Chapter 3
The Elephant Graveyard, one of the most forbidden places to go to in the Pride Lands if you were anything, but an Elephant or the cursed Hyenas who were starving enough to roam the holy land of the dead. It was a place of peace, to have a final goodbye before sleeping for eternity and joining the circle of life, it certainly was not a place for young lion cubs to play at, that was for sure. Yet here was Simba and his friend Nala in the graveyard roaming around without a care of their safety or what was in the graveyard.
The two cubs had fooled Zazu at the watering hole, though the falling of a hippo onto the small bird-man was a little harsh in Simba's opinion as he did hear something crack when Zazu was down, and slipped through the grass to get to the graveyard unseen. How they came about the knowledge of the Elephant's Graveyard was through Nala's mom, Sarafina, speaking to Mufasa about some roaming Hyenas near the edge of the Pride Lands or something like that, Nala only heard half of it and heard of the Elephant Graveyard as well as it's location. Nala told Simba and said that they should explore, see what was the graveyard was and why it seemed like a taboo with the lions and lionesses. Both were a little hesitant to go, the place seemed dark and spooky as they neared it, but they weren't going to back down! They needed to know what was in their home and find out why the others didn't come here unless it was for something of utter most importance.
"Ready Simba? We're on the edge of the Elephant Graveyard" Nala said to her younger friend. Simba nodded and both slid through the thin grass and dirt before sprinting over to a small mound that was taller then them that seemed to be next to the edge of the ground and the graveyard, key word here is 'seemed'. As soon as the two cubs arrived to the mound they jumped over it when they did the noticed their error. They looked down in fear as they saw the drop off of the cliff soar under them and they were over nothing, but bones of the dead and rough, cracked dirt. They screamed out as their weight caught up with gravity and fell down like dead weight to the ground, surely to meet their doom right? But when they landed, they landed on their feet and then their bodies crashed, knocking their air out of them. They laid down and waited for their breath to come back, it took a bit, but when it did, both of the cubs saw that they were alright.
They laughed despite the incident and stood up, switching to their human forms and stretching. Nala looked to be twelve with soft sand, blond hair going to her shoulders and bright, blue eyes. Simba was around eleven and had short, reddish-blond hair that only went to his ears and his orange eyes shined so brightly with youthful innocence. Both cubs were the youngest in the pride at the moment and constantly getting into things, though it was mostly Nala and an older male who visited Pride Rock from time to time.
"God, that had my heart pumping" Nala said as she put her hand to her chest and felt her pounding heart.
"Yeah, I know. That scared me badly" Simba said as he finished stretching. Nala sighed and grabbed Simba's wrist so they could go onward in their adventure. They arrived to a large elephant skull a few minutes later and looked around, becoming disoriented with where they were as hey forgot which way they came from.
"So big" Nala said, "It's also spooky, right Simba?" she asked while watching said cub climb up onto the junction of the tusks and the skull.
"Yeah, but I'm not scare like you" he teased the girl. Nala huffed and went forward to get right below Simba's standing point on the tusks.
"I'm not scared!" she said.
"Suuuuuure" Simba said while drawing out the vowel. He looked down at her and smirked.
"You know Nala, from up here, you look tiny" he said and started laughing as the girl started growling and hissing out bounds of words that didn't make much sense other then being childish insults.
"Simba, come down from there, it's dangerous!" Nala shouted after a while, not noticing a blue bird flapping its way down to their location.
"Right you are young Nala. Simba, come down! We need to get out of here, it's forbidden and we're all in very grave danger" Zazu said once he had changed into his human for. He wasn't that tall, only towering Nala by a foot or so, and had blue hair that stuck up in the back a small bit while the tips of his hair was dark blue. His eyes were a dark brown bordering black and he had orange and red tribal marks painted over his nose and lips, stating that he was part of the red beaked horn-bill tribe.
"Danger? Hah! I walk on the wild side. I laugh in the face of danger. Ha ha ha ha!" Simba laughed mockingly as if he was trying to show he wasn't afraid.
