It's not that I like to torchure my readers, but like any good author knows, it's good to keep 'em waiting. Kidding! Enjoy the next chapter.
Simba and Nala looked upon the dark and eerie wasteland that stood before them.
Before, this would've been some kind of game to them, but now they were face-to-face with a childhood horror.
They could've chuckled at their own sneakiness; they'd be trespassing on hyena territory and the hyenas wouldn't even know it.
But all they could think about is the horrible events that happened here; nearly being eaten, Zazu being shot out of a geyser, not to mention Scar's plot to murder Mufasa and Simba.
Nala looked frightened but Simba moved along first with her following closely behind.
They jumped up, startled when a geyser went off a few feet away from them, but kept going.
After what seemed like forever, they finally reached the skull. Simba remembered him standing in front of it as a cub, he remembered saying in front of it;
"I laugh in the face of danger; ha ha ha ha!" which was made more terrifying when he heard one hyena laughing from inside it, it was Ed.
Nala was horrified and ran behind Simba. Then they saw Ed and T walking out of it. Their hearts still pumping like they would burst any minute.
"Hey! Where were you guys? We've been waitin' for ya all day!" T said as she ran up to them.
Simba and Nala were appalled; here was a hyena in front of them that looked almost completely like Shenzi, if it weren't for the fact that she was just a little shorter than Shenzi, they'd have thought she was the one who switched bodies with her.
They turned their gaze toward Ed as he walked up to them laughing.
"W-we j-just went for a, walk." Nala managed to stutter out, obviously scared.
"Well you two aren't gonna believe what happened while you were gone!" T said. Simba and Nala weren't sure they wanted to know.
"A bunch of meerkats ran through here today, a whole colony of 'em! And they even had a warthog and a baboon with 'em!"
Simba and Nala's eyes widened, she couldn't've been talking about Timon's colony along with Pumbaa and Rafiki.
Then they thought that maybe Shenzi and Banzai were telling the truth about the meerkats digging a tunnel through the graveyard.
But they shook their heads at the thought, knowing it'd be impossible. Seeing as how Timon's colony was the one that feared hyenas more than any other colony in the savanna.
"Well anyway, that's not even the best part!" T continued. Simba and Nala looked extremely worried, hoping she wasn't going to say that she and Ed managed to grab a few of them for an afternoon snack.
"Those meerkats ran through this HUGE wilderbeast heard, and scared 'em all into the graveyard!
The whole clan's having a feeding frenzy and me and Ed got the best one!" Ed happily nodded his head.
Nala looked calmer now but wasn't anywhere close to how relieved Simba was.
"So anyway, there's plenty ta eat! C'mon, I saved a couple 'a haunches for ya!" T said as she and Ed ran back into the skull.
Simba and Nala looked at each other and reluctantly went in. They'd never gotten a chance to see the inside as cubs, but they weren't exactly curious.
"Well, at least we know its brains aren't in here." Nala said, trying to lighten the mood.
Simba only watched, disgusted, as T and Ed tore into the wilderbeast carcass. Then they both looked up at them, puzzled.
"Hey why aren't you guys eatin'?" T asked them, with her mouth full of wilderbeast.
"Uh...we ate before we got here! Yeah uh, we filled up on, antelope!" Nala said. T ripped off another hunk of meat, chewed it up, and swallowed it down.
"Well, you two don't know what you're missin' here." T said. Ed laughed in a way that had the same tone as 'uh-huh!'
"I'm sure we'll live." Simba said.
"Will there be anything else, your majesties?" a lioness asked the new king and queen of Priderock.
"Naw, we're good!" Shenzi and Banzai said in unision, looking at the two antelopes the lionesses had caught for them.
Banzai was licking his lips, and Shenzi was staring hungrily at hers.
"Very well then." the lioness said as she bowed, and left. Shenzi and Banzai grinned at each other, and then quickly lowered their heads to their dinner.
But before they could even get a bite out of either antelope, a certain meerkat and warthog got in front of them, the meerkat in front of Shenzi and the warthog in front of Banzai.
Shenzi and Banzai stopped themselves before sinking their teeth into them instead of the carcasses, their jaws were just inches from their faces before they pulled themselves back.
"Simba! Nala! Where ya been?! Me and Pumbaa have been lookin' all over for ya!" Timon said. Shenzi and Banzai frowned as they recognized the two.
"Well anyway, ya gotta hear this joke I was tellin' Pumbaa earlier!" Timon said, half hysterical.
Shenzi and Banzai looked at each other, not very eager you might say. Timon cleared his throat.
"Hey Pumbaa, whaddya call a hyena with half a brain?" Timon started. Shenzi and Banzai looked surprised, then started growling, not caring how unnatural it felt when they heard their growls come out.
