The Endless Plains, Chapter 13: Aftermath

What happens to us when we die? 

As much as I am reluctant to put religious philosophy to one side, in reality, in nature, it goes something like this:

There is, out there, a whole complex system that cleans up your crap. 

Recycling the natural way.

Remember that cute jackal? Well, here comes nature's clean-up company. 

Nature, gotta love it.

Not everyone agrees. For example: one of the mothers arrives to see off the recycling officer.

All this time, during all these deaths, this and the other mothers were torn between protecting their dead cubs and protecting their live ones. Explaining the difference between life and death can be tricky at times.

Every time a cub approached a lioness, our hearts sank.

All seemed calm for about ten minutes then:

Another attack! The sisters intervened.

The cub survived.

Then calm again, apart from those bloody jackals..

Was this love or hate?

It was, indeed, a dangerous calm.

All this death and destruction had occurred on an almost straight line away from their home rocks. And away from the males, who now, finally, after all this fuss, all this noise, all this blood and turmoil, felt that maybe it was finally time to take a look.

They reluctantly arrived, and then, well, what else, continued their siesta.

Real men huh?

The remnants of the pride, the ten cubs and four sisters, slowly headed back towards the rocks.

Which kinda niggled the lions. What?  We've got to move again?

The cleaning company could see its opportunity.

This time, the lion disturbed his work.

Not a happy lion.

We, too, followed the pride. We counted the dead.

Five confirmed kills.

There were only ten cubs left. We searched the horizon but saw no more. Were they remaining hidden in fear of their lives?

However, when we got to the rocks, there, looking down on us, was one of the missing cubs! 

He had circled around with another cub and found a different, less murderous sister who was sheltering with two recently born cubs of her own. 

Small mercies.

But, alas, only two of the missing five cubs. We could see no others.

Well, at least twelve remained. Better than ten. Maybe there were more out there, hiding in fear in the savannah grasslands? 

We hoped so.

.......

The next day we revisited them. We were desperate to know if more had survived, and that the survivors we knew about hadn't been murdered in their beds.

Whilst we were looking, another truck had found a lone cub out in the savannah, and was trying to guide it back to the pride.

Was this the right thing to do? 

Should we interfere? 

We felt that if it did come back, it would probably be killed by the evil sister. However, if it stayed out in the savannah it could not survive on its own. 

What would you do?

.......

So, why did all this happen? What rational was there?

I'm open to suggestions. My favourite theory so far is that there may have been several of the younger cubs that were not directly from this pride. They had somehow got mixed in. Then decided to go off to find their real pride. The lioness without cubs decided to kill them as foreigners.

As one does.

Who knows? If you do, please tell.

Maybe the actual answer is simply that nature is cruel?  

.....

“Nature is not cruel, only pitilessly indifferent. 

This is one of the hardest lessons for humans to learn. 

We cannot admit that things might be neither good nor evil, 

neither cruel nor kind, 

but simply callous—indifferent to all suffering, 

lacking all purpose.”

Richard Dawkins

.....

In Chapter 14 we will try to lighten up a little...