Just beyond the horizon, the sun began to make its slow ascent into the sky, lending its brilliant oranges and reds and yellows, gently soaking its colors into what had been the night sky. It was a glorious piece of artwork, alright, as the ‘paints’ of light melded together. The world below sparkled, as droplets of light hit droplets of dew, making the golden grass look like they had been dipped in diamonds. A ground squirrel lazily loped around, nibbling optimistically at just about everything in the hopes that it was edible. Every now and then, it would rise up on its hind legs and look around. More than its eyesight, a squirrel relied on ears and nose. Its little pink nose twitched daintily in the morning air while its ears swiveled, trying to listen to absolutely everything at once.
A noise, nearly unheard by all but the most observant of creatures, made the preybeast freeze; every single muscle in that slight body froze. Its nose twitched even more madly than before, especially when the wind shifted. A lion… and it was close. Well, if he stayed nice and quiet, maybe the predator would walk on by… the rodent lowered itself to the ground, trying to look like nothing, nothing at all. But the footsteps kept coming closer and closer. They were small and soft, but even the heaviest of lions could sound like nothing at all if they wanted to.
Thrump… thrump… … … thrump…
Even worse, they were slowing down as they got closer to the squirrel. Eventually, it lost its little squirrely nerve and burst into action, using muscles it didn’t even know it had at all. It flurried right under the cub’s nose, making Kamau back up in fear.
“GAAAAH!” He screamed, startled by the movement. Moving every bit as quickly as the ground squirrel, the lion cub took cover under a convenient bit of grass, shivering in fear. What was that?! Why was it here?! Ohh… was it still out there? What did it want with him?! He had just been looking at the flowers and then something like this happened! Ohhh… he knew that leaving the den would be a bad idea, but he was just so curious about the world and he didn’t plan on going far… his heart beat furiously, until it seemed that it would burst out of his chest. As the moments passed and nothing happened, the terrified Kamau eventually perked up enough of his courage to peer over the leaves.
When he saw that it was gone, he sighed in relief. It wasn’t that he was a coward or anything, or constantly afraid. Well… alright, so he was a coward. He admitted it. But he tried not to be. Was it not said that true courage, the bona fide article, was not the absence of fear, but acting in spite of it? Trying to get his heartbeat back down to a manageable pace, the cub pondered those words, wondering what they really meant. ‘Quiet Warrior’ his name meant… Ha! He’d always been a quiet baby, but only because he was afraid of his own cries! They were noisy, and hurt his ears. How was he supposed to help his pride when he was such a coward all the time, afraid of not just shadows, but his own shadow as well? The thoughts weighed heavily on the cub.
And companions! He pawed lazily at a flower, as if the answers would come only from within those petals. At least flowers couldn’t hurt him. Vultures were big and scary, and so were most birds. They were! They were all like, ‘Scree scree!’ and had big long talons and scaly legs… and weren’t vultures supposed to be bad? They certainly looked evil, with their naked faces and long sharp beaks. A dainty shudder ran down Kamau’s spine at the mere thought of such things close to him. So far, every attempt to introduce Kamau to a bird had ended in disaster.
Really, really loud and terror-filled disaster. Maybe it was because he had been raised listening to the horror stories of when vultures blackened the skies and endangered the very existence of the pride... or maybe it was simply Hisia's last fight. Maybe it had somehow altered the cubs in her womb, had shaken him before he was even born.
A suspicious shadow flew overhead, briefly blocking out the sun’s rays. Like the squirrel before him, Kamau threw himself to the ground, trying to blend in as well as he could with the dirt. Naturally, he closed his eyes, following the age-old belief that, if you couldn’t see It, then It couldn’t see you. More shadows followed; Kamau only sensed them because of the sudden shade as they circled above him. Were they after him? Maybe playing dead wasn’t such a good idea… He opened his eyes carefully, as beaky-death failed to descend on him. While beaky-death didn’t arrive quickly, several blood-soaked feathers fell to the ground pathetically, staining the nearby grass with red.
Blood? Kamau pressed his ears against his skull, half hoping this meant that the vultures would leave him alone. But then the sound of a voice entered his ears…
“Lemme alone! I wasn’t doin’ nothin’! Lemme go!”
