Larani's Loss By Malli  

    "Larani!" Kiara told her daughter. "Go get a cold cloth and some other 
supplies from Marentu. Hurry!" 
    Larani raced out of her home and started off toward Marentu's tree. "Poor 
Nala," she thought, "she's so sick. And there's hardly anyway to help her." 
She approached the old tree. 
    "Why, hello, Princess!" the young baboon told the lioness. "How may I 
help you?" he said cheerfully. 
    "Oh, Marentu,  wise son of Rafiki." she bowed to him. "You must help my 
family. My grandmother, Nala, is so sick. She may die any day now. We need 
your help and medical supplies." 
    Marentu grabbed his pack with his medical supplies in it. "Ready when you 
are," he smiled.
    Larani smiled back. "Come on!" She and the baboon hurried back to her 
home.
    When they arrived, Nala looked even more pale than before. Kiara lay 
close to her.
    "Mother." Kiara had tears clouding her eyes. "You'll be all right. I know 
you will. You'll get better." 
    "Kiara." she gasped. "You are queen now. Take care of the Pride Lands. 
And never forget me."
    Her eyes closed. And there was silence. Kiara started to sob and ran off 
to another room. 
    "We came too late." Marentu patted Larani. "I'm sorry, Princess. If 
there's anything I can do, you only have to ask." He started back off toward 
his home. 
    Larani and some other lionesses went into the room with her. 
    "I'm sorry, Mother. We are all sad. Can I do anything to help?"
    "You do not understand!" Kiara snapped. "Besides you and your father, I  
have no family left. My parents are both gone. My grandmother, Sarabi, was 
missing a few days after I was born and hasn't been seen since then. I just 
don't know what to do." She ran off again. 
    A few days later, Larani, Kiara and Kovu were invited to the celebration 
of Kawnu and Emala's son's birth. When thgey got there, Larani embraced
the proud parents. She gazed at the baby cub.
    "He's beautiful." The cub was a liger, a big cub with a tan color of fur, 
light gray stripes that you could hardly see, and bright blue eyes. 
    "His name is Kimbaru." Kawnu proudly said. Larani held Kawnu's paw in 
hers. 
    "Mom, Dad and I invite you and your family to live at Pride Rock with us."
    "Oh, really? Oh thank you!" Emala embraced Larani. Kawnu embraced her, 
too. 
    "Entirely welcome." Larani smiled. 
    As everyone was going home. Larani sat next to a tree to think. She 
remembered a young cub she had met as a child. She played with him at the 
spot she was sitting at, along with Kawnu and Emala, and they'd had a lot of 
fun. She and the new cub, Jobari, remained friends for a long time. But one 
day  he had left and he had never told them where he lived. So she never saw 
him again. Gentle rain started to fall. She missed Nala so much. She started 
to cry, and lay her head down. 
    "Excuse me, are you lost?"
      Larani sat up. The stranger was another lion. He looked familiar to 
Larani, but she couldn't remember where she had seen him before.
    "No," she said, "but I am sad because my grandmother died." 
    "I'm sorry." he said. "Who is your grandmother?"
    "Nala." she said.
    The other lion looked into her eyes. 
    "Larani?"
    "Who are you?" she asked. 
    "We were all friends as cubs. We were together for a long time but one 
day I left, and you never knew  where I lived. We all played, you, me, Emala, 
and Kawnu. "
    She backed up. 
    "Jobari?"
    "It is you, I knew it!" he nuzzled her.
    She hesitated at first, but then nuzzled him back.
    "Why did you never come back?" she asked.
    "We moved to another part of Africa. My parents wouldn't allow me to 
visit. But when I heard that Kawnu and Emala had a baby, she let me come 
back."
    " I missed you." he said.
    "I missed you, too." she said.
    " I have been waiting 'till this moment to ask you something very 
important."
    "What is it?" Larani asked him.
    He kissed her cheek many times. 
    "I love you. I always have loved you and always will love you. Ever since 
I laid eyes on your beautiful face, I knew I wanted to be with you forever. 
If you will be with me, I promise you will live a wonderful life."
    "Jobari." She was shocked. "Is that a proposal?"
    "Yes, I guess you could call it that."
    "Give me some time." was all she said.
    She ran off.
    She left Jobari there staring.

