Heya guys! Alyssa here! Only This chapter, then the next, and the confusion should be over. DX Its hard to introduce everyone. /3 Anyway, I hope you're enjoying this as much as I am. In this chapter we learn why Aerona dislikes lions so much. FLASHBACK TIME! :D oh, by the way, sentences with dashes - - - like that, surrounding them, are thoughts. :)
Aerona ran in the direction of the Pridelands. "That cub... Will be king." She smiled. A memory flickered in her mind:
She was just about reaching adolescence. That day she remembered, it was brutally hot, and she wandered from her clan to find some water. She ended up around the outskirts of Outlands, and laid down. She had been walking for some time and the sun was beating down on her dark fur, making her drowsy. She was just about to doze off when she heard angry voices, and a younger voice screaming. Her ears pricked up, and she ran in the direction of the voices.
Three angered warthogs had surrounded a small outlander cub. His fur was a brown color, and his eyes were emerald green. They darted from side to side, unsure of what to do. In a distance, Aerona could see an older male cub, about her age, with a smile upon his face. He was behind some rocks. His eyes glimmered red like the sky above them. Aerona knew the older male was up to no good. She snarled and leapt in front of the warthogs.
"Huh?" they all stepped back. Aerona scanned them. They appeared to look alike, so she assumed they were siblings. There were 3 males. The strongest one stepped up.
"Excuse me miss. We were just in the middle of teaching this cub a lesson."
"You won't be teaching any cub a lesson. What could he have possibly done?" Aerona growled.
"You see over there?" a smaller one said, gesturing to a dead warthog a small distance away, "That was our sister. We caught this little runt eating our beloved sister." The young cub winced: "My... my brother... just brought it.." The strongest one grunted loudly. "You're a little too far from home, outlander. Your brother is nowhere to be found." The middle-sized one finally joined in the torment. "Whether you killed her, or your brother did, or your wicked mother did doesn't matter. You outlanders should be starving to death, feeding off mice and insects." The small one then snickered: "or better yet, they should be feeding off you. We'll prepare the meal for them."
As they began to advance on Aerona and Kovu, Aerona's heart began to pound rapidly. Her developing mane bristled, and her lips drew back to reveal her sharp fangs. She felt a rumbling in her throat build up to a loud screech, and she lunged at the strongest warthog, pushing him to the ground. He squealed and squirmed as her jaws clasped around his snout. She had never actually killed anything before. Food was always just brought to the clan, usually killed by another animal. But this was extremely different. She felt the adrenalin rush through her body and she snapped her jaws shut, crushing the warthog's skull.
She lifted her head and looked down at the dead male. Blood trickled down her lips, and she was panting heavily. Her lavender eyes darted towards the 2 other warthogs, who were trembling with both anger and trauma, and then the cub. Her lips mouthed the word: "run."
The cub ran, and she ran after him, making sure he wouldn't be hurt. They finally lost the 2 warthogs. The young cub ran into his mother, a lean, tan, lioness. He began to cry, holding onto her leg. Her red eyes stabbed Aerona. "Who... are you?" she asked in a very raspy voice. If Aerona had time to think, she wouldn't have given the lioness her name, but she had begun to panic.
"I'm A...Rona.. My name is Aerona."
"Aerona... Shenzi's niece?" the lioness asked again.
"Y..Yes." Aerona whimpered in response.
"She saved me." the small cub sniffed.
"...is that so?" the lioness continued. Aerona looked to the ground. The lioness was frightening.
"yes.. There were these warthogs..."
"warthogs... Where were you?" she snarled at her cub.
"I was just... Nuka caught me one and told me to eat it... then he was gone.." the cub cried.
"Nuka...!" she roared. Of course no one appeared, but she was enraged. She looked at Aerona and bared her fangs.
"Were you apart of this too, mutt?" Aerona's eyes widened in fear.
"No.. I just happened to see that-"
" Oh geeze. 'I just happened to see that...' My POOR Kovu! To think your pesky brother would start involving HYENAS? He wants to be so much like our beloved Scar... Go get your sister. I need to have a talk with you both." As the cub did as his mother commanded, he turned to Aerona with a sorry look on his face. She tilted her head and half smiled sympathetically. The lioness then glared at her and let out a growl. Finally, the two cubs returned to her.
"Vitani... does this young lady seem familiar to you?" The female cub sat next to her mother and took a look at Aerona.
"I don't know any hyenas, mother."
The older lioness nodded. "What would a strange... HYENA of all things... want to do with saving a cub? I mean, unless it wanted to eat them after..."
"But mom.. she saved me." The male, Kovu, whimpered.
"Come on Kovu, you don't have to be afraid of a mangy hyena. Don't make her scare you into saying such things. I'm here, see?" With that, the lioness smacked Aerona with her paw, knocking her to her side. She shut her eyes tightly. -what on earth was this...?-
The older lioness then continued to talk about how terrible and inferior hyenas were. She continued humiliating and smacking Aerona around. Aerona laid limp and shut her eyes. She would do nothing. It would all be over soon. The lioness explained that hyenas didn't help her poor Scar at all, and they were nothing but a bunch of useless mutts. She then gave Aerona a final slash across her face, leaving her with 3 open wounds. Blood ran down her muzzle and stained her fur a reddish brown.
Aerona heard a voice in the distance call: "Zira!"
It was another outlander. Zira... That must have been the name of this lioness who had just tormented and humiliated her. The lioness ran in the direction of the voice, their voices faded. Only the 2 cubs were next to Aerona's beaten up body. Kovu had begun to cry.
"...what's up kid?" Aerona weakly huffed.
"I'm sorry..." he whimpered.
"Our mother doesn't like hyenas." Vitani said somewhat softly. "I don't know much about them."
"That's okay." Aerona managed to say. In a distance, Zira called her two cubs over. "Vitani! Kovu!"
"I.. I promise i'll make it up to you if i ever see you again." Kovu sniffed. The two cubs quickly darted off.
Aerona's memory was interrupted by a shriek.
Kovu: That was a dumb ending.
Me: What? How was I supposed to end it?
Aerona: Not like that.
Me: *sigh...*
Kovu: at least tell us who shrieked!
Me: No! That's for next chapter!... See y'all next time!
