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

[AustralianChaos]

Nala also began to return to the waking world, purring as she felt Simba's presence beside her, reminding her of the new step their relationship had taken. She was surprised to find Simba's paw draped over her, but it simply caused her purrs to intensify as she gave a mild yawn, before opening her eyes and looking at Simba. "Morning," she said, smiling, as she noticed he was awake. "How long have you been up?" She was well aware of Simba being an early riser, having been woken up by him on multiple occasions when they were younger.

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Scar watched from his vantage point out of the corner of his eyes as he noticed Sarafina wander off in the direction of the waterhole. Seeing her reminded him of Nala's renewed presence near the Pridelands, and his desire to see such a threat removed...quickly. Sarafina would not like it, since it put her daughter in danger, but Scar had decided that he had had enough. His lands were under threat, and if he had to get rid of Nala to do it, then that was what he would be forced to do.

But before he could work on that, there was still the issue of who to take as his queen...who to choose to continue his line, and give him the young prince he needed to carry on in his place. Sarafina possessed all the qualities of a queen...but he knew her loyalty to him would be severely damaged when she found out about his plans for Nala and her friends. Zira, on the other hand, was unflinchingly loyal...but was rougher around the edges, and had less qualities he wanted to see in his cubs.

Deciding he would need more time to think on it, Scar returned his mind to the matter of a proactive strike against Tanga and Marini, and turned back towards the main, deciding to find Zira and Ganya...he would need them both for this task.

[TheWhistlerify]

Simba snapped out of his thoughts when he noticed the yawn she let out. He was still not sure how would Nala react to how close he got to during the night, but it just didn't feel wrong no matter how much he forced himself to stop. "Hey." he said, smiling back and nuzzling her slightly before answering her other question, "A few minutes." he said, his mind setting upon the training they were to go through. Kali said it wasn't going to be easy, and for some reason he believed her. But he was going to do it, no matter how hard it would be.

[AustralianChaos]

Nala smiled a little wider. "Only a few minutes?" she asked with a stunned air, looking towards the cave entrance to see just far past sunrise it was. "I think you're finally learning to sleep in." She gave him a playful nudge with her shoulder to show she was messing with him.

Then her mind moved, like Simba's, to their upcoming lessons from Busara, and training from Kali, once Tanga was feeling better. "I wonder what Busara's going to show us today?" she asked, staying in her place despite her desire to get up and stretch...she loved being by Simba's side like this.

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Up in the trees, Kali exited the den, having woken up just moments before. As she left the trees, she noticed Sarabi off in the near distance, dragging the body of an impala back towards the hillside, obviously results of a morning hunt. Smiling at the lioness' success, she sat back and waited, feeling a small breeze blowing that she knew would wake Uhuru up soon, as the smell of a fresh kill...and therefore food...wafted over the hillside.

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Scar entered tha main den of Pride Rock, searching for Zira and Ganya, finding the black-furred leopard first, in the process of waking up. "Ganya...can you come with me for a moment?" he asked, getting a sleepy nod from Ganya, before the two of them got up, leaving Pride Rock and heading for the eastern borders, Scar knowing that Zira was currently patrolling along that area.

[TheWhistlerify]

Simba grinned at Nala's respones, she always managed to bring some of her humor even into the most boring and non-important subjects. But his mind wandered off back to the healing lessons they were to be taught by Busara today. "I don't know..." he said, still at the same position he was when they both went to sleep last night, "But you heard him, it's not alot... He said we could even get it done in one day." he said, before realising that Busara was probably waiting for them. But that didn't matter, as long as Tanga and Marini were still asleep they were not to start the training. And he wanted to remain by Nala's side for as long as he could.

[AustralianChaos]

Nala smiled. "Well, it should be interesting...although Kali's training sounds unpleasant, even if it's necesary." She grimaced at the thought of what Kali was possibly going to put them through. "Still, if it means we can go home sooner, we'll all do it, I guess."

She looked over towards the nook where Tanga and Marini had settled for the night, still asleep. She giggled lightly. "Those two certainly know how to sleep in." But as Nala thought on it, she could smell the distinctive scent of blood, foreign enough to tell her that it was not a lion, and strong enough to let her know that the source of the smell was most likely dead...putting those two together generally meant food. "Smells like someone's managed to hunt something down," she commented, finally stretching and rolling out from under Simba's paw, nuzzling him lightly as she got to her feet, drawn by the smell of food.

But as she left their little nook, she took one more look at Tanga and Marini's sleeping spot, and grinned once more. "Well, since those two aren't going to get themselves up...you think we should give them a helping paw?"

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Scar lead Ganya across the Pridelands, before finally coming across Zira along the eastern borders. "Zira!" Scar called. "I need a word!"

