Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The sun climbed slowly into the sky over the Pridelands, bathing the savanna in an orange light that made it seem like the land was on fire even though the air was still cool. Prominent landmarks – Pride Rock, Rafiki’s isolated baobab, and the other tall trees and rock formations that studded the hilly terrain – cast long shadows that grew shorter as dawn turned into morning, and the sky turned from pink to pale blue. A lone cloud thought about drifting in, then the winds changed and it vanished over the eastern horizon.

But in the maze of slot canyons that marked the Pridelands’ northwestern border, the sun still didn’t penetrate, and the dry streambeds below remained cool and dark. That was fine, as far as the lone hyena cub that crept along the rocky trail in the bottom of one canyon was concerned.

It was the middle of the dry season, seven months after the formation of Kion’s Lion Guard, and water was scarce in Jasiri’s territory. The small spring near her den had dried up, and while the river that ran along the border with the Pridelands was still there, the water level had dropped enough that she would have to climb down steep, slippery banks to get to it, and the current was still strong enough to sweep an unwary animal away. The nearest safe crossing was far upstream in Janja’s territory, and she wasn’t desperate enough to risk her life trespassing to drink. Fortunately, she had a secret. One of her canyons had a bottom of deep sand and silt. In the wet season, a stream flowed down it, eventually tumbling down a waterfall into the main border river, but even in the dry season the water flowed underground. Still, digging to reach the water-filled sediment was hard work, and Jasiri preferred not to waste water panting in the baking sun at the tops of the cliffs.

Jasiri had already gotten a drink last night. This morning, she was following the scent of a recently dead animal upstream. Her normal food source was small animals like hares and hyraxes, but the slopes were treacherous, and every so often a careless larger animal would slip and fall to its death, leaving a feast for Jasiri.

After a little while she rounded a bend and clambered over a low ridge. The smell got stronger, and she scrambled down to its source. But instead of a carcass, there was nothing but a bloodstain, two small horns, four hooves, and some scraps of skin and fur. Jasiri snarled. Janja. There were a couple of servals and caracals in the area who would go for a free meal, and there were always vultures and the family of jackals she’d chased off once, but the only animals who ate the bones of a carcass were hyenas. Jasiri sniffed the air. Yep, Janja’s scent was here, as were the scents of Cheezi, Chungu, and at least one of the other hyenas who were more loosely attached to his clan.

Really, clan was a strong word. Janja’s hyenas weren’t so much a clan as a gang. A clan was family. When Scar took over the Pridelands, he brought together three clans of hyenas. Over his reign, they blurred together, and when he died the hyenas split into three new clans with little in common with the originals. Janja’s ‘clan’ was a bunch of unrelated young males born in the last few years of Scar’s reign who lost their parents in the war that drove the hyenas out of the pridelands and killed a third of their number, and weren’t wanted in any of the clans. Really, Jasiri’s situation wasn’t much different. Her mother, Hasira, was a higher-ranking hyena during Scar’s reign, and ended up leading the Western Clan after his death. But when she died in a battle with the Outlander lions, Jasiri was left as a small cub in charge of a starving clan that was being driven further west, beyond the outlands, into unknown territory. Faced with the pressure, she ran, and had been on her own ever since.

Jasiri stomped up the gully, fuming. This was the fourth time in a month Janja’s gang had been on her turf! The first time it was a lone hyena who ran off as soon as he saw her, the second time was just scent, and the third time Janja, Cheezi, and Chungu had been forced across the river by the Lion Guard. Their hunt in the Pridelands had apparently been successful though, and they were confident enough to refuse to leave, resulting in a fight that left Chungu missing a good-sized piece of his ear. But this was too far! Jasiri hadn’t eaten in four days, and they’d stolen a carcass that would have fed her for at least a week. She didn’t care how dangerous it was anymore; if she wanted to make it through the dry season she was going to have to make them stay out.

She rounded another bend, and there was the ringleader, sunning himself on a high rock. “Janja!” she shouted up at him.

“Hmm?” Janja turned his head to look at her, and slowly got to his feet.

“That antelope you and your cronies ate was in my territory! What’s wrong, poaching from the Pridelands too challenging for you? Too scared of the Lion Guard?”

As intended, Janja looked annoyed at the taunts, but quickly changed his expression. “Your territory?” he made a big show of looking around. “Oh, I’m so sorry, I had no idea this was your territory! Honest, I was just so hungry, I wasn’t payin atten-“

“That carcass was almost half a mile from the border, Janja! Really, the only thing you do worse than fight is lie. Now where are the others?”

“The others?” Janja feigned a look of confusion, but thought better of it when Jasiri growled and started towards the base of his rock. “Ah, they’ve already left. I just thought I’d stay behind, catch some Z’s, you know?” As he spoke, he edged his way down from the rock.

“No, I don’t know! Now get off my land NOW!” She snarled, and charged at him. Janja’s eyes widened, and he turned tail and ran. Jasiri knew he’d keep going until he was back on his own ground, but he’d just be back tomorrow, or next week. This time, she was going to catch him and teach him a lesson.

Then, Janja unexpectedly turned left at a fork in the path, instead of the right turn that would take him home. “That’s a dead end, you moron!” she laughed as she chased him into the blind canyon. “Do you need help finding your way home?” This made her job easier. She wondered if physically dragging him across the border would make the impression she wanted.

But Janja loped to a stop, looking unperturbed. “Actually, I’m exactly where I want to be,” he said. Jasiri heard movement behind her, and looked over her shoulder to see three hyenas clamber down from the rocks above. In front of her, Cheezi and Chungu appeared behind Janja.

“Jamani!” Jasiri swore. He’d led her into a trap! 

Janja grinned. “You’re callin’ me a moron, but you didn’t check the wind? We smelled you coming a mile away! Now… I’m thinkin’ I actually kinda like this place. Maybe we’ll keep it.”

No… Jasiri thought. They couldn’t… food was scarce enough already, even losing a small amount of ground could mean starvation. “Yeah right…” she said, trying to seem nonchalant. “You’ve already got the only good land around, there’s hardly any food here.”

“There’s enough to feed one hyena,” Janja countered. Jasiri doubted that. She’d lost a lot of weight since the rains stopped, and she was a lot smaller than most of Janja’s gang. He continued: “And we ain’t got enough to feed all of us. So I think you’re the one who needs to get off our turf!”

Jasiri’s mind raced. It sounded like they intended to take her entire territory, but she couldn’t afford to give up anything, and if she offered a compromise Janja would know he had the advantage and keep attacking. And if she was driven out of this territory, she was as good as dead. Upstream, to the north, was Janja. To the south and west were the Outland lions. To the east were the Pridelands, and beyond Janja’s territory were the smoking mountains and the Elephant Graveyard, which were effectively inhospitable. Her only option was to fight. “Make me, you Malaya Kijinga!” she snarled, her mane standing on end.

Janja’s lips curled up at the insult. “Really?” he chuckled. “You might be a girl, but we’re still older than you and there’s six of us!”

Yeah, and I fight better than any of you, Jasiri thought. But it was true; if they all attacked her at once, she would be in trouble. But if she could goad Janja into trying to fight her one on one, it would be fairly easy. “Yeah, that’s right,” she admitted. “What are you, twice my size? But you’re still afraid of me, just like you’re scared of a little lion cub! Why don’t you stop being a coward and fight me yourself, without your friends to save you!” If she could get him on his own, she could beat him to a pulp and… no, that wouldn’t work. He’d brought his whole clan to drive her out of her territory. Even if he made the mistake of fighting her alone the first time, he wouldn’t make it again the next. She didn’t have a choice, she would have to kill him, or at least hurt him so badly he wouldn’t even think of going near her again.

“Funny, I seem to remember the little lion cub saving your sorry hide the last time,” Janja sneered. “But Kion’s not going to come to your rescue today…”

Jasiri groaned. Janja might have been an impulsive, hotheaded idiot, but even he had the sense not to get in fights he would obviously lose. Jasiri had been too optimistic to think he’d fall for that. Her last resort was to try to get them to back off entirely. “The last time I’d have killed at least one of you, and I will this time too! And the rest of you aren’t going home in one piece either. How attached are you boys to your ears?” She gave Chungu a piercing look. He swallowed hard.

“Enough! Just get her, furbrains!” Janja shouted.

At his command, all six hyenas leaped at Jasiri. She rolled sideways, colliding with Cheezi’s leg and tripping him, then stepped back as they all crashed into each other. Now they were all on the same side of her, but that side was towards the mouth of the slot canyon. One of the ones whose name she didn’t know was the first up, lunging at her face. Jasiri ducked as his jaws snapped shut above her, then thrust her head upwards into his chin with enough force to make him rise up on his hindpaws. Janja was after her next, but she spun away from him and pushed the one she’d hit over onto him. Before Janja could recover, she gave him a bite to the shoulder and jumped away.

After that, the fight became a blur of motion. All six hyenas were back on their feet, and quickly surrounded Jasiri again. She had to keep spinning around, dodging one after another or throwing them back. Unlike lions, hyenas’ claws were too blunt to cause serious injury, but Jasiri kept kicking, cuffing, and headbutting, knocking them away from her over and over. She only had one pair of jaws, they had six, and she knew if she grabbed onto one of them the others would tear her to shreds. When she had the chance, she nipped at them, not really doing anything but pinching skin, but the bites were still a painful annoyance. She drew first blood, giving Janja a nice cut on his nose, but the attacks kept coming.

After a minute Jasiri realized her odds were worse than she thought. Her enemies had all eaten recently, but not enough to make them slow and lethargic, and she’d gone four days without food. She wasn’t going to be able to outlast them. It started with small bites, the same ones she was delivering. Then when she tried to rip Chungu’s other ear, he slammed his skull into her nose. There was a deep, throbbing pain, and her sense of smell was overwhelmed by blood. But after being hit, any of the others could back away for a few seconds to catch their breath. Jasiri couldn’t. Another hyena lunged for her neck. She jumped backwards, but wasn’t fast enough, and she felt his jaws close on her ear. For a split-second she tensed, but then remembered that he would shake her and try to rip her ear off. Instead, she moved her head with him. Left, right, left, and then she jammed a forepaw into the soft part of his throat near the top of his rib cage. He let out a strangled choking noise and released his grip. But by then, another hyena had bitten down on her right haunch. Acting purely on reflex, she whirled around, seized the loose skin on the side of his face, and pulled with all her strength. Hyena skin was tough, but it gave in long before her muscle did. He howled in pain and stumbled away with a big gash torn in his neck, but Jasiri’s hind leg now hurt when she put weight on it, and she barely had time to kick Cheezi away from her.

The fight dragged on, and slowly both sides got more injured. Jasiri wasn’t holding anything back anymore, and was barely paying attention to the small bites on her back and sides. She slammed Cheezi into the wall of the canyon so hard he bit his own tongue, nearly ripped off one ear of one of the other hyenas, and gave Janja a black eye. But she was slowly being worn down. Her lungs felt like they were on fire, her mouth had dried out from panting so heavily, and a cut on her head was dripping blood into her eye. Her saving grace was that Janja’s hyenas weren’t coordinated enough to attack all at once, despite his yelling orders at them.

Then she slipped. It happened so fast that she wasn’t sure whether it was a pebble or blood, but one foot slid out from under her. She stumbled, lost track of Chungu rushing at her, and he plowed into her, throwing her onto her back and against the canyon wall. A moment later, she felt a horrible pain in her belly. She opened her eyes, and saw his jaws grabbing a huge chunk of skin. Then he started to shake.

Hapana… Jasiri thought. Not like this… This was bad. When she left her clan, she was still too young to know more than the absolute basics of hunting, but one of them was that if you ripped an animal’s belly open, its guts would fall out and it would die of blood loss. If she didn’t stop Chungu fast, she was a goner. She kicked at his chest with all her strength, then stretched her head forward, closing her own jaws around his throat. Chungu let out a gasp. “Let go or I’ll rip your throat out!” Jasiri shouted through a mouthful of fur. “Let go of me or you’re dead!”

Chungu let go, and Jasiri forced herself to her feet, keeping her grip and using the leverage to throw him into Janja and Cheezi. Another hyena attacked her, but she dropped onto her back again, let him skid over her, and grabbed his foreleg. Then she rolled sideways, twisting. There was a pop, and her attacker fell onto his side, scrambled to his feet, and limped away whimpering. If his leg wasn’t broken, it was at least dislocated, which made this five against one.

But then one of them got her by the foreleg, and forced her to the ground again. “Hold her down, hold her down!” she heard Janja shouting. A second later there were at least three hyenas on top of her. She kicked frantically and tried to slide out from under them, but there was just too much weight. Cheezi’s paw was pressed into her chin, forcing her head down. Janja looked her right in the eye with a sadistic, humorless grin, and cackled. “I’ve wanted to do this for ages, Jasiri!” Then he seized her hind leg in her jaws, despite being kicked in the face a couple times. She strained against his grip but he just gave a muffled laugh and fixed her with that cocky gaze she hated so much. Her blood turned to ice as she realized what he was about to do. “No, don’t!” she cried. “You win, just please stop!” Trying to beat Janja, or even lose gracefully, didn't matter anymore. Even if she had to beg for her life and flee with her tail between her legs, she had to end the fight right now, because if she didn't she might not get another chance to reclaim her land and settle the score. But Janja ignored her. She felt the pressure on her leg get stronger, a stabbing pain as his teeth broke the skin, and then SNAP.

Jasiri screamed, louder than she’d ever screamed in her life. The pain was so far beyond anything she’d experienced… how was it even possible for anything to hurt this much? When there was no air left in her lungs, she thrashed wildly, barely aware of what she was doing, dislodging Cheezi’s paw from her throat and biting down on it with all her strength. She felt bones resist, then pop under the force. She let go of his paw, and he yelped and pulled away. There was a muffled noise of surprise from Chungu, then the pressure on her foreleg increased and she felt a pulling and twisting. She sucked in a breath and screamed again, trying against all logic to pull free as the pain in that leg got worse and worse. SNAP.

Chungu released his grip, and Jasiri scrambled to her feet, but her legs wouldn’t support her weight, and the pain just got worse. She rolled onto her side, letting out a noise somewhere between a scream and a sob. Struggling to prop herself up on her good foreleg, she sat up to face Janja and felt tears pouring down her cheeks.

“Aww, is the widdle cubbie gonna cwy?” Janja said in a mocking singsong voice. The others laughed cruelly. Jasiri dragged herself to her feet, balancing precariously on both forelegs and one hind leg, but she couldn’t fight anymore, or even form words through all the pain. She started to stagger out of the canyon. After a few steps, something heavy slammed into her side and bowled her over again, sending her tumbling down the slope halfway to the fork. More laughter came from somewhere above her. She scrambled to her feet again, and started running. She didn’t care where she was going, all that mattered was getting away from Janja and his gang. She struggled uphill, and eventually into Janja’s territory, begging the spirits of her ancestors that he wouldn’t follow.

