Zazu escorted Nala from the dangers of the elephant graveyard back to the safety of the Pride Lands and the comforting presence of her mother. “Good evening, Sarafina. Never fear! I’m returning your little girl safe and sound.”
“Safe and sound?” Fini smiled, but looked a little uneasy. “Was there some doubt?”
Nala froze, waiting for the truth to out.
“Oh, you know how cubs are,” Zazu said, passing it off with a good-natured laugh. “She wandered a little too far away for her own good. Things got kind of dull at the watering hole and she went chasing rabbits. Maybe I’m too strict, but I sent her right back home. Better safe than sorry, I always say.”
Sarafina relaxed and the tip of her tail stopped twitching and moved casually back and forth. “I appreciate that.” Fini nuzzled Nala and pawed her.
Nala gradually realized she was not going to get a good cuffing. She looked at the bird she had so recently deceived, taunted, humiliated and endangered and quietly mouthed, “Thank you.”
Zazu smiled and winked at her. “Well, I’d best be off. I’m going home to see my Mum. That brother of mine has been next to useless. You think he’d visit her once in a while, living practically in the next tree while I have to fly over six quarrains!”
Fini smiled. “At least you are a good son.”
Nala nodded in hearty assent. Indeed, things were better between Zazu and her after that evening, and she never called him a “dodo” again.
“Mom, how far is six quarrains?”
“That’s twice as far as three quarrains. How should I know!” Fini laughed. “Well, Nala. What did Simba want you to see? Was it as great as he said it was?”
“Not really. Zazu was right--it was kind of dull.” She thought back over the things that had happened, looking for one that could be safely discussed. Suddenly her face was awash with irritation. “There’s something bothering me.” She scratched behind her ear.
“What’s bothering you?” Fini asked, grooming her behind the offending ear. “A flea? I hate those.”
“No, I mean something I heard today. Zazu said I was betracked to Simba. He said we were going to be married someday and there was nothing I could do about it.”
“Oh, you mean betrothed!” She smiled and cuddled Nala to her side. “That’s something that you should be glad about. When Simba has his mantlement, he will put his paw on your shoulder and ask you to be his wife. The moment you accept, you will be a princess, and someday Queen of the Pride Lands.”
“Why would I want to marry him??”
“I thought he was your best friend!”
“That’s just it! It’s so weird!”
Sarafina laughed softly. “It’s time we had a talk--lioness to lioness. Honey Tree, it’s great when you get older and you want romance. But friendship is the most important part of marriage. You are laying on my side right now, and you feel safe and happy. Someday when you’re a big lioness, you’ll still want to feel safe and happy, and those are the times you’ll lay touching his soft, warm body and listening to his heart beat. When you’re tired from hunting all night and nursing cubs all day, and your eyes are red and swollen, he’ll look at you and say ‘My beautiful Nala,’ and you’ll know he means it with all of his heart. That will mean a lot to you then. And when he comes back from patrol with grass and sticks in his mane and mud on his legs, you’ll call him, ‘My handsome Simba,’ and he’ll know you mean it with all of your heart.” Sarafina touched Nala with her tongue.
“What would I do with a lot of squalling cubs?" Nala said, not thinking of herself as one because she was a whole three months old.
Dreamily, Sarafina said, "You can groom them, and kiss them, and nurse them on the cool afternoons when their sweet little mouths draw sustenance from you, and you can tell them stories....” She pulled Nala closer and began to fondle her with her paw. Mother love radiated from her kindly face. “In fact, I'd really like to tell you a story just now, if you're not too old."
Nala rubbed her cheek against Fini’s and kissed her. “Sure, Mom.”
“There was once a Lion King named Kamambe who was blessed with many children, but all of them were daughters. After the third litter of females he began to worry he would never have an heir. He decided to welcome any deserving suitor who would wed his eldest daughter Nasaba.
“Many lions came to pay homage and woo the royal bride, but she rejected them one by one. Nasaba was a hunt mistress, just like Uzuri. She lived for the hunt but not want to take on queenly duties. She was used to being pampered and getting her way from her doting parents. The idea of being accountable to some stranger coming in to become her king was not her idea of fun. She also said there was not another lion like her father--if there was, she would marry him, but as it was, no lion would come in and be her king.
“Then one day in came Prince Mohatu who was determined to put his paw on her shoulder. She was not very receptive to his advamces, but this did not deter him; he saw through to the beauty within her. Like sunshine was her face, like stars her eyes, and like supple reeds her limbs. He fell hopelessly in love with her and begged her to accept him as her mate.
