It was a cold, moonless night on the Atlantic, the water calm, akin to being on a sea of glass, disturbed only by a lone oceanliner. The massive liner, largest of the time, steamed westward through the darkness in a bid to reach New York by that Wednesday, the 17th. High above the waves on the ship’s crows nest stood two young men on lookout duty, searching the freezing Ocean for any sign of trouble. Off the ship’s bow, a dark shape was looming into view. Wasting no time, one of the lookouts rung the warning bell thrice as the other phoned the bridge, muttering “pick up you bastards” to himself.
A member of the ship’s bridge crew answered the phone, and much to his horror, he heard three words that made his blood run cold, being “Iceberg! Right ahead!”
Simultaneously, the first officer, who was in command at the time, bolted into the bridge from the starboard wing, shouting “Hard to Starboard!”, a command the helmsman quickly obeyed.
Steaming at nearly 24 knots, the liner’s response was slow, her bow swinging sluggishly to port as those on her bridge and crow’s nest prayed.
After what felt like an eternity, a violent shudder passed through the forward section of the mighty vessel as her starboard bow struck an underwater part of the berg, her hull scraping along painfully, the sharp ice piercing her metal skin in several areas from her bow to forward funnel.
Up on the bridge, the First Officer called out “Hard to port!”, the ship trembling beneath his feet as it’s bow swung starboard, allowing everything aft of her first funnel to clear the berg.
Sometime later, after the damages had been assessed, the mammoth liner’s engines were ordered halted for the final time, water from the frozen Atlantic forcing it’s way through her crippled hull, slowly dragging her deeper. She struggled to even think due to steam from her boilers venting loudly from her stacks. Through the chaos, a familiar voice came to her via her marconi wireless, saying “sister, try to hold on, i’m 500 miles away” in a frequency only she and other liners could hear, all understanding the situation while her wireless operators only picked up what the ones of liner MKC were typing.
Her lifeboats would be lowered as the sea pulled her further down, her older sister’s voice sounding even more distant. Her own thoughts racing I was meant to be practically unsinkable… why…? Only interrupted by a now, much quieter voice pleading “little sis, please, stay afloat for me.. I’m hurrying as fast as my boilers will let me.”
“I’m sorry” was all the dying young liner was able to transmit before losing range with her older sister. Gradually the voices of the other liners she heard, including Carpathia, also died out, a realization hitting her after a half hour of radio silence that this was truly it. The freezing water now covered her name, “Titanic”, on her bow as her forecastle went under.
In a final attempt to stay afloat, a horrific pain shot through her, her hull and superstructure tearing itself apart. As quickly as the pain had come, she lost all feeling, bringing nearly 1,500 souls with her to their final resting place in the depths of the Abyss.
The sun rose slowly over the land, casting long shadows from various termite mounds that were dotted around.
Standing in the shadow of a relatively tall mound was a tan-furred hyena, roughly in her mid-late twenties, catching her breath.
Why must I always be in this much pain? Why is it always on this day? She thought to herself in spite of the excruciating pain she felt near her right foreleg and haunces. She began to limp ahead, her landmark being a large volcano that she got closer to over the course of the previous four, maybe five days? She shook her head, her mind fuzzy as she struggled to walk.
Suddenly, a scent hit her nose, that of a male hyena. “Thank God it’s stale”, she remarked out loud, though she couldn’t shake the feeling that the scent was… familiar?
Eventually, round noon, the lone hyena reached a watering hole. Crouching down for a drink, her ears flickered around a little. It’s just the wind she started lapping at the water, savoring it’s coolness in the harsh African heat.
Her ears perked again as she heard a distant voice say “Shut it Fur-brains” though anything else was unintelligible due to a slight breeze, one which also masked the scent of whoever had spoken from her.
“Who’s there?!” she snarled, bolting up quickly to look around, confusion crossing her face as she saw nobody.
A voice excitedly called “Look! She’s distracted!” from behind the female, causing her to whip around
To her horror, she was facing not one, but three male hyenas, all cornering her against a rock outcropping near the watering hole. Opening her mouth to speak, she was cut off by the medium sized male whomst appeared to be their leader.
“Well well well, looks like we got a trespasser, boys” he cackled, his smoky-grey fur a sharp contrast to the tan of the females.
“Uhh, are we gonna eat her, boss?” The largest of the three whined “I’m Starving” as the smallest had their tongue lolling out of their mouth, much to the female’s disgust.
A look of bewilderment donned the leader’s face, whilst his voice was laced with annoyance “What?! No you Fur-brains! We’re gonna find out who sent her!”
The female let out a gasp, finally realizing why the leader’s scent was so familiar to her. “Janja? Is that you?”, the voice in her head screaming at her that she was just imagining it.
The leader snapped his head around to face her “How do you know my name?!” His tone now significantly more aggressive. “Did Jasiri send you to take more of our territory?!”
“Yeah! Did she?” The smallest chimed in enthusiastically
“You… really forgot?” The female’s voice went from excited to sad, the voice in her head momentarily silent as tears formed in her eyes “it’s me, Aala.”
“Now i know you’re lying” Janja cackled, serving only to sadden Aala further “Aala died fifteen years ago in a storm”, though Aala couldn’t help but pick up an underlying sadness in his voice.
The other two males just looked at each other confused.
