Mtunga has arrived.
Jumoja runs to you and buries his face against your mane. "Mtunga!"
Mtunga steps out into the moonlit playground. "Jumoja.."
Jumoja steps back a step and looks down. "I'm sorry I was rude..."
Mtunga walks over to you and leans down to nuzzle you. "It's alright... Care
telling me about it?"
Jumoja looks up, though he's settled down a bit his eyes are a bit nervous. "I
thought I remembered like he said, then I didn't remember... when he said he
was always my friend.. I thought.. I thought he was my.. old friend, I guess."
Mtunga blinks and tilts his head, "Hunh? Hang on..." he lays down and wraps his
paws comfortingly around you. "Tell me everything.."
Jumoja bites his lip and looks up at the sky, then to your face. "I never told
anyone but Kurana before.. it was when I was real little."
Mtunga nuzzles you gently, "You don't have to.."
Jumoja smiles a bit at you. "You're my big brother.. I can tell you. You're my
best friend."
Jumoja looks back at the stars. "My Mom and Dad.. my.." He looks confused as to
the proper term. "My first? Mom and Dad.. they took care of me without a whole
pride."
Mtunga nods, listening...
Jumoja lowers his gaze a bit. "So.. I had to play by myself a lot. They were
tired a lot.. but.. I miss them." He pauses. "Anyway.. I met a hyena who was
fun to play with."
You mew, "He said he'd always be my friend. One night he wanted to play a joke
on my parents.. so I helped him and his friends sneak in.."
Jumoja sighs hard and pauses a long time. "They made me wait outside. I heard
fighting and hid... only.. my friend came out. I didn't let him see me, I just
ran away."
Mtunga starts to frown, "Go on..." he says solemnly.
Mtunga sighs and licks your face gently, "Was Ta-jon that friend?"
Jumoja looks down. "That's the bad part... I started to forget about that...
now I'm not sure."
Mtunga hugs you gently and starts grooming you. "I understand... "
Jumoja is still tense, and looks a bit mad. "Sometimes I think I should go when
I'm bigger and hunt hyenas instead of wildebeests, so I can find him."
Mtunga tilts his head and keeps licking you, "What would that prove?"
Jumoja pauses a moment. "That he can't hurt my family."
Mtunga roars deeply, "But he has. He hurt your family and you very deeply. Now
do you, deep down, wish that back on him?"
Jumoja growls a little. "It's fair." He looks up, and for a moment anger is
replaced by confusion. "Nalena said if I do something bad, my parents would
make the breeze blow in the right direction. So I asked them one night about
this.. and they didn't blow any breeze at all?"
Mtunga smiles a bit, "Jumoja, you can't always depend on others to show you the
correct path... Sometimes you muct dig deep into yourself and find it there.
Try it... Why do you really want to hurt that hyena? Will killing him make it
justified?"
Jumoja opens his muzzle right away to answer, then pauses and thinks. "Then he
wouldn't be able to hurt anyone else. Isn't that a good reason?"
"Good question." Mtunga admits, "But aren't you hurting him? And what of those
that love him? Why do you think he attacked and killed your family?"
Jumoja looks down. "I don't know. Kurana said because hyenas just like to hurt
others. I don't know about his family.. why would they let him do that?"
Mtunga's reply is simple, "Hate. They are thinking, loving, and intelligent
creatures just like we lions. The have needs and wants... But, fate has not
been kind to them. They are smaller and weaker then lions are, and as our main
competitors, we've forced them away from the best lands, the best herds, the
best life. Life is never fair Jumoja... There will always be winners and
losers, and hyenas in general didn't get a good bargain out of life. In their
frustration and anger at their predicament, they need someone to blame, someone
to spit at and raise their paws against. Being the winners, that job logically
fell to the lions. They hate us Jumoja, but they don't know why they hate us.
If they did, they would see just how futile and useless hate really is. And
THAT is why killing that hyena would be wrong. If anything, you should find him
and try to educate him. Now do you understand?"
Jumoja blinks several times, trying to understand. "I... I don't. I mean, I do.
I. <pauses> It's not good that we've made them leave the best parts.. but.. why
did we do that? Maybe they were already bad before that?" He pauses to think
some more. "I shouldn't kill him because he doesn't understand why he killed my
parents? He must still have known it was wrong?"
Mtunga smiles a bit. "Living creatures are all governed by what their instincts
tell them. We love our cubs and our prides and families. We took the lands we
could in order to feed and protect them. But in so doing, we left the mediocre
lands to the hyenas and forced them to scavenge. Life works that way... We eat
other animals because we have to. If not, they would overpopulate the world and
die of starvation. Similarly, predators need to be kept in balance as well. So
there has to be winners and losers. That hyena didn't realize that. All he knew
was his hatred for lions, a hatred he didn't know how to deal with because to
him, we were the ones making his life miserable."
Jumoja lets that sink in, and it seems to connect. "But.. what can I do? I
mean.. won't hyenas keep hurting lions because they are mad?"
Mtunga sighs a bit and nods. "Yes... As long as they're born into that life
they will be angry towards us. The best you can do is defend your family and
your pride from them, and when you get that rarest of opportunities to educate
someone, take it! Education is the light which will burn through the dark veil
of ignorance... "
Jumoja nuzzles into your mane softly. "I understand.. but it still doesn't feel
right. I'm still mad. But.. I guess if I hurt him, his family would be mad at
me and lions all over again, same as I'm mad at hyenas. Right?"
Mtunga smiles and nuzzles you. "Exactly. Hatred and evil beget hatred and evil.
That's part of the reason it keeps perpetuating, because lions hurt hyenas too.
And so, just like the circle of life, so does it's counterpart keep spinning in
an eternal circle of hate and violence. You need to remember just one thing
Jumoja, and that's that the REAL enemy isn't the hyenas. It's not the jackals,
the leopards, the gators, the cheetahs, or anyone. The real enemy is ignorance.
Ignorance which breeds hatred."
Jumoja ohs.. "I don't wanna be evil. Mtunga? Even if I told a hyena all that..
if he doesn't have a good place to hunt and I do, won't he still be mad?"
Mtunga nods slowly. "It's acceptance which will stop it. He may feel resentful
towards you because you can feed your family and he cannot. But that is not
something which you or he can change..."
Jumoja nuzzles into your mane and smiles. "Thank you, Mtunga :) I'll remember
what you told me tonight :)"