She paused to catch her breath, but didn’t dare lie down, afraid she wouldn’t be able to get back up. She looked behind her. No sign of Janja, but a trail of blood. Forward… wait a minute. This was familiar. This was close to where she and Kion had fought off Janja and Company months earlier. Kion… an idea started to form. She’d actually met Kion a few more times, always alone. They’d talked and played for half a day or so, with Kion telling stories about the Guard’s adventures. She thought of him as a friend… but they’d always been on her territory. If she trespassed on the Pridelands, would that change? Would she be just another intruder? It didn’t matter, this was the only option she had left. From here she knew the way to Flatridge Rock Crossing, but much north of that was unfamiliar. She’d never actually been to the Elephant Graveyard, only heard stories. To the south, back through her territory… even if Janja let her escape, she’d end up on the Outlander Lions’ turf. They killed hyenas on sight. The Pridelanders obviously didn’t, judging by how often the Lion Guard had chased Janja out.

The river was shallow, but Jasiri still nearly drowned. Without the use of all four paws, when she reached the middle she was pulled off her feet by the current, accidentally inhaled water, and panicked, flailing wildly and luckily managing to grab onto a rock before she was swept downstream. From there, she was able to swim the rest of the way across, and dragged herself up the opposite bank, coughing and vomiting bile.

The adrenaline rush that got her through the fight with Janja’s clan had long since left her, and her entire body trembled. Her ears were plastered to the side of her head and her tail between her legs the entire time. All she wanted was to be able to curl up and sleep. But even though she was in the Pridelands, she wasn’t safe. She needed to find another animal who could alert the Guard or some of the other lions of the pride. Jasiri slowly pushed herself to her feet and limped towards the distant shape of Pride Rock. 

Author’s Notes:

• Hi, I’m IHC and I’m addicted to ruining children’s movies and TV shows by putting cute animals through horrible physical and mental trauma. I have lost control of my life. 
• There’s no official map of the Pridelands (I really wish Disney would release one), so I pretty much winged it, putting the drier and more mountainous terrain in the north and west. The Elephant Graveyard is in the North (in the original film, Scar said “he didn’t show you what’s beyond our northern border.”), along with the Smoking Mountains, a volcanic field with some cinder cones and stuff. Jasiri and Janja’s clan live in the canyons to the Northwest, which is also where we see the jackals in “Too Many Termites.” Further south is the pride with Zira and the other outlander lions seen in “Simba’s Pride.” 
• A note on hyena society. In the real world, hyena clans are Matriarchal. People have used this to complain that really Janja should be bowing before Jasiri. My response to this is that in a real lion pride a lioness would never be trained to be “queen.” Some might say that in the same vein Scar would have killed all the cubs after he took over, but actually this likely wouldn’t happen since he’s Mufasa’s brother. Anyway, in-universe Scar’s takeover completely scrambled the structure of the hyenas’ society – for example, Shenzi goes to confront him about the famine and drought with Banzai and Ed, two males. 
• All the non-English words used are Swahili, just like in the source material. “Hapana” means “No” (probably better translated as “Oh, no!” when Ono says it), and the other ones Jasiri says will be left untranslated for the sake of the K+ rating. 
• A/N from the distant future, after “Rescue in the Outlands” was aired. Well, it looks like 6-7 being the magic number of hyenas needed to beat Jasiri is confirmed. I also wanted to clarify that I’m not making Jasiri helpless and incompetent; I’m just making Janja and co. marginally LESS incompetent, and the fighting more realistic than the crazy kicks and headbutts seen in the show. In real life, even fighting two opponents who are similar in size and strength to you is extremely difficult without a MASSIVE gap in skill and/or speed, and generally requires incapacitating one of them very quickly so that you have a one-on-one fight. Jasiri is an INCREDIBLE badass for holding her own against six larger hyenas at all, and for doing enough damage to make them reluctant to pursue her. 

• Seriously though, the fight scenes in The Lion Guard are pretty lulzy because the characters are almost always using weird techniques like body slams and headbutts instead of their teeth, claws, or anything else that should be capable of causing serious damage. This is somewhat acceptable from the heroes if they’re intentionally trying to be nonlethal, although Fuli canonically hunts for herself and shouldn’t be squeamish about clawing or biting in a serious fight. It just looks ludicrous from the villains, though; it’s the equivalent of seeing someone with a sword cut their opponents’ clothing up when they’re not explicitly trying to show off. Yeah, yeah, it’s a kids’ show, I know. I’m not asking for Watership Down levels of gore, or even Warrior Cats. I’d settle for the level of violence in the original Lion King. 
• I’ve noticed a trend where every time I write a story I end up looking up gory photos, often of animals, at some point in the process. Off the top of my head I’ve searched for burns on birds and reptiles, seals with wounds from getting hit by boat propellers, and accident photos from pedestrian-truck collisions. Usually I don’t post those for obvious reasons, but this time I’m making an exception because it’s educational. This is what I used as a reference on what a (n>3) vs. 1 hyena fight is actually like: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7u5zH2Aa5U. WARNING: VIDEO IS NSFW DUE TO BLOOD AND GRAPHIC INJURY AND OBVIOUSLY NOT RATED K+. Jasiri got off lightly by comparison. 

Chapter Text

Kion crept through the underbrush of one of the Pridelands’ patches of forest. His belly was held barely an inch above the ground in the stalking crouch used by every cat from lions to caracals. He held his tail rigidly behind him, keeping the bright red tuft on the end out of view, but his ears were up. Even his breathing was kept as slow as possible to avoid making the slightest sound. He felt his whiskers brush against a blade of grass, and automatically pulled them back against his face as he stepped forward into a small clearing. He looked around for any signs of… wait, what was he stalking again?

Kion straightened up and turned to Kiara beside him. In a regular voice, he asked: “Why are we after Tiifu again?” It didn’t occur to him that this wasn’t particularly stealthy.

Kiara rolled her eyes. “Because she’s plotting to replace Fuli, remember?”

“Oh, yeah…”

Kion kept going, until he heard a loud thump and a lot of buzzing in the distance. He rushed to the source of the noise to find a beehive burst open on the ground, and Tiifu rolling in a pool of honey. A twig snapped under his feet, and her ears twitched. She rose, shook off the excess honey, and turned towards Kion. Actually, she looked a whole lot like Fuli, just without the black spots. “How’s she going to give herself those…” he heard himself mumble.

“I just need the charcoal!” Tiifu said cheerfully. And suddenly there was a burning branch in her mouth, and she moved slowly and deliberately towards the dead grass nearby. “All I need is charcoal!”

“No, stop!” Kion shouted, realizing what was about to happen. “That grass is too dry, you’ll burn down the whole savanna!” He leaped towards her, and time slowed down. Behind her, he heard Kiara’s voice call his name.

“Kion!” The grass caught, and erupted into a towering pillar of flames. Kion skidded to a halt in front of it. “Kion!” How was he going to put this out? He needed water but it was too far to the watering hole… unless… could honey put out a fire? “Come on, Kion, it’s almost midday!”

“Huh?” Kion felt something shaking him, and his eyes snapped open. At first all he saw were indistinct blobs of color, but after blinking a few times they resolved themselves into the pale blue sky, the dark grey of stone, and Bunga’s face. Something cold and hard pressed against his back, either stone or earth. He realized his body was twisted, and his back legs were higher than his head. Right… he’d settled down for a nap in the boulders around the back of Pride Rock, taking advantage of the shade. He groaned, rolling onto his side and rubbing his eyes with a paw. “Bunga… it’s too hot, you’re the only animal who’s awake right now.”

“Yeah, and I’m booorrreeeddd…” Bunga complained.

“Ugh…” Kion stretched and yawned. His mouth and throat felt dry, and he wondered if it would be worth walking all the way to the watering hole and back before dark. The pool in the Guard’s den hadn’t dried up since it was fed by a spring, but something about the rocks there made the water taste terrible. Now that the initial grogginess had worn off, he realized he probably wasn’t getting back to sleep anyway, and it would be nice to have a chance to cool down. “All right, I’m up,” he said. “Do you want to go down to the watering hole?”

Bunga’s face brightened. “Sure! Come on, why wouldn’t I? We can go swimming, we can go say hi to Beshte, there’s that big floating log that you can climb on and paddle around –“

“Wait, Beshte? Isn’t his family at Big Springs?”

“No, he said he was moving to the watering hole for a moon or two, so he’d be closer to things if the Guard needed him, remember?”

“No… you’re sure he told you that?”

“Yeah, yesterday, after breaking up the fight with the giraffes and the elephants… I guess you were ahead of us with Fuli and Ono.”

Kion nodded. That actually made sense. Big Springs was in the southern part of the Pridelands, near where the land turned into desert. The Watering Hole was almost directly east of Pride Rock, but it was nearby. Lake Matope was technically closer to Janja and the Outlander lions, but Makuu claimed that having a Lion Guard member looming over him made him feel untrusted, and they really didn’t need the crocodiles causing trouble.

Kion and Bunga bounded down the slope, passed the entrance to the Guard’s den, and headed towards the watering hole.

But they’d only made it about halfway there when a sandgrouse flapped towards them, calling “Kion! Kion!” in its shrill voice.

“Huh? What’s going on?” Kion craned his neck upwards to look at the bird, squinting in the glare from the sun.

The sandgrouse descended and perched on a bush, gasping for air. “Hyenas! They’ve been… spotted in the Pridelands!”

“Where?” Kion was immediately on alert, ears pricked up. 

“The Chakula Plains, near Ukuni Woods.” the sagegrouse replied. “I didn’t see them myself, but some of the zebras did!”

“Hevi Kabisa…” Kion groaned. “All right, we’ll deal with them. Go to the watering hole and find Beshte. Bunga, let’s go!”

“Right-O!” Bunga spun on his heel and started running towards the plains. Kion broke into a jog to catch up with him.

“Why would Janja even try to hunt in the middle of the day?” Kion wondered aloud. “The only thing he’s going to catch is heatstroke.”

Bunga shrugged. “Because he’s an idiot! Duh…”

“Can’t argue with you there…” 

As they got closer to Chakula Plains they were joined by Fuli. She suggested half-jokingly that Janja was probably banking on the Lion Guard having to tire themselves out running halfway across the Pridelands in the midday heat. Kion had to admit that if that was the hyenas’ plan it was a good one. The Lion Guard had to kick Janja’s clan out of the Pridelands every few days, and although the hyenas ran whenever they were confronted and weren’t particularly good hunters, they were persistent, and the Guard couldn’t monitor the border all the time. Usually Kion was able to stop them, but if the Guard was on the other side of the Pridelands the hyenas could cross the border, pick off a young or weak animal, and have eaten their fill by the time the Guard arrived. Recently, Kion had gotten frustrated and told a herd of gazelles that if they were stupid enough to graze near the border, they couldn’t complain about someone getting eaten.

By the time they got to Chakula plains, Kion and Fuli were both panting, and even Bunga was breathing heavily. Sure enough, near the acacia trees of Ukuni Woods a small group of zebras were waiting. About half were grazing, but the rest were on high alert, constantly scanning the surrounding grassland for danger. Kion recognized their leader, Mushimu, and walked up to her, holding his tail high in the air to show that he wasn’t hunting. Mushimu approached, her foal staying about a dozen paces behind her.

“Lion Guard! You’re here!” she said.

“Yep.” Kion nodded. “Can you take us to where you saw the hyenas?”

“I can, but… why are there only three of you?”

“Huh? Oh, Beshte should be on his way.” He looked behind him. There was a cloud of dust approaching, and what appeared to be a gray shape at its head. “That’s probably him, actually. Let’s just wait until he catches up,” Kion said, although secretly he was glad to have a chance to catch his own breath if the hyenas weren’t actually attacking at the moment.

A few minutes later, Beshte trotted up, breathing heavily. “Hey guys, did I miss anything? Janja again, right?”

“Yeah,” said Kion.

“So, where’s Ono? He’s usually faster than me.”

“I have no idea,” Kion admitted. “Fuli, have you seen him today?”

Fuli shook her head. “No, but his flock’s with the water buffalo, remember?” She coughed and backed away from Beshte. “Jeez, be careful with that dust, okay? Some of us are trying to breathe.” 

“Sorry,” Beshte said. He looked at his own hide. “Actually, I think most of this is dried mud. The banks of the watering hole are pretty… boggy, which is fine by me but there were some smaller animals getting stuck, so I’ve been trying to put reeds and tree branches down to make a path.” 

“Anyway…” Kion noticed that attention was straying from the present threat. “Let’s follow Mushimu to where she saw the hyenas. Putting the reeds down is a great idea, though.”

“What about Ono?” asked Fuli. 

“Psshh, who needs Ono?” Bunga waved a hand dismissively.

“Uhh, all of us?” Fuli snapped. “I’d much rather have you not show up than him.”

“I didn’t mean in general, I just meant right now! This grass is pretty short, right? They shouldn’t be too hard to find.”

“Guys, calm down!” Kion said. “Fuli, you’re right, it would be easier to find the hyenas if Ono was here, but we don’t have time to wait for him. Let’s go.”

Mushimu led them in the approximate direction of the border while explaining: “I actually only saw the one hyena. My foal Jabari and I were grazing, and he wandered away from the herd as usual. I was heading over to tell him to stay close when a hyena came through that thicket straight between us! I gave it a good kick and Jabari and I ran back to the herd, but I didn’t stick around to see where the others were. Just to be safe, I told the herd to stick together and led them farther from the border.

“Okay, thanks for your help, Mushimu.” Kion bounded over to the mass of bushes the zebra pointed out, then stopped a few paces back. This would be a perfect spot for an ambush. “Ono, would y- wait, no, Fuli, can you check around that other side of the thicket?”

“I’m on it!” Fuli sprinted off, rounded the thicket, and returned to Kion. “All clear!”

“Thanks.” Kion crept closer to investigate the area. The ground was too dry for tracks, but it smelled like hyenas, and there was a strong scent of blood. Sniffing around, he found drops and smears of blood on the grass, and a scrap of hyena fur in the bush. He got the scent of Janja’s clan, but there was something else as well, that he couldn’t quite make out over the smell of blood. 

He returned to the rest of the Guard. “This is weird. Unless one of Janja’s hyenas was scouting ahead I wouldn’t think it would be alone, and there’s a strong smell of blood. Do you think they already made a kill?”

“Maybe, but then why would they keep attacking?” Fuli answered.

“Well, Janja has done stuff like that before.” A thought occurred to Kion. “Mushimu, are you sure you didn’t see an Aardwolf?” Aardwolves usually only came out at night, but there was a possibility.

Mushimu looked very offended. “Of course I’m sure! What kind of idiot do you think I am? Aardwolves have stripes, and this animal definitely had spots; how could I not know the difference?”

