Chapter Four: A History Lesson

Simba sat on a large rock, his paws folded over, as he looked down at Chumvi and Tojo. Nala stood adjacent to the rock, keeping watch for any signs of trouble.

"It's so dull today," Chumvi commented. "There's nothing to do!"

"Well, there isn't anything wrong with relaxing," Tojo smiled in his trademark squeaky voice. "It allows me to keep watch on my birds."

"You're just lucky Mheetu hasn't gobbled them up yet," Simba observed.

"That's not true!" Tojo squeaked. "I'm a very good father!" He leaned down to the birds and began talking to him. "It's okay, Daddy's here…"

"You've gone cuckoo, Tojo!" Chumvi exclaimed.

Simba turned to face Nala. "Please tell me you want to go do something!"

Nala smiled, "Oh, Simba. You never want to sit still and relax." She moved closer to him, swaying like a snake. "There are reasons to stay here."

Simba smiled, This is it! We'll finally do it! We'll finally kiss! We—

"Um… guys?" Chumvi interrupted. "The king and queen are coming, and it looks like they're pretty nervous about something."

Simba and Nala turned their heads to behold Mufasa and Sarabi suddenly running towards them, gasping for breath as they stopped.

"Cubs," Mufasa panted, "there's something we need to tell you."

"What is it?" asked Simba, alarmed.

"Nala," Sarabi asked, "do you remember removing a thorn from a cheetah's paw?"

"Yeah," Nala answered, already worried about where this was going.

"His brother was murdered last night," Sarabi revealed. Nala gasped, and the other cubs stared at the two grown lions in shock.

"Who did it?" asked Malka. "Or do we know yet?"

"We have a suspicion as to who it may be," Mufasa answered grimly. "Sit down, cubs. It's time we told you a little story."

"Okay!" Simba chirped. Even though he could already tell this story was not going to be a pleasant one, he was still excited to hear it.

"Well," Mufasa began, "this story begins a long time ago, when the two of us were your age, or perhaps even younger. My father, King Ahadi, had been the ruler for a long time already, along with my mother Uru. One day when my mother was leading a hunt, the lionesses were attacked by an enormous bull elephant, one larger than any that had ever been seen in the Pride Lands. He killed no less than three of them and gravely injured my mother. She was brought back to the den and tended to by Rafiki, and if it hadn't been for him, she would not have survived. My father was enraged, and he enlisted the help of every single elephant in the kingdom to drive Tembo away. The entire herd surrounded him and tried to kill him, but he ultimately surrendered. He left, but not before making a declaration to the pride. He warned that he would return when the king's sons have sons of their own. And as we know, Scar and I have both had sons in the form of Nuka and Simba here. Tembo has spent most of his life roaming the savannah killing any carnivorous animal he can find, and now he has returned."

"Did Grandma have permanent injuries?" Simba asked.

"No," Mufasa answered with a small smile. "She managed to recover. But things were not the same again for quite some time after that. I remember always looking over my shoulder, just to make sure he wasn't going to crush me flat with that massive foot."

Sarabi then decided to communicate the last part of the message.

"Please be careful, cubs. We would like to ask if you could please not stray far from the waterhole for the time being. Tembo's threat will continue to escalate, and sooner or later, he's going to launch a full-scale attack on Pride Rock. When he does, I want you cubs to flee immediately."

"But what about you guys?" Nala asked.

"We'll be fine," Sarabi assured her. "We've won many battles long before you were born. I understand that all of you have warded off Khara and One-Eye, but Tembo is different. He's much larger and is more difficult to injure. Not only that, but he isn't the type who will gloat or wait around like those two. He'll only stop to celebrate when he knows there is no chance of your survival."

The cubs nodded, understanding what Sarabi was telling them. They didn't want the cubs near Tembo at all, no matter how heroic they had been in the past. This was simply too much.

"Thank you for telling us, Sarabi," Kula smiled. Sarabi smiled back, and she and Mufasa walked off.

"Wow," Simba muttered as he let out a heavy breath of air. "I'd never heard that story before. Why do we never hear about these evil psychos until they show up again?"

"Because that's when it's relevant, dummy!" Tama snarled.

"Tama, you don't need to go that far," Nala scolded. She didn't really like it when people said less than kind things to Simba, whether they were friends or foes.

"The important thing is this," Chumvi proclaimed. "If Tembo ever shows up, we're screwed."


I hope these chapters were worth the extremely long wait! Again, I'm so sorry! This was quite the set of chapters, wasn't it? Please don't forget to review!