The names listed in bold are my characters, their names come from Swahili. Others are Disney’s©. Look them up if you have no idea who they are.

 This is a very long story and deals minor blood. Follow-up's to fill in the missing parts will be written.

This is my personal theory as to how the animosity between scar and Mufasa and how everything else began.

Hewa-air  

Tazama-watch 

Rangi-color 

Mwewe-hawk 

Kucha-claw

Dhiki-misfortune

Gutua-scared

Hodari-strong

Pora-steal

Sakanya-search

Kuta-find

Journey of Destiny

Prologue

The spirit of Mufasa looked down upon the pridelands. He knew his plan had worked. The body of his younger self had just been thrown off the cliff a couple years ago. They had now joined up here and they both finally understood everything.

Simba had just decided to go back, this was the final step in Mufasa’s plan. Simba would go on to defeat Scar. The only thing that Mufasa hadn’t been sure about until this point, was if Simba would go back or not. Besides that though, the other trouble spots had been shaken off before.

The pridelands would be returned to their original state, with incredible improvements. Mufasa only wished that he could have lived during that time.

Well, who knew, it was quite possible that he was missing something obvious and could return for at least a few days. Simba would love to have him there by his side for a while.

He was glad his job as returning the pridelands to what it was like a long time before was over. The hardest part had definitely been the early stages, when both Taka and young Mufasa didn’t know he was directing the whole thing. So many things could have gone wrong…

Winds of Time: Chapter 1

A young Mufasa and Taka were out on the pridelands one day playing tag. It was great fun and while they were at it, something strange started happening. All the animals were moving away from the pridelands and wind that was very uncommon had picked up.

The cubs had no choice but to huddle behind a tree for hours. The wind was continuing unabated and all the animals were fleeing south. Both Mufasa and Taka knew that many wouldn’t make it to their destination because the alligator rivers were directly in their path.

To pass the time, the cubs started remembering aloud their adventures all over the pridelands and outside the pridelands.

“Hey Taka, remember that time when those hippopotami had us trapped in their pond?”

“That was a great time! We had started panicking that they were going to trample us when we just yelled that we were future kings! I can’t believe that they actually stopped after that.”

“That should’ve only made them want to kill us more, but you are forgetting that right after that, they just burst out laughing. They knew we were the future kings and had just decided to harass us.”

“Our dad wasn’t very happy with us after the hippopotami carried us back telling jokes the whole way.”

“Those jokes were hilarious! I can’t remember any but still…”

“Yeah Mufasa, that was a grand old story. I still remember dad’s face after that. He was going purple trying to yell at us for going where hippopotami lived.”

“When we saw a hippopotamus later, he laughed at us and asked whether dad liked the jokes.”

“The night we spent with the cheetahs was also a great stress reliever. They drugged us into a nice relaxed sleep and planned on becoming the next ‘Cheetah Kings’ of the pridelands.”

“Too bad for them we woke up too soon and tried to take them on! HAHAHA.”

“Calm down there Mufasa, it was you that tried to take them on! I just wanted to slip the rest of the drug into their food.”

“Don’t forget, you attacked the same time as me! I took the bigger one, but still, you attacked with everything you had…which wasn’t much!” Mufasa laughed like a mad lion.

“Maybe I’m not strong, but I still killed him without your help! I just slipped around while he tried to keep me in his sight.” Taka laughed also but in a higher voice that seemed more like a hearty giggle. “He got so dizzy, HAHAHA, he couldn’t even stand up! HAHAHAHAHAHA. That was the funniest thing I ever saw.”

“Oh yeah? I took the other one down with no help and didn’t even get scratched!”

“It was also funny when we dragged their bodies back to Ahadi. He asked where we found two dead cheetahs together and we just said they cubnapped us which is why we were gone the last night or two, and then when we woke up, we attacked and won.”

“He didn’t believe us but was glad we were back safely and with meat.”

The teens listened to the wind that was howling around their tree. It only seemed to get stronger. They huddled closer together as close to the tree as they could get. “Got any more stories Taka?”

“Nope, how ‘bout you?”

“I got one. It was a time when Ahadi had grounded you for telling lies about that cheetah incident.”

“You told me you had fun during those couple days with what was it, a sick crocodile?”

“Basically. I decided to wander while dad was watching you and giving you some sort of lesson. I went farther than I wanted and found myself trapped from going home by a rather large croc. I was preparing to jump over him or run around him. Neither option would have given me much of a chance. I was really scared then. I would probably die. But, surprisingly, just as he was about to jump at me, he coughed and hacked and I was able to get past him without him noticing—“

“Is that all? You just ran off then?”

“No! I wasn’t finished. Anyway, then I had an idea. As he was coughing, I snuck up behind him and slowly crawled onto his back. He never noticed a thing. Only when he turned around and would’ve run after me and possibly caught me if I had not turned around, did he think something was suspicious. Eventually, he decided I had somehow disappeared and went toward the water. Right as the water came over his back, I jumped off and again, he noticed nothing! After that though I went home before I got in trouble.”

“That’s a pretty cool story Mufasa. I wish I was there… Oh well. Guess we should go to sleep soon.”

“Hopefully this wind will calm down soon and dad won’t worry too much this night. Good night”

“Good night, don’t let the wind blow you away Mufasa!”

“HA! It might blow you away, but not me.”

The two lions went to sleep despite the howling of the wind and started to dream about what they wished they could have done today instead of stay behind the tree. They thought that they needed more stories to tell each other.

Both their dreams were about having another adventure. Little did they know that that was exactly what they were going to get.

Wings of Death: Chapter 2

Far up north in the jungles, a young family in a small flock of birds with strange looking beaks and even stranger colors. However one bird stands out more than any other. He is smaller than the others, clearly still a youngster. He also had a color unlike the rest of the flock, he was a plain blue. The others were multicolored of all sorts, rainbow, pink, orange, white, black, one even seemed to shift colors.

“Come on Zazu! It’s time for you to learn how to report back to the flocks leaders if you see something suspicious.” yelled Hewa.

“But mom… I don’t want to learn that. It’s just pointless. That’s not my job. It’s Tazama’s.”

“He’s is getting old son, it will be your job in the future and we will trust our lives with you.”

“I just want to fly off and find a life of my own. It’s too boring here and all my life will be boring unless I’m getting chased by some predator! I’ll either be flying for my life, or sleeping on the job. There’s no desirable life here for me. Just each me some basic survival skills and I’ll head off to wherever the stars guide me.”

“How can you do this to us Zazu? All through your youth we were waiting for you to grow up and do this job. You could very well be the only way this flock will survive!”

“I don’t care! I don’t like it here now! I won’t like it in the future! When will I like it?” Screamed Zazu at the top of his lungs. “This place holds no future or anything that would be to my advantage. So.” He stated, “What do I need to know to survive by myself?”

Hewa was heartbroken. There was nothing she could do to stop him but she wanted with all her might for him to stay. “Very well, meet me tomorrow when the sun rises where Tazama will be and I’ll show you the necessary skills.”

The next day, a bright yellow sun was rising into the air, it showed no dimness, no redness, it wasn’t too bright, and the clouds were arranged in the sky to let the sun shine upon them to create one of the most astounding sunrises in the history of these birds.

Hewa sighed, she didn’t want to do this to Zazu but she had no choice. It was the necessary option. As Zazu came to the lookout rock, Hewa said, “There is nothing more you need to learn from what we’ve already taught you. Run from enemies, you know how to feed yourself, and fly high so nothing can reach you.”

“Then why did you want to talk to me now?” Asked Zazu bluntly.

“Because I decided I need to keep you here. If you leave, all of us will die and the mighty Rangi flock will finally fall from its place in the hierarchy of nature. We cannot let that happen! I will go to great lengths to keep you here. We must survive!”

“You don’t sound like my mother anymore Hewa, I’m leaving now and there’s nothing you can do to stop it!” With those words, Zazu launched himself straight up and propelled himself through the jungle canopy.

“You’re not away yet!” Hewa took off after her son in a high speed chase.

Zazu was a better flyer but his mother was faster and more experienced. To exploit his advantage, Zazu dipped into the thickest part of the jungle where visibility was only a few beaks ahead. Zazu though he could fly faster in this terrain because of his fast reflexes. He was wrong. Hewa was slowly gaining on him. She was about to knock him out the air when he accidentally snagged himself on a vine.

He was yanked in a sort of loop and was thrown backwards before Hewa realized that he was gone. She slowed down and looked behind her to try to determine where Zazu was now. This was her unluckiest moment of her life. At this exact instant, a snake coiled around a branch tried to throw itself to another tree. Instead, the snake crashed into a still fast Hewa and found itself falling down to a branch slightly below the one it was aiming for. The snake quickly slithered to its preferred spot.

Hewa, however, was not so lucky. The impact stunned her and destroyed her flight pattern. She was now cart wheeling through the air with no sense of direction. She desperately tried to correct this, but nothing could be done. Her carcass tumbled down past the branches of the tree it had just now hit.

Zazu climbed above the trees and looked back to find his mother. When he didn’t see her, he started flying away to start his journey of wherever the stars let him.

Right now though, the stars didn’t want him to get away. Just after he started celebrating for getting away from his evil mother, a bird he had never seen before that had talons designed to shred things to pieces and a beak that was designed for that same purpose.

Zazu’s heart skipped a few beats there. This was one of the legendary Mwewe family. They could kill without thinking, but they were supposedly the most intelligent birds on the planet. Zazu hope that this one wasn’t out to kill him because he had little chance against it.

Zazu saw one chance and he took it. He dove straight down as fast as he could toward the jungle again. The hawk was too big to fly in there so all Zazu would have to do is get there. What surprised Zazu was not the fact that the hawk caught up within milliseconds, but that he flew next to Zazu and started talking.

“Why are you running from me?”

“Because you will probably eat me!”

“I just want to talk with you.”

“About how you’ll eat me.”

“No, I swear on the Mwewe family that I won’t harm you.”

Zazu stopped dead in midair and landed on the closest tree. That was a swear that could not be broken. It was also used in only the direst of situations. The fact that the hawk was from the Mwewe family made it all the more powerful.

The hawk landed next to him and said “Wow! You can stop really quickly in midair. Threw me for a loop there. What’s your name?”

“Zazu, may I ask what your name is and why you need to talk to me so desperately?”

“Of course. My name is Kucha and I just wanted to travel with you.”

“Travel with me? Why? What makes you think I’m traveling?”

“Silly Zazu, I know you’re traveling because you’re a lone hornbill. Hornbills never travel alone so something must have happened between you and your flock. You probably have nowhere to go and I don’t either so I would like to come along with you as a partner in any adventures.”

“Wow.” Said Zazu, “I never though I’d ever imagine a mighty member of the Mwewe family joining up with me. Sure you can come along, as long as you’re fine with going where the stars say we should and you won’t ever try to harm me with your claws or beak or other more secret weapons I don’t know about.”

“Great! Let’s head off.”

And so Zazu and Kucha traveled away from the jungle and left the Rangi flock behind to face their fate. They traveled for many days and had death defying adventures about once every three days. Zazu would not have survived the first few had Kucha not been there to help him in some way or another. They became best friends and wouldn’t willingly part each other unless one of them died. Every night they shared stories from their childhood and their greatest adventures.

A History Lesson: Chapter 3

Ahadi was sleeping in pride rock when the winds started blowing. Safe in the cavern of pride rock, he did not notice the wind. That is, until Uru woke him up. “My king, look outside, there is a great mysterious wind.”

Ahadi immediately noticed the winds howling about rock. He heard the piercing shriek as it whistled past the towering structure, he could see pebbles getting blown away, he could smell the scents of hundreds of animals leaving to return later, and he could feel the slight breeze that never penetrated past the opening of the cave.

 Even he, in his long years as king had not seen winds like this. It worried him, made all the more frightening by the sudden mass migration of the herds into territory which was fraught with danger. The herds had sometimes gone one by one through the danger area, but never in one big group.

Sleepily, he murmured, “The winds are strange today; did they ever blow like this? Rafiki!” More awake now, Ahadi called the newfound shaman to ask him about the old stories of priderock.

“Sire, there is one story about a great wind that arrived once. If history repeats itself now, there is a great evil coming. Last time, the wind suddenly picked up like this, the pridelands also emptied of animals. However, what happened after that is the most frightening.”

“What happened Rafiki? I need to know. Will I be murdered brutally in my sleep by some mysterious spirit?”

“I don’t think that will happen my king. The one other time this has happened in remembered history, something went terribly wrong with one of the sons of the king. His name was Dhiki is you prefer that.”

“Just get on with the story. What happened to his son?”

“Well, the younger one of Dhiki’s sons was out with his older more adventurous brother when the winds picked up. They managed to escape the winds, but the younger son had terrible luck for a long while afterwards and almost caused ruin upon the part of the pridelands that was not decimated by the wind.”

Ahadi thought about this for a second and decided because his sons were now in priderock, he was safe from this curse. Just to make sure though, he looked around for Mufasa and Taka. He couldn’t understand it. They were gone AGAIN! Maybe they had just stepped outside to feel the true wind. They weren’t out there either.

Ahadi was panicking now. Maybe history would repeat itself and Taka would have some sort of curse. Ahadi at this point would have accepted two possible outcomes of the curse. The first would be that Taka didn’t get a curse, and the second, much darker hope, was that Taka would die quickly leaving Mufasa the uncontested throne.

The First Winds: Chapter 4

Rafiki was forced to sleep in the den tonight instead of continuing his search for a suitable home for himself. While he was sleeping, a vision came to him in the form of a lion that was fairly small but more imposing than almost any other lion. The face swirled around and said something that would leave Rafiki pondering for several seconds until the truth was revealed.

“My name is Dhiki. I will show you what happened when the winds blew stronger than they ever had before, maybe you can learn something from my memories.” With that message, the voice faded out. Soon after, the entire lion started swirling around in a multicolored rainbow.

Rafiki was lost in wonder staring at this whirlpool for what seemed like a lifetime. It just kept swirling until he remembered that something was going to be shown to him. He focused on the center of the rainbow until a tiny dot in the center expanded to fill his vision with two young lions that looked strikingly similar to Mufasa and Taka.

They were laughing and rolling around playing some game lost to the ages. There was a lone tree nearby. Everything else was a flat savannah. In a few moments, the herds came thundering by. The cubs were scared half to death. Fortunately, the animals went straight past them. As the two cubs pondered what happened, the grass started swaying and what appeared to be a wave in the grass was approaching.

They were frozen in terror watching this line of dirt approach. The larger one that looked more like Mufasa acted first he dashed toward the tree, quickly followed by his smaller, more scared brother. They got behind the tree not a second too soon. The ripple of ground threw them up and nearly dislodged the tree from its roots. Then came the wind. If they were not behind the tree, it was almost certain that they would have been blown away.

“Gutua! Hold on the tree,” yelled the larger cub.

“I’m trying Hodari! I can’t find anything to hold onto except this little twig and I will blow off very soon.” Gutua presumably was screaming in terror. “I can’t hold on any longer Hodari. HELP!” he managed to scream at the last second.

Hodari let go of his perch on the tree to bite Gutua by the scruff of the neck just as he was about to be blown away. Gutua was given the branch that Hodari had, while Hodari huddled by behind the tree resisting the wind as best he could.

To Rafiki it now appeared to jump several years in the future to when Hodari and Gutua were adults. They were good friends and still loved playing with each other as adults but Gutua had scars all over his body. Somehow, he managed to escape with his life after each one. Rafiki wondered what would be so important right now. There were just a few clouds in the sky with no danger anywhere. He watched for about an hour when something finally happened.

The clouds had been slowly developing into storm clouds when all of a sudden now, all the clouds seemed to spring to life. The sky was suddenly filled with dark towering monstrous clouds. Hodari and Gutua didn’t even notice. Rafiki knew this wouldn’t turn out pretty.

As Hodari pulled away from the playful scuffle, the most unlikely, freakish accident happened. Gutua also pulled back near a tree and it happened.

Rafiki was never sure if it was just if it was his imagination, but he always thought he really smelled the smell to come because at this exact moment back at pride rock, all the lions and lionesses smelled this horrible burning smell which immediately faded.

Back with Gutua, it was that moment that the first lightning of the storm hit. The very first bolt hit the tree right next Gutua and a small outreaching streak hit Gutua in the back. Hodari couldn’t believe it. There was a great big flash of light that singed even his fur fifty strides away. He hadn’t seen this phenomenon up close before and it terrified him.

The next thing he knew was the smell of the singed, burned flesh of his brother. Hodari ran back to his father Dhiki immediately and told him about this accident. A large portion of the pride ran down to the scene.

Hodari was saying as much as he could as fast as he could. “We were playing the normal game and we didn’t notice that the black clouds had arrived again and we kept on playing and then there was a great big flash where Gutua was and I could feel the heat of the flash fifty strides away and I think I’m burned a little and there was this horrible smell coming from the area where Gutua was and I don’t ever want to smell it again because I think I will have nightmares about for the rest of my life anyway do you think my brother is alright?”

Dhiki was too afraid to answer. On one hand, his younger son might have been freed from the curse finally, but if he wasn’t, it would be a horrible life. But still, he had to check on his son to make sure he was dead or alive.

When they finally got to Gutua, they heard nothing. They saw a tree that had fallen and then they smelled the smell Hodari was talking about. They all continued, but several lionesses had to stop and vomit once or twice. When they got to the fallen tree, they found Gutua, still alive but just barely. He could still easily survive, but he could die even easier.

Dhiki had to rescue him. He would have never been able to face any other lion ever again saying he had virtually killed his son.

However, a rescue was complicated by the matter that the tree had fallen directly on Gutua’s tail. Dhiki ordered all lionesses and lions to help roll the tree off of Gutua. However, it was still rooted and the roots were too strong and deep to tear through.

“NOOOOOOOOO!” Dhiki gave an anguished cry across the pridelands. There was no easy way to save his poor son. He saw only one option. He would have to bite and chew through Gutua’s tail as close to the tree as possible. This was something that he never would imagine himself doing.

