Chapter VII

"What do you think it is?" Kopa asked Gozi as he watched the older male sling the creature across his back.

"No idea, Prince Kopa," Gozi replied as he began to walk back to Pride Rock. "But if I had my way, it'd be dead right now."

Kopa nodded solemnly in reply. The creature, whatever it was, hurt his older brother. But oddly enough, the young prince didn't really feel any sort of hate towards the malformed creature. In the back of the young cubs mind, he knew Kion would make a full recovery. Whether it be the ignorance of youth or youthful curiosity, Kopa had a feeling the creature was only acting in self-defense. He couldn't blame it for doing so either. Like his father had observed, the creature was afraid. If Kopa had been in the creature's situation, he probably would have done the same thing.

As Kopa trotted alongside Gozi, he began to look over the creature, taking into account everything about its appearance. To put it plainly, it was unlike anything he had ever seen in the Pridelands before. It's "fur", or at least what he thought was its fur, was multicolored. It ranged from white to a light brown color to a dark blue. The fact that it walked on two legs with its back completely straight was odd as well. The only creature he had seen do that was the mandrill Rafiki, but only on a few occasions.

"You were very brave, my Prince," Gozi stated, his gaze locked on Pride Rock as the two lions continued there trek back.

"Uh, I really didn't do anything though," Kopa replied sheepishly. "Kion was the one who actually did something."

Gozi chuckled.

"Oh your brother definitely did something. Something stupid," Gozi said. "But while we all stood in shock when he went down, you were the only one to run over and check on him. The creature could have still be conscious, ready to attack again, but were only focused on your brother's well-being. That's the sign of a leader, my Prince."

Kopa looked up at the gruff Gozi, who turned and gave the Prince a comforting smile.

"I'm proud of you, and I'm sure your father is too," he said.

"Thanks Gozi," Kopa smiled. "And don't worry, Kion will be alright. I know he will."

Gozi chuckled again, saying, "Oh so do I. That idiots been in worse situations before, but he always pulls through. I'd be more concerned with what Simba will do with this thing."

"Yeah," Kopa said as he looked back at the slump creature on Gozi's back with curiosity.

It took the pair of lions several more minutes before they were climbing the rocky path that wound its way up Pride Rock. A large commotion could be heard from inside one of the several caves that lined the path. As Kopa and Gozi approached, the others inside the cave must have heard their approach for Nala, Kiara, and several other lionesses came rushing out.

"Where is it?!" Nala growled, her eyes blinded by motherly fury.

She noticed the creature slumped over Gozi's back and practically leapt at the startled lion. Gozi dared to not get in Nala's way and gladly gave the creature over to her. The furious lioness grabbed the creature by the neck, her teeth nearly puncturing its skin. She proceeded to drag it into the cave like a freshly killed antelope, it's "fur" dragging along the rocky ground. The other lionesses followed the enraged queen while Kiara rushed over to Kopa.

"Kopa, are you hurt?!" Kiara exclaimed, rushing over to her little brother and nuzzling him affectionately.

"I'm fine Kiara," the young prince replied. "How's Kion? Is Rafiki here yet?"

"Kion's getting worse," the eldest daughter replied, her voice shaky and weary, as her and Kopa, followed by Gozi, made their way back into the cave. "We're trying to stop the bleeding, but it keeps coming and coming."

The scene inside the cave was complete chaos. Kion was sprawled out on a large flat rock with Kovu standing over the unconscious prince, applying pressure to the still bleeding wound in hopes of buying time before Rafiki could make it to the cave. Blood was slowly trickling from the hole shaped wound, running down Kion's arm and onto the floor of the cave. Simba stood between Nala and the creature, who was now slumped against the far wall of the cave. Nala and several other lions looked ready to tear the creature's throat out as Simba tried to explain that the creature would be receiving a fair trial.

"Gozi?" Kiara asked. "Do you know what happened?"

"I'm still trying to make sense of it myself, Princess Kiara," Gozi replied. "The creature used some object or device to create fire, smoke, and thunder. Kion was charging the creature but was brought down by the creature's device. He managed to knock the creature unconscious but was hit with whatever it used."

