disclaimer: even though this really doesn't have anything to do with the lion king I don't own it.

Ping and the Apple

Enjoy!

The deserts of Africa, a place not to be dealt with. The trees are scarce, the grass, thin. Water is a luxury, and shade, a privilege. Animals here have difficulty staying alive. In fact, there is one animal in particular, one that had success, and failure in his life. This cub that wanted to become, a lion.

Our story starts by a small tree in the middle of the Sahara Desert. Three cubs were born, Sasha, the oldest, Raja, the middle who was the first son, and our smallest and scrawniest, Ping. The cubs were born to Matusa and Lana, the royal family of the desert and jungle. The proud parents quickly spread the words of the new arrivals. Sasha, Raja, and Ping were presented to the crowd of the expectant lions and lionesses. They were the most honored cubs. Someday, one would take over the kingdom.

As the three cubs grew they learned of their fate. One would rule and two would not. Young Sasha began to hunt and the other two worked on battle skills. The three grew to resent each other, hoping they alone would rule. Sasha and Raja played dirty tricks on Ping, who was too small and dumb to seek revenge. Each worked day and night for their chance to rule the land, as their father Matusa's replacement. Each had skills of their own. Sasha was cunning and a skilled hunter who knew the land well. Raja was brave and strong. But Ping, Ping could only find places to hide away from the world. Ping seemed to be the least talented of the three. No one expected Ping to be the brave new leader.

One pleasant morning, as the sun rose high above the horizon, the cubs were barely waking. Suddenly they heard someone outside, many of them. And there was a buzzing sound, a low hum. As Sasha and Raja awakened they heard shots and said,

"Hunters! We have been found. We must run away right now!"

The two jumped out of sight and ran, not knowing they were surrounded. The lion twins spotted the hunters and looked down the long skinny barrels they were holding. Terrified by the sight, Ping climbed the small shade tree and blended with the wood on the tree. There he cowered away, hoping the hunters wouldn't notice him. He dared not to move from his spot. Below he heard the last roars from the lions, the whimpers of the cubs, the last breaths of his Pride. At last he heard the last of the evil beings leave with their buzzing things now full of his friend's mangled, bloody bodies. When he felt it was safe, he quietly stepped down to see if there were any survivors. Before him many blood stains covered the ground. Ping held back his tears as he continued his search. He looked at the place where the mothers would sit with their cubs. He looked where the males would wrestle, nothing. Suddenly he was the only lion left in his broken Pride. But just as his hope left him, he heard something, something that was so quiet that he almost passed it as the wind. But he heard it again. As he went to find the source of the sound he saw a mother with three cubs. They were safely hidden beneath two trees that had fallen. The mother had been trying to hush her children. When she saw Ping she was suddenly relieved and said,

"Ping, I am so grateful to see you, have you seen my husband? Is he ok?"

Ping looked at her with watery eyes as he tried to get the words out. "He, along with everyone else, is gone."

As the lioness tried to speak, they heard that buzzing noise again.

"Come" Ping whispered "We must leave before they find us!"

The five of them fled their safe haven to the desert. The desert that is cold at night, hot in the day. The desert that is evil and bears no food. The mother took two of her cubs by the scruff and Ping took the other. Silently, they left the place they called home.

Running, running as fast as they could, never ceasing. They ran all day, never stopping to rest or for water. They ran until nightfall. When it was too dark to see, they came across a waterhole, or so they thought. Exhausted they ran to it and tried to drink. They instead, lapped up dust. They spit out the disgusting, gritty stuff and realized that it was indeed a mirage. They were stuck in the middle of nowhere, left for dead by Mother Nature. Lying there, starving and thirsty, they slept. Slept the night and half of the next day. When they finally woke up they noticed the cubs, whose names were Missy, Lola, and Razor, were missing. When the lioness, whose name was Tanya, noticed this, she went berserk.

"Children, where are you? This isn't funny!" she called.

"Relax" said Ping to try and sooth her "Tanya, I'm sure they're fine. Maybe just playing in the waterhole. Oh wait, that was just dust."

They continued to call for the children. They searched for hours. As the time passed by, they became more and more worried. Tanya was close to a mental break down. How could she deal with the loss of her husband, and her children?

