Good day! I hope you guys have finally decided on whether I should include Charles' backstory or no. (I can't believe I could actually review my own work.)
Lewis' POV
I woke up to find Xyrisse to be nowhere, she must've woke up earlier before me. I tried standing up, while doing so, I could feel a slight pain while trying move my wounded arm. "Ouchouchouch."
Third Person View
Charles was sitting in the den, watching a group of cubs play. Since Simba's grounded after what just happened yesterday, he and a few of his friends just play in the den instead. Simba and the cubs were playing tag, running around the den to catch each other. Charles smiled at the sight of the cubs playing, he remembered the days when he used to have fun with his siblings and friends. But his smile was replaced by a frown when he remembered the memories of his family. The question came back to him: Did they survived the crash?
"Come and catch me Simba!" shouted Nala, Simba lunged at her and pinned her to the ground.
"Ha! Got you!" he said, but he was soon tipped over by Nala, now he was the one pinned down "Pinned ya!" she ran towards to the other side of the den with Chumvi and Kula, Tama was hiding behind a small boulder, when she felt something behind her. She looked behind her and saw Tojo hiding as well. He gave her a smile "Hey... You're hiding here to-"
"This is not hide and seek go find somewhere else." She said, upset that he was hiding as well. "I'ts like you're not hiding." A scowl on his face "Fine." she went out of her hiding spot only to be tagged by Simba "Tag! You're it!" he ran off laughing. The cubs played for another ten minutes before the lionesses came back from hunting.
The hunting group returned with a zebra for the pride to eat. After finishing his meal, he took a slice of zebra meat and cooked it for Lewis. He heard a fast ouch from the cave where Lewis is resting, he entered the cave to see Lewis trying to stand up. "You should have called for help." Charles said, assisting Lewis in standing up. "Thanks, I don't wanna disturb you guys."
"I just finished breakfast, the other lions haven't finished yet. I brought you steak, Zebra steak." he said, handing the steak to Lewis' uninjured arm. "Thank you, but I think I don't wanna intrude the others while they're still eating. So I'll just eat here." Lewis said, sitting down on the hard, stone floor of the cave. "I'll be back." Charles walked out of the cave.
After finishing his steak, Lewis stood up and walked out of the cave. He looked around the den, there were only a few cubs playing while Simba and Nala were talking to Sarabi and Mufasa.
"Please dad, mom, can I go play outside. I'll have someone accompany me."
"Hmm." Sarabi was thinking whether she should allow him. "What do you think?" she asked Mufasa. He was still not happy about how Simba disobeyed him and went to the elephants' graveyard with Nala. But he knew his son already learned his lesson after the punishment he gave him. "Alright, but you will need an adult to accompany you." A wide smile were on the two cubs' face "Thanks mom and dad!" He said before hugging his father and mother. Sarabi nuzzled his son "Be careful out there, I think we should have Charles follow you." She turned towards her mate and nuzzle him "Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to hunt with the others now. Take care."
"Remember what your mother says, be careful out there. And in case there's any hyenas or dangerous predators out there, please alert Charles of any." He said before walking out of the den to continue his morning rounds.
Charles was just sitting in the corner of the den with Imani, whose leg is still injured. He went over to them and sat beside them. "Hello Charles, hey Imani. How's your leg?" she gave a small to him, "It's getting better, thank you for your concern."
"Hey Charles, dad says you'll accompany us on playing outside. Please?" He gave a big grin to Charles just to convince him. "Alright, I'll go with you guys." The cubs cheered around "Yay!" And then they ran out of the den. "Wanna come Lewis?" he checked the magazine of his handgun before responding "Sure." Charles looked at Imani "How about you Imani, would you like to join us?" She shook her head, "No thanks, I'll just watch the other cubs here. And I'll need to rest my leg."
"Alrighty then." The two followed the cubs into a small mud pit where they played around. After playing in the mud, now that they're all dirty with mud. "Great, we're all smudged in mud. Our parents are going to get mad at us." complained Tama, this made Simba think on how to clean themselves.
He saw a herd of elephants walking towards a pond, this gave him an idea. "Aha! I know now, let's get the elephants to wash us." suggested Simba, and so they went to to them.
Simba was the one approached the elephants first, "Hello, can you please help us clean off the mud in our fur?" asked Simba as polite as he can, hoping not to make the elephants angry.
