SCENE 39:  TRUE FRIENDS

	When the moon rose later that evening, orange and full in the 
night sky, it found Rafiki sitting silently in the naos of the baobab, 
his medicine pouch clutched in his lap, staring silently at the 
paintings on the tree's side.  The branches moved slightly in the night 
breeze, making strange shadow shapes on the wall, and giving the 
paintings an eerie lifelike quality.
	He remembered his speech to Dedou in the council the day he became 
a shaman.  "I tell you brothers that I am an expert on suffering, for I 
have suffered greatly.  It was suffering that put me on this path.  But 
I also understand love, for I have received much of it."
	He sighed.  "An expert on suffering," he said reproachfully.  "You 
were right, Dedou.  I was a young optimist speaking from my 
inexperience.  A fool who knew so much of herbs but so little of pain!"
	Reaching into the pouch, he pulled out a small bowl filled with a 
whitish paste.  "Deadly Euphractus," he thought.  "So the promising 
young shaman finally makes his last prescription.  Something to relieve 
suffering in the heart."  He dipped his finger into the bowl and scooped 
up a small clump.  In tiny doses, it would relieve cramps, but he had 
enough on his fingertip to kill every mandrill in his village.  "So it 
has come to this," he murmured, staring with unfocused eyes at the 
paintings.  "Busara, forgive me.  All your teachings are like kudra 
seeds scattered in the wind.  I have not passed on the light."  He 
rested his gaze on Asumini's portrait one last time, then sighed.  "Live 
forever.  Live forever in love."  Opening wide, he closed his eyes and 
with a trembling hand lifted the paste towards his mouth.
	"Rafiki?"
	Sighing again, he lowered his hand and spoke without turning.  
"Please leave.  I can not help you right now."
	"Why not?"
	"It is none of your...."  he whirled, intending to drive away the 
owner of the voice, but stopped when he saw Uzuri sitting quietly behind 
him.  "Oh, hello."
	"What's wrong?"
	"My wife and daughter died today," he said simply.  "I am in 
mourning."
	Her eyes gleamed in the moonlight as she gasped in surprise.  "Oh, 
gods!  Both of them??  Rafiki, I'm so sorry!"  She moved closer until 
her foreleg was touching his shoulder.
	"It's quite all right, my dear.  Thank you."  He patted her 
forepaw.  "Things like this happen.  It's life, I guess.  Good or bad, 
we can all die at any time."
	She looked at him for a long moment.  "You seem to be taking it 
rather well."
	"Yes, well, as a shaman, I've learned to accept death in one form  
or another.  It happens.  We should not fight it; we should prepare for 
it."
	Her eyes focused on him sharply, and she frowned.  "I would think 
instead that we should try to enjoy life all the more for it."
	His lip trembled and he turned away to face the wall again.  
"Perhaps you should go."
	As he shifted, she spied the paste on his finger.  "What's that?"
	"Oh, just something to help me feel better."
	Uzuri sniffed at it.  An acrid odor burned her nostrils, and she 
flinched.  She drew back, the muscles at the corner of her jaw 
tightening as she looked at him.  "Why don't I try some?  It will make 
me feel better too."  Quickly, she bent and touched the paste with the 
tip of her nose.
	The response was immediate.  Rafiki sprang up as if shot.  "Don't 
lick that off!"  Desperately, he seized a gourd of water and splashed 
the end of her nose, rinsing away the paste that had stuck there.  
Picking up a soft leather cloth, he dried it carefully.  He bent and 
sniffed it closely, his own nostrils twitching intently, then shook his 
head and repeated the process.  
	While he was drying her nose a second time, Uzuri flicked a paw 
out and slapped the bowl away.  It clattered over the edge of the baobab 
and dropped silently through the air to shatter on the roots below, 
spraying the ground with white death.
	Rafiki observed this silently as tears began forming in the 
corners of his eyes.  "It will take me three days to collect that much," 
he said. "Please be a good girl and leave me alone."
