Only two and a half months after Elanna married Taka, she began having contractions. She was in danger of having a miscarriage, or at least that’s what Kako could gather from a few snatches she overheard. The hyena guards would not let her too close to Taka’s cave, and they would not give her a straight answer.
      An old mandrill was escorted quickly to the cave, his hyena guard supremely impatient with his unsteady, lumbering gait. Kako had heard of Rafiki. Whisperings from the hyenas and a few disparaging remarks from Taka would lead her to believe that some evil sorcerer was being confined in the baobab. The other lionesses, however, told a different story. She did not know what to believe.
      Rafiki passed close by Kako. He paused and looked at her. In a kind and bashful voice, he said, “My dear, I don’t believe I’ve seen you before. Has it been that long?”
      The mandrill yelped as one of the guards nipped his flank. Quickly he drew his fingers in blessing across her cheek and started on before he could be bitten again.
      Kako was watching and listening, but was in a poor position to tell what was going on. She would have to ask Uzuri later. The conversation was anxious and rose and fall, but she could make out very little. Then she heard very clearly, “Rafiki! Do something! Anything! My son, my son!”
      A few moments of near absolute silence went by. If this mandrill was really a great sorcerer, he would perform some great spell, probably in exchange for his freedom. That was the plan, wasn’t it? “Aiheu,” she whispered, “give him the power. Give him the power.”
      After a few moments, she heard a loud cry from the cave. It was not an apelike sound but the heart-rending howl of a fully-grown male lion whose strength and courage could not even keep a small cub from dying before his eyes.
      Isha, her ears and tail drooping, went past bearing a small dead male. “Oh Isha,” Kako whispered, pawing her shoulder as she walked by. Isha looked around, her eyes red with hopeless tears. Soon after that, escorted by hyenas, Rafiki dragged past as well. Kako watched the grief stricken mandrill limp by, leaning heavily on his staff. If possible, he looked even older and more bent than before.
      Taka came out on the promontory and shouted in his anguish, “If there is a God....” He took in a deep breath and concluded, “....please help me!!” He sat on the end of the promontory, his face bent low and sobbed. Fabana slipped alongside him and held up her finely chiseled nose, howling like her heart would crumble. Even the lionesses that hated him most were silent, transfixed by the depth of their grief. Then Taka raised his muzzle to the sky, pulled in a deep breath and roared with pain. All of the lionesses took up the sound. The hyenas howled and yammered, and from a nearby acacia, a flight of weaverbirds scattered like a living cloud. The silence that followed could almost be nudged by a paw. All eyes were on the dark-maned lion as he trudged down the promontory.
      Still weak in the knees, Taka wended his way down Pride Rock and crept slowly to where Kako stood with her son.
      “It seems the Gods have spoken,” Taka said. “There will be no prince from my line.” His chin began to tremble and tears spilled down his cheeks. “She can never....the damage has....”
      Fabana quickly pressed her shoulder against his. “Remember, son. You’re a king.”
      Taka did his best to keep some royal dignity, but he looked like a trembling blade of grass caught in a strong wind. Kako quietly padded over and kissed him. “I’m so sorry. You poor dear—I mean, Your Majesty.”
      “Kako, you came to me from the gods. Your goodness is one of the few things that can laugh at the curse that burns my blood.” He sighed, and with great effort said, “Mabatu is my Prince, and your future King.”
      “You honor us, Bayete.”
      He looked at Mabatu. “Hello, sport.”
      “Hello, Your Majesty.”
      “You are a prince now. You should call me by my name, or if you feel like it, you may call me...please call me....Dad?”
      Mabatu came and sat next to him, burying his head in Taka’s mane. “I love you, Dad.”
      “I love you too.” He kissed Baba. “You’re my last hope, son. Go to sleep a little early tonight ‘cause tomorrow, I’m waking you at sunrise. I have something I want to show you.”
      “What?”
      “You’ll see.”

      Mabatu stood on the end of the promontory with Taka and saw the sunrise.
      “Look at the light,” Taka said. “See how splendid it makes the plain look? That is my kingdom, and someday it will be yours.”
      “When?”
      “When I die,” Taka said, solemnly.
      “Then I hope I never get to be king,” Mabatu said.
      “What a beautiful, foolish notion! We all have to go into the east when our time comes. What makes life worth living is what you do with the time you have. Like this morning. I made sure I woke up to show you this, because it was important to me. When I’m seated among the stars, I’ll look back on this memory and smile.”
