Disclaimer: If I owned TLK, would I be writing about it?
A/N: For my reviewers out there, this chapter's dedicated to you! Enough talking – let the story begin!
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"Oh, man..." I was stuck in a tree with no way out (I forgot to think of the branch's weakness and how I was supposed to get down before I jumped there) and now Fura and Ghara were in danger! I could only hope that they had heard the beginnings of my tussle at Pride Rock and stayed awake...
Now I realized I really loved my parents and the tears fell worse than they had before as I lay there several feet from that blasted tree, shaking terribly with fatigue. I had to get up, but there was no energy. Ghara and Fura needed me, but what could I do?
Get up and force myself to move, for one thing.
I tried, but the searing pain from that blasted scratch sent me back to the ground again. My entire back leg… It went numb. I could only lay there and hope someone would come by.
"Use your brain! They'll be wide awake by mow with that smooth act of yours!"
"Shut it, already! It wasn't my fault the brat leapt from the cliff, now was it?"
"All right, cool it! We've gotta get those two oldest, then we'll take care of the baby, if he's still alive, that is."
The hyenas chuckled in agreement. It was either die trying to get one of them when they could kill two with a better chance of survival. Not much of a choice.
Fura was the first to notice something was wrong. He kept his body still like his father had taught him, but kept his ears and eyes alert, directed towards the front of the cave. If anything was going to go wrong, he had to be ready for the worst. "Ghara, Kalit… Wake up," he growled softly, nudging his body up against Ghara's.
"Hn? Fura, what's-"
"Ssh! Something's out there…" he growled and Ghara froze.
"Fura… you don't think it's the hyenas, do you?" she asked, her voice rimmed with fear.
Though he felt terrible for her, he wouldn't lie. It would only make it worse in the long run. "…Yeah. I think it is…" he replied and she stifled a sob. Fura wrapped his tail around his sister's in a comforting gesture. "Wait. Where's Kalit?"
The two scanned the cave, but there was no sign of their younger brother except for his scent.
"Oh no… Not Kalit, too!" Ghara cried, forgetting that they had company.
"Ghara, no!" Fura snarled, but of course it was too late. The hyenas had already figured it out.
"Not again!"
"Just swarm them and take 'em down!"
Snarls and growls echoed throughout the cave as the pack made their way inside. "C'mere… We only wanna play…"
"Stuff it!" Fura snapped, running in front of a hyena to prevent it from getting at Ghara. She was ready to fight as well, though she had never been taught anything about it like he had. So she could make it more of a hurt than a help to them.
Ghara swallowed her fear and snarled at a smaller hyena, causing it to fun to the back of the pack. With a satisfied smirk, she stepped up to join her brother.
"Things are gonna get sticky, Ghara…" Fura muttered out of the corner of his mouth, growling back at snapping jaws.
"Ouch!"
I growled and licked at the scratches on my haunch. They were deep, that was for sure. Only thing was, I needed to get some kind of medicine on it to at least get me back to Pride Rock with my leg intact.
"Of course. The one time I need Rafiki, he isn't here…" I growled, wincing as I forced myself up again. I had gotten a lot closer to Pride Rock – well, it seemed like I did, anyway – and I figured if I could keep up at a faster pace, I'd actually get there in tie before my siblings were meat.
"Who are you?"
I blinked and looked around for the voice. 'I could ask you the same question."
It chuckled. "Yep, you could, but you wouldn't get much of an answer, would you?"
I fell silent. Whoever it was liked riddles. I just rested my head on my paws until I could find its shadow or… anything, really. Soon enough, something moved in the bushes, and immediately I limped my way over. Peeking through, I saw an antelope. A common sight granted, but it wasn't everyday one tried to talk to a lion, was it?
Her eyes met mine as soon as I stepped close. "So I was right! You are Kalit!" she laughed, making me growl. For some reason she was just… unnerving. Seeing my reaction, she snorted. "Since you're having a lot of fun walking around with that scratch on your hip, why don't you try some salve?"