	She looked him directly in the eyes.  "Make up your mind.  Should 
I be a good girl, or should I leave you alone?" Flopping to the floor on 
her side, she motioned to him with a paw to join her.  "We lions have a 
custom that might make you feel a lot better."
	He looked at her but said nothing.
	Inwardly stung by his refusal, she pressed on.  "When someone we 
love dies, we roar.  It's our way of getting the grief out.  Don't you 
shriek or make some sort of noise when you grieve?"
	"We cry."
	She shook her head.  "We do too.  But I mean something big.  
Something that tells the whole world how you feel."
	"No, we don't do that."
	"Try it."
	"I'd feel like a fool."
	"You'd feel better.  Shout it out.  If you can't roar, just yell, 
`She's gone!'"
	"She's gone!"  He sighed.  "There, did that make you happy?"
	"No!  Not gone hunting herbs.  Gone!  Make my ears tingle!"
	"She's gone!!"
	"Didn't you love her more than that??  My gods, she was your wife!  
It was your daughter!  It's not fair!  What kind of husband and father 
were you??"
	"Stop this!  You're making me angry!"
	"Good!  It's not fair, and you SHOULD be angry!"
	Rafiki's hands began to tremble.  His eyes narrowed to slits.  The 
tides of his breath rushed in and out.  "I'm mad as hell!  I try to live 
the good life, and what do I get??  First my mother, and now this!!  All 
my training is not worth a pile of Kavana husks!!"  He picked up the 
paint pot and viciously swung it at the paintings, spattering them with 
red hemorrhages.  "Stupid, useless paintings!  Stupid house in the 
middle of stupid nowhere!  No one to stop her from taking the child!  
Stupid brother in a stupid meeting of the stupid council!  Oh gods, why 
did I bring them out here!!"  He took his staff and began to beat on the 
paintings as he shrilly shouted, "And where were the gods in all this??  
I gave my life to them, and look at how they repay me--nothing but 
heartache, neglect and bitterness!!"
	Rafiki faced the wall and sobbed for a few silent moments.  
Finally the staff dropped from his hand and he meekly said, "I didn't 
mean it, Aiheu.  I'm sorry.  I'm sorry!  Please don't hold it against 
me.  Please don't abandon me!"
	With mixed penitence and desperation, he wiped a few red spots off 
the eye of Aiheu and used some of the spilled paint to fix the smears.  
It looked like an eye again.  In one corner of it he drew a tear.
	"He understands, Rafiki.  It's OK that you're mad at him right 
now."
	At last he turned to face Uzuri, his face drawn and tear-stained.  
"Is that how it feels when you roar?"
	"Perhaps."  A tear began to run down her cheek.  "Do you feel 
better?"
	"I feel so....  I feel...."  His lip began to quiver, and he broke 
out in deep sobs.  "I'm so alone!  All alone!  My youth is gone, and 
everyone I love I hurt!"  Uzuri nuzzled him, and he grabbed tightly 
around her neck and sobbed on her soft fur.  If he hugged her too 
tightly, she didn't complain.  She stroked him with her pink tongue, 
wiping away the salty tears.
	"Maybe I feel better now," Rafiki said.  "Maybe I'll make it."
	Uzuri stayed with him.  Every moment she was off the hunt, she 
spent trying to bring Rafiki out of his shell of severe depression.  She 
would tell him stories and groom him like a cub. She even searched out 
special things for him to eat, though she recognized very little of what 
was in his diet.  A few eggs, a few fallen fruits that she learned to 
recognize.  By and large, he had little appetite, but she would cajole 
him to eat.  He would stare vacantly, but rub her soft fur with his arm 
as she talked.  When she could not be there, she had Makedde sit with 
him with strict instructions that he not be allowed to mix any of his 
own medicines.
