Pride of the Plains (11 page)

The sisters knew better. Battlescars and Blackmane had been ousted by these very youngsters shortly after the end of the last dry season, but there was no time to argue. Huru called the cubs sharply. ‘Mbili, Tatu,
we're leaving! Nne, Tano, Sita, come quickly. Now!' Almost without thinking, his mother omitted Moja's name. She knew he would remain with his father.

The cubs came tumbling from the hole in the rocks, looking scared. Ratel added his own prompting. ‘Run swiftly, youngsters, and don't come back here. It's not safe.'

Battlescars took up his stance, facing the enemy, and drawing himself up to his full height. For all his setbacks, he was still an imposing-looking beast. Huru and Kimya, the cubs between them, fled without a backward glance. Only Moja stood with his father, but Battlescars ordered him to take cover. ‘You're not ready for this, my son. Hide yourself and watch. You may learn a thing or two.'

Moja was filled with pride by his father's bravery. Despite Battlescars's recent sufferings, his innate courage hadn't left him. The cub backed into the big rock entrance as Ratel scuttled to his den to join Clicker.

The woodland lions came on the scene: two males and two females, the most senior of the pride lionesses. Battlescars quickly noticed that they were all in very poor condition, worse even than himself. He gained confidence immediately. One of the males he recognised as having taken a lesser role in driving himself and his brother out of the pride all those months ago. It was exceptionally skinny-looking. The other male walked with a limp. A wound on one of its feet hadn't healed and the paw was very badly swollen. The females looked downcast and hopeless. The four looked at Battlescars as he looked at them.

‘You've come to remind me I'm out of bounds,' Battlescars said ironically. ‘But I doubt if you can enforce your boundaries.'

‘Boundaries are meaningless now,' said the skinny
male. ‘We picked up your scent and decided to consult you. We're at the end of our tether. Our woodland is teeming with flies. We can't survive there. Look at us.'

‘I have looked. Where's the rest of the pride?'

‘Around,' replied one of the females. ‘Too weak to move any more.'

Battlescars's sympathy was profound. He knew all these beasts; he had mated with this very lioness. He remembered also when these two males were mere youngsters. ‘As you can see, I've suffered dreadfully too. No lion has escaped the misery. I thought I was the most wretched of all animals. Now I see that I'm not.'

‘What can be done?' the limping lion begged. ‘We shall die.'

‘There will be deaths soon,' Battlescars agreed. ‘I don't know the answer any more than you. I'm here because I'm desperate for shelter. Amongst these rocks there is some kind of refuge.'

The males hung their heads. Fighting for any refuge was out of the question. They were without hope. They lay down with the females in a huddle. Even walking this far had drained their strength completely.

‘I really wish I could help you,' Battlescars said with genuine concern. ‘There's a terrible blight on us all.' He turned sorrowfully and nudged Moja further into the hole, following him in. ‘The males look utterly beaten,' he told the cub. ‘Insects have accomplished what I and my brother were unable to do.'

When daylight slanted into the gloom of their refuge, Moja left his father sleeping and peered out. The woodland lions were no longer there. Ratel was crunching up a beetle outside his den. ‘They shuffled
off,' he told the cub. ‘Very sorry for themselves, they seemed. Why don't you and the big lion go too? Leave Clicker and me in peace.'

‘I'll stay as long as
he
wants to,' Moja answered stubbornly. He heard Battlescars stirring and went back inside to tell him they were alone.

‘Good,' said Battlescars. ‘I didn't feel comfortable with those poor brutes around. Now it's different and I'll stay right here.'

‘You mean—'

‘I mean just that. Right here in this hole.'

‘But there's no food here,' Moja said. ‘How will you eat?'

‘Something's likely to come by now and then,' Battlescars replied confidently. ‘I'll be ready. This is where I'll be until those flies leave off pestering me.'

Moja was worried. He thought his father's wits had deserted him. He resolved there and then to look after him as far as he was able, even if the flies never gave up.

