THE PEACELAND TRILOGY (For Critics Only) #Wattys2020

13

Chapter Twelve

After the night, the snake left. The tribe of monkeys along with Abdul walked through the forests. They slowly got out of the tree lands as they discovered an enormous rocky cave where it was surrounded by the desert. It was so hot that Abdul was almost whining about it but was stopped by Zuba before speaking about it. They saw the three packs of lions were bowing while Zuba came in front. The middle lion was actually the king but for Zuba, he was still his old pupil.

"No need to bow, Sabu, you are a king now!" said Zuba.

"My master, despite that I am a king, I always remember my principles" said Sabu (the middle lion)

"It's okay, but I am really proud of you. After your father was killed by the poachers..."

But Zuba gave a sad pause and Sabu growled at Abdul.

"Why did you bring this human?" shouted Sabu.

"He won't harm you, sir. He's not a poacher, sir but someone from the prophecy" said Capren.

"YOU SHUT UP, CAPREN!... But wait! Is he the chosen one?" exclaimed Sabu.

"Oh, the so called Chosen one is here, too. I am impressed with that teeny weeny whiny chap, coming in the front!" said Roko.

Roko's presence infuriated Zuba and the other monkey tribes. His sarcasm and arrogance was such that every animal even the lions get angry but unfortunately, Roko was the grand advisor of the king.

"I have no idea why Sabu trusted Roko and now he's a trusted advisor, but I am sure that Roko is more manipulative than what previously was Abdul. I remember that Roko almost killed that poor deer, Mikol but thank God and Mother Nature saved by Zuba!" said Capren to Abdul during the conversation with Zuba, Sabu and Roko.

"My darling, Zuba, he does not deserve to be in our duel. He must go to the human world, he doesn't belong here" said Roko.

"He's here to learn, not to give you a damn" said Zuba.

"Let's see, who will train?" said Roko.

"I will train him" said Sabu.

"What! Your majesty it's not..." said Roko.

"He will be fine with me. But you must keep quiet. Unless you learn to respect, you will be down in front of our eyes. We might be the kings but for God, human is the greatest creation but no matter what we are, for God, we are equals!" said Sabu.

"But, your majesty, I cannot be trained properly. Here, your people are eccentric!.." said Abdul.

"Can you please keep quiet!" shouted Capren.

"I like his attitude. When your outer body says no, your inner body says, yes. I love that..." said Sabu. "The duel has been postponed for a week...Let us have feast! For Peaceland!"

Everyone was relieved by the handling of Sabu. Abdul did not expected Sabu to be a kind lion, instead he thought of him as Roko. However, different things have different characteristics. Abdul realized that he forgot his phone in the car. Otherwise, he could have taken some pictures of the wildlife as well as Peaceland. During the night of the peace, Zuba took him to the forest beside the den along with Sabu secretly.

"Why did you take us here?" asked Abdul.

"Forgot?" said Zuba.

"Oh sorry!" said Abdul.

"Sabu and I will take you to the pensive of how the king actually redeemed himself" said Zuba.

"I almost hated that Emperor! But I realized that honor and principles comes first" said Sabu.

Zuba took out a curved banana as well as the drops of water from the puddle in front of the cave. When they jumped into the pensive, they saw that right after the incident of how the old man died, he went outside the castle for a walk.

"Was he happy?" asked Abdul.

"See it yourself" said Sabu and Zuba.

The king walked out of the castle. The prime minister asked "What's wrong, sir?"

"I didn't mean to kill anyone. I have to see something blinking from the light" said The Emperor.

"As your wish, sir" said the prime minister. He walked away as The Emperor walked into the pine forest.