CHAPTER:  THE NISEI

	As her Pride mates mourned for her, Elanna was walking alone 
across the savanna contemplating her own death.  She looked ahead of 
her and saw nothing.  Her whole life seemed to lay behind her, a 
tragic story destined to have a tragic ending.  With his faults, Taka 
was still loved her with his whole heart.  Now no one loved her, and 
the one time she needed a shoulder to cry on most of all, she was 
isolated, a tiny yellow speck on a vast golden plain.  
	Sadly, she looked back from where she came, the sight of Pride 
Rock now long gone from the horizon.  For the first time in her life, 
she could not see any part of it.  Pride Rock, whose golden shaft 
greeted the morning.  She had been born there, and she had thought to 
die there.  Her mother lived again in its grasses, and looked down 
upon it from the stars.  Her husband had taken her in its protective 
embrace.  A horror enveloped her that she had not really escaped 
death, but exchanged a quick one for a lingering, painful ordeal.
	She took stock of her life, forming an inventory of all the 
good and bad times that made up her days.  She remembered the sweet 
richness of her mother's milk, and the comfort of Sarabi's body next 
to her as she closed her eyes and nursed.  She remembered cubhood 
games of tag that lasted for hours, and wrestling with young Mufasa 
in the cool of the cave.  She remembered her first kill, and how 
proud she felt when the red pawprint in blood was placed on her 
cheek.  She remembered using the warm muskiness of Taka's soft mane 
as a pillow, and the breathless pleasures of his lovemaking.  She 
remembered the feel of a small life inside her.  Once, in death, she 
looked on the face of her son Fabana.  "Oh gods, if only those little 
eyes had opened one time and seen the love I bore him!  If only once 
I could have held him to my belly and given him milk!"  Tears welled 
in her eyes.  Voices were calling to her from the realm of Aiheu--Mom 
and Dad, lover and child.  And the voices were getting louder, 
beginning to drown out even the piping of the weaver birds and the 
chirping of the crickets.
	The thought of returning and facing justice played in her mind.  
Her reasoning was simple and compelling.  If Taka had indeed killed 
Mufasa and Simba in his madness, she could die to pay the blood debt 
and set him free.  His death would atone for Mufasa's, hers for 
Simba's.
	She had not rested since the hyenas had told her of her former 
pride's plan for her.  Finally, her body gave out and she collapsed 
on the ground exhausted.  Soon sleep had claimed her.
	Her sleep was fraught with dreams.  In her visions she relived 
her days with Taka.  Mercifully it was not what life had become for 
them in the past few months, but what is was like in the beginning.  
She smiled softly in her sleep as she felt his body against her.  
	"Lannie, there is a full moon outside.  Let's sit on the end of 
the promontory."
	She followed him up the stone spire and laid her head against 
his soft, dark mane.  "What will we name our son?" she asked.
	"There is one name for him.  Three great loves have I known.  
My mother loved me.  You loved me.  And Fabana loved me."
	"I think Fabana would be a lovely name.  But what if I have 
girls?  Three little girls.  Ever think about that?"
	"Three little Lannies!"  He smiled and nuzzled her.  "Then I'd 
have to keep trying, wouldn't I?"  He turned his gaze back to the 
full moon.  "Dad used to say if you wished on the full moon and you 
just believed hard enough, it would come true."
	"I'd never heard that."
	"Neither had he, I warrant.  Dad was always like that.  Wishing 
and believing.  Oh gods, I wish he was here right now, and my mother 
too.  Once life was so simple.  So simple and so good."
	"It can be simple and good again, my love.  And you can believe 
that."
	Taka looked back at her face, washed silver with moonlight.  
"Gods, I love you!"
	Then the vision changed.  It was no longer like a dream.  A 
bright light flooded the spot where she stirred.  "What the...."
	As her eyes adjusted to the light, Taka appeared before her in 
a cloud of glory fire.  "Taka?  Is that you?"
	"Listen, love!  I don't have much time!"
	"Honey Tree, are you coming to take me with you?"
	"No.  I'm here so you will NOT die."
	She ran and nuzzled him.  "Oh my husband, but I want to join 
you!"
	Taka just shook his head.  "Do not try to atone for my sin.  I 
will pay my debt to the last drop of blood.  I will start with you.  
You will have a comforter in your time of grief."  He kissed her 
cheek softly.  "When your time comes, we will sit together forever 
and never be apart again.  Till then, be my brave little girl."
	"Taka, Honey Tree, I must know the truth.  Did you kill your 
brother?"
	The lion looked at her sadly.  "Remember the good times, 
Lannie.  Remember the blissful moments.  Those were the truth."  With 
that, he faded quickly.  She had her answer.


