The sun shone hot above the "Pride Lands". Ahadi ruled with peace and watched his two sons, Mufasa and Scar/Taka playing. Much further north, the hyena clan lay in the sun. They had already eaten and there was enough food in this season, so they lazed around. Shetani, the leader of the pack, sat in front of the suckle cave and talked with her two best friends and companions, Asha and Minowa. Asha had born her cub last season but Shetani and Minowa were pregnant, Shetani with her first child. "What do you wanna call it?" asked Asha, licking her little cub. "I dunno. Any suggestions?" answered Minowa. "Who's the father?" Shetani demanded interested. "Oh, it's my new mate, Banchee." "Sure? Him?" "Hey, what's wrong with him?" "Oh, nothing. It's just because he's not that good looking he thinks." "Hey, don't run away!" Carefully Asha caught her cub and carried it back. "He's always bound to run off, now he's at last able to do it." "What I really want to know, Asha, why did you call him Ed? What does it mean?" Minowa looked bewildered at her friend "I've never heard this name before." "Oh, that's a story. I once was caught by humans when I was pregnant, you know, I disappeared for a few days. Everybody thought I'd isolate from the pack to give birth to my child, but I spent this time in a human's den. I was injured from the hunting we did a few sunsets before. I was so scared, you know all the stories that are told about humans, and everywhere was this terrible noise. Did you know, that humans have no fur? Well, this human came with different shiny things, but I didn't let him come near to me. He was very easy to scare, hehe. After a time he gave up trying to hurt me. He put a weird thing in my proximity, a thing that could contain water. And food he'd let for me there, too. I was so hungry that I ate immediately. After the meal I fell asleep. When I woke up, my wounds were cured, I wasn't bleeding any more. A few days later this human took me back in the savannah. I think his name was Ed, because all other humans that I noticed made a noise that sounded like this, when they looked at him, so I called my little son like this." she licked her cub, who squeaked satisfied and then rolled up to sleep. "I'm looking forward with joy the moment you will give birth to your children! Then my little Eddy finally has someone to play with." "Yes, loosing all the cubs, and so his brother, in the big fire last season was a really hard bit. I hope this one will be better." Shetani said hopefully. 
They chatted along, the sun set and the night got down to the land. Bright stars sparkled in the dark sky like little splits of diamonds.
This night, the time had come for Shetani to give birth to her child. Everybody was up, and waited with excitement. After minutes, that seemed to be hours, Shetani came up the birth-cave, viewable weak of the strenuous birth, proudly carrying her cub to introduce it to all the members of her clan as her child, her successor. "It's a girl!" she cried happily. "She'll carry on in my place when I'm gone, oh, I'm so lucky!" At last she came to her two companions. "Isn't she cute?" Shetani asked exhausted. "Oh yes! I wish I'm getting a daughter this time." Minowa said "I've only boys and want to have at least one girl." "What's her name?" Asha spotted her leader's cub carefully. "Oh... I didn't think about it yet. I liked * for a son, but for a girl...Let me have a look on you, Dear." The invitation wasn't necessary, the little cub slept already, overwhelmed by the strenuous "journey". "I think she looks like a Shenzi. Yeah! Shenzi is a lovely name for her!" "Welcome on this world, my little Lady." Asha whispered to the furry, sleeping cub. Shetani began to shout. And she shouted the whole night to let everyone know that she had a successor now, and that her name was Shenzi. 

"So, Shetani has given birth to a daughter last night." Ahadi said. "Yes, Sire." Zazu confirmed. "Well, my congratulations. What about other cubs?" "Oh, lots of. After they loosed nearly all their little-ones in the last rainy season they are more productive than ever." "You told me about it. We had nearly too much wildebeests then. I don't like hyenas, but they are necessary for our Great Circle Of Life. And Shetani rules her pack with justice, I must admit." "Let's hope she'll raise her with the same devotion and love you do with your sons."

The time passed and Shenzi grew from a harmless, mostly sleeping baby into a lively and vivacious cub. Minowa's child had become a male again. First she had been a little disappointed, but now she was very fond with him, like with all her other cubs. He and Ed had become Shenzi's permanent companions. 