One of the elephants came to them and smiled "Sure." the elephant went to the pond and sucked some water, he returned to the cubs and washed them with the water from his trunk. "Thank you!" After cleaning themselves of the mud, the cubs decide on what to do next. Meanwhile, not far from them were Charles and Lewis watching them.
"How about we play hide and seek?" Chumvi proposed, "That's a great idea!" Kula said. "Alright, I'm it." said Tojo enthusiastically.
"Wanna join Charles?Please..." Simba asked, while giving the 'big, puppy eyes' look to him. "Ummm...sure. How about you Lewis?" Lewis shook his head "You go ahead, I'm just gonna stay here and relax for a while." He said while sitting below a tree.
"I'm gonna start counting." Tojo covered his eyes while facing a tree, while Charles and the other cubs find a place to hide.
Simba was hiding inside a log, Nala hid under a small patch of flowers, Charles covered himself with grass, and the other cubs went to find other places to hide.
"5, 4, 3, 2 ,1, ready or not here I come!" Tojo turned around to search for them. He looked under a small log, nobody's here. He looked behind a tree, nobody either. What he didn't know is that he is just several inches away from Charles, hiding under a cover of grass.
"Where are they..." He stepped under the patch of grass Charles is hiding under, "Odd, the grass here feels different." He took a closer look at it, "It's like somebody placed it here."
Charles struggled with trying to stay still, cause if he make a slight movement, it could probably alert Tojo of his presence.
He suddenly felt something crawling around his stomach, he looked down to see a small tarantula crawling in his abdomen. He tried to resist himself from screaming "Shoo, shoo, go away."
The hairy tarantula crawled upwards, coming closer to his chest, until it reached his neck. I can't take this anymore
Tojo was about to look somewhere else, when somebody jumped out from the cover of grass. Charles jumped around to remove the tarantula clinging in his clothes. "Get off get off get off get off!" He swat the spider off his shirt, it landed on the grass and crawled away.
He sighed and took a deep breath "Finally, I hate spiders." However, removing the spider results in him leaving his hiding spot.
"HA! Found you Charles!" he said triumphantly, "Let's find the others." Good thing Charles knew where the others were hiding. After finding Charles, they managed to find Nala hiding in a field of flowers. Then they found Chumvi hiding on the branches of a tree. They found Simba inside a log of wood. They found Kula in a cluster of elephant grass, and lastly, Tama was hiding behind a napping elephant.
After the first game of hide and seek was over, they decide to play another round of it. "Since Charles is the first one that got caught, he'll be It."
Charles turned around, closed his eyes and began a 20-second countdown.
After the cubs finally chose their hiding spot, it was only a few seconds left "six, five, four, three, two one. Ready or not, here I come!" He shouted while facing around to search for the cubs.
"Where are you lil' cubs?" He checked the log, nothing but bugs. He noticed a tail dangling in the tree, a lion cub's tail. He tugged the cub's tail, revealing it to be Chumvi's.
"Gotcha!" Chumvi got down the tree after being the first one caught, "Aww men..." After a few minutes of searching, they found Tama hiding in a small pit covered by a stone. "Found ya!" Tama groaned at being easily found.
Charles heard voices nearby, he looked further and found it coming from a dead tree.
"Shhh...Don't make noises. They might hear us."
"You're the one who's making noi-"
"Shush...Wait...I think someone's out there." muttered Nala, and her guess was correct. Two sets of eyes were peeking in the trunk they're hiding in.
"I think they found us." Kula whispered. "You are correct." said the one peeking through the tree.
"It's definitely Charles." Two hands started reaching into the tree, trying to grab the two cubs.
"I know you guys are in there, Kula and Nala." Kula grumbled, "I told you this is a bad hiding spot." Nala complained while climbing out of the dead tree. "Aww come on, it wasn't that bad if we weren't so noisy." Kula insisted.
"Looks like the only ones left are Tojo and Simba." Chumvi said, looking through a bush. "No one's here."
I can imagine Dad saying "You're now 18 and you're still playing hide n' seek!?" Charles thought in his mind. But then again, it's pretty fun being able to play kid's games for a long time.
"HA! I found Tojo!" shouted Tama, pointing towards a small river. The shape of a lion cub can be seen clearly in the water.
All of a sudden, Tama screamed in surprise as she was dragged into the water by Tojo. Tojo jumped out of the river, laughing,and shook the water out of his fur. Tama surfaced out of the river, breathily heavily while struggling to swim on the water. She got up from the river and shook her fur.
