V



"This is more like it, Cassius!" roared Claw happily. Claw was lying in a vine hammock by the remains of the animal restaurant, gorging himself on the food. The hyenas were fighting over scraps, tugging on the structure's supports, and generally destroying the improvements the animals had made to the area. "This feels good! I'm King of the jungle. KING!" he roared.

"There's just one small problem, Claw," said Cassius. "Kimba is still around. My spies tell me that he and all the other animals have gathered at the hot springs for refuge. As long as Kimba leads them, they can launch a counter-attack."

"That's right," growled Claw, angry again as usual. "Kimba still lives! As long as he's alive, there's a chance he might return to take over my kingdom. I can't rest until he's destroyed!"

Tom and Tab walked up, stepping and snapping in rhythm. "Hey, Boss," said Tom, "we did some pretty good work, huh?"

"Yeah, good work!" said Tab.

"So," continued Tom, "we were wondering if for a reward you'd let us have some of the food from that animal restaurant?"

"Not now, you fools!" Claw jumped up from his hammock. "You haven't completed the job yet! Kimba still lives. And as long as he's around, no one rests! Go round up all the hyenas and tell them to run to the sulfur springs now! We are going to finish off Kimba and his followers once and for all! GO!"

Tom and Tab fled the scene, arms flailing. Cassius ran to the animals' farm. The hyenas were gnawing on the young crops. "Stop that, you hyenas!" he ordered. "There's work to be done! The animals are down at the hot springs and Kimba is with them. You haven't destroyed the white lion yet! Claw orders that no one rests until the invasion is complete. March!" The hyenas left the fields and followed Cassius.

* * *

The guns were ready. About thirty hollow logs on stone supports were lined up against the bottom of the ledge. A small fire burned next to each of the home made cannons, ready to ignite the explosives inside. All the animals stood and waited nervously.

"Kimba! Kimba!" Pauley screeched as he flew towards the guns. "The hyenas are coming, and Claw is leading them! The attack is about to begin!"

"I hear you, Pauley!" shouted Dan'l. "I'll go get him!" Dan'l ran to one of the caves, expecting to see Kimba gathering one last load of saltpeter. "Kimba, come quick! The hyenas are attacking right now! You have to ... Kimba?"

Kimba was lying on the floor of the cave, crying.

"Kimba, I know you're frightened, but you must have courage. This is a brilliant plan you came up with. You have to have faith that it will work."

"That isn't why I'm crying, Dan'l," said Kimba. "I'm crying for Kitty. I'm so sad and worried about her. My parents are gone, Roger Ranger left the jungle, and now Kitty's captured. It seems I always lose everyone I love. I'm terrible, Dan'l; all my friends are about to be attacked by a vicious band of hyenas, and all I can think about is Kitty."

Dan'l blinked. "Kimba ... did you just say that you love Kitty?"

"I guess so," said Kimba. "I guess I didn't realize it until now. But I guess I do."

Dan'l smiled, then chuckled. "Well, I'll be. Caesar's little boy is growing up!" He roughed up the fur on Kimba's head so it stood up like the mane on an adult lion. "Kimba, please believe me when I say that I understand exactly how you feel. I'm proud that you care so much about Kitty, and it's all right to worry about her. But you can't let it get in the way of your responsibility to all the other animals in the jungle. Now let's go, or there might not be a jungle for Kitty to come back to."

"You're right." Kimba stood up. "Thank you, Dan'l. You're a real friend. You know that I don't always listen to your advice, but I've really needed it today. My father would be proud of you." He smiled at his old advisor. "Come on!" Kimba ran towards the battlefield with Dan'l following.

When they arrived, Claw was already leading the hyenas on a slow march towards the animals cowering at the base of the cliff. Claw was snarling.

"Stop!" yelled Kimba. The procession stopped. Kimba walked up to Claw and faced him. "Claw, you've done lots of terrible things in your life, but this has to be the worst! I've tried to reason with you many times before, and it's never worked, so I won't try again now. Instead I will only give you a fair warning. I don't like to fight, and I'd rather do almost anything than destroy another living creature. But unless you call off your attack, you are very likely to get killed. Do you understand me?"

