Lost in the Bone Labyrinth
In the barren wastes of the Outlands, the hot noonday sun shinned down upon a little lioness cub as she prowled through the dry brush, unaware she was being followed.
Vitani's ears perked up as she heard a twig snap. She stood still, the young cub listening for any signs of danger. When she heard another snap, she was certain that someone was behind her. With expert reflexes, she ducked as her aggressor flew from out of the under brush. The aggressor soared over Vitani and crashed onto the dirt in a painful belly flop.
"Nice try, but you're going to have to do better than that."
The aggressor was predictably her brother, Kovu. He stood up from the ground, groaning from the pain. "Well...you're too fast."
"No, you're just too noisy."
The two cubs circled around each other, itching for a brawl.
"Ha, I bet I can still take you down in a fight," said Kovu, playfully.
Vitani leaped toward Kovu, her teeth bared and claws drawn.
Kovu, taken by surprise, retreated from her.
"That's another one of your problems. You always retreat in a fight."
"Well, you're too aggressive."
"Ha, in a fight, you have no time to think."
While the cubs scuffled, Nuka sat nearby, twitching with irritation. "Oh will you two termites keep it down. I'm trying to sleep here."
"Well at least we're doing something," snapped Vitani. "All you ever do around here is sleep."
"Hey, it's bad enough that I have to babysit you two every time Mom goes out for a hunt. I don't need to hear you criticizing me."
A sly grin crossed Vitani's face. "Fine then, we'll be quiet."
"Well thank you very much," said Nuka, sarcastically. Without another word, he plopped down on the dirt.
Kovu stared at the look on his sister's face with dread. He knew that cocky look meant trouble. Sure enough as soon as Nuka began to snore, Vitani quietly sneaked away, Kovu nervously following her.
"Vitani, what are you doing?" he asked.
"We're going to go out and explore. With Nuka asleep, we can come home before Mom does, and no one will get in trouble."
"Are you crazy. Mom will kill us if she finds out."
"If you're afraid, then turn back."
Kovu wanted to object, but before he could say a single word, Vitani sprinted off into the desert. Not wanting to leave her alone, he reluctantly followed.
The air was hot and dry to the point that Kovu began to pant even though they had not wandered far from the Outlands. It was nothing but bare desert in all directions with no shade or water to sooth the heat.
"Vitani, where are you going?"
"Shhh, keep quiet." Vitani crouched down and crawled up a small sand dune.
Kovu followed her example, crawling up the dune to see what was going on. Before them was a group of meerkats scavenging in the sand.
"This should be easy to prey," whispered Vitani. "Just don't make any noise this time."
Kovu said nothing, hoping they will go back home once they hunted. He watched Vitani as she crouched low onto the sand. With a giant leap, she lifted herself over the dune and ran toward the meerkats. Kovu followed her, but as soon as he was over, he only saw the meerkats run away to their holes.
"Oh darn," shouted Vitani angrily. "Thanks a lot, Kovu."
"Me? What did I do?"
"They must have been making noise."
"I was just as quiet as you were. There must have been something else that scared them."
"Like what?"
As if Vitani called out their names, three shadows descended upon the cubs.
"Well, well, it seems we found two lost little cubs," said a female hyena. "What shall we do with them, Banzai?"
"Hm, that's a good question, Shenzi? What does Ed think?"
Ed only laughed maniacally.
Kovu and Vitani huddled next to each other as the three hyenas circled the two.
"You know what I'm thinking, boys?" said Shenzi. "I'm thinking of a cub sandwich."
"Oh, can I have the heads?"
Ed laughed in agreement.
While Kovu huddled to the ground, shaking with freight, Vitani slashed her claws at Shenzi's face.
Shenzi backed away from Vitani's reach. "Oh, this one has spunk."
"Come on, we're not afraid," challenged Vitani.
"Oh what a fierce huntress," mocked Banzai. "Don't let her scratch me. I might get an infection."
The hyenas laughed.
"Will you stop that," said Kovu, shaking in freight. "We shouldn't make them mad."
"Come on, Kovu, we can take them."
Shenzi winced in surprise. "Kovu?" Shenzi leaned over to Kovu, examining him closely. A sinister smile crept up her face. "I thought you looked familiar. You're Kovu, Scar's stepson."
