Chapter 5: The kidnapping

They were all sleeping in the Pride Rock cave. The king, queen, and lion guard were too tired after helping clear up the misunderstandings with the wildebeest and fixing the grove. Likewise, the cubs had had enough for now...except for Simba, who was uncomfortable with the conversation he'd had with his father: did he really deserve to be named after his great-grandfather? Why did his father see him as such?

With those questions and without being able to sleep, he got up and, carefully, left the cave, where the light of the moon welcomed him. For a moment, he sat on the peak of the rock and looked out across the Pride Lands at night. He tried to keep himself distracted from thinking about his questions until he noticed something strange: a small light in the Mzigu grove.

"What is that?" Simba wondered.

The light was weak, and after a few seconds, it went out. The cub was impressed: nothing like this had ever happened before in the Pride Lands. For a moment, he thought it would be a good idea to tell his parents, but then he remembered the Kupatana disaster...

"Should I go ask my father or my uncle?" he said to himself, "But... a light can't be dangerous, can it?"

There were endless possibilities of it being a good or bad idea, but having decided, Simba climbed down from the Pride Rock and crossed the pride at night towards the grove. When he arrived, he hid near a tree and looked in disbelief at the beings that were there: they were totally unknown and walked on two legs.

"Hey!" said one of them, "Let's hurry before the other animals wake up."

"What's going on?" asked another, "Are you afraid of those rumors of lions with powers?"

"That several armed men have gone crazy overnight after a fruitless hunt does not please me at all. I wouldn't want those rumors to be true."

While they were talking, Simba managed to see that they were carrying animals (wildebeest, jackals, gazelles, zebras, flamingos, among others) in some kind of box with gray sticks that he had never seen. The light he had seen from the Pride Rock were small light-emitting objects that the two-legged creatures held.

"This seems dangerous," he said to himself, with great fear, "I must go and tell my uncle…"

As he tried to sneak back to Pride Rock, he felt something cold and hard on one of his paws. Immediately, he felt an unparalleled pain in the same paw: something pressed so hard that it even made him bleed. One animal did not know that instrument, but it was a trap similar to the one they use for bears (but this one was for small animals).

It was obvious that Simba screamed from that pain, so the hunters went to the source of the screams and found the cub trapped by that trap they had planted. Even when they took it away to take him too, with all the strength in his lungs, he screamed:

"Dad!"

The air carried away that concentrated sound and he reached the lair of Pride Rock, making a faint echo. This woke Dan up suddenly, at the same time that Shany, Koda and other lions also felt. When they took a quick look at the lion's pack members, they realized what was happening.

"Simba!" he yelled when he realized he was outside. Without wasting any time, he left with all the speed he could. At the same time, Koda woke up his team.

"Lion Guard, hurry!" he told them, as he ran after his brother.

Dan climbed down the Pride Rock as fast as he could and roared, warning that he was on his way and that there was trouble in the Pride Lands. However, this also alerted the hunters.

"Good heavens!" said one of them, holding a bottle with a fuse, "Take up what we have and let's go!"

Saying that, he lit the lighter, lit the fuse and created a wall of fire to buy time. Another of the hunters (in total there were only 3), who was carrying Simba struggling to free himself, put him in a wooden box with only some holes for breathing or seeing through. As they closed the box, Simba shouted again:

"Dad!"

"Simba!" Dan shouted back.

However, he ran into the wall of fire. Right behind him, Koda arrived. On the other side of the fire, the sound of a vehicle starting up could be heard.

"Humans?!" Dan asked himself as he recognized those noises, "Oh no... Simba!"

"Ouch!" Koda shouted.

Koda was also trapped in an animal trap. Things had gotten worse: without Koda able to roar, was there no way to cross that wall of fire?

"Dan, I can't roar because it would hurt Simba…" his brother told him resisting the pain, "But I can make a hole in the fire for one to pass through, ready?"

Koda roared slightly and the fire made a path through it for a second, which Dan took advantage of to cross. Behind him, the fire closed again and in front of him, the truck began to start and drive away. Without wasting any more time, the king went for it, from where he could hear the sound of Simba and other animals screaming.

"You won't take Simba!" Dan shouted, using all his effort to reach them.

When he was close enough, he jumped towards the edge of the vehicle, resting his two front paws on it and the other two on something thin and metallic. One of the hunters took a gun and pointed a tranquilizer gun at the lion.

"Damn, I only have enough for a small cat!" he said before firing, "It doesn't matter, it will do…"

The dart was fired and hit the target... Dan began to feel tired and dizzy. Tired and without strength, he collapsed backwards and fell from the vehicle, but not before breaking the metal object on which he had supported himself with his weight.

"Dad!" Simba exclaimed, looking through a hole in his box.

The king rolled across the grass and fell semi-conscious with only enough strength to see the vehicle leave.

"Simba…" he groaned before falling asleep.

(Minutes later...)

"Wake up honey!" Shany's voice said in his ear.

"Please wake up, Dad," Amira's voice said.

Dan's eyes were still half-bulging as he regained his vision. Next to him were Shany and Amira.

"Simba!" he exclaimed, remembering everything at once, "No! "Simba!"

"Did they take Simba?" Shany asked in the same way (it is clear the feeling of a mother), "No! It's not possible!"

A sound was heard in the undergrowth: Koda was limping towards it. While the rest of the lion guard was arriving with reports from different sides.

"Koda! They have kidnapped several animals," reported Jabari.

"How?" he asked, "How did they enter the Pride Lands without us knowing? How did they take young animals without their parents finding out?"

"There are sleeping animals," Mako explained, "Apparently they have been put to sleep like what just happened to Dan. There have also been traps like the ones Koda has fallen into. "We have freed several animals on the way here"

"Here we are!" shouted a voice from a distance: it was Rahisi, who was coming at great speed on Lea's back.

When they arrived, the Mjuzi used herbs mixed with an ointment from his gourd to bind Koda's paw. After that, he approached Dan to offer him some flowers that would stimulate him and help him regain strength.

"Damn!" Dan shouted as he kicked the ground hard, "How could I be so weak?"

"Don't blame yourself," Shany told him, "You did what you could, but... oh poor Simba! What are we going to do...?"

"Majesty!" Ono exclaimed as he flew in, "We have a serious situation...!

Just as he was speaking, a herd of adult animals (wildebeest, jackals, gazelles, zebras, flamingos, among others) hurriedly arrived at the scene. In a few seconds, the place was full of cries from the same animals, begging for the kidnapping of their young. Apparently, Simba wasn't the only one. Given the large number of complaints, all the eyes of those present focused on Dan, who could not help but feel too much pressure about what was happening.

"Or not. Please gather all the animals at Clan Rock," Dan told him, "I'm going to solve this problem. Mako, can you help Koda? His leg won't recover for a while."

"But how...?" asked this one, who did not know how Dan knew that, "Alright, your majesty."

The strongest lion helped his leader walk back to the Clan Rock, along with Rahisi and the rest of the lion guard. Behind them was the large number of worried animals led by the egret.

"What do you have in mind, honey?" Shany asked as they walked.

"I must save Simba," he replied, "But first we must solve this problem quickly."