Nala cut Simba off, “Hold on, I heard my mum talking to the others about these wolves too, and she said they were grey and smaller than they are. So, unless your dad’s shrunk something crazy you must have heard wrong.”
A Note From The Author
Hello again! I apologise for the severely long break with this Cub Adventures, I'm sure Rebekah_the_Lion thought I wasn't going to do it!
Note: This fanfic was the idea of Rebekah_the_Lion and so 70% of the credit of this story goes to her :)
I only ghost-wrote it :D
In short the reason this one took so long is because my mother fell unexpectantly ill, and had to go into hospital. So my brother, me and my elder sister were left to take care of the house, the bills, the pets... etc and look after my grandmother, as well as stuff my sister had to do... Note to self; live lonely, have less stuff to do xD
Anyway, she's alright now and I've finally got this one done! It was really a plesure to write! I enjoyed coming up with new names for the characters introduced x3 So fun! :D
Also, there are some weird and wonderful animals mentioned in this, you'll find they really do all exist! All the information was taken off Wikipedia.
I'm afraid the pictures aren't all complete yet (including the cover picture) only two are complete as of now, but I'll just throw them in as I get them done ^0^ And the ones that are done are HUGE, what happened to those little resizing squares the FanFic writer used to have??
~Shivu
Name Meanings
Kibo, Mawenzi and Shira-The three volcanic cones on Kilimanjaro.
Uhuru- Another name for Kibo Peak.
Mwitu- The 2nd part of the word "wolf" in Swahili.
Mbwa- The 1st part of the word "wolf" in Swahili.
Udhaifu- Weakness in Swahili.
Kuruka- Jump in Swahili.
Chapter 1
Simba trotted down the side of Pride Rock, he’d been on the summit again looking over what would soon be his new kingdom.
He grinned when he saw his mother and another lioness ahead of him but stopped when he heard some fatal words.
“Maybe we shouldn’t let the cubs out for a while, then.”
Simba froze, wide eyed. The only time he and the others weren’t allowed out was when they’d done something wrong. Simba scanned his memory, had he done something wrong?
He couldn’t recall doing anything bad in a while; it must have one of the other cubs.
Then he caught the rest of the conversation.
“I don’t think it’s that bad.” said the other lioness.
“These wolves are dangerous…” Sarabi sighed, “I don’t want to make the decision of letting the cubs out and then one of them getting badly hurt.”
Simba raised his ears a little; “Wolves?” he whispered. ‘What are wolves?’
“We are bigger than the wolves, you know.” the other lioness countered.
“Yes, but the cubs are not. And the wolves do have teeth too, you know, as well as the fact that they fight in a pack.”
“You know,” said the other lioness, “This is all we need with the wildebeest herd causing trouble on our hunts. The herd has gotten too big in numbers now. We’re all going to go hungry soon.”
Simba thought about this, these wolves sounded dangerous. He decided to go and tell his friends what he’d heard about.
‘But what fun is a dangerous animal that isn’t even all that big?’ wondered Simba. He wanted his friends to have a little fear when he told them, ‘Guess I’ll have to spruce it up a bit.’
The cubs had gathered in the secret caverns where they often met because it was private and fun to be in.
When Simba began describing how Sarabi had supposedly said the wolves looked and acted like, everyone huddled together just a little closer; all except Nala.
“Mother says they’re huge! Much bigger than dad, and they have really sharp claws and teeth and black fur with glowing red eyes! Mother says sometimes they can breathe fire too…”
Nala cut Simba off, “Hold on, I heard my mum talking to the others about these wolves too, and she said they were grey and smaller than they are. So, unless your dad’s shrunk something crazy you must have heard wrong.”
Simba glanced about and then shrugged, “Yeah, well, maybe… Maybe they don’t breathe fire but, you know…”
He trailed off and shrugged again.
Nala rolled her eyes and pushed Simba down, “Come on.”
Kovu sat up from where he’d been scratching his ear, “’Come on’? Where are going?”
Nala turned, “I figured we were going to find a wolf. Are we?”
Kiara stood up, “Yeah, come on!”
Simba nodded, “Yeah, and then we can see what they really look like!”
Nala frowned, “Exactly.” she muttered as Simba strode past her with a grin on his face and his head held high.
The four cubs gazed over the Pride Lands horizon, “Is that a wolf?” asked Simba eagerly.
“No, that’s a cheetah.” Nala sighed.
“What about that?”
“Get your eyesight checked; that’s a hippo.”
“It is grey isn’t it? What about that?”
“Simba, that’s Zazu!” groaned Nala.
Zazu floated about the Pride Lands then flew back to Pride Rock.
