One Last Try

I got this idea from a story called 'A Light for everyone' by Alex Draco. The beginning of this story is similar to the beginning of his. However, my story goes in a bit of a different direction. But it was inspired by that story! You should go check it out, it's very well written in my opinion. One more thing. I am using some of Tearthgrrl OC's, just because they really add to the story. Tearthgrrl hasn't added anythig to her profile for three years now, so I figured it would be okay to use some of her OC's. But credit where it's due!

Tearthgrrl OC's:

Maumbu- Eds big brother, a healer, sort of like Rafiki.

Hasina- Maumbu's mate

Anyways, on with the fanfic!

Kiara nuzzled up to Kovu, who was sleeping beside her. It had been a few months since the outlanders had finally relented and joined Simba's pride to end the fatal hostilities. There had been more than one argument between the lions since then, as although they were now officially pridelanders, many of the former outlanders still thought of themselves as a different group. It was a job to try to cool hot heads every single day, and it was wearing Kiara and Kovu down. Although they were in love, even they still had differences that popped up every once in awhile. Fortunately, in the past few weeks many of the pridelanders were able to come up with compromises with the new additions to the pride. But even so, it was slow going. Kiara slowly opened her eyes, unable to sleep. She gazed up at the stars in wonderment, marveling at the many thousands of bright lights twinkling in the dark canvass. The moon was not out tonight, but the savannah still lay bright from the light of the great kings. Kiara always had wondered how the great kings helped her father rule. She supposed that when Simba needed help, the great kings would give advice to him. It made sense that advice from them would be infallible, since they could see everywhere, and had centuries of experience. Well, they could see nearly everywhere. Their light never touched the elephant graveyard. It was as if the great kings were displeased with the hyenas. She was sure that ever since lions had roamed the land, the hyenas were shunted into the graveyard, since the hyenas would always over hunt.

Made tired by her heavy thoughts, kiara decided to curl up, and make one more attempt to go asleep. After a few yawns, she managed to close her eyes, and fell asleep to the sound of Kovu's breathing.

That morning, Kovu got up and stretched, opening his mouth wide and pushing his legs forward. He turned to wake Kiara, but was unsurprised when he saw she was not there. She's probably off hunting, he thought to himself, as he slowly trudged out of the den. Suddenly, he felt a large object jump into him from the side, bowling him over onto his back.

"Pinned ya" laughed Kiara, as she jumped off him and rolled over onto her back, stretching out her legs as she lay there.

"Okay, no fair. You got me by surprise! How was I supposed to know you were lying in wait outside the den!" Replied Kovu as he got back up on his forelegs.

"You weren't, though that was the point" giggled Kiara, as she walked back up to Kovu. "Anyways, you know we have the morning patrol today, so I decided to wake you up faster!"

"Oh no, morning patrol!, I forgot we had that today!" Replied Kovu, as he suddenly remembered the duties they were assigned by Simba yesterday. "We got to get on that!"

"Don't worry Kovu, we don't have to leave for another few minutes, we can still quick grab a bite to eat first."

"Well, I just don't want to disappoint Simba, if I'm late for a patrol, he'd chew me out!" Worried Kovu, as he nervously bounced up and down.

"Well, I don't think you have anything to be worried about, besides, even if you got in trouble, I would get you out of it! After all, I am his daughter. I bet I could smooth talk him or something" said kiara, as she turned around and started to walk towards pride rock. Kovu quickly followed.

After a few minutes of silence, Kiara got bored. She tapped Kovu on his shoulder, and before he could ask what she wanted, she blurted out, "race ya there!" as she took off sprinting towards the rest of the pride.

"You're not getting away that easily!" Yelled Kovu as he raced to catch up. Despite his best efforts, Kiara had a huge lead, and by the time he finally reached pride rock, she was already sitting there, licking herself and feigning boredom.

"Well, slowpoke, what took you so long?" She teased.

"You, huff, didn't ,huff, give me a chance!" Replied Kovu, as he was gasping for air.

"Well, it's not my fault you are just really out of shape", teased Kiara."I thought life in the outlands was tough! I thought you had to train and do exercises all day" giggled Kiara

"Its , huff, its, been awhile". Kovu gasped out, as he lay down.

"Well, hurry up, or we'll be late to receive our patrol!" Laughed Kiara, as she bounded up the rocks to the den where Simba awaited them.