      “Me too.” Mabatu leaned against Taka’s dark mane. "So Dad, when you were my age, did your dad do this with you?"
      Taka said, "My father was...." He stiffened and his jaw began to quiver. "He was always.... I mean, we never...."
      The words stuck in his throat. Tears began to stream down his face.
      "What's wrong?"
      "Oh nothing.” He wiped his eyes with a paw. “Please, don't watch me cry. Please? Just go run along and see your mother--I'll be with you in a minute."
      Reluctantly, sadly, Mabatu nuzzled his king and stalked down the promontory leaving Taka alone with his private grief.
      "Aiheu! Roh'kash! Anyone!” Taka cried in an anguished voice that echoed off the distant hills. “If you’re really out there, why did you take my son?? Why??" He dropped his face to the ground and sobbed helplessly.

      Mabatu was living up to his promise. Those who thought handsome babies often grow up to be plain had to admit that there were exceptions to every rule. At one year of age, Baba was still a youngster, but his beauty would turn the heads of the female cubs. Like warm sunshine was his smile, and his walk was a carefully choreographed dance of joy that delighted the eye and gladdened the heart.
      Lela padded over to him at the cistern as he stopped to draw refreshment and watched him with deepest admiration. “Baba? What’cha doing now?”
      “I’m seeing what I’d look like with big round wrinkles.”
      She laughed. “I don’t think you COULD look ugly if you tried.”
      “Oh really?” He crossed his eyes and covered the end of his nose with his tongue.
      “Eww, gross!” She turned sideways, and bending her body away from him, she said, “How about my long, furry tongue!” She opened her mouth and passed her tail along her opposite cheek and wiggled it.
      “Cool! How about a big wet kiss with it!” He did likewise. “Like this?”
      “Yeah! That’s so sick!”
      “Hey, that’s nothing. Wanna hear me roar?”
      “You, roar??”
      “Sure I can. Just listen....” He gulped air several times, then with a look of supreme concentration, he held up his snout and vented it in a long, soulful belch.
      “You win!” she said, giggling. “I could NEVER do that!”
      He sprang at her and put his paws around her neck. Giggling, she wrestled with him, planning all the time to let him win but not to let it show.
      Back and forth they swayed, standing on hind limbs with a supreme effort to unseat each other and pin shoulders to the ground. Then Mabatu lost his footing and rolled backwards. With a loud splash, he landed in the icy cistern, paddling in shock through the chilly waters to the side.
      “Oh, I’m so sorry!” Lela said, helping pull him out by the scruff of the neck. As he stood dripping and shivering, she kissed his face. “I like you, Baba! I always have! I’d never do anything to hurt you!”
      “I know.” He shook off, showering her with moist diamonds. “Hey, so I slipped. No big deal.”
      “So you’re not mad?”
      “No.” He touched her cheek with his tongue. “It’s OK.”
      “I’m glad.” She kissed him back. “I really do like you. Do you think I could see you again?”
      He smiled. “Why not? Just don’t drown me, OK?”
      She laughed. “It’s a deal!”
      Just then, Isha walked by. “Were you swimming in the cistern?”
      “I’m sorry, Isha. It was an accident.”
      “Well try to be more careful. Hey, we have to drink that stuff!” She nuzzled him. “I’m headed out to Anteater Kopje to scout out the herd if anyone asks where I am.”
      “Can I come too??”
      “Sure, if you’ll be quiet.”
      His face positively glowed. “Not a word,” he said, putting his paw over his mouth and winking. It may have looked funny to other creatures, but among lions it is a solemn promise of silence.
      Lela’s ears drooped. “But I wanted to play tag!”
      “Maybe later,” Mabatu said.
      “Tag sounds fun,” Isha said, encouragingly.
      “Yeah, but I have stuff to do.” When Isha left, he trotted along behind her toward the distant kopje.
      Lela sighed. “Oh well.” She went and looked in the cistern at her reflection, then touched it with a paw. The waves made her face dance, and she had to smile at the effect. “Maybe tomorrow.”

      Food was harder to come by and the hyenas started to grumble. Shenzi had promised them unending abundance, and that promise was failing. At first, Shenzi claimed that Roh’kash was merely testing their faith. They began to pray almost without ceasing for relief, but it did no good. It was becoming clear to even the strongest believers that Roh’kash could and would let them suffer hunger and thirst from the Roh’mach clear down to the smallest pup.
