IV



NARRATOR: It was a bright sunny morning in Kimba's kingdom, but there was little joy among Kimba and his friends. All the jungle animals had gathered at the sulfur hot springs to hide from Boss Claw's invading army of hyenas. Kimba, the brave white lion, was more worried than he had ever been in his life. His friends looked to him for leadership and protection, but Kimba was at a loss about what to do next. Kimba talked with two of his most trusted advisors, Dan'l Baboon and Bucky, while all the animals watched anxiously.

"I was afraid something like this was going to happen sometime, Kimba," said Dan'l. "The hyenas have been looking hungrily at this jungle for as long as anyone can remember."

"But Dan'l," asked Kimba, "why did they suddenly attack now?"

Dan'l stroked his chin and thought. "White lions have always kept hyenas out of the jungle to protect the other animals and the human natives. They were so successful a legend started that the white lions carried magic with them. When your father died, it seems, the hyenas thought that the white lion's magic still lived in the jungle. They believed that the magic came from the shrine in the deserted village. My guess is that Claw showed them that the hides were gone and convinced them it was safe to invade."

"No!" cried Kimba. "That means this is all my fault! I took the hides away from the jungle! If I had just left them where they were, everything would still be all right!"

"Pipe down, Kimba!" scolded Dan'l. "You had no way of knowing that moving the furs could lead to this! Blaming yourself won't help us get out of this mess! Besides, that shrine was practically in ruins already. If you hadn't taken your ancestors' furs away to somewhere safe, they would be in ruins too, and we'd still have the same problem."

Pauley Cracker flew towards the group, excited as usual. "Kimba! Kimba!" cried Pauley. "Terrible news!"

"What is it Pauley?" asked Kimba. "Are the hyenas on their way here to attack us?"

"Not yet," said Pauley. "It's about Kitty and Ignotso!"

"Kitty? Ignotso? What happened to them?"

"They ran into some humans who had come to steal the hides from the stone temple," Pauley explained. "They tried to stop the thieves, but the men had guns! Kitty got shot with a tranquilizer dart, and they tied Ignotso up with a rope. Leona doesn't know where the men took them; she thought the thieves said something about taking Ignotso to jail. And who knows what they'll do with Kitty!"

"Pauley, how can that be! I don't want to believe it! Ignotso didn't do anything wrong, how can they throw him in jail?"

"Leona said that the two men worked for the Director of the Interior Department, and it seems that his law is the only one that matters here. They said Ignotso was just sent here to make it look like the government was protecting the jungle instead of stealing from it." Pauley landed on Bucky's head and lowered his voice. "Your sister sent me here to ask you to help save Ignotso and Kitty. Kimba, what are you going to do?" All the animals looked at Kimba.

"Save Kitty and Ignotso!" declared Kimba. "I'll go rescue them right now!" He took a few steps and was about to break into a run, when he stopped and looked around. Every animal's head was hung low and all eyes looked down at the ground. No one said anything.

Kimba looked confused. "Wait," he said, "what's wrong? Why is everyone acting this way?"

"What did you expect?" asked Dash sarcastically. "That we'd all cheer and compliment you for your bravery?"

"I don't understand," said Kimba. "What do you mean?"

Dodie Deer's mother said to her daughter, "Try not to cry, Dodie. Even though Kimba is leaving us, I'm sure we'll find a way out of this trouble, somehow."

Dinky said to Dot, "Kimba's going to run away from Claw and the hyenas to go save his girlfriend. He thinks saving her is more important than saving us."

"Stop that, Dinky, she's not my girlfriend!" Kimba always got mad when someone referred to Kitty as his girlfriend. "She's captured by the humans, and she needs my help! If I don't help her and Ignotso, who will?"

Dan'l scolded Kimba again, practically exploding. "Kimba, I'm surprised at you! Look around! All these animals are your friends and they're in serious trouble! They've lost their homes, and now they're about to loose their lives! Are you going to abandon them like that just when they need you most?"

"You're wrong, Dan'l!" Now Kimba exploded. "You don't understand! I sent Kitty to the stone temple with Ignotso, and they got captured! It's MY fault! And now I have to make things right again!"

"Kimba, there you go again, blaming yourself for things that aren't your fault!" yelled the old baboon. "Everyone knows you didn't mean for that to happen! You thought they'd be safer out of the jungle, you said so yourself!"

