Hello readers! I was feeling a bit blocked on my other current project, and I had this Lion King idea floating around in my head for a while so I thought I'd try to get it written. Fans of my other fic, don't worry I will get back to it as soon as I can. A quick warning for fans of my previous work, this is probably the most serious thing I've ever written, I'm putting in as much humor as I can to lighten it up, but this story does deal with poaching (a very unpleasant topic) and a character who murdered his own brother, so there will be some dark spots.
Simba stood at the edge of Pride Rock, looking out over his kingdom with a smile. It had been a hard few months after his uncle's defeat but finally, the Pride Lands had been restored to their former glory. The land was lush and green, the herds had returned, the pride was flourishing, and Simba had recently become a father. It seemed all the Pride Land's troubles were behind them.
As if to disprove this Zazu flew over, looking worried "Sire, there have been sightings of some unidentified creatures causing a disturbance near the north-western border. Details are scarce but it sounds like they could be-"
"- Could be trouble." Simba finished for him. "I better check it out."
"But Sire, I was going to say these creatures might be-"
But it was too late, Simba had already run off without waiting for Zazu to finish.
"He still doesn't listen to me." Zazu cast an annoyed glance at the clouds. "This is what comes of interrupting the morning report for pouncing lessons!"
As he approached the edge of the Pride Lands, Simba caught sight of a creature unlike any he'd ever seen before. It was a good distance away so he couldn't make out the details, but it looked vaguely ape-like, with no fur. It was holding some sort of strange stick, which it seemed to be pointing at Simba. Suddenly there was a sound like something whizzing through the air, then Simba felt a pain, like being jabbed with a sharp thorn. The world began to spin, Simba staggered a few more steps before collapsing, then everything went dark.
When Simba woke up he was still a bit dizzy, with a splitting headache. As his vision came into focus he saw iron bars, and beyond them scenery going by at great speed "What happened?" He groaned to no one in particular "Where am I?"
"What happened is, you were knocked out, and abducted." Said a voice he'd never expected to hear again. "And where you are is stuck in a cage, which would bring me a certain satisfaction, if I weren't stuck in it with you."
"Scar!" Simba exclaimed, turning to see the other lion. "You're alive?"
"Noticed that, did you?" Came the sarcastic reply. "Dear nephew, your grasp of the obvious is truly astounding."
Simba barely registered the rudeness of his uncle's words, his head was starting to spin again. The shock of seeing Scar alive on top of everything else was too much. Desperate for something else to focus on he started to take in his surroundings. He and Scar were indeed in a cage. The cage seemed to be tied to the back of some kind of large metal beast, unlike anything Simba had ever seen. Also riding on the metal beast were two of the ape-like creatures, conversing in a language Simba couldn't understand. The territory they rode over was completely unfamiliar, and by the position of the sun he could tell he'd been unconscious for many hours, there was no telling how far from the Pride Lands he'd been carried. Maybe Scar was a less upsetting thing to focus on after all.
Considering Scar had supposedly been torn apart by hyenas while a wildfire raged all around him, he looked much better than you'd expect. But still, careful observation would show he was a bit worse for wear. All over his body were spots where the orange-brown fur didn't lay quite right, indicating barely healed wounds and burns beneath. His normally sleek mane was scraggly, shorter in some spots than others, as if bits of it had been torn or burned off and hadn't fully grown back yet. There were fading claw marks on his face, not as deep as his namesake scar, given a bit more time they might disappear completely.
"After what happened, we all thought you were…" Simba trailed off.
"Extra crispy hyena food?" Scar finished. "I very nearly was. Fortunately, the flames closing in scared off those moronic traitors before they could finish me off. I had just enough strength left to get away before being roasted, and crawl into the outlands to recover. It's taken a long time but I'm almost back to full health. It's… given me a lot of time to think. I wasn't in my right mind when we last saw each other, you know."
