The next day, Slade and Logan walked till they reached a rock under a tree in the middle of the gorge. Slade looked at the Logan and gave him a slight smile. "Now you wait here. Your father has a wonderful surprise for you." The green cub's ears shot up and he hopped on the rock.
"Dude! What is it?" Slade gave him a look.
"Don't call me 'dude', and if I told you, it wouldn't be a surprise anymore." Logan gave his uncle a toothy grin.
"If you tell me, I'll still act surprised." Slade fake chuckled.
"Oh, you are such a naughty boy." Logan gave him the sad eyes.
"Come on, Uncle Slade, please."
"No, no This is just for you and your daddy. You know, a sort of... father-son... thing." Logan pouted. "Well! I'd better go get him." Slade stated, as he started to leave Logan tried to follow.
"I'll go with you." Slade quickly turned around.
"No!" he snapped at the cub making him stop in his tracks. Slade regained his composure and fake chuckled again. "No. Just stay on this rock. You wouldn't want to end up in another mess like you did with the hyenas..." Logan was stunned.
"You know about that?"
"Oh, Logan everybody in the Pride Lands knows about that." Logan's ears droop
"Seriously?"
"Yes. Lucky Daddy was there to save you..." Slade leaned in closely to the cub's ear and whispered, "And just between us, you might want to work on that little roar of yours. Hmm?" Logan just nodded feeling embarrassed, as Slade started to leave Logan perked up a little
"Hey, Uncle Slade, will I like the surprise?" Slade stopped and looked over his shoulder.
"Logan, it's to die for." and with that he left. On top of the gorge was a huge herd of wildebeest grazing on the grass and hidden under a rock arch, watching the plant eaters, was the hyena trio, Jinx, Gizmo, and Mammoth. Low growls came from Mammoth and Gizmo's stomachs causing Jinx to glare at them.
"Be quiet. You're going to give us away!" The big hyena held his stomach.
"I can't help it. I'm so hungry..." Gizmo jumped up.
"I gotta have a wildebeest!" Mammoth nodded. Jinx shook her head.
"Stay here." she ordered.
"Can't we just pick off one of the little sick ones?" Mammoth asked. Jinx snapped.
"No! We wait for the signal from Slade." Just then Slade appeared on a rock higher up. "Alright, lets do this," Jinx said. In the gorge, Logan was lying down on the rock thinking of what his uncle said.
"Little roar. Puhh." At that moment a horn lizard walk past him, Logan growled at it but the lizard just kept on moving. Logan hopped off the rock and followed it then he tried again, a bit louder this time. "Rrrraowr-nh!" But the lizard still ignored the cub. Logan got closer, took a very deep breath and, "RAOWR!" This scared the lizard enough that it ran as Logan's roar echoed off the walls of the gorge. The cub grinned proudly at the sound, but then there was a low rumble. Logan looked down and saw pebbles jumping by his paws, he heard birds cawing and saw a them flying above the gorge, then he saw a herd of wildebeests coming over the top of the gorge's wall, Logan's ears completely dropped and he gasped in terror as the wildebeest headed straight towards him. The green cub started to run.
Meanwhile Marcus and Garth were patrolling nearby, Garth was on Marcus's back when he turned his head and saw dust rising out of the gorge. "Guess the wildebeest are on the move again." Marcus looked over.
"That's odd," said the confused king.
"Marcus!" Slade ran up and out of breath he announced, "Hurry.. Stampede. In the gorge... Logan's down there!"
"Logan?" True fear gripped the king as he rushed toward the gorge with Slade by his side.
"I'll fly ahead," said Garth. Logan climbed on a small tree, barely holding on, as wildebeest kept coming. Then Logan saw Garth.
"Garth! Help me!"
"Your father's coming! Just hold on!" He flew away.
"Hurry!" Logan screamed. Marcus and Slade slid down to a ledge, Marcus frantically looked for Logan through the thundering stampede. Garth swooped down.
"He's there! On that tree!" he pointed. Marcus saw him.
"Hold on, Logan!" he shouted. A wildebeest rammed the tree nearly breaking it causing Logan to yell as he almost fell. Marcus jumped off the ledge and ran out into the herd, joining the stampede. Garth flew in front of Slade panicking.
"Slade, what can we do?" Then an idea popped into his head. " I'll go back for help!" Slade saw that Garth wasn't looking and he quickly backhanded the hornbill into a rock wall, knocking him out. Slade then followed Marcus's progress in the shadows. Marcus ran with the herd till he slightly passed the tree. He whipped around the front of some wildebeest and ran into the herd toward Logan. Just then a wildebeest rammed him head on sending him to the ground. Marcus quickly got up and saw one wildebeest slam into the tree, breaking it and launching Logan into the air. The green cub yelled and Marcus, acting fast, jumped and caught Logan with his mouth and carried him to a nearby ledge, Marcus put Logan down
"RRAAR!" The king was immediately struck by a wildebeest and carried off into the stampede.