"Kiara," Kovu exclaimed. "Come over here and help me stop the bleeding!"

"I'm coming," she replied before turning to Kopa. "I'm glad you're safe little bro."

Kiara nuzzled Kopa again before rushing over to Kion and Kovu. She too pressed both paws down onto the wound, slowing the flow of blood that continued to trickle from the wound.

Not sure if he could do anything to help, Kopa entered the cave and walked back over to the creature. Nala and Simba were too busy arguing to notice the small cub waltz between them to get another close look at the creature. The young cub drowned out the clamoring voices, his attention solely focused on the unconscious creature. It was even more bizarre up close. Its neck, or what he assumed was its neck, had faint bite marks from his mother. Bits of dark colored fur lined its mouth and jaw but ended abruptly towards the top of its head. He looked down at its two odd appendages that ran parallel to its body and noticed hands with four smaller appendages and an opposable thumb. The opposable thumb further attributed the similarities between Rafiki and the creature, but only by a little bit. The creature before him still lacked any sort of tail or thick fur coating like Rafiki.

Cautiously, the young prince extended his right paw to touch the creatures face. As his paw made contact with the creatures face, a loud moan erupted from its mouth.

"It's waking up," Kopa exclaimed, jerking his hand back as the creature began to stir, its head slowly moving side to side.

The constant clamoring in the room ceased as all attention shifted to the waking creature.


The voices Bryan had been hearing suddenly stopped as he groaned several times, his eyes slowly fluttering open.

"Who's making all that noise," he groaned.

"Oh so now it decides to speak," a gruff, male voice stated.

"Decided, what do you-JESUS FUCKING CHRIST," the young reported exclaimed, his yes now open and darting around the room.

He was surrounded by lions, completely and utterly surrounded. What's even worse, they could speak apparently. His movements became erratic as he clambered up onto his feet, the pain from his sprained ankle going completely unnoticed as he found himself cornered against a wall.

"What the fuck is going on!? Where am I?! Why are there so many lions!? Am I dead?! Is this Hell?!" Bryan exclaimed, his mouth moving a mile a minute as the lions closest to him took a step back, alarmed by his erratic movements.

"You better start explaining yourself real quick you son of a bitch," a lioness with light blue eyes snarled, her large teeth glistening in the sun.

"Me-expla-EXPLAIN WHAT?!" Bryan exclaimed again. "I'm the one surrounded by talking lions! Lions aren't supposed to talk! If anything, I need an explanation as to what the fucks going on here!"

"You know perfectly well what you did," another lioness with amber eyes said from across the room. "Explain why you did whatever you did to Kion!"

Bryan looked over in the lioness's direction, noting that it looked similar to the blue eyed one. He saw that it and another lion, this one a male with brown fur and a black mane were standing over another lion, their paws plugging some sort of wound. The reporter recalled what happened before he had been knocked out, remembering a similar looking lion charging him and his revolver going off.

"What, shoot him? It was in self-defense! That mother fucker charged me! Am I seriously about to argue the stand-your-ground law to a bunch of lions," Bryan stated as he quickly glanced around for some way out of the situation.

"That 'mother fucker' is my son and prince of these lands," a large male lion with a bright red mane and amber eyes stated as he stepped towards Bryan. "And you've possibly killed him, making your situation a whole lot worse. As King, I could end your life right now, but I've had the decency to let you speak on your actions, so…SPEAK!"

The lion loomed over Bryan and practically roared the final line of the sentence. The now terrified reporter shrunk down back to the floor as the male lion barred his teeth.

"This is your last chance, explain yourself," it said through clenched teeth.

Bryan wanted to speak, he wanted to do something, but he completely froze as the lion continued to inch closer and closer to his face. A low, rumbling growl began to slip through the lion's clenched teeth as it was mere inches away from Bryan. The young reporter, mustering his strength and pushing past his fear, was about to speak when several loud thuds echoed throughout the cave.

