The Lion King 3: Scar’s
Revenge
By Matthew Sorenson
Disclaimer
This work is based on Walt Disney’s film “The Lion King”, so,
elements and characters taken from this movie are property of Walt Disney. This fanfiction is best read with Wordpad,
as it is in .doc format.
The first part of this is being pretty
much copied from Rocio Orozco’s. I’ve
gotten to know her via e-mail, and she's a cool person. Read her “Broken Legacy” sometime.
Obviously, I am a Scar fan. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be writing this. I have a site in Michael Ponce’s link page,
and I can never fully repay him for including it. I became a fan of Scar as soon as “The Lion King” was released,
and I mastered my Jeremy Irons impression (I love “The Lion King”, not only for
Scar, but also for Rafiki’s crazy wit).
However, over time my interest waned until I had forgotten our leonine
hero.
Then after a trip to Disney World in
late 1998, I discovered I had gone Scar-mad.
I had searched for stuff in the Disney stores frantically, been angry to
the point of cursing upon seeing Scar vanquished in “Fantasmic!” and was
thrilled to own the “Scheming Scar” lithograph, which no Scar fan should be
without. My interest has increased, so
that he is not only my favorite Disney character (beating out Donald Duck), but
also he is my 2nd favorite film character, after James Bond. I now have figures in my room, a lithograph,
a small statue, more jpg’s and wav’s on my PC than you can imagine, a web site,
and a Simba plush doll bound and blindfolded to the post of my bed. I plan to hold him for ransom until somebody
gets me the Scar plush. Dang. This is going on way too long.
Anyway, this is my story of what
happened after the first film. Many
people don’t know that the hyenas merely ravaged Scar, then brought him to the
graveyard to finish him off, to avoid further confrontation with Simba. This story is more violent than Rocio’s
prequel. The difference between my
story and hers is the same as the difference between “Braveheart” and “Forrest
Gump.” Hers is a drama, while mine is
more of a suspense-thriller. To learn
more about the violence, look at the warning a couple of paragraphs down. Some of you may not like this story due to
the violence, but I had to bring Scar back from the dead somehow. I could have just had him survive and lead a
normal life with his sister and nephew, but I think that there is a price to be
paid. This gets pretty psychological at
times, and it may be a bit freaky. It
includes scenes from the first and the second film.
If you have seen both movies, all of
the characters will be familiar to you, with five exceptions. Four of those are from Rocio’s story,
including Thembi, Scar’s father. Ujono is a character of my own making (thus I
have the copyright), and I think I have subconsciously modeled him after
me. He contains all the qualities I
would want if I were a lion, save a goatee like Scar’s. Anyone who wants to use Ujono in one of
their fanfics must first ask me. After
all, he is mine, isn’t he? One liberty
I am taking is allowing Scar’s real name to be Taka (which I believe it to be,
even if Michael doesn’t). Also, it is a much-debated question as to the father
of Nala. Is it Scar? In my story, it is so as to make the story
(say it with me) FLOW well.
Altogether there are four chapters in the Lion King III saga.
One final thing: I must warn you
this is not a G-rated piece of work. It
contains certain aspects that might not be good for all audiences. It is basically the same reason that Scar II’s
Journal of Scar is so high rated, but with two differences: much less graphic sex, much more graphic
violence. This work contains graphic violence galore, so if you are
not a fan of that sort of thing, stop reading NOW. There are many deaths and some of them are rather grisly. That is why I cannot attempt to ask Disney
to make this into a film. It would have
to be rated R at least. It also contains
a few swear words, but it is not that
bad, because the words themselves are not on a very high level of
vulgarity. The original idea for the
story did not include any sexual references, but as time went on and I used the
Scar-the-father-of-Nala bit, it took a turn for the mature. Sarafina and Scar’s conversations get rather
risqué at times, and there is a scene after their conversation that is
basically the reason that this can’t be a Disney film. So, my story includes some sexual references, suggestive language, and a few roundabout
references to sex scenes. Also, realize that there is constant nudity, because lions have a
tendency not to wear clothes. Well,
that takes care of everything. I’m
sorry you had to read that.
My work is
dedicated to the classes of 1999 & 2000 at the South Carolina Governor’s
School of Science and Mathematics for being the first people to put up with my
Scarmania. Especially thanks to James
Donaldson, who, whether he thought I was serious or not, listened to my unusual
plight and didn’t have me committed.
Thanks.
This work is
also done in memory of the late Dr. Ronald Johnson, my cat Bogart, and both of
my grandmothers. May their souls rest
in peace.
Now, to quote
Jonathan Pryce: “Let the mayhem begin!”
End Disclaimer
The Lion King 3: Scar’s Revenge
By Matthew Sorenson
It was a time of reckoning. The pridelands resembled a proverbial
hell. Lightning had produced flames
that were all too eager to engulf the already parched grasses of the
plains. It was a time of political
turmoil. A battle on the north side of
Pride Rock was coming to an end. The
hyenas and the lionesses had been engaged in fierce battle, but now an end
seemed near. The lionesses were
winning.
On the opposite of the landmark,
however, the story was different. The
final confrontation had just begun. Two
male lions, an uncle and a nephew, were on the ledge of the rock. The uncle was much older, emaciated, and
normally had a look of great intelligence.
However, now his orange fur was splotched with his and his nephew's
blood, his normally well kept black mane was tangled beyond comprehension, and
his usually distinguished green eyes were glazed with pure terror. The nephew, being the stronger of the two,
had cornered his uncle. The elder
pleaded for mercy, and in doing so also accused the hyenas of being the true
enemy. The three most important hyenas in
the clan overheard this, and welcomed the curse with sneers. The nephew agreed to grant mercy on one
condition:
“Run. Run away, Scar…and never return.”
The former king’s words came back to
haunt him. He remembered when he had
said that to Simba, when he had had the upper hand. Now everything had been inverted. His biggest mistake was his near-silent confession on the
cliff. He should have let Simba go to
his grave not knowing the truth. Let Simba
die believing that he was responsible for his father’s death, instead of
himself, who had been glad he did it from the day of the deed.
“Y-yes,” Scar said, starting to
leave both his home and his throne. “Of
course.” Then he realized what he was
leaving behind. He knew he couldn’t
live with the shame. “As you wish, your
MAJESTY!!”
At that instant, Scar kicked burning
gravel into his nephew’s face, and while he was temporarily blinded, he
struck. From there a deadly struggle
continued. At first, no one could get a
strike at the other. Then Simba swept
his mighty paw and cuffed Scar hard in the face. Scar responded with claws, drawing blood, and then knocking Simba
to another ledge. As Simba lay prone,
the scarred one leaped, claws outstretched, towards his foe.
The newly discovered king was
ready. When Scar pounced, he flipped
him completely over the cliffside. Scar
tumbled down the rockface and landed in a motionless heap on the rock
floor. Luckily for him, the fall had
been slowed down by his gradual fall.
He regained his composure, knowing he had lost, but also knowing that
his hyena friends would welcome him nonetheless.
Seeing them, he called out in a
rasping voice, “Ahh! My friends!”
However, his heart shrank when he
heard the female leader of the hyenas say “Friend?? I thought he said we were the enemy!”
To this her brother responded “Yeah. That’s what I heard.” Then they both said in unison, “Ed?”,
referring to their youngest brother.
Ed, who usually had nothing more to
say than a stupid laugh, answered with a devilish cackle that froze Scar to the
bone, and helped him realize what a terrible demise he was to have. It had been on the spur of the moment, that
he had accused them. He had been left
without option. However, that one
second had sealed his fate.
“No! Let - let me explain! You
don’t understand!! No! No!!!!”
were the last words that the old lion was able to get out of his mouth
before Shenzi, Banzai, Ed, and every other hyena in his army pounced on him and
began ripping at his flesh.
After he was sure he had won, and with
a little prodding from Rafiki, who was the wise old baboon, Simba perched
himself on the ledge of Pride Rock and let out a triumphant roar. The lionesses joined in right away. The hyenas knew that they dare not stay for
very long, lest Simba destroy them for their associations with Scar. They carried the bloody and maimed carcass
of their former leader back to the elephant graveyard for a meager feast.
Inside the cave at the front of
Pride Rock, a golden lioness with golden eyes had been listening to the
commotion outside in terror. She knew
what was happening, but she couldn't do anything about it. She had to watch her young son, who was very
eager to get out there and help his father.
Nuka was always very impetuous, but he was too young to make a
difference. He kept saying, "Mom,
Dad needs me!" She would console
him and say, "He'll be all right."
However, she knew this was a lie.
He was a strong lion, but he could not possibly hold up against a strong
opponent who was in his prime like Simba.
She knew what Scar’s plan would be:
he would escape the pridelands, and then she and her cubs would be
banished to the Outlands, where Scar would reunite with them. He was intelligent, and good at thinking
things out, but she also knew he would never make it off Pride Rock alive. To make matters worse, Zira was
pregnant. She would give birth in a few
more months. It saddened her to think
that her child would grow up never knowing her father. Then a large form appeared in the entrance to
the lair. The form was incredibly
muscular with golden fur and a brown mane.
It was Simba, who had just taken over the throne. His words were dark and somber, yet
strangely sympathetic. “Zira…your
mate…Scar…is dead.”
Although she had been expecting this
news, the shock of actually hearing it hit her like a lightning bolt. “D-dead?”, she said, choking through
tears. “My beloved is dead…” Then her words turned to pure rage. “You killed him!!”
“I didn’t. The hyenas did. They
betrayed him like he betrayed them and you.”
“Liar!!”, shouted the tear-drenched
lioness.
“Stop this at once,” Simba
commanded. Then he continued with his
statement. “You may stay here with us
on Pride Rock on only one condition…you must forget about him and never speak
of him again.”
“I can only stay if I forget my one
true love?”, Zira asked in an angry tone.
“I won’t! I’d rather slit your
throat, you bastard!” However, she was
too tired and sad to make good on this threat.
The last statement had produced quite an effect on Simba, who now stood
growling in the entrance.
“That does it. You had your chance, Zira and you tossed it
into the dirt. I am your king now, and
I am forced to pass judgment on you. There
is only one way to deal with a traitor like you…” Simba paused as if for effect.
Zira knew that there were two punishments for traitors. The treacherous lion was either banished to
the Outlands (a desolate place where no lions dared live) or they would be put
to death by the claw of the king. Nuka,
who had been listening intently, also looked scared as Simba passed the
sentence.
“EXILE!”
Scar attempted to open his eyes, but
he couldn’t. They seemed to be sealed
shut. Was he dead yet? He assumed so, since there was something
carrying him. Obviously some kind of
supernatural soul deliverer, or something like that. That got him to thinking.
“Where is my soul going? Will it
be put in the sky with the great kings of the past?” He was a king, but he wasn’t sure as to what great is defined
as. “It means so many things. It could mean strong, smart, courageous, or
(gods-help-me) righteous. Will I be
left to float around with the common lions in wherever they go?” He had never truly figured out exactly where
the ordinary lions and other animals were supposed to go. It was always “the kings go here” without “the
mouse you just ate goes here.” “Oh,
gods. What if I’m doomed to live in the
underworld? To live in hell!!?? Oh, what will I…”
THUD!
The feeling of himself being dropped
suddenly interrupted the old lion's thoughts.
“Hmm…”, he pondered. “I always
thought that the spirits would be a little bit gentler.” Then he felt the rocky ground beneath
him. He recognized the feel of it. Scar was back in the elephant graveyard! He quickly assessed the situation. He was mauled by the hyenas but carried off
here to be…finished off. He had to get
away, but how? His eyes wouldn’t even
open. Putting all his strength into one
quick movement, he was able to get both of his eyes open, but he almost vomited
at what he saw. Crimson. Scarlet.
BLOOD.
Simba, Nala, Sarabi (mother of
Simba), and Sarafina all watched from the same part of Pride Rock as the
expecting Zira and her young cub began the long journey to the Outlands, which
was their new “home.” From the first
steps off of lower rocks until they were both out of sight, Zira didn’t look
back once. As she neared the edge of
the pridelands, being still within shouting range, she screamed from the top of
her lungs, “ALL HAIL THE GREATEST KING OF THEM ALL: SCAR!!!” In their anger,
neither Simba nor Nala noticed that Sarafina, the mother of Nala, was
crying. Sarabi brought her to one side
and asked her what was wrong. “He’s
dead, Sarabi. I can’t believe he’s
actually dead.”
Sarabi knew exactly what Sarafina
was talking about and tried to console her.
“You need to try to forget about him.
It was all in the past. I know
it’s hard. Don’t forget that I’m a
widow too. Eventually you will forget
about him, and he hasn’t loved you since he took Zira as his mate.”
“No! I still loved him and him me, and how can I forget him when the
proof of our love walks among us?” she bawled, motioning towards Nala. Then she dried her tears and said with a
determined face, “I’m going to tell her.”
“Sarafina, no!! If you ever tell her, which I advise you to
never do, don’t do it now. It would be
an incredible shock to her to find out that Scar is her father after he has
just been killed.”
Sarafina agreed. “All right, but I have to tell Simba. He must know. Simba?” She called the
king to come to see her for a moment.
Sarabi walked back over and sat beside Nala, while Sarafina and Simba
went into the cave for privacy.
“What is this about, Sara?”
“It’s about your mate, my
daughter. There is a secret that has
been unknown to her but known to everyone else so as to protect her from
it. If everyone else knows it, they
will know not to ever mention it to her.”
Simba was rather confused by all
this talk. He scratched his head and
said, “Let me get this straight. There’s
a secret about Nala that I need to hear, but I shouldn’t tell her.”
Sarafina nodded. “Yes.
Also, this secret may shock you as well.”
“Well, what is it?” The leader of the pride was now more
intrigued then ever.
His mate’s mother leaned in and
whispered into his ear. “Scar is her
father.”
“WHAT??”, roared Simba, in a very
loud voice which, luckily, did not fall on Nala’s ears. Quieting his voice he said again “What did
you say?”
“Scar is Nala’s father. She is the result of our mating.”
“Oh, by the gods…and she doesn’t
know this?”
“No, and I would prefer it stay that
way.”
Simba shook his head in disbelief
and shock. “This will be hard to keep
secret, but I will try.”
“Thank you, Simba. Thank you so much.”
Scar was soaked in blood from his
head to his foot. The sanguine fluid
covered his body in an uncomfortable warmness.
He was hot, sticky, and sweaty.
He could see cuts all over his body.
They could heal, but only if he could survive. Then he saw a couple of hyenas with their backs turned to
him. In the distance, the former king
could hear many others laughing devilishly.
The three hyenas were the trio that he knew all too well: Banzai,
Shenzi, and Ed. Scar knew that his
death would be horrible if he stayed where he was.
He attempted to stand up, but his legs
felt like small saplings that would snap if too much pressure were put on
them. Luckily, his arms felt sturdy,
and so he incited all his strength into them.
He started to drag himself towards the part of the graveyard that was a
boundary of the desert. The ground was
very rough and some of the stones were jagged.
They tore at his flesh making the red trail behind him get larger and
broader. However, Scar didn't
care. He would probably die outside of
the graveyard, but he would definitely die here. He pushed himself on, for what must have
been many miles, until he had completely exited the elephant graveyard, and was
lying in the middle of a dry desert plain.
His belly was now ripped into shreds, and he was still bleeding, a pool
forming around his body.
As the heat finally started to take its
toll, he passed into unconsciousness…
"I think we should just eat
him!"
"No! He was our leader. The
least we can do is show him some respect and give him a proper
burial."
A male spotted hyena was arguing with
two others of his species: a male and a female. He was very angry, and it could be seen in his eyes. "I'm not showing that…traitor any
respect! We deserve a meal after the
hell he put us through! I hope he goes
straight to hell!"
"Shut up!", screamed the
female. Her features were basically the
same as her angry brother's, but more feminine (in a hyena way). Her long ruff of hair hung down in her
face. "I am your leader and I say
he gets a burial!"
"Oh, aren't we all high and
mighty. If you weren't matriarch I
would rip you to shreds. You're too
emotional to be a leader…Let me guess…you had feelings for Scar."
"What? No…I just…"
"I think you had affection for
him…"
Ed, the crazy younger brother started
to laugh crazily at this. Even though
he had a microscopic IQ, he knew what Banzai was getting at.
"Shut up, Banzai!"
Banzai just smiled a wicked grin and
continued with his vile accusation.
"I think you may have enjoyed…a few good times together, eh,
Shenzi? A little bit of a relationship? Did he ever take you…"
Shenzi was scared out of her mind by
these accusations. How could they say
these things? She yelled at the top of
her lungs, "Shut up now!"
Ed immediately shut up and held
completely still. Banzai also silenced
his curse, but chuckled to himself. He
had done what he had set out to do. He
had crushed Shenzi mentally. He would get
what he wanted. He looked over towards
his next meal.
“I don’t know where you get these
ideas…” Shenzi started.
“Shenzi,” interrupted Banzai. “Did we order this meal to go?”
Shenzi froze. She had heard these words before. Nervously she asked, “Why?”
“It’s gone…” Banzai sighed. “Well, looks like you got what you
wanted. But you ain’t gonna have it
long. Let’s get him!!”
The female hyena held him back. “Let him go. He’s as good as dead out there anyway.”
Banzai’s eyes narrowed at this
cliché. “Oh, I’ve never heard THAT
before! Like hell I will! I remember last time!” By this time, Ed was
doing his extremely nervous laugh. He
was scared. “You said that ‘bout Simba
and he came back and kicked our…”
“Think, brother,” said Shenzi. “Two differences. First of all, Simba was a cub.
Lion cubs have way more energy than anything else in the world. You could throw a cub off Pride Rock and it
would still skip back up to the top.
Scar is one of the oldest lions alive.
He would probably die soon, even if we hadn’t cut him up like we did -
which brings up my second point: Simba
was in tip-top condition when we chased him away. Scar isn’t in nearly as good condition. What do you think that huge red streak is, berry juice? Use your brain!”
Ed, of course, was in his usual
completely confused state, but Banzai was nodding in agreement. “Good thinking, sis. Maybe you can be a good leader yet.” He started to walk off to his lair, but
turned around after walking a slight distance.
He looked towards the spot where Scar escaped and said “Damn you, Scar.” He turned back around and finished his walk
to his lair, with Ed tagging along behind.
Shenzi didn’t move. She just kept looking out towards Scar’s
escape route. She hated to admit it,
but Banzai had been so right. She did
care for Scar. They had gone through so
much together. She remembered when her
brothers and her took him in. He needed
a family and some kindness. They needed
a friend and someone to get food for them, now that their mother had been
killed. When they originally met him,
he had been Taka, the mistreated cub.
When he was accepted into the pack, he was Scar, the independent
lion. He became so much a part of the
pack, he was considered to be practically a hyena with a mane. At one point, this similarity to the hyenas
changed Shenzi’s life. Banzai had been
much more correct than he had known. If
she thought she hadn’t loved him, she would hate to think about it. When they were both teenagers, they had been
talking about their needs and wants.
They eventually got into talk on a certain subject and both were
disappointed at their inexperience, and together they solved that problem. She had truly loved him, and at the time, at
least, he had truly loved her. When she
got older she felt a little sorry for that decision, and she knew that Scar did
too. She wondered if that could be what
caused him to turn against her…
“What am I thinking? It’s over, and it’s his fault. I have no reason to be sorry. He betrayed us,” she asserted herself. She tried to turn around to follow her
brothers, but she couldn’t. She felt
frozen in place, as if an unknown presence was compelling her to stay. Also, her face felt strange and moist. Then she realized what was happening…she was
crying. She had never cried for
anybody since her mother died. She had
cared for her mother, so did she also care for him?
This thought, she broke down and
fell to the ground crying the only words on her mind: “Forgive me, Scar!!
Forgive me!!”
He
lay now, half dead, in the middle of the desert. He was unconscious, but his mind was still racing. The deposed king just lay there, floating in
his own fluids of life. While his body
was incapable of movement, Scar’s brain remembered his life, possibly as a
preparation for his next. He remembered
his childhood: how he was isolated from
the pride, and how he got the namesake that now brazened his left eye. The beautiful wildebeest stampede that had
changed his life. The stampede that
stirred his animosity towards his brother, Mufasa, whom sent the fear-crazed
animals charging in his direction. A
fight with his father, the great king Thembi, had sent him running off to the
elephant graveyard to join his friends.
Once he had joined the hyenas, they had
catered to his every need. He silently
chuckled as he remembered how one need arose during his early years…Shenzi had
taken care of that one so perfectly.
Eventually he returned to the Pridelands, where he mated with
Sarafina. Ahh…the golden crafter of
lies. She had managed to completely
destroy him when she would not allow her relationship with him to be
acknowledged. Even worse, the fruit of
their love never knew that he was halfway responsible for her. Poor little naïve Nala. He had hoped that one day he would have been
able to tell her the truth, but now that he was about to die, there was no
truth in sight.
At first because of spite for Sarafina,
Scar became mates with Zira, a rogue lioness with a strange name. However, soon he began to love Zira more
than he had loved anyone else. Zira. Zira.