Once they played in front of the suckle cave, when a foreign, strange smell found the way into their nostrils.
"What's this weird smell? D'you know, Ed?" Shenzi asked the older cub. Ed shook his head. This was new for him, too. "Do you think we can eat it? Mummy isn't back from hunting yet." Banzi watched the horizon, but he couldn't discern anything. "No, I guess it's something weird. Perhaps a big, dangerous animal with sharp teeth and claws." Shenzi proposed. "Let's go check it out!" Banzi shouted with excitement. "No, we must get nearer to it, so that it doesn't notice us. And that's impossible if you are as noisy as a herd of elephants! Follow me, guys, but be quiet!" The last two words she said with great emphasize. 
Banzi and Ed followed their friend through the high grass of the savannah. "Are we already there?" "Shhhh, Banzai! Don't make a sound, that could reveal us!" Ed sat down and observed something further away. "What are you looking at?" Shenzi whispered in his direction. Ed pointed on two guys who were arguing about something. "O.K., let's have a look on these strangers, perhaps we can hunt them." Shenzi said with glare of enthusiasm in her eyes.They crept towards the unknown...

"What's so cool now, Mufasa? Why did you want to go here?" Shenzi was near enough now to listen the two animals. "You'll see, you'll see. It's really cool!" "You don't mean the caves of the hyena clan, do you?" "Yeah, let's go check them out! I've always wondered how they look if you're close to them. What do you think is in them?" "You're so childish, Mufasa. Everybody KNOWS what's in a hyena's den." "But I want to see it with my very own eyes. Do you come or what?" "No, that's not cool, that's only stupid!" "Oh, are you scared, Taka? I didn't expect you being so cowardly." Mufasa said in a mocking tone. "O.K., I follow you, but I still think it's a stupid action." The two cubs went on, in the direction of the hyenas' caves. "We gotta do something! They're goin' to attack our home!" Shenzi said to the boys. "But what shall we do? They're much bigger and stronger than we are. And anyway, what should they do to us? They think we're cool." Banzai put proud emphasize on the last word. "However, we go now and corner them. We outnumber them!" "Why it's always you, who makes the decisions? I wanna do that either!" "You can't be the leader, Banzai!" "Why not? What's there to be said against it?" "You're a male. Males can't be leaders. Anyway, I'm the cleverest of us!" "That's unfair! I wanna be the leader, too!" Suddenly Shenzi remembered something. "Follow me or not, I go now! Come on, Ed. Banzai, you can be your own leader!" She walked off without even glaring at him. The two lions were very near the caves now. "Hey!" Shenzi shouted "That's our cave! Go and look for one yourself!" Ed nodded in agreement. The darker one looked at her, viewable amused. "Oh no, Mufasa, we shouldn't have gone here, this caves are protected by this enormous and incredible dangerous guardian." Taka's voice dripped of sarcasm. He grinned mischievous and with a slight blow of his paw he pulled the little hyena off her feet. "Don't do that again!" little Shenzi growled. Banzi arrived. "Shenzi, it's no fun to be one's own leader. May I join you?" "Look" Shenzi grinned "We outnumber you, so you better give up at once!" Mufasa and Taka began to laugh. "You want us to give up? That's a good one! Taka, you were right when you said hyenas are good jokers, hahahaha!" Haven't you noticed that even my little brother's able to pull you off your paws?" Taka gave Shenzi another push that she landed on her tail once again. Suddenly the pure strength of Asha's paw hit Taka's face so strong he got hurled in the direction his brother stood. "What do you want here, lion scum?!" Asha shouted at them. "We just wanted to have a look at..." "At what?!" "At your...caves." Mufasa thought about whether it was a good idea to tell this furious hyena the truth, when he heard Taka groaning "What happened? Are you hurt?" Mufasa was very frightened when he saw the blood running down Taka's nose. "What have you done, you stupid hyena! You hurt my brother, you'll regret that!" At first the young lion wanted to jump on the hyena, but the next second he decided against it and went as quick as he could away with his brother. "What was that?" Shenzi asked "They are very strong. What kind is this? I've never seen it before, aunt Asha." "You are right, Shenzi, you haven't seen these animals before. They are our natural enemies, but we try to live in peace together." "Why that? What's the name of them?" Banzi entered the conversation. "Well, they are called lions, but the special ones you saw