Sarafina, personal handmaiden and childhood friend of Queen Sarabi, was seen by many a lion as a beautiful young lioness of 25, soon 26, with creamy fur and green eyes. Many would have had asked for her hand if not for the fact that she was a widow and already a mother of two: Nala, an endearing eight years old girl that looked exactly like Sarafina at that age, and Mheetu, a male cub with golden fur and green eyes, the former from his father and the latter from his mother.
And at that moment, the only one who wasn't discussing what to do with the lizard man that saved them, even though her daughter was among those who wanted to help him.
Being the personal handmaiden of the Lion Queen, while also being a young mother of two, could get very stressing, especially when said queen wanted you at her side when dealing with unpleasant company, such as arrogant crocodilians annoyed at the fact that they had to speak with her since Mufasa was fighting Outlanders, and his brother Scar alongside him. Add in the fact that your husband and his companions died just a few days prior under mysterious circumstances, and you get a very depressed lioness. At least she managed to be strong in front of her distraught daughter.
Which was why Sarabi, after seeing watching her old friend cry her heart out and comforting her, asked her to visit her village. 'For simple business', she said when the guards asked why they weren't allowed go escort her; basically to ask them if they had any kind of problem and all that. What she didn't actually say but which was still obvious to Sarafina was 'go with Nala and Mheetu to visit your family, you need it'.
Her village, Nyumba Namu, was a small settlement located near the borders of the Pride Lands, two days away from Pride Rock. It was a simple village of cattlemen, rather unremarkable if not for the aforementioned fact of standing near the border between the Pride Lands and the Death Marsh, home to a myriad of monsters and the savage lizard men.
When the villagers of Nyumba Tamu saw a carriage with their dear Sarafina and her children, they rejoiced and sang. It had been years since they last saw their dear Sarafina, who had left as a little cub and came back as a beautiful woman and a mother! And with another child to boot!
That's it, until they noticed that Sarabi wasn't with her, nor was her husband, Shujaa, famous warrior and member of the Lion Guard. When she told her family that not only Shujaa, but also the other Guards had perished, they grieved him and made a toast, but overall they took his death well. He was a member of the Lion Guard, the elite of the elite, and lions like them were even expected to die someday. Sarafina didn't have the heart to tell them that they didn't die in battle, and frankly, she didn't want to linger on that either.
The party they had later that same night was something to remember, with a feast, laughing, another song... Even Nala laughed and danced, a miracle on itself!
Of course, not having a look-out posted to watch for uninvited guests, coupled with the darkness of the night, possibly explained why no one saw the cavemen approaching the village until they were literally upon them.
They struck swiftly, those savages, easily taking out the poor resistance offered by the villagers. Don't get it wrong, even lionesses who tended to livestock were fighters (they had to, to protect their cattle from the usual predators, wandering bandits and the rare random monster), but all cavemen were born warriors. Well, not all were, but those who weren't strong enough to grow in the Outlands didn't survive pass childhood. Didn't help that there were at least thirty of those brutes either.
However, rather than slaughter the survivors (most women, all the children, and three men) after killing most of the males and setting fire to the village, the cavemen instead put them in a makeshift cage, simple but strong enough that a lion couldn't break it, and covered it with a tarp, possibly so they wouldn't have to see them as they looted the place of anything valuable.
Sarafina despaired. She had lost her husband little more than a week prior, and that day she and her children would be doomed to a live of slavery in the Outlands, or worse for her.
And then the lizard man came.
Sarafina knew about the dreaded lizard men of the Death Marsh, savage reptilians that happily ate not only the dead bodies of other races without a second thought, but also their own. Not even hyenas and ogres ate their dead, at least not when they could help it. But she didn't know what they actually looked like: in her mind, lizard men looked like degenerate versions of their relatives the crocodilians, green-scaled lizards with large maws full of teeth and reptilian eyes with slitted pupils, wearing nothing that could be considered clothing and using nothing else than simple sticks and stones as weapons.
The lizard man that found them wasn't like that at all. He was a large reptilian biped, but that's where the similarities to what she thought were lizard men ended: he was tall and powerfully built, his scales were a shade of red, and his eyes, which were green, had round pupils. Also, instead of walking around naked he did in fact wear something, a crude set of (actual) scale armor (from what animal was it made of, she didn't know; maybe another lizard man?) which, while crude and not exactly clothing, still covered a good part of his body.
Overall, he wasn't what she expected from a race of cannibals.
There was also the tyrannosaurus, but the lizard man was also shocked to see it there, so it probably was captured by the cavemen. How could a bunch of barbarians catch the largest predator in the Pride Lands would be the unanswered question of the century, since most had died during the scuffle (and most of those, slain by the beast) and the few survivors had fled into the night.
And then there was the expression on his face when he discovered them. Not hungry at the prospect of easy meat, not lustfully at the possibility of havng his way with the women, but actually shocked by the state they were in. And when he and her locked gazes... She didn't know it, but she unconsciously hoped that the lizard man would help them.
Naturally she was surprised by the lizard man when he sighed and decided to help them out by breaking the cage. She replied in kind by warning him of the caveman behind him before he could attack him.