Zira. The one he would miss more
than anyone. He would never see her
again, either. She was a good and
righteous lioness, while he…was more than likely damned for all time. Their love for each other had been so great,
that it had reaped Nuka ( a strange name indeed), who looked almost exactly
like his father. Scar would never see
his son again, or his beautiful mate’s unborn child. Whether it would be a boy or a girl…he didn’t care; he just
wished they would have the chance to see their dad. Scar’s head was feeling very light, and he knew that death was
near. He started to hear close by, the
footsteps of Death coming towards him…
In the middle of the desert, two golden
forms could be seen, one smaller than the other. The larger one was a lioness, and the smaller one was obviously
her cub. Her cub was a young male lion
who had a tuft of black hair on his head that would, over time, grow into a
mane. The cub was very confused as to
why they were both there.
“Mommy…”, said the cub, “Why did we
have to leave our lair and walk around here?”
“Because Karanga is very sad right now,
little one. She needs some time by
herself. She just found out that the
king died.”
“He died? But how?”
The lioness shook her head and then
looked out into the horizon. “He was
killed by the same hyenas that used to be his minions.”
Now the cub was really confused. “Minions?
What are those?”
As the mother was about to answer, the
cub shouted out “Hey!” and started running away from his mother.
The worried lioness called after her
cub. “Ujono! Where are you going??”
“I see something!” The mother followed her son and eventually,
from a distance, saw him sitting next to what seemed to be the corpse of a
lion.
“Good gods, Ujono! Get away from that!”
“But Mom…he’s still alive!”
“What?” She was absolutely stunned.
Anything that ever wandered into the desert that wasn’t up and walking
was usually buzzard food. She ran over
to the body and got an even bigger shock.
“My word! It’s…”
Ujono finished her phrase. “King Scar!….Cool!…We have a king here!”
The lioness frantically looked around
to see if somebody else was nearby to help.
“He’s more than that, my young cub.
Oh, look at all the blood…”
“What do you mean?”
“I’ll explain later. For now, help me carry him.” The lioness hoisted the bleeding mass onto
her back, while the cub supported his front right paw, and informed her if the
lion started to fall.
“I hope we can help him”, said the
young cub.
Eventually, the trio made it to the
lioness’s lair in the plains.
*The lions of the plains lived in a
virtual limbo compared to the other two respective groups: The Pridelands and
the Outlands. The whole of the
plains-dwellers were ostracized kings, childless lionesses too old to mate, and
the runaways. Scar’s saviors didn’t fit
into any of the categories.*
The cave was one of the best in the entire
kingdom, being spacious even by Prideland standards. It was perfectly situated with a water hole right outside, and a
tree in front that would provide shade to those who wanted to sit outside, but
didn’t want the sun torturing them.
Once the lioness got home with her cub and their new “friend”, she
called out “Karanga!” and laid the lion down on the floor. She had Ujono fetch some water from the
waterhole and once he returned, she splashed it in his face, reviving him.
His eyes opened partially, and he
looked at his female rescuer. “Who are
you?”
“My name is Shada the lioness, good
King Scar.”
“Shada…where have I heard that name
before?”, he said as he started to come to his senses.
“I am your sister.” At this, both Ujono and Scar looked straight
at her with wide eyes. Then Scar
remembered. “Ah, yes. When I returned to the Pridelands, you were
just a cub, and you had a twin sister…umm….”
“Tahali.”, she responded. “Yes, she is my twin. But I don’t know where she lives now. I live here and have a cub of my own, who, I
might add, is responsible for saving your life. Say hello, Ujono.”
“Hello, Unca Scar.”, said the young
lion, who now understood the lineage that was going on.
“Uncle….how wonderful that sounds…I
wish I could have savored that sound from my other nephew…” Then suddenly the sounds of another lioness
interrupted his words.
“What is it?”, cried the voice, which
must have been that of the aforementioned Karanga. “Didn’t I tell you that I’m lamenting over…” Her words stopped abruptly and Scar knew
that she must have seen him. Suddenly
he heard crying. It was not tears of
sadness, but of happiness. Who would be
crying for him like that? His questions
were answered when the lioness came beside Scar so that he could see her. She looked quite old, possibly the oldest
lioness in the kingdom. Karanga was
truly crying and choking out the words “Oh, Taka…oh, I’ve missed you so much….”
Upon hearing his old name, the old lion
was thunderstruck. “Taka? Nobody calls me Taka…no one has ever been
allowed to call me that, except my…”
Then reality struck, and the tears of the lioness were joined by those
of Scar. He smiled and cried tears of
joy. Then he hugged the old
lioness. “….mother. Mother.”
Karanga hugged him back and said
consolingly, “Don’t cry, my son. You’re
home now.”
In a truly surprising short time, Scar
fully recovered from his attack. After
his rescue, he thought he would be covered with thousands of scars, and while
he had been indeed torn to ribbons, only one scar remained to add truth to his
name. That one was a very long gash
down his right hind leg. The only other
physical damage that he maintained was a slight limp in that same leg that didn’t
slow him down very much, but still made it much more comfortable for him to
walk, other than run. He felt that the
lack of permanent damage was a sign that he was supposed to live, and that
maybe this was the life he was supposed to live.
Their lair could also be called his
lair now, and after he had recovered, he got to know his rescuers. His first encounter with Shada during his
life had been when he had returned to Pride Rock and seen her and her twin,
Tahali. Some of his most enjoyable
moments during that time in his life consisted of sitting and talking to both
of them about whatever little adventures they were embarking on. After Scar became king, and once the
Pridelands started to become a wasteland, he had sent the pregnant Shada and
his mother Karanga off into the plains.
He feared for them, because he wasn’t sure of the fate of the land.
Scar felt like Ujono was the gods’
present to him. Ujono had basically
been responsible for finding him. It
gave Scar a great feeling every time Ujono called him “Uncle.” He realized that it was obviously his sacred
duty to be a good uncle…like he should have been. Now he could do it, because he had no reason to be envious of
this child. Him and Ujono became like a
father and a son.
However, while Ujono was responsible
for saving Scar’s body, the deposed ruler would no doubt have died had it not
been for the shock of seeing his mother.
Over time, and with the pressures of royalty, he had forgotten about her
and had assumed that she had died. The
sheer shock of seeing the only creature who had always loved him…the one who
had saved him from the wrath of his angry father on many an occasion…and the
one who had adopted him when his mother died…she saved him. He owed everything to her. After his recovery, Scar was a cub again,
listening to every word his mother said intently, and doing without question.
Scar was truly happy now, and he felt
that the circle of life had been generous to him.
It had been two days since the great
victory, and for some reason, Simba still had to stay up and patrol. “I come back and save the pridelands, and I’m
already on guard duty,” Simba said to himself.
He chuckled at the prospect. The
usual time for patrol was almost over, and Simba decided to get a little bit of
a head start. “A few minutes won’t make
a difference, and besides, I need my rest.” Simba went into his lair and took his place by his mate,
Nala. He looked at her, and thought
about how beautiful she truly was. He
also thought back to the night before his return…would he see the products of
that soon? As the king laid down next
to his mate, the queen, perhaps knowingly, cuddled next to him. He returned the favor, closed his eyes, and
drifted off to sleep…
Simba knew he was dreaming. He was reliving the night of his
victory. The dream started after he had
flung Scar from the cliff, and right now he sat and saw the hyenas attack
him. He relived his climb up Pride
Rock, and everything was as it was then.
Then time skipped to the next
morning, during which he started a new ritual of going to the waterhole in the
morning before everyone else to bathe.
The walk to the waterhole was just as it was the day before, except the
sky was even more beautiful. Simba
realized that this dream would probably be a recreation his day, with all
things better. The water at the hole
was clearer and cleaner then it had ever been before, and as he walked into the
shallow water at the edge of the hole and sat down , he wondered when Nala
would show up and beg for his love.
However, his thoughts were interrupted
when he felt the water start to get suddenly cold. An icy, freezing cold…he had never known such frigidity. He tried to get out of the water and back
onto the bank so he could warm up, but he couldn’t. For some reason, he was stuck.
Then he saw it. A little ring of
water around him had turned to the darkest black, and the black water now held
him down. Suddenly the black liquid
started to crawl up his sides, and it slowly coated his flanks. It slowly climbed up his body, and every
part that the goop covered, that part would be frozen in place. As it reached his neck, Simba flung his head
back in a futile attempt to fling off the “creature.” His head froze in a back position. As the fluid covered his eyes and blocked out his vision, the
king let out a roar for help. This proved
to be a mistake, as the blackness proceeded to enter his open mouth and coat
the insides of his throat. Then it went
down his throat and windpipe, and he could feel the cold coating his insides. He could still hear everything that went on
outside of him, but he could not see or talk.
Suddenly, the icy black liquid stopped
moving. Simba soon began to doubt
whether he could see or not, for in front of him, in otherwise darkness were
two distinct pairs of eyes. Both
obviously belonged to lions. The first
set was unknown to him. They were a
piercing blue, and he could tell that these belonged to a young male lion in
his prime. The eyes reflected hate and
contempt, yet appeared to be wise. As
Simba looked over towards the second pair, he gasped. He knew this pair all too well.
The color of the eyes was green, with yellow pupils, a trait only found
in the royal family. Even there, it was
a rarity. The second to last possessor
of this trait was his grandfather, the great king Thembi. These eyes obviously belonged to the last
owner of this most noble feature, for the left eye was graced by a long, thin
mark. A gash - a cut - a scar.
As soon as he realized this, a sound
broke the silence. Laughter starting
echoing from the same place that the eyes were. The laughter must have belonged to the first lion, for it was
foreign to his ears. It started out as
a small chuckle, then gained speed and pitch, and became a loud cackle. A sound of madness, one can be sure. More laughter came, and it also seemed
unfamiliar to Simba, until he realized that he had never heard his uncle
laugh. When Scar was with him, he had
always been bitter and resentful, never carefree or happy, unless hatching a
diabolical plan. This was certainly the
laughter of the great mad king, for it was a sound of greed, of hatred, and of
evil. As the laughter of his dead uncle
blended with that of the unknown lion, Simba felt the black creature pull him
down to the bottom of the waterhole. He
attempted to scream, but no roar left his lips, and no one could save him as he
was pulled under…
Simba awoke in a bath of his own
sweat. While he gasped for breath, he
looked around at his surroundings. He
was in his own lair, with his sleeping mate by his side. It had just been a nightmare. An awful nightmare. But, what did it mean? Simba thought about this for a little while
as he was trying to get back to sleep, but eventually it left his mind, and he
passed off into a dreamless slumber.
Time did its horrible dance, and things
continued. Scar got more accustomed to
living with this new found family, Ujono grew up a little, Shada continued to
search for mates near the border, and a cub was born to Simba and Nala. On the day of the presentation of young Kiara,
Shada went off with Karanga to go see it, for Ujono had no interest in it, and
Scar could have thought of nothing less enjoyable. Upon asking Scar to baby-sit Ujono, Shada saw a look of anxiety
on Scar’s face. “I can’t do it…I’ve
never taken care of a child by myself…”
“You can handle this, Scar…”
Scar didn’t answer. He just sat there in the lair pouting.
Shada answered impatiently, “Well, come
on! I’m not proposing marriage! I’m asking you to take care of one cub,
spend a few hours watching over him in a perfectly luxurious lair. Now you don’t have to think about that, just
nod.”
Rather taken aback by Shada’s sudden
outburst, Scar could only nod in agreement.
“That’s good. We’ll be back later.”
After the ceremony ended, the two
returned to find Ujono asleep and Scar standing watch in front of the
lair.
“Was he any problem?”
“No problem at all…I never realized
it could be so…fun…to watch a cub.”
“You’ll learn, Scar. You’ll learn.”
At night, near the border of the
plains, a lone scraggly hyena wandered.
She was young, but malnourished.
Her coat, which was once soft and beautiful (by hyena standards) had
become rough and tattered. She was
still strong, and her load was light, as her body had obviously been
starved. She blew the long ruff of hair
out of her face so she could see what was ahead, a lair. Whether it belonged to a meerkat or a lion,
she didn’t care. She would take down
anything that she could get, or die trying.
It would have to be less painful than starving to death. She walked up to the lair and peered
inside. Inside she saw a little lion
cub. “Hello, little morsel,” she
whispered to herself, as she prepared to jump.
Suddenly she heard a loud growl
behind her. Had the cub’s father come
to protect him? A deep, sharp voice
scowled at her. “You picked the wrong
lair to come nosing around, hyena. Get
out of here before I feast on your flesh.”
“I don’t plan to leave, and after I
have killed you, I shall proceed to the child.” She still didn’t look behind her; she had a strategy if he
attacked her first. As she planned her
next move, the lion suddenly softly called her name.
“Shenzi? Is that you?”
“What if it is?” she said, turning
around. As soon as the black mane and
orange pelt fell on her eyes, she screamed in joy. “Scar!”
“It really is you, Shenzi!” And the two embraced as best as two of their
kind can. “What are you doing here,
Shenzi, and what happened to you?” said Scar as he looked at the emaciated body
of his hyena friend.
“Shouldn’t I be asking you
that? You’re dead!”
He grinned, “I got lucky.”
“I’ll say you did, not a scar on
you.”
“Well, actually there’s one on my
leg…but, other than that, I’m pretty much back to my usual charming self.”
She laughed. “So, not only did you survive, but you got
out here and obviously mated…”
Scar sighed. “No, that’s not my son. That’s my nephew. The GOOD nephew. But you
still haven’t answered my question.”
Shenzi looked upon her former leader
with sadness in her eyes. “The pack is
moving on. You were our ticket to food
for so many years, that many of us don’t know how to hunt. We have to leave. I was just out trying to rustle up a little bit of nourishment
for me and the pack. The pressures of
politics…”
“How are the boys?”
“They’re OK. The pack is really split up about your
death. A few still despise you, some
think it was terrible what we did, and most don’t give a care either way. As for my brothers, Banzai is still
convinced that you were the most treacherous thing ever to step into the
elephant graveyard. I think he really is
sorry he did it, though.”
“And Ed?”
The hyena looked to the side and
then sighed. “Poor Ed…he never was
really stable, and your death didn’t help.
He still wanders the graveyard most of the day, expecting to find
you. We’ve tried to tell him, but he
just doesn’t understand. He’s also been
sick lately, and frankly it’s the worst I’ve ever seen him. I don’t think he’s gonna live to the move.” The two sat down outside the lair.
“What is going on out here?”,
exclaimed Karanga as she walked out of the lair. Upon seeing the hyena, Karanga gasped and froze in her
tracks. “Taka, there’s a hyena here.”
“Yeah, mom. Mom, this is Shenzi.” He motioned towards his childhood
friend. “She was one of my hyena
friends when I was a cub.” Shenzi
nodded towards the mother of two kings.
Upon hearing this, Karanga’s
thoughts went back to Taka’s childhood.
She nodded back at Shenzi, saying afterwards: “I’d like to thank you,
Shenzi.”
“What for?”
“For being a friend to my son when
he needed it the most. Although…I’m not
sure if you needed to be THAT good of a friend…” Karanga grinned at the two, and then went back into her
lair. The lion and hyena stared puzzled
at each other…How did she know?
Then the hyena stood up to
leave. “Well,” she said, “I’d better
get back. Good luck on your new life.”
“Shenzi, wouldn’t you like some
food? We have some left over from
dinner.”
“Oh, would you? That would be so helpful!”
“Anything for a friend.”
So Scar gave Shenzi a going-away
present of a half-eaten antelope, said good-bye, and watched her leave, never
to be seen by anyone in that region ever again. After he saw her disappear over to the horizon, Scar went into
the lair and went to sleep.
As Scar’s dreams were filled with
his memories with Shenzi, Karanga passed away quietly in the middle of the
night.
When the sun was in the highest
point in the sky, the usually cheerful lair was one of sadness. Laughter had been replaced by sobbing. Shada sat by the dead body of her mother and
cried, while Ujono just stood by her in a state of shock. He felt like he had no emotions…his
grandmother was dead, and he had loved her, so why didn’t he cry? The only thing he felt was a weird
feeling. The feeling that someone who
had been around all his life would never be seen again.
Scar, however, was not in nearly as
good of a condition. He was weeping
uncontrollably, his arms around his mother and his head laid on top of her
stomach, as tears poured down his face.
He realized why she had died.
She had not been sick, but she had been without a doubt the oldest
lioness in the savanna. At least it had
been peaceful, but that was not the problem.
While he did understand why she died, he could not condone it. This was the greatest lioness ever to be
born. She was the first creature to
ever show him love, and (of course) she was his mother.
*Communication was not a priority in
the kingdom. Various regions didn’t
communicate with the others. The
Outlanders always kept to themselves about anything that happened, and the
Pridelanders only informed other parts of the kingdom when an important event,
such as a coronation, was about to be held.
The few plains lions were rarely heeded, but a death with as high a
magnitude as Karanga’s would not have been able to go untold.*
Long after Shada and Ujono went into
the Pridelands to tell the sad truth about the death of the grandmother of the
king, all the way into the time when the moon is at its peak, Scar stayed with
his deceased matriarch and cried.
The funeral was the most elaborate
one held in the Pridelands since Mufasa’s.
Everybody came - all the animals, relatives near, and relatives
far. Tahali was practically a guest of
honor, as she had not been seen for some time.
First, the eulogy was read. The body of the dead was placed on a level
rock at the base of pride rock.
Directly in the center and in front of the body sat Simba and Nala. To their left sat Sarafina and Sarabi. To the right of the king and queen were
Tahali, who was keeping an eye on Ujono.
Behind this front row were the lions who were not related to Karanga. Behind them were all the other animals, come
to see the last rites of a former queen.
And all the way in the back, behind a bush and cleverly hidden, sat one
who would have done the rites for this funeral, one who read the eulogy the
last time. He could not cry anymore,
for he had been dried out from his day of sorrow. He just sat there and watched as his mother was put to rest.
At a funeral, the king was usually the
speaker, unless someone else’s ties were closer to the deceased. Simba barely knew his departed grandmother,
so the task went to the closest relative who was, in this case, her biological
daughter. The speaker stood behind the
rock with the body, and faced the crowd.
Shada’s eulogy was truly beautiful, covering Karanga’s life and
importance. She jokingly referred to
the fact that Karanga had been the mother to three separate pairs of
twins: Scar and Mufasa, Sarabi and
Sarafina, and Shada and Tahali.
*Scar and Mufasa were the children of
the great king Thembi, whose mate produced Mufasa and then died while giving
birth to Scar. The King’s unfounded
anger at Scar led to his younger son’s unbridled cynicism. Later, Thembi and his new bride Karanga
adopted the twins Sarabi and Sarafina, whose mother had been killed by a pack
of hyenas. Eventually, Sarabi and
Mufasa became a pair, as did Scar and Sarafina in a more clandestine manner.
Over time, however, Karanga desired to
have cubs of her own, and her cry was answered. She gave birth to twin girls, Tahali and Shada. These had been the only children whom Karanga
herself had truly birthed.*
After the service was over, they took
her into the great expanses of the plains, and buried her in the ritual burial
place, next to her husband. After all
the lions had headed back to Pride Rock for the ritual feast, Scar stayed
behind, stood next to the grave of his beloved mother, and then went to the
family’s lair in the plains to sleep.
The feast, a ritual since before
most lions could remember, was always a joyous occasion. The lions ate, danced, talked, and generally
socialized. Most of the family members would
stay together and discuss the services.
The food was already gotten in advance to the service, and the beverages
were either water or a strange drink made of berries and left out in the
sun. This concoction was usually put
into big troughs for the guests to drink, and more than a few lions would get a
little tipsy. Simba basically drifted
around and talked with everybody, and Nala stayed in one place, watching over
their newly introduced princess Kiara.
Tahali, Shada, Sarabi, and Sarafina were talking as Ujono played with
the other cubs.
“It really was a beautiful service,”
said Sarafina.
Sarabi agreed, “I think everybody
loved it.”
“Thanks, sisters,” said Shada,
slightly embarrassed. “But I was just
doing the basic run-of-the-mill eulogy.”
“Basic! Ha!” exclaimed Tahali, “That was incredible! Absolutely the best service I have ever
seen.” Of course, this really wasn’t
saying much, considering the only other service she had seen was Mufasa’s, and
his service was rather rudely interrupted by hyenas.
Plus there had been no feast.
Referring to her speech, Sarabi said
“Enjoyed by four out of six twins!”
Everyone laughed at this statement.
Shada went so far as to say “Come
now, Sarabi. It was better than
that. I’m sure Mufasa was enjoying it
much with the other great kings!” The
laughing continued.
“And I’m sure Scar is enjoying it
from hell!” Tahali said while laughing.
At that moment, a paw with claws outstretched struck Tahali in the
muzzle. The young lioness fell to the
ground and clutched her nose, which was now bleeding. “AHH! Sarafina! What the hell was that for?”, she
screamed. The attention of much of the
crowd was focused on the scene, and all was silent to wait for the queen mother’s
answer.
“How dare you talk about your
brother that way! No matter what he may
have done, he is still your brother, and mine, and you shall treat his name
with respect!” The words of the golden
lioness came with great power and anger, and Tahali heard them, and
understood. She nodded in assent. All the other lions just went back to their
business; they understood why she had said this.
However, Nala just stared at her
mother assessing the words in her mind, until Kiara’s playfulness caught her
attention. By the end of the day, she
had forgotten all about it.