are the two princes of the Pride Lands, Mufasa and Taka. I'm afraid I'm getting in trouble because I hurt the king's children." Asha's face became worried. "But he pushed Shenzi, I've seen it!" "Yes, but he is the KING. Well, perhaps he has mercy because he himself knows how to protect one's cubs." She sighed. "Never mind, dears, go and play now." Shenzi thought a long while about the two strangers, she couldn't stop it. "What did your Mom say? They're our enemies, but kings? What's so important about kings?" Eddy nodded only. "Hey, why couldn't we all be pals? Wouldn't that be easier?" Banzi thought aloud. "Don't be a fool, Banzai, they were very mean when they came here, I hate them!" "Yeah, because he pushed you and you couldn't match him." Banzi grinned. Shenzi looked at him, anger grew in her. "So, but you could, eh? You are strong enough, tough Banzai, protector of the weak?" "Hey, I didn't mean it that way, o.k.? My, are you sensitive." "Do you think? Take this!" Shenzi attacked Banzi playful, they struggled a moment, then Shenzi pinned him on the ground. She grinned. "Who's the best?" she asked with a triumphant face. "You." answered Banzi remorseful. "What do we play now?" "Hm, why don't we play 'lions'?" Shenzi proposed. "That's great!" Banzi shouted "And I'm Taka who pushes you off, o.k.?" Shenzi sighed.

"Dad! Dad!" Mufasa cried aloud for his father. "Zazu, where's Dad? Taka is heavily injured!" "Oh, Master, he's just in his cave, what happened?" "Dad, Dad!" "Muffy, what has happened? Why do you shout like this?" "Taka is hurt!" the young lion only could say. "What? Taka, come here, let me see!" Taka walked over to his father in silence. "Your eye! That will become a scar. Poor Taka, who has done this? Tell me!" "It was a hyena!" Mufasa said "She wanted to hurt us!" "A hyena? I had a treat with their leader to live together in peace. She broke her word." "I don't know whether it was the leader." said Mufasa. "Yes, sure. But as king or leader you've got a great responsibility, you have got to see that nobody of your pride or clan breaks the rules. You have got to learn a lot before you are a good king, my little son." Ahadi smiled at his sons, then his expressions went angry. "I will handle this now, you both stay here." he licked Taka consoling, then he ran out, followed by Zazu. 

Ahadi met Shetani when she had just returned from hunting. "Mummy, I'm hungry, can't I eat at first?" Shenzi looked begging at her mother. "No, Dear, this is important." Shetani answered softly. Then her voice went unfriendly "What do you want, lion?" "One of my cubs got hurt by one of your useless companions! I can't tolerate this!" "So? What has happened? I expect your stupid sons just were uncareful and fell off a log and now they want to blame the likes of me for it, that would suit you lions!" "Wait, Shetani! It's true! I slapped one of his sons, the darker one." Shetani's face, which has been angry since now broke off for seconds, then went so surprised, that Ahadi nearly had to laugh. "What? Why that?" "They went here and wanted to see our caves. I saw them fighting with our cubs, so I intervened. I thought they were hurting my baby!" "See, Ahadi!" Shetani looked disgusting at the king. "YOUR sons were hurting our children, she was only protecting them! So go and teach them not to go around and pester other's little ones!" "MY cub's heavily injured because of your clan! I don't see any of yours that has ANYTHING!" "Well, just because Asha came timely to prevent it!" "Who's that, Mummy?" Banzi asked. "Hush, Banzi, not now. Go in the cave, and you too, Ed and Shenzi!" The children obeyed grumbling. "So, my king, what should we have done? Let your youngsters kill our offspring?" "Who said they wanted to kill them?! You make it all much too dramatic! I see only one way, your crazy companion gets banished, or your whole clan leaves the Pride Lands! That's my last word, Shetani, decide sensible!" The both adults were furious now and looked as if they wanted to fall upon each other every second. "Let it go, Shetani, I'll leave the Pride Lands. It is alright. Just stay here with the others and..." "NEVER! I'll never let you leave me! Don't you remember what we once swore? Where you go is where I will go. So, I choose the ban!" "Are you nuts?! Where shall we go?!" Asha went nearly mad "What are you doing?!" "Oh, I know a very pleasant place for you." Ahadi said cynically "You know the elephant's graveyard?" "Oh, no! We will all starve! Please, Shetani, reconsider!" Asha looked begging at her friend "No, I'll never let a friend of mine down! And this graveyard is very close to the Pride Lands, perhaps we will once agree again." 

