Lying on a tree branch, Wahadi watched the fireflies dance through the night air with his head on his paws. His tail hung off the side, flicking at the bugs. Somewhere not too far away his sisters were laughing and jumping at fireflies. When he was a cub (he stopped thinking of himself as a cub a long time ago) he loved to chase fireflies with his siblings, but he couldn’t make himself play that game tonight. He thought of all the other cubs who were watching the fireflies dance with their mother and father. And he worried about Tana.
As he looked up at some of the fireflies, Mle noticed a tail. When he followed it, he saw a young lion, what looked to be a juvenile. The adult paused in his walk, sitting down to watch. "Enjoying the show?" He offered a smile, a rather gentle one. Something about the cub looked familiar. He'd seen him before, or someone similar... The white lion just couldn't quite place his paw on where or how he the youth from.
Wahadi lifted his head silently and looked down at the lion, flicking his tail. He heard the male coming moments before and didn’t look very interested, still lost in his thoughts, but with Kabu and his sisters nearby it was his business to find out who he was and what he wanted. “Who are you?”
"I'm Mle'tonoka. Who might you be?" The lion tilted his head, taking in the youth's markings. Yes, he'd seen those markings before... And that blue hair. They looked strikingly like his oldest daughter and now-deceased son. The last thought sent a pang through him that he did his best to not show. He'd never gotten to really talk to Unu before, and then he'd been killed avenging his mate. An ear twitched, the only visible sign that something was on his mind.
“Wahadi. I’m Kabusha’s… nephew.” He almost said son. He still thought of her as his mother in an emotional sense. Despite the gruesome circumstances of his birth few in the pride knew of him by name, so referring to her as his mother led to confusion and questions especially at this time, with Tana and the rest of Kabu’s offspring on their name quests. Being technical about their relationship made things easier.
Mle's ears flicked as he looked up sharply, recognition in his orange eyes. That was where he recognised the youth... "Your father was Unu..." His ears went back, though not in anger or pity, but in sorrow. "I hope you got to know him before..." He couldn't quite say it, the feeling of loss was still too new to him. The whole thing had left him questioning who he could trust, if evil knew no coat colors. "But at least cheer up... That makes you my grandson." The white lion offered a smile, even though the reminder of the son he hadn't gotten to know before he was taken from the world was a sore spot for him.
Wahadi stared, not knowing what to feel. The reminder of the father he never got to know felt like claws in his flesh, yet his grandfather’s smile was so soothing that his heart went cold. He sat up on the branch, looked around uncertainly; anxious to do something, anything; his mind a blank. After a few starts and stops, Wahadi hopped down to a lower branch that put him just above his grandfather’s head. He was quite small for his age, but his growing mane and agility showed he was no clumsy cub and his eyes looked as if they belonged to a much older lion. “You knew my father?”
"Not really... Not that well, anyway... We never had a chance to really stop and fully talk before... You know... There was so much preoccupation about lions being killed. But know that he died doing the right thing." The pale lion closed his eyes, letting out a low sigh. He wished that Asali hadn't died before the influx of lions, maybe then the whole thing would have been avoided and Unu and his mate would still be alive. "He's not fully gone, though..." The lion opened his eyes, smiling at Wahadi. "He'll live on in you and your sisters, and to a bit of extent, your cousins, since you all share the same blood." Just as his own father lived on within himself...
Even though Mle said straight away that he hadn’t known Unus very well Wahadi soaked up every word the older lion said about his father, no matter how inconsequential it might have seemed to Mle. When Mle finished, he sat down on the branch and looked at his paws. He looked back at Mle, disappointed. “It doesn’t feel like he’s here. I don’t even know what my parents looked like because I’ve never seen them. Kabu says I look like my mom.”
He paused, giving himself a moment. He wasn’t going to turn into a sniffling child. Still, it was hard to explain how he felt.
Standing up, the pale lion motioned with his head for the younger lion to follow him. As he began to walk, he glanced at the fireflies, watching them to dance in the warm swamp air. "I'd say you look like both... You have your mother's color... And some of her markings... But you have your father's markings, and his hair..."
