Author's Note: I finally got around to watching The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey recently. Not to make this a review or anything, but I loved it, and it gave me some valuable information on Middle Earth for future chapters of this (Man, did I get Rivendell wrong in the last story). Just an update for that I suppose. Anyway, I hope you enjoy this chapter, and please review!

Chapter XXI: A Pride's Understanding

The two meerkats went bravely and hastily forth through the Land of Legend, looking up to the darkening skies with fear, and feeling the touch of the soft turf once again against their feet. All around them, the tall grasses were about as tall as they were, and often they would have to push the green blades aside to move past them. The wind was cool, and as Ma and Uncle Max ran, they could feel the wind grow ever stronger against them with each passing minute, and often they would perk up and look to the clouds whenever a flash of thunder was seen or heard. They grew worried now.

"Do you remember where Pride Rock is?" Max asked Ma, with just a hint of fear apparent in his voice. To this, she replied to him,

"We've still got a ways to go, Max!" Uncle Max sighed to himself under his breath. Even though he admired the Pride Lands greatly, and he wished to save them as much as most others in the alliance, he still did not know what the future would hold for them all. Ma was not particularly afraid of death if it meant saving the lives of others, and especially if the ones she was to save were friends of Timon. And aside from that, she felt a bit exhilarated from being able to see Pride Rock once more. She had always admired the enormous form for its beauty and magnificence, and it intrigued her to know that it had existed longer than the great rings themselves. Neither she, nor anyone else in the alliance knew anything about the Ring of Power being a reality, but she thought little of anything else anyway.

The whole time Ma and Uncle Max went forth across the lands, they were silent, not knowing what to speak of at that moment. As they ran still, and they got through another tall patch of grass, they pushed it aside, and finally the two of them could see Pride Rock ahead. Their eyes widened in shock and relief.

"There it is, Max." Ma said. "It looks like there's still time!" Without wanting to wait another second, Ma ran forth to where the savannah grass grew short, and the enormous fortress of the lions was darkly silhouetted against the full moon that was struggling to make its way past the thickness of the storm clouds. Max took a deep breath.

"If they kill us, I'm blaming you." He muttered under his breath.

And with that, Max began to run once more, trying to catch up to Ma upon the plains.

"Hey, wait up!" He shouted to her. "I'm not as young as I used to be, here!" Ma looked back to him. "Neither am I, Max, and I still feel fine!" Max said nothing more after this. He did eventually catch up to her so that he ran just behind her again. There was no turning back now.

Soon, they managed to reach the stony slope that led up to Pride Rock's den. Stopping to look up at it for a moment, the two of them scurried upwards, climbing the stone incline gradually. And after about fifteen seconds, Ma and Uncle Max had finally gotten to the place they had longed for since their quest began. They had finally reached Pride Rock.

They had no time at all to admire its enormity, however. For when Ma and Uncle Max took a few steps forth and peered into the darkness of the den, they could see the entire pride of lionesses sleeping calmly and soundly, breathing slowly, completely oblivious to the impending destruction.

The meerkats crept up slowly by the den's entrance, slyly making sure not to be seen should any lioness suddenly wake up. Max looked more worried than Ma did.

"So now what?" Max whispered to her. Ma glanced over to him.

"We've just gotta be as calm about this as we can, Max." she said. Max quietly snickered at her, and said with a clearly sarcastic tone, "Yeah, tell them that an army's about to come and try to kill them all. I'm sure they'll accept that easily."

Ma glared at Max for a moment before turning her attention back to the inside of the dark den. The meerkat squinted her eyes a bit, and her eyes darted around the inside. Max was about to say something to her, but then Ma whispered to him, "Max! I don't see Simba anywhere!"

She sounded a bit concerned when she said this. When she did, Max gave her a confused look.

"Uh, who's that again?" He asked. After a moment of silence, Ma replied with annoyance in her voice, "Remember? The king of this place? He's not here!"

Max nodded before he too looked into the cave fully now, and stared around for a moment. Indeed, he saw that Simba was not there. In fact, he saw that none of the lions he had ever known the names of were there.

Uncle Max looked over to Ma now. "Wait, didn't Timon say he left because he had to help him with something? Go somewhere?"

Ma thought for a moment. "Yeah, that is what that bird told us. Even if Timon's... he's..."

The meerkat could not bring herself to finish that sentence as a sad look grew on her face while she looked upon the sleeping pride. Even though the truth was certainly otherwise, she did truly believe that Timon and Zuri were dead, and contemplating that thought was simply too much to bear. Max gave her a sympathetic look, and then placed a hand on her shoulder.

Ma cleared her throat. "Well... shouldn't they have been back by now?" She finally mustered the courage to say.

There was another moment of silence between them. Both Ma and Uncle Max were thinking about many things, namely about what was probably going to happen over the next few hours of night. Then, a crash of thunder was heard in the sky, echoing and lingering all around the clouds for a while. It was a sure sign that the storm was approaching fast.