"Where do we go, Mom? Why do we leave our home?" Shenzi looked questioning at her mother, who had carried her towards the northern borders of the Pride Lands and now took a rest. "Because of the thing with the lions. The father of them got very angry that Asha hurt one of them, so he exiled us!" "But Taka pushed me. I don't like him!" "I don't like lions either, my dear, but that's over now, we've got our own territory." "Cool! Where is it?" "We are going there just right now. We will arrive in the evening." Shetani grabbed her daughter again and went off. Shenzi was sad that they had got to leave the Pride Lands. She had always loved to play with her friends in the high grass, observing the different kinds of herbivores and pretending a hunt. But perhaps the new place wasn't that bad, too.
They reached the graveyard when the sun set. Very few hyenas had ever been there, it was just a place for, well, elephants. Dying elephants. The first thing Shenzi noticed was an enormous skull that lay in front of them, and behind it thousands of single bones and skeletons. "My, that's a really cool place!" she shouted. "Hey, boys! Let's go check it out!" "No way, dear, you stay here with all the other cubs too. * will protect and watch you. It's too dangerous for young cubs like you to check out a strange place like this! Obey me, Shenzi!" Shetani caught her look and stared into her eyes. "Promise, Shenzi!" Shenzi tried to loose sight of her mother, lowering her head. "Promise!" "O.K., o.k., promise!" Shenzi answered. "But what's so dangerous, he? What could happen?" "I don't want to debate with you, Shenzi, just stay here!" "Same for you, Eddy." said Asha and sat down beside Shetani. "Haha, I'm the only one who's allowed to go, hehe!" Banzi grinned at his two friends, not knowing his mother stood just behind him. "Mummy didn't remember to forbid it, and everything not forbidden is allowed! Hahaha!" "Oh, Sweetie, by the way, you're not allowed to check out our new home all alone, sorry." Minowa licked him and smiled. "That's not fair!" "I know, I know, but that's the way it is. Just be good and do as you're told." "Yes, Mummy." Banzi lowered his head."Please, cubs, obey our orders!" Shetani impressed up on the three. "Yes, yes." Shenzi grumbled. "Come on, folks, this way!" Shetani called all her clan together. Then they went of, quick and soundless. 

"Man, I HATE that!" Shenzi shouted angrily "Always the adults get the fun and we get the boredom! Let's go!" "But...our mothers said that..." "You know what, Banzai? I don't give a shit about what our mothers said! Do you come or what?!" "Of course, of course. I just wanted to say, er, perhaps they are still close. We better go the other direction the went to." "Hm..." Shenzi thought a moment. "What do you think, Ed?" Ed laughed only, a bit hysterical. "O.K., then we go now, you're right, Banzai, we go this way." 
The trio left the group, penetrating deeper and deeper into the elephant's graveyard. Shenzi felt so grown up and cool. She had made this decision of her own, without listening to anybody. She smiled. "It looks very creepy." Banzi whispered. "Especially the fog." Shenzi said nothing but she was a bit scared, too, when she looked around the foreign place properly. Suddenly something jumped out of the mountains of bones and pinned Shenzi on the ground. She screamed fearful, trying wildly to get rid of whatever had attacked her. 