CHAPTER:  IN MEMORIUM

	The search party quietly headed back without their Pride 
sister.  Even the cubs were hushed as the lionesses slowly made their 
way through the grasses with their heads and tails hung low.  Simba, 
who had stayed at Pride Rock to guard against the last of the hyena 
stragglers, saw the group approach.  One look at their posture 
affirmed in his mind that Elanna was lost to them.  Silently, he made 
his way to the queen mother.   "I'm sorry mom..." he said softly to 
her as he rubbed against her gently.
	Sarabi looked up at her new king, her eyes still wet with 
tears, "At least I have you, son."
	It had been a long time since Rafiki had been able to walk out 
alone without the confines of his hyena jailers.  Even through the 
somber mood of the night, he was determined to make the most of his 
new freedom.  He went to each of the pride members and blessed and 
stroke each of them in turn.  He even had a special blessing for 
Timon and Pumbaa.  Slowly, he began to fill in the gaps in the last 
two years of his life.  He quickly ran out of his jerky as he gave 
all the cubs a treat...and even the lionesses he remembered as 
nothing but a cub.
	As he went through the pride, he treated their wounds.  True to 
his words, there were enough herbs for the lions of the pride, even 
if he would have nothing for his aching joints that night.  It had 
been indeed fortunate that no one was seriously hurt, the worse 
injuries being some cuts and bruises.  The hyenas that followed 
Shenzi were quick to leave after they passed their sentence on the 
former king and upon seeing their cousins fighting with the lions.  
Still, in the distance, their sounds could be heard, mocking the 
newly freed pride.
	As the evening passed into night and the lions were able to 
rest their sore bodies, it was time to remember the lost member of 
the pride.  Sarabi, being her sister, called the group together for a 
memorial to their fallen pridemate.  
	Rafiki stepped into the circle of lionesses.  Everyone knew how 
he felt about Taka, and for this reason he was the only one left 
alive that could speak the opening words freely.
	"Great Aiheu, we commend to your care Elanna, and pray that she 
will be reunited with her husband.  And may Taka...."  The mandrill 
leaned heavily on his staff as tears streamed down his face.  "Grant 
them peace.  Forgive him as I have forgiven him.  He loved me once.  
He really did love me."
	As Rafiki stepped away, Isha came forward.  "She was gentle and 
kind.  And how she suffered!  I wish I'd known her better."
	Ajenti did not step forward, but she stammered, "Me too."
	Nala crept to the center of the circle.  "She really loved 
children, though she had none of her own.  She was always very nice 
to me.  She was always sad, but one time she sang to me.  She had a 
very pretty voice, you know."
	Nala edged back to Simba who nuzzled her and pawed her face.
	As the turn passed from lioness to lioness, most remembered her 
strength.  How, even through the mental isolation from her pride, she 
stayed faithful to her husband to the very end.  How even through 
their scorn, she still loved everyone.  The cubs remembered how kind 
she was...how she would always want to give them affection and how 
she would, the few times that she could, always had a story for them.  
	Finally, it came to her sister, Sarabi.
	Sarabi sighed softly as the memory of her sister and their 
cubhood comes back to her mind.  The wind whispered quietly among 
them.  Her face remained motionless except for the slow blinking of 
her eyes.  The other lionesses began to stir uneasily, looking to one 
another uncertainly as they sought an answer to her silence.  Thus it 
was that they all started nervously when she spoke.
	"Elanna...."  A wan smile creased Sarabi's face and she looked 
up finally, her gaze passing through the gathered pride into a haze 
of time into which only she could  penetrate.  A half sob, half laugh 
escaped her and she looked down again, staring through the air.  "I 
keep thinking of a day, back when we were cubs..."  She sniffed and 
wiped her eyes with a paw, smiling.  "Once she saved my life.  We 
were lost in a cave, and though I never told anyone about his, I 
nearly drowned--or worse--in the haunted cave under Pride Rock.  She 
pulled me from the water.  And how did I repay her?"  New tears 
welled from her eyes.  "I'd give anything to have her back here 
again...oh gods, I can't even remember what she smelled like before 
those damn hyenas defiled this place."  She shivered, gripped by the 
terrible agony of her grief.  "I'd give anything to be able to look 
her in her eyes...and tell her I'm sorry!"
	Silence gripped the group as the former queen looked up to the 
sky.  "I hope you are happy, sister, with your husband.  I wish you 
all the joy in the next world that you never had in this one."  She 
drew a deep breath and uttered a mournful roar, venting her pain in a 
cacophony of sound echoed by her pride sisters as it swept across the 
savanna into the depths of the night.  