The march of time continued, and
after a period of time had passed, the world saw Ujono, now starting into
adolescence, approaching his uncle in their lair near the Pridelands. Ujono’s mane was now definitely
apparent. It was black, like his uncle’s
and his grandfather’s. The hair graced
the sides of his head, and while he was not the most beautiful lion in the
world, he could certainly be considered attractive enough.
“Ummm….Scar?”
Scar turned and looked at his
nephew, who had a puzzled look on his face, as if a question had been bothering
him. “Yes, what is it?”
“I need to ask you something…lion to
lion.”
“Yes?”
“Recently, I was walking near the
waterhole, and I saw this lioness. She
was much older than me, of course, and she was very strange looking. She looked like a cross of some sort between
a cheetah and a lion. Is that possible?”
“Yes, it is…but I know that’s not
the reason you called me aside.”
Ujono chuckled. “No, it isn’t. Well, the point is…I saw her, and she was possibly the most
beautiful creature I’ve ever seen. And
I felt…strange…down there.”, and he pointed to a certain area on his body. “What’s going on?”
Scar bit his lip. “Hmm…Ujono, I can’t pretend I have a lot of
knowledge in this area, for I was kind of isolated when I was the same age as
you. I never saw any beautiful
lionesses, but I think I can help a little.”
Scar proceeded to explain the basics of adolescence and many of the
changes he would go through, such as his mane growing, and…other things. Some of the things rather disgusted Ujono,
while others delighted him. “Well, did
that discussion help at all?”
“I think so, Uncle Scar. But does this mean I should go out looking
for lionesses to mate with?” Ujono asked anxiously.
“By the heavens, no!” Scar
declared. “Just wait…you’ll know when
it’s your time. When your mane is fully
grown out down to your shoulders and past, then you can go looking.”
“It’d better grow fast!” Ujono said,
and then he ran off scouting his future mates.
“Hmmm…so impetuous…” thought
Scar. “I wish I’d had his
childhood. I didn’t see a beautiful
lioness and know what to do until I came back to Pride Rock…” Scar sighed. It looked like another boring day looking for things to do out in
the regions outside the Pridelands. He’d
already explored his new plains home to his heart’s content. He had also explored the Elephant Graveyard
more than he could bear. It was old and
the memories were too harsh. Now that
the hyenas were gone, he could explore it all he wanted, but that got rather
dull after a while. He recently had
come across a new land, separated from the plains by only a river which, while
it carved a canyon at its most treacherous point, was a simple
getting-across-a-log job at a point closer to his home. He made the walk over to the arboreal bridge
and crossed it into the Outlands.
The Outlands were the most
treacherous stretches of land ever imaginable.
In scarcity and lack, it exceeded even the Elephant Graveyard. This was the home of the banished lions, the
traitors to the cause - where he surely would have been sent if he had been
captured. The sun was too hot, the prey
was too few, and any poor creature that survived here would have the look of
malnutrition and paucity on it.
Suddenly, a noise got Scar’s
attention, and he ran back up the bridge and hid in the tall grass near the
plains, while keeping a close eye on the bank of the wasteland, to find out
what creature could have made the sound.
It was a lion cub. The cub walked out of the shadows, and just
sat near the log, cleaning himself with his tongue. Scar was immediately struck by the appearance of this child, for
there was something familiar about him.
The cub’s fur was darker than his own, but the face was too similar to
his to be ignored. The cub had the same
sagging fur on the sides of his face, the same beginnings of a “beard”, and the
same little scrap of black hair that would eventually be a mane. on the top of his head. Even the demeanor, a ticked-off-at-the-world
frown, and the fact that the cub was obviously not extremely well fed matched
those of the former king when he was a child.
Could this possibly be the child he had left behind? He had forgotten about Zira…tried to forget
about her. He worried that if he
returned, he would become his old self, and that was something he wanted to
avoid. If he could just see the cub’s
eyes…
Then, his attention was caught again,
as he heard the sound of two voices arguing in the opposite direction of the
cub, in the plains. Scar made up his
mind to leave this fledgling behind and see what this other commotion was. Besides, the cub looked as if he would be
there for some time.
Moving quietly through the tall
grass, Scar eventually came near a clearing where a little lion cub, a meerkat,
and a warthog were standing in front of a log.
The “walking rat” (as Scar liked to call them) was arguing with the pig
over, of all things, the tastiest kind of bug.
Scar would have left right away if the cub had not also become bored and
started to walk towards the place where Scar was. He quickly ran down towards the border, for he did not want to be
seen, and he was able to secure a good hiding place once he got there. Scar saw that the male cub was still there,
now just standing still trying to pick up any sort of commotion. The female cub, however, followed the sound
of movement down to the gorge that bordered the Outlands. Unable to find anybody (for she had not
noticed the little male cub), she proceeded to do what any normal child would
do: explore the Outlands.
She walked across the log, looking
this way and that, and walking with a spring in her step. Eventually this unusual gait took its toll,
as at the end of the log, she tripped, fell, and rolled along the ground of the
Outlands for a very short distance, at which point she crashed into the other
cub, knocking him to the ground.
The male cub quickly got up and
faced the female, snarling. “Who are
you, Pridelander?” he said as he advanced.
The female, obviously very
frightened, backed up, but refused to back too far down from this
stranger. She jumped around from
position to position, always keeping the male directly in front of her.
The male gave her a puzzled
look. “What are you doing?”
The female quickly retorted. “My father says to never turn your back on
an outsider,” she said seriously.
The statement wasn’t taken nearly so
seriously by the male. “You always do
what daddy says?”
“No!” yelled the little lioness.
Scar chuckled and whispered to
himself. “Bet she does…”
“Betcha do! Bet your daddy’s little girl!” At this point, the female felt depressed,
but the little lion just chuckled and jumped onto a large rock in the middle of
the river. “An outsider doesn’t need
anybody. I take care of myself.” He was followed by the now interested
female.
“Really? Cool!” Suddenly, the male
cub screamed as the rock revealed itself as a hungry, hell-bent crocodile! She screamed too, and they both went running
across what turned out to be the backs of other crocodiles in an attempt to
escape. Every time they thought they
were safe, there was just one more of the vicious crocodilians to escape. Scar was only able to watch helpless from
the bank of the river. He wanted to
help, but with his age and physical capability, anything he tried would merely
be filling the animals’ stomachs a little bit more. He sat terrified for the two, especially him who bared his
resemblence.
Complications arose and were fixed. Lion cub saved lioness cub.
And eventually, both made it to the highly elevated bank (Scar had hidden
himself in some grasses nearby). Taking
a look back on what they had just braved, the two cubs looked down the slope to
the water and saw over twenty crocodiles growling in frustration.
“I did it,” the little lioness said
quietly to herself, thinking about what she had just done. “I DID IT!”
She yelled in joy and stuck out her tongue in a raspberry directed towards
the angry reptiles. The male just
laughed and walked away from the edge of the cliff after his new
companion. Scar just kept watching from
the grasses, while listening intently to their conversation. The girl started talking. “Whoa, man, did you see the size of those
teeth, they were like grawr…grawr…”
--As Scar heard the girl describing
their near-death experience he would have sworn that he sensed another presence
nearby him in the grass…--
“We make a good team! And you…”the lioness paused. “…You were really brave!”
“Yeah? You were pretty brave too.”
The little cub then introduced himself:
“My name’s Kovu.” Kovu? Kovu?
He suddenly realized the true meaning of that name and was stunned.
Little Kovu’s friend also gave her
name. “I’m Kiara…” she said in a
near-seductive manner. This unusual
action of a cub caught Kovu off guard, as he shrinked away at the sight of his
new friend slinking towards him in a near-shadow of how grown lionesses
introduce themselves to “interesting” males.
Once again, the name was
familiar. Scar had heard the name Kiara
used a lot as of late, and he was dying to know where…Scar’s thoughts were then
interrupted by the sound of the presence, which was obviously there somewhere
growling, apparently at the site of the near-intimacy growing between the two
cubs.
Kiara saw the disturbed look on her
friend’s face and decided to start a game.
“Tag! You’re it!” she shouted as
she touched his leg with her paw and hopped back. Kovu paid her back with a confused look and even went so far as
to pull his leg back in disgust the next time Kiara tagged him. Kiara laughed for a while in expectation,
but then approached him. “Hello? You run, I tag. Get it?”
The former king sat in the bushes
chuckling to himself. Scar just
validated Kovu’s clueless expression. “I
don’t think he gets it,” he mumbled in an inaudible joke, still laughing
inaudibly.
“What’s the matter, don’t you know
how to play?” Kiara could hardly
understand why a cub would not know how to play “tag.” However, the more she thought about it, the
more she realized, “this cub is from the Outlands…he probably doesn’t know how
to have fun…oh well, back to basics…”
Thus, she shifted to the simplest of cubs’ games and the least
complicated: fighting. She started hopping around, low to the
ground, growling at Kovu. Kovu mirrored
her by doing the same.
Suddenly, a huge golden blur
appeared in front of Kiara. It roared
at little Kovu, but was almost immediately shadowed by another streak of gold,
which stood in front of the scared brown cub.
Another roar resounded among the four.
Each adult scowled the name of the
other. The father of one growled the
title of the mother of the other, and it was likewise done. Neither needed no introduction for Scar. The male was none other than Simba, king of
the Pridelands. His nephew, his king,
his bane. He had not changed, and now
he was guarding Kiara; Kiara was the princess.
But at the time, Scar was not paying attention to that.
The mother’s presence had him captivated. The golden fur, the shape of her body…only a
few things had changed. Her eyes,
though they were still reminiscent of gold had become a near red (a strange
change indeed). The most unusual
addition was her right ear, which now had a large hole in it. Her own trademark.
When he had first met her, her name
seemed like the strangest thing possible.
Even she was unclear as to why she was given that name. She believed that her parents merely liked
the word, however it seemed clear now.
By the fire in her eyes, and the clenching of her teeth, it could be
found that she truly was the personification of hate. Zira had become what she had always been and not known, and she
was alive.
Part II: Witness to Treachery
“Zira...” Scar choked on the words.
“She’s actually alive.”
“These lands belonged to Scar!” The tan lioness who had once been his mate
stood in front of his greatest rival, declaring all lands the property of her
supposed dead lover. She had not
abandoned him, even when he was dead.
The mighty king Simba retorted, “I
banished you from the Pride Lands! Now you and your young cub...get out!” Scar couldn’t remember whether or not he had
known about her exile. His old life was
a blur. Still, this was his greatest
enemy talking to his greatest love...or at least he thought she was. No was not the time to sort things out. It’s all confusion in this sort of
situation.
Zira went on to introduce her young
son to the mob of angry lionesses supporting their king like the harem that
they were. “Kovu was the last born
before you exiled us to the Outlands...”
These words struck Scar immediately.
Was this the cub he never got to meet?
Kovu certainly looked like his, but he remembered how both him and Zira
had prayed to the gods for a girl.
“Like the gods would listen to
me...or even Zira, if they knew that this is what she’d become. They’re in the Outlands, hmm? No one knows them better than I. I have to see this for myself.”
And with that thought, the former
king, the deposed leader, the royal disgrace, the orphaned son, the protective
brother, the proud uncle, and the prospective father started to slowly creep
out of the Borderlands, taking a small land bridge into the Outlands, where he
started to look for the settlements, where he’d usually find the dying rogue,
waiting for his death-blow. Now he was
searching for a different kind of quarry: his children. After a short time of searching, he spied a
scraggly lion, a shell of his own self, mumbling to himself and hobbling
around, scratching and conversing with another younger lion whose name he
determined to be Vitani. Where had he
heard that name before? This couldn’t
be the unborn child...Kovu was last born, she said it herself...
But while Vitani, who appeared to be
a tomboyish girl cub, was a mystery, there was no mistaking the tattered
companion. This was the cub he had once
held in his paws, the one who had called him dad, and who had been such a
precocious little child...this was Nuka.
As he stared at the terrible things that time does to its minions, he
felt a warm tear slide down his cheek.
He watched it fall, hit the ground, and evaporate on impact with the
parched ground. And as the small cloud
of dust rose, Scar took cover behind a large rock, as he saw Zira coming
towards the two with Kovu in her mouth.
“You were supposed to be WATCHING
him!” She yelled at Nuka after she had
put down her younger son. They yelled
and quarreled for a short period of time.
“Friends? You thought you'd get
to the daughter. And Simba would welcome you with open arms? What an idea!” Suddenly, a horrifying glimmer appeared in
his late mate’s eyes. “What an idea.”
For the next few hours, Scar bore
witness to some horrifying displays, as all the lionesses in the Outlands
conversed with Zira in a shocking display as to a plan to get back at Simba for
destroying someone who many of them didn’t know. Kovu was to be raised for the sole purpose of revenge: to seduce Kiara and to use her to get
accepted into the pride, and then...to kill Simba. While Scar was no great fan of Simba, he knew that what Zira was
proposing was wrong. He wanted to jump
out, say “Here I am, this fight is meaningless”, and he easily could have.
But he was slowly gaining wind of
what Zira was now....and he didn’t want anything to do with it. As soon as the Outlanders dispersed from his
place of hiding, Scar followed Zira to her lair. She slept alone, for years not having had a mate who didn’t
either try to betray her or meet a cruel end at her hands. She was so different, yet so many things
were the same...how daintily she had to clean her fur just before bed, the
ritual rubbing her shoulder against the wall.
He amusingly remembered how weird he had found it when they had been a
royal couple. There was a new custom,
though. On top of a large leaf in her
lair lay some strands of black hair...his hair. She had kept a token. She
leaned her head down and daintily kissed the strands, being careful not to
separate them from each other. While
she was thus occupied, her former mate made a quick decision and stepped into
the lair. Zira froze.
“Nuka, I thought I told you to leave
me alone after I’ve finished my bed rituals.
I’m ready for bed now, and I’m not going to break the cycle, so if you
could just go away.” She realized that
the form wasn’t leaving and turned around to growl at him. Upon seeing Scar, she started for a second,
but her look of shock was quickly turned to a coy smile. “I haven’t seen you in a while. And here I thought I was finally sane. Last time I saw you it was just after I had
adopted Kovu. You’ll be pleased with
him, Scar. He’s going to avenge you and
get our lands back.”
“That’s just it, Zira. I don’t want to be avenged. I’m happy with the way my life is, and I
regret many of my old choices. I don’t
want you to renew this stupidity.”
“I’m positive, Scar. Who’s making you say that? Mufasa?
Your mom?” Zira chuckled with
the last words, and it took most of Scar’s willpower not to lash out at her.
“It’s me. This is your former mate and I’m speaking for myself. I’m standing here right in front of you,
telling you what I want.” Looking down,
he continued speaking. “Maybe...if you
give this insanity a rest, we can be together again.”
Zira laughed even louder, almost
menacingly. “Scar. Let’s get one thing straight. I love you with all my heart, and I will
never love anyone as much as I love you.
But I’m sane enough to know you’re just a figment of my desperate
imagination. I haven’t mated since you
died, and every season I have, I suffer through with only emotional pain and
self-gratification. All this
desperation has renewed you as a vision in my mind, and I can’t place my fate
at risk for a figment of my imagination.”
She walked around in a circle, and lay down in the middle of her
lair. “You’re dead, Scar. I’ll see you when the gods take me up to be
by your side.”
A figment? He was nothing more than a figment? “What if I can convince you that I am real?” And with that, he walked up to her,
outstretched his tongue and left a long lick down the left side of her
face. As he did so, her eyes closed and
she tilted her head to the side and sighed happily. “Do you believe me now?”
She smiled pleasantly and said “I’m
sorry, Scar. But the dead don’t come
back to life. Go away and let me
sleep. I am a sane lioness.”
As Scar walked away from her, he
felt emptier than he had since Karanga’s death. His own mate...she wouldn’t believe him.
Thus, on a dark evening in the
Outlands, a dead husband walked away from his long-suffering widow. And if the wind that blows through every
lair in the kingdom could speak, it would tell you it heard these words from
the failed mate: “But you aren’t, Zira.
You were...but not anymore.”
Time continued on, as it eternally
will. Ujono grew up, and became a
healthy full grown lion, with a full black mane, piercing blue eyes, and a
beard which was only slightly shorter than Scar’s. According to his uncle, Ujono looked exactly like his
grandfather, the great king Thembi, only more malnourished. In many ways, this was gratifying to the old
neglected, deposed king. To feel that
he could, in a way, become friends with his father, ignoring the times before
when his father cast him aside, and blamed him for his original wife’s
death. Of Ujono’s traits, Scar noticed
some odd ones. He wasn’t particularly
interested in sex, for one. He had
mated with a lioness once, but he was more concerned about finding a mate where
the act would mean something, and, possibly because of his isolation, his mind
was diverted from the usual thoughts of full-grown lions of that age.
He took a strange interest in the
shamanic arts, and eventually hunted down one who would know.
In the middle of the pridelands,
there stood a giant, knarled tree.
Inside, a dark furred baboon sat both drinking and writing from a gourd.
“Hmm...the weather, it looks like it
will be hot for a long time, eh?” He
looked up towards the heavens and yelled “Do you have a problem with rain? It’s been almost a full moon’s cycle since
the last one! I could use a drink of
water!” He shook his rattling stick at
the sky, as a plea. Rafiki was answered
with a crash of thunder, and a near immediate pouring rain. Rafiki, still outstretched towards the sky,
looked around with his fur getting soaked to his very bones, and with water
drenching his face, gave the heavens a look of exasperation and sighed. “Thanks for your promptness.” And when his tree started to rattle, he
shouted out again, “Hey! No
earthquakes! Don’t make me come up
there!”
He laughed, sat down, and said “It
won’t be long, eh?” And when the tree
started to shake again, he let out an exasperated sigh and jumped down to the
ground. “Who is making this racket?”
“It’s me, Rafiki.” said a golden
lion with a wet black mane sticking to the sides of his head and neck. The statement was just met with a quizzical
look.
“First of all, say ‘I’. Secondly, who is ‘I’?”
“I is Ujono. I don’t know if you remember me.”
“Ujono! It is...I see...wow...I...you’re quite the big one now! I remember when you were just a little
fellow. I don’t know if I ever saw you,
to be honest. Your mother didn’t get
very involved in much of the prideland activities. I do remember seeing her at the funeral. She didn’t bring you, but she talked about
you, and I must say, you are Thembi’s twin!”
Rafiki stood back and took a good look at him, trodding through the mud
and wet grass. “You need to eat more,
boy.” He poked Ujono in the couple of
visible ribs he had.
“I call it nutrition.” They both laughed, but soon after, Ujono got
to the point. “I’d love to stay here
and chat, but it’s starting to get really uncomfortable out here in the rain,
and I came to ask you for something.”
Impressed by the lion’s
determination, Rafiki continued the dialogue.
“What do you want from me?”
Ujono took a deep breath, and
continued. “I want you to teach me the
shamanistic arts.” Rafiki’s face was
one of thoughtfulness.
“Why exactly do you want to learn
these?”
“Well, we’re rather isolated out
where we live, and we’re happy there, but my mom’s getting older, and since she
used to be the one who’d obtain all the remedies to our illnesses, we all think
that it would be good for me to learn to do some of it myself.” Suddenly, Ujono realized what he had said.
“We all? What do you mean by that?”
“Ummm...”
“Does your mom have a fellow?”
Ujono gave an inaudible sigh of
relief. “Yeah, but don’t tell anyone,
we don’t want to stir any rumors.”
Rafiki raised his hand.
“I completely understand. Now, as for you being my student, I’ll do
it.” A little bit more thought from
Rafiki. “Besides, I’m getting older
every day, and it’s getting harder for me to go to people. If you get enough training, you could go in
my place during some of the less important cases.”
And the rain soaked lion smiled.
And that rain soaked lion
learned. And learned. And when he was done, he learned more. Scar found Ujono disappearing rather often
to tend to lions throughout the kingdom.
Whenever some creature had a mild ailment, Ujono was the one to
contact. So as time went on, and while
Kovu was training for his deception of Simba, Ujono was gaining a reputation as
a healer, and was gaining, in addition, some respect.
However, at home, he broke a rule
set by Rafiki quite often. Whenever his
nephew wasn’t performing his health duties on others, Scar noticed that Ujono
would experiment on himself. He had
already taken to fermenting berries in a number of troughs in his room. One time, Scar walked into Ujono’s den to
ask him a question. Not long after his
installment as Rafiki’s right-hand, Ujono started pulling a large rock in front
of the opening to his room. Scar pushed
it aside, and a huge cloud of gray smoke flushed out of the room, all of it
stemming from a coconut half sitting in the middle of the room. Ujono was lying flat on his back next to it,
chuckling to himself, swinging his mane, and drawing symbols in the air with an
outstretched claw. Scar coughed, and
the prostrate lion glanced over, laughed, and said “I believe I’ve discovered
the secret of the gods.”
The old lion’s head was starting to
hurt from the smoke. He had heard of
some plants being able to have this effect, but he’d never seen it in
action. When he had been younger, it
had been told to him by the hyenas that in the old times, after a great hunt,
the Great Hyena would summon fire, put it to a mixture of plants, and then the
entire tribe would gather around the burning embers and engage in something
called “clinging to the tails of the gods.”
