-
Someday we'll go....
The dust swirls, a perpetual ochre haze that choked the once vibrant savannah. Ngoma, a lion with a mane the color of dried grass, squinted at the horizon. Beside him, Firimbi, her ribs visible beneath her tawny fur, nudged their cub, Kinanda, closer. The drought had been relentless, a cruel hand squeezing the life from the land. Whispers of Milele, a mythical oasis, had become the only hope.
"They say the water there flows like the great river, and the grasses are always green," Firimbi murmured, her voice raspy.
Ngoma nodded, his eyes filled with a weary determination. "We must find it, for Kinanda, for all of us."
Their journey was a slow, agonizing trek. They weren’t alone. Other animals, gaunt and desperate, shared the same path. Among them were Crim and Preda, a pair of powerful lions, and their cub, Felon, a playful ball of fur mirroring Kinanda’s own.
The days blurred into a monotonous cycle of searching and struggling. The sun beat down, and the lack of prey made the journey a test of endurance. One evening, as the sky bled into deep navy twilight, Crim collapsed, his breath rattling in his chest. A strange lethargy had taken hold, a sickness that seemed to drain the very essence of life. Preda followed soon after, her once vibrant eyes dimming.
Then, the unthinkable happened. Firimbi, always strong and resilient, succumbed to the same mysterious ailment. Ngoma, his heart broken, roared his grief into the empty sky, only to fall silent, his eyes soon mirroring the same dullness that had claimed the others.
Kinanda and Felon, left orphaned, huddled together, their fear a tangible thing. They were cubs, barely adolescents, alone in a dying world. Yet, something within them, an innate resilience, refused to yield. They shared what little scavenged food they found, their bond forged in shared sorrow.
The whispers of Milele grew louder, a beacon in their despair. They pushed on, their paws leaving faint prints in the cracked earth, guided by a primal instinct and the fading tales of their parents.
The landscape shifted, the barren plains giving way to a more rugged terrain. They stumbled upon a deep ravine, and within its depths, a horrifying sight: a vast hyena pack, their eyes gleaming with a predatory hunger. The hyenas, driven to desperation by the same scarcity, had turned to overhunting, their numbers swollen with the dying animals of the savannah.
The hyenas spotted the cubs, their guttural laughter echoing through the ravine. Kinanda and Felon, though young, were quick and resourceful. They knew they couldn’t outrun the pack. They needed a trap...
They led the hyenas towards a strange structure, a relic of a forgotten civilization. It was a large, abandoned house, built with bricks and timber that stood out in the natural landscape. The hyenas, their hunger overriding their caution, followed the cubs into the crumbling building.
Kinanda and Felon, familiar with the building from their explorations, knew its weaknesses. They scrambled to the upper levels, using their agility to navigate the unstable structure. Once the hyenas were clustered beneath them, they began to dislodge loose bricks and timbers, creating a cascading avalanche.
The structure creaked and buckled, the weight of the debris and the frantic hyenas proving too much. The house collapsed, burying the pack beneath a mountain of rubble and wood. A stray ember from a long-dead fire ignited the dry timber, and flames erupted, consuming the ruins.
The smell of smoke and charred flesh filled the air. Kinanda and Felon watched from a safe distance, their eyes reflecting the flickering flames. The hyenas were gone, their threat extinguished.
The ruins, blackened and smoldering, became their sanctuary. The brick and timber, though broken, offered a measure of protection. The land around the ruins, after a long-due rainstorm, showed signs of resilience. The earth, enriched by the ashes, eventually began to sprout new shoots of green.
...Milele remained a distant dream, but the ruins offered a haven, a place to rebuild. Kinanda and Felon, survivors of a dying world, had found their own sanctuary, proving their strength and resilience. They had found their own beginning, forged in the ashes of loss and the promise of a future they would carve for themselves.