Vitani tried to scratch out Shenzi's eyes, but Shenzi easily ducked out of the way. With one paw, she pushed her onto her back and held her down.
"And if these two are Zira's cubs, then you must be Vitani," said Shenzi.
Kovu growled angrily. "Hey, get off my sister."
Before Kovu could attack, Banzai pounced on him, holding him down. "Come on, Shenzi, let's eat them now."
"No! Zira's probably looking for them," Shenzi looked up at the vultures circling overhead, "and we're too exposed here. We'll take them home, and then we'll eat them."
"Looks like this dinner's to go," said Banzai, gleefully.
Using her teeth, Shenzi picked up Vitani by the scruff of her neck. Banzai did the same to Kovu. The cubs struggled to break free, but they were helpless as they were carried away.
The hyenas took the cubs out of the desert and into the bone yards. The blistering heat of the sun suddenly became dim under thick clouds of ash. It was a land where nothing but bones and rocks could be found. It was a land of death and decay. The sight of which sent shivers down even Vitani's spine.
Eventually, they reached a small area that seemed completely deserted judging from the fact that that there was not a single living thing nearby.
Shenzi unceremoniously tossed Vitani into a nearby hole. Banzai dropped Kovu down with her.
The two cubs hit the ground hard, kicking up dirt and causing them to cough and wheeze. Although the hole was not deep, it was still deep enough to keep Kovu and Vitani inside. They desperately clawed the dirt, but the mouth of the hole was just out of their reach.
The hyenas watched the cubs' futile attempt at escape, laughing manically.
"I suppose we better decide how we're going to divide the kill," said Shenzi. "I call dibs on Kovu."
"Then I'll have the little lioness," said Banzai.
Ed growled angrily.
"What? Do you want the lioness?"
Ed nodded his head.
"Sorry, there's only two cubs and three of us, so one of us will have to go hungry."
Ed angrily pounced on Banzai, the two scuffling in the dirt.
"Will you two be quiet," ordered Shenzi. "Look, let's be reasonable here. Why don't we just divide them between the three of us?"
Banzai and Ed ceased fighting with their claws still at each other's throats.
"How are we going to divide them?" demanded Banzai.
"I suppose we could vote on which parts we get."
"How can we vote when we all want the same thing?"
As the hyenas argued, Vitani and Kovu frantically searched for a way out.
Vitani leaped and clawed at the walls of the hole. She repeatedly jumped up to grab the ledge, but each time, she only managed to scrape off some of the dirt, causing it to fall onto her face. Her claws were barely able to reach the edge.
"Vitani, stop it. You're only wearing yourself out."
"Well, do you have any ideas?"
As Vitani continued to claw at the earth, Kovu looked around. What caught his attention was large rock near the hole.
"I've got an idea. I need you to push me up."
Vitani turned to him, wiping dirt out of her eyes. "Are you serious?"
"Trust me, I know what I'm doing."
Without another word, Vitani got on all fours and Kovu used her as a stool so he could reach the edge. Kovu dug his claws into the mouth of the hole, puling himself up. He then began to push the rock into the hole. Once the rock tumbled into the hole, Vitani was able to use it as a stepping-stone.
As Shenzi angrily tried to control Ed and Banzai, she heard the rock tumble in and saw Vitani crawling out of the hole. "You idiots, our dinner's getting away."
Kovu and Vitani ran through a gap in a nearby bone pile, squeezing their way through the bones as the hyenas gathered around the hole trying to force their way through. The cubs felt their way through the mesh of bones. It was dark and the dust in the air choked their noses. Without warning, the ground gave way underneath their paws, and they tumbled down a hole. They came out with a loud thud, only to find themselves in a ravine of some kind.
Vitani pulled herself onto her feet "That was close."
"We can't rest here. We need to get out of here before the hyenas find us."
"Uh, Kovu, do you know where we are?"
The cubs were now in a labyrinth of stone and bones. There were passageways everywhere, but the way out was not evident from where they stood.
"Does any of this look familiar?" asked Kovu, visually scanning the land.
Vitani frantically searched the area, looking as frightened as Kovu. "Uh, I think we have to go this way."