It was a female voice, or so it sounded, and filled with pain. It also came from directly above. Still shaking with terror, the little cub looked upwards, desperately hoping he wouldn’t see anything… scary. What he saw sent rivulets of horror through his very veins. One bird, a small falcon, was being mobbed by the surrounding vultures, something that had not happened since… well, since the last big mob, actually. Actually, it was just three vultures, but Kamau’s mind transformed the trio into an unrelenting cloud of beaks and talons.
That one avian, that small one, seemed hopelessly outnumbered, but she still fought, slashing at the larger birds with everything she had, slashing back with beak and talon. Not all of the feathers swirling down below belonged to her. But, she was still hopelessly outnumbered. Even as Kamau watched, a faster-than-average vulture slammed into the falcon’s wing, clipping a few---but essential—feathers.
The falcon managed to glide herself down to the ground, but it wasn’t an elegant affair. It was more of a feathery-flumping-is-that-my-wing-affair. The vultures soon followed, content to ignore the lion cub who was nearby. There was something that would soon be dead, after all. Why bother with trivial things like a cub?
Kamau watched it all with fearful eyes, his legs refusing to move. There were vultures! And they were right there… struggling to swallow past a throat that suddenly didn’t seem to want to work, he tried to move back. Alright… alright, this was ok. The vultures weren’t watching him. They were… were… his eyes defied all anatomical laws and opened even wider as he realized that the vultures were going to kill the smaller bird if they could. Judging by the squawks, it wasn’t an easy battle. But…this wasn't right. It wasn't right to turn away and let this happen. If he did that, he'd be every bit as bad as his father.
“Stop it…” he whimpered, barely even audible. Clearing his throat, he said in a louder, but no less leaden-terror-filled, voice, “Stop it!”
The birds ignored him, too intent on their soon-to-be food.
“Pleeeeeeeaaaaase stop iiiiiiiiiit!” Kamau screamed as he ran towards the trio blindly. It was quite possibly the most pathetic warcry ever, right up there with ‘raaar’. Squeezing his eyes to block out the tears, he stumbled into the vultures, sending them off flying with an indignant squawk. Several, actually, especially when he tripped over a branch and landed on one of the larger birds. The creature clawed at the lion, screeching its anger, but it soon had other problems on its wings as the falcon promptly bit its toes.
“Hey! Leave ‘im alone!” the falcon screeched, flapping her wings ineffectively. This was too much for the old vulture, who was more used to simple meals of dead things. It snapped its beak at the smaller falcon one more time before flitting off. The falcon proudly fluffed up her bloody feathers and clacked her beak with delight. “Ha! We sure showed them, didn’t we? Damn right we did! Hey, what’s yer… oh… are you cryin’? Hey, what’re you cryin’ for?” tilting her head to one side, she hopped over to the squalling and hyperventilating lion cub.
Kamau simply collapsed, trying to get his breath back. That… was the most terrifying thing ever! A sudden and soft weight on his shoulder brought his eyes into direct contact with the falcon’s.
“Here now… deep breaths, lad,” a voice next. “Come on, easy does it… deep breaths… by Hestia’s holy feathers… yer pathetic, ain’tcha? Well, no worries about that. Good ol’ Akky will have you up and roaring in no time. What’s yer name, kid?”
“K… K… Kamau…” the cub finally managed to get his name out. Strangely enough, the bird’s advice was actually helpful. Taking deep breaths did seem to help, at least a little. At least, it gave him something else to focus on besides his own visceral reaction to those featherless heads. “Who… Who’s Akky?”
“Me, you silly lion! Akoko at yer service…” spreading her wings out wide---although she held her wounded one awkwardly---the falcon bowed at the little lion. Hmm… she tilted her head to the other side, still watching the lion curiously. “Well… you ain’t much. But I can work with you. Yeh, I could do that. You seem like you know how to have fun, chargin’ them vultures and all. Whaddaya say, kid? You need a bird, doncha?”
It was strange how such a small creature could have any hold over a lion, but, for some reason, it did. Kamau merely nodded. “Uh-huh. And I don’t know how to get a bird because I’m small an… an a coward! And I don’t know what to dooooo!” Again, his eyes wanted to well up with tears.
Akoko shook her head, wondering what was up with this kid. Hestia’s blessed feathers! Amazing he had any more tears at all… but, it was very endearing. “Well, kiddo, that’s one problem you don’t have any more. C’mon. Let’s go meet yer family.”