Chapter 3: When the World Turns Its Back on You...

They can't get away with this.

So the King of Pride Rock kept thinking as he followed Pumbaa and the meerkats down the boulders. The image of the Pridelanders encircling Pride Rock was burnt into his mind, and seeing the army in a ring around the royal throne brought his simmering anger to a boil. Halfway down the slope, he saw the cheetah's body lying limp in the dirt, a trickle of blood running out of the mouth.

I don't care if he was guilty; the Pridelanders had no right to kill him. And now they're threatening my pride. I don't care what they've been through; they won't get away with this. And if my own pride doesn't enforce the law, I will—

"SIMBA!" Taku roared. "MOVE IT!"

Simba shot a glare at Taku, then jumped off the last boulder and landed next to Nala on the dusty ground. "Now I know why you wanted to leave," he whispered. "You wanted to run."

"Simba, please—"

"If you don't tell me what they want, I'll ask them."

"You don't have to," Taku said. "We're short on time, and we're not going to wait around for your bimbos to confess." He shot them a glare and relished in their miserable faces, then turned back to Simba. "When your uncle took the throne, the hyenas didn't pick us off. They feasted on us. We begged Scar to get them off our backs, but he wouldn't listen. So we went to your pride. We thought if anyone was going to help us, it was them. But no—they said it was against the law. If it wasn't for their laws, your pride could have killed him before things got out of hand. Obviously, they didn't bother."

"This is why we have to stand down," Sarabi said. "We have to make this right."

Taku scoffed at her. "Trust me, Ma'am—you will. You're going to do what we want, when we want it, in the manner we want it done. You won't question my orders; you won't disobey my orders; you won't quit until the job is done. Am I clear?"

She started to lift her head and give him an answer, but Simba burst in front of her and craned his head up to Taku. "If you want our help, we're doing it our way. And you're going to start by telling us what you want."

"You don't give me orders."

"You're wrong. I killed Scar last night, and I told Zira I'd kill her if she came back."

A glimmer of admiration lit up Taku's eyes. "You broke the law."

"I had to. If a law makes the innocent suffer and lets the guilty go free, it's not a law—it's a curse. I abolished that law this morning, and I passed a new law: No traitors will be allowed back as long as I'm king. If you don't turn around and leave, everyone who's involved in that cheetah's murder will die."

Any flicker of admiration in his eyes went out like a light. The elephant stared coldly at Simba, then glanced away and nodded at one of the soldiers.

A buffalo rammed into Simba's side, slamming him into the dust. The air was filled with cries and shouts as the horizon went vertical and the wind went out of his chest. Over the ringing of his ears he heard Sarabi cry, "SIMBA!" She dashed up to him, but the leopards blocked her, threatening her with their claws.

Simba gulped for breath as Taku lumbered up to him, pushing a foot into his side. "Threaten me again, and you'll get worse. You understand?"

Simba shuddered and gulped for breath, but managed a nod.

"And that goes for all of you. You're going to do what we want, when we want it, in the manner we want it done...or we will hurt you before we kill you."

"I told you," Sarabi said. "You'll have our help."

Taku gave her a glare, then lifted his foot from Simba's side and spun to the herds. "Let's move!"

And the ring of Pridelanders began their march across the dusty ground, leading Simba and his entourage toward the northern hills.

The morning was halfway gone as Taku crested the hills and crossed the border of the Pride Lands. As the air grew hotter, their heads started to droop, and their tongues dangled out of their mouths. But the Pridelanders kept marching with their heads high; there wasn't even a sign of sweat or fatigue, and a few of them scoffed at Simba for letting the heat get to him.

The Pridelanders stopped at noon to drink from a pond, blocking Simba until they had their fill. When Simba and his entourage took their turn, they were feeling halfway quenched when Taku barked the order to leave.

By then, a shimmering ribbon on the horizon came into view; when the heat was at its worst, everyone could tell it was a river. The pride didn't ask for permission; they charged at it and splashed into it. Taku and the Pridelanders glowered at them, but Simba ignored their stares.

After he and his pride were drenched to the skin, they got the order to move out. They didn't bother to shake themselves dry; they sloshed and dripped as they went. As the sun dried the water out of their fur, the heat felt pleasant at first, but they soon forgot they had ever been wet. Simba glanced at the southern horizon and saw the storm clouds floating away from him, and the heat started to feel even thicker. He looked at the Pridelanders again and felt a wave of revulsion; they didn't seem the slightest bit tired, and they looked as if they could march into the night.