Suddenly she heard a familiar laughter. She looked harder on her rival and recognized...Ed. His face was masked with a skull, which gave him a scary and frightening look. Banzi, who got the situation now, began to laugh, louder and louder, he fell over, rolled over the ground and couldn't stop. Ed joined in. "Will you shut up?!" Shenzi shouted "Oh, boys! They're so underdeveloped!" She freed herself and watched the laughing males. "Yeah, you scared me! What's so funny about that?" "It hehehe, was ju-hust the way you-hou looked alike, hahaha! You must had seen your own face!" Banzi giggled. Shenzi wanted to reply something, but suddenly the earth vibrated. They heard something hollow and heavy coming directly towards them. "Wh-what's that?!" Banzi looked very scared at Ed. "Come on, tell us!" Shenzi and Banzai expected Ed to know everything, finally he was the oldest. "Ed?" Ed shook his head and hid himself under an elephant's chest. The sound came closer and closer. "I want my Mummy coming here!" Banzi cried. "That was the stupidest idea you ever had, Shenzi! Checking out this stupid place all alone!" "Oh, shut up, Banzai, I didn't force you to come with me!" In this moment a giant shadow darkened them. Slowly they turned their heads over their shoulders. An enormous elephant stood just behind them. He was very annoyed about the presence of the cubs, snorting and raging he spotted them. "I thought this is an elephant's GRAVEYARD. Aren't graveyards supposed to be a place for DEAD animals?" Banzi asked. "Good, then tell it to him." The elephant swung his trunk and trumpeted angrily. Then he kicked and stamped after the three young hyenas. He wasn't very strong any more, after all he had come there to die, but he was still big and heavy and much stronger than Shenzi, Ed and Banzi. One of his eyes was missing, so he couldn't really see, what was around him, he just tried to crush everything that moved. The body of the dying elephant was strewn with ugly scars and wounds, telling from violent fights. Shenzi could smell the fear of the animal. Suddenly, the giant foot of the elephant landed with a cracking sound just a few inches next to her. Just in this moment Minowa and Shetani appeared on the scene. They got the situation immediatly and ran to the wild elephant, attacking him. Shenzi watched her and Banzai's mother fighting the elephant scared. She would never forgive herself when anything happened to her mom. But Asha had arrived and grabbed the cubs one at a time to save them. "No, I wanna rescue Mom!" Shenzi cried. "Me too!" Banzi said. "No, you come with me!" with this words Asha grabbed him and went off. The elephant wasn't very strong any more, but still big and heavy. Shetani and Minowa were experienced hunters, but normally their prey weren't elephants. Other hyenas came and helped the two mothers. "Shenzi, come on!" Asha pushed her look away from the fight and took her home. "Wait here, cubs. And this time OBEY, please." she disappeared in the night. "Damn! This time we've really messed about." Shenzi watched her paws, didn't dare to look at any of the other cubs. "Where have you been?" one of them asked. "Nowhere." "But why weren't you here?" "Please, shut up!" Shenzi didn't know who was talking to her and she didn't want to know. She only wanted to sit in a corner and be sad or regret her actions. "Shenzi." "Yes?" "Do you think our mothers will die?" Banzi's voice was very quiet and serious now. "No, never! Don't say that, Banzai! Don't say that!" she cried, tears ran down her face. "D'you know, that if they die we've killed our own parents?" "Have we? I thought the elephant would kill them." "Indirect, blockhead!" Banzi swallowed. Shenzi lay down, the tears still running, but she tried to hold back the sobs. 
Some time, in the middle of the night, she heard the sound of claws on the ground. Quickly she ran to the entry of the provisional cave. Minowa entered, badly injured, Asha and a few other mothers followed. Last Shetani came in, blood ran from her right front leg and the back was torn up, too. She gave Shenzi an angry look, then lay down and closed her eyes. "Mom I..." "I don't want to hear it, Shenzi. Go sleeping." Shetani's voice was hard and unfriendly. Shenzi did as she was told, hoping of a better tomorrow.