      Scrambling not to lose her people’s loyalty, Shenzi was looking for ways to make the food go further. Rationing began among the hyenas, and they looked toward the lions looking for ways to reduce their tremendous appetites as well. They looked at the male cubs and thought they may have found an answer in rushing some mantlements. Even an adolescent lion ate as much as three hyenas. And who knows, with a couple of well-placed teams waiting just outside the border, they might even have a way to supplement their diet even more.
      One male cub posed a special threat. Mabatu was now in line to succeed Taka as King, and it was the general opinion of the hyenas he would be a powerful and dangerous king who believed Pride Rock was for lions alone. Terrified of the prospect of a bloody war in the making, Skulk submerged his usual disdain for lions and offered to take Mabatu on a trip around the Eastern Meadow to hunt palm squirrels and rabbits. They were gone for only a couple of hours when Skulk came charging into Shenzi’s cave, fuming and cursing. “I was SO NICE to him! You’d think I was his real FATHER with the way I treated the brat! He didn’t say two words to me the whole time, and when I slipped in the creek, he laughed at me!”
      “He’s a boy,” Shenzi said gently.
      “He’s a hyena hater,” Skulk said. “Don’t you think I could see it in everything he did? I patted his shoulder, and when he didn’t think I could see him, he rubbed in the grass to get rid of my scent!”
      Shenzi’s eyes narrowed to slits. “We’ll get rid of his scent--permanently!”
      Makhpil had clearly foreseen that Taka would die young and violently. It was a vague prophesy, but one that filled Shenzi with the urgency of the moment. They didn’t have much time before Taka was gone and the popular Mabatu became King of a pride full of strong and determined lionesses.
      One of them suggested that they kill Mabatu, but there was no telling what Taka would do in retribution. They would have to be more subtle.
      Time passed, and unlike some of Taka’s mercurial friendships, his bond with Mabatu grew closer with each passing day. So when Mabatu was only eighteen moons old, and a few bits of ruff around his neck began to form a real mane, the leaders of the clan had a private meeting and decided it was time to act.
      But how? Certainly, Shimbekh must be involved. Fed information from Makhpil, she still made several correct predictions to Taka, enough to cover all the lies Shenzi wanted to sneak in.
      Relying on the old hyena proverb that a half truth is like a half carcass—it can be pulled twice as far—they decided on a lie that would soften the blow, but still strike home.
      Timid and unsteady, Shimbekh stood before Taka to deliver the news that may bring instant death. “My Lord, evil tidings.”
      “Oh? Surely not!”
      “I don’t know how to say this, my lord. But there is an evil spirit in this place. One too strong for our powers to drive off. Unless Mabatu driven off early, the day after his mantlement he will go mad and kill his mother, then you.”
      “What??” Taka came and faced her down. “If you’re lying to me, I’ll rip you apart!”
      Tears filled her eyes and she touched his cheek with her tongue. “You love him, don’t you.”
      “Yes, I love him.”
      She kissed him again. “Then send him away now while his heart is pure. You know what it is like to suffer from the inside. There is nowhere to hide.” She looked down and moaned. “No one knows what torment there is in the wounds we bear inside. We try to smile when our heart is breaking!”
      Taka looked at her in the eyes. His chin began to tremble. “I’m stove through,” he muttered. Tears began to stream down his face. “Go, Shimbekh.” The hyeness’s ears drooped and her tail hung limply.
      “Old friend, we are both stove through.”
      “Go, Shimbekh! Please, just go!”
      Shimbekh trudged outside, the weight of the world stooping her shoulders and bowing her head. Shenzi said, “Very convincing. You really sounded concerned.”
      “Go to hell!”
      “See you there, Shimbekh!”
      As Shimbekh walked away, she heard behind her the soft, deep sobs of a lion. Somehow, like a fugitive from a daydream, a memory came back to her of playing with her sister Kambra. What would the pup she was think of what she had become? “What I wouldn’t give to lay at my mother’s side again and nurse myself to sleep! My heart is so tired, Muti. So tired! If I could be your pup again just for tonight and feel your love once more!” Tears spilled down her cheeks and she slinked to her quarters like a forgotten shadow.
      Mabatu was told two days in advance that he would get a commoner’s mantlement so he could prepare himself, but he was not told the reason why. Taka was clearly heartbroken, and Mabatu could sense it. Mabatu could not hate him, and no matter what his mother said, he kept faith that deep inside Taka loved him as much as ever.
