The Last Lions Page #3

as they grow

and her milk dries up.

The small male

doesn't seem to want to compete.

But while he bonds

with his mother,

his sister grows

stronger all the time.

Her cubs survival

is a hard taskmaster for her,

and despite the searing

heat and humidity,

she forces herself up again,

back onto the path

of the buffalo.

She seems to understand

that the herd will provide,

if she can just

crack that code.

She has a fresh tactic in mind.

Having taken up her position,

she tries something

very sophisticated...

a full on, out in the open,

rather desperate charge.

It panics the herd.

A lion hunt

is as much a mind game

as it is a physical

explosion of violence.

What she doesn't know is that

the commotion of the hunt

has drawn interest

from across the river...

Silver Eye.

Only a thin strip

of water divides them

at this point in the river.

The intensity keeps

Ma di Tau focused -

perhaps too focused.

The night hides many

a bold and sinister thing.

Signs of change often come

in the slight shift

of grass in the breeze,

or a hint of a scent that brings

disturbing news to Ma di Tau.

She and her cubs once again

stand directly in the path

of an aggressive, half-blind

lioness and her followers.

Ma di Tau's hostile warning

buys her time

against these huge lions,

who present a united force

though lack the confidence

of her local knowledge.

The cubs understand

her body language;

they know what to do.

This territory

is her last option.

There is nowhere else

for her to go.

If she flees from the island,

she'll immediately

have to face

the males

patrolling the far bank.

And if she were to avoid them,

at the horizon there are people,

villages, guns.

The river is her defense

and her confinement...

Her last stand.

This island lives and breathes

by a different set of rules

to the rest of Africa.

The pride has some

lessons to learn

before they can

call it their own.

The first is that

it's a mistake

to sleep too deeply

on Duba island,

especially when

a scar-faced bull

has smelled the spilled blood

of his young.

Ma di Tau hears

the buffalo attack.

She pictures the chaos

from bitter experience.

One sound -

the crash of water

as the buffalo retreat -

takes on a new

significance to her.

Water!

Each crystal clear splash

clarifies an idea:

buffalo flee to water to escape.

They use it as

a protective barrier

between themselves

and the lions.

And yet, they still panic,

bunch together

and make mistakes.

If she can make

water her strength,

it will be their weakness.

Silver Eye has noticed

the silent hunter on the move...

and what she has

left behind in the grass.

The casual awakening

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