Dun da da da! Chapter 4! I'm pretty proud of myself for getting this one out today, of course my messy room should be what I'm working on, but oh well. So this might seem a tad, well maybe more than a tad, similar to the original Lion King, it's not exactly the same, but you'll just have to trust me.
And a warning...some of you maynot be too happy withme, and my story, for the rest of it's life (and mine) for what's about to happen, trust me I partiallydon't likemyself for it, but like I said before, you'll just have to trust me. :)
Disclaimer: I only own Talo, Shalu, Suaz, Selan, and some other lions in the coming chapters. If you recognize their names then they're not mine.
Kudoos!
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Chapter 4
Talo and Shalu followed slightly behind Vitani, watching their Aunt as she looked around nervously. They'd never seen her this agitated before, even when one of them had gotten hurt. Her eyes glanced left and right, trotting at such a pace that the cubs could hardly keep up. She rarely looked behind her at them, and kept making inaudible noises that she continued making.
"Did you hear what they were talking about?" Talo asked softly, his eyes on the back of Vitani.
"I was standing right there, too." Shalu reminded him, also keeping his voice low.
"Yeah, but did you really hear what they said?" Talo pressed on, glancing over his shoulder.
"'Course I did. Hyenas are back in the Pride Lands." Shalu shivered. "Scary."
"It's an adventure, that's what it is." Talo said. He smiled "Maybe we'll get to fight one…."
"Fight one? You can hardly fight Suaz." Shalu scoffed.
"Liar. I pin her lots of times."
"You couldn't fight them if they went easy on you, which they wouldn't, they're hyenas. Nothing but slobbering mangy stupid poachers."
Talo snickered, then grinned knowingly. "I bet I could beat them."
"Prove it." Shalu dared before he could stop himself
"Okay." Talo watched Vitani for a short time, then leaned closer to his brother. "In a bit we'll drop farther back. Vitani is so concerned about the hyenas, she'll forget about us."
"Vitani was told to watch us…she's not going to forget about us."
Talo sent him a laid back look. "Trust me." He said smoothly.
Shalu rolled his eyes, not thinking it would work, but fell back with his brother just the same.
Slowly they fell farther and farther back, then dodged off in the direction their father had taken.
They stopped at a falling tree, breathing hard. "I-didn't-think-that-would-work." Shalu said in between gasps.
"I knew it would." Talo said, getting his breath back. "I'm a genius."
Shalu looked at him. "You? I don't think so."
"I got us here, didn't I?"
"Where is 'here' anyway?"
Talo looked around. There were trees lying everywhere, dead ones, the grass was fresh, and the dirt was scared black in areas. "This is the area that was burned out by that fire…" Talo stopped and glanced around. "Which means…" He looked off in the direction of a dark patch. "That's the elephant graveyard."
He ran off, Shalu trying to catch up. They reached the edge of the graveyard and stopped short. Staring down it they saw bones littering the floor, and a dark eerie mist covering the pit, preventing most sunlight. "I'm not going down there." Shalu said as a geyser blew and he smelled the steam.
"You scared?"
"No. Just not stupid."
Talo rolled his eyes. "We already got here didn't we? Might as well go down and find us a hyena." He walked down the edge, stumbling slightly.
Shalu ran after him and stopped when they reached the bottom. "Hyena? You still want to fight a hyena?" He demanded, coming up next to Talo
Talo shrugged and kicked a bone lying nearby. "Yeah, why not. They're so stupid it will be easy."
"Stupid. Are we stupid?" a high-pitched female voice broke in. Laughter followed her comment. Talo and Shalu whirled to find themselves face to face withfour very large, very hungry looking hyenas. Two females and two males. Talo gulped and Shalu felt himself shiver.
"I-I-I…" Talo couldn't get any words out. He took a step back and felt Shalu brush up against him.
"Not so talkative now, are we little lion?" One of the males said slyly. The other hyenas chuckled loudly.
"Leave us be." Shalu said softly, his voice shaking. "You're on our Pride Lands."
"Your Pride Lands?" The one of thefemales laughed. "The second you passed from the bright Sahara to the shadow of this graveyard, you left your precious Pride Lands." She bared her teeth and Shalu whimpered.
"You know, it's been ages since I had a good Lion to eat." The secondmale began slowly. The other three nodded in agreement.
Talo took another step back, fear flooding him. He turned his head and saw a tunnel of bones to his left, and no one guarding it.
"I think I'll just have to taste-Hey!" The male broke off as he saw Talo and Shalu run off. Shalu to the right, Talo to the left.
"I got the little one." The male hyena tore after Shalu along withone ofthe females,leaving the two remaining hyenas to rush after Talo.