He did it quickly but immediately after he was done went away and slept by a water hole for a few nights. It had plenty of water in so he could drink while not moving from his place. He repeatedly threw up over the next few days until he could walk away and see how his son was doing. Gutua was not doing much better. Most of his hair had been burned off, his tail stump had become infected and it was being washed several times per day, and he would suffer mental damage forever. It was the last problem though that would forever haunt the rest of the pride.

This was apparently the end of the vision Rafiki had because again it swirled into a mix of colors that formed into Dhiki’s face. Dhiki explained that from then on, Gutua, with his mental problems, would always be trying to destroy the pride and take over as leader. Eventually he succeeded in killing Hodari right after Dhiki had died from natural causes. A curse like the one on Gutua will reappear when similar circumstances take place but it will disappear if the cursed one loses the battle.

Missing: Chapter 5

For Mufasa and Taka it was not a good night to sleep. They somehow had managed to get to sleep, but they did not sleep well. Both of them woke up several times, and had nightmares throughout the entire night. These nightmares involved them going on some sort of heroic adventure, but at the end getting very injured mentally, physically, or emotionally. The only happy dream they had was a dream about them not getting dreams like this.

During the night however, Taka woke up and couldn’t get back to sleep. The wind had died down a little and he decided he would head out to see what else was going on. This turned out to be a mistake almost immediately because he started getting blown away from the tree and couldn’t get back. So, he decided to find cover behind a nearby rock. This was the first of his great misfortunes.

When Mufasa woke up, he could feel that something was wrong. With his eyes still closed, he managed to pinpoint his discomfort. The body heat from Taka was gone. This could be very bad unless he found Taka before heading home. Mufasa was very fortunate that the wind had stopped.

As Mufasa headed out, he noticed the faint tracks that had not been blown away over the night. There was no mistaking it; these were his brother’s pawprints. As Mufasa followed the faint path, he couldn’t help but talk to himself. “Please let my brother be okay. I don’t want to tell my father that Taka is dead because we were stupid and stayed out later than we were supposed to. Maybe he just got too crowded and went to a different hiding place. I could never forgive myself if he’s dead.”

With those words, he stumbled over the rock that Taka had hidden behind for the remainder of the night. Unfortunately, his brother had mysteriously disappeared yet again.

Mufasa could tell his brother was here for a while due to the strong smell, but something that he had not counted upon was also there. Taka’s blood was lying in a few drops across the rock. There wasn’t enough for him to die of blood loss, but something had attacked him when he wasn’t prepared.

Once again Mufasa had to find the trail and follow it until he could rescue his brother from whatever danger there was at the time. This trail was easier to follow because the winds had started to die down by the time Taka was taken away. A thick path and a strong smell always help with following a trail.

While studying the path taken, Mufasa discovered that it must have been a fairly strong creature that would keep Taka calm and quiet while he was being dragged away. His brother was definitely alive, but was in the possession of what looked like a hippo that could somehow crawl along its belly for a long time.

He couldn’t dally here any longer; he must follow the trail of his brother Taka until he found him and brought him back, dead or alive, to the king of priderock.

Taka had a much bruised head, a cut forepaw, and a lingering dislike for whatever creature was dragging him through this terrain. So far, all he could tell was that it seemed like a huge snake with an area on their back to place cubnapped creatures. However, the more important fact that he learned from about five seconds of conversation was his/her name—Pora. All Taka knew for sure that was that he would somehow escape from whoever this was and make it back to his brother.

However, when he tried to get off this creatures back, he found himself stuck to its back. This wasn’t good because if this slow creature was attacked by something that was fast and powerful, like his brother Mufasa, then he could be stuck here forever. Right now all he could do was lie down and catch up on his sleep so he was ready when he was unstuck.

He looked around one more time, but found nothing. For now, he was on his own. He decided to try to engage in conversation once more. “So uh… Pora, why have you taken me? I assure you I’m not a threat to whatever it is you think I am.”

“Taka—”

“How do you know my name?”

“That is a little secret of mine that I won’t reveal. Anyway, I cubnapped you because I was ordered to. No you are not a threat to anyone yet, but it is necessary for you to become the biggest threat the pridelands have ever faced.”

“Who ordered you to? I want to kill them as soon as I get to them. Why should I get cubnapped just so I can become a terror on the pridelands? It isn’t fair.”

“Of course it isn’t fair. I will answer both of these questions but no more. After this you have to not speak a single word, consequences might be severe. Promise?”

“All right, but I want to know more.”

“Good, I was ordered to cubnap you by Mufasa, and you need to be the greatest threat ever so the other lions can kill you and restore the balance of good and evil in their territory.”

“WHAT? MUFASA? I don’t believe you and I never will until he himself says that he ordered you to take me away. Right now, he’s probably searching trying to save me.”

“Of course your brother is, he has no idea that you where cubnapped but has to find you before he goes back home.”

“Hold on, he has no idea where I could be, but he orders you to cubnap me. There must be some rendezvous point. Anyway, why do I have to be killed by my family to save good and evil?”

“Tsk, Tsk, so many questions. There is no rendezvous point, Mufasa, the greatest king ever only said to cubnap you. And for your last question, this really is the last answer so stop asking, you are the only way it can be done until about three hundred years later.”

Taka withdrew into himself after this conversation. It couldn’t be possible, his brother ordered him cubnapped but with no other orders, and he was already the greatest king EVER? Taka had one conclusion, that Mufasa was really a lot older than he actually looked and was some super tiny lion without a mane. But what hurt the most, was that father and brother had been lying to him about almost everything.

There was no way this was real, it was just a nightmare that he would have to wake up from soon.

Past and Present: Chapter 6

Zazu and Kucha were getting along surprisingly well for two birds that were supposed to be mortal enemies. They were very good friends and told hundreds of their stories from their childhood. They were both equally interesting, Kucha’s stories had more of a war element to them, while Zazu’s were more about the lessons he learned from his evil mother Hewa. Some of the stories told by Zazu were stories that were spun in a funny way as to give the impression of him not being serious. However, he still made them very serious and both birds learned to not do many of the things Hewa taught Zazu.

With Kucha however, his stories were also given a light air. He always told how he was the bravest hawk and bird at the scene of the incident, even if he was the first to run away and suffered the least injuries.

His favorite story to tell was the story about how he alone, a day after learning to fly, held off two eagles. In the battle, he suffered no scratches and made the eagles flee in terror. It went something like this: “My best act of courageous and brave and um… and…something else, was when I chased off two fully grown eagles by myself. I remember the day well…”

Sure thought Zazu, just like you remember every other day in your life.

“It was the day after I was pushed out of the nest by my parents, I was the best flyer that our flock had seen since the last hawk with this name. Anyway, today, I had flown out to a small rock to look around, when I saw these eagles closing in on me. This was a very serious thing. They blocked my escape route, so I could only hope to fly higher then they could.

Unfortunately, they were too high for a young chick, even one with my skills, to overcome. As it was, I got as high as I could, then they dive-bombed me. I flipped over, grabbed the first one with my talons, while biting the other wherever I could with my beak.

This wasn’t working well, so I pulled away, ripping one of his talons away in the process. As the other eagle came straight toward me, I turned directly into the direction he was coming from, he veered up to avoid me, but I went up even more so I could pass him and not get hurt. It worked very well. The one that just had a talon ripped out was not concentrating and flew straight into his partner coming from the other side trying to hit and avoid me at once.

This basically finished it for me. I came down, grabbed both their backs with my claws, and ripped them back out along with a hunk of flesh. The two eagles instantly turned away and never came back. I went home and told my parents immediately. They were so proud that their firstborn son had protected his flock without any help.

What he didn’t tell Zazu was that the battle never involved any fighting. It was a battle of wits and Kucha was very good at things like that. Also, the eagles just loved seeing little baby hawks so after a little while of arguing a moot point, they pretended to run away as if this little baby had scared them away with his fearsome beak.

One day Zazu asked a more personal question, “Why did you leave? You seemed to get everything you wanted over there.”

“Of course I did and that’s why I left. I needed to learn how to live on my own.”

“Well judging by your stories Kucha, you learned to do that a day before you were born!” Zazu reminded him.

“No Zazu, I’ll tell you later maybe, now isn’t the time.”

“Please? I need to know your past to trust you. I’ve told you mine in all my stories. They were chronological and were completely true. Do it for a lifelong friend of yours.”

Kucha relented in sight of this argument. It was true, he did need to open up about his past a little bit more. All his stories were obviously false and therefore nobody trusted him to say something true. “Very well Zazu, but please don’t tell anyone. None of those stories were true, you probably figured that out, but anyway, here’s my story…”

Where to Look: Chapter 7

Ahadi had just smelled the terrible burned smell when he woke up. He wrinkled his nose and hoped it would go away. He saw Rafiki close by in something that looked like a trance and also apparently smelling this smell.

“Rafiki! Are you awake what happened?” Rafiki didn’t hear him or at least didn’t acknowledge Ahadi’s presence. It was alright, it was still the middle of the night with the wind at this time. His sons still hadn’t come back, but that was understandable with the winds outside. He could only hope they weren’t dead.

The entire pride was wrinkling and scrunching their muzzles trying to ignore the smell in their sleep. Ahadi just lay down and watched everything. There was now a light rain outside to add to the depressing mood. This would be his worst night ever, he was sure.

About an hour later, when the first hints that the wind was letting up, that Rafiki woke up. Ahadi confronted him about his trance immediately. “What did you see in your ‘trance’?”

“Ahadi, I just had a visit from king Dhiki. To put it the happiest way, your youngest son, Taka, will have some sort of terrible curse put on him, and will try to destroy the pride and someone from our pride has to kill him. To put in the worst way possible, Taka will try to kill you and just about everybody else that will be descended from you so he can rule. He will suffer some sort of accident that will cause him to think that he needs to do these things. Unless someone that is descended from you kills him, the entire pride and pridelands will be utterly destroyed.”

Ahadi was crushed. The only way to prevent this from happening he saw was to either kill his own son, or keep Taka where nothing could possibly hurt him. Neither of these options could work very well at all. The only one that might work is if he killed Taka himself, or maybe even Mufasa could do it with his help. No, it couldn’t be done. The pride will always have a curse on itself even if it somehow lived through the reign of Taka.

After thinking all this through, Ahadi could do just one thing, appoint Mufasa as king and hope Taka would be competitive enough to challenge it and Mufasa could win. He went out into the lightening wind to find his sons so they could hear this news.

As he climbed out of priderock, the other lionesses were beginning to wake up. Ahadi got two of them to help him find his sons.

They all searched for a place some young cubs could hide during a windstorm like that. Because there were so few places like that, they quickly discovered their hiding place behind the tree. Unfortunately, both were gone by now.

Mufasa was the other rock where Taka had spent his last couple hours of night, and Taka was falling asleep on the back of Pora.

Ahadi and the two lionesses picked up the scent of Mufasa and headed straight toward the rock. However, 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 and I decided to run away as soon as I was able to. I forced myself to do it a little early and paid the consequences. Some young lion came up and attacked me as I was trying to walk a little to rest my tired wings. This was just out of the territory 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.”

“Well then Zazu, I think you better tell me how to get through here without running into that hawk.”

“Just go where you were heading, I’ll lead the hawk away from where you exit. Okay?”

“Fine, just get moving.”

Zazu flew straight back to Kucha after this. He needed to ask if he wanted to kill the lion cub that injured him. If not, then he wouldn’t have to tell Kucha to move somewhere away from the swamp. He hoped that that would be the case.

Zazu made it to Kucha very quickly, apparently he was closer to the edge of the swamp than he had thought. He was desperately out of breath, but at least one if not two lives were on the line here. Zazu gasped out his message.

“Kucha! Remember that story of your…” Zazu panted for breath. “Childhood? When the lion attacked you? I was wondering if you harbored any hate over that fact at all.”

“Well of course Zazu. That lion destroyed my life. Stole my family from me and seriously wounded me. I don’t want to kill him because I did turn out just fine, but I definitely would like to give him some scars he would remember.”

“Oh, fine with me. We should probably get moving and try to fly around this swamp. There are some strange winds out there.”

“Let’s go then. Race you to the other side!”

Kucha thought it was strange how this conversation went and therefore decided to look inside the swamp a little while flying around. He saw a large cub walking cautiously through looking around. As soon as the cub looked his way and saw the two birds he lowered himself and tried to make himself unseen from anything. This was the cub from his adventure but Kucha flew on, he would have his revenge later with Zazu at his side.

Mufasa was traveling through the swamp at a faster rate now that he knew the tricks to traveling in one. He hoped Zazu would manage to convince the hawk to go away and not bother him. He was always watching for that glimpse of a hawk.

There! No that was just a wisp of fog. But finally he caught his glimpse of two birds. They were far away but it was definitely Zazu and therefore the other one was the hawk, Kucha or whatever his name was. Mufasa instinctively crouched down behind a bush. It was possible that the hawk had glanced his way and seen him, but they just kept going straight. He was safe, at least for now.

Now that they were out of sight he abandoned all caution and ran straight for the exit to the swamps. He hoped he would come out on the path of Taka. It could make life very difficult if he lost the path.

He was having one of the luckiest days of his life. The faint smell was right there when he left the swamp. He looked back and could have sworn that the swamp was already half its previous size. The weather was definitely not right.

Kucha thought about the lion cub he had passed. There was no way it was a different cub. Tomorrow he would get Zazu to turn around with him and then he would avenge his loss. He flew on a little farther in silence. The feeling of hate grew in him every second.

He became afraid that when given the chance he would kill the cub instead of just causing him pain lasting for a few weeks. He might need Zazu’s help to keep him under control. He wished it would go away.

“Zazu?”

“Yes Kucha?”

“I will need your help. I’m changing into some sort of killing machine. If given the chance, I will kill everything. You need to be able to keep me under control okay? I’m afraid of what would happen otherwise.”

“I would always help you like that. I hope that never happens.”

“Thank you. I’ll see you in the morning.”

A Conversation: Chapter 10

He couldn’t delay any longer. Both his sons were somewhere in the savannah, possibly dead, and no trail to identify where they could be. If he didn’t start now, he would never have a chance of finding them.

Ahadi summoned two of his favorite lionesses to help him search for Mufasa and Taka. Their names were Sakanya and Kuta. They had a knack for finding things that most others wouldn’t find.

They set out starting at the water hole that Mufasa hid in. It didn’t take long before they found his trail. Ahadi was not doing much in the search. He was not as good as the lionesses. They were almost sprinting following the trail. Mufasa had covered more ground that last day than any had suspected.

It was still early in the morning when they came next to the place where Kucha had been attacked as a fledgling. As fate would have it, Kucha and Zazu were just waking up. Ahadi approached boldly and started talking as if he could fight them both off easily. The lionesses glanced at each other, hawks were not supposed to be bargained with in this way.

“You there! The sleeping hawk. Wake up.” Ahadi waited for a minute before deciding the hawk was not moving very willingly. He shook him roughly. “HAWK! Wake up before I decide to kill you.”

This time the hawk moved. But not in the way Ahadi was expecting. Kucha was awake but not showing it. So he surprised Ahadi by suddenly jerking his wings open and pushing away. He prepared himself for an attack on Ahadi.

Very fortunately for Ahadi, Zazu had also just woken up and yelled at Kucha, “KUCHA! Don’t attack. I still need you.”

Kucha calmed down and started talking to Ahadi, but not very nicely. “What do you want? We’re just trying to get some sleep and you just shake me and yell at me and set my reflexes to attack. That would have been very bad for you.”

Ahadi was equally impolite also, “Well sorry. I’m under some stress here to save my cubs life and you refuse to help.”

“I never said I wouldn’t help, but it looks more likely now for me to do that. I should just fly off with my friend Zazu here and never see you again!”

“Oh yes. I forgot. A hawk that does have a small potential to actually injure someone is traveling with a Hornbill! They are worthless birds that should be eradicated from this planet.”

Zazu replied to this one. “I’ll let you know that I seem to have hurt more people in my life than this Kucha the fearsome hawk. That includes killing someone who was trying to maim me for life.”

Ahadi just laughed harder. “HAHAHAHAHAHA. If you did more than this hawk here, then he must have done NOTHING!”

It was at this point that Sakanya and Kuta stepped in between them and quietly talked to Ahadi. “Sire, we want these birds to help us. Right now all you’re doing is making them angry. Could you please walk over there behind that rock outcropping? We can handle this situation.”

Ahadi agreed but reluctantly, he still wanted to humiliate the birds more.

Kuta stepped up and introduced them selves. “Hello uhhhh… Kucha and Zazu! Now I remember. We have to apologize for Ahadi’s behavior both his sons have gone missing and he really wants them back.”

Now Sakanya stepped in, “There have been many strange things happening here in the pridelands in the last couple days. I don’t know if you had the occurrences too, we had some extremely strong wind and our shaman had a vision about our past with similar circumstances.”

Together now, they asked the main question, “We were wondering if you saw two lion cubs come by here. At least one anyway?”

Kucha immediately replied no, but Zazu was fidgeting around and was clearly in an awkward situation. “Well uhh… um, sort of.”

“Sort of?” Asked Sakanya, “You either saw one or you didn’t.”

Zazu was thinking, he hadn’t told Kucha about his conversation with the lion cub yet and speaking up would mean that he had that conversation. He decided to tell about it. Kucha was a true friend, he would understand. “Well I did meet one cub yesterday.”

Kucha threw a sideways glance at Zazu.

“I think he said his name was Musafa or something like that.”

This time it was Kuta that replied. “Did he say what he was doing? This is really important.”

“Well, I think he said he was searching for his brother. I’m not completely sure it was your son though, it could have been another animal that was similar to a lion cub because he was climbing through a swamp and was completely covered with grime.”

“Thank you so much Zazu! You can help us search for Mufasa—”

“Ah yes his name was Mufasa.”

“—And his brother Taka. It would be helpful to have two birds on this search,” finished Kuta.

“Especially a hawk!” added Sakanya.

