CHAPTER:  MID-MOON

	Late that night near mid-moon, he looked at his resting consort 
and said, "Isha, my lover, can I ask you a favor?"  She smiled and said, 
"Again, my little brush fire?"  She licked her paw and groomed her face.  
"Let me prepare myself."
	"No, not that.  When I face Aiheu, I want to face him as your 
husband.  Would you please pledge to me?  Please?  I hear you're not the 
marrying type, but when they ask me who I'm praying for, I want to say 
it's my wife."
	She was stunned.  She'd never been asked quite that way before.  
She only had to think a moment.  "That's the only thing that could make 
this night any better.  I'd be glad--no--honored.  And when I go into 
the east, I'll sit next to you throughout eternity."  She nuzzled him 
and kissed him gently on the cheek, between the eyes, and then rubbed 
his face with her own.  "Maybe I was saving myself all along for my 
little Baba.  My heart is swift prey, and no one else could catch it."
	He smiled warmly and nuzzled her.  "I don't want to catch it.  I 
want to set it free the way your love set me free."  He put his paw on 
her shoulder.  "Before the gods, before the stars, before the assembled 
host I swear to give you my protection, my life, and my comfort 
forever."
	She pawed his face and kissed him.  "Till the last beat of my 
heart, to the last breath I sigh, our lives are one, so help me gods."  
She kissed him again.  "It is done, husband."
	A moment went by when neither of them spoke.  Then, almost 
abruptly, Isha said, "I HAVE to teach you how to survive out there!  I 
won't let it end like this!  I can't!"
	"No more lessons.  These memories have to last me, my wife.  Let's 
lose none of this time together."
	Tears began to stream down Isha's cheeks.  "Baba, I love you!"
	"I love you too, but please don't cry.  I've known love all my 
life, first from my mother, than from my King, my friend and my lover.  
I have no enemies, and no one I've loved has ever left me.  I'm the 
luckiest lion in the world, and you should be glad for me."
	She kissed him and nuzzled him.  "I am.  I love you so much, 
Mabatu!  Who in heaven or earth wouldn't envy me tonight!"
	"I'll come back within the year.  If I don't, then consider 
yourself free to remarry.  Only death can stop me."
	She wept again.  "You must come back!  I'll pray for you each 
night--you can't die!  You mustn't break my heart!"
	"Please don't cry."
	"Don't forbid it.  It makes me feel better."
	He pawed her.  "But I don't want to remember you sad.  Can't I 
make you happy?  Just for a little while?  Be sad tomorrow, but not now-
-this night belongs to us."
	She said, "Yes.  Make love to me.  Let me feel you next to me once 
more."
	He nuzzled her passionately.  "Habusu am I, a prisoner of your 
love."  He rose to his feet and awash with mixed pride and passion he 
tenderly mouthed her throat.

		Far from the crowd whose prying eyes
		Would violate our solitude
		We shall make love among the reeds
		Here unobserved by jealous hearts
		We shall caress.


