Book 1: Chapter 9
"How could you let her get away?" Scar demanded with a mighty, earth-quivering roar. "She was a mere lizard!"
Janja gulped noticeably and Dalia barely suppressed one of her own. The very earth underneath their paws shook with the fiery lion's anger, and Dalia swore she saw the lava lake bubbling with each word. The lioness and hyena returned to Scar's Lair near the same time. One of them dreaded the conversation with Scar, the other looked forward to it.
"Little lioness." Scar looked down at Dalia. "I trusted that catching a mere lizard would be an easy enough task for you."
Dalia took a step back. "Scar, I had every intention of capturing the spy." Shelookedk to Janja. She would need to word this carefully. "However, Janja gave me orders to stay back. I simply thought that since he answers directly to you, I would listen to him.
Scar's face contorted with irritation. "Little lioness, who is your leader? Me or Janja?"
"You, Scar."
"Then who should you obey? Me or Janja?" His tone was sickly sweet and smooth like honey. But Dalia knew better.
"You, Scar," she repeated. This time, she added a submissive duck of the head at the end. She gnawed at the insides of her cheek, her head still tilted towards the ground. She hated every single moment of this. Whether it be him calling her his little lioness or the fact that she was submitting to a dead lion, it's an all-around humiliating experience.
The fiery lion turned to glare at the hyena standing beside Janja. "And you. How dare you override my commands?"
Janja gulped once more. "Well, you see, I- uh... um..." he mumbled under his breath for a few beats, trying to find a decent excuse. When none came to him, he ducked his head submissively. "Sorry, Scar. But I would've caught the spy if it weren't for that boulder. It just came out of nowhere!"
The red skink scoffed from behind Janja. "Even if it weren't for that boulder, you would've still lost sight of the chameleon. You were too busy picking fights with us skinks." She narrowed her eyes at the much bigger hyena. "I don't know what's going on in that head of yours, Janja, but you better figure it out. Your obnoxious drive to prove yourself was endearing at first. Now, it's simply detrimental to our objectives."
Janja growled. "What's that supposed to mean?"
A blue, male skink took a step forward. "She means you're trying to compensate for your weakness by throwing yourself into situations where you're simply not needed. You trample others trying to help you just to prove you're strong brave and wise. Like she said, it was okay at first. Maybe even admirable. Now, it's plain annoying."
"Yeah, we're on the same team," another skink added, "Yet, somehow, you seem to keep forgetting!"
Scar let out a growl. "Janja, I too have noticed this rather annoying character of yours. It's becoming absolutely infuriating," he growled. "My little lioness had the perfect opportunity to prove herself to me, and you snatched it away from her."
Again, Dalia chewed at her cheek at the sound of the nickname. An uncomfortable shiver rode up the length of her spine.
Janja looked at his paws, and for a split second, Dalia actually pitied him.
"Just get out of my sight. All of you!" Scar snarled.
The group returned to Kilio Valley, Imba and Dalia bringing up the rear. Imba and Dalia exchanged slight smiles, both of them thinking of the little spy Kion had successfully employed. With the little flaw in their plan taken care of, there was not much stopping them now. Dalia looked over at Janja and noticed that he still looked down trot from the harsh tongue-lashing he received.
"I'm guessing your meeting with Scar wasn't exactly a success?" Reirei's voice broke the silence, the amusement behind it palpable.
Janja growled at her. "Shut it, Reirei."
Imba nodded from her spot in the sky. "Yeah, I'm not really in the mood for the yapping today, Reirei."
From behind the eagle, Mzingo cleared his throat before Reirei could snap-back with a snarky comment. He perched on a nearby branch. "Just thought I'd inform you of the recent change in events. Turns out, the Lion Guard has sent a chameleon about this size," he gestured with his wings, "to spy on us. So do be on the lookout for that."
The jackal matriarch gave a small, amused snort before turning tail to whisper something to Goigoi. Janja watched through narrowed eyes as Goigoi threw his head back in a cackle.
"We shall retire for the night and reconvene at dawn," Mzingo continued. He turned to look at the rest of his parliament. "All in favor of reciting our parliamentary anthem before retiring for the evening?"
"Aye!" the vultures chimed in.
"Imba, what do you make of the idea?" Mzingo questioned, turning to look at her. Imba flashed him an odd look and a shrug of the shoulders. "Don't be such a spoil-sport, Imba. The parliament decided earlier that since you're the only other bird around here, you could be an honorary member of the Vulture Parliament. If you so choose, that is."
