"The Pride That Never Was"

[YFWE]

Glad Shani and Kovu found each other then. Looks like things are getting good! Update soon. ^^

[Akril]

Chapter Fifteen:


The many slumbering animals of the Pride Lands sprang awake and fled in terror the approach of the Outsiders. The mud-covered lionesses were slowly making their way towards Pride Rock as the rain intensified and lightning illuminated the heavy clouds overhead.

Simba's pride was also on the move. Everyone in the pride was with Simba, however, Simba had insisted that Timon and Pumbaa stay at Pride Rock for their own safety, and the elderly Sarafina and the still distraught Masika were also remaining behind.

It didn't take the pride long to spot the Outsiders making their way across a barren, rocky plain on the Pride Lands side of the Zuberi River, not too far away by the dam that Simba had climbed up just hours before. Though he was still in pain from the Outsiders' attack, Simba knew that he had to fight if push came to shove. He couldn't let the Outsiders win. These were his father's lands, and he had to defend them at any cost...even if that cost was his own life.

The two prides met in the middle of the plain. The ground was slick with rain, and there were no other animals besides the lions to be seen. Bianca stood on a tall rock, glaring down at Simba.

"It's over, Simba," she growled. "For both you and your little prince."

Chaka snarled at this remark.

"It doesn't have to be like this, Bianca," Simba said. "Killing me won't bring Scar back. It will only cause this pride more sorrow."

"Sorrow?" Bianca scoffed. "The sorrow you've caused me is ten times what your little pride will ever know!"

She narrowed her eyes.

"These lands will be ours," she said in a low voice.

Then she lifted her head high and roared loudly -- a signal for her pride to attack. The Outsiders began to approach Simba's pride. Then Simba roared, and his pride began to advance as well. The two sides approached each other first at a walk, then a fast trot, then a full-out run. They met with a slashing of claws and a cacophony of snarls. The lanky Outsiders fought just as fiercely as the much fitter Pridelanders, attacking only the lionesses...they could only take down Simba once the rest of his pride was out of the way.

Though Chaka had had little experience in fighting, he grappled with the lionesses with surprising skill. He quickly threw them off his back as soon as they leapt onto him, and sometimes his roar alone was enough to unnerve his opponents enough to subdue them.

Though Nala also fought fiercely, her strategy was primarily defensive rather than offensive. She knew that Simba was the lionesses' target, and if she could keep them away from him long enough, perhaps their side would tire out quicker. However, it was difficult for her to fight the Outsiders. She had lived alongside most of them during Scar's reign, and even though she had never considered any of them her friends, she just couldn't see them as enemies either. Still, their leader had tried to kill Simba, and they had supported Scar...there didn't seem to be any easy way to resolve the problem of the Outsiders. There had to be something that could be done...


Shani and Kovu dashed through the rain, frantically looking right and left for any side of their respective prides. They were nearing Pride Rock, but as they drew closer, there didn't seem to be any sign of Shani's pride, and with the rain, there was no way of tracking the pride down by their scent either.

As Shani and Kovu glanced wildly about, wondering what was going on, they heard a low grunt, and whirled around to see a large rhinoceros standing behind them. Kovu jumped back, but Shani stood her ground, staring at the rhino in amazement.

"Winston?" she cried.

The rhino grunted in response.

"You know this thing?" Kovu asked, astounded.

The rhino turned its huge head in Kovu's direction and snorted angrily.

"Yes, he's a friend," Shani said. "Well, sort of."

"Think he knows where your pride is?" Kovu asked.

To his even greater astonishment, the rhino nodded.

"He does!" Shani said excitedly. "Winston, can you please show us where the pride is?"

Winston nodded again, then slowly began to turn around.

"And you'd better make it -- " Kovu began, but before he could say the word "fast", Winston had taken off at full speed, and Shani and Kovu had to run as fast as they could to keep with him.


On the rocky plain, the fight raged on. Several lionesses on either side had crawled to the sidelines, too weak to fight any longer. Bianca was still perched atop her rock, yelling out orders to her pride, her enthusiasm causing the mud to fly wildly from her pale body.