As the sun slipped below the hills and the dirt turned to grass, Pride Rock sank beneath the horizon, glowing red in the dying sunlight. The air was still hot and thick, and Simba and his pride let their tongues droop out of their mouths. As another bend of the river scrolled up to them, Taku stopped and roared:

"COMPANY, HALT!"

Simba and his entourage sprawled into the grass, filling the air with sighs and groans.

Taku shook his head in disgust, then turned to his army. "Gentlemen, here's the protocol: Alpha team, guard Simba. Echo team, guard the pride. Charlie team, guard their friends and keep the meerkats above ground. The rest of you: Set the perimeter before you turn in."

Flurries of "Yes, Sir" filled the air, and the Pridelanders scattered. The elephants towered over the pride, blocking their faces from Simba's view. The cheetahs wove through elephant legs and shouted at Pumbaa, Rafiki, and the meerkats to follow them. Simba stared at Nala as long as he could until an elephant leg blocked her face from view, and the leopards converged on him. Their commander gave him a snide smile and twitched his long tail.

"We'd better start moving...Your Majesty."

The leopards stationed themselves a few hundred yards upstream. The commander and his unit stood in a half-ring, backing Simba against the river. The rest of the leap joined their lieutenant around a stray wildebeest caught by one of the petty officers. Simba kept eyeing it and feeling his stomach burn, but the leopards ignored him. He didn't get a close look at the kill, but there wasn't much left and they weren't going to share.

"Save some for the pride," he said. "They haven't eaten in a week."

They shot him a glare, then turned back to their kill.

"If they're going to help you, they need to eat."

"They'll survive," one of them said. "You won't if you keep bothering us." And the leopard lowered his bloodied face from view.

With a huff, Simba slid back his belly and glared at the commander. "I just want to know something, Juma. Was all this really necessary?"

Juma smirked at him. "After we left the Pride Lands, we were treated like garbage. We tried being Pridelanders—be nice and fair to everyone, find your place in the Circle of Life—but no one cared. We were driven off everywhere we went. Taku realized we weren't going to get through life by being nice. That's when he said, 'When the world turns its back on you, you make it listen.' Now if you're done with your stupid questions, I'm going to eat. Or do you want to keep having this little chat...Your Majesty?"

A growl from Simba's stomach punctuated the conversation, and he started to lay his head on his paws when the ring of leopards began to part.

Nala was padding into the ring, ignoring Simba's curious gaze, and she eyed the leopards' kill but kept walking up to Juma. "Sir, could you give us a minute?"

"Sorry, lady. We're under orders to keep him—"

"Taku said I could talk to him."

Juma glared at her, as if he had just been given the most inconvenient request of his career, then looked over his shoulder and stared at Taku. When the elephant nodded, Juma returned his dull gaze to Nala.

"Stay where we can see you."

Simba and Nala trudged up to a grassy mound that looked out over the winding river, his heart pounding as they made their way to the top of the slope. She sat beside Simba and stared at the horizon with her, watching the tiny wedge of Pride Rock go black against the stars and waiting for a moment to break the silence.

"What did Taku want you to say to me?" he said.

She turned to him, putting on a look of hurt.

"I'm guessing his words were, 'Make your boyfriend listen to reason.'"

Nala turned away and bowed her head. "Something like that."

Simba nodded, then turned back to Pride Rock and let out a sigh. "How did you know they were coming?"

"When I was looking for you, I stopped to get a drink of water. I heard them talking."

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"Simba, they're an army. They don't negotiate. What were you going to do—have a meal with them and talk this out?"

He knew she had a point. "But how long were you going to keep it from me? Until everything grew back?"

"It doesn't matter."

"Yeah, it does matter. These people were about to kill us because you sat by and let Scar take over the Pride Lands."

"We didn't have a choice. The Great Kings—"

"Forget about the Great Kings! You let the hyenas get away with murder. Now own people are going to kill us if we don't help them, because you didn't stand up to Scar."

"Don't you think we tried?"

"Not hard enough!"

"What were we supposed to do? Scar became king, and the Pride Lands started to dry up. If we disobeyed the Great Kings of the Past, we all would have died!"

"Everyone was going to starve, anyway!"