“Janja, it’s truly me..” Aala finally spoke again after an awkward moment of silence “I don’t know why i survived, or how, but it’s really me, please.” she was shaking as she spoke, everything in her mind and body telling her Run, he’s not the Janja you once know, yet she stood her ground
“How do I know you’re not lying” Janja snarled, stepping right up into Aala’s face, sizing her up as the other two males got closer
“Can we just eat her Janja?” the larger male whined “we haven’t eaten all day”
“Ignore those fur-brains, I want you to tell Jasiri that this little joke of hers is not funny, you understand?” Janja snapped, raising a paw to slash Aala’s face, causing her to shrink back further
“I don’t think Janja wants to eat her, Chungu” The smaller male spoke, to which Chungu replied “why not, Cheezi?”, though Janja continued to ignore them.
Aala closed her eyes, bracing herself, but the pain she expected never came. Slowly opening them, she saw the male she once knew hesitating. “Why did you stop? Don’t you want to send a message to Jasiri, whoever she is?” she tilted her head in confusion, submission in her voice.
“Aala..” Janja stuttered, his nose twitching like he finally recognized her scent “It’s.. really you..” His eyes noticeably tearing up. He quickly turned his gaze to Cheezi and Chungu, barking “Why don’t you two fur-brains get us some snacks!”
“Who are they?” Aala looked into Janja’s eyes as he turned back to face her, weeping a little “Did you replace me?”
He stumbled over his words again “oh, Cheezi and Chungu? Those fur-brains could never replace you, they’re not even as smart” ,though his struggling made Aala think he doesn’t like being confronted or asked too many questions. He continued on “I just… Always thought you were dead, all because of how those other idiots believed you were called by their circle of life”
“Is that why they never tried to save me?”
“Yeah, Aala, it is.” Janja turned to make sure Cheezi and Chungu had left before continuing. “That’s how I knew their Circle Of Life was for fools.”
Aala smirked and looked moved so she could look Janja right in his eyes “So you abandoned the Circle Of Life as well?”
Gazing back into her eyes, he responded with a simple “Yeah that’s right” before standing up as well “but it hasn’t been easy ever since, now nobody wants to let us eat.”
“They don’t??” Aala’s voice and eyes were now filled with concern “then how do you get any food?”
Janja began to walk away, his tail low as he started sniffing the air “We hunt sometimes, but that bitch Jasiri keeps stopping us. To think we keep getting bested by a twelve year old.”
Following him, Aala let out a shocked gasp before laughing “You, bested by a pup? You’re kidding, right..?” upon noticing Janja’s expression, her laughing stopped “you’re.. You’re serious.? How?”
“I dunno, it’s like she’s trying to be a one-man-army.”
“Hmmmm” Aala looked around as they started walking towards the Volcano she had been making for prior to this unusual meeting “she sounds like she just likes harassing you and your friends”
Janja frowned as he processed her words “maybe you’re onto something. But that doesn’t explain why she keeps taking more of our territory.” his steps falling at a steady pace as his tail thrashed a little now.
“What if she’s trying to drive you all out?!” Aala suddenly burst out loudly, now right next to him
“OW?!” he let out a cry of pain as he put his front right paw on his ear and shook his head “couldja keep down a little, that hurt”
Apologetically, Aala held her head low as she tried to speak “sorry Janja.. Just..”, though she wouldn’t get to finish.
“It’s fine, just don’t do it again.” Janja growled “though i’ll admit, i’m glad you didn’t lose your brains when they left you to die.” as he kept pacing, sniffing the air “hold, smell that?”
Aala simply sniffed the air and nodded, as the scent of prey filled her nose, though her mind was racing with several thoughts at once. Why is he acting so different? Was my near-death really that hard on him.? Does he share my feelings??
Flicking his tail to one side, Janja nodded to Aala as he moved towards the opposite, letting her movements mirror his as they circled around the prey, a lone antelope that had strayed into the Outlands, surprisingly deep at that. Skillfully, he lunged at it, scaring it right towards Aala, who took the opportunity and pounced, dealing a swift bite to the neck and killing it.
“Good job Aala, you’re better at hunting too.” Janja smirked and cackled “Perhaps we’ll be unstoppable against Jasiri now.” he stepped closer to her and their catch, his mouth watering and his stomach growling loud enough that she could hear.
Aala only now noticed how much pain she was in from hunger as her mouth watered as well. “You’re welcome. Now why don’t we enjoy this, you sound like you could use it.” she eagerly took a bite from the still-warm carcass of the antelope, savoring it’s taste.
Joining her, Janja took a couple bites as well, pausing only to say “gee, I don’t remember the last time i got to eat fresh antelope like this.” he dug back in hungrily as Aala ate alongside him.
After a few minutes, the pair had downed half of their catch before deciding to save the rest for Cheezi and Chungu
“Do you think they’ve caught anything?” Aala looked away towards the direction they had come from.
“Those fur-brains couldn’t catch something as simple as a falling leaf if their lives depended on it” Janja cackled, a look of content in his eyes from the fresh prey. “They’re probably off looking at rocks or something else stupid.”
“Well, it gives us more time to catch up on how things have been, I guess...” Aala sighed and looked into the sky as they just sat quietly by each other for a few hours, enjoying just knowing they were both alive still, and for the first time that day in her life, the pains in her haunches and foreleg weren’t as noticeable.
