The Pride Lands: Part I

by Ptikobj

Enemies hold bases at both the northern and southern ends of the Pride Lands, and an unseen shadow lurks the land that seems to have a dangerous interest in Kiara's friend, Hezakiah. Can Rafiki and the lions prevent the fall of the Kingdom?

1. Restless Nights

The Pride Lands

Chapter 1

Restless Nights

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I am not Walter Disney, and I am not connected to Disney in any way. The characters from the motion pictures The Lion King, The Lion King 2: Simba's Pride and The Lion King 1 and ½ (or The Lion King 3) do not belong to me, but to Disney. All characters that do not appear in those motion pictures do belong to me, and are not to be used without my permission. This disclaimer applies to this chapter, and all those following it.

'The Pride Lands' belongs to me, Troy Wong, a.k.a. Poodle. It is not to be posted on any other site or sold at all with or without my permission- I will never post my Lion King stories on any other site except for and If you see this story posted on any site, save those two mentioned above, please tell me.

Lion live the king!

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Foreword:

Well, here's my next story. 'The Pride Lands' is set after the death of Mufasa, during Simba's reign. The first version of this story (which was in script form, incredibly short, and incredibly bad) fits in perfectly with all three existing Lion King movies (because I like to stick with the official story line), and I plan that the second version (this one) will do just the same. Now that's enough of that. The rest will be revealed later on. There are three very important things that I wish to point out to you here to avoid any later confusion.

Sometimes in the story you will see things such as 11 B.F. and 1 A.F. You should be aware that B.F. means 'Before the Fall' and A.F. means 'After the Fall'- it works much like our BC and AD. When I say 'Fall', I don't mean autumn. It's something much more than that. So, what is it, really? Pretty obvious, but you'll see anyway if you read on to the end.

At times I will say that certain characters are a certain number of years old, however, not in human years. I will never refer to a character's age using human years. Assuming that lions live up to about 75 lion years old, and seeing as lions in the wild most commonly live up to 15 human years, you can easily figure out how many lion years fit into one human one. Divide 75 by 15 and you end up with 5, thus concluding that for every one human year that passes, five lion years pass within. Note that I can only assume how old the canon characters are, and when I say that Simba is less than twenty years old, it is only my estimation. Again, whenever I speak of years in this story, I mean lion years, and not human years.

At certain times, certain characters in the story will speak in another language. That language is predictably Swahili, the language of both East Africa and The Lion King. The chances are that you won't understand a word, so I'll include translations and notes at the end of the story in the Author's Notes, if Swahili is used. Some characters' names will be derived from the language of Swahili as well, in which case the translations will appear in the same place as the latter.

I guess that's enough rambling for now. So without any further ado, I give you The Pride Lands!

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Once in a kingdom of lions and magic lived a King, a Queen, a babysitter, a shaman, a boy, and a princess named Kiara. The King's name was Simba, and the Queen's name was Nala. Kiara was their beloved daughter. Her friend's name, the boy, was Hezakiah. Their babysitter's name was Zazu, and watching over the Kingdom was the wise shaman Rafiki.

King Simba's Kingdom stretched far and wide, covering rich fields of beautiful green grass, tranquil rivers of crystal-clear water, and gray mountains that reached to the sky with their snowy peaks. But despite all there great features that graced the land and all that lived within its boundaries, not all was perfect. Over the Northern Border in a deep, dark, gas-filled pit lived hyenas. Hundreds of them unwillingly called the desolate place their home, and each one of them hated the lions with all their hearts, for it was the lions that forced them into the land. To the south of the kingdom was a dry plain called the Outlands, with towering termite mounds scattered unsparingly across its surface like litter. There lived starving, hateful lions. These, just like the hyenas, hated all that lived in Simba's glorious Kingdom, but particularly he, for it was Simba who exiled them once he reclaimed the throne.

Now, the beginning of this story that I am about to tell you happened so long ago that to start there and work my way up to the present day would fill up many chapters with unnecessary, unnecessarily boring facts. And so, we start in the shaman Rafiki's home, the magnificent Tree of Life. It is of course during the reign of King Simba, just a few years after the birth of his daughter. The year is 11 B.F. and so far, all is well.