"Is this what your father would have done? Broken the law just so he could do what he thought was right?"

Simba rolled his eyes. "Oh, you're gonna play that card again. Why don't you just tell me what you want from me?"

"I want you to be a king!"

"In other words, you want my father back. You want someone whose face strikes fear in the hearts of hyenas, whose gaze makes the herds cower in awe. Well, guess what? I'm not him."

"Obviously."

"Oh, what's that supposed to mean?"

"What do you think? Simba, you were living in paradise while we were going hungry. You didn't want to come home. Then you killed your uncle, and you lied about it. After that, your mom told you we needed to leave the Pride Lands, but you didn't listen. Instead, you sent Zazu out to look for the herds while we stayed behind. And look what happened! You got in a fight with Zira, and you threatened to kill her. Then the Pridelanders came back, and you threatened to kill them. You've been breaking the law ever since you came back, and you want us to treat you like a king? You know what I want? I want Mufasa back! I don't want you!"

He knew she had been waiting to say it. She'd had it on her face ever since the sun came up. And knew she wanted it to hurt, as if it were the only thing that could shake him from his stupor. And it did. As she gulped down her sob and sped down the slope, he started to throw his head over his shoulder and make sure she saw his glare. He wanted to snap at her, tell her off, call her every name under the sun and make her feel his pain. But he couldn't have. As he trudged down the slope and back to the ring of leopards, he started to wonder if he was doing the right thing.

"So she's going to be your queen?" Juma muttered. "Never thought you'd have a thing for shrieky bimbos..."

Simba glowered at him but gave it no reply. He wasn't going to give him the satisfaction, and their hatred for him was the least of his worries. With a sigh, he flopped onto the grass and rolled onto his side, settling in for the night ahead.

Morning began with an elephant's reveille.

Simba wished there were something to jolt him into full consciousness. He had drifted through shallow and dreamless naps as his conversation with Nala played in his head, and just as he started to fall into a deep sleep, the trumpeting stirred him awake, and as he blinked his half-opened eyes, the leopards stood all around him, waiting for him to get up.

"We're reporting for duty," Juma said. "Your Majesty."

Simba didn't even bat an eye. He lifted himself onto all fours and slouched down the river, following the leopards at a tail's length.

The hills that crowned the northern horizon were glowing rose in the light of the new sun. The armies of the Pride Lands gathered in front of them, guiding Simba and his entourage into the center of the ring. The elephant seized the crowd's attention with his gaze, and everyone fell still.

"Simba, you and your friends are new here, so let me bring you up to speed. Ever since we left the Pride Lands, we'd been on the run. As Juma probably told you, it was like pulling teeth to get anyone to help us. Every time we found a place to stay, we got driven off. Then seven months ago, we thought we'd found a home. It wasn't much, but it had enough food and water to tide us over. But a month after we settled in, Zira attacked our camp and sent us on the run. Yet again, it was like pulling teeth to get any help. One day we found food and water, but we found out why no one was living there. It was a tiny plot of land with dying grass. I sent my scout to find a new place, but it was two days away. He wasn't sure we could make it, but when you're trying to survive, you have to take what you find. Right before we set out, a lion named Bara paid us a visit. He invited us to stay on his land, said it was out of the goodness of his heart. Later that evening, we wound up here, and we ate like there was no tomorrow. As soon as we finished our first meal, his pride surrounded us. He took our families away and forced them into his army, and he put them on the front lines in his war."

"A war with who?"

Taku chuckled. "Everyone. He finds a piece of land that he wants, and he slaughters the leaders and terrorizes the natives. That's how things went until last year, when the leopard tribes banded together and took him on. When we had our run-in with Bara, he was losing the war, so he took our families."

"Why didn't you get them back?"

"Bara's not the sort of lion who lets people get away. He hunts them down, tortures them, makes them wish they'd never been born, and then he kills them. What he did to the old men and some of the women was horrific. Even when I sleep, I can still hear the screams."

Simba fought back a wave of pity. "What about his pride?"

"It's not a pride. It's an army. He has fifty lionesses, and they're ready to fight to the death. You should see what he orders them to do. If you thought a hyena poaching a gazelle was grisly, you haven't seen anything yet."

Another wave of pity rippled through him. "You could have told me all this back in the Pride Lands."

"We didn't think you'd go along with it. You were so obsessed with bringing that cheetah to justice, we thought you'd make good on your threat. Besides, you had jurisdiction in the Pride Lands. You don't have it here."

