Note: YES, I am aware that their are other Mufasa-survival stories out there. This is my own version of what it might be like, and will have my own plot twists and characters and what-not. And NO, I did not base this off of somebody else's story.

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters, situations, ect. you recognize from the Lion King. However, I do own the plot of this story and all original material, including the OCs.

At the border of the Barrenlands, the lifeless wasteland between the many lion prides that dominated the land, a small group of lions hung at the boundary between several prides' territories, wondering where to go next.

The only adult male in the group, a thin and lanky male with a dark reddish mane and dust-colored fur, paced near the borders. His golden eyes constantly went from territory from territory, trying to decide which was best to travel through. This lion's name was Anil, and he was the King of the small but proud 'Wandering Pride.'

"So," he mused to himself. "Where to go, where to go? To the Grasslands, where the two Kings that rule there have been rumoured to disembowl any intruder that dares to trespass on their land. Or perhaps to the Canyonlands, where the mad old tyrant that rules there captures and forces all passerby to swear allegiance to him?" He looked up at the members which made up his pride. "Well, ladies, which do you prefer? Death or enslavement?"

Huruma, a golden lioness that had gone gray with age, rolled her eyes. "Must you always forget the third option, my King?" She nodded in the third direction, one that did not face either the Barrenlands or the Grasslands or the Canyonlands. "If we cut through the Pridelands we shall reach the desert far faster than if we pass through either of the other territories. Also, we shall only cut across the fringes of the Pridelands. It is highly unlikely we shall run into the residents on our way through."

A golden lioness sneered. "Are you sure, old woman? After all, you aren't as sure of yourself as you used to be."

Huruma growled warningly at the younger lioness. "Peace, Hema. I may be getting old, but I am not senile quite yet. When I was in my youth my pride often passed through the Pridelands. King Ahadi allowed us through his territory, so long as we didn't linger."

Hema scoffed. "This Pridelands isn't the one you knew in your youth. Haven't you heard of what Ahadi's son does to outsiders?"

"Ahadi's son? You mean King Mufasa?" Anil winced, wrapping his tail protectively around the fork in his back-legs. "Maybe we should take another route. I would like to sire more cubs in the future, thank you very much."

"It is a wonder you ever become King in the first place," Huruma muttered to herself. The old lioness strode forward, looking Anil right in the eye before saying more loudly, "Rumors are rumors, your Majesty.When I was younger, King Ahadi was notorious for the cruel and unusual punishments he gave to those males foolish enough to challenge him. However, he left us mutual prides in peace, as we desired only to pass through his lands, not claim it for ourselves. I believe his son thinks the same way."

Young and fair Venya nodded. "Can we, Dad?" She gave the lioness at her side an anxious glance. "I mean the sooner we get to this jungle you're talking about, the better it would be for Maua and her condition."

"Great Kings," Maua groaned in exasperation. "I may expecting, but that doesn't mean I can't take a little traveling, you foolish cub! Venya, please let the King decide where we shall go!" All the lionesses turned to the male, all waiting for his answer.

Anil's response was to turn to his mate. "I don't do anything without consulting the lovely Queen Dhakiya," was his playful reply.

The golden lioness gently set down the cub she had held in her mouth, nuzzling their young son tenderly. "It is your call, Anil. Little Ibtisam and I shall go along with whatever you wish, just like the rest of our subjects."

Anil thoughtfully looked at his choices, golden eyes shifting from one to another. At last he sighed, giving his pride a wan smile. "I suppose losing ones manhood is better than death or enslavement by a mad tyrant. Through the Pridelands it is, then."

Huruma gave the scowling Hema a smug grin. "Well, it looks like King Anil has seen sense yet again, Hema. Now all of you, move your sorry tails along! We're burning sunlight!"

King Anil led the way through the Pridelands, ears pricked and constantly alert for danger. Old Huruma flanked him, nagging in his ear whenever he veered off in the wrong direction and forcing him to keep up a fast and steady pace. Hema followed, grumbling under her breath about how stubborn old lionesses should stop annoying everyone and just die quietly already. Dhakia and Maua brought up the rear, the former walking slowly so as not to arouse her little son, Ibtisam, and the latter trailing behind because of her swollen belly.

