John Burkitt - Touch of the Nisei

The birds began to gather, but Gamu looked up hatefully. He was already angry, and their unwanted company set him off. “Stupid birds! Piss off!”

The vultures looked at each other, stunned.

“I said piss off!”

They took to the air before he had a chance to charge them, but then they circled maddeningly just out of reach of his leaps and shouted at him, “Gamu, Gamu! Naughty boy! We know who you are and we know what you did!”

He was mortified. He shouted “I’ll pluck you and eat you!”

“You can’t fly!”

“And you can’t fly forever! You’ll have to land sooner or later!”

“Promises, promises! Look at the naughty kitty! Time someone taught him some manners!” They flew off, laughing.

Gamu stalked back to Elanna who stared at him. “So, what are YOU looking at!”

“What did they mean? They know who you are and what you did?”

“It’s between them and me. Besides, how should I know? Maybe he saw Kubali trying to seduce me. Just drop it.”

She looked away from him. “If you say so.”

“I didn’t mean to snap. Sorry, my dear. I just hate buzzards, that’s all.”

A lone lion made his way through the grass with the fearful, empty tread of the recently exiled. His old friends, his family, and his familiar grounds were behind him, perhaps forever, but this time he did not seek solace in a new beginning. He bore an extra weight on his shoulders that made his ears a little flatter, his tail a little lower and his step a little slower than most.

“Oh gods,” he muttered to himself, for he was once again his only audience. “Oh gods, what could I have done? What could I have said differently? I was happy, truly happy and willing to spend my life with her! She wouldn’t even tell me what I did? One moment she loved me, and now she has driven me away, and all I want to do is go to sleep and never have to wake up!”

Memories of the blissful moments he had spent with Elanna came crowding over him, torturing him in his loneliness. If only Gamu had known what his lie had caused, he would have reveled in perverse satisfaction. Kubali fell to the ground and sobbed. “Oh gods, you’ve taken away everything I lived for! Why not let me die! Oh gods!”

Unaware of the extent of his mischief, Gamu was busy trying to solidify his claim on Elanna. He felt victory, complete victory, waited for him over the next rise or behind the next rock.

Gamu alternated fear and tenderness, playing on Elanna’s helplessness and setting himself up as her one salvation. So far it had not resulted in a mating with Elanna, the mark of his absolute and utter destruction of Kubali. Knowing that Kubali had something that had eluded his grasp was more frustrating than his unfulfilled desire.

She refused him consistently. Once, in the throes of passion, he followed her about with a tense purring in his throat. He reached out with a paw and shoved her rump down, starting to mount her willingly or unwillingly. She turned about smartly and cuffed his face with all her might. As he lay stunned on the ground, she snarled at him. “Touch me there again and I’ll leave scars visible at night!”

She got very little sleep throughout the next day and night. She was afraid of him, almost as afraid as she was of the hyenas.

The end of her receptive period offered Elanna some relief from his constant entreaties, but his war of attrition shifted to other fronts. He went from a prospective lover to a caretaker.

“Lannie, if you will pledge to me, I will find a pride where you can be a queen again. You could hunt with pride sisters again as you once did. You can be respected.”

It went on subtly, day after day. Like water running across once baked earth, he began to gently, patiently wear gullies in her firm resolve. She did not grow to find him handsome, but she began to submit to his kissing her. She never kissed him back, but Gamu felt that would come with time. “It’s like that hyena game, whatever in hell that little weasel called it.”

Flush with what he perceived as signs of success, Gamu was more bold in taking leave of Elanna to chat with Griz’nik and keep him apprised of his progress. With a plan that ingenious, Gamu had to brag to someone or he would burst at the seams.

Never did Gamu pay any head to the circling buzzard overhead who watched--and listened carefully.

Markaaagh saw what he thought was a dying lion. He had a personal preference, hoping it was not Kubali. Despite his professional detachment, he had grown rather fond of the polite, intelligent lion. He lighted next to him, hoping to at least say something to ease his torment at the end.

“Hey Fuzzy, are you OK?”

“I’m not ready to be the guest of honor at your dinner party.”

“For once I’m relieved.” The buzzard regarded him closely. “Where is your lady friend?”

“Gone. She dumped me.”

Markaaagh looked surprised and disappointed. “Tell me it ain’t so! Brother, I know how you feel.”

“How could you?”

“Oyeghegh left me without so much as a pinfeather.”

“Oh? I’m sorry.”

“Of course, I take these things in stride. In my younger days, I was quite the rage among the young ladies, and I still haven’t lost it entirely! Har har!”

Kubali covered his eyes with a paw.

“You poor boy, I was happy for you. I was hoping this match would work out. I’m really sorry.”

Markaaagh trundled across a bit of savanna, flapping his huge wings until he was airborne and could put some distance between himself and the lion. He embraced the buzzard policy of not getting involved with animals he could eat. It was only courting pain and conflict. Still, he felt he had to get to the bottom of this. If only to find some dirt on Gamu that would give him the satisfaction of ripping out his liver when Fuzzy got through with him.

It took a while. In fact, it took several days. Then by patience and silent soaring, Markaaagh caught Gamu in a bragging mood, talking with a “dead” hyena about his imminent conquest. He heard Gamu tell the story for probably the hundredth time, though it was the first time he could put all the pieces together.

He had heard enough. “We can eat three day old carcasses, but some things we just can’t stomach.” He smiled a nauseating vulture smile. “Today, greedy gut, you get yours! Drive me off with insults, will ya?? I’ll see you ripped like a gazelle!”

Markaaagh flew quickly to find the moping lion. He told Kubali what he had heard.

“You have earned yourself FIRST RIGHTS at my next five kills!”

Kubali rallied. Suddenly he stood tall and straight and proud. It did Markaaagh’s heart good.

Gamu’s fear campaign had worked too well. Elanna was truly afraid to remain alone for even a moment with hyenas about. If only she had known that the nearby clan was the histrionic attempts of Griz’nik to be seen in several different places in quick succession, using variations on his voice with every territorial yip! He would call out “Ta’bliz!” (Attention!) and answer himself, “Mar roh!” (Yes milord!). The sound of the dark tongue would send chills down Elanna’s spine as she worried about those hyenas. Not used to freeloading off the lions, these were surely hunters of the first order, fierce and coldly efficient.

When Gamu left her with strict orders to remain behind, he really expected her to stay put. Though it was supposedly for her own good, Gamu’s ordering about was intended to complete his domination of her and to give him free reign to contact Griz’nik for further orders. Without careful coordination with the hyena, Gamu’s main trump card of fear of the hyenas would become worthless, for a frightened lioness can run faster than an angry lion.