Authors Note:

Homigosh guys, I am SOOOOO sorry this took so long to upload. Truth be told, I completely lost interest in the story (and lost my notebook in which it was written) and had stopped working on it. But due to the number of e-mails I've been receiving on how I should continue it, I'll go ahead and start uploading again. Enjoy.

Taka, as usual since his fathers attempted murder, was curled up on top of his mother's paws. It was late at night, and everyone was sleeping…except Ahdi, who made sure no one else was awake before walking over to his loathed son. Taka's eyes snapped open as his fathers shadow fell on him once more, and he gave out a small whimper. Ahdi made no noise, he was a fatal shadow, but gave Taka a glare that clearly stated 'wake anyone and I'll rip your throat out right here', which immediately silenced him.

Almost like a caring father, Ahdi picked Taka up carefully in his teeth and carried him out of the cave. As his father carried him, Taka knew this would be the last he ever saw of his home. After taking him a few miles away, Ahdi dropped Taka like a rag-doll, letting him hit the ground with a muffled 'thud' in the tall grass. He was now silently crying…he didn't want to die.

"Daddy…" Taka whispered, and received a sharp slap across his maw.

"Silence!" Ahdi snarled at him in a harsh whisper. Taka merely whimpered. After looking both ways, left, right, and back again, he glared down at Taka. There was what seemed to Taka a flash, and he was knocked flying. He landed again with a thud a few feet away. Ahdi padded forward, abruptly bringing a paw up and then quickly back down in hopes of crushing the cub's skull. Taka barely moved, but just rolled over. Again, Ahdi's claw ripped at his already scabbed scar.

Mufasa awoke with a start. He looked at his mother and smiled softly, she looked so cuddly when she was sleeping, so gentle…like his father. His father…wait, where was his father? He stood, wandering around a cave for a bit before noticing the paw prints in the dirt. They were about his father's size…and Taka was gone too…go figure.

Being the curious cub he was, he got up and followed them. After what seemed like an hour, he saw one silhouette in the distance, and it seemed to be looming over something on the ground.

Dad! He thought, running forward into a small sprint. It didn't take long for him to realize that he shouldn't have been there. Mufasa slowed his pace and hid in the tall grass a little ways away. What he saw scared him. His younger brother lay under his father's large paw, encircled by a pool of blood.

Mufasa gasped and stepped back, accidentally causing a twig to snap under his back paw. He drew in a breath and lowered him self to the ground, his ears pressed against his head.

Ahdi's ears perked forward at the snap. He turned his head to face the sound. Seeing nothing, he growled and turned around, there was someone out there he knew, but he didn't know what or where. He picked Taka up and left him in the tall grass a little ways away and turned, hastily running off. Taka began to cry again, not caring who…if anyone…heard. His eye had already swollen shut, but was numb from the pain. He could see nothing out of that eye, and at this point, didn't want to. What's going to happen to me? He asked himself, forcing himself to try and sleep.

Ahdi quietly padded away, every once and a while pausing to smell the night air to make sure no one was following him. He turned back to look at the distance, where he guessed the Accident must have been. He smirked to himself.

"Goodbye, Accident." He muttered under his breath, trotting the rest of the way to the cave. With Pride Rock in sight, he'd be there before sunup.

Mufasa had been hiding the whole time, crouching deeper into the tall grass as Ahdi walked by. Now he stood in front of his brother lying half dead in the grass. He couldn't believe this was all because of his father. A tear slid down his cheek as the crimson and auburn colors of sunrise began to stain the sky.

"I'll be back, brother, one day." He whispered, turning. He began to run towards Pride Rock, all the while thinking of his brother. It was a long journey for a cub, Pride Rock being only a speck on the horizon. He'd better come up with a good excuse for why he'd been gone…

The buzzards were already starting to circle above young Taka. A mother hyena wasn't far off, buzzards always meant food, and she needed some for her pups. She looked up at the circling scavengers and trotted forward, looking down at a cub that lay in the grass. With a look of certain disgust at the dried and crusted blood on the things face, she opened her mouth to pick it up, certain it was dead. But the thing moved slightly, and let out a barely audible moan.

"What the..?" she looked at it and sniffed it before biting down. "Its alive?" she nudged it slightly, and the cub rolled over, whining. Not dead, apparently, just sleeping. She sat next to it, looking down. Feeling the maternal instinct all mothers had, she began to lick the dried blood and clean the wound. That's when the cub woke up and froze, staring at her out of his only good eye. Then he began to tremble, being taught by his mother that hyena's were killers. He got up and tried to run, but a few feet away stumbled and went down. The she-hyena had to suppress a laugh. She walked over to him and gently picked him up, causing him to scream.

"No! Don't hurt me! Put me down!" He shouted at her. She put him down again, shaking her head.

"Now why would I hurt you?" She asked.

"You're a hyena."

"And?"

"Hyena's kill cubs."

"Not all of them." She corrected the terrified cub. "By the way, my name is Laitia."

Taka looked at her. He watched her for a little while, tensing up as she laid down. She tilted her head to the side and watched him. He felt a sense of belonging with her, like all of this was supposed to happen. He also felt trust, and safety. Slowly, he climbed forward, climbing onto her paws, whining in pain.

"Its okay, little one." She said, and he began to cry silently. "No ones going to hurt you."

Within time, Taka had stopped crying and told Laitia his name. After he'd gotten comfortable with her, they began to walk towards her home. Slowly, a light mist had turned into a rain.

"Do you have any cubs?" Taka asked her. She nodded.

"Pups." She corrected him. "Shenzi, Banzai, and Ed." Taka smiled as she spoke with him. Her voice was so comforting. "And you, my little one, may also call me mother, if you wish."

"Thank you." He replied. She nodded again and stepped into a cave. He sat near her front paws and looked around. He jumped as he noticed three pairs of eyes in the darkness.

"Shenzi, Banzai, Ed, come on out." She called to them. From the darkness emerged three baby hyena pups as old as Taka himself.

The only female, Shenzi, sniffed him, and Banzai prodded him with his nose. Ed merely sat behind him, laughing like a madman. Taka looked at him with disgust, then to Laitia.

"Do we eat it?" Shenzi asked. Taka let out a yelp as Ed sunk his teeth onto his tail. His new mother chuckled.

"No, my dears…this is your new brother." Ed began to once more giggle uncontrollably. Shenzi stared at him and Banzai smirked.

"But he's a lion, with a nasty scar. What happened to your eye, Scar?" She gave him a nickname.

"My name is Taka, and it doesn't matter." His eyes flashed. To him, this was a perfect way to get revenge on his father.