	Finally after a week, he turned to look at her, meeting her gaze 
completely.  "I have made a decision."
	"Yes?"
	"I have decided to live."
	She nodded, purring.  "A wise decision."
	He stopped her as she rose to go.  "Thank you, Uzuri.  The gods 
will bless you for what you have done for me.  You will have your reward 
in Heaven."
	"That's nice to know.  However, I intend to wait a while to 
collect.  See you do the same."  She nuzzled him quickly, the turned and 
headed into the dry grass, the brown stalks parting before and then 
closing behind, whispering together in the warm breeze.  Rafiki stared 
after her for a moment, his white hair floating about his face, then 
turned and went inside.


CHAPTER 40: LOVE'S LABOR LOST

	Zazu glided upon the thermals that wafted gently upward from the 
ground below.  His eyes roved restlessly, scanning the grassland far 
beneath him, cataloging everything he saw for later reference, should it 
prove useful to the king.  Dipping the leading edge of his wings, he 
descended slowly, arcing around the great spire of Pride Rock to come to 
a graceful halt at the base of the promontory.  As he headed inside to 
report to Ahadi, he noticed Mufasa and Rafiki at the point of the 
promontory, having an extremely animated discussion.  He chuckled to 
himself at the pinched look of concentration on Mufasa's face.
	"Oh my, looks like it's time for mantlement rehearsal again."  
Ruffling his feathers in amusement, he waddled inside, leaving the 
mandrill and lion to themselves.
	Rafiki motioned with his arms energetically.  "Ah!  No slouching.  
Straighten up, there...yes.   Head up!" he exclaimed, jerking his chin 
up at the lion.
	Mufasa raised his chin up until he was nearly looking skywards.  
"Like this?"
	"No..."  Rafiki reached out and took hold of Mufasa's head, 
feeling the huge jaw muscles playing under his fingertips as he turned 
his head slightly.  "Hold your head just so, son."
	Mufasa stood, unprotesting as the mandrill turned his head this 
way and that.  In his mind's eye, he saw the assembled host stretched 
out on the plain before him, all come to see his great day.  His chest 
swelled with pride, and he unconsciously raised his chin higher.
	Rafiki responded with a tap on the nose.  "No, no, now you look 
arrogant.  Lower your nose...." His forearms flexed as he pulled 
Mufasa's head down with his fingertips.  The fringes of his new mane 
tickled the palms of Rafiki's hands, complicating the mandrill's task 
still further.  "Lower..ah-HA!  That's it!"
	Afraid to move, Mufasa's eye rolled in its socket to look at 
Rafiki.  "My neck hurts."	
	"Ahh, you'll only need to sit that way for short while; just until 
your father finishes his speech."
	The majestic pose vanished as Mufasa crumpled, looking aghast.  
"WHAT?  Aww, c'mon, Rafiki, you know how Dad gets when making a 
speech...."  He groaned and buried his head under his forepaws.
	"Nonsense.  Your father only says what needs to be said, and no 
more."
	"Yeah, but he takes so long to say it!"
	Rafiki grinned.  "If this is the worst ordeal you deal with in 
this life, you should rejoice, son.  All right!  Head up!"  A shadow 
flitted overhead as they resumed their exercises, and Rafiki saw the 
blue-white form of the king's majordomo heading back out over the Pride 
Lands.  His eyes followed the bird for a moment, but then his attention 
was drawn back to his reluctant pupil.
	Zazu soared in an ascending arc, the air slowly dragging away his 
speed as he climbed rapidly.  He glanced around quickly to make sure he 
was unobserved, then grinned to himself.  He had a little free time 
before he was to meet with Boga Kwitu, the elephant Incosi, and he 
intended to make the most of it.  Tucking his wings, he tilted in mid-
air and dropped like a rock.  The soft whisper of the wind in his ears 
became a deafening roar as the ground rushed up at him.  His wings 
flicked out and he leveled out perhaps two feet over the ground.  He 
laughed joyfully as he sped over the tops of the waving grass, the 
slender stalks only a blur beneath him as he arrowed over the ground.  