Venya found herself too impatient to stay with the Wandering Pride. She might be a year and a half old and practically a lioness, but she was too excited with her new surroundings to act like one. She darted about from bush to bush, tree to tree, scenting the lions and other animals that had recently passed through the area.

"Venya!" her mother, Hema, shrieked when Venya got too far from her for her liking. "Come back here! How many times must I tell you to stay with the pride?"

Venya rolled her eyes at Hema's insistent worry. Anil had said anything yet, so as long as Dad seemed okay with it she presumed it was all right to wander.

While the Pridelands had began as sprawling grasslands, the land had quickly become uneven and pitted with impressive gorges and rocky hills. From what Vanya could pick up from her Dad's and Huruma's one-sided conversation, this meant that they were nearing the desert.

Excited, the young lioness raced ahead, hoping to catch sight of the desert first. Gasping, she caught scent of something else. A delicious something else.

"Dad!" she called back to King Anil. "I can smell wildebeest up here! Is it okay if we hunt?"

Huruma stopped yakking into Anil's ear to shout back, "No! Senseless cub, this is another's territory! We cannot simply hunt their prey just because one of us is a bit peckish."

Maua pushed herself to to the front to protest. She was eating for two or more, and it was understandable she got hungrier than the rest of the pride and more quicker, at that. Huruma and her daughter fell into a noisy argument on the matter. Anil was pulled in when he suggested for the two lionesses to settle their differences peacefully and quietly.

Venya took advantage of the situation by sneaking off to investigate the irresistible scent for herself.

I'm just hunting for a wildebeest, she thought to herself. It's not like I'd kill one or anything.

The gray-brown lioness halted when she drew closer to the source of the smell. She growled, fur bristling as she caught a familiar and putrid scent that had nothing to do with her quarry.

Hyenas!

What were those filthy scavengers doing here, in the middle of lion territory? Had the local pride made an alliance with them or something? Impossible, lions and hyenas got along as well as fire and ice. Maybe the hyenas had gotten overconfident and had attempted to hunt their rivals' prey? Were they chasing the wildebeests right now?

Determined to get to the bottom of the mystery, Venya ran off in hot pursuit of the scent. Oblivious to Hema's shrill cries, the lioness continued to run on ahead, getting ever closer to the source of the wildebeest scent.

Venya halted when her investigate had brought her to the mouth of a great gorge. The lioness gave the wide area a quick scan. Nope, no wildebeests in sight. No hyenas either. Both were probably long gone by now, perhaps already at the opposite end of the gorge. Lifting her head, the lioness inhaled deeply.

The overwhelming scent of wildebeests. Hundreds of them. The stink of fear mingled with their natural scents, making it seem even more likely they had been pursued by hyenas. Ah, there was the putrid stench of the hyenas. Just as she had-

"What's that?" Venya wondered aloud.

Nostrils flaring, she inhaled again.

There it was, beneath the hyena and wildebeest scents! It smelled vaguely familiar. Another lion, perhaps? There was another scent with it, like fear had mixed with the wildebeest scent. Only this mystery scent was familiar and tasted slightly of...

Blood!

Panicking, Venya inspected the gorge again. This time, she searched specifically for any signs of an injured lion.

There! Her sharp eyes could just detect something hidden in the shadow of one of the gorge walls. It sort of blended in with the stone around it, but she could see it clear enough. That limp bundle of golden fur...

"Dad!" Venya cried shrilly, turning back and fleeing in the direction of the Wandering Pride. "Dad! Mom! Queen Dhakiya! Somebody! There's a lion down in this gorge, and he's hurt!"

Huruma and Anil turned their heads sharply toward her, eyes widening at her news. Leaving the others behind, the two lions hurried to meet up the younger lioness. Venya swiftly retraced her original path, leading them to the mouth of the gorge and into it, where the injured lion lay, unmoving.

When they all reached the lion, Venya was unsure on whether it was even alive or not.

The lion's golden pelt was covered in open wounds that spilled blood onto his fur. His rear left leg was twisted at an odd angle, as if it had been broken in a fall. He was sprawled out awkwardly, supporting the theory that he had indeed fallen from the top of the gorge. With his chest still and eyes closed, Venya feared the poor lion was dead.

Apparently Anil thought the same as her. "We were too late," he said sadly. "Whoever this lion was, he is beyond help now."

"Imbeciles." Huruma approached the golden lion, putting a gentle paw to his chest. "He still lives, albeit barely."