Kion winced, remembering the time he’d mistaken a group of Aardwolves for hyenas. “Sorry.” 

Fuli stalked up to the thicket. “No, I definitely have Janja’s scent, but it’s pretty faint.”

“Hmm…” Kion considered the situation. “Mushimu, it’s probably best if you go back to your herd now, but keep your eye out, and yell if you see anything else. There’s something weird going on here, and I think Janja might be trying to set a trap for us. Fuli, Bunga, Beshte, let’s try to follow their trail backwards and see whether they made a kill.” 

“I could do that a lot faster by myself,” Fuli pointed out.

“Maybe, but we don’t have Ono keeping a lookout, and they could be lying in wait. Just stay close for now; if he does ambush us I don’t want you trying to fight off his whole clan by yourself and be too far away for us to get to.”

They’d gotten a few minutes down the trail and over a hill, finding occasional blood drips but no sign of a carcass, when Kion heard a voice call: “Incoming! Sorry I’m late!” He looked over his shoulder to see Ono swoop towards them, stop his dive with great effort, and land awkwardly on Beshte’s back.

“Hi, Ono!” Kion greeted him. “We were wondering where you were.”

“Sorry, I just saw Beshte moving really fast and thought it must be important,” Ono said. “What’s going on?”

“Hyenas,” explained Beshte and Bunga in unison. 

“At least, we think,” Kion clarified. “There’s something weird going on. Ono, you wouldn’t have seen a large dead animal on your way here, would you? We think they might have made a kill.”

“Uh, no… definitely nothing like that.” Ono shook his beak. “I thought I smelled one, but no, Bunga’s just neglected personal hygiene as usual.”

“Hey!” shouted Bunga.

“Huh…” Kion looked down at a bloodstained blade of grass. “There’s a lot of blood here, and this would be before Mushimu kicked the hyena, so either it got something small like a rabbit or it was already hurt. Change of plans; we’ll follow the trail forward. Ono, see if you can spot them from the air.”

“Affirmative!” Ono saluted and took off, the rest of the guard trotting after him. A few minutes later, he circled back around. “I’m only seeing one hyena and not a lot of good hiding places. It’s probably a mile out, that way.” He landed, and indicated the direction with one wing. “I’d say smaller than usual, and definitely limping.”

“Okay, let’s go,” Kion ordered. “Till the Pridelands End, Lion Guard Defends!” He took off running in the direction Ono had pointed. Fuli quickly passed him, but stayed well within sight, and Bunga and Beshte brought up the rear. Ono swooped by with correction, and they changed course, heading towards a stand of Acacia trees. As they approached, Kion spotted a grey shape on the ground in the shade of one of the trees. It was hard to tell from this angle, but it really did look a bit small to be one of Janja’s. He’d heard there were still hyenas in the Elephant Graveyard, but… no, the direction it had come from didn’t make sense. A few hundred paces away, he stopped. “Hyenas, you’ve been spotted!” he announced. “Stand up, and come towards us slowly! We aren’t looking for a fight!” But no other hyenas appeared, and the one on the ground only raised its head.

“Kion?” A familiar voice said. 

“Jasiri?” Kion asked, perplexed. Despite the heat, a chill ran down his spine from head to tail. Suddenly it all made sense. Jasiri didn’t have a clan, there weren’t any others with her. But the trail of blood… kicked by Mushimu… limping… she was hurt. 

Without even thinking about it, Kion sprinted the remaining distance and skidded to a stop next to Jasiri, his heart already racing. “Jasiri! Are you okay? What happened?” 

Jasiri was a mess. Her grey fur was so covered in mud and half-dried blood that Kion wasn’t surprised he hadn’t recognized her from a distance. It seemed like there were dozens of small wounds all over her body, her ear seemed to be torn, and he could see her muscles tense as her chest rose and fell, as if it hurt to breathe. She was lying on her left side, and her right foreleg seemed bent at a strange angle. “Hey, Kion… don’t worry, not all this blood is mine.” She gave him a weak smile, a hint of her normal self, but she was trembling, and as she spoke her voice cracked like she was trying very hard not to cry.

Kion might have laughed at the joke if she were just a little banged up, but it was obvious that this was serious. Jasiri certainly wouldn’t be this far inside the Pridelands without a good reason. “Yeah, but… look, I need to know what happened to you so I can help!” He swallowed hard, trying to keep the panic out of his own voice. Just say what you’d say to any other animal in danger, he told himself. If he kept focusing on how his friend was collapsed in front of him, he wouldn’t be able to do anything.

She turned her head away and spat out a bit of pink foam, then turned back to him and took a deep breath. “Janja… he and his gang chased me out of – well, I think they really wanted to kill me, but settled for chasing me out of my territory, and… Kion, I’m sorry, I didn’t want to put you in this position by crossing the border but I didn’t have anywhere else to go!” Her voice broke again, and she scrunched her eyes shut and turned away, but Kion saw a tear roll down the side of her muzzle.

“Oh, Hevi Kabisa…” Kion sat down next to Jasiri and nuzzled her forehead. “Don’t worry about the stupid border, okay? We can figure out what to do about Janja later.” Besides kill him, he thought.

Kion heard the other members of the Lion Guard behind him, approaching more cautiously. They’d all met Jasiri briefly and heard about her, but were still a little wary.

“Whoa…” Bunga said. “That’s gotta hurt.”

“Yeah,” agreed Beshte. “It’s hard to believe one animal can do that to another.” Kion was inclined to agree with him. Carnivores like lions and cheetahs needed to kill other animals to survive; it was a fact of life. But by Pridelands law, predators always did their best to dispatch their prey as quickly and painlessly as possible, and he’d certainly never seen a fight between animals of the same species go this far.

“One animal?” Jasiri sounded almost insulted. “His entire clan had me cornered. I tried not to fight them, but… I couldn’t run away, if I gave up any land I was going to starve! And there were just too many of them. I… I really thought they were going to kill me, but I guess when I got away from them I’d done enough damage that they decided I wasn’t worth chasing.” Her breath was getting more and more rapid as she talked. 

Kion gave a quick lick to her uninjured ear, trying to calm her down. “Okay, I think the best thing is to take you back to Pride Rock. I’ll explain what happened to my Dad, and Rafiki can take a look at your wounds. Do you think you can walk?”

“I got here, didn’t I?” Jasiri said. Kion stepped back, and she rolled onto her belly and slowly forced herself onto her feet. As she did so, she grimaced and let out a faint whimper. For the first time, Kion saw the full extent of her injuries. Her back left leg was completely broken between the knee and the ankle. She wasn’t putting weight on it, but the paw dangled and dragged against the ground. Her right foreleg looked almost as bad: her wrist was at an angle suggested it was broken too, and her paw was a bloody mess of torn flesh, but she was somehow still putting weight on it. Jasiri was trying to keep her composure, but Kion could hear the silent sobs in her breathing.

“Whoa, whoa, stop! You’re just hurting yourself worse!” Kion rushed to press his side against Jasiri’s right shoulder, taking the weight off her injured forepaw. He could feel her entire body shaking from the effort of staying on her feet. Carefully, he knelt down, letting her roll onto her side.

“You walked here from the Outlands on two broken legs?” Fuli asked, jaw hanging nearly to the ground.

“Great Spirits, that’s really bad…” Ono turned away and hid behind Beshte.

“I guess so, I wasn’t really thinking about it!” Jasiri replied to Fuli. She was panting even harder now, her ears were flattened against her head, and her eyes were as wide as if it were a moonless night. “I mean – I told you, Janja and his clan would’ve killed me if I hadn’t gotten across the border. But… Kion, I don’t think I can make it all the way to Pride Rock! I thought I might be able to, but a ways back I got kicked by a zebra, and... I must have blacked out after it happened, but when I woke up it was like that took all the strength I had left.” She paused. “Look, what I mean is… I want to say… I’m glad you guys found me, but… I think it might… be just to say goodbye.” Tears welled up in her purple eyes, and she hid her muzzle under her good forepaw.

“Oh, jeez… Jasiri, it’s going to be okay, just calm down!” Kion said, almost as much to comfort himself as her. “We’re going to find a way to get you back to Pride Rock, okay? Rafiki will take a look at you, and you’ll be fine.” He looked at the rest of the Guard. “Beshte, do you think you can carry her?”

“Uhh…” Beshte thought for a second. “I can lift her pretty easily, but it’s going to be pretty hard to keep her from falling off.”

“Yeah,” Ono said. “When I hurt my eye, I was really having trouble not sliding off your back, and that was using my wings to steady myself. Although, actually…” he hopped closer to Jasiri. “Did Kion ever tell you about that? When it first happened, I thought I was going to die it hurt so much, but it turned out I’d just gotten some dirt in my eye and scratched it a little. So, you know, you might not be hurt as badly as you think… I mean, apart from your legs, those are pretty messed up.”

Kion nuzzled Jasiri again and rested his paw gently on her shoulder. “Ono’s right. You’re probably just scared and tired. And you’ve been out in this heat all morning, too. We’re all worn out running here with four good legs; I can’t even imagine doing what you did. There’s water and shade at Pride Rock – once you get out of the sun you’ll probably feel better.” He avoided mentioning blood loss – given the trail of bloody grass he’d seen and the amount on Jasiri’s fur, he suspected it was contributing to her lack of energy.

For a while, Jasiri was quiet. Her heart and breathing gradually slowed down, and it was clear that she was making an effort to take deep breaths. Finally, she said shakily: “Okay… I can try to get onto Beshte’s back, but I can’t really jump, and if I do get up there I don’t think I can stay on. But if you or Fuli can help me balance, I should still be able to walk.” 

Fuli was skeptical. “Really? That’d take forever. And I’m not sure I could walk all the way to Pride Rock like that, let alone you. If we have to try it, it’d be better to just get to the river and wait for sunset.”

“I’ve got an idea!” Bunga said in his normal louder-than-appropriate voice. “If Fuli gets some strong vines and leaves from the patch of jungle nearby, we could make a sort of bed out of them and pull you on that!”

Ono rolled his eyes. “Uhh, dry season, Bunga? Dried-out vines will just break, and even if they were green Jasiri’s too heavy for that to work.”

Beshte sighed. “Uhh… I’m probably going to regret saying this, but what if I carried her in my mouth?”

Jasiri’s eyes widened. “What? Are you crazy? I’m way too old for that, you’d either strangle me or rip all the skin off my neck!”

“Yeah… Beshte, that only works with really young cubs,” Fuli said.

“No, I mean actually in my mouth. Look: aaaaaaaahhhhhhh.” Beshte stretched his mouth open as if he were yawning.

“Oh…” Kion looked at Jasiri, then at Beshte, then back at Jasiri. He’d never really thought about it, but he or Jasiri could easily fit between the hippo’s jaws. “Yeah, that might actually work.” He made a mental note to remember this if he or Fuli ever couldn’t walk. “Jasiri, want to try it?”

Jasiri’s eyes locked onto Beshte’s enormous teeth, and she shuddered. “All right… but, you know, be careful you don’t trip and fall on your face.”

Beshte laughed. “Don’t worry, I won’t!... I mean, I won’t trip, not I won’t be careful.” He knelt next to her, opening his mouth wide again. Jasiri gritted her teeth, and slowly rose to her feet. Her legs began to shake from the effort again, but Beshte quickly scooped her up. Immediately, he grimaced. “Euuch. Tastes like blood,” he said, his voice muffled.

“Oh my gosh please stop moving your mouth like that!” Jasiri squealed. Kion could see every muscle in her body tense up. She looked utterly terrified.

“Sorry,” Beshte said. Jasiri let out a wordless squeak, and braced herself against his lower canine teeth for dear life.

“Uh, Beshte? Maybe we should just get moving.” Kion took a few steps in the direction of Pride Rock. To his credit, Beshte avoid either saying anything or nodding, instead flicking his ears a few times and starting to walk to indicate that he understood. Fuli and Bunga took their places to either side of him, and Ono flapped onto his back.

Something occurred to Kion. “Ono? Can you stay behind for a while and keep an eye out for trouble? I’m worried Janja might try to attack the zebra herd if he figures out that we’re busy with Jasiri.”

“And if I see them, get you and Fuli and Bunga?” Ono asked.

“No. Tell the zebras where they are and lead them to safety, then come get us. You can see us all the way to Pride Rock, right?

“I can see Beshte at least. The rest of you blend into dry grass pretty well, but he at least looks like a boulder.”

“All right. When we’re most of the way there, can you go to Rafiki’s tree and tell him to come to Pride Rock?”

“Uhh… that’s pretty far. If I’m going to be in the air most of the afternoon watching for hyenas, I don’t think so.”

“Okay, then just catch up with us.”

“Affirmative!”

“Fuli, can you make it to Rafiki’s tree?”

“Sure. But I’ll have to stop at Lake Matope to drink, I’m parched! See ya at Pride Rock!”

Ono took off and flew back towards the border, and Fuli split off from the group and loped away to the south, leaving an unlikely party of one lion, one honey badger, and one hippo with a half-conscious hyena in his mouth slowly making their way towards Pride Rock.

Author’s Notes:

• One thing I wish TLG, and animal-focused fiction in general, did more is to have more of the action happen at dawn, dusk, or night (he says, as he sets a scene at noon). Animals like lions and hyenas generally rest during midday and do most of their hunting at night. Yes, you see lots of daylight hunts on nature documentaries, but this is in part because human film crews have an easier time finding and following stalking predators during the day, even with night vision equipment. But TLG’s a cartoon, so they could just use similar lighting to the original movie and everything would be visible. 

• Actual lions sleep around 20 hours per day, but not all at once. Much like housecats, they take lots of short naps. 
• While prophetic or otherwise meaningful dreams often come as part of the package with magical powers, most of Kion’s dreams are still pointless and nonsensical, just like ours. 
• The watering hole is due East of Pride Rock because in the original movie, you can see a small lake in the “everything the light touches” scene, directly towards the rising sun (which, since the Pridelands are near the equator, will be directly East).  

Chapter Text

By the time the Lion Guard got back to Pride Rock, it was late afternoon. The sun was still well above the horizon and the sky was still a uniform pale blue, but the eastern slope was now in shadow.

Kion always loved crossing into the shade provided by the outcrop. After walking for miles on sun-baked ground, the feeling of the cool earth and stone on his paws was almost as refreshing as jumping into a lake or stream, but without the irritating wetness.  Normally, he’d flop onto his side and roll around for a while, letting the hard dirt wick the heat out of his fur. But this time, that was the last thing on his mind.

