Kisu's
Pride
© 2000 Tsunsong
Please don't modify or put the story on a site without my permission. Thanks.
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Scene1Kisu crouched low in the grass, glaring pointedly at a herd of zebra nearby. She carefully waited for the right moment, then, without warning, exploded out of the grass towards the nearest animal. The herd, suddenly surprised by Kisu's pounce, took off, following the leader. Unfortunately for Kisu, though, she had misjudged who the leader was, and instead of running closer to her, as she had planned, they ran away from her. Cursing her own stupidity, she chased futily after them, and after a moment, stopped, panting, and watched them disappear over the horizon.
For a moment, Kisu just sat on her haunches, considering what had just transpired, then she suddenly burst out in tears, crying for her own inability to fend for herself in the wild. What was wrong with her? Ever since she and her pride had gotten separated, she'd been unable to catch anything. She kept making stupid mistakes, and they were going to kill her eventually. She lay down and sniffed, wanting nothing more than to just sink into the dirt and disappear forever.
Pearly tears slid slowly down Kisu's silver fur, the cause of all her problems. Why had her parents had a silver daughter? No one could figure it out, and it didn't seem to make it any more difficult to survive with the rest of the pride, so no one had given it too much thought. Until the first time she'd tried to catch something on her own, and her pelt's odd abilities shone through. Her quarry, whatever it happened to be, always saw her a fraction of a second sooner than they saw her tawny brothers and sisters. This split-second was all they needed to successfully escape her claws, and she never actually caught anything. Finally her pride had decided that she would be the lioness to frighten the animals into the other cats' traps, and her silver fur was perfect for such a task. So such a task she was given, and, until she'd gotten lost, she'd done just fine. Even during the droughts, her coat never left them without food.
But now that she was no longer with them, she wondered if they'd be able to get along without her. She realized that they probably could, as there was no shortage of food, and one less lioness, though it was a tragedy to lose an able hunter, would mean one less mouth for her parents to feed. It may have seemed evil, but that was the way it was. Survival of the fittest.
But, was Kisu fit enough? Her instincts said no, and she tended to agree with them. Then what was she to do? She couldn't figure it out, and there was no one she could ask. She continued walking, in search of another herd, thinking about her rather dismal fate.
Perhaps it was because she was busy thinking, or maybe her eyes were clouded by dim thoughts, but for whatever reason, she wandered directly into another lion, who was crouched, looking at a herd of zebra, the same herd she'd failed to capture one of before. The sudden collision surprised them both, and they roared in surprise together. The herd, who couldn't have possibly helped but hear them, took off in fear, and the two lions stared at each other, panting in fear.
"Who are you?" The other lion asked her.
"Funny, I was going to ask you the same thing. My name's Kisu."
"I'm Aykar. Are you, uh, native to these lands?"
Kisu shook her head. "I used to be part of a pride, but we got separated, so now I'm lost. And I can't seem to get my hunting act together. I haven't caught anything since I got lost."
Aykar looked surprised at this. "How long have you been lost? You can't have been lost for too long, you'd be dead by now."
"Oh, no more than 3 days, at the most, they go by so fast, I can't remember them. Every day, I wake up and find a herd. After chasing it for a while, I forget it, and go to sleep. That's how it's been for the last few days. I think I'm going to die soon."
Aykar tilted his head at Kisu and looked her over. "I love your coat. Silver is such a beautiful color for you."
Taken slightly aback by this sudden unrequited compliment, Kisu stepped back slightly, then moved back forward. "Really? That beautiful coat is what causes all my problems. The herds see it, and they run away. I can't get close enough to catch anything."
"Sounds to me like you need a partner to help you with catching your meals."
Kisu smiled. "Yeah, I guess that would help me, at least for a start. But food is only part of living. Other things you need to live are things like friends, family, shelter, a mate..." She trailed off.
Aykar looked a little piqued for a moment, then gave her a genuine smile. "Oh, well, I can give you most of those things."
Kisu was puzzled for a moment. "Which of those can't you give me?"
Aykar grinned widely. "Well, I can't just hand you shelter, as I don't know where there is any. I can't give you friends, but I know that we can find a few. Hey, maybe we could even start our own pride! It can't be that hard, I mean, just find an unowned plot of land, a bunch of memebers, assert authority, and there you have a pride, yours and all yours!"
Kisu suddenly brightened. "Yeah, I bet we could! How hard can it be?"It turned out a little harder than they had planned, however, and they spent much of the next few days just figuring out how to use Kisu's fur to help them hunt. Once they had gotten the hang of that, they went in search of other members for their pride. That was perhaps one of the hardest steps. It seemed that there weren't as many wanderers as were fabled. They did, however, after many days of searching, find a suitable den for them to live in. The small handful they had already found, Kara, the young tawny lioness hunter, Tymera, the aged black lioness who would eventually care for the pride's cubs, Rilia, the very young abandoned tigeress who had been brought over from another country as a cub, and of course the original Kisu, and her new mate, the black lion, Aykar, spent their days either hunting or searching for new members. While they were very succesful in finding plenty of food to keep their small pride in working order, new members were in short order, and they finally gave up.