Somewhere during Simba's laughing, a group of voices joined in with his, making him become frightened and leap off the tusks. He landed next to Nala and Zazu before holding onto Nala for comfort and support while Zazu stood in front of them, hiding them from whatever was here with them. They stood in the circle of the tusks while looking up at the empty eye sockets, knowing that the main laughter came from here. A dark faced young woman looked out of where she had been hiding. She seemed to be in her late teens-early twenties with long, black hair that had protruding bangs and large eyes with beady, black pupils. She crawled out of the eye socket and walked down the right tusk and hopped to the ground next to Simba and Nala.
"Well, well, well, Banzai, what do we have here?" she said.
"I don't know, Shenzi. What do you think, Ed?" male voice came from the other side of them. They gasped and looked at the older man who had equally dark skin as the woman, Shenzi. Banzai, as the man was called, had short dark hair with three long hairs standing up and limping to the front with a small curve, he also had large eyes with beady, black pupils and he seemed to be in his early twenties as well.
Crazed laughter from behind the cubs which caused them to jump and look at a man that looked to be as insane as they could get; bald head, no eyebrows, small eyes that looked outward away from each other, crazed smiling with his tongue hanging out and lofting off to the side. The cubs were shaking as they stood there in the center of the group, looking at the crazy one and the two normal ones, Zazu had not moved much, only staring at the two in front of him with fear etched in his eyes.
"Hyena" he said with a soft and fearful tone. Banzai and Shenzi laughed at Zazu while Ed watched the cubs, his head tilted to the aide as he looked at them.
"Just what I was thinkin'. A trio of trespassers!" Banzai said when he finished translating Ed's laughter in his head and hearing Zazu's fear filled words.
"And quite by accident, let me assure you. A simple navigational error" Zazu said while turing to get the cubs out of the danger zone, but they got blocked by Shenzi.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait, wait, wait. I know you. You're Mufasa's little stooge!" Shenzi said with delight as she looked down on Zazu.
"I, madam, am the king's Majordomo" Zazu said angrily despite the situation.
"And that would make you..." Banzai said once he spotted Simba behind Zazu and sort of hidden by Nala.
"Future king" Simba said, trying to make them fear his future title, one that he'd happily give to Taka and have him here right now, he had never been so scared like he was now. Shenzi and Banzai laughed while Ed rolled his back in the dirt.
"Do you know what we do to kings who step out of their kingdom?" Shenzi said with a smirk towards the prince of the pride lands. Simba saw the bait and sadly took it to buy some time.
"Puh. You can't do anything to me." he said, though deep inside he knew he was wrong.
"Technically, they can. We are on their land" Zazu said with a small nervous smile as he continued to shelter the two cub from the trio.
"But Zazu, you told me they're nothing but slobbering, mangy, stupid poachers!" Simba said as he was the simple cub he was at times, not seeing that he signed Zazu's death warrant with those words.
"Ix-nay on the upid-stay..." Zazu said as he winced internally for ever saying those words in front of the molding cub.
"Who you callin' 'upid-stay?'" Banzai yelled angrily once he caught what Simba had been talking about.
"My, my! Look at the sun, it's time to go!" Zazu says while hurrying the cubs out of the way, but get block by Shenzi when they were about out into the open.
"What's the hurry? We'd love you to stick around for dinner" Shenzi teased while she shifted her hand to Simba and scratched under his chin and looking at a small amount of blood that gathered from a scratch she made.
"Yeah, we could have whatever's "lion" around!" Banzai said once his anger depleted. He and Shenzi start laughing and become distracted with their antics.
"Ohh, wait, wait, wait, I got one, I got one! Make mine a "cub" sandwich!" Shenzi says and both bust out laughing long enough to have the Renegade trio make a run for freedom and changing into their animal forms. Ed watched them and pointed while making noises that catches Banzai's attention and he looks down to where he was pointing.
"What, Ed? What is it?" Shenzi said in confusion, not having seen her friend like this before.
"Hey, did we order this dinner to go?" Banzai said as he continued to follow the trio with his eyes.
"No. Why?" Shenzi asks before turning and seeing what the other two were looking at.