    Larani went home. How could I marry him? She thought in anger. He 
dissappears, and never tries to visit me or anything, and when he comes back 
finally,after all these years, he expects me to fall into his arms and 
forgive him right away? Well, then he got it wrong!
    She walked into her mother's room. There was a crowd of lionesses there, 
crowded around her mother's bed. 
    "What's going on?" she asked.
    "Your mother is sick," Kovu told her. "It's the same illness Nala had. 
She is dying. We called for Marentu and he tried to help her, but he doesn't 
know how." 
    "No! Not mother, too!"
    She asked everyone to stand back. They did as the princess told. 
    "Mom. It's me, Larani."
    "Larani.  Take care of the Pridelands. Make me proud."
    Then Kiara died. 
    "No!" Larani screamed. "First Nala, than my mother! I can't take this! I 
can't! I can't!" she ran off.
    She ran to the top of Pride Rock. 
    "Great Kings! Have mercy! Why must you torment me?!" she called up at the 
sky. "You take everything I love away from me! I can't take it!" 
    She lay there and cried. 
    She fell asleep.
    Sometime later, Larani found herself walking in a mysterious place, a 
place she did not recognise. She didn't know where she was, where she was 
going, or why she had been going there. Mists swirled about, and cool breezes 
gave her a sudden chill. She heard a voice. 
    "Larani."
    Larani saw her mother's form in the mist.
    "Mother!" 
    "Larani," she said, "You must go on. Don't worry about me. You cannot 
change the past, remember?"
    Larani cried.
    "All right, Mother. I will never forget you."
    "You too, my dear Larani. I must go. Goodbye."
    "No! Don't leave me!" Larani ran towards where her mother's spirit had 
been. 
    "Mother! Come back! Come back!"
    Larani sat up sharply. It was only a dream.
    The next day, Marentu came up to the princess. "Larani! I know what is 
causing the illness!" He led her the the water hole. There were green, spiky 
leaves at the bottom. 
    "Anadoro leaves!" she gasped. 
    "Yes," Marentu said. "The leaves that are toxic if eaten, or toxic if 
they are in water that someone is drinking.
    He handed her a gourd shell. "Pick up as many as you can with this, and 
put them in the mud pile behind Pride Rock that we use as a garbage pile."
    Larani did as the wise baboon told her. Marentu helped her, and n a few 
hours, the water hole was empty.
    "But how will we drink?" Larani asked.
    "It is supposed to rain today." Marentu answered.
    And he was right. Drip, drop, drip, drop. Rain started to fall, and 
refilled the water hole quickly. 
    "I'll be going now." Marentu said. 
    "Thank you," Larani said and hugged him.
    He went home.
    Through the rain, Larani saw a figure coming toward her. It was Jobari. 
    He came up to her and stared at her with a sad look on his face.
    "Jobari," she said, "I love you, I just was sad and could not answer you 
before. I will be yours."
    He smiled and nuzzled her. She purred with all of her might. She felt  
feelings that she had not felt in a long time. Peace and happiness.

    A few months later, Larani gave birth to a beautiful set of twins: a male 
and female. The female she named Kiara, after her grandmother, and the male 
Jobari, after his father. 
    She stood at the top of Pride Rock with her new family.
    "Mother was right." Larani thought to herself. "I must go on and not let 
the past affect me anymore."
    "My mother strived to be a true queen." Larani said to Jobari. "I will 
try my hardest to be a true queen as well."
    She roared. Jobari roared with her. The lionesses roared below. 
Kovu and Kawnu roared. Little Kimbaru roared a little cub-like roar. The 
animals, like the elephants, zebras, antelopes, monkeys and all the others 
that had gathered to see the new cubs, trumpeted and howled and yelled and 
squealed and made much noise to show how they loved the new king, queen and 
cubs. There was peace and happiness in the Pride Lands once more.
    "Thanks, Mother." Larani spoke to the skies.
    The rain cleared and a stream of light showed throught the clouds to 
shine on Larani, the new true queen.

THE END

Malli