“Who is neither a land animal nor grey.” added Kovu.
“I think we need to check further out.” said Kiara, “If there was a wolf in the Pride Lands, we would know about it.”
“I think my mum said they were near the base of Kilimanjaro.” said Nala, “That’s a bit of a trek, you know.”
Kovu shrugged, “I want to see a wolf real bad you know; walking there is worth it.”
“I guess so.” said Nala.
Simba stepped forward, “Alright! And, on the way, we can look out for these mysterious wolves.”
Chapter 2
The cubs walked for nearly the whole day. It was sunset before the ground began changing from savannah grass to rocky outcrop and then to pure rock and sand.
Kiara kept inhaling sharply as her paws began to hurt more and more. Eventually they all had to stop for a rest. They found a large rock they could sit on near a termite mound and Kovu disappeared to go fishing in a nearby river.
Simba licked one of his aching paws, “Do we even eat fish?”
“I don’t know, I’ve never had it before. But who’s complaining? I’m starving.” replied Nala.
Kiara gazed out on to the horizon, “There are lots of weird animals here. Look!”
A few metres away a weird creature waddled around sniffing the ground for ants.
Kiara trotted over, “Hiya.” she said.
The creature, startled rolled into a ball showing the hard scales that covered its back.
Kiara jumped back in shock, “Huh? Oh, hey, I didn’t mean to startle you. I just wondered what kind of creature you were.”
The creature unrolled itself slowly then looked up at Kiara with small eyes, “I’m a pangolin. What are you?”
“I’m a lion cub.” she replied, “I’ve never seen a creature like you before.”
The pangolin laughed, “I’ve heard of you lions, but never seen one! I can roll into a ball to protect myself and I eat ants and other bugs.”
He turned around a few times to show Kiara his body, he was short round creature with a small head and a thick tail. He had long claws for digging the earth for food.
“Woah!” said Kiara excitedly.
“Well, I best be on my way; I have babies to feed, and they’d just love some ant grubs.” he smiled and walked away, nose to ground.
While Kiara had been talking, Nala had wandered off to another creature she had seen in the opposite direction.
This creature was strange looking indeed, everything about it was long; it had long rough fur like a warthog with long ears and a long skinny tail. His face was long with long legs to match. His paws were like that of a mouse; bony and clawed.
Nala crouched down to his height, “What are you?” she asked politely.
The creature looked up, “I’m an aardvark. I’m hunting for termites. What are you doing?”
“Just resting for a while; there’s a big termite mound near where we’re sitting, just over there.” she gestured with her head to the termite’s home.
The aardvark smiled, “Oh, thank you!” he said and scampered off.
Nala and Kiara returned to the rock where Simba had fallen asleep.
Kovu returned shortly after with two large fish, “Hey, guys, there was this weird creature over there called a springhare! He said if I come after our meal, he’ll bring his friend who knows what wolves look like!”
Everyone gasped, “Yeah!” cried Simba.
Chapter 3
After the fish, the four lion cubs went to the river and got a much needed drink while they waited for the springhare and his friend.
The springhare returned with his friend an elephant shrew.
Simba tipped his head to one side, “I kinda thought the springhare would be… You know a hare.” he whispered.
The springhare was, in fact, a big rodent-like creature with kangaroo-like legs.
His friend, the elephant shrew, was another rodent-like creature with a long slightly curled snout.
“Don’t be rude.” muttered Nala, “What do you think he expected a lion to look like?”
“Something lying down, I reckon.” replied Simba.
“Shh!” Kiara interjected.
The springhare approached and cheerily said, “Hello, Kovu!” he put his paw on the elephant shrew’s shoulder, “This is my friend. He knows a lot about wolves.”
The elephant shrew seemed nervous but straightened his back and said, “These particular wolves have grey fur and silver, amber or green eyes. Some of them are brown or black, of course; that’s a standard for these types of wolves. I hear you’re looking for them too. Look out for scores in the ground where they’ve dug to mark their territory…”
The elephant shrew truly was an expert in wolves, he knew all about them; how they ate, how they lived. He told them that the alpha was the leader; the second-in-command was called a Beta and then the Gamma who was far below the Beta but above the lowest rank which was an Omega.
The information was valuable but the cubs were disappointed when he told them that he didn’t know where to find them.
The cubs had wandered away from the river further up to the base of Kilimanjaro.
They began walking around the base of the huge mountain, they had been going for a long time before realised that they were lost.
Kovu clawed the rocky ground in annoyance, “I never get how this happens, we walked all the way here without any problem, how are we lost?”
