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 Posted: Wed Dec 15, 2010 3:50 pm
 Life slowly plodded on. His daughter was dead, the queen recovered, and Kobe'gumu's reputation seemed worse than ever. He was now the father of a traitor. It added yet another heavy burden to his heart.
Now, at last, he felt ready to make amends. That was his very reason for coming here. He was happy to know that the mother he guided here was thriving along with her sweet cubs. They would have good, safe lifes in Mwezi'Johari and hopefully live to a ripe old age, a fate the harsh rogue lands would have denied them. He had to remember the good and forget the bad. That was his first step in moving forward with his plans. The time had come to seek balance in his life by doing all he could to serve his new queen.
Perhaps one day the gods would forgive him.
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Posted: Wed Dec 15, 2010 4:28 pm
 Sa'ibabaw was bouncing along and chatting to a lizard she had found and was carrying on her head. She liked to talk to things.
She was currently relating her mom's history to the lizard (who had fallen asleep, finding the young lioness's head both warm and comfortable, and the rocking motion of her walk soothing).
" . . . so my mom was going to have cubs and my dad left. Mom said it's cause he was a loser. But everyone else stayed with Mom, including the old king and all these other guys until they got back here. And it turns out there was another bunch of lions that came to the pride at the same time, and one of them was really bad and tried to ruin everything . . ."
Just then she saw the Old King - that's how Mom always referred to him when she saw him, although she didn't allow her cubs to bother any of the older lions. Sa'ibabaw decided to talk to him now, and informed her lizard of it.
"There he is now! Let's go say HI!" Sa'ibabaw trotted over to the older lion.
"Hello! You traveled with my mom and helped her come here to have us! I'm Sa'ibabaw and you're the Old King!"
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Posted: Wed Dec 15, 2010 4:56 pm
Kobe was wandering through the pride, searching for a task to lessen the great weight upon his heart, when a youngster bolted up to him and started chatting. Kobe stopped to listen and smiled when he recognized the cub. He smile broadened when he realized she recognized him, too. He sat down beside her so she wouldn't have to strain her little legs keeping up to him. Oh, the joy he felt seeing her so active and happy!
"Yes, that's right. Please call me Kobe. I'm no king anymore." Kobe loved cubs. He loved his sons and daughters, his nieces and nephews, and all the cubs in his pride (all now grown and gone away). That didn't mean he understood them. When he realized the odd green thing in Sa'ibabaw's mane was a lizard his expression turned to worry. He wanted to remove the lizard before it woke up and bit her, but he was afraid he would startle her if he pointed it out.
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Posted: Wed Dec 15, 2010 5:58 pm
"Ok, Kobe! I don't understand how you used to be a King and now you aren't a King anymore, cause whenever I ask Mom about it she just goes on about how my Dad was a jerk. Did you know my Dad? Was he really a jerk? I don't think my Mom would have loved a jerk."
She trotted along side of Kobe. "There's a lot Mom doesn't tell me and she says I shouldn't worry about it but I want to know what happened and why some people are treated differently even though the Great Lion is watching over all of us. I just don't understand!"
She looked up at Kobe's face. "Why do you look so worried? Is something wrong? I hope I didn't upset you. Mom says I talk too much and sometimes that upsets people. I can try to stop talking but I'm not very good at it."
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Posted: Tue Dec 21, 2010 12:05 pm
As Sa'ibabaw chattered Kobe started to feel a little dizzy. Her words swarmed in his head like locusts. When he was king, Kobe had a reputation for being slow to react. In fact his name meant Strong Turtle. This was why, as much as he adored cubs, he could never fully understand them. They were simply too implusive.
Now he didn't know where to start. His eyes kept going back to the lizard on her head. After a little while he realized that the lizard was so large she must be aware of its weight, so perhaps it was better to simply leave it be. He would keep an eye on it.
"Uh, no... it's perfectly alright." He gave an awkward smile and cleared his throat. "I'm not very good at telling stories but, if you'd like, I'll tell you the story of how I became king."
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Posted: Sun Dec 26, 2010 8:30 pm
The lizard on Sa'ibabaw's head shifted, turned itself over, and settled back down. Sa'ibabaw felt it move, but didn't react more then that.
"Oh, yes please! I want to hear the story, I love stories. Except my mom's about my dad, those stories are dumb and boring. It's not a gushy story, is it, with lots of gooey eyes? My sisters like those, but those are gross and boring so their shouldn't be a lot of that in a good story. I'm sure yours will be a good story because yours is about Kings," she added politely. Her bouncing also slowed noticeably; she was obviously trying to focus all of her attention on the old king.
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Posted: Mon Dec 27, 2010 8:27 pm
Kobe suddenly felt embaressed. His story was not very exciting, at least as far as he was concerned. In fact some parts were quite sad. He thought of embellishing a little, but he knew that one day Sa'ibabaw might learn the truth from someone else and he didn't want to be called a liar. Besides, creativity was not his strong point.
"Well..." he began after a time, "It started a long time ago, a long time before you were born. I was the second oldest of a litter of four. I had two younger sisters and one older brother, who was chosen by my father to become king. I myself wanted to be a counsil member, but fate saw differently.
"One day my brother and I were exploring the lands just outside our pride's boarders. I didn't want to be there, but my brother dragged me along. He was much more adventerous than I." A touch of grief came into his voice then. "We were chasing some meerkats and he got ahead of me. Suddenly I heard a crash followed by a pained roar. I ran to find the source of the sound and discovered my brother lying at the bottom of a small cliff with a broken leg. The drop was only about ten feet, but he tumbled and landed at a bad angle."
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Posted: Mon Dec 27, 2010 8:59 pm
Sa'ibabaw was left breathless as she listened to Kobe's story -especially when she found out his older brother was hurt. What would she do if something like that happened to Ojore?
"What happened to your brother, Kobe? I hope he wasn't hurt. If my brother was hurt I would try and carry him back to everyone else, or go get someone else to help me carry him back. Maybe Vardy, he'd probably help. Did you get someone to help you carry him back? I wonder if the meerkats did it on purpose cause you were chasing them? That would have been mean of them."
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Posted: Mon Dec 27, 2010 9:12 pm
Kobe blinked. It never occured to him that the meerkats could have tricked his older brother off the cliff. He supposed it was possible.
When she finally quited down, Kobe continued: "Unfortunately, he was hurt and very badly. I did exactly as you said; I carried him home on my back. You see, I was always big and strong and in those days I was even stronger.
"My brother made sure everyone knew it wasn't my fault he was hurt. If I hadn't gone with him that day, he might have died. After the accident my father decided I should be king instead. I didn't want to be king, but there was nothing I could do about it." The truth was that his brother died of an infection a few weeks after the accident. It was a slow, painful death far too gruesome to relate to such a young cub, and it was his death that caused his father to name Kobe king. There was simply no other choice. Had his brother survived, Kobe believed he would never have taken his place in the royal line, even if his brother walked with a limp for the rest of his life.
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Posted: Sat Jan 08, 2011 4:34 pm
"Wow." Sa'ibabaw looked pretty impressed. "It must have been really hard for you to have carried him all the way, even if you were strong. Lions are heavy. Was your brother upset that you got to be king instead of him? I would have been upset, for sure, if I was supposed to be king and then I didn't get to be king cause of some stupid meerkats."
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