Lion King III: The Chosen Ones

Wanderer's Arc

Chapter Twelve: Shadow Pride

After another few hours of walking, Tanabi and the Shadow Pride had finally chosen a good enough place to rest for the night. It was slowly getting dark outside, as the vast sky above them was turning a dark blue color up above. Everyone had sat in a little circle huddled together from the slight chill in the air, which disturbed Tanabi a bit. How did it get so cold so quickly?

He sighed slightly, the ex-Prince hoped to get out of the god-forsaken desert very soon. Tanabi didn't think he could handle such annoying changes.

The two lionesses who managed to get a kill for the day began to split their catch within the pride. As it came to Nyarai's turn, Kufuru swiftly snarled, catching the two off guard.

"What do you think you are doing?" Kufuru demanded of the lionesses," She didn't bring anything. Don't pity her."

"I'm…I'm sorry my highness," one lioness stumbled on her words hesitantly before chalking this up as a loss. She gave Nyarai a sympathetic look before giving Naima the last piece, returning to her spot.

Tanabi glanced at the worn out Nyarai with a frown on his mussle. That's kind of messed up, Tanabi thought to himself Even I got something and I'm the new one around here.

He shook his head, he should have been grateful to Kufuru for his kindness, not questioning any of his methods. The next thing he knew, everybody had bowed their heads and closed their eyes over their pieces of meat, including Kufuru. Naima nudged him in the side roughly, glaring at him.

"Bow already," she muttered angrily out of the side of her mouth.

Tanabi snorted before closing his eyes. He waited as Kufuru started to talk, keeping one eye open for boredom's sake.

"Thank you Jabari for this plentiful meal and for allowing us to live for another day," Kufuru replied. The other lionesses repeated after him in hushed tones." Please continue to bless us with your good will, your wisdom and protection. Let us follow your will and forgive Nyarai for her transgressions against you. Asante."

"Asante."

With that, they opened their eyes and started eating. Watching the pride dig in, King Kufuru and his lackey Kato left to survey the area.

So they're overly religious too. Damn, does anybody not believe in the circle of life these days? Tanabi asked himself, eyeing the pride weirdly. Praying to an invisible force never made sense to the teenage lion. Why praise someone that you couldn't even see? It was like thanking water, it wasn't going to talk back to you, so what was the point?

Tanabi shrugged. He wasn't going to spend any more time on abstract thinking when he could be shutting up his complaining stomach. Taking a precautionary sniff at the piece of meat in front of him, he tore into it as quick as he could. The brown lion ripped into the meat, slicing the skin completely off the bone in an instant. Before continuing, he caught Nyarai and Naima watching him with wide eyes. Nyarai laughed amusedly at Tanabi's voracity while Naima looked on in disgust.

"Wow. You really are feral," Naima remarked with no small amount of disgust."Slow down, nobody is gonna take it from you."

Tanabi gulped down the meat in his mouth, ignoring her. The ex-Prince hadn't eaten within the past couple of days. If his lack of manners made him feral, Naima would just have to shut up and deal with it. He continued to claw and gnaw on his meal in a frenzy, earning more quips of protest from her.

"Aww. Leave the guy alone, Naima," an elderly lioness chided a wry smile on her mussle. "He's growing and it's in a lion's nature to be a little messy."

The old lioness was a thin grey colored lioness with dark grey on her mussle, paws and stomach. Much like the other Shadow Pride lionesses, her ears were ruffled on top. She had long chin hair and dark spots were also present on each side of her mussle. The elderly lioness had ice blue eyes, their pupils barely visible and wrinkles were met around her eyes and nose.

"Oh, come off it. You know all you want to do is flirt with poor Gwala," Her companion beside her grinned knowingly. She was a dark tangerine colored lioness with a brown mussle and stomach, her eyes was a light shade of green. Turning to Tanabi, she added, "If I were you, hon, I'd sleep with one eye open because when Eshe's feeling frisky…"

Her sharp voice was cut off from Eshe putting a paw over her mouth. The orange lioness playfully rolled her eyes in amusement.

"Shut up, Iman. Just because I like to have a little fun now and then, doesn't mean I'll jump at every young lion." Eshe shot back impulsively, earning another snicker from Iman who returned to eating her meal.

Tanabi shifted awkwardly at this and pretended that he didn't hear a word of their conversation. What could be worse than the thought of elderly lionesses…talking about their activities.

"…So. Gwala?" another lioness perked up with a very deep voice. The brown lion instinctively cringed; her voice was deeper than his. "You never said anything about where you are from. I'm Gunju by the way."

The ex-Prince stared at her, if you could call her that, in open confusion. The lioness looked rather muscular and bigger than average, but the soft look of her light brown pelt took off some of her masculine edge, but not much. Gunju, no doubt, had the face of a lion with excess whiskers and what looked to be the start of a tuft.