“Because Stupid Simba suggested we walk around the mountain.” said Nala, “Walking around in a huge circle like that is disorientating. Plus the sun has gone, it’s night-time now, how can we find our way back without the sun?”
“Stupid Simba?!” he took an angry step forward and opened his mouth as if he was about to give Nala a piece of his mind but was cut off when Kiara said, “Is it darker tonight or is that just me?”
The cubs looked up; the stars and moon looked hazy and Kovu explained that clouds were rolling in fast. Since it was probably a storm they should find shelter.
Then began making their way around in a rough circle hoping to reach the river again, but as they left they didn’t notice the scratch marks in the earth and the creature that watched them from the rough undergrowth.
The cub’s paws made padding noises on the rock. Suddenly Nala stopped as she picked up the sound of clicking nearby.
“What…” she began then she screamed as something big landed on her back.
The creature flipped her around and snarled in her face, “Who are you?!” it roared in a deep voice that seemed to make the very mountain shiver.
Nala just screamed again in response. The creature was huge with pointed ears and long fur around his neck. His eyes glowed an angry amber; his grey fur was fluffed up in rage.
“Hey!” cried Kovu leaping forward and sinking his claws into the creatures face.
The animal howled in pain and snapped blindly at the young cub. Kovu let out a cracked roar and helped Nala out from underneath him.
“Wait!” said Simba, taking a step forwards. The creature and Kovu turned to face him. “Are you… a wolf?” said Simba.
The creature stood up tall and shook out his ruffled fur, “Yes, I am. I am the Kibo, Beta of the Uhuru Pack.”
“The second in command.” whispered Kiara, remembering what the elephant shrew had told her.
“That hardly matters.” growled Kibo, “You are on our territory. This is a very serious offence in a wolf’s world.”
“I’m sorry.” said Nala, “We didn’t mean to enter your territory we really had no idea. We’re lost.”
Kibo considered the fours cubs and finally said, “Nevertheless, you’d better come with me.”
Chapter 4
Kibo lead the four cubs high up a mountain trail to the camp of the Uhuru Pack.
As they neared the camp the clouds had thickened considerably overhead, it was clearly going to rain very soon.
The cubs had a hard time seeing what was going on since it was so dark and even Kibo began to trip and stumble over the large rocks on the ground.
Kovu tapped Simba on the shoulder who looked around a few times before he was sure he was looking at Kovu, “Listen, Simba, he can’t see any better than we can in this light. Maybe we could make a run for it.”
Before Simba could reply Kibo boomed, “Don’t even think about it. Maybe I can’t see in the dark, but we wolves can hear and smell better than any animal.”
Simba and Kovu exchanged a silent but rather blind glance and continued walking.
The ground began evening out and the cubs could smell other creatures like Kibo. They sensed the rocks that had previously been towering around them melt away so there was a large clearing.
They had arrived at the camp.
Simba, who was in front, fell into Kibo as he stopped suddenly. Simba looked around, “Kibo, are we here?” there was no answer. Cautiously Simba repeated his name, “Kibo…?”
Another voice, lighter than Kibo’s but with more authority just the same said, “Stay here, cubs. You’ll be put on trial soon.”
“Trial?” said Kiara. There was no answer.
After a while the cubs picked up the conversation of two female wolves somewhere to their left.
“This is all we need, with those wildebeest running amok…”
“I know. My cubs are hungry, but the wildebeest herd has become so big in numbers that there’s no chance of our hunters to get to them. Even the weaker ones seem to be protected.”
The wolf the mother was talking to was younger but evidently not related to her. “Mwitu,” said the younger wolf, “I’m scared. The wolf pack has always seemed to be on terrible terms with the lion pride.”
Mwitu gave the young wolf a friendly nudge, “It is okay. We’re all afraid, but Mawenzi will take care of it. I just hope he doesn’t make any rash decisions because of his fear.”
Simba’s mind flashed back to when he overheard his mother and the other lioness talking. He was beginning to realise there wasn’t much difference between lions and wolves after all.
He remembered that his mother and father were both referred to as “the alpha lions” as well as “the king and queen”. And the younger members of the Pride were called cubs as well.
Rain started spitting down and the cubs were quite wet by the time a large black wolf with orangey-yellow eyes stepped forwards and said, “I am Mawenzi, the Alpha wolf. My mate, Shira, and I will be judging your trial.”
Behind them a brown Gamma wolf shoved them forwards as Mawenzi jumped up on to a podium made of rock. His mate, Shira, a beautiful silver wolf with blue eyes sat beside him.
“Cubs,” said Mawenzi loud enough for everyone to hear, “who speaks for you?”