"Oh, yeah, and now that you're feeling better you regret everything, and you hope I can forgive you and blah blah blah." Simba rolled his eyes "Save it Scar, I'm not falling for any more of your lies!"
"Don't put words in words in my mouth!" Scar snapped. "I regret some of what happened, both before and after my little… mental health issues started, but not all of it. And I have no intention of groveling for your forgiveness, especially since I know I won't get it. At any rate, we have more pressing concerns just now." The older lion tapped his claws against the bars of the cage.
"Oh, right, being held prisoner by… by… what are those things anyway?"
"They're humans, Simba." Scar said in an ominous tone.
"Humans…" Simba repeated, the word rang a faint bell, but he couldn't quite place it. "I've heard that word somewhere before…"
"Of course you have," replied Scar. "I told you about them myself, remember?"
Flashback
Mufasa was busy with his royal duties, Zazu assisting him, Sarabi and Sarafina were busy hunting, which left the task of watching young Simba and Nala that day fell to Scar. A common occurrence, much to Scar's annoyance.
To make things worse it was raining, and the three of them were stuck in Scar's cave, the cubs naturally a bit antsy. At least he got to stay where it was dry, one luxury he had that his brother and the lionesses didn't, no matter how bad the weather was, affairs of state had to be taken care of, and food had to be hunted.
Simba and Nala had been doing their best to amuse themselves indoors which wasn't easy. they'd played with Scar's tail like a cat teaser until Scar had started growling in a way that told them they should find something else to do, they'd practiced pinning each other until Simba had gotten sick of always being the one who got pinned, then they'd run out of ideas.
"Uncle Scar, we're bored!" Whined Simba.
"And what do you expect me to do about it?" Scar replied.
"I don't know." Said Simba, sounding annoyed that Scar didn't have a magic cure for boredom handy.
"Maybe you could tell us a story?" Suggested Nala.
"Yeah, tell us a story!" Agreed Simba.
Scar sighed knowing they wouldn't leave him alone until they got what they wanted. "Alright. Once upon a time, there were two annoying little cubs who kept bothering their cubsitter. They were so annoying that the cubsitter threw them out of the cave, into the rain. Then a big scary monster came and ate the annoying little cubs. And they all lived happily ever after, except for the cubs, the end."
"Uncle Scar, that was a really lousy story," said Simba, completely missing the point of Scar's little tale. "Besides, we don't believe in monsters!"
"Oh really?" Replied Scar as a nasty idea occurred to him. "Then perhaps I should tell you a true story, about real monsters. That is, if you think you're brave enough to handle it."
"We're plenty brave! Right, Nala?"
"Yeah, we can handle it!" Agreed Nala, not quite reaching the same level of bluster as Simba.
"You're sure? I wouldn't want to scare you so bad you have trouble sleeping, have nightmares, keep your father up all night." Scar fought not to grin, as that was exactly what he wanted.
"Come on Uncle Scar, tell us already!"
"Alright then," Scar said. "Have you cubs ever heard of the monsters they call humans?"
Simba and Nala shook their heads. "Are they really huge with giant claws and stuff?" Asked Simba.
"Are they all gross and slimy with drippy fangs?" Asked Nala.
"Oh no, they actually don't look scary at all, that's how they trick you, you see them and they look harmless, you don't find out how dangerous they are until it's too late." Scar explained.
"So what do they look like?" asked Nala.
"They're a sort of ape, larger than a chimp, but smaller than a gorilla," Scar replied. "They stand only on their hind legs, almost never use their forelegs for walking. The really weird thing about them is they have almost no fur at all, just a little bit on the tops of their heads, and some of them don't even have that. They try to hide their deformity by covering their bodies with colorful stuff they call 'clothing', but it doesn't make them look any less silly. They're not nearly as strong as most apes, and they're exceptionally stupid. They can't even talk to any species except their own, and rumor has it they're so arrogant they think the problem is every other animal on the planet is too stupid."
