Part 4
The lioness called twice more before midnight.
Neema plotted the direction of each call while Asha searched the long-term pride records. A notched-ear female had been photographed east of the drainage three nights earlier with a cub close to Jabari’s age. Older identification files showed her and Jabari’s mother as cubs of the same litter, and the two females had later denned within a mile of each other.
“A littermate,” Neema said.
“Most likely.”
“So his aunt.”
Asha looked at the photographs again. “That describes the relationship. It doesn’t tell us what she’ll do.”
By dawn, they had found the lioness’s tracks along the edge of the floodplain. Juma kept the vehicle well back while Baraka moved toward a stand of umbrella thorns. Jabari trailed behind him, restless now, stopping whenever the wind carried scent from the east.
The notched-ear lioness appeared shortly after seven. She approached low through the grass and stopped roughly eighty yards away. A second cub emerged behind her, a little heavier than Jabari and darker along the spine.
Jabari saw them. His body lowered, but he did not retreat. Baraka reacted a moment later, turning broadside and moving between Jabari and the lioness. The movement was so precise that Neema inhaled sharply beside Asha.
“Keep filming,” Asha said.
The lioness crouched. Her tail tip moved once through the grass. The other cub sat beside her, staring.
Jabari tried to pass behind Baraka’s front leg. The old bull shifted backward, closing the gap. When Jabari moved toward his shoulder, Baraka took two steps in the same direction. The cub remained screened by his body.
The movement alone could not show whether Baraka was shielding Jabari or simply blocking another lion’s approach.
The lioness gave a short contact call. Jabari answered at once.
He slipped forward again, this time beneath the arc of Baraka’s lowered trunk. The bull lifted his head and released a single sharp trumpet. The lioness flattened herself against the ground. Her cub vanished into the grass behind her as dust drifted between them.
No one in the vehicle spoke. Asha could hear the small motor inside Neema’s camera adjusting focus.
After nearly two minutes, Baraka’s ears relaxed. He turned his head toward the umbrella thorns and tore a branch free. He chewed without moving his feet.
The lioness rose into a crouch and came ten yards closer. Baraka faced her again, and she stopped. Jabari stepped out from behind the elephant’s shoulder.
For the first time in forty-three days, he moved toward another lion while Baraka remained still. The cub crossed the open ground in a low, uncertain walk, pausing every few steps. The lioness waited until he was within a body length, then surged forward.
Neema made a sound in her throat as the lioness struck Jabari across the shoulder. He rolled, came up hissing, and froze. She stood over him, sniffing his neck, his face, and the base of his tail. Jabari did not run.
The second cub reappeared and circled them. He touched his nose to Jabari’s flank, jumped back when Jabari growled, then bounded forward again. This time their shoulders collided. They separated, stared at each other, and began a stiff-legged chase that lasted only a few seconds.
The lioness gave another call and walked east. Her cub followed, but Jabari remained where he was.
He looked toward Baraka. The elephant had turned back to the tree and was stripping leaves with his trunk.
The lioness called without stopping. Jabari trotted after her.
He caught up beside the other cub, dropped behind when the lioness glanced back, and followed them into the tall grass. His tawny back appeared twice above the seed heads before the plain closed around him.
Baraka fed for another eleven minutes. Then he walked north toward the river.
Back at camp, Neema transferred the footage in silence. Asha opened her laptop and found the fellowship portal still waiting on the recommendation page.
She attached the signed letter and pressed Submit. The confirmation arrived at 2:18 p.m., nineteen hours before the deadline.
Neema was cleaning dust from a camera housing when Asha went to find her.
“It’s sent,” Asha said.
Her daughter kept wiping the lens cover. “I saw the email.”
“I should have done it weeks ago.”
“Yes.”
Asha accepted the answer. “The delay wasn’t about your work.”
“I know.”
“I was afraid you’d get the fellowship.”
Neema finally looked at her. Asha did not offer an excuse. “You earned the recommendation. I made you wait for something that was already yours.”
“My interview is next Tuesday,” Neema said.
“If you want help preparing, I’ll help.”
“And if I don’t?”
“Then I’ll leave it with you.”
Neema set down the cloth. “You can look at my presentation tonight.”
Three nights later, Juma collected the memory cards from the eastern cameras. At 2:07 in the morning, one camera had captured the notched-ear lioness crossing the drainage. Her cub walked close behind her. Jabari was beside him, thinner and smaller, but unmistakable. In the next frame, both cubs fed shoulder to shoulder on the same half-eaten wildebeest while the lioness stood watch.
At 4:31, Baraka crossed the same camera’s view alone. The lioness and the two cubs had been traveling east. Baraka was moving west.
By sunrise, the wind had begun to erase both sets of tracks…
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