Everyone in the cave immediately turned towards the entrance. Standing in a hunch position with a large stick leaning against the wall was an older looking mandrill. Behind the mandrill was two other lions.

"Simba, step away from the human," the mandrill spoke, its voice calm and soothing but still forceful.

The lion who had been looming over Bryan, Simba as he was called, immediately backed off. The young reporter let out a sigh of relief and began to inch his way off the ground.

"Come here human, Rafiki will need your help," the mandrill, Rafiki, stated, beckoning to Bryan.

Bryan nodded in reply and slowly walked over to Rafiki, who was now standing over Kion, the lion he had shot. The lions in the cave all became hushed as they watched Bryan walk on two legs with ease, a sight none of them had expected to see. As Bryan approached Rafiki, the mandrill wrapped his arm around Bryan, leading him over to Kion.

"Do you have a name?" he asked. "Say it loud enough so everyone else can hear."

"B-Bryan Anderson," Bryan stated, nervously glancing around at the lions in the cave.

Rafiki approached the black maned lion and the amber eyed lioness that had been tending to Kion and motioned them away. They obliged and stepped off of the rock. The black maned lion growled at Bryan as he walked by, sending a shiver down his spine.

Kion, the lion Bryan had shot, was still slipping in and out of consciousness. The bullet wound wasn't as bad as he had previously thought either. It looked as if the full metal jacket round had grazed the lion's shoulder rather than pierce the flesh. It was still a gnarly wound, but it didn't seem that any bone or significant amount of muscle tissue was damaged. The only real trouble was the bleeding, which continued at a slow trickle.

Looking over at Rafiki, Bryan noticed the mandrill lower his large walking stick. Tied to the top of it were several different gourds. He watched as Rafiki looked over each gourd before plucking a small, pear shaped gourd off its string. A cork was punched into the top of the gourd to hold whatever was inside. Rafiki pulled of the cork, causing an alcohol-like odor to exit the gourd. The mandrill tipped the gourd upside down, holding out his hand to catch the contents. A thick, syrup like liquid began to dribble out of the small opening and onto Rafiki's waiting hand. He gathered an amount that looked to be about the size of a quarter before he set the gourd down on the ground upright.

"Hold open the wound so Rafiki can spread the medicine," the mandrill instructed as he held the brown liquid in his hand.

Hesitant, Bryan gently placed his hands around the wound. The fur, though drenched in blood, was quite soft. He began to slowly stretch open the wound, causing blood to bubble up and flow slightly faster. As Bryan did this, Kion let out a long, low moan, prompting the light blue eyed lioness to growl in anger.

"Simba, are we really just letting this thing touch our son after what it did?" the lioness growled, her human-like cat eyes narrowed at Bryan.

Simba kept silent, his eyes locked on the "human".

"Ugh, ew," Bryan complained as he held the wound open.

"Oh hush," Rafiki said sternly as he lowered his hand containing the "medicine" onto the open bullet wound.

Upon contact with the bloodied flesh and tissue, the once viscous brown liquid immediately filled the space of the bullet wound and hardened into a thick, jello like state. The bleeding immediately stopped as the strange "medicine" puffed out slightly, much like a sealant used for plumbing.

"Amazing," Bryan said softly as he turned to look at Rafiki. "How did you learn to do that?"

Rafiki chuckled.

"Rafiki has learned many things, Bryan. Now tell us, why are you here in the Pridelands?" the mandrill asked, his voice conveying a sense of trust and understanding.

Bryan laughed nervously, rubbing the back of his head.

"Well, I-uh…heh, excuse me if I'm a bit hesitant. Not really used to being around talking lions," he stuttered. "I'm a photo journalist from the United States of America. I was out on an… expedition when my jeep broke down. I was, uh…off the path that I had informed the authorities on, so I needed to find shelter until I could be rescued. I kinda just stumbled into the…Pridelands? What is that?"

"Explanations will come later. Could you tell Rafiki why you injured the Prince here," Rafiki asked with the same tone of voice.