Kimba collapsed on the ground and cried uncontrollably. "I can't help it! (sob) I have to rescue Kitty! (sob) I need her - I just need her! If she ... (sob) if anything happened to her, I'd feel so bad (sob) I don't know what I'd do!"

Everyone gazed at their prince in humble silence. Speedy Cheetah slowly walked over to Kimba, sat down in front of him, and started licking the tears from his friend's face. "Kimba," said Speedy, "I didn't know you felt that way. Do you really mean that?"

Dan'l Baboon put his hand on Kimba's shoulder. "We're all very fond of Kitty, Kimba. And naturally we're worried about her and Ignotso. But look around you. Every animal you see here is in just as much trouble as they are. The hyenas will be upon us soon, and we desperately need white lion magic if we're going to have a fighting chance."

"There is no white lion magic, Dan'l," said Kimba plaintively. "I should know."

"Then you'd better invent some pretty quickly, or we're finished." Dan'l spoke gently. "I've always tried to be a father to you, Kimba. Your dad was my dearest and closest friend. But you're old enough now that I can't make your decisions for you anymore. You have to decide for yourself and do what you think is right." Kimba remained silent.

"Kimba?" asked Speedy. "If Kitty were here, what would she want you to do?"

Kimba looked at his friend Speedy. Kimba thought to himself, "Speedy looks just as frightened as the day his paw was infected. And all the other animals look just as scared." He thought a little more. "Kitty wouldn't want me to leave my friends to the mercy of the hyenas. She's always thinking of others, not herself. She'd be ashamed of me if I ran away to try to save her at a time like this. Ignotso, too."

Kimba struggled to his feet and sniffed once more. "All right," he said. His face wore his most determined expression. "I'll stay!"

The animals let out a soft collective sigh of relief. "Yippee!" shouted Pauley Cracker as he jabbed his wing into the air and smiled like he had just won the lottery. "Now, what's the plan for beating the hyenas, Kimba ol' pal?"

Bucky said, "Maybe we could bring the lion hides back. We could wear them and pretend we are white lions and scare the hyenas away."

"I've already considered that, Bucky," said Dan'l, "and it won't work. The hides are so far away, we'd never get them here on time. Besides, we'd have to leave the sulfur springs to get them, and we can't do that without running into the hyenas. I'm afraid we're trapped. We have to make do with what we have right here."

"What do humans do when they're outnumbered, Kimba?" asked Bucky.

"I know the answer to that!" said Pauley. "They get guns, just like the men who invaded the stone temple!"

"But we don't have any guns," said Dan'l Baboon. "We've destroyed all the weapons that every hunter has ever left in the jungle."

"Then maybe we could make our own guns," suggested Bucky.

Pauley hovered in front of Bucky and sprayed words in his face. "You shouldn't be making jokes at a time like this, you numbskull! This is serious business!"

"Wait! That's it!" said Kimba excitedly, jumping up and down. "Bucky's got it! We can make our own guns!"

"But Kimba," said confused Pauley, "we don't know how to. And where would we get the materials?"

"Look," said Kimba, drawing on the ground with one of his fine-pointed claws. "A gun is only a long tube with one side blocked off. An explosion occurs here, and the bullets are forced out this way. We can use partially hollow logs for tubes and set them against a wall to brace them. If we find some logs that are already completely hollow, the wall can help seal their back ends. We can fill the logs with pebbles for bullets."

"But Kimba," asked Pauley, "what are we going to use to cause the explosion?"

Bucky spoke again. "Maybe we could use the explosions from some of the geysers here. Only you never know when one of them is going to go off." At that moment a small geyser went off right under Bucky, spraying him with hot steam. "OUCH!"

"Yes, Bucky, but something you said earlier gave me another idea. Ignotso said that gunpowder is made from coal, sulfur, and saltpeter. Look, we have it all right here. Sulfur from the hot springs, coal from the mountain, and saltpeter from the caves."

"What's saltpeter?" asked Dinky.

"You know that," answered Dot. "It's that white stuff we use as fertilizer for the farm. Remember, we spent an entire day collecting it off the cave walls this spring."

"But Kimba," said Pauley, "we've never done anything like this before. How do you know it will work?"

