CHAPTER:  HYENAS IN THE PRIDE LANDS

	Birds still sang in the trees.  Clouds still wafted across the 
sky.  A gentle breeze still caressed the grass and stirred it in waves 
of serene detachment.  But for the lionesses of Pride Rock, the old 
world they thought would last forever had abruptly ended:  Mufasa and 
Simba were gone.
	Sarabi was looking for strength to live from moment to moment.  
Nala was huddled against her mother, struggling to understand her loss.  
No longer would Mufasa call her "honey tree" and tell her stories of the 
great kings of the past.  And her friend Simba was gone forever--no more 
games, no more words, no more anything.  In the depths of her grief, she 
wished she had let Simba win at wrestling just once.  Now she would 
never get another chance.  
	"How bad did it hurt?" she asked her mother.
	Sarafina was a huntress and had seen her share of death.  Shaking 
with emotion, she weighed her words carefully and said, "He was so 
surprised, he didn't feel much pain.  I mean, before he had time to 
think, they'd have been all over him."  She felt warm tears run down her 
face.  "The poor little angel!"  She began to fondle Nala with a paw.  
"If it had been my little girl, I'd have died!  Just died!  Don't you 
ever go near that place, or I'll cuff your behind!  Do you hear me, 
Missy??"  Sarafina nuzzled her and kissed her.
	"Oh, Momma!"  Nala began to sob.  "I won't go there!  I promise!"  
She added in a near whisper, "But can't we go see him one last time?"
	"No!"  Fini kissed her again.  "You don't want to remember him the 
way he looks now.  You really don't."
	Before the last warmth had left the old King's body, a new ruler 
sat atop Pride Rock and proceeding toward him up the winding trail were 
the hyenas of Shenzi's clan.  This was the new world, a frightening 
place of uncertainty, mistrust and grief.  Uzuri watched them with 
bitter anguish as they violated her sanctuary, and she silently cursed 
Taka for betraying his people.  Hyenas had murdered his aunt and uncle, 
and he was taking them into his home!
	Despite his promise of a "glorious new future," Taka was merely 
paying his debt to Shenzi, and he cared little for most of her race.  
But there was one hyena that he loved above all loves remaining in his 
tortured heart.  Fabana broke from her place in the processional and ran 
to Taka's side, fawning on him.  He nuzzled her gently, turning her 
small, scarred face with his large paw and kissing her cheek with his 
large tongue.  "Muti," he said in broken hyannic, "mo keth ban'ret 
dubrek!"
	Some of the hyenas looked around, puzzled.  "Betra hyannicha?" one 
of them asked.
	He shook his head.  "Just a few phrases I picked up."
	Shenzi satisfied the longing of a lifetime to see the world from 
the tip of the promontory, planning for the day when she didn't have to 
share it with the lions.  All the while, oblivious to her conceited 
gloating, Taka lovingly stroked Fabana with his paw and gazed into her 
smiling face.  
	"I sit here tonight because of you, Muti.  I would have killed 
myself, and my hopeless spirit would have wandered the night while a 
stranger ruled the Pride Lands."
	"If it hadn't been me, someone else would have stopped you."
	"You would say that.  You always believe that goodness prevails."  
He kissed her cheek.  "I love you more than words can say."
	Tears ran down her face, and she sat leaning gently against him.  
"My dear son."


