Lions and Wildebeests

Chapter 4

Chapter4: The Dream

When shall I ever forget special and beautiful memories? They shall live on in my dreams always.

                I ran; I ran faster than any of them because I could. I was like the thunder of the storms in my grey eyes. Anotida and Nabila stopped running as soon as they realized I had escaped into the prairie. I stopped in the midst of the desert feeling like a cheetah who had overrun her time. I found my way to a tree surrounded with shrubs that rose around it all over the place. In the distance, I heard roaring, mournful and sad. A lion.

            I got up and looked about, my eyes hurting from the swelling that had built up around them because of my tears. In the distance was a golden figure, his leg caught in a trap. He was calling and roaring before he bent his head down to gnaw at the rope around his paw. I rushed forward to get a closer look. The lion caught sight of me and growled.

            Both of our gazes were diverted when we heard a truck pulling up in the distance about four miles away. He was so afraid when he saw the truck, and then I understood why. The men were loading up two more lions, lionesses to be exact; judging by his age because of the development of his mane and his small size, I put him at only nearly a year, which meant one had to be his mother and one his sister. His ears were pricked toward the sound.

            “Hey,” I whispered, “I can set you free…”

            He gazed at me and growled in suspicion before pulling back and tightening the rope around his foot; there was a distinctive crack, and the lion hobbled a bit. He extended the claws of the trapped paw and licked it. He growled as if putting the pain in the back of his head. The truck moved closer, and my heart beat my head in what I decided next. I lunged toward the young lion and pulled the rope off. It was so sudden that the lion did not know whether to be afraid or aggressive; yet, we did not have time to choose as the truck traveled closer and closer. The lion left at a hobbling run, and I ran the opposite way to jump into shrubbery under a cleft in a hill. The lights blared against the dimming sky light. I shielded my eyes. The truck pulled away, and I ran home, forever looking for the young lion to no avail.

            The next morning I was herding sheep and goats in the fields. Their bleating always calmed me because there was no one but me and them, and I could miss school and Nabila and Anotida, most importantly. I grinned at the lambs and kids, but all of a sudden, they were huddled next to their mothers.

            “What is it?”

            One of the herding dogs growled and barked, drool dripping from his mouth.

            I saw what they were doing.

            “You…” I gasped.

            His leg was swollen, and he limped two times as badly as before; the run probably had not helped. He launched at a lamb, but the mother kicked him, and the dogs attacked.

            “Zambesi, no!” I yelled at the leader.

            He stopped, wagged his tail at me, and stood in confusion.

            “Do not.”

            I took my staff and swung it at the lion. He backed off and scampered back into the wilderness with the sympathy of my heart.

            When my time was done, Zambesi, his sister Jordan, and I moved the herd back to the village, but I kept one of the weaker kids behind as I let Zambesi and Jordan take the herd back the rest of the way. I stroked the kid and knew that he would be going to a fine place in Heaven. I found the lion lying beside the Zambezi River, lay the kid down in the clearing, and took a stone. I almost did it, but the kid gazed up at me with big brown eyes and I could not. That’s when I felt hot breath on my face and looked up to meet the amber gaze of the young lion. He leaned down weakly to kill the kid and took him away. I sat frozen.