Simba cocked an eyebrow and stared at Taku, hoping to read some sort of deceit in the elephant's face. He found none.

"All right, fine," he muttered. "If you want my help, you'll have it. But not until I know you're telling the truth."

"Fair enough. When we get into those hills, you'll have all the proof you need."

Simba affirmed it with a nod, then turned to Pumbaa and the meerkats. "Guys, are you with me?"

Pumbaa's face twisted in discomfort. "I'm out."

Timon shook his head. "Me, too."

"This whole thing is insane," Max said. "There's a fine line between bravery and suicide, and you're about to cross the line."

"Fortunately," Taku said, "we don't need your help." And his cold eyes flicked toward Sarabi and the pride. "Ma'am, you'd better be with us."

A flutter of worry went through Simba's heart. "...Mom?"

She bowed her head, and face twisted as she blinked away tears. "Simba, we can't help them."

"Mom, we have to! This is genocide!"

"He's right, ma'am. We've already lost forty men to this monster. We've lost even more of our families. If we don't do something, we're going to lose them all. If you don't help us, we won't have a chance."

Sarabi stared up at him. "We can't help you."

Taku's face warped in fury. "Ma'am, we had a deal!"

"It's over. You can do what you want with us, but we can't honor your deal. You can starve us, you can torture us, but you can't make us abandon our laws. If we give them up, the Great Kings of the Past will never forgive us, our home will never be restored, and the Circle of Life will never be whole. We will help you rescue your children, but we will not be a party to murder. This is where we stand. If you want to kill us, do it now."

Silence fell over the herds as Taku glared at her. Simba kept watching him, waiting for him to bring a foot down on her head. But Sarabi stood before him and held her head high, and Simba crouched and waited for Taku to make a move.

Without warning, Taku glanced away and nodded at one of his soldiers, and a buffalo plowed into Simba's side.

Pain exploded across his chest as he slammed into the grass. Everyone spun around to look at him, their faces full of terror. His ears rang as pain burst across his head, and he scrambled to his feet and swiped his claws across the air. The buffalo charged again, ramming him in the chest and knocking the wind out of his lungs. He tumbled across the grass as cries and shouts filled the air. The leopards surrounded Simba, fencing him in from the pride.

"SIMBA!" Nala screamed. "SIMBA!"

Juma stared coldly at her, then turned to Simba and unsheathed a pawful of claws.

Simba went wide-eyed and gulped for breath. "No!"

Juma smiled at him, then roared and hurtled his claws across the lion's chest.

White-hot pain blazed up Simba's side, and he screamed at the sky.

"TAKU, STOP IT!" Nala cried. "STOP IT!"

Juma got a nod from Taku, and snarled and threw his claws through the fresh wounds.

The second blow felt like lightning coursing through his side. He screamed and slammed his head against the grass as warm blood oozed down his chest.

"TAKU, STOP IT!" Sarabi said. "PLEASE!"

"Do what we want or you'll watch him die! JUMA, HIT HIM AGAIN!"

The leopard roared and began to fling his claws—

"STOP! STOP! STOP! WE'LL HELP YOU! WE'LL HELP YOU!"

Juma whipped his head up to face Sarabi. Tears were streaming down her face, and she whimpered and gasped for breath. The rest of the pride was standing with their mouths open and their eyes glistening, and Nala was crying. The meerkats held their hands over their mouths, and Pumbaa sat numbly in the grass. Even Rafiki's face had lost all its serenity and had gone wide-eyed with horror.

Taku turned toward Sarabi and glared over her. "You'll do what we want?"

She broke down in sobs, and tears streamed down her face.

"Ma'am, is that a yes?!"

She sobbed but forced another nod. "Please…stop hurting him..."

Taku stared at her another moment and watched her sob, then turned to Juma and nodded. The leopard pulled in his claws and stepped backward, and he slunk back to the rest of the leap.

Simba tumbled onto his belly and gritted his teeth in pain, gathering his trembling breath. He wanted to get up, but his legs were too quaky, and they'd give out as soon as he stood up. He wanted to rip Juma apart for what he had done, but as soon as the thought entered his mind, he remembered what the leopard said:

"When the world turns its back on you...you make it listen."

Simba turned to Sarabi and watched her weep, and his face went dark with anger.

You'd better be listening now.