In the Time of Lions

White Lion - Look into Your Soul

by Woxys at deviantart.com

I sit in the cave.
It is thousands of years ago,
in the time when people and lions 
lived together in caves
and could talk to each other.

It is the time of cold and famine,
and humans are
on the brink of extinction
when the white Lion King comes,
blue-eyed, regal, imperious
....and kind.

We sit in silence for a time,
our thoughts connecting,
We are thinking to each other 
about the humans dying.

Then he looks into my  eyes, deeply,
nods his head,
lays his big body down before me,
offers me his neck.

He is telling me he gives himself,
so we may eat
and not die.

We are both beautiful species then.

And so many years later, 
we repay him for saving us
by destroying the entire world.
Now it is lions
who are on the brink of extinction.

What must they be thinking?


For Corey's prompt at Real Toads: to write about caves. The story I relate is from one of the best books I have ever read The Mystery of the White Lions, by Linda Tucker. The African shaman Credo Mutwa relayed this legend to her, that when humans were on the brink of extinction, in the time when lions and humans shared caves together, the lion offered himself to the humans to eat, so they would survive. And now  hunters shoot lions for $40,000 a lion in canned "hunting" compounds. 

The book tells of Ingwavuma, leader of his pride, cornered by hunters in one of these compounds. When he saw there was no escape, he did not cower. He lifted his head proudly, roared and walked towards the hunter, bravely, and was shot.

I have such a hard time with human behavior.