"'Cause THERE IT GOES!" Banzai shouts and all take off after the trio, switching into real hyenas. The Hyena trio chases the Renegade trio through the graveyard, pushing them in deeper before having them cut off by a blocking tusk. Banzai grabs Zazu when the bird-man wasn't paying attention and Shenzi went to grab the cubs. Nala saw Shenzi and screamed, gaining Simba's attention and he lept in front of his friend while acting on pure instinct and clawed out four gashes on Shenzi's cheek*. Shenzi grew angry from the hit and growled at Simba before leaping forward to land on them, only to have the cubs slide backwards and slip down a vertebrate that went down hill. She sighed as she saw that she wasn't going to get them at the moment and went to see what Banzai was doing with the bird-man, also seeing if the cubs had appeared at where he was.
"The little majordomo bird hippity-hopped all the way to the birdie boiler" Banzai said while smiling and moving Zazu against his will towards a geyser, not seeing Shenzi join him and Ed at the small hot water shooter. He stuffed Zazu into the geyser and waited for it to go off.
"Oh, no! Not the birdie boiler!" Zazu screamed out before having it escalate when the geyser shot him out of the hole like a rocket. The Hyena trio laughed hysterically at the event and stopped when they heard a cub speak out from nearby.
"Hey! Why don't you pick on somebody your own size?" Simba said, angered at what they did to Zazu.
"Like... you?" Shenzi said, her anger returning from earlier.
"Oops" Simba said before the cubs ran off again, this time having all of the Hyena trio after them. They came to another blocked path that consisted of two tusks that they could climb over, but with the time they didn't have. Simba pushed Nala up to give her a head start while the hyenas came closer. Nala ducked down when a figure jumped over the tusks and landed in-between the Hyena trio and the cubs. Simba was curled up at the bottom of the lower tusk and was hiding beneath his paw as he waited for the hyenas to eat him, but he got startled out of his ball when a roar erupted a little off to his side.
He gasped at he saw Mufasa, his step-father, roaring at the hyena and making them freeze in terror before shifting into his human form. He was more ferocious in his human form as he was bigger, buffer and meaner looking that in his lion form. Wild red hair ran from the top of his shoulders down to his mid back and it was voluminous to make him seem like something you didn't want to tango with, his actions further proved it as he grabbed a nearby bone and started to hit it against his freehand. the Hyena trio laid on the ground and turned back to their human forms as the man came towards them.
"M-Muf-fasa!" Banzai and Shenzi shout as the tall man stood over them, Ed was just staring at him, no crazed smile or tongue in sight.
"What were you doing with my cub?" Mufasa asked the Hyenas. Shenzi and Banzai gulped harshly, now they were in for it!
"Is that your cub? I-we had no idea!" Shenzi said to play the dumb card and get away with their lives. Banzai caught on and started talking as well to deflect anything bad away from them while slipping out of the way of Mufasa's gaze and grabbing Ed as well.
"Leave" Mufasa said darkly to them and the Hyena trio took off, not daring to look back. Simba saw them leave and sighed, but still made himself very small as Mufasa turned around to look at him, Nala and Zazu, the latter arriving back from who knew where. Simba wanted Taka here at this point, Mufasa was sure to do something to him for leaving the Pride Land safety zone. Mufasa turned and made a signal for the three to follow him back to the Pride lands and out of the graveyard. they followed, Simba hung in the back so he didn't deal with Mufasa's current anger and hoped that he would calm down, though it didn't seem that way. The only thing that made him slightly more confident was seeing Taka walk by in the shadows, Simba went to say something, but Taka held a paw-finger up to his mouth to keep Simba quiet and to say that he would see him later once he finished his business. Simba smiled softly and continued onward, picking up his speed as he had lagged behind them.
~0~
Once back to the middle of the Pride Lands, Mufasa stopped, having not said much other then how foolish they had been to go into the forbidden graveyard. He then instructed Zazu to take Nala home so he could talk with his SON. Simba sat on his haunches, lowering his head and ears so he would be seen as a threat by Mufasa.
"You deliberately disobeyed me" Mufasa said to Simba, "I told you not to leave the safe zone of the Pride Lands!" he continued before picking up Simba and making him turn back to his human form.
"I-I'm sorry" Simba said while he shook from head to toe as Mufasa's anger increased.