CHAPTER:  RECIPE FOR DISASTER

	The first night without Mufasa's comforting presence was the 
hardest for Sarabi.  She slinked quietly to the spot where she had spent 
so many blissful nights pressed against his beautiful body.  His scent 
still hung in the air, and closed her eyes, clinging to that one last 
trace.  "Oh gods, help me!" she cried, falling to the ground sobbing.  
	That evening her own sister had practically thrown herself before 
Taka, even after he had brought hyenas into the Pride Lands.  Hyenas  
had murdered her parents!  After that, she could not bring herself to 
speak to Elanna.  Now her dear friend Rafiki was confined in house 
arrest.  She had no one to turn to for comfort and had to weep alone.  
Only God stood between her and total isolation.
	There were exactly forty paces to the end of the promontory.  On 
the forty-first she could find an end to suffering.  One extra step into 
the arms of love, and all the things she wished she could say to Mufasa 
and Simba would come pouring out before them as sweet as fragrance from 
the nighttime jasmine.  But what a blow it would be to those she left 
behind!  Sarafina and Isha would have to drag her battered body to the 
jackals and watch as her flesh was torn from her by small, sharp teeth.  
No, after weighing the consequences, she accepted her fate and chose the 
path of duty.  Her life, worth living or not, would go on.
	Elanna had considered her own path of duty.  Her heart was pierced 
with thorns over the anger of her sister and the disapproval of the 
Pride Sisters.  It would have been simple to turn away from Taka and 
stay in the good graces of her friends.  But she had watched Taka's 
struggle with depression and frustration wear away at him and take his 
joys away one by one.  His first love had rejected him, and his parents 
were dead.  Now his brother was dead, and he had to turn to the hyenas 
for comfort.  She wanted to love him, to comfort him and give his life 
meaning once more.  And hoping against hope that he would find solace in 
her love, she had dared to offer herself to him completely and openly.
	Sarabi had asked her to choose between her sister and her lover, 
to give up happiness and cubs of her own, and share Sarabi's loneliness 
forever in return for acceptance by the Pride.
	"It's not fair!" Elanna prayed fervently.  "I love her enough to 
die for her and right now I should be by her side, but she won't have 
me!  She loved him once--how can she blame me for needing him so?  She 
doesn't understand, God.  What can I say that will make her listen??"
	Taka stole quietly to her side and nuzzled her.  "So sad, my 
darling?"
	"Hold me," she said, as tears ran down her cheeks.  "Let me feel 
you near me."
	Taka kissed away her tears and began to stroke her with his paw.  
"I've never seen you more beautiful than you are right now.  Such a kind 
heart, capable of such compassion."  He looked at her with a tenderness 
uncommon to him.  "If I'd known how you felt before, things might have 
been very different now."
	"How?"
	"Does it matter?"
	Taka rested beside her feeling her comforting presence.  He closed 
his eyes and could see Mufasa and Sarabi with little Simba resting in 
their favorite spot.  Next to them, Elanna nursing a small Taka and a 
small Lannie.  Taka loved Mufasa once, as he had loved Sarabi.  If only 
he had stopped striving after a vain dream and seen the potential in 
Elanna long ago!  Under the circumstances, Taka felt his deeds were 
justified, but still he wondered if there was more he could have done to 
purge the curse that poisoned Mufasa's love and alienated Sarabi.  The 
nagging doubt that he was partly to blame for began to eat away at him, 
and he felt contaminated--dirty in ways that no water could wash clean.  
	Oh to have felt clean again!  He would have been content with 
Elanna's sincere and unblemished love.  And there would have been no 
hyenas in the Pride Lands earning him the undying hatred of the pride.  
The price he paid to rule was too high, but it was final and there could 
be no refund.  Opening his eyes once more to the sobering truth, he 
kissed Elanna's cheek and sighed deeply. 
	Uzuri and the other pride sisters were also very upset, but they 
found solace in the discipline and effort of the hunt.  Sarabi's missing 
position hurt them like a wound, and Uzuri discretely asked Ajenti to 
take the left point of the crescent formation.  Ajenti took a few steps 
toward Sarabi's old spot, but she broke down into tears.
	"I can't!  I just can't!  It's HER spot!"
	"There now," Isha said.  "You take my spot, Honey Tree.  I'll do 
the left point tonight."
	Painfully, Isha stalked to the left point position and took the 
post with unaccustomed somberness.  "Well, let's do this thing."
	Meanwhile with unaccustomed jubilation, the hyenas were going to 
hunt the Pride Lands without the fear of being discovered.  Used to the 
arid conditions of the elephant graveyard, the smell of fresh grass and 
trees, of blossoms and vines intoxicated their senses.  The scents on 
the wind filled them with promises of good times ahead.
	Not that Ber or the other loyalists got to enjoy any of that.  
Their ties to the former Roh'mach earned them endless, mind-numbing 
guard duty.  Shenzi suspected that the old ways were too ingrained in 
them to trust them with anything else.
	Ber watched the night sky and sighed.  The distant laughter of his 
clan brothers stirred a longing in him to be out and about following the 
trail.  "Roh'kash, first I lost my son, and now I've lost my true 
calling!  Great Mother, am I to rot out here like a discarded bone with 
all the marrow stripped away?  Show me the way out, Great Mother!  There 
is only death here!"
	Uzuri nodded, and her pride sisters spread out in a pattern of her 
own design, ready to advance on a herd of gazelles.  The moon was kind--
just full enough to see by, but not full enough to betray the lithe 
lionesses in the tall grass.
	Uzuri's ears flattened back and her tail twitched.  Instantly her 
pride sisters tensed up, ready for action.  They waited for the signal 
to rush....
	"Now I got you!" shouted a hyena, darting between the lionesses 
and the gazelles in pursuit of a bolting hare.  The gazelles looked 
around and fled.
	"Damn!" Uzuri yelled.
	The hyena closed on the hare and with a snap, he had snatched the 
life from the small body.  Bearing his trophy proudly, he trotted back 
across the meadow toward Pride Rock.
	Ber watched Skulk prance by with a dead rabbit.  Not far behind 
him was the hunting party of lionesses, and Ber could tell they were 
furious.
	"Back early, I see?  Did luck go with you?"
	"Yes!" Isha spat.  "All of it bad!"
	"Hfff!  Did it have to do with that rabbit?"
	Without answering, Isha and the others pushed past him and went to 
see Taka.
	The King was lying down napping when he got a rude nudge from 
Uzuri.  "Look here, we have a problem."
	"We do indeed," Taka said grumpily.  "Never do that when I'm 
asleep!"
	"Those--friends of yours--just spoiled our chances of pulling down 
a gazelle or two for a lousy rabbit!  We can't have them running wild 
while we're hunting!  You're King--do something!"
	"Well I just might, since I AM King.  Not that you'd know it from 
the level respect you show me."
	"I'm sorry--Sire."
	"This union will work.  I didn't say there wouldn't be any 
problems at first.  What we need is more cooperation.  Something like a 
mutual hunt.  That's it--you get together with Pipkah and plan something 
you can all pull off together."
	"But sire, our styles are so different!"
	"That's why I'm putting an expert in charge.  You will justify the 
faith I have in you, hmm?"
	"I'll do my best."
	"That's all I ask of anyone.  Now run along and let me get some 
sleep."
	He closed his eyes and rolled over.  Clearly, the subject was 
closed.


