CHAPTER:  NIGHT COMES

	As the sun began to set, the lionesses gathered for their hunt.  
Adhama came and nuzzled Uzuri.  "Time to gather up," she said 
cheerfully.  "I've looked so forward to the honor of hunting with you, 
Zuri."
	"I'm flattered," Uzuri said.  "But I'm unfamiliar with the area.  
Tonight, let me sit with the children."
	"Zuri, don't be timid!  We don't expect you to bring down a 
buffalo by yourself!  Just tag along and learn the land tonight."
	"Maybe tomorrow," Uzuri said.  "Good hunting, sister."
	Adhama nodded, and before she left she added, "Don't get used to 
it.  I look forward to seeing you in action out there."
	"I won't."  Uzuri smiled and pulled a sleepy cub a bit closer.
	Adhama nodded and paced away silently, vanishing into the dark.  
From another clump of brush, Makaka emerged, humming a tune to himself 
as he meandered over.  He sighed and slipped his arms around Uzuri's 
neck, hugging her close.
	She smiled and kissed him with her warm tongue.  "Busy day?"
	"Busy week!"  He slid down, resting his head on her side.  "We 
walked everywhere!  Rafiki found this really cool place to set up in.  
It's kind of damp, though."  He yawned hugely.  "We had to cut brush and 
fill cracks.  The dampness hurts his joints, you know."  His voice 
dropped off to a buzz as he slowly nodded off.
	Uzuri continued to groom him absently, turning this over in her 
mind.  After all the times Rafiki had rubbed her stuff joint without 
complaint!  She had no idea his joints hurt!
	Eventually  the warmth of Makaka and the cubs sank into her and 
she drowsed lightly, head still erect and ears alert for any 
disturbance.  Before too long she detected the familiar tread of Rafiki 
as he eased through the grass towards her; his distinctive gait barely 
registering before she relaxed again.
	Very quietly, Rafiki bent down next to her face and ever so softly 
planted a kiss on her cheek.  He whispered, "There's nothing I wouldn't 
do for you, girl.  If this doesn't prove it, I don't know what will."
	One of her eyes opened to look at him.
	"Oh, I didn't mean to wake you!"
	"That's all right."  She patted with her paw and winked.  She 
didn't have to ask twice--he settled next to her.  "You look tense.  
Relax."  She took a paw and controlling her great strength with finesse, 
began to rub his back and shoulders.  "You need to relax.  This day has 
worn you out."  When she heard the grunt of relief, she knew she'd found 
the source of his pain and she concentrated on loosening him up.  What 
her paws lacked in dexterity, they made up for in gentle persistence.  
And only when Uzuri was content with the results did she let him up.  
"If you feel tense again, you come see me."
	"I will," he said, kissing her brow.  "Thank you."
	She managed to stay awake until the hunting party came back.  She 
had an important job to do, but she was restless and wondered what she 
was missing on the trail.  She also wondered how her own Pride Sisters 
were faring, and if they caught anything.  She glanced back in the 
direction of Pride Rock and sighed.
	When the lionesses returned victorious, she woke the cubs and 
shared her first meal with her new family.  Not knowing many of them 
well, she heard snatches of gossip and idle chatter that sounded only 
distantly familiar.  As a result, she said very little.
	That night as she finally settled to sleep, time and time again in 
her dreams she re-enacted the parting from her Pride Sisters.
	"I give you the most precious possession I have.  I gave a lot of 
thought to what I would say when I left you.  In the end there is 
nothing I can say, and so I leave you with silence.  But I can never 
forget the time we spent together on the trail...."
	That was the crux of her problem.  She could never forget the time 
they spent together on the trail.  Would she ever be that happy again?  
And did she have the right to subject Rafiki and Makaka to this?


CHAPTER:  CHOOSING A PATH

	The next morning, Rafiki dropped by cheerfully but a little stiff.  
"How did you sleep?"
	"Fine."
	"Uh huh...."  He looked at her dusty, disarranged fur.  "That's 
nice."