[TheWhistlerify]

Simba agreed with Nala's opinion about Kali's training. It was going to be difficult, but he was doing this so they could return to their home as soon as possible. The land he used to know was now dying, and the fact that he couldn't do anything yet was killing him from the inside. But he thought that the fact that they would now return a month or two sooner cheered him up a bit, even though he wished he could have done something now. He hoped that the lands will recover at some point.

Simba then also caught on the smell of blood, and like Nala came to a conclusion that someone had already hunted something. He returned her nuzzle, purring slightly to himself before deciding it was time for him to get up as well, now that he wasnt the only one from their group who was awake. He followed Nala out of their new private little nook before looking at Tanga and Marini's den. "Well maybe we should... Busara would probably wake them instead of us at some point..." he said and walked closer. At least they would wake up while the prey Sarabi hunted was still fresh, rather than later by Busara and then straightly going into training

-

Zira was busy scanning the eastern side of their border for anything suspicious when she heard Scar call for her. She turned to face him, wandering what was it he wanted to tell her. If he came by himself to the border, then it must be important.

[AustralianChaos]

Nala smirked at Simba when he agreed to his suggestion. "Okay, leave it to me, then," she said, before trotting off towards Tanga and Marini's nook, looking back as she went. "Oh, and Simba...cover your ears," she added with a wink, before hopping off again, alright supressing giggles at the wake-up call Tanga and Marini were going to get.

Sneaking into their den, finding them cuddled close to each other as always, all four of Tanga's paws wrapped around Marini's pale frame in a close embrace, Nala sighed at the rather heart-melting sight, before getting back to her task. Sneaking right up beside them, she sat down, clearing her before sucking in a deep breath...

"OI!!! WAKE UP!!!"

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Tanga was blasted to the waking world by Nala's yell, scrambling to get to his feet to identify the source of the commotion. But because two of his paws were underneath Marini's frame, they did not respond as quickly, and caused Tanga to stumble and collapse in a heap. Getting to his paws once more, he looked over to the entrance to his nook, finding Nala laughing hysterically, rolling on the floor at his rather ungraceful awakening.

"Come on, Nala!" he shouted back grumpily, rubbing his wounds idly as they ached, more out of habit than because he had hurt them waking up. The last day had gone a long way in healing them, and Busara's liquid had helped a lot, too. Tanga knew it would be a few more days before they sealed up and gave him the flexibility he needed to start Kali's training, but at least they weren't quite so problematic this morning. "That wasn't funny!"

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Scar came up to Zira, Ganya taking his place amongst the group as well, as Scar spoke up. "I need to talk to you and Ganya here about I plan I have. But first, have the patrols come up with anything suspicious at all?"

[TheWhistlerify]

Simba followed Nala's instructions and covered his ears as she went into Tanga and Marini's nook. "Three, two one..." he said to himself after a few moments and then removed his paws from his ears to hear Nala's hysterical laugh and Tanga and Marini complaining.

Marini was stratled back to awakening by the yell Nala let out, quickly jumping to her feet to see Tanga stumble and fall and Nala laughing un-controlably. "Nala! What was that for?" she asked, her sleepiness now completly gone.

-

Zira nodded in disagreement, "Nothign un-usual so far." she said and sat down. The place Simba's group was hiding at was a few minutes walk away from the Pridelands and past a big collection of trees. Mostly if you saw it you wouldn't think about going in there, as from the outside it seemed like an abandoned area.

[AustralianChaos]

Nala kept laughing uncontrollably as the startled looks on Tanga and Marini's faces replayed over and over in the mind, along with Tanga's comical stumble. "You...should have...seen...you faces!" she managed to gasp out, still rolling around on the floor of the den.

After a moment, she finally managed to calm herself down enough to speak properly. "But seriously, guys, it's pretty late in the morning...and in case you've forgotten how to use your nose, someone's managed to hunt some food down...thought you might want to grab something before everyone else does."

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Tanga sniffed the air at Nala's comments, and sure enough, caught the scent of a fresh kill. "Alright," she said, his tone still a little grumpy. "Just...don't wake us like that." his frown increased as Nala's giggles started up once more as Tanga exited the nook, looking back at Marini. "Come on, Rini...I guess we're awake now."

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Scar nodded as Zira gave him nothing out of the ordinary. "Good...but in a way, that's what troubles me, and why I'm calling on you and Ganya to help me out. You see...Tanga, Marini, and Nala's appearance will not be the last, I'm certain of it, and we need to make sure that we're either prepared for it if they do come back...or deal with them before that happens."

[TheWhistlerify]

"Yeah, don't wake us like that." Marini said and sighed before following Tanga outside. She wasn't that hungry, but it would probably be a good idea to eat something before Busara's lesson. As she left the nook and entered the tunnel, she noticed Simba was by Nala and his nook's entrance. But he didn't seem to be laughing like Nala did, making Marini come to the conclusion that this was all Nala's idea.

-

Zira looked at Scar, "So what's this plan you came up with?" she asked. Scar always talked too much and it took him ages to speak up what he really wanted to say.