Kovu took a step back and made a welcoming gesture to Simba. Simba turned to see Nala and Kiara staring at him. Simba frowned, “Okay…” he took a step forward and said, “Me, I speak for the four of us.”
“What Pride do you come from?” asked Mawenzi.
“Me, Nala and Kiara,” Simba pointed at each cub in turn as he said their names, “Come from the Pride Landers Pride. Kovu,” he gestured to the brown cub behind him, “comes from the Outlanders Pride.”
“And how do the two of you, two from different Prides, come to be together, is it not a bad thing between two lion prides?”
“It’s a seriously tough friendship to maintain.” muttered Kovu.
“Well,” Mawenzi curled his lip slightly, clearly trying to maintain his temper, “What business do you have on our territory?”
“We were lost.” said Simba, “I swear it was an accident.”
The rain began to pick up to a heavy downpour as Mawenzi leaned down to the ground where Kibo whispered something in his ear. Then he stood up again and said, “My Beta informs me you walked straight past the border marker and didn’t even acknowledge it.”
“It was dark, we didn’t see it.” replied Simba.
Mawenzi jumped down and roared, “Lies!”
Mawenzi’s sudden outburst caused the other wolves to jump into an uproar.
The brown Gamma who had pushed them forward earlier cried out, “They were probably sent to spy on us!”
Beside him, a light grey Omega said, “Mbwa’s right! The lions have always wanted us off their land.”
The calling out continued until Mawenzi cried out in a voice louder than everyone’s, “They must be sentenced to death!”
A series of agreeing howls followed.
The cubs crouched closer together.
Mawenzi turned to Mbwa and Shira and growled, “Mbwa, Shira, with me.” slowly they advanced on the cubs with the surrounding wolves creating a heavy beat with their paws on the rocks. The beat slowly began rising in tempo as Mawenzi and his two partners came closer.
Suddenly lightning struck making the cubs jump. The flash lit up every detail of the clearing, every sharp tooth and claw and glowing eye.
Another flash followed and Kovu yelled, “RUN!” just as the three wolves leapt.
The cubs managed to avoid them and they heard “Oof!” as the three landed on solid rock.
The cubs began charging to where they guessed the exit to the rocky walkway that led back to the ground.
Another flash lit up Mawenzi as he threw himself through the air towards the cubs.
Kovu turned and let out a roar, very similar to an adult, and claws his face. Simba, Kiara and Nala all skidded to a halt as Mbwa and two more Gammas blocked their path to freedom.
Simba growled and pounced at one while Kiara and Nala took the other two.
If someone had have been watching from higher up from the clearing they would have seen how the lightening lit up the occasional fight scene in the clearing.
During one strike, Kovu leaped at Mawenzi and seemed to have been frozen in mid air with Mawenzi below him, mouth open and teeth bared.
Another time, Simba and Nala were back-to-back in battle against Mbwa and his fellow Gamma. They swiped and snapped until Mbwa and the other wolf were covered in scars.
Kiara leaped from different wolves forcing them down to the ground in an effort to make them back away from her friends.
As soon as Kovu saw an opening he called the others and ran. They stopped again as Kibo jumped down in front of them.
“Outta my way…” began Kovu but Kibo stopped him and said, “Run! I’ll buy you some time.”
The cubs didn’t have time to tell whether he was telling the truth or not but ran past him anyway.
The cubs charged down the path and Kovu glimpsed Kibo leading the Pack down a different path on the other side.
He sighed in relief and followed the other three cubs down to the bottom.
The cubs ran for as long as they could, and soon they were forced to stop. They found an old den of some kind that was underneath and slightly underground from an overhanging slab of rock.
The four cubs collapsed there and slept until dawn.
Chapter 5
Kovu was awoken by paws padding on the rock above them and voices. He nudged Simba and the others awake and gestured for them to be quiet. Everyone soon heard the paw steps and voices. Suddenly Simba stood up despite Nala’s protests and said, “Dad!”
He ran out and met his father; Mufasa had brought nearly the entire pride. He looked relieved to see him but angry as well.
“Simba, where have you been?” he demanded.
“We were…” Simba trailed off.
Nala poked her head out, “We were looking for the wolves.”
Sarafina, Nala’s mother, gasped, “Where did you hear about them?”
“From you,” said Simba, turning to his own mother, “I overheard you talking to the other lioness about them. So we went to find them.”
Mufasa’s mouth dropped open, “You went looking for the wolves?”
“And he found us.” said a voice.
Everyone turned to see Mawenzi and his pack behind Simba and his friends.
Simba gasped and spun around to face them.
“Lions,” growled Mawenzi, “I can’t believe it’s you.”
