A Change of Plans [PRIVATE: AC & The Whistlerify]

[AustralianChaos]

As the three of them made their way back towards Pride Rock, Tanga suddenly realsied something. "Simba...if you're up to talking...what happened? We only saw Mufasa..." he paused, choking up again as the memory of Mufasa falling clouded his mind...his final scream filling his ears.

"What are we going to do?" he ended up whispering, as much to himself as to the others. "We've lost our king..." His young mind could not comprehend what was supposed to happen now that Mufasa was dead. As far as Tanga was concerned, Mufasa was always king, had always been king, and would always be king...until now. Now nothing seemed certain...and that really scared Tanga.

[TheWhistlerify]

"There was a stampede..." Simba said with a shaky tone, tears that are being held back causing him to chock as he spoke, "and he saved me..."

[AustralianChaos]

Tanga felt his little heart tear into little pieces as Simba spoke. That was Mufasa, alright. He might be a strong, powerful king, and scary when he was angry, but when Simba was in trouble, he would run head-first into danger to help...Tanga had seen Mufasa when he had heard Simba had ventured into the Elephant Graveyard. The fear for his son was obvious, even to Tanga's young mind.

And now, Mufasa had died saving Simba from the stampede. "I'm sorry..." was all Tanga could say, as he turned to Marini, noticing she was looking as distraught as the rest of them. We walked between them, giving them both a quick nuzzle, as much for his own comfort as for theirs.

"Let's just get back to Pride Rock," he said, he voice sounding completely hollow and drained of all emotion. "The adults will know what to do."

[TheWhistlerify]

Marini sighed. But felt a little better when Tanga nuzzled them both. She saw him as a brother and only familly for some reason.
(( Skip to Pride Rock? ))

[AustralianChaos]

(( Alrighty... ))

Nala fidgeted with suppressed, impatient energy as she looked off to the west, the direction Tanga and Marini had run off to some time ago. She had really wanted to go with them, but her mother, Sarafina, had held her back, still rather irritated at her for her adventure in the Elephant Graveyard yesterday with Simba.

She looked up at Sarafina, who was currently sitting nearby with the queen, Sarabi, the two lionesses watching her. "Mum, I'm sorry, okay?" she said sheepishly. "But can I please go find Tanga and Marini?" she adopted her best apologetic, pleading expression, hoping her mother would let her go...it was already afternoon, and she was bored to the point where she was scracting vague nothings into the hard, cold rock of Pride Rock below her paws.

She was so focused on winning her mother's trust again, that she did not see her three friends returning...nor did she see their depressed looks, or the fact that they all appeared to be trying, and failing, to comfort each other over something.

[TheWhistlerify]

Sarafina looked down at her energetic daughter. She always seemed restless and playful, unless she was given a bath. She decided to let her go, but noticed Simba, Marini and Tanga come back. The way they looked didn't seem to good. "Sarabi, come over here!" she houted to her friend before going to see what was wrong with the three cubs. She came towards them, leaving Nala behind. "Simba..." she said worringly as she saw the tears, "What's wrong?"
Marini remembered her promise to tell instead of Tanga or Simba, but she couldn't do it

[AustralianChaos]

Sarabi watched Sarafina and Nala as the cub pleaded with her mother to head out and find her friends. While Simba generally had the biggest reputation among the pride as a troublemaker, Sarabi knew that Nala was very close behind her own son, and that their trip to the Elephant Graveyard would have been mutual, hence why Sarafina had restricted Nala to Pride Rock so far. Sarabi had wanted to keep Simba grounded for the day as well, but Scar had taken him off for some 'important matter' involving Mufasa, which had given her little choice in the matter.

Simba was not getting any younger, and Mufasa had decided recently that it was time for them to start teaching Simba how to become king. If it were not for the fact that this was the most likely reason Mufasa wanted to see his son today, Sarabi would not have let him go off.

But before Sarafina could decide on what to do about her daughters pleas, Sarabi saw her gaze switch to a point behind Nala, and her ears perked up. When Sarabi heard her friend call her name, she was on her feet quickly, taking one look at what Sarafina had seen before following her down from the shadow of Pride Rock and into the grass to meet up with the three cubs.

Worry coursed through Sarabi as she saw the scared, upset looks on the cub's faces. "What happened?" she asked the three, looking from one teary face to the next, praying that one of them would be up to telling. "What are you doing together...and where are Scar and Mufasa, Simba?"