Zazu was not sure about what he wanted to do, but Kucha had been thinking the whole time. This was an easy way to get to that little lion and get his revenge. Zazu was sure to follow, and then all he would have to do is find the cub first and attack. “I will come.” Said he, “Zazu, what about you? I think you should come.”

Zazu relented in the end, but not very willingly. He recognized the reasons that Kucha had for going and didn’t like his idea. However, it would probably all turn out okay.

“Ahadi, come on over and show these birds some respect. They agreed to help us and we need you to cooperate also or we will make you go back to priderock.”

Kucha had forgotten about Ahadi. He hoped he wouldn’t cooperate and have to go back that place the lionesses talked about.

Kucha was lucky, Ahadi was the same as he was before and was forced to go home. The lionesses also looked relieved. Only Zazu thought this wasn’t a very good idea. There was now no one left to oppose Kucha. He would need someone challenging him by the end. However, there was also the possibility that he would no longer want to kill Mufasa by the end. They started forward.

Back at priderock, Rafiki just remembered something from his past that he knew would tie in with all their fates before the end of this adventure. He could not explain why he remembered it just now, but nonetheless, he would have to tell Ahadi and Uru about it. Rafiki was the creature that had healed Kucha. He hoped he would have some diplomatic leverage over the hawk because of this. He would probably need it later.

The Hard Truth: Chapter 11

Taka was waiting for his journey to end. He was getting weaker every moment he couldn’t get off this thing and get some food. He suspected he had about two more days before he died of thirst and hunger.

The creature, Pora, made no attempt to start a conversation. It almost appeared to Taka as if he/she didn’t want to talk about what they were doing.

“Pora? Why don’t you want to talk to me?”

“Taka, I will gladly talk to you, my question is why did you not talk for so long?”

“I wasn’t talking because you weren’t talking. Fine, well, why are you worried about this trip?”

“What makes you think that I’m worried?”

“Very simply Pora, you didn’t want to talk to me and kept glancing from side to side.”

“I already explained why I didn’t want to talk and I need to make sure there isn’t any evil creature that would want to kill us.”

“Why would someone want to even attempt to attack us? You’re some scary creature that no one knows what actually is, and I’m a lion.”

“The one creature that would attack us is your brother Mufasa. He would do anything to keep me from taking you to wherever I’m supposed to.”

“What? You said Mufasa wanted me cubnapped before. So now he wants to cubnap me and sacrifice his life to get me back? What is he? Is there more than one Mufasa?”

“You could argue that there are two Mufasas out there, but they are the same. You know what they say, we are one.”

“I haven’t heard that. Who says it?”

“Why of course, the whole priddddddddddde.” Pora trailed off realizing his/her mistake. “That was probably the stupidest thing I’ve ever said, sorry Taka.”

“You know what you said Pora, and you know it was true. Who and what are you? That was the stupidest thing you ever said but only because it let me realize what you aren’t. Something that was here before! So who and what are you Pora, you aren’t from these pridelands anyway.”

In a quieter voice he said to himself “Mufasa will kill me for this.”

“Mufasa will kill you? So are you in league with him to kill me? You’ve been lying all the way through the journey.”

“No Taka. I really don’t think I can explain this to you. Mufasa will already want to kill me enough. No need to make him really want to kill me.”

“I think my brother will already kill you when he sees you trying to take me away Pora!”

“True true, but I won’t die. However, if the ‘other’ Mufasa that is still the same wants to kill me, I will be dead before I can protest. That wasn’t the smartest thing to say either. Oh well. The only way it can get worse now is if I actually tell you everything.”

“Might as well tell me then or else my brother Mufasa might get you sooner rather than later.”

Pora was debating whether to tell Taka that he was in fact only a spirit sent by the dead adult Mufasa to cubnap Taka and bring him before Mufasa for some sort of learning thing that Mufasa wanted to use. Apparently it would turn Taka against the pride and therefore save the pride.

It made no sense to Pora. It seemed like Mufasa wanted to teach Taka how to kill his previous self so the pride could live because it was on the verge of destruction because the greatest king ever, Mufasa, was killed by his brother because Mufasa himself had taught him how and gave him some reason. Logically, it should end up with no lions left. How that would save the pride was beyond Pora’s level of thinking.

Eventually he decided to tell Taka, because this had already happened if there was a great big Mufasa in the sky. Whatever he did was bound to turn out that way. Taka didn’t understand very well either.

Taka was now only in a very sullen mood and refused to talk. Pora hoped he would get to the place where Mufasa would talk to Taka soon. Taka was getting too weak to continue to stay angry. Taka had to stop soon. However, the one thing Pora worried about the most, was that Mufasa’s plan wouldn’t quite work out. That could mean disaster—for the entire pridelands.

Soon: Chapter 12

He could feel it, Taka was close. Soon he would be able to kill Taka’s cubnapper and rescue his brother. Somehow, this mysterious creature that hardly left a trace, would soon feel the wrath of Mufasa.

It had been a long hard day for Mufasa. He had neglected to eat the previous two or three days, so he was starving. He had been hoping to catch up to the creature and eat it by now, but that had not happened. Therefore, he was forced to try to hunt something.

Mufasa had not been taught yet, but he had sometimes watched, and thought he might be able to bring down a small creature. If he couldn’t, he might have to have some plants that lived here. He was now far enough south, he was on the edge of the jungle. There must be something in there he could eat.

After a short chase with a young meerkat, Mufasa gave up on getting the little bugger. He had to find something on the outskirts of the jungle. There was nothing in the way of meat that he had a hope of catching.

Mufasa was on the verge of giving up, when, searching farther in, he stumbled upon a dead bird that looked strikingly similar to Zazu. It was the only food he found, but it would sustain him for a while.

He continued on his way. He tried to go even quicker now, there wouldn’t be much food after this meal. Soon however, the trail became clearer, he must be close. Now Mufasa was almost running along the path. The only thing in his mind was one word—SOON. Soon he would taste the blood of the cubnapper. Soon he would rescue Taka. Soon he could go back home. Soon the family could be together again. Soon, soon, soon.

There was a dust cloud ahead, now Mufasa was sprinting. He accelerated until he leapt into the dust.

Meeting of the Paths: Chapter 13

Kuta and Sakanya were also walking quickly at this point. The birds were flying up ahead trying to find Mufasa. Everyone was glad that Ahadi went back to Priderock. It made the journey much more bearable. As they looked forward, Kuta saw Zazu coming back.

“Oh look Sakanya, Zazu is coming back. They must have found something and Kucha is making sure we don’t lose track of it. Hello Zazu, have you found Mufasa yet?”

“Kuta, Sakanya.” Zazu was slightly out of breath and needed to pause for a few seconds. “Yes, we have found at least one lion cub, but—”

This time it was Sakanya that replied first. “That’s great! Where?”

“Let me finish. Kucha is for now just following, but I don’t think he can restrain himself much longer. Come quickly, Please!”

The lionesses looked at each other, and started running off to where Zazu was leading them. There was only one obstacle in their path, a large hill. As they were climbing it, Zazu kept screaming more and more hysterically to come. Finally they reached the top of the hill gasping for breath, and found they couldn’t take a breath anymore.

They saw Kucha about to pounce Mufasa, as Mufasa was about to pounce a dust cloud that had some form in it.

Zazu was in a panic. “No Kucha! NO! I failed at my job. Please don’t injure Mufasa too much, he will be an adult lion one day and then he could easily kill you! Oh no oh no oh no oh no.”

It was too late. Mufasa stumbled a little though. This slowed him down just enough to throw off Kucha’s aim. All three watchers from the hill, invisible to everyone, saw Mufasa leap straight into the dust followed an instant later by Kucha. They could only watch in horror now as the battle took place, only making a larger cloud.

Ahadi was in a foul temper when he got back to Priderock. He was mad that he was forced to go back by his own lionesses. He was mad that the hawk had almost attacked him, he was mad at Zazu for existing. Everything else, he just decided to be mad at for no reason at all.

Rafiki was first to spot him from his special little tree. Rafiki ran to Priderock awaiting the king so he could tell him about what had happened since. There really wasn’t much except rumors about a darker lion cub just disappearing into some sort of dust cloud, with a more golden cub following. Rafiki was almost positive that they were Ahadi’s two sons.

He saw Ahadi getting closer and closer to Priderock. His queen joined him, talking to him. Finally they entered.

Rafiki caught them by surprise a little, and Ahadi almost attacked him. Fortunately nothing actually happened.

“Sire, I must tell you something.”

“Can’t it wait Rafiki? I am very angry at almost everything right now, I don’t want to listen to any of your talk.”

“I’m terribly sorry if that’s the case you should relax for a day, just lie down and relax. But this is not something that can wait. I need to know if you met a hawk before you came back. Name of Kucha I think.”

“This made Ahadi very angry. I saw that hawk all right, I want to kill him and he wanted to kill me. I don’t want to be near him unless that hawk is not aware that I am right behind him.”

Rafiki started explaining a little. “Ahadi, when I was a couple years younger, when I was taking what might be considered a vacation, I met that hawk. I healed him. I also believe that Mufasa was out on one of his excursions by himself right before this. I think it is very probable that it was Mufasa that nearly killed that hawk. Kucha may want some revenge.”

Even Ahadi didn’t think he could be this angry. Everything was going wrong. Both cubs disappearing and not being able to go after his own cubs because he didn’t talk nice to a hawk that would want to kill his sons. Maybe he did need a night of peace and quiet once. He went into the inner chamber alone.

PART 2

Prologue

Rafiki still had no idea that Mufasa (adult) was responsible for all this. He was just as confused as the cubs and the other lions. Fortunately for him, Mufasa had just decided to give him another vision. As soon as Rafiki went into the tree that he lived in, he felt incredibly sleepy and just collapsed on the ground.

He saw an adult lion at once. The lion was magnificent wreathed among the clouds in the heavens. The voice was overpowering drug that overwhelmed even Rafiki, he knew this lion held power among the stars and used to hold power upon the earth.

“Rafiki, do not worry about Mufasa and Taka. I will make sure everything is taken care of. Despite what you think has happened, it is necessary to ensure the survival of the pridelands.”

Rafiki, in his vision/dream had a couple questions for this mysterious lion. “Hold on. What is your name? How can trust someone if they won’t even tell me their name? And why are you reassuring me that everything is necessary?”

“All right Rafiki, I’ll tell you everything. My name is…” there was a long pause here, Mufasa was hesitant and Rafiki could feel it.

“I’m waiting.”

“My name is… is Mufasa. That is a very small part of the reason why I needed to reassure you also. I have a plan to restore the pridelands to their original state, but I need Taka to be evil toward his family or else it won’t work. I have had a servant take him to train him very quickly.”

“You’re Mufasa? But Mufasa is searching for Taka, and he’s still a cub. How can he possibly be you?”

“I’m the dead adult version of him. Just let your feelings guide you with you’re decisions of what to do with the cubs and the pride. I think you’ll do just fine.” With that, Mufasa faded away with Rafiki waking up and yelling after him.

“Don’t you go away yet! I still have a whole bunch of questions for you!”

With a final gasp Mufasa left one final message, “Hakuna Matata, no worries.”

Rafiki wasn’t very pleased and he sat skulking in his tree for a long while. “The nerve of him. Probably will just forget about me and leave the pridelands to the hyenas. Of course he is Mufasa, the grown up cub.” He sighed, for now, he would have to figure out what he meant by Hakuna Matata.

Reunion: Chapter 1

The decision had been made. If Pora didn’t reach the destination today, he would have to get something to eat for poor Taka. They had been stopping sometimes to get a light drink, but that wouldn’t sustain a cub for ever. He no longer had the strength to even stay awake longer for a few minutes. His body just shut down all functions.

Taka was conscious…barely. He was capable of thought, but not much else at this time. All he knew was that he was about to die of not eating anything in several days. He must be rescued soon, if he wasn’t, this could be his last day of being conscious.

He looked back though right before he knew he would black out for who knew how long. It was what he was waiting for, a small Mufasa rose over the hill behind him and charged toward Taka.

That sight gave Taka the energy to stay awake at least for a little longer. Then, his hopes went down a little as he saw a hawk dive down from on top right toward Mufasa. However, two lionesses also came over the hill. Maybe everything would turn out okay after all. Mufasa hit a rock with his paw, rolled over, and continued running. The hawk pulled up at the last second to avoid slamming into the ground.

Mufasa was here finally! With one last push, he leaped straight toward Taka. The surroundings immediately changed. There was only Mufasa and Taka here now. Even Pora had disappeared. Fortunately, there was plenty of food here so Taka could stay alive.

After gorging himself upon the feast that lay before him with Mufasa, Mufasa asked Taka a few questions about his journey. “I finally managed to catch up with you Taka! You must have been starving, how did you get here all on your own?”

“I wasn’t on my own; didn’t you see the beast creature thing that carried me here?”

“I saw some sort of tracks, but there was definitely no creature like that, there was a dust cloud and when I jumped in, I saw you staring in amazement at me and then we were here. Was I supposed to see something?”

“Well let’s see. From my perspective, I saw a hawk about to slaughter you, and two lionesses coming over the hill with some funny looking bluish bird. It was the same hill that you had come over less than half a minute before.”

“What? A hawk trying to kill me? Two lionesses following me?” Then in a quieter voice, almost to himself, he started muttering, “oh no oh no oh no oh no.”

“What’s wrong Mufasa? We escaped.”

“The hawk is after me now. He will want to kill me or at least very seriously injure me. And the pride is looking for me, but Ahadi is not. I wonder why…”

“It can’t be that bad Mufasa. Come on, let’s just lie down and rest. We can share our stories now.”

And with that, they lay down and recited their adventures up until that point. This night was the first happy night either of them had had since the nights before the winds came.

Carelessness: Chapter 2

Ahadi was about to have an emotional breakdown. He lay down trying to calm his thoughts. It wasn’t working. He stormed out of priderock determined to follow his cubs to wherever they went. They wouldn’t escape him. Somehow, he would bring them back to the pride. They were his only heirs.

Despite the danger of himself being killed or running into that hawk again, he went forward. Looking back only once at Rafiki. He nodded at Ahadi.

Sarabi saw Ahadi leave and ran over to her friend Sarafina. “Wake up! Let’s follow Ahadi. He’s going somewhere.”

“Can’t we just stay here? I’m tired.”

“You’re no fun. Come on. We’ll stay hidden and see what it is he has to do now.”

“Oh all right. I’m so tired though.”

The two young lionesses silently went out to follow Ahadi. Not a single lion/lioness saw them go. Even Rafiki wasn’t aware of their leaving.

They walked quickly and quietly until they were a long ways away. After that they started talking quietly about where they thought Ahadi was going. Among the theories, were some that included him going out to rescue his cubs, but most were silly things that they laughed at.

Suddenly, Sarafina looked up, and saw Ahadi very close. She quickly warned Sarabi and they hid quickly. Ahadi had one ear cocked, and looked in their direction. It appeared that he didn’t notice them. But they didn’t know for sure. He could just be ignoring them.

He headed off with Sarabi and Sarafina following. They were nervous now and traveled in silence. They stayed off the trail of Ahadi and tried to stay hidden as much as possible. The problems they might face, such as food, and homesickness had not occurred to them yet.

Ahadi had seen them of course. If a creature had not seen them, they would have had the most horrible eyes in creation. He would need to give all the cubs a lesson in hiding when everyone was safe and sound at Priderock. He had left them alone because if they did get in trouble, he would be able to help them out because he was so close. He knew they were following him. Why else hide two feet away from him, but a very long distance away from priderock.

He continued on his journey, slightly faster. No need to pick up more curious beings. Every now and then he glanced back and saw them immediately dart behind the nearest bush or rock. That was stupid; they should just freeze and slowly sink to the ground. At least they had sense to stay off the trail he was making.

On the trail went. It was faded now; it would only last a few more days. He quickly got to the place where he had been sent off. Maybe it had been for the better he thought. Still, those blasted lionesses had gotten to see all the action. Well, as long as everyone got back safe, it was okay with him.

Waiting: Chapter 3

Sakanya and Kuta stared in horror as the hawk bore down on Mufasa and follow him into the dust cloud. Zazu, despite his wanting to stay out of this, had to go forward and try to stop Kucha. For a moment, the dust grew greater in size as everyone got into the same area. And after it had all settled, what was there, was left plain for the eye to see.

There was only Kucha lying flat on his face with Zazu standing next to him, asking if he was okay. Kuta rushed in first and Sakanya followed shortly thereafter.

“Zazu!” called Kuta, “what happened?”

“I don’t know. As soon as I got here, I could see enough to know that there wasn’t any Mufasa anymore, and there was definitely not anything else either. Also, Kucha seems to have hit his head on the ground pretty hard. We’ll have to wait until he wakes up.”

“Then what happened? They couldn’t just disappear. Could they?”

They were sitting there pondering this for a long time. They occasionally proposed a solution like it was all just an illusion created by the sun. They couldn’t find anything that made sense though. After several hours, Kucha started waking up so Kuta went away for a small amount of time to hunt some. Meanwhile, Sakanya stayed with Zazu and Kucha to decide on a course of action.

Zazu was more worried about his friend Kucha however. “Kucha, are you okay? You must have suffered a pretty bad bump on the head there.”

All they got from Kucha was meaningless babble for now. They hoped he would be able to come around soon because he might have caught a glimpse of what had happened. As of now, the only creatures that they knew of that had probably seen it happen, were Kucha, Mufasa, whose whereabouts are currently unknown, and maybe Taka if he was actually there.

Eventually, Zazu thought that they should probably go back to wherever the lionesses home was. Sakanya thought that was a great idea. The pride would surely welcome a peaceful bird like him. Kucha was more of an issue, but they could take care of that.

“All right Zazu, let’s wait around a night or two so we can regain our strength and maybe get Kucha going again. I hope Kuta comes back soon. I’m getting pretty hungry. We only stopped about once to eat, so we’re starving.”

“What is it like Sakanya?”

“What is what like?”