"I can't be sure," replied Kimba, "but here's my plan. Set up the guns along the base of that cliff right there. When the hyenas come to attack us, they will have to cross this field. As they do, we'll fire at them."

"If it works," said Dan'l, "we'll never have to worry about the hyenas ever again."

"I say we do it!" said Kimba. "All those in favor, say 'Aye'."

"Aye!" said all the animals eagerly.

"Good!" said Kimba. "The hyenas will probably attack soon, so we haven't much time. Let's work!"

The animals sprang into action. The rhinos knocked down trees with their horns. The squirrels, rats, and anteaters bored the logs hollow at one end. The gorillas mixed clay and rocks to plug the proximal side of hollow logs that other animals found. The elephants brought the logs to the designated wall. The woodpeckers pecked ignition holes in the logs. The pelicans scooped smooth stones from the banks of the hot pools to use for ammunition. The moles dug coal powder from the base of the mountain. Kimba and the other animals with claws worked to scrape saltpeter out of the caves and sulfur from around the hot springs. Dash ignited a dry branch in the volcano, and brought it to start a fire to make hot coals.

Pauley experimented to find the right formula for gunpowder. "Let's see," he said, creating a pile by sweeping the ingredients with his tail. "One part yellow powder, one part black powder, and one part white powder." He kicked a hot coal into the mixture and hovered directly over it, observing the reaction. A few sparks flew, and then the entire pile exploded in a miniature mushroom cloud. When the smoke cleared, Pauley's feathers were singed as black as a crow, and several white, X shaped bandages were stuck to his body. Pauley dropped to the ground with a thud. "Oh, my," he said. "Next time I think I'd better stand a little further back."

* * *

The truck rumbled through the desert slowly with Ignotso and Kitty in back. "First," said Ignotso to himself, "I need to get out of these ropes. The great Houdini said that when you're tied up, you tense all of your muscles for a few minutes. Then when you relax, the ropes will be loose. It's worth a try." He held his breath and strained.

"There! Now, how to get out of this truck? A patient at the homeless clinic once told me that with a Swiss army knife and a stiff wire you can jimmy the lock on any car. Let's see if he's right." After three tries he heard a pop.

"Yes! Now all I have to do is ask these guys to stop so I can disembark." He looked over his shoulder. "Not likely. I'll have to jump." He gripped his backpack, took the tranquilized Kitty in his arms, said a prayer, held his breath, opened the hatch, and bailed out.

He let Kitty fall out of his arms so as not to crush her when he landed. The human and the lioness rolled along in the soft sand for a few tumbles then lay still. Ignotso waited for the truck to lumber over the horizon before he got up. He scrambled over to where Kitty lay. "That was almost too easy." He said to himself. "They sure didn't try very hard to keep us from escaping. I wonder why not?"

He knelt down next to Kitty and examined her. "No broken bones, thank goodness. Her pupils are still constricted, and her breathing is shallow. That was one huge dose of tranquilizer they must have given her. I wish I had some Narcan or Flumazenil to reverse the medicine. I wish I knew what medicine was in the tranquilizer. But there's nothing I can do except wait for it to wear off."

He looked up and scanned the horizon. There was nothing but blowing and drifting sand as far as he could see. He looked worried. "That's why they didn't lock us in the paddy- wagon more securely. They knew that even if we did escape, we would probably die out here in the desert. I have no idea where we are."

He sat down to think. "I know there's a huge desert to the west of Kimba's jungle. That must be where we are." He studied his map. "We might have to walk for days before we get there." He opened his backpack. "I'll have to travel light. I'll keep the food, the film from the camera, the canteen ... the canteen!" There were only a few drops of water left. "I'll never make it across the desert without water! Maybe I should just wait here for those men to double back and pick me up. They'll do that when they realize I'm gone."

He looked down at Kitty. "No! Kitty needs to be back in the jungle! I'll have to risk it!" He unloaded almost all the gear in his backpack and left it on the ground. He was about to drink the last of his water, thought again, and picked up Kitty's limp body. He held her in his arms face up, flexed her neck to avoid her windpipe, and poured the contents of his canteen into her mouth. "At least her swallow reflex is still intact," he said with relief.

Ignotso threw the canteen on the ground. "Dead weight," he said. He gently loaded Kitty into his backpack, closed the flap to protect her from the sun, and hoisted it onto his shoulders. He then checked his compass and started walking.


Chapter V