"Ha ha ha ha ha! Your reaction was priceless." Tojo said amusingly, his laughing was cut down by Tama shoving him.
"Nice going dumbhead, I could drown there. And now I got wet again. Why did you drag me in the water anyway?!" She gave a scowl to him, Tojo laughed nervously "It's not like you don't know how to swim, and you're not really that soggy anymore." she scoffed at his excuse "I think I'll push you to the river myself, so you would know how it feels." He smiled "Hehe, sorry Tama."
Charles stopped them before this could escalate further than an argument "Woah woah woah...Quit the quarreling. But I must say Tojo, I'm amazed at how you could stay in the water for that long."
Tojo smirked, "It was nothing much, I just took a deep breath and stayed underwater for a minute."
"Looks like Simba's the only one left." said Chumvi.
Minutes of searching Simba, and they still couldn't find him.
NOTE: (I can't believe 2 and a half of this chapter is about one freakin' game of hide and seek, to think about it is kinda ridiculous in my opinion.)
Simba's POV
"Hehehe, its been ten minutes and they still haven't find me yet." I said, watching from afar behind a thick field of grass. I suddenly felt movement behind me, A tall shadow behind resembling a human. I thought it was Lewis, when I looked back, I was wrong. A stranger dressed in a bright tan-colored clothes, as what humans called their 'fur', stood in front of me. The man has a net on his hands, as if his trying to catch something.
"Hey little kitty." was what he said before throwing the net at me. I was scared and confused at the same time, who is this man. I decided to call for help, "Help! Help! Help me! Help me Charles!"
"Where is he? He sure is good at hid-" Charles was interrupted by someone calling for him. "Help! Help! Help me Charles!"
Charles' eyes widened as he realised Simba is in danger, "Oh no, Simba!" He ran towards the direction where he heard Simba, a field of tall grass. Lewis heard it as well, he saw Charles running towards a thick field of elephant grass. Lewis grabbed his carbine and went to follow Charles, with the cubs in tow.
"What's happening Lewis?" asked a confused Kula. "Simba's in danger!" he said, Nala gasped in shock. "We need to help him quickly."
"Simba!" Charles shouted, he was thinking of the cause of him yelling for help. Is it hyenas? Is it some other hungry predators? he hoped not. He was now in the middle of a clearing, he saw Simba being covered by a net. What surprised him was a...human struggling to take Simba.
"Quit struggling, ye squirt." the man said, with a thick australian accent. The man was wearing a tan safari jacket with a shirt underneath, a boonie hat as his headwear, and a rifle slinged on his shoulder. A jeep was parked several distance behind him.
"Faster, faster! Someone's calling for help." Another guy in a tan officer's cap in the car shouted. The man holding the lion cub noticed Charles, now aware of his presence. "Uhhhh...hello." he said, staring at Charles while grabbing Simba and standing up. "See ya." he quickly said before turning around and started running towards the jeep.
"Hey!" Charles said, chasing the man who took the prince. "Stop! Stop!" He took his rifle and aimed at the man., trying to at least warn him to stop. "I said stop!" he shouted again.
The man saw Charles armed with a rifle, making him run faster rather than slowing him down. "He's got a gun! Faster Benett!" the driver yelled, now starting up the engines of the jeep. He jumped in the back and placed the cub down. The jeep began driving away to the horizon, leaving dust and tire tracks behind.
"Simba! Simba!" he shouted between his heavy breath, the running was now exhausting. "Simba!" he shouted one last time before he finally collapsed.
"Charles wait up! " yelled Lewis, he saw Charles lying down on the ground. "Charles!" He kneeled down and shook his shoulder, "Charles, Charles, stand up. We need to alert the pride about this?"
He suddenly stood up, which startled Lewis for a second. "Simba's kidnapped by poachers, we're screwed! Mufasa's going to kill us!" He abruptly yelled, making the cubs cover their ears.
"Shhh, no need to panic Charles, we'll just explain this carefully to the king and queen." Charles took a deep breath before facing him. "But I'm going to be the one who'll explain." He calmly said, "Let's go."
On the way back to the priderock, Nala decided to ask Charles a question "Charles, will Simba be okay?"
"I don't know honestly, who knows what their intentions are." What could be their intentions with Simba?