Lionesses don't have those… Tanabi thought to himself confusedly. Averting his eyes in order to stop being so rude, he quickly added a small. "No ma'am, I didn't."

Beside him, Naima loudly burst into a fit of laughter.

"Oh! That's priceless!" Naima laughed, pointing at the fuming lion who was clearly offended that Tanabi called him "ma'am". "Ha! I told your ass that you looked like a lioness! Didn't I?"

"You're a guy?" Tanabi rudely blurted out, backing away as soon as he put two and two together," There's no way! How could you be a lion looking like that?"

Gunju growled as the rest of the pride laughed light heartedly at Tanabi's horror.

"I'm just a late bloomer that's all!"

"Late bloomer? Yeah right! You're older than Gwala and you still haven't grown in your mane!" Naima wheezed, still laughing hysterically, wiping the tears from her eyes." God, Gwala, you shoulda seen the look on your face!"

"You have no room to talk, Naima," Gunju threatened the light colored lioness," Look at yourself for once! You have all the forehead fur in the world to make us both manes. I'm surprised Gwala has stopped looking at that big forehead of yours."

Naima stopped laughing and narrowed her lilac eyes," 'Cuse me? Do you wanna say it to my face?"

"Would you two stop it already?" Nyarai roared at her grown cubs, shutting them up." Look how you are acting in front of our guest, its embarrassing. I know I raised you better than this." Nyarai then turned to the ex-Prince, bowing her head apologetically. "I'm sorry for any trouble, Gwala."

"It's fine." Tanabi replied.

The siblings' argument had left him feeling nostalgic. He remembered how he and Ayira used to fight over the most stupid things. The brown lion never thought that he'd find miss his older annoying sister and found himself wondering what she was up to now, if she was even alive.

No, don't think about the Pride lands, Tanabi told himself angrily, shoving the useless thoughts aside. He wanted nothing more to do with his family, he didn't need them anymore. Tanabi was a full grown rogue, which meant that any ties he once had were cut long ago. He struggled and fought for his survival out on his own, there was no way he could turn back now.

Tanabi would have to live with the guilt forever, he knew that. Even if he allowed himself to feel homesick, even if Ayira was alive this day waiting for him to return home…the place he once felt safe would be marred by the memories of the attack. If he went home, who would welcome him back? His father and probably his mother, hated him for the accident, no matter how much it wasn't Tanabi's fault. The pride wouldn't want anything to do with a cowardly fallen prince who couldn't stay around to own up to his own mistake. Tanabi left that faithful night to fix things, it was his choice to run away on his own terms and he had to stick with it. No matter how much it hurt.

Naima picked up on his dark mood and she looked at him with sympathetic eyes.

"Gwala? Are you okay?" she asked softly, shaking him out of his thoughts.

The brown lion resisted the urge to shout he wasn't okay and he would never be okay, but he only nodded wordlessly. He wasn't idiotic enough to think that telling a complete stranger about his past would clear things up. Taking this as a sign, Naima smiled and cheerfully returned to whatever she was talking about.

Excusing himself from the pride, Tanabi wandered a short distance and laid down in the sand. He watched them the whole night, with cold uncaring eyes, as he struggled internally with his demons.

OooO

The next morning was unwelcomed one as far as Tanabi was concerned. The Shadow Pride had woken up early, ready to move on to their next destination. One of the lionesses had been unfortunate enough to try and wake Tanabi from his sleep just like Naima had done the day before. Before Tanabi could begin another assault, Naima was able to snap the ex-Prince from his personal fight.

Tiredly and still very anxious from the night terror, Tanabi followed the rest of the Shadow Pride deeper into the desert lead by Kufuru. Most of the time, everybody was pretty quiet during their journey except for the younger cubs who complained about the long walk. Even Tanabi was pretty confused about this arrangement, just where were they going exactly? He sincerely hoped that they were going back to their home, where ever it was, because he was sick of the desert.

When it was mid-morning, the pride had taken a little break. Tanabi was grateful for this and he sat down in the hot sand in relief.

"What's wrong, Gwala? Don't tell me you are tired already?" Naima asked with her usually cheerful smile on her mussle as she licked her paw. "You remind me of Gunju, only you don't whine half as much."

"Funny. Did you come up with that one all on your own?" Gunju replied sarcastically as he sprawled out onto the hot sand, burying his face in it in exasperation. "I am so tired of the desert! When are we getting out of here?" he complained.

"Would you stop whining? If you going to be a lion, at least act like it," Naima retorted with the air of someone who had explained herself one too many times. "Kufuru said that it would take at least another three days." she smirked as Tanabi and Gunju both let out a collective sigh.

"Is your home some place close?" Tanabi asked as he picked out the sand from his mane with a frown before giving up.

"Home?" Naima and Gunju asked curiously.

"…Uh yeah...Y'know? The place where you live?"