"How would you know?"
From over head, they heard the voices of the hyenas. They were getting closer.
Driven by fear and panic, Kovu and Vitani ran down the path Vitani suggested. The bones and rocks formed a haphazardly arranged series of dark tunnels.
However, it was not long before they realized just how futile it was to escape. The bones and rocks formed a twisting maze. With each path they took, they became more and more disoriented. Each bone looked the same as the next. Each rock face looked too different from one another to be of any help. No matter where they turned, Kovu and Vitani were hopelessly lost, a fact that was quite apparent when they came to a dead end.
"Well now what are we going to do?" asked Kovu. The area was one of the few wide clearings they had found, but it was still surrounded on all sides by rock and bones.
"I don't know," said Vitani, looking frightened. Her ears perked up. "Wait! Do you hear that?"
Sure enough, from a distance, they could hear the sounds of the hyenas approaching.
Vitani began breathing heavily. "I don't believe it. How are they able to track us?"
Despite the overcast sky, the air was still hot, hot enough to allow Kovu to smell the stench of body heat off himself and Vitani. "They must be tracking us by scent."
"Oh no, we're done for."
"Hold on, I have an idea. In order for those hyenas to follow us, they would have to come in after us."
"So?"
"So all we have to do is follow their scent trails backward and we'll find the way they came in."
"But that would mean we would have to sneak past them. How are we going to do that?"
"I have an idea for that, too."
#
"Hurry up, we've got to be close to those cubs by now," ordered Shenzi as he led the other two hyenas. The cubs' scent trail led them to the clearing.
"Hey, their scent trail smells strong here," said Banzai.
Shenzi grinned evilly. "That must mean we're getting close."
As Banzai and Ed tracked the cubs' scent, they quickly began to split apart as they searched. The two weaved around each other as they followed random paths that crossed each other throughout the clearing.
"What are you two doing?" asked Shenzi.
"I'm following the scent like you told me to," said Banzai.
Ed nodded in agreement.
Shenzi sniffed the air, and realized that the smell of the cubs was everywhere. She lowered her nose to the ground and noticed the little paw prints all over the ground and the kicked up dirt. "Why those sly little lions. They spread their scent all over this area in attempt to make it harder for us to find them."
"What do we do?"
"Just follow where the scent is strongest."
The three began sniffing the air.
It was not long before Banzai caught a whiff of a particularly strong odor. "Hey Ed, I smell something over here."
Ed walked up to Banzai, sniffing the air. He began to let out a squeal of a laugh as he recognized the pungent odor of lion. He sniffed the air with Banzai, the two of them following the scent toward a particular spot.
Shenzi followed them, smelling the stench of lion and smiling with glee.
They walked closer and closer to a large elephant skull. The smell was strong in that skull.
"All right, you two," said Banzai as he put a paw on the skull, "you're not getting away this time." He lifted the skull, but underneath, all he saw was a large puddle. Banzai dropped the skull in disgust. "I guess the cubs couldn't hold it any longer."
"You idiot," shouted Shenzi, angrily. "It's a scent decoy." Shenzi suddenly heard a pile of bones fall over. She turned around and saw Kovu and Vitani running out from beneath the pile of bones they were hiding under. "They're getting away."
They chased the cubs, growling irritably as they caught up with them, Shenzi in particular speeding on the heels of Kovu. With a flying leap, she pinned Kovu to the ground, holding him in place. "I'm not letting you get away from me."
Kovu clawed at the ground desperate to escape Shenzi, but Shenzi applied all of her weight on him, keeping him trapped.
Vitani turned around and charged toward Shenzi. Shenzi saw Vitani approach and was about to force her down with her paw, but at the last second, Vitani swerved past Shenzi's paw and ran past her. Vitani opened her mouth and bit down on Shenzi's right hind leg.
"Ow, get off me," shouted Shenzi. She kicked her leg hard, but Vitani held on.
Ed and Banzai closed in on Vitani. She let go and ran off underneath Shenzi, causing Banzai and Ed to mindlessly squeezed themselves underneath Shenzi as they pursued Vitani.
"Hey, what are...?" Shenzi toppled over, allowing Kovu to escape.