X

Rafiki had been having quite a hard time thinking lately, and an even harder time getting to sleep. Memories of the death of a dear friend of his continued to plague his mind. The guilt that came with it was just as unbearable, if not even more so. It had happened years ago, but only now had it returned to him and the reason was a mystery. He had tried everything that he knew of as a shaman to cure himself of the insomnia that it caused, but nothing would work. If anything, it wasted his energy and only made the old mandrill more tired, the marks of which were now showing clearly in and below his eyes.

On the very day that the story began, Rafiki had not caught a wink of sleep in nearly a week. Unfortunately for him, he now had to get through a 'short talk' with the King Simba's most loyal subject and servant, whose name has already been mentioned here.

In case you do not know whom I am talking about, that person was Zazu. Perhaps it is a strange name to give a person in our society, but that particular name was not all so rare in the Kingdom of the Pride Lands. Zazu was Simba's majordomo bird. He did everything from arranging where and when conferences with the wildebeests would take place, to taking care of the cubs while their mothers where otherwise occupied. He was a hornbill, if you must know. In those days, hornbills were blue with huge, smooth "banana beaks," as someone once put it. Needless to say, this did something to make their appearance rather comical. Zazu was no different from hornbills in those days, except that he may have had a little bit of magic of his own, or, more likely, a few tricks up his sleeve. I will explain them here.

I can give you two examples right now, and perhaps I will give you more down the line. "The first noticeably strange thing about Zazu is," said a bird to me, "is that when you're flying behind him, you can clearly see that he has eight tail feathers, which is actually quite normal for birds of his type." Then she went on listing all the types of birds that lived in the Pride Lands, and how many tails feathers each type normally had. But of course, that's not important, and I can't remember any of it now, anyway. When I finally coaxed her back onto the right track (or my track, at least), she said, "Oh, yes, Zazu, right. When he's standing on the ground, you can only see three or four tail feathers. Now that's strange if I do say so myself. I wouldn't be surprised if," and so on.

The second one of these, which a mouse told me of, is that Zazu has teeth. Not sharp pointy teeth like lions, but big square-looking teeth, like the herd animals. When he told me this, I said to the mouse (who happened to be soaking wet with saliva at the time), "But hornbills don't have teeth, and I'm pretty sure that no other type of bird has teeth either!" Our argument went on for many more a minute, and at the end of it all I still didn't believe him. That is, until he dragged me up to Zazu's tree by the Waterhole, grabbed my hand, and dragged my nails (which are particularly long) down a slate. Now let me tell you, that little mouse moved lightning fast, and he was mighty strong, too. And hey presto, Zazu's beak began to spasm and shift until it was wide open, revealing a set of abnormally large, white teeth.

Wow, I have dragged on quite a bit about one bird that doesn't play a very big role in the story. Speaking of the story, I really should get on with telling that.

So there was Rafiki, on his bed of leaves, eyes closed, trying to get to sleep, when Zazu came along and landed on a branch in the tree above him. Zazu was opening his mouth to speak when, quick as lightning, Rafiki jumped up, grabbed his staff from its resting place, and held it threateningly up to the bird, who hadn't even gotten a word out yet. "Oh, it is just you," said Rafiki, lowering his weapon.

"Of course it's just me!" exclaimed Zazu in a frustrated tone of voice. "Who did you think it was?"

The shaman looked away and sighed. "I thought it was danger. You will have to excuse me for that. I have not been getting very much sleep lately," said he with a deep yawn.

Zazu didn't seem to care all that much. "Well, Simba asked me to get this message to you no matter what, so you had better keep awake for this, or I shall have to stay here longer than I need to, and I'm sure neither of us wants that to happen."

"Yes?" asked Rafiki.

"His Majesty wishes you to look into the Dream Pool for the thing."

"The thing?"

"Yes, yes, the thing!"

Rafiki's brow creased as he searched through his mind for memory of any sort of thing that he and Simba may have discussed in the past, but he found nothing of use or interest. "Zazu, did he tell you what the thing was?"