CHAPTER:  THE SEPARATION

	Isha looked at Kako and her heart sank.  Kako had always been so 
friendly to her and smiled so beautifully.  The beauty was still there, 
but she looked like she was at a funeral, not a mantlement.  Deep 
inside, that's how she felt too.  Mabatu looked very small, pitiful, and 
frightened.  The proud lion of last night shrank down like a disciplined 
cub, pacing about, lost in the whirlpool of his inner turmoil.
	Taka stalked into the meadow with slumped shoulders and dragging 
tail.  He looked like the weight of the world was on him, and indeed he 
looked back as if to see what sat on his back.  He was really watching 
Elanna who filed silently behind him.
	Only Shenzi seemed to be upbeat.  She had never seen a mantlement 
before, and she sought to satisfy her idle curiosity with a little 
pageantry and culture.
	There would be little pageantry.  It was a very private ceremony 
and very somber.  Standing in the midst of the blossoms where the night 
before Baba and Isha had first made love, Kako put on her best smile and 
looked at her hapless son.  "Where has my little cub gone?  All I see is 
this lion."  She shuddered to say it.
	"I'll always be your son," Baba replied, and nuzzled her.
	"Remember me," she said.  "When you are a great king, do not 
forget that I gave you milk."
	He looked deeply into her eyes.  "When you are gone to be with 
your fathers," he stammered, "pray for me."
	"I will pray for you."  Tears began to stream down her cheeks.  
She looked at Taka with desperation and cried, "Oh gods, my son, my 
little son!"
	"Don't cry, mother."  Mabatu kissed away her tears.  "You must be 
strong for me.  I will carry this moment with me for the rest of my 
life."
	"I'm sorry."  She sniffed back her bitter tears and managed a 
smile.  "Besides, we will meet again among the stars, and nothing will 
separate us.  May the Lord Aiheu smile upon you.  May the grass be soft 
beneath you.  May the great kings enfold you.  May you find love and 
safety wherever you go."
	"I'll be safe.  The gods are with me."
	Isha trembled and tears flooded her eyes.  Mabatu noticed and went 
to her, kissing away her tears.  He whispered, "I'll come back for you.  
If Aiheu lets me live, I'll make a place for us.  Will you wait for me?"
	"I will.  I swear."
	"I will always love you.  If I die, look in the stars.  I will be 
watching over you."
	"Don't die.  Promise me you won't die!"
	"I promise you I'll try not to.  You are everything to me--wife, 
lover and friend.  I will fight to hold on for your sake, and someday 
I'll make a life for us and for our children."
	Isha turned from him and began to sob.  Mabatu quietly walked back 
to his mother and nuzzled her.  He wanted to remember how she felt, 
smelled, and sounded.  He peered into her sad eyes and said, "Mother."
	"My son."  She touched him with her tongue for the last time and 
stroked his cheek with her paw.  "I release you to God."
	Silently, he turned to the north and walked away without looking 
back, as custom dictated.  He reached the edge of the forest and drew 
close to the border of the Pride Lands.  One more small meadow caressed 
his feet in fond farewell.  One last clump of reeds stroked him as he 
stopped for a moment at the far side of the meadow.  "I'll come back for 
you," he murmured quietly.  "Isha, my dearest Isha, I must leave you 
now."  He stepped across the threshold of The Big World and immersed 
himself in uncertainty.


CHAPTER:  A LIFE FOR A LIFE

	As he wandered the strange land, memories of the blissful moments 
he spent with Isha came crowding in on him.  He was unprepared to be out 
on his own, but his greatest fear was not death.  There was a chance 
that Isha would bear his children in the middle of a drought and there 
would be no husband to see to her.  What if the hyenas turned on the 
lion cubs?  What if there were no more rains?
	Isha had begged Taka to be freed from her obligations and leave 
with Mabatu.  Of course, she could not say she had married him, for Taka 
would not have recognized vows taken before mantlement.  It was a 
mistake to speak of leaving to the King.  Not only did he refuse her 
passage, he sent hyenas to trail her every move to prevent her from 
fleeing.  It seems he knew more than he was admitting.
	Grief came to many that day.  An old king had driven off some 
rogue lions that tested his authority.  He and his brother were weak 
from age, and while they had both sired many daughters, there was no son 
to shoulder the load of defending the pride territory from the jealous 
eyes that wanted it.
	Prince Baliaha's life was flowing away in a crimson river.  
Remnants of his once splendid mane lay scattered on the ground, and he 
gasped for breath.  He looked up with eyes that strove to focus.  "Are 
they gone?  Brother, have we driven them off?"
	"Yes, we have."
	"Good," he said with a sigh of resignation.  "They'll come back, 
you know.  And I'm afraid you'll have to handle them alone."
	"You'll recover, but there will be scars."
	Through his pain, Baliaha managed a smile.  "You always were an 
optimist."  His eyes closed tightly, and he went into a seizure.  The 
king looked away in horror and did not see his dying breath escape.
	There was a quiet moment, and a couple of lionesses peeked out of 
the brush.  "How is he?"
	"He's gone."
	They bowed their heads low.  "We will see to him.  I'm sorry, but 
there's another rogue male to the east by the termite mounds."
	He was tortured by grief, but the grief became a terrible rage.  
Whomever this lion was, he would kill!  "A life for a life!" he 
shrieked, foam on his heaving nostrils as he ran like a thing possessed 
across the grassland.

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