and attacked me as I was trying to walk a little to rest my tired wings. This was just out of the terri Mufasa had learned already that if he didn’t want to be found, he could hide for a long time.

Mufasa, only about half a mile ahead, smelled them first, and picked up his pace a little and went straight for the nearest body of water. He had secretly learned to swim and knew some tricks to stay underwater longer or stay hidden in the lakes or rivers. He only hoped that no other animals would give away where he was.

Ahadi quickly found the scent and followed it to one of the nearby water holes. He was sure Mufasa was here, but the scent ended at the foot of the water. Either Mufasa was farther ahead than they expected and he managed to get into the water to mask is scent for a while, or this was the wrong trail. But it couldn’t be, it was the only possible option.

And then, a horrible thought struck him. His oldest son could be dead! No. He would just go home for now and continue the search tomorrow, maybe he would be luckier.

Mufasa breathed a loud sigh of relief as soon as he was out of earshot. The little air he had gotten through his nose just like an alligator had proven to be enough and his father hadn’t seen it. Now he could get back to finding his brother Taka.

This was to be one of the longest and most adventurous adventures ever attempted and he knew that, but he could just hope everyone would turn out alright. Mufasa took his first safe steps toward Taka, and for him it was just begun.

Taka on the other hand, was having some disturbing dreams about him ripping his entire family to shreds, but he banished them from his mind, and instead found them ripping him to shreds because he had just done the same to him. The world was getting too complicated for a cub like him. Even his dreams were trying to kill him.

 

 

The Plan: Chapter 8

 

“All right Zazu, all those stories were complete lies except the one that I told the most often, you know, the one where I maimed two eagles. That one though is seriously modified; it was just a small argument. No, all through out my childhood, I was the only one that couldn’t seem to do any of those things. What made it worse though, was that I had enormous claws. They made it impossible.”

“Why did the claws make it harder Kucha? Shouldn’t that make it easier to kill?”

“Not if they’re too heavy to fly with and they made you extremely awkward and slow on the ground.

Anyhow, they only made it harder for me tory my family officially owned unfortunately.

The lion injured me very badly, you don’t see any scars because they’re all under the skin. My family did still at least want me to live so they looked for me. After a few hours of agony, they found me, but of all the possible times to fall unconscious, my body picked that time and everyone thought I had died. When I lost consciousness, I was surrounded by family members trying to keep me alive. When I woke up, I was in pain only slightly lessened and with no one around and a small pool of blood under me. It felt ghastly to lie in your own blood.

How I lived through that, I will never know because I was delirious for a long time and don’t remember anything. I can’t have survived on my own with injuries like that, so therefore someone or something must have helped me. Unfortunately, their identity will very rarely become known to me.”

“Wow Kucha. It would have been much better if you had just told me that story instead of a whole bunch of funny lies.”

“After I recovered, I decided I would be better off without my family and lo and behold, I found a single hornbill flying away from his family also. It was the perfect opportunity for me to have some more company.”

As the pair reflected on what had just happened, they looked around and Kucha spotted an object far in the distance with his sharp eyes. He had a plan. They would visit this object to see what secrets it held (large objects like that almost always had some secrets in the savannah), then they would continue with whatever they wanted to do next.

Zazu liked the plan and they headed off for priderock. They would never make it there together, but instead destiny would entwine them with Ahadi’s pride in a massive mess that would one day lead to the liberation of priderock.

 

 

Memories: Chapter 9

 

Mufasa was taking a short nap in what looked like familiar territory. Something about the place looked very familiar. He had gone here before.

Then it hit him. This was where he had his only other venture by himself. The details started flashing back. There had been a hawk that had overgrown claws and was very depressed. There was a lot of blood.

Of course! Now I remember. I wanted to play a joke on the hawk and jumped him by surprise but he caught me with one of his enormous claws and was about to kill me when I attacked. I won by a very large margin, but that was only a season ago. The bones would be here at least.

