Simba was a lot of things. A prince, a fiancé, a show off, and a brat. He had an ego that was easily ten times bigger than Pride Rock itself. It could get him into trouble, and it often did when he wasn't being careful enough. I should know. Or rather, Nala told it to me enough times for it to sink in. Simba didn't know how to think, she was always saying, and he was always rushing into things before he had time to see if he was making a mistake or not.
It was funny to me. It wasn't every day you saw a prince get what was coming to him, but karma had a special place in her heart for Simba. She was always making sure that he got what he deserved just when he needed it the most. I would have felt bad, but most of the time Simba only got into those messes because he refused to listen to something someone else said. That or he was acting too high and mighty for his own good.
That could get annoying fast. So could him blatantly ignoring me when I demanded that we play together because I was sick of hanging around with the girls. He tended not to listen to me and just laughed. It was a bad habit of his I guess.
Regardless of that, regardless of whatever else that was negative about him, Simba was one thing I could never condemn him for. He was reliable. You could see it in the way he always protected Nala, or in the way he always listened to what his father said, but I never really thought I myself could depend on him. Not for much anyway. Not until he proved me wrong.
I can't remember every detail about that day. There was but a few things that made it memorable in my mind. It was sunny, it was warm, it was like every other happy day in Pride Rock. Only, on this day, my sister Kula had gotten herself into some trouble.
Kula had never been one for mischief, that was my thing, but that particular day she had decided to one up me by venturing out towards the edges of the Pridelands. We had always been told by our parents to never go that far. Other prides claimed those edges as their territory and did not take kindly to strangers. They were ruthless to both cubs and full grown lions, so it was better never to push our luck.
Kula had pushed hers that day, and as a good big brother I decided I had no choice but to go after her. My mother would have killed me if something bad had happened to her on my watch.
The only problem was that I didn't know where to look for her. The Pridelands were huge, and their borders were just as large and just as wide. Which direction Kula had chosen to run off to was anybody's guess. Tama could have told me where she was, but she wasn't likely to give me information without 'politely' asking for something in return. I didn't have the time. Nala would have known, for sure, where my sister was. But ask me where she was at the time? Any takers? That's right. She was with Kula, which made looking for her just as useless.
So I had to ask the next best thing where it was that I should look for all these missing lions. That next best thing came in the form of Simba, the lion prince, and Nala's best friend.
I didn't want to ask him at first. I figured he'd just give me a hard time about it. Probably make a joke about how I couldn't keep track of my own sister, or something like that, before sharing the joke with all of the other cubs. But he surprised me.
He did make a joke of course, and he did laugh a little, but in the end he decided to help me out. No questions asked. It was partly thanks to him that I eventually found Kula and Nala near one of the northern borders. Though, the thrill of finding them soon faded when I realized that they were not alone.
Three hyenas. Three cackling, evil looking, hungry hyena's surrounded my sister and Nala, who could do nothing more that cower before them. I didn't have time to think. I didn't have time to weigh in the possibilities of what could happen. I only had enough time to pounce on the hyena closest to me.
The chaos that erupted from the sudden action was enough to give the girls an opportunity to run. Meanwhile the laughing idiot's buddies were too busy trying to get me off his head. I wouldn't let him go. Teeth, claws, something was going to remain latched onto him for as long as I was able to keep hanging on. Eventually, though, as I knew they would, they did manage to get me off. When I hit the ground I fully anticipated the pain that would come with being eaten alive by viscous animals. It never came.
The minute I had been knocked down, Simba quickly latched onto the ear of another hyena. I was shocked, to say the least. I had expected the prince to run, to try and look for help with the girls. But no. He had stayed to fight. To fight alongside me, a cub he could barely claim he knew. I was too stunned to speak, but thankfully, not too stunned to move. A few seconds later I was up and ready to give Simba a hand.
I don't know how the two of us managed to hold out until the lionesses showed up, but I do know one thing. Those blurred moments of fighting were some of the best of my young life. They marked the day when I had held my own against an enemy alongside a new friend. It was also the first time I understood that Simba was not just a prince. That was his title, yes, but that was hardly all he was to me now. He was a future king, my future king, who would always be willing to come to my aid when I asked him to.