It was a festival where supposedly the hyenas’ spirits would be
inhabited by the gods, and they would speak the wisdom, which would run their
pack. Of course, that was just a
legend. Ujono lying on the floor acting
like an idiot...that was real. Still,
it wasn’t his concern. As long as he
was steering from dark powers, his stupid little rituals would only bring
temporary damage to himself. And he was
still a wonderful nephew, and Scar’s best friend in the world.
Shada’s time was spent less
recklessly and with consideration of her age.
She was hardly ancient, but she was getting older by the day, and on the
day that Scar found Zira again, she had not mated in ages. Her season, at first a terrible burden to
bear, was so often unsatisfied that she became used to the pain. For more time after that fateful day, she
was without mate. There are those who
have said that she engaged in the act with her aged stepbrother, who would
certainly have been a convenience, but these statements are unfounded and come
from unreliable mouths. What is true,
is that as Ujono grew and grew in his shamanic abilities, the daughter of
Karanga went out for a walk through the plains, and came across a young rogue
lion who captured her heart. They spent
entire days together, doing whatever lovers do when they agree on their
futures. There was many a night during
those times where Ujono and Scar would be waken from their sleep by the sound
of Shada arriving, giggling, and making far too much noise for an animal at
that hour, before finally going to sleep with a large smile on her face.
And one night, she came home
especially late. While the two males in
her lair looked on with one eye open, she took everything that meant something
to her, wrapped it in a small pelt, and tied it into one small bundle, about
the size of a large gourd. She then
went over to Scar and kissed him on the forehead, and did the same to
Ujono. She then took the bundle into
her mouth, walked to the exit, and as she walked out into the night, she issued
a muffled “goodbye.”
And Shada was never seen in the
Pridelands again. The few creatures who
have gone out of range of the Pridelands and the Outlands have claimed the
existence of a massive pride, supposedly founded by a lioness of Prideland
royal blood. As to whether this is
Shada or Tahali (or even both), no answer is known.
By this time, Scar had almost
completely put the incidents with Kovu and Zira out of his mind. He vaguely remembered Zira’s plan to raise
Kovu to destroy Simba, but he had stopped spying on the Outlands for
updates. It had started getting dull
long ago. Scar knew that if something
important was happening it would somehow get back to the lair in the plains,
and by this time, he often spent entire days without once thinking about what
sort of plans his former mate might have in store to overthrow the
kingdom. The only news that ever
happened was either good news or random accidents.
So when an unexplained fire swept
part of the savannah, nearly claiming the life of the princess Kiara, the news struck
Scar as interesting, but not particularly shocking. That is, until he found out who served as Kiara’s savior: a young
lion with a striking resemblance to a dead king, and one who, by a strange
coincidence, had a name that meant the same as the nickname of the same
king.
But the part about Kovu’s
reemergence that bothered Scar the most wasn’t his presence; it was the nagging
in the back of his mind that forced him to question the motives behind Kiara’s
rescue. He had always hoped that either
Zira, or Kovu, or both, would realize that what they were doing was wrong and
attempt to make amends with the Pridelanders.
He also knew that the main agenda of the scheme consisted of Kovu
falling into the confidence of Simba, and using that trust against him, to
deliver him into his final conflict. On
the day the knowledge of the rescue became public, the deposed king took up his
old spying activities once again, this time assisted by his shaman-in-training
nephew, who had taken an active interest, and perhaps a perverse delight, in
what would happen next. Scar and Ujono
already knew that a party consisting of Simba, Nala, Kiara, and Kovu was slowly
walking its way back to Pride Rock.
Since the group was already nearing their lair, and as evening was
setting in, the pair would have to hurry if they wanted to catch a glimpse of
the caravan before they retired for the night.
They immediately set off, running as fast as they possibly could, until
they finally reached their destination with their legs burning. Simba and his company had just arrived, and
Ujono and Scar took shelter in a hidden position and watched the proceedings.
As the other lionesses slowly filed
into the lair behind the ledge of Pride Rock, Kovu began to slowly follow them,
only to be growled away by Simba, who motioned for his daughter's rescuer to
sleep outside of the lair. As Kovu
curled up next to a protruding rock, Kiara went to him and thanked him for
saving her. They bickered and argued
about the lioness's hunting skills, and then Kiara dared Kovu to train her
properly in the morning. And while
Ujono's eyes ran up and down the form of the princess, Scar was looking into
the distance, past the ledge, at two almost invisible figures in the distance. Zira and Nuka were standing on a log, spying
just like him, except with a clear motive.
After Kiara had gone into the lair,
and it was clear that Kovu was asleep.
Scar motioned for his nephew to follow him. He slowly ascended the staircase like rock, staying as low to the
ground as he possibly could. However,
once he reached the top, he walked along the side ledge of the main rock. After a decent distance, he stopped in front
of a lair whose entrance was covered in cobwebs and whose floor was enveloped
in dust. As he stepped through the
webs, into the lair, clouds of dust circled and billowed around his paws. Ignoring the near-choking dust, he walked in
a circle before lying down in the dirt, neck stretched out and eyes
closed. Ujono stopped in front of the
entrance.
"What is this place?" He coughed as the huge cloud of dust built
up from Scar's settling slowly floated out of the lair. Scar just yawned and fell asleep almost
immediately. He had spent years of his
life sleeping in that lair, and it felt wonderful to be back there again.
For many nights on end, Simba had
been having lovely dreams about clear streams and romps with his lioness in the
moonlight. When he went to sleep that
night, he expected nothing different.
Once again, his dreams took him into the savanna, and this time, he
heard his father calling out to him.
However, the tone of Mufasa's voice was desperate, and a strange force
seemed to be pulling him towards the canyon.
When he reached the edge, he looked down to see his father clinging
desperately to the sidewall, begging for help while hanging over the memorable
wildebeast stampede of his youth.
Suddenly, he heard an evil laugh which he hadn't heard since another
dream, when Kiara was just a cub. It
was Scar, cackling evilly to see both Mufasa and Simba in so dire a
predicament. As Simba stretched out
towards his father, he was pulled back by his uncle, and his father slid down
the canyon and disappeared beneath the hooves of the stampede. Turning his eyes on Scar, the cackling
visage changed into Kovu, complete with a scar over his left eye. As soon as Simba made the connection, he was
released and hurled down to the same fate as his father...
Simba awoke with a start, gasping
and panting. It had been ages since
he'd had a real nightmare, and this time, Kovu was involved. He decided that the second pair of eyes he
had seen must have belonged to Kovu, and Simba went back to sleep, purposely
ignoring the fact that Kovu's eyes are green, and the second pair was blue.
Scar and Ujono awoke just before the
sun came over the horizon. They had to
make plans as to how to keep aware of current events. After much debating, they decided that they would take a huge
risk and live in the southern side of Pride Rock, in Scar's old lair. From the amount of dust, and the cobwebs
covering the entire entrance, it was easy to assume that no creature had been
back there for some time. No one would
know where they were staying, as if any one in the kingdom particularly cared. After the situation with Kovu and Zira was
reconciled, they would be able to move back their usual lair in the plains.
In the meantime, tasks needed to be
assigned. Since Ujono was much younger
and in top physical condition, aside from his slight malnutrition, he would
follow Kovu and Kiara in their expeditions, provided he stayed out of sight and
did not interfere. Scar agreed that he
would keep a good eye and ear on Simba, to make sure nothing would happen to
him. They would meet back at the lair
at sunset to share their findings with each other and possibly put together any
possible happenings. Food was the
responsibility of the individual, and if one did not feed himself, it was not
the other's duty to feed him.
However, their first assignments saw
them staying very close. Simba went
through his usual routine of getting up, stretching, and walking down to the
waterhole for a morning drink. Kovu
followed his routine, and stalked quietly near him, and when the king stopped
to lap up water, Kovu prepared to attack.
And though Scar and Kovu expected their preparation to be for nothing,
Kiara innocently stepped in front of Kovu, distracting him from his mission,
and allowing Simba to slip away under his nose. The two walked away together, and this served as the cue for Scar
and Ujono to go their separate ways.
"I'll see you tonight, Scar.
I'm expecting this to be a lot of fun", smiled Ujono as he stalked
after the couple.
Scar grinned. "Lucky you."
By the time Ujono got back to the
lair, Scar was already half asleep, propped up against a wall, with his eyes
only half open. Some of the bones from
a picked-over elephant lay on the lair.
His uncle had managed to scrounge up enough food for himself, and the
extra antelope which he had brought wasn't needed. Scar chuckled. "I'm
not quite that helpless, Ujono, but thanks for the concern. You can take it with you tomorrow."
"No, I got it for you. You eat it."
"Trust me, Ujono. I need to at least scrounge for myself. I'm old, and if I let you start bringing my
food, I'll get old and fat. I'm gonna
get my own food until all my legs are broken, and when that happens, just kill
me." Both laughed. "But enough small talk. What happened today?"
"Well, it was pretty exciting
for a while. They chased birds, got
attacked by a heard of rhinos, and then they got all romantic for what seemed
like forever. By nighttime, they were
looking into the stars and talking about stuff. Then Kovu started to talk about you."
"What?"
"Yeah. Kiara was talking about the great kings of
the past being up there in the stars, and Kovu asked 'Do you think my father's
up there?'" Scar just sighed and
shook his head.
"I honestly don't know. Sometimes I really wonder myself, but I keep
hoping I'll be judged for what I've been doing, and not what I've done. If I get judged eternally for my past, I
wouldn't want to be with an unfair judge like that for all history." He just looked at the ground and shuffled
his feet. "What else
happened?"
"Well, after that, they started
nuzzling each other. Really cute
couple." He bore his claws and
started swiping them in the air as if swatting at something.
Scar nodded. "Actually, I saw that. Simba was right above them, looking for
guidance from the same kings. Nala
wanted Simba to get to know Kovu better.
Then they came back here, and I've been standing here, half asleep,
waiting for your slow self to get back."
Ujono had gotten hold of one of the
smaller elephant bones and was gnawing it ruthlessly. "Not my fault, really", he mouthed between bites. "It really looked like they were going
to leave soon until Rafiki found them and sang some stupid song about
love. I swear it was the longest, most
annoying, stupidest thing I've ever seen.
But those two loved it, and they're a lovely couple, and now I want a
lioness." He snapped the bone in
half with his teeth while Scar laughed.
"Then they both get back here and Simba actually lets Kovu go into
the lair."
"Are you serious?"
"You'd know that if you had
been paying attention. He's been
accepted, at least, to some degree."
The former king nodded. "I got to admit, I'm pretty
surprised. Didn't think that would be
happening at all. And as for me not paying
attention, I had to come back here.
Simba was about to mate with Nala, and I'd rather not see my own
daughter violated by that creature, thank you very much." Scar plopped himself down on the floor of
the cave. "I don't know about you,
but I'm going to sleep, and hopefully there'll be another breakthrough
tomorrow." With that, Scar closed
his eyes and went to sleep. Ujono was
soon to follow his example, and he closed his eyes fantasizing about heroically
getting rid of Kovu and taking his place by Kiara's side.
"Wake up, Ujono!" The young lion woke up to his uncle shaking
him hard and pointing towards the wall of the cave. He was frantic about something.
Ujono yawned. "What is it, Scar? Are Kiara and Kovu going at it?"
"Shut up and put your ear to
the wall, right there." He pointed
to a specific point on the wall.
"They just left together."
"They? You mean Kovu and Kiara?" But as Ujono pressed his ear to the cold
rock wall, the only voice he could hear was that of Kiara.
"It's amazing. I can't believe that Dad wants to talk to
Kovu. I know he has a questionable
past, but I'm sure if Dad gets to know him, they'll love each other."
He pulled immediately away from the
wall and started to run out of the lair.
"Hurry, Scar! We got to
catch up to them! This might be
it!"
Since Kovu and Simba had already
gotten a head start, Scar and Ujono had to run, and as their quarries went to
the site where the savanna fire had been, the cover was scarce, and they were
forced to take refuge far out of earshot.
They arrived in time to see Simba talking to Kovu while looking at
something in the burnt soil. Everything
seemed to be going fine between the two of them.
Suddenly, a pack of lionesses
surrounded them. Leading them was
Zira. And as a dust cloud moved over
the pack, Scar and Ujono were able to move closer and hear what was being
said. Zira smiled evilly and
congratulated her son. “Well done,
Kovu. Just like we always planned.” Simba turned on Kovu in that instant, but
while he tried to refute the charges, Zira gave the order to attack. Simba was forced to fight off lioness after
lioness before a leap from Nuka knocked him down into the river gorge and onto
his side. Zira stood over the chasm
proudly and proclaimed “We’ve got him!”
The two lions couldn’t help but notice how well trained Zira’s troops
were, and they chased towards a large wall of stones and broken wood, hoping to
corner him. As he attempted to climb,
Kovu was told to knock him down, from a place high atop the gorge, but when he
ignored his mother, Nuka proudly stepped in.
“I’ll do it...for you, mother!” He leapt on to the wall, begging his mother
to watch him, desperate for her attention.
As Simba neared the top, Nuka caught his hind leg and proclaimed “This
is my moment of glory!” However, Simba
scrambled, and knocked down the log upon which Nuka was standing, sending him
down the rock slide, and wedging him between two heavy logs. The final steps by Simba sent down an even
heavier log, which came hurtling down upon Nuka at mind-boggling speed, not
even giving him enough time to scream.
As Simba crawled to safety, Kovu descended and started digging through
the rubbish to find his brother, before being knocked away by his desperate
mother. She dug until she could find
him, and when she found him, he apologized to her. “I’m sorry, mother. I
tried....” And as Zira cradled his face
in her paw, Nuka’s head fell limp, and both her and Vitani stood over him,
heads hung low.
Ujono could only stare, in a fit of
shock. In a manner of seconds, he had
watched a lion die. He had never seen
death like that before. Of course, he
had killed antelopes, but they were food.
He wasn’t awake when grandmother Karanga passed away. This life had been alive one moment, jumping
and eager to please its mother, and now, he was dead. Ujono had never known Nuka, but the feeling of seeing a fellow
lion die made him feel horribly uncomfortable.
He looked over his shoulder to see how Scar was taking it. He couldn’t see him, at first glance. Scar was lying on the ground, in a fetal
position with his eyes closed tight. He
was crying uncontrollably, and murmuring to himself.
There is no word to describe the
pain that Scar felt. He remembered the
day his young son was born, and he remembered how his son went from a cute
little baby to an anxious, slightly hyperactive cub who wanted to be exactly
like his father. Scar hadn’t even seen
Nuka since the day he saw the new Zira for the first time. Now, his firstborn, possibly his only son,
was dead. One of the only creatures he
had loved in the world was lying in a river gorge, crushed between logs, logs
sent down hurtling by the enemy who had stolen his own life. It was Simba’s fault again. Then a thought came to his mind. “Kovu was right at the top of that
wall. If Kovu had obeyed Zira, Nuka
would still be alive.” That Kovu was
the problem. He was the reason for Scar’s
grief. Any disobedient creature like
Kovu could not be his son, and looking upon the scene, he came to the
realization that Vitani was his daughter.
She was the unborn child, and through the sadness he felt over the loss
of Nuka, he vowed that he would not lose this daughter, not to Simba, and
definitely not to Kovu.
Apparently Zira felt the same
way. In one motion, she stepped away
from Nuka’s grave, pulled back her claws and hit Kovu, full in the left side of
the face. When he looked back, he had
received a slice that perfectly resembled Scar’s famous namesake. Zira accused Kovu of betraying the pride,
and betraying Scar. And when Kovu
replied “I want nothing more to do with him!”, Scar couldn’t help but snarl,
distracting Ujono for a moment.
“Nuka is dead because of you!” Zira backed Kovu into a corner as she
confronted him with his crime.
Kovu could barely get out a “no.”
“You’ve killed your own brother!” And with that, Kovu started to run. Neither of the males opted to follow him, as
they wanted to find out what plans Zira had in store. She quickly gathered the other Outland lionesses around her and
told them her scheme. “Listen to me”
she cooed. “Simba is injured and
weak. Now is the time to attack!” She slammed her paw down in a fit of
rage. “We will take his entire kingdom
by force!” And although Scar had to
force away his smile, he was worried what was going to happen now. It looked like the past playing all over
again.
Neither Scar nor Ujono opted to
return to Pride Rock before the Outlanders made their move. If they had, they might have been pleased to
watch both Kovu’s exile and the seeds of rebellion that were growing within
Kiara against her own father. The
incident with Kovu had taken a protective father and turned him into a paranoid
ruler, not allowing his daughter to venture out past Pride Rock, much less find
Kovu. Eventually, she was forced to
sneak out secretly through some loose rocks in the side of the main lair. Openly defying her father, she wandered
throughout the entire night, looking for him.
Just when she was giving up hope, she looked up, and saw him looking back
at her. They played together like cubs,
talked together like friends, and kissed like lovers. And while Kovu was all for the two of them running away and
forming their own pride, Kiara decided that something needed to be done.
At the same time Kiara and Kovu sat
by a watering hole and talked of love, Ujono and Scar were stalking through a
cold, shallow river, secretly following Zira and her army towards Pride Rock.
At the same time Zira and Vitani
made their way towards their enemies, Simba told Zazu to assemble the lionesses
for battle.
They all met in between, on an empty
stretch of dry savanna near the river gorge.
It was raining, and as the ranks moved closer and closer to each other,
Zira ascended onto a monolith which has since become known as Tyrant’s
Rock. Mud dripping from her maw, Zira
bared her teeth and delivered her challenge.
“It’s over, Simba. I have
dreamed of nothing else for years!”
“Last chance, Zira.” Simba’s voice came loud and clear, in a tone
that Zira had heard years before. “Go
home.”
“I am home.” She smiled at Simba, and as the lightning
crashed, and light reflected from her eyes and teeth, she perfectly resembled a
demon. Then she raised her head to the
sky and yelled out. “Attack!” The prides walked, then trotted, than ran
towards each other, before finally lunging at each other’s throats and
attacking each other relentlessly.
Eventually, the outlanders, who had been trained at an unforgiving rate,
beat down the Pridelanders, and Simba became the target of an ambush. Six lionesses attacked him at once, and as
he shook the last one off, he felt a mighty thump as he was cuffed by Zira. When he arose, the two rivals circled each
other, waiting for just the right moment.
They growled, unsheathed their claws, and prepared to lunge.
Suddenly, Kovu and Kiara leaped into
the center of the circle, blocking the fray.
As each parent told the child to move, the progeny held their
ground. “Daddy, this has to stop,”
pleaded Kiara. Zira was not making Kovu’s
task an easier one.
“You’re even weaker than I
thought! Get out of the way!” Kovu refused to back down, and when Simba
demanded the same, Kiara begged for his attention.
“A wise king once told me, ‘We are
one.’ I didn’t understand him
then. Now I do.” She sighed and continued, drawing his
attention to the collection of lionesses from both prides, who in the fray, had
gotten mixed together. “Look at
them. They are us. What differences do you see?” For a long time, all anyone could do was
look at each other, and everything was peaceful. The sun slowly started to come out as well, as if responding to
the burden which seemed to slowly be disappearing. Even Vitani, when ordered by her mother to attack, refused.
“No, mother. Kiara’s right.” She walked over to Simba’s side, and took a place among the other
lionesses. “Enough.” The other lionesses were soon to follow,
paying no heed to Zira’s threats. They
placed themselves throughout the Prideland’s ranks, realizing the futility of
the conflict. Zira, on the other hand,
would not let it go.
Announcing that she would never let
the past go, she growled to herself “This is for you, Scar”, and lunged at
Simba. Kiara jumped in the way, and
together they rolled down the gorge, hitting rock after rock on the way down
the incredibly steep slope. Kiara
managed to grab her claws onto a low angled ledge. Zira caught the ledge lower, on a sheer slope, and clutched
desperately onto her life. In the
meantime, Scar had all but fallen down the cliff, so caught up in a mental
torment that he was physically inept.
He didn’t want to reveal himself to Simba, but he couldn’t just let Zira
die...As he approached a part of the cliff a little further down from Zira,
with Ujono chasing wildly after him, trying to stop him, he tripped, fell a
distance, and hit his head on a stone, losing consciousness. Ujono slid into a place right next to him,
and stood by his limp body as he watched the scene unfolding over the
river. Although Kiara did her best to
reach out to Zira, her paw was forced to avoid swipes and slices from a Zira
too overcome with her own hate to let herself be saved. Instead, she fell backwards into the flash
flood that was rampaging through, and disappeared beneath the waves before the
rest of the water disappeared further down the gorge.
When Kiara came back onto the plain,
she was reunited with everyone from both the prides, as they congratulated her
for her effort and for her bravery.
Soon, the newly formed pride formed a caravan that went back to Pride
Rock, where Kovu and Kiara were declared as both heirs to the throne and
official mates. As they ascended Pride
Rock with Simba and Nala, they glanced over the edge and surveyed what would
one day be their kingdom. With both
Scar, Zira, and their pride gone, nothing but peace seemed to be in store for
the kingdom.
Ujono was coughing. In fact, he was coughing so hard, he had
coughed up at least one wad of blood.