In the back of his mind, the ever present voice nagged at him, reminding 
him of the dangers of flying this low.  There were several predators 
agile enough to snatch him out of the air and drag him to earth forever, 
only to find out too late he was the king's advisor and corban.  
Nevertheless, it was the one vice he had picked up from his obnoxious 
brothers, and he took the opportunity now to indulge in it shamefully.
	A break in the grass appeared ahead; one of the many paths the 
lions used traveling to and from the water hole that lay nearby.  As he 
flashed overhead, he caught a glimpse of a tawny shape moving along the 
path, but was past before he could identify the figure.  He started to 
turn back, but a glance at the sun reminded him of his appointment with 
the elephants.  Sighing, he lifted a wing and climbed gracefully away, 
turning southwest.
	Far below, Sarabi trotted along the tunnel-like pathway that 
countless generations of lion paws had worn in the grass.  A smile 
graced her young features, but it was partially obscured by the limp and 
dangling form of the hare she clutched carefully in her jaws.  She 
floated through the grass like a spirit, humming to herself in a 
pleasant tone as she walked, switching her tail from side to side and 
slapping the tip against her flanks gently in time to the music she was 
making.  Unable to voice her happiness, she kept up with the song in her 
head.
		"Moko Greatmane was a great cat,
			And a great big cat was he,
		He climbed up over the mountain pass
			to see what he could see,
		As the cat climbed up, all the rain climbed down
			and the wind was blowing fast...."

	Sarabi smiled and glanced up at the sky overhead.  Do you see me, 
Father?  she thought.  Aren't you proud of me?  I wish you were here 
today.  Her cheeks pooched out around the hare as she sighed, then 
mentally berated herself for being so moody.  Her father might not be 
here, but there was someone here who loved her just as much.  Changing 
direction, she angled around the base of Pride Rock and headed towards a 
rough and tumble pile of stone a short distance away.  Nearing it, her 
skin tingled with excitement as she saw the silhouette of the young lion 
in the small cave.
	Taka lay quiescent inside, enjoying the coolness of the stone as 
it seeped into his belly, his legs sprawled awkwardly to allow more of 
his underside to contact the rock beneath him.  His eyes tracked 
restlessly, observing the minutae of everything before him.  The 
grasslands below rippled restlessly in the breeze, echoing his mood.  
Lately, things were...all wrong, somehow.  Everything Muffy said seemed 
to irritate him to the point he felt like cuffing his brother across the 
nose.  And Sassie...his pulse leaped at the thought of her.  
Reflexively, his claws extended and scraped the stone, leaving dull 
scratches in the gray surface.  Crossing his forepaws, he lay his head 
upon them and watched as heat lightning played on the horizon.
	His ear twitched as it picked up a faint swishing noise.  Lifting 
his head, he looked around to see Sarabi padding toward him, her 
forepaws curling inward and then flicking out gracefully as she set them 
down.  "Hey, Sassie," he said, brightening.  He raised an eyebrow at the 
dangling form that she carried in her mouth.  "Whatcha got?"
	Sarabi neared him and laid the hare at his feet, then stepped 
around him.  She rubbed against his side roughly, catching him off 
balance and nearly sending him careening into the cavern wall.  "For 
you, Fuzzy Love," she purred, circling around and rubbing up the other 
flank.  "Something special."  Halting in front of him, she sat and 
smiled, her amber eyes twinkling in merriment.
	"Huh?"  Taka looked at the battered hare, then up at Sarabi's 
enigmatic expression.  He glanced down at it again, then swallowed.  
"Uhh, Sassie?"
	"Mm-hmm?"
	"Uhh, it looks like an ordinary rabbit to me."
	She cocked her head and grinned.  "Really?"