At the priderock, the king Mufasa and his mate were resting outside of the den. They saw Charles and the group coming towards them.
The king met them with a smile, but he noticed that everyone but Simba was here. His smile faded "Where's Simba?" He saw Charles' expression, and it wasn't a pleasant one.
Charles took a deep breath before speaking "Mein König...you're son is kidnapped by other humans." Mufasa's eyes widened in shock"What?!"
"But we're going to get him back." assured Charles, "How?" asked Sarabi, who was shocked and worried as well. "We managed to find tracks on where they went, we will follow it to wherever their destination is. "
"So what now?" asked Lewis, this made Charles think. How are they going to get there? "I think we should plan first, prepare our things for the journey."
"Alright, I'll get my duffel bag." He said walking into the den, while Charles went back to the bunker.
At the bunker, Charles took two clips for his rifle and one clip for the pistol. In case the encounter with the poachers didn't go well. He prepared four bottles of water for their trip.
He went out and took a few edible fruits he found hanging in the trees nearby and placed it inside his bagpack. He saw these kind of fruits from Rafiki that were able to consume safely.
Now that everything is ready, he went back to the pridelands to see if Lewis is finished on preparing his things.
He saw Lewis up in the priderock, talking with Simba's parents. "Please return our son safely." pleaded Sarabi. "Do not worry, me and Charles will find your son and retrieve him from his captors."
"May the Great Kings of the past guide you in your voyage." the king said, Lewis nodded in response, "Thank you. You ready Charles?" he turned around and asked him.
Charles gave a thumbs up, "Yep, I'm ready. How about you?"
"Likewise." Lewis said, walking down the pride rock to meet with Charles.
"Honestly, I'm surprised they didn't mauled me to death when I announced about the kidnapping of Simba." Lewis chucked, "Me too, well at least not too angry as killing you. But I still expected them to be angry that we didn't watch over Simba carefully."
A lone dark-maned lion watched the two humans as they depart on their way to rescue the prince.
Just great, just when I thought that little furball's gone. Now the humans are going to find him, how are they going to rescue him anyway? He thought as he went back to his personal cave.
After those incompetent hyenas failed to kill Simba, I'll need to have a word with them. Sill glad that some humans took Mufasa's little maggot...Wait a minute, since the two humans are gone, I have a chance to try and get rid of my older brother and claim the throne as mine. But I need to plan correctly and well.
While they were walking away from the priderock, they heard someone shouting Lewis' name. "Lewis, wait!" He turned around to see who is it, it was Xyrisse. "Wait!" They slowed down to let her catch up. "Hey Cyrise, what's the matter?" Lewis asked.
"I just wanna say goodbye to you two. You sure you don't need escorts to accompany you?" asked Xyrisse, a tone of concern in her voice.
"Oh don't worry too much Xyrisse, we can take care of ourselves just fine. Besides, I don't want to possibly lose more members of the pride in this trip."
"Okay, fine. But please promise to be careful on your trip." He pat her shoulder and assured her that they'll be safe on their journey.
After exchanging their farewells, the two humans continued their way to follow the tire tracks. After 5 hours of continous walking, they decided to stop under a tree to rest for the night.
"Guard this place while I gather some wood for the fire." He said, placing the duffel bag down and went around to collect some wood.
"Roger." Charles replied while sitting down and setting his backpack down. After Lewis finished gathering enough amount of wood, he returned back to their resting spot.
"Now that we have wood for fire, I think I should hunt for our dinner tonight." Charles suggested. "Alright then, I'm going to guard the camp this time." Lewis readied his carbine.
After a few minutes of looking for prey, he finally found a warthog eating grass in an open field. Dragging the carcass was now heavier since he did it by himself. He cut a decent slice for him and Lewis and cooked it by the fire. After finishing their food, they decided to call it a night and went to sleep.
After 3 days of intense walking through the African wildlands, they finally arrived at a small hill overlooking a military complex where the tire tracks ended.
"Looks like we've arrived to our destination."
I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter! I will try to update more as much as I can this summer. Meanwhile please indulge on this video as a time killer while I'm still working on the next chapter: watch?v=6NfBvmiyu_o I don't own this video! The video belongs to their respective owners.
Additional information I forgot to put on the last chapters:
No-kill(or known as Negative kill in the CoN) is a term used by the UIA which means that the pilot is alive while the plane's shot down or damaged.