"Yes!" exclaimed Zazu in a tone of voice that hinted that he was outraged as being asked such a ridiculous question. Rafiki raised an eyebrow in wait for the answer. But all that came was a long, awkward gap of dead silence, broken only by the occasional rustling of leaves nearby that always came with the occasional cool breeze.

"No!" yelled Zazu some time later in a much whinier voice than he normally used. At the same time he burst into tears. "Why didn't he tell me? Has he lost his trust in me? Or, worse yet, is he going to fire me? Is that why he isn't telling me any more: because I won't be permitted to know soon? Ah! You trust me, don't you Rafiki? You can tell him that I'm to be trusted, can't you?" He fell to his knees and started begging him. "Can't you tell him?" But Rafiki did not seem to care. He had long been over at the other side of the tree, where all his empty fruit husks lay, where he stored his herbs and other unmentionables. He was searching through them, lifting lids and closing them again, moving the shells around.

Suddenly, Rafiki was up and off the ground with something hidden in his right fist. Before Zazu knew it, his beak had been forced open, and the shaman's right hand was inside his mouth, forcing something onto his tongue. Just as suddenly as that had happened, Zazu's beak was closed, Rafiki was standing back and cleaning his hands. Then, the bird's face was twisting, his body cringing. Then his beak flew open, and like a volcano spewing lava, out of his stomach, through his throat, and out of his mouth came his half-digested breakfast.

Rafiki jumped back just in time to avoid getting the vomit all over his feet. "Oh, now there was no need to do that, Zazu. I did not think that even you would have so little resistance to against that plant." He chuckled.

"O my goodness! What in the world was that? That's the most revolting taste! It's- O, by the name of Mufasa!" He shuddered at both the memory and the bitter after-taste of the herb that Rafiki had forced into his mouth, and then he vomited another time.

Zazu spat to get the taste out of his mouth, but it was no use. "Rafiki, perhaps what you do not understand is that when you want someone to try your strange exotic foods, you ask them politely if they would like to have some, and you certainly do not SHOVE IT DOWN THEIR THROATS!"

"You think that I eat that weed?" He laughed for a brief moment. "I would not dream of letting that plant touch my tongue. I made you taste it to stop you from crying all over my floor. I have only just been told of its existence by the Inner Circle, and that its taste is so terrible that all the consumer can do after eating it is gag."

"What? You used me as a test subject without concern of my safety?"

"Yes."

Zazu opened his mouth for another shouting fit, only to think that his breath and energy would be better used to find some water to wash the taste away. Instead he said, "That's very unlike you to use an innocent person in one of your experiments."

The mandrill shrugged (which was also quite unlike him to do) "People quite often do things that are unlike them when they have been pushed close to their limits. I did not care for your health or safety just now because I have been deprived of sleep for a long time. And you burst into tears just awhile ago because you have recently ended another intimate relationship. Or should I say, the relationship was ended for you."

Zazu's eyelids flew wide open. "How did you ever manage to find that out?" screamed he, very much angry at that point. He strode towards Rafiki in his fury, stopping only when he came to the puddle of vomit that separated them both from each other. At this point, Zazu was feeling quite woozy and light-headed, though he did not realise it due to his anger.

"I have many eyes watching things for me, even while I am asleep," explained Rafiki. "I also have a pair of each of my own." And he grinned.

Upon hearing this, Zazu seemed to grow larger; his eyes burned fiery red; his voice became a little deeper. "Why you little!" He yelled as he leaped high over the soupy green puddle, towards Rafiki's neck at an amazing speed. He yelled even louder- not in anger, but disgust- as a wad of black weed flew out of Rafiki's hand and lodged itself into his mouth like a boulder fitting perfectly into a cave. Immediately he stopped moving forward, instead falling and landing with a nice splat in his own vomit.

"Is everything alright down there?" called a high voice from a bough above them. Rafiki looked up to meet it. It was a bird, of course, for only Rafiki had to skill to climb anywhere in the Tree of Life, and not even the lemurs, or monkeys, or gorillas, or other mandrills of the Inner Circle could climb the mighty baobab's boughs.

"Yes, we are fine indeed. Were you sent by the King?" asked Rafiki.