He was trying to balance waking up Scar with convincing himself he hadn’t
seen what he thought he had. He hadn’t
really seen Zira disappear like that, had he?
He hadn’t seen two deaths in one day?
“Come on, Scar...wake up...please...”
As he shook his head, getting ever more frustrated, he looked down into
the gorge and saw what looked like a bloody piece of fur. He focused all his attention on the object and
came to a reasonable conclusion.
Quickly he hoisted his mentor onto his back and started descending into
the gorge. The mound of fur was wedge
in between two rocks and was letting more and more blood seep into the river as
time went on. As Ujono neared the
patch, he knew it was Zira. He stopped
right next to her, lifted her face up, and rested it on the rock. She was bleeding from the head and from the
side of her belly, but he could tell she was still alive, so he tried talking
to her. “Zira? Zira?
Are you okay?”
Her eyelids fluttered slowly and she
opened her eyes halfway and looked up at Ujono. “Ah...so this is what the devil looks like. Much more attractive than I thought he’d be.” As she started to laugh, she suddenly
groaned and attempted to shift her weight.
“If I’m dead, this shouldn’t still hurt.”
“Zira...I have someone here who
wants to see you. He misses you more
than you could ever know.” He pulled
Scar over to the rock so that she was looking straight into the closed eyes of
her unconscious lover. “He was knocked
out trying to get to you, trying to save you.
He’s been alive this whole time, but he didn’t know how to approach you.”
Zira just stared at Scar’s face, and
soon the blood staining the stone mixed with her tears. “Scar really was alive...why couldn’t he
come to me? I needed him.”
“I think he was just frightened, of
what you seemed to be. Of what you had
become.” Ujono shook Scar hard. “Wake up, Scar. Zira’s alive and she’s right here.”
The dying lioness pulled a bloody
arm out from between the rocks. It was
so maimed and coated with blood that Ujono could hardly stand to look at it,
but Zira took her paw and caressed the side of Scar’s face. “My dearest, dearest Taka. I’m sorry this had to happen, my love. Please forgive me.” She craned her neck, fighting the horrible
pain, draining her remaining energy, and softly, yet passionately, kissed her
mate on the mouth. Ujono suddenly
realized that his eyes were welling up with tears, to see the bloody, dying
lioness kissing the only creature that had meant anything to her.
“Scar....Scar! Please!
PLEASE WAKE UP!! PLEASE WAKE
UP!!!” He started to cry uncontrollably
as he tried his best to wake up Scar in time.
It was all in vain, however, and as Zira broke the kiss, she caressed
his face again (leaving the left side of his face stained with her blood), and
rolled her head backwards, coughing up blood one last time, and then went
motionless. Cold. Dead.
Ujono was left lying on the ground with his face in his arms, crying
uncontrollably. He didn’t hear Scar
start to move.
“What....what? Where am I?” He looked around in all directions, but when he stared straight
foreward, his gaze remained fixed. Zira
was there, bleeding and dead. “....Ujono......”
“Yes, Scar?”
“What happened?”
“She was still alive, Scar. I brought you down here you could talk one
last time. She kissed you and asked you
to forgive her, but you were unconscious.
I couldn’t wake you up.” Scar’s
eyes also began to fill up. “There’s
one more thing.” They made eye contact,
each staring into the other’s sadness-filled eyes. “She called you her dearest.
Her dearest Taka.”
Any other lion would have
immediately started crying in this situation.
In fact, if it hadn’t been for the bump he had received, Scar probably
would have done the same. Somehow,
however, the tears dried up. The
sadness was gone, and it was all replaced with anger. A desire for vengeance swelled where the tears should have been. And before he had time to convince himself
that he was choosing the wrong path...something snapped in his mind. His mind was changing, shifting, distorting
his every view. In his brain, he saw a
field of waste. Corpses, skeletons,
dead plants, hot dirt, and vultures everywhere. At the end of the field, there stood a large elephant skull, and
standing on top of it was a ravenous beast with huge, razor-sharp teeth, and
giant claws. It laughed maniacally as
it gazed down at Scar and Scar found himself compelled to hate this thing. Suddenly, the shadows covering the monster
shifted, and he saw who it was. It was
Simba.
As Ujono wiped his eyes, he could
see that Scar was standing perfectly still with an empty gaze on his face. His eyes were completely dead, as if he was
obsessed with something. For Scar, it
was his nemesis. Simba had taken so
much from him: his pride, his lands, his friends, his son, his daughter, and
now his mate. When he had stood idly
by, he had watched his family be taken from him, and he had not even been
conscious to kiss his love goodbye, all because of Simba! Any of Scar’s pains came from him. No...they weren’t Scar’s pains. They were Taka’s pains. Scar was a corrupt individual who went from
being a ruthless tyrant to a sniveling coward, hiding behind bushes and rocks,
spying. It was time...
“Scar....what’s wrong with you?”
The sound of the old lion’s voice
came out icy and cold, in a harsh monotone.
“Scar is dead. I have destroyed
him.”
Ujono was completely confused. “Destroyed?
Who...what...what are you talking about?”
“Taka is now in control. Taka will do what Scar was always afraid to
do. There are many debts to be repaid.” As his uncle looked deep into the distance,
Ujono could only stare at him and be shocked at what he was saying. He knew that he had gone through a lot, but
what Scar was speaking...it was becoming far too clear. Scar had gone mad. “If you do not help me, it is not of my concern, but I will seek
my revenge, and my name will be remembered...
forever.”
-------------------------------------
“And
you will shed tears of scarlet.”
-------------------------------------
Part III: The Madness of King
Taka
“I don’t understand anything you’re
saying, Scar.” Ujono was pacing back
and forth, stepping on rocks in the river gorge. His black mane fluttered wildly with the fierce wind that seemed
to come from nowhere. Anyone who
chanced to look down into the gorge at that time would have seen three figures:
the young and distraught Ujono, the corpse of a golden lioness, and a solitary
old lion, sitting still as stone.
Unlike his nephew, whose mane waved
in the wind, the midnight mane of the grizzled lion barely fluttered. His eyes were devoid of life, and it was
clear that his mind was on something more important than the wind. The body at his feet was that of his mate,
Zira. He had all but watched her die
and he still had blood from her paw on his cheek. He responded to Ujono’s statement without any sign of
recognition. “I’ve already told you
once, my name is Taka. I shall not tell
you again. If you don’t want to be a
part of my plan, I understand, but do not get in my way. I care deeply for you, but if you interfere
with my scheme, your life won’t be worth the rocks you walk on.” He rose to all four legs and began to climb
out of the canyon. Ujono called after
him.
“Look, I don’t know what psycho
escapade you’re planning, but whatever it is, I want in on it. If you’re planning anything resembling what
I think you are, you’re going to need my help.” He growled the last words to help get the point across to Taka,
who was already halfway up the canyon.
He was answered with a slight turn
of the head from his uncle. “In that
case, speed up. We have plans to make.”
It had only been a few days since
the grand coup between the Outlanders and the Pridelanders, but since then, a
lot had been changed. The Outlanders
were permitted to rejoin themselves with the pride from which many of them had
been ousted. A number of the younger
ones had never known the lushness of the pridelands, and they were ecstatic to
learn how much their situation had improved.
Most notable among the new initiates were the daughter of Scar, Vitani,
and Kiara's new mate Kovu, who seemed as if he would be the heir to the throne,
upon Simba's passing. The old
Scar-infected line of thinking passed on with the death of his mate, and though
he was glad it was over, Simba couldn't help but feel slightly bored. After spending your childhood trying to
survive wildebeest stampedes, hyena attacks, and living with Timon and Pumbaa
before reclaiming the throne and then having to protect against a crazed
lioness...policies of state were ungodly dull.
He wanted something to do.
"Hey, Simba? You want to do something?"
The voice was that of Timon. He was with Pumbaa, as always. Simba responded. "As always, Timon, your timing is absolutely perfect. I'm about to die of boredom."
Timon simply shrugged. "Well, I'm not promising anything
exciting, but me and Pumbaa are just gonna go hunt for some good bugs, and
since it's been a while since we've done that as a trio, I was wondering if you'd
like to tag along. I'm sure you still
remember how to pick good ones."
The king lion stretched and
smiled. "Of course I still
can. To be honest, it sounds like it'll
be a lot of fun. Lead the way." He began to follow the meerkat and warthog
off of Pride Rock. Suddenly, a blue
hornbill suddenly flapped into Simba's face.
"Sire, I'm afraid I have
pressing business that you must attend to.
You'll have to put your little bug hunt off."
Simba sighed. "...sorry, guys. Zazu, what exactly is so pressing that I
can't even enjoy myself for a little while?"
"You still haven't addressed
the fires."
"What is there to address? I can't control nature. I'm a king, not a god."
For the past few days, fires had
bring springing up throughout both the plains and the pridelands. The average brush fire was typically
shrugged off as nothing, as they would occassionally spring up due to the
heat. However, this recent wave of
fires was constant and rhythmical.
Whenever one fire went out, another would start, typically a long
distance away, but still within Simba's kingdom. The reason Simba needed to address the issue is because a good
deal of suspicion was growing as to the cause of these fires. Those who didn't want to be bothered with
it, blamed the heat. The superstitious
blamed the ghost of Zira or Scar. The
destructive opinions, however, were a small group of lions who had formed a
theory that the royal family was trying to flush the rest of the pridelands out
so they could have the entire kingdom to themselves. Of course, this was a bold-faced lie, but it needed to be
addressed. Simba felt that he couldn't
address it, because he himself had no idea what was causing the fires. His theory was that some of the hyenas had
returned and were causing trouble, but he didn't want to sound like he was
running a cover-up. Zazu decided it was
essental that the address be issued today, so he sat down with Simba and began
helping him to plan out his speech.
While this was going on, Timon and Pumbaa had gotten bored, and had
walked off into the grasses to attain their meals.
"Geez, I'm telling you,
Pumbaa...I was so right about the situation.
Our trio's down to two."
"When did you say that,
Timon?"
"Well, technically, I didn't
SAY it. I...sang it." Timon bit his lower lip and looked
sheepishly at Pumbaa. "You
remember, right? When Nala and Simba
met again?"
Pumbaa shrugged, then looked
around. "You think we're far
enough away from Pride Rock to get any good grubs?" His friend looked around and nodded
approvingly.
"This is perfect. We won't have to worry about them making too
much noise and scaring away our food."
Had the two ceased talking, they
would have heard the tall grass slowly rustling on a windless day. They would have been able to hear not only
the rustling, but they would have realized that the rustling was slowly, pace
by pace, heading towards where they stood.
The warthog sat down on the dusty
ground. He was a combination of bored
and tired, resulting from a lack of sleep the night before. If it was a little darker, he would probably
have just laid down there and taken a nap.
"Gee, Timon...I wish it wasn't so bright out." Upon uttering this, Pumbaa suddenly found
himself in a large shadow, that stretched across his whole body and eclipsed
Timon who was standing with his back to him a few steps in front of him,
looking out into the grasses. After a
brief moment of silent panic, the corpulent animal slowly began to turn around
to face the presence. He kept his eyes
lowered to the ground, scared of what would be waiting for him when he lifted
them up to the face of whatever it was.
When he was fully facing the creature, he knew it was a lion by the
golden paws with long and horribly sharp black claws tapping slowly and
methodically on the ground. As his eyes
slowly rose up the form, he saw the golden fur of the chest, a black mane
hanging loose and rather scraggly, until his face met the face of a lion with
piercing blue eyes. The two creatures
stared at each other for what would have seemed like an eternity to the
bystander.
"Oh, hi, Ujono." Pumbaa let out a sigh of relief. "For a few seconds, I was scared
terribly." Ujono chuckled and Timon
turned around to see them both.
"How you liking the Pridelands,
buddy?", Timon inquired.
Ujono grinned. "It's really not that different from
home." He looked around. " What exactly are you guys doing? Hunting for bugs? Because if you are, yesterday I saw a rotten fruit in the grasses
over in that direction." He
pointed his claw. "There were tons
of bugs all over it, just sitting and eating.
I can only assume that Rafiki left it there, or something. I thought it was disgusting, but knowing you
guys, you'll love it."
He was answered with a yawn from
Pumbaa. "Hey, Timon...why don't
you check it out? I'm really tired, and
I don't feel up to a whole bunch of searching.
If you find it, come back and let me know how it looks."
Timon stood at attention, clicked
his heels, and saluted. "Will do,
old buddy." And with that, he was
off, running through the grasses in search of the stray bug cafeteria, leaving
the lion and the warthog to each other's conversations.
As Pumbaa desperately racked his
brain for something of interest to talk about with Ujono, the conversation was
initiated from the other end.
"Pumbaa...I have a dilemma.
It's about my past. I want to
know what you think of guys like me, you know, who
have...questionable......pasts."
Recalling his interaction with
Simba, it didn't take long for Pumbaa to answer. "Well, as both me and my good buddy Timon always say, you
gotta put your behind in your past."
Ujono began laughing hysterically.
After a minute or so, he wiped his eyes and resumed talking.
"So, if I've done something
wrong, you'd forgive me, wouldn't you?"
"Oh, yeah. Definitely."
"Well, then..." Ujono's face went suddenly blank of emotion,
and he turned sideways to Pumbaa for a moment before glancing in his
direction. "Will you forgive me?" Pumbaa nodded. "Thank you very much, Pumbaa. You've no idea how important this is to me." He stood up and began to slowly walk away,
his tail swishing back and forth slowly.
Pumbaa, confused, stood up.
"Wait a second, Ujono. What did you do?"
He only stood a foot or two away
from Ujono, but he couldn't quite decipher the sound that was being made in
response. At first, the warthog assumed
that the lion was crying, reflecting on what he had done. However, as the volume increased, he pieced
together that he was laughing.
"Trust me. You'll know
soon." Then there was a fast gold
and black blur as the shape in front of him turned around and rushed at
him. Before he had the chance to move
away, there was a black, shining flash, and he suddenly felt numb all over, and
extremely tired. His face felt warm,
his eyes became clouded with red, and the entire world faded into darkness, but
not before he felt a tingle in his back and a sound like that of one of his
tusks ripping through a log...
"Rotten fruit, my tail,"
Timon grumbled. "I can't stand
these wild goose chases. Ujono's gonna
get such a tongue lashing when I see him." He was stomping through the grass, annoyed and frustrated, both
at Ujono's misdirections and the dearth of nourishment in his stomach. When he neared the locale where he had left
the lion with his best friend, he pushed the grasses apart to see Ujono crash
to the ground, blood pouring from his maw.
Timon immediately ran to him,
running through small pools of blood, leaving a tiny straight line of red
tracks. He instinctively placed his
paws on Ujono's nose, but pulled them back in horror and disgust. "What happened?" The lion merely motioned with his sanguine
face towards a figure looming over them both.
Once the meerkat turned his head, it only took him a second to realize
who it was.
"Scar."
The gaunt figure replied, "My
name is Taka. And as long as we're
introducing each other, from what I've heard, you're the famous Timon that
helped Simba survive his childhood.
While this bleeding lump of flesh is, from what I've heard, Ujono. I swear, the second you have the lionesses
hunting for you in the Pridelands, you turn into goo. You could be my grandson, for god's sake!" Taka bared his claws, dug them into the
dirt, and tossed a pawful into his nephew's face. The recipient began coughing violently, and spit up blood before
going limp.
"You killed him, you
monster!"
"He's just unconscious,
you...you...meerrat!" Taka began
laughing maniacally at his pathetic insult.
The laughter seemed to persist for ages, but without any warning, the
evil smile on the lion's face dissolved into a look of seriousness and he began
to stare relentlessly at Timon.
"You do realize that you've seen far more than you were supposed to
see. I should have to kill you
now."
"What have you done with Pumbaa?"
"I've taken him as a sort of
hostage. I have a demand of you. Now
that you've seen me, you must not tell Simba that I am alive. It is essential to my cause that he remain
completely uninformed until the ending that I have composed. If you can keep your mouth shut, no harm
shall come to him. If you tell them who
I am, you and your best friend will be found dead, and horribly so. If you keep your promise, I'll release
Pumbaa tonight, and he'll show up at Pride Rock in the dark hours. If you don't, you take your own fate into
your hands."
"Wha-what if Ujono talks?"
A smile curled on the old lion's
lip. "I KNOW he won't talk. You're only in one piece now because I
worked out my emotions on this traitor."
He then grabbed Ujono's ankles and began dragging him into the taller
grasses. "In fact, I feel another
bout coming on. Do yourself a favor and
scamper off to safety. I'd hate to see
you traumatized further than I see fit."
And with that, Timon was left alone in the savanna, standing ankle-deep
in a pool of blood. He looked around
for a few moments, stunned by the situation he had been placed in. Then he shut his eyes tightly, tensed his
muscles, and screamed.
When Timon returned to Pride Rock,
he escaped glances, questions, and inquisitive eyes, all wondering about
Pumbaa. Instead, he sat in the section
of the lair which Simba had prepared for him a while back, a little alcove near
a bigger alcove, that of his best friend.
He rocked back and forth clutching his knees, wanting to scream the name
of the killer who had returned to wreak havoc on one of his closest friends,
but instead he found himself torn between the life of a friend and his king to
the life of his best friend, and probably himself. He rolled the choices back and forth in his mind, but he couldn't
come up with an answer that would solve his problems.
Though he was immersed deeply in his
own thoughts, Timon couldn't help but hear the murmurs of shock and the gasps
that united outside of the lair. It was
obvious what was happening. Ujono was
back. Timon hopped to his feet, feeling
a necessity to comfort a soul who had to suffer physically what he undertook in
his mind. But when he actually saw
Ujono, he joined the crowd's noise with a gasp.
Ujono was in shreds. Barely an inch of fur on his body was not
covered in blood. He was hobbling, on
three of his legs, while his back left leg dragged across the ground. After every five or so steps, he coughed up
a dollop of blood, often landing on the pelt of a lioness. Once he ascended to a level point on Pride
Rock, he stopped, wobbled for a few moments, then fell on his side and
finishing with a roll onto his back.
The entire pride loomed over him.
"Are you okay?"
"What happened?"
"Who did this to you?"
"Tell us who did it."
"Tell us."
"Tell us!"
In response, the lion coughed,
wheezed, and whispered, "I fell."
"Fell? Off of what? A mountain?"
"I fell onto some jagged rocks,
and I got cut up. All I need to do is
soak for a while." His eyes
wandered in a circle around the lionesses over him. "Could someone provide me with a little help in getting
there?"
Kiara pushed forward and volunteered
her services. "I'll help you,
Ujono. Just put one arm over my
back."
Ujono smiled. "I'd be most honored, my princess. But I would really hate to burden you with
someone of my weight."
"You overestimate yourself,
Uji. You're a big lion, but you're not
a terrible weight to bear. You're more
slender, lithe...whatever the right word is."
"And you flatter me,
princess. It makes me feel a little
better to have someone as beautiful and regal as you give me such
compliments." By this time, the
crowd had begun to disperse, as many of them were feeling ill at the dialogue
being exchanged. Kovu, on the other
hand, was very interested, staring at the prostrate lion with hate in his
eyes. "In any situation, however,
I simply won't have it. You're royalty,
and I'm a beaten brute of a lion. I'd
feel much better to take another."
Kiara nodded and backed away, where she was immediately whisked away by
Kovu.
Ujono extended a claw and pointed it
a lioness who was walking away.
"You," he called after her, "help me, please."
Vitani made a face before turning
towards him, smiling falsely.
"Okay, then. Put an arm
over my back, and I'll help you out."
Ujono complied, and she began helping the wounded lion make the long
trek to the water hole.
"Simba?"
"Timon, is this
important?" Simba was in his lair,
stressing his brain over what to do about Ujono. Obviously something had happened to him, but he was unwilling to
say. What puts that sort of fear in a
lion? "I'm a bit busy with the
issue at hand."
The small rodent stuttered a
little. "A-actually, it would...it
would solve the entire...issue."
Simba turned his head with a
start. "Do you know something
Timon?"
He nodded. "I've known for a while now, but I've been to scared to tell
you. I'm worried that he might hurt
me."
"Who, Timon? Who might hurt you? Who attacked Ujono?"
Timon gulped, cleared his throat,
and shut his eyes tight. "It was
Scar! I saw him, and he's still
alive!"
Simba stood in front of Timon with
his mouth and eyes wide open. For the
longest time, there was nothing but silence, until a noise came from behind
Timon. It was Kiara, and she was
holding back laughter.
Timon turned to Simba with pleading
eyes. "Simba! You gotta understand!"
"Timon, please. I'll give you that it was probably a rogue
lion, but I won't believe that my uncle has come back from the grave. Scar is dead, and I sincerely hope this is
just a misunderstanding and not a joke, because it isn't funny in the
least."
"But Simba..."
"Here's what I'll do. I'll send out a search party to look for any
rogues. They'll do a basic sweep of the
area, and if they don't find anything, they'll come back to Pride Rock. More than likely this attacker is gone, and
knowing Ujono's abilities, at least some of that blood belongs to his
assailant. I can't have my pride
searching forever for one creature. As
for Pumbaa, I really don't know what to say.
Hopefully he just got himself lost, or fell asleep somewhere. Don't worry yourself over things you have no
control over." Simba looked around
the room at the shadows and the darkness.
