CHAPTER 14: AGE OF ACCOUNTABILITY

 

       Amana shifted lightly and yawned, pausing to lick Chui affectionately behind an ear as he slept. The two were sprawled out together, enjoying the shade offered by the low scrub as they sought respite from the midday heat. Amana had hunted the night before and caught a meal for the two, a young gemsbok that now resided comfortably in their bellies and added to their drowsiness.

       Suddenly, Amana sensed they weren’t alone. She turned her head, looking through the underbrush. Chui was disturbed by her movement and looked with her.

“Mother?”

       “Sss….someone is out there.” She paused and looked hard at one particular section of greenery. She suddenly smiled and relaxed. “Oh…it’s just you.”

       Fahari appeared out the undergrowth. “Hmph….just me, eh?” He walked over and nuzzled her gently in greeting before going to his son, “Do you know what today is, son?”
       He shook his head, “No father…what is it?”

       Fahari smiled, “Today…you are an adult.”

       Chui gasped, “Wow…really? Cool.”

       His father interrupted him, “But only in the eyes of the gods.” He nuzzled him gently, “You will always be my little cub.” Suddenly, Fahari drew a claw down his son’s shoulder, drawing a small amount of blood and a quick gasp from the young leopard. “Now don’t be getting a big head, son. You are still not an adult in the eyes of your parents. You are only mature in your faith.”

       Amana stared at Fahari in disbelief. “What in hell are you doing to your son??”

       Fahari turned quickly as Chui started to lick the small wound on his shoulder. “It’s our custom…he has shed his mother-blood and will make blood of an adult male.” He turned a bit to show her his scar, “See…my father did this for me when I was his age.” He looked at her, sorrowfully. “I’m sorry…I told Chui to expect it…but I couldn’t tell you. I was afraid you would try to stop me. This is very important to me. Please understand.” He looked to his son who nuzzled him.

       Amana sighed. “I’m sorry…I know very little bit about your customs. I try being a good mother to him…but I can’t be a good leopardess mother to him. I can show him how to hunt in the open…but it does him no good because of his color. I can’t show him properly how to hunt here for the same reason. I feel like I’m holding him back. Maybe I should just leave him to you and let you finish his education.”

       Fahari and Chui nuzzled her. “Dear…without you, he would be dead. You have done so much for him…and me. He is all I have left of my mate now.”

       “Mother…please don’t go…”

       Amana looked up slowly and smiled, “You really mean that?” They nodded. She nuzzled them both, “Thank you…I thought I was a failure after I was thrown out of my pride…but you two are proof that I’m not.” She smiled and gave them both a kiss, “Any other surprises that I should know about?”

       Fahari chuckles, “Hundreds…but that is for another time. Come…I brought some food to celebrate our son’s achievement.”

       Nights went on…and Fahari told Amana stories that his mother, and her mother before her told their cubs. Slowly she began to understand her spotted cousins.

One morning, she awoke to find Fahari gone. That didn’t surprise her, but then she noticed that Chui was gone also. Was he with his father? She didn’t know. She searched for him high and low, with growing panic. She finally intercepted Fahari. “I can’t find Chui,” she said out of breath

Fahari smiled. “Don’t panic, love. Look, he’s fine.”

Suddenly Chui appeared from out of the jungle, standing proud next to his father, “Hi mom…me and dad have been doing some cool things”

Fahari smiled a bit. “Yes…cool things.” He nuzzled Amana gently, “Don’t worry. It’s part of being a leopard. You have raised him well and with love. But you are not a leopardess. There are certain things a young leopard must know. Things fathers have passed to their sons since the world began.”

She smiled and nuzzled him back, “Of course.” She winked at Chui, “Don’t forget about your poor mother when you are doing all these …’cool’… things with your father. Don’t forget who will bathe you tonight.”

“Aw, Mom! Again??”

“Yes, Chui.”

Chui looked at his father. “She’s trying to lick my spots off.”

Amana nuzzled him, and Chui grunted with contentment. When Amana disappeared into the jungle, Chui said, “Isn’t she great?”

