…After a few awkward tumbles as he plummeted down a steep ledge, a jolting pain instantly struck into his right side once he finally crashed to the ground, nearly knocking him unconscious.
The nerve of his nephew.
He laid there for only a few moments, but it seemed far much longer in his mind. Thoughts about what had just happened were lingering, swirling around in his head. In his stupor, he attempted to at least stand up. Perhaps he still had a chance.
Blinking his eyes open, he couldn't see much around him- except, of course, for the fiery inferno surrounding him. The flames noisily ate away at dry shrubbery and grass.
Then, out of the flickering fire before him, three figures made their way up on a boulder, glaring rather maliciously at him with yellow eyes.
Shenzi, Banzai, and Ed.
A rush of relief came over Scar. Surely they would help him overthrow Simba and his allies. If they hurried, they could still win!
"Ahhh, my friends," Scar began to say, pulling his old flattery trick on them. Suddenly, his hyena trio appeared although they couldn't believe their ears.
"'Friends'?" Shenzi chuckled as she quoted him. She glanced over to Banzai. "I thought he said we were the 'enemy'." She and Banzai grinned deviously.
"Yeah! That's what I heard," Banzai agreed, showing his bared teeth as he grinned.
It began sinking in for Scar. The realization that they were no longer on his side. Unadulterated horror flooded within Scar, filling him all the way to the marrow of his bones.
No.
How stupid could he have been? His previous conversation with his nephew, Simba… how he had blamed the hyenas for Mufasa's murder… his henchmen proved to be smarter than they looked.
Shenzi and Banzai then crept their glance over to their last member in their trio, curiously asking for his opinion.
"…Ed?" they said together.
Ed the hyena, who Scar once thought to be quite the idiot, grinned along with them. But this time, it was completely different.
It was not his usual idiotic grin.
"Eh, he he he. He he," he chuckled, his tongue came across his lips in a smack, revealing the shine off his teeth. It honestly scared Scar, finally noticing how sharp hyena's teeth were.
But it didn't matter anymore, because he had just noticed that all the other hyena packs, male and female members, were slowly moving closer to him, shoulders hunched, and grinning wickedly at him. All of their eyes eerily glowed an unpleasant green color. To add to Scar's rising fear, they all gave whines of frightening laughter.
Scar took a step back.
Nothing could be done. It dawned on him that this was going to be it. He was about to experience the cruel side of nature.
"No, l-l-let, let me explain!" Scar protested, shakily stepping back. His mind ran off with all sorts of excuses. "No, you don't understand! No! I didn't mean-"
The hyenas cornered him against the back of a rock wall, grinning evilly, saliva running down their daggered teeth. The disturbing smiles on their faces, the looks in their eyes… it was almost too frightening to look at. Scar couldn't keep the terror locked up any longer.
"NO! NO!" Scar shouted over their wicked laughter. He stepped back, hitting the back of a red rock wall. "No, honestly, I-"
The hyenas hunched lower to the ground, their grins remaining on their faces. They prepared to pounce. Scar pressed himself against the back of the rock wall, shielding himself.
"NO, GET OFF!" But one hyena jumped at him, much too soon to Scar's liking. He truthfully almost yelped, and mouthful of fangs punctured into the side of his neck, along with plenty of others.
The hyenas tore at Scar's neck, ripping out tufts of his mane. Scar knew he was done for, but he swiped them away fearfully, fighting back for his life.
The hyenas that had their teeth already pierced under his skin began to violently shake their head, ripping away his body in growls. Pain began to rise increasingly throughout Scar's system. Some hyenas had made it to his spine already, hanging ruthlessly to his muscles. The fire around them roared like a reckless storm, trapping both Scar and the hyenas inside a circle of a blazing inferno.
It would take a miracle to get out of this one.
Then, out of the sky, water began to fall upon the fire.
Scar tried to run, straining himself to move away from the hyenas, who mercilessly clamped their jaws around slabs of his skin, slowly ripping in the process of his escape. Scar cringed as he made his way forward. Now blood was spouting. But the rain had gotten to his flesh, slightly- only slightly- easing the pain.
The sky had gotten dark and black, and the fire around them all had droned out, leaving bits of glowing embers.
The ground beneath the hyenas and Scar was getting drenched.
The dirt was transforming into mud, sinking Scar's legs deeper into the ground. Mud clung onto hyena and lion fur. The pressure of the constant movement above the ground was doing something to the thin, soaked ground. Rain was seeping deeper under the mud...
Scar was about ready to stop trying to make an escape… and let the hyenas lead him to his fate.
Nobody noticed at first… and Scar could have been hallucinating- but the ground beneath their feet was… sinking.
The hyenas slowly started to take note of this. One after another, they paused what they were doing and released hold on Scar. The hyena packs peered into the ground. Their paws were caked in black, wet mud… which was sinking up to their ankles… their knees…
The ground then suddenly sped up the process until to everyone's sudden surprise, the whole ground beneath them fell down into chunks of mud like a trapdoor, sending the hyenas- and Scar- plunging down under the earth.
