Shadowlands - Shadows Of The Past

"Nala, are you in here?" A cream coloured lioness called out.

"I'm right here, Mom." A voice called out of the den.

The lioness went in with a hare in her mouth. In the den, a tiny cream coloured cub was laying down. She looked up when her mother came in. The lioness dropped the hare in front of her.

"I'm sorry Nala." she said. "This is all we could find for you cubs. You'll have to eat quickly."

Nala nodded and began tearing at the thin morsel. It wasn't enough for a growing lion cub, but it was better than nothing. Her mother quickly looked around and sniffed.

"You can eat slowly." she said softly. "There's no smell of hyenas around."

"Thanks Mom." Nala smiled.

Her mother took a very thin shrew from the food pile and finished it off. Nala had finished her hare then. She looked at her mother.

"Mom, I'm hungry." she said.

"I know Nala, I am too." Nala's mother said. "But since the land dried up, there's been less and less food."

"Why don't the hyenas do something?" Nala protested. "All they do is sit around all day stuffing their faces."

"I know." Her mother said. "That's all hyenas do."

"I hate this." Nala said. "It was better when Mufasa lived. And Simba."

"I know how you feel Nala." her mother's eyes were soft. "It was all better back then."

Nala licked the last pieces of meat from her lips. Her mother looked at a darker lioness eating a very small rabbit.

"How's the rabbit Sarabi?" she asked.

"Not much, Sarafina." Sarabi replied. "But atleast its something."

Sarafina nodded. At that moment a brown teen lioness came in. Nala put her head up to look at her sister.

"Hey Uzuri." she said.

"Hey." Uzuri smiled warmly at her sister. 

"Hello, my big girl." Sarafina licked her daughter on the head.

"Mom, bad news." Uzuri said, pulling away and looking Sarafina in the eyes. "There's no food at all."

"That's even worse." Sarafina said.

"Mom, does this mean we're gonna die?" A tiny voice asked.

Uzuri looked down. A tiny pale cub was hiding between her legs. He had red eyes and dark eyeshades like her with a dark brown hair tuft. He had pale fur. His eyes were wide with fear.

"No, Mheetu." Uzuri comforted her brother. "We are not going to die."

"But food is so less." Mheetu said. "We hardly get one meal a day. Now there's no food, how will we survive?"

"I don't know." Uzuri put her head down and licked his ears. "But we will. I promise you."

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"Okay." Uzuri said. "Mom's too weak and you need to learn to hunt."

"Uh huh." Nala nodded her head looking at her sister, her blue-green eyes filled with concern for her mother.

"Soon, you'll have to take your first hunt." Uzuri continued. "I'm going to prepare you for that."

"Cool." Nala said.

Uzuri crouched down.

"Follow my movements." she said.

Nala did exactly as Uzuri said. She heeded every word her sister said and soon was stalking like a professional.

"Good job, Nala." Uzuri said. "I'm impressed."

"Thanks sis." Nala smiled.

"If this keeps going on, we'll get help in no time." Uzuri said.

"Help?" Nala asked.

"Yes, help." Uzuri said. "I'm tired of this life. We need help, and we're gonna leave the Pridelands to get it."

"Leave the Pridelands?" Nala trembled.

"We have to." Uzuri said. "Don't you want to be free again?"

Nala nodded.

"Then, you and me have to fetch help before its too late."

"But, I'm too young to go on a long journey." Nala protested.

"We're not leaving now." Uzuri said. "In a few months I'll be an adult and you'll be ready for a mate. That's the time we leave."

"What about Mheetu?" Nala asked.

"We're gonna hide him." Uzuri said. "You know your old friend Malka?"

"What about Malka?" Nala asked.

"We're gonna give Mheetu to him. Maybe Tojo and Chumvi would also go with him. I suppose their pride can spare some time." Uzuri said.

Nala's eyes filled with tears at the thought of being separated from her brother. Uzuri saw this. She walked over to Nala and put her tail on her shoulders.

"I know this is hard for you." she said. "But we're the only ones who can find help. They need us more than ever."