Nala swatted one lioness aside only to find Shetani standing before her. Strangely, Shetani didn't attack her immediately. Instead, she stared with what looked like confusion mixed with pensiveness. Then Bianca barked out another command, and Shetani's expression immediately became a hateful sneer. She lunged at Nala, pinning her to the ground, and it was all Nala could do to keep the young lioness from clawing her face.

Several of the Outsiders had managed to get at Simba, but he had easily been able to throw them aside. However, his wounds were beginning to hurt more now, and his pride wouldn't be able to hold back the Outsiders forever. It was only a matter of time before something gave...


Winston skidded to a stop atop a high knoll. Shani and Kovu caught up a few moments later, panting with exhaustion.

"Where are they?" Shani wheezed, her head still hanging as she tried to catch her breath.

Winston grunted and with his head, gestured at the bare, rocky plain that lay some distance ahead. The two young lions looked at the plain and stood frozen in shock. From their vantage point atop the knoll, they could clearly see the Pridelanders and the Outsiders battling each other. Shani could see her parents and her brother, and Kovu could see his mother and his sister. The howls and snarls of the fight could be heard even above the heavy rain, and the thought of approaching such a brutal event made Shani grow fearful, but with Kovu by her side, somehow she felt that she could do it.

They said a quick thank-you to Winston and hurried down the knoll, heading towards the warring prides.


Though Chaka had fought valiantly, he had failed to conserve his strength wisely. He found himself tiring rapidly, and before he knew it, several of the Outsiders had jumped on top of him. However, they weren't trying to kill him, but were only subduing him. At first, Chaka didn't understand why they were doing this, but then he looked up and saw that a large gang of Outsiders had gotten past the defensive lines of his pride and was charging at Simba. Chaka cried out to his father but was unable to free himself to help him. What the Outsiders lacked in weight they made up for in number. As thin and wiry as they were, they could easily overpower a grown lion if there were enough of them.

For a moment, it seemed like the Outsiders were doing the same thing to Simba as they had to Chaka, pinning him down until he was unable to move. Simba tried his best to throw them off, but the lionesses kept piling on top of him until it seemed like they were trying to crush him into the ground. Then a sinister voice came from somewhere out of Chaka's field of vision:

"Get off him! He's mine!"

Chaka turned to see Bianca flanked by two Outsiders, all of them walking towards Simba. At her words, the Outsiders quickly peeled off Simba and stepped back. Bianca slowly approached Simba and Simba began limping towards her. A hush fell over the battlefield as both sides watched their leaders preparing to fight one another. Chaka struggled to free himself, but to no avail. Nala was being restrained by several more Outsiders, and was just as unable to help her mate as her son was.

Simba and Bianca circled each other, sizing each other up. Bianca sneered confidently at the weak, injured lion before her, the lion that had killed her beloved Scar, exiled her pride and turned her own son against her...the lion that had hurt her for the last time.

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, Bianca roared in triumph and raised a paw with its sharp, black claws exposed, ready to make the first blow. Simba snarled and raised one of his own paws to defend himself. Suddenly, he noticed a movement out of the corner of his eye. Instinctively, he turned just in time to see his daughter leap in front of him...and she wasn't alone. Beside her was the dark-maned, green-eyed son of Scar: Kovu.

[ograndebatata]

Well, you seem to update faster than I initially expected, but well... I'm amazed at how the events are unfolding. I mean, I sort of had an idea of what would happen, but still, I'm surprised.

I'd think Chaka would do better against the Outlanders, but perhaps there were just too many of them. And at least Winston is alright. That's good to know. Now there's only Binti - and Timira. What on the hell has happened to those two?

I trust the next chapters will let us know - as well as what will happen between the prides.

[YFWE]

WINSTON!!!

Good chapter, you wrote the fight scene very admirably. Things are getting pretty crazy!

[Akril]

Chapter Sixteen:


Both Bianca and Simba froze, the paws they had lifted just moments before now planted on the ground. Shani and Kovu had leapt into the middle of the battlefield, separating the two sides. Shani was facing her father while Kovu was facing his mother. Both of them glared sternly at their respective parents, who stared back at them in confusion and annoyance.

"Shani?" Simba said, bewildered.

Bianca bared her teeth at Kovu.

"What are you doing here, traitor?" she snarled. "Get out of the way!"

