Chapter 5: Headfirst into Danger

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On every blade of grass their was a prism, glinting like a diamond in the early morning light. The sun shone and the light reflected across the waves of grass like ripples in a pond. The air was chilled from the evening's rain and a sense of awakening found it's way to even those who refused to accept the morning's gift.

However, let it be said of the youth, with boundless energy and a lust for life, that they would always be the first to go out a seize the day.

With squinting eyelids trying to look past the glare and already sopping legs from the morning dew, two adolescents raced across the grasslands. Warm breaths puffed out of their mouths like mist from a waterfall. Occasionally a loud whoop would break from their pants, followed by an enthusiastic leap.

Behind them, their peers struggled to keep up.

"Simba, Nala! Wait up!"

Several months ago, the two were in the twins' place. First going out into the savanna for the first time. Meanwhile, Simba and Nala would soon graduate to a milestone in their development. Almost adolescents, they would soon be allowed to come and go as they pleased from Pride Rock without supervision. As a test of blossoming maturity, they would also be showing their younger peers around as well. To the older cubs, the enthusiasm of eventually being unsupervised was diminished somewhat by their babysitter still in charge and the twins tagging along and effectively slowing them down.

However, their excitement could not be curbed as they raced along the grasslands, eager to see what had just been relayed to them prior that day. They surged up the grassy hill, panting heavily, but contently as they scanned the area, grinning as their eyes fell upon the desired place of interest.

Only to be immediately blocked with a yelp as a blue-feathered, scowling face swooped down before them.

"Might I inquire of what's gotten you so excited that you have left the others in the dust?"

A smirk came across the golden cub's face. "Oh c'mon Zazu, we haven't gone too faaaaaahh-" As he swiveled his head to check behind, he did indeed see that the scampering cubs panting at a much farther distance than he had suspected, and his reply fell into a long series of vowels.

Zazu alighted down and squinted up towards him. "I'm sure your father has told you that it is a king's duty to make sure no one gets left behind."

His ears drooped at that and he shuffled awkwardly. "Yes," he muttered.

"And that being the future king means you'll have to take responsibility, starting by watching out for your pridemates."

His nose scrunched up at that. "Yes, he did. Why'd you have to be like this Zazu. You're not my dad, I'll soon be old enough to go around the Pridelands by myself, why do you need to remind me about these things all the time."

"Because as the future king you'll need to learn these things early on and it is my job as your father's, and eventually your, adviser to oversee that you follow the path towards greatness and nobleness." His wing thrust out and brushed against his chest. "So fluffy, there's just some things in life that you just need to accept and learn to live with."

"Coming through!"

A choked squawk broke from mister banana beak's beak as he was suddenly ambushed by a furry, pale tan cub and wet tumbling down the hill. Nala and Simba burst out laughing at the majordomo's misfortune, just as Nadra walked up, panting heavily. She waited a few moments until her chest had stopped heaving to glare up at her cousin and the prince.

"You guys need to go slower. You were miles away when you stopped," she exclaimed, obviously exaggerating, but angry nonetheless. Her scowl remained even as her cousin's paw came down to comfortingly, if not a bit sarcastically, pet her head.

"Calm down Nadra. Simba here says he's found a really cool place to show us for your first time out here." She titled her head and a flashed a mischievous smile towards him. "Right Simba?"

"R-right. Right. Right! Of course I did." His confidence had returned with a proud smile. "Just need to figure out how to get banana beak off our tails."

A groan came up from below and soon Mheoto trotted up, holding the hornbill up proudly with his tail feather clamped between his jaws. "That's mister banana beak to you." Another groan came up as Mheoto deposited him right in the midst of him. "Great Kings, had I known this job would lead me here.."

"So where we going Simba?" The newcomer looked at him expectantly, his sky blue eyes shining with eagerness.

The prince gave a quick side glance to Zazu, still laying on his back, wings clutching his head as he waited for the pain to subside. He then hunched down and brought his head close to them, his voice barely above a whisper.