As Ping and Tanya were about to give up their search for the night they heard a noise. A loud, playful splashing noise. As they listened they heard more. They heard laughter, and tree branches, singing, and jumping. They looked into the distance and saw a waterhole. A few trees were there. There was a meadow with grass and flowers, and shade from the trees. This was much better than the old place where the Pride would sleep. This was a kingdom. As both lions sprinted to the piece of sacred land, they heard the noises again. They realized the noises were coming from the land. They looked closely and could see three small figures laughing and playing. Tanya ran up to her little ones and pulled them together. She checked them and licked them clean.

"Where have you been? I have been worried sick! You almost gave me a heart attack!"

"Sorry Mom." They said simultaneously.

"Well, at least you're alright!"

"Mom," said Razor "come see the cool food that we found. It's really good!"

As their mother followed the young cubs to the biggest shade tree Ping trailed close behind. At first glance, the food looked disgusting. The food was all red and dirty. But when Ping lowered his head to smell the round, but misshaped thing, it was wonderful. He put the entire thing in his mouth and bit hard. It was so juicy and good. Well, at least until the middle. The middle was hard and held tiny black things. But besides that, it was delicious.

"Where did you find this?" he asked with curiosity.

The children simply looked up. Ping looked up too and saw thousands of them, all on that one tree.

Days past and life in the meadow was wonderful. The tree with the paw size food was providing nutrition as well as jack rabbits that lived there. The nights were peaceful and fine. All seemed well.

On a morning like no other, with the sun blazing in the sky, Ping suddenly saw a herd of buffalo. They were stampeding straight for them. Ping quickly put the children, and Tanya in the fruit tree and scampered up there himself. When the buffalo arrived at the meadow they stopped to bathe and drink. One noticed a single lion print and said,

"Hey look! There is a lion who knows of this land!"

"Impossible!" replied the leader "Only we know where this is, not even another buffalo knows of this haven."

"No look," said the first "a footprint."

When the buffalo took a closer look, they saw half eaten fruits from the tree, and other paw prints.

"Search the grounds and find this lion!" snorted the leader "We must remove him so he cannot tell his Pride where our secret grounds are."

"There is no need to search!" Ping had jumped from the tree "I am here!"

The Buffalo were astounded.

"What is your business here?"

"I have found this place of rest and have been living here," he paused "alone, for a few days now."

"Alone you say. Where is your Pride?"

"Dead, hunters attacked."

"Ahhh, yes, and you are alone are you?"

"Yes."

"For days you say?"

"Yes, I am living here."

"Very well, you may stay."

"Thank you."

"But, if I am to find that you are not alone here there will be serious consequences."

"I understand."

"Good, herd, move out!"

As the buffalo left in a cloud of dust and dirt, Tanya and her cubs slowly climbed down.

"That was very brave, Ping. Thank you."

All the feeling went from Ping's tongue and he could barely speak.

"Id wazz noting Tanya." He said.

From then on, every week the buffalo came. And every week Tanya and her cubs hid. The weeks, the months, and even the years went by. Tanya and Ping fell in love and had two children whom Ping named Sasha and Raja, after his fallen siblings. Hiding from the enemy became a routine for the six. They could now sense when the buffalo were coming and when to hide. Everything seemed to be perfectly in order. Eventually Tanya, Missy, Sasha, Lola, Raja, and Razor became tired of hiding. They wanted to make their presence known. They were, after all, lions. Hiding was not what most lions did. They made a plan to scare the buffalo away forever, so they would never come back. Ping of course, had no knowledge of their plan whatsoever. He would have forbidden the plan and told them to leave it alone. But the lions did not want to worry Ping, for he did not need to know.

The next week, at early morning when the buffalo came, the foolish lions took their stations. As soon as all the buffalo were at the water hole and resting, the lions jumped down, surrounding the herd. Ping, who had gone off to the meadow farther down, heard the lions. He raced up to see what had happened and saw the buffalo. Each had been killed by the lions. Ping let out a roar! He turned to his wife and pleaded,

"Why have you slain these poor innocent beasts?"

"We are tired of hiding Ping. We want the meadow to ourselves."

Though Ping was not at all in favor of their decision, he did understand. They had a weeks worth of meals ahead of them and feasted at once. Now the buffalo were gone, they certainly had the meadows to themselves.

A few months later in the evening, Sasha was on the lookout. She saw about five or six figures running through the desert.

"Daddy, there are lions coming, six of them. Three of them are male and three female."

Ping ran out to them to see if any were hurt.

"Hunters!" They cried.

"Calm down, it's ok, stay with us. What are your names?"