"You could have been hurt, you could of got Nala killed!" Mufasa shouted and soon saw red as all the things that had been happening to the pride lands collided with this moment. He lashed out and hit Simba so hard, he went flying to the side and land in the dirt. Simba cried out as he landed, feeling a rock slash at his face, he went to get up, only to get grabbed and shaken before being yelled at, hit again and sent soaring into the grass. Simba didn't cry out this time, he had bitten his tongue and that made blood start pooling into his mouth so he couldn't make a noise. He shifted into his animal form and ran stealthily through the grass, making sure Mufasa didn't see him.
"Simba? SIMBA! Simba come back! I'm sorry' SIMBA!" Mufasa cried out once the anger disappeared and he realized when he did. He searched for Simba, looking in the grass for where he had seen Simba landed, only to find it empty. Dread filled him as he continued searching and calling out for his cub.
~0~
Scar growled at the Hyenas when he got to their hideout, he was furious with them for attacking Simba and his friends, he did consider Zazu Simba's friend as he caught the two talking happily more often then not when the cub wasn't with him or his mother.
"I never said to attack a cub!" Scar roared at them, his green eyes were blazing with anger and he turned into his human form so he looked more intimidating and to show his rage. Shenzi and Banzai flinched as they looked at their boss while Ed nomed on a bone that held nothing more then just some small ounces of flavor from whatever animal it had been. Scar made his fingernails elongate into his claws before he went to attack his subordinates for attacking his Simba and for disobeying his order.
Shenzi and Banzai yelped as Scar scratched and clawed them into a bloody mess that would heal in a few days, but it would be a lesson on not attacking cubs, especially the future king. Ed had sat down with his bone and continued to chew and nom it, clearly ignoring punishment that was being delivered to his friends. Hey he never laid a paw or hand on the cubs and didn't make a single hair go out of place, he had just watched and observed not making any move to touch the trio that had been in the graveyard earlier, he was insane not stupid as he knew that Simba was under Scar's wing when he lashed out at anyone that spoke illy about the cub, it was as clear as day to him. He looked up and saw that Scar had finished his punishment and started laughing at Shenzi and Banzai as they looked like shredded paper.
"Shut up Ed" they said together and hissed in pain as they made their way over to him. Scar walked up to the hangover that was claimed his spot and sat down, he needed to feed these dimwits so they would aide him, or that's what they said, really Scar only did it because it prop Ed their loyalty and he would need that later to keep Simba safe.
"Now that is out of the way, I need you to do something for me" Scar said and gained the attention of the trio and a few other Hyenas around that soon went back to their business, they wouldn't bother their boss unless they needed to.
"What is it?" Shenzi asked irritated while she cleaned her wounds. scar ignored her tone and looked down at them from his high point on the overhang.
"I want you to look after someone when the time comes" Scar said softly to the trio. The stopped what they were doing and looked up at Scar.
"Who's this 'someone'?" Shenzi asked with a little caution.
"Oh you've met him already, think real hard about it and you may know of who I'm talking about" Scar said mysteriously in a riddle, hey they needed to extend their brain power! They weren't the best wild dogs in the world for nothing you know. The trio looked at each, well Ed just stared into space and let the others think, it was easy to figure out by his standards*. He and Scar heard Shenzi and Banzai gasp when they did figure it out.
"YOU WANT US TO WATCH A BRAT?" they shouted in sync. Scar felt a twitch when they said that, Simba was FAR from a brat, he may have thought to same if Simba was Mufasa's son, but he wasn't and he had a marvelous insight on things while still being innocent.
"Oh, Simba is not a brat once you get to know him" Scar started, but was interrupted by Banzai.
"Bull! That cub was throwing his weight around with his title as future king" Banzai said, "He thinks he is better than us because he lives at Pride Rock, spoiled brat" he growled out and Shenzi picked up from where her friend/pack-mate left off.
"He doesn't know suffering or pain, not like you Scar" she said, "he gets whatever he wants and once he's king, who knows what he will do" she ground bitterly. Scar hated people talking bad about Simba, his subordinates were no exception. He jumped down from the hangover and landed in front of the trio.
