The Lion King: Rise of the White Pride

Chapter 13: Another Part of the Story

It was morning, but Haraka still hadn't wake up. Shaka decided to check around now that his wounds were healing. He looked out from the window around. He could make out a hole in the wall of the ravine a few meters to the left, one a couple of meters to the right, and a pair below. It even has floors. Who made this incredible base? He asked to no one.

Suddenly, the entrance opened and a form stood in front of it. It came in, it was Hasira dragging a buffalo by the neck. He swung his head and threw the buffalo into the room. Haraka jumped to her paws, but slowly fell again.

He wiped his mouth and said, "Eat up," he turned away.

Shaka opened his mouth and shout a halt. "Hasira, wait!"

Hasira turned his head a little. "Eat," he said coldly. "Then we talk," he warmed up before walked away and sealed the entrance once more. Shaka and Haraka looked at each other and then ate their breakfast. Haraka was stunned that she couldn't move so Shaka had to drag the buffalo near her.

Shaka ate his part fast, as in very fast. He ate half of the buffalo in less than fifteen seconds. He had great eating technique. His breathing was very stable; his munching was very fast and didn't waste time. Haraka now knew how he was able to stand alone in the wild for so long when every time he caught a prey there were still dangers of the kill being stolen or taken. Shaka knew that, so he ate like this si that even vultures didn't had enough time to see the carcass of the kill.

Shaka noticed Haraka's freezing when he was done. "What?" Haraka didn't respond. "Not hungry?" still nothing.

Shaka made his superflat face again unsheathed his left foreleg claws and scratched the hard floor so fast that it made an ear-splitting screech that managed to snap Haraka out. "Oh. What? Sorry . . . sorry," she began to eat while trying her best not to laugh.

Now that he was stuffed, Shaka wondered if Hasira would come in and . . .

The boulder rolled off and entrance was unblocked. "I see you've eaten," Hasira said out of thin air. "Follow me. As for you, cheetah, stay put until your injuries healed," he trotted off.

Shaka walked outside and glanced back over his shoulder. "Just . . . stay calm, okay?"

Haraka raised her head. "I will."

As Shaka took another step outside, Hasira closed it again with the same boulder all by himself. Nobody was around them. Just the two of them.

It wasn't really outside, yet. It was small deformed cylindrical hallway, made from the same crimson stone, but big enough for two lions walking beside each other. The surface was rough. Walking here for too long could tore one's paw pads easily. Shaka wondered if Hasira's the only one walked here, but as he turned to the sides, he saw a boulder on his left. Other room he thought as he remembered the window he saw.

Hasira growled at Shaka, telling him to move as he was already in the right end of the hallway. Shaka ran his slowest toward his friend, who was gone. He turned to his left and found a way up and scaled it. Before the way up was a narrow hallway with a boulder on the side. He jumped as he neared the end of the way and landed on the same rough crimson stone, but this time, under the daylight.

"I see you still got the skills," Hasira said facing to the sunrise, his back on Shaka.

Shaka turned to him. "That's my line! You are the most one skipped training, remember? Because of that you were skinny, no offense, but look at you now," he gestured to Hasira's body, which was muscular and well built. "You can even move a boulder that big," Hasira didn't answer. "We couldn't find you. Where have you been all this time?" he said, Hasira didn't flinch. "We really at loss after you're gone, our hearts sank. Uzuri wouldn't stop crying," he continued.

"I always wanted to get out from there, duh," he lowered his head. "Besides. Only the two of you cared about me. Nobody else needed me."

Shaka shrugged. "We did!" he snapped. "We need you. You're our best friend," he said on verge of tears.

Hasira flinched at that. "So do you guys to me," he smiled.

"But, it was a good thing that you left the pride . . ."

Hasira's eyes narrowed as he cut off Shaka's sentence, remembering the thing Giza told him yesterday. "What! So you too think that I'm a burden to the pride!" his anger took over. "You don't know what I've been through!"

"I didn't mean . . ."

"So that's what you think you are now, a cocky master!?" he cut in again forcefully.

Shaka couldn't take it anymore. "There was a disaster, alright!" they both silenced. "A month passed without you. Our spirits were gone!" he closed in. "When we returned from our Farland Trip . . .,"

Hasira looked at his friend and cut in, again. "So you had your trip, eh," he said dispiritedly.

". . . the pride was taken over by Scar's underling," his face turned into anger. "A malicious, evil, cunning, damn lion!" he shoved his head at Hasira's at every word he used to describe the tyrant. "I'm the only one survived. Uzuri and Sadaka - that rude guy back then - helped me but I couldn't help them back," he dropped a tear. "Sadaka died protecting me from his attack. I rolled down the mountain side and knocked unconscious for a couple of days. I woke up and helped by a leopard for a week before I journeyed on . . . without Uzuri," he shed a tear.

