The Escape
Faced with the return of the men, the lion gives in to terror and flees. But in the echo of the girl's cries, he discovers that fear cannot be stronger than a promise.
The young lion ran through the trees, his heartbeat pounding in his ears louder than his own breath. He had never felt so afraid.
The voices of the men had suddenly echoed in the forest: harsh, rough, like thunder ready to strike. The kidnappers spoke among themselves, laughing cruelly, and every sound of their words chilled the lion’s blood.
He had promised the girl to help her, and yet… he had chosen to run away.
He ran for a long time, without looking back, until he found himself in a clearing lit by the moon. He stopped, panting, breathless, his tail low. He felt small, smaller than he had ever been. A coward.
He closed his eyes, and in the darkness of his mind he heard his mother’s voice: — Never trust men, my son. They are dangerous. Always flee from them. — Then his father’s stern voice: — A wise lion does not risk himself for men. Their hearts are dark. Never forget that. —
Those words had been repeated to him since he was a cub. And now, in fear, they seemed right. “I did well to run away… I did well…” he repeated to himself.
But just then, another sound struck him, stronger than the voices of his parents in his mind. It was an echo stretching into the silence of the forest. A cry.
— Help! Help! — It was the girl’s voice.
The young lion perked up his ears. His heart leapt. Every tear the little girl shed seemed to fall inside him like drops of fire. He couldn’t shake her from his mind: the image of her tear-streaked face, trembling hands reaching for freedom, the eyes that had looked at him with trust when he promised to save her.
And yet he had run away.
He collapsed to the ground, biting his lip and scratching the earth with his paws. “Coward! I left a child alone… And for what? For fear?”
He looked up at the moon, shining immense above the forest. His breath was heavy, his thoughts a whirlwind. Yet, amid that confusion, something new was being born.
Fear was no longer a wall that stopped him. It was becoming a weight he wanted to shake off, a push that told him: “You can’t leave her there. You can’t go back on your promise.”
The lion didn’t know how yet, but he understood he had to change. And that night he would decide who he really was: a runaway… or someone courageous.