One day, however, Tymera brought up an interesting point to all of the members of the pride. "Um, I don't mean to bother, but it seems to me that we are missing a key point to any pride's success."
All of the cats stared at her for a moment. Then the curious Rilia broke the ice. "And what would that be?"
Tymera looked at her with cool grey eyes. "Cubs. Why am I here, if there are none? And you, Aykar," she looked at him accusingly, "are not doing your job, either. That is mostly what you're here for."
Aykar opened his mouth to argue, but Kara cut him off. "She's right, you know. That is what you're supposed to do."
Aykar opened his mouth again, but was stopped short by Kisu. "Yeah, are you my mate, or not?"
Once again, Aykar opened his mouth, but by this time, three of the lionesses in front of him were bickering amongst themselves. Tymera looked at him smugly. After a moment, the bickering settled slightly, and he cleared his throat and opened his mouth. This time, no one interrupted him. "I believe, if I am not mistaken, that none of you have been in heat since we all met, correct? And, unless I haven't a clue what I'm talking about, that is the only time it's even possible to concieve cubs, right?"
Everyone settled and thought for a moment. He had a point. It was true. They had been rather foolish to jump to blame Aykar. Aykar smiled. Perhaps he was goin to be a good king after all. Tymera, however, scowled. Surprised by her reaction, Aykar looked at her with a puzzled face and inquired her obvious displeasure. She growled softly and turned on him, taking off into the grass.
For a moment, no one moved. Then Kisu cleared her throat and followed Tymera's path into the grass. Aykar looked at the other two females and smiled slightly. Then he followed Kisu. Rilia and Kara just looked at one another for a moment, then walked into the cave that was their home.Tymera ran until she reached the water hole, then she just stared at her reflection. She'd been a wanderer all her life, and had always dreamed of having cubs of her own. When Kisu and Aykar had showed up, the only thing she even considered being able to do was take care of the pride's cubs. She was a perfectly good hunter, having been able to at least provide for herself, but she had no illusions that she could provide for a whole pride. At least if she was taking care of the pride's cubs, she had thought, she would get to take care of and be around the cubs, even if she couldn't have her own. She was beyond the age of having cubs.
The black lioness looked at her own age-worn face in the water, and a tear dropped into the pool. The reflection rippled and disappeared, then was replaced by Kisu's reflection. Tymera slowly turned to face the young silver lioness, trying to keep her face as straight as possible. "Why did you follow me?"
Kisu smiled warmly. Tymera did not return the smile. "How could I possibly let one of my own pride just storm off like that without having a good reason?"
Tymera glared at her. "I had a good reason."
"What was it? Because, if you do have a good reason, I will leave you alone here, and you can return if you wish. But, if you fail to give me a good reason, I'm afraid that I will have to escort you home."
Tymera had a short internal battle with herself, then decided that if anyone would understand, it would be her queen. "Well, the reason I stormed off was that Aykar referred to being in heat, and..."
"And?"
Tymera looked at Kisu sadly. "I haven't been in heat since before I can remember. I don't think I ever will be, either. I've never been pregnant, I've never had cubs, and it's the only thing I've ever wanted, in my entire life, to have my own cubs. And there's no chance, now." A tear rolled down her cheek, and she was surprised that when she looked back at Kisu, she, too, had a tear sliding over her silver fur. "I, I didn't mean to cause any trouble, but I just, I'm supposed to be the oldest, wisest, whatever female in the pride, but I really know nothing about cubs, since I've never had any of my own, never even been near one. I sometimes doubt whether I ever was one."
Kisu giggled a little, then she smiled and replied. "Well, guess what? You and I get to learn together. Besides, perhaps you aren't exactly past heat, yet. There may still be a chance that you can get pregnant. I guess yuo'll just have to try it. You never know."
Tymera smiled through her tears. "Yeah, maybe." She brightened suddenly. "Yeah, I bet there's still a chance!" She grinned at Kisu.
Kisu returned her smile. "Just ask Aykar about it."
Tymera suddenly frowned again. "After the way I treated him? I'll be lucky if he doesn't throw me out of the pride and chase me off the land."
Kisu looked surprised. "Aykar? No, he's very forgiving. He'll hear you out, and give you another chance, he may even respect you more."
"You think?"
Kisu nodded. "I know."Aykar trotted around his domain, searching for his two lost lionesses. Finally, he saw Kisu's silver fur reflecting the moonlight. He wondered for a moment where Tymera was, until he saw the silhouette of the black lioness behind Kisu. He breathed a sigh of relief, then began running towards them.
To be continued...
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