Chapter 8

After a while of drifting in the river, Brina surfaced and climbed out of the river, coughing. "I think I lost them," she panted. "I guess I'll have to take the long way back to the Pride Lands again."

Brina then noticed the river had taken her to the jungle. She noticed a shadowy figure in behind the trees. She had to go in the jungle. "Hello?" she called out. She looked around, and the figure moved by. "Is anyone here?"

Brina looked around the jungle, but she lost sight of the figure. She kept on walking, looking around the jungle. She looked up. She looked left. She looked right. But she hadn't got to see the figure.

"Is anyone out here? Hello!" Brina called out again.

But no one answered. Brina sat down, discouraged. She heard rustling sounds and turned her head. She saw a hyena emerging from the jungle plants. She noticed a scar across its eye. She gasped and stood backwards. "You're not taking me back to the Elephant Graveyard!" she yelled. "I won't let you!"

"I'm not here to hurt you," the hyena said. "It's okay."

"You're not here to hurt me? Well, why are you here?"

The hyena approached Brina. Brina could barely keep her eyes on the scar. But the hyena looked a little stunned.

"Could it be?" the hyena wondered. "Is it really you?"

"Huh? You're acting a little weird. I mean, what are you talking about?"

The hyena examined Brina and her body. Seeing her lion tail, the hyena looked back at her. "Brina? Is it really you?"

"Me? Of course I'm Brina. Why are you asking me such questions?" She sat down and crossed her arms. "Just what is this?"

The hyena looked at Brina. "Don't you recognize me?"

"Don't I recognize you? Hey, you're talking to a hybrid here! It's not like I'm your child!"

The hyena made a grin. "You think I can't tell my daughter's face just because she has her mother's tail?"

Hearing this made Brina confused. But then she frowned. "Hey, how can you tell my mother was a lion? Who do you think you are?"

"Surely you don't remember your dad being a father, do you?"

Brina fell confused again. She looked at her paws and then at her tail. She then looked at the hyena. Her eyes suddenly tear up as she started remembering her past. "Y...You're..."

The hyena made a smile. "It's been so long...Brina."

Brina choked up a bit while looking at the hyena, and then it hit her. What she saw right in front of her was none other than...

"Father!" Brina cried, tackling her father. She hugged him and sobbed. "Where have you been all this time?! I thought you and mother were dead!"

Brina's father smiled and hugged back. "Thank you for being alive, my sweet Brina," he said. "I thought you'd be dead. I would've lost my kind of family."

Brina cried as she still hugged her father, and then she looked at him with tearful eyes. "But...but I thought you were both dead."

"No, Brina. I survived the attack Scar had started. Your mother, I..." he lowered his head. "I couldn't have saved her from Scar. I'm so sorry." He then lifted his head, smiling. "But I'm just so happy to see you again. All those years I wonder what happened to you. I had hope I would see you again."

Brina sniffled and wiped her eyes. "What happened to you anyway?" she asked pointing at her father's scar.

Brina's father covered his scarred eye. "Just a scratch I had from during that fight. You see, while your mother and I fought those hyenas, one of Scar's hyenas slashed me across the eye. Though my eye is still there, that scar I have was painful. After I hit my head on that rock, the last thing I heard was your mother's roar before I passed out. They might've thought we both died, but when I woke up..." he sniffled as a tear fell from his eye. "...they only killed your mother. I couldn't have saved her."

Brina sniffles at hearing the story. She then hugged her father. "You did what you had to do, father." Her father smiled and hugged back. "I'm happy to see you again."

"Me too, my child."

Brina looked at her father. "Why don't you come back with me to the Pride Lands? I'm trying to fit in with the others."

Brina's father frowned. "Brina, I don't think I could," he said. "Not while Scar is king."

"He's not king anymore, father. I heard he died."

This went into her father's ears. "He's dead? Are you sure?"

"Yes. Pride Lands has a new king. Simba."

"Simba... Then the news I had heard were true."

"Shall we go together, father? I'm sure you'll be welcomed back."

Brina's father looked down. He does remember him and his mate opposing Scar years ago before they were attacked. He then hugged Brina. "Anything for you, daughter, so long as I'm happy to see you."

Brina made a smile and hugged her long lost father. "Then let's go. Today is a new beginning."

Brina then left the jungle with her father, and the two crossed the river and walked across the grassy plains, making their way back to the Pride Lands.