"Beats me, Timon. What?" Pumbaa asked, going along with it.
"Gif-" Timon started to say, but was cut off by a hit from Shenzi, sending him across the room.
At about the same time, Pumbaa was sent flying across the room by a hit from Banzai.
Shenzi and Banzai looked at them, annoyed, then went back to their dinner. Timon and Pumbaa got up.
Timon started dusting himself off.
"Well, we see you two are busy right now so we'll just-" he was cut off again by growling he heard behind him.
He turned around to see a few angry lionesses, who had gotten a vibe that their king and queen didn't want to be disturbed.
Shenzi and Banzai just smirked as they saw the meerkat and warthog being chased around by the lionesses before being run out of the Pridelands, back to Timon's colony.
That night, as everybody was sleeping, Simba walked up to Nala and gently pushed her on the shoulder with his new paw.
Nala was a bit scared when she first woke up, but after being reassured and reminded of what happened by Simba, she quietly followed him out of the skull, past Ed and T, who were both sleeping off a big wilderbeast dinner.
By the time they got there, they could already see Shenzi and Banzai waiting for them; Banzai lying on a rock and Shenzi pacing back and forth.
Simba and Nala walked over to them. Shenzi and Banzai heard something in the grass and turned to see their bodies walking out of the fields.
"'Bout time." Shenzi said as Banzai came off the rock.
"Sorry, we figured everybody would fall asleep faster on full stomachs." Simba said. Shenzi and Banzai looked at each other, then at him, confused.
"Nevermind." Simba said.
"Why'd you bring us out here Simba?" Nala asked him.
"I'd like to know that myself." Shenzi said, Banzai nodding. Suddenly, they all heard laughing in the trees.
They looked up but didn't see anything. Shenzi and Banzai looked at each other, confused, while Simba and Nala did the same thing.
Then they all quickly backed off as a baboon fell down in the middle of them from out of nowhere.
Nala smiled, now knowing why Simba had brought them there; if anybody could help them, it was Rafiki, and Simba knew Rafiki could almost always be found at his tree at night.
"Well now, what is dis? De king and queen of Priderock being seen with a couple of hyenas?" Rafiki said.
Shenzi and Banzai started growling again. Simba decided he should hurry up and talk to Rafiki before Shenzi and Banzai ripped him apart.
Obviously they must've heard a lot of hyena cracks at Priderock.
"Uh, Rafiki." Simba said walking up to him.
"I know this might seem a little strange, but well, we have kind of a problem here."
"And what might dat be?" Rafiki said, pretending to not know.
"Well, let's just say that today this afternoon, we weren't...ourselves, anymore." Nala said.
"Oh, I see." Rafiki said.
"I think I may have de answer to your problem, come with me." he said, taking Simba and Nala aside but Shenzi and Banzai stood up.
"Hey, anything you're gonna tell them, you can tell us!" Shenzi said.
"Yeah!" Banzai said. Which earned them both a hard smack on the head with Rafiki's stick.
The hyenas did sort of a yelp as they jumped back, startled but annoyed.
Then they watched, still annoyed, as Rafiki took them some feet away from them so they could talk in private.
When Rafiki made sure they were out of ear range, he turned around to face the two former lions.
"Well now, what can I do for a couple of hyenas like yourselves? Or should I say, what can I do for my former king and queen?" he said, bowing a bit.
Simba and Nala were surprised, but not completely. Rafiki was the wisest shaman of the Pridelands, and on some things there were no explainations on how he knew.
Some animals had come to the conclusion that he was magic; others, sneaky.
The rest of the animal population just figured he was an annoying monkey who need that stick taken away from him (including Shenzi and Banzai).
"How'd you know?" Nala asked Rafiki. Rafiki had started meditating.
"Correction, how could I not know?" he said, not breaking his trance. Nala plopped down beside him, as did Simba.
"Rafiki please, we need help." Nala continued.
"Nope! Dat is where you are all wrong!" Rafiki said getting up. Then he motioned the two to follow him, which they did.
The hyenas saw them running past them.
"Now what?" Shenzi said. Then she and Banzai started going after them. They all followed Rafiki to a distance, then were suddenly interrupted by a loud-
"STOP." Rafiki said, not yelling, but putting his hand up to make them stop running.
Simba and Nala screeched to a halt as did Shenzi and Banzai but the two slammed into the back of them when they tried to.
"Oof!" Simba and Nala said as they were slammed into.
Shenzi slamming into Nala and Banzai slamming into Simba. But neither lions fell from the impact.