"But if they don't have claws or fangs, they're not very strong, and they're not even smart, then what's so dangerous about them?" Asked Simba.
"Well, even though they're mostly stupid, there is one thing humans are very good at, they're extremely clever when it comes to making things, often dangerous things."
"Like what?" Asked Simba.
Scar then gave a detailed description of many of the things humans had invented, with emphasis on the most dangerous things, particularly the various weapons and devices used by hunters.
"But they wouldn't use that stuff on lions, right?" Asked Simba, starting to look just a tiny bit frightened. "After all, we're the top of the food chain."
"Oh humans don't just hunt for food, more often they hunt for sport, for the thrill of sneaking up, and using their weapons to kill an animal they wouldn't stand a chance against in a fair fight." Scar explained. "And lions are one of their favorite things to kill. What's almost worse is what they do with our bodies afterwards. Cut off our heads and hang them on the wall of their dens, rip off our pelts and use them as rugs, grind our bones to a powder, and trade it to particularly stupid humans who think it will cure diseases like magic, which it won't. Then of course there's what they'll do to you if they manage to capture you alive."
"W-what do they do to lions they capture alive?" Simba asked.
"All sorts of things. Once, a long time ago they used to take lions to a place called Rome where they had this really big den where hundreds of humans would gather, they put the lions in cages and only let them out when the human king wanted them to eat another human he didn't like. Now they have places called 'zoos' where they cage up all sorts of animals from all over the world, so crowds of humans can come gawk at them. There's nothing to do but sit there all day while they stare at you, and you get fed carrion."
"You mean eating things that were already dead and sitting around who knows how long, like a vulture or something? Ew!" Exclaimed Nala.
"Gross!" Agreed Simba. "I'd rather eat bugs!"
"Of course there are worse things than zoos," Scar went on. "There's this other thing called a 'circus' where they drag you from place to place to put on shows for the humans, a human hits you with a thing called a whip to make you do tricks, jump through a hoop, or make you hold your mouth open so he can stick his head in it to prove you're too afraid of him to bite down. Or sometimes they'll just take a bunch of lions and put them in a big cage and try to get them to -ahem- make cubs, so they'll have more lions to exploit."
"How do you make cubs?" Asked Simba.
"Ask your father." Said Scar, no way on earth he was having that talk. "Anyway back to the story." Scar continued to tell them the horrific details about humans. The forests and jungles they'd destroyed. The animals they'd driven to extinction. How they were slowly destroying the entire planet, and knew it, but wouldn't stop because it was easier to just pretend it was a lie. Finally, he told them about weapons humans had that could destroy all life on earth at once, and the only thing that stopped them from doing it was the knowledge they'd be destroyed as well. "All it would take is one human ruler too stupid to think about that, and BOOM! Goodbye circle of life."
By this point, Simba and Nala had started crying, which Scar found amusing for about thirty seconds, then the sobbing started to get on his nerves. "Oh bollocks, how do I make this stop? Now, now, don't cry. it's alright" He said to no avail. "Stop crying!"
Just then Scar caught the smell of wet fur, turning his head he saw Mufasa at the entrance to the cave, soaked from the rain, his drenched mane drooping over his face, looking like a bright red mop. Scar couldn't help but chuckle at the sight, perhaps it would cheer the cubs up. "Look children, a big silly-looking wet thing! Isn't it funny?"
"What was that, Scar?" Mufasa asked as he came in and shook a bit of the water off.
"Oh, Mufasa! I didn't recognize you, are you doing something different with your mane?"
"Very funny, Scar." Mufasa glared "And why are Simba and Nala crying?"
"Would you believe I don't know?" Scar asked.
"No, I wouldn't," Mufasa said with just a hint of a growl. "What did you do?"
"They wanted a scary story, they said they could handle it," Said Scar. "Is it my fault they lied?"
Mufasa sighed. "Why do I let you cubsit?"