"Dad was telling me about how he was chasing out some poachers back to the Outlands the other day. I wanted to see where that was and maybe check out what poachers he was talking about."

Three pairs of eyes stared back at his own, all filled with excitement and wonder at the new, mysterious place.

"The Outlands..." came a mumbling voice form beside them and immediately the cubs cringed with shock, realizing they had been caught. "The Outlands!"

Immediately Zazu had recovered and was on his feet to hop on over to the middle, however he did sway briefly with dizziness before he stared sternly and frightfully up at them.

"Absolutely not! Do you even realize what the Outlands hold?!" His voice was reaching almost screeching decibels, yet Simba remained cool and carefree in his attitude.

"No, that's why me and the other's are going to go check it out."

"Oh no you won't!" A blur came straight up and a second later their faces were pressed together. "That place is a death trap and no one is stepping foot in that land, not on my watch."

Simba pulled away from the seething hornbill, glared at him while rubbing his nose free of the itching the feathers gave him, and opened his mouth, ready to retort, when-

"You should listen to your babysitter for once cubs. He tell the truth, the Outlands are no place for any cubs."

The temperature in the Pridelands that day was no less than perfect. The sun cast the right amount of warmth upon the earth and the light breeze created such a balmy, delightful environment to go out, explore, and enjoy the weather. All this came crashing down into a frigid, uncomfortable prickling down their spines, as if they had slept outside and had woken up with a freezing layer of dew clinging to their coats and soaking them tot the bone.

Instinctively clustering together, the cubs gathered behind Zazu as the majordomo puffed up his feathers, trying vainly to shield them as a suave, slithering came up to the group. His form moved elegantly through the grass, his tail flicking idly like a cobra ready to strike at any time. His face stared neutrally down at them before he casually stretched himself out and laid down on his stomach. Gaze never leaving them, he laid out his legs on over the other with a flourishing movement and made himself comfortable beside him.

"H-hi uncle Scar," Simba finally replied, not knowing where he found the courage to do so. His proud, confident personality was overcome with an uneasy feeling. Taking note from earlier, he found the strength to move slowly and quietly before the younger cubs. They eagerly ducked behind him and Nala as she followed suite.

He barely managed to repress a shudder as his uncle's one green and one moon-colored eyes fell upon him and a grin that could not be mistaken for anything other then unnerving and creepy spread across his face.

"Hello dear nephew. How are you and your little friends doing today?"

"G-Good, good," he muttered. He was seriously considering bolting right then and there, though his parent's lessons on manners, protecting others, and remaining cool under pressure were holding him barely back.

The time seemed to slow down as the red lion took pause to huff at his claws and brushed them casually against his shoulder. "Well I do hope at least you choose to listen to Zazu, for once at least." He ignored the indignant gasp and rattle of feathers in a threatening position, still remaining focused on the shininess of his sharpest tools. "The Outlands are a barren, harsh land outside of our borders, home to nothing but termites and viscous, thieving predators like jackals and vipers. You'd be lucky to last even a minute on that land before either surviving them, the blasting heat, or the lack of any resources to help relieve your thirst and heat." His expression grew all the more energetic and thus all the more frightening as he spoke. As he finished, a small whimper could be heard from behind the three.

"Ahem. Well thank you Scar for the description, I'm sure they get the picture. Nothing interesting or safe their in the Outlands, so no reason to go there. Plain and simple, thank you Scar, we will be going on our way now." With a hurried tone, he began shooing them away, trying to get them to avoid making eye contact while his own eyes never left him. The lion merely nodded.

"You're most welcome for the advice. In any case, a trip to the Outlands would not only be dangerous, but it be complete waste of time. The Outlands are all the way across the Pridelands, where as the Elephant Graveyard is merely a short walk away."

The group stopped suddenly as Zazu stopped pushing to fly up and shout, "Scar, need I remind you that you're on a tight leash. You ought to keep your mouth shut, else you'll have to deal with Mufasa."

