Night had fallen over the broken earth of the Desert of Bones. The soft light from the moon made the ground barrable to walk on; snakes came out of hiding to lie under the white glow to cool off their heat-stircken bodies; ants scampered out from cracks to search for the dead- to claim the corpse and give it to their Queen...
Kiba, a solid white wolf, lead the way across the dead lands for three other wolves: A light, orange-brown one, named Hige, a gray wolf with a white underbelly, named Tsume, and a young brown wolf named Toboe.
They were heading to Paradise.
Paradise...? It is a place where only wolves can find- a place shown to them by a lunar flower. Paradise is a world where all can be free and equal- no fear, no pain. But their Flower Maiden, called Cheza, was taken from them. So before they would be able to continue their search for the perfect world, they must first find Cheza.
But without its guidance, they wolves were lost: They wandered the Desert aimlessly, tongues hanging from their dry mouths, slowly dying by starvation...
...
The great king of Pride Rock had fallen- so, too, had the only heir to the land.
The Savanna lands were rich, beautiful places of wonder; fields of tall, firm grasses teemed along the edges of watering holes; perfect places for hunting, curring out the weak and the sick. Hills and valleys of greenery spread along the Pridelands, where zebras, girrafes, rhinos, elephants, and flamengos. But what dominated these animals- what watched over them, protected them- were the lions. Their judgement and power was respected the highest above all other animals. They made the rules, and one of the most sacred ones were to never go beyond the Pridelands were places where even the lions would not go; it was where all of the land touched by the ever-shadows in the sky.
In these Shadowlands, hyenas dwelled, along with the lions who had been Outcased by the Prideland King. For years, these animals were looked down on as savage and twisted. They were to be avoided at all costs, or death would surely befall them from the Outcasts.
But since the death of their king, the great Mufasa, the creatures of the Pridelands had to look up to one of the Outcasts, and accept him as their new heir. He was the King's own brother, named Scar. And when Scar arrived to the lands, he brought with him the other Outcasts, such as the hyenas and lions. Though the females lions of the past king rejected Scar, they had to bow to him as their own blood, and Scar became their king.
With the great lion Outcast as the new ruler, the Pridelands were destroyed, send spiraling into starvation. The newborns were born ill and thin, manly dying as quickly as they took their first steps. This forced the hunting group of lionesses to go beyond their land, beyond the Shadowlands, in search of food before the Pridelands get wiped out...
...
The heir to the Pridelands had escaped his guilts as quickly as it overwhelmed him; his uncle, Scar, had told him that it was his own fault that the great king, Mufasa, had died, and that he should run. So he obeyed: The young lion fled the scene where his father died trying to save him, planning to never look back.
He traveled the distance across the desert, leaving both the Pride and Shadowlands in the ashes on memory. He did not wonder about what happened to the Pride after he left; he only thought that they must be happy.
This young cub's name was Simba.
He walked for miles, eventually falling into a deep sleep of fatigue. In the sky, vultures hovered, licking their beaks for a feast. As they decended from the sun, they called hungrily together, lowering their heads, circling their prey.
But the young cub was saved by a warthog named Pumba, being rode by a prairie dog named Timon. This unlikely pair scattered the vultures, not even realzing they were feeding on a living Prince.
Regardless of species, the two animals were big-hearted enough to save the cub, carrying him to the shade of a tree, next to a small pool of water.
The prairie dog splashed the lion cub with water, waking him.
After a short introduction, the cub began to walk away.
Glancing at each other, surprised that the lion didn't try and eat them, the warthog and prairie dog silently agreed to save the odd lion called Simba.
But the wind stirred across the desert, making the cub raise his tired gaze to the sky. The scent on the wind was nothing he had ever smelled, and, instead of terrofying him, it filled him with a desire to discover the source...
...
In mid-tred, the white wolf Kiba raised a paw, his ears up. "Wait," he told the group, who stopped walking behind him.
The wolves sniffed the air, one more hungrily than the others.
"What am I smelling?" asked Toboe, the young brown wolf.
"Probably some dying animal." said Tsume, snorting in disgust.