The wolves and lions growled at each other and Mawenzi continued, “I didn’t realise you were low enough to send your children to spy on us.”
“We didn’t send anyone.” replied Mufasa calmly.
The grey Omega the cubs had seen earlier talking to Mbwa shouted out, “You come to steal what little food we have!”
“Quiet, Udhaifu!” snapped Mawenzi.
Beside him Mbwa gave him a hard shove, “That makes us look weak, you fool!”
“No, Udhaifu’s comment says a lot of things but it does not spell weakness.” said Mufasa.
“What does it say to you?” snarled Mawenzi.
“It explains why you tried to kill our cubs last night. It explains why your fear told you that that was right.”
Mawenzi’s eyes widened, “How did you know they were sentenced to death?”
“A friend of mine.” explained Mufasa. He took a step back to reveal the springhare, the same one that had helped the cubs earlier.
“This is Kuruka.” said Mufasa, “A very good and old friend of mine.”
“Friend?” gasped Kiara.
“As soon as I heard you were trying to find the wolves,” said Kuruka, “I brought you my friend the elephant shrew then I went to find Mufasa; I knew there would be trouble.”
Mawenzi gave a growling laugh; “Look here, the lion brings his little rodent friend!” he showed his teeth. “What else do Udhaifu’s words tell you?”
“That you have the same problem as us.” replied Mufasa, “You have little food, as do we. I presume it’s because of the…”
“Wildebeest!” cried Udhaifu suddenly.
Mawenzi turned around and gave a sharp and angry bark at him, “Quiet you little fool, what did I say earlier?”
“No! Wildebeest look!” Everyone turned to follow Udhaifu’s terrified stare.
Quite close by was a cloud of rocky dust rising from the ground, Mufasa’s eyes widened along with Mawenzi’s. They both knew what it was.
“Stampede!” they both yelled in unison.
Mufasa pointed with his head to the base of the mountain, “Run!” he cried to his pride.
Mawenzi’s pack ran with them but Mawenzi froze in fear.
The stampede came closer and closer, Kovu peeked out from underneath the rock where he’d been hiding to avoid Mufasa who wouldn’t be happy to see an Outlander with his own cub.
He saw the stampede that was now practically on top of the two of them, Kovu took in the scene quickly and analysed it just as fast.
Mawenzi was frozen in fear; he would be killed if he didn’t move. Kovu cried out, “Mawenzi run!”
Mawenzi didn’t respond, Kovu ran forward and gave him a sharp nip in his leg. The pain was enough to snap Mawenzi out of his shock, “Ow!” he barked. Kovu put both his forepaws on his shoulder, “Run! If you don’t move now, you’ll die!”
Mawenzi gave a quick nod and ran alongside Kovu. They weren’t a second out of the path when the wildebeest came running past. The thunder of hooves and the sound of panting along with other noises filled the air for seemingly an age.
As suddenly as it began, the stampede had passed. Sarabi stood up, “It’s over.” she said as everyone began rising up and coughing because of the dust.
Mawenzi lay in a heap panting with his eyes wide open. He turned to Kovu and said shakily, “I… I… Thank you, lion cub.”
Mbwa ran over, “You saved his life!”
Kovu smiled, “Yeah, I did, didn’t I?”
Kibo stepped forward, “This is why I let them get away.”
“You… Let them get away?” Mawenzi looked up.
Kibo nodded, “I could see that your actions were all made under the heat of your fear.”
Mawenzi nodded, “I did… And I was a fool to do that.” he stood up and walked over to Mufasa. Mufasa looked surprised and tensed up in case Mawenzi wanted to put actions before words.
Mawenzi bowed down before Mufasa, “I’m sorry, Lion King. I was wrong to sentence your cubs to death. And I was wrong to provoke a war with the lion prides.”
Mufasa gave a small nod, “It wasn’t your fault, we are all low on food because of the larger numbers of wildebeest making it hard to hunt. It can be very scary to face starvation but we must master our fear and use it.”
Mawenzi nodded but didn’t look up. Mufasa put his paw underneath his chin and raised his head, “You know, if we work together- your pack and my pride- we can get the food we need very easily.”
Mawenzi gave a small smile which soon turned into a broad grin, it was the first time in months that he had had a good reason to smile, “I would like that a lot.”
Both the wolf pack and the lion pride gave roars and howls of happiness. They would soon be enough food for everyone, because both pack and pride had set aside their differences and teamed up to work together!
Later the Lion King led the cubs home, and the wolves came too so the two could work together to solve the problem that had bothered both groups. The wolves would leave again after the problem was fixed.
The End.