Early in the morning the cub woke up, she was hungry and searched for the udder. Shetani let her drink, but after that she said "Shenzi, I gotta have a word with you!" her daughter nodded. They went out the cave, and Shetani led her to a cave, which was very big and natural made out of stone. There was geysir activity in it, so Shenzi jerked scared, when one of them blew its steam up into the air. "What you did yesterday was very, very bad, Shenzi." "I was so afraid..." "Listen to me, Shenzi, this is important!" "Yeah, yeah." "Some time, you will be the one who makes the decisions and gives the orders, but you have got to obey at first, do you understand?" "Why that? When I will rule one day, why shall I learn to obey?" "Because you have got to know how your people feel, and because I want you to see the day you're old enough to do that. Shenzi, do you think I make my orders up to anger you? I order you things because I love you, I don't want you to be killed. You betrayed my trust yesterday, so I think I need a baby-sitter for you three." "Oh, Mom, not a baby-sitter, I thought we were out of that age!" "You showed me perfectly that you're not." "So who?" "I thought of your cousin, Andra. She's old enough to look after you and she's too young to come with us adults, she'll be perfect." "Awww." "Don't complain, Shenzi. It's your own fault. Let's go back. We will move to this cave." "Great." Shenzi said, with not one bit of expression. 

When they reached the camp again, she jumped immediatly to Banzi and Ed. "Hey, guess what?" "It will snow?" "Idiot, no! We're getting a baby-sitter!" "Oh, I know. Why are you so annoyed about that?" "A BABY-SITTER, Banzai! We are nearly adult, and they want to give us a BABY-SITTER!" "We aren't nearly adult, Shenzi. We drink milk, we don't even got spotts." "But we don't NEED a baby-sitter! Don't you understand, it's a...a...a humiliation!" "Calm down, what's so bad about it? Andra will be our baby-sitter." "Yeah, and that makes it worse!" "Don't you like her?" asked Banzai in a teasing tone. He knew that Shenzi was quick to anger with her cousin. Shenzi snorted. "Oh, Banzai, you're mean!" "But Shenzi. You are related! You HAVE to like her." "Do YOU like your brothers?" Banzi thought a while. Most of his brothers were adult and didn't care much about him. Except of his adolescending, next youngest brother, who was called "Brave". He taunched Banzai all the time. Banzi personally thought, that Brave was anything but brave. "No." he admitted. "See? The problem is, your friends you can choose, your relatives not." Shenzi made a so sour face, that Banzi almost had to laugh. "Ed and me like Andra." "Of course you like her! You are MALE!" "Not what YOU think!" Banzi said hastily "I'm too young for things like that. But she's nice and pretty, no?" He looked at Ed, who nodded in agreement. "It runs in the family." he added qickly. "Fine! But I don't!" Shenzi sulked, ignoring anything other. She didn't really hate Andra, it was just that whenever she arrived somewhere, she cought immediatly everybody's attention. She was kind of everybody's darling. And THAT was it, what Shenzi hated. She sighed, calming down a bit. "Sorry, guys, but...you know." Both of them nodded. 
"Hiya, cubbies!" Andra's voice teared up the silence. She had a high, soft voice. "Hello, Ed." she added, spotting him with a look, which didn't please Shenzi. "Stop that, Andra!" she shouted. Andra turned her view on Shenzi "WHAT did you say, cubbie? I thought I'd heard an order from you...no, I have to clean my ears, 'cause who is the baby-sitter again? Oh, yeah, it's me." Andra smiled and sat down. "So, cubbies, what do you wanna do now?" "Oh, please, may we go for a walk here around?" Banzi asked exitedly. "No, dear, we've got to stay here. With all the other cubs." "But...Shenzi isn't any cub. She's the leader's cub." Banzi pointed out. "That's right. But she's got to learn a lot. Responsebility par example." she said, with a glance on Shenzi. Shenzi didn't react, just gave Andra a devastating look. Andra smiled. "So, cubbies, do you have another wish what to do?" "What about tearing up your throat?" Shenzi whispered. "I heard you, Shenzi! Didn't Aunty tell you not to bother persons older than you?" "No." "Who wants to play pounce-the-stone?" Banzi tried to change the subject. Ed laughed enthusiastic and clapped his paws. "What's that for a game?" Andra asked. "I never played kind of that." "See, there are lying lots of little pebbles and stones around. One of us is the pouncer, the others sit there and kick the pebbles around. The pouncer has to get them all." explained Banzi. Andra nodded. "Okay, let's try." "I don't want." Shenzi sulked and layed down, watching the others. "You will not get more attention when you do this, Shenzi. But if you want to bore yourself - here you are." Andra turned her back on her little cousin and started playing with the others.