“Your home. What do you call it? Where is it? What does it look like? Do you think it really will be good place for us?”

“Of course it will be good for you and Kucha. We call it home or priderock. I know, it isn’t very original. It’s way over the horizon right now. Three or four days quick walk. Oh look! Here comes Kuta with a whole warthog! Come on Kuta! Zazu wants to know what Priderock looks like and we’re starving.”

“This thing is heavy! Come help!”

“You should tell Zazu what Priderock looks like first Kuta.”

“Fine. I would say it’s a great big grey rock. It goes up into the sky for a very long ways. Also, normally, only the royal blood can go up on top. I was up there once. It was a great view.”

Kuta paused in bringing the kill back and thought back to the view. Zazu could tell that it was a magnificent view from there.

“Well anyway, now will you help me get this back there Sakanya?”

“Sure. Where do you want me to pull?”

Slowly, they dragged the carcass back and had a very satisfying meal. Even Kucha was able to drag a couple pieces into his mouth. Now there was nothing else except wait for Kucha to become more than a babbling idiot.

After the others had feasted upon the dead warthog, Kucha finally started babbling something coherent. This was taken as a sign that he was recovering. Soon he would return to the land of the living and could journey with them.

Differences: Chapter 4

Mufasa and Taka were very laid back the next day. They really didn’t want to do much as there was food all around them, and they had no clue where they were. Mufasa still had some questions about what Pora had told Taka when he was with him.

“So Taka, let me get this straight. He told you that he was supposed to turn you against me and the rest of your family. That really doesn’t make much sense to me. Why not let us live in peace.”

Something that Taka had still “forgot” to mention was that Pora claimed Mufasa was doing these things himself. He wouldn’t know what would happen if he did say so, but for now, he kept it secret. “Apparently Pora thought that there was some sort of curse on our pride and the one chance to get rid of it would be for me to kill my family basically. If the curse doesn’t go away, it sounded like the entire pride would die.”

“The entire pride? How could that be? How soon did he say this would happen?”

“Pora didn’t say when this would happen. I hope that it doesn’t happen soon though. I would hate to see the pride die.”

“Me too.” The cubs sat there together for a long time pondering their own thoughts. Mufasa was thinking thoughts along the lines of hoping nothing happened to him while he was in this pride.

Taka on the other hand, was hoping that his brother wouldn’t find out that he was the one giving the orders. In his opinion, it could have dire consequences. Who knew what His brother might think. “Come on Mufasa. Let’s explore this area a little bit better.”

Mufasa yawned and agreed. At the moment, all they could see, was a never ending expanse of green grass and whenever they where hungry, somehow there was food lying next to them. This was definitely not the pridelands. It was more like a paradise, where you could live forever.

There wasn’t much to do here except wander around and share stories about what had happened. Taka still couldn’t get over what Mufasa had said earlier about some hawk wanting to kill or maim him. “Mufasa, you said the hawk that was following you wanted to kill you. Why would he want to do that?”

“Well…it’s kind of a long story.”

“Well what? We aren’t going anywhere and there is nothing that needs doing right now.”

“Whatever. On one of my solo excursions to the edges of the pridelands while Ahadi was distracted with you or someone else, I came across this hawk that had feet about twice as big as they were supposed to be. When I got closer, the hawk tried to fly away, but with its oversized feet, it couldn’t get off the ground. I was watching it, and for some reason, the hawk got mad at me and attacked me. Fortunately, there wasn’t any scarring left on me.

“However, I left the hawk for dead because he wouldn’t stop attacking me. I left him there to die so I could claim that I hadn’t killed him when he actually died. Apparently he somehow recovered and now wants to kill me for doing that to him. Hopefully he won’t be able to find me here.”

“Wow. That’s quite a complex story.”

“It is and I would rather just forgive and forget.”

Taka was wondering why Mufasa would just forget this whole incident. Personally, he would want to have at least a talk to the hawk about revenge. It didn’t matter though. That was one of the small things that made them different.

Found: Chapter 5

Ahadi was getting seriously annoyed with Sarabi and Sarafina now. They thought they were hiding from him very well, but he could almost always look back and see them just walking behind him talking to each other. What would happen if he just turned around and said hi? They would freak out and run off.

As he was thinking about it, he came to the correct conclusion that he would have to expose them while they were behind a bush trying to hide from them. The problem was getting them to think that he might see them, without actually showing them he was looking for them.

He kept traveling forward while thinking about this problem. Then he stopped. That was it! Just stop and sniff a little bit. Ahadi turned around looking around and putting on an expression of confusion as if he had just smelled something strange that shouldn’t be there. It was working like a charm. Both young lionesses had disappeared behind a tiny rock. This was definitely their best job of hiding yet though. He could only see most of their tails, and an ear.

He still walked up looking like he still couldn’t identify what was causing the smell he smelled. He kept up the act right until he got close to the rock. Then he just walked up to them. “I know you’re there. Come on out.”

Very slowly Sarabi peeked over the top of the rock trying to stay hidden in case Ahadi was referring to something else. He wasn’t. Sarabi smiled sheepishly. She managed to stutter out the word hi before beginning to back off. Sarafina followed when she saw Sarabi moving away.

Ahadi knew he couldn’t let them go home on their own. There would be some danger for them that they wouldn’t able to get through. The only option right now, was to say that they could come with him. “Don’t run away Sarabi. If you want, I’ll take you with me. I don’t see why you shouldn’t come along. There will be time for lessons and you’ll be on an adventure!”

Sarabi still wasn’t sure whether she should just make a break for it or trust Ahadi. It was Sarafina that broke the short silence. “I would love to come along! What lessons will we get?”

Ahadi said, with a grin on his face, “first I’ll have to teach you on how to hide from things you want to hide on.”

“You knew we were following you?”

“I must say, that first time you hid from me behind that bush about two or three feet away, another five seconds without you noticing I was there, and you would have bumped into me and ran off back home. Ever since then I’ve been watching you run behind bushes and rocks and hills almost every time I look back. Except for the times you don’t notice me look at you.”

Sarabi was aghast. “You knew we were following you all the time? We must have been absolutely clueless about every rule of hiding.”

“Well don’t feel too bad. You were never taught how to do any of the techniques that actually work. One though, it appeared that you two managed to figure out was the fact that you should always stay off the original trail. Stay close but never stay on it.”

“We were supposed to do that?” asked Sarafina. I thought it was going to be better if we stayed on the trail so you would have to turn a full way around to see us.”

“It’s better to stay off the trail because then sometimes, you don’t have to hide. The being that you’re stalking, could mistake you for just going somewhere else where your paths coincide for the time. However, it is quite often better to not even hide. Just say hello, pass them, and circle around when you’re out of sight.”

Both cubs were lost by the lecture almost immediately. “Well, if we really can go with you and we won’t get in trouble, let’s go!”

Awakening: Chapter 6

“Come on Kucha, we need you to wake up so you can tell us if you saw anything in the cloud, please!”

He still didn’t get up. “Calm down Zazu, he’ll wake up eventually.” Said Kuta, and then in a quieter tone, “I hope.” It was getting very boring for Zazu, Kuta, and Sakanya waiting for Kucha to wake up. Over the next couple days, they took turns force-feeding Kucha and getting food and water. After a few days went by, they started to worry about Kucha a lot.

Finally, after one week, he finally was able to speak like a somewhat intelligent being and eat by himself. He still couldn’t remember anything and had to take it easy for another couple of days. Finally though, he started to remember his glimpses of what was inside the dust cloud.

Sakanya decided that she might want to ask a few tentative questions. “Kucha, do you think you could settle some of the questions we have now? Or do you need another day or two?”

Kucha replied rather groggily, “Maybe a few questions, I really don’t feel that great.”

“That’s just fine Kucha, if you can’t answer, just say so, we’ll understand. Well, I guess the one that we’ve all been waiting for, is ‘what creature was it that was creating that dust cloud?’”

Kucha didn’t reply very confidently on this question, “Well, I really didn’t see very much, I saw some sort of lion cub looking up at me; he looked as if he was about dead from starvation though.”

“Could you describe him at all Kucha?”

“I could try, but as soon as the other cub came in and touched the first cub, they both just disappeared.”

“Just do your best.”

“He was darker than most lion cubs, skinny, and that would be without the starving also. The one that jumped in was a golden one, much more well-nourished. Other than that though, I can’t really tell you much more.”

“That’s okay Kucha, we don’t need to know anything more for now unless you want to share.”

“Well you wanted to know what the actual creature looked like, so, I guess I would describe the creature as a sort of shapeless figure that was composed of swirling blackness.”

“Thank you Kucha, now let’s all rest for a couple more days and then we can head out searching for Mufasa and Taka.”

With those final words, all of them went to sleep, their fears of Kucha never waking up put to ease. Tonight they would dream happy dreams about everyone coming back and being good friends.

True Thoughts: Chapter 7

As Mufasa walked through the place where he and Taka were sent to, he wondered what exactly was going on here. After all, he was living a perfectly happy life with his family until everything started changing. The winds came, Taka was cubnapped, and it appeared everyone was out searching for them in the wrong world. From a happy life, he was ripped away and blown into a place where old enemies came back to haunt you.

Taka was following right behind his brother in silence. He was fighting a mental battle within about whether he should trust his brother with the fact that it apparently was Mufasa himself who was dictating everything here. If it was actually his brother, who knew what he might do to him.

He had no way of knowing. Maybe the name was just a coincidence. Maybe it was all made up by Pora. Maybe he, Taka, was suffering delusions and was currently lying on the ground after the winds.

Taka wished he was as confident as his big brother. He always seemed to know what to do, when to do it, and where to do it. Mufasa always had this knack of knowledge. Taka, could always figure out the more clever things, but in a playful battle, no matter what Taka tried, Mufasa always won. It was play though. There were certain rules that were followed to avoid injury. In a real battle, Taka could be pretty fierce.

Suddenly, Mufasa turned around at him and sat down. “Taka, I don’t know this place, I can’t see anywhere that’s different from another place. This is the one place that I don’t have any idea of where we should go. I think you should get to choose the way from now on.”

Taka stared. This was his overconfident brother that always knew where to go saying that Taka should lead. Something was bothering Mufasa, Taka could easily figure this much out. So he asked, “What’s wrong Mufasa? You seem depressed.”

“Your abilities of figuring out others emotions are uncanny. I just hate this paradise world. I’d much rather be with my entire family back in our own world with some sort of problems that we must face all together than in this place where we won’t be able to die. I need a break Taka.” Mufasa confessed, “I just want to go home, lie down, and just lie there talking with you and Mom and Dad.”

Taka was disturbed by this. So he remained silent. He couldn’t comfort his brother in this world at this point in time, he knew that. So instead, he just lay down in a sort of depressed mood. Mufasa followed suit.

“Please Taka, tomorrow lead the way.”

Once again the food and water appeared right next to them so they could stay healthy. This time though, they just ignored it and lay in a sort of morose silence. They both knew that they would separate sometime soon. They would not be brought to this place if they wouldn’t be given a mission. They needed different training but they didn’t want to be separate. They both knew that they would fight to stay right where they were—together.

Neither could sleep at all so they got up and just wandered around a little bit discussing their ideas. “When do you think we’ll go back Taka?”

“I hope it’s soon, but I doubt it. We’re here for something, but I don’t know what and I hope it isn’t too long.”

“Me neither, but if it’s important enough to require two lions, it must be pretty important that we not fail at whatever it is.”

They sat in the night sky for a time just staring beyond the unknown. “When do you think they’ll take us Mufasa?”

“Very soon. We’ve been together too long. Within one or two days probably, we should make use of the time.” Neither got up nor spoke again. Despite the suggestion by Mufasa, both of them were too depressed to do anything. So instead, they just curled up next to each other and tried to go to sleep. It was a long time before they got to sleep. Immediately, the sky around them went even darker. Tonight was the night where one would be taken away.

Wishes: Chapter 8

Ahadi was watching the two little lionesses on the ground just sleeping there. He decided to get up and looked at the stars. A cold breeze fluttered past. That was unusual for the Pridelands right now. It was mid-summer. There were never light cold breezes. There was something going on that wasn’t normal and it had all started with the winds. There was nothing anywhere near the area that would pose a danger to the cubs. Ahadi lay down and allowed himself to relax.

The morning was a beautiful one with pink tinged clouds, an occasional warm breeze, and elephants and other animals walking around together. Only Sarabi was up now. She was sitting in between Ahadi and Sarafina looking up at the sunrise. It was a beautiful one she had to admit so she walked away a short distance and just sat down. Sunrises like this didn’t come often. She missed Mufasa and Taka. She didn’t realize what Priderock was without them until only a few days ago.

They were so much fun to be around. Mufasa always had some new tale where he and Taka (or just himself), had done something incredible and saved all their lives. Most were much exaggerated, but they were always funny and had a ring of truth in them.

Taka on the other hand, didn’t have the stories, but he could do great impressions of some of the other animals in Mufasa’s stories. Together, they made great storytellers. There were funny songs, with noise that sounded real. Sarabi missed hearing the stories. When they weren’t getting lessons, on some sort of adventure to save the pride, or telling the stories, they always played with her and Sarafina. Their disappearing had caused great unrest. Almost half the pride, or at least it seemed that way, was gone searching for them now. If neither one was found, the pride would almost surely fall apart quickly.

Ahadi was up now also, but he continued to stay on the ground just watching Sarabi. He could tell what she was thinking. Honestly, he was thinking the same things. Everyone was thinking that. He looked around. Still no sign of anyone else. That was surprising. Either he should have traveled far enough to catch up with the bird and the other lionesses, or another one would have come following to bring the cubs back.

He sighed. There was so little time to find everyone. He could only stay out searching for maybe a few more days before he would have to return. He didn’t understand why Sarabi and Sarafina had come though. They would have been better of back at priderock and they knew it.

They needed to get moving now so he gently nudged Sarafina. “Come on, it’s time to start moving,” he whispered.

Ever so slowly she started to move and get up. Groaning and moaning, Sarafina stood up and rubbed her eyes. “We have to start moving? But I’m so tired. Just a few more minutes. Pleasssssssssse.” She managed to sigh out before sagging back to the ground in a sort of semi conscious stupor.

“Whatever, five more minutes. You too Sarabi. We need to get moving soon.”

Sarabi turned around surprised; she was too lost in her own thoughts to hear Ahadi talking before. This was the first time she had realized that the others were awake also. “What was that?”

“You didn’t know I was awake? Whatever, I was just telling Sarafina that she needs to wake up so we can continue looking for your friends. And my sons.” He said wistfully. “We must find them soon.” They waited a little more than five minutes before trying to wake Sarafina again. This time however, she got up very quickly and quietly.

She had gotten the last few minutes of her needed rest, “Let’s go and find them.” She said, her tone resolute.

Back at priderock, the pride was unsure of what to do. The only leadership of any sort was Rafiki, but he was gone most of the time doing whatever he needed to do. The moment Sarabi and Sarafina left, there was panic in the pride, especially because even Rafiki didn’t know about it. That day was a dire day for most of them.

When they told Rafiki about it, he completely freaked out. He refused to talk or even see anybody that day so he could talk to the spirits and determine what was going on. In the morning he came out less aggressive but more depressed. “Listen up if you would please. I was told by the spirits that they will all come back eventually. However, I was not told whether they would come back alive or dead, injured or healthy, or together.

But they will be back.”

Disappointment: Chapter 9

Sakanya stretched in the early morning sunrise. It was the day after Kucha had woken and she felt ready to move on back to priderock. She woke Kuta and Zazu so they could discuss privately whether they should go today with Kucha or leave today. The hawk was having a hard time this past week and needed his rest, but they couldn’t stay away from home for more than a couple days. Just as they were about to decide of what to do, Kucha woke up.

“What are we talking about?” He said rather groggily.

“You’re awake Kucha!” They all shouted in surprise. Then Kuta had a wonderful idea, “Hey Kucha, do you want to see our home now? If you want, we could leave right now…”

Kucha was excited beyond reason at this prospect. He felt perfectly fine, maybe even better than before. This was his chance to go back to be a more normal hawk. He would help them hunt, he could warn them of danger, this would be how he would come back to what he was supposed to be. Confidently, he said, “Yes.”

And off they went toward priderock.

The first thing that Kucha did was take off and fly far above everyone else. He felt great. It seemed everything was better now. He could hear better, he could fly better, he felt he could fight better, he could even see farther away. That new ability made him able to spot a small dot moving far away. He left for a few minutes to see what it was because even from this distance, he could tell it wasn’t a creature normally found in this area of the savannah.

As he got nearer, he could tell that the dot looked remarkably like a lion and there were actually three of them. Two were very small, but lions nonetheless. Kucha flew back to Sakanya and Kuta immediately. “Stop!” he yelled. Immediately they stopped.

“What’s wrong?” they asked.

“Nothings wrong. There’s just some other lion coming in this general direction with two cubs.”

The lionesses looked at each other. Who could this be? “Well, let’s go take a look. Where are they Kucha?”

With that, Kucha led them to the place where the lion was heading. He hoped he had not changed course too much, he might have to waste up to an hour catching the lion. Fortunately, next time he checked, the lion was still coming right on track toward them. Very soon, they would meet. “All right, this lion is almost here. What are we going to do?” asked Kucha.

The lionesses immediately replied the same way. “We’ll hide right here and see who he is, if he’s a friend, then we’ll come out, if not, we’ll attack or just stay hidden.” The lionesses immediately climbed behind a rock outcropping that was fortuitously placed. Kucha and Zazu flew far up but in different directions. Now they just had to wait.

Almost as soon as everything was ready, they heard the two cubs laughing and playing while the adult lion was walking forward much quieter. The cubs quickly became almost silent. The lion must have warned them there was something ahead. Then he came over the hill. It was Ahadi of course, but Sakanya and Kuta were still surprised.

Then they ran out at Ahadi. “What are you doing here Sire? I thought we told you to stay home.”