"I was just minding my business and then I found six of you guys running me down. Running is kind of hard for me at the moment, considering I have a sprained ankle, so I decided to stand my ground. I figured I was gonna die anyways, so better to go out with a bang, I guess," Bryan explained, looking around at the lions. "It was self-defense, I swear. All I want to do now is get on my way."

Rafiki nodded slowly after Bryan had finished speaking.

"Did you understand any of that?" Gozi whispered to Simba.

"Not really," Simba replied, his gaze still locked on Bryan.

"Now, my friend, could you step outside while Rafiki talks with the King?" the mandrill asked as he turned Bryan towards the cave's entrance.

"I mean, I guess," Bryan agreed as he began to walk out of the cave.

Simba finally spoke up, saying, "Leo, Jasi, accompany the Bryan and wait till we come and get you."

Leo, a leanly built lion with a dark brown mane, light brown fur, and dark purple eyes, came up to Bryan's right side. Jasi, a lioness who looked a lot like Leo but had magenta eyes, took up the left side of Bryan. The two led the young reporter out of the cave and off to the side, a little ways out of ear shot so the older lions could talk in solitude.


"Rafiki," Simba began. "You know what he is?"

Rafiki nodded, saying, "Yes. Bryan is a human, a species that lives well beyond the boundary of the Pridelands. Rafiki has had very little interaction with humans, but he does know they are a very unpredictable animal. His appearance concerns Rafiki. A human has never set foot in the Pridelands, well until now at least. Rafiki shall have to look into this more."

"Well that's all fine and dandy, but what should we do with him?" Kovu asked.

The others in the cave murmured in agreement, each lion mostly saying they should let him go on his way

"That is up to the king," Rafiki stated as he made his way to the cave's entrance.

"Wait, where are you going? What if Kion gets worse?" Nala asked, still unsure about her son's condition.

"The prince shall recover just fine, Queen Nala," Rafiki said. "Now, if you'll excuse Rafiki, he has yoga to get back too."

On that note, the mandrill let out a rather unsettling laugh before bounding out of the cave.


Outside of the cave, Bryan sat slumped against the wall, dragging a stick in the dirt. Leo and Jasi sat in front of the downtrodden reporter, both of them looking Bryan over.

"Talking lions. And I thought I'd seen everything," Bryan huffed to himself.

"Do lions not talk where you're from?" Leo asked, his keen hearing picking up on Bryan's comment.

Bryan looked up, not expecting the two lions to be paying attention to him.

"Oh, well no. No animal talks," he replied.

"Well, you sound a lot like a lion whenever you speak," Leo stated. "Before, though, when you did whatever you did to Kion, you were making weird grunts and grumbling noises."

Leo had brought up an interesting point. To Bryan, the lions and the mandrill all sounded like they were speaking English. To them, however, Bryan sounded like another animal. It's as if something happened, perhaps being hit on the head so many times caused it, to give Bryan this super-power like ability. He's never been able talk to animals before now. Whatever it was, it opened up a whole new world of opportunities for the young reporter.

"So, uh, what do you think they're talking about?" Bryan asked, trying to strike up an ongoing conversation.

"Probably how best to eat you," Jasi quipped, licking her lips while shooting Bryan a menacing glare.

Bryan gulped loudly and tugged at the collar of his shirt.

"Relax, I was only joking," Jasi said. "Simba's a good king. He wouldn't off someone who didn't deserve it. Well, you do kind of deserve it for injuring Kion. Anyways, you'll probably be banished from the Pridelands, facing the penalty of death if you ever return."

Jasi flashed a toothy grin at Bryan upon finishing her explanation. Bryan didn't know which was worse, the previous predatory glare or the eerily human-like smile. He gave the lioness a courtesy chuckle before going back to playing in the dirt, biding his time until he was called back into the cave.

"What'd you say your name was?" Leo asked, inching closer to the young reporter.

"Bryan Anderson, but you can just call me Bryan," he replied, looking up at the two lions again.

"You have two names?" Jasi asked.

Bryan chuckled and said, "Not really. Bryan is the name my parents gave me and Anderson is my family name. It's a human thing, I guess. You two are Leo and Jasi, right?"

The two lions nodded.