	Makaka took Rafiki aside.  "No.  She moaned and tossed all night.  
She's not happy here.  I heard her crying.  Rafiki, I want to go home!  
I have some friends here, but this place is not good for us."
	Rafiki sighed and made his way back to her.  "So, my dear, how do 
you like it here?"
	Uzuri looked pensive.  "Fine.  But do you think I've left my 
sisters in the lurch?"
	"No.  They'll have to adapt, if you really want to stay.  
Admittedly, it won't be easy."
	"So you think it's wrong my being here?"
	"I didn't say that."
	"Well, what DID you say?"
	"I said--and I will say again--I cannot choose your path.  You 
must go where your heart leads you."
	She shuddered.  "I hope you won't be disappointed, but my heart is 
leading me back to Pride Rock."
	Rafiki sprang to life.  "I'll get my things!"
	"But I have to say good bye."
	"Of course you do.  But if we do it quickly, we can make it back 
in time for tonight's hunt."  He hugged her tightly.  "We can't have you 
unhappy, my dear!"
	That afternoon, an article of her faith became very real to her. 
Pain was indeed the brother of pleasure, and in loving Ugas and his 
pride, she had opened herself to the pain of farewells.  Adhama and 
Amara were dear friends and she would miss them terribly.  And there 
were her sons who must remain behind in the kingdom of her dead husband.  
But as Aiheu had told all who dared to love, the pleasure was worth the 
pain--it gave her nobility and inner beauty that shone brightly from her 
hazel eyes.
	Makaka was impatient to leave, hopping from foot to foot at the 
delay as Uzuri and Rafiki nuzzled each cub and spoke to each of the 
lionesses.  
	The brothers insisted on escorting them back to the border, and 
Uzuri was glad of the company.  
	"You will visit us, won't you?" Togo asked.
	"Of course I will, if the King permits."
	"The King insists," Kombi said.  "Oh look, I can see the stream 
from here."  The sadness behind his smile was obvious to her and she 
nuzzled him.
	"There's no stream deep enough or wide enough to keep us apart," 
Uzuri said.
	Reaching the bank, she couldn't help but feel her heart sink as 
her sons stopped short of the water.  She kissed each of them on the 
cheek, inhaling their scent and holding it in her memory.  "I'm so proud 
of you both!  Your father is too, I know it."
	Kombi nuzzled her one last time, then stepped back.  "Aiheu 
abamami, mother.  Take care."  Togo bid her farewell, and then joined 
his brother as they turned and headed back home.  Uzuri watched them 
leave, then slowly turned towards her own home that lay shimmering in 
the distance like something out of a dream.
	The three splashed through the water, then stood once again on 
their old ground.  Without looking back, Uzuri led Rafiki and Makaka 
past the spot where young Sarabi and Taka used to play.  They went 
through the field where Ahadi lay his feverish body to die with his 
beloved Akase.  She passed the spot where Misha had made her first kill 
and first made love with Tanabi.  And she saw the spot where Pipkah 
crawled away to die after the great battle.  She half smiled when she 
thought about the tricks she pulled on him.  Maybe he learned a little 
humility at the end--maybe he'd even found peace.
	They arrived at Rafiki's baobab a little before sunset.  The 
reddish hue sparkled from his cheeks as he reentered his old home, each 
limb and notch calling to him like an old friend.  Reaching up, he ran 
his fingertips gently along the runes painted into the trunk, tracing 
gently over the Eye of Aiheu with one hand.  Making his way to the 
hollowed alcove where he stored his things, he reached in to put his 
medicine pouch inside--and stopped, pulling out an ivory tooth, well 
worn and familiar as his own.
	Rafiki clutched the tooth in one palm, feeling warmth steal over 
him as Ahadi's voice rang gently in his ears. "Where have you been, you 
old rascal?"
	"In misery," he said.  "But I'm back to stay."  He shuddered in a 
deep breath, the smell of wild honey enveloping him as he knelt and gave 
thanks.