"Hey, that's good news to me!" Hige said, his tail wagging. "Food is food, am I right?"
"No." Kiba took a step forward. "Whatever it is, it's alive. And coming closer."
"Maybe it's another Indian Tribe...?" said Toboe softly.
There was a pause. Each wolf too uncertain to continue towards the Unknown.
Shaking his head against the glare of the sun, the gray wolf said, "Let's just keep movin'. If we don't get out of this heat, we'll done for."
The wolves moved on.
...
Simba, his tail flicking behind him, ran ahead of the warthog and prairie dog, his eyes wide, eager, paws sliding against the cracked, hot ground.
"Wh-what do you smell, Simba?" asked Timon fearfully, hiding behind the ears on the warthog. "N-not another, l-lion, um, is it? N-not that that's a, uh, bad thing!"
After a few seconds, Pumba said, his nose snuffing the air, "I think it's time to go, now." The warthog slowly backed away from the lion, saying nothing. Timon did not stop him.
Simba looked over his shoulder, head tilted. "Where are you going..?" he asked.
"We, uhh..." the prairie dog didn't finish. His eyes widened in terror, small hands clutching the ears of the warthog.
Pumba seemed frozen, his mouth gaped open, legs trembling.
Simba, gasping, turned swiftly and faced what laid ahead.
...
Four pairs of yellow eyes widened in wonder as they studied the large brown pig and the large male cat. A flicker of movement caused them to look more closely at the brown pig, and they discovered a small rodent-like creature hiding on it's head.
Eyes narrowing, the gray wolf was the first to speak. "What the hell are you?" he asked, planting his feet into the earth.
"W-who..?" the young lion looked back at Timon and Pumba, then back at the large dogs. "Me?" When the dog nodded, Simba said, "I'm...I'm a lion. What are you?"
"We're wolves." said the white wolf.
"Kiba..." whispered the orangish-brown wolf to the white one. "Can we...eat..them...?"
Scampering back in fright, Simba began sputtering nonsense. "You dont- I'm not- I just-"
But without warning, the orangish wolf bolted past the lion cub, the gray wolf following, chasing after Pumba as he screamed and began to run.
"Relax." Kiba told the cat gently. "We're not going to eat you."
"W-why not..?" asked Simba, eyes wide.
"You smell weird." said the young brown wolf, seeming friendly.
"You're a scent unfamiliar to us," explained Kiba. "That boar and the rodent, however, is what we hunt best."
"But- But-" Simba felt tears gather into his eyes.
Kiba looked at Toboe, hinting a question.
"Were they friends on yours?" asked Toboe, his tail slinking between his legs.
"Well, no, but they-" the lion cub began to waver, his head spinning.
Eyes narrowing gently, Kiba walked closer to the lion and sniffed him, saying, "You're tired... Thin... I suppose you dont know where we could get food, do you?"
"Those other wolves are going to eat that warthog!" snapped the lion, his fur bristling. "Why dont you go with them!"
"I was going to," answered the white wolf. "But we'll need more than that if we're going to survive."
Simba stayed quiet.
"What is your name, lion?" asked Kiba.
"Simba..." answered the cub, not meeting the wolf's yellow gaze.
"We're hungery, you're hungery- why not come share that warthog with us?" asked Toboe suddenly.
Snapping his jaws at the young wolf, Kiba said, "You do Not invite strays to eat our kill!"
Ducking his head down, Toboe turned and muttered an apology before running off to find his friends.
"I'll just...go..." said Simba, backing away.
"Wait." Kiba stepped closer. "Why are you here? Do you not have a pack?"
"A pack?" Simba blinked. "No...we don't. We live in a pride. But I left..."
"Why?" asked Kiba.
But the lion cub began to run away, his guilt pressing his on.
Kiba snatched the cub by his neck-fur and began to follow the path Toboe took.
"Hey, let go!" cried Simba, swiping his claws at the wolf's face.
When Kiba arrived to the warthog, it was very-well eaten into. The gut was torn open, spilling darkly on the heated earth. The wolves gnawed into the kill, their faces dripping red. Toboe slunk to one side of the dead Pumba, dragging a length of gushing meat with him.