Jasiri had stayed awake for the entire journey back, but her condition was deteriorating. Her nose was dry, she was panting constantly, and her tongue and gums were covered in white foam. At first she braced herself against Beshte’s teeth and held her neck rigid, but eventually she went limp, although it was hard to tell whether it was from getting used to being carried or from sheer exhaustion. Kion was glad Beshte had thought of carrying her in his mouth; there was no way she could have stayed on his back, and even with Kion and Fuli supporting her she’d have been unlikely to make it to lake Matope, let alone Pride Rock.

Despite looking completely miserable, Jasiri only really complained the couple of times Beshte accidentally laughed at a joke or responded to a question. Bunga had tried to do his part by distracting her with his entire repertoire of embarrassing stories about Kion, and at first she’d laughed, asked questions, and teased him, but eventually laughter turned into faint smiles, and then nothing. Only the flickering movement of her eyes and the mumbled sarcastic responses when Kion asked if she was okay showed that she was still conscious. The last leg of the journey, Kion found himself praying to the spirits of his ancestors not to let his friend die. He bounded ahead of the others as they approached the Guard’s Lair, lashing his tail impatiently. “Come on,” he muttered, although he avoided saying it out loud. He knew it was irrational, a few seconds wouldn’t make a difference.

But when Kion pushed aside the curtain of vines and looked around the cave, some of his worry turned to annoyance. Fuli and Rafiki should have been there by now. What were they doing?

Beshte brushed past Kion and carefully set Jasiri down next to the pool. Immediately, without a word, she pulled herself the remaining distance, stretched her head down to reach the surface, and started lapping up the clear water. Kion breathed a sigh of relief. At least she had a little bit of strength left. After taking a moment to make sure she was able to keep her balance, he crouched next to her and started to drink as well. He wrinkled his nose at the odd taste, bitter and vaguely salty, but his mouth felt like it was full of sand and he knew it could be a while before he had a chance to get a drink anywhere else.

A minute later, Fuli burst into the lair, panting. “Hey, guys. Hey, Jasiri.”

“Hey, Fuli.” Kion watched the entrance for any sign of Rafiki, but the vines remained stationary. “Where’s Rafiki? What’s going on?”

Fuli paused for a moment to catch her breath. “Slight change of plans. I explained everything to Rafiki, and he said he’d have to gather some more supplies to treat Jasiri’s wounds properly… I guess special plants or something. Anyway, Ono came down to check on us since I guess he saw we weren’t headed straight for Pride Rock, and Rafiki asked him to help find everything, and told me to run over here.”

Kion tried to suppress his disappointment. Didn’t Rafiki realize this was an emergency? “Did he say anything else? Like, about what to do?”

“Yeah. He said the most important thing was to get her shade and water, which I see you guys have covered…” Fuli watched Jasiri continuing to lap at the spring with mild amusement. “Geez, I thought I was thirsty.”

Jasiri raised her head to look at Fuli, water dripping from her muzzle, and pushed herself back from the pool a little. “Yeah, I thought I was going to drink this whole pool,” she said with a hint of the usual humor in her eyes.

“You had us pretty worried,” Kion said. “You were barely moving; I thought you were going to pass out and we’d have to pour the water down your throat.” He avoided mentioning his true fear.

Jasiri shrugged and flicked her ears. “I thought I was going to pass out too, but… I don’t know, I guess part of it was that the pain was too much, and part of it was I had to concentrate on not throwing up... I mean, not that you have bad breath or anything, Beshte,” she added hastily. “It’s just – you know, I’ve been feeling weak and sick the whole time, and being bounced around inside another animal’s mouth was really freaky, like I was going to be eaten. Thanks for carrying me, though.”

“It was nothing,” Beshte said from where he was lying in the back of the cave.

Fuli clicked her extended claws against the ground, getting Kion’s attention. “Anyway… Rafiki also said we should clean Jasiri’s wounds out as well as we can before he gets here.” Fuli walked precisely to the edge of the pool and lapped up a little water as well. “Ugh, I hate the water here so much!” she complained.

“Well, if it was good the Pride would probably have just used this place as a watering hole and it would never have become the Lion Guard’s lair, right?” Kion reasoned. “Anyway, Jasiri, do you want me to help get you cleaned up?”

“Umm…” Jasiri shifted her gaze awkwardly to the floor. “It’s nice of you to offer, but you’re doing enough to help already. Seriously, I can still groom myself.”

Kion sighed. Jasiri just couldn’t take a hint, could she? Kion was never a very cautious lion cub, exploring and taking risks from the day his eyes opened, and as a result he’d had his fair share of falls, cuts, and other injuries. But as far back as he could remember, whenever he was hurt, sick, or when he was really little just upset for whatever reason, his mother, or occasionally one of the Pride’s other lionesses, would comfort him by licking him until the tears stopped. His dad played and gave hugs, but he never bathed Kion or Kiara, and even groomed himself with water when it was available. According to Timon and Pumbaa, that habit was their fault. 

He couldn’t put what it was about it that made him feel better into words, but somehow it just felt natural. It did to all lions. And like Jasiri told him, lions and hyenas weren’t really that different. For a moment, it crossed Kion’s mind that she was insulted, and thought he was treating her like a newborn cub. But her tone was more… almost apologetic, like she thought he was only making the offer because he had to. “Hevi Kabisa… Jasiri, I know you can do it yourself, I was just asking… what I mean is…” he stuttered, the right words were just out of reach. “Look, I’m trying to make you feel better, okay? You’re my friend, I don’t like seeing you in pain!”

Jasiri’s eyes widened, she looked straight at Kion, and her ears folded downwards. Now she really did look embarrassed. “Oh, I… sorry, I didn’t realize you meant it like that! I just didn’t want to…” she trailed off.

“Want to what?” Kion asked after a few seconds of silence.

“Never mind…” Jasiri said. Kion could see tears start to form in the corners of her eyes. “But… yeah, that would actually be really nice.” She crawled a couple feet away from the pool. Kion padded over and settled down beside her. The easiest areas, like her forehead and muzzle, were just dusty and easily cleaned by licking alone, but most of her fur was a sticky, crusty mess of dirt and dried blood. He ended up getting Bunga to pour water over her using one of the half-gourd bowls Rafiki used to store and mix pigments for the pictures on the walls of the lair. Once they were wet, the tangles started to break apart, and his rough tongue took care of them.

As he worked, Kion noticed just how thin Jasiri was. Once the fur was smoothed out, her ribs were visible, and she had dark bags under her eyes. She definitely weighed less than when he’d last seen her around a month and a half ago. Her injuries were in some ways better than he’d expected, but in some ways worse. Most of the wounds themselves were fairly shallow, but the flesh wasn’t so much punctured or cut as torn, and large areas around them were badly bruised. Kion tried to be careful, but it was impossible to gently lick away clotted blood and half-formed scabs or clean underneath shredded flaps of skin. Jasiri was trying very hard to hold still and stay quiet, but it was clearly extremely painful, and she frequently flinched or whimpered. Kion avoided touching the areas around where her legs were broken at all out of fear of making the damage worse. Rafiki would know what to do there.

Eventually, Ono flew in, followed closely by Rafiki. At this point, Kion had more or less finished with any actual grooming, but he and Jasiri were periodically exchanging brief licks more for reassurance than anything else. He stretched and got to his feet. “Hi, Ono! Hi, Rafiki! Did you-“

“Hold that thought for a moment.” Rafiki shushed Kion and peered out through the screen of vines. A trunk appeared, carrying an assortment of sticks, grasses, and gourds filled with what appeared to be various plants. The trunk was followed by a half-grown elephant, who carefully set the bundle down on a flatter part of the cave floor. The elephant looked around the place, seeming a little nervous, and ducked back out. Then another, much smaller elephant, one Kion recognized, entered with what appeared to be half of a small hollow log.

“Mtoto!” Beshte greeted him.

“Hi, Beshte!” The young elephant waved his trunk. 

“Thank you for your help, my friends,” Rafiki said.

“No problem!” Mtoto said enthusiastically. 

“You are welcome, Rafiki,” the other elephant said in a young-sounding, but more measured female voice.

“Is there anything else we can do to help?” Mtoto asked.

“Come along Mtoto, it’s late! I want to get back to the herd before sundown!” the voice called.

Mtoto sighed and rolled his eyes. “Sorry, I gotta go… that’s my sister, she’s a little impatient.” He trotted off.

The lair was briefly silent before Ono broke the spell. “So, yeah… Rafiki was having trouble carrying all the supplies, but the elephants were nearby, and we asked them for help. Mtoto volunteered, his big sister was more… ordered to watch him.”

“That is correct,” said Rafiki. “Now, Kion, what were you going to ask me?”

“Well, I was going to ask if you found everything you needed, but I think that’s been answered already…” Kion looked at the assortment of stuff. It was no wonder Rafiki couldn’t carry it on his own.

Rafiki chuckled. “Yes, we certainly did. Now, normally patience is a virtue, but with things like this it is better not to waste time.” He turned to Jasiri. “What is your name, young hyena?”

“Jasiri.”

“Excellent.” Rafiki ambled closer, using his walking stick as normal. He peered at Jasiri’s wounds, scratching his chin, and grimaced. “Fuli said other hyenas have done this to you. Is this right?”

“Yeah… Janja and his clan. They tried to force me out of my territory, but –“

Rafiki shushed her. “There will be time for the past later, what is important right now is the present. And at the present, I need to look at you more closely and touch you to find out what I should do, and this will probably hurt. So I need you to promise me that you will not bite me. If you hurt me, I cannot heal you."

Jasiri’s tail gave an irritated twitch. “You think I’m gonna attack you when you’re trying to help me? I’m not some kind of stupid savage, you know!”

“Yes, I do know. But you are young, afraid, and in pain, and those are not a good combination. I have had quite a few scratches and bites from lion cubs – including from Kion when I tried to give him his medicine. But at the same time you are old enough that I cannot risk having you do that. I like having both of my arms, thank you.”

“Okay, sorry. I promise I won’t bite you, all right?”

Rafiki gave Jasiri a thorough examination, parting the fur around puncture wounds, lifting the torn skin, pinching her lips – he explained that it was to check for dehydration – and carefully bending her hurt legs, which caused her to cry out, but for the most part she was able to hold still.

“Hmm…” Rafiki stood, grasping his walking stick. “Well, there is good news, and there is bad news. The bad news is that you are badly dehydrated; you would probably have died if Kion and his friends had not brought you here. You have deep cuts all over your body, and of course two of your legs are broken. Usually for an animal in your state, the best thing would be to end your suffering and continue the Circle of Life by becoming a meal for others.”

“WHAT?” Kion’s voice shot up an octave. There were similar exclamations of shock from every other member of the Lion Guard, including Fuli, who Kion thought had fallen asleep in the corner. 

Jasiri’s eyes widened and she swallowed hard. “But I – I mean, it’s not that bad, I can still walk!” she stuttered. “You can’t – I can’t be…”

Kion felt the fear radiating from her like a miniature sun. Without him thinking about it, his claws shot out. Rafiki couldn’t be serious! In the Pridelands, when an animal suffered an injury that they had no chance of surviving, like a broken back, after saying their goodbyes to their loved ones they would often give themselves up to predators, waiting in front of a snake’s burrow or at the bank of a crocodile-filled river, and offering no resistance in exchange for a quick and relatively painless death. But… Jasiri couldn’t be dying! Not after they’d tried so hard to save her, to bring her back to Pride Rock in time. Not after she’d gone through so much, dragging herself across the border into the Pridelands on two broken legs because she believed the Lion Guard could save her. It just wasn’t fair!

“Calm yourselves, calm yourselves…” Rafiki took a step away from Kion, spreading his hands. “This is why I gave the bad news first. The good news is that is not your friend’s fate. I have helped hyenas before, when Scar ruled the Pridelands, and –“ he turned to Jasiri, a spark of humor in his eye “- your kind are very difficult to kill. Provided they are cleaned, wounds rarely start to rot, and while you may not be able to run on two good legs, you can at least walk. And if they are set correctly, the broken bones will heal in time. 

Kion released a breath he hadn’t realized he was holding, and retracted his claws, but he held back a snarl. Normally he liked Rafiki’s sense of humor, but that joke was out of line! A variety of angry words pressed against his throat, many of which Nala would have given him a good cuff to the ears for saying, especially to Rafiki. Afraid his temper would get the best of him, he stayed silent, but reminded himself to give the old mandrill a piece of his mind when all this was over.

“You didn’t have to scare me like that! I thought I was going to die!” Jasiri shouted. Her tone carried some annoyance, but mostly she just sounded relieved.

“I did not scare you on purpose,” Rafiki replied. “You would have heard my explanation much sooner if Kion and his friends had not interrupted me.” 

“Sorry.” Kion felt himself deflate as the anger left him. Of course, why would Rafiki joke about something like that? Why had he assumed the worst about him? He was thankful he hadn’t said anything and made things even worse.

Rafiki shrugged. “No matter. Now, we must begin quickly.”

Rafiki put Kion to work carefully cleaning the areas around where Jasiri’s bones had been broken, which he’d avoided before. He was only able to lick gingerly, and she flinched at the lightest touch, but eventually he was able to get the last of the dirt and blood out of her fur. Meanwhile, Rafiki ground up a mixture of lacy, bitter-smelling leaves in one of his gourds, mixed in the juice of some kind of root, and used clumps off moss to dab the paste onto Jasiri’s wounds. The first time, she yelped and flinched, saying that it stung, but after that she held still apart from tensing slightly.

Then Rafiki went to his bundle of supplies and retrieved something Kion wasn’t expecting. It was a tall gourd, loosely stoppered with damp clay. He removed the clay plug, and shook out several large ants onto a leaf.

“What are those?” Kion asked.

But before Rafiki could answer, Bunga interrupted. “Snacks, duh!” He pushed Kion aside and attempted to pick up one of the ants. “Ow!” He jumped a foot in the air, shaking his forepaw wildly to try to dislodge the insect, before eventually dunking it in the water. “What the heck kind of ants are those?”

“Certainly not an edible kind,” Rafiki chuckled. ”These are Siafu, and as you have kindly demonstrated their bite can penetrate even the thick skin of a honey badger. But this also means…” he carefully picked up another ant by its midsection and brought it close to Jasiri. With his other hand, he pinched the loose skin of one of the deeper wounds, and held the ant up to it. She winced slightly as it bit down, and in a smooth twisting motion Rafiki pulled the ant’s body away, leaving its head still attached. “…that they are perfect for holding cuts closed while they heal.” He applied more ants in a row, their jaws sealing the gash one piece at a time, then moved on to another cut. “These will stay attached for a few days, by which point the wounds will have closed enough to heal on their own,” he explained.

When the worst of the non-puncture wounds had been closed, including the holes and tears in Jasiri’s left ear, Rafiki offered the remaining ants to Bunga, who declined them. Next, he dragged the piece of hollow log closer, along with a variety of sticks, leaves, moss, and grass. Kion sniffed at the log, and found that it was filled with some sort of clay.