Imba rolled her eyes from beside them. She hopped off the branch she was perched on and flew to the opposite corner of Kilio Valley. "Whatever. I've put up with your We Are The Vultures and 'all in favor of blah blah blah' all day. Do whatever it is that'll make you happy, and leave me out of it." She nestled into her makeshift nest. "And do it quietly. I already have enough of a headache as it is."
As Imba started drifting off to sleep and the vultures started quietly reciting their anthem, Reirei approached Janja and Dalia again. The jackal had a brow cocked and a smirk on her face. Both Dalia and Janja frowned. Whatever it was Reirei's come to bother them about, Dalia decided it wouldn't be pleasant.
"What do you want?" Janja barked.
Dalia narrowed her eyes as well. "Yeah. I'm not exactly in the mood for the nagging."
Reirei's smirk only grew. "Relax, relax." She glanced at Janja. "I just wanted to share some thoughts I had in the back of my mind." Janja gave a small grunt for her to continue. "I was just wondering; if the two of you continue to slack when it comes to the effort you're putting into this army, Scar's not going to be happy." She paused to take in Janja's irritated expression. "Maybe he'd even put us jackals in charge."
"What're you trying to say?" Janja asked tiredly.
"I'm just saying, you might want to be on your toes. I don't know how the two of you were raised, but we jackals have no tolerance for slackers."
The lioness unsheathed her claws and dug them into the ground. She peered behind the jackal and spotted one of her children in a rather... uncomfortable position. "Hey, Reirei?" she tilted her head to the right, "I think your kid's got his head stuck in a pothole."
The jackal turned around to see that one of her children was in fact stuck in a pothole. She gave a snarl of annoyance, and Janja let out a chuckle.
Dalia smirked. "Maybe worry about those little gremlins you've got running around — maybe even try to get Mr. Deadbeat over there to help out," she gestured to Goigoi, "then come talk to us about potential leadership positions. 'Kay?"
Reirei snarled once more before turning tail and stomping away.
As the jackal walked away, Janja gave a laugh. "That was pretty awesome," he said with a chuckle.
"Thanks," Dalia replies proudly, a grin spreading across her face. She cocked a brow as she noticed Janja starting to walk in the other direction. "Hey, uh, are we on good terms after what happened back there? In the volcano, I mean."
Janja turned to glare at her. "Just because you said something snarky to Reirei doesn't mean we're all buddy-buddy now." Once again, he turned around and started walking away from her.
"Where're you going?"
With a turn of the heel, he turned to his hyena crew. He doesn't answer her right away, instead barking out orders to the other hyena. "C'mon, boys. We've got a waterfall to block."
They sat up immediately, ready, and attentive.
The lioness scowled. "Why would you go now?" she asked. "The Lion Guard already knows you're coming. It's just going to be a waste of time and energy."
Janja shoots her a glare. "I can do whatever I want." He turned to his crew once more. "I said, come on."
"You're being foolish, Janja," Dalia called after him, watching as the hyena started to leave Kilio Valley.
Janja doesn't even pause in his step. He continued walking away from her and into the Pridelands.
No more than an hour later, Janja and his hyenas returned to Kilio Valley with their tails drooping and eyes cast on the ground. Dalia doesn't even need to ask to know that they lost. Imba, still half-asleep in her nest, opened one eye to peek at the fallen group before settling back to sleep.
Before she could utter a word, Janja turned around and shot her a glare. "Look, I already know what you're going to say. You're gonna sit there and say I told you so and I was right," he spat with venom behind his words, "And frankly, I don't wanna hear it."
Dalia snorted in amusement. "I didn't even say anything, yet you managed to convey everything I would've said."
Janja growled at her. "You're insufferable," he snarled. He watched as Cheezi and Chungu started retreating to their own nests, both hyenas utterly exhausted. "You just don't get it, do you? Everything comes easy for you. Guess that's what comes with being a lion," he said with a scoff.
To this, the lioness felt her fur bristle. "You don't know me, Janja, so quit acting like you do."
"I might not know you, but I know your kind. I know how lions operate." He glowered at her. "And that is exactly why I didn't want another lion in our army. My entire life, I've been pushed around and told what to do. Yet with lions, everything's different."