He frantically ran toward the nearby pile of bones, quickly hiding himself under the bones. He looked outward, alarmed to see the hyenas chasing Vitani.
"Get back here," said Banzai.
"You want me, you'll have to catch me," Vitani shouted. With a flying leap, she landed onto a large pile of bones and started to climb it.
Kovu watched his sister in alarm. He could see that the pile of bones she was climbing ended in a rocky cliff at the top whose edge was too high to climb. Kovu could only watch his sister helplessly.
Even though the hyenas were not far away, Vitani climbed the bones. She struggled to maintain her momentum as the bones she climbed slid underneath her weight. She could feel the breath of the hyenas on her tail as they climbed after her, snarling and barking.
She fought her way to the top, struggling to reach for the rock. Finally, she was within close enough reach to grip the stone surface, but she had nowhere to run, and the hyenas were still gaining upon her. There was a little ledge of rock that was barely big enough to allow her to climb onto it, but she did and clung to it.
"Just what were you thinking?" asked Shenzi, as she and the hyenas halted just out of Vitani's reach. "You're trapped and within easy reach. What were you trying to accomplish?" Shenzi hesitated when she heard the clinking sound of moving bones, followed by a sudden jolt as the hyenas suddenly slid a foot down the pile.
Although the bones they were standing on could support the weight of a cub, the combined weight of three hyenas was another matter. Below their pas, the hyenas could feel the precariously stacked bones began to come apart, and a sudden shock would cause the foundation to collapse.
Vitani grinned as she threatened to jump. The hyenas could only watch helplessly as Vitani leaped onto the pile, and like a landslide, the bones collapsed.
The hyenas screamed and kicked as they tried to escape the avalanche of bones, but it was not long before they hit the ground. Dust was kicked up in the air. The pile of falling bones clanked and clicked loudly. All of which obstructed Kovu from hearing or seeing what was happening.
To his relief, he saw Vitani leap from the dust cloud having managed to ride the bones down.
"Get off of me," shouted Shenzi, pinned down by Banzai and an elephant ribcage. Shenzi tried to crawl out from underneath Banzai, but Banzai was barely able to lift the pile of bones off of him. Ed was nearby laughing manically as if he was enjoying himself. But in the end, all the hyenas could do was to catch a glimpse of Kovu and Vitani as they ran off out of sight.
#
As quickly as they could, they followed the hyenas' scent trail out of the labyrinth. Once out, they ran as fast as they could out of the bone yard. As luck would have it, they did not encounter a single predator during their escape. By the time the sun went down, they could finally see the termite mounds, signaling that their home was not too far away. The two cubs stopped to rest, panting softly.
"Well, that was a close one," said Kovu.
"Yeah, it was quick thinking to spread our scent all over the ground. Not to mention that little decoy."
"It's a good thing I drank all that water before we got kidnapped."
Vitani lowered her ears in regret. "About that, I just want to say I'm sorry. If I didn't wonder off like that, we wouldn't have been captured."
"Don't say that."
"But it's true. If it weren't for your cool head and your clever plans, we would have been eaten."
"I can't take all the credit. After all, if you hadn't rushed in to save me from Shenzi, I would have been eaten. If I was in your place, I wouldn't have had the guts to charge toward a hyena like that."
Vitani laughed confidently. "Well, I suppose there is an advantage to just thinking on your paws."
Grinning slyly, Kovu suddenly pounced on Vitani, knocking her on her back. "Thinking on your paws does allow you to get the jump on your opponent. Now that I got you pinned, you can't escape."
"Oh, you think so, do you?" Vitani reached her paw down to Kovu's belly and began to gently scratch it.
"Hey what are you doing?" Kovu began to laugh. "That tickles." Kovu laughed hysterically as Vitani tickled his belly. He was so distracted that he did not notice Vitani aim her right hind paw underneath his left leg. With a hard shove, Vitani pushed Kovu's hindquarter off her. Before he could retaliate, Vitani grabbed a hold of him with her front paws, and pushed him off of her.
The two cubs playfully rolled around in the dirt, trying to get a hold on each other. Although they both knew that there would be a huge scolding from Zira when they got home, Kovu and Vitani decided to have a little playtime before hand.
The End