The sound of a bell rang out all across the savanna. Zebras everywheres lifted their head in alarm. They all raced for the safety of their village. All except three. One was a stallion, and the other two were mares. The stallion had a stocky build, and was considered fairly large to most zebras.
One of the mares was about two-thirds the size of the stallion.She had a swollen stomach that protruded out, making it hard for her to walk. The second mare wasn't a mare at all, but a filly. She was half the size of the mare. They each had the same mark on their flank, a spiraling line, symbolizing they were from the same tribe.
"Damnit!" swore the stallion in a deep voice, "A lion now of all times!" The mare let out a pained cry as she convulsed once. "Damnit!" he swore again, "We're too far from the village. We need somewhere to stay."
"What about there?" asked the filly, pointing at a gaping entrance in a rocky outcrop.
"That's a cave." he said, "What have you been told about cave?"
"That they're bad, and we should stay away from them." answered the filly.
"Exactly. And on a normal day I'd condone being anywhere near a cave-" the stallion was cut off by another cry of pain from the mare, "-but this isn't a normal day. Right let's go." With that said he let the mare lean on him, and guided them towards the mouth of the cave.
It was slow progress, but finally they made it to the entrance to the cave. The stallion stared into the darkness and gulped. He then turned to the filly, and spoke. "Lily I want you to stay here with your Mother while I check this cave out." he told her.
"Yes Daddy." she agreed. The stallion turned back, and nervously stepped into the cave, forcing himself to ignore the antelope skull just to his left. He was quite literally walking into the lion's den. As his hooves met the hard rock floor he looked around.
To hi relief the cave was completely empty except for a mall circle of flattened prairie grass in the back as bedding. "It's clear." he called out, "Come on in." As soon as he said that the mare, and filly stumbled in. He immediately ran to the mare's side, and helped her over to the bedding.
Once there she collapsed onto her side. She wailed once again as another convulsion tore through her body. He turned around to face his daughter. "Lily I want you to go get help." he told her.
"No! I wanna stay here with you and Mommy." she said. He leaned down, and looked her straight in the eyes.
"You wanna help Mommy right?" he asked her. She nodded. "Then you have to go get the others." he told her gently. She looked down, tears forming in her eyes.
"Will Mommy be alright?" she asked.
"Mommy will be jut fine." he told her, "But she needs help. I want you to run back to the village as fast as you can, and get help. Can you do that?"
"Uhuh." she said, nodding, using a hoof to wipe away her tears.
"Good. That's my girl. Now go!" he told her. Without another word she whipped around, and ran outside as fast as she could. He walked back to the mare, and looked sadly at her. "Don't worry help will be here soon." he said more to reassure himself than her.
Suddenly he heard a growl from behind him. He slowly turned around, hopin, praying, that it wasn't what he thought it was. What he saw was every zebra's worst nightmare. Standing in the entrance to the cave was a large lion almost twice his size. "Son of a-" Then the lion pounced.
The stallion quickly turned around, and bunched all the power he could into his hind legs. Then he reared up ont his front legs, and lashed out with his back, delivering a powerful buck to the lion's face. He heard a sharp cracking noise, and felt the lion's jaw, and his right hind leg break.
The lion fell to the ground, and howled in pain. He stood back up, and favored his left hind leg to keep the pressure off of his right. He had bigger problems though. The lion wouldn't stay down for long so he gathered up power in his hind legs once again.
He reared up once again on his front legs, and lashed out with his one good hind leg just as the lion stood up. He barely missed the lion, and fell onto the ground, winded. He regained his breath, and rolled out of the way just in time as claws scored marks into the stone.
He jumped up, and faced the lion. Then he rammed into it, slamming it into the wall. It let out another roar, and swiftly turned around, swiping a paw at him. He wasn't fast enough to dodge it, and the paw slammed right into his head. He was sent reeling to the ground, a deep gash across his cheek, and a long nick in his ear.
He lay on the ground, gasping for breath. While he did so the lion walked up to him. It then raised it's paw for the killing blow. Then, as soon a it swiped at him, a blur rammed into it. He looked up to see that another zebra had rammed into the lion. The he felt himself being lifted up.
He turned his head the other way to see six more zebras, one of which was Lily. He turned back to see the lion surrounded by three more zebras. "Get out of here." one of the zebras told it. It hissed at them, but didn't do anything else. It started to back up as the others joined in.
Finally it gave one last hiss at the zebras, turned around, and leaped off. "Whew. That was crazy." one of the zebras said.
"Yeah." agreed another, and they tarted laughing. Suddenly he stiffened as a new noise rang out across the cave. It was the crying of a foal. He slipped off of the back of the zebra that had picked him up. Everyone was quiet now. They had heard it too. He slowly limped to the back where his wife was curled up.
For a moment he feared the worst until she looked up, and smiled at him. She shifted, and said no words, but what he saw next made him burst into tears. There, nuzzling to get at it's mother's milk, was a newborn foal. "What should we name her?" she asked. He smiled. He knew the perfect name.
"How about Zecora. For strength." he told her. She smiled too. "That old mares tale." she said, "It's perfect."