And then the lizard man was pinned down by the other cavemen, and she was grabbed by the leader of the group, a particularly ugly brute, while she still had Mheetu in her embrace. Even as she tried to bite the barbarian she him to kill her, but it seemed like the leader wanted to entice the lizard man by offering her to him (either as food or as something else, she didn't know, and frankly didn't want to) in his own tongue. The lizard man apparently refused.
After that everything was a blur: Nala sneaking out of the cage and freeing the tyrannosaurus, the tyrannosaurus going on a rampage through the cavemen yet ignoring the villagers, the villagers fighting back against the cavemen the lizard man and the caveman leader...
And the caveman pushing her away just as the leader attacked her, earning a nearly open skull for his troubles.
Now, while she tended to the knocked out warrior alongside Mzee, the elder of the village, and a few lionesses, the others were discussing what to do with the lizard man. Watching it all was the adult tyrannosaurus; its young were standing next Nala, but it simply watched on as the lions screamed at each other, probably knowing that if anyone even thouched its children the would pay it with their lives (well, anyone except Nala, it seemed).
"Yes, but if not for the lizard, we would still be the prisoners of those brutes, or worse!" Protested a lioness.
"For all we know he was with them all along!" Exclaimed Hofu, the lion who wanted to kill the lizard man while he was unconscious. He was a rather young man with grayish fur and a light mane, but although he was a bit of a runt, he was also quite fearless, as the bruises and missing teeth could attest. "To try and earn our trust, right before killing us!"
"If that's so, then why did they attack him when he was freeing us, uh!?" Screamed another lioness
"How should I know, cavemen and lizard men are savages that kill each other for fun!"
"That may be true, but the lizard didn't kill us despite having the chance to do so." Replied calmly the other lion, a much bigger male with brown fur and mane. His name was Mchunga, and as his size indicated was the carpenter of the village. " And may I remind you that he instead fred us? If the lizard man was as bad as you said, he wouldn't have wasted his time in helping us: he could have just waited for the cavemen to leave and eat the bodies."
"Yes, but why did he really do it?"
"Will you idiots stop it!" Exclaimed Mzee (and just as Nala was about to speak). "Our home has been burned to the ground, our cattle is either dead or spread through the savannah, and less of fifteen of us are still alive, but it would be even worse if not for him, Hofu!"
"Why are we even discussing this?" Hofu shouted before grabbing a spear from a dead caveman and stomped towards the lizard man, but before anyone could do anything the tyrannosaurus stood on his way and sat down. It didn't do threatening gestures like a snarl, but it was clear it would not let Hofu near him. Said lion, either because of bravery, stupidity or a combination of both "Stand back monster! I don't trust you either!" He screamed at the tyrannosaurus as he brandished his weapon at it.
The beast, not intimidated by the cat and his stick, just glared at him for a moment.
"Hofu, for the love of the Kings of the Past, put that thing down before it thinks you're a threat."
"This thing is not dangerous. It got captured by cavemen after-AH!" Hofu screamed in terror as the tyrannosarus got up and stood over him, but instead of eating him as everyone thought it just walked over Sarafina, Mzee and the lizard man. The handmaiden and the old lion were clearly terrified of the beast that was coming towards them, but both kept cleaning the wound of the warrior, trying to ignore the eight ton reptile breathing heavily right next to them. Mheetu, being a baby and therefore not knowing any better, babbled happily as the animal loomed over them and looked down. The tyrannosaurus briefly glanced at the happy lion cub with interest (it probably hadn't seen one) before crouching and looking at the unconscious lizard man.
Now that the beast was literally a foot away, Sarafina could see that the tyrannosaurus didn't come out of the fight with the cavemen unscathed: it's body was covered in many stab wounds that, while small, were bleeding and could get infected, but it didn't seem to care, busy with staring down at the red lizard man with something that, if Sarafina's eyes weren't lying to her, seemed to be worry for him. Did it realize that it and its offspring were free because the lizard man broke the cave, allowing Nala to get out and unchain them?
Mzee, after making sure the wound was clean, "He seems stable, but if we don't close that wound he'll die before a day passes." He whispered grimly, and Sarafina nodded. But what could they do to help him? The closest settlement that had a healer was not far away by foot, but her carriage had been dismantled by the cavemen to build the cage, and the onagers that pulled it had fled. Plus, she doubted that even Mchunga would have difficulty in carrying the larger red warrior, and by then he'd be even worse, and then dead.
Mheetu, who aside from giggling at the tyrannosaurus had been silent, looked at her and then at the lizard man. Sensing what he wanted, Sarafina put him on the ground, near the lizard man's wound. The cub then rubbed himself against the warrior's wound, as if he wanted to help, and to the surprise of the lioness the lizard man's tilted his head towards the baby. Then, to surprise her even more, the tyrannosaurus leaned its head and then licked the lizard man's head with its huge tongue.
Sarafina looked at the lizard man, then at the tyrannosaurus, then at the lizard man again. She remembered hearing Shujaa speak about how deceitfully speedy where these beasts, being able to run higher than ten meters per second.
The solution to her problem dawned on her mind.
You know, some more comments would be nice.