       He nodded, watching the golden form disappear into the greenery. “Yes she is. Now come on…there is much to do.”

 

 

CHAPTER 15: GOOD FRIENDS

       Many a moon had passed since Fahari and Amana’s somewhat awkward relationship had begun. Over time as the two had adjusted to each other’s differences, they sought out and found many things they had in common. Eventually, the two began to look forward to sharing time with one another as the rough trail of their mere association became the smooth path of real friendship.

       Amana’s time as a rogue had accustomed her to endless hours of padding across the endless savanna, but it was only when Fahari invited her on one of his jaunts that she began to appreciate the real beauty of the land around her. The leopard took great care to comment on the passing landscape, pointing out various features as they passed with obvious relish.

       “Look there,” he said one day, nudging her and pointing with his chin. “See that hollow underneath those rocks?”

       Amana paused, Chui curling about her legs as she squinted for a moment, then nodded. “I see it.”

       Fahari grinned. “I was born there. My Mom used to lay just beyond the hollow...see where the ground is flattened out? She’d lay there and nap, and my brothers and I used to climb on top of the rocks and pounce on her.”

       The lioness giggled. “Oh gods! I bet she was furious!”

       He laughed. “To see her, you’d think she was going to eat us all alive! Oooh, she could growl fierce enough to make a cub quiver in his skin. But there was always that little spark in her eyes.” Fahari smiled absently, his gaze far away in the past for a moment.

       Amana stole a glance at his face and smiled secretly inside. “She must have been a good mother to raise such a wonderful son.”

       Fahari cocked an eye at her and crinkled his whiskers upward in amusement. “Like someone else I know.” He shook himself briskly and led them away, pretending not to notice the look of mild embarrassment on Amana’s face.

       Later that evening, Fahari scaled down the trunk of a young and wiry baobab and dropped lithely down to the ground, landing with a muffled thump. Shaking an offending leaf from his ear, he stretched with a grunt of contentment and moved towards a clump of bushes still visible in the last of the twilight. He had taken perhaps two steps when a soft voice from behind him caught his attention.

       “Fahari?”

       He turned to see Amana curled comfortably at the base of the tree. “What are you doing here?”

       “Oh, nothing,” she said mildly. “Just relaxing. Care to join me? You’ve been in that tree for awhile yet; that has to be terribly uncomfortable.”

       “Not really,” Fahari shrugged. “I’m used to it.”

       “You’re not tired then?”

       “Well, I...” Fahari glanced back at the bush, then looked again at Amana, her eyes glowing softly in the dim light. Feeling a bit awkward, he padded over slowly and sat down next to her. “Just for a moment then. I could use a breather.”

       “I thought you might.”

       He stretched his forepaws out and slowly lowered himself next to her, sliding over a bit until his back was curled along the curve of her belly, the soft warmth feeling delightful on his fur. A soft purr emanated from the lioness as she slid a forepaw around his shoulders, feeling the rippling muscles underneath tense and then relax at her touch. “Poor Fahari...you must be terribly sore.”

       He grunted softly as her paw moved over his foreleg. “Mmm...that feels wonderful. Wherever did you learn to do that?”

       “Mabezo used to do that for me when I would come back from hunting with no prey.” Amana flexed her paw absently as she looked out at the darkening sky, the stars beginning to gleam brilliantly. “I felt terrible, you know, coming back with nothing to show for it.”

       Fahari began to purr slowly, his eyes slitted halfway. “I know the feeling. You don’t want to let down the people you love.”

       “Exactly.” The gentle rubbing of her paw had turned into a soft caress. Feeling him shift under her grip, she glanced down to see him looking at her in the darkness, the starlight reflecting from his eyes, obsidian pools that threatened to drag her down.

       “Amana?”

       “Yes?”

       “You remember when we first met...how angry we were with each other? Remember what you said? ‘You'll never drag me into the bushes?’”

       “I remember.” She giggled slightly, unable to tear her eyes away from his face.