Venya gaped at the unconscious lion in shock, eyes wide. Indeed, if she concentrated hard on his chest, she thought she could just see it rising and falling slightly with the inhale and exhale of breath. What a very, very fortunate soul this lion was.

Anil glanced about, lashing his tail and narrowing his eyes suspiciously. "He's all alone, in the middle of a pride's territory," he mused aloud. "Great Kings, who would leave a lion to die like this? And most of all, who is he to deserve so slow and agonizing a death?"

"His identity does not matter," Huruma broke in brusquely. "Besides, if he does not get help very soon, the only people he shall ever talk to again will be the ancestors."

Anil sighed. "We can not possibly hope to find a healer in time to save his life. It seems like any of our efforts would be in vain." He nodded down at the lion's reddish mane, which was stained a bright scarlet from a deep wound in his head.

The elder lioness snorted. "Nonsense," she growled. "Head wounds bleed the worst. Even the most minor cut can appear fatal if one gets it on the hand. Help me get this unfortunate fellow out the Pridelands. If he does have enemies here, I'd rather they not find us making off with him."

Cautiously, Venya ventured toward the unconscious lion. She and King Anil assisted Huruma in supporting the limp body, taking great care to keep his broken leg off of the ground. Slowly but surely, they and the rest of the Wandering Pride headed out of the Pridelands and into the plains that separated grassland from desert. There, in the safety of the unclaimed land, they could treat their mysterious patient in peace.

The sun had long since set on the Pridelands, leaving them blanketed in a thick darkness. The moon above was round and silver, a great milky-white eye in the sky. The Great Kings of the Past twinkled coldly down at the three souls that sneaked through across the ground to their destination. It seemed like the ancestors had been the sole witnesses to King Mufasa's murder, and were glaring accusingly down at the perpetrators from their starry perches.

"Man." Banzai looked around, eyes wary with fear. "I can't believe we're actually doing this."

Ed nodded in agreement, voicing his protests in his incoherent babble.

"Oh, will you two just shut up?" Shenzi barked at them. "You want Scar to get away with this, right? Will in order for him to get away with this little murder scheme he needs to get rid of the body."

"But why can't Scar just do the deed himself?" Banzai complained. "I mean, he got the pleasure of actually killing Mufasa off. All we got to do was chase the defenseless little cub. No sport in the killing at all!"

"We didn't actually kill the fur-ball, you know." Shenzi scowled at her companion. "If someone had gotten over their little boo-boos, the little Prince would be dead by now and we'd have a body as proof."

"Hey! It's not my fault those annoying thorns got into my skin!" Banzai rubbed his still-sore nose. "You know how sensitive my skin is! Besides," he scoffed, "the annoying runt is as good as dead." He gazed wearily ahead, tail lashing in anxiety. "It's the kid's father that I'm worried about."

"Please." The female hyena rolled her eyes. "Mufasa's been dead for hours by now. And I know you ain't afraid of corpses. You devoured dozens of ones far more along than this one before. Besides, we're just burying this one, not eating it!"

"Still, I don't understand why Scar can't just bury the damn body. It's his brother's after all, the brother he hated so much he actually killed. You think Scar would want the final pleasure of getting to be the one to stuff Mufasa's body into the earth where it becomes worm-food. Or the lionesses, why couldn't the lionesses have done it?"

Shenzi sighed. "You know these damn lions and their stupid traditions as well as I do. The body of the diseased must be left alone and undisturbed in its place of dying until midnight. Then, a close relative or friend of the dead lion comes and buries it, then sits a silent vigil until dawn. And then the other lions can come to mourn and stuff."

"I know, I know," Banzai snapped. "Sarabi's sitting a vigil for the fluff-ball and Scar was practically nominated to be the idiot who gets to the whole 'vigil' thing. And our Royal Highness is too lazy to get off his furry butt and go through the indignity of pretending to mourn Mufasa."

"Which is why we're burying it for him and getting rid of all of the evidence that connects Scar to the murders," the female hyena finished pointedly. "Now stop whining and just help me and Ed bury the damn body!"

Bonzai shuddered. "But it's a lion we helped to kill. A sentient, very big, very strong, very fierce, pissed-off, King lion." When Shenzi merely gave him a flat stare, he shouted at her, "Hello, we killed freakin' King Mufasa! He doesn't seem the kind to roll over and accept he's dead and gone!" He trailed off ominously, allowing Shenzi to connect the gaps.

