Pride of the Plains (6 page)

The calf awoke and struggled to his feet. Moja was closer to him than the adult and the two youngsters stared at each other. Neither felt uneasy about the other. In fact, the young rhino was very inquisitive and moved nearer.

‘Be careful, son. Lion!' the mother warned him. ‘I can smell it.'

The calf was about three-quarters her size and therefore much bigger than Moja. He called back, ‘And I can see it, Mother Kifaru. It's tiny.'

‘Not so very tiny,' Moja countered. ‘At least, not for a lion.'

The adult rhino hoisted herself out of the water and lumbered towards them. Now she saw Moja properly and, seeing only a cub, imagined the rest of the pride to be nearby. ‘Come on,' she said to the calf. ‘Lions are bad news. We must move on and find another place to wallow.'

The calf was disappointed. He never encountered other young rhinos so the young of any creature offered some kind of compensation. ‘Wait, Mother Kifaru. He's here by himself.' He turned to Moja for corroboration. ‘Aren't you?'

‘Yes,' Moja replied sadly. ‘I lost my family a while back. I've been trying to find them.' A thought struck him. ‘How did you get across the river?' he asked. ‘I think I've seen you before, but not on this side.'

‘We walked across, of course,' Kifaru told him. ‘What a foolish question.'

Moja stared. ‘Across that?' he gasped. ‘But how could you?'

‘It was much lower then,' the calf explained. ‘Why are you so interested?' He gave a little skip which dislodged the oxpeckers.

‘
I
want to cross it,' Moja explained.

‘Oh. Then you'll have to wait until after the rainy season,' said Kifaru. ‘Sometimes it almost dries up altogether.'

‘How long will it be until then?' Moja asked at once.

‘Who can tell? You'll have to be patient.'

Moja looked crestfallen. ‘Is that my only chance?'

The rhino calf watched the oxpeckers flit away. ‘Yes. Unless you turn into one of those.'

Moja failed to be amused. The idea of waiting for the river to dry up was just too daunting.

The young rhino tried to cheer him up. ‘Don't be depressed. Can you swim?'

‘Well, yes, a little, of course,' Moja replied hesitantly. ‘But I've been in that water and it sort of took control of me. It was very frightening.'

‘You've
been
in it?' Kifaru echoed. ‘But why?'

‘I had to escape from a pack of hyenas. And a leopard,' Moja added and shuddered.

‘Poor young creature,' Kifaru said with sympathy. ‘And no adult to help you. How long have you been on your own?'

Moja reflected and sighed deeply. ‘It seems almost for ever,' he murmured sadly.

‘Can't we help the little lion?' the young rhino asked his mother. He imagined what life would be like if he were on his own with no parent to protect him.

‘I don't know, son,' she replied dubiously. ‘What could we do?'

‘Couldn't we perhaps look after him a bit? You know – until he finds his family again?'

‘
You
can't look after anybody,' his mother told him. ‘You have to be looked after yourself. And that's a difficult enough job with all the dangers and threats
around here – drought and predators and humans with their terrifying weapons.'

‘Oh, Mother. Humans with terrifying weapons? There hasn't been anything like that since I was born. You told me so yourself. The only humans I've seen have never come close. They just sit watching us.'

‘It only needs one of the other kind to come back for that to change again,' Kifaru reminded him. She had lived through a period when poachers had brought rifles into the game park to slaughter rhino and elephant for horn and ivory. It was never out of her memory. ‘We seem to be the last black rhinos here,' she continued, moving closer to her calf. ‘I shall be content to see you grow to adulthood and independence. My job will be done then.'

Moja had listened carefully. ‘Don't you have any brothers or sisters?' he asked the young rhino.

‘No. No relatives,' he answered sorrowfully.

‘Rhino calves are born singly,' his mother explained. ‘When I was younger there were more of our kind here. But they disappeared one by one, slaughtered by men. All of them, I believe. I've never lost my fear of humans, no matter how peaceful they might seem.'

‘What happened to your father?' Moja asked the young rhino.

‘Slaughtered like the rest, my mother taught me. I never knew him.'