"Yes," answered the bird. "I was sent because Zazu," she eyed Zazu who was face-down in the green puddle and moaning, "should have returned to Pride Rock a long time ago. There are meetings to be arranged, and messages to be sent."

"I do not think that he will be arranging or delivering anything for a long time now. But you are sending this message to me now. You could fill in for him."

"I am but a stork that has been given the privilege of delivering a message from the King," said the stork.

"Very good then! And you will continue to be privileged until I return to Pride Rock with Zazu in a few days' time," replied Rafiki.

And the stork had not much choice but to obey.

X

Over the next two days, Rafiki nursed Zazu back to proper health, all the while growing even more tired than he already was. Now, a few things were realised during these days, the first of which was that the oren-weed- as Rafiki had named it- had far more to it than just a bad taste. It contained toxins inside its leaves that caused headaches, vomiting, mood swings, drowsiness, and passing out. However, it would not kill you, no matter how much you ingested; though the effects were cumulative. Smaller people, such as Zazu, were less resistant to the effects of the plant than bigger people. This explained why no word has ever come from the Waterhole (where the plant grows in abundance) telling of a herd animal that suddenly fell sick after eating the black plants around its banks.

At first it was thought to be marrolass – the marrolass that grew near ponds, streams, and even deep puddles in the forests of the Inner Circle. Marrolass had the same terrible taste as oren-weed, but that was all the unpleasantness it had in store for its consumers.

What had happened is that Rafiki was wandering around the Waterhole one day, and found the black weed that he had never seen before. He sent a detailed description to the Inner Circle, and he soon received a return message that told of the marrolassThe two looked exactly the same, except for one small, easily mistakable thing: the leaves of the marrolass had four veins branching out on each side of their main vein, whereas oren-weed had only three veins on each side. Apparently the oren-weed is a species of plant native only to the Pride Lands, and the marrolass is native only to the forests of the Inner Circle.

By the way, if you wanted to know, all you have to do to cure yourself of the oren-weed sickness is eat fresh water-maize, which, strangely enough, grows quite literally right next to the oren-weed. Water-maize is a pale yellowish-brown plant that has seedpods that look a lot like ears of corn. The average water-maize stem stands one metre high at the seedpod.

Shortly after returning to health, Zazu traveled with Rafiki back to Pride Rock to meet Simba, Nala, and of course, Kiara. But as you should know, Rafiki's main reason for return was to find out what the thing was. They left the Tree in the warm glow of the rising sun, and arrived before evening. They journeyed quickly- Zazu did so because he felt that he had left his job and duties for far too long, and Rafiki simply because he had not seen the lions in a long time and had many things to discuss.

On their arrival they were greeted not only by the royal family, but by the whole pride as well. All of them met at the foot of Pride Rock. Simba stood in front of the rest with Nala at his right hand side, and Kiara standing between them. The Princess did not look too happy to see Zazu return all alive and well, nor did the three other cubs that lived in Pride Rock. In contrast, everyone else was delighted to see him return, healthy and happy.

It took awhile for everything to settle down again. As soon as Zazu was sent back to work and the lionesses had headed either back to the den or the Grasslands, It was noticed that Kiara and her friends were missing. By the time a search party was sent out, the evening was leaving and the night was coming in to take its place. But it would soon be seen that there was no need for a search party, for as the lionesses departed, an old friend returned with the cubs. Thanks to a few white lies, they didn't get in trouble. But this left a lot for Rafiki and Simba to discuss when they finally made their way up to the very top of Pride Rock.

They talked and talked until the moon was high in the sky and all, on and in Pride Rock were sleeping comfortably, save them. Just as Rafiki felt the memories that had been disturbing him were long gone and his insomnia was soon to follow them, Simba asked, "So what did the Dream Pool tell you?"

Rafiki was taken aback by this, having no idea as to what Simba was asking him about. Then, all of a sudden, he remembered one of his reasons for going to Pride Rock. "Ah, I remember now," said he, as it all came back to him. "If you had not said that, it would have gone by without discussion until tomorrow."

"Well, what did you see in the water?" asked Simba ever more impatiently.

"I did not see anything, because I did not look," answered Rafiki solemnly. "Zazu came to me one morning and told me that you wanted me to look into the Dream Pool for you for the thing. I have wondered ever since what this thing you speak of is."