Tail flicking, he looked back at Wahadi. "Like me, your father was white, but he had the same face markings you have, and the same toe marks as you... Actually, imagine your white and brown sister a moment... Detract her belly marking, make her male, turn her mane and tail the same blue as you have... And you have your father. As for your mother... Imagine your reflection... Make your hair the same color as your body... Imagine if you had no other markings but your belly marking... And imagine your tail was white. To say you look like your mother is pretty accurate, but you still look a lot like your father."
Wahadi reluctantly climbed down and started to follow his grandfather. He hoped this wouldn’t take long, because he worried about being out of ear shot from Kabu and his sisters for long even though Ila was with them. Walking side by side with Mle, Wahadi seemed even smaller than he had in the tree, yet he walked with the self-assurance of a lion twice his size and twice his age, walking at his grandfather’s right paw. As they walked he concentrated on Mle’s every word and kept his eyes down so that he wouldn’t be distracted by the glowing fireflies. Finally he met his grandfather’s eyes. “Where are you taking me?” he asked, unafraid.
Mle paused, looking at Wahadi. "Just a walk, nothing more." He offered a smile, warm despite the topic. "I don't often get to interact with family... So I revel in every oppertunity that I have. It's important to me, I suppose... Because my own parents have been dead since I was a cub. I look at you, and I know exactly how you feel, with the only differences being circumstances and the fact you still have your sisters, your aunt, your cousins, and myself around."
Having Kabu and his sisters did more good than he realized. At this age he couldn’t relate to his sisters very well. When the time came for him to go on his name quest he would realize how much they meant to him, and their love would mean more than he could ever imagine. He wanted to ask about Mle’s parents – they must have died a long time ago – but he knew how terrible it felt to lose a family member and didn’t want to stir up any more bad feelings between them.
Stopping to sit down, the white lion watched the fireflies for a moment. After a bit, he looked at Wahadi. "I hope I can form a bond with you and your sisters... That I couldn't form with your father, Wahadi. I admit to not knowing much about parental care, but I can do my best to be a good grandfather, and be there for you three." He smiled, head tilting. "This is a good place for a young lion to grow up, and I wish I'd found it when I was a cub. My life may have turned out very different..." He paused, ears flicking. "No... I'm glad I didn't find this pride until I was an adult." The small adult leaned down, giving the juvenile a warm smile. "I wouldn't have been able to have this conversation here and now with you, if I had found the swamps as a cub, instead of finding my way to a dying jungle that seems not more than a dream now."
Wahadi was confused. He couldn’t know the difference it would have made if Mle had come here sooner rather than later. Mle was a strong lion, he saw that. And he was white like Unus had once been. He looked at Mle and said, after a silence of thought, “I’d like that. The only grown-up male around here is Ila and I don’t like him.”
The lion nodded, seeing some wisdom in Wahadi's dislike in Ila. "You have a good judge of character, it seems. Though I must caution you on the fact people change. I was once a frightful lion, now... I dare say I'd be willing to face any rogue if it meant protecting those I care about." He paused in thought a moment. "Much like your father... And my father before me..." He let out a sigh, smiling. "Something that I suppose runs in the family." An ear flicked, before Mle looked back towards where they'd come from. "Hm, you should go play with your sisters.. You won't have forever to do that sort of thing, you know... Just run around chasing fireflies..." Closing one eye, the white lion smiled at the juvenile. "All I do all day is patrol the borders and hunt... It's not very exciting or fun."
“But it’s useful,” Wahadi said without hesitation, looking at his grandfather with approval in his eyes. He sat down beside him. “I don’t like to chase fireflies any more. I’d rather stay here with you.”
The older male smiled, chuckling a bit before his gaze turned to the fireflies. As they danced about, he noted how they continued as if the lions were not there. To the tiny, luminescent insects, the world kept going as if nothing else was around them.
~Fin~