From then on Simba and I had gotten into quite a few more scuffles, and trouble always seemed to come across one of us on a weekly basis. However, we never faced these problems alone. Whether it was hunger, curiosity, or another lion making us weary, we fought against it together. When I found myself in trouble, Simba always managed to find me. When he somehow got himself trapped with no way out, I found a way to burst in and get him out of danger's way. I have to admit, back then there wasn't anything we couldn't handle.
He was my backup, my right hand man, one of my very best friends. We made a promise during that first fight, a solemn vow made and signed with the blood we had shed, that we would always be there for each other. He would be there to support me, and I would protect him with my life. Even when we grew up, we knew we'd always somehow find a way to keep that promise. Nothing could make us forget it. Nor could anything make us toss it away.
That is, until Scar came along. I know now that when jealousy meets rage, and a thirst for power undermines the instinct to protect, promises can be shattered in an instant. And in the most horrible ways possible.
I hadn't known the full story back then. All I had been told, all any of us had been told, was that our king and prince had died. Scar said they were casualties of an unexpected stampede. One he knew about, but had apparently been unable to stop. And just like that, my backup was gone. The support that I had come to depend on was lost, and I had never felt so vulnerable in my life.
Without Simba around, everything just seemed so dangerous. Even my own shadow was an enemy I had to look out for. I couldn't help but be paranoid. There was no one beside me to help me thwart off any oncoming threats. There was no one to warn me when danger was near. I was alone.
Not to say that I was the only male cub there. I wasn't. There were a few others. Most importantly, there was Tojo and Malka, and Nala's kid brother Mheetu. Not to mention, there was still Tama, Nala, and Kula to look out for.
Those six needed me. They needed me to be strong for them. Simba's death had affected them all, and just as terribly as it had affected me. They needed someone to lean on. They needed someone to look to for protection. So I called upon the strength that Simba had once given me, and used it to help those who were still suffering. Though, I would often bitterly remember, there was no one there to help ease me through mine
Time flew by. Scar reigned supreme long enough to gather a group of followers in the pride. Most of them were female. All of them, in my eyes, were traitors. They seemed to lose everything that had once resembled a soul. They began doing anything for their new king with the same vigor as when they had served the old one. Even if his wishes were cruel, they seemed to think that all was just.
One by one I saw countless cubs, and some of the now grown lions, slaughtered for insubordination. All of it was done on that tyrant's word. It did not matter the severity of the crime. It did not matter if there was evidence or not. If they could have some shred of power, then they were guilty in Scar's eyes.
Soon, only a fraction of the old females remained. The only males that were still alive were Tojo, Malka, Mheetu, me, and a very aggravating lion named Leo. Why the full grown lion had not been tossed out, or killed, was a mystery to me. Considering the amount of sucking up he did, coupled with his actual threat level, I guess it wasn't hard to see why he was still among the living. Though, if you asked me, food was all that the fat tub was good for anymore.
The rest of us, well, we just tried to keep to ourselves as much as we could. The less trouble we were to Scar, the better. So we hunted, bowed, and did whatever the false king wanted us to. It was all about survival at that point. Any pride that still dwelled within us was gone. Or, at the very least, it was beaten down so terribly that we could hardly recognize it anymore. The worst part was that we couldn't afford to miss it. Not our pride, not our hope, not our courage, not anything that would make us rise up in rebellion. One wrong move and we were all done for. It was sad, but we couldn't afford weaknesses like those. We couldn't afford to make mistakes.
However, fueled by loneliness and fear, I made one very big crucial mistake. There was a lioness, a nameless one that I can hardly remember at the moment. She was as lonely and miserable as I was. As the saying goes, misery does indeed love its company. We had a cub together. She died while giving birth to my little fur-ball, but he somehow managed to stay alive. I couldn't believe it. My own little miracle, born into a world where I thought nothing of the kind could exist anymore. For the first time since I heard news of my friend's death, I was happy.
My little guy was a happy, healthy cub. He was so curious too, always getting into things he shouldn't. I couldn't count the times he literally got his nose into something hilariously dangerous. The river, an anthill, a nest, the list goes on and on. You can bet he was sneezing well into the night after every endeavor. But throughout it all he smiled. He had this bright, positively beaming smile that could have outdone any sunrise simply because it was pure light. Just an untainted happy light that shone through the grim times. One that seemed to exist for nothing more than the sole purpose of making me hope again.
