Read Fanfic : The Pride of Man (Page 15)

up at me. He smiled sheepishly. Something big had happened. I could tell in his face. He knew something that I didn’t and he was letting me know. I would talk to him later.

Within the next few minutes, the other two hunting parties returned, both with a kill of their own; a zebra and another wildebeest.

Mufasa and Sarabi took their stance in the center of the room, Simba ran and stood between them. and everybody formed a circle around them. I stood directly in front of them when I stood in the circle. Scar entered the cave in his usual lazy manner. Nobody seemed to ever know where he was, nor did they care. He only showed up to eat and sleep. He glimpsed me and grinned, his eyes squinted. Then he went and stood in the circle, directly to the right of Mufasa.

Mufasa cleared his throat, and addressed the circle. “Before we feast on this meal, I would first like to call our attention to Ayden.”

As one, every head turned to me and stared. Every face showed some sign of smiling, curiosity, and in the case of Scar and Zira, no interest in the slightest. Mufasa called to me.

“Ayden, step forward and join myself and my family up here on the throne.”

I stepped forward and stood between Mufasa and Simba, who looked up at me curiously. I felt every eye following my every step as I did so. Mufasa watched me with pride in his eyes, then addressed the lions around him.

“Sarabi and I have decided to adopt Ayden as our own son. Simba will still remain the future king, as he was my son before Ayden, but Ayden is now a prince of the Pride Lands. He is Simba’s brother, mine and Sarabi’s son, and your royal prince.”

All of the lionesses smiled and roared in approval. Zira did nothing, but my eyes were drawn to one face. Scar was neither joyful nor resentful. He was deep in thought, staring at me silently. I wondered what he was thinking. And I suddenly realized that I probably did not want to know.

I looked back at the pride, who, as one, bowed to me as their new prince. I stared for a moment, and then a smile cracked my lips.

Sarabi then spoke up. “For those of you who don’t know, Ayden here is the one who successfully killed the wildebeest you see to my left.”

I never had the chance to get a good look at the kills before now. The wildebeest I had killed was completely in tact, save for the wound on it’s neck and its throat that was missing. Both the zebra and wildebeest that were brought back by the other hunting parties were mangled and shredded by the claws of the lionesses who brought them back.

The lionesses looked at me, their faces all showed they were impressed with my actions.

The rest of the meal went as normal. Everybody got their fill, I sliced off a piece of the wildebeest I had killed, and took it outside the cave to cook it.

As I lit the fire, Simba came running down, a piece of meat dangling in his mouth.

“Hey bud!” I said happily as he sat next to me and put the meat down. He smiled up at me.

“Can I talk to you about something serious?” he asked me, and I could tell he was not playing. Though he smiled, his eyes showed that he was troubled.

“Yeah, what’s up?” I asked him. A feeling in my gut told me it was about why he was not with Zazu and Nala earlier that day.

“Do you think I’m brave?” he asked me.

I was not expecting this. Slightly taken aback, I replied “Of course! You are such a brave young cub! Why? What’s the matter?”

He sighed and looked down, his ears drooping. “I did something really bad today.”

I watched him intently. “Go on.” I urged.

He looked up at me, and there was sadness in his face. “I almost got Nala and Zazu killed today.”

My eyes went wide. “What?” I asked disbelievingly.

He looked away, and spoke. “Earlier, I went and talked to Uncle Scar, and he accidentally told me that the shadowy place to the southeast was an elephant graveyard. So I wanted to take you and Nala there because it sounded like such a cool place. But you couldn’t come because of the scratches you got from your battle with Tahri. Then we went off, and got rid of Zazu, and we went into the graveyard. Then we met up with three hyenas. They chased us until dad caught up with us and saved us.”

It was then that I remembered that Simba, for the briefest moment, had given me a dirty look when Nala had commented on my bravery, and suddenly I understood.

“You were trying to prove that you were brave to Nala, because she saw how brave I was.” I stated simply. “You were jealous of me.”

Simba looked up at me, and the tears in his eyes shone with the light of the moon above. Silently, he nodded.

I scooped him up and held onto him.

“You’re my brother now! Don’t feel that way!” he looked at me, tears streaming down his face. “I would never do anything to hurt you. I promise you, I wasn’t trying to marobably did not want to know.