Wow, this chapter's SUPER short! Or at least, I think it is…

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"I still don't think it's safe for him to be here," Zazu repeated as he and Mufasa wandered around Pride Rock. The sun had set, and darkness was coming down on the savannah. "What if the rumors are true?"

"He's only a boy," Mufasa replied. "He's injured, and he seems to realize we're not a threat to him."

"He almost killed you!"

"He wouldn't have. He doesn't seem capable of taking a life so easily. Besides, he was afraid and confused. Anyone would have done the same thing he did."

"Very well, but I still think we need to get him out of here as soon as possible."

"I agree. He must have a family that misses him." Mufasa stopped and looked out over the vast grass-covered fields. "In the meantime, try not to let your mistrust show."

"Yes, your majesty."

After a while, Mufasa returned to the cave. Simba had finally been allowed inside, under the condition that he be absolutely quiet. The cub was now sniffing Edward curiously, and he was about to poke the human with his paw when he saw Mufasa watching him.

"Um, hi, dad," Simba said, trying to act casual. "I was just getting ready for bed…"

"Nice try. Didn't I tell you not to disturb him?"

"Sorry."

Mufasa smiled at his wayward son and gestured to the back of the cave. Simba got the hint, slowly walked back and lay down. Mufasa then watched Edward for a while. The human seemed to be sleeping peacefully enough, but a closer look showed that he was shivering.

After a moment, Edward rolled onto his right side and made a feeble attempt to curl into a ball. At that moment, one of the nearby lionesses approached.

"He must be freezing without fur," she said. "Poor little guy."

Mufasa looked down at her. "Would you mind…" he began, gesturing with his head toward Edward.

"Not at all," she replied, and she walked around and lay down next to Edward. A few minutes later, another lioness approached and lay down on Edward's other side. Mufasa smiled to himself as he checked on his son. Edward would be fine tonight.

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When Ed woke up, he felt some sort of pressure on his chest. He slowly opened his eyes, blinked a few times, and closed them again. Something was off here; all he could see was gold. Oh well, maybe he'd regain his vision if he kept his eyes shut for a while longer…

He opened his eyes again a while later, after drifting unintentionally drifting off to sleep. It was much the same as last time, his vision was obscured by gold, but this time he heard voices, and the gold moved.

The pressure on his chest increased slightly, and Ed found himself moving against his will. He moved his head a bit and looked up to see a lot of sharp teeth. He froze.

Pressure on his chest, gold, teeth… Damn, he was about to get his head chomped off by a lion.

He lay perfectly still. Maybe he'd survive if he pretended he didn't know what was going on. If he struggled, he'd definitely die. There was no way he'd survive against a lion. No, make that two lions. He could see one jaw, but he could feel a hot breath on the back of his neck. Great, he was going to be ripped in half by two lions who each wanted a part of the meat…

"Be careful of his arm," he heard Mufasa say. Oh, of course, who would want to break their teeth on a big hunk of metal? Ed considered struggling against his captors, using alchemy or something along those lines, but he probably wouldn't be able to move quickly enough. Unless he was subtle in his movements…

"That's why we're waiting for him to wake up," he heard a female voice say. It sounded like the one behind him. Oh, so they were going to wait until he could feel them tearing through his flesh and-

"I think he's awake now," said another female voice, and Ed shrank back as the teeth moved down to his level, accompanied by the rest of the head. This was it, he was going to die here, he knew it-

"Edward?"

Ed blinked. Did they want to tell him he was about to die? He thought he could have figured it out on his own, but he wasn't really in a position to argue.

To his surprise, however, the pressure eased on his chest, and Ed pulled his left arm in front of him to inspect it. It looked like he'd be fine. He slowly pushed himself into a sitting position, only to come face-to-face with Mufasa.

"I hope that didn't startle you," the lion said. "We didn't want you to get sick from the cold."

Ed blinked a few more times. So he wasn't about to be eaten by lions? Well, great, now I feel stupid. Good thing I didn't say anything…

"Are you feeling any better today?" Mufasa asked.

"Yeah, some…" Ed replied. Okay, if the lions couldn't speak to him, then he'd be more likely to believe this, but… he was talking. To lions. This was not good, not good at all…

"Are you still in denial?" Mufasa asked. Ed looked up. Dang, the beastie could see right through him.

"Yes?" Immediately after he spoke, Ed cringed. He sounded stupid, afraid, young… He'd have to work on keeping his voice level around these peop- creatures.

"I see," Mufasa said before walking toward the entrance to the cave. "Let's sit outside for a while."

Ed nodded and pushed himself to his feet. His right leg was weak, but his automail was fine; what was left of his leg could still support him. He slowly limped outside and sat down near the edge of the rock, looking out at the surrounding landscape. It was breathtaking.

"You can probably see it for yourself, but there are no humans around here," Mufasa said as he sat down next to Ed. "It's a good thing we can understand one another."

"Yeah," Ed replied. It probably would have been the same either way, but at least he didn't have to live in constant fear of getting his head chomped off. Or at least, it was a less prominent fear. He still wasn't sure whether he could trust these peo- creatures.

"It's so familiar," Ed said after a while.

"Hm? You sound surprised."

"Yeah, well, I don't exactly live somewhere where lions roam the land. All I know is what I learned in school, and that wasn't much," Ed replied as he leaned back against the stone. "It's just that, even though I really want to go back and find my brother, part of me feels like I belong here. In a way, it's like home."

"Perhaps there's a reason it feels that way," Mufasa suggested.

Ed shrugged. "Well, there is a lot of grass. And there's nothing here."

"There's plenty here. You just can't see it yet."

Ed looked back at Pride Rock, where the cubs, Simba and Nala if he remembered correctly, were playing. "No, I guess not."

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So, just in case it wasn't clear, when Mufasa said something about Ed's arm, it was a warning not to disturb Ed's arm, because it's injured…? Gah, I don't remember if it was or not, and I'm too tired and lazy to check it/rewrite it, so I'm just leaving it. Now for some random thoughts to make this chapter seem longer than it actually is:

1. For some reason, I find the fact that lion was misspelled as loin in one of my reviews incredibly funny. Almost as funny as breandead, but not quite. And it's nowhere near as funny as those times I just can't get the key combos right for smileys on MSN… (and I get the feeling my good ol' breandead friend will be commenting on this over yahoo messenger next time we chat…)

2. I tried to see if I could think of a reasonable Danny Phantom/CSI crossover plot, but somehow, I failed. I just couldn't do it.

-cough-

Now is the time for you to be in absolute shock. Although, now that I think about it, I can picture something along the lines of:

CSI character: We found your son's fingerprint on the roof of the Hazmat Hotel (lol making up stuff).

Jack: Well, that's odd. I didn't even know that was a hotel.

Danny: -to himself- Wait a minute, I wear gloves in ghost mode!

Yeah. That's all I got.

3. So, just as I was trying to think of something to put as 3, the fire alarm went off, and all of us got to go outside at 12:45. In Montana. At night. Half of us wearing flip flops and the rest wearing sneakers or slippers (I had my fuzzy slippers :3). Because some moron just had to be stupid and made a smoke bomb go off on one of the floors. I just now got back inside, and it's… 1:26. Good thing the only class I have tomorrow is an art lecture…

Okay, so the chapter's up to four pages and 5 lines, that's good enough for me. XD