The Hyena Queen

The light burned Shenzi's eyes when she saw the world, and her first thought was that it would always be like that. The sun would be hot and the world would be hard, because she was a hyena, and that was a hyena's life.

There were three pups with her. Two of them were pawing at nuzzling at their mother's stomach next to her. The fourth lay curled, still wet with the juices its mother hadn't licked off of it. Later, when Shenzi was older and knew the words for it, she would learn that her brother was stillborn, and that nearly every litter had at least one. At the time, Shenzi understood only her own name and that of her siblings, Inatisha and Ed.

As the days passed, Shenzi learned about her new world. She learned that it was best to stay in the shade when the sun was high, and that the tiny animals with the pointed tails would sting unless bitten to death, and that a cub would stay skinny if she didn't shove her siblings out of the way when she was hungry.

It was another hot day when Shenzi noticed her mother scratching at the hollow she'd dug in the ground to shelter her cubs.

"What are you doing, Mama?" Shenzi asked.

"We're going back to the rest of the clan," her mother said, pointing her nose at the distant moving shapes Shenzi had often wondered about, especially after she learned they were hyenas like her.

"Are they big like you?" Inatisha asked, looking nervously up at their mother and lowering her belly protectively into the dirt.

"They're big like you will be someday," Shenzi's mother said.

Shenzi curled her lip at her sister's hesitation. "I'm not scared of them," she said. "If they try to fight you, I'll bite them."

"I'm not scared," Inatisha said, picking herself up. But when it came time to go, it was Shenzi who was first behind their mother.

Through it all, Ed said nothing. It seemed strange to Shenzi how differently cubs from the same litter could turn out. While she was forming complex questions and pestering her mother for new words, Inatisha could say only a few sentences, and Ed hadn't spoken at all. It was no matter to Shenzi. Some hyenas were born leaders, and some were born followers. Shenzi had two followers already, and she only stopped there because that was as many hyenas as she knew.

Life with the pack was hardly different than before. Shenzi raised her tail, standing on her toes when the big hyenas came near. Inatisha stuck near her, while Ed wandered guilelessly up to the new faces. But the fight Shenzi was prepared for never happened. The big hyenas took no notice of three new cubs. Cubs came and cubs went.

"I'm going to go hunting," Shenzi's mother said to her the next day. "Tazama will watch you." She indicated a graying hyena who did little but lay in the sun and nose at the leftovers younger hyenas dragged in.

"I can watch us," Shenzi said. I don't need anyone to take care of me, and I can take care of Inatisha and Ed, too.

"I know you can. But a mother worries," her mother said.

After their mother left, Inatisha yipped a few times, calling after her. Then she braced herself up and busied herself with other things. Ed didn't notice the absence. He amused himself by gnawing at some bones and then snuffling at a passing dung beetle. And Shenzi was stoic through it all. She marked out a circle for her siblings to stay in and patrolled it, watching both them and lazy old Tazama, who barely opened his eyes before their mother returned. Nothing would get past her. Not hyenas, or wild dogs, or crocodiles, or even lions. While her mother was gone, she was the leader, and nothing would hurt anyone under her protection.