      Mabatu and Kako were both in a bit of a panic. Baba was not ready yet—he had minimal hunting skills and he was still not what most lions consider mature. Kako made an impassioned plea for a little more time—that not waiting a moon or two would condemn him to death--but Taka was insistent. “He will learn. It’s nature’s way. Besides, I will pray for him every night.” Tears slid down Taka’s cheeks and even Kako could see the horrible pain he felt.
      “Won’t you at least tell us why you’re doing this?”
      “Sometimes love must be firm,” he stammered. “I’m so sorry.”

      Mabatu spent the night before his mantlement with Isha. She wanted to teach him everything she could about survival before he faced the unforgiving challenges of “The Big World.”
      Mabatu was a good fighter for someone his size. Playful wrestling with the other cubs had gracefully prepared him for the serious challenges of battle. Isha still remembered the time he threw her in a wrestling match by grabbing one of her hind legs. They spent little time on fighting except for Isha’s advice that running away was not always shameful or cowardly.
      Hunting skills were a different matter. Isha had plenty of fond memories of hunting rabbits and antelope with her mother. Luckily Isha grew up in a time when the savanna rejoiced in abundance. Mabatu was a child of hardship, and his mother had to spend toilsome hours hunting just to survive. Little wonder his education was sorely neglected.
      Mabatu had almost no knowledge of stalking and pursuit. And it was clear if he ever caught up to an antelope, he wouldn’t know what to do with it. It was an unpleasant surprise to her, for all lionesses believed a cub born at night would make a great hunter, and he had literally been born on the hunt. Maybe when old folk wisdoms failed, a little determined teaching would have to do.
      “We must look at holds,” Isha said. “Here on the arm, you can restrict movement.” She gently gripped his arm above the elbow. “Here on the flank you can rip. But the throat hold is one of prime importance....” She put her arm across his back. “You strike them here and push with your weight.” Isha leaned into him, nearly pushing him over. “It’s important to let your weight do the work. Then you go for the throat and cut off his wind.” She gently mouthed Mabatu’s throat.
      Mabatu trembled. She quickly let go and looked him in the eye. “Your heart is pounding. Are you all right?”
      He stared back. “Isha....”
      “I didn’t mean to offend you. I’m sorry.”
      “Don’t be sorry. It is I who have offended you.”
      “Nonsense,” she said, nuzzling him softly.
      He returned her nuzzle and nibbled at her ear. Before she could pull back with surprise, he said, “Don’t hate me. You don’t know how long I’ve waited to do that.” He sighed. “How VERY long.”
      “We need to get back to hunting,” she said unsteadily, recognizing the look in his eyes. “We don’t have much time.”
      “We DON’T have much time. I must hunt now. I may not have a chance, but I’ve stalked for a long time. Now I must break my cover and rush to you.”
      She took a step backward. “Even though I’m old enough to be your mother? I’m flattered. Really I am. But when you’re older, you’ll find someone more your own age. Then you’ll look back on this and laugh.”
      “You know I’ll never get much older. I’m being sacrificed to help the others. You know it.”
      She looked down. “I wish you wouldn’t say that.”
      “But you don’t deny it.”
      “How can I?” Tears began to roll down her cheeks. “My poor Baba! My precious little Nisei! I love you more than the food I eat or the water I drink. Even more than the air I breathe. I would give them up if it would save you.”
      “I love you, Isha. I’ve always loved you.” He kissed away her tears. “Remember, I said when I grew up, I’d marry you. You laughed then, but if you laugh now, I’ll die. While life holds my soul and body together, I will love you. Even in death I will love you.”
      “In death?” She pawed and nuzzled him. “Don’t think of death. You are alive. There is still hope.”
      “How can I be alive? I’ve never lived!” He looked her intently in the eyes. The fire in his hazel eyes was unmistakable even if it was uncertain. “If I could only be close to you, just for tonight, I would have LIVED, Isha.”
      She looked deeply into his eyes and saw the sincerity of his love. Isha was held captive by its overwhelming purity and depth. She pawed him affectionately and he playfully batted back at her. She drew off a length and began to circle him, looking for an opening. “If you hunt big game, prepare to exert yourself.”