"What? You don't remember?" asked Simba with a hint of confusion in his voice. "We talked about it the last time you were here, didn't we?"

Rafiki chuckled. "I may be much older than you Simba, but that does not mean you have a better memory than me. Elephants never forget, and I do not forget either."

"You mean that-"

"I remember our last conversation clearly. Kiara had not been born; the sun was shining brightly; there was not a cloud in the sky! It was your birthday, too. All you wanted me to tell you, and all you wanted to talk about was your life. You asked me- I remember like it was yesterday- to tell you your life's story, from your birth to your return to Pride Rock." At this point Rafiki remembered everything that had happened in the Pride Lands during that time- the hidden war against the Evil Ones and the disappearance of his five best friends, though that does not come into this story.

"What's wrong?" asked Simba.

"Oh, just some remembrance of a few unpleasant moments. Nothing to worry about."

"It's about my dad, isn't it?"

"No, no, nothing like that! I of all people would not be dwelling in the distant realms of the past like so," said Rafiki. "He is in the sky with the Great Kings of the Past, and I do not have a grain of doubt that it is where he belongs. That is nothing to be sad about."

Now the idea of sleeping was far away, for both of them were wide awake at that time once more, whether they want to be, or not. They sat there in peace for a long while, until the silence became near unbearable for Simba, and he just had to open his mouth and speak once more. "You never really told me how Zazu got sick, Rafiki. Now's a good time to do it."

"Now what are you trying to say?" asked Rafiki suspiciously, raising an eyebrow.

"Oh, nothing," answered Simba, "except that Zazu has never been sick in his whole life. You didn't do anything nasty to him, did you? You know better than I do that the Inner Circle doesn't allow that sort of thing."

"He came to my tree two days ago and got sick. I nursed him back to health, and brought him back here today. End of story. If there is anything you want to know, then you can go and ask him tomorrow."

"You know what's a better idea? I can ask you now."

"I have already told you all there is to tell, Simba. Perhaps you are too inquisitive for your own good. You will make a fool of yourself one day if you are not careful!""

"Come on, Rafiki. I know you're hiding something."

"There is nothing more for me to hide."

"Don't lie!"

"I am not lying!"

"Yes, you are. I can see it in your eyes. You're not the only one that can read minds."

"I know I am not the only one! But you are not one of them!"

"Don't make me use that 'I'm the King, so do what I say' thing. You know we both don't want me to."

"You would not dare."

"I would."

"No."

"Yes."

"No."

"Yes." And they continued to squabble in that fashion for quite some time until Simba finally got so annoyed with saying "Yes," and keeping on guard for Rafiki's tricks that he said, "As I am the King of the Pride Lands, you will tell me the truth!"

Then Rafiki had no choice. He had to tell the truth, because disobeying the King's royal orders was one of the three worst crimes that anyone could commit in that land. In fact, it was the first, which just goes to tell you how powerful the King was. The other two crimes were rape and murder. Murder was the second crime of the three, and though it was taken very seriously, people were rarely prosecuted for it, because it was hard to tell whether the ones in question were killing for food (which was, of course, permitted) or killing for anything else. Rape was also hard to detect, but not as hard. It is speculated that many have been falsely accused and punished for this third crime, because in normal circumstances, the only witness report that they could rely on was the females'. She could have said yes or no- the fate of her partner rested on her tongue. It meant that if you were a citizen of the Pride Lands in those days, you had better choose your spouse carefully, or they could just turn around and stab you in the back.

So Rafiki told him about the weeds and the vomiting and the fighting. He also told him about what he had discovered about the oren-weed, and how he had come across it, and all about the marrolass in the forests of the Inner Circle. At first Simba remained with a sober expression held on his face, but as the story went on, a smile twitched at his lip, and by the end, he could not help but have a laugh over it all. All was well, and the talking went on, until eventually they found a new topic which was closer to home: Zazu.

"He burst into tears when he was giving me your message. Did you know that?" asked Rafiki.

"Zazu? Really? Why'd he do that?" asked Simba.

