The sky hummed with echoes of lightning that arched gracefully in above the dark clouds. The air crackled, alive, as every single fur that covered the pale Busisa's bristled. Eyes wide, she watched her death rush headlong towards her in the ghastly form of the familiar striped prey she had hunted for long now. Now they hunted her.
'Why?' the single word ran through her head as the bodies hit her and the world went dark.
...
...
The world surged back into existence. Air filled her lungs and she pulled herself in an effort to right herself. Bad idea. Groaning low she let herself lay for a moment, collecting herself before attempting the task once against with success this time.What she saw was horror. The ground was alive, fire dancing over it as it burned away what life it could consume to fuel its rage. Umthunzi just stared as the smoke began to replace the oxygen in her chest. It grew tight.
Her attention snapped to the side at the pained sound of what she had been hunting, no what they had been hunting. There had been more. Thre more. Thoughts ran through her head just as quickly as the zebra righted itself before stumbling off as fast as it could with the flames licking at its hooves. Umthunzi was stunned, mind reeling as she tried to recall what had happened before...before everything had gone black. She knew they had been hunting the zebra herd, that Siantaidh, Sobala and Jagazi had been with her, that she had been towards the front, that they had been about to strike when a surge of power that struck first.
Umthunzi gasped as she was suddenly pushed back to the ground once more by another zebra who had made its presence known by vaulting over a fallen tree, bursting forth from the glowing dark. Further she rolled, her body settling in a shallow riverbed that had since dried but as the sky lit up once more, an omen that foretold of the storm's arrival.
Her head raised just in time for a wet drop to hit her nose. Jerked downward, the injured lioness let out a surprised sound. Rain began to fall as if the gods themselves ripped the sky asunder to drown the world and start anew. And she was alone. It was then that she noticed the blazes, their warmth surrounding her in a comfort that was hard to ignore.
Coughs broke out of her throat, ripping.
Another zebra. A crack. Pain radiated as the coughing gave way for distressed roars.
'This...this is where I die,' even her thoughts were muddy, sluggish. Each breath came as a struggle, each one a challenge to draw in as the air grew dark, smoke choking her while the rain filled the basin her broken body laid in. No, her daughters, her Tawa, her everything. She had to move.
Willing her body to try, to move, to do something, and she failed. Her leg was broken, shattered by that damn striped menace that had bounded out of nowhere and stepped in her growing stream. Her body was tired, her mind was gone, her lungs burned as if the flames that were surely spreading outward to claim their victims were growing inside of her.
She would never hear him laugh, to prod at her strange mannerisms, to race her until their legs give out--which Umthunzi notes she she can currently not feel--and they watch the sun rise. They would never talk about their time in the desert, when they had been too stupid and young to tell eachother how they felt when had a chance. Maybe if they had both left together things would have been different. They could have ended up in a different pride, or maybe they never joined one in the first place. The thought brought a choked laugh from Umthunzi's mouth.
What pride...What prides had she heard of while she had travelled....Maybe the Pridelands. They were nice, a generally peaceful bunch and their hyena problem would have given the ex-Firekin something to do at least. Or maybe they'd head to the mountains, become hermits together, away from prides, away from rules, away from everything but eachother.
And now they had cubs, two beautiful little girls who were their world. Twins. And they would be without their mother. Would any of the other lionesses let them nurse alongside their own cubs? The thought clung to Umthunzi's mind like a fly on a summer's day, but it too faded as it was soon replaced with the imagery of Tawa, running, searching for her but finding no trace of her. Would the fires even leave her bones for her new family to mourn or would they consume them too?
What about the other lionesses? They had been further back, circling around...maybe? Umthunzi couldn't remember, thoughts too full of Tawa's smiling face, of her daughters, of her life that was slipping away. They would be okay, they would make it out, they would be okay...They weren't like her. They wouldn't be swept away in the chaos, forgotten, left to the fires? She didn't know if they would actually be okay, and at the moment her mind began to fade. The sounds of the whinnying zebra, their hooves stopping the ground, the crackling of the flames as it broke apart wood, plants, anything it could find.
Umthunzi's eyes began to itch, to sting. Tears rolled down her cheeks unabated. She had so many reasons to fight, but her body couldn't. Tired, numb, everything was...fine.
"I'm...s..sorry..." her voice was hoarse, straining as she tried speaking to no one. No one was there to listen to the lioness' last words. There was no reason to try. She did anyways. "Tawa...I..lo--"
There was....nothing. The words were never finished. They just faded into the roaring of the inferno.
Gone was Arita to those of the Motoujamii. Umthunzi to those of the Ithambo'hlabathi. Mother to her children who she would never see grow. Mate to the sun of her life.
A fiery goodbye.