Chapter 7 – Explanations

(Fisi)

I really should be walking around with an autograph book!

Just imagine that right after I met Simba, the king of the Outlands and/or Pridelands, Upendi decided to introduce me to her family before the end of the day. I wondered about who I would meet this time, and so I followed her to one of the caverns in the termitary. When I saw her father exiting the shade… I almost got a heart attack! Right in front of me I was seeing Scar again! Well, at least it seamed that way. The lion had the same dark mane and green eyes with a deep cut across the left one. He looked at me abashed as I shook at the sight of him… but then I noticed than he only strongly resembled the tyrant form Pride Rock, not exactly being him. Yeah, you guessed it- that was Kovu, Zira's son. And again, opposite to what I'd heard, also the son of ol' king Scar...

I was actually surprised to see him living in the Outlands, but I was simply too tired to demand him to explain that to me. So I just swiftly greeted him, and let Upendi review to her father why I was there and that Simba had permitted me to stay. The dark lion, who's mane turned out to be more deeply brown than black like Scar's, acted politely and with a lot more trust than the king. He let me enter his layer and introduced me to his mate. I was strongly relieved to see a quite young, yellowish lioness whose name was Kiara. That corresponded with my knowledge, so I became a little calmer, especially when Upendi's mother also turned out to be nice to me. She was holding a small, sleeping cub that was no more than a few months old, which would strongly resembled her, if it wasn't… well, one of those famous 'white lions'. You know, an albino. Upendi told me that it was her little brother, Moja, but we didn't have much time to talk about that. The adults were exhausted after a day of hunting, so I just settled myself in the corner of the cavern and let everyone go to sleep. I'd also had enough adventures for one day.

The next morning I had the opportunity to meet Nala- Simba's mate, the mother of Kiara and the rightful queen of both the Outlands and the Pridelands. I gotta tell you this- as majestic as that middle-aged lioness looked, she also made an impression of being a hard-core huntress, with her large muscles and, of course, a big collection of scars. She wasn't aggressive towards me, but still she was consistent with Simba's opinion, that if I wanted to stay with the Outsiders, I had to prove myself during a hunt. She was the leader of the hunting pack, and she quickly informed me that getting food occurred extremely hard in these lands. Man, was she ever right! We spent half of the day just trying to find any prey at all in that dry, bare near-desert. When we were preparing the ambush, I noticed that not all of the pride was to participate in the hunt. The fact that the king stood by did not surprise me, but also Kiara and Upendi decided to stay with the cubs. Did they all lack the proper skills? Whether that was true or not, I decided to do my best. Nala was well experienced in setting up a strategy, and not long after the lionesses managed to scare a single zebra away from it's heard. The queen rushed in to grab it, and so she did. Kovu and I helped her in bringing the animal down. I noticed that the Outsiders all looked a little malnourished, and seemed to need a little more brawn in their pride. Kovu was pretty strong, but still I thought I could be useful as well. Simba was happy to see my efforts, and he let me join them at the meal. The meat was hardly enough for everybody, but we all got our share.

Later the Outsiders laid down in the shade in order to take an afternoon nap, but I wasn't sleepy. I came up to Nala, who was standing guard, and managed to gain a lot of useful information from her. She had been with the pride since the beginning, even when they were still one with the Pridelanders, and she was a veteran of what they called the 'battle at Pride Rock'. She explained to me that most of what I have heard about their history until that tragic moment, was actually true. Simba really was the son and heir of king Mufasa, and he lived at Pride Rock when they were both cubs. But his uncle, Scar, became jealous of his brother's position as king, and that after Mufasa had a son he would no longer have a chance to inherit the throne. So he lured Simba to the gorge, started a stampede and caused his brother's death while he was attempting to save his son. Then he tricked the cub to believe that he was the one responsible for the stampede, ordered him to run away and sent the hyenas to kill him.

Yeah, but we all know that, so where do the differences begin? Well, let me explain. Simba had indeed survived and spent most of his young life away in the jungle, while Scar took over the Pridelands and let the hyenas live there. But that wasn't the biggest problem at all. In fact, Scar had ended a great conflict between the two races, that had been waging their brutal war for generations. Nala told me that at first the Pridelanders were shocked about it, but later they realized that the same hyenas, who had been attacking them earlier, were now providing protection for the lions, even if they were still annoying, greedy and dumb. Obtaining food became a problem, but finally Sarabi, Simba's mother and the leader of the hunting party at that time, demanded that Scar ordered the hyenas to catch their own prey as well. Though reluctantly, the impostor king finally agreed, and so the burden of hunting for a whole army of hyenas was lifted from the lionesses. A time of relative peace began, as the number of game was indeed enough for everyone. I thought about that for a second. It was actually logical- if the hyenas somehow managed to exist before they were relocated to the Pridelands, why would that fact cause a sudden famine?

And so after that, Scar became a little more respected among his pridemembers, who were still oblivious to the fact how he had actually managed to take over the throne. Some of the lionesses even became loyal to him, and among those was also his mate. Namely Zira, who Scar made his queen.

So everything was okay until a great drought haunted the land. Now that was a real problem- without enough water, much of the animals have died, including Nala's mother- Sarafina. The herds have moved on to more fertile lands, and the amount of food became critical. Queen Sarabi almost begged Scar to let the pride leave too, but he was far from abandoning his kingdom. So, when the situation became desperate, Nala decided to sacrifice herself and go look for help beyond the borders of the Pridelands. I remember I always admired her for that, even when I just heard stories about her bravery. Now I was happy to hear that they were true. So anyway, Nala was lucky enough to find Simba, who everyone had thought to be dead, living in the jungle. She convinced him to come back to Pride Rock with her… but what happened there was a totally different story from what I'd heard. Sure, Simba faced Scar and managed to make him confess he murdered his brother, king Mufasa… but that was actually only the easy part.


AN: Sorry for such a long break in publishing… It's Lent, so let's just call it fasting.

So the story is getting more and more clear. I kind of tried something like making the original script a little more logical. In my version, after taking the throne, Scar decided let go of the idea of making 30-or-something lionesses hunt for a hundred-or-something hyenas. This way his kingdom became a little more sustainable, and using his skillful propaganda, he made it the reason why some of the lionesses actually started considering him a good ruler.

Okay, but this is only the beginning of the differences! The main cause of the totally different turn of events will be the fact that in my story Kovu actually is Scar's son… and that is significant! Also because he is now really his cousin Simba's daughter's mate, which results in certain genetical 'surprises' like his son Moja being a sweet lil' albino… Well what did you expect? I couldn't give him Down's syndrome! This isn't even incest, technically, and Upendi's all fine and healthy. Besides, there is going to be far more trouble than that.