Nala looked at her sister, blinking tears out of her eyes.

"Mom's too weak, Aunt Sarabi's still grieving for Simba and Mufasa, the other lioness tired of hunting for Scar." Uzuri went on. "The other male cubs going to go, Tama and Kula still in training. That leaves only the two of us. We're the only ones who can do this, Nala."

Nala nodded.

"I'll train as hard as I can." she looked at her sister.

"Don't pressure yourself." Uzuri chuckled. "You're not running off to save the pridelands today."

Nala laughed. She then attacked Uzuri, pinning her elder sister down.

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"My, how you've grown." Sarabi smiled at Nala.

"I can hardly recognise you." Mheetu said.

"You're shaping up to a beautiful lioness, Nala." Uzuri said.

"My daughter, you've made me so proud." Sarafina looked proudly at her daughter.

Nala's eyes gleamed. Two months had passed. Uzuri was now a full grown adult, her brown fur shining under the sun, if there was any. Mheetu had grown older and had begun to grow a mane. She herself had grown up. Although Mheetu still hadn't left, Nala knew it was time.

At sunset, Nala and Uzuri led Mheetu towards the border with Tojo and Chumvi in front of him. 

"Where are we going?" Mheetu asked.

"Somewhere you'll be safe." Uzuri replied.

"Cool, but why isn't Mom coming with us?" Mheetu asked again.

"She's too weak to make the journey, Mheetu." Nala sighed.

"Why do you sound like we're not gonna be together?" Mheetu asked.

"Because we're not going to be together." Nala hung her head.

"Why?" Mheetu's voice had a tonw of fear in it.

"Because, if you stay, Scar will kill you." Uzuri said.

A lion with a black mane and ear tufts came up. Tojo and Chumvi went up to him.

"You'll be safe with Malka." Uzuri said.

The two sisters nuzzled their brother and walked away. Nala turned around to catch a last glimpse of Mheetu, tears in her eyes. Uzuri nudged her.

"Its for the best." she assured Nala, though Nala could see tears trickling down Uzuri's face.

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"Uzuri, Nala." Shenzi said, walking up to the two lionesses.

Uzuri put her head up and growled at the hyena coming up to her and her sister. Nala scrowled. 

"What do you want?" Uzuri snarled.

"King Scar wants to see you." Shenzi said.

"What if WE don't want to see him?" Nala asked.

"Then, we hyenas will have no choice but to kill your mother." Shenzi stared at the cream lioness, hatred blazing in her eyes.

Nala and Uzuri got up. They both hated Scar with all their hearts, but if they rebelled, they were threatened with the death of their mother. The two were brave, strong and loyal lionesses, not to their king, but to their pride. They both went to the den where Scar was.

"What do you what, Scar?" Uzuri almost spat the words out.

"Aww." the evil king said. "Is that any way you treat your father?"

"You're not our father?" Nala said, anger glowing in her blue-green eyes.

"But I did take care of you." Scar said.

"You did nothing." Uzuri growled. "All you did was plot about killing Simba and Mufasa."

"But, if it wasn't for me, your mother wouldn't be alive." Scar flicked his tail and three hyenas came up to stand on either sides of him.

"We're not afraid of you." Nala said.

"Brave words." Scar said. "Pity it won't last forever."

"What do you mean?" Uzuri arched her back, ready to spring.

"I choose you as my queen." Scar said. "What do you think?"

"Me? Your queen?" Uzuri said, hatred in her eyes.

"Yes, I'm giving you the freedom to choose whether you want to be my queen or my advisor." Scar said.

"I'd rather die than be anywhere near you." Uzuri looked up. "I was born to serve King Mufasa, and my loyalty stays with him."

"But King Mufasa is dead, my dear one." Scar smirked.

"Just because you don't see something, it doesn't mean it isn't there." Uzuri repeated the same words her father had told her when she was a cub.

Scar's eyes immediatley lost their evil sparkle. He looked at Uzuri with a look of complete hatred. He seemed to be trying to keep himself from strangling her. The brown lioness looked defiantly at him. He turned

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