Seeing them, Hige, the orangish-brown wolf, looked over with disaprovement, and said, "Why's he here?"
Tsume looked up as well, and began growling.
Kiba dropped the cub and sat down, saying, "He has no where else to go. So I am taking charge of him. He will stay with us as our own until he is old enough to look after himself."
"I'm not a kid!" growled Simba, claws sinking into the ground. "I dont need your pack's protection!"
The white wolf looked down at the young lion, and he said, "If we leave you alone, you will die. Leaving us is your own death."
"I dont care..." said Simba, glaring at the wolf's white fur aroud his paws.
"I do." said Kiba, his tone harsh. He stood up and walked to Pumba, hunger pains awakening his desire to eat. Remembering the scrawnyness of the cub, he glanced behind him at the cub and said, "Come eat with me."
"I'm not hungery." spat Simba. His stomach growled, betraying him. With a sigh, he walked over and joined the white wolf, hesitating slightly.
Toboe, Tsume, and Hige- with their own pieces of meat- moved away, uncomfortable by the lion cub.
Kiba dug his face into the exposed neck of the warthog, and slung his head form side to side, the blood pouring into his mouth.
Simba nearly winced, disgusted, but he then realized savagery was probably the only way to survive...
...
When Scar first assumed the heir of the Pridelands, he promised the lions a world of peace and happiness, where all Outcasts and royal-blood would be equal. But the world became a rotting wasteland, where the grass was black and the only animals seen aside from lions were skeletons. Food was very scarce, and the lions would often complain directly to their new king. But Scar did not care.
Smiling from the den in the depts of Priderock, the dark-maned lion laid across a smooth stone, catching the stuborn eye of his brother's mate at every moment. She was to stay in his den at all times, due to being "his mate" now that Mufasa was gone. He had claimed her as her own, only a week after the death of her mate and son, Simba.
Her name was Sarabi.
Catching her eye now, Scar gave her a winning smile, a pur coursing through his chest. The lioness quickly looked away, her proud head high, eyes closed.
...
Along with her cub, Nala, a female lioness named Sarafina began proweling impatiently along the savannah, paws shifting the black dirt around the Pridelands. Around her, dozens of lioness lay quietly on the ground, either trying to sleep, or resisting the urge to attack the hyenas. Despite the growing lack of food, the hyenas seemed to be very fit, yet always hungery. With drooling mouths, they would joke cruelly about taking one of the lion cubs in their sleep. When one of the alarmed mothers reported this to Scar, he told the mother "they were merely joking, and you have nothing to worry about."
Aisde from the constant cackling of the hyenas, the Pridelands were silent. Glancing at them now, Sarafina shudders. These hyenas were going to be the end of them.
A blue bird with a white underbelly and orange/red beak (also known as the Red-billed Hornbill) named Zazu flew across the skies, drawing the attention of the lion cub Nala.
The young cub waves a paw in the air, crying happily, "Zazu!"
Eyes snapping open, Sarafina leaps onto her cub, hiding her with her massive feet, while in the sky the bird Zazu flies more quickly towards the den of the royal family.
"Hey, hey, hey!" calls out a loud, squeaky voice from the rocks. A Hyena walks down towards the lioness and Nala, teeth bared. "Didn't I tell you to be quiet?"
"Yeah!" agreed another hyena, sneaking over from behind. "Didn't he tell you to be quiet?"
A third hyena joined the duo, but instead of speaking, he merely began to laugh, his eyes rolling in his head.
Sarafina stood her ground, paws folding over her daughter. "We did nothing wrong." she said firmly. "Leave us alone."
The trio smiled wolfishly, fueled by the lioness' stubornness.
But for the surroundung lions, it was just another terrible day in the Pridelands. They had all learned by now to bare their pain, and just try not to repeat their mistakes.
It's all they could ever do...
...
"Ah, Zazu!" said Scar cheerfully, rolling onto his feet as the bird flew into the den. "So good to see you!" From the corner of his eye, Scar noticed his brother's mate, Sarabi, move towards the wall out of the way, avoiding his eyes. She sat against the wall, but still in sight.
