"No, no, no, this is all wrong. This wasn't part of the movie." "What's a movie?" "That's what I said. I told you there are some things this creature knows about that we don't." I slammed my hand onto my forehead multiple times before speaking again. "Where I come from, your king and queen are part of a movie. And as I was saying before a certain meerkat interrupted, a movie is a series of pictures put together to tell a story mainly to entertain the people who watch it. And in case that doesn't spell it out for you, pictures are a type of...item that exists in the place I live in. And your kingdom was part of a movie I watched forever back home that had you in it," I pointed to Timon, "and you in it," I pointed to Pumbaa, and then I saw the honey badger give me a hopeful and anticipated smile before I didn't point at him and said, "but not you." The honey badger crossed his arms when he was told his two uncles were a part of something from another world and he wasn't.
"And what was it? I never got your name." "Well, I'm Bunga, but right now, you can say my name is 'Offended Bunga'." I could tell that he was a little pissed off about not being a part of the movie, but it's not entirely my fault that he even exists with two of the main characters in the first place. More words were about to escape from my mouth before I smelled something that couldn't be. A smell that wasn't part of the collection of wretched odors coming from Bunga or his uncle Pumbaa. A smell that could only be smelt if I was in the kitchen of my comfortable household. And I was known for having the keenest nose back home, so I know that my senses weren't deceiving me. I knew that what I was smelling was turkey! It couldn't be possible for there to be processed meat in the middle of Africa, but that wouldn't have been the most out-of-the-ordinary thing I'd witnessed since I had been there.
"Why do I smell turkey?" "What's turkey?" "It's a type of meat that I have back home, and only back home. I don't know where it's coming from." I closed my eyes and began sniffing through the air to see where the scent was coming from. It was a very faint aroma, but I could tell that it was somewhere in the area. I trusted myself, so I began walking through the grass and past the three animals, and followed the scent. The tingly feeling of flowers could be felt in my ankles as I continued pacing around trying to find where the turkey smell was coming from. I stopped in my tracks when I heard a loud belch from behind me. That's when the smell became stronger. It came from behind me. I shifted my back around and followed the stench of eaten turkey right until it was as strong as ever, which meant I had found the source of where it was coming from. I opened my eyes, and I was face-to-face with Bunga's bulgy black eyes.
Why would the scent of turkey be coming from a random honey badger that I just recently met? Unless… "Bunga, let me ask you, did you have anything weird for lunch today?" His eyes narrowed down to the floor and he was using one of his feet to scratch the ankle of his other. He looked pretty guilty to me! "Talk to me, honey badger! Talk to me!" I startled him enough for him to start spilling the beans on everything he knew. "Well, earlier today, when my uncles were taking forever to bring grubs for lunch, I felt like I was going to starve to death so I went for a little walk to try and find something to snack on when the weirdest thing happened."
I sat down on a nearby rock to get comfortable so he would finish the rest of his story. "What 'weird thing' happened?" "While I found some delicious dung beetles at Ndefu Grove, I looked up and saw something fall from the sky. Being the bravest and all, I wasn't afraid to go and check it out. So I go over and see a weird-looking object that smelled delicious. I grabbed at all sorts of things like this odd container with this weird oval food inside and another weird-shaped container with water inside of it for some reason. The only thing that grabbed my attention was this delectable smelling food wrapped up in something. And yes I did eat it but it was disgusting after a few bites so I just threw it away."
An object falling from the sky that had bizarre items and turkey in it? Wait. WAIT! If my suspicions were correct, the little honey badger would only have been referring to one thing: my backpack! I was breathing like I was in space. I thought I would be hyperventilating at one point. "Kid, are you okay?" "The name's Dylan, and no I am NOT okay!" I bent down in front of Bunga with sweat rolling down my back, staining the shirt I was wearing. "Bunga, this is very important! Where is the thing you saw fall out of the sky?" "Why do you want to know?" "JUST SHOW ME!" "Alright. Geez. Someone woke up on the wrong side of the savannah this morning." He gestured for me to follow him and that I did. We walked away from Hakuna Matata Falls, Timon and Pumbaa right behind us, past a herd of grazing elands and gazelles before arriving at a grove of burned and destroyed baobab trees.
"I was here in Mizimu Grove when it happened, so let me just find the tree where it all went down." The situation was bad, but despite the burned trees and grass, the sights my eyes were seeing, not so much. It was one of the most amazing things I had ever seen. And I visited the Eiffel Tower when I was six. The trees were wide-spaced, and were parted to create a wide path between them. You would see a single dirt path that lead right through it. Besides that, I saw turacos flying through the sky and some hyraxes playing in the remains of the fields. The sun was shining ever so brightly and the sky was brilliantly blue with so many species of birds soaring through it.
"Geez, this place is a complete trainwreck. What happened." "It's a long story, kid, but basically all of the Outlanders, the evil animals who don't respect the laws of the land and circle of life, burned this place to the ground during a special event we were having to please Scar." That name sent a quiver right through me and stopped me in my tracks. "Scar, as in the evil lion of the past who murdered his brother to gain control of the kingdom?" Even though it was going to happen eventually, Timon gave me a surprised look. "Yes, the very one." "How is that possible? He died in the battle of Pride Rock."
"Yes, but the Outlanders found a way to bring him back and now he's an evil spirit who appears in flames. We had a long long time of peace with him gone, but he just had to come back."
That got me thinking. "How long was this peacefulness of yours again?" "I don't know. 4 or five years give or take." That explained everything. I wasn't in an alternate dimension of the Pride Lands; I was in it five years after the events of the movie. That's why the king and queen would have a son and there would be an unknown character who is somewhat related to Timon and his warthog friend, Pumbaa.
We continued walking until Bunga stopped us and gave some news.
"Okay, so this is the tree it happened at. I'm almost positive that it's the right one." "Why do you say you're 'almost positive'." "I kind of tend to forget some things most of the time but not in serious situations such as this one." "So, if you're so sure about this, where is my backpack." "What's a backpack?" "The thing that fell out of the sky." "Oh, yeah, that. Let me see. I threw the food somewhere over in those fields. Or was it those fields?"
"Forget about the damn fields and show me where the thing that fell out of the sky is. Please." "Okay, okay."
We continued circling and searching around the same tree for 6 minutes before I heard grass rustling and running footsteps from behind us. I ignored them as some random animals wandering together coincidentally through the Pride Lands but I really shouldn't have because they turned out to be some pretty important animals. "Bunga," a voice shouted from behind. Agitation from not finding my backpack finally got to me and jerked my body around to find a group of different species of animals standing together, gaping and staring at me. There was a golden-furred lion cub with a shiny, red mane tuft on his head, a lemon cheetah cub with dark brown spots and markings covering her entire build, a grey hippo calf with three dark spots on his back, and an egret chick with pure white feathers across the main part of his body.
That's when the backpack just so happened to fall from the tree we spent minutes searching. There would be time to look through it later. I picked it up and threw it over my shoulders like I was getting ready to go to school. "And who are you?"
"We are The Lion Guard."