Hours later Shenzi still lay in the same position as she'd been before. "Oh, you are so cute." Andra nuzzeled the two cubs. "When I'm big I gonna have lots of little cubs." she smiled. "Have you already a daddy in mind?" Shenzi was interested now, she didn't know what Andra's plans for the future were. "Oh, Shenzi, come here. Have you really stayed on your place all the time?" Andra kissed the cub. She loved her little cousin, but sometimes she couldn't resist to tease her. "Yes." Shenzi answered. "You really missed something, Shenzi. Andra showed us parts of the graveyard. Harmless parts, but sooooo cool. Did you know there is a cave, when you bark into it, the sound is hearable TWICE. And there are LOTS of bones around, not only from elephants, and Andra showed us how to hunt mice and rats." Banzi smiled happily. "Nice that it pleased you." Andra sat down, a little exhausted. "No, Shenzi, I don't have a father in mind. But why? It doesn't matter who it is, they don't help raising the cubs anyway." "But...don't you wanna love him?" Banzi asked, surprised. "And what are fathers for, when they don't help?" "Er...you better ask your mother this. Yes, love is an important matter, that's right." She had a close look on Ed "What do you think?" she asked him. Ed tilted his head, his tongue rolled out of his mouth, he thought and thought. Suddenly he bursted out in a hysterical laugh, nodding rhythmically. "He hasn't thought about such a thing yet." Banzi explained. "Ah..." Andra was a little bewildered by Ed's behavior. "However, I will have a loving mate, lots of little cubs and a nice clean den to sleep in. And a high status and remarkable hunting skills." "How do you know?" Shenzi asked. "I don't KNOW, Shenzi, I WISH it becoming that way." "Ah..." Shenzi nodded. Minowa arrived "Hi! I'm back now. Where's Banzi?" "Here, just beside me." Andra grabbed him and placed him in front of Minowa's paws. "Thanks for watching, Andra. Asha took a little snack for you with her." "Oh, that's good." Andra smiled. She suddenly felt, how hungry she was. "C'mon, Eddy, Shenzi, we go searching your mothers." She stood up and lifted Shenzi. Ed followed her on paw. 
They met Asha a few minutes later. She carried a big hunk of meat. "That's for you and your mother, Andra." she explained, after she had took it off. "Wow, so much?" Asha nodded. "It's hard work to guard a cub, I know that pretty well, Eddy isn't my first." She walked past Andra and took Ed with her. "Andra...?" Shenzi said. "Yes?" "Er...may I try the meat? I'd like to know how it tastes..." Andra grinned. "No, Shenzi, sorry, but you're too young for eating meat. Your teeth are still not strong enough." she opened her mouth and took a huge bite of the prey. Shenzi watched her with envy. "Unfair." she mumbled. "Hey, Dear." "Mommy!" Shenzi ran quickly to her mother, kissing her wildly. Shetani layed smiled at her and laid down to let her daughter drink.
"Where's the meat from?" Andra asked "You didn't go for a hunt, did you?" "No," Shetani answered "It's from this old elephant. And we found another carrion, not far away." Andra smiled. "So things don't seem to be too bad after all, eh?" Shetani nodded "Let's hope so."

But things changed - the two elephant's were eaten up soon. And now there wasn't any prey in proximity. The hyenas suffered, and the trio learned for the first time of their life, what hunger was.
"Mom please! Only one gulp." Shenzi looked pleading up to her mother. "No, Shenzi. I'm hungry enough myself. I don't have any milk." Shenzi looked on the ground. "But I'm starving!" "I know, Dear, and I'm sorry, but I can't change it." Shenzi pouted and went off. She had grown a little and knew the graveyard better now. She wasn't frightened by the geysers or the spooky fog any more. But there were still places she didn't know, she wasn't allowed to go on her own yet. "Hey, Ed! Where's Banzai?" she greeted Ed by rubbing her head on his'. Ed pointed to the suckle cave. "Are you as hungry as me?" Ed nodded, whining quietly.

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