      He watched her lithe body as it crept gracefully but forcefully about him. Any moment the huntress could rush her prey. A flick of her ears betrayed her attack, but it was not enough warning. She pounced, collaring his throat and wrestling him. Laughing and panting, she nearly shoved him to the ground. He flailed at her with his arms, but struck her very gently.
      "I can still throw you," he said.
      "Prove it!" She threw her weight on him with a mighty thrust and easily pushed him over.
      Mabatu regained his feet and circled her. He tried to use his weight to push her over, but she had the advantage and sidestepped him. She put her arm over his shoulder and began to lean in on him, causing his legs to start buckling. Then when it seemed victory was hers, she relaxed and did not move. He put his head under her arm and pushed her over into the grass and looked down into her face. “Gotcha!”
      Her paw reached up and gently traced the curve of his cheek and fondled his chin. She looked deep into his eyes smiled alluringly as his breath came and went like a wild wind. “Now that you’ve caught me, do what you will.”
      “Oh gods!” Breathless, he knelt down and began to nuzzle her passionately, nibbling her ears and pawing her cheek gently. Her fragrance made him tremble, and he kissed her on the cheek and forehead murmuring, “Isha, beloved!”
      She whispered, “Not here. Come, my lover, where the night shall hide us away.” They rose from the verdant grass and he walked, pressed against her warm, soft body into the shadows.
      When they were alone, he stroked her thigh with his paw. “How could one lioness be so beautiful?” He expected a reply, but suddenly she broke away from him and began to run.
      “Isha, wait! What did I do??”
      She looked at him reassuringly. “If you want me, you’ll have to catch me!”
      He realized it was a game. Laughing like a cub, he began to pursue her through the tall grass. She cornered sharply like a wise huntress, keeping him off balance and maddeningly at bay. They bounded over the hill and down the other side, splashed through a small creek, and ran around Anteater Kopje. She looked back and laughed. “Can’t you run faster than that??”
      “Are you kidding?? You haven’t seen anything!”
      Driven by the fierce heat of desire, he lunged forward and began to narrow the gap with each spring. Sensing his approach, Isha plunged through a field of gold and purple blossoms, somewhat wilted by the drought but still holding an essence of their former beauty. And amid the blossoms, she stopped and looked back.
      Mabatu came to a halt and looked at her wonderingly. “Give up?”
      “You’ll need some of that great strength,” she said. “I wouldn’t leave you drained. We'll start out simple.” She took a couple of steps and crouched among the fragrant blossoms. “Come, Baba. Make love to me.”
      He stared at her apprehensively. An awkward moment passed.
      “Do I not still please you?”
      “Isha, you ARE pleasure. It’s just--well--this is my first time. I don't know my father and my mother did not speak with me. All I know about making love is a lot of cub gossip.”
      She smiled. “I’ll help you if you need it. Just remember, you are saying farewell to cubhood. Once you’ve taken this step, you will be a lion.” She smiled disarmingly. “Come and kiss me. Would you like that?”
      He trembled. “Always!” He shyly came forward and reached down, touching her cheek with his tongue. She looked up and kissed him passionately, pawing at his mane. She rolled over and stroked his throat and chest with her paws, setting him on fire. “I can feel your heart throbbing.” She reached up with a paw and drew his face toward hers, kissing him passionately. In a sultry voice, she purred, “Deep inside, you know what you want. Forget what your head tells you. Go where your feelings lead you. Make love to me.”
      His feelings were strong and clear this time. She rolled back into a crouch, purring softly. “It’s OK. Don't be afraid.”
      He gently mouthed her neck, and trembling with desire he pressed himself against her soft golden body. With faint utterances of contentment and pleasure, Baba filled his senses with her love, the love that made her his lioness. Feeling her shudder in his gentle embrace, he lived out all the tender fantasies that filled his dreams. Never had he felt so alive as he had in that moment.
      “Beloved,” she purred, “Are you happy?”
      “Delirious! And you? Do I please you?”
      “Yes! I feel...I feel...” She jerked and moaned. “Oh, Baba! Yes!”
      Mabatu was drunk with her pleasures, and just as he thought his heart would burst, he knew in his own body the ecstasy that made her cry out. He gasped and wanted to let it out in a roar, but he dared not. Only a gentle sigh of fulfillment left him, and overcome he nuzzled her and stumbled away.
      “Will that ever happen again?”
      “Many times," Isha said. "The night is still young.”
