It was a peaceful dawn, the night's cold punished mercilessly

Busa!

That night's noises were those of the crickets and of the wind waving the tree's leaves

Busa ngo Xolo!

The spider monkeys rested on the tree tops; below, a gazelle herd rested, except the little groups in charge of watching for predators.

Busa le lizwe!

Just a single noise perturbed that dawn's serenity and placidity. A mew. A cub's mew. A lion cub's mew. A sad lion cub's mew, that came from a cold and dark cave.

Busa Zuri

It was a warm afternoon in the Jani, the sun was setting quickly, but it wasn't taking that brain melting heat away, probably because of the short distance from the desert. In the middle, a couple of Lions, and around them, not a soul. The female, Karanga, growled in terrible pain, while her mate observed and suffered with her, feeling useless to help her. She was giving birth, two of the little ones were already out: Kawia, which they considered "was late" although he was the first one to come, because he came out almost two hours after she got in labor; and Indela, a playful lioness cub. The problem now was the third cub, the mother had been suffering for hours because the little one was in bad position and couldn't be born. The moments seemed endless; the minutes became hours, and the hours, centuries. Two. Two passed, yes two, and two more; four hours passed and finally an inert body plopped to the ground covered with blood. It didn't move; it didn't breath; it didn't live. The mother broke in tears and the father felt devastated. As if it were alive, the lioness took it in an almost instinctive way and began to clean it. She groomed and groomed, until it was completely clean; she sighed and thought to herself, "He was so beautiful! ", and just as she began to shut her eyes to give in to her inner sorrow, she was distracted by a soft loving mew. Her cub, the one that didn't want to come out, the trouble one, the smallest one; lived.

The dawn's cold had vanished leaving behind only a nice fresh weather in the Kiawara. The mewls that had perturbed the night had vanished no more than two hours ago. The gazelles were awake now, moving from side to side to feed and satisfy their thirst. The spider monkeys played and plucked fleas from each other. Suddenly, a mighty roar broke the morning's perfect harmony. The gazelles ran away and the monkeys hid. A shout followed the roar, "Zuri!". The cub woke and opened his eyes wide. What he saw filled him with fright: A young lioness with dark fur, staring fiercely, throwing hate at him through her eyes, "Zuri! I told you not to fall asleep!", she said, to which he answered shyly, "Sorry mummy". She growled at him and began to pad away; not even looking back she said, "I don't know why I bother... come, I haven't even started with you yet".

The Jani's noon was even more blistering hot than the rest of its days' hours. A couple of lions moved with their less than a moon old cubs towards the desert. They knew crossing it would be tough, but the goodies of the Kiwara, across it, made the journey more than worthy. They were tired and decided to take a break to rest. The parents, exhausted, fell asleep almost inmediatly, while their two bigger cubs played to pounce and their smallest one, Zuri, laid curled up next to his mother. A couple of hours later, a terrifying noise woke the adults up. It was a familiar sound: Hyenas. Inmediatly, the mother looked for her cubs. Zuri was still laying next to her, his little eyes blinking because the commotion had waken him up; but the other two weren't anywhere in sight. The lioness hid Zuri and told him to stay then, scared, both parents ran off in search of their cubs, towards the source of the sound. When they arrived, pain disintegrated their eyes. Kawia, or what was left of him, laid aside; there was a big hole in his tummy and he had lost his eyes, two legs and tail; meanwhile, the hyenas were having fun with Indela; several of them were chewing on her and pulling her from the arms while she screamed for her mother. The Lioness, without even thinking, rushed there to attack them and, after her, the Lion. In the horizon, a lion cub was approaching; crawling, for he didn't walk very well yet. In very few minutes, and thanks to their superiority in number, the beasts had restrained the male; a bunch of them began scratching, clawing, and piercing his under side. The cub was coming near. Moments later, the mother was bridled as well. The cub arrived to the scene. The female, his mother, spotted him first and motioned for him to hide, which he obediently did behind a rock that was shaped in such way that he could watch without being watched. From there he saw how the hyenas had fun with his mother, how they attacked her, how they tortured her, how they killed her. From there as well he saw the hyenas laugh, make fun of them all and finally leave.

The Kiwara's noon is as fresh as the most pleasurable of the weathers. A young Lioness was about to hunt, she had already spotted her meal: a small gazelle that had segregated itself from the herd. Meanwhile, a young cub was hiding in the bushes. The lioness began to approach silently, she was invisible for her prey thanks to the Savannah's tall grasses. She got closer and closer. A small branch emitted a sound as a big paw stepped on it and broke it. The gazelle's ears turned to the source of the sound, followed its head, but before it knew it was already on the floor, with it's mouth in the lioness' fangs. The lioness increased the pressure, more, more, until the gazelle finally died asphyxiated. Then the lioness began to eat, but instants later her ears warned her that the cub had left the bushes and was moving towards her. She shouted to him to go back, and so he did. When all the good flesh had left the gazelle, the lioness took a tiny piece of the worse one and thrower it to the cub, who devoured it inmediatly; when he asked for more all he got was a loud laugh and a sarcastic comment about vultures.

The desert's heat is much worse than the Jani's, especially for a lone cub. Zuri, now an orphan, wandered through it looking for something unknown even to himself. Two days he had roamed; alone and with no food or water. He was excessively tired, thirsty and hungry. Every step he gave was an accomplishment, which eventually he didn't accomplish. He plopped on his tummy and laid there, just waiting for whatever there was to wait for. Suddenly, he was shook, something roughly lifted him and threw him through the air, he landed a few feet away and heard a laugh. Wish his last strength, he let out a soft "Owie". He heard the laugh come close and stop. He felt himself being sniffed and heard, "What? You're alive?", his little eyes opened and saw the form of a young dark lioness. He saw the form smile, with a hypocrite smile, "Isn't this convenient?", the form said. He was lifted and taken far. First, the lioness gave him food and water to make sure he didn't die on her; when he finished she took him to the top of a tree and left him there to his destiny. The cub mewled his throat out, though in the middle of the desert his mewls were useless. When the moon was on it's highest, the lioness came back and carried him down a few branches, then threw him off the tree and followed. When she picked him up she whispered, "You know now who to obey".

The Kiwara's nights are colder than the north pole, but this one in particular seemed especially planned, planned for tragedy. Noyana, the dark and young Lioness, and her cub Zuri arrived were arriving to their house (a cave behind some spiky bramble patch) when they found an trespasser: a cute little mouse. Noyana shouted Zuri to kill him, he refused first but then was forced by her. He chased the mouse for a while, until he cornered it, but instead of killing it he hid it and told his mother he had eaten it complete. Clever, the Lioness nodded and said she was tired, retiring to her corner for sleeping. When he thought her asleep, he sneaked out of the cave to play with the mouse, which he thought was a "friend". He played chasing it for a couple of minutes, but then the mouse ran inside the cave. As Zuri's eyes followed the sneaky mouse, he noticed he was being observed. When he discovered those honey eyes staring at him, glaring in the night, he turned pale. Before he could do anything, he heard the loudest roar he'd ever hear. He tried to escape, but Noyana just had to stretch a paw to get him. He cried and begged for his life, but the evil lioness threw him with all her strength to the ground and put a paw on his neck. Tightening more and more until she finally suffocated a life that probably never should have existed.

The body was devoured by the vultures, in a dawn in which everything was serene, the spider monkeys slept on the tree tops, the gazelles were alert, the crickets sang, the wind wove the tree's leafs and a lioness slept deep and peacefully. The mew was heard no more.