The Lion King: Dawn Of The Nations

Episode 22: Succour

 The Lion King: Dawn Of The Nations

Episode 22: Succour

Juzare was waking up, welcomed by the cold air of the morning, the sunshine that entered through the pair of holes over the cave illuminated it greatly. The female hyena had taken them both to that new cave in the middle of the night. Juzare opened his eyes slowly, blinking a couple of times, trying to get into his four paws to stretch, but he could only lift his hind legs as his front legs didn't respond. He let out a gasp of frustration and used all of his strength to try to move his front legs, but still nothing happened, they stayed the same way over the now dry leaves. Juzare let out a growl of impotence then yelled with anger and desperation, lowering his hind legs, retaking his previous position, looking at the cave's entrance, narrowing his eyes by the brightness of the sun, the shadow of an upcoming figure began to show up, revealing to be the hyena after a couple more steps. She was holding a dead meerkat with her jaws. The female hyena approached Juzare and lowered down what would be their first meal of the day. She looked at him with a smile. "Good morning."

Juzare looked at her with a straight face then looked away. "Who are you?" He said with a rather broken voice.

"Oh, sorry." She bowed her head. "I'm Javara...captain."

Juzare sighed with disdain. "Captain...is the last of names I'd like to hear now."

"Sorry." Javara lowered down her gaze. "Juzare." She moved the meerkat with her snout, getting it closer to him. "I...I thought some breakfast would make you feel better."

Juzare kept looking away, he briefly glanced at the meerkat then looked back at the reddish rock of the cave. "It's all yours." He rested his head over his legs.

Javara looked at him with pity. "Uhm..." She noticed the tear that was forming in the corner of his eye. "You need to eat, ca...Juzare." Javara insisted.

"For what?" Juzare replied with a broken voice.

"Well, you lost a lot of blood on the battle, so I'm sure it won't make any harm." Javara answered. "At least try."

"No." Juzare said coldly. "As I said, it's all yours, uhm, Jarava."

"Javara." She corrected.

Juzare sighed, letting out a subtle growl, closing his eyes and lowering his head again. "Javara...of course." He yawned.

Javara kept looking at him, with worry and pity, she thought it was better to leave him alone at the moment, so she took the meerkat with her jaws and walked to the other side of the cave to eat there. She glared at Juzare over her back then sighed and kept eating.

Juzare was resting, but his thoughts were still active, reliving the moment of the battle when Kiara destroyed his legs, a terrible conclusion to his brief reign over the Outlands, also seeing it as a conclusion to his life, as now he felt everything was worthless. He thought about Javara, accepting she was being kind and compassionate with him, but still finding it redundant, as for him it made no sense to aid a lost cause like him.

In the middle of a dream, a great pain began to hurt his legs, the grass where he was laying and the blue sky faded out into a blurry, dark and gray toned landscape, flames surrounded his legs all of a sudden, with a fearful gasp he started to run, trying to find a way to extinguish the fire, groaning by the intense pain he felt. Juzare was looking for a body of water, but there was only that gray, blurry matter. The pain got completely unbearable, he dropped himself to the ground, which was ice cold. He stayed there, laying down, trembling, not even noticing that the fire on his legs had disappeared.

With a gasp, Juzare woke up from that dream, finding out Javara was placing new leaves under his legs, also covering them a bit. "What..." He said with somnolence. The light of the cave was dimmer, the sun of the outside had hidden behind a cloudy sky.

"Elitas." Javara said before picking more leaves from the pile she had gathered.

"Eli..." Juzare yawned.

Javara chuckled a bit and opened her mouth to let the leaves fall over his legs. "They reduce pain." She smirked, looking into his eyes. Juzare felt how the freshness of the leaves began to deal with the strong pain he had been feeling. He stood silent, just feeling the effect of the leaves, glaring at her with an almost inexpressive face. "So?" Javara inquired. "Feeling better?" Juzare didn't respond at first, but he couldn't deny the fact that the pain was indeed decreasing. He let out a sigh and nodded. Javara smiled at him again. "Good." She turned and began to walk away from him.

Juzare groaned. "Where..?" He looked at her with a narrow glance. "Where are you going now?

Javara looked at him over her back. "To get more food." She responded. "You haven't eaten anything."

"Thanks..." Juzare glanced away. "But save it for yourself, I'm not hungry." He said coldly.

Javara raised an eyebrow. "But your wounds, you have to eat well for them t..." She was interrupted by Juzare's sudden growl.

"I said no!" Juzare exclaimed with a broken voice, he sobbed and laid his head over his wounded legs. "No..."

Javara started to approach him. "Juzare." She sat down by him, wanting him to speak out his mind.

Juzare sobbed, a pair of tears traveled over his face's fur. "Leave me here, go away." He was crying with deep bitterness. "Don't waste your time with me... I'm dead already."

Javara lowered her gaze. "No, Juzare." She laid down next to him. "I'm not leaving."

Juzare sobbed. "It's over, I can't walk...I can't fight..." He kept crying. "It's all over."

"You breathe..." Javara stroked his neck with her forehead. "You speak..." She rested her head on him. "Your heart beats, Juzare."

"That doesn't matter." Juzare's crying continued, softer an calmer. "I'm gone." He sobbed. "I'm gone forever."

"But you're still young." Javara said reassuringly. "There's a..." She yawned. "...long way ahead." Javara closed her eyes. "Things will be better."

Juzare sighed with sadness and frustration. "How?" He sobbed.

"Just..." Javara started to get asleep already. "Believe me."

Juzare's glare was focused on her peaceful face of rest. He closed his tearful eyes, the lump in his throat began to vanish, the calmness of the moment brought him into another deep nap, same as Javara, who had gotten exhausted by the hunting and gathering she had gone through.

It was raining outside, the drops of water got in the cave through the holes, but the water that entered never reached them, as it traveled directly towards the cave's entrance, just passing by the two sleeping hyenas, their ears heard the calm falling of the raindrops, the ones on the outside and on the inside, the gentle cold of the rain reached them accompanied by a subtle, fresh breeze. Their dreams weren't empty, just silent, static, Juzare, influenced by the sounds of the rain, dreamed with large rivers running through the Outlands, and Javara dreamed with the stars, she was sitting over a small mound, where she fit precisely, grassy, tall, so tall that she could poke the stars with the tip of her nose, making them to move gently.