When Simba, Nala, and Haiba arrived at the water hole, they were surprised to find that no one was around. Sure, they knew none of the lionesses or cubs would be in the area, but what shocked them was the absence of animals. They couldn't even see a single bird flying in the sky. Not even Zazu – and he flew around no matter what the weather conditions were like.
They had to admit, it was rather strange…
"Quiet today," Haiba noticed, stopping at the edge of the water hole. He stared down at the clear water, watching as rain drops fell onto it, creating little ripples. He smiled. "I'll admit that rain knows how to make water look more appealing than it normally does." He stuck his paw in the water, swishing it around. "Makes it colder, too," he said, quickly removing his paw. "You wouldn't want to swim in that."
"Not that I was planning on, anyway," Nala said, looking around. "Does anyone else find it odd that there aren't any other animals around?"
"Yeah…" Simba had a slightly wary look on his face. He was thinking the same thing. "Haiba, tell me something."
"What?" Haiba asked, craning his neck so he was looking at Simba. "You've got The Look on your face again."
"The what?" Nala asked.
"The Look," Haiba explained. "It's what I call that very suspicious face Simba gets whenever he knows something really bad is about to happen. So, right now, he's got The Look."
"Yeah, okay, so I've got The Look," Simba said quickly. "Now dip your head inside the water."
"Sorry, could you repeat that one more time for me?" Haiba asked, sounding surprised. "I almost thought I heard you telling me to dip my head in the freezing water for a second there."
"I did," Simba responded. "Check if there are any fish in there."
Haiba stared down at the water. "Why me?" he moaned, before quickly sticking his head under the water, quickly looking around to see if there were any fish underneath.
What he saw shocked him.
"Okay," he said, quickly bringing his head out of the freezing cold water. "That's freaky. I mean, that is really freaky."
"What's freaky?" Nala wanted to know. "Simba, what's going on? Why isn't anybody telling me anything?"
"There's no fish," Haiba told Simba. "That's not normal. That's definitely not normal." Simba remained silent. "Aren't you going to say anything? Hello?" He knocked the top of Simba's head. "Anybody in there?"
Simba snapped out of it. "Sorry. I was daydreaming. Did you check for fish?"
Haiba nodded. "None. There's none there. Either that or they're all gone. We didn't have fish for dinner last night, did we? Memory-erasing fish, perhaps?"
"We don't eat fish," was Simba's response, "which means that they're all dead." He sighed. "I knew this was going to be a bad day."
"Wait, wait, wait, how can all the fish be dead?" Nala asked. "That doesn't make any sense. Fish don't just kill themselves."
"No – someone else killed them," Simba replied. "But who? What? Why? When? I hate questions with no answers. I feel like my Dad when he's giving me a long lecture."
"Maybe some outsider got really hungry and decided to have himself a feast," Haiba mused, sitting down on the wet ground. "Either that or the fish all ate each other to death. That's cannibalism, isn't it?"
"Somehow…" Simba narrowed his eyes, turning his head slightly. "I don't think that's the right explanation." He pointed at something a few feet away from them. "Look."
He walked over to a few dead branches on the ground. Parts of them were black and burnt, smoking slightly. He touched it, and then instantly recoiled. "Ow!" he cried. "Don't touch it," he warned Nala and Haiba, as they walked over to him. "It's hot."
"I don't understand; who put all these branches here?" Nala asked, confused. "They weren't here yesterday."
"Yes, they were," Simba told her. "They were attached to a tree. And now the tree's gone, which means—"
"—That we've got to solve yet another mystery," Haiba finished for him. "The Mad Tree Destroyer of the Pride Lands." He scoffed. "Some villain. What kind of a target has that?"
"It's burnt," Nala noticed, pointing to the black burn marks on what remained of the tree. "Look. It's smoking, too. Did someone set it on fire?"
"I don't think so," Haiba replied, leaning his head towards it and sniffing the air. "It smells like smoke. I'd say it was caused by a large amount of heat – but not a fire. Otherwise there'd probably still be a few flames around."
"Maybe the rain put it out?" Nala suggested.
"In that case, then why hasn't it cooled down by now?" Haiba retorted. "Something else has caused this."
"Don't you mean someone?" Simba asked.
"How did I know he was going to say that?" Haiba said, grinning. "I know you so well that I can predict exactly what you're going to say every time you open your mouth. Now I know how Nala feels."
"You need to be madly in love with Simba to know how I feel," Nala informed him.
"Who says I'm not in love with Simba?" replied Haiba. "For all you know, my heart could be thumping in my chest every time I look at him. So, what do you say, Simba?" Haiba put his paw around Simba's shoulder. "Want to try a little makeout session?"
"Never in a million years," was Simba's reply, as he slipped away from Haiba's grasp. "And this isn't the time for a romantic moment. We've got a job to do. We do what the grownups can't. Am I right?"
Nala narrowed her eyes. "Isn't that everything?"
"Exactly." Simba looked back and forth between Nala and Haiba. "Now, if I was a cub with magical heating powers, then where would I be?"
Zap!
Simba was suddenly thrown three feet into the air, before crashing down into the muddy earth. His body was smoking slightly, and his tuft was all spiked up. "Ow…"
Nala gasped. "Simba!" she cried, running over to her boyfriend's side. "What the heck happened to you?"
Simba wearily lifted his head up. "I think I just got zapped," he replied, sounding like he was in an enormous amount of pain.
"And I think I know by who," Haiba told the two, before pointing away from the water hole.
There, stood at the top of a nearby hill, was a cub.
He shot out his paw, and a blue bolt of lightning shot out, heading straight for the three of them!