She refused him as she had many others, and to King Kamambe this was scandalous, for he liked the Prince and would have him above all others rule his land when he was gone. “Why have you refused him?”
“For the same reason I have refused all others. There is none I would marry, even if Mano himself had a son and presented him to me.”
“But you cannot do this! You cannot let your father go to his death worrying! Promise me that you will at least put him to a test. Give him a chance, and if he fails you, I will send him away.”
And for love of her father, Nasaba agreed. But she determined to invent a trial that no lion could endure.
And coming to Prince Mohatu, she said, “If you would be my husband, you must bring me a token of your love. Cross the River of Death and the Desert of Sorrows. You will see the Mountain of Hopelessness before you, and on its summit grows a tree with pink blossoms. Pick me one and bring it back unwilted as a token of your love, and I will be yours.”
Now the River of Death was well named, for it was very deep and broad, and no lion could live to swim across it. But so full of love was he, that he jumped in and swam and swam until his strength was gone. And as he started to go under, Mohatu cried out to Aiheu and said, “Lord, if you look with favor on my undertaking, help me!”
Aiheu heard his cries and sent four large snapping turtles to him. Mohatu stepped on their backs like stepping stones and he was carried across.
Mohatu reached the Desert of Sorrows. Indeed it was well named for it was a fierce and forbidding land. No lion could live to cross it. But so full of love was he that he set out and walked and walked until the sun had drained the life from him and parched his throat. And as he started to collapse, Mohatu cried out to Aiheu and said, “Lord, if you look with favor on my undertaking, help me!”
Again Aiheu heard his cries and sent One-who-brings-rain to place a cloud over him to shade his path. And because he was parched, the cloud rained until he had drunk his fill. Thus he was safely across the desert.
Before him was the Mountain of Hopelessness. Indeed, it was well named for its slopes were steep and treacherous. No lion could live to climb it. But so full of love was he that he started up and climbed and climbed until he was trapped on a ledge. He could not climb up or down, and as he was ready to fall, for the third time Mohatu cried out to Aiheu and said, “Lord, if you look with favor on my undertaking, help me!”
And when he had spoken, an eagle came gliding down the mountainside, and in his beak was a single pink blossom! Now this eagle was Aiheu himself, and he said, “Before you call on me again, I have looked with favor on your undertaking or you would not have come this far. Thus I have blessed this flower, and as long as your love lasts it shall never wilt.”
“Then indeed it shall never wilt at all!”
Kamambe was very sad, and he paced about in his anguish. “My daughter, you have killed a good and worthy lion! As surely as if you choked the life out of him with your own jaws!”
“He could have refused me, or he could have gone home.”
“Or you could have married him.”
Nasaba was moved by the grief of her father, for she truly loved him. So much did she love her father Kamambe, that she considered all other lions unworthy. And she said, “I will go to look for him. And if he lives, I will marry him.”
But Kamambe refused. “I shall not lose my daughter whom I love. If he returns, however, you shall keep your offer.”
Within the week, one of Nasaba’s sisters spotted a lion with a pink blossom in his mouth. “Behold, it is our Prince!”
Nasaba fell at his feet. “Thanks be to Aiheu that you have returned!” She inhaled the fragrance of the flower and when she did, Aiheu opened her eyes to the love Mohatu felt for her, and she kissed him. “I thought in the whole land there was not another lion like my father. But you have loved me when I least deserved it, and you shall be my mate and my king. Your love is true as the sunrise is to the morning.”
Nala looked at her mother suspiciously. “There wouldn’t happen to be a moral to this story, would there?”
“Do you want to take a guess at it?”
“I’m supposed to marry Simba someday ‘cause you promised.”
Sarafina pawed her gently. “Maybe it’s not that at all.”
“You mean I don’t have to marry him? Then what IS the moral?”
Fini smiled. “Maybe the point is not to turn people away without giving them a chance--a fair chance. Then you can make a good decision. Honey Tree, you never know what token of love Simba might risk death to give you. Don’t rush to answer ‘no.’ until you’re old enough to understand the question.”
Coming from the east was Mufasa and young Simba. “I bet he got a good cuffing,” Nala thought. She got as close as she dared and watched carefully. But Simba and Mufasa were smiling and talking. Simba caught a glimpse of her and looked at her for a moment, a warm smile on his face. Nala felt the smile escape her from deep inside, and her tail twitched restlessly. She could hear a poem going through her head:
With a smile of embarrassment, she said to herself, “Well, I guess it COULD happen....”