"Let me?" Repeated Scar, baffled by how Mufasa made it sound like he'd done his brother some kind of favor by dumping the little brats on him and demanding that he 'make himself useful, for a change'.
"It's alright kids," Mufasa told Simba and Nala "I'm sure whatever Uncle Scar told you wasn't true. He just likes to make up wild stories, it's his idea of a joke. Now your mothers just got back to the den with a couple of nice juicy zebras, let's go eat and you can tell me all about whatever nonsense Scar told you." Mufasa turned back to his brother. "I'll talk to you about this later, brother."
It suddenly occurred to Scar that it might be a good time to go spend a few days visiting the hyenas in the elephant graveyard.
Meanwhile, the promise of fresh zebra had gotten the cubs to dry their eyes. "Let's go eat!" Said Simba as they headed for the cave exit. "Come on Uncle Scar."
"Oh Simba, I'm sure after being cooped up all day Uncle Scar would much rather go hunt his own dinner. He doesn't mind a little rain, do you Scar?" Mufasa smirked.
Scar growled and mentally added another item to his list of reasons to kill Mufasa (Which was already a much longer list than most people realized).
As Mufasa and the cubs left the cave Scar heard Simba ask "Dad, how are cubs made?" and chuckled at the sputtering noise his brother made in response.
End Flashback
Simba shuddered as the memories came back to him, He'd had nightmares for a week after Scar had told him all that. "That was all true?" he looked at the creatures again, they certainly looked like the monsters from the story, and Scar had mentioned something like the thing they were riding on too, a 'car' he'd called it.
"I might have exaggerated a few small details for dramatic effect, and left out some other things. For example, there are a few semi-decent humans who've managed to get some of the nastier things I told you about outlawed, not that there aren't plenty of humans willing to break the law. But essentially yes, it was all true."
"But… but…" Simba said, confused. "My father told me they weren't real. He said you made it all up to scare me."
"What? My wonderful, virtuous, noble brother told a lie!?" Scar replied in an exaggerated tone of mock surprise. "I guess he wasn't as perfect as everyone thought. Make you wonder what other little secrets he was keeping. I suppose he figured you didn't need to know humans were real, since none have been seen in the Pride Lands for generations. Just like Mufasa, never prepared for what might happen."
"Or maybe he would have told me the truth when I was older and more ready to handle it, but never got around to it because he was pushed off a cliff!" Simba practically roared.
"Temper, temper!" Scar chided. "Now is not the time for us to be at each other's throats. This is an emergency! We've got to escape somehow, and as much as I loathe saying this, to have any chance of success, we'll have to work together."
"Me and you, work together?" Repeated Simba "After what you did?"
"Yes, yes, I killed your daddy. Boohoo! Do you want to spend the rest of your life in a cage crying about it?" Scar asked. "Or can you put it aside long enough for us to get out of this mess, so we never have to see each other again?"
Behind the cruelty of Scar's words, there was a logic Simba couldn't argue with, even though he really wanted to. "I guess," he grumbled with a bit of a pout.
"You know, your father used to make that same face when he knew I was right about something but didn't want to admit it." Scar said with a smug grin.
"Don't push it, Scar!" Simba growled. "So, Mister Lion's-share-of-the-brains, any ideas for getting out of this mess?"
"Unfortunately nothing's come to mind just yet," Admitted Scar. "For now there seems to be nothing to do but keep thinking, and wait for an opportunity to present itself."
"Well do you know what they want us for? Or where they're taking us?"
"No way of knowing." Scar replied. "We can't even be sure where we are now, I only woke up a bit before you, there's no telling how far away from the Pride Lands they've already taken us, or how many times they've changed directions."
"So we don't know how to escape, we don't know why they want us, and we don't know where we're going or even where we are." Simba recapped. "Is there anything we do know?"
"At this time there seems to be only one thing we know for sure, and it's nothing particularly useful." Scar said.
"Tell me anyway," Said Simba. "What do we know?"
"We know we're buggered."