	Presently he rose and wandered over to where Uzuri sat.  He joined 
her, reaching around and holding her to him as they gazed across the 
land at the dim silhouette of Pride Rock.  Uzuri looked at him, a smile 
touching her face as she saw the look of peace in his features.  "I 
think we did the right thing."
	"I for one can not disagree."  He grinned.  "But you'd better 
hurry; it's time for the hunt, isn't it?"
	"Oh!"  She purred, rubbing her cheek against his.  "Thank you 
Rafiki!"  Descending carefully, she bounded off, the years seeming to 
fall away as she loped through the grass happily, each landmark that 
went by stirring new feelings of happiness inside her heart.  As she 
drew near her home, she detected a familiar scent and rushed toward it, 
a beatific smile beaming from her features.  Breaking clear from the 
grass, she leapt upon a lioness who had been sniffing the ground nearby, 
knocking the startled creature to the ground.  "Fini!!"
	"Uzuri?!  Oh gods!  You're back!"  Sarafina embraced her sister 
with her forepaws, nuzzling her amid joyful laughter.  "Praise Aiheu!"
	Uzuri bounded up and smoothed her fur back into place as the other 
lionesses emerged around them, exclaiming at her appearance.  "I feel 
like a good hunt.  Is it too late?"  She peered around at them, seeing 
the happy faces from her childhood, the old friends who had hunted by 
her side, her gaze finally coming to rest upon one she had trained from 
a cub.  Uzuri nodded at Misha.  "Would you have me?  I'll help out in 
any position you want me in."
	Misha shook her head.  "There is only one position I can give you 
tonight.  She padded over to the decimated remains of the pride's last 
kill, tearing off a small section of hide.  She laid it at Uzuri's feet, 
then pressed her paw to the inside of the skin, wetting it with the 
blood that remained.
	Uzuri's eyes stung with tears as Misha placed her paw upon the 
older lioness's cheeks.  "I'd give you my most cherished possession, but 
he's pledged to me.  So I'll have to give you this."  Kissed her.  
"Welcome home, hunt mistress."  She sat back and looked at her 
attentively.  "Where will you have us?"
	"Eastern meadow," Uzuri says tersely.  "Crescent maneuver, Isha on 
the left, Sarabi on the right, and girls, give us support from the wadi 
from the north.  It's good to be home...."
	She was in rare form.  They killed a water buffalo and feasted 
royally, heading back home in the small hours of the morning with full 
swinging bellies and contented smiles all around.  As they settled in to 
sleep, Uzuri heard Simba utter a final roar as he proclaimed his rule 
once again.  And in the distant night, she heard her sons answer, their 
proud call bringing a smile to her face as it followed her down into 
peaceful dreams.


CHAPTER:  NO SHAME

	Uzuri quietly slipped in to Rafiki's presence.  There was no need 
to ask her what she wanted.  Rafiki smiled and put his hands on her 
shoulder blade, rubbing in tight circles, then gradually spreading out 
like ripples in a pond to loosen up the joints and warm up the muscles.  
She grunted with pleasure as he worked his way down to her elbow, 
relieving her discomfort.
	"How is the Garu Root helping?"
	"It helps," she said with a certain reserve.
	"But not as much as it used to?"
	"Not quite."
	"I see."  Rafiki shook his head.
	Uzuri looked at him worriedly.  "What's wrong?"
	"Oh, you'd just get upset with me."
	"No I wouldn't."
	Rafiki got some Garu root and began to grate it with a flint 
pebble.  "It's nothing really.  Sometimes I think out loud, and you're 
reading too much into it."
	"If you don't tell me, I PROMISE you I will be upset."
	Rafiki sighed.  "It's not your health, old girl.  I was just 
thinking of something that happened to me when Simba came back.  
Minshasa came to me that night while I was grieving for Taka."
	"So you were there after all."
	"Yes.  You don't stop loving someone just because they hurt you."  