"You don't know Simba like I do" he said softly, "Simba may be next in line for the throne, but he doesn't want it. He doesn't want to be put out as the top dog, so to speak, and he doesn't throw his weight around unless it is to make a diversion or to give some time for a plan to uprise. He's smart and has a good head on his shoulders. He has a lot of secrets that people don't know about" Scar said before turning to leave, he just wanted to go to his bungalow, see Simba, then sleep. He didn't want to deal with the Hyena trio anymore today. He heard someone follow him and turned to see Ed right behind. He raised an eyebrow to ask a question and just got laughter from the insane hyena-man, knowing that only the insane one wanted to meet Simba officially. He sighed and just continued onward, barely noticing that the rest of the trio started following him out.
~0~
Simba coughed a little when he breathed in the warm air. He was just feet away from Taka's bungalow and boy did he want to get inside the rock home that had more hiding places then Pride Rock would ever have by itself. He had not heard Mufasa's calls for a while, signaling that he had gone south-west of where Simba had determined to go. His tongue stopped bleeding just a short while go and he knew that his fur was just covered in his blood and the side of his face was as well and he had to be bruised or sprained something in certain areas of his body because it hurt to move.
'Just a little further, come on Taka is there' he pepped himself enough to make his body continue up the small ramp like stone that went up to the main area of the bungalow. He gave a small smile and stepped off the ramp sluggishly, only to have one of his paws catch on a small dip in-between the ramp and main area. He went forward and rolled into a dark shaded area. He tried to move, but his body wouldn't comply to what he was ordering it to do, so he just laid there in the shadow, slowly slipping into his human form so he would be more comfortable, before closing his eyes to rest.
~0~
Scar stopped just a few yards from his bungalow, something wasn't right. A tangy, coppery smell hung around the bungalow and it didn't smell inviting. He then picked up his speed to a run, ignoring the Hyena trio in the process, as he could feel that something was wrong. At the small ramp, Scar saw a small, dirty paw print leading up to his bungalow, whoever it belong to, they had a difficult time getting up the short and slightly elevated rock as the paw print was skidded off to the side instead of being in one spot like a normal one. He hurried up the ramp, having no time to notice that the Hyena trio had caught up to him, as he felt the bond that he had with Simba come into play, guiding him to where he was.
'Oh god, please don't let him be harmed' he begged to an imaginative figure as he got closer to the dark spot of the bungalow at which he slept at. He stopped and dropped to his knees at what he saw, his breath caught in his throat.
"Scar?" Shenzi asked in a light fight as she hadn't seen her boss like this before. She and Banzai gasped as Scar brought out a little boy from the shadows, Ed was just staring at them, unsure of what to do.
Scar held Simba tenderly as he looked over the damage that happened to the cub. Cuts and gashes ran down the right side of his face along with a large blackening bruise, dried blood running down his chin to his stomach, a swollen and sprained left hand that seemed to be most of the pain besides a whole lot of bruising and scrapes. Scar ran his hand through Simba's hair tenderly enough to rouse the cub from his sleep.
"Mmm? Taka?" a small, weak voice came from the injured cub. Scar felt his throat close at how weak his cub sounded.
"I'm here Simba. Who did this to you?" he asked though he had his suspicion. Simba coughed and winced when pain went through his body.
"M-Mufasa" he croaked out, "He was angry about" another cough, "About the graveyard" he said before going into a coughing fit. After Simba said that, Shenzi gasped and held her hands to her mouth as her eyes went wide with shock. Banzai had his eyes widen and stared at the cub and Ed just continued to look at him before going to sit down next to Scar and watch, not sure what he should do.
Scar growled in anger at what Simba said. How dare HE! He thought darkly while he tried to sooth Simba as he held him closely enough so he wouldn't harm him yet gain comfort from the older lion-man. Scar sat against the wall of the bungalow, not thinking clearly about anything, but soothing Simba and planning. What he was planning had to deal with Mufasa, the man overstepped his boundary and hurt his cub, he had to pay.
'Mufasa has to go' he thought angrily about his brother.
Me: Ch 3 DONE! I'm sorry about making Mufasa the evil one here, but it is needed and it is general nature as a real lion will kill cubs that don't belong to them if the lion wants to mate with the mothering lioness. Also I know that isn't how the original graveyard scene went, but it's my story and I'm using creative license here to make it out to fit my story.
*Can anyone say bitchslap?
*Ed is insane, but intelligent in my opinion, he just doesn't like talking.