“Now,” Rafiki explained, “Young hyena, it is time to fix the real problem. I’m sure you can tell that two of your legs are broken. The back one, only two bones are broken, but I think they are crushed and splintered inside and are in many pieces. The front one, not all of the bones are broken, but the ones that are are smaller, and they are out of place – they are sideways, and the skin and muscle around them is torn and very swollen.”

Jasiri took a deep breath, and let it out with a hint of a whimper. “But… you said you can do something, right?”

“Yes. But it will not be easy. I must straighten the bones before I can set them, and that will be very, very painful. I know you think you are brave enough to keep from biting me, but I doubt that any animal is. So, you will need to hold this stick in your mouth, and bite down on it instead.” Rafiki handed Jasiri a large, sturdy-looking chunk of tree branch. She set it down, but within reach.

“Okay… I’ll do it,” Jasiri said. She was breathing like she’d just run halfway across the Pridelands, and she still had the eyes of an animal frightened half to death, but the familiar purple fire shone through. “Just tell me when.”

“Well, just start right now,” Rafiki replied. Jasiri nodded, and grabbed the branch, wedging it between her back teeth. “Now, I know it will be difficult, but do your best to hold still. Kion?”

“Yeah?”

“Try to keep her calm. I hope it does not come to having to hold her down, but if it does, you will have to do so.”

“Why couldn’t I do it?” asked Beshte. “I’m the Strongest.”

“Yes, but you are also the largest; I would not have room to work.”

“Okay. I’ll do it.” Kion tried to sound more confident than he was. Would he really be able to pin her to the ground when she was in so much pain she was unable to stop herself from struggling? An image flashed across his mind of Jasiri screaming and begging him to stop. He knew the lionesses often had to hold down struggling prey, but he could barely imagine doing it to any animal, let alone his friend. Trying to shut the thought out, he sat down beside her and gently rested one paw on her shoulder. “I’m ready if you are, Jasiri.”

She gave a quick nod, and said through the stick between her jaws: “Yeah. I’m ready.”

Then Rafiki did something Kion hadn’t expected. He began to chant – not in the language normally used by the animals of the Pridelands, but something much older. Kion remember asking his parents about it once. They’d admitted they didn’t know, and told him to ask Rafiki, who explained that it was spoken long ago, before the Pridelands were the Pridelands, before the first kings. While it was no longer widely spoken, many places – Lake Matope, Nandembo Caverns – had kept their old names, most animals used its words to name their children, and some words or phrases, like Hakuna Mata, had made their way into common use. But only a few knew it fluently, mystics like Rafiki and Busara the elephant. Kion could only pick out a few of the words.

Strange things started to happen. First, Kion thought he saw the paintings on the walls start to move about and dance, although this wouldn’t have been abnormal. Then a strange feeling passed through his body. It was like the buzzing in the air when lightning struck nearby, or when one animal rubbed against another’s fur and it made a soft crackling sound and in the dark faint bluish lights appeared. He recognized the sensation. It was what he felt when he used the Roar of the Elders!

Kion was forced back into reality when Rafiki, still chanting, reached out and took hold of Jasiri’s forepaw. Her eyes locked onto Rafiki's hand, her ears flattened, her muscles tensed against his grip, and she let out a faint whimper. Then Rafiki started to twist and pull on the injured paw, and the whimper became a shriek. Jasiri’s head jerked back, and her uninjured hind leg kicked at thin air. For a moment, Kion was transfixed. His instincts screamed at him that Jasiri was being hurt, and he needed to make it stop, but his rational mind forced them back with the knowledge that it was the only way to keep the injuries from getting worse. Only when Rafiki flashed a glare at him did he remember he was supposed to be helping.

“Jasiri, it’s okay! You’ve got to keep still, remember? Just hold still!” Carefully, he shifted a bit more of his weight onto her, afraid that he would have to hold her down after all. At the same time, the cave seemed to darken as if a cloud had passed in front of the sun, and the walls and the concerned faces of the rest of the Lion Guard became blurred. He thought he saw faint blue lights, like stars or fireflies, dance around Jasiri’s paw, but when he focused on them they disappeared. There were popping sounds from the injured paw. He wasn’t quite aware of what he was saying to her, but he knew he was talking, and his words mixed with Rafiki’s rhythmic chant.

Finally, Rafiki removed his hand from Jasiri’s foreleg, letting Kion see that it was now somehow straight, although still swollen. He ended his chant, and the darkness and blurring vanished. Jasiri had ended up struggling a bit, arching her back and kicking at the air, but Kion had managed to keep her still. Calm was another matter. She was crying, tears, drool, and somehow blood covering her muzzle. Kion looked at Rafiki. Is it over? He thought. But Rafiki shook his head, and carefully began to place clumps of moss against Jasiri’s leg, then sticks against those. He wrapped them in leaves, tied them together with grass stems, and started to pack the clay around the bundle, weaving in more grass as he went. Eventually, with a satisfied look, he stepped back and washed the clay from his hands in a gourd filled with water from the spring. Kion and Jasiri both breathed a sigh of relief. “Is it over?” Kion asked.

Rafiki looked solemn. “Not unless Jasiri wants to be a three-legged hyena,” he said. “Now, roll onto your other side and I will fix your back leg.”

The back leg, if anything, was worse than the front. The process was the same – chanting, carefully straightening the limb, and wrapping it in moss, clay, and sticks, but going through the ordeal once seemed to have taken all the mental strength Jasiri had left. He really was having to hold her down now, trying to stop her thrashing from hurting her, him, or Rafiki. Somehow they got through the chant with Kion putting his full weight on Jasiri’s chest, constantly reassuring her that it would be over soon and she was going to live through it.

Again, the chant ended, and Rafiki removed his hands from Jasiri’s leg. The cave came back into focus.

“Are you all right, little one?” Rafiki asked. “The hardest part is over now. I still need to splint your leg to keep it still, but you can rest for a little if you are careful not to move it.” 

Jasiri let out a breath that was somewhere between a sigh and a sob. She spat out the branch – or at least what was left of it. The wood had been crushed into a mess of bloody splinters, and Kion realized some of them must have been driven into the roof of her mouth. He took one end of the stick and experimentally tried to bite into it. His teeth left deep marks in the wood, but nothing close to what Jasiri had done. He winced at the thought of that kind of strength crushing her legs. It was no wonder she was in such bad shape. 

“What…” Fuli asked timidly from the other side of the lair. 

“…was that?” Ono finished.

“Yeah,” Kion looked at Rafiki. “What exactly did you do, and how?”

For a moment Rafiki was silent, appearing deep in thought. Then he burst out laughing, his familiar breathy laugh. “Kion, you are not the only animal with gifts beyond what nature normally gives your kind. The Roar of the Elders is not alone. What I did was simple, yet very difficult; it helped pull the pieces of your friend’s bones into the right places, and heal them just enough that they will not immediately fall apart before I can put the splint on.”

“Then why didn’t you just heal them all the way?” Kion asked. 

“Because I cannot,” Rafiki answered brusquely. “To explain why will take some time. Jasiri, are you ready for me to wrap your leg up?”

Jasiri nodded, and said shakily: “Yeah, I think so… I kinda want to know this, too.”

“Very well,” Rafiki said. “This part will be less painful, so seeing what that branch has done to your mouth, you do not have to hold it again unless you need to.” He selected a straight, narrow stick, measured it against Jasiri’s leg, and started to place the first moss. “Kion, it is the nature of the Circle of Life that nothing can be gained from nothing. Plants cannot grow without water, good soil, and sunlight. Animals must eat and drink to survive.”

“And when we die, our bodies become the grass,” Kion recited. “Yeah, I understand you so far.”

“Good. Now, when you run, or jump, or hunt, you become tired, and even hungry, right?”

“Yeah. I guess not hungry right away, but I see what you mean, that I’ll be hungrier tonight than if I slept all day.”

“Yes. Anything your body does, the energy must come from somewhere – whether you move, think, grow, heal wounds, or use a gift like the Roar. And if you do not eat enough, your body will begin to eat itself. You will get thinner, and eventually die.”

Kion looked down at Jasiri’s slowly rising and falling chest, and at her clearly visible ribs. “So… you’re saying that trying to heal her all the way would have killed her?”

“Not necessarily, but it would have been very risky.”

Jasiri raised her head slightly and spoke. “But wouldn’t the energy come from you? You’re the one doing the… whatever it is. And besides, I haven’t been that bad on food. The last few days have been rough, but I’d have made it to the rains if Janja hadn’t attacked me.”

Rafiki raised an eyebrow. “Parts of the energy, yes. But to heal a broken bone you must grow new bone, and I cannot just take the stuff to do that out of me and put it into you. And it will take months for your legs to fully heal; to do that all in a day would be extremely hard on you. And finally, you are not just starving; you are injured in many ways, you have lost a lot of blood, you were nearly killed by the heat, and you are severely dehydrated. I would have preferred not to have to use this power at all. And I cannot do too much at once without harming myself either. I am not as young as I once was!” he chuckled.

Parts of Rafiki’s explanation made sense to Kion, but one thing didn’t add up. “Hang on,” he said. “If using… power or whatever uses our energy, why don’t I feel tired whenever I use the roar? I mean, I guess I get a little tired, but I can move huge boulders or throw animals through the air with it. I couldn’t do that at all without it, and I’d be exhausted from just rolling a small rock!”

Rafiki laughed as he began to wind the first layer of grass through the clay he was packing around Jasiri’s leg. “Well your roar, your roar is something special! If you remember, when you use it, all your ancestors roar with you, and that is what gives it its strength! So most of its power comes from them, not you. And… well, the spirits of those who are no longer with us follow different rules.” 

Author’s Notes:

• Foam around the mouth is commonly thought of as a symptom of rabies, but actually its causes can include anxiety, dehydration, and being unable to swallow. Rabies stops animals from swallowing, causing severe dehydration, and prevents them from swallowing saliva, so in the late stages they’ll drool and foam at the mouth. 
• Because they’ve evolved to be able to scavenge off rotting carcasses, hyenas have extremely strong immune systems, which can stop wounds from getting infected. 
• The ants are a real species called Driver Ants, and they are actually used by people in East Africa to stitch wounds. 

• So, yeah… I admit that Rafiki’s spell thing was pretty much a plot device, because I realized that Jasiri’s injuries would really require surgery to properly get the bone fragments back into place. But Rafiki clearly does have some sort of magical powers, since he has the ability to make his paintings move when looked at. 
• The things Rafiki made are kind of a hybrid between splints and casts. This is actually for practical reasons. Casts are traditionally made of a composite of plaster with layers of fabric bandages to keep it becoming overly brittle (modern ones are often fiberglass), and splints really require a good thread that will last for several weeks to hold them together. But wild animals don’t have access to good fabric or thread. Something like Ono’s eyepatch made of just leaves and vines would probably have to be changed daily, which isn’t good for a limb that needs to be kept stable. I think the best solution is to use an internal framework of tied-together sticks, covered in clay with grasses woven in.

Chapter Text

By the time Rafiki was finished with Jasiri’s leg, the sun had sunk low in the sky. He left with instructions to lie still for the rest of the day to allow the clay to harden, to put as little weight as possible on her injured legs for three days, and even after that to be careful and not do anything strenuous that would risk breaking the delicate clay. Most of the Lion Guard dispersed soon after. Beshte, Ono, and Bunga wanted to return to their families before it was dark, and Fuli explained that she hadn’t had a kill in a few days, and she wanted to hunt at dusk when she could run a little longer in the cooler air and the dim light would hide her without making it too dark to easily spot prey. 

“Hunt…” Kion muttered to himself as he watched the dark tip of Fuli’s tail disappear through the den entrance. That sounded important… then he remembered. “That’s right! The Pride’s going to hunt tonight! I’ll try to bring you back a piece if they make a kill!” he called to Jasiri. 

Male lions, despite Fuli’s occasional jokes about them being freeloaders, did participate in hunts, using their size and strength to help bring down larger prey. However, in the Pridelands, it was traditional that the king did not hunt. He was expected to be compassionate towards all his subjects, so although by biological necessity he had to eat some of them, he only killed if absolutely necessary. Kion had no idea how it would work when Kiara was queen; as a lioness she would eventually be leading hunts. There had only been one other queen who ruled the Pridelands: Mufasa’s grandmother. Her reign was before the memory of any animal besides the eldest crocodiles. Even Rafiki had been a child when she died and Ahadi, Mufasa’s father, ascended the throne. Until recently, Kion hadn’t really cared how it was handled – Kiara was the queen, not him. But lately he’d realized that because the Lion Guard spent as much time helping animals in danger or settling disputes as they did actually defending the Pridelands from intruders, many animals saw his face more than Kiara’s or even Simba’s. Did that mean eventually he would be the face of the Pride while Kiara ruled from the shadows? He hoped not; he couldn’t imagine her sending him to one of the elephants’ ceremonies. 

Several weeks earlier, Kion had asked his parents, Rafiki, and the few lions who were old enough to remember before Simba and Nala’s birth how Mufasa and Scar had split the responsibilities. At first, he was afraid to ask. The fear of becoming like Scar was waiting at the back of his mind every time the idea that the Lion Guard could or should have more power crossed it. He was afraid of hearing that Scar had been just like him, but at the same time he didn’t want to be making completely new mistakes. But the answers he got surprised and relieved him. According to the older lions, and other animals like the elephants, Scar’s Lion Guard had certainly not made helping animals a priority. Before Ahadi’s reign, leopards and hyenas had lived in the Pridelands, but it was an uneasy peace. The hyenas were divided into several clans, and did not recognize the rule of the lions, while the leopards recognized no authority at all. But when Scar and Mufasa were young, the tension finally broke into war. The lions, with the support of other creatures, drove the hyenas and leopards out. From the beginning, Scar had used the Roar of the Elders to kill the Pride’s enemies. Outside of the Pride, his Lion Guard were feared as enforcers, using intimidation to stop animals from breaking the Pridelands’ laws, and even venturing outside the Pridelands to hunt down poaching predators. It was on one of these journeys that Scar had turned on the rest of the Lion Guard when they refused to help him overthrow Mufasa. He returned to Pride Rock alone and wounded, several days later than expected, claiming that they had been ambushed by hyenas and wiped out. It wasn’t until after his death that the truth was discovered.

Since hearing the details of Scar’s treachery, Kion had slept soundly. His Guard really was nothing like the one before it. But that day he decided to continue to ignore the occasional hunting lessons he had previously ignored by goofing off with Bunga. He wouldn’t give the residents of the Pridelands any reason to fear him. And Simba couldn’t complain: thanks to being raised by Timon and Pumbaa the only animals with fewer than six legs he knew how to hunt were worms. 

A thought jumped into Kion’s mind. Simba! He’d never told Simba what happened! Hastily promising Jasiri he’d be back after the hunt, he hurried out of the lair and made his way up the slope of Pride Rock to the entrance of the main den. 