Claw threw back his head and roared a long laugh. "You make me laugh, Kimba! You're helpless! You're finished! It's you who will be killed, not me!"

Kimba ignored Claw and addressed the hyenas. "To all of you hyenas, I have this to say. Leave right now or I will use the magic of the white lion against you! This is your one and only warning!"

A murmur ran though Claw's army. Claw turned to his troupes, furious. "There is no magic of the white lion, I say! It's all a silly legend! Don't let that little white pussy cat fool you!" Tom and Tab looked at each other and snickered.

Kimba took advantage of Claw's distraction to run and join his friends at the guns. When he reached the wall he turned around, sat down, and looked at Claw.

Claw looked at Kimba, showed his teeth, and roared. "ATTACK!" The one-eyed lion and all the hyenas charged.

"Ignite the guns!" ordered Kimba. The animals rammed burning twigs into the ignition holes, corked the ignition holes, and waited. "Dan'l," asked Kimba, "did we ever test fire any of these guns?"

"There wasn't enough time, Kimba," replied Dan'l. Kimba began to sweat.

"HA HA HA!" laughed Claw. "You're done for, Kimba! I'll take you on myself!"

BLAM! An explosion as loud as a thunderclap came from the far-left side of the wall. The hyenas near it screamed.

BLAM! Another explosion from the right made some of the hyenas fall down.

BLAM BLAM! Two more guns fired in unison. The charging hyenas slowed.

BLAM! The gun next to Kimba fired off, hitting Claw strait in the face with a wall of high velocity rocks and searing gunpowder. Claw screamed and dropped.

BLAM BLAM BLAM! The charge stopped and the hyenas looked confused.

BLAM BLAM! The hyenas in front turned around to run away, knocking down the hyenas behind them.

BLAM BLAM BLAM BLAM! Now the whole army was in disarray, running left and right. They ran over each other trying to get out of the line of fire.

BLAM BLAM BLAM BLAM! All the hyenas were yelping with fear, and those who could run retreated at full speed, trampling the others.

BLAM BLAM! Bursts of pebbles shot through the air, hitting and stinging the hyena invaders.

BLAM! The firing stopped for a few seconds. "All right, friends!" shouted Kimba. "Now that the hyenas are in retreat, let's chase them out of our jungle!"

Kimba's fighters chased small packs of hyenas this way and that. Some they chased into the river, sending the invaders floating down stream. Some they chased into the hot springs, where the hyenas jumped in pain from the scalding water. Some they chased all the way to the desert, nipping at their heals as they ran. Kimba personally chased Cassius to the mountains where the cave dwelling panthers lived.

Late afternoon, Kimba walked back to the sulfur springs with Dan'l and surveyed the battlefield. "Look, Dan'l," said Kimba, "there aren't any dead hyenas here. What do you suppose happened?"

Dan'l chucked. "Hee, hee, hee. Those guns we made were so crude, we probably couldn't have hit a small mountain at close range with one of them. A few of those stones may have hit the hyenas, but probably not very hard. I'd say they were more scared than anything else. The hyenas did most of the damage themselves, running into each other. They aren't very disciplined fighters; you said so yourself."

"Look, Dan'l! Claw's still here!" Claw lay on the ground with a semi-circle of Kimba's friends surrounding him. Kimba walked to Claw and sat down. Claw was moaning.

"Claw, I hope you really learned your lesson this time," said Kimba. "We could punish you, but I know revenge never does any good; it only brings more trouble for years to come. Instead, we'll give you one more chance. If you work with us to help repair all the damage you and the hyenas did to our jungle, we'll let you live peacefully with us as long as you behave yourself."

"Kimba!" snarled Claw. "You and your tricks! The hyenas may have run away, but you don't scare me. I know there's no such thing as white lion magic!"