At that, Scar arose and swiftly came up to him, towering menacingly above him. The cubs shrank back as his eyes swirled with anger and something else that made their fur stick on end. His lips peeled back as he spoke, revealing more amount of his teeth then they were comfortable with.

"Mufasa isn't here right now, so, theoretically, this means that whatever happens here is just between us."

Zazu, despite his best efforts to remain brave and stand up for the cubs, began to wilt under his harsh glare and height. In the midst of his fear, his desire to flee, his desire to protect, and adrenaline pumping through his veins, his judgement was briefly impaired and he flicked his wing back towards the scared audience of cubs. A clear mesage of what so do. And instantly he regretted it.

The message was clear and received quickly.

While Scar's eyes were focused on Zazu, the cubs bolted down the hill, sprinting through the grass like gazelle racing away from a predator. A snarl broke into the air, shattering the silence and sending fresh fear into their hearts, yet they kept running. The grass kept on growing thicker and taller, making it harder to see where they were going and if they were all still going in the same direction. The blades kept batting in their faces, forcing them to run blindly at times.

Eventually, the grass began to grow shorter, however Simba briefly had time to notice before the grass ended sharply into rocky dirt and the otherwise even land suddenly gave way to a sharp slope. Shock by this sudden change int he land was quickly overcome with pain and fear as his paws tumbled over the other and over his head as he rolled down the hill. He gave out sharp yelps as his body roughly scraped against the jagged earth. His limbs flailed uselessly in the air and grasped at nothing at the speed he was stumbling, though it eventually came to an abrupt stop as his body collided with a surprise boulder.

He began to feel pity for how Zazu had felt earlier when Mheoto had pounced on him. His entire body ached from the shock of the crash and from the scratches and abrasions the clash with the ground. He spared a few seconds to lay down in agony before he forced his legs beneath him and lifted himself back up with a small shudder from the dizziness and sudden weight shift.

Barely had two seconds to recover when a startled scream reached his ears, followed by another hard collision and the reintroduction of his back to the ground.

It took a few more seconds this time to get out of his muddled, painful state to realize what had happened. One, judging by the warm, furry, yet smaller body clamped onto his chest and the familiar twin stripes on his head, it was clear that Mheoto had also fallen the same way he had, except he had had a much nicer, softer structure to catch his weight against. Secondly he realized that, if the uncomfortable rocks poking against his back was any indication, the rocks plus his back had created the friction that had eventually slowed down their inertia, bringing them to a stop. The third and last thing he realized that they had stopped just in the nick of time.

Through his muddled mind he eventually recovered enough to see that his head was dangling freely off a large cliff, overlapping a very menacingly-looking landscape. Shadowed, large, hollow structure laying everywhere, the hiss of steam and the smell of decay, they had just barely been saved from going over the cliff.

"Thanks for breaking my fall, Simba."

He shut his eyes tightly, willing up the strength against the pain crick he felt in his neck, to lift his head up against gravity to address the cub laying heavily down on his chest.

"Get. Off. Me."

The sudden weight off his chest meant he was free to roll over, sucking in air like it was sweet honey, and lay his head down while he struggled to regain his bearings. None of his limbs felt broken or sprained, thankfully, but he didn't have to look to know that he was very dirty and covered with lots of sharp nicks and scratches. His head ached, his body ached, his mind ached, and he felt just ready to collapse into a pile and sleep until the next season came. Nobody could really blame him for that, could they?

"Whoa. Hey Simba, come check this out."

Against all his protesting limbs, sapped muscles, and nerves screaming, he got himself up to his paws with a loud crack as his spine popped back into alignment. He winced at the sound, then tried to open his eyes. Everything was blurry, but his vision improved as he saw the form of his companion become clearer and clearer. Mheoto was filthy, but thankfully didn't seem to have an big injuries as well, aside from a few scrapes. He stared excitedly at him, then gestured with his head to look out.