"You can ask him yourself, because I do not know the answer for sure. But I can tell you that he seemed to be very troubled that you would not tell him what the thing is. Also," he looked around as if someone was listening in, and then, leaning in closer to Simba he said, "he has recently ended another relationship with a female. I think that this may be the reason why he cried."

"Hey, come to think of it, he's been acting just like that over the last couple of weeks. Normally when I don't tell him everything, he understands and just goes off to do his job. But lately it's been the opposite- the complete opposite."

"Well then it may be that he needs a break from all this flying around all the time," suggested Rafiki. "You say that he has never been sick in his whole life (until two days ago). Has he ever taken a break from work? Have you ever told him that he can take one?"

"Well of course I've tried to give him a break, but he never takes them. He's way too attached to his job, but it's all he has. Actually, there'll be a council meeting in a few days to decide whether the majordomo's one-week-leave-period per year should be extended to a month. If that passes, then I'll hold another meeting to make it compulsory for him to take the days off," said Simba.

"I have an idea: hire another bird to help him. Not another majordomo, but just a messenger to lighten the load. Better yet, you could give him an apprentice to follow him around and do as he pleases. Then when he's gone, that apprentice can fill his role perfectly.

"He'd never agree to it. He'd say something like, 'It would just slow me down,' or he'd get all freaked out and think that I was about to fire him." Both of them laughed at the thought. "I wouldn't dream of firing him. We both know Zazu. He'd rather die than lose his job." He sighed. "I remember the day that Nala and I went to the Elephant Graveyard. We told her that we were going to the Waterhole, but my mom sent Zazu to watch over us anyway. I said clearly that I'd fire him as soon as I became King," and he chuckled as he said the last word, as did Rafiki.

"Somehow, I do not think that you will be doing that soon- or ever, for that matter," said Rafiki.

"It'd destroy him."

"Ah, yes, I think it would. Children say many things. They promise more. Most things they say, they will come to regret, and most promises they make they cannot keep. And some of the rest of the things they say are usually lies."

"Are you saying that children can't be trusted?"

"I am just saying that on that day, you said that you could never marry Nala because 'it would be too weird', yet here you are, King of the Pride Lands, with Nala as your Queen. What is more is that Kiara exists."

"Yeah, well things change. Kids grow into their teens just like that, and before you know it, they're independent adults. Then they don't need you anymore," his voice grew softer and he looked away, "but you're still there, standing in the background."

"Ah, yes, the teenage years. I can tell you, I have seen Kiara in her teens. She is beautiful, yes, but those years will be hell for you."

"Boyfriend?"

Rafiki coughed.

"Help us all."

"Help you!" And they both had a good laugh about it until it died away, and silence fell yet again and remained, until at length, Rafiki spoke. "But change is good." It was true. It was change that made Simba return to the Pride Lands. It was change that made the hyenas flee back to the Graveyard, and it was change that led to Simba's evil uncle's- Scar's death. "You would have never become King without it, and this land would have remained leafless and dry forever."

"No one really wants to live every day of their life the same way as they lived a certain one," said Simba quietly.

"Except for maybe Zazu. And speaking of that, it is time you told me what the thing is."

"Yeah, I nearly forgot about that. I just wanted you to look into the Dream Pool for me to see if I'd have a good reign or not. You know, if I'll be a good King," explained Simba.

"What? That is what you wanted me to look into the Pool for you for? Simba, you are worrying too much. You are less than twenty years old. Do not trouble yourself with the future. As I have told you before, let the past go, live the present to the full, and worry not about the future. It can be changed, but in this case, if you found out what it was meant to be in like in the first place, it would most certainly change. Knowing every detail of your reign will do more bad than good," said Rafiki.

Simba just sighed deeply. "If you say so," said he, seemingly disappointed.

Rafiki carefully looked into his eyes and observed his expression. "You worry for Kiara's safety, not of your reign. But I have already told you all I am allowed to. In fact, I have told you more. For clarifying that she has a boyfriend, the Inner Circle would probably have me relocated to another land many leagues away. You know that she will hate you for being so overprotective of her as soon as she hits eleven, do you not?"

"It's a dangerous world out there. I'd rather have her alive and hating me than dead."