Ahadi didn’t respond immediately because he first told Sarabi and Sarafina to come out, that it was safe. Then he said, “You did tell me that, but I just couldn’t stay home while my sons were gone. Sarabi and Sarafina here followed me here. By the time I knew they were behind me, it was too long of a way to send them back alone. Where’s Mufasa and Taka?”

Kuta glanced at Sakanya. There was only one way to say this. “Ahadi, we couldn’t get to them in time. We think they are alive, but they just disappeared along with the creature that cubnapped them. We don’t know what type of animal it is but according to descriptions, it was like some sort of monster. We were going to go to priderock and wait for the cubs to show up there. It’s doubtful they’ll turn up here.”

Ahadi was devastated. His cubs were gone, not likely to return, and he had gone all this way for nothing. He let out a scream of rage that the likes of were not heard in the savannah ever before.

The two lionesses calmly said, “Come on, let’s go home and wait. They will come back. Perhaps they are already back, or Rafiki has heard some news.”

All of them left for priderock, all depressed yet again and Ahadi in the very back.

Disappearing and Appearing: Chapter 10

It was the night in the place that Mufasa and Taka were sleeping. A dark figure of some unknown creature was slowly creeping up on them. Both cubs were sound asleep and neither had any idea that this was happening. The form seemed to be made out of the very substance of this place, some ether type stuff.

As the darkness reached them, it lowered itself to the height of the cubs and picked up Taka. Taka was still sound asleep. So was Mufasa. This was going well. The creature then started walking away stopped only once and looked back at Mufasa. He was now awake and staring at this new enemy. Then this enemy jus disappeared along with Taka.

Mufasa looked right at the place where Taka had disappeared again. He knew this would happen, but he still couldn’t believe it. But he was wondering where Taka had gone now. It was doubtful that it was back home. But was there some other world? Or was he just in some hidden place far away.

Then this world started to fade away into nothingness. So he was bound to leave this place at the same time also. It was better than being alone in paradise. Some colors started to form up now. It was definitely different.

Ahadi was still walking back with his head hung low and in the very back. Suddenly he heard this cry of surprise. He stopped and perked his ears listening for it again. Then he heard it, it sounded like his son Mufasa. He ran over to where the sound was coming from and there he saw his son, looking the other way toward priderock.

“Mufasa? Is that you?” asked Ahadi.

Mufasa was startled and looked around and saw his father. The look on his face was nothing short of astonished. “What are you doing here father?”

“I just went looking for you! What are you doing here? Why did you go off after Taka instead of going to me first?”

“The trail was already almost gone and I wouldn’t have had enough time to go to you. I barely managed to catch up to Taka.”

“You caught up to him? Where is he? I must know now!” howled Ahadi. By now the rest of the small group had arrived and was staring in astonishment at Mufasa’s sudden appearing. They were equally as surprised as Mufasa himself.

“Mufasa! Where’s Taka? What happened? Where did you disappear to?” Shouted Sakanya, Kuta, Sarabi, Sarafina, and Zazu. Kucha refrained from doing so. Instead he looked away, remembering the last time he had met Mufasa and his intentions. He would have to put those behind him now.

Mufasa was very surprised at this appearing of a lot of lions and birds. “Well, I really don’t know where Taka is. He just disappeared into thin air—literally. Anyway, from the time that I vanished with Taka, here’s the story.

“When we disappeared, there were only us two in this sort of paradise world. Food just sort appeared there, along with water. It was not as enjoyable as you think. When you can’t get back to your family, it gets really lonely there. Any way, we talked to each other and both got really depressed because we were missing you guys.

“Then just like a few minutes ago, it was night there, and Taka was taken away by some other creature made out of dark. I woke up just as the black area looked at me, and then he just disappeared. A couple minutes later, the place faded away and I was returned to this place and saw priderock in the very distance.” After a long, awkward pause, he said nervously, “That’s all.”

The others were beyond speaking. There was another world besides this one here and the spirit world. “Where did Taka go to with that monster thing? Do you know?” They asked. “Did he go to the spirit world or do you think he’s somewhere in this world?”

Mufasa had no clue so he said so. He had forgotten that there was a spirit world also. If Taka was there, that probably meant that he would be getting special lessons to be king someday or some other important task. But he couldn’t keep thinking about this, so he just said, “Come on dad. Let’s go home. I don’t like it out here.”

“I agree with you, we’re going home now.” Said Ahadi, and all 8 of them, Mufasa, Ahadi, Sakanya, Kuta, Sarabi, Sarafina, Kucha, and Zazu, turned toward priderock and started on their journey home. That would be almost another full week before they got there.

The Impossible: Chapter 11

Taka had just woken up from what seemed like a very refreshing sleep. His first in just about a week. However, the first thing he noticed was that this was not where he had gone to sleep and that Mufasa was not with him. He was all alone again, except this time with no idea where he could be. Until a lion that didn’t look quite solid walked toward him. It dawned up on him. This was the land of the spirits.

What did they want to do with him? He started to back away, but a wall appeared behind him. This lion looked so menacing; surely the lion must want to kill him. Taka couldn’t get away though. Something stopped him no matter what way he went. He was trapped with this monster of a lion. He waited for what he would do.

The lion advanced until he was only a stride or two away. Then he finally said something. “Hello Taka, guess who I am.” When Taka still just cowered in fear, the lion told him. “I am Mufasa,  the greatest king that ever lived. And I hate you.”

With those words, Mufasa left, leaving Taka there to think about what he just said. It couldn’t be true. If this was his brother, how could it be true? Mufasa was his brother. He could never hate Taka. But then again, this was clearly an adult lion. If it was Mufasa, had he grown that much while Taka had stayed young? It wasn’t possible. It couldn’t be his brother.

But that nagging thought was still there, he had looked very similar to what an adult Mufasa might look like. Then he remembered, this was the spirit world. This wasn’t exactly real. But what if his own adult spirit was here? It could be that every lion ever had an adult spirit here. Sort of like a consciousness. If so though, why wasn’t he helping his earthly self.

Taka sighed. This was not going to be a good time while he was here. This was like a dream world where the only way to escape would be to go into another dream world.

He had no hope here, might as well try to go back to sleep and hope the walls didn’t close in on him while he was here.

Mufasa’s spirit went away from the place where Taka was trapped and watched him. The walls weren’t really there, but Taka wouldn’t risk touching them so he wouldn’t try to escape. It pained Mufasa so much to be doing this to Taka. He would have to make Taka hate him so much that he wanted to kill him when he was sent back to the real world.

The curse on the pride that was put in place hundreds of years ago was here too long. They wouldn’t get another chance to destroy it. The only hope was for Taka to kill Mufasa later, after he had a son.

This part of Taka’s life would be the worst that he would ever have to endure. His brother would be hating him, or at least pretending very well, and it would seem as if everyone had left him all alone. Unless he refused to believe that this was his brother, Mufasa.

Mufasa walked over to another spirit here. This spirit was also suffering greatly while Mufasa mentally destabilized Taka. He stopped by Taka’s spirit. “I hope this works Taka.” He said. “I really wish that it didn’t have to be you here. I really do.”

“I know brother, but this is the only solution. When he wakes up, should you go there first and then me, or should it be the other way around? He has to believe that you’re actually Mufasa before I go there.” Taka’s spirit said with a glum sort of face.

“I think I should go in there for a couple more minutes first. After that, we’ll give him an hour or so by himself and then you can go in and do your job.”

The real live Taka had just gone to sleep, but had slept a very long time while he was brought here. It would only be maybe an hour before he woke up again. The spirits walked over to where little Taka was peacefully sleeping. They waited there until he woke up. It wouldn’t be long now. Soon their plan could continue unimpeded.

An Unknown Surprise: Chapter 12

The slow procession of lions and birds continued on toward pride rock. Mufasa still didn’t believe that Taka was dead. How could someone just walk away and kill his brother? Mufasa just couldn’t comprehend the possibility. His still growing mind could not wrap itself around the concept of death.

Ahadi had the idea, he was getting old enough, but he still couldn’t believe that Taka was dead simply because his son Mufasa didn’t believe that fact. The others didn’t know what to think.

Meanwhile on the trip, other than Mufasa’s and Ahadi’s thoughts about Taka, there were other personal thoughts. Especially for Kucha. He was having those old thoughts about Mufasa. To try to hide from these thoughts, he just never looked at Mufasa, and stayed as far away as possible.

Kucha was trying to hide these actions, but the others were still noticing it. Ahadi was not happy about this new development that he hadn’t had the opportunity to see before. He was already fearing that he had lost one son, he wouldn’t tolerate his other son even looked at funny now.

Ahadi, as soon as he noticed that Kucha was trying to avoid doing something to Mufasa, immediately warned Kucha, “If you can’t control yourself, you will have to leave us forever.”

Kucha wanted to stay with the group and see priderock at least, it sounded so wonderful, not to mention how it looked from a very long walk away. “I can control myself! What makes you think that I can’t control myself?” Kucha replied in a very defensive tone. “I have everything under control.”

“Except the fact that you are having a lot of trouble trying to stay in control near my son!” Bellowed Ahadi. “What do you want to do to him? Do I even want to know?”

With that, Ahadi stormed off onto a nearby hill and lay down, still festering from the recent bout of words. Kucha also flew off in a rage, mumbling to himself, “I can keep myself perfectly in control. I’ll show him that I have the control. If not, I don’t know what I’ll do, I won’t stand it that’s for sure, but what can I do?”

From the little that the lionesses and Zazu heard, it didn’t sound like he was keeping himself in control very well. Mufasa was now scared of Kucha and his own father. He was almost at the decision of just going back all the way to the pridelands by himself. For now though, fortunately, he decided to stay with the lionesses and Zazu, they seemed the safest out of everyone.

The lionesses quickly agreed for him to sleep by them for this night while Ahadi was being angry at the world for putting him with Kucha. It would only be one or two more nights until they got back to priderock. None of them could wait until they got back home.

What none of them had thought of though when thinking about Taka, was that time didn’t necessarily move down here the way it moved up in the spirit world. As it was, a small lion cub appeared in the darkness while they were all sleeping. It lay down beside them, but only so it would look like he still liked them.

Rescue: Chapter 13

Taka woke up from his short nap and immediately found the so called Mufasa standing right over him with a menacing look on his face. Taka didn’t get to enjoy any pause in between his waking up and going back to being insulted.

“You know its true Taka. I’ve always hated you and I always will. I just brought you up here so I can make you know that I hate you and despise you. You’ll never see anything but hate from me. So, until later.” Mufasa’s spirit then left, once again leaving Taka there by himself.

Out of Taka’s sight, he spoke quietly to Taka’s spirit. “Alright now, remember the extra effects and then you’re in there with him. Also make sure that you’re breathing heavily.”

Immediately, they engaged in a mock battle, mainly loud roars and soft thumps. After a short time, they disengaged and Taka’s spirit started running toward the fake room that was mentally set up by Mufasa that held the real Taka. Right as he passed Mufasa, Mufasa whispered I his ear, “Leave quickly this time!”

Taka’s spirit was running quickly toward the room now. Mufasa was watching carefully. As soon as Taka got to the room, Mufasa would come running slightly slower than Taka’s spirit. Taka got to the room. It was time to move.

Taka’s spirit just entered the room with cuts over his face and breathing heavily and panting in between every word. “I finally found you Taka! I have to get you out of here before Mufasa does something terrible to you. He’ll do it! Trust me, I’m your spirit up here—” The spirit turned and saw Mufasa running straight at him. He did a very convincing gasp of fear and took off.

“Wait!” shouted little Taka. “Does Mufasa really hate me?”

Just before getting out of earshot, the spirit version of Taka turned and managed to shout loud enough for Taka to hear, “Yes, he really does.”

Taka then turned to Mufasa who was towering over him with a horrible anger over him. “I’ll have to improve the defenses around this place it seems like. We can’t have any more of those lions slipping through.” Grinned Mufasa nastily. A moment later, he turned and left.

Taka was left feeling alone and scared. It seemed that that other lion that apparently was his spirit version was Taka’s only hope of getting out of here. Every day (or at least what seemed like a day) Taka hoped that the friendly spirit would come again. Unfortunately, he only came once or twice and was immediately chased away by Mufasa.

Taka really was beginning to hate Mufasa. Once even, Taka tried to jump on Mufasa and kill him. It didn’t go very well at all. Finally, several days after this incident, Taka’s spirit finally managed to sneak through and get Taka out of the torture room. After a quick talk about some un-clarified things, the spirit version whispered a quick good luck, and then Taka saw the area around him start blurring just as Mufasa showed up and yelled at Taka at the top of his voice. Then he was gone.

New characters:

Mwanga-light

Karamu-party

Kuhisi-to sense

Zubaa-to be clueless

Uliza-to question

Part 3

Prologue

The greatest spirits that ever lived, among them Mufasa and Taka, were standing in a group, watching the happenings of below. They had just sent Taka back. There was nothing that they could really do now to help if things went wrong.

The greatest of all the kings (or at least spirits) sat in a circle watching the night proceed. Taka had, as presumed, taken his place next to the other lions but was watching them all warily. Morning was coming but most couldn’t wait here much longer. Only a two or three were able to stay, the rest went off on other business or to check on the main pride.

Mufasa was one of those that went to priderock to communicate with Rafiki. The pride needed to know that their precious future kings were coming back, both safe but only one still sound in mind. Unfortunately that was the way it had to be.

Rafiki wasn’t awake at the time, but Mufasa liked that. He wouldn’t have to explain everything to that monkey. He didn’t seem to get anything on the first time around unless he was forced to comprehend it by himself. The monkey was smart though, he had decided that that last Hakuna Matata message Mufasa left last time was something that would be needed later.

At the pride, there was no one that was awake except for Mwanga, Sarabi’s mother. She had barely gotten any sleep the past couple weeks. Mufasa decided that she might need some comfort while he was here. But first, he needed to let Rafiki know in some sort of dream.

He did this quickly and efficiently, no secret messages this time or anything of that sort. Just straight to the point, Ahadi is coming back with his sons in a week or less. Mwanga was slightly more difficult to manage. Because she was not a shaman, she couldn’t hear him. Therefore, Mufasa devised a much simpler one.

All Mufasa ended up doing was just subconsciously comforting Mwanga. It would have to be enough; Mwanga should get out of her depression very soon.

Now, Mufasa went back to the spirit world and met with the few spirits that had watched what was happening with the two cubs. So far, they were all still asleep. Well, Zazu was awake, but he was nice enough to stay quiet and let the others get their much needed sleep. The sunrise was coming; very soon they would all wake up naturally anyway.

As he gazed down, he saw the first sign of movement from one of the lionesses, their hunting instincts waking them up this early. Slowly the others started to budge a little also. His current jobs done, he allowed himself to rest some and watch the action unfold below

The Darkness Revealed: Chapter 1

Rafiki woke up with a lingering thought in his head. Given a couple minutes of thinking, he remembered what the message was and who had given it to him. He yelled to the skies, “Why don’t you ever talk to me when I need you to talk to me? It would really be nice if you could at least tell me some of the secrets that I need to know.”

Rafiki was happy about the news that everyone was coming back, but he was getting angry at Mufasa for not telling him all that he wanted to know. He sighed, the pride should be waking up about now, time to go over there and tell them the news, and hopefully it should brighten their day quite a bit.

Taka was the first to wake up after Zazu; he also decided to stay quiet. Although it was for his own reasons, not the good of the whole group. He would have to get Mufasa alone though, that would be difficult with this group here. Taka could wait a few weeks.

The others were stirring in their semi-consciousness now. It was still somewhat dark so they didn’t recognize Taka at first. None of them were observant to notice that there were two lion cubs at first. Except Mufasa when he got up and stretched, He immediately noticed the other cub.

“Taka! How did you get here? We thought you might be dead!” Mufasa ran up to hug his brother. Taka resisted and tried to get away from Mufasa’s hug. It didn’t quite work, Mufasa sort of managed to get the hug, but only on Taka’s foreleg.

Taka was not very happy at all. “Of course I wasn’t dead.” He spit out. “Whatever made you think that? I just got to go somewhere very special where you’ll never go because you can’t go there!” He teased him, trying to make Mufasa angry at him and attack. Seeing this was failing, he tried a different tactic.

He ran over to where Ahadi was sleeping for the night. He was the last to wake up and was still not fully conscious. Taka knew how to take advantage of this and immediately exploited his knowledge.

He ran to Ahadi in fake tears. “Father! Mufasa hurt me!” He cried out. To anyone who wasn’t the scene where Taka had tried to provoke Mufasa, this would have been a very convincing act. Unfortunately, Ahadi was one of those lions that was not there.

Taka had him convinced almost immediately that Mufasa had done something horrible to him. Ahadi rushed over to where Mufasa was and started yelling at him. “What were you thinking fighting your brother? I would have thought that you would know better Mufasa!”

It was at this point that the other lionesses and Zazu joined in Mufasa’s defense. Kucha was wise enough to stay out of this as he would go immediately to Taka’s side. The others would then know that he had a grudge against Mufasa.

Sakanya was the first to speak out against Taka. “Sire, Mufasa is at no fault here. If anyone hurt someone, it would have been Taka.”

Now Zazu continued from there. “Taka here was trying to goad Mufasa into a fight. Mufasa was intelligent enough to not take the bait.” Zazu said, exchanging a glare with Taka.

Kuta finished it all up, “Ahadi, after Taka saw that Mufasa wasn’t reacting the way he wanted to, Taka ran up to you with this fake crying thing while we stared at him. It is not the way Taka used to be. We have all seen that by now.”

They lionesses and Zazu were being forced to talk over a pair of other voices who were trying to get their point in. Sarabi and Sarafina were trying to talk over everyone else and the whole conversation was brought to a deafening level before Mufasa yelled “SHUT UP EVERYBODY! I CAN’T HEAR ANYTHING!”

Ahadi was struck dumb. If the lionesses were telling the truth, then Taka had changed beyond comprehension within the last few days. But if Taka was telling the truth, then Mufasa had. He couldn’t believe it. No matter what, one of them would have been changed for the worse. Honestly, if given a choice of which one he would prefer to be changed for the worse, he would chose Taka to be changed. Mufasa was the nicest one a couple weeks ago, and it would be better with one really nice one and a really mean one, than a semi nice one and a really mean one.

