The Lion King: Dawn Of The Nations

Episode 27: Ambiance

The Lion King: Dawn Of The Nations

Episode 27: Ambiance

Dogo and Garia were in their cave, expecting sleep to take them over, talking about the dinner and the alliance with the Pride Landers. "You are the best hunter, my love." Dogo licked her. "Thanks for readying the feast for our guests, I'm sure they had a great time, just as all of us."

Garia chuckled silently. "They didn't deserve less." She caressed her mate's face with her snout. "For how long did we dream with nights like this?" She felt the forgiving warmth of the rocky cave. "Now it's up to us to enjoy them the most we can."

"We will, Garia." Dogo laid his head over hers. "This is our present, our future." He yawned. "A beautiful future."

Garia had some words stuck in her mind. "And our cub's..."

Dogo was already falling asleep. "Of course." He exhaled with tranquility. "When the time comes."

Garia smirked with a tear on the corner of her eye. "Dogo..."

"Mhm?" Dogo expressed with a sleepy voice.

"The time has come." Garia let out a laugh of joy, she couldn't keep hinting anymore and just spoke out her mind. "I'm pregnant."

Dogo's eyes widened then he straightened and sat down, looking at his mate's teary eyes of happiness, with a small cub wandering in his thoughts. A lump started to form in his throat. "Am I..." He sobbed and a tear traveled through his fur. "A..." A big smile appeared on his face.

Garia nodded at him and approached him, resting her neck on his. "You will be a father, Dogo." She sobbed and started to cry deeply, but it was a crying of joy and hope.

Dogo also started to cry blissfully. "Thank you..." His voice was already greatly broken. "...Garia, thank you so much." Dogo kept crying, with a strength he had never felt before, feelings of attachment and love for his upcoming offspring. He began to lick her face, then she started to do the same, the love between them had increased, the tears and strokes they shared for their cub were filled with emotions they had never experienced before, as if a growing light was brightening the deepest corners of their hearts and minds, a new sun had come to their lives, and a grateful feeling raised among them.

Way beyond the Pride Lands and the Outlands, under the aggressive heat of the morning's sun, several families of hyenas were continuing their way to an hypothetical new place to live. "Mom." A teen, male hyena said. "My paws hurt..."

The mother had her gaze locked on the sandy ground. "We're close, Jantu." She responded.

Jantu groaned. "Close to where?" He barely had the energy to keep speaking. "I only see sand, no trees, no food..." Jantu's empty stomach was hurting him more than his exhausted paws. "...we're going to die here."

"Don't say those things, my son." She spoke with sadness. "Please."

"What else could I say if there's only death in my mind, mother?" Jantu groaned and sobbed.

"Just hold on." The mother said with some hope.

Jantu didn't want to continue the conversation, as if he preferred to save that energy to keep living. He began to look around him, seeing the tiredness, the hunger, the defeat and the resignation of his kind. Jantu's sight got locked on a cub that was having trouble to keep moving, just as him. The little hyena couldn't follow the quicker steps of their parents, thing noticed by his mother, who walked fast towards him, telling him words that Jantu couldn't hear, but intuited they had been similar to the ones his own mother had told him moments before. But the cub closed his eyes and fell over his side, breathing weakly, the mother called her mate immediately while getting her head over her son, speaking to him, with tears on her eyes, the father arrived, some other hyenas stopped walking to see what was going on, Jantu kept watching the scene through the empty spaces between the crowd, managing to see the parents' faces of unbearable sadness, his ears twitched when listening to the sudden crying of the two hyenas, mourning for the death of their cub, brought by the sun and the hunger. The father carried the body of his little son over his back, crying deeply along with his mate, both of them kept walking, with an additional, terrible burden on their lives.