X

On that same night a calf in a large herd of elephants spotted two white dots approaching on the horizon. More and more appeared until he grew terrified and yelled. The whole group turned to the sight and saw the dots as the child had, but it did not remain that way for long. The white spots were eyes, as the soon realised, when black shapes came lumbering out of the darkness. The creatures were small, but many. There was howling, barking, growling, and snarling.

Something leaped and the child fell to the ground. Laughter swirled all around- terrible, disturbing, maniacal laughter. And still, shadows crept and merged into each other, afterwards separating, until the whole herd was encircled by the white dots: the staring, unflinching eyes in the night.

Everywhere, elephants were falling to the ground in pain as they felt things pierce their legs: the deep bites of their hunters. Bark and trumpet alike erupted from the area and lingered in the air until the sun poked its head over the mountains. The creatures fled back to the north in fear of being seen, but the herd leader already knew what they were; the only thing that their attackers could have been was the bane of the Pride Lands: hyenas.

As she counted the dead, she decided that something had to be done. Even then, blood trickled from her left knee where a hyena's jaws had sunk deep. They had to turn to the King for help.

X

The next day, Zazu went to Simba telling him that a large herd of female elephants were demanding to speak to him. So immediately, the King left and was lead to the Waterhole where, true enough, a herd was impatiently waiting. Without waiting for him to greet them, the tallest, biggest built female stepped forward and spoke.

She explained that the hyenas and other such predators had been showing a particular interest in her herd as of late, and even more lately, they had been hunted in the night. Normally even a large pack of hyenas could never even injure a herd of elephants such as that one, but the past few nights had not been normal situations at all.

The leader was not the only one that had noticed the sudden increase of intelligence in the hyenas. In past times, they would seldom attack by night, for some reason preferring the day, even though they could easily be seen. Also, they would never attempt an attack in very large numbers, not because they consciously chose to, but because it seemed they were too impatient to wait for others of their kind to arrive. As soon as two or three of them had grouped together, they would go straight away, not caring if it was night, day, sunny, raining, or anything else like that. But it was different then. They had changed significantly, and grown far more careful.

The main point was that they wanted the lions to help them drive the hyenas away from the land once and for all. "We know we are not the only ones bothered by them," said the leader. "In fact, they attacked us last night and killed many of our old, sick, and young. They injured one of us who was perfectly healthy, and now she cannot stand or get up on her own. I fear she will never get up again."

Simba pretended to think and consider helping them for a long time, so that they would not be angered, when in fact he had made up his mind very early on. At last he said, "I can ask the Shaman Rafiki to heal your injured. He stays with us now at this very moment, in Pride Rock. He will be here shortly." Then he said a few things to Zazu that no one else could quite catch. Zazu flew towards Pride Rock after this.

"What of our plight?" asked the leader hopefully. "We are thankful that you send your shaman to heal us, but he will have to do so many more times unless you agree to help."

"Your plan is a dangerous one," said Simba after some time. "We do not know when the hyenas will appear again. You say that you want my pride to stay by your herd and keep guard, then drive the hyenas back to the Graveyard when they attack again. But my pride is made up not only of grown adults, but also of four cubs. Who will look after them until the hyenas come again? They cannot come with us to defend you- it would be far too dangerous."

"I will hand-pick two of my herd to look after them, far away, until the plan comes to pass," said the leader. "They will be safe and out of trouble. I know the two perfect people for the job. They are very skilled when it comes to children."

"Yes, but what of the wounds that my lionesses could very well suffer? They need to hunt for food, unlike your kind, who simply forage for food among the trees and grasslands."

"Shaman Rafiki can heal them, can he not? He can heal us, so why would the case be any different for lions?"

"You misunderstand me, herd leader," said Simba solemnly and apologetically. "Shaman Rafiki can heal minor wounds in seconds without any preparation, but deeper, more serious ones, such as yours," he eyed the leader's badly wounded front left knee, "he can only offer pain relief for. Some, he may be able to cut a few days off the healing time, but that is all."

