AN: This has been circling my mind every time I hear the Lion King soundtrack and/or watch the movie. As you all know, Lion King belongs to Disney, not me.
Summary: We all know how Simba's life was while growing up, but what was life for the Hyenas like after Scar took over?
"'That lion will bring nothing but death to us all!' Was what my mother would say while she was still alive. She meant Scar of course, not Mufasa; Mufasa respected the Circle while Scar scoffed at it. At first I had scoffed as well, but I saw the truth eventually. Perhaps if I had seen it sooner it wouldn't have happened. We, the hyenas, had lost our pride of what we are no thanks to Scar. I was almost ashamed to be called a hyena in those dark times.
Am I confusing you little ones? Sorry, let me start from the beginning."
A Hyena's Eye View
[It was an honest life, we hunted. But more often than not we stole the kills of others, especially the cats, when they weren't looking. There was nothing personal about it, it was survival and all who lived in the savannah understood that. The cats, especially the lions, called us stupid, slobbering, mangy poachers. We called them hairy, pushy, smelly, ugly fleabags. It was simply the dislike of another predator. For some of us though, it was personal, especially for Shenzi, Bonzai and Ed. Those three held grudges like nobody's business.
But everything changed when Scar started rallying us all together against Mufasa and those of Pride Rock. Mother disliked him on sight and warned myself and my brother to stay away from him.
My brother and I were young and foolish, we followed him. Shenzi, Bonzai and Ed were the closest to Scar, he favoured them to do his dirty work. Everyone in the savannah knew Scar disliked his brother Mufasa, but they never thought he would stoop to what he did. It was only when Simba was born that Scar began plotting to kill them both.
'Mufasa's boy has broken what little hold on sanity Scar had.' That's what mother said. 'The Circle is a delicate thing, Scar is messing with things he does not understand. That lion will bring nothing but death to us all!'
My brother and I scoffed openly at her.
I think it was the graveyard fiasco that made my brother and I re-think our loyalty to Scar a little. Sure, we hyenas are not above stealing the occasional, unwatched cub. Survival of the fittest is what it was called. But Scar, this was deliberate. He set them up to be eaten. It was almost unheard of to plot the murder of one of your kind, even at our age we knew that the young were the future of a species.
We were shaken up when Scar actually went through with it, we watched the whole thing from a cliff ledge.
After that, he promised us endless meat. Something that couldn't be accomplished. Mother, my brother Jamal, and I tried to leave. But Shenzi caught us and told Scar.
Mother stood proud against him, she didn't fear the insane lion. Of all of us, mother was the strongest. She was strong even as Scar's teeth pierced her throat, choking her on her own lifeblood; she had the last laugh though, seconds before she died she spit blood into his eye and told him: 'You will die not by lion fangs, but by Our Jaws!'
Jamal and I cringed as he licked his muzzle free of mother's blood and turned his unbalanced gaze to us.
'I trust there won't be a repeat of this?'
Our tails slipped between our legs and we whimpered.
'Good.' And just like that he stalked away.
I believe mother would be proud to know that her death showed the truth to several others, that Scar didn't care for our lives. We became a small pack, only trusting each other and staying in the shadows. We weren't noticed, not when Scar, Shenzi, Bonzai and Ed had to keep an eye on all the others, even though they're loyal to Scar.
It wasn't unusual for all of us to leave for some time to fill our bellies, we weren't dependant on Him for that, yet.
However Shenzi, Bonzai and Ed did depend on Him for scraps of food, they begged him for it! It was disgusting! What was our proud species coming to? To stoop so low as to want a lion to feed us, provide our food when we were perfectly capable of hunting?
That day . . . it will haunt my dreams for as long as I live. Bonzai found us leaving and forbade us to, saying Scar was calling for us. One of our small band, Himbali, snarled at him; saying that we were hungry. Bonzai smirked and told us 'Chill out, by moonrise we'll have all we could ever want to eat. The boss has a plan.'
We were horrified when He told us what was going to happen, how he was going to become King of Pride Rock. I was almost as horrified when the others of our small band, especially Jamal and Himbali, turned to me for answers, made me the leader of our endeavour to stop Scar from becoming King. They had seen mother as a leader, now that she was gone they saw me as her successor.