"DAD!" Logan screamed, he watched in horror as his father disappeared in the herd of wildebeests. Logan kept searching for him, the situation looking more bleak with each passing second. With a roar Marcus leaped out of the stampede to a rocky slope near Logan, the cub watched his father climb, with great difficulty, up the slope then he was out of Logan sight. The green cub turned around and started climbing to the top of the rocky bluff. Marcus was almost on the top, when he saw Slade standing there watching him from above.
"Slade!" Marcus started to lose his grip "Brother! Help me!" Slade just stood there looking coldly at him then suddenly he latches he's claws deep into Marcus paws causing the king to roar in pain. Slade moved in closely with a evil smile on his face as Marcus looked into his brother's soulless blue eye, then Slade said in a low, dark voice that made Marcus pale in horror.
"Long live the king." Slade tossed Marcus off the ledge and the king fell to the raging stampede and the thundering hooves below.
"Nooooooo!" Logan saw his father falling and yelled in horror. When the wildebeest had finally passed through, Logan rushed into the dust filled gorge to find his father. "Dad?" he called, only to hear echoes. He tried again and was greeted by the sound of something coming. "Dad?" he asked. Instead of his father, a baby wildebeest ran by, and Logan's ears drooped in disappointment. The dust started to settle more and Logan could just make out the shape of a lion underneath a bent and trampled tree. Logan walked slowly and anxiously over to the shape and when he was close enough could see that it was, in fact, Marcus. "Dad?" Logan asked. Marcus didn't respond.
"Dad?" he tried again, this time nudging his head. "Come on, you gotta get up." Marcus didn't even move as his head fell back to the ground. "We gotta go home, please wake up." The small cub tried tugging on his ear but had no effect. "Help! Anybody!" Logan called out, seeing if somebody was near enough to help. But all he heard was more echoes. A few tears started to fall from the young cub's eyes as he laid down and curled up next to his dad, sniffling.
"Logan," The cub turned his head to see Slade standing over him. "What have you done?" he asked, no emotion on his face. Logan began to stutter.
"The wildebeest…he tried to save me…I didn't mean for this to happen…"
"Of course not, dear boy," he replied, fake sympathy oozing from his words. "No one ever does. But the king is dead…and if it weren't for you, he'd still be alive," he continued, as Logan hugged his arm. And as if trying to rub more salt into the cub's fresh and deep new wound he asked with a gasp, "What will your mother think?"
"What should I do, Uncle Slade?"
"Run. Run away and never come back." Logan slightly hesitated before running off. Slade sat and watched him as the hyena trio walked up behind him. A small sadistic smile spread across the orange lion's face. "Kill him." And with that simple command, the hyenas began their chase of the small lion. Logan ran as fast as he could as he heard the hungry predators coming after him. The cub skidded to a stop as he came to a dead end. He turned and saw the trio closing in on him, vicious smiles on their faces. Logan started to head toward the wall and slipped through a crack in between the rubble, just barely dodging Mammoth's claws.
He continued to run and came to a steep ledge, but with the hyenas catching up he jumped down and practically rolled down the hill and into a briar of thorns. He was just small enough to enter unharmed. Jinx and Gizmo saw the thorns and skidded to a stop at the very edge of the ledge. They both sighed with relief until Mammoth crashed into them and sent them both flying into the thorns. They both came out screaming as they climbed back onto the ledge where they were greeted by a laughing Mammoth. Jinx limped over and slapped him upside the head before he spotted the cub running out of the thorns and out into the desert.
"Hey there he goes!"
"So go get him, Mammoth!
"No way I'm risking looking like you two!" Jinx rolled her eyes.
"Doesn't matter anyway. He'll be dead in a couple of days. And if he does come back, we'll just kill him." She started to pick the thorns out from her paws and legs. Gizmo, who was in the middle of the same task, yelled out toward the cub,
"You hear that you scruff-munching gunk eater? If you ever come back we'll kill you!" All three started to laugh.
***** Word had spread of Marcus's demise as all the lionesses and Garth gathered around Pride Rock. "It is a terrible tragedy, losing our beloved king. But to lose Logan, as young as he was, is a deep and horrible loss." Marie looked down to at the ground, tears spilling from her eyes, as Garth tried to comfort her. Arella looked over at her daughter who was staring off across the African savannah, away from all the other lions, as a few small tears fell from her eyes. Raven had taken this harder than anybody. She had lost her only friend.
"So it is with a heavy heart that I assume the throne and from the ashes I will bring forth the dawning of a new and glorious reign." At this the others gasped. Hyenas were flowing in from everywhere as Slade went on to say that hyenas and lions would be working together from then on out.
**** Back at her tree, Kori shook her head sadly. Rich sighed. He hated seeing Kori this disappointed. He started to say something, but didn't know what to say. "Oh Rich…I had had such high hopes for him," the red baboon sighed and walked over to the painting of Logan and rubbed her hand across it, smearing the drawing. "Now it seems my hopes have amounted to nothing."
