjoyed to find that he still loves her, and together they return to her old pride, where they lived happily ever after...” she whispered sadly to herself, eyes lowered to watch her paws as she shuffled them against the ground. She wished she might have a ‘best friend’ to fall in love with, who would come and find her when she was lost and tell her she was beautiful when she felt plain. What ever was she going to do about her happily ever after?
“As for the wicked stepmom, she finally found that old rogue she’d tricked, and he still called her beautiful. So she stayed with him and lived happily enough, though she never forgave herself for what she’d tried to do to her stepdaughter.”
Didn’t everyone deserve a happy ending? At least Suha could do it for her characters…even if she wasn’t sure she could do it for herself…
FIN - 2792