Landing on a skull of a young zebra, the blue bird russled his feathers before saying, "I can't say I feel the same way!"
"So cold," moaned Scar, a smile on his dark lips, as if pleased by the bird's hatred. He passed a large paw across his head dramatically, continuing, "How can you say that to your King?"
Zazu swallowed hard, and quickly changed his mood. "Sire," he said, "I have a message for you from the rhino herd."
"And what do...the rhinos...say?" asked the King slowly, fingering a piece of bone from the den. The bone was sharp and deadly.
Swallowing again, Zazu said, "Well, sire, they seem to be...um..."
Scar, frowning, dropped the piece of bone and gave the bird his direct attention. He waited for the nervous bird to speak.
"D-dying out." finished Zazu at last. "There is only a dozen left- and if you ask me, Sire, I believ ethe hyenas have something to do with it!"
Scar laughed quietly: a deep, amused rumble. He slipped from the rock and padded over to the bird, laying an arm around his small frame. "Zazu," he said, smiling. He continued- with every word, his fingers plucking at his feathers; "Would, you, like, to-"
"Oww!"
"-know, a-"
"Owh!"
"-secret?" Between his fingers, two blue feathers slipped and fell to the den floor. Scar drew his face closer to the bird. "Hmm?" he said, provoking an responce.
From the corner of the den, Sarabi jumped out, walking over. "Enough, Scar." she told Scar loudly. "You have no reason to harm him."
Scar didn't look at her; he continued to caress the bird.
"Wh-what secret, S-S-Sire?" asked Zazu.
Leaning into the bird's ear, Scar whispered, "You're right; but not only are the hyenas going to kill off the rhinos..." His grip tightened over the bird. "They will kill off every living thing until only the great lions walk the earth..I as their king...!" He flung the bird away, towards the hole.
Frantically, the bird began to flap.
With a long face of coldness, Scar called after him, "When you're done telling them my message, come back. I have a surprise for you..."
Obeying, Zazu flew upwards before crashing to the ground, and he soared out, his body still crawling under his skin.
"Mufasa would have greatly disaproved." said Sarabi once the bird had left, sitting, eyes closed.
Scar turned to her, mouth open to mock her, but could not find anything to say. No matter what he did as the new King, no one could ever have been as good as his brother. And Scar knew this. Looking back outside, eyes scanning the dark, dying land, Scar frowned. In his blackened heart, all he could wish for now, is that Simba was truelly dead and gone.
A roar sounded from below, and Scar ran out of the den, snarling at Sarabi to "stay back!" before he made the hop down to the ground. When he saw a group of hyenas biting at one of the lioness, he let out a loud roar, scaring the hyenas into hiding.
Behind her mother, trembling, Nala poked her head out.
Sarafina, Nala's mother, looked up at Scar with grateful, searching eyes. She wanted to thank him, but...wasn't it his fault in the first place for bringing death upon them?
Frowning down at the lioness and her cub, Scar addressed the hyenas in a quiet voice. "Did I not make it clear that all lionesses' were not to be harmed...?"
Creeping out of their hiding places, the trio of hyenas looked up at Scar with wide eyes. "Uhhh, yeah, but I said-" started one of them.
"Silence!" yelled Scar. He lept down, confronting the hyenas. "Go!" he told them. "Release your anger on some of the lesser forms of life..."
"Oooh, you mean the rhinos!" said one of them excitedly, the hyena beside him nodding hopefully.
Scar smiled. "If that's what needs culling..." he said, trailing off with a glint in his eye.
Thanking Scar needlessly, the trio turned and ran off down the Pridelands, barking and yapping at eachother.
Looking from the hyenas to their king, the lionesses shivered from the intensity of Scar's cold face. Scar, looking back at the thin group of his pride, felt a sick guilt building in his chest. They were dying...How much longer would they survive? With a short growl, Scar lept back up to the den.
Sarabi watched him, opened her mouth to speak, but Scar strided past her without a word, and laid down, facing the opposite wall.