Shaka's mind came back in time as he flashed back to the day his life was destroyed.

It was a beautiful morning. He, Uzuri, Sadaka, and their teachers were walking back from the Forest of Paradise, the same forest they met Simba and Nala, to return to their pride at Mt. Kilimanjaro. They swam past a wide river. Sadaka would've caught in the current if Shaka and Uzuri didn't notice him losing his footing.

They supported Sadaka by his shoulder and made it across the river. "That was close," Shaka said after blowing some water from his throat before shaking his mohawk mane dry.

Sadaka, who was still catching his breath, said, "I . . . owe . . . you two . . . one," he almost passed out, but his pride kept him awake.

"Come on!" Uzuri nudged him. "You're a White Pride lion. This won't slow you down," she nudged him standing. "Come on!"

"Okay. Okay," he started walking slowly and then accelerated to catch up with their teachers.

They arrived at the slopes of Kilimanjaro as snow started to fall. The teachers noticed that something out of ordinary had happened. The snow felt different. Even the air seemed like telling something they didn't like. he slopes were quiet as ever but somehow they all seem different. The group hurried to climb to make sure their pride was still in one piece.

It wasn't. They were greeted by the White Pride, but with a different lion as the dominant male. Their teachers were disabled by the White Priders probably against their will as they were reluctant to do so.

Shaka took the first second to ask, "Who are you!?"

"I am Scar's right-hand-lion. And as you can see I've completed my task here by taking over the pride," he peered at the pride members who lowered their heads in shame. "My name is not an issue to anyone who are about to die! Kill them!" he gestured his paw to attack.

The pride members moved out approaching the three adolescents. Against their will or not, they wouldn't hold back. They had to escape. Uzuri and Shaka managed to knock two off and made a way for them to escape.

Shaka's heart beat too fast. His brain was trying to analyze everything he'd just heard. He couldn't think clear, and to make it worse, there was a storm over Kilimanjaro. Dad's dead. The pride had taken over He thought. What should I do? Father! He cried in his head and shedding tears on his face.

It took him five seconds to realize that his way went dead end to the mountainside. A white lioness swiped her claw and made a cut on Shaka's left foreleg wrist, rendered him unable to run. The tan lion emerged from behind the pride and charged at the cornered Shaka.

Shaka blinked. And when he opened his eyes, he saw Sadaka tackled the tan lion and knock him back. "Go!" Sadaka shouted over his shoulder.

Shaka saw Uzuri on a path way lower than him and he slided down with Uzuri stopped him from falling into the mountainside. They looked up to wait for Sadaka. They saw Sadaka's head but then a splash of blood sparked from his back, the tan lion slashed him.

They screamed his name in horror but Sadaka made to speak one final word: "Go," before he collapsed to the cold snow.

Both adolescents would cry if the situation wasn't like this. They ran again, with Uzuri supporting Shaka's shoulder. The pride members chased them down the pathway. They stopped as the tan lion jumped and blocked the way. Pincer attack. Shaka looked at Uzuri one last time before she stopped moving.

She nuzzled him before saying, "Be safe," and then she pushed him falling onto the mountainside.

Shaka rolled down the ground that was covered in thin snow and repeatedly crashed into a rock. Pains quickly shot throughout his body as he continued rolling down. He lost consciousness as he landed in a forest.

Shaka woke up at dark. There was a thin light went from the horizon, cluing that it was past twilight. His eyes wandered around and looked at the mountain. He knew he couldn't come back, they'd kill him. He sat down to think, but couldn't. Two more friends left him alone. He promised to Hasira to make her safe, but he couldn't. He blamed himself for not rescuing her and escaped alone. Tears ran down his cheeks. His sobs broke the silence of the quiet forest, sad enough to make someone to let their presence known.

Sound of tapping was heard from above. It was rhymed like steady drops of water falling into a calm pond. Shaka scanned the airspace but found no one on the trees. But the tapping continued. He shut his eyes close and perked up his ears to try to find out whatever made those tapping. His head turned right slowly and caught a glimpse of white high on the pine trees, but it disappeared from sight as soon as he focused on it.

A chuckle went from the other tree in the opposite side. A leopard came down from a tree and greeted him. He started a conversation by telling Shaka that he would drop dead if he encounters animals like him.

He was around two years older than Shaka. His spotted snow white coat was stained in chocolate mud and scar. He wasn't a normal leopard, he was a snow leopard. But he smiled like it wasn't a big deal when Shaka took a look at it. He walked around Shaka in circles and made the same tapping sounds as he walked.