"It's getting late, Timon.
It's been a messed up day, and I think we all need some sleep, you
especially."
Timon was quivering subtlely, and he
was biting down on his lower lip pretty hard, but he still managed to get out a
"thank you", before he shuffled off to his alcove, where he sat awake
for what seemed to be ages.
Vitani's job had gotten infinitely
harder for her, as Ujono had seemed to have passed out or fallen asleep midway
through the journey. It wasn't that he
was hard to drag along. To the
contrary, Ujono had more tone than bulk, and he seemed to always be
malnourished to some degree. However,
Vitani would much rather have been either giving herself a bath, preparing for
bed, or doing anything than taking care of her wounded cousin, one she'd never
even met before he joined the pride.
"Oh, I'd be so honored, but I'd hate to get blood on your
fur," she said, mocking the limp lion.
"I'd much rather take the scraggly one over there, make her do the
grunt work. Stupid, lousy..."
"You know, you're beautiful
when you're making fun of me."
Upon hearing him speak up, Vitani immediately dropped him with a
thud. "Not particularly graceful,
but beautiful. Do you want me to
walk?"
Vitani stood in front of Ujono with
her mouth and eyes wide open. For the
longest time, there was nothing but silence, until Vitani spoke up again. "You were listening?" Then she thought harder, looked even more
shocked and posed another query. "Beautiful? What are you talking about?" She began walking beside him towards the
water hole.
"I really don't want to creep
you out, but I've been watching you for a long time."
"Watching me? What do you mean?"
"Well, while you were living in
the Outlands, I was living in the plains, and while they are infinitely more
fertile, there's really no other lions living there. Decent lairs are near impossible to find, and when my mom left, I
really had no other option than to find ways to keep myself amused. My prime activity? Watching the outlanders.
I know everything that's happened to you since you were..."
"Hey, it's okay."
Ujono shook his head. "I didn't mean that. I was just thinking about Zira, your
mother."
"Oh." Vitani's head drooped a little as she
walked. "It's alright, I
guess. Like her name, you know? Full of hate to the very core. It's what killed her. I just....I just wish she had..." Though she tried with all her might to force
them away, tears pushed their way out of her eyes and rolled down her
cheeks. As the two came to the watering
hole, they both just walked out into the center, Ujono watching Vitani, and
Vitani fighting off her tears.
"That she had lived to be a
part of all this..." Ujono
carefully wiped away one of her tears, and flicked it off into the water. "I'm so sorry, Vitani. I didn't mean to bring it all
back..." He was interrupted as
Vitani suddenly pushed her face forward and licked the side of Ujono's face.
He started, craned his neck back a
little, looked at the tear-stained face of Vitani, and smiled at her. Then he leaned forward and returned her
kiss. As he licked her neck, and she
his ear, she whispered to him, "Thank you, Uji."
"You're welcome," he
whispered, and nuzzled her lovingly.
Suddenly, they heard a cough, and
they simultaneously turned their heads toward the edge of the hole, and saw
Kiara looking very nervous. Vitani immediately
scampered out of the pool towards her princess. "It's not what you think," she said.
Kiara replied, "It doesn't
really matter what I think. I'm only
here to have a word with Ujono."
Vitani nodded nervously and ran back to Pride Rock, still scared about
her princess's thoughts.
"She was being honest. I was just comforting her."
"I'm not questioning her
integrity, Ujono. But to humor you, I
can tell there was a little bit more than that," she said. "But that's beside the point."
"What is the point, my
princess?"
"It's Kiara, Ujono. Well, with the recent death of Rafiki, a
void was left in my father's staff. His
most trusted advisor and his shaman are gone..."
"And you heard about my
shamanic abilities and wanted me to take the job?"
"Well, yes."
"I only have one problem with
the issue."
She flashed him a quizzical
look. "What is it?"
"The fact that you're lying to
me." He smirked. "Right?"
Kiara's face spread into a wide
grin. "Yes, I'm afraid I am to a
degree. The truth is I know nothing
about your past, your abilities or anything...but I was impressed by your
lightheartedness when afflicted with the wounds you received. The wounds, which...frankly, I can't find
now. I guess you really are a great
shaman."
"Well, I'm not as good as
Rafiki by any means, but I can fix a couple of scrapes here and
there." When he went to laugh, he
was met with a serious look on Kiara's face.
"Tell me the truth, Ujono. Did you really get hurt, or was this some
kind of act to meet Vitani?"
Once she had finished her query,
Ujono loosened up his joints and held the two prime claws of his front right
paw in front of Kiara. Then, he slowly
pushed both the tips of both claws into an invisible slit in his side. As she watched with curious eyes, he parted
his fingers a little, showing the sheer depth of his gash. "Do you see the white at the
bottom?" Kiara nodded. "Do I have to tell you what that
is?" He pulled out his fingers
quickly, and the gap sealed with a quiet, yet sickening noise.
Kiara looked a little green. "Okay, okay...I believe you
now."
"But does this little visit of
yours have anything to do with Kovu taking you aside?"
"You saw that, then?" She let out a tired sigh. "He thought that you were being far too
friendly with me and that I was returning the sentiment. I told him that it was common courtesy, and
if he didn't want to believe it it really wasn't my problem. It shut him up pretty good, but I'd like to
show him that he's being an idiot. I
want you to be my father's tactical advisor and shaman and my own personal
bodyguard."
Ujono thought for a moment before
replying. "I'll take the first
two, but the last one I'm going to avoid.
I dunno how much Kovu dislikes me, and I don't want to stir him up too
much. As for our conversation, you're
right about it, and Kovu has nothing to worry about."
"Good, because if I'm wrong
about you, and you turn out to be one of those kind of lions, I have no
problems with running you out of here myself." She turned around and began to walk back to Pride Rock.
"Agreed." He called after her. "Anything else, Kiara?"
"Ah, yes, there is one
thing." She turned around to face
him again. "None of us believe
that you fell and the mere impact ripped those kind of gashes into you. The pride was trying to come up with various
theories, and Timon offered up the funniest answer. I'm assuming he saw a rogue and had a bit of a hallucination, you
know?"
"No, I don't know...what did he
say?"
"He said that Scar was behind
it all." Ujono coughed loudly.
"Scar?"
"Yeah, you were really young
when he was killed, and I wasn't even born yet, but he took the throne from my
father after killing Mufasa. Died a
long time ago, though, and it's not like he would've survived out there. No one would've taken him in after all
that." As Kiara turned to leave
for a second time, she called to Ujono.
"You coming back?"
He just shrugged. "I need to work some more on these
wounds, and the stuff I need is back in my old lair, but I'll get there when I
can. You go on ahead." And with that, he dashed off to his old home
in the plains.
By the time Kiara returned to Pride
Rock, the sun had gone down, and the sky had begun to get rather dark, so she
made her way into the main lair and curled up with Kovu, who was lying
alone. Upon feeling her warm body
pressed against his, he wrapped his arms around her, curled up tight with her,
and kissed her on the top of her head before falling asleep, almost
simultaneously with his mate.
Since the recent acquisition of Zira's
pride, Simba's pride had grown tremendously, and thus, the lair was full. Everyone had their places. Simba slept with Nala and Kiara with Kovu. Sarabi and Sarafina, being the two elder
lionesses, had honorary places.
Original members of the pride also slept in the lair. Though the Outlanders were permitted to
sleep in the main lair, many of them opted for sleep on the ledge, as they were
more used to sleeping underneath the night sky, then in a comfortable
nook. Vitani typically slept on the
ledge, but Ujono was, unusually, never found asleep. The only other real option, aside from a small ledge on the top
of Pride Rock called Suicide Peak (as a king ages ago, swamped with territorial
disputes, disagreeable lionesses, and murderous children had thrown himself
from the very top when his stress culminated in no other way out), was the lair
behind the main one. However, this lair
had become an unspoken taboo, as its most famous resident had been the
Pridelands most infamous character.
During these days, it was a common dare among cubs for one to go back to
the lair, use his claw to carve his name on a rock, and run back. However, when Scar had actually returned
there to spy on Kovu and Kiara during the Outlander-Pridelander conflicts, the
walls remained untouched. The only
non-lions allowed in this lair were those affiliated with the royal
family. Rafiki had always been permitted
to stay there, but he had always declined.
Zazu had a nest near the ceiling of the lair. And of course, there were the alcoves of Timon and Pumbaa.
Timon was the only one in the lair
not sleeping at the time. His thoughts
kept flipping between Scar's words, Ujono's anguish, Simba's denial, Kiara's
laughter, and memories of his best buddy.
He tried to justify himself by telling himself that he did the right
thing, but he couldn't help feeling bad, like he'd killed his best friend...
"This isn't helping at
all. I'm just depressing
myself." Timon straightened
himself, hopped off of his alcove, and walked out of the cave into the night
air. He rubbed the fur on his arms with
both hands, trying to keep himself a little warm. "Man, I need to stop dwelling on this. This is totally out of my hands. He said Pumbaa would be returned tonight if
I did right, and I just need to give it time.
The night's barely begun."
"Timon?"
Upon hearing his name from below
him, the meerkat immediately peered over the edge of the rocks. He looked into the darkness beneath the
ledge, and so as not to wake the outlanders, he called clearly but quietly,
"Pumbaa?"
The voice wheezed out equally
quietly. "I'm hurt, Timon. Can you help me?"
Timon could barely contain his
excitement. "I'm coming,
buddy!", he called out, a little bit louder than before. He immediately started bounding down the
rocks towards his friend, who was in the grasses below. As Timon descended further, Pumbaa continued
to talk to him, leading him into the tall grass some distance away from the
actual monolith. When Timon finally
caught up to his buddy, he was lying on his belly, looking extremely listless,
and covered with wounds. He caught
sight of a few drips of blood coming from a seam in his side. "Pumbaa? What did they do to you?"
Suddenly, Timon felt the ground
shift, and herd the sound of nails dragging through the ground. Pumbaa slowly began to stand up, but after
standing up, he kept rising, up on a cloud of darkness until he was towering
over Timon, and looking down at him diminuitively. A pair of claws reached into the warthog's nostril, and peeled
the cleanly skinned pig carcass from the creature's skull, immediately causing
two green eyes to glint in the moonlight, a glimmer quickly followed by that of
white teeth below. "The
question," the creature posed, "is what did you do to him?"
"Why did you tell Simba,
Timon?" Ujono walked up from
behind Timon and faced the grinning, glowing animal whose mane fluttered in the
wind. "Was it worth it? Was the pain you're feeling now worth
Simba's safety?"
Timon was in a haze of tears. It was bad enough for him to know about the
disappearance of Pumbaa, and worse still to know of his death, but to see his
corpse, know who committed the act, and be unable to do anything about it, that
was the ultimate injustice. "Ujono,"
he squeezed out, "I wish I could help you. I'd love to wreak my own revenge on this ancient murderer, but
you know I can't. When you're killing
him, please...don't hold back any pain.
He's made me suffer more than I ever could."
"Timon..." Ujono paused and sat down. "How could I kill him? After all, ancient murderer or no, he is my
uncle." When Timon turned to face
him with a look of disbelief, he was met with the same glinting eyes (only a shade of blue) and another set of
glimmering white jaws, all looking down upon him. He looked back and forth between Scar and Ujono, between old and
new generations, and the more he looked the less he could tell them apart. The same midnight mane, the same beard, the
same physique, Ujono just needed the mark.
Timon picked up a nearby stone and hurled it at Ujono's left eye. With a twist of his head, the lion knocked
it out of midair with his maw.
"Then what was that huge show
you put on for the pride back there?
Your wounds, your blood...was any of that real?"
"Some of it was mine...but most
of it belonged to your friend."
"But...why us?"
Scar answered. "Why not you, Timon? You two were the main reasons that Simba
survived his time in the wilderness. If
not for you, he wouldn't have come back, I wouldn't have been deposed, and my
family wouldn't be dead now."
Timon's pupils disappeared into his eyes. He understood what it was all about.
The meerkat clenched his fists at
both sides of his body and looked down at the ground. He knew there was no escaping his fate. "Just go ahead, you demons.
I hope you choke."
As Scar laughed, Ujono carefully
wrapped his paw around Timon, hoisted him up, and tossed him into the air, so
that for a few moments, he was parallel to the ground. During this moment, both lions chomped their
jaws onto his midsection, bit down, and pulled. With an unusually loud snapping noise, the animal was split in
two, and then devoured by both, almost without any chewing.
A couple moments later, Ujono was
sitting, staring down at a sliver of blood-soaked bone, one of Timon's
vertebrae. Looking at it, he could
almost see what he had just done. The
feel of his flesh in his mouth, the sound of the snap, and worst of all, the
kicking of his feet as they went down his throat...they were haunting him. Timon had, by nature, been a cowardly
creature, but in death he had been at his most brave. It made Ujono feel like a coward himself.
Meanwhile, Taka was busy licking the
last drops of meerkat from his lips. He
didn't want to miss a single drop, and the sight of it was more than Ujono
could take. And to make matters worse,
his side was really beginning to hurt now...there was only one way to handle
this. "Oh, Taka..."
"Yes, Ujo..." The old lion was cut short as he was cuffed
hard in the face by the younger. Caught
completely off guard, Taka rolled a good distance and ended up on his
back. Ujono approached him cautiously.
"Are you absolutely
insane? First of all, I'm absolutely
disgusted by what we just did. That was
a repugnant way to kill a creature, no matter how you feel about them." Ujono stood above his uncle's body and
yelled in his face. "Secondly,
were you really trying to kill me earlier?
You cut me to the bone, Scar! To
the bone! Do you know how much this
hurts?"
Taka's eyes suddenly snapped
open. "Yes, I do." He immediately sprung an arm out and grabbed
Ujono by the throat. The strength of
his uncle's grip caught him by surprise and he found himself flailing like a
toad as his captor kept speaking.
"The answer to your first question is yes. I am wholly mad. I don't doubt my madness for a second, but it is this same
madness that has increased my strength, my will, and mostly, my awareness. I admit that I got caught up in the
adrenaline of the moment when dispatching Timon, but I didn't see you struggling
to stop me."
Ujono hissed as he tried to pry
Taka's paws from his throat. "Why,
you..."
"And as for your wounds,"
Taka continued, "the same idea applies.
Just getting caught up in the moment.
But these sort of discussions trouble me. I wonder if you're strong or smart enough to keep up with
me. If your mind is so weak, that'll
you give up and run to Simba, crying for help, abandoning us like your mother did." The scarred lion grinned evilly.
Upon hearing this remark, Ujono
ceased the effort to release himself and placed both paws firmly on the sides
of Taka's head. He then bared the
longest claw on each paw, and pointed them into Taka's temples. "My mind isn't so weak that I can't
take you down. If you squeeze any
tighter, I'll push my claws together until they touch, and not even a cockroach
like you could survive that. I don't want
to die, and I don't want to kill you, but if you continue to push towards the
former, I'll be more than happy to oblige."
His threat was met with a
laugh. "Go ahead! Kill me!
Then you can take full responsiblity for killing those two! Unlike you, I don't fear death. But for the sake of my memory, I'm ready to
leave you with a nice souvenir."
"I'll kill you first."
"Kill you? I'm not planning on killing you! There's so many more fun things you can
do. Maybe before you proceed with your
plan, you should look for my other claws." Ujono darted his eyes from side to side and all around, until he
looked down and figured out what Taka was talking about.
"You wouldn't..."
"You should know better than
anyone, Ujono. Yes, I would! It'd be lovely! You could shave off your mane and your tail tuft, and you could
be known as lioness Ujono. You could go
hunting, take care of the cubs, share gossip...who knows? Maybe Simba would take you on as a
mate!" Taka began laughing
hysterically. So much so, in fact, that
he was completely caught off guard when Ujono kicked him in the chin.
As Ujono broke free of the grip and
massaged his cramping neck, Taka clutched his head, screaming in agony. "First rule of fighting, Scar. Never lower your guard," snapped
Ujono. Immediately, however, he noticed
that Taka was also laughing.
"Perfect! You were absolutely perfect! I knew that you were the right one for this
job! I had my doubts, but now, I'm
absolutely sure that I made the right choice!"
"What are you saying? Are you saying that all that was..."
"A test! Yes, it was! And you passed with flying colors, Ujono! I admit, I saw the claws to the brain
coming, but that kick....that was so impressively done!" Taka continued to laugh for a short period
of time, before he was able to relax enough to talk seriously. "Back to business, Ujono. We have more work to do."
Ujono scowled as Taka walked
away. "You piece of..."
"I'm sorry, you guys",
said Ujono as he walked up to Pride Rock where all the lions and lionesses were
gathered in a circle, talking. "I
didn't mean to worry you."
Simba snarled at him. "Where have you been?"
Taking two steps back, the young
lion replied, "I went back to my lair to get some herbal remedies for my
wounds. When I got back there, I
realized how comfortable it was, and I decided I might as well spend the night. I'm really sorry if you were worried."
"Why should we believe
you?"
"Why shouldn't you? What's going on?"
"Timon's disappeared,"
interjected Nala, pushing past Simba so she was face to face with the
black-maned lion. "Please tell us
you had nothing to do with it."
"I had nothing to do with
it! Do you think that I would have
anything to gain by hurting Timon?"
"I don't know if you did,
Ujono. But I'm having a hard time
trusting your excuse."
"I'm not a liar, old man."
"What did you just say to
me?"
"Stop this!" Kiara ran in between the two quarreling
lions and switched gazes between both.
"This fighting isn't going to accomplish anything. What we need to do is do our utmost to find
him. There's probably a perfectly
reasonable explanation for this, and fighting isn't going to help him show
up."
"I think we should split
up. We each take a different
area," said Ujono.
Kovu came forward. "You'd like that, wouldn't you,
Ujono? Who else you gonna kill?"
Next, it was Vitani's turn. "Geez, Kovu. Just shut up. It's a good
idea."
"I have to agree with you,
Vitani." Then Simba pointed to
Ujono. "But if Timon turns up
dead, we're going to have a little talk."
Ujono nodded. "All right,
everyone...here's the plan..."
So the spots were chosen, one by
one, Ujono laying claim to the area where Timon was last standing before he was
bifurcated. He kept careful track of
the other regions, and helped sort them out.
The region to the west was being investigated by Vitani, the region to
the east by Kovu. Now Ujono knew the
plan that Scar had in store, but he was getting slightly excited about it,
especially after being subjected to Kovu's little outburst.
Thus, after the split, and after a
short period of time, Ujono made his way to the east.
Vitani was getting tired. She had searched her section as much as she
could imagine possible. Unless Timon
was running around, he certainly wasn't anywhere near her. She had tried to amuse herself for a few
moments by throwing rocks around, pretending she was hitting cheetahs in the
head, but the novelty of it all was short-lived. What she needed was some company. So, remembering the way regions were assigned, she began to walk
towards the east.
Kovu knew he had something. He didn't know what it was, but it was
definitely something. He was standing
next to a large monolith, taller than his head, and running down the center was
a slightly dry stream of blood. He
couldn't quite place the animal by the scent of the blood, but he refused to
give up. Standing on his hind legs, he
put his forepaws on the monolith, and put his nose to the stone, sniffing
hard. He was so engrossed in his
investigation that he didn't hear the footsteps coming up from behind him. In fact, he didn't realize anything until a
paw grabbed his skull, and before he could comprehend what to do, slammed his
head into the rock, knocking him unconscious.
Ujono was nowhere in sight. Vitani knew that he had probably gone back
to his lair, for food, or more sleep, or anything that didn't resemble
work. She shook her head. "That is the most irresponsible lion I
have ever known." She smiled as
she opened her eyes slowly, remembering how he had nuzzled her. Then she saw a glint of white on the
ground. It was a piece of bone, too
small to be on anything bigger than a cub, and the blood wasn't old. This was a meerkat bone.
Kovu could feel an itch on his
shoulder when he woke up, and as he instinctively reached to scratch it, he
found that he couldn't move. The spot
behind his head was warm and damp. As
his eyes opened, and his mind came to, he discovered that he had been tied to
the monolith with vines and creepers.
He was extremely tightly bound in all places but his neck. Craning it as much as he could, he followed
the length of the vine to his left side, where Ujono stood smiling, the vine at
his feet.
"I knew it was you."
"Why do you think you're here,
Kovu?" Ujono started to chuckle.
"Oh, so now you're going to
kill me because I know your dirty secret?"
"Annoyingly, no, I'm not. That job falls to someone with a much
stronger grudge against you."
"What are you talking
about?" Ujono raised a paw,
upturned it, and pointed up. Kovu,
humoring this sick member of his pride, looked up.
"Boo!" Scar's face twisted into a horrible grin, as
he laid on the top of the monolith, his eyes staring directly into Kovu's. Though he acted like he wasn't caught off
guard, Scar could see in his heir's eyes that his little prank had had the
needed effect. He slid off the back of
the rock, and rounded the front of it, so that he could face Kovu. "Do you have any idea who I am?"
"If you're who I think you are,
then I'm seeing ghosts. You're supposed
to be dead."
"I'm also supposed to be
sane. But that's not currently the
case."
Kovu, the fear in his eyes
increasing, began to plead. "Look,
I'm sorry. I fell in love with
Kiara. I couldn't kill Simba when I
knew how much it would hurt her."
