Author's Note:Thanks for the reviews, everyone. This is the same as ThatTexaskid but with tiny changes.
In the Shadowlands, a lone hyena walked across the cracked dusty dirt, slowly making his way towards a single destination. The sun, although as bright and shining as ever, cast nothing but more shadows across the land.
From a distance, Mheetu observed the lone hyena with a growing curiosity, a curiosity that the cub was intelligent enough to not act upon. What's separating it from the rest? Why isn't it torturing us like the other members of his pack? Mheetu shook his head, having no idea of the answer, and the pale cream cub retreated from the area, returning to Pride hyena continued his journey, the dry barren wasteland that was the Shadowlands slowly but surely turning into a lush jungle covered in green grass, lagoons, swamps, and enormous palm eyes of the hyena widened, having never seen such beauty before in its entire life. After many more hours of walking, the hyena finally stopped, it having finally come up a large tree with large branches sprawling out deep into the jungle. A large hole was present in the middle of the hyena walked up to the tree, and with its forepaws, scratched on the bark three times. Almost immediately, a mandrill carrying a wooden staff jumped out from the hole and landed gracefully in front of the hyena.
"Ah, so you wanted to see Rafiki, yes?"
The hyena nodded quickly, his tongue hanging stupidly out of his mouth. Rafiki came up and gave a swift examination of the hyena's tongue.
"Ah, Rafiki thinks that he understands the problem now. You are unable to speak, yes?"
The hyena nodded again, and Rafiki smiled. "Well, let Rafiki show you inside. Rafiki thinks that he has something that can help you."
The mandrill quickly jumped back into the tree, the hyena following shortly behind, its eyes sparkling with glee. Once inside, the hyena waited anxiously as Rafiki mixed water and several herbs into a concoction, muttering useless gibberish to himself as he did so.
"Ah ha! I think Rafiki has got it!"
He handed the hyena a small goblet of the potion. The hyena scrunched up its face and turned its head, hating the scent of the potion.
"Well, do you want to speak or not?"
The hyena sighed in anticipation, and it drank the potion, finding the taste as disgusting as it had imagined. It suddenly felt a massive amount of pain in its hyena screamed as it fell to the ground, its tongue slowly shrinking back into its mouth. After several minutes of this, the hyena's pain ended, and it collapsed panting on to the ground. Then, to its complete surprise, the hyena spoke, its voice gruff yet light and smooth, revealing it be a male.
"Thank you…"
Rafiki laughed. "You are very welcome! Why did you not come to Rafiki sooner?"
The hyena sighed. "I never had the chance. I am almost always either serving Scar or under constant watch from my two head officers."
Rafiki nodded, stroking his chin in agreement. "What are you going to do now?"
The hyena sighed softly. "Change sides."
"What was stopping you before?"
The hyena looked down to the ground in shame, before chuckling darkly. "You don't think I tried? All of my efforts were mistaken as idiocy!"
"Like…"
The hyena closed his brilliant yellow eyes, remembering a specific day. "A few years ago, my head officers and I were lounging around the Elephant Graveyard. It was then when the Crown Prince and his fiancée stumbled upon us. My head officers wanted to eat them, but I had no such plan in mind. Mufasa eventually ambushed us, and he growled while pouncing at the three of us. He asked if we knew that his son was one of the cubs. My head officers lied, saying that they had absolutely no idea. Thinking that it was my chance to escape the hellish life I was given, I nodded."
Rafiki nodded in understanding, and the hyena sighed. "There was no chance to be given. All I got was a death threat."
"Rafiki gives you his sympathy."
The hyena smiled. "Thank you again. Not just for that, but for all you have done for me! You gave me my voice! My name is Edward, by the way."
"Well Edward, you seem to be a very intelligent hyena. Rafiki feels it was a pleasure treating you."
Ed laughed, not the devilish hyena laugh, but a normal, genuine one. "The pleasure was all mine. Have a nice day Rafiki!"
The old mandrill waved as Ed began his journey back to the Shadowlands. His face reflected the massive change that he had just undergone, his eyes showing a new determination, and his posture was much more confident that it had ever been before and if looked closely one could see the beginnings of a striking handsome hyena mane forming.
"I don't think that anyone is going to blame me for talking to myself. I hope that the lionesses will give me the chance to help them overthrow Scar and usher in a new, better era."
From a distance, Rafiki smiled, knowing that he had just done the kingdom a fantastic service for the future.
Author's Note:I know nothing much. But what did you think?