'We can't stop him, not alone. If we openly oppose him he'll kill us and then there would be no one to stop him. So we must work from the shadows.' Our . . . rather My small pack murmered in assent to my words. We were greatly outnumbered in our quest. A plan was forming in my head, so much could go wrong with it but I had faith in mothers words, 'The Circle will always prevail.' and so I trusted in the Circle of Life for the first time in my short life. Besides, it was the only plan that had a chance.
'We can't stop the stampede once it starts. Mufasa will give his life for his son. We can only try to make sure that Simba survives the aftermath. Scar won't risk killing Simba himself with the rest of the pride so near and on their way to the gorge. No, he'll make Simba run and send Shenzi, Bonzai and Ed after him.' I paused, letting my words sink in. 'Himbali, Natalie; follow the stampede. When those three shames to the Hyena name start the chase, use whatever chance you get to drive Simba to the western border. Jamal, Rinjani, Shamin, Sora, and Payne will patrol the western border until Simba arrives. Whoever sees him first will follow him at a distance and make sure he reaches a jungle that's several days travel in that direction. Stay there and keep an eye on him, make sure he grows strong. But don't be seen! The rest of us will stay here and . . . think of a way to get him back here when he's grown. Good luck.'
A wind ruffled my fur and I sent a prayer on it, a prayer to whoever would listen to it that this would work.
Of the five I told to follow Simba, Rinjani didn't return. I had correctly predicted what Scar's insane mind would do. Now all we could do was wait and plan the true King of Pride Rock's return. The lionesses weren't given the chance to properly mourn, for Scar and the rest of us, excluding myself and my small pack of rebels, had ordered them to hunt for all of us.
Then the dry season came, and all the herds left.
There was nothing for the lionesses, or us, to hunt.
The Pride Land became the Shadow Land and we began to slowly starve. There was no rain, no sun, dead grass and bones crunched under our paws. Now when two of us fought, the loser did not walk away in defeat, the loser was killed. I had inadvertently found myself in one of these fights and lost an ear while I was forced to kill my opponent to stay alive and lead my small pack. I did not stoop to the level of the others and eat my opponent's flesh. Slowly our numbers fell in this manner and I decided it was time for me to gather what was left of my followers and leave to find Rinjani and Simba for in the past month Natalie, Shamin, Torvald, and Tessie have fallen along with many of us in the fights.
My pack and I slipped off into the darkness in search of a ray of hope located from the west. I didn't see the lioness following until she spoke up.
'I know you, you hunt on your own. You all aren't like the other hyenas. Where are you going?' I turned to face her. 'To find help.' I said. 'I've heard rumours of a lone lion in a jungle west of here.' She became familiar to me then, this was Nala, Simba's friend.
'Why?'
'Look around you Nala, there is nothing here but pain and death. My pack and I are leaving to find this lion and to get his tawny rump over here to challenge Scar.'
'I'm going with you.' We gave her a startled look. 'Look, I've got the best chance of convincing a male to fight for Pride Rock.'
I nodded, and we began to lope into what would be the sunset if the cloud cover would break. I'm sure we made a strange sight, one lioness and fourteen hyenas.
Nala had taken off when the jungle came into view and had vanished into it. That was fine with us, she would have to find Simba on her own while we melted into the background, forgotten. Again fine with us, our job was accomplished. We would regain our strength and with Rinjani with us once more return to Pride Rock for the final confrontation.
The next day, Simba left and we followed. But the two cats were too fast and left us in the dust.]
"I don't know what happened exactly, but mother's word had come true. We had arrived in time to see the others rip Scar apart and see Simba take his rightful place as King. My pack and I retreated to the northern border. Occasionally we find a large chunk of meat but we never see who leaves it.
If you were to ask Simba his story, he would tell you something different. Nala hasn't told him about our involvement because we asked that of her. Today little ones I pass this story onto you so it is not forgotten and the past is not repeated.
The pups left after my tale, I stood from my lying down position and stretched to loosen my stiff limbs.
The wind changed and brought several new scents to my nose. I whirled to face them. There stood Rafiki, Simba, Zazu, Nala, and Sarabi.
'I'd wondered about the two hyenas snapping at my heels, but I never thought . . .'
'Of course you didn't. That was the way it was planned. We wanted you to survive. But since you've been eavesdropping you obviously know about our intervention. I take my leave of you now.' I interrupted before walking away, my good ear twitching at his roar to come back. Easily I ignored him, it was for past time for the status quo to return to what it should be."