Dahlia and the Garden of Light - Chapter 84: Chapter 84

Serengeti Outskirts – Three Months Later
They moved to a more comfortable place out of the old Zoo
They called the place The Broken Whatch tower — a half-collapsed observation tower surrounded by dry grass, thorn trees, and a long-forgotten solar well. With Derek’s help, it had become their home base: canvas tarps for shade, salvaged furniture dragged from old ranger posts, a solar stove, and Dahlia’s flowers growing in clay jars along the railings.
Leo stretched out on a sun-warmed rock, shirt half-buttoned, bare feet dusty.
“You’re sunbathing again,” Derek said, approaching with a tin cup of warm tea. “Like a house cat.”
Leo cracked one eye open. “It’s instinct. You people wear too much fabric. Clothes are a prison.”
“You’re literally wearing half a shirt.”
“Because you glared at me every time I wandered through zoo with nothing but a blanket.”
“It was a towel. Barely.”
Leo smirked. “Still got the job done.”
Derek sat beside him, handing him the tea. “You’ll get used to it.”
Leo sniffed it first, then sipped. “Bitter.”
“It’s tea.”
Leo bared his teeth. “Tea should not taste like bark. If this is a human thing, I object.”
—
Later – Midday Training
“Try again,” Derek said, standing near a tall patch of savanna grass. “Focus on the breath. Anchor yourself to the feeling of shifting — not the end result.”
Leo paced, still barefoot, his movements fluid but edged with nerves.
“It’s not that I can’t,” he muttered. “It’s that I don’t want to.”
Derek tilted his head. “Why?”
Leo looked away. “Because when I’m the lion… I don’t have to think about words. I don’t have to second-guess how to sit, or if I’m standing too close, or if I’m blinking too much. I’m just… me.”
Derek was quiet for a long moment. “I get that. But sometimes… ‘you’ is also the version that can hold a spoon and have a full conversation.”
Leo huffed.
Derek crossed his arms. “Also, I’m not feeding steak to a lion every night. It’s expensive.”
That made Leo grin.
—
At the Fire – Evening
A fire crackled beneath the stars, casting shadows across the stone walls of their shelter. Leo picked at a bowl of lentils, grimacing with every bite.
“I hate this texture,” he said.
“You hate everything with texture,” Derek replied, sipping from a wooden mug. “Except meat.”
“Because meat is honest. No surprise crunches.”
“Maybe I’ll tell Dahlia to invent a flower that tastes like steak.”
Leo’s eyes lit up. “Can she do that?”
Derek laughed. “I’ll ask. No promises.”
They sat in companionable silence for a moment.
“Back when I was stuck,” Leo said softly, “I used to hear voices. Yours, sometimes. Not words… just comfort. Like distant thunder that didn’t scare me.”
Derek blinked. “You heard me?”
“I think your ability... it’s more than just taming. It reaches deeper.”
Derek stared into the fire. “Maybe. I’ve always felt like I could listen to animals before they made sound. Like emotion had a tone.”
Leo nodded slowly. “You didn’t save me with force. You waited. And I remembered who I was.”
—
The Next Morning – At the Stream
Leo stood waist-deep in the stream, muttering curses under his breath.
“What’s wrong now?” Derek asked from the rocks above.
“This soap! It stings!”
“It’s biodegradable!”
“I don’t care what it bio-degrades into, it smells like death flowers.”
“That’s lavender!”
Leo growled — and then mid-growl, a burst of golden light shimmered around him and, just for a split second, a lion flickered into form before snapping back to human.
He wobbled, startled, water sloshing around him.
“See?” Derek grinned. “That’s new. You’re shifting faster.”
Leo panted. “That wasn’t on purpose!”
“But it happened. You're halfway to being a superhero.”
Leo muttered something in Swahili.
—
Later – Bonding Over Old Bones
They sat in the tall grass where Leo had unearthed old animal bones, likely from an elephant carcass long since picked clean. He traced the curve of a tusk fragment.
“When I was stuck,” Leo said quietly, “I counted the cracks in the stone to know the days. The rain. The birdsong. I used the world to remember time.”
Derek nodded. “And now?”
“I count people. You. The kids from the village who bring mangoes sometimes. That old man with the broken knee who said your lion was his ancestor.”
Derek smiled. “Old Juma. He says a lot of things.”
“I think I want to meet more people,” Leo said. “But… not yet.”
“That’s okay,” Derek said. “You’re not a tourist. You’re a seed.”
Leo glanced at him. “That’s the weirdest compliment I’ve ever received.”
Derek shrugged. “Yeah, thats something my sister says a lot.”
—
Final Scene – Nightfall
Leo shifted again — this time deliberately. He ran through the dry plains in lion form as Derek walked nearby, a slow pace, quiet and steady. Fireflies blinked between them. An owl called overhead.
Leo returned moments later, human again, breathless and beaming.
“I felt it. Not just the shift. The choice.”
Derek grinned. “Then you’re ready.”
Leo’s smile faded slightly. “Ready for what?”
“To figure out where you belong.”
Leo looked up at the stars. “Maybe next to whoever else is stuck.”
Derek rested a hand on his shoulder. “Then let’s find them.”
And the petals around their camp, stirred by the moon and the gentle hush of night, began to bloom.