Then, Ma suddenly tensed up, growing a determined look on her face now. She said to Max,

"Come on. I think we've wasted enough time out here."

And with that, Ma stepped forth into the den of Pride Rock, with Uncle Max following shortly behind. When they were in, Max had a particularly worried look on his face. Even though he knew (almost) for certain that the lionesses would not kill him, the feeling of being surrounded by skilled predators of any kind frightened him deeply. He stayed as close behind Ma as he could.

Soon, the two of them stopped. With the darkness in the den of night around them, and the eerie silence being broken only by the occasional clap of thunder, there they stood now in front of one of the sleeping lionesses. She breathed slowly and calmly, never twitching or moving even slightly so while she slept on her side. Ma and Uncle Max were so close up to her, that the lioness's breathing could be felt against Ma's legs. She then looked back to Uncle Max for a moment, giving him a worried look.

"It's now or never, Ma." He said, sounding equally as concerned as she.

Ma looked down to the sleeping lioness now. She looked to be one of the lionesses who were once a part of the pride of Outsiders, judging by the shape of her nose. Finally, taking a deep breath, Ma bent over slightly, and she placed her right hand on the lioness's muzzle. Ever so softly, Ma shook her muzzle around, trying to rouse her from her sleep.

"Hey!... hey, wake up!" She whispered.

She shook her muzzle with both hands now, and the speed of this increased slightly too. This went on for a few seconds until, at last, she could see that the lioness began to stir, twitching her legs around a bit. Then, her eyes opened. There was no turning back now.

When the lioness awoke and saw the two meerkats standing in front of her, she gasped suddenly. Her initial instinct was to kill them, but the lioness managed to stand up slowly and get a better look at them. Ma stood up as well.

"Who are you?" The lioness said with a tone of voice that made it clear she was ready to kill them. Ma cleared her throat.

"I'm Timon's mother, and this is his Uncle Max."

The lioness gave them a confused look. "What? Timon?..."

Suddenly the lioness could be heard taking a deep breath, likely out of relief. Under her breath, she could be heard saying "Oh, thank God." She yawned for a moment before looking back down to the meerkats again. She asked them, "What are you guys doing all the way out here?"

Following a moment of silence and reluctance, Max spoke up with a tone in his voice that sounded sad and worried. "We're here for you. All of you."

The look of confusion mixed with a hint of doubt returned the lioness's face before Ma spoke up at that time.

"Listen, we came here to warn you. There's... there's..."

"Yeah? There's what?" The lioness asked, her eyes widening with curiosity and fear. With great reluctance, Ma finally managed to say softly, "These lands are going to be attacked."

"What?" The lioness said suddenly, with her voice growing louder now. She leaned down closer to Ma with her eyes widened.

Ma continued, "Listen, I don't know if you believe us, but there's an army of ten thousand Orcs coming here now to invade these lands. And... we came here to help you."

"How do you know?" The lioness asked, with fear and anger apparent in her voice. She took the idea of being attacked very seriously, and hoped dearly that they were not lying to her.

"You've gotta get the others ready... do what you can." Uncle Max said now.

"No, how do you know?" She said to him, her tone becoming increasingly angry and loud. In that moment, Ma opened her mouth to answer, but soon some rustling and stirring was heard around them. The lioness looked behind her to see that a few of the lionesses within the pride were rousing and awakening. A few mumbles and murmurs were heard.

"Hey, what's going on here?" One of them said half asleep. Half of the pride had yet to be stirred, but now about ten lionesses were no longer in that state. Four of them stood up, while the others seemed moderately annoyed at being woken up so late.

The lioness looked back to the pride with concern apparent in her voice. She glanced down to Ma and Uncle Max for a moment before, with reluctance, said to the pride,

"There's going to be an invasion."

In a span of time shorter than any lion or lioness could possibly comprehend, the entire den fell silent. Those who had still been laying on the ground stood up, and those who were half asleep had their eyes widen with shock. All of those who were still wholly asleep began to stir now, regardless of whether or not they had heard what the lioness had just said.

"Listen!" Ma called out to them all. "There's going to be an attack! There is an army of ten thousand Orcs from Isengard coming this way, and we don't know when they'll be here!"

That was what did it. Any lionesses who remained fast asleep here were roused and shaken awake by the others, and the shock was still sharp amongst them all. Many of the lionesses began to move around, until suddenly a male voice was heard amongst the pride.

"What is going on here?" It said.

Both Ma and Uncle Max recognized this voice as Zazu, the very same one who had told Timon and Pumbaa that Simba needed them on that day that already seemed like it was a hundred years ago. Zazu was heard getting up from near the back of the den, and still half asleep, he flew up above the lionesses and over to by the entrance where the meerkats were. He went past the lionesses, and he slowly landed beside the meerkats, giving them a strange look.

"What are you doing in these lands?" Zazu asked them. The meerkats both disregarded his question as Max said to him,

"Are you in charge here?"

