Chapter 3: Getting to know the stranger
With steady hands, Rafiki used his staff to carefully move away the head fur and bangs to take a good look at its face. He was ready to spring back up to his tree if the hyena attacks. What he saw made his skin crawl and all the hair on his body stood on its end.
The hyena's face was bloody looking. It had three or four slash scars across its face and eyes, and most of the bleeding was coming from its eyes. He made note that its left eyelid was pushed in, meaning that its left eye was gouged out. There was some blood seeping out the other eyelid, but its eyeball must still be there. He pushed the head fur higher and saw what he was looking for. It's not very often that you see a hyena with a light tan spot right on its forehead.
Just then, he noticed the eyelids open and what he saw nearly made Rafiki faint. Its left eye was indeed gouged out and its right eye had strange discoloration and was obviously badly infected. He then heard a low growling sound and before he could react, the hyena used lightning quick moves to snatch away Rafiki's staff into its mouth and then snapped it in half like a twig.
Meanwhile, Kovu being the strongest of the pride (Simba isn't as strong as he used to be, what a bummer) pushed on ahead in an attempt to throw the first attack or at least distract it before the rest arrive. He noticed that the hyena is now up and is about to attack Rafiki. Unfortunately, Kovu is still a few seconds away and he may be too late. Therefore, he did the next best thing, he roared at the hyena as loud as he could to hopefully distract the hyena and give Rafiki a chance to escape.
"You know what," said the strange hyena, "I feel like I've seen you before somehow." The hyena was definitely male and his tone of voice was as deep as Scar's.
"Same here," answered Rafiki, "lately I've been having dreams and visions of your arrival to the Pridelands. That bright spot on your forehead is a dead giveaway that you may be the one from my dreams. How are yours eyes though, they look terrible?"
The hyena had a fairly surprised look on his face. "You know, I too had a dream about someone like you. You are supposed to remove the pain from my body, especially my eyes. Well actually my right eye, it's too late for my left."
He then heard a loud roar and looked in its direction. He saw a large male lion charging towards him and he quickly went into a defensive stance to face the lion. Kovu finally arrived to the hyena, but he quickly skidded to a halt and just stared with a shocked look. He's never seen or heard of a hyena anywhere near this big, it was almost as big as himself. Kovu knew that this could be a bigger problem than he thought. He then heard a very deep growl coming from the hyena, it was deeper than most adult male lions. Then it did something that he never knew that a hyena could. It roared, and it roared as loud as any lion could, and this nearly made Kovu jump back.
"Is this hyena a freak or something? Am I in a nightmare or what?"
Freak or no freak, Kovu wasn't about to let the hyena's intimidations scare him away. Just then, the hyena reared up and charged toward him! Kovu quickly regained his senses and he too charged at the hyena. Rafiki quickly leapt as hard as he could and landed on the hyena's back. He then quickly jumped off like a springboard and landed between Kovu and the hyena and then put his hands out to stop them. Kovu and the hyena skidded to a stop, and right after this, Simba and the rest of the lions finally arrived.
"Rafiki," Simba frantically yelled, "get out of here, this dangerous!"