In the morning, the cave where the Pride slept had its entrance lit, but now, with the sun in the West, it was dark. Once inside, the shapes of the rocks and other lions were nothing but blobs of shadow, but Kion knew the interior by heart. The faint sound of the sleeping lions’ breathing, their scents, and the feel of the cool stone under his paws guided him to where his parents lay curled up together. He sat down in front of him and cleared his throat. “Dad. Dad… Dad…” No sign of movement. Kion stretched out a paw and smacked Simba’s whiskers. 

The effect was immediate. “Whoa, huh, what?” Simba’s eyes shot open, he pawed at his face, and he rolled over onto his other side. Then his eyes focused. “Oh. Hey, Kion. Yeesh, is it sundown already?” He yawned, stretched, and slowly got to his feet. 

Kion saw a blue flicker as Nala opened her eyes and looked toward the cave entrance. “It’s close, but not quite. I don’t need to get the lionesses ready yet.” 

“All right… just a few more minutes.” Simba started to settle back down. “You know, you wouldn’t be this hungry if you’d hunt for grubs like I showed you.” 

Kion scowled. “Actually, I have something I need to talk to you about.” 

“Is it something about the Lion Guard? You were off with them, right? Nobody saw you all afternoon.” 

“Yeah.” 

“All right…” Simba rose and stretched again, and started toward the cave entrance. “Might as well talk outside, we can catch the last of the sunlight.” 

Kion followed him. Glancing back, he saw a puzzled look on Nala’s face, and she too got up and followed them out onto the main horizontal slab of Pride Rock. 

“So, what’s going on?” Simba asked. 

Kion sat down facing the entrance and his parents. He considered how he wanted to say it. “Well, Jasiri got chased out of her territory by Janja and his clan this morning. She didn’t have anywhere else to go but the Pridelands, so –“ 

“Hang on, hang on, slow down a second,” Simba said. “Who’s Jasiri?” 

Oops. Kion remembered he’d never told his parents about Jasiri. He also remembered that technically he wasn’t supposed to leave the Pridelands without permission unless it was an emergency, which he doubted his meetings with Jasiri counted as. “Well… see, it’s like this. A few months ago I accidentally fell in the river on the border when I was chasing Janja away, and got stranded in the outlands. I was in her territory, and she helped me find the way back, and we kind of became friends. The river was so high then we had to go into Janja’s territory to find a crossing, and we ran into trouble and had to fight them off. Anyway, this morning Janja and his clan took over her territory. She tried to fight them off, but she got really badly hurt, and the only place she could go was into the Pridelands. The Lion Guard and I found her on Chakula Plains, and we brought her back to the lair so Rafiki could help her. She’s going to be okay, but it’s going to be at least a month before she can walk properly, so she needs to stay here for at least that long.” 

Simba raised an eyebrow. “Okay, leaving aside the part where the Lion Guard’s job is to defend the Pridelands, not meddle in the territorial disputes of Outlanders, you still haven’t told me what she is. Are there lions in the Outlands besides Zira’s that you haven’t told me about? Or did you find another leopard?” 

Kion winced. A while earlier, when a leopard had entered the Pridelands after being driven out of his territory, the Lion Guard had travelled to his home, first to chase away the intruder, then to help the timid leopard stand up for himself. While they were gone, Janja had invaded and taken down two wildebeest, leading to a lecture about wasting time meddling with other animals and forgetting his actual duties which Kion suspected was very similar to the one he was about to get. “Actually, she’s a hyena.” 

Kion knew this probably wouldn’t go over well, but he couldn’t have predicted how Simba would react. What Kion knew of hyenas were a few stories, and his skirmishes with Janja, who while he sometimes got away with his poaching was more of an annoyance than anything else. But when Simba heard the word, he remembered being a helpless cub, younger than Kion, at the mercy of three fully-grown hyenas. First in the Elephant Graveyard, then minutes after losing his father. He remembered Scar, a murderer, but still his uncle, begging for mercy as hyenas tore him apart. Simba fixed Kion with a gaze like ice. “A hyena? You brought a hyena into the Pridelands?” 

“What? No! – well, yes! But Jasiri’s not like that, she’s my friend! She helped me fight Janja, and she’s never crossed the border until now, when she had to!” 

Simba remained unmoved. “Kion, it doesn’t matter how friendly you think she is. Hyenas can’t be trusted, and it’s against the law for them to enter the Pridelands. I want her out by tomorrow morning.” 

Kion couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “What? But I told you, she’s hurt! She can’t even walk, let alone find food on her own! If we don’t help her, she’ll die!” 

“That’s not our problem; not mine, not yours, not the Lion Guard’s. What Outlanders do to each other is none of our business. And honestly, having one less hyena to worry about doesn’t sound like such a bad thing.”  

 Kion’s mouth hung open. “Are you joking? You – you can’t be serious!” He looked pleadingly at Nala. She had to back him up here!” 

“Kion, your father is right,” Nala said. Her voice was level and compassionate, but stern. “Remember, death is part of the Circle of Life. You can’t just interfere with every animal that’s injured, especially not outside our borders. And don’t try to tell Simba or I what hyenas are like. You weren’t around when Scar took over. You don’t know what it’s like to be ordered to hunt day and night because the hyenas said we owed them the food from when they were forced out of the Pridelands. You don’t know what it’s like to find your mother in a river with her neck broken and chunks bitten out of her, and have Scar lie and say it must have been crocodiles and forbid anyone to speak of it. You don’t know what it’s like to see male lion cubs just like you fed to the hyenas because everyone’s starving and they can’t serve the Pride as hunters. You think because one hyena pretended to be nice to you once that she’s your friend? You’re smarter than that.” 

Kion took a deep breath, trying to hold the worst of his words back, but his body betrayed his emotions. His ears and whiskers were back, his tail lashed from side to side, and his legs shook with fury. “So what, you want me to send an animal to her death when she’s done nothing to hurt anyone in the Pridelands, because some other hyenas hurt you before I was born? You want me to kill her?” 

“No, I didn’t say that,” Simba protested. Kion had hit a sore spot. Simba had never been comfortable with killing other animals, except for food. “I never said –“ 

Before the words left his mouth, Kion knew he would regret what he was about to say, but he was too angry to stop himself. His claws were dug in, and now he raked them across the wound. “Or maybe, if you really think she deserves to die that badly just for crossing the stupid border, you should kill her yourself. You know… like Scar?”

Simba’s reaction was immediate. He rose to his feet, towering over Kion with a glare that would have made Bunga cower in terror. “You’re comparing me to Scar?” he said, his voice measured but raised. “You’re hanging out with hyenas, you invited one into the Pridelands, and now you’re disobeying an order from your king. Right now, you sound a lot more like Scar than me.” He turned on his heel and stormed back into the den, tail lashing.

Kion sat there in stunned silence. There was nothing he could possibly say after that. Scar? He was like Scar for sticking up for his friend?

“Kion…” Nala began. “What both of you said –“

“I don't want to hear it!” Kion interrupted his mother, jumping to his feet, pushing past her, and making his way down Pride Rock. Still seething, he started walking in a random direction, not really caring where he was going. “Like Scar…” he muttered. “I’m nothing like Scar, and I never will be!”

But as he walked, his anger started to fade, and doubt crept in. How did he really know? He’d never met Scar; he’d died before Kion was born, and thinking about it, there were things he didn’t know. Why did Scar hate and envy his brother so much? Why was he so driven to become king? How did his descent into evil all start? Was it when Mufasa gave him an order he knew was wrong?

Another thought crossed Kion’s mind. What would happen if Kiara gave him such an order? Sure, there’d been some friction between them when Kiara was acting queen, but back then Kion was mostly trying to prove that he didn’t need his sister’s help. But what if she told him to do something he knew was a stupid idea that would get innocent animals killed? Could he follow her? Could he refuse?

Then a thought occurred to Kion. There was one animal who would know what to do, how to make Simba see reason, and perhaps would even know about Scar… Mufasa.

All the times Kion had spoken to his grandfather before, he had appeared in the clouds, but the sky was still empty. Would it still work? Hoping he could be heard, Kion settled down on a patch of grass, gazed into the sky, and said: “Grandfather?... I need your help.”

For a few seconds, there was nothing. Kion was about to get up, thinking it hadn’t worked, but then a deep voice that seemed to come from all around spoke to him. “I am here, Kion. What is troubling you?” 

Kion sighed. Where to begin? No, he knew where to begin. The questions that had been burning in his head since his argument with Simba – no, since long before that. “Well, I’ve been wondering… about Scar.”

A faint shimmer appeared in the air, almost looking like the outline of a lion. “Go on…” Mufasa’s voice said.

“Well… how did he get so evil? What made him willing to… you know…” Kion trailed off. He wondered whether Mufasa’s death would be a sore spot for him.

“Kill me?” Mufasa said, and sighed. “To be honest, I don’t completely understand. He started out as a normal lion cub, a year or two younger than me, I don’t fully remember. That was before he got his scar; his real name was Taka. As younger siblings often do, he looked up to me, always followed me around… we were almost inseparable. Back then, I was a bit like you, I thought everything was a game. But Scar was always serious. Once, when he was a bit older than you are now, he told me that if I wasn’t going to take my responsibility as king seriously, I should step aside, because he would do a better job ruling the Pridelands than me. But I don’t think he really believed I shouldn’t be king.

In any case, I learned my lesson soon enough. The hyena clans had never really been a part of the Kingdom. They lived in the Pridelands, but they didn’t respect King Ahadi’s authority, kept killing prey when they could have scavenged perfectly well… and eventually it came to a head when they accused the Pride of killing two of their cubs. And a few days later, a young leopard was gored to death by a water buffalo when it was stalking an antelope which was in the middle of their herd. It turned out the buffalo were spooked by some lionesses which were stalking them, and blew the leopard’s cover. It was a complete accident, but the leopards started claiming the lions intentionally caused it. And then one night, a group of hyenas and leopards attacked the Pride while we slept, looking for revenge. They almost managed it. Two young cubs were dead before we realized what was happening, and Scar – he was much older than you, starting to grow into his mane, and about the age of the dead leopard – was supposed to be the third. A leopard attacked him, and nearly scratched his eye out… and that was when he discovered the Roar of the Elders.

After they’d attacked us like that, obviously the leopards and hyenas had to go. Our father declared war, saying he’d either drive them out or wipe them out. The cheetahs sided with us, since the hyenas would steal kills from them, and well… eventually we won.”

Kion tried to hide his horror and disgust. Drive them out or wipe them out? That was the kind of animal Mufasa’s father really was? “So, what happened to Scar? Did he refuse to fight?”

“No, he didn’t refuse. But he had this idea that the grass-eaters like Buffalo were the real enemy, and that we should ally with the hyenas and leopards against them. He said with the lions’ claws, hyenas’ endurance and bite, leopards’ stealth, and cheetahs’ speed, if we worked together no predator would ever go hungry again. Of course, it was nonsense: if predators all worked together, their numbers would grow and the herds would shrink until famine destroyed the Pridelands. Scar argued, but in the end he and the Lion Guard did their duty. And I’m not sure we would have been able to defeat the hyenas without them, at least not without losing half the Pride in the process. But he started using the Roar carelessly, hurting or killing animals who were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. And eventually… am I right that Rafiki told you how he finally lost the Roar?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, when he did, his health went with it, and I think his sanity did as well. We thought either he was consumed by guilt, or he’d been reckless once too often and caused a rock fall that killed the rest of the Guard. But I never imagined that he would intentionally kill his own Pride, much less Simba or I. Right until the very end, I thought he would help me. And of course, once he was king, Scar put his insane plan into action, but using the hyenas to keep the lions in line. They hunted together just as he dreamed they could, but after a few years there were too many of them and not enough antelope or wildebeest, and those that were left started to leave the Pridelands. If Simba hadn’t returned, the whole Pride would have starved.”

Kion didn’t know what to think. In some ways it sounded like Scar was his complete opposite, but in others, they really were similar. Lions and hyenas hunting together? He and Jasiri had talked about the idea once, although they hadn’t taken it seriously. And using the roar carelessly? Kion would have liked to tell himself that he would never be so reckless with the power, but he remembered the time he’d accidentally used it on the aardwolves. If it really could kill, it was lucky the consequences hadn’t been far, far worse.

“You do not seem satisfied with those answers,” Mufasa’s voice said matter-of-factly. “There is something else on your mind, isn’t there?”

“Yeah, there is…” Kion explained everything that had happened, from first hearing that Jasiri was spotted in the Pridelands to the argument with Simba and Nala. 

“…and I’m not sure what to say to him,” Kion finished. “I thought hyenas were all evil too until I met Jasiri, but I just don’t know how to make him see that they aren’t.”

Mufasa gave a deep sigh. “The first thing you need to do, Kion, is apologize to your father. You cannot even begin to imagine how much being compared to Scar hurt him, especially coming from his son. Remember, you hate him because you have heard the stories of his evil and betrayal. Simba lived through many of those stories.”

Kion hung his head, feeling a pang of guilt as he remembered the stories. Simba had never told him everything, only that Scar had killed Mufasa and convinced him that it was his fault. Kion had known he shouldn’t have said what he did the moment the words left his lips, but now the full impact hit him. “I’m sorry… I’ll tell him.”

Mufasa said nothing, but Kion had the feeling that if he was visible he would be nodding in approval. Then he said: “The second thing is that both Simba and Nala have a point. The lands beyond our borders are not subject to our laws. It is not your place to interfere. And it is not your place to interfere with the course of the Circle of Life, unless an animal is invading the Pridelands or breaking its laws.”

Kion’s heart sank. Was Mufasa just going to repeat what Simba and Nala had told him? “But I never took a step outside the Pridelands!” he protested. “…this time. Jasiri was inside the border when we found her. And there’s nothing in the law of the Pridelands that says you can’t help a friend, as long as you don’t interfere with a predator’s legal hunt or a prey’s escape, which we’re not doing.” 

Mufasa sighed again. “I suppose all of this is true… but she still needs the King’s permission to stay in the Pridelands.”

“I know, that’s why I need your help. There’s no good reason to drive her off, and she can’t survive on her own until her legs heal! But I can’t get Simba to see that!”

“I can think of one very good reason,” Mufasa said. “She’s a hyena.”

“What?” Kion started to raise his voice. This couldn’t be real. “It doesn’t matter what she is, she’s a good animal!”

“Has everything I said gone in one ear and out the other?” Mufasa boomed. “Hyenas are NOT good animals. Didn’t you hear me when I said they were driven off because they attacked and killed two cubs?”