"Dad, this has to stop," Shani begged. "Whatever the Outsiders might have done...it's over now. They can't stay our enemies forever."

"Shani, Kovu tried to kill me," Simba said. "How can you say that -- "

A sudden flurry of noise and movement interrupted him. With the Outsiders that were restraining him caught off guard, Chaka was able to wriggle out of their clutches and come running towards Simba. With a fierce roar, Chaka lunged at Kovu and pinned him to the ground. Shani cried out in fear, and all the lions on both sides gasped in surprise.

Chaka's jade green eyes narrowed into slits as he looked at the dark brown lion that lay beneath him.

"You Outsiders don't learn fast, do you?" he growled contemptuously at Kovu through clenched teeth. "When you're banished from the Pride Lands, you're supposed to stay away from them. Didn't your mother ever teach you what the word 'banished' means?"

"Listen," Kovu hissed, "I only came back because of Shani. I didn't want our prides to keep fighting anymore."

"Meaning you want to kill my father so you can have my sister all to yourself," Chaka snarled. "That would sure put an end to the fighting."

Simba cautiously approached Chaka, barely comprehending what was going on. Even though Simba had grown firmly convinced that Kovu was his enemy, something within him cried out that Chaka shouldn't be attacking him. Was this really the shy, quiet cub that Simba had raised to be the future king of the Pridelands? Simba called out his son's name, but his words fell on deaf ears. Chaka continued staring aggressively down at Kovu.

Kovu tried to think of what he could possibly do. If he tried fighting Chaka, Simba's pride would probably attack him, and if he didn't fight Chaka, Chaka would probably kill him. No matter which way he looked at it, it seemed that there was no way out.

"I knew that I shouldn't have trusted you," Chaka said coldly, "I knew it from the first moment I saw you. Well, you're not going to hurt my father or my pride now...or ever again..."

The prince raised a paw, its claws fully extended. Shani screamed and ran to her brother's side, trying to stop him. Shetani came running towards them as well, preparing to leap at Chaka, and Nala managed to free herself from the Outsiders pinning her down and run towards Chaka as well. The rest of the Outsiders watched the unfolding scene in horror, not sure what to do, and even Bianca was paralyzed with fear. Despite what she had done to him hours before, Kovu was still her son, and the one hope she had had that her mate's legacy would live on.

Then, just before Chaka was about to strike Kovu, he suddenly heard a faint voice calling to him -- a voice so plaintive, so gentle and so familiar that the tension in Chaka's body and the anger in his heart seemed to vanish in an instant.

Slowly, as if in a dream, he lowered his paw and looked up, staring in the direction from where the voice had come. There, standing near the cliff overlooking the Zuberi River, stood a figure barely distinguishable from the gray rock it stood upon. Her dark fur was thin and matted, and stained even darker by the rain. The only bright part of her was her eyes; they shone like two burning embers, staring deeply and longingly into Chaka's.

Both sides turned to see who this new intruder was, and it was only then that some of them realized that not only had the rain suddenly stopped, but a faint glimmer of dawn had started to appear over the horizon. Chaka stared motionlessly at the figure for several seconds, then finally spoke her name in an awed, overjoyed, and even tearful voice:

"Timira..."

[YFWE]

TIMIRA TIMIRA TIMIRA! OMG, she finally came back!

This chapter was short, but it was still crazy awesome. Chaka breaking away and pinning Kovu... I mean, that's high drama right there. Even Simba wasn't feeling too good about that!

I really can't wait for the next chapter, and I mean reeeeeeeeaallly. I have a feeling that so many questions are finally gonna be answered next chapter, and darnit, I wanna hear what happened to Timira! C:

[Dave]

Timira returned! Great chapter Akril! Can't wait for more to come.

Dave

[ograndebatata]

Good Lord, I wonder how much hatred for the Outlanders Simba has been passing onto Chaka during lesson time... Chaka seems even more aggressive to Outlanders than his father!

And Timira... well, like I said, we would eventually know what happened to her - and now I can say it wasn't what I expected. I don't really know why, but I thought she had died in the fire - although, now that I think of it, they should have found a burned body if such a thing happened.