They would have to be separated on the way home. He would take Mufasa and the others could take Taka. Taka might trust them more than him, after all, if it was him, he would prefer to tell his troubles to someone he didn’t know very well. And he could talk to Mufasa about being a king. Maybe he would get lucky and this would all turn out alright.

Coming of the Storms: Chapter 2

Mwanga was the first to see that Rafiki was coming back. For some reason, she felt not as unhappy as she was the night before. She didn’t know why, but she knew it was good that she was no longer depressed now. Mwanga smiled for the first time in a week. As she watched Rafiki enter, Rafiki received a smile from her.

Rafiki, being the baboon that could recognize such things without a second thought, stopped. “Are you okay Mwanga? I can’t remember you smiling at all!”

Mwanga, strangely jovial, replied, “Of course I’m fine! I’m better than I’ve been feeling for a long time. I just got this wonderful feeling now and nothing seems to dissipate it.” She sat down wondering what had made this feeling. “Do you know why I feel this happy Rafiki?

Rafiki pondered this question for a couple minutes before answering. Then, with his funny little accent he said as if it was obvious, “You…have been visited by the great spirits.” Then Rafiki left Mwanga standing there, dumbfounded. “Come, I have news for the pride!” He then bounded off onto the middle of the lionesses.

“Wake up everybody! I have news that you want to hear. It is good news!” When lionesses were still very slow in waking up, he jumped around on them and shook them awake.

Some of them were not very happy with this rude awakening and almost attacked Rafiki before realizing he was only waking them up—though they still weren’t happy.

Finally when everybody was awake, Rafiki proclaimed his good news. “Alright everybody, listen up. If you’re not awake you’ll miss the best news you’ll ever hear.” The entire pride was either rolling their eyes, or staring in anticipation. Rafiki continued. “Last night, the great kings of the past contacted me. What they told me is that Mufasa and Taka are coming back and will be here within one week! They didn’t give me any details, but I think it is good that they will be coming back soon.”

Rafiki was right; this news had lifted their spirits by an incredible amount. It was more than he had expected it to. Instead of the uplifted faces and more enthusiastic activities, Rafiki got cheering and hugging and laughing and friends telling each other that they had told them it was all going to turn out just fine.

The stunned monkey went out of the stifling conditions of priderock and sat on top of priderock instead. He looked out to where he thought Ahadi and the cubs would be. It seemed an awful long distance away.

How could this news have been so welcomed? It had quickly become apparent that he had underestimated the need of god news here. He thought that it might become like this only if Ahadi and the cubs were feared dead. Of course, maybe they were thinking that already. He had no idea.

Well, it would soon be all over. They would all come home, and then everyone would be happy. Off in the distance, he could see the savannah start rippling with winds headed their way. Rafiki looked up, there was a large storm quickly nearing. Within about fifteen minutes by his guess, there would be strong winds and rains raking across priderock.

As Rafiki turned to go back into priderock, another lioness came out to ask why he was out here while everyone was celebrating. Rafiki recognized this lioness as one named Karamu who was one of the few that really didn’t enjoy the hunts very much. She would have preferred to go somewhere else and do something others wouldn’t even consider doing—like hunt an elephant or something just that crazy.

Rafiki responded to her question promptly. “I just came out here to look around a little bit and get some fresh air. I also noticed that there are some clouds in the distance. We should go back inside priderock now before the wind and the rain gets here. It looks like it could get really nasty. Come on, inside, no running around in the wind just to have fun.”

Rafiki and Karamu slowly went into the massive room where all the lionesses were still laughing and having fun. Let them have their fun, Rafiki thought, it can’t hurt right now.

The Splitting of the Family: Chapter 3

Ahadi woke up earlier than normal and also got everyone else up, except Kucha and all the cubs except Mufasa, he would have to be ready to go soon. Ahadi didn’t know how Taka would respond, and Kucha seemed more unstable than everyone else. Normally, he would have left Zazu asleep too, but he seemed to be the only one here that could keep Kucha in control at some times.

While Mufasa was still trying to get his mind to start working again, Ahadi held a very quiet conversation in undertones with the others about the plan. Ahadi made it very clear that he was going to take Mufasa by himself, and the others were going to look after Taka and bring him back to priderock.

Mufasa was now conscious and listening to the conversation. “What’s going on Dad?”

“You’re finally awake! Come on, I’ll tell you when we’re alone.” Mufasa wanted to be in the loop; so of course, he followed his father this time. Only after they had been walking for at least an hour did Ahadi tell him.

“Mufasa, I don’t know if it was you or your brother that started that incident last night, but I decided to split you up. I hope it was Taka that started it though because I was planning to give you the throne when I die. I hope that was a one time event any way it happened.”

Mufasa stared in amazement. He was the one who was going to become king one day! “Father, I swear that I didn’t start anything yesterday. Taka just was suddenly very angry at me as soon as I woke up!”

“I believe you Mufasa, but these next few days I will be teaching you to become king one day. When we meet up with Taka, it will be found out who is the culprit of this new complication. If I find out you were lying…” Ahadi let the phrase sit there, not saying its implied meaning.

The rest of the day Ahadi gave lessons to Mufasa while hoping that he was right about choosing him for the kingship.

Taka woke up with the other watching him. Immediately he was on an extreme defensive mode. “What are you all looking at me like that for? I haven’t done anything.” But under his breath, “Yet.”

The others glanced at each other. Even Kucha thought this lion cub had gone off the deep end. This cub, unless he had extremely short memory, knew he had actually done something yesterday. Zazu interrupted the silence, “Um…if I may say so, you did actually start a major fight with your brother yesterday.”

Taka seemed very offended by this comment. “What do you mean by that? I didn’t do anything yesterday. That was just a warm up round for my newfound speaking skills. Really, I haven’t done anything.”

All the others still just glared at him. Sarafina and Sarabi edged away from him and to the other side of the adult lionesses. All of them were thinking the same thing. Hopefully this trip home won’t last longer than one day. They were already sick of Taka’s talking. “Listen up Taka,” stated Kuta bluntly, “Come with us quietly and we may not be forced to restrain you due to your persistence in trying to make us go crazy. If you continue talking like that, we’ll have no other option than to force you to come with us.”

Taka clearly didn’t want this so he shut up and followed them. However, all the way in his perverted mind, he was planning his revenge. He would get them and they would all either bow before him as king, or he would kill them.

A New Threat: Chapter 4

The storm hit priderock hard and the wind was blowing into the chamber in the heart of the great monument. It didn’t affect the joyfulness of the lionesses inside though; it just stirred them up even more, blowing their fur around, blowing leaves and grass into the party.

Karamu was having the most fun of everyone—like normal. Everyone enjoyed her company at times like this. Everyone always enjoyed her company. Mwanga was basking in the greatest attention from Karamu at the moment though. Happy that everyone was coming back, she could barely contain her emotions anymore. All she could do right now to keep them in check was to party on.

Rafiki though, was sitting in a corner. He didn’t feel like joining in the party. He never really felt like he should go to one of the parties. Today he felt even less like that. He felt that there was something out in the darkness of the storm that would haunt this pride forever and it was coming right for them. The trouble was, he couldn’t say anything until the lionesses stopped partying, and if it was hidden in the storm, it was assured that the thing would arrive while the storm was happening. They only had a few hours to stop the party and get ready for this new threat to their kingdom. But for at least a little bit longer he would still let them have their fun.

Kuhisi was another lioness who was partying at this time. She however, had more of a connection to the spirits than anyone in the room excepting Rafiki. She was also feeling that there was something that they weren’t seeing but was coming. Like Rafiki, she didn’t feel that she should ruin everyone’s party, but that wasn’t right either.

But before she did anything, she had to talk to Rafiki. Kuhisi knew that Rafiki might be the only person other than her who felt this. Getting through the crowd was quite a challenge. They all gathered in the places that were the only good places to get across the room, so even though there were no more than usual, it seemed more crowded than usual.

After fighting through the crowd and finding Rafiki, he greeted Kuhisi in his usual manner. “Do you feel it to? There is an evil in this area. It is up to us to stop it. What do you think?”

Kuhisi was always stunned by how he always seemed to know what you’re thinking about. “How do you always know what I’m thinking about? Because that was exactly what I was thinking. I was wondering if we should alert the pride or not right now. Probably what you were thinking now that I think about it.”

“That’s right! I was. See! It isn’t that hard to do that.”

“So what do you think? Tell them now or later?”

“I think…that you should make the decision Kuhisi, you need to learn some things. You need to decide.”

Kuhisi was shocked. The wise being in the pride had decided to leave what could be the most important decision in history to her. So she thought hard about it. After only a couple minutes she had her answer. “I believe, that we should tell them now. After all, they’ve been partying for a while now and if we don’t act soon enough, we could all die.”

“I’m proud of you Kuhisi,” said Rafiki. “Your decision was backed up by very good reasons. Let’s go tell them to go prepare for this evil.”

Rafiki walked over to the main group of lions and prepared to deliver his news. He hoped that this was the right decision. He was almost positive that it was, but there was always that off chance that something would go wrong.

He stood on top of the one place that still didn’t seem occupied, the raised platform where the kings slept. He called out for silence, and because everyone did respect the wise old baboon, they did become silent, except for an occasional muter by Karamu.

“I’m very sorry everybody, but I have no choice. I must stop this party to give you bad news. There is an evil approaching and it will be here within only a few hours. I don’t know what it will do to us, but we must keep it away. I want a few of you to go out searching to see what it actually is. And yes, I do know that there is a terrible storm. But you must go out anyway.

“I also want a defense organized here. Nothing can get in priderock at any cost.”

Everyone stared at him. Only minutes ago they were having a great time, and now they were all in peril. Kuhisi added something to Rafiki’s speech. “We really do need volunteers to go out and see what the enemy is.”

There were only four that volunteered; three because they knew it was very important, and Karamu also volunteered because there was still another place to be filled and she was the adventurous type, so she figured, why not.

“Thank you.” said Rafiki “Now we need all of you to figure out a defense strategy. I’ll leave that to you as you know more of fighting. Those going out for scouting duty, come back if you see fighting at priderock, the sun comes out, you see the threat, or if there is some reason that you have to come back. Good luck.” Rafiki went back to his corner while the lionesses set to work. They had a warning that should be enough so there wasn’t any reason that they couldn’t manage to win.

The lionesses scouting went out and none looked back, except Karamu who looked back and did her goodbye song and dance that she always did before leaving. All the lionesses laughed like normal and said goodbye. Then Karamu was gone with the other lionesses that went out.

The Circle of Life: Chapter 5

Mufasa was more excited now than he had ever been in his life. The most important lessons of all were going to be taught today. He paused a moment to wonder what the lessons would be. So far, he had learned a great many things like how to hunt properly, how to hide, and how to win the trust of everyone in the pride. What more was there to learn?

Ahadi turned around and stopped, “What are you waiting for son?”

Mufasa realized that he had stopped a little longer than he had intended to. “Oh nothing, I just stopped to think a little over the last few days’ worth of lessons. What is today’s lesson?”

Ahadi chuckled, “Just wait for a little while, I’ll show you. This isn’t the right place to tell you.” He looked around and decided on a new direction to go. “I think this is the right way…”

Mufasa was momentarily horrified until Ahadi gave him a wink. For the next two hours they walked on in relative silence. There wasn’t much to talk about. Eventually though, a small conversation was started. “You really won’t tell me anything about this next lesson dad? I’m dying to know what you have planned!”

“You won’t get me to describe it that easy Mufasa, but don’t worry, we’ll get there soon.”

“Oh come ooooooooonnnnnnn dad. Pleeeeeeeeeeease!”

“Alright, alright, I’ll give you a hint for the second lesson. We have to wait for night for the second lesson today. Since you’re so eager to start your lessons today, let’s do hunting while we’re here.”

Mufasa was stunned, “I have to do hunting? Isn’t that the lionesses’ job?”

“What about if you’re on another journey like the one you just went out to find your brother Taka? For that matter, how did you get food this time? You needed to find something to eat.”

“I didn’t get anything to eat, I just kept going forward. When I went into that other world with Taka, whenever we wanted something, it just appeared.”

“How did you survive the long trek to the place where you were just teleported away?”

“I told you, I just kept going forward. There was once when there was some food right on the ground in front of me, some dead bird that looked a little like that new Zazu bird.”

“Well, that doesn’t make any sense at all. Anyway, lets actually teach you to hunt so the next time you’re out in the middle of nowhere, you can catch yourself something to eat. If you really want to know how to hunt well, you need to go ask the lionesses, but I’ll teach you everything I know.”

Ahadi immediately launched into his improvised lesson. His knowledge was basic, like almost all the other kings before him, but he did his best. Mufasa, at the end, was glad that he had taken the lesson; it would undoubtedly prove useful sometime in the future.

While they were having this lesson, Ahadi was deliberately moving them to a certain place where the last two lessons would take place. He had made certain that this lesson would end right at that place and he had timed it perfectly, they arrived at the small hill exactly on time.

“Mufasa, these next two lessons are the most important ones you will ever get from me about being king. You must always remember these as long as you are king. It is also necessary to teach this to your kids.”

“So what is it dad? I want to know something this important! Is it a secret?” Mufasa burst out, unable to control his excitement about knowing something this necessary to being king. “Can I tell other people?”

Ahadi paused; no king had ever asked to be able to have this be common knowledge. He considered this new idea and decided it wasn’t that bad at all. “I guess, if you really want to tell everyone after you get back, you can. Only if you really want to though. This has only been knowledge among the kings and never among the others of the pride. I think we can start the last two lessons now.”

After the final sentence, he left no pause and immediately started the first lesson on the very same place that young Mufasa would later teach his son Simba the same lesson. It had a small rock at the very peak of the hill. It was here that the tradition had been born long ago with the very first Lion King, and it was here where the tradition would continue.

For the next half an hour, he taught Mufasa all about the great circle of life that would later be very condensed by Mufasa. He had decided during this half hour that twenty nine minutes of this time were not important and later taught Simba only the essentials.

For the next half hour, they just waited for the night to come so they could start the next lesson. As it turned out, this one was also a little too long for Mufasa’s tastes. He certainly didn’t understand any of it now so he just listened to it for now so when he did understand it he could teach the important stuff.

After all of it, he was almost asleep from the boredom, but had managed to commit all of it memory fortunately. He said good night to Ahadi and thought about all of it. Apparently, there were hundreds of kings before him and they had all been great kings. He would have to live up to his expectations in his coming years.

Two Plans: Chapter 6

Taka was still just as unhappy now as he was when he had first left with the two birds and the two lionesses. To him they seemed like creatures that shouldn’t be here. It was especially Sakanya that was annoying him. She always got angry at him. Even a little joke seemed to set her off the edge. The only one here who didn’t treat him as some sort of stupid cub that was always misbehaving was Kucha.

He glared at all of them. This was so unfair. He got to go with the stupid lionesses he didn’t know at all while his brother got to go with Ahadi. He knew it. It was Mufasa that was going to be king. Judging by the way the spirit of Mufasa had treated him in the spirit world; it was Taka who should be king. There was no way that Mufasa would make a good king if he went on like he did before.

Kuta and Sakanya had an entirely different perspective. They saw Taka as a lion who had been very clever and innocent, and was now changed into a jerk that had to get his way or he would threaten them with useless insults.

Zazu just looked at Taka in disgust while Kucha didn’t know what to think. IT was quite possible that Taka had a legible point and the others hadn’t thought of what it might be. If worst came to worst, he would probably side with Taka.

Sarabi and Sarafina still had hope that it was all a joke, but as time went on they got less and less hopeful about that idea. Whenever he looked their way, they turned away and walked toward the adults.

Taka was getting too fed up with all of their attitudes. They didn’t understand. He was innocent and Mufasa was guilty. But they refused to believe him just because he had started that minor incident right after he got back. The current situation could not be tolerated.

An hour later after walking in silence, he had reached his bursting point. “Why do you all think it was all my fault? Mufasa hates me! He said so.” Taka yelled in a furious rage. “He tortured me!”

The others looked at each other. None of them really believed it. Sakanya was one of the most doubtful ones. “If that’s true, then prove it. So far, you’ve treated us pretty lousily. If you want us to believe you, then start behaving and acting like you were before this strange abducting stuff happened. Ever since you came back you’ve been a complete jerk.”

Taka was deflated after this speech. Why should he do those things. He wanted to run after Mufasa. That’s what he would do. Tonight he would run off very quietly and catch up with Mufasa. For now he might behave for the next few hours and then his plan would come into motion. With a glare, he slunk to the back of the procession.

That night was the night that Mufasa was getting taught his most important lessons and he was surprisingly close to where Taka was at the time. At the time that Taka got up, Mufasa was getting ready to go to sleep on the hill that had the perfect view of all the stars.

Taka looked around, got up, and stealthily started walking away. Little did he know that Sarafina had guessed that he would do this soon so she had convinced her friend Sarabi to stay awake with her and watch until Taka left. Then they would follow him.

Even quieter than Taka, they headed off. Together, the exchanged their plans, and went to work. Sarabi, the one with the better nose would go off to find Mufasa before Taka got there, and Sarafina, the more adventurous one would circle around Taka and make sure he didn’t get to Mufasa too early.

Sarabi had the easier job. She found Mufasa very quickly. She woke him and Ahadi up to tell him the news. “Mufasa, Taka is very close. Stay low to the ground in case he can see really well. I believe he might want to kill you. I would advise getting to the safety of pride rock right now.”

Ahadi was instantly awake. His hunch had been right. It had been Taka that was now the insane one. “Mufasa, that’s a very good idea. Do you know how to get there? It’s to the slight right of where your head is facing right now. About halfway between your forward and right. Go there immediately. I’ll take a look at what is happening. Under no circumstances turn back. You must get into the safety of priderock.”

