I come from a slightly troubling past. My father, Muhali, an absolute BRUTE of a lion, couldn't be reasoned with most of the time. It isn't a wonder that his name means, "difficult person or thing". He is king of a pride beyond the horizon of the Pridelands, unofficially known as the Loners.
My father wasn't always a Loner. He was actually born into the Pridelands, only a few years after the good King Mufasa. From the stories I have heard, when my father was young, he and Mufasa would play together, but I can't imagine my father as a cub like me. Young, playful and full of curiousity. To me, he has always seemed impossible.
When my father came of age, he, as all lions do, challenged the one in charge, King Mufasa for rule of the Pridelands. Mufasa was older and more experienced than my father. When he defeated my father in the challege, my father was so angry that he ended his lifelong friendship with Mufasa and broke off from the Pridelands to form his own pride. He vowed never to have anything to do with the Pridelands or King Mufasa's family ever again. I was told by some of the lionesses that even on the day he learned Mufasa had been killed, my father only bowed his head for a moment and closed his eyes. He never spoke of Mufasa again.
I didn't know who my mother was. She was not one of the lionesses from our pride. All I knew of her was what my father told me about her which wasn't much. But then, he didn't talk much at all to anybody, really. He wouldn't tell me who she was or if she was still alive, but he had said that he still loved her.
Living in my father's pride was rough. I wouldn't say that he is a bad king. Everyone always had a fair share of the food and all were well cared for, but it was lonely. My father has no diplomatic relations with any of the surronding prides. We are completely cut off from the rest of the world and that's how my father likes it. His philosophy is, "They don't bother us, we don't bother them". The only outside information we got were from the rare times when our lionesses would go out to hunt and they came across lionesses from other prides. This is how we learned that the surrounding prides referred to our pride as the "Loners".
Worst of all, there were no other cubs in our pride. I had no brothers or sisters. I didn't even have any real friends. I am the sole heir to my father's kingdom so my father was very strict with me. He would not let me go anywhere beyond the horizon. He would not let me follow the lionesses to the hunt. He always wanted me within sight at all times and when I tried to protest he would let out this horrible roar and that would be the end of things. That's how he always ended anything that he didn't like. We all knew it and we all lived by it. There was no talking to him once he let out that roar. He would not be listening anymore.
One day I decided to run away. I didn't really give it much thought beforehand. I had ventured a little too far away from the others and my father went looking for me. I was so busy practicing pouncing on grasshoppers that I didn't even hear him sneaking up behind me. With one fair swoop, he had grabbed me by the scruff of my neck and was dragging me back home.
When back with the others, he dropped me roughly to the ground and scowled at me, "You're grounded."
"Daddy, I-"
"I don't want to hear it." he growled, "You are grounded."
I continued to protest, "But daddy, I-"
He let out that horrible roar.
"I'm grounded even when I'm not grounded," I muttered under my breath, but he was already walking away so with tears in my eyes I yelled as loud as I could, "I HATE YOU, DADDY, I HATE YOU! I HATE THIS PRIDE! I HATE EVERYTHING ABOUT THIS PLACE!"
He stopped dead, turned in his tracks, and ran back to me roaring again very loudly. My ears were ringing. I was terrified. His face was so close to mine that I could feel his hot breath. All of a sudden I realized how small I was compared to him. He could've eaten me in one gulp and hardly know he had eaten anything at all.
"You take that back," he growled through his teeth.
I was crying now. I didn't know what I was saying to him... or maybe I did. I just knew that I had to stand up to him once and for all. "N-no," I said softly.
"WHAT DID YOU SAY?!" he was furious, "You take that back! You take back what you said about me and about the pride! I will allow no daughter of mine to be so insolant--"
"Then I don't want to be your daughter!" I cut him off, finding my voice again. I suddenly felt a little more courageous. "And I won't take it back because... because it's true."
Although my father never, in all his life, lay a paw on me in anger, I shut my eyes tight and braced myself, ready for the worst. Nothing happened. I opened my eyes again slowly and he was still standing over me. He stood there silently for a few moments, before he spoke again.
"You hate this pride? You think it's better on the outside? Well its not. You've never been out there. I have. You don't know. I do. All the outside world gives is pain. Here you're safe. Out there you're as good as prey," he paused another moment, "You hate me? When all I try to do is protect you? You talk back to me? Aren't you afraid of me?"
After a moment, I realized that he wanted me to answer this question. I answered truthfully, "Yes. I am very afraid of you."
"Then why, Kaylah? Why are you doing this?" he looked sad and confused.