‘So you're the only survivors?'

‘It appears so,' Kifaru affirmed. ‘And more by luck than anything else. There was a kind of battle here between different men. The ones who had done the killing were driven away before they got round to killing me and my son was born in comparative safety. Though there is never complete safety anywhere at any time. We are always vigilant.' That brought Moja's
plight back to mind. ‘You can stay nearby if you want to,' she told the lion cub. ‘I'll do what I can for you – which isn't much. Rhinos are not provided with the best eyesight. But I can smell danger early. It might be that my bulk could deter some of your foes as well as our own.'

Moja was considerably comforted. He didn't feel quite so alone as before and he accepted the big animal's offer gratefully.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the river and some distance away, Battlescars had sighted Huru and Kimya and was hurrying towards them. The lionesses greeted him affectionately, rubbing their heads against his and sliding their bodies alongside his flanks. Battlescars reciprocated joyfully. The small pride was his favourite and now his only one. The cubs bounced around in excitement too. Eventually the inevitable question was asked by Kimya.

‘Where's Blackmane?'

Battlescars flopped down on to his belly. His head dropped. ‘My brother is dead,' he murmured dolefully. For a moment there was silence. The pride members were stunned. Then, in a rush, Battlescars was bombarded with questions and, while he explained about the tremendous fight with Challenger, the sisters began to notice his latest wounds.

‘These are the work of that young upstart?' Huru asked with surprise. She could see that some of the wounds were the most severe Battlescars had ever suffered.

‘He's no upstart now,' the old male growled in answer. ‘He has learnt a thing or two and he's very strong. He killed my brother.' He turned his head and looked away towards the northern horizon. ‘The large pride is no longer ours. No longer mine,' he
corrected himself. ‘I surrendered it without a fight. I didn't have the stomach or the heart to do battle for it without Blackmane.'

Huru was secretly delighted that they had Battlescars all to themselves now, but refrained from saying so for fear of wounding his self-esteem. But she realized that having only one adult male in the pride posed a problem. She and Kimya would have to share him. ‘It's good to have you back,' was what she did say. ‘We've had our work cut out looking after the cubs by ourselves.'

Battlescars looked at the youngsters properly for the first time since his return. He noticed that his biggest cub was still absent. ‘Moja must be dead too,' he said resignedly.

The lionesses didn't contradict him. Kimya in fact had remained virtually silent since the first greetings were over. Blackmane had been her mate and she was truly saddened by the news of his defeat. Yet at the same time she couldn't help thinking about the powerful young male who had defeated him. Battlescars had taken punishment too so the younger lion had obviously fought heroically. She wondered what would happen if he should choose to mount a fresh challenge at some later stage. Battlescars was ageing visibly and, although victorious last time, would be seriously tested if the moment should come when he must fight on his own. Despite everything, she couldn't suppress a feeling of excitement at the prospect.

‘Was the young lion badly hurt?' she asked as Huru started to lick Battlescars's gashes.

‘Oh, yes. He was well and truly beaten,' Battlescars answered categorically. ‘He crawled away afterwards and went into hiding. I doubt if he'll come looking for me for a while.' His confidence was returning as
he spoke and he felt the loyalty of his pride members as they surrounded him.

But Kimya said, ‘If he's young and strong he'll recover and he
will
come back. What else can he do? He will want a mate and a pride for himself – he will challenge again and again.'

Huru glared at her sister. ‘Perhaps you'd welcome it?' she snapped, suspecting Kimya was jealous of her closer tie with Battlescars.

‘No,' Kimya replied, though she wasn't really sure herself. ‘I'm only speaking the truth and Battlescars knows it.'

‘Yes,' he admitted. ‘You are right. But I'm not done yet. I don't intend to give up my last pride. Whoever might try to take it from me will find he's got the battle of his life before him.'