"Whah-!" Shenzi suddenly yelped, as she and the rest of her kind tumbled down into a blackened tunnel.
This tunnel… was recently constructed by meerkats.
Scar was falling with them- but he thought quicker than any of them. He slammed his paws fiercely into the ground in front of him, stopping him from falling further under the meerkat tunnel. His claws were staked in black mud.
Scar's hind legs dangled under the ground, while the upper half of his body was clawing the mud for friction to stop from sinking. He had created a few stray claw streaks in the mud, but Scar finally found a secure hold on the ground.
Scar didn't have to hold on very hard, having the mud lock his paws into the ground.
The old lion had a dreading feeling that any second, he was going to feel a jolt of pain from one of his back legs- by some hyena chomping into it and dragging him down under. But he had a reassured feeling that they all were long gone beneath the muddy burrow, unable to hear their voices or movements anymore.
He wasn't terribly injured, but Scar had now become weary beyond belief. He breathed in and out silently and leaned forward into the ground. He rested the side of his head into the mud, closing his eyes. This wasn't exactly the most dignified position for a king, but Scar truthfully didn't care. He was alive, which was all he cared for at this point.
Thunder gently rolled in the distance as rain continued to patter down onto the earth. Scar wasn't thinking about anything in particular other than resting for a few moments. He knew he was getting soaked with water, and his fur must have been caked in black mud, but once again, he didn't care.
Scar just listened to his lungs whistle as rain hit the ground around his head. The temperature of the rain was dropping, but it was tolerable. Scar then heard the faint roar of an animal… coming from Pride Rock.
Simba. Scar concluded.
His nephew was king. Simba was at the highest, noblest peak of the Pride Lands, while Scar's pride was off to the side for the moment. Just struggling to just be back up on the surface of the ground.
It dawned on Scar that he couldn't stay suspended above in this hole forever. He had to climb back up.
Scar lifted his head, bringing a coat of mud back up, and pulled his paw up off the ground to climb, but he inched down, sinking deeper.
"-MN!" Scar's face contorted and immediately clawed at the ground again, stopping his fall.
His dead brother suddenly came to Scar's mind… how Mufasa had struggled to stay planted on that cliff in the same fashion. This was going to be harder than Scar originally thought.
He took a few moments to recover… bracing himself to try again.
Scar raised a hind leg below and placed it into the wall of the burrow, struggling to push himself up and out. He scrambled into the mud, bringing himself out of the hole, and finally back up on solid ground.
Scar limped away from the collapsing burrow and headed to a slate of rock, hitting his flanks against the side to catch his breath and rest.
Rain continued to pour down upon him, soaking his fur.
He had tumbled off of a three-story cliff. Nearly scorched alive. Practically mauled to death by hyenas. And almost went tumbling underground with them- but he was alive. He was still functioning. His heart still operating, his senses still working. The finger of death had not touched him. Came near him, but it had not come upon him… Scar would live to see the sun again.
That was fact.
Scar was beginning to realize that fact as he wheezed quietly. A smirk slowly spread across his face.
He then chuckled, thunder rolling faintly. Flashes of white danced over green eyes. Then disappeared. Scar sighed.
Scar then really took note of the rain. He saw enormous clouds. Rainwater was flying, surging down out of the heavens.
Scar tilted his head back.
He hadn't appreciated such a thing since…
Well.
Never.
He filled his lungs with chill and air, and let rainwater kiss his face. The pride of lionesses at Pride Rock gave a faint, but unified, majestic roar. Declaring all throughout the savannah that they had a new king.
For the first time in his life… Scar… couldn't care any less.
He shut his eyes and chuckled again, but it was harder. Scar was soaked. His mane, his beard, everything. All he was did was breathe. Live. Pure bliss to his bones.
Scar's eyes then came open.
He knew what he was going to do.
Scar let his head fall away from the sky, and pushed his wounded body forward... away from the premises. He had to leave the area quickly if the pride was going to believe this.
Scar walked on, heading toward wide open land. It wasn't that hard for the wounded lion to move about. He could even run if he was cautious of his condition.
Scar began to quicken his step, fleeing in the opposite direction of Pride Rock. He then stopped when he noticed a small stream of running water along the ground, and grassland next to it.
A quick decision had to be made.
Running through the grass would eliminate Scar's tracks, but would still have his scent along the ground. Whereas the stream would eliminate both.
The water way. Scar thought. No scent… and visable tracks will wash away.
Without further adieu, Scar jogged straight into the small, running stream, trotting along the path, with water splattering against his ankles. Genius.
Regarding what his nephew ever so kindly suggested... he'd run away.
But everyone would all be in for quite a surprise in the far future.
"…He makes his sun rise upon wicked people and good and makes it rain upon righteous people and unrighteous."
-Matthew 5:45