However, that light didn't exist for very long. Nothing that bright ever could. Not in Scar's Kingdom.
My cub was a male, as I'm sure you've figured out by now, and that was a very big problem. Had he been born a female there may have been absolutely nothing to worry about. If he had been female, Scar may have seen a possibility in his midst. While unnerving, it would have meant he could have survived.
As it was, he wasn't a female, Scar didn't see a possibility, and had chosen to see my cub as a threat. A new male meant a new challenge in the near future. Tojo, Malka, and I had just barely been suppressed enough to stay in the Pridelands. It had taken longer than it should have to crush us to a point where he could order us around as he wished. Andy ideas of rebellion had been ripped out from our minds long ago.
Newborn cubs hadn't had their wills destroyed yet. Their blood could still boil with a rage that hungered for the tyrant king. New cubs could still rise up and try to battle Scar for the throne. They could win too, if they were strong and determined enough to fight him with all they had. It wasn't as though any of us would fight to keep the dark lion safe. The only ones he could partly trust were the hyenas he had control over. So, in his mind, Scar had only one choice that would allow him to remain in power. The only way he could keep that fresh blood from boiling over was to spill it immediately.
My cub, along with one Malka had brought into the world, was murdered. They were killed with a vicious claw by order of a wretched king. And just like that, my hope for the future was gone. It had been destroyed all over again.
What replaced it was a viscous and somewhat toxic emotion. Hate. I was enraged. Enraged far beyond anything words could describe. I knew who had called for such terrible things. I knew who was paranoid enough to destroy new life before it had a proper chance to grow. I knew who smiled as news reached me of my son's death, and I knew I wanted that lion dead. I wanted him dead, and I wanted his blood on my claws.
So, Malka and I thought up a plan. We were going to take the false on as a tag team, gang up on him in the dead of night when he was at his most vulnerable. Once he was dead we would give the throne over to the one who most deserved it. Just who that was, we would decide later. It seemed so brilliant to us at the time. Little did we know how brilliantly idiotic it really was.
As I said before, no lion, except for the ones who now supported him, and they were not strong enough, would stand against us to defend Scar. But the hyenas would, and they were always prepared for any oncoming danger. That was their job. That was what Scar kept them around for. He was to be protected at all times. They were to be prepared at all moments of the day. They had been ready for us on that night as well, though Malka and I had foolishly forgotten about them. What a welcome wagon that had been.
Thankfully, we managed to escape death at the last possible second. I won't lie. I thought I was going to die that day. It was only thanks to Tojo and a quickly thought up escape plan that saved me and Malka from the grave. But the price for escaping was high. In exchange for my life, I had to leave the Pridelands behind. I had to leave behind my home, my history, and any remaining friends I had promised to protect.
I left the western border of the decaying Pridelands with the knowledge that I would probably never return. The ones I was saying goodbye to would never come after me. They probably thought Tojo, Malka, and I were dead. Scar had most likely made up some elaborate excuse as to why we weren't there anymore. Whatever it was, it would keep Nala, Kula, and Tama from trying to find us.
Throughout it all, throughout the escape, the traveling, and the finding of a new home, I kept wishing. Somehow, I was able to still believe in wishes.
I wished that somehow, by some great miracle, Simba would suddenly appear. That he would pop up to help me through life's latest hardships. That he would once again stand by my side to aid me in my fight against the new evils that had taken over the savanna. But he, like my little cub, was gone. There was no way for him to return.
He was my backup, but he was gone now. I was on my own.
MistressOfTime1218: Hi there. I'm brand new to this fandom, though I am a long time fan of the Lion King and its various sequels. An idea for a story relating to this fandom popped into my head a few months ago, and I came to develop it from there. However, I saw that a few things needed to be done before I posted it up.
For example, a couple of other stories relating to the tale needed to be put up first, as it would be important for the events and character personalities later on in the main story. Therefore, this short piece was born. It's only going to be about four chapters, but it'll give me some insight as to whether that main story will be posted or not.
Also, I should mention, that I respect authors and readers in this fandom very much. Some are amazing in their creations, and I can only hope this is on par with them. Any constructive criticism and questions are always welcome, very much so, and any help you can give is appreciated. Especially since I'm still toying with first person point of view. Let me know what you think. Thanks!