As Mufasa was remembering all this, the most important part of the memories was that the hawk should have been killed within minutes by the wounds inflicted but he must have lived. Not a single animal dared to eat a hawk. Self defense was okay, but eating was out of the question. If there was one animal that could have a vote to become king of the pridelands, then the hawks were the only possible candidates.

If he lived though… Mufasa was deep in thinking. There was a chance he would be recognized by the hawk if he ran across it right now and the hawk would be prepared to kill no matter the cost probably. If Mufasa could only keep away from the hawk for another month or two, then he wouldn’t be recognizable with his mane.

This was all he needed, passing through territory of a hawk that wanted to kill him while following a very hard to follow trail. He couldn’t stray from the path unless his life depended on it. He would have to keep a wary eye on any possible attacks now. Hawks were dangerous to defend against.

 

As Mufasa continued through the area, he exited the pridelands and entered a swamp. This was not a usual occurrence in the savannah. Swamps usually appeared in the area about once every ten generations. Everything seemed to be happening now. A great wind, a swamp, undead hawks; what else was coming? Oh yeah, mysterious cubnappers.

Back on that topic, Mufasa had to go out and continue looking even though it led straight through the swamp. This would not be a very pretty day and night here. He could very well get sucked under, drown, or get killed by a hawk. The best option was to avoid death and instead come out looking like some sort of evil monster that wanted to kill the whole world.

Mufasa started on toward the swamp and promptly fell in a hole. This was not a good sign for the future path through the swamp. As he entered the lush wet green area, similar small misfortunes happened. Before he got ten feet through, he already looked the monster of his nightmares.

Then to add to his worries, a hawk appeared above him. This could quite possibly be the end of his life if it happened to be the same hawk he had attacked. Mufasa decided o a fifty percent chance that this hawk would be nice.

For his first stroke of luck that day, the bird was not actually a hawk. It just looked like one from a cub on watch for anything that resembled a hawk. It also helped that there was a slight haze that distorted everything.

The bird was actually a hornbill. To be more specific, the bird was Zazu. He had flown off on a short scouting journey through the swamps. Zazu went down to Mufasa and had a little chat about what the other one was doing here in the middle of nowhere.

Conversation was started by a relieved Mufasa, “I am so glad you’re not a hawk. I think one might be after my blood and I wouldn’t stand a chance against it. Could you possibly travel with me and make sure no hawks come here?”

“I’m sorry, I can’t do that. What’s your name? Mine’s Zazu.”

“I’m Mufasa. Why are you even out here anyway? There isn’t anything that could help a hornbill like you anyway.”

“I was about to ask the same thing of yourself uh… Mufasa. However, a more pressing question I would like to ask is what animal are you even?”

“A lion. Can’t you tell?”

“No. You’re completely smothered with gunk. Whatever. Why are you out here?”

“I’m searching for my brother, his path leads straight through here and I have to follow it or else I’ll lose the smell. Please follow for now if you want to talk.”

“All right, I have a few more questions especially concerning your issue with hawks. First, why do you think that one hawk wants to kill you?”

“Well, let’s see here, I left him lying on the ground back there with about half his blood on the ground and with no possible way to live.”

“Well if he can’t have lived, then he must be dead. I think you’re stressing out about this way too much.”

“Except for one small detail. He’s alive.”

“All right then my friend Mufasa, tell me any distinguishing details and the age he would be now”

“Well let’s see if I can remember now, he would have larger than average claws probably on his own, unless he’s with whoever healed him from his wounds, and he would probably be a young adult now, only slightly older than me.”

Zazu looked away with a nervous twitch. “I uhh… should head back to where my uhh… other uhh, uhh friend is. Goodbye!”

With that rather strange parting, Zazu tried to fly off. However Mufasa was still alert and grabbed Zazu by the tail feathers. “You aren’t going anywhere yet. You were suddenly really nervous right there. I want you to explain why. Were you the being that healed that hawk?”

“No sir Mufasa.” Squeaked Zazu, “however I believe I know that hawk. His name is Kucha and I think I know where he is.”

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