Shaka asked what he meant and tried to stand but fell back down as soon as he realized his cut wrist and open tear wounds on his back. He let a painful roar that made the snow leopard snap at him to shut him up. The snow leopard grabbed Shaka's foreleg and threw him to his back, saying that he'd attract more predators if he couldn't lower that voice of his. The snow leopard carried Shaka throughout the forest, occasionally encountered a wolf or two but the leopard was too scary to be messed off. They arrived at a large tree with a large room under it with thick roots as decoration. He started to gather some things and several large leaves. It was very cold that night, even him shivered. The leopard lay down and started to patch Shaka's wound. He told Shaka his life story as he did.

The snow leopard had no name as his mother died before gave him one. He was found by a leopardess that took care of him until he was able to fend for his own. He admitted that he was surprisingly skilled. Being able to move around completely soundless and had high tolerance of pain.

Shaka wanted to give him a name, but the leopard scoffed and laughed because numerous tried to but none he liked. Shaka interrupted his laugh by telling the name he had in mind: Ujuzi, it meant "skilled." The leopard took a liking to it and accepted it, congratulating Shaka as the first one to name him. Shaka smiled, but Ujuzi teased him by pressing his wound, making him flinch in pain. They laughed together at it.

Ujuzi nursed Shaka back to health and decided to teach him all things he knew after he head Shaka's story, as sad as he expected. Shaka suggested moving because the White Pride might hunt him, which in turn could result in Ujuzi's death, in which Ujuzi shrugged him off and reminded Shaka who he talked to. But Ujuzi already fought one member and lost. He could imagine what a whole pride could do so he complied and said that he would when Shaka is perfectly fine. He shortly remembered Shaka's painful event and added, "I meant the outside," which earned a grin from the young white.

Ujuzi spent a couple of years with Shaka. With him slowly fall behind Shaka, who already became powerful and mighty, slowly beating him. But their friendship never had severed. They always stand for another and support one another like what brothers would have done. Shaka would play with Ujuzi all day if they weren't hungry and always hunted together as a team. They slept close to one another so that they would be warm for most the nights. They were so close, until one night changed it all.

They stayed near a waterfall they encountered when they were hunting. The Zulu Falls, as the residences around it called, was a rather huge waterfall that streamed from and down into the Zuberi River, also from the residences, in a ravine that continued into a thick forest that covered up most of the door view.

It was night and the duo was just catching their dinner in four days in form of a gazelle and an antelope when a crash sound echoed in the silent night. Ujuzi's eyes narrowed while Shaka's ear perked up. Shaka faked his eating and acted like he didn't bother while Ujuzi turned and walked to the sound source. Shaka ate slowly and kept his ears up to detect any dangers.

A scream of pain was heard. Shaka abandoned his dinner and ran toward Ujuzi, his mind was filled with terrible thoughts. He promptly shrugged it away and had his eyes widened as he saw Ujuzi lying motionless on the ground.

Shaka closed in. Ujuzi was still breathing and struggling to say something very softly like his throat was crushed. Run. But it was too late. As Shaka raised his head to look for the attacker, something swatted his head unconscious.

Ujuzi was gone when Shaka woke up. The surrounding was silent as the night sky. Shaka looked around desperately to no avail.

"Ujuzi!" he shouted.

"Ujuzi!" he shouted again, with no answer.

His tears broke out and he cried on the rushing river. He couldn't stay here. He must move or the killer would find him again. He went downstream with his tears still dripping. He stopped in front of a thick and dark forest. With no choice left, he went into the forest. Silence of the forest helped him calm down. There, he found a lone gazelle grazing beside a pond on an open place. A moment after, he realized that it was already morning and his stomach growled shortly after. Set to kill, he casually walked toward his prey unnoticed and he leaped. He extended his right paw claws and struck its head off.

It is when that a voice distracted him from his prey and led him to a savannah with a large kopje on plain view. It continued to his meeting with Kiburi and Kasi, his battle with the Pride Landers, his more frequent visions, and Hasira's attack.

"Then I met Kiburi and Kasi, son of the King of Pride Lands, Kovu," Shaka said, finishing his story.

Hasira fell silent for a moment. The only sound heard was the wind against the dry stone. The sun had just sent its light on their face, granting the view of the scenery in front of them.

"Then, I went to their pride. Seeing how much company I had way back when the White Pride was still a joyous pride of nice lions . . ." Shaka said, hoping for Hasira's words. "I wonder how they are now," he said as he trotted toward the end of the hill. "I felt bad for leaving them. I wonder if they think I abandoned them."

Hasira's sight locked to his friend as he heard the word 'abandoned'. He recalled the conversation he had with Giza, how she said that Shaka thought he was a burden. But that very word triggered something. A sudden rise in anger made him growl silently and took a stance without his smiling friend knowing. His eyes shrunk in size of a demon and he unsheathed his razor sharp claws, ready to tear down meat and flesh.

"So YOU abandoned ME 'cause I'M a burden, huh? Let me teach you backstabbing bastard a lesson!"

Shaka, run! Watch out for that undead lion! What will happen? Read the next chapter to find out.