Kion felt the anger burning inside him again. Killing two innocent cubs out of revenge for what the hyenas thought was a crime was wrong, sure… but how were the lions any better?  The hyenas had traded two cubs for two cubs, but the lions had traded two cubs for the entire species. How many died in that war? he wondered. But he ignored the urge to protest. He knew Mufasa wouldn’t listen now. How could this be the same lion who’d told him to believe in himself and his friends and prove that the Lion Guard didn’t have to all be lions, or helped him make up with his sister? “But all that happened before Jasiri was born,” he said more quietly. “Before Simba was born. How does anything that happened back then have to do with her? Or me? Or Simba?”

“Because,” Mufasa began. “There are certain traits each type of animal has, as you know from your Lion Guard. Cheetahs are fast; no lion could ever be the fastest in the Pridelands. Hippos are strong, stronger than any lion, as are rhinos and elephants. Honey badgers fear no other creature, egrets have excellent eyesight, and lions have ferocity and leadership. Each animal has its place within the circle of life as well. Lions hunt antelope and zebra. Cheetahs hunt the fast gazelles. Honey badgers and egrets eat insects, while hippos and many others eat grass. Vultures eat already-dead animals that other creatures won’t touch, or the scraps that predators leave behind. But there are some animals, like hyenas and jackals, whose only role is to steal and destroy.”

“But how are hyenas different from lions?” Kion asked, choosing his words carefully and trying to avoid shouting. “We both hunt, we both scavenge if we have to, right?” Sisi ni Sawa, he thought.

“As I told you, because hyenas have never respected the balance of nature or the laws that make all animals, both predator and prey, better off. They believe that life is a battle for survival, and that animals should be loyal to their own families, their own kind.” 

Then why did Jasiri help me? Kion wanted to say. But the conversation wasn’t going anywhere. Instead, he lied. “I think I understand now. Thanks, Grandfather.” He bowed his head and turned back towards Pride Rock.

“Kion, are you sure –“

“Yeah, and – I should get back to Pride Rock and tell Simba I’m sorry, and I don’t want to miss the hunt tonight. Nice talking to you!” Kion called to the sky. Abruptly, he felt Mufasa’s presence vanish. With a sigh, he started back towards his home. His paws felt numb, like he’d fallen asleep wrong on his leg and lost all feeling.

Was Mufasa right? Was that what Jasiri really meant when she said she understood the Circle of Life? For a moment, Kion almost wanted to believe it – not because he wanted it to be true, but because he wanted to still be able to rely on his grandfather’s wisdom. But it just didn’t make sense. Jasiri had told him herself that she believed the Pridelands’ rules were right, and confessed that although she tried to hunt by those laws, her territory just didn’t have enough food for her to survive without sometimes killing a nursing mother, or ambushing an animal at a watering hole. And even if those were all lies, the river was low enough that she could have easily crossed the border, and yet there had never been a single report of an animal being killed by a lone hyena in the Pridelands. No… thinking about it, Kion realized that while he wasn’t as close to Jasiri as to the rest of the Lion Guard, he’d trust her with his life, the same as she’d trusted him with hers. He knew helping Jasiri was the right thing to do, in the same way he’d known that Bunga, Beshti, Ono, and Fuli were the right animals for the Lion Guard. But this time, neither Mufasa nor Simba believed him. He was on his own.

As the silhouette of Pride Rock grew bigger and bigger, Kion ran through what he’d say to Simba a hundred times. He had to find some way of getting through to his father, because if he didn’t… he knew he couldn’t betray Jasiri, but how could he disobey a royal decree? Would he have to leave the Pridelands with her, and not return until she could fend for herself?

As luck would have it, when Kion got back he heard familiar voices from inside the main den. “Hey Uncle Timon, Uncle Pumbaa,” he greeted them as he entered. “Uhh… Dad? I wanted to say… I mean, uhh… can I talk to you for a bit?”

Simba looked uncomfortable. “I suppose so…” He got to his feet and slowly walked past Kion out to the flat overhang of stone. Kion nervously followed. 

“Where’s Nala?” Kion asked, noticing her absence. 

“She and a few other lionesses are scouting out what the herds are doing,” Simba explained.

“Oh. Anyway, I… umm…” Kion’s gaze drifted to Timon and Pumbaa. 

“Don’t worry, you’re not interrupting anything,” Timon said. “Simba was just telling us about – well… you and him earlier. Speaking of which, we should probably be leaving, Pumbaa has to be at his, uh… tusk filing?”

“What?” Kion and Pumbaa asked in unison.

“Tusk filing, very important, can’t miss it, we’re outta here!” Timon grabbed Pumbaa’s tusk and tried without success to drag him away.

Pumbaa’s face lit up in comprehension. “Oh, I get it! Yeah, can’t let these things get too sharp, I don’t wanna impale somebody by accident!”

Kion realized that Simba must have done the same thing he had, and asked for advice. He knew Timon and Pumbaa had raised Simba from an early age, and he might have known them better than Mufasa. But what had they told him? Kion gulped. None of this was going to be easy to say. He just had to get ir over with. “Dad, I’m… I’m sorry,” he began. “I didn’t mean to compare you to Scar. Well, I sort of did, but – what I mean is I wasn’t thinking about what that really meant – about how – I guess he’s always just been a bedtime story to me, and I didn’t think about how you actually knew him. So… I’m sorry. I wasn’t trying to hurt you.”

Simba looked deeply uncomfortable. “Kion, it’s okay. We both said things we shouldn’t have, but, well... you’re right: that really did hurt, hearing you compare me to a lion who murdered my father in cold blood and tried to kill me at least twice, and who you’ve never even met. I won’t pretend it didn’t.” Pumbaa elbowed him. “…but I know that you’ve been worried about following in Scar’s footsteps, and I shouldn’t have used that against you either.” Simba sighed and gave a faint smile. “With how much you’ve grown up over the last few months it’s sometimes hard for me to remember that you’re still a cub. But, well… you are, and I’m still your dad, and I should have known better than to retaliate like that. So I’m sorry too.”

Kion wanted the argument to be over right there. He wanted to just run up into his dad’s embrace and forget the whole thing ever happened. But the reason for the fight was still there. “So, uh… about Jasiri…” he said awkwardly.

Simba groaned. “My decision is still what it was before. Tomorrow morning the hyena leaves.” 

Kion gritted his teeth. When he saw Timon and Pumbaa, he’d sort of hoped they’d talked Simba into changing his mind, but he hadn’t actually expected it. This time, though, he had an idea of what to say. “Dad, I told you. She cannot walk. She doesn’t have anywhere to go, and she doesn’t have a clan sticking up for her. She will DIE if you make her leave!” 

“And I told you, it’s not your place to interfere with territorial fights in the outlands.”

“I never said anything about interfering in the fight!” Kion protested. He’d definitely thought about what he’d do to Janja the next time he saw his face, but not out loud. “The fight already happened. Jasiri was driven into the Pridelands; that makes it my place to help her!”

“No it doesn’t. It doesn’t matter why she’s intruding on the Pridelands, she still is. What you should have done is –“

“What? Chased her back into Janja’s jaws? Or just threw her in the river and drowned her?” Kion spat. This was going uncomfortably similarly to the first argument. He took a deep breath, forcing back his anger. “Look, she won’t be an intruder if you just grant her permission to stay in the Pridelands! There’s nothing stopping you from doing that!”

“Yes there is,” retorted Simba. “The law forbids hyenas from entering the Pridelands under any circumstances.”

“So? You’re the King, you can change the law!”

“Technically, yes, I could change it, but it’s not that simple. The laws of the Pridelands have been handed down from the Great Kings of the Past for many generations. It wouldn’t be right to change them on a whim.”

“That’s not even true!” Kion shot back. “Hyenas used to live in the Pridelands. Mufasa’s father made the law banning them in the first place!”

“Ahadi made that law?” Simba sounded skeptical. “Who told you that?”

“Mufasa did.”

Simba looked incredulous at first, but then his expression shifted. He looked almost… sad. “That’s right…” he said. “You can speak to him.” Kion knew that Mufasa had spoken to Simba from beyond the boundary between life and death once, but not since Simba became king. “Anyway, Ahadi was a wise king: his decisions should be respected.”

“But this one was wrong!” Kion shot back. The image of the former king threatening to wipe out the hyenas and leopards leapt to the front of his mind. “He blamed all hyenas for something a few of them did, which is the same thing you’re doing now!” A thought struck Kion. “…you wouldn’t be saying any of this if Jasiri was a lion cub, would you?”

Simba said nothing. Kion took his silence as an invitation to continue.

“What if this was one of the outlanders? What if… I don’t know, Kiara came to you saying she’d rescued a cub because the other outlanders tried to kill it? Would you tell me to drive it off?”

“Well, that’s not really the same situation…” Simba said awkwardly.

“Yes it is! Dad, I know I don’t know what hyenas did to you in the past, but Jasiri didn’t have anything to do with any of it! She’s a cub, just like me or Kiara! Blaming her for anything that happened when Scar was king is like… I don’t know, blaming Zuri and Tiifu because Zira’s their great aunt!”

Simba pawed uncomfortably at the ground. “I guess you do have a point about not blaming children for the crimes of their ancestors,” he conceded. “But you need to be careful. Remember that jackal family you thought were totally innocent?”

Kion took a deep breath, looked his father straight in the eye, and said the final words he’d rehearsed in his mind a dozen times. After this, he had no idea what he could say. “I’m not asking you this as the leader of the Lion Guard, I’m asking you as your son. I know I can trust Jasiri, the same way I knew that Bunga, Fuli, Beshte and Ono were the right animals for the Lion Guard. And I was right about them, wasn’t I? I know you didn’t believe me at first, but you trusted me that I was ready to lead the Guard, right? So why can’t you trust me on this?” As he neared the end of his speech, he struggled to keep his voice from breaking. Was it just his imagination, or were his eyes watering? He didn’t quite know whether it was from being worried about Jasiri or from the thought that his father didn’t trust him, but he couldn’t take the pressure much longer.

Simba sighed. He glanced at Kion, then at the ground, then gazed off into the distance. Kion sat waiting for a response. His tail twitched nervously, and his heart threatened to climb out of his mouth. Finally, Simba turned back to him. “Okay, Kion. I trust you. She can stay in the Pridelands until she’s healed, and I’ll think about what to do after that.” 

With those words, Kion felt like he’d been pinned beneath a boulder, slowly being crushed into the ground all evening, and the immense weight had just been lifted away. Jasiri was safe! “Thank you so much,” he whispered, bowing his head. “I won’t let you down, Dad.” 

“I know you won’t. It’s just… sometimes it’s seems like you’re like me, sometimes you act like your mother, and sometimes you’re so different from either of us that I don’t know what to do.” Simba smiled gently and lay down, resting his chin on his paws. His face had none of the anger or anxiety of a few moments earlier. He looked calm and relaxed, but somehow sad. “Can I tell you a secret?” he asked.

“Uh… sure?” Kion wasn’t sure where Simba was going with this.

“I don’t know everything there is to know about being king. I don’t think any king ever has, but… well, I was younger than you and Kiara are now when my father died, and he never had time to teach me everything he knew. And well…” he cracked a smile, “your uncles aren’t exactly experts in royal etiquette. Rafiki and Zazu gave me a few lessons, and so did your grandmother, before she passed.”

A hazy memory came to Kion’s head of warmth, a thin but kind face, and an old, deep, voice. During Scar’s reign of terror, Sarabi had remained steadfastly dedicated to keeping the pride going, and after Simba returned she continued to lead the lionesses both on the hunt and in battle. But she was wounded in the fight that drove Scar’s supporters into the Outlands, and never completely recovered. Her health went downhill, and Nala took on full responsibilities as queen in her place. Sarabi held on long enough to see her grandchildren, but not much longer, dying shortly after Kion and Kiara’s eyes opened.

Simba continued: “But I still don’t feel like I’ve ever really learned how to be king. Half the time I’m just sticking with tradition, or trying to think of what Mufasa would have done. And I’ve worried that it would be the same way with you leading the Lion Guard, since you don’t have an older Guard Leader to teach you what to do. But it seems like you’ve just been figuring it out on your own, and so far it’s working out pretty well. So even if I don’t understand where you get some of your crazy ideas, I’ll try to trust you… Now, come on, the sun’s going down. We should catch up with the others before Nala pulls both our whiskers out.” 

Author’s Notes:   

• HOO BOY! This chapter got LONG! Over 6,000 words! And how did this story get over 20,000? 

• So… a major part of growing up is realizing that your parents, teachers, idols who you love and respect, are still human (or animal). They’re fallible, and they sometimes make mistakes. This is something The Lion Guard hasn’t really covered as of this writing. 
• I’d like to emphasize that I’m not saying Simba or Mufasa are evil, and I’m not making Simba a jerk for no reason. This isn’t that different from how he’s portrayed in Simba’s Pride, what with his mistrust of Kovu. And Simba and Nala both have reasons to be prejudiced towards hyenas. As for Mufasa, I doubt Simba got things like “hyenas are just slobbering mangy stupid poachers” entirely from Zazu. 
• I’ve lost count of how many headcanons have gotten passing mention in here. 
• The bit about Sarafina (Nala’s Mom)’s death: it’s mentioned in the live musical that Nala’s mom “ate” (really would just be killed; lions almost never actually eat hyenas) Banzai’s dad. My headcanon is that during the first war between lions and hyenas, a young Sarafina killed Banzai and Ed’s father, and that at some point during Scar’s reign, the trio got revenge. 
• About Scar… yeah, I pretty much just made his and Mufasa’s backstory up completely. But I’d think that if Mufasa had known that he’d murdered for other lions for refusing to help overthrow him, Scar would’ve been exiled or executed. I think he must have made it look like an accident, just like he arranged Simba’s trip to the Elephant Graveyard, and the stampede. It was only found out later… how? Perhaps as his sanity slipped towards the end of his reign, he revealed his deed to Zazu. Or perhaps the hyena trio knew his secret, and it somehow got back to the Pride. Scar’s Lion Guard being more of enforcers than protectors? Well… let’s face it, Scar doesn’t seem like the type to be friendly and hang out with “food,” even in his youthful idealistic days. 

