Chapter Eleven: Enter the Storm

Lion and tiger clashed. Claws and teeth came face-to-face. In an instant both the lion pride and the tiger clan had charged into each other in the midst of the gorge, thus commencing the battle for the Pride Lands. As Khan had intended, the tigers showed no mercy to the lionesses; savaging them as if they were but lone prey.

One of the tigers lunged at Nala, who stood her ground and within moments the two were locked in a battle of claws and teeth. The tiger struck out at Nala, who dodged it just in time, retaliating with a swipe to the tiger's head, which caught him square in the jaw and caused him to stagger. With a grunt of fury, the tiger pounced at Nala, falling on top of her; she could feel the hot warm breath of the tiger at her throat but, utilising a trick she had learnt in her childhood, flipped the tiger over her and sank her teeth into his throat. The tiger grunted, coughed and lay still.

Never before in the history of the Pride Lands had such a huge battle taken place; almost every lioness had their own tiger to contend with, while Simba and Kovu occasionally came up against two at a time. Vitani, who was fighting against the tiger Riaz, was continuously slashing at his face with each paw. Riaz roared in agony, unable to bear the pain, just as Vitani slashed at his eye.

"You maggot! My eye! Y—you've blinded me!" screamed Riaz, covering his now dark eye with his paw. Seeing her chance, Vitani lunged at Riaz and tackled him to the ground.

"Now you're mine," gloated Vitani; but just as she prepared to land the final blow she felt a crashing force hit her, sending her flying off a few feet away from Riaz. Vitani groaned as she got to her paws again, realising that two tigers had just killed a lioness and thrown the body at her.

Slightly dazed from receiving the weight of the dead lioness's body in her ribs, Vitani staggered towards the blurred visions of the two tigers ahead of her. Riaz, however, had also gotten to his paws, still clutching his blinded eye.

"Kill that mole rat!" yelled Riaz to the two tigers, indicating the flustered Vitani. With a nod of their heads, the two tigers rushed at Vitani who had only time to whisper her brother's name, "Kovu…", before she was tackled to the ground and felt rows and rows of sharp fangs piercing her body; from her head to her stomach to her throat. Two minutes later they left Vitani's lifeless body, licking their lips.

An hour into the battle, both armies had suffered losses. Four tigers had been killed, mostly thanks to the efforts of Simba, Nala and Kovu; while the tigers had claimed the lives of six lionesses. Both Simba and Kovu had been running through the battlefield; fighting their own battles, assisting where they can and keeping the lionesses' morale high. After fighting off a number of tigers, both lions came back-to-back in the midst of the battle.

"You're doing great Kovu," encouraged Simba. "I knew I made the right decision when I made you Captain."

"This fight isn't over yet, your majesty," said Kovu, turning to face Simba and smiling.

"Hey, where's Khan?" asked Simba, looking around the gorge.

"I saw him fighting off a couple of lionesses not so long ago," said Kovu.

Just then there was a loud rumble, which shook the gorge from head to toe, and the ground began to tremble violently. All over the gorge, the battle had stopped; every tiger and lioness were no longer fighting but looking out to the open path ahead of them, worried. Kovu heard one of the tigers whisper to another, "What's going on?" to which the other shook his head in the same ignorance. Silence took over the battlefield for a moment and Simba saw that the pebbles on the ground were shaking enthusiastically. Suddenly the silence was shattered as three huge trumpet-like sounds erupted in the distance.

"That sound," said Kovu. "It sounded like an elephant."

And moments later, to the horror of both the lions and tigers, a huge army of elephants had burst into sight and were stampeding towards them; blowing their trunks violently and destroying everything in their path.

"Run! Now!"

No one cared as to whether it was their leader giving the command, both the lionesses and tigers turned and fled down the gorge as the elephants closed in on them.

Just avoiding being stomped on, Simba watched in horror as the mad elephants stomped on both lioness and tiger alike. Those that were unable to escape being caught by the elephant's trunks were hurled across the gorge, slammed into the cliffs and lay lifeless. Getting to his paws, Simba suddenly realised the one way they could have any chance of avoiding the elephants' massive feet.

"Everyone! Try and stay between their legs! They won't be able to stamp on you!" he yelled; his voice echoing around the gorge but it was too late. All around him both lionesses and tigers were being crushed under the stampeding elephant's feet or being thrown into the rocky cliff-face.

Simba scanned the gorge, while trying his best to stay between the elephants' legs, searching through the chaos for Nala or Kovu but to no avail. His eyes instead darted upwards to the top of the cliff and there, overlooking the death and chaos below him, was Khan. He simply sat there, with a broad, sinister smile on his face, as he watched both lionesses and tigers perish. With a roar of fury, Simba plunged towards him; dodging elephants and fleeing tigers; determined to catch Khan before he could get away. However, just as he reached the cliff-face he felt the twisting grasp of an elephant's trunk around his body and, seconds later, was thrown across the gorge. He slammed straight into the cliff-face, slid down it and crashed in a heap on the ground, motionless.