Rafiki walked over to some tall grass and pulled the blades back to reveal a clear water hole.
"Look down dere." he said. The four walked over to the water hole, but couldn't see anything.
"We don't see anything." Simba said.
"Shh!" Rafiki said, putting a finger to his lips.
"Look hardah." he said. Shenzi and Banzai rolled their eyes but looked anyway. All four looked for a long time, but quit after they couldn't find anything.
"Well that's it I give-" Shenzi started to say as she sat down then was startled by what she saw in the water.
Banzai saw her looking surprised and went over to her.
"Shenzi? What's up?" he said. Shenzi pushed his cheek with her right paw, turning his head towards the water.
Banzai's eyes widened as he could see what she was looking at. There, in the water, they could see their real, true reflections.
Even Simba and Nala could see their original bodies.
"You see, reflections tell all." Rafiki said.
"Great, so if we wanna keep this thing a secret we gotta break every shiny rock in the Pridelands." Banzai said.
"Or the graveyard." Simba said. Rafiki walked over to him, along with Nala, and pulled him aside.
The hyenas saw them leave but decided to stay at the water hole, wanting to see what they really looked like again.
After a few minutes of looking they tried to get a drink of water, but it was surprisingly not that easy.
Hyenas usually put the front part of their mouths in water and sipped it down.
What they didn't now is since lion's noses were more on the front of their face than hyenas' were, they had to lap up water.
They tried to get a few sips down but quit after they got too much water up their noses.
"Man, these guys can't even drink water right!" Banzai said.
"Makes you wonder if being like royalty's really worth it." Shenzi said. Then they perked their ears up when they heared rustling in the grass across the water hole in front of them.
They looked across the water hole, but it was hard to make out since it was so dark, but were surprised to see T coming out for a drink.
They watched her sip it down with ease, enjoying every gulp.
"Show off." Shenzi and Banzai said in unision. T raised her head up after she stopped drinking and looked over to see the king and queen looking right at her.
T wasn't afraid of lions, but she did have some sense as when to leave them alone. But she was all the way at the other end of the water hole from them.
Shenzi and Banzai waited for her to do or say something. T just stood there, looking at them.
Then, a small smirk formed over her face. T then licked her lips to show how much she liked the water, just to make them both annoyed.
But instead Shenzi and Banzai gave her a 'not impressed' look, a dull expression with their eyes half closed.
T then just walked away, the smirk still on her face.
"Kid's got guts, I'll give 'er that." Shenzi said. Banzai nodded.
Meanwhile, Simba and Nala were still trying to get Rafiki to tell them how to switch back.
"Isn't there anything you can do at all?" Simba asked him.
"I can't." Rafiki said. "But you, all four of you, can."
"How?" Simba and Nala asked in unision.
"You must be able to learn to cooperate with de hyenas." Rafiki answered. Simba was queit for awhile.
"WHAT?!!" he finally said, so loud even Shenzi and Banzai could hear it. They were a little confused and looked around but just shrugged and went back to struggling to get a drink.
"How can you even say that?!" Simba said to Rafiki.
"How can you even suggest that I learn to get along with the same people that helped my father's murderer?!"
"Mufasa has forgiven dem." Rafiki said. At hearing this, Simba stopped freaking out.
"What?" he asked Rafiki.
"Mufasa has forgiven dem for dier past deeds. For he sees, dat dere is goodness in dem. Dat dere is goodness, in all de hyenas, even if it comes in small proportions." Rafiki said.
"How?" Simba asked him.
"Dat hyena T, she is more dan dey tell you."
"What do you mean?" Nala asked.
"I can say no more. What I can say, is dat you must learn to get along with de hyenas, if you evah wish to return to your original bodies." Rafiki answered.
Simba and Nala were quiet for awhile.
"I can also say dat you have to do it by midnight one week after you've switched bodies."
"Why?" they both asked in unision.
"If you do not learn to cooperate with de hyenas, or dey do not learn to cooperate with you, de switch, shall remain permanent."
Simba and Nala looked horrified. If they didn't learn to get along with their closest enemies, they'd end up in their bodies for the rest of their lives.
Rafiki could see the fear in Simba and Nala and walked over to them. Simba was looking at his reflection in a small puddle of water.
Rafiki looked in it too and put his hand on Simba's shoulder.
"You need not to worry my king. I, or Mufasa, would nevah make de king and queen, do anything we 'tink dey couldn't do." he said.
Then he walked away and climbed back into his tree. Nala looked at Simba unsurely.
Simba just looked at the stars and thought to himself, calmly;
"I wonder how Shenzi and Banzai are going to take this."
Then he gave Nala a reassuring smile, and they walked back to the hyenas.