      Panting, he fell in the grass. "Many times," he said, heaving a contented sigh. "Imagine that! I must have done something good in my life. Aiheu has been good to me--so have you."
      He patted with his paw on the ground, and Isha came and snuggled next to him, rolling on her back and stroking his mane with her paw. “I love you,” he said simply. “You're everything I've ever wanted. And at every special moment of my life, you were always there.”
      "Always," she said. "Because I love you."
      Cubhood was over--he was a lion at last.

      Late that night near mid-moon, he looked at his resting consort and said, “Isha, my lover, can I ask you a favor?” She smiled and said, “Again, my little brush fire?” She licked her paw and groomed her face. “Let me prepare myself.”
      “No, not that. When I face Aiheu, I want to face him as your husband. Would you please pledge to me? Please? I hear you’re not the marrying type, but when they ask me who I’m praying for, I want to say it’s my wife.”
      She was stunned. She’d never been asked quite that way before. She only had to think a moment. “That’s the only thing that could make this night any better. I’d be glad--no--honored. And when I go into the east, I’ll sit next to you throughout eternity.” She nuzzled him and kissed him gently on the cheek, between the eyes, and then rubbed his face with her own. “Maybe I was saving myself all along for my little Baba. My heart is swift prey, and no one else could catch it.”
      He smiled warmly and nuzzled her. “I don’t want to catch it. I want to set it free the way your love set me free.” He put his paw on her shoulder. "Before the gods, before the stars, before the assembled host I swear to give you my protection, my life, and my comfort forever."
      She pawed his face and kissed him. "Till the last beat of my heart, to the last breath I sigh, our lives are one, so help me gods." She kissed him again. “It is done, husband.”
      A moment went by when neither of them spoke. Then, almost abruptly, Isha said, “I HAVE to teach you how to survive out there! I won’t let it end like this! I can’t!”
      “No more lessons. These memories have to last me, my wife. Let’s lose none of this time together.”
      Tears began to stream down Isha’s cheeks. “Baba, I love you!”
      “I love you too, but please don’t cry. I’ve known love all my life, first from my mother, than from my King, my friend and my lover. I have no enemies, and no one I’ve loved has ever left me. I’m the luckiest lion in the world, and you should be glad for me.”
      She kissed him and nuzzled him. “I am. I love you so much, Mabatu! Who in heaven or earth wouldn’t envy me tonight!”
      “I’ll come back within the year. If I don’t, then consider yourself free to remarry. Only death can stop me.”
      She wept again. “You must come back! I’ll pray for you each night--you can’t die! You mustn’t break my heart!”
      “Please don’t cry.”
      “Don’t forbid it. It makes me feel better.”
      He pawed her. “But I don’t want to remember you sad. Can’t I make you happy? Just for a little while? Be sad tomorrow, but not now--this night belongs to us.”
      She said, “Yes. Make love to me. Let me feel you next to me once more.”
      He nuzzled her passionately. “Habusu am I, a prisoner of your love.” He rose to his feet and awash with mixed pride and passion he tenderly mouthed her throat.
 
Far from the crowd whose prying eyes
Would violate our solitude
We shall make love among the reeds
Here unobserved by jealous hearts
We shall caress.
 

      Isha looked at Kako and her heart sank. Kako had always been so friendly to her and smiled so beautifully. The beauty was still there, but she looked like she was at a funeral, not a mantlement. Deep inside, that’s how she felt too. Mabatu looked very small, pitiful, and frightened. The proud lion of last night shrank down like a disciplined cub, pacing about, lost in the whirlpool of his inner turmoil.
      Taka stalked into the meadow with slumped shoulders and dragging tail. He looked like the weight of the world was on him, and indeed he looked back as if to see what sat on his back. He was really watching Elanna who filed silently behind him.
      Only Shenzi seemed to be upbeat. She had never seen a mantlement before, and she sought to satisfy her idle curiosity with a little pageantry and culture.
      There would be little pageantry. It was a very private ceremony and very somber. Standing in the midst of the blossoms where the night before Baba and Isha had first made love, Kako put on her best smile and looked at her hapless son. “Where has my little cub gone? All I see is this lion.” She shuddered to say it.
      “I’ll always be your son,” Baba replied, and nuzzled her.
      “Remember me,” she said. “When you are a great king, do not forget that I gave you milk.”
      He looked deeply into her eyes. “When you are gone to be with your fathers,” he stammered, “pray for me.”