Panting one of them said "Lenny, Steve, Penny, Holly, and Jason, oh and I'm Bridgett."

After that, many lions came running in their direction. Each stayed in the meadow. Ping realized that each were closer and closer in distance. He believed the hunters might find them. He decided to do as the six had done with the buffalo. He was going to fight!

From then on he formed a plan. It would be a brilliant plan from his once dormant mind. He had come a long way from the days he would hide. He had become the King and this was his kingdom. It was his job to protect it. For days he remained a recluse, shutting out the world and barely eating. He sat under the tree that bore that red, round, seedy fruit and thought. No plan came to his head.

One morning, as the sun shone high in the sky, Ping was once again, lying under his tree. He had almost given up on his inner quest to find an answer. He had recently seen more lions that had come saying their herd had been only a half day's run. He was about to give up and run and hide, just as he had done before. Right as he stood up something hit him square on his forehead. It hurt! He looked up to see that it was the fruit. He didn't even have time to get out of the way! He hadn't seen it coming. Then it hit him. He looked around at the other trees in the meadow. Then he saw the tall rocks and grass. He saw the hills. Hiding was his answer. He had always been good at it, but always used it as defense. Not once had he used it as offense.

Over the next few days many meetings were held. The lions were put into stations, the rocks, the trees, the hills, the grasses, and the most important, the bait! The bait was made of the fastest, strongest, and bravest lions. Each station had a leader. The hills leader was Raja, the trees, Tanya, the grasses were led by Missy, and the bait was led by Ping. Though Ping was growing older, he still had some fight left in him. Ping wanted revenge for what the hunters had done to his family.

Weeks past and the lions practiced their plan. Each time the bait would go out into the desert to lure the hunters to the meadow. The rest of the Pride would hide in the stations and wait for the signal. The bait would run through the meadow and roar when they were near the end. Each of the stations would jump from their hiding places to surround the hunters. Then they would attack. The plan seemed easy, but if executed wrong, the consequences would be severe.

On a day like all other days the lookout for the Pride sounded the alarm. The lions took their positions as the bait headed out to the desert. The stations waited anxiously, seeing nothing. Suddenly a buzzing filled their ears. A buzzing each of them, with the exception of Raja and Sasha, had heard. The plan was working. The bait ran their hearts out. They ran, and Ping ran, faster than they ever had before. The buzzing machine was catching up, and shots were being fired, beside him Ping heard one lion fall, and then another. Two of the five were gone. Now only three had the chance to make it all the way. Ping ran even faster than before. Behind him he heard the sound of death as another lion fell. Now only two, Razor and Ping, were left. Both were nearing the meadow, with not much farther to go. Razor, slightly in front of Ping, accelerated even more! They were in the meadow. Now both were desperately trying to reach the water hole! Ping looked to his left to see a hunter pointing his long barrel at Razor. He aimed and went to pull the trigger. Ping suddenly jumped out of nowhere in front of Razor; he let out the signal just as he felt it. He hit the ground to see nothing but blackness. Slowly he sank down and took his last breath. Ping was gone.

Though Ping could not go on the battle did. Ping had signaled the other stations to go and they quickly surrounded the hunters. Guns to claws, skins to furs, the battle was rough. Slowly the members of both sides began to fall. The battle became harsh and the men were desperately trying to get away. Only two of the men remained, the driver and the man who killed Ping. Razor, who had almost lost consciousness himself, leaped onto the buzzing machine as the men tried to escape. He reached in and killed the driver. The man with the gun jumped out of the vehicle and tried to run. But Razor was too quick, before the man could even put his gun up Razor jumped on him!

The battle was over. Slowly the dust cleared and the scene was overlooked. The total death count was ten men and sixteen lions. That was the price for freedom. The lions had lost their king and had to elect another. Tanya had come to the center of the lions and said,

"My husband is dead. We must choose a leader. My son Razor has killed the last of the men. He is our leader now."

The fellow lions cheered. Razor assumed the throne.

TWO YEARS LATER

A baby is born to Razor and his wife, Lota; the baby is small, but beautiful. Lota looks at Razor and gazes back. Happiness is within the Pride. Ever since the Epic Battle with man, the lions have lived in peace. Tanya comes to visit the cub and asks,

"What are you to name the baby?"

Razor only smiles and says "Ping is his name."

And that is the story of a cub who wanted to become a lion. And a lion that lost everything, but gained a Pride.