Chapter two:
"Nala! Where have you been?" Sarafina gasped, nuzzling her daughter.
"Has Scar noticed my absence?" Nala asked.
"Yes, but the stench this place has gained made it impossible to track you," Nala's mother wrinkled her nose as she gazed around the flat. Indeed, it had begun to smell like rotting carcasses; the hyenas never cleaned up after themselves.
"Gather the lionesses behind Pride Rock," Nala instructed. Sarafina nodded and darted away, while Nala slunk through the brown grass, remaining undetected by Scar's canine pets.
"Come back, have you?" Zira sniffed. "Why did you leave anyways?"
"I went to find help," Nala explained.
"Oh? Looks like you didn't find it. Who were you looking for?" Zira asked.
"Rafiki received a sign that Simba was alive," Nala replied.
"Did you find him?" Sarabi's eyes shone with hope.
"I did," Nala admitted. "He refused to come back. He's not the lion I remembered, he didn't care. He doesn't think Scar is as bad as we see him."
Sarabi's eyes darkened again, full of the same shadows that had been haunting her as she grieved her mate and her son.
"He told me something though. Scar put him in the gorge, saying he could make it up to Mufasa by finding his roar," Nala growled. "And Scar was the one who fetched Mufasa."
"He told me to gather the pride," Zazu added, landing on a rock beside Nala.
"Perhaps he was getting a witness out of the way?" Sarafina guessed.
"He was at the gorge when he sent me away, yet did he not tell you he had reached him too late?" Zazu questioned. "Mufasa got to the bottom safely and quickly. Why didn't Scar?"
"You think he murdered the king? His own brother?" Zira gasped.
"We can't rule anything out," Nala said darkly. "Any lion who allies himself with hyenas isn't exactly good."
"What do you want to do? We have the word of a supposed dead cub and a hornbill that the king is a murderer. If we accuse him, I doubt the hyenas will turn on him," pointed out Bianca.
"I'm not suggesting we accuse him, I'm suggesting we overthrow him," Nala raised her head defiantly.
"Overthrow him? It's unheard of to overthrow a king!" Zira gasped. "You'd murder him in his sleep? It's worse than what you believe he did to Mufasa!"
"I'm not suggesting we murder him!" Nala exclaimed. "We fight him outright and honorably. If he surrenders, he can leave alive and never return to the Pride Lands. If he doesn't, then he'll be killed in a fair battle."
"Who would take his place?" Sarafina asked.
"We have a queen," Nala looked at Sarabi.
"I was queen once," she rasped. "But my king is dead, and I have no desire to rule without him."
"I am Scar's mate," Zira said. "Does that not make me queen?"
"He has not declared you queen, you do not eat at his side, he simply hopes to use you to gain the favor of the lionesses," Sarafina said.
"He does keep inviting Sarabi to be his queen, she's his goal, since she is the one we respect," Bianca said with an apologetic glance at her sister Zira. "I believe you are simply his backup plan, his secondary way of gaining the pride's respect."
"Yet why should I join the fight? Why shouldn't I inform Scar of the traitors in his midst? He might reward me by being his queen," Zira reasoned.
"You'd help lead the Pride Lands to becoming the Outlands," Nala countered. "What prey do we have to eat but meerkats and mice? You have Scar to thank for it. If we sit by and do nothing, we will starve in a matter of days, only eating the hyenas' scraps and the morsels of food we can find."
"If we are weak from hunger, what makes you think we can win?" Sarabi asked.
"We can take on a few hyenas each. We could trap their clan to lessen their numbers before taking the fight to Scar. If we do it right, any survivors of the trap won't reach him in time to warn him," Nala said. "Lions are much smarter than those fleabags."
"Can we go back to discussing who will become queen?" Zira asked.
"How about we vote after we win?" Sarafina suggested.
"If we win," muttered a lioness named Zakia, Nala's older sister.
"We'd better begin planning, and be quick about it before we are too weak from hunger," added another lioness named Winda.