CHAPTER:  STRANGE PREY

	After a long night with very little sleep, Elanna was unable to 
lie still any longer for she suffered from a different emptiness.  
She had eaten well for the times of Taka's pride, but still that was 
poor, and she had been given even less over the last day.  Taking 
Taka's words in her dream to be a sign, she started off to quench her 
desire.  Hunting had been denied her for over two years by her 
overprotective husband.  She remembered the lessons taught long ago, 
but she was woefully out of practice.  First would be to find some 
prey to test her luck with her old skills.  
	That didn't prove so difficult since the terrible draught had 
not scorched the land beneath her feet.  Silently, she made her way 
toward a small herd of impala.  How she wished for her sisters to be 
behind her to back her up.  But oh, if she DID succeed, what a bounty 
would be hers!   It had been a long time since she had seen so much 
food.  She continued to stalk the prey, hoping against all hopes that 
she would be able to get her wish.
	Finally, after closing the distance farther than she had hoped, 
she burst from cover and rushed.  The excitement of her youth came 
back.  She felt so alive, so exhilarated that she began to understand 
what she had been missing the last two years.  
	The herd separated, just as she remembered from her lessons of 
so long ago.  In front of her was a lone impala, unsure where to go.  
Elanna wasted no time in closing the distance and taking her prey 
down, ending its life so she could continue hers.  Elanna panted and 
said her blessing as she began to tear into the body of her prey.
	Just then, the familiar whoops of hyenas began to close in on 
her.  Before she knew it, a group of hyenas closed in and surrounded 
her and her prey.  At first, they are silent, looking over the 
lioness and the prey beneath her.  Finally, in common speech they 
said, "Our share!  Our land!  Part is ours!"
	She snarled at them as she stayed protectively over the life 
giving meat, "Krekh toh!  Barekh moh amspach Elanna!"
	The hyenas were startled for a moment and backed off, looking 
at each other.  "Hfff!  The scholarly type!  But, my dear bakhret, 
even from our own kind we require our share of everything killed on 
our land."
	The hyenas began to approach her, but as it appeared that 
Elanna would lose her work and maybe her life, a rustle was heard in 
the grasses.  The rogue lion came out of grass, looking at the 
lioness, her prey, and the hyenas.  He moved out more looking 
intently at the hyenas and growling, "You wouldn't be making trouble 
for her, would you?  I advise you to leave and now before I make sure 
you don't come near here again--EVER.
	The hyenas looked at their numbers and decided not to risk 
their lives for such a meager meal.  With curses, both in their 
language and common speech, they disappeared into the night.  
	With a grunt of satisfaction in his work, he moved to Elanna.  
	Suddenly she snapped at him, "This is mine!"
	"You're quite welcome," he said with a bow.  "Maybe we can do 
this 
again sometime."  With that, he turned and began to disappear into 
the night.
	Elanna watched as the rogue faded from sight.  Finally she 
called out, "I'm sorry.  Would you share with me?"
	The lion turned around and began to trot back towards her.  
"How can I refuse an offer like that?  But you go first--you look a 
bit thin, my dear."
	Elanna dug in to the still warm body of the impala.  Her 
stomach, unaccustomed to this food, had shrunk from long fasts and 
meager meals.  As her insides began to rebel, she moved away from the 
meat and purged the food from her body, crying as she did.  The male, 
not wanting to miss the free meal, dug in, his eyes still on the 
crying lioness.  Finally, his hunger quenched, he moved closer to her 
and sits down.
	"If you're wise, you'll eat a little grass, then take a few 
bites.  With time you'll get your appetite back."
	"Sounds like good advice," she said, still sick.  She nibbled 
half-heartedly at a few clumps of green grass.
	"Are you a rogue lioness?"
	"No.  At least I wasn't."  She sadly looked down.
	"I hope I didn't offend you.  I'm a rogue male--of late."  He 
approached her closer and though she shrank from him at first she let 
him touch her cheek with his paw.  "My dear, you look like a ghost.  
If you don't mind, we can help each other."
	"How?"
	"Well, I can drive off the hyenas and flush game.  And you can 
talk to me."
	"That's it?"
	"Hey, it's the silence that gets to me.  I can't stand it.  I 
even talk to buzzards.  And when they're not around, I talk to 
myself.   All the time."
	"Well, I can talk," she said.  "And if you help me hunt, you 
may eat your share.  Deal?"
	"Deal!  I am Kubali, by the way.  And you?"
	She tried a small bite of the impala, chewing it carefully and 
uncertainly, then swallowing.  "My name is Elanna."
	He smiled.  "Elanna!  What a beautiful name."

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