Shalu heard the panting behind him, but wasn't sure if it was Talo or a hyena. Turning his head he saw the gray face and drooling mouth, Shalu began to run even faster. He dodged left and into a track of bones, skidding slightly. Shalu turned to see if the hyenas were gaining, and tripped, rolling into a pile of bones.
Shalu struggled to get up, but couldn't. The female hyena walked up to him, her face inches away from his. "Yum, yum."
There was a deafening roar and suddenly Kovu was there, tackling the hyena and tearing ather with claws and teeth.The male hyena felt fear freeze his insides as he turned and bolted off. The femalehyena yelped as Kovu's paw connected withher rump. The hyena quickly turned tail and fled. Kovu letthem go and turned to Shalu. His eyes half angry and half relieved.
"What are you doing here?" He demanded, his voice shaking with the effort to hold back his anger.
Shalu had never been so scared in his life. He had been chased by a hyena, separated from his brother, almost eaten, and was now facing his angry father, who all of a sudden seemed just as big, if bigger, than even Simba.
"I-I-well we-we were…" His voice faded off as he looked down.
"I told you to go with Vitani! And you disobeyed me." Kovu fought to keep his voice low, but it wasn't working. "If I hadn't come you could've been seriously hurt or killed! Do you understand that Shalu?" Kovu was shaking just as hard, if harder than Shalu. The fear and panic that had flooded his veins when he had caught scent of the cubs in the direction of the Elephant Graveyard slowly began to leave him, but it wasn't leaving fast.
Shalu nodded, tears stinging his eyes. "Yes, daddy."
"Vitani will be worried sick, and your mother too. What were you thinking?"
"Talo wanted to fight a hyena." Coming from his mouth it sounded even more stupid than it had before.
"Fight a hyena? Does he have a death wish? He could've been killed." Kovu growled, half to himself. He saw Shalu shaking and immediately felt guilty. Suddenly Kovu stopped, his heart pounding with fear again. "Where's your brother?" Kovu's voice was soft.
Shalu looked around him, remembering his brother hadn't been with him. "I don't know. I think he went the other way. I heard the hyenas.." The rest of his words faded off as Kovu turned and ran off in the other direction. Shalu took one look around and ran off after him.
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Shalu finally, panting, caught up with Kovu who had stopped in a small clearing of bones. Hyena tracks were all around, and Shalu could barely make out the paw prints of a baby lion and an impression in the earth were a cub had lain.
"Talo…" Shalu stepped near the imprint and his nose filled with the stench of hyenas. Kovu was silent. He paced around and climbed up several embankments looking around. There was no blood, but also no Talo. Shalu lay in the dirt where the imprint was. Smells mixed in his nose, ones of a cub, hyenas, and something else he couldn't place, almost like wet leaves. He looked up as his father came back to him. Shalu blinked and felt a tear run down his cheek before he could stop it. Kovu stared down at his son and swallowed hard, a hard pain filling his heart. "Come on, Shalu." He ordered.
Kovu grabbed Shalu in his mouth and made his way back to Pride Rock at a quick pace. He left Shalu to tremble at his grandmother's side, and taking Simba, Kiara, Vitani, and a couple other lionesses, he returned to the Elephant Graveyard.
Shalu was half asleep when they arrived back late in the night. He raised his head and twitched his ears, listening as his father, mother, grandmother, grandfather, and aunt spoke just outside the cave.
"He's asleep. He was trembling all over after you left him Kovu." It was Nala, her voice rich. "He hardly spoke a word."
"He could've died!" This was from Kovu. Shalu heard anger in his voice for the second time that day. "He could've been ripped apart by those hyenas!"
"Shalu or Talo?" Vitani asked in a mild tone.
Kovu was silent and Shalu moved a little closer. "Shalu was almost dead…" Kovu's voice was quieter now, the sadness replacing the anger. "And we've searched all over, there's no sign of Talo."
"We'll find him." Kiara assured her mate. "Don't worry, we'll find him if we have to tear apart every bone in that graveyard."
"How? There's no blood, no scent, and the only tracks are those on the ground around his. Not even a trail to follow." Shalu had never heard his father this hopeless before.
"Don't give up yet." This time it was Simba, his voice strong behind a strange sadness. "We'll find him, or the ones responsible." He murmured.
"What if we can't?" Kovu asked, and another long silence greeted his answer. "What if Talo is dead? Then what do we do?"
"Then we will train Shalu to become king. We still have another son, Kovu, don't ever forget that." Shalu heard his mother reply. His stomach churned uncomfortably and he lay his head down to throw himself into a night filled with dark nightmares.
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Well that is the end of that rather sad chapter. Hopefully you guys don't hate me too much, and if you do, I'll try to make it up to you. Please review (just don't flame!)
Oh and the line "slobbering mangy stupid poachers" is Zazu's from the original Lion King, so I can't take credit for that line. Anyway please review:) :)