Zazu replied, "Well. yes, I am for the time being. But, what are you-?"

Max cut him off here. "Good. Look, we'll say this again... there's going to be an invasion soon."

Zazu's eyes widened now.

"What?"

"You need to prepare for this however you can!" Ma said. Zazu looked at her with worry.

"You are certain of this?" He asked. Ma bowed her head. "Yes."

"Oh no! Oh no, this is awful! Who are they, and what do they want?" Zazu exclaimed.

To this, Ma replied, "The Uruk Hai of Isengard. They're coming to destroy this place."

Zazu began to breath heavily, looking back to the pride a few times.

"Well then, there is no time to waste! We must set out!" He said. But immediately after he did, Ma stepped in front of him.

"No! No, not yet! That's... not all there is to it." She said.

"The pride quieted down when Ma said this. All talk ceased, many remained still, and looked down to Ma and Uncle Max. Zazu in particular looked intently upon them both.

"Well what else is there?" A lioness asked.

Ma sighed, taking this moment of silence as an opportunity to speak. "Well... if I say this, I know you're not going to believe me. But... there are some who want to help you fight them off."

Talk began to emerge amongst the pride again, many of them debating who could possibly want to help them.

"Who? What allies do we have?" Zazu asked curiously.

Max decided to take over for Ma here. He came up to Zazu and said, "Well for starters, there's us. Just outside the Pride Lands, we have all the meerkats from our colony who could help. We're small enough so that we can distract the Orcs while you take them out."

Zazu smiled at this and said excitedly, "Oh, excellent! A truly noble deed I will say. Indeed, you shall be commended for this act of braver-"

Max cleared his throat, interrupting Zazu. He said, "That's not all. There's... others too."

"Zazu asked, "Really? Who else is there?"

At this point in time, Ma decided to speak the truth. She knew that she and Max had lingered there for far too long, and that they had likely wasted too much time to spare, so she became determined to get this part over with as soon as she could. She blurted out,

"They hyenas! The hyenas are coming to help you!"

All fell silent once more. The entire pride looked intently on Ma now, as did Zazu. Max whispered to her, "Real subtle, Ma."

"Never! They've been our enemy for generations!" One of the lionesses called out.

"What are you doing with the hyenas anyway?!" another said.

"It's a trap!" Another exclaimed. Just as the lionesses began to move around again, Zazu looked back and called to the pride,

"Please, please! Settle down, I'm sure that these two can explain themselves!"

He quickly turned back to Ma and Uncle Max. He whispered with a worried look on his face, "You can explain yourselves, right?"

Ma nodded as she looked back up to the pride. She began, "Listen, I'm not expecting any of you to believe us, but the hyenas are the ones who told our colony about the Uruk Hai, and how they're coming this way. We made an alliance with them to come here and help however we could, because... that's what Timon would want."

The lionesses fell silent while she talked, some of them even coming a few steps closer to her. Zazu listened intently while Uncle Max continued for Ma.

"We're not expecting you to accept them... but their leader is named Nyota, and she want to make peace with you. She's hated the prejudices you have against them. And... she hated our prejudice against them too."

He paused for a moment. "That was why she came to us. She dragged her whole pack to our colony so she could make amends with us, and now she wants to do the same with you."

Ma picked up from there for him. "Look... I may not have been here to see what happened with Zira all that time ago... but Timon told me enough about it for me to understand. I know that half of you here now were once Outsiders who wanted Simba and his pride dead. You were all trained for your entire lives to kill him and everyone he knew. But look at where you are now. You were able to accept each other and become one, sleeping alongside one another; hunting alongside those who tried to kill you a year ago. If you can do all that, couldn't you do the same for the hyenas?"

There was another pause. Ma and Uncle Max could see many of the lionesses thinking deeply about her speech so far, even considering it. Before anyone could say a word, Max continued for Ma.

"We know that the hyenas were never on good terms with you, especially after the Great Meerkat Massacre a hundred years ago. We know... we were the ones who had to endure it. But even after that... they came to us, and they wanted to put the past behind them. They were sincere... and now here we are, meerkat and hyena coming together for the first time in the history of Middle Earth. If the ones they massacred could accept them, couldn't you?"

Here, Ma decided to finish. "If Timon and Zuri were here, they would want you to take our- their help. Alone, you won't stand a chance against the Uruk Hai. But if you let the hyenas help you... you'll have a chance."

Ma and Uncle Max had finished their oration, and now they stood there in front of twenty lionesses, staring down at them intently. The quantity of thunder on the outside was beginning to pick up at that moment, as a few flashes of thunder boomed across the sky. Many of the lionesses were in deep thought about the meerkats' words, taking into consideration what was about to happen. The moment of silence, broken only by the thunder, went on for a while.

"So?" Max said to them. "What do you say?"

The lionesses said nothing.

Ma asked with worry apparent in her voice, "What do you say?... what do you say?!..."