It seemed they never would. Although the hot dry wind had blown itself out, the clouds of biting flies were ever present. Because of their thick hides Pembe the rhino calf and his mother Kifaru had been troubled less than most animals to begin with. Browsing was the main problem for them. As they cropped leaves and twigs the flies got into their mouth parts. This was horrible, but it didn't deter them from eating. Then one day, feeding from a thorn tree, Kifaru caught her long upper lip on a really sharp spike and tore it. The wound was an immediate target for the tormentors. No matter how much she swung her head the flies held fast and more and more collected around her mouth. The rhino didn't have the temperament or the fortitude of a big cat. She was
nervous and jumpy and the insects' bites maddened her. She plunged about the bush, rocking and bucking her great body to no effect. Pembe tried to keep up with her.

‘Mother, the waterside. Let's go to the wallow!' he cried.

Cooling mud was the only remedy. In normal circumstances she would have thought of it herself but now she was crazed. She charged away, running full tilt for the nearest waterhole. Pembe followed. Unfortunately, the pool had almost completely dried up; there was no wet mud to offer relief. Almost without stopping to register the fact, the rhinos careered onwards to a larger pool. There was water here but only cracked and crusted earth on its margins. Kifaru crashed on to her side and rolled on the ground in a vain attempt to find mud, but all was hard and stony. Heaving to her feet, she dashed into the water, scattering the other creatures that were trying to use it as a sanctuary. The pool's depth was severely depleted and the water only reached to Kifaru's knees. She lowered her head beneath the surface and at last the flies shifted. Kifaru and Pembe drank gratefully. But as soon as Kifaru's head was free of the water again, the insects were back. They had been circling and waiting. There was one last hope: the river.

Snorting furiously, Kifaru wheeled round and broke into a gallop. She headed straight for the river. But she never got there. With her head bent and her eyes almost closed to keep out the maddening insects, she thundered across the ground, veering neither to right nor left. A huge baobab tree stood in her path and with an agonising
crump
she blundered right into it with all the force of her tonnage moving at top speed. The mighty tree shuddered at the impact. Kifaru's head was crushed and the poor tormented
creature toppled over like a dislodged boulder and lay perfectly still. Pembe stared at the body. He butted and nudged it. He couldn't understand at first what had happened. But when he saw his mother's battered face and shoulders he did begin to comprehend and he gave squeals of distress. Pembe was over three years old and would soon have been completely independent of his mother, yet in his brief life he had never known anything other than her constant companionship and nurture. He was bereft.

For a long time he stayed near Kifaru's body. He had never felt so dreadfully alone. As far as he knew no other rhinos inhabited this savannah country. He had no relatives and no friends. Then he remembered Moja. The lion cub had been a friend of sorts and Pembe had enjoyed having him around. But where was he now? Pembe hadn't seen him for a while. The cub was back with his own kind and that was how it should be. Before that, however, Moja had been on his own for a long time. Pembe was struck by the similarity of the situation that had so suddenly been thrust upon him. Moja knew what loneliness felt like. How comforting it would be to be with him now.

Pembe lay down by Kifaru's side. His grief was too strong at that moment to allow him to do anything but mourn her. But it was in his mind to find Moja when he should feel able to leave his mother.

Simon Obagwe the game warden, his family and his staff knew all about the fly infestation. Not only the heat but the insects too had prevented Annie from taking her trip to see Moja and the pride. Humans weren't immune from the nuisance, but at least they had the means to repel the worst attacks. It was difficult to do much about the suffering of the animals. Vegetation could be sprayed from the air but it was
an expensive operation. In any case, the whole of the game park seemed to be affected and that was too large an area to deal with properly. It would take weeks. Moreover, the animals themselves, of course, couldn't be sprayed. Simon was hard pressed to know what to do for the best.

He and his staff made frequent journeys into the game park, each time to a different area, in an effort to keep tabs on the problem and to see whether there were any signs of its diminishing. On one of these trips they found the dead rhino. Simon was very concerned for Pembe, who by that time had moved on. It was particularly important that he should thrive because a young female rhinoceros was being cared for in the refuge centre as she was prepared for eventual release into the wild. She had been transported from another game park specifically as a potential mate for Pembe. Over time Simon wanted to build up a viable breeding stock of black rhino in his area, but the programme would have to be shelved until the insect scourge had been overcome.

