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

[AustralianChaos]

"Alright, you three, I've got a job for you!" Scar drawled, making sure he had the attention of all three hyenas before moving on. "Tomorrow, I will be temporarily placed in charge of Pride Rock, while little Simba grows up. I am going to enlist you three to help make sure that Simba never makes it to adulthood."

"Simba's got about one year before he will be old enough to take Pride Rock as his own...which means we have one year to stop him." Scar gave them all significant looks, telling them that this timeline was not negotiable, and the consequences of failing to stop Simba would be very dire indeed.

"But on top of that, his friends are starting to become a nuisance, and I need them dealt with as well. If any of you think you are not up to this, tell me now before you go and fail me...again!"

[TheWhistlerify]

"What do we have to do?" Shenzi asked

[AustralianChaos]

Scar grinned at their unwavering loyalty, before continuing. "The trouble with removing Simba is that he is always hanging around at least one of his pesky friends, meaning that, if we can get rid of a few of those friends, we may have an easier time."

"But we have to move fast with this...too many deaths too close to each other will arouse suspicion. We must wait at least a few days for Mufasa's death to settle in. But when the time comes, I suggest you focus on the two that interrupted us today, Tanga and Marini. As orphans, neither of them will be terribly missed by the adults if something happened to them."

Scar then turned away to leave, speaking once more over his shoulder. "I'll give you three a few days to come up with something on your own...it'll look suspicious if I'm missing for too long. Just remember, whatever you plan, it must be quiet, and there must be no witnesses. You might want to try luring the two fuzzballs into the Graveyard...without Mufasa to protect them, you should be able to dispose of them this time!"

((Timeline jump, possibly?))

[TheWhistlerify]

Shenzi nodded to Scar as a sign of approval. "We'll dispose of them."

(( When, and to what time? ))

[AustralianChaos]

Nala slowly drifted back to the waking world, stretching the cramps out of her growing body as she uncurled, yawning quietly.

It had been close to a month since Mufasa's tragic death in the gorge, and already change was in the air...not all of it good. The most obvious sign of the time that had passed was the change that had occured in Nala herself, along with her three friends. In the short time span, her small, cubbish frame had already started to grow rapidly. She was no lioness yet, but neither was she a small defenceless cub.

She slowly rose to her paws and left the den, deciding to look for her friends to get some early morning fun in, before Scar could drag Simba away on one of his 'lessons' on how to be king.

Nala sighed at the thought of her best friend's uncle, who was currently king of Pride Rock. He was not a 'bad' king, so to speak...but he was definitely no Mufasa. One of the first things he had done was send Tanga and Marini into the cramped, private dens off to the side of Pride Rock, since the main den was a 'family' den, and Tanga and Marini had no living relations to the pride any longer. It was obvious he was unhappy with the two cubs over something or other, but Nala had never been able to figure out what.

As she left the den, she noticed Simba sitting out on the promontory of Pride Rock, watching the sunrise alone. Even from this distance, Nala could see some of changes beginning to go through the young prince's body as well, and smiled, but otherwise left him to his thoughts as she went down towards the private dens.

All thoughts of leaving Simba to his ow devices vanished when she came across Marini's private den. "Simba!" she called, quietly so as to not disturb anyone else. "Simba, come here, you've gotta see this!"

Even as she sat back and waited for Simba to come and ask what all the fuss was about, Nala could not help but grin. There, inside Marini's den, the young lioness lay sleeping, her small frame also beginning to show the signs of adolescent growth.

And there, right there with her, was Tanga. Of all four of them, to supposed 'runt' of the pride was easily showing the strongest signs of his transition to adulthood. He now possessed a small ruff of dark grey fur on the top of his head...with an identical long-haired patch on his chest, the first signs of his black mane starting to show through. He had also grown out the most, leaving him roughly the same size as his friends despite his runt nature. Nala guessed that he would never quite be as large as Simba would be...or that he would even be able to compete with skinny old Scar fo size, but to her, that did not matter.

The fact that the two of them were in the same den was nothing new to Nala...although each of them had claimed their own den for themselves, they often stayed together when they were feeling lonely or frightened...it had happened quite often in the first week of being banned from sleeping in the main den.

No, what had caused Nala to grin and call for Simba was that, last night, she had checked in on Marini, and found her sleeping...alone. Now, in the morning, it seemed that Tanga had come to her during the night, deciding to have some company...and the young lion was cuddled up against Marini's fur! knowing how heavy Marini could sleep at times, Nala knew that Marini currently had no idea of this...and she had no intention of interrupting them, at least not until simba saw the impossible cute scene before her!

"Simba!" she called again, "Come on, hurry up! You're gonna miss it!"

[TheWhistlerify]

Simba was sitting at the edge of Pride Rock and looked at the sun climbing up from the horizon. Things were getting better, the tragedy of his father's death was no longer spoken of, which made Simba think about it less then he did before. Nothing was the same, but Simba got used to it more quickly then he imagined.

With Scar as the king, he was always no where to be found. But that didn't bother anyone, even while Mufasa was still alive Scar was always wandering around the Pride Lands, pr that's what they were all thinking.

He noticed Nala walk towards the private den. Ever since Mufasa's death Tanga and Marini used them alot more frequently then they did before. He turned his gaze to the sun again, thinking about many things that stormed his mind. Nala then called his name out, he looked at his distant friend, who was by the mouth of Marini's den. He turned around and began walking down Pride Rock, wondering what was it his friend was so excited on showing him. He turned his pace into a run when Nala calle for him again. A little before he was infront of the den's entrance he stopped running, still not able to see what was Nala looking at. "Miss what?" he asked her as he walked closer

[AustralianChaos]

Nala held a paw to her muzzle in a desperate, but futile attempt to stifle her giggles as she waved her other paw in the direction of the two sleeping adolescents, inviting Simba to have a look. "Isn't that just the cutest thing you've ever seen?" she asked, waiting for Simba to notice the way Tanga and Marini were together...even if she was certain Marini had no idea what was going on. Her giggles increased as she noticed the completely peaceful expression on Tanga's face as he slept, his head resting against Marini's shoulder, much like it had a month ago the night of Mufasa's death.

"It looks like someone has a little crush," she commented light-heartedly.

[TheWhistlerify]

Simba walked to the den's entrance to see what was his friend talking about. When he noticed Tanga and Marini he reacted pretty much the same. Noticing the expression on Tanga's face he could guess that Nala was talking about him. "That must be Tanga." he said giggling and pointing at Tanga's expression

[AustralianChaos]

Nala nodded, looking at Simba. "I saw Marini sleeping last night, Tanga wasn't there...and now he is."

She suddenly got a large smirk across her face. "Should we clue Marini in, or leave the two of them to work it out themselves?" she asked, giving Simba one of those looks she had when she had an interesting scheme in mind. She had every intention of teasing the two of them mercilessly for days over this...if Marini caught Tanga in the act, that was.

It would give her something to do for next few days at the very least...and give her and Simba plenty of laughs as they kep Marini and Tanga red-faced for the better part of a week.

[TheWhistlerify]

"I think we we should slowly tell Tanga that we saw them." Simba said copying the look on Nala's face. "But if we want him to get nervous about this then it shouldn't be told directly." He stopped to think for a moment. "We could start by waiting near the cave, but not in-front of the entrance. That way Tanga will go crazy trying to realise whether we saw them or not."