"That's where you're wrong, Claw," said Dan'l. Everyone looked at the elder baboon. "What you saw today was real white lion magic. The magic isn't in old legends, ancient animal hides, or native's ceremonies. The white lion has protected this jungle for centuries by being brave and kind, winning the cooperation of fellow animals, and thinking smart to solve problems. That's what the magic of the white lion is all about, Claw, and as you can see, it lives on in Kimba today."

Two hyenas approached. One had his leg in a cast and was walking with a crutch. The other wore a turban-shaped bandage on his head and had his arm in a sling. They snapped their fingers to a tune they whistled.

"Tom! Tab!" growled Claw. "You really blew it this time! Go round up the hyenas and tell them to come back and finish the attack!"

Tom stared and frowned at his boss. "No way, Claw!" said Tom. "The hyenas are all too scared of the white lion. No one who saw what happened here today is coming back to this jungle ever again. Besides, after leading them into a disaster like that, they wouldn't follow you again in a million years."

"Yeah!" echoed Tab. "A million years!" They carried Claw away ... walking in lockstep.

"You know they'll be back to make more trouble, Kimba," said Dan'l as they watched the trio leave. "You could have finished them off now, once and for all. Why didn't you?"

Kimba said, "If I did that I would be acting like a vicious animal, and no better than Claw."

"I suppose you're right," said Dan'l. "But what are we going to do the next time he tries to take over the jungle?"

"Well, I guess we'll have to beat him again, just like we did today," Kimba said with a wry smile.

Speedy Cheetah jumped up and down on one of the guns. "Hurray for Kimba! Hurray for Kimba! Hurray ... whoops!"

The cannon toppled over and pointed upwards. BLAM! Everyone ducked and cringed. The small pebbles hit the top of a tree, shredding its leaves. Leaf fragments gently rained down on the group like confetti. Kimba started to laugh. "Ha ... Ha Ha Ha ... Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha!" The other animals, including Speedy, joined in laughing, and after a minute the laughing turned into cheering.

* * *

Ignotso trudged through the desert in the hot afternoon sun. "I have ... to keep going ... keep ... going." He looked ahead and saw the desert floor shimmering. "Water!" he said. He ran ahead further, only to find more sand. "No," he said, "it was only a mirage. I knew that. I'm getting delirious from dehydration, I can tell." He walked on, Kitty asleep in his backpack. The desert wind erased his footprints.

The sky changed color from blue to red to black, and the stars came out. "I have to keep walking. If I stop to sleep, I might not wake up." The moon shone brightly, lighting his path.

Up ahead he saw a small stone structure. "It looks like ... a well! Am I seeing things again? It can't ... yes! It's a well!"

He ran towards the structure, then stopped cold. The wind blew the sand aside, revealing the skeleton of a human. To the right, a walking stick was stuck upright in the sand. "No ... no it can't be. This man must have come to the well looking for water and died because there wasn't any. The well must be dry." He sat down with his back against the well and panted. When he stopped panting he thought he heard a sound.

Drip ... Drip ... Drip...

He looked behind him, hoisted himself up, and leaned his face over the edge of the well. The ripples at the bottom cast moonlight all over the sides of the well, creating a shimmering, mystical effect.

"Water!" he yelled. "Water! The well isn't dry after all! There really is water here! I'm saved! Yes! It's a miracle!" He lowered the bucket, drew out the water, and drank thirstily. He lowered the bucket again, drank some more, and poured the rest of the water over his head.

He took Kitty out of his backpack and splashed some water on her face. "Kitty, wake up. Look! We have water here!" She opened her eyes, gave him a glassy stare, then lapped the water. "It's OK. We're safe now, Kitty. I know you're still tired. The tranquilizer probably hasn't completely worn off yet. Here, eat some food - it will make you stronger." The young lioness ate silently. "We'll sleep here the rest of the night, Kitty. I'm too tired to walk any further now. We can make the rest of the trip in the morning." Kitty looked up at him again, then closed her eyes and lay down on the sand. Ignotso lay next to her and slept.


Chapter VI