	The tone in her voice made him look up sharply.  He opened his 
mouth to ask her what was going on, but froze, staring.
	On her left cheek, slowly drying in the afternoon breeze, was the 
reddish-maroon pawprint of a lioness.
	"Oh-ho!"  A grin split his features and he rubbed his cheek 
against hers, their combined purring making a rumbling noise in the 
confined space.  Sitting back, he drank in her features, unable to 
contain his happiness.
	"Look at my beautiful lioness!"  He nuzzled he cheek again, and 
she responded, slowly licking his ear and sending a wave of feeling down 
his back.  "Everything about you excites me."  He bent and rubbed his 
face against her rib cage.  "I can hear your heart beating, Sassie."  
She trembled, her eyes closed as he dreamily worked his way back.  
"Proud, strong haunches of a lioness, crying out for love!"
	Her eyes shot open abruptly and she whirled, a forepaw whipping 
out and smacking him across the face.  "Don't touch me there!  We're not 
pledged yet."
	He rubbed his stinging cheek with a paw, his eyes watering.  "I 
wasn't going to VIOLATE you.  Lighten up, girl.  We'll be pledged soon 
enough."
	"But not yet."
	"What's wrong with it?"  He drew away and looked at her.  "Are you 
ashamed of me or something?!"
	"No!  Are you trying to prove something?!  Look, I just don't feel 
right about this.  You need to respect my feelings."
	"And I have none, eh?" he shot back caustically.
	"Well obviously you have ONE, and you need to cool it."  She spun 
and stalked away, her tail lashing furiously.  Taka stood motionless as 
he watched her form recede.  He looked over at the hare's carcass, which 
still lay where she had left it.  He walked over to it and nosed it 
disinterestedly.
	"Great going, idiot," he muttered.
	As the days passed, by and large Mufasa made excellent progress in 
learning his part of the formal mantlement ceremony.  Taka, however, had 
not been to practice in some time, and Rafiki was worried that a 
disaster was waiting to happen.
	Finally, his patience wore thin, and Rafiki requested an audience 
with the king.  He felt rather bad about getting Taka into trouble like 
this, but he had no wish to see the boy inadvertently ruin what would be 
one of the most important days of his life.  Zazu bade him wait outside 
while he informed Ahadi of his presence.
	He did not have long to wait.
	"Your Majesty, I wish you would talk with your son Taka.  He's 
missed so much practice."
	Ahadi blinked at him, confused.  "Have you seen him??"
	"Your Majesty?"  It was Rafiki's turn to be mystified.
	"He's missing.  His mother and I are going crazy.  The moment you 
see him, tell him to report to me IMMEDIATELY."
	"Yes, Sire."  Rafiki left, wondering what mess Taka had gotten 
himself into now.  "That boy is going to be the death of me someday."
	As he forded the long grasses on the way home, he saw something 
moving towards him.  Abruptly, the stalks parted before him, revealing 
the tear stained face of a young lioness he knew all too well. "Sarabi!  
You haven't seen Taka, have you?"  He cocked his head curiously and 
peered at her face.  "What's wrong?"
	She broke into fresh tears.  "He's gone!  He's run away, and it's 
my fault!"
	"How so?"
	"He believes in that prophesy.  I didn't realize just how strongly 
till this morning."
	"So?"
	"He felt if he remained here, it would come true.  He wanted me to 
come with him, but I just couldn't."
	"So it's not your fault after all."
	"Well I...."  She sighed.  "Can't you tell him it was all just a 
mistake?  Like a bad dream?"
	Rafiki rubbed her cheek softly.  "My dear, it was not a mistake.  
I don't want to upset you, but something from the other side came 
through the passage I opened.  It is one of the Makei, I fear.  Truly, 
Taka brings many of his problems upon himself, but this was brought on 
by clever lies, lies buried so deeply in his heart that only God himself 
can uproot them.  I fear he will not know peace in this life."

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