He gritted his teeth. "Everything always comes easy for you lions. You command respect and authority. Whenever any of you lions want something done, all you gotta do is open that ugly muzzle of yours and start ordering. And everyone listens to you, 'cause you've got them all wrapped around your little paw. That's how it works in the Pridelands, and that's how it's working here in Scar's Army."
"That's not true," said Dalia, though her voice sounded slightly uncertain.
"How would you know?" he snapped. "You've done nothing to earn any kind of favor with Scar. Nothing other than being a lion, of course," he said with a grumble. "And you're already his little lioness," he sneered.
Dalia stood up, sliding her claws into the ground. She doesn't know why his words were making her so angry, but they were.
"Why do you care then? Why do you care so much about some dead lion if you can't stand us lions? What difference is it to you what some dead guy thinks about you? Do you really think he even cares about you? No!"
Dalia's words left an uncomfortable stillness in the air, and Janja's silent for a long time. They both were. But the glare they were interchanging speaks as loud as any shouting match.
Finally, after what felt like an eternity, Janja scoffed.
"Typical lion," he hissed. "You guys always find some way to point the claw back on us. You wanna know why I care so much about what Scar thinks of me? Because he gave me a purpose. Scar's the only lion outta all of ya'll who was willing to treat us hyenas as equals."
"That doesn't make any sense," Dalia retorted with a roll of her eyes. "You just said that you think the only reason Scar favors me is because I'm a lion. How's that equal?"
"I was referring to before you and Chirpy over there decided to rear your ugly heads," he snapped. "Before my time, too, for that matter. You see, the Golden Years for us hyenas was when Scar was still king of the Pridelands. He allowed us to hunt as much as we wanted, roam the Pridelands for as long as we wanted, and finally be in charge."
Dalia snorted. "We all know how well that turned out."
"That's only 'cause Simba showed up and messed everything up. We had a good thing going. For once, the lions were going through what we had to put up with before Scar helped us out." He looked down at his paws. "I used to know a trio of hyenas who used to work with Scar and ended up betraying him. One of 'em was a little messed up in the head, but they were pretty decent hyenas."
"What're you getting at with this?" she asked tiredly.
His eyes flashed. "If you quit interrupting me, maybe I'd be able to tell you," he growled.
"Like I was saying, they were pretty decent hyenas. Even took me and my buddies under their wing. Showed us the ropes. One day, we were talking. They told me that their biggest and only regret was betraying Scar. Because after Simba took charge, everything went back to how it used to be for us. We even tried abiding by the Circle of Life nonsense for a little bit. That didn't stop the Pridelanders from sneering at us and looking down at us. Didn't stop 'em from driving us out of the Pridelands every time we entered, even though we meant no harm."
Dalia felt her eyes widen in surprise.
"And eventually, we got tired of playing by their rules. We listened to what Simba asked us to do, and that got us nowhere. So why bother? By the time Kion was born, we were at odds with the Pridelands again. And that's how it worked for a little bit. We would fight with the Pridelanders and be driven back. Over and over again. Then Scar returned with the promise of a new life for me. For all of us."
The lioness looked down guiltily. She learned long ago that there were two sides to every situation, nothing's ever just black and white. But this confession surprised her. It surprised her more than it should've.
"And everything was working out for a little bit. Things were finally looking up for me and my boys." He hardened his gaze into a glare. "That is until you showed up. Everything was going fine until you entered the mix. Now, you're trying to take my spot in this Army. You're trying to butt in at the last moment and take everything I've been working for, and it's unfair."
"You're delusional," Dalia said evenly, though what Janja accused her of wasn't too far from the truth. "I'm not trying to take anything from you." Lie. "And I'm certainly not trying to take your spot, either." Another lie. "I just also happen to be at odds with the Lion Guard. Can you fault me for that?"
The hyena eyed her. "But what I don't understand is why. Why do you do all this? Why go to this length to bicker with the Guard? That part doesn't make sense to me. You know how the members of Simba's Pride live. You could be living like a Queen as long as you work with Kion and join their Pride. We hyenas at least have a reason behind it all. You don't."
Dalia sighed. He was smarter than he looked, she realized. She shouldn't have underestimated him. "What're you trying to ask, Janja? Quit beating around the bush, and just ask me. What do you want to know?"
"I wanna know why you hate the Lion Guard. And the Pridelanders, for that matter."
She met his gaze head-on. "I think the Lion Guard is really... really hypocritical."
And of all the lies she told today, her last statement was truthful.