Scar, enraged, grabbed the vine and
pulled it tight against Kovu's throat, momentarily cutting off his breath as
the old lion hissed into the face of his captive. "It has nothing to do with that, you idiot. Do you know what you did to me?"
Kovu choked on every word. "You killed Nuka! You killed my only son!"
"I thought I...was your
son."
"My son wouldn't have turned
out like you."
"Your son was an idiot. He was unfit for the throne."
Scar's words flew into Kovu's face
with spittle for punctuation. "At
least he died nobly. He died while
trying to pursue a foe. You're going to
die bound and scared. Help me out,
Ujono."
"Gladly." Ujono climbed to the top of the rock, and
held Kovu's head in place, facing forward.
"I hope you realize how much this is going to hurt."
"Please.....don't...."
"Hey, I couldn't stop him I
wanted to. He's completely insane at
this point. If he wants you to die,
you're going to die. And such is the
case this time. Scar?"
"It's Taka, damn you."
"Fine, Taka....time for some
exercise."
Scar nodded and began walking around
the rock. At first, the rope was
loosely draped across Kovu's neck, but as Scar's pace picked up, so did the
tension in the rope. By the time he had
rounded the rock twice, the lion was running, and Kovu was struggling for
air. He desperately tried to release
his paws, but his claws were facing the rock, and only made screeching noises
that would have offended his ears if he weren't in so much pain. He began to twitch violently, and his
screams were shut out by the tightness of the vines. As Kovu spasmed on the rock, Scar made his rounds, and Ujono no
longer needed to hold Kovu's head. He
began experimenting by making small cuts on Kovu's upper body, which, with the
added pressure, began to bleed profusely.
In a matter of seconds, Kovu had passed out, and in a few more seconds,
there came an unusual noise from Kovu's body...the sound of his throat being
crushed.
As Ujono walked back towards his
predesignated search area, he had about a hundred things running through his
head. What was Scar's plan? Was he planning to dethrone Simba? Were all these deaths really necessary? What would he eat for dinner? Would a gazelle be easier to catch than a
wildebeest at this time in the day?
What would he tell the pride that he saw? What would he tell Kiara?
What would he tell Simba? What
would he tell...
"Where have you been?"
He recognized the voice. "Vitani, I could easily ask you the
same question."
"Yes, you could, but at least I
don't have blood on me." Ujono
looked down at his paws. Vitani shook
her head. "It's on your face,
Ujono."
He frantically rubbed his cheek from
where he assumed blood had sprayed from Kovu's gashes. Sure enough, there was indeed a little bit
of blood on his fur. "It's mine,"
he made up.
"Stop lying, Ujono. I know it was you." She reached down with two prime claws on her
right paw and picked up a tiny sliver of bone lying on the ground. "You and I have a lot in common. We're both related to Scar, we're in the
same pride, and neither one of us is stupid." She held out the meerkat's vertebra where Ujono could see
it. "This is your sector, and I
know you're too intelligent to have missed this, and I know where it came from. I just want to know if you killed Pumbaa,
too."
"It....it wasn't my idea."
"W-wasn't your
idea??" She furiously through the
tiny bone at Ujono's face, and though it was too small to provide much of an
impact, the wound to his pride still remained.
"Who cares if it's your idea?
You killed Timon and Pumbaa, and lied about it to the whole pride. Besides that, you have new blood on
you. That's not meerkat blood,
either...who else have you killed?"
Vitani's eyes were no wide with anger, and her breathing was
labored. She looked ready to pounce.
Ujono paused for a moment before
proceeding rather timidly.
"....Kovu...."
"WHAT??"
"Kovu..."
"YOU KILLED KOVU???" She all but shouted these words, so Ujono motioned
for Vitani to keep it down, and though she took her volume down, her anger
remained. "What in the hell is
wrong with you? Someone gets on your
nerves, and you just slaughter them?"
"It's not that simple..."
"Why should I believe you? You've been lying to me the whole time! That whole thing back at the waterhole was
probably just for show...showing off for Kiara to prove that you're not the
psycho that you obviously are!"
She approached him with a certain haste to her walk that made Ujono back
up slowly. "I thought you actually
cared about me, you bastard!" Her
last phrase was punctuated with a cuff that caught the lion very off guard. He stumbled more than he usually would have,
and felt more pain than he would have expected from such a hit.
"It wasn't my idea,
Vitani," he said, while rubbing the sore spot on his face. "I was just following orders."
"Should that matter? You're still killing things for no good
reason."
"It does matter. You don't understand, because you're not in
my place. I owe him so much."
"What do you owe him?"
"I owe him this legacy that
he's come up with. I don't particularly
agree with him, but it's the least I can do...think about it." Ujono waved his paws as he gestured
frantically, trying to explain himself and his uncle. "What are they gonna say about him? What are they gonna say? That he was a kind lion? That he was a wise lion? That he had plans? That he had wisdom? They
won't. They'll just remember the
history that went before. You know what
it's like. You've had to live with a
legend over your head, and be discriminated because of it. I'm helping out him and myself."
A puzzled look was all the answer
Vitani could provide other than "Who are you talking about?"
Ujono took a long sigh, and looked
straight at her. "Your
father."
"That's not funny, Ujono."
"It's not a joke."
"You're right, it's not. It's sick.
I never got to see my father before he died, and you know that. And I don't really appreciate you making
light of that."
"Daughter?" A voice called out from behind Vitani. When she turned around she came face to face
with her father, who had snuck up during Ujono and Vitani's quarrel. For the longest time, all she could do was
stare at something which she was almost sure was a ghost. Finally, after what seemed like ages, she
embraced Taka, who took her into his arms.
"I've never seen you before,
dad."
"I know. I'm glad to see the way you grew up. You're a beautiful young lioness. Zira and I had been hoping for a girl." He stroked her back in a paternal way, one
which he had never gotten to experience before.
She released him from her grasp, and
stood back a little bit, and looked at him with her eyes slightly moist. "Scar..."
"Taka, please."
"Taka...please stop this."
The old lion laughed. "Stop what?"
"This vendetta...this
unquenchable desire for revenge. I
understand it, I really do...but it won't go anywhere, and all it does is rip
apart lives."
He smiled at her. "You just said it right. All I want is to destroy the lives of those
who helped to destroy me and my family.
And I won't stop until I've got my revenge on all of them. You should understand. They killed Zira...your mother, for
goodness' sake!"
Vitani closed her eyes to hold back
tears and began yelling at her father.
"I never claimed that I didn't understand! I just don't think it's right! I think you're wrong, and what's worse, I
think you've gone insane! I think
you've lost your mind, and you're dragging Ujono down with you! I hate to yell at you like this, but I never
wanted to believe that my father was a murderer, and when I see you now, I see
that in reality, he's..." When
Vitani opened her eyes to face him, she found that he was gone. "...gone." While looking at the ground where he had
stood, the tears finally welled up beyond her capacity to hold them back, and
tears rolled down her cheeks. Ujono,
who had just been standing by, walked up to her and placed his hand on her
back.
"You know, I think you're
right. But he won't accomplish what he
wants." He softly rubbed the fur
on Vitani's back. "He's old, weak,
and he doesn't have enough wits left to complete anything. He's gotten by at this point by almost
nothing but luck, and my support, and after we take care of one more, I'm
quitting." Vitani turned and
looked at him, with a look of mixed hatred and grief.
"I know I can't stop you from
doing your 'duty', but I just want you to promise...no more lions, please? If you can promise me that, I'll even vouch
for your earlier deeds, to keep you from getting caught."
"I promise."
"Oh, Ujono...one more
thing."
"Yes?"
"Don't get caught, please? I can't explain falling in love with a
psycho."
If Vitani hadn't been pressed into
Uji's shoulder, looking at the ground, she would have seen a genuine smile
slowly curl up his lip. He leaned down
a little, and licked her forehead.
"If it ever comes to that, and I have to escape...will you come
with me?"
"Yes...I will."
So it was, that at the point and
time of rendezvous designated by Simba, Ujono and Vitani both came running
together, saying that they needed to talk to the king personally, and without
the audience of others. The other
lionesses saw them whispering to the king, and tried to judge the shocked
reaction they saw on the king after they finished talking, but they found it
impossible to understand what could possibly have given Simba such a
start. However, soon after, Simba
called a select few lionesses, including Kiara, to come with him to a place
which Vitani would lead them to. Ujono
was chosen to guard the lair. Kiara
protested.
"I think Ujono should come with
us. He's my appointed bodyguard. Kovu can guard the lair. Give him another couple of moments. He shouldn't be too long."
Simba took a deep sigh, and talked
to his daughter. "Please,
Kiara...I know what I'm doing. We're
doing the right thing." He tried
to fight back his emotions long enough for Kiara to actually see her former
mate before she would have to be told about it, something which would surely
make her hysterical. "Besides,
Zazu's here, right? Zazu! Come out here."
Having just woken up from a nap due
to the hubbub outside, Zazu lazily flew outside and landed next to Ujono. He looked up at Simba and smacked his lips
sleepily. "What would you have of
me, my lord?"
"I want you to help Ujono keep
an eye on Pride Rock. If anything
happens, you fly until you find me, and we'll get there as quick as we
can."
"I'm sure that between the two
of us, we'll be safe, but I thank you for this honor, sire." Zazu gave a quick bow while Simba and the
lionesses walked away from Pride Rock, with Vitani leading the way to
Kovu. Once they were out of sight,
Ujono turned to Zazu.
"First, we should check to make
sure there's no one here."
"Agreed."
"I'll go check in Scar's old
lair real quick. That would be a really
good place to hide, after all." As
he began to walk towards the back section of the rock, he called out to the
hornbill. "Hey, Zazu?"
Zazu jumped into the air and
fluttered in mid-air. "What is it,
Ujono?"
"Be careful, okay?"
Several minutes after Ujono had gone
back towards Scar's old lair, Zazu still thought nothing of it. However, as the time began to increase, so
did the bird's apprehension. More than
likely, Ujono, who was not known as the most responsible lion in the world (why
was he put in charge of Pride Rock?) had just fallen asleep back there.
However, there was another
possibility. It was quite possible that
the creature that was terrorizing the inhabitants of Pride Rock had been running
his operations from that old lair. It
would be a prime location for someone who did not want to be found. No one ever went back there, for fear of
legend and superstition. If there was a
rogue lion, or something somehow worse back there, it could have easily gotten
the drop of Ujono. Ujono might be dead
already. Lying on the floor of that
cold empty lair, a huge gash in his side, lying in a pool of his own
blood...cripes, if Ujono couldn't survive this creature, how could Zazu
possibly escape it?
He quickly shook his head. He was letting his imagination run away with
itself. There was probably
nothing. He quickly, yet hesitatingly,
began his little waddle around the rock, pausing by the entrance, before
finally going in.
Nothing. There was absolutely nothing.
No rogue, no monster, no blood, heck, no Ujono. Where was he? All it was was a large dusty lair. Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted a beetle crawling across
the rocks on the floor. He quickly flew
over to it, and landed behind it.
"Hello, morsel. Come to
Zazu." So saying, he picked it up
with his beak, flipped it into his mouth, chewed momentarily and swallowed.
"Didn't your mother tell you
not to play with your food?"
Zazu nearly gagged. It had been years since he had heard that
voice. He slowly started to turn around
toward the entrance, where the sound had come from. A thin, dark silhouette blocked the entrance.
"Hello, Zazu."
The hornbill gulped the last bit of
beetle. "H-hello, Scar."
"Taka."
"Okay, Taka." Zazu just hoped that the shaking he felt was
only internal. He didn't want to look
too scared. "You're alive."
"More or less." Taka began to slowly approach him, creeping
on the pads of his paws. "Do you
know what I'm here for?"
"I'm pretty sure I do. Any reason you would choose me?" His tormenter just shrugged. "You know, I could probably escape from
you pretty easily. When lions get
older, they have trouble jumping. I can
fly just as easily as ever. You're only
one to evade."
Taka let a smile show on his
face. "You're actually slightly
mistaken, Zazu." And the lion
pointed at the entrance to the lair, where Ujono could be seen standing.
"Please don't take it
personally, Zazu," said Ujono.
"It's only business."
Through his fear, Zazu smiled. "I should have guessed. Oh well." With that, he turned around to face down his executioner, only to
find that he was nowhere to be seen. He
looked around quickly, but to no avail.
So, he turned to ask Ujono, but Ujono had also disappeared. "What in the world is going
on?" He began to walk out of the
lair, but as he neared the exit, he felt something grab his tail, and he was
pulled back inside, where he began screaming.
"Oh good god..." Vitani had known, in concept, what to
expect. However, she never expected
anything like this.
Kovu's corpse was bound to a
monolith, with blood from cuts all over Kovu's head and shoulders soaking the
base of the rock and the crimson mud at the bottom. His neck and throat were crushed, and his tongue was hanging out of
his head, like a panting hyena. His
eyes had glazed over in the open position, so that he seemed to be looking at
everyone with the accusatory look he must have given to Taka and Ujono. Kiara was impossible to talk to, too far
gone. She was past the point of tears,
and she could only choke on every word that tried to get out of her throat. Simba wanted to comfort his daughter, but he
was also taken aback by the shear vulgarity of this crime. Nala vomited. While she was doubled over, sick at the sight of the brutalized
lion, Vitani approached her. She put
her mouth in Nala's ear and whispered to her.
Nala sat back up and gave her a quizzical look, but Vitani simply replied,
"Trust me. It'll be very worth
it." Then she walked away.
Once Kiara had gained what composure
she could, her and Simba and most of the other lionesses made their way back to
Pride Rock. Nala, however, had asked
that she be allowed to walk with Vitani, so they could talk about recent
occurences without further upsetting the new widow. As they walked along, no one said anything. Vitani kept silent, and Nala had no idea
what she was supposed to be saying. She
was confused as to why she was even there, and her confusion wasn't helped when
Ujono came out of nowhere and joined them.
"Aren't you supposed to be
guarding Pride Rock?," Nala asked.
Ujono pulled up next to Vitani and
kept pace with the two lionesses.
"I felt it was more important that I be here for this little
discussion.''
Vitani licked his face. "I'm
glad you're here, Uji."
"What the hell is all
this?" In protest, Nala stopped keeping up with the two, and sat down
where she had stopped walking.
"Ujono is supposed to be keeping Pride Rock safe, and instead, he's
here, kissing you while you lead me to who knows where! I refuse to move further until you tell me
what you called me here for!"
Ujono and Vitani stopped walking and
faced her. Ujono was the first one to
talk. "It's about your
father."
"Your mother never really told
you who he was, did you?"
"Wait a minute...is this some
kind of a joke?"
Vitani grinned. "No joke. We just think that you ought to know."
"Absolutely...it's unfair for
you to live your whole life without knowing."
"They all know...they've just
never told you."
"What are you talking
about? Who knows?"
"Everyone knows, Nala. They all know, but they didn't want to tell
you."
"Tell me what??"
"Your father was more than a
rogue, Nala."
"He was so much more."
Unable to stand it any longer, Nala
dug her claws into the ground and ripped them out in anger, sending small
clouds of dust cascading across the dirt near her hind legs. "Stop tormenting me! Stop playing your stupid head games! Stop delighting in my pain, and if you
really know, tell me who my father is!"
Simba was unapproachable. He had pent himself up in his lair, and
refused to talk to anyone, because he felt like an idiot. Zazu was dead, nothing left but a pair of
blood-soaked wings, and Ujono was gone.
And Nala was out there, with only Ujono and Vitani to keep her
company. She was with the killers, and
there was nothing he could do anymore.
He felt like he had lost all control.
He called over the first lioness who passed near him. "What do you wish from me, Simba?"
"Just..." He stumbled over the words. "What has happened to this pride? When did I lose control?"
The lioness's face twisted into a
cruel, yet horribly familiar grin.
"The moment you let me die."
The face was Zira's. In that
moment, Simba automatically responded with a roar in the face of his tormenter,
who after falling down, had the frightened face of the original lioness. "What....what did...I say?"
For a moment, Simba could just stare
dumbstruck at the scared female. He
tried his best to regain his composure.
"What did you say?"
"I just said that you've
trusted the wrong people....and you roared right at me...are you okay? Did I say something?" Simba sighed.
"No. YOU didn't say anything."
He turned to leave, but was stopped
by the sounds of "mother" coming from the fields below Pride
Rock. He suddenly felt a huge burden
lifted from his shoulders as he realized that the voice belonged to his darling
mate Nala. He ran to meet her at the
base of the rock, but she just ran past him as if he had never even been
there. She ran all the way to the top
with what seemed like only three steps, beating all speed records. Simba saw her go into the main lair, still
calling for Sarafina, apparently to corner her in the lair. Once she made it up there, the commotion
began.
"Why didn't you tell me!?"
"I didn't think it would be
good for you to know."
"Good for me to know?? I have to find out from a murderer instead
of my mom?"
"I was hoping that..."
"Although, you're at least the
mate of a murderer!"
"You keep your mouth shut about
that!"
"Why should I? You've been lying to me for years!"
"Whatever he may have done,
he's still your father!!" Simba
was getting really uncomfortable. It
was bad enough that everyone was dying like flies. Now Nala knew that Scar was her father. Today was not shaping up to be a good day. "You keep your voice down,
daughter! You're creating a
scene!"
"You know what? You know what??" For a second, there was no sound at all
coming from the cave, except for a faint scraping noise. The crowd gathered at the entrance, with
their ears perked up, listening for anything they could pick up from the
debacle. They almost didn't notice as
Nala came out of the cave with a paw full of rocks and flung them into the
crowd with all of her might. Many of
the lionesses immediately brought their claws to their ears, trying to dig out
the pebbles which had lodged into the sides of their heads. Within a couple of seconds, a few of them
had blood on their claws from accidentally slicing themselves in an attempt to
dislodge the painful obstructions. Even
Simba was forced to pull out gravel from the sides of his eyes. His eyes watering, he looked to Nala for
some explanation, but the look in her eyes negated the need for speech. "Don't look at me like that,
Simba. I love you madly, but I feel
more betrayed than I ever have before.
You all need to leave so I can talk to my mother. And if you don't leave, I will do worse to
each and every one of you."
"I wish I knew what I was doing
here." The sun was going down, and
a cold wind was blowing into Ujono's lair, chilling Sarafina. Upon Nala's request, and against hers and
Simba's better judgment, she now found herself in the lair of the suspected
murderer, shivering and worrying that she would be next. What she did know is that Nala would never
trust her again. Possibly anyone. Vitani had told her about Scar, and Vitani
and Ujono were an inseparable pair now, so the odds were not in her favor. At least she would have the satisfaction of
bleeding all over the floor of Ujono's home, although she wasn't exactly
thrilled to breathe her last breath in such a repugnant environment. The air was a stew of different scents that
betrayed a sordid past: hallucinogenic herbs, the smell of dried blood,
medicinal salves (the result of an extensive shamanic knowledge combined with
an inability to keep his claws sheathed), and the lingering smells of carnal
pleasures, like an old fish, hanging in the air since the middle of the
day. In the midst of it all, was an
evergrowing familiar scent, one which Sarafina had become associated with many
years ago. "I have no idea how you
did it, Taka. But you never cease to amaze
me."
"I was kind of hoping for a
better entrance than you gave me."
The old lion emerged from the shadows behind Sarafina and began to
encircle her. "But I am glad to
see you, Sarafina."
"Well, that makes one of
us. Maybe in a normal situation, I'd be
pleased to see you."
Taka let his tail stroke the base of
Sarafina's chin as he walked around her.
"But it's been such a long time?
Surely you haven't forgotten about everything that we had. It was beautiful, wasn't it? Days, weeks, ages spent together in each
other's arms, whispering loving words to each other. Me calling you Sara, you calling me Taka, in our secret little
love. And then Nala...easily the
greatest thing you ever gave me, whether I could call her mine publicly or
not. My darling little girl..."
"What the hell are you talking
about, Scar??"
Scar was taken aback for a second
and backed up before regaining his composure.
"My name is..."
"Yes, Scar, I know what you say
your name is. But it's become obvious
that the Taka I fell in love with has long since died. I felt awful the day Nala was born. I wanted to tell people that it was your
child. But I was too stupid, too
immature, too obsessed with myself. And
I regret it. But that gives you no
right to suddenly emerge out of the ashes and act like you truly cared about
her. Ignoring the time you almost got
her KILLED..."
"I had no idea that she would
have been there!"
"You should've taken it into
account! In any situation, whether you
loved us or not didn't seem to matter to you.
I felt bad about treating you the way I did, so I never mated
again. You went out and found another
lover as if it meant nothing to you at all!"
"Don't you tell me how to live
my life. Zira loved me!"
"I know she did! But did you love her? She had two of your children, and watched
over everything that you were too busy to watch, but did you ever really show
her the appreciation that she deserved?
She was hopelessly devoted to you, and she died trying to defend the
honor of a lion who didn't deserve her!"
Before Sarafina could open her mouth
to make another accusation, Scar's paw flew out and struck her hard across the
face. Caught off guard, she fell
backwards and rolled head over heals before she stopped, coughing and gasping
for breath. Scar, who was as taken
aback as her, stood where he had been for the past few moments, mouth hung open
in shock. "I....I'm
sorry...I..." He didn't get to
finish his apology, as Sarafina rolled over and lunged at Scar, pinning him to
the ground in a matter of moments. Once
pinned, he stared back at his snarling former mate with eyes wide.