"And you're brother and sister?" he added.

"Is it that obvious?" Jasi asked Bryan, letting out a groan.

Bryan nodded and said, "Pretty much, yeah. You both have the same pelt color and roughly the same eye color."

"Speaking of fur, what's up with yours?" Leo asked, moving his paw towards Bryan's shirt sleeve.

Bryan immediately jerked his arm back, causing Leo to do so as well.

"Sorry," Bryan apologized. "Not really used to one of the meanest carnivores acting like this. But yeah, this isn't 'fur', per say. It's just clothing to cover up my skin. Humans don't have thick fur pelts like other animals, so we need clothes to cover us up from the elements. We have hair, but it only covers our head, or in my case my jawline."

The two lions, upon hearing the explanation for the multi colored "fur", began to make the distinction between the baggy articles of clothing and Bryan's sun tanned skin.

"Humans," Jasi repeated, the completely foreign word rolling off her tongue. "Are there other Humans?"

"Oh yeah, there's loads of us. Seven billion now, actually," Bryan explained, finding it easier to talk to the two lions.

"S-s-seven billion?!" the two lions exclaimed, their minds barely able to comprehend such a large number of animals, let alone a foreign species.

"Where do they all live?" Leo asked, becoming increasingly intrigued by Bryan.

"All over the place. We pretty much inhabit all seven continents of Earth," Bryan replied.

"Continents?" the two lions said in unison again.

Bryan suddenly realized how hard it was going to be to explain human culture to not only Jasi and Leo, but every other lion who wanted to know. It was like teaching a bunch of three year olds, only these three year olds could rip you to shreds at any moment.

He was about to delve into a shortened explanation of the world's structure, understanding that these lions might not know land exists outside of where they live, but a voice, originating from the cave, called for them to return.

Bryan, Jasi, and Leo sat up and walked back along the path, turning the corner and entering the cave. The lions inside turned their heads to face Bryan as Leo and Jasi walked back into their fold, giving one last look at Bryan. Standing at the entrance to the cave, Bryan stood still, waiting to hear what was going to become of him.

Simba stepped forth from the crowd, who formed a semi-circle around the lone human and sat down, his sitting height equal to Bryan's standing height.

"Bryan Anderson," Simba bellowed, his voice loud and commanding. "You come into our lands, injury my son, and now await my sentencing. Normally, if you were any other animal, such actions would be punishable by banishment or death. However, seeing as you acted in self-defense and no serious harm shall befall Prince Kion, your punishment shall be different. Though we are not all in agreement and many would rather see you leave our lands, or worse, I have decided to keep you here in the Pridelands under our supervision until such a time that I deem you worthy enough to leave."

A low murmur echoed throughout the crowd of lions. Bryan's heart sank in his chest upon hearing his "punishment". Sure he got to live, but now he's a prisoner of war to a bunch of talking lions.

"Well you might as well just kill me," Bryan said, letting out a huff.

"Don't tempt me," Simba said coldly. "Until such a time that you prove yourself, you shall be seen as a prisoner. You are to stay within the boundary of Pride Rock, unless otherwise accompanied by a member of the Lion Guard or someone I deem fit. Any attempt to flee shall result in your removal from the Pridelands, permanently."

As Simba finished his decree, Bryan was trying to find something, anything to say. He had gone from a free man to a prisoner of talking lions. It sounded like something from a bad fiction novel, but the young reporter was now these lion's prisoner.

"You are to stay here tonight until we find suitable accommodations for your stay. Princess Kiara and her mate, Kovu, shall keep guard tonight. I will bring down a cut of our kill later tonight for your dinner," Simba concluded as he and the other lions began to walk out of the cave, pushing past the frozen human.

As the pride of lions exited the cave, Bryan stood in the same spot, the full gravity of his situation weighing on his mind.

"Welcome to the Pridelands," Simba said before he was out of sight.


Well, things could have gone a lot worse! This is the first full chapter featuring both Bryan and the Pridelanders in one location, so let me know your thoughts and/or concerns. Other than that, I don't really have much to say.

You guys rock!

JacksonMW