"Are you saying Mufasa's coming back as a...ghost?" Shenzi snorted. "Boy, you just reached a whole new level of stupid. Congratulations, I didn't think it was possible, but you did it." Thinking to herself, she muttered, "If the big guy really wanted revenge he'd just possess his dead corpse. He'd come back as a zombie."

"A zombie?" Bonzai rolled his eyes in disbelief. "Shenzi, everyone knows what ghosts are far scarier than zombies? Would you be afraid of a walking hunk of rotting meat?"

"Yes, if it was trying to kill me. Would you honestly be frightened of a little transparent dead guy who can only wail at you?"

Bonzai and Shenzi continued to bicker on their way back to Mufasa's body, until both were hit with the same realization at the same time. Both turned to Ed, asking him in unison on what were scarier: ghosts or zombies?

Even with his two friends gazing expectantly back at him, Ed continued to smile vacantly at them. Spotting something ahead, the hyena's eyes widened and he gaped, blubbering in a strange tongue that not even Bonzai could decipher. The two sane hyenas exchanged puzzled looks, before quizzically turned around to see what had gotten their friend so riled up.

There was the spot where Mufasa had fallen and met his death. There was the stunted tree that the wildebeests had broken in their wild stampede from their hunters. And there was where Mufasa should have laid, oddly empty of any decaying lion corpse.

"Zombie!" Banzai exclaimed in fright. "They're real, and now one's coming to kill me!"

Panicked, Banzai and Ed ran around in circles, too frightened to actually realize they were not actually running away from the scene. Shenzi rolled her eyes in exasperation, padding over to investigate.

"Will you two doofuses get over here?" she called impatiently. "Mufasa's not a zombie!"

Banzai stopped, looking at her. "Then what? Do you expect me to believe that the stupid lion fell dozens of feet, got trampled by a herd of stampeding wildebeests, and survived? That he just got up and walked away like he just didn't die two times over?"

"No, but I do expect you believe that the guy's body got dragged off by somebody!"

The two male hyenas exchanged embarrassed glances before turning to their self-proclaimed leader. "So? Who had the nerve to steal the body of the guy we killed?"

Shenzi shrugged. "How should I know? Those damned wildebeests clogged up the air so much with their fear its impossible to tell that Mufasa was ever here. And those lions have so many enemies. It could have been a leopard, a cheetah, a rogue lion, some obsessed lioness looking to resurrect the King as her love slave, or a hundred different other suspects." She turned to the others. "Which means that we'll have to tell Scar that everything went according to plan."

"Ugh," Bonzai began, "shouldn't we tell Scar that somebody ran off with his brother's body?"

"And should we tell Scar that we couldn't eliminate a tiny, defenseless cub and that you got your butt kicked by a bunch of thorn bushes?" Shenzi retorted. "Nah, it's just best we make a grave, put some antelope's body in it or something, and pretend we buried Mufasa."

And so, the matter was closed. Shenzi, Bonzai, and Ed, in typical hyena fashion, all thought that this little secret wouldn't come back to haunt them.

And, in typical hyena fashion, they were very, very, wrong.

Yes, I'm yet again guilty of starting another fic when I have 5+ I should be working on right now. It's an idea that popped into my head when I was re-watching The Lion King a couple of days ago in school. (Man, it's a wonder what our teacher will put on in order to kill time on a fifty-minute break period.) This might or might not get updated often, I'm just putting it up to protect my idea/give my bored brain something to work on.

New Characters:

Anil- brown-gray lion with a dark reddish-brown mane, King of the Wandering Pride (Sanskrit for 'gray')

Dhakiya- a golden lioness, Queen of the Wandering Pride and Hema's younger sister (Sanskrit for 'smart')

Huruma- a golden lion gray with age, the eldest lioness in the pride (Swahili for 'compassion, sympathy')

Hema- a brownish-gold lioness, Dhakia's elder sister (Sanskrit for 'gold')

Maua- a pregnant dark brown lioness, Huruma's daughter (Swahili for 'flowers')

Venya- a young brown-gray lioness, Hema's daughter (Sanskrit for 'loveable')

Ibtisam- a grayish-gold lion cub, Dhakia's son (Swahili for 'smile, grin')