CHAPTER:  WITHOUT A PRAYER

	The next night came in silent splendor.  Sarabi looked with misty 
eyes at the stars as they made their nightly migration across the 
heavens.
	"Aiheu," she wailed.  "Help us!  Call up the ancestral spirits!  
Send Taka wisdom to turn from the path he has taken!  Help him to see 
the folly of his ways.  But until he finds the right path, help us to 
deal with these hyenas."  She pawed at the sky and added, "I don't 
understand any of this.  I don't understand why good people like Simba 
have to die while Shenzi goes on and on.  But you are merciful.  I know 
you are just and good.  Don't forget us in our hour of need!  Please 
don't forget us!"
	Ber also prayed.  "We are hated here.  I want to go home and take 
my family with me!  These lions do not want us, and though their land is 
good, I cannot sleep safely in the shadow of this rock.  Touch our 
Roh'mach and open her eyes to the truth!  Drive out from among us the 
deceiver and forgive us of our recklessness!"
	"Let the hunt begin," Taka's voice boomed with unbridled optimism.  
"Hunt mistress, we need your blessing!"
	Uzuri went to stand near Taka.  The blessing was supposed to be an 
important milestone, and the new King had given her some prompting on 
what he wanted her to say.  It should not have taken her much thought to 
do that.  He wanted her customary reference to "Aiheu" to be expressed 
as a more generic "God," and wanted all references to "Him" or "His" 
changed to avoid offending the hyenas whose God was the female Roh'kash.
	And yet Uzuri stood before the crowd, lions on her right and 
hyenas on her left.  She looked at the expectant hyenas and felt a 
shiver run down her spine.  Then she glanced over at the lionesses.  
Their faces were downcast and their ears and tails sagged.  Taka's ideas 
on a "glorious new era" stuck in her throat.  She could say nothing.
	"Come on, Hunt Mistress," Taka hoarsely whispered.
	The desolation on Yolanda's face matched the depth of bitterness 
in Isha's expression.  Uzuri had to drop her glance.
	"Uzuri," Taka growled, "they're waiting."
	The hyenas began to murmur uncomfortably.  She had to do 
something, so she did the only thing she could do.  She faced the 
lionesses squarely and prayed.
	"Have mercy on us, O Lord.  For our transgressions, do not punish 
us.  Look with favor upon we who call on you.  And on the trail, let us 
find sustenance for our bodies and comfort for our spirits.  Blessed 
Aiheu, hear our prayer!"
	The lionesses somberly bowed one by one.  "Blessed Aiheu, hear our 
prayer!"
	The hyenas looked one at the other.  "Great Mother, sustain us," 
they said, nervously, bowing.  Soon, the whole hunting party lay 
prostrate on the savanna.
	"Good hunting," Uzuri said shakily.  She started to walk off.
	"Interesting prayer," Taka said with a harsh edge to his voice.  
"Did I detect a note of pessimism?"
	"You detected a prayer," Uzuri said, pushing past him.
	Ber pushed up alongside her.  She had been avoiding eye contact 
with the hyenas and it took a lot of work for him to get her attention.
	"Well, what do you want?"
	"It's about that prayer."
	"I've already been called down once about it."
	"I'm not calling you down," he said.  "I can tell that you're a 
good person, and I know Roh'kash will side with you.  When the revolt 
comes, and I feel one will, spare my mate and pups.  They are loyal to 
the old ways and do not want to be here.  Remember us."
	She stared at him and sniffed.  "I will."
	"I was the hunt master.  Now I'm just a guard.  Of all the lions, 
maybe you alone know how much I've lost."
	She looked him right in the eyes.  For the moment, her feelings 
for hyenas was tempered with compassion.  "I know what you've lost, and 
I hope I'm not next.  Pray to your god for me and I'll pray to Aiheu for 
you."
	Ber smiled.  "God is God.  She will hear both our prayers."
	Uzuri went to initiate the first cooperative hunt.  She looked at 
Beesa and sighed.  "Well, let's do this thing."  She felt even then that 
the hunt was doomed.

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