Mufasa was scared enough to obey his father and went in the direction that was pointed out to him. Ahadi turned to Sarabi, “Alright you need to stay with me. Show me what’s happening. Do the other lionesses know about this?”

Sarabi thought for a moment. “Actually, I think that was the one thing in the plan that we forgot…”

Sarafina had found where Taka was heading and got there five minutes before he would. She could move a lot faster because she wasn’t afraid of getting help from other creatures in the pridelands. Taka, if anything moved, he paused and waited for it to disappear. If something found him acting this way, they would have a good right to be suspicious.

Sarafina looked around. Off in the distance she thought she could see a lion get up and try to stay unseen in the short grass. It wasn’t quite working. But because he was so visible, Sarafina knew it was Ahadi coming toward her. He would only be another minute. She hoped that he would get to where she was before Taka did.

Carried to Safety: Chapter 7

Karamu went out into the storm. It was pitch-dark even though it was still around noon. She shivered; there was something about this storm that didn’t quite seem normal. She stopped with the other lionesses going out to search to discuss where they should all go. They decided to in the direction that the storm came from. They would spread out with a yelling distance between them. That way, if one got in trouble, they just needed to yell and the others would know.

Karamu was put on one of the edges. Slowly, they headed off into the fierce wind and all yelled to each other to make sure their plan was working. Then they speeded up, staying in a formation that was as close to a line as they could get it. For a time they didn’t encounter anything. Then they came across Mufasa.

He had gotten lost on the way to priderock last night when he was trying to find hiss way through the dark. When the storm hit, his memories kicked in and he just stopped and waited for others to find him. Right now, after trying to stay awake for so long, he was soundly sleeping.

The lioness who found him called out for the others to come there. They held a short discussion about what should be done now. It was decided very quickly that he would have to get home now. Then next part of the discussion wanted a volunteer. Karamu was almost instantaneous in saying that she wanted to take Mufasa home. They all agreed that she could be the one to take him home while the others continued forward. Karamu also had to go back out as soon as possible and join up with them.

Karamu picked up the unconscious cub and started running toward priderock. It wasn’t too far away. She was there within ten minutes of running.

Rafiki was outside to greet her. “I’m glad that we found Mufasa first. I have this feeling that something is wrong with Taka. I’ll bring him in to the den. I assume you have to go back out?”

“Yeah, give me a minute here though, I’m exhausted.” After another minute of heavy panting and getting a drink from the puddles the rain had formed, she went back out. She would have to run a longer ways so she went at about half the speed of before.

However, the other lionesses had found something a very short distance after Karamu left with Mufasa. On the ground, there was a lot of blood. Whether it was from a lion, a wildebeest, another animal, or even from the same animal, it was in several medium sized pools.

They all paused and waited for Karamu to come back. The three lionesses waited in a sort of circle watching all directions to see whether something was moving anywhere. After what seemed like ages, Karamu finally appeared a short ways away. As she got nearer and nearer, she could tell that something bad had happened here.

Finally, she saw what the scene was like. “What happened?” she asked. “This is a lot of blood.”

“We don’t know what happened here. This was only a few minutes from where we found Mufasa. If you have any ideas, please, let us know.” Said one of them whose name was Zubaa. “Did you happen to notice if Mufasa had any wounds?”

“No, I’m positive that he didn’t have any cuts or scrapes on him. I would have tasted it when I carried him back. I don’t know what happened either, what should we do? What can we do?” asked Karamu. “We could stay here and see if anything is still around.”

“I think that we should fan out now. Two to the sides, and two closer to going straight ahead. After five minutes come back. If anyone is not back in fifteen minutes, we all go looking for them. Is that a good plan?”

They all immediately agreed, it was the best plan they had to work with, so they quickly decided who was in which position, and headed off to try to find what had caused this horror.

Home Sweet Home: Chapter 8

Mufasa was woken up by Sarabi and got his instructions to go to priderock. He went the direction he was supposed to go, but it was dark and there were small hills that he naturally avoided. Within minutes he was lost and had no idea where to go. He tried to go on top of a hill to see where he was, but it was far too dark around midnight to see a thing as far away as priderock. It didn’t help that clouds were starting to cover the stars.

Since he didn’t know how to get to priderock, or go back to Ahadi and Sarabi, he just lay down and waited for even the tiniest movement. At one point, he thought he heard a roar of pain that sounded like a lion, so he foolishly started walking toward it. However, half way there, he realized that walking toward a battle scene, might not be the smartest thing to do, so again he just waited watching the area where the roar had come from.

After hours of waiting, he grew very tired. Eventually, just as the storm hit him with the wind and rain, he gave out. He couldn’t stay awake any longer. He couldn’t see anyone around, even in the relative light of a cloud covered midday.

Slowly his head sagged to the ground and his eyes closed. There was once, very shortly afterward, when he was momentarily almost awake. There were voices around and it felt like he was not lying on the ground anymore. He tried to force his eyes open and see what was happening, but he was just too tired. Again he drifted off into oblivion.

Again the world started to come into focus, and he was definitely being carried somewhere, But he still couldn’t stay awake long enough to see what was going on around him.

It seemed a very short time later that he actually woke up for good. This time he could actually see where he was. Unbelievably, he was in priderock with all the other lionesses! He stared in awe. Somehow, he got back home safely. He looked around, everyone was looking at him with a worried look and when he got up, they all breathed a sigh of relief. “How did I get here?” he asked groggily.

“He’s alive!” shouted the whole pride minus the lionesses that were gone and Ahadi. “Tell us what happened!” they all yelled anxiously.

Mufasa, with everyone watching him, was almost panicking. He tried to start the story, but he was stuttering too much. Finally, changing plans, he tried again, “How did I get here?” he managed to blurt out.

Rafiki answered it. “You have Karamu to thank for getting you here; she carried you a long way. She isn’t here right now because she went back out to find Taka and the others. You wouldn’t know where they might be would you?”

“N-n-no, I got very lost last night after Sarabi somehow managed to find me and warn me that Taka was coming to do something to me that wouldn’t be very pleasant for me. I was with Ahadi and he told me to go here, but I got lost and had to stop. Sometime though, I heard this terrible roar near me. It sounded like some lion was in terrible pain!”

The lionesses and Rafiki looked at him. “Just sleep some more, we’ll make sure we find everyone else.”

Mufasa took their advice and went back to sleep. Meanwhile, the others looked out of priderock. The storm was dying down; hopefully everyone would come back before Mufasa woke up. It would be another nice surprise that Mufasa undoubtedly deserved. However, the news they heard about Taka wanting to do something terrible to Mufasa was on all their minds and they hoped Taka hadn’t been the one who caused the scream of agony last night.

The New Enemy: Chapter 8

Ahadi was creeping with Sarabi toward Sarafina through the grass. From where he was, he couldn’t see Taka yet, but undoubtedly he would find Sarafina soon—even if she lay low to the ground and didn’t move a muscle. He was almost considering getting up and running there, but Taka might still be closer than him. By his calculations, it would take him around two minutes to get to his destination.

Sarafina was nervously waiting for either Taka or Ahadi to reach her first. She started to slowly move toward Ahadi, hoping to buy a few more seconds’ time. Suddenly, she could see Taka coming; he would get to her first! She had nowhere to go except bolt toward Ahadi. And that she did.

Ahadi saw her leap up and whispered to Sarabi, “Stay here, lay low, head to priderock when it gets light out. Make sure you stay hidden.” He then started running to Sarafina while making as much noise as he could to try to wake up the other lionesses.

Taka leapt up as soon as he saw the running movement, but when he saw Ahadi, he faltered. Was his own father against him too? No. It couldn’t be. Taka stopped. He didn’t want to hurt Mufasa with Dad watching.

Once they saw that he had stopped, Ahadi slowed down and walked toward him. Sarafina stayed right behind him but still followed. “What were you doing son?” Yelled Ahadi, “What did you plan on doing to your brother?”

Taka, unable to think up a good excuse, claimed “I just wanted to see him again.”

Ahadi, unconvinced retorted, “Well, you would have the next day when we all met at priderock! I know that you did not have good intentions.”

Sarafina, wanting to express her anger over Taka’s obvious plan, unleashed a barrage of words that horrified even Ahadi. Taka went insane when he heard this and therefore immediately attacked Sarafina viciously. Sarabi, watching, ran over as fast as she could. Ahadi, paralyzed by the thought of attacking his son, stood at the side doing nothing.

By the time Sarabi got there to rescue her friend, Taka had already seriously injured Sarafina. Sarabi ran in there and immediately slashed at Taka. He recoiled I pain, his left eyelid cut wide open. He had barely managed to flinch in time, but it was already swelling over his eye. Moments later the second wave of pain, far greater than the first, hit him.

Taka screamed out in excruciating pain, rolling on the ground trying to stop the blood from flowing. He only succeeded in making the cut wider. After what seemed like ages, he finally just stuffed his face in the dirt, the whole while in utter agony.

Sarafina, being comforted by Sarabi now, had blood all over. Fortunately for her though, it was only a multitude of small cuts.

Ahadi, finally realizing what exactly had just happened, was terrified. “Are you okay Sarafina? Where is all that blood coming from? Where’s Taka?” Moments later he found Taka, pressing his head into the dirt and unsuccessfully trying to stifle his cries of pain. Ahadi didn’t understand how he had let this happen. A week and a half ago they were all playing together, now they were literally trying to kill each other. Fortunately they would all live even if scars were left forever.

He sank to the ground defeated. They needed to get to priderock now, but they were all too tired to go anywhere it seemed like. Or in Taka’s case, too much pain. Hopefully they would all be happier when they woke up and were able to think consciously.

He just didn’t understand. How did this all happen? An abnormal storm had almost destroyed the pride. The more he thought about it, the more glad he was that he had ordered Mufasa away from here before, If Taka had gotten his paws on his own brother…Ahadi hated to think of what might have happened then. Moments later he passed out with the rest of them, exhausted from the events.

The Scene: Chapter 9

Zazu, always one of the lightest sleepers woke up immediately when Taka’s scream of anguish ripped through the night. He almost thought nothing of it, but fortunately he looked around and noticed that the cubs, Taka, Sarafina and Sarabi weren’t there. Almost immediately he woke up Kuta and Sakanya.

Drowsy as they were, they listened to Zazu’s quick explanation that he heard a lion in pain and that all three cubs were not here. The latter part woke them up immediately. “Wake Kucha Zazu, he can be our eyes in this darkness.”

Sakanya left immediately, leaving Kuta behind so she could make sure that Kucha woke up properly. She was right to do so. Kucha took several minutes to wake up and only did when Kuta roared in his ear. Due to his nature, he didn’t believe that the situation was for real for another few minutes. Finally though, he understood and agreed to help.

Kuta ran after the bird who was staying nearby. Due to the winds blowing, she couldn’t smell anything so she could only rely on Kucha. As he lead her to their destination, she could finally smell a tiny whiff here and there of where the cubs had been.

Very soon they ran into Sakanya who had gotten a little lucky and gone close to the right direction although she was happy to have better guidance now.

Within a few more minutes, they were nearing the scene. Finally, they got there. What they found was not a pleasant scene. They had arrived a few minutes too late to see them fighting. But what was left right now was horrifying.

All around Taka’s face there was a pool of drying blood. Kuta gently moved him away so his face wouldn’t dry to the ground. Sarafina seemed so cut up that she would never heal. Fortunately though, all the cuts and scratches seemed pretty thin. There was also blood spattered all around the ground near her also.

Nearby, Ahadi seemed uninjured but sleeping deeply. Sarabi had no injuries, but was a little spattered with blood on her forepaw and face.

The most worrying thing that they saw, or rather, didn’t see, was that Mufasa was not here. The desperately needed him, but at this time there was nothing they could do for him. If he was still alive, he would have to survive another night. This time all by himself.

Horrified by the scene, they made sure to stay awake until they woke up just in case one of them woke up early and did something stupid. Hopefully nothing else would happen until the morning. However, a couple hours into the night, only Sakanya was still awake, watching the scene of terror. She would wake everyone at sunrise.

Two Lost Forever: Chapter 10

It was sunrise and Sakanya knew it was time to wake them all up and take them to priderock but they looked so peaceful just lying there. She decided to let them sleep another fifteen minutes.

After those fifteen minutes were up, so was the sun. She woke Kuta first. Then came Ahadi. He was tired and didn’t seem to remember last night at all. Next up would be Sarabi, the other one that was somewhat responsible.

She came up ready to fight which was very unlike her. She leaped up with her claws exposed, startled and looked around. The first thing that her brain registered was that Taka was lying on the ground nearby. As soon as she saw him, Sarabi turned to face him and started growling.

Kuta surprised blurted out “Sarabi, it’s just us. Calm down. Just tell us what happened last night.”

Sarabi was jolted away from her target of Taka and turned to face Kuta before realizing who it was. “Wha—how did you get here?”

“We came here in the middle of the night right after what seemed to be a great battle. We didn’t see any of it though and we would like to know what happened.”

Ahadi, regaining consciousness, stumbled over. “It was Taka that started it. The cubs went at each others throats.”

Worried by this news, Sakanya asked if Mufasa was all right.

“Mufasa? Well, I dropped him off somewhere a little ways from here and told him to go to priderock. He should be there now.”

“That’s good. So anyway, please describe what happened last night.”

Ahadi turned his eyes away, not wanting to face the truth of what had happened. “I would rather not. Perhaps Sarabi would elaborate if that’s alright.”

Sakanya and Kuta glanced at each other. Maybe this was more serious than they had expected.

Sarabi was more than glad to help. Enraged against Taka, she launched into the summary. “Last night, Sarafina thought that Taka would try to get away so he could kill or injure Mufasa. Against my will, she convinced me to stay up and watch silently until Taka left. As she had predicted, he left in the direction that he thought Mufasa was in. He had guessed very close to where he actually was.

“In a couple minutes, I left with Sarafina to foil his plan. I went on ahead to warn Mufasa and Ahadi that Taka was coming, while Sarafina planned to try to delay Taka if necessary. I got to Mufasa and Ahadi in plenty of time, and told Mufasa to go to priderock. Then Ahadi told me to come with him and creep over to Sarafina. At this time, she saw us and Taka had probably seen her and was stalking her. Fortunately she knew it too.

“Then when Ahadi was getting very close, Sarafina could no longer stay still. She bolted toward Ahadi. Myself, I was right next to Ahadi. Then, when Sarafina dashed toward us, he told me to stay right here and not budge an inch. That I did as he ran to meet his son.

“They slowed down, knowing they couldn’t do anything in this position. Then, the act that started the battle was when Sarafina came in, frightened out of her wits from being stalked like prey, and insulted Taka. A lot. He couldn’t stand the indignity and attacked.

“Sarafina was attacked too quickly to retaliate and was brutally slashed at and clawed. When I saw that, I ran in, and protecting my friend, extended my claws and slashed at his face with all of my might. He tried to dodge it, but he couldn’t quite make it away and I gave him the biggest, nastiest cut on his left eye that I’ve ever seen. He immediately backed off screaming and roaring trying to stop the pain. It looks like he passed out.” Sarabi noted. “And then everyone else fell asleep or passed out. Sarafina is alright though.”

“Well, we’re very glad that everyone is okay, except for maybe Taka. Let’s wake everyone else up now,” Said Kuta. Taka was the last one to be woken up and he wasn’t happy to be awake.

“Why did you wake me? My face is in agony and I’m living in a nightmare right now. Let me sleep!” He yelled.

Ahadi replied while the others were standing around awkwardly. “We need to go home now. It’ll only be a couple hours before we get home. Let’s go Taka, son.”

When Taka heard this, he looked up but with his head down and yet still looking at them in a menacing manner. “Taka is no longer your son.”

“Yes he is. Taka will be my son.”

“Well, if Taka will be, then I won’t be. What should my new name be?”

Sarafina, still harboring menacing thoughts, muttered “Well, you got a huge scar, maybe you could involve that somehow.”

Taka, unfortunately heard her. “Something involving the scar…that’s a good idea. Because that is who I am now. I’m not feeling creative today, how about if I just call myself Scar. There we go. Problem solved.”

The others were staring at him in shock. This couldn’t be happening. Sarafina was the most effected. She had meant it as a sarcastic comment. She looked at the cuts and scrapes she had. They would be easy to deal with by herself. What she was about to say would stun them even more.

“I’m leaving.”

“What?” All of them said in unison. Even ‘Scar’ joined in. “What do you mean leaving?”

“I mean that I’m not going back to priderock. Maybe I’ll come back one day. Right now though, I don’t feel as if I’m supposed to be here. Good bye.” Sarafina turned and left them. The others followed her for now.

“We’ll come with you for the first part then we have to go back though. We’ll turn around at midday.”

“Thank you.” Said Sarafina.

Sarabi was devastated when they had to turn back, but did turn back eventually with a final message. “Promise me that you’ll come back one day Sarafina. For me.”

Sarafina reluctantly said yes, “I’ll come back some day. I promise.”

And then they turned away, not to see each other until a few years later.

Meetings: Chapter 11

Karamu had been searching with the others for quite a while. It was getting late in the afternoon. They decided to look for another half hour and then turn back to priderock. It would take a much shorter time to go back fortunately. About fifteen minutes later, Karamu spotted something coming their way.

“I see something! Come on over.” Together, the four lionesses walked silently and stealthily through the grass toward the newcomers. Hiding, they tried to conceal themselves until a clear view was available. The plan went well, they hid and not a single part of them could be seen. Finally they could see a large group coming their way. Leading it was Ahadi.

They all saw that it was Ahadi at about the same time and all of them went out to greet them. Their dreams had finally come true. Everyone was going to be home on this day. Karamu and the others ran toward the group coming toward them. Strangely, they didn’t even look up and see them coming.

Finally, when they were within one hundred yards of Ahadi and his group, one of the birds that was flying with him finally looked up and saw them. The bluish whitish bird was presumably startled and immediately let Ahadi know. Then he looked up finally when they were closing in on fifty yards.