I only hope she'll stop Chaka from killing Kovu. After all, this Kovu seems quite different from Scar, even considering this Kovu is Scar's son.

[Akril]

Chapter Seventeen:


Chaka leapt off of Kovu and bounded towards Timira. Shani ran up to her as well, and the siblings nuzzled their friend so fiercely that they almost pushed her over.

"Hi, guys," Timira smiled weakly.

"Timira, what happened to you?" Chaka said in a voice choked with tears. "We thought you were dead!"

"I was so worried about you!" Shani cried at the same time. "Where were you all this time? How did you escape the fire?"

"I...I don't know, Shani," Timira confessed. "All I remember is losing sight of you and trying to escape...and after that, there was nothing but darkness. The next thing I knew, I was lying in a dark cave, feeling so weak that I couldn't even sit up. Then I heard a lioness coming into the cave, and she told me that I had to stay where I was, or else I would be killed. Of course, for the first few days, I was so weak that leaving that cave was the furthest thing from my mind."

Shani and Chaka gaped in shock. A short distance away, Kovu cautiously got back to his feet, still on his guard, but wondering what to make of this new turn of events. Both of the prides still stood motionless, all of them just as puzzled and curious as Kovu was.

"How long were you in this cave?" Shani asked.

"I don't know," Timira said. "I couldn't see the sun or the moon, so there was no way I could keep track of time, but that lioness came back on a regular basis, bringing me things to eat. She only brought small things like mice and ground squirrels, but they were enough to keep me from starving.

"I slowly started to get my strength back, but the lioness still told me not to leave the cave if I valued my life. As I spent more time in that dark place, I began to see why she was giving me that warning: I could hear the voices of many other lionesses outside the cave, voices that I didn't recognize, and from the way their voices echoed, I could tell that the cave I was in was part of a huge network of caves which the lionesses obviously knew better than I did, if this was their lair.

"Despite the lioness's warnings, I began to grow restless. I knew you and the rest of the pride had to be worried about me, and I couldn't just stay in a small dark hole for the rest of my life. Then I finally saw my chance to escape: as I was eating the latest meal the lioness had brought to me, I realized that there were no voices coming from the outer caverns. I followed the lioness's scent out of the cave through a tunnel that branched off into several other caverns before coming to a huge central one, which had a hole in its roof that let in faint starlight.

"As dark as it was, that cave was a truly amazing place. The dim light that made its way inside lit up the walls... and the walls were made up entirely of gigantic crystals. Huge, gleaming crystals, some of them as big as elephants."

Shani blinked in surprise at a faint memory, and many of the Outsiders began exchanging looks of confusion and alarm.

"Anyway, I kept following the lioness's scent, and finally I found my way out of the caves," Timira continued. "And when I looked around, I suddenly knew where I was -- the Outlands."

Everyone on the Pridelander side gaped in shock, while the lionesses on the Outsiders' side became even more agitated.

"The Outlands?" Chaka repeated. "How did you end up there?"

"I wish I knew," Timira said, "But it's all a blur after I got trapped in the fire."

"What about that lioness who kept feeding you?" Shani pressed. "Did she tell you her name or anything?"

Timira hesitated for a moment.

"No," she said. "And it was too dark to make her out clearly..."

She slowly lifted her head and turned in the direction of the Outsiders. She began walking down the narrow gap between the two prides, with Shani and Chaka following her.

"But the one thing I could see was her eyes..." she said after a long pause. "And there was no way I could have forgotten what they looked like. They were bright blue...like the sky..."

She stopped in her tracks. As she stared at the pride of gaunt, disheveled, dark-coated lionesses, Chaka, Shani and Kovu stared as well. Slowly, Bianca and the other Outsiders began to redirect their gaze as well, turning their eyes towards the only blue-eyed lioness in the entire pride: Bianca and Scar's daughter, Shetani.

[YFWE]

OMG, I was actually right on a theory for once! Timira was being kept in the Outlands! The reason I said earlier that I thought I was wrong was because I thought she might make an initial appearance during the battles and didn't.

But wow... Shetani?! Now THAT was something I didn't see coming. I figured Bianca was holding her hostage, but... Shetani?! I wonder why! As with before, I have a few theories... we'll see if I'm right there.

Really excited for the next chapter!