She looked to Sarafina, giving her a look of foreboding as she waited for one of them to answer...praying that whatever had happened...it would not be too serious.

----------

"Simba! Tanga! Marini!" Nala all-but-squealed as Sarafina pointed out her friends, as she bounded down from Pride Rock to meet them, raring to ask them about their day.

But she stopped short, freezing as she took in the looks each one of them had. "Uh, guys...what...what's wrong?"

She looked back to the two mothers now standing behind her, seeing the confused and worried expressions on the faces, and suddenly was fearful. The parents generally only looked that worried when they knew something really, really bad had happened.

Nala turned to Simba, her best friend of the group, and touched his nose with her own. "Simba...please tell me everything's okay..."

----------

Tanga looked from Simba to Marini, praying one of them would speak up so he would not have to. but Simba looked far too distraught to do anything except stare at his paws, and Marini's voice seemed to have abandoned her...Tanga knew it would be his responsibility to explain everything now.

"We..." he started, choking up as he tried to find the right words. "There...there was a stampede...in the western gorge...Simba and Mufasa were in the middle of it..."

He found himself unable to continue at that point, fresh tears falling down his cheeks as the horrifying moment replayed itself over in his head.

[TheWhistlerify]

Marini looked away as Nala posed her request; how were they going to tell them what happend?
Simba tried to look back at Nala but he couldn't. He knew he had to tell them what happend but he looekd up at his mother and didn't know how to. How was he going to tell her that Mufasa died? He walked past Nala to Sarabi and snuggled close to his mother. "The stampede..." he said crying, "He saved me but..."
Sarafina hope SImba wasn't meaning what she thought he was meaning, "Is he hurt?" she asked hoping that was it.
Marini noticed Simba wasn't able to tell his mother what happend. "He's... He's dead." she said and looked away

[AustralianChaos]

Tanga watched on in the background as everyone picked up where he left off, slowly putting together the whole story. When Marini finally proclaimed Simba dead, she turned away, and Tanga's emotional barrier, that he had managed to keep in check since he had left the gorge, finally broke.

In that moment, as fresh tears began to fall, he never felt more alone in the world. He could see both Simba and Nala were being comforted by their parents, but he had no-one. Ever since his parents had abandoned him, the lionesses of the pride had generally shared parental duties with him, and he did not have any real attachment to any one of them...the only lions he had ever been able to turn to were his friends, and they all were with their parents at the moment...

..except Marini.

Acting purely on instinct, and the need for some physical contact with another lion, Tanga leapt forward, hugging Marini as his wall of emotion fell away, and he sobbed, crying into his best friend's shoulder, mourning the loss of a king...and the father of his best friend.

----------

"What?" Nala was floored by the combined words of her three friends, as she felt her own emotions welling up. "No...no, it can't be! Simba, you...you must just seen something else! He can't be dead, he..."

But she could see the looks on her friend's faces, and as Tanga hugged Marini close, crying, she knew that none of them were mistaken...Mufasa was dead. "No..."

Her eyes wide in shock and horror, she backed away from her friends slowly, trying to hold on to that last bit of hope that Mufasa was still alive. She bumped into her mother's leg, and she looked up at Sarafina, her expression pleading for her to deny the truth before. "Mum, please? He...he can't be, can he?"

----------

Sarabi froze as Simba spoke. "But what, son? What happened?" But even she could not prepare herself for the words that came out of Marini's mouth a second later.

"Dead?" she repeated. "You...no...you can't be serious?" she asked. But the look in Marini's eyes, and the fact that all three cubs were terribly distraught, and realised that ti had to be true.

"Mufasa..." she whispered, insinctively holding Simba close, fighting to find some way to disprove what the cubs so strongly believed. "He...he could be hurt, or just unconscious, or..." her voice trailed off as she looked to each of the cubs, noticing that Marini and Tanga, both without any parents of their own, seemed to be looking to each other for comfort instead.

All she could was wait, and pray one of them told her Mufasa was still alive. she turned her gaze down to Simba, looking into his eyes. "Simba, look at me...is it true?"

[TheWhistlerify]

SImba looked at his mother again. "He tried to climb up but he fell off the cliff..." he said trying to hold his tears back.
Sarafina who was still shocked by the news looked down at Nala, giving her a face saying that she didn't know.
Marini was a little taken back when Tanga hugged her, but she knew how her felt. Ever since he was adopted into the pride Mufasa was more then a king for Tanga, she knew that Tanga considered Mufasa more as a father than a king. Marini returned the hug, trying to comfort her friend