When Sarafina had left, the whole group started walking back in a mood that was not very enjoyable. Heads hung low, all of them were thinking about what had happened in the past week and a half of their life. Even Taka and Kucha realized that this was not the most desirable result. They had been walking back for almost four hours by now. They couldn’t hope to see where the last place that they saw Sarafina was.

As they were descending from a small hill, Zazu gave a squawk and reported “There are four lionesses coming this way sire! I don’t think we can fight them,” in a panicky voice. “I think we should run!”

Ahadi, alarmed, looked up and laughed. “Those are lionesses from our pride coming to greet us! No more sufferings today!”

Finally, it looked as if there was nothing else to do. They could all go home and live as happily as they could. Everyone knew that this would leave permanent mental scars. In another few seconds, the lionesses reached them. Panting slightly, they remarked, “We were thinking we might never see you again! Glad to see you okay.”

Sarabi, overwhelmed by the past events rushed to the newcomers and started crying. “What’s wrong?” Asked Uliza, another lioness that had been searching. Why aren’t you happy that you’ll finally be home? We missed you.”

Sarabi, had trouble even saying anything she was crying so hard. “I want to get home!” she sobbed.

“What’s wrong?” repeated Uliza

Ahadi, knowing what it was that was bothering Sarafina, decided to answer for her. “Sarafina is no longer with us.” He got a look of thanks from Sarabi who resumed crying immediately.

“Sarafina’s dead?!” exclaimed a startled Karamu. “But that means that we’ll never have any fun together again!”

“Let me explain for one moment” sighed Ahadi. “She is still alive, but not with us anymore. She decided to leave after what happened to us last night.”

Uliza, glancing at the other lionesses with her, asked “Does that have anything to do with the giant puddles of blood we found earlier?”

Ahadi refused to answer this time so Kuta filled in for him. “Probably, can we discuss at priderock so we don’t have to go through this twice please?”

“Sure, no problem.” replied Karamu. “I’m guessing that’s how Taka here got his huge scar also.”

Taka, rather Scar, blew up at this. “My name is not Taka anymore! It’s Scar!”

Karamu, Uliza and the others didn’t quite realize how touchy a subject this was for ‘Scar’ so they just turned around “Whatever, let’s go back to priderock and you can tell us all about it.”

Scar, fuming, was not happy but followed because he too wanted to get back home as soon as possible.

Together, all six lionesses, two cubs, two birds, and Ahadi left for home. They would get there in a couple hours by now.

My  Choice: Chapter 12

Heading home, the mood was one of silence. Not a single creature wanted to talk very much. For the most part, it was also very uneventful. Walking over hills and around bushes and the occasional wildebeest herd, nothing interesting was happening. However, there was one thing that was very important that happened.

On the way back, due to the silence, all the animals had time to reflect once again on the most recent events. They all were sharing feelings of sadness and loss, but only one was thinking of what should be done immediately.

Kucha, remembering Sarafina, was thinking about her. She seemed to be the most like him. The others were either too boring to be around or didn’t want to have anything to do with anyone, including him. He glanced at the newly named Scar. If life was like this at wherever they were headed, priderock it seemed like, then he wouldn’t enjoy being with them very much. It fit Zazu well, but not him, a mighty bird of prey from the jungle.

Within seconds he made his decision. Kucha turned on a dime and headed back directly from the way they came. He looked back once to see if anyone noticed that he was gone. Only Sarabi had noticed and giving a silent nod of approval, turned back toward priderock. Kucha was somewhat surprised that she had actually figured out what he was going to do so he smiled to himself and flew off toward the jungle.

No one could stop him now. His decision had been made he sped up. Not a single bird or creature could possibly catch up with him now. He was free to live by his own choices now. No more following lions caught up in their own affairs. This was his choice.

Speeding away far faster than the speed he went with the lions, it was only minutes before he was back to where they had dropped off Sarafina. Slowing, to make sure he didn’t miss anything, he followed the path that Sarafina had gone on. It would take him only another few minutes to find her hopefully.

Unless she moved faster than he had expected and she was already in the jungle. Then it would take around another half hour to find her. Kucha knew that she might need help, and if he couldn’t be with the larger group of lions, why not help a cub through the next year or two.

Ahadi and the other lionesses didn’t notice that Kucha was gone for several minutes. Uliza was the first to notice and stopped for a moment and looked around.

“Is there anything wrong Uliza?” asked Karamu. “Why did you stop?”

Uliza, not answering for a moment continued looking around to try and find Kucha. “Well, I don’t see Kucha. Does anybody know where he is?”

Everyone answered that they didn’t have any idea where he was except Scar and Sarabi. Scar just was still too moody to say anything but his body language made it clear that he had no idea.

Sarabi on the other hand, looked away and ducked her head down, very clearly saying that she knew but didn’t want to tell.

“It’s alright Sarabi,” comforted Karamu, “You can tell us where he went.”

She still didn’t want to reveal anything. Sarabi just looked at them and started walking away in silence.

Uliza asked this time. “We need to know where he is so he doesn’t run off.”

Sarabi stopped and looked at them. “He already did.” Then she kept walking.

Questions: Chapter 13

The group got back about an hour after sunset. Filled with memories from the trip, all of them collapsed in a massive heap and just went to sleep. All of the other lionesses and Rafiki in priderock looked at them and decided to let them sleep. Mufasa had been sleeping for a few hours now so they didn’t wake him up, instead leaving him with a wonderful surprise in the morning.

All of them noticed that there didn’t seem to be a Sarafina and that ‘Scar’ had a massive scar on his left eye. Unfortunately, they didn’t know about the name change yet. They would discover that in the morning. But for now, they just quietly exited the immediate vicinity.

In the morning, Mufasa was up long before anyone else and waited impatiently for a little bit before trying to wake them up. He started on Ahadi. It didn’t go as well as it normally went for him. After several minutes of trying, he gave up and went on to some of the lionesses one after another. Not a single one stirred.

The only one that he managed to wake up was Sarabi, who rather unwillingly tried to open her eyes. Unfortunately, she just went back to sleep in a couple minutes so Mufasa would have to wait.

Reluctant to give up though, he went instead to the other lionesses that had been at priderock through the whole two week scene. They woke up fairly easily as it was already past sunrise. Mufasa asked questions about what had happened a couple nights ago when he heard the roars but apparently Ahadi hadn’t had a chance to explain to these other lionesses what it was.

The only information that Mufasa had managed to squeeze out was that they had arrived about an hour after he had gone to sleep. How could they stand waiting to figure out from Ahadi what had happened? He just couldn’t wait. Maybe they would wake up within the next half hour.

He kept waiting and waiting though. They just wouldn’t wake up and the other lionesses and Rafiki wouldn’t let him try to wake them up again. Finally, around noon, Mufasa saw movement in one of the lionesses. Ignoring all protests from the others, he ran forward and pounced on the top of the massive pile of bodies.

Half squishing Zazu, the bird wriggled out and tried to flap away but was so disoriented that he immediately crashed into the wall and was left in a daze. Sarabi and Scar who were sleeping on the top were also rudely awakened. Sarabi, being more of a pacifist, just rolled off and tried to get fully awake. Scar, with his new personality, yelled at Mufasa for waking him up and that he wanted to sleep.

Mufasa, alarmed by this affront, took a step backward. He miscalculated and took too big of a step and slipped off the edge. He landed right on Ahadi’s head and this combined with the verbal attack from Scar, woke the rest of the lionesses and Ahadi up.

Rafiki, horrified by the act that Scar had committed against his brother, let Scar know that that wasn’t what he should have done. “Taka!” he scolded, “That was not what you normally do. Why aren’t you glad that you were woken up?”

Taka, rubbing the sleep from his eyes which ended up being rather painfully with his scar, refused to reply.

Rafiki, undeterred, persisted. “I’m talking to you Taka! Tell me why you didn’t want to be woken up.”

This time, he at least looked toward Rafiki and motioned that he didn’t know who Rafiki was talking to.

Getting fed up with this new attitude, Rafiki yelled and pointed straight at him. “That’s YOU!”

Scar, still staying cool replied, “Well why didn’t you say so?”

“I called your name several times.” said the monkey.

“No you didn’t.” said an annoyed Scar. “My name isn’t Taka. It’s Scar. See the huge scar here on my eye?” Shaking his head as if this were common knowledge throughout the world, he lay back down and looked over at Sarabi who was just actually waking up.

Ahadi had managed to crawl out of the pile of lionesses while they were still trying to shift themselves. Immediately met with a barrage of questions about what happened during his long excursion. He just feigned being incredibly tired and said, “Only a few questions please, I really don’t feel like answering many right now.”

After much arguing, there were three questions. “What’s wrong with Taka over there?

“How come Mufasa was asking about all this roaring that happened a couple nights ago?

“And where is Sarafina?”

Ahadi kept out of answering as best he could. “For question number one, I have no idea. Mufasa would probably be the only one who might be able to answer that question. Number two, that night there was a very short fight within our group that will leave scar’s lasting forever, and number three, Sarafina decided to leave us for the jungle.” Ahadi refused to answer anything else after that.

The pride descended upon the other lionesses and Sarabi. “What happened?” They were all yelling.

Sakanya and Kuta replied that they didn’t know anything that Ahadi didn’t know, but Sarabi was more than happy to go into much greater detail in the fight and where Sarafina was at the time.

What she did reveal though, was where Kucha had left to. “Oh and Ahadi, Kucha left for the jungle. He’s going to help Sarafina over the next couple years.” Then she too turned and left. However, on her way out, she mentioned to Mufasa that they should probably both get out of here before the rest of the pride decided to question him.

Wisely, Mufasa took her advice and together they left a short distance a short way away from priderock for the rest of the day where they would discuss what had happened in the time that they had been separated on the journey.

The Final Straw: Chapter 14

After the initial buzz about everyone being back home save for Sarafina, the questions were fewer and fewer, much to the relief to everyone involved. The full story slowly seeped out and within only a couple weeks, the whole pride knew it.

By then, it seemed as if everything was back to normal. Unfortunately that was only because they had gotten used to calling Taka Scar and they had seen his new personality plenty. They could already barely remember the old Taka.

Meanwhile, Sarabi and Mufasa were spending much more time together, leaving no one for Scar to play with. He started sinking deeper and deeper into his depression.

Rafiki, now that Ahadi was back, took to staying in his tree most of the time as well. He once again, resumed his secluded life talking with the spirits.

Ahadi was just glad that they were all back safe and sound once again. After all the action, he lay down and rarely moved unless it was an emergency or unless he was hungry.

Zazu, with no where else to go, decided to become a creature that would go out early every morning and see what was happening in the pridelands. After a few days of doing this, Ahadi requested that he let him now what all was going on also. Zazu, wanting to please everyone, immediately accepted the offer.

All the other lionesses went back to their normal lifestyle with the memories that would never go away. Soon, they started hunting with the others and it seemed as everything was normal to the lionesses.

Mufasa and Sarabi kept spending more and more time away from priderock. Within weeks they were almost inseparable. On their excursions the rest of the pride knew to stay well clear. Except Scar.

Scar just kept trying to find them and succeeded many times. They were getting more and more angry at him. He was always trying to interrupt their conversations. Finally, it was Mufasa that snapped first. After Scar had interrupted them this one last time, he couldn’t stand it anymore.

Seeing his opportunity, Mufasa dashed forward at Scar and before he could react, cut his face in the exact same place that Sarabi had left her mark several weeks earlier. Scar’s scar was almost healing when Mufasa acted. If the scar had another couple months, it probably would have been fully healed.

Unfortunately for Scar, this second opening of the wound, would make it permanent as a large blemish upon his face. Once again he collapsed in agony screaming for his father to come and help him.

Within moments, some of the pride was on their way and shortly thereafter, Ahadi came running also. When they saw what had been done, the entire pride that was there, asked what had caused Mufasa to do this.

Mufasa, staying by Scar, even if not to offer comfort, replied truthfully, “He interrupted us one too many times. If he had stayed away, this would not have happened.”

Taka, still writhing on the ground was waiting for Ahadi to deal punishment upon Mufasa. Much to his disappointment, Ahadi only looked at Scar and said “You should know better than that Scar. That was one more disappointment you have caused.” Then he turned to Mufasa and Sarabi. “Why don’t you go back to priderock now.”

Mufasa, wanting to get out of the situation, obeyed and left for priderock immediately. Sarabi followed him.

After having a short discussion with Scar, Ahadi too left him there and walked toward priderock. The only person who seemed to have any sympathy for Scar at this time was Uru, his mother. She was the one that carried him back to priderock.

Humiliated even more now, Scar left for several days and everyone was worried that he too had left forever. Unfortunately this was just the time where Scar went off and discovered three abandoned hyena cubs. Using his plotting mind, he saved them from almost certain death and kept them alive knowing that they would one day return the favor.

His master plan was almost complete, and soon, if everything worked out, he would end up being the ruler of the pridelands. His plan was almost done.

Return: Chapter 15

Years later, most of the hard feelings seemed to have worn off, but Scar still refused to cooperate with demands. Everyday, whatever was requested of him, he would refuse. And no matter how they tried to punish him, he always disobeyed that too. And as of now, the pride loathed the idea of throwing him out of the pride.

As time went on though, the idea became more and more attractive. It reached a peak on the day that Ahadi died and left Mufasa the kingship. Unfortunately, there was no conclusive proof that it had been Scar that had killed him. All that was known was that he was surprised by three young hyenas and had been torn to shreds before he could fight back.

Mufasa took up his father’s place and immediately resumed the running of the kingdom. Scar became very unhappy at this point and the whole pride was trying to find a reason to make him and outcast, but there was no proof so they would have to live with him for a while yet.

Of course it was all Scar and his planning with the three hyenas that he found as cubs, Shenzi, Banzai, and Ed. But they would never reveal this secret.

Only about two weeks after Mufasa was crowned king and Sarabi queen, the pride got a very pleasant and unexpected surprise. Sarafina had come back.

It was Sarabi who spotted her. Sarabi was lying on the edge of priderock and saw a tiny figure coming toward them. Worried, she called out Zazu to see who it was. Zazu flew out to see who this newcomer was, and because of the age didn’t recognize Sarafina and was about to go back and tell Sarabi that it was a lone lioness when Sarafina recognized Zazu.

Tilting her head in the universal gesture of curiosity and amazement, Sarafina took only a few moments to remember the days with this bird. “Zazu! You made it back home to priderock!”

Zazu, turning around, almost literally froze in midair but fortunately managed to remember to flap his wings. He turned around to face Sarafina. “I wasn’t expecting you to come back for another year at least! What happened? Where’s Kucha?” Then he saw that there was a small cub hiding behind her.

“Calm down Zazu. You’ll here all of it soon. Let’s focus on getting back to priderock now.” Zazu, not wanting to keep Sarabi waiting for much longer, said “I’ll be back in a minute, I have to tell them that you’re here.”

Sarafina, wanting to surprise everyone, immediately pounced on him and pinned him to the ground. “I’m going to introduce myself. You just fly with me and stay quiet until they know who I am.”

Only when he complied with this did Sarafina finally let Zazu up. Grudgingly he flew right behind her and trying not to squawk out to everyone this glorious news. Sarafina was overjoyed that she was coming back. Finally, she reached the foot of priderock.

Sarabi, drowsy from the gentle sun, had fallen asleep and didn’t see Sarafina and Zazu coming up. “Is that Sarabi over there?” asked Sarafina.

Zazu answered, “That is correct.”

When she heard that, Sarafina walked over and nudged Sarabi to wake her. Unaccustomed to being woken up now that she was the queen, she woke up quickly, but still was very tired.

“Why did you wake me?” she slurred, “I was sleeping.” Because of her tiredness, Sarabi couldn’t recognize that it was Sarafina here. However, Sarafina soon made that clear.

“Sarabi, wake up. It’s me. I’m back from the jungle.”

Finally Sarabi was jolted into being fully awake. “Sarafina? You’ve come back? I wasn’t expecting you for another year or so.” Then she too saw the little cub behind Sarafina. She was even more surprised than Zazu was at this little detail.

Sarafina, noticing, said, “Isn’t she cute? I named her Nala.”

Sarabi, smiling, answered “Of course. Let’s go show everyone else now.”

Together, they walked into the middle of priderock where it was now Mufasa sleeping in the space reserved for the king and queen.

Epilogue

Simba pulled himself up from over the fire with the greatest strength he had ever mustered, pinning Scar on the ground. “Murderer!” he yelled. Choking Scar, Simba finally managed to coax the truth out of him. As soon as he did so, the hyenas swarmed him.

Coming to his aid were all his friends. It seemed that even Timon and Pumbaa managed to escape the group of hyenas they had distracted. Moments later, he was free of the hyenas and attacked back. He was even more surprised when Rafiki saved his life and moved more nimbly than any creature would have thought possible of a baboon his age.

Then he looked around and saw Scar going up the narrow path to the top of priderock. Simba instantly followed him. At the top, he had Scar trapped, but he tried to come up with some petty excuses and then tried to get away.

With a flick of his paw, Scar flung some hot embers from the fire at Simba’s face. Clawing at his eyes, he was unable to block Scar’s first attempt but retaliated as soon as possible. After a fierce and short battle, Scar lunged at him and using a trick he learned from Nala, Simba threw him over the edge.

Getting up, he looked down quickly and saw Scar trying to appeal to his hyenas for something. After hearing Scar’s feeble excuse that it was all their fault though, the hyenas had no more reason to stay friends with him so they attacked. Simba looked away. It was a massively bloody scene.

Climbing down, it started raining almost immediately after Scar had died. Within minutes all the fires had died out. In the midst of the pouring rain, he could see that almost all, if not all, of the pride’s lionesses had survived with barely a scratch. It was finally done. Scar was overthrown and he could become king.

He saw Rafiki motioning for him to climb up the incline of the rock jutting out from the middle of priderock. This was the official way that he would be recognized as king. As he reached the top, there was a deep voice from the clouds, “Remember…”

Simba roared. The pridelands would once again be returned to their former state of glory and majesty. A new age had begun.