"They weren't for nothing Kori…" the black monkey stated. The red monkey looked over at her friend and gave him a weak smile.
"I wish I could believe you, Friend Rich," was her reply.
**** Out in the middle of the desert, buzzards started to circle the now passed out Logan. They landed and gathered around the cub, about to pick at him, when a dark brown warthog and a yellow maerkat with red lightning shaped streak on his back and sides and blazing red hair, came barreling toward them. They started kicking the birds and making karate sounds while they were at it. "Get out! Get out of here!" the small rodent shouted as the birds squawked. The birds flew away as fast as they could and the pig laughed.
"Man, there's nothing like bowling for buzzards in the morning, huh Wally?" The red-head nodded.
"You got that right Vic! It gets them every time!" he laughed. Vic walked over toward the thing the buzzards had gathered around and called over to Wally.
"Hey man, I think its still alive." Wally raised a curious brow and walked over to the green body.
"What do you think a lion is doing way out here in the middle of nowhere?" Vic shook his head.
"I don't know, but we better find this little guy some shade and water," the brown pig instructed. Wally helped put Logan on the warthog's snout and they carried him off to the one place they knew would help: the oasis. Once there they splashed a little water on him, which seemed to wake the green cub up. He groaned.
"Dude, just five more minutes!" Vic chuckled.
"Man you might want to wake up and drink something. You look pretty dehydrated." Wally nodded in agreement. Logan slowly opened his eyes as they adjusted to the sunlight. He quickly looked around and sighed as he remembered the events that had lead him here.
"You ok man?" Vic asked. Logan just nodded and started to walk back out into the desert but Wally and Vic stopped him. "Hey kid where you going?"
"Nowhere."
"Gosh, he looks kinda blue," Vic said.
"Really? I was thinking more of a light green," Wally joked. Vic rolled his eyes and ran to catch up to the cub.
"Hey, what's eating ya?" Wally walked up to them.
"Nothing! He's at the top of the food chain!" He laughed, and Vic rolled his eyes as Logan managed a small smile. He had thought the joke was funny. "So, where you from dude?" asked Wally once he had stopped laughing.
"It doesn't really matter anymore," the cub replied. "I can't go back after…" he trailed off.
"So you're an outcast, that's cool! Guess what! So are we!" Wally stated with pride.
"So what'cha do man?" Vic asked. Logan just looked at the ground. "I see. So is there anything we can do to help?"
"Not unless you can change the past or something." Wally spoke next.
"You know its times like this that me and Vic here say that you need to put your behind in the past!" Vic stared at him for a second. "I mean your past behind you…right?" he asked looking over at the warthog. Vic nodded slowly.
"I think you better quit thinking before you hurt yourself there Wally." The meerkat glared at his companion. "Anyway, sometimes bad things happen and you can't do anything about it…that's where hakuna matata comes in." Logan looked at the pig confused.
"What?"
"Hakuna matata, it means no worries," Wally clarified.
"Hakuna Matata! What a wonderful phrase."
"Hakuna Matata! Ain't no passing craze," Vic agreed.
It means no worries for the rest of your days!
It's our problem-free philosophy
Hakuna Matata!
Logan looked around at the oasis they were now in and then asked,
"Hakuna matata?"
"Yeah. It's our motto!" Wally stated.
"Um, what's a motto?"
"Nothing. What's a-motto with you?" Wally cracked up at his joke and Logan let out a chuckle. Vic shook his head at both of them.
"Those two words will solve all your problems," Vic promised.
"That's right. Take Vic here," Wally said with a grin.
"Why, when he was a young warthog..."
"When I was a young wart hog!" Vic sang holding the note longer than necessary. Wally rubbed his finger into his ear checking for damage before replying,
"Very nice."
"Thanks."
He found his aroma lacked a certain appeal
He could clear the savannah after every meal
I'm a sensitive soul though I seem thick-skinned
And it hurt that my friends never stood downwind
And oh, the shame
"He was ashamed!" Wally concurred.
Thought of changing' my name!
"What's in a name?" asked Wally.
And I got down-hearted!
"How did ya feel every time that you...?" Vic cut Wally off before he could finish the question.
"Hey! Wally! Not in front of the kids!"
"Oh. Sorry," Wally apologized as Logan just stared at them confused.
Hakuna Matata! What a wonderful phrase
Hakuna Matata! Ain't no passing craze
Logan shrugged and figured that he might as well join in on the fun."It means no worries for the rest of your days!"
"That's right, man!" Vic and Wally both started cheering.
It's our problem-free philosophy
Hakuna Matata!
Hakuna Matata! Hakuna matata!
Hakuna Matata! Hakuna matata!
Hakuna Matata! Hakuna matata!
Hakuna Matata! Hakuna-
It means no worries for the rest of your days
It's our problem-free philosophy
Hakuna Matata!