He switched to the other side and began rubbing at the shoulder blade.  
"Does that feel good?"
	"Well?  What did she say?  Am I going to have to pull it out of 
you a word at a time?"
	Rafiki smiled.  "You're always in a hurry!"
	"Rafiki!"
	"All right, all right."  He scratched his head uncomfortably.  "We 
were talking, and she asked me what I wanted as a reward for my service.  
And I guess I looked down at his body and thought about all the people I 
loved that I've had to watch die one by one.  Maybe that was what was 
going through my mind."
	"And?"
	"And I said that maybe I'd like a friend that would always be 
there for me, someone that I wouldn't have to worry about losing.  
Someone that would be my friend in this world and the next."  A shy 
smile of mixed pride and embarrassment crept over his face.  "She said, 
`That would be Uzuri.'"
	Uzuri smiled.  "Was that it?"
	"Almost.  She told me that her gift to me is that we would both 
die on the same day."
	Uzuri looked penetratingly into his eyes.  "She offered you a 
gift, and you chose that?"
	"I told you you'd be upset."
	"I'm not upset.  I'm just--well--surprised at you.  There were so 
many things you could have asked for."
	"That's what I wanted then, and that's what I want now.  But you 
know something, old girl?  I have so many things I have to do.  I must 
train Makaka before I go to my fathers.  You have to take care of 
yourself.  I keep patching you up and sending you out for more wear and 
tear."  He shook his head again.  "I'm glad you're back where you 
belong, but why did you come back as Hunt Mistress?  Misha is very good 
for one so young.  Wouldn't you like to live to see her do well at it?  
Why don't you do that tonight?"
	"But the hunt mistress is what I am!  If I wasn't that, what would 
I be?"
	"You are so many things, all of them very special to me.  Go ahead 
and hunt if you must, but you take such risks.  I mean, every time you 
lunge at a wildebeest, I cringe."  He put his hands out and caressed her 
lovingly under the chin, running his fingertips gently across her 
cheeks.  "I like that face the way it is," he said reverently.  "Already 
you have a scar across the bridge of your nose and that nick under your 
cheek, and that bald spot behind your ear from the gazelle."
	"Thanks for noticing," Uzuri said a little indignantly.
	"Oh gods, listen to me!"  He began to gesture wildly.  "Every time 
you go out there, I'm scared out of my wits!  I can't stand it when you 
get hurt.  Every time you get hurt, a piece of my heart dies."
	"Don't be so dramatic."
	"Hey you, listen to me!  Avina was every bit as good as you, but 
gods, the horror of her face, the horror!  I'll never forget that face 
as long as I live!  I can see that happening to you.  I have nightmares 
about it!"  He put his arms around her neck and waited a moment for his 
heart to stop pounding.  Then he took a deep breath, let it out slowly, 
and began to speak to her fatherly.  "I know we all have to die 
sometime, but I don't want you to be frightened and in pain when you 
die.  I don't want you gasping out your life with your ribs stove in 
like Beesa's."  He kissed her on the cheek and gave her a pat.  "When 
the time comes, I'd want you to lay your head in my lap and drift away 
quietly.  I would give you something for your pain.  Then I would wait 
for Minshasa to come for us.  I want it said that they found us 
together."  Rafiki turned away quickly, wiping his eyes.  "I'll get your 
Garu root now."
	"Rafiki?"
	The mandrill did not turn around.  He began soaking the Garu root 
in water.  "I'll just be a moment."
	"Rafiki, if you think it's best for Makaka that I step down, I'll 
do it.  You are the person to train him, and I can't be selfish and 
spoil his chances.  And Misha would make a fine hunt mistress.  I'm sure 
I could talk her into it."
	Rafiki took in a deep breath and let it out.  "Please, Uzuri?"
	"I'll do it.  For Makaka."
	"Oh thank God!" Rafiki bent over and began to cry uncontrollably.  
"Thank God!  Thank God!"
	Uzuri quietly stalked over and nuzzled him.

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