No longer upside down, the landscape that lay before them looked even more scary and grey. Everything looked burnt, hollow, dangerously dark and unwelcoming. His eyes squinted at a peculiar shape in the background, then widened as they realized what the huge, tall structure was.

"The Elephant Graveyard," he breathed out. A breath of air blew in from behind and into the shadowy place, carrying along echos of long-passed spirits, long-forgotten spaces and sinister tales of what lay within between the harrowing elephant skeletons and the jagged rock formations.

His focus upon the grey land and his sudden interest of what it held was suddenly interrupted as a head and cold nose were pressed painfully into his shoulder, letting him know about the bruises that were forming and were sure to make themselves seen very soon. His red eyes soon met with sky blue, though his anger softened to concern as he saw the uneasiness they held.

"Hey Simba, I don't like this place. I say we should find where the girls are at and head back." His voice was almost a whimper and Simba had no qualms against the logic in his words.

"Sounds like a plan to me" As he turned, his head took longer then the rest of his body to break away from the direction of the forbidden land. "It sure is creepy. Can't believe any elephant would want to die in this place."

"Elephants die in this place!"

Simba winced at the shriek and at the scared look on the cub's face. Solemnly, he swallowed and nodded. "Dad told me that this is where elephants do to die when they feel its their time. He said its tradition for them the herd to come after their gone to pay their respects and to remember them. It's the Circle of Life."

"But don't the hyenas live here as well? Do the elephants that come here die when they reach this place or do the hyenas get to them first and-"

Whatever fearful ending to his horrific question was ended abruptl scream that broke in the air. They both froze in their tracks, taking a moment to determine whose voice it was.

Then...

"Sis!"

He bounded forward and rounded the boulder Simba had crashed into. The prince surged after him.

"Mheoto wait!"

He gasped in pain as he felt sharp rocks poking into his paw pads and spared a second to rub off the sharp particles on his fur. Scarcely had he rounded the rock as well when he recognized another lion up ahead. He felt a pang of relief seeing Nala alright, but the fear resurfaced as he realized that she was standing frantically at the edge of the cliff they were on, staring frightened down into the valley below.

Mheoto came to a screeching halt beside her, scraping up some lose dirt over the edge and into the basin with a loud clatter as they made contact with the ground from the steep height. He slowed his own pace to a hurried walk and stopped right beside them, looking over the edge to what Nala had seen and where the scream had sprung from.

"Right there," she said, drawing out her paw and pointing down below.

"Sis!"

Simba gulped, the fur on his back prickling uncomfortably again while dread surged through his gut. There, just a few feet below them, and a few more feet above the ground below, a light sepia cub with wide, olive eyes stared terrified out into the graveyard, her body curled up and pressed against the cliff on a small protruding rock.

At the sound of her twin's voice, her head swiveled up towards the trio, revealing her petrified face to them.

"Guys, help me," she begged, her voice reflecting her look. Her paw gave way beneath her and she stumbled, before quickly grabbing back onto her platform while a chunk of it fell down and smashed against the hard, rocky floor.

"Nadra, hold on," Nala called out. Her voice was meant to be helpful, but was not immune from sounding frantic and scared.

"Don't let go sis," Mheoto added, looking more and more agitated with each passing second.

Nadra paw slipped out from below again and she scrabbled against the stone, desperately trying to gain balance once more. A terrified shriek broke out and tears began to prick out from the corners of her eyes.

"Nadra!" Her head turned up and she noticed the paw outstretched to her, still a few feet above. "Nadra, can you jump up and grab my paw?"

"I don't know. I'm scared," she wailed.

"Focus sis. Take a deep breath and listen to Simba," her brother coaxed. She tried to obey, but only ended with dust coughing out of her lungs with more scared breaths.

Simba bit his lip and tried to extend his limb further out to her. "Nadra, listen to me." He tried to keep his voice as level and as reassuring as he could muster. "Can you try to leap up and grab my paw? I can try to pull you out."