For the first time there was a slight uneasiness between the sister lionesses. They continued to hunt together as always. There were hungry cubs to feed as well as themselves and Battlescars, who still demanded the best meat from their kills. The male lion was content now to move around very little. He was recuperating, and enjoying the company of the cubs who found him a more tolerant parent and playfellow now that his interests were restricted to one pride. He showed no preference for Huru over Kimya. Neither the one nor the other was his favourite. But although the sisters had once before shared a male companion, Huru's lack of enthusiasm for him had avoided any rivalry. Now things weren't so relaxed. When Blackmane had been around Huru had had most of Batdescars's attention because Kimya had had Blackmane's. Huru believed Kimya was jealous of her now that Blackmane had gone, and she found herself watching her sister suspiciously when the pride was at rest.

The cubs were growing quickly. They were healthy and strong. Mbili and Tatu, being older, were a little bigger than Nne, Tano and Sita. All of them were inquisitive and eager to follow the hunt. Day by day they learnt more as they watched their mothers'
tactics. Huru and Kimya used speed, cunning and perfect co-operation. They had become the most successful of all the hunters in the game park, and were full of confidence in themselves; not only as hunters but as parents, too, as they reared their five cubs in safety and harmony. Yet their rivalry over Battlescars had the potential to disturb the pride's equilibrium.

Many days passed before the lions stumbled across the remains of Blackmane. The entire pride had gone to the pool to drink after gorging on a kill. Shreds of hide and the unfortunate beast's skeleton were all that remained, and would have been overlooked had it not been for Battlescars's memory of the fight that had taken place there. Wisps of black mane hair were the most compelling evidence that this was all that was left of his brother. The old male was very quiet as he sniffed at the remnants. He remembered Challenger and found himself scanning the surroundings for evidence of him. But the young lion was long gone by then. Battlescars's noble head dropped between his shoulders as, with open mouth, he panted in the extreme heat. He remembered the long companionship of his brother and relived in his memory the terrible battle which had destroyed him. Now Battlescars knew he must gather his strength one more time. He sighed deeply.

‘Sisters!' he called. The lionesses were drinking. ‘Here's a tragic sight.'

Huru and Kimya, their jowls streaming water, strode to the spot, followed by the cubs. Kimya knew instinctively what she was looking at. ‘Blackmane,' she whispered. ‘How sad to see such a noble beast reduced to this.' The cubs crowded round, their boisterousness lulled for once. Sita said, ‘Is that my father? Who did that to him?'

Blackmane's other cubs, Nne and Tano, were silent.
They stared at the remains, unable to identify with them. They couldn't relate the sight to the image of the powerful male lion they remembered as their father. Mbili and Tatu's ties of blood with the pitiful skeleton were less strong than their cousins'. They could only wonder at the huge skull with its massive teeth which lay underwater at the edge of the pool.

‘He looks as though he's lying in wait under there,' said Tatu.

And Blackmane's open jaws, through which he had expelled his last breath, did appear to be ready to swallow something.

‘Foolish cub,' Kimya muttered. To Sita she said, ‘Your father was killed by another lion while fighting bravely for all of us.'

‘Yes,' said Battlescars appreciatively. ‘That's how it was.'

The pride walked from the waterhole. Battlescars was the last to leave. ‘How I miss our comradeship,' he murmured.

Sometimes Huru and Kimya saw the cheetah Upesi, who had been a neighbour in the refuge centre, hunting in the same territory. They didn't compete for the same game. The smaller cat took less bulky prey than the lionesses and they left her alone. When prey was plentiful the cheetah lost fewer of her kills to lion. However, the ever-present hyena packs were always ready to capitalise on her hard-won successes. Upesi's cubs were growing, too. She kept them well hidden and Huru and Kimya rarely saw them. The lionesses still marvelled at Upesi's breathtaking speed in the chase. Nothing could rival her and the sisters sometimes interrupted their own activities to watch her. Battlescars, however, was unimpressed.

‘Imagine using all that energy and then losing a
kill,' he grunted. ‘And how often does she make one? Hunting individually is a thankless task. I should know.'

‘Oh? How should you?' Huru teased him. ‘I thought you only ate what we brought you.'

‘That's the best arrangement,' he agreed, unperturbed. ‘A lion should be left free to defend the pride, so the females must keep him well fed. But don't think I don't know about hunting. I've done my share. As young adults my brothers and I survived several seasons on our own.'