Pembe knew nothing of all this. He was trying to manage on his own. He was not at risk from predators; he was approaching full size and there were currently no hunters with the strength needed to tackle a rhinoceros. But he wasn't used to solitude and each day he hoped to catch a glimpse of Moja. His wanderings after the best browse, a pattern taught him by his mother, eventually took Pembe to a bush area not far from fig tree rock. Then it was Moja who spotted him, rather than the other way round.

Moja had been true to his word. He had remained with his father for several days. During that time they had eaten a spring hare and a small snake between
them. Moja tried constantly to get Battlescars to move from his shelter but his father refused to budge.

‘You mustn't stay with me,' he told Moja. ‘There's no need. Go back to the pride. Tell them I'll come when my wounds have healed properly.'

‘You'll starve,' Moja warned him. ‘I can't hunt proper game and you won't. How long can you last?'

Battlescars only emerged to drink from the marshy area nearby and always at night. He expected to find prey there, but there never seemed to be any. The honey badgers were becoming increasingly nervous. They begged Moja to persuade Battlescars to go.

‘I'm trying, I'm trying,' he told them. ‘He's deaf to all appeals. I think hunger will drive him out in the long run.'

‘Unless he eats us first,' Clicker wailed. ‘We can't rest, hearing those horrible rumblings from his great belly day after day.'

Moja hid his amusement, though he understood their worries. He decided at least to try to catch a worthwhile meal and it was when he was heading for a wooded area that he spotted Pembe. He was astonished to see the young rhino on his own and ran up to him at once. Pembe was overjoyed to see him.

‘This is so good, you being here,' the rhino said with delight. ‘I've wanted to see you for ages.'

‘But where's your mother? Where's Kifaru?' Moja asked.

‘Gone,' Pembe murmured, and he told the cub all about the tragedy.

Moja was shocked. He could scarcely grasp what he was hearing. That such a big, powerful animal could be driven to her death by insects was almost incredible. ‘What an awful story,' he muttered. Then, unnecessarily, ‘So you're on your own?'

‘Not any more,' Pembe answered brightly. ‘Oh, I'm so glad to have a friend to talk to.'

Moja felt a little awkward. Pembe was his friend and he was pleased to see him, but his own place was with lions. He couldn't provide the rhino with company permanently. He had already made a commitment to his father and now another animal wanted to rely on him as well. At that moment Moja wished fervently he was back with his pride, just one cub among many.

As though he had read Moja's thoughts, Pembe said, ‘Why are
you
alone, anyway?'

Moja explained. Then Pembe said, ‘It's all right. You don't have to stay with me all the time. We're all facing the same tiny enemy. It's like a kind of tyranny. I suppose flies have enemies too that will come some time to release us.'

They were prophetic words. There was an enemy waiting in the wings, but it would prove to be an enemy not only to the flies.

Extreme heat, dust, flies. The animals were at the end of their tether. The migratory herds had departed, leaving the residents of the plains to bear the brunt of the gruelling conditions. By now Huru and Kimya were enjoying their old relationship again: sisters united by struggle and suffering. With Battlescars absent, so was rivalry. Somehow they kept the cubs fed, and they continued to groom them as best they could. Huru hardly had time to spare a thought for Moja.

Early one morning the lionesses woke and smelt a strange scent. They got to their feet, sniffing the air as they did so.

‘What is it?' Kimya asked. The smell was sharp and sour.

Huru was puzzled too, yet she was reminded of something in her past. The memory was faint. Gradually the smell became more reminiscent. It was similar to one she had occasionally traced at the zoo in England when the wind had carried cooking smells to the lionesses' enclosure from the small restaurant there. She didn't know what it meant now.

‘Nothing we need to bother about,' she said.

The cubs were curious as well. Although they weren't aware of it, the smell made them salivate. The lionesses noticed.