"Yeah, us too," Nala joined.

"I don't know," she whimpered. "But I can try."

Leaning heavily against the wall, she tried to press her body as tightly as she could while she adjusted her limbs accordingly. With a swift movement and sharp inhale, she rose onto her back legs. She wavered uneasily for a moment, before finding balance again by pressing her front paws against the wall.

"That's it. You got it!"

She took in another shuddering breath, gaining back some courage before focusing above her with a determined look. Simba's paw was just a leap's distance above her, though she was unsure of whether or not she could make it.

Another deep breath, inhale and exhale, before she prepared to make the jump. Her muscles tensed, haunches sank down, as she prepared to spring up. She dug her claws into the dirt, hoping to gain an extra boost from it. Her forelegs prepped to pull herself up for a few more inches, then clamp down on his paw. Her brother and cousin all gathered around him, a foreleg extended each to grab at her and try to pull her up.

It all happened in a millisecond. She felt the ground leave her paws as the surged upwards, finding herself airborne for a brief moment. Her forelegs began to reach upward, until she felt one of them catch on the uneven wall and knock off her initial plan. Without the extra distance that boost provided, the last few inches between her and the saving paw made all the difference. Cold fear renewed, she closed her eyes to prepare for gravity to take hold and send her tumbling down.

"Gotcha!"

"Pull!"

Her eyes widened back open as pain ran up her paw as it was yanked up a few inches and slammed against the wall. She yelped before a firm grip grasped at her wrist and another try to catch hold on her nape. She winced and her mouth opened to scream, but no words came out as three different legs grabbed at her and tried to yank her upwards.

Hope blossomed in her chest and renewed her stretch as her free paw scrabbled to gain leverage against the cliff. It grew further as her claws sank into the soil and found purchase against it. She was brought up a few inches more, Simba releasing her paw to allow it to come up some more before grasping onto it. Nala's grasp went down from her nape to under her shoulder and hooked underneath it. Mheoto replaced Nala's hold at her neck and wrapped it tightly around, pull up as he did. A few inches more and she felt her paw come over the edge of the cliff.

"That;s it."

"Come on."

"Just a little bit more."

Time seemed to freeze all at once. Everyone's ears pricked up as sudden groan arose from the area where their weight was placed and the cracking of rock against loose soil.

Nadra found herself airborne once more as everyone lost their grip on her. No fault of theirs', as the ground beneath them broke apart, sending all four of them falling down the sharp height into the Elephant Graveyard. The freedom that was so close was now wrenched from her grasp once more.


Cliff Hanger! Hanging from a cliff! That's why they call him Cliff Hanger!

I'm not apologizing for that reference, nor the fact that I, an undergraduate in college, have been watching episodes of Between the Lions online, aside from the newest episodes of My Pride. If you haven't check it out yet, episode two came out recently and I highly recommend it. Based on the fanfiction, it tells the story of a young, crippled lioness, how she deals with the how her pride treats her due to her injuries, and I won't spoil it from there, so please just go check it out on YouTube. Warning though, it is a bit graphic, due to how more realistic it is with rogue lions and such, so be warned. Think of it as the Lion King, but with a female protagonist, who is crippled, and takes more from real-life lion behavior.

Anyways, hope ya'll are doing okay. I know that the Coronavirus is making things difficult for a lot of us, from shutting down schools, public events, and the like, as well as making some people go crazy for toilet paper and the like. All I can offer at this point is advice; remain calm, try to avoid going out if possible, try to limit contact if you can, be sure to wash your hands and sanitize areas frequently, and please, for the love of Steve, stay home if you're sick. Basically treat this as you would a normal cold/flu, but at a larger scale. We can get through this is we remain smart, vigilant, and rational. Take care of yourselves guys.

At the very least, not going out and staying at home means I can work on these chapters more, so that's a silver lining at least. I'll see ya'll soon, take care okay. Sincerely, v.t.7