"I've already tried it, and it didn't work."
She snorted. "Right, then. I forgot to include that lions know one salve." She rolled her eyes and walked behind me, bumping her nose to the cuts and making me twitch. "…Give it a few minutes," she advised, blinking.
While I waited for the salve to kick in, she told me a bit about herself. Her name was A Kigneni and she had been resting for the night with her herd when she heard the 'hyena chase,' as she called it. She said that they had been heading for Pride Rock.
My heart fell. I knew it was happening, but no one was ever prepared for the apparent death of their whole family within a year.
A Kigeni assured me that I didn't have to worry. A friend of hers went ahead and reported that there was a fight going on, so they hyenas obviously didn't achieve the silent murder that they wanted. I nodded and realized that my leg was sort of… tingling. When I told her, she told me to start going. I got up and started off at a sprint and when I looked back, she wasn't there.
"Pick up the pace, Kalit!" I blanched and looked forward. She was a good few feet ahead of me! I ignored embarrassment and pushed on.
"What're you doing? You're gonna get killed!" I said as soon as I was in earshot.
A Kigeni laughed. "What's the point of living if you don't take risks?" She had a point, so I just shrugged (more or less), and we broke into a dead sprint as soon as Pride Rock came into view.
Her friend didn't lie. Pride Rock was a royal mess. Lionesses and hyenas fought at the entrance, but even worse was the fact that most of the sounds came from inside the cave itself.
She looked to me and smiled. "C'mon! We've got hyena butt to kick!" I laughed and surprisingly enough didn't have to fight to get through. The hyenas were too preoccupied with the lionesses to pay us any mind.
Once we got inside the cave, Ghara cried out my name and I ran over. "What happened!" I yelped, taking a swing at a hyena who was dumb enough to get close.
"I don't even know," she sighed. "All I can piece together is that they tried to get you and you left, so they left after you, then came back for us because you were dead! I guess I was wrong…"
"Not so much," I replied, ducking a pounce from another hyena and winced as A Kigeni's hooves collided with its skull. "I'm not dead, but other than that, everything else is right. Now let's help Fura!"
Ghara nodded weakly and we both charged into the battle, freeing Fura from his current struggle. He blinked and only muttered "…Kalit?" under his breath before shaking his head and helping us fight.
Most of the hyenas had left to defend the actual battle scene, preferring to fight the Pride lionesses outside, so we had slightly better odds. After a few hours, it was over. A Kigeni harrumphed as she kicked a dazed hyena out of the cave and trotted back in. "So is everyone all right?"
Ghara nodded, looking to Fura. He nodded too, but with less energy. I couldn't blame him. He had probably been fighting for a good half an hour before A Kigeni and I showed up.
Everyone was bruised and beaten, don't me wrong. Fura had a good amount of injuries, A Kigeni in second, then Ghara and me bringing up the rear.
"All right, then. Now it might be nice to get some sleep before next week comes around," she joked, but no one really reacted to it. A Kigeni backed her ears and walked over. "…Hey, I know it's rough, but perk up. You're gonna be dealing with this a lot anymore, so accept it and deal."
Ghara turned on her. "How do you expect us to just 'deal with it'!" she shrieked. "We've lost our mother and father to those brutes and now you just expect us to get used to it when we're next! Tell me how, then!"
A Kigeni sighed. "The same way I did." Ghara fell silent and I inwardly flinched. Apparently the hyenas weren't just going after royalty. "D'you think that hyenas don't hunt antelope? You're wrong. I've gotten over it. I'm gonna help you three, too. We're a team now, so we're sticking together, right?"
She received no reply except from Fura, surprisingly enough. "…We're in this together now," he sighed. "Thank you."
We all had to smile at that. Fura wasn't exactly one to be that accepting of a newcomer. But the important things were that our family was still together and we had some people who were willing to help us.
A/N: Mmkay, not the best chapter I had planned, but it got my babbling across and I even got some of the plot in here, too. xP Rate 'n Review!