This concludes "Act I" of the chapter. Things start to heat up next week!
Chapter 4: To Die For
Part 5: The Search
“It’s not fair!” Simba moaned as he watched the rest of his pride slowly disappear over the horizon. “Why wouldn’t dad let me go with him? I’m Nala’s friend! I should be the one to look for her!” The cub felt absolutely miserable. How could they expect him to just sit around in the den and wait like this? What if the others were too late? What if he never saw her again? The prince’s imagination ran wild with images of Nala being eaten alive looping over and over in his mind. Finally, the cub let out an anguished groan and leapt to his feet. There had to be something he could do! “Come on, Uncle Scar! We have to do something!”
“Settle down, Simba,” Scar sighed with a bored tone. “You’re stuck here for the same reason I got left with babysitting duty. Your father doesn’t think we’re strong enough to be much use in a fight. After all, the Outlands can be a very dangerous place.” The lion had to suppress a malicious grin as he twirled a wad of hyena fur between his sharp claws. It was the same wad of fur he had earlier planted on a bush outside the den for Mufasa to discover. In fact, there were several more pieces of hyena fur planted across the Pride Lands, all of which led to the hyenas’ territory outside Mufasa’s kingdom. Upon discovering the trail, the king had immediately taken the lionesses and Zazu to mount a rescue mission, leaving Scar behind to keep Simba out of trouble while they were gone.
“But I am strong enough!” Simba whined in protest. “What if she’s in trouble? I can’t just sit here!”
“Oh, Simba, do you really think you could do anything to help right now?” Scar retorted. “I mean, you’re just a cub. We all know what happened at the elephant graveyard. Why do you think this would be any different?”
Simba purposefully turned his head and looked his uncle in the eyes with a determination that genuinely surprised the older lion. “Because I promised. I promised to protect her.”
Scar sat for a moment and pretended to think to himself as Simba watched expectantly. Finally, the black-maned lion stood up and slowly walked out onto the precipice of Pride Rock. “Oh, very well. I guess it wouldn’t hurt to just look around a bit.” Scar raised his paw and vaguely gestured toward a brush-covered rock outcropping on the horizon. “Let’s look over there.”
Simba tilted his head in confusion as he followed his uncle’s gaze. “But, everyone else went the other way.”
“Exactly!” Scar cheerfully nodded as he began walking down the steep path from Pride Rock to the grassland below. “If we went that way, then we would just be covering the same ground as the others. But this way,” Scar again gestured toward the rock outcropping, “we can look for Nala in places your father wouldn’t have checked.”
“Oh,” Simba nodded hesitantly, “I guess that makes sense. Okay, let’s go!” The young prince eagerly sprinted ahead of the black-maned lion and across the savannah, only stopping occasionally to call out Nala’s name. Several hours passed as the two lions steadily pressed onwards under the hot sun until finally, the rock outcroppings on the far edge of the Pride Lands loomed directly in front of them.
“Simba, hold up,” Scar panted as he tiredly sat down in the shadow of the pink-hued rock formation. “I need to rest for a minute.”
The prince paced around for a moment before reluctantly allowing his body to rest in the cool shade. His legs were on fire, but his heart told him he needed to keep going. Even if Nala wasn’t out here, at least the search kept his mind from imagining the worst. “So, Uncle Scar, where should we go next?”
“Oh, I think this is as far as I can go today,” Scar moaned as he dramatically rubbed his shoulder with his paw. “After I rest for a while, we will go back to the den and wait for the others to return.”
“What?!” Simba shook his head vehemently. “But we have to keep looking! I can keep going on my own! I can –” The cub abruptly stopped as his ears picked up a soft sound drifting across the wind. It was very faint and muffled, but Simba could swear it sounded like someone crying.
“No! Stop!”
“Simba, did you hear that?!” Scar exclaimed with an uncharacteristic eagerness.
“Yeah!” Simba frantically looked around for the source of the sound before finally turning his gaze up the rock slope in front of him. Sure enough, the sound seemed to be emanating from above them. “Up there! That sounded like Nala! Come on, let’s go!” Simba started to climb the narrow path that led up the outcropping and through the thick brush growing on its side. But before he had made it more than a few steps up the slope, Scar let out an anguished cry from below.
“Ow! Oh, Simba! My back! I don’t think I can go any further. You’ll have to save her on your own.”
“Don’t worry, Uncle Scar!” Simba nodded determinedly. “I know I can do this!”
“Just be careful,” Scar muttered with feigned concern. “Look for a cave at the top.”
“Got it! I’ll be back soon!”
Scar watched as the young prince scaled the steep path up the red rock formation before disappearing from view behind the thick brush. With his nephew now just steps away from falling into his trap, the black-maned lion couldn’t help but laugh maniacally as the last pieces of his plan fell into place. Everything was going exactly as expected, and in just a few minutes, both Simba and Mufasa would be dead.
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3 years, 9 months ago
25 Jul 2020 18:56 CEST
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