I don't own the Lion King

Mufasa stretched his neck to get a better look at the approaching shadows. He noticed that his mother, nor his father, were among those shadows. From the look of the lionesses, their heads were bowed to the ground and they held sad looks on their faces. Mufasa ran into the den where he spotted Amar talking with Sarafina and Sarabi. As always, he was showing off on how much of a great king he was going to be. He saw a look of interest on Sarafina's face but he could tell that Sarabi had enough of his cockiness. The two lionesses looked at Mufasa and Amar turned his head to look at him with an annoyed expression. His expression changed to wonder when he saw the alerted look on his brother's face.

"What's wrong?" Amar asked.

"The huntresses have arrived but mother and father are not with them," Mufasa informed him.

Amar's face turned to seriousness. He leaped out of the den and ran towards the lionesses. When he arrived to them, the lionesses looked at him and bowed their heads. "What has happened to mother and father?" Amar demanded.

One of the lionesses looked at him through her tear-stained eyes. She sniffled at said, "your Highness," her voice was choked with sadness, "something terrible has happened."

"What?" Amar demanded.

"We'll show you," another, older looking lioness spoke. She turned her eyes and looked at Mufasa. "Prince Mufasa has to come too."

Amar turned to look at his brother but his brother was already walking towards the lionesses with Sarabi and Sarafina. Amar nudged his head towards the lionesses and said to his brother, "they have to show us something."

Even though Mufasa wasn't with Amar to hear the news, he had a bad intuition. The worried looks on their faces showed that something bad had happened to either his mother or father. He wondered if Amar had any clue about what was going on. He stared behind his older brother's head and saw that his body was relaxed and ears were perked up instead of drooped whenever he felt scared or concerned. As he was following the lionesses, Mufasa felt his heart beating though his chest. The place where they arrived looked too familiar and right before him, he saw the bloodied body of a lion and a lioness resting her head on his black mane. Mufasa looked at Amar and saw that he had halted from his walk and just stared.

The lioness' ears gradually lifted when she heard them. She turned her head and looked that it was her two sons with their lovers and the rest of the pride. Amar noticed the wetness around the lionesses fur, indicating that she had been crying. Seeing his mother cry like that broke his heart. Without saying a word, Uru stepped away from the body and revealed the rest of the dead lion.

Sarabi, Sarafina, Amar, and Mufasa gasped at the sight. Ahadi's throat had been ripped open by a sharp set of claws. His tattered body was covered in bloody scratches. "Father?" Mufasa whispered as he stared at the corpse. Tears welled up in his eyes as one tiny drop trickled from his eye and fell to the ground. Ahadi's mouth was gaped open and his eyes were opened wide as if he was staring into space. The dark blood had soaked his body and mane. Mufasa sniffled as tears continued to drop from his eyes. He felt a paw wrapping around his own and saw that it was Sarabi trying to comfort him. Mufasa gave her a smile and sniffled once more. However, as he sniffled, a series of odors entered his nostrils. One of those odors were hyenas and the other was the odor of a lion that was all too familiar.

"Who could have done this?" Amar suddenly asked as he approached his father's body.

"I think they were hyenas," Mufasa told him. Were they just hyenas or was here another lion involved? he thought.

"SAVAGES!" Amar roared as if he wished a hyena had heard him. Mufasa, Sarabi, Sarafina, Uru, and the rest of the pride were shocked to have heard this lion roar like that. They had usually seen him as the lion that was immature for his age and all of a sudden he was enraged? Amar didn't care what they thought. He was fond of Ahadi and having his father killed like that broke his heart to a million pieces. "That's it!" he yelled as he whipped around and looked at the pride, "when I become king, they all must die!"

Uru sniffled as she looked at Amar. "Your time has come," she said with a deep and hoarse voice, "even if your father is not at your betrothal ceremony, you have reached a certain age where you must take on a very big responsibility."

Amar rose his head and his chest puffed up. "I can do it," he said.

"No," Uru shook her head. "You need to promise me." Her voice grew stern as she looked at Amar. "You need to remember that you are not a cub anymore. Being a king is a huge responsibility because the kingdom and the members are all yours. You are not doing this because you have to. You are doing this because you want to and take your father's place. Now I don't want you to kill every hyena that you see."

"But-" Amar protested.

"They might have killed your father but they are mammals just like you and I. They need to hunt and protect themselves from us just like we do with them."

"Are you saying that you are encouraging those idiots to over hunt and kill us when they have the chance?" Amar asked her.

Mufasa thought about Amar's question. The hyenas would have a pretty good reason as to why they would kill Ahadi. Had he done something to them? All he did was banish them from the Pride Lands because they always over hunted. That could be one motive that they had, or did someone else compromise with them in order to achieve something greater? Such as killing the king so he could become a king?

"No," Uru said, "we cannot keep up with this discrimination between the kingdom. The more we push them away, the more they will retaliate against us. God forbid, they might even kill us."

"You Majesty," Sarafina shyly said as she walked up to Uru. Uru turned her head and warmly looked at the young princess. "I think that Amar might have a point. They hyenas killed my parents and they killed Sarabi's as well."

Uru had completely forgotten about this fact. She could now see that it was a very hard decision. If Amar permitted the hyenas to the Pride Lands, of course they were going to over hunt. If he didn't, they would be fine...but not for long. She looked back at her oldest son, "the choice is yours."

"Are you sure?" she asked him.

"Yes," Amar nodded, "I promise that I won't let you down. I have seen father ruling the kingdom and I know what it's like."

Or you were too bust pinning down the pride Mufasa thought but decided to keep his mouth shut.

"I won't let you down," Amar assured her, "and as my first order of business, I will make sure to kill every hyena that steps foot in the Pride Lands."

Sarafina's eyes sparkled when he said that. Looks like from a lion cub, he became a real lion. Now he sounded more mature and ready to be a king. However, did Amar's personality change as a result of his father's death? If his father had not been murdered would he still be the cub lion that he used to be?

Uru slowly nodded her head. Amar approached her and gave her an affectionate nuzzle. "And another thing," he added, "when I become king, I will overrule my brother's banishment. He will come back."

Uru gave him a sad smile. She wanted her little Taka to be with them. Without him, they weren't a family.

At a nearby bush, Scar had been closely watching his former pride looking over his father's body. He had heard every single word coming out of Amar's mouth. Those words were absolutely delicious. He was almost going to be permitted into the Pride Lands, which made it easier for him to get closer to his oldest brother and carry out his plan. The only problem that got in the way was how was he going to lead three slobbering, mangy, stupid poachers into the Pride Lands?

All in good time Scar thought. He crouched lower as the saw the lionesses softly pushing Ahadi's body into a hole that they dug. They filled up the hole and with bowed heads, they headed back home. Uru stayed behind for a while. She looked at the dirt and tears escaped her eyes and landed onto the dirt.

"I love you Ahadi," she whispered as she touched the dirt and made her paw print there.

Scar gave her an empathetic look. He softly sighed. He hadn't meant for things to go this way but they had to happen. Things would have been different if Ahadi had payed more attention to him. He got up from the ground and walked away without looked back.