"We don't have one," Naima replied, making the brown lion frown questioningly."Our pride has been wandering for a long time now. It is what our ancestors started and now we are supposed to follow. We are looking for the Promised Land, a place where pure water runs endlessly and the land is always green. Sadly, nobody has found it yet and our ancestors have died trying to look."

"There's such a place?" Tanabi asked curiously, his attention now grabbed. His mind cruelly whispered that it sounds like they want to take over the Pride lands but he quickly shut his mind up.

Naima laughed a little."According to the prophecy, they say that each generation of king leads us closer to the promised land," Her lilac eyes slowly darkened and she started to tense. "This time Eshe, our prophet, is really sure that Kufuru will be the one to do it. But looking at us now, I'm not sure. The twleve of us are the last of our pride."

"Last? What happened to the others?"

The off colored lioness opened her mouth but stubbornly shut it and averted her eyes, barely concealing a sense of anger in them. The sudden change in Naima's whole face took Tanabi aback; he wouldn't have expected such a reaction from a cheerful lioness like her.

Gunju also had a frown on his mussle, but he didn't drop his gaze,"It doesn't matter, we're forbidden to talk about it. But as long as we are under King Kufuru's guidance, we'll make it through."

"Yeah, we'll get by. No matter who's lost," Naima remarked distantly, as she pawed at the ground. She then tried a half hearted attempt at a laugh and straightened up. "But like Gunju said, it doesn't matter! It doesn't matter. We have you now as part of the pride and that's great. I know we really sounded weird...so are you sure you wanna get stuck with us?"

As cryptic and disturbingly vague their statements were, Tanabi shrugged. He figured the worst that had happened was a death in their past that made the two overly sensitive and if they say it didn't matter, he wasn't going to push it. Besides he had nowhere else to call home, at least now he didn't have to fight fang and claw to just survive.

"Listen up everyone!" Kufuru demanded as everyone stopped what they were doing and turned to listen to their King."Today we will be changing the hunting parties around. Gwala, you will be with Naima and Fahari. Gunju will accompany Imani and Eshe. Nyarai will stay behind and take care of Chiumbo."

"What?" Naima cried out in shock, "Me and my mother have always been in a hunting party together! Why is today any different?"

"Because your mother is obviously too incompetent to hunt," Kato sneered at the young lioness, "After your failure to bring anything back, it's obvious that you two don't need to be together. Gwala will keep you in line."

"Who asked you, Kato?" Naima snapped, the fur on her back rising up. Kato hissed at her angrily.

Nyarai put a paw on her daughter's shoulder and shook her head.

"Let it go, Naima." Nyarai warned, levelly and softly.

"No!" Naima shouted, "It's not fair. Why do you always blame everything on us? Me and mom always bring something back. We do more than our share for the pride and you know it Kufuru, we've done it long before you became king! Eshe and Iman have only got a few kills in the space of a year and yet they get a slap on the wrist? What's the fairness in that?"

Kufuru's dark blue eyes flashed angrily and the next thing Tanabi knew, he backpawed the young lioness across the jaw, making her fall to the ground with a cry. Tanabi wanted to go to her aid, but held back. Any interference could mean he would have to deal with Kufuru as well. As much as he hated Kufuru's method of shutting Naima up, there was nothing he could do.

"Is this the thanks I get for allowing you to live among us?" Kufuru roared threateningly at Naima, "Is this the thanks I get for sparing your lives after your treacherous father brought us to ruin? Is it?"

When he got no response from Naima, he growled."That is what I thought. Let me tell you one thing, one more screw up and Jabari will inflict his divine punishment on you and your mother."

Naima hung her head in defeat as the King towered over her. Eventually he relented and let the lioness stagger to her paws without the aid of anyone. The atmosphere became very thick and silent as Kufuru looked among his subjects, daring them to speak out against him. His eyes locked on to Tanabi's and he quickly singled the adolescent out.

"Gwala!" he called out to the ex-Prince, who put on an impassive mask of obedience, one that told Kufuru the display didn't shock him in the slightest.

"Yes, my king."

"Keep her in line. We don't want today's incident to repeat itself."

"Of course."

Wooh, Tanabi...just who are you hanging out with O_o? Anyways, I apologize for the almost double post but I already had this chapter typed up and plus I might not be able to update next week or the week after that because like I have said in my profile moving is a bitch. Next chapter we go back to Pride Rock and find out how the folks back there are coping with the change. It'll prolly surprise you. Another thing is the Wanderer's Arc will be the biggest arc yet so the quicker I get these chapters up, the quicker the plot will thicken. A big thanks to Hikari 123 for helping me name my new pride and Prince of Pride for being so interested in my story ^^! And for the rest of you jokers review.

Names:

Eshe: Life

Iman: Faith

Gunju: Wild Cat

Fahari: Pride

Edit: 11/5/10