I wanted to tell him, Because if I don't stand up to you, who will? You tell me how bad the outside world is but you won't even give me a chance to experience it for myself! I need adventure! I need excitement! I need friends! But I knew that he wouldn't listen to that. He would roar at me again for silence or he would simply walk away like he always had. So instead I just shook my head and muttered, "I dunno."
"Do you have anything else you'd like to say to me?" he asked.
I stared at him for a few moments and I began to have second thoughts about my reply. Maybe this time would be different! Maybe this time he WOULD listen! "Well actually, I..." But I had waited too long. He had taken my silence as a sign of the end of discussion and was already walking off. I laid down on the cool ground and sighed.
Later that night I ran away.
I had no idea what I was going to achieve by running away. I didn't know where I was going to stay. I didn't know what I was going to eat. Like I said, I hadn't really given much thought to it. Maybe I'd find a friend. Maybe I'd find my mother. Or maybe I wouldn't even make it through the night. I didn't know and I didn't care. I just knew that I simply could not live with my father anymore.
Somehow I made it through the night. I spent most of that time running. As the sun began to rise on a brand new day I found myself facing the largest looking rock I had ever seen. I didn't know at the time that this was Pride Rock that I was in the Pridelands, the place where my father grew up.
Then I saw her. The little yellow lion cub that would become my best friend in the whole world. She was off in the distance doing, what else? Pouncing on grasshoppers! I had never seen another lion cub in my whole life. As I approached her, she was too busy to know I was there, so I said hello.
I must have startled her because she gasped and stood up straight, "Oh!" was all she said.
"Hi!" I said, "I'm Kaylah! Wanna play?"
"My name is Kiara," said the yellow cub, who was a little younger than me. She then looked at me carefully, "Are you an Outlander? I'm not really supposed to talk to Outlanders."
"I don't think I am," I said, "I thought that other prides called us Loners."
"Ohhh," said Kiara, "I guess you're okay to talk to then. You're just strange looking for lion cub. Your fur is such a dark color and your ears are so big!"
I frowned.
"Oh I'm sorry," Kiara said when she realized that she'd hurt my feelings.
"So I don't look like other cubs?" I asked.
"None that I've ever seen," Kiara replied, "Except for maybe some of the Outlanders. That's why I asked if you were one of them.
"You are the first cub I have ever seen," I told my new friend, "Well, other than myself, that is."
Kiara couldn't believe it, "You've NEVER seen another cub before? You must be SO lonely!"
I nodded and sighed.
"Well, c'mon then," said Kiara, "I have to introduce you to someone!"
My new friend took me to a place where she and a little Outlander cub named Kovu often met secretly. Kovu was a nice little lion cub with fur about the same color as mine. I don't know what it was, but I felt a strange closeness to the young lion.
After playing with Kovu and Kiara most of the morning, it was hard to believe that all prides outside of my own could be as bad as my father had always brought me up to believe. I told my new found friends that I never wanted to leave and I asked Kiara if I could join the Pridelanders. It was then that Kovu realized that someone was watching us from the tall grass a few yards away.
The three of us instantly became frightened, but for different reasons. Kiara felt that it was her baby sitters, Timon and Puumba, spying on her; Kovu fearfully thought it was his mother who had at last discovered his and Kiara's secret meeting place; I was sure it was my father coming after me for running away. Kinda ironic, don't you think? Not one of us even considered it being a hungry predator, looking for a few tasty lion cub snacks. No, we were all afraid, in some way, of our families. The one thing that in anyone's life should bring comfort, not fear.
Unfortunately, one of us had their fears confirmed. As the adult female lion slowly came out of the brush, I recognized her as one of the lionesses from my pride. On her face was an expression of both relief and concern.
"Kaylah!" she cried, "We have been looking all over for you! Your father is worried sick!"
I was ready to fight. I wasn't going to go back willingly. "Yeah well I..." suddenly what she had said sunk in, "Worried sick? He's not angry?"
The lioness shook her head, "He just wants you home. He was so afraid that you had been killed."
I found it hard to believe that my father wasn't furious with me for running away, but I also knew that it wasn't like him to have the lionesses to lie for him. Maybe he didn't know that I had run away, "Well, you can just tell my father that I wasn't taken away by any predator. I ran away. I'm fine, but I'm not going back."
The lioness nodded as though she understood although she didn't seem at all surprised, "He considered that you might have been driven away from us after what he had said to you last night, " she replied. "He's very sorry and he..." she paused, staring fleetingingly at Kiara and Kovu, "You should come home Kaylah. I think he'd rather say it all himself."
I sighed, "You promise he won't eat me?" I asked.
The lioness smiled, "No, he could NEVER eat you. He loves you too much."
TO BE CONTINUED...
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