Back on the dead land, Sarafina licked Nala clean, telling her quietly to go to sleep. A deep sadness entered the young cub's heart, and she wondered privately if she was going to go to sleep hungery again...
...
The sun beat down over the glistening desert- sapping away the energy of all who tread under the heat.
But the wolves and the lion cub had moved on from the warthog, finding shelter in a tropical jungle. Sitting beside a pool, Hige wagged his tail at a fish swimming under the surface, while Toboe and Tsume loosened rocks from the rich soil, snorting up insects into their noses. The white wolf and the lion cub sat aways from the others beside a large, leafy tree. Around them all in the jungle, were dozens of flowers and toadstools.
"Aaahh..." Simba said, laying on his back. He licked the blood off his lips in pleasure, then glanced over at Kiba, who sat still as stone, eyes glazed over with an unrecognizable emotion. "Say," said the lion cub, rolling to his feet. "How come I havent seen wolves before?"
"I don't know." admitted Kiba. "I have never seen a lion, either."
Simba joined the wolf, sitting beside him. "So...are you really going to take care of me?" he asked slowly.
Kiba did not hestiate. "Yeah." he said. "I am."
"But why?" asked the little cub.
"You were lost. And you are young. I only plan to take care of you until you are old enough to protect yourself."
Smiling, Simba said, "You're weird..." When Kiba looked at him out of the side of his eye, Simba added quickly, "For a wolf."
"And you're large" said Kiba. "For a cat."
"Oh, I get bigger!" said Simba. "My father-..." Simba looked down. "I mean..." His tone changed into a sorrowful monotone. "Most of my kind grow to be twice as big as your kind...My dad was one of the biggest lions alive- he was the King..."
"What happened to him?" asked Kiba gently.
"He died..." said Simba moodily.
Judging the lion by his mood, the white wolf did not press for details. Looking ahead, Kiba watched as Hige jumped into the water, then came out, fishless and drinched. Hearing sudden childish laughter, Kiba's ears flicked back and he watched as Simba rocked back and forth in a fit of giggling. Looking back at the wolves, the only maybe-amusing thing he saw was Hige shaking the water out of his fur, wetting his wolf companions.
He is just a young cub, Kiba reminded himself. He must be taught. "When I was your age," said Kiba. "I was hunting for deer."
Simba sat up, his head tilting. "Wow, really?" When the white wolf nodded, the lion asked, "What's a deer?"
Kiba smiled.
Just then, Tsume walked over and laid down near Kiba, saying, "How long do we plan on stayin' here?"
"For awhile." replied Kiba.
"And we're takin' that kid with us?" snorted Tsume.
"If you don't like it, then you can leave." growled Kiba, ducking his head.
Tsume stood abruptly. "He's not even one of us, Kiba!" he barked. "How the hell do you think we can provide for it? Tch...It seems like you've lost your pride of a wolf this time."
Kiba's eyes widened in horror. Was he right? He watched as the gray wolf shook his head and walked off.
Blinking, Simba said nothing. He felt out of place, but he knew that the white wolf wouldn't let him leave. I guess I'll have to get used to it here, the lion told himself with a sigh.
Tsume walked past Toboe, who stood up and followed him with sudden interest, leaving Hige to swipe for fish in the pool.
Watching them leave, Simba wondered if they were going to come back...
...
"Oh, Pumba...Ooohh, how could I let them do that to ya?" Timon sobbed, leaning against the ruined face of his warthog friend.
At the last moment before the wolves had attacked, the prairie dog was able to escape and hide in a snake hole until the wolves had moved on. Timon had planned to attack the wolves with the help of the lion, and had hoped that all three of them could hide together in the jungle. But Pumba was dead, and they had stolen the lion cub.
The prairie dog whiped his eyes, snorting miserbly. He left the grisly scene after a few more moments of reflection, telling him a soft, "Hakuna matata." He walked towards the jungle, his heart hardening with every step, when eventually he stopped, fists clinched. He looked over at the corpse of Pumba, and said, "I will avenge you, my friend."
After he made that promise, he went into the jungle, running on all-fours like the animal he was...
...