Scar watched as the cubs played near Pride Rock, happy that they seemed to have finally gotten over their sadness over his nephew's death. He began to put his head down on his paws while absentmindedly counting the cubs when he realized one was missing. Confused, he called out to the cubs.
"Hey!" They all turned to him. "Chumvi, my boy, come here!" The chocolate colored cub gave his friends confused glances, but complied nonetheless.
"Yes, Mister Scar?"
"Where's-" Scar paused for a moment, struggling to remember the name of the missing cub. "The other one?"
"The other one...?" Chumvi echoed Scar. "Oh! You mean Nala! She's still sad about Simba."
"Really? Perhaps I should talk to her." Scar mused to himself. "Well, run along, boy." Chumvi nodded and dashed back to his friends.
"Scar!" Scar's head whipped around as he searched for the caller. "Lord Scar!" His eyes widened as he realized that it was a hyena. "Lord Scar, we need your help!" The cubs all scrambled away from the approaching hyena, hiding behind Scar.
"What are you doing here!?" Scar jumped up, hissing at the hyena. "You and all the other hyenas aren't allowed here and I said that we'd talk later!"
"I know, milord, but we need your help! A pride has invaded the Graveyard and the-they are slaughtering us all!" For a moment, Scar paused, a flicker of sadness going across his face.
"Cubs, go and get Naanda and Zuri. We need to go do something."
"What?" Chumvi piped up. "Are you really going to help hyenas?" He sneered at the hyena from behind Scar's legs. Scar's hackles rose and he growled at Chumvi.
"I don't care what you think, boy! You are going to go and get your mother and my sister and we are going to deal with this! Now, go!" The cubs, now ignoring the hyena, and scared of Scar, fled to go get the two lionesses.
They didn't need to, though. "How dare you speak to my son like that!" Naanda's snarl sounded from a hill right next Pride Rock.
"I am the KING!" Scar roared back, and Naanda looked cowed, for a moment, before returning to her defiant look. "I will do what I want, when I want to, and you will LISTEN to me!"
"Don't-" Naanda started, only to be interrupted by Scar.
"Let's go!" Scar looked at the immobile hyena and growled. "Move!" With a yelp, the hyena started towards the Graveyard. Scar stalked after him and Naanda begrudgingly followed him, holding her head down submissively. As they followed the hyena, Zuri, Scar's sister, noticed them and came over, wondering what was going on.
"Zuri!" Scar called her, still on edge. "You're coming with me!" The lioness followed her brother, not sure of whether or not she really should.
"Uh, brother?" Zuri asked tentatively.
"What!?" Zuri recoiled from Scar's angry response, and when he saw this, he calmed himself. "What do you want, little sister?"
"I just wanted to know where we're going and...why we're following that hyena." She nodded to the still nervous dog they were walking with.
"No need to worry, I'll just tell you later."
"But, Scar-"
"Later." He interrupted her. "Just wait."
"If you say so, brother." Zuri sighed, falling back with Naanda as her brother sped up and spoke with the hyena for a moment.
A beige lioness was tearing into two hyenas when Scar had arrived with Naanda, Zuri and the hyena that had led them to the Elephant Graveyard had arrived. The hyena immediately snarled at the lioness, who turned to him and was promptly rewarded with the hyena throwing itself at her. Snarling, he tried to get rid of the lionesses, but she just shook him off and with a single hit, downed him. One of the hyenas she'd been attacking got up when she turned away and attempted to limp away, but she was having none of that, pinning it down once more.
"Enough!" The lioness finally seemed to notice the other three lions and she turned to them, letting the hyena escape and bowing to Scar. "You didn't need to slaughter them!"
"I'm sorry, Lord Scar, we...lost our control, I'll admit."
"See to it that you don't 'loose control' around my lionesses!" Scar snapped.
"Of course, my lord." The lioness still kept her head lowered.
"I don't have time for this." Scar growled. "I've already wasted enough time just coming here."
"Not like you had anything to do anyways, lazy fool." Naanda angrily muttered.
"Shut it!" Naanda opened her mouth to argue, but she thought better of it, instead just settling for quiet growling. "Where are the others?" Scar turned to the lioness again.
"Zira's with Kibo and her daughters at the border, chasing away the last of the mutts."
"Alright then, thank you for you work, Bianca." Scar dipped his head and started to turn to the lionesses behind him. "Meet us at the border after you've rounded them up so that we can get going." Bianca turned away and disappeared into the shadows of the Graveyard.
"Brother, what was that? Who was that lioness?" Zuri asked.
"Just our new...friends, I suppose." Zuri raised an eyebrow. "They helped us get rid of the hyenas, so they'll be rewarded with staying in the Pride Lands."
"What!?" Naanda growled, pushing her face into Scar's. "Without telling the Pride? Are you crazy!?"
"It's not like what they say will matter." Scar scoffed.
"Of course their opinion matters, they're your Pride!" Naanda snapped.
"And I'm their King!" Scar pushed back and then sighed. "We must start going if we want to meet them. When we get to Pride Rock, we'll deal with this."
Thanks to CynthiaFeline and DoctorWho41 for following this story. Thank you, Gracekim1 for following and favoriting. And thanks to Money100 for following and reviewing.