"Don't apologize to me,
Scar! Everything that you've done is
unforgiveable! You've betrayed me and
Zira! You've killed Mufasa! And I know that you're behind every death that
Pride Rock has been subject to so far, so stop playing dumb!" Every sentence was punctuated by Sarafina,
who, gripping Scar's shoulders, slammed his back into the rock floor with every
emphasis. Despite this, however, he was
eventually able to develop enough momentum to roll to the side, leaving
Sarafina on his back, and himself in the dominant position.
"Yes! Yes. I killed them. But Scar has done nothing. I am Taka, and I am avenging my life that
was stolen from me. I loved Zira, and I
loved you, but you have no right to tell me how I did or didn't feel about
her! Who do you think you
are?" With this, Sarafina rolled
head over heels, returning to the original position, leaving Scar looking into
her eyes from the bottom of the lair.
"I know because she told me
that you didn't fully appreciate her, TAKA.
She was madly in love with you, and it broke my heart to see her forcing
herself to be blind. I know you loved
her, but you didn't pay enough attention to her, and she was loving enough to
put all that behind her and focus on how much she cared about you. I know that at some point, you used to be
wonderful, and you just changed so much..." She looked down to confirm that he was in fact, listening. He was crying. He reached a paw up and stroked the side of her face.
"I'm sorry."
"I'm sorry, too,
Taka." Taka couldn't help but
think, maybe this is my chance to redeem myself. Maybe I can prove that I can be better than I used to be. That I'm in control of my emotions. Maybe things will be different He licked her nose.
She swiped him across the nose with
her claws, sending three small spurts of blood into a wall already stained with
splashes of blood from a much younger lion.
As she walked away from Ujono's lair
and Scar, back to Pride Rock, Sarafina's bruises stopped hurting. In a rage after her clawing, he had flung
her bodily into the wall, using his long orange body as the catapult. Her feelings were swaying from side to
side. On one hand, she felt like she
had been too hard on him. He might have
wanted redemption. Or maybe he just
wanted Zira back, and wanted to close his eyes and enjoy some more
physicality. Sarafina smiled. "If you can't trust a murderous usurper
of the throne, who can you trust?"
She sighed, and laid down next to a
rock. "Anybody else."
Scar was crying. Not from the pain in his nose, which had
just stopped bleeding, but from the pain that was bouncing around in his
brain. Sarafina was right, but he had
refused to see it. Self-absorbed in his
ill-gotten reign as king, attempting to keep his paw iron, proving that he
wasn't the little runt that had nearly been killed in a wildebeest stampede
when he was a child...he had overlooked the important things: those who
actually cared about him. In his life,
he had mated with three individuals. He
betrayed Shenzi. He overlooked
Zira. He ignored Sarafina. And he cried his eyes out in that dirty
little lair. "What's wrong with
me?"
And as he sobbed, he could feel his
emotions sweep over him in waves. The
wave of sadness, the wave of anxiety, the wave of fear, and as his eyes began
to dry, leaving dark trails down his cheeks, a wave of calm passed over
him. Suddenly, all of his anger, all of
his pent-up angst seemed to be gone.
There was no unnecessary fear, no unnecessary guilt, and no unnecessary
anger...just a desire to make things right.
He was Scar, and would always be.
There was no changing that. Taka
was indeed dead. But as for this newly
cleansed being...what of him? Maybe he
could get....another....chance? Scar
ran faster than he ever had before.
After spending what seemed like ages
lying next to the rock, turning things over in her mind, Sarafina rose to get
up, and heard someone frantically shouting for her to stop. Turning her head, she rolled her eyes upon
seeing who it was. "What do you
want?" she shot back as he came closer to her. "I think we've said all there is to be said."
He swallowed and began. "You have...but I haven't said nearly
enough....you were right."
"Don't feed me this crap."
"I'm serious, Sara. You were right. I've been so busy dealing with my power struggles, that I've
ignored the only things that really matter.
This all ends today. All this
madness, all these struggles to achieve something, it all stops now. I just can't keep living that way if every
mate I'll ever have has to deal with my ignoring them for some reason or another."
"Well, then...why are you
talking to me, then?"
"Because one left ages
ago. Another is dead. You're the only one that I can apologize
to. And I'm deeply sorry for everything
that I've done to you."
"Well, I did some bad things
myself."
"Maybe...but it amazes me how
well you raised Nala without me. I
don't think my presence would have helped.
I think it worked better for her to have her father not even there
instead of there and ignoring her."
"What do you really think of
her, Taka?"
"Despite my problems with the
lineage? She's my first child. And I love her, and the lioness who birthed
her."
Sarafina couldn't help but grin a
little. "I love you too,
Taka." She licked the side of his
face.
"Sara?"
"Yes?"
"Please....call me
Scar." He rubbed his head against
hers, as she purred the best that an aging lioness can. Throughout the night, the reunited lovers
nuzzled and kissed, and before the night was old, they had made love to each
other for the first time since before Nala was born, and fell asleep together
underneath the stars.
"I don't know what you're
talking about!!"
"You were the last one to see
him alive!"
"But that doesn't make me a
murderer!"
Ujono was on the edge of Pride Rock,
facing a traditional pride questioning.
Some lionesses stood underneath the rock, unseen in the darkness, in
case he might try to jump to safety and run.
His main route was blocked by more and by Simba himself, who was
enraged. Vitani, whose looks of concern
didn't escape Ujono's sideways glance, was being guarded by two more. Her turn would come. "All the circumstances point to it,
Ujono! You were the only one not present
during all four murders! And to make
matters worse, you drag Vitani into all of this!" He turned to face her, scowling. "You're just a murderer like everyone
in your family. I should have known
better than to trust the daughter of Scar and Zira."
"Leave her alone." Simba turned around to look at the young
lion. "She never did any of
it. Vitani just stumbled into it all."
"Ujono, no..." pleaded
Vitani. "I'd rather be dead than
live without you."
"You don't mean that,
lover. You could survive without
me." He turned to face Simba
again. "I'm the one you
want."
Simba grinned, pleased that he had
won. His white teeth glinted in black
of the night. "Thank you,
Ujono. It is now my duty to pass
judgment. With everything that's
happened in the past few days, you deserve death. You have earned nothing less than a very public, humiliating
execution." Simba began to slowly
approach the sentenced, backing him into a barrierless corner. "But I'm not like you, Ujono. I don't thrive on bloodshed. I want you to leave this place forever, and
if you want, you can take Vitani with you.
However, if I, or any member of this pride sees you within a day's
distance of Pride Rock after the sun rises and sets three times, they will have
strictest orders to kill you." At
this, he stood on his hind legs and motioned so that all could see him in the
dark. "I want you to see this pathetic
animal, this murderous beast, and hear his sentence. Tonight he has become the most hated creature in our
history!"
"Ujono, you thief! Trying to steal my glory?"
From behind the pack of lionesses on
the ground, a shout came from the slowly fading darkness. As the pride strained their eyes to see the
individual, they saw two figures. One,
a golden lioness with dark eyes, familiar to all the pride. The second, a dark, limping lion with a
dishelved black mane, whose green eyes practically illuminated what was left of
the darkness on their own. His identity
was even more familiar. For the longest
period of time, there was no sound to be heard, just an auditory emptiness,
until, almost all at once, all the creatures around and on the monument began
stirring. Simba, the loudest.
"What....what are you doing
here, Scar?"
"Confessing, Simba."
"What do you mean?"
As Scar began ascending towards the
outlook, the other lionesses followed close behind Sarafina, who flanked her
love as best as she could.
"Simba...Simba...I don't believe that I really have to expalin what
I mean."
"You mean...all of them?"
"Let Ujono go."
"NO. He's a murderer."
"I'm a murderer. Ujono's confused. He didn't want to help me, but I practically forced him to do
it!"
"But why, Scar? Haven't you caused enough pain?"
"You killed Zira, Simba! Kovu killed Nuka! My life was destroyed because of you and your family! What else did I have to turn to but my own
insanity?? I missed the last words of
the one female who had completely forgiven me for the terrible creature that I
was! And I blamed you! And Timon!
And Pumbaa! And Kovu! And Zazu!
You were all responsible, and I wanted you all dead!" As his eyes switched back and forth, he saw
the snarls from all the members of the pride except for Kiara. "I'm so sorry, Kiara. If I could take back what I've done, I
would. I'm sorry, and I don't expect
you to forgive me." Tears began to
roll down Kiara's face, and she found herself unable to be strong in front of
her father, so she ran into the lair, sobbing.
As the sound of Kiara's crying
subsided, a paw stepped foot outside of the lair. Nala looked at Scar with her sea-blue eyes, becoming brighter as
the sun began to rise. Their eyes met,
and it wasn't long before Scar himself was choking back tears. All he could manage was to mouth "I
love you," a statement which was received with a sideways grin, while a
pair of moist eyes signaled its mutuality.
"I love you too," she
mouthed, adding a final word which brought Scar and Sarafina both to
tears..."daddy." As Simba
watched his lover walk back into the cave without any word for anyone but his
hated uncle, he could scarcely contain his disdain. He was suddenly the bad guy, and he hated the feeling of being
the bad guy when compared to a deposed king responsible for the deaths of a
minimum of five of his friends. The
challenge lied in being forceful with someone he was unwilling to trust, no
matter the promises, but while maintaining basic civility.
"Scar...I thank you...for
caring about Nala, for watching over Sarafina, and for this apology...but that
hardly makes up for what you've done."
Thinking quickly, he added, "I hope you're well aware of
that."
"I was...just sort of hoping
that I could start over."
"How is that in my power,
Scar?"
"You're the king now."
"But I have the responsibility
to uphold justice. You need to be
punished."
Scar balked, then started
laughing. "Punishment? What more punishment could I have?"
"You have not received your
punishment for these recent crimes."
"YES, I HAVE, SIMBA! YES, I HAVE!"
"Don't yell at me, Scar."
"I have served my time in hell,
Simba! I watched my son die! I watched my mate die! I lost my mother! I lost my friends! I lost
Nala! I lost everything that I ever
attained during my lifetime, and I don't want to lose anything else! I have nothing anymore!! What can you possibly take from me that I
haven't already lost a hundred times over??"
Then the sun rose, and the light
fell onto Simba, bathing him in an almost golden aura, and making his shadow
stretch forever. "You owe it to
the pride you betrayed."
Staring into the image of this
golden, imposing creature, Scar found himself shaking, and visibly so. The authority, the image...it was as if
Mufasa had returned from the dead. In
between gasps of breath, he choked out the words he wanted to say. "I...only have...one thing left to
surrender..." He began to back
himself against the rocky face of the monument, baring his claws behind his
back as he was forced to rise to his hind legs against the cold surface.
"Scar, what do you mean?"
implored Simba.
"Just let me finish
it...please! I must be
atoned!" And with that, he leaped
into the air...and turned himself around in the air so that he was clinging by
his claws to the Pride Rock's slope.
Before anybody could say anything, he was climbing it with all of his
abilities, wearing his claws down on the slick face. Halfway through the ascension, over all the gasps and pleas for
him to come down, he heard a snap from his front right paw and back left almost
simultaneously, as two of his claws broke off in tight crevices, sending
horrible pains through his entire body.
Despite it all, he continued to climb, fighting against the acid running
through his veins, cramping his entire body, and against the blood dripping
from his limbs, covering the surface with a repugnant sticky feeling. Eventually, he reached the ledge called Suicide
Peak, with intentions to recreate the event that gave it its name.
However, it seemed that despite his
general unpopularity, no one wanted it to end this way for him. Sarafina called down from below him. "Please, Scar...no...not like
this!", she pleaded, hoping that somehow her words would have an effect on
the self-destructive lion.
Simba, against his own better
judgment, followed Scar's path, and leaped onto the rock, a path which was
slightly easier for him, as his claws were stronger, and the scratching of his
uncle's claws had created more traction upon which Simba could hold. "Don't do anything, Scar. I mean it.
Don't let it end like this!"
As Simba climbed, Scar looked down
on him from the small plateau.
"Why shouldn't I, Simba? Do
you honestly believe that I could survive out there alone again? I haven't been on my own since before you
were born, and I know I couldn't handle that now!"
"We could take you back into
the pride! You could return to your old
lair with Sarafina..." As Simba
encountered the blood and sweat near the top, he found it more difficult to
climb than he had expected.
"And exist as a hated
relic? A testament to failures and
misery? I'm not an exhibit,
Simba!! This is the best solution for
all of us, and you know it!"
"Why do you
always...." As Simba attempted to
climb the final steps required to be at the same level as the suicidal old
lion, his rear claws lost their grip, and in a matter of seconds, his hind legs
were dangling behind him, and his massive body was supported only by the grip
in his two front limbs. There would be
no way to climb the rest of the way without Scar's help. He looked up at Scar, who stared back with a
shocked look on his face.
Once again, Scar was being
confronted with an option. Many years
ago, he had put his brother in this same situation. Now on accident, the son who had caused him all his misery hung
there, clinging for his life. The first
time he ever saw Simba like this, he had confessed everything to him, and it
had cost him everything. Now he had the
chance to finally seek his revenge for everything that had happened. Simba was the first one to speak.
"Scar...let me help you. Help me up."
The deposed lion king needed only
moments to think about it, before his paws shot out towards Simba.
Part IV: Atonement
In his head, he visualized digging
his claws into Simba's paws. He
pictured the look of horror in his eyes as he whispered to him "Long live
the king," and he could hear his screams as he flew down to the rocks at
the base of Pride Rock, falling in the middle of a circle of lionesses, who would
all begin screaming at the same time.
But he had done that before. And he was tired of being a villain. So Scar reached out his paws, grabbed the
wrists of his nephew and helped him climb the last few remaining steps on to
Suicide Peak. When Simba was safe at
the top, he panted, getting over his fear, before looking through his hanging
golden mane, at Scar, who had a small, sideways smile on his face.
"Why did you save me,
Scar?" The smile on the face of
the questioned spread across his whole face.
"It's about time I began making
the right choices, nephew. I'm sorry I
was never there for you when you were a cub."
Scar's smile and smugness spread to
Simba. "You know, uncle. I've never really understood you. I don't think we've ever agreed about
anything. But I hope you'll agree with
me on this one...you're really weird."
A chuckle came out of the old
lion. "You have no
idea." Both lions laughed for a
little bit, as shouting came up from the lionesses below. Reminded of the situation, Simba became
serious.
"Do I have any hope of stopping
you?"
Scar just shook his head
slowly. "Do me one favor,
though."
"What?"
He tapped his claw on the surface of
the plateau for a moment, before getting the courage to say something he had
wanted to say for a while. "Take
care of Nala for me."
Simba nodded. "I'll try."
The old lion stretched his
body. "I bet you will. I bet you will." Then, turning his back on Simba, he began to
slowly make his way towards the rear of the Peak, which overlooked his old
lair. As he looked down, he could see
where he spent his entire childhood, and a good distance beneath that ledge,
the round rocks which punctuated the dark green grass. Where his life began, it would be
ended. And he leapt from the plateau.
As he fell down towards earth,
spinning without any heed for where or how he would land, his mind was filled
with the images of his life. Karanga
cradling his head in her paws, as a cub and as an adult. The stampede that gave him his scar. The stampede that killed his brother. The moment the hyenas nearly killed
him. The moment he and Shenzi
discovered the meaning of physical love.
The look in Nala's eyes when she was born, and when she first found out
that he was her father. The words of
love and nights of passion that him and Sarafina had shared together. Simba trying to talk to his uncle. Ujono loving his uncle. Watching Nuka die, watching Nuka be born,
watching Zira get plump with Vitani, watching Vitani walk away with Ujono. And above all, there was Zira. Standing by his side. Watching from the side. Always supporting, always forgiving, and
always loving him. And seconds before
his life was snuffed by the rocks below, he felt Zira's paws on his face,
beckoning his spirit away.
Taka, also known as the untrue King
Scar, uncle of King Simba, brother of King Mufasa, and son of King Thembi, was
given a modest burial at the base of Pride Rock, beneath the lair where he had
lived most of his life. All the lions
in the pride attended the funeral except for Vitani, who along with Ujono, was
nowhere to be found once the commotion began to pass. Their whereabouts are unknown, though within a few years, the
word was that a new pride called the Children of the Mark was being formed in a
distant land.
Kiara mourned for the longest time
over the loss of Kovu, but her wounds eventually healed to an extent, and she
found love again. Her new mate was an
even stronger leader, and he eventually took the throne of King of the
Pridelands. Him and Kiara had twins, a
boy cub and a girl cub, both of whom grew up to be strong and intelligent.
Sarafina attempted to live her life
as she used to, but she found it impossible.
She had brought back the Scar she had loved, only to lose him in the
same day. No one knows the exact state
of mind that she was in during her last days, but after disappearing for many
days, she was discovered in the back of Scar's old lair, curled up in a ball,
not breathing. There was a smile on her
face. Her sister, Sarabi, died out of
grief a few days later.
Nala never completely
recovered. Though her reaction was not
as drastic as her mother's, the effect of having the truth withheld from her
for most of her life caused her to become reclusive, not attending events which
the queen was typically expected to attend.
The only times she ever came out of the lair were to attend the
presentations of Kiara's two children.
The only one she would ever talk to was Simba, who would speak for his
mate at occassions that required his input.
They talked about having another child, but it simply never happened.
As for Simba, he sat back and
watched the deterioration of his pride without any control. Normally, he would have been angry, or
depressed, but the events of his life had now taught him that nothing is made
to last. Their dynasty had been long,
prosperous, and successful, but the time was coming to move on. Once Simba had established Kiara's new mate
as a good, trustworthy leader, he acquiesced the throne, and retired to spend
the rest of his days with Nala. The new
king was one of the greatest leaders that the kingdom had ever seen. Unfortunately, by this time, the numbers of
the pride were negligible, and when Kiara's two children went their separate
ways, it was obvious that the pride was done.
Some lionesses had cubs by rogues, but they inevitably went their own
ways when their progeny were old enough to travel. Eventually, a new, stronger pride came to Pride Rock, and they
took in the four aging lions who were left, asking the eldest male, obviously
the former king, what happened to their pride.
And Simba told them everything.
the end of the
lion king iii
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AUTHOR'S NOTES:
I began writing this fanfiction at
the end of 1998, under the pseudonym of Matthew Sorenson. I finished my fanfiction today, on May 30 of
2003. Almost five years later. It was hardly four and a half years of
consistant writing, but year long writer's block periods punctuated with bursts
of energy. The entire section after
Zazu's death was written during the last two months of my writing. The reason I'm writing these notes is to address
the ending.
My original idea for the story was a
full homage to my favorite character, Scar.
Scar would survive the hyenas, seek revenge for his life on Simba's
friends, and then ultimately kill Simba and become the new king of the
pride. This idea was, aside from being
significantly more gory (threats were written to Simba in Zazu's blood, and
Timon only had his bottom half eaten while the top squirmed and spasmed in a
pool of gore), extremely unrealistic (even for a TLK fanfic). The idea that Scar could randomly murder the
king in front of everyone, and the pride would accept it just didn't work. A nice cynical satire on politics in the
modern world, if done right...but I don't think I could've done it that well.
The second idea was for Scar to come
down with Simba, and live happily with Sarafina in the pride, but be forever
resented. Maybe it makes for a good
image, but its very anti-climactic, and, let's face it, just downright
dull. Thus, the third ending.
As much as I hated killing off Scar,
I thought it was the best chance he would have to redeem himself, as this was
something that he truly wanted in the end.
However, to add an extra touch, and perhaps to feed my own sick
intentions, I penned out the futures for the rest of the pride, in a very
depressing "Stand by Me" ending, picturing the downward spirals of
all involved, as an event in the nature of a mass killing is likely to affect
all people who were a part of it.
I enjoyed writing this fanfic,
generally. It got frustrating at times,
because it sometimes seemed like the one thing standing between me and the
writing I actually want to work on (screenplays, stories, etc.), but as a
whole, I liked further shaping the modern mythology that is "The Lion
King." I'm proudest of my
introduction of the character Ujono, who is very much based on myself. He's a loser who stays a loser, even in his
best moments, but he eventually finds love despite his deviance from the norm
that he is expected to follow. As for
having Scar as a father figure...well, that's just my own sick desire. I'm happy with this work. I am a little depressed that it took me so
long to right, causing me to permanently put aside my ideas for other fanfics,
including movie adaptations of "Reservoir Dogs" and "Dead
Ringers" (substituting TLK characters for the film actors), and a satire
on Hollywood I had planned which focused on the fictional interview between a
reporter and Scar, an out of work actor well paid by Disney to keep his mouth
shut after a messy scandal involving a fight with a paparazzi. I am also rather depressed that the audience
of my last work will be so small (as I
believe it has become too edgy to post on either of the fanfic pages I used to
frequent), but my ambitions were not extremely high for this fanfic.
Well,
not my realistic ambitions anyway. But
then again, "Life's not fair, is it?" Thanks for reading.
- Matthew Sorenson
May 30, 2003
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