The leader opened her mouth to speak, but no words came out. Zazu had returned with Rafiki, who bowed to her. Immediately he said, "Your wound is deep, leader." And he took a step closer and inspected it. "I can do little good here in terms of healing, but I can clean the wound for you." He paused for a moment and then in a loud voice he said, "Safisha!" Immediately, the dust lifted from the leader's front left leg, and the dried blood simply became lighter and lighter until it looked almost transparent, and then it was gone. True to Rafiki's word, he had expertly cleaned her wound.

The herd gasped in amazement and whispered amongst themselves. Simba's expression remained the same, for he had seen Rafiki work his magic many times before, but even Zazu couldn't help but exclaim in wonder: "Amazing!"

The leader looked at her wound for a moment and then muttered something to herself. "Thank you, Shaman Rafiki, but you should not have wasted your magic on my cleanliness and appeal. Can you heal any of my herd?"

"We shall see," said Rafiki. "We shall see."

Then he walked through the crowd, glancing at some wounds for but a short moment, and observing others for minutes. His voice was heard many times commanding "safisha", but little else came from his mouth until he came to a small calf standing far to the back of the crowd. He had scratch marks all the way from the back of his neck, down to his tail where a hyena had dug its claws into him and slipped off.

"This, I can help," said Rafiki quietly. "I see that you are in great pain, my child. But do not worry. I can heal you." At that, he lifted his staff up off the ground and held it so that it was vertical. Then he looked up to the sky and said, "Funga!" A blinding flash of light came down from the sky and struck the child. Shrieks came from the herd in the whiteness of it all. When they could see again they saw to their horror that the calf had been thrown back a few yards from where he was initially standing, and had fallen to the ground on his back. The elephants rushed over to him, the leader to Rafiki, ready to strike him. But then the cub got up off the ground without any help. The scratch marks were gone- healed so well that it looked like they had never been there, even on closer inspection.

For this they thanked Rafiki, and he continued his search for wounds that he could heal, all the while cleaning those that he could not help in any other way, but the shaman did not find anyone else that he could help (or so it appeared).

Hours later, when Rafiki had cleaned all the wounds and relived much pain, the herd leader said, "Thank you greatly, Shaman Rafiki, on behalf of my whole herd. We owe you much." Then she turned to Simba and said, "My herd is tired. We need food and water, and most of all, rest. I will not ask you to give us your answer now, even if you have already decided. We will return to Pride Rock tomorrow, and we will be expecting to hear of your decision. Until then, we bid you farewell." She bowed first to Simba, then to Rafiki, and her herd followed her example. After this, they turned and plodded off into the distance.

By that time, it was noon. Zazu was sent back to his normal duties and Simba went with Rafiki back to Pride Rock. When he was sure that no one could hear them, Simba said, "Why'd you only heal one of them? I know that you could've done that to at least half of the herd."

"For the good of the Kingdom, Simba. And it is a good thing that you did not say anything of this in front of them. I have seen it in a vision: I heal them all, and finally you speak your mind that you will not help them, for it is part of the Circle of Life. Since most of them are fully mobile, and their troubles lie only in this Kingdom, they thunder off to the south, where they disappear from sight."

"Really? That's what would've happened if you had healed all that you could?" asked Simba in bewilderment.

Rafiki nodded slowly. "Yes. But I chose to heal the child and clean their wounds so that the herd would see us as allies that they could depend upon, and not selfish, self-preserving people in high places. You will agree to help them when they come here tomorrow, will you not?"

"They'll go southwards if I don't, won't they?"

Rafiki nodded again.

"Alright. It looks like I have no choice. I wouldn't want to lose a whole herd of elephants as allies in times like this," he ended quietly.

"In times like this?" asked Rafiki, who was half curious, half worried. "What do you mean by that?" The shaman looked into Simba's eyes, and his own pierced them like needles. "War is brewing," said Rafiki eventually. "War is brewing with the Outlanders. And you are preparing for war. That is why you were reluctant to say 'yes' to the leader at first. You were afraid not for the hunt, but for the defense. If your lionesses were to be injured and war broke out shortly afterwards, Pride Rock would surely be lost. Am I not correct?"

Simba's faced remained blank for a moment, and he tried not to look at Rafiki. Suddenly he was frowning furiously. He roared, "I will say no more!" and thundered down the stairs to the Grasslands.

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