Shenzi was starving. They all were. Ever since the hyenas had been chased out of the Pridelands after the death of King Scar, they had been forced to lay low in the Elephant Graveyard, hiding from the vengeful pridelanders and outlanders. Not once in the last three years had a single hyena left the Graveyard, and very few dared to make their homes outside of the deepest ravines and caves among the bones. Even now, three whole years later, there were only fifty hyenas left in her clan. Their numbers had never recovered after the fateful fire at Pride Rock, and the food situation prohibited any growth. Most food that was found came in small increments, like a stray mouse, or perhaps a dying bird that was unfortunate enough to land in the Graveyard. But no matter how hard they tried, they never could find enough food to feed themselves. Pups whimpered at their mother's bellies, unable to satisfy their hunger. And not a month went by when an older hyena didn't die from a disease he was too weak to fight off. Shenzi knew if they didn't do something to improve their situation soon, her entire clan would soon die off. But they were fenced in. The Outlands were little better off in food, the Pridelands were filled with hostile lions, and a desert surrounded the back end of the Graveyard. There was nowhere to go, and even if they attempted a desert crossing, they were so weak, Shenzi doubted they could walk for more than a day or two. Her ribs were showing, and she had circles under her eyes from lack of sleep. Unfortunately, she hadn't been able to get to bed lately, as she had been up for the past four days, desperately trying to find some sort of food for the hungry pups in her clan. She hadn't even eaten for the past eight days, her last meal being the leftovers of a dead hawk Banzai had found. So it was slowly and carefully that she made her way down to her den, to try to find Ed and Banzai and try to convince them to go try to find some food with her. They were both hungry and tired as well, and probably just wanted to get some sleep. Sighing, she entered the cave in which most of her hyena companions were living.

"Hey, Banzai! Come here!" Ordered Shenzi, as she spotted him trying to sleep on a flat stone, which lay next to two active steam geysers. The geysers were good for warmth, but the water that boiled within them was too hot to try to drink, and was poisoned by some sort of green algae. The steam itself was safe to breath, but the water had proved deadly in the past. To drink the water from the geysers even after it had cooled off was very risky.

"What is it Shenzi?" Replied Banzai sleepily, as he slowly trudged over to where he was called. Just like everyone else, his eyes were sunken in, and his skin rubbed up against his bones as if he had never even seen a meal in his life.

"Stop sleeping already! We gotta get get some food to fill up Maumbu's stores!" Replied the exhausted matriarch. Maumbu was the healer in the clan, if anyone had an ailment, they would go to him. He had been briefly taught by Rafiki, and had some extensive knowledge on how to cure headaches and other pains. However, lately his main problem were the stomach aches. All he could ever do about that was give the patient food. His food stores took priority due to his important duties, but even they were running dangerously low.

"Yeah yeah, just give me a moment, my stomach hurts. Nothing I can do about that though… It feels as if I swallowed an empty sack, and it's bouncing against my ribcage." Grumbled Banzai. "Well,,,,,, let me go get Ed". Banzai turned around slowly and teetered off to find where Ed was sleeping. Shenzi grumbled to herself. She had a would have had a stomache ache as well, but she had grown so used to having so little food, at this point the pain was barely even noticeable. However, she still needed to be fed. She could feel the lack of nutrients taking its toll, as she was hardly able to walk without getting dizzy. Perhaps she shouldn't have given all her food to starving pups. But she felt those pups took priority over her, she was the leader after all, and she had to protect her clan whatever the cost, even if it meant depriving herself of food.

"Ugh,,, hurry up Banzai!" Shenzi muttered. The male hyena had been gone for a few minutes,and she hadn't seen him or Ed return yet. Just then, she heard sputtering giggle behind her. "Oh, hey Ed" she said, as she turned around to meet the one hyena who would find their current situation humerous. Of course, he found everything humorous, he could never stop giggling his demented sort of laugh. Ed sputtered again, this time to signal the approach of another hyena.

"I couldn't find Ed Shenzi!" Maybe he's over by the red geysers again or something."

"Actually, Banzai, it seems you were too slow" smirked Shenzi, as she stepped aside to let Banzai see their laughing partner.

"Oh, there he is. Why didn't you tell me he was there in the first place? I could have avoided nearly tripping into a crevice on my way back here." Replied Banzai, as he rolled his eyes.

"Because, Banzai, he just showed up. Now come on, we have to help Maumbu get some more food to give to his patients. Goodness knows they need it." Said Shenzi.

"Yeah, well how about you? I haven't seen you eat anything in days Shenzi! I mean, look at you, you're even thinner than the rest of us, and that's saying something! Come on, if we catch anything, you should be the one to eat it." Said Banzai, with a bit of a worried look on his face.

"No Banzai, I'm fine. I really don't need anything right now, really." Although the sudden bout of dizziness that overtook her at that moment was telling her otherwise. Banzai watched Shenzi wobble a little bit with her eyes half closed. Shenzi knew her argument did not look very convincing.

"Come on Shenzi, promise that whatever it is we catch, you will be the one to eat it. We can't have our Matriarch die from hunger you know." Retorted Banzai. Shenzi sighed. She knew he was right, but there were pups who were starving that needed that food! However, she had to eat sometime.

"Alright fine. You win. Now can we get a move on here!" Replied an agitated Shenzi.

They all turned towards the cave mouth, and trudged towards the exit.

Well, that's the first chapter! I hope you enjoyed it. This is my first fanfic, so please try not to flame. Constructive criticism accepted!