       Fahari stood slowly. "It was funny then. It's not funny now." Bending down, he nuzzled her cheek, sliding his own across it and nibbling at her ear. Amana lay frozen, her blood pounding through her as he kissed her face and pawed her shoulder tenderly, a deep purr rumbling from her chest at his touch. "Oh girl, I want you. I've wanted you for the longest time but told myself it was wrong." Drawing back for a moment, he met her gaze. “I might not have a mane...and I may be short and spotty....”

       She lifted her face to his. “Fahari...I want to kiss each of those spots.” Her warm tongue flicked out and kissed the tip of his delicate black nose. “Starting with this one...” she smiled at him, starlight gleaming from her eyes, “and then I’ll work my way back.”

       Fahari drew a shuddering breath. "Crouch for me, Amana! Oh gods, I want you!"

       "Not here," she said. "Follow me."

       She swatted playfully at him and darted off, her sweet laughter drifting back to him as he gave chase. Amana loped along effortlessly, shortening her stride as she ran...she was easily capable of outdistancing him with her longer legs, but that would not do here. She was the prey and he was the hunter in a hunt as old as time itself, and the joy ended not in the satisfaction of the kill but in the sweetness of the pounce.

       Fahari sprinted after her, his heart pounding with more than just the exertion of his muscles as he neared her. He slowed up as she paused just ahead and turned to face him, eyes ensnaring him once again with their hunger. Drawing up close, he rubbed his cheek on her flank, and she answered with a deep purr.

       “Mom! Mom! There you are!”

       Amana and Fahari gasped in concert and turned to see Chui scrabbling towards them awkwardly, something dangling limply from his jaws.

       “Uh, what is it, Chui?”

       The youngster drew up close to them, panting as he set his burden, a newly killed rabbit, down in front of him. “Check it OUT! I caught it Mom! All by myself!” Chui puffed out his cheeks in relief. “Jeez, I thought I’d never catch you guys. Why were you running around like that?”

       “Uh, it’s nothing, Chui...we were just checking out some odd noise we heard over here. Everything’s fine.” Fahari made a move as if to leave, but Chui padded over to Amana and set the hare down in front of her.

       “Here you go, Mom.” He beamed up at her, the pride threatening to burst from him like a sunbeam from behind a cloudbank. “I brought it for you.”

       “Oh, Chui...” Amana looked over at Fahari, whose pride in his son’s accomplishment was clear enough, but whose eyes cried out to her in need. Looking down at the smiling cub in front of her, she saw a need that, while no less real, mattered much more in her heart. Sighing, she bent and nuzzled the smiling Chui tenderly, then sampled the hare. “Mmm...delicious.”

       Chui wriggled with delight. “You think so?”

       “Oh of course I do, you marvelous hunter you!”

       Unseen, Fahari slipped away into the night behind them, heading off silently on some errand known only to him.

       Much later, Amana lifted her head to see the leopard emerging from the underbrush, another hare gripped in his jaws. Rising quietly, she moved away from Chui, who lay asleep, and padded over to nuzzle her mate. “Hello, love.”

       He dipped his head and deposited the hare before her, a purr emanating from his chest. “Hello indeed. I’ve brought you something as well,” he grinned, “but I thought perhaps we could share it....later.” He nuzzled her neck and ear gently, immersing himself in her scent, wild and lovely.

       To his surprise, she pulled away. “No, Fahari...not now. It wouldn’t be right.”

       He blinked in shock. “What did I do wrong?”

       “Nothing love....nothing.” She sighed. “Perhaps for one moment back there...but not now.” Amana looked in his eyes and ached at the confusion and hurt she saw in them. “Please, love...it’s for the best.”

       “Yeah.” Fahari nodded stiffly, then paced away out of her sight. Jaw clenched with frustration, he waited until he had passed out of earshot and then growled, ripping at a nearby tree with his claws, sending the bark flying in a shower.

       Drained, he stood back, panting, and sighed miserably. “Yeah.”

 

 

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