• Also about Scar’s Lion Guard… they were all male, according to Rafiki’s drawings. Now, if we include Scar, Mufasa, and Nala’s father (name unknown), there were at least seven male lions in the Pride around that time, and Scar killed four of them. This pretty much disproves the idea that the Pride works like a real one, where one male and all the females are mates. But… in the movies, no other males are shown in the Pride. Were those the only seven? Did Scar kill off most of the other male lions? And what about others Simba’s age or a bit younger? This suggests that Scar also got rid of any male cubs that weren’t his heirs… why? Could he have been terrified that the next lion to be born with the Roar would be among them? (no evidence that lionesses can’t have the roar, but since Scar picked all males for his Lion Guard he may have been a bit of a chauvinist). That leaves the question of who Zuri and Tiifu’s father is. Perhaps outside the Pridelands, other prides exist that work like real ones, and there are wandering males who sometimes visit the Pridelands, and have brief flings with lionesses before wandering off again since they’re facing a united Pride that won’t let them take over? 
• I was suspicious about how natural the “circle of life” was from the start, but when it was confirmed that there were no leopards in the Pridelands, they were confirmed. Lions are there, so are cheetahs, but leopards, painted dogs, and hyenas, the predator species which are actually a potential threat to lions, competing for the same prey and sometimes killing lion cubs, are banned or absent? Sounds awfully convenient for the lions. Meanwhile, cheetahs are lightly built, can’t normally take down larger prey like Wildebeest, and tend to be on the receiving end of bullying from other predators, so they’ll be glad to not have their kills stolen, and herbivores are happy if the Pride reduces the total number of predators in the area. In truth, I think the Pridelands are an ecosystem which is artificially managed by various species of animals agreeing to laws which make them all better off. For example if you’re an antelope, lions might still hunt you, but if they agree to rules like “only prey on the old and sick, and don’t attack pregnant or nursing mothers,” your kind will be better off than in a completely natural state. But Scar didn’t understand that balance, and by ignoring the rules on what hunters could do, and introducing unnatural cooperation between lions and hyenas, he overhunted herbivores to the point where herds either got wiped out or left altogether. 
• So, the TLK canon has kinda flip-flopped on hyenas’ status. They’re clearly quite capable of hunting, e.g. Banzai seemed confident that he could actually take down a wildebeest, and Janja and Co. are a serious threat to the (admittedly mostly idiotic) herbivores despite their own inexperience. This is completely realistic: spotted hyenas kill the vast majority of their own food IRL, and lions steal kills from hyenas just as much, if not more than the other way around (lions and hyenas both also steal kills from cheetahs and leopards). Jasiri talked about their role as scavengers, cleaning up what other predators don’t eat (also mentioned in “Janja’s New Crew”), but I think this is likely because the “circle of life” religion teaches that predators should only kill when necessary, so if you can survive fine by scavenging then you should. So why did Scar insist that it was the lionesses job to do the hunting late in his reign? My theory is because when food started getting scarce, hyenas started realizing he wasn’t following through on the “never go hungry again” promise. Scar, being an incompetent ruler, decided to placate them by promising that they wouldn’t have to hunt anymore as “reparations” for being forced to live in a land with no food. The lionesses hated him anyway, so he just needed to keep the hyenas on his side to keep them in line… until it all fell apart. 
• In “the Trouble with Galagos,” Kion did apparently go outside the Pridelands to help Badili the leopard get his land back. This was technically not the Lion Guard’s job, although Kion would probably argue that it was a nonviolent way of keeping Badili from just sneaking back in. And I’m sure it’s better to have Badili as an immediate neighbor than the more aggressive Mapigano… are the Pridelands propping up buffer states now? :-P 
• Other headcanons explained: Mufasa was a goof-off as a cub, Scar was an emo goth or whatever. Also, how Scar got his Scar and his name, how he discovered the Roar of the Elders, and how Scar might have made friends with the hyenas in the first place. 

• I still want to see Scar try to contact Kion from beyond the grave and tempt him into evil on the actual show. I don’t care if Warrior Cats did it earlier. EDIT FROM THE FUTURE: Well, that’s not quite what happened, but close. 
• So, Simba does seem to have a bit of his easygoing self from the original film on TLG, but at the same time he seems a bit haughty and focused on tradition. I really do think this might be because he never really got proper royal training, and he’s still kind of insecure about his ability to rule. 
• Minor note: this chapter was written before “Janja’s New Crew” was released. Kion did briefly agree to let Cheezi and Chungu stay in the Pridelands, but Simba was never informed, and it seemed to mostly be a “get them out of our fur while we deal with all the other stuff going on today” measure. 

Chapter Text

The hunt went smoothly, at least as far as Kion could tell without paying particularly close attention. The pride managed to bring down a large waterbuck who tripped over a tree root and fell behind when the herd fled, and the lionesses were able to end his life quickly, without causing unnecessary pain. The kill would be enough to feed the whole pride for several days.

As he had since the new Lion Guard was formed, Kion felt a tinge of nervousness as he approached the waterbuck’s body. So far, he’d been lucky enough to not see a face he was more than vaguely familiar with, but he didn’t know what he’d do when that luck ran out. Walk away and go hungry that day? Most animals in the Pridelands avoided getting too friendly with their natural predators or prey for this reason, and Kion tried, but there were some he ended up running into over and over while carrying out the duties of the Guard, like Muhimu, Swala, and… Thurston. Kion felt a little guilty for thinking it, but he wasn’t sure he’d miss Thurston. The Zebra’s stupidity had caused trouble for the Lion Guard on many occasions, not to mention putting his own herd at risk.

Kion didn’t join in the normal small talk surrounding the meal, instead bolting down as much as he could without feeling sick. Then, after repeatedly tugging back and forth with all his strength, he managed to crack a rib and tear part of it away along with a slab of meat the size of his head. He looked around. Good, no one appeared to have noticed. Cubs usually had priority at a kill once the adults had pulled most of the hide off, but he’d still probably be accused of taking more than his share if anyone saw what he was doing, and he wasn’t in the mood have to explain Jasiri’s situation again. If Simba and Nala didn’t mention it that night, he’d tell the rest of the Pride tomorrow.

He’d picked up the meat and started to walk away in the direction of Pride Rock when he heard a voice from behind him. “Wow, Kion, hungry much?”

Kion groaned as Kiara, Zuri, and Tiifu caught up to him and started walking a couple paces to either side. He especially didn’t want to have to tell them about Jasiri right now. Either it would be a repeat of his argument with Simba with Kiara being the ‘responsible five-minutes-older sister’, or Zuri and Tiifu would start asking stupid questions. “Yeah, now go away,” he said through the mouthful of waterbuck.

Kiara’s tail gave an irritated twitch. “You don’t need to be grumpy! Besides, if you eat that much you’re going to make yourself sick.” Great, like Kion didn’t already know that. He was trying to think of a good excuse when Tiifu chimed in.

“Yeah, like when I tried to eat a whole gazelle leg and I –“

“Shut up, Tiifu!” Zuri snapped. “I don’t want to hear about it!” If Kion remembered correctly, that incident had ended with Tiifu throwing up most of her dinner, which made Zuri throw up as well, and Zuri deciding Tiifu must have caught a contagious disease and spread it to her. Both sisters disappeared that night, and were later found hiding in a tree in an attempt to quarantine themselves after scaring most of the Pride half to death. Their mother blamed Zuri for instigating the runaway, and it had been a sore spot ever since, with Zuri still claiming it was completely unfair that she got scolded for trying to protect the rest of the Pride, since she sincerely thought there was a danger.

An idea occurred to Kion. He set the meat down on a tuft of grass so he could speak clearly, and stopped walking. “Look it was a hard patrol today. We went all the way to Chakula plains and back, and I guess I worked up an appetite.” It was technically partially true, he told himself.

“Uh… Chakula plains isn’t that far away. You go there all the time.” Kiara raised an eyebrow. “Are you sure that’s the only thing you did?”

Great, that could have gone better, Kion thought. Now that he’d actually said it, the excuse sounded pretty lame. Maybe if he was just honest… well, honest-er. “I, uh, can’t tell you right now.”

“Why not? I mean, I’m your sister, I think I can keep a secret.”

Kion thought about pointing out that the other two lions present had never kept a secret more than half a day in their whole lives, but if he did Kiara would probably just make them leave and keep pestering him herself.

“I think that meat’s a gift for someone!” Tiifu said excitedly. “I think Kion’s in lllloooovvvveeee!”

Zuri was obsessively licking her paw and trying to wash the blood off her face, but looked up. “With who? He’s hardly even looked at any of the other cubs.” Kion decided against pointing out that aside from Zuri and Tiifu the only young lioness more than half his age was Tama, and well… Tama was nice and all, but Kion didn’t feel that way about her, or any other animal. He didn’t really even understand what “that way” even was. He suspected that Zuri and Tiifu didn’t either, and just pretended to. One of the lionesses once told him that girls always started falling in love earlier, but Fuli’s open mockery of the idea of wasting her time fawning over males obviously proved that wrong.

“Uhh…” Tiifu looked deep in thought. “Fuli?”

“Fuli’s not even the same species!” Kiara protested, but they ignored her.

“Kion and Fuli sitting in a tree! K-I-S-S-“

“Uh, no. Not even close. Waaaayyyy off the mark!” Kion said, rolling his eyes. A second later he realized his mistake. They’d just take his response as an admission that he had a crush, they’d just guessed wrong.

Zuri grinned. “So who is it then?”

Kion groaned. They were so predictable. “Okay, first, I’m not in love! Second, mind your own business!”

Zuri and Tiifu were several months younger than Kion and Kiara, and in Kion’s opinion they acted every minute of it. He knew he wasn’t being fair to them, especially since he’d often been called immature himself, but they’d just never really gotten along. Tiifu was the more outgoing of the two, and was generally bubbly and energetic, although she could be a bit jealous and overprotective of Kiara. Zuri… actually wasn’t really that bad. She was honestly a rather timid and shy cub, especially when her sister or Kiara weren’t there, and although she sometimes seemed like an airhead she did have a knack for spotting dangerous situations. 

Unfortunately, this trait combined with her obsession with grooming (her mom had more than once warned her she’d lick all her fur out if she kept it up) clashed with Kion’s healthy sense of adventure (what Zuri called being an idiot). She was always the one who refused to go into the newly-discovered cave, or into the dense thicket, or join the others at the top of a tree, and would insist on going half a mile out of her way to cross a stream without getting her paws wet. I guess Fuli does that too, Kion thought. But Fuli could get away with that and easily catch up to him. And forget trying to roughhouse with Zuri; she either cowered and did nothing or completely freaked out and started clawing and biting. It was like she couldn’t tell the difference between playing and actual fighting. She also didn’t like Kion much, and Bunga even less,  especially since the time they’d pushed her into a mud puddle – not Kion’s proudest moment. It was one of the few times he’d ever actually done something mean – it had somehow seemed like it would be funny at the time. He’d apologized many times, first under duress from his parents, then sincerely, but he wasn’t sure if she’d ever truly forgiven him. And even though he might have gotten along with Tiifu otherwise, she preferred to hang out with her sister and Kiara. 

Eventually Kion managed to ditch his sister and her friends, and made his way back to Pride Rock. Returning to the now dark entrance to the Guard’s Lair, he paused, listening. Nothing. His breath caught in his throat, and he felt his fur start to rise on end. She couldn’t have left the den, could she? Or – no, Rafiki said she would be fine. Nervously he pushed the vines aside and peered around the corner. His eyes had adjusted to the moonlight, but even in the somewhat darker cave he could easily make out the faint sparkle of starlight reflected off the spring, and the shape of Jasiri still lying next to it. For a heart-stopping moment, she appeared completely motionless, but thankfully after a second her ears twitched and she raised her head to look at him. “Hi, Kion.”

“Hi.” Kion padded down the slope to the cave’s central flat area. “I brought you something.” He tossed the slab of meat in her direction. That was stupid, he thought. He could have just walked five more steps. Fortunately, the meat landed more or less in front of her instead of hitting her in the face or sliding into the spring. For a moment, her ears partially flattened and she looked nervously around the cave before crawling forward and digging in. It occurred to Kion that he occasionally saw Fuli do the same thing. He’d heard from the wandering lions who sometimes visited the Pridelands that in other lands lions, leopards, and hyenas would steal kills from cheetahs, but that hadn’t happened in the Pridelands for generations, so he wasn’t sure why Fuli did it besides pure instinct. But Jasiri’s gesture seemed somehow more seriously uneasy. Had Janja’s clan stolen from her before? He knew there were jackals in her territory, but Jasiri had fairly easily repelled an incursion from Reirei’s family, so it didn’t seem like them or vultures would be a serious problem.

It was fascinating watching Jasiri eat. A lion would have sheared and torn the meat from the bones, then stripped away what was left with his or her tongue. Jasiri, on the other paw, used her forelegs – with some difficulty due to the cast – to position the bone and wedge the end between her back teeth, then bit down with an audible crunching noise and swallowed the pieces of meat and bone she tore off whole. The ease with which she broke the waterbuck rib that Kion had to work at for so long made him wince and a shiver travel up his back – not out of any kind of fear of her strength, but from the thought that Janja and the rest of his clan had done almost the same thing to Jasiri. Worse, Kion found all the memories of his encounters with Janja returning to his head. He’d seen the drops of blood and scattered skin, fur, horns, and teeth, but never really put two and two together. Had he been taking Janja too lightly all these months? Sure, he usually ran from a fight with the Lion Guard, but what about the times Fuli had gone ahead to intercept him and his clan, or dashed past Kion when chasing them away? She could usually stay out of reach with ease, but one slip, one unexpected patch of muddy ground… he pushed the thought aside. He could talk to the rest of the guard about that later.

The slab of meat had already vanished. “Thanks for the food,” Jasiri said, licking her lips and paws.

“It was nothing,” Kion shrugged. “So, are you feeling any better?”

“A little.” Jasiri momentarily looked more cheerful, but winced as she rolled onto her side. “I’ve been trying to keep drinking water, but I don’t know how much I actually kept down.”

“You’re sick?” Kion asked, alarmed. He didn’t know much about herbs and healing, but he knew you had to drink water with an upset stomach, and if an animal couldn’t keep water down it could be very dangerous. He thought he remembered something about grass helping… no, grass was if you ate something poisonous and needed to make yourself throw up. What were you supposed to eat to stop nausea? He knew it was small leaves with a sharp, cold smell that burned the tongue if you left it in your mouth too long, but what was it called? Mint?

“No, don’t worry, I don’t think I’m actually sick. I don’t know if I just drank too much too fast or… I don’t know, something with the blood loss, but my stomach’s fine,” Jasiri reassured him. Then she sighed. “But… I’ve been trying to get some sleep, and I just can’t. Everything still really hurts, even though I’ve gotten used to it a bit, and I can’t get comfortable. And, well… it’s weird trying to sleep in a strange place. Like… I know I’m safe here, but I can’t make myself believe it. It still feels like I shouldn’t be here, and someone’s going to come attack me and I can’t defend myself at all!” her voice quickened, and filled with a mixture of frustration and anxiety.

Kion thought he had an idea of how Jasiri must have felt. Jasiri had never told him much about her past, but he knew she’d lived in the same patch of the outlands for at least two years, and due to being surrounded by Janja’s clan, the Outlanders, and the Pridelands she almost never left. Kion had often slept away from Pride Rock, but outside the Pridelands entirely? Aside from taking a few quick naps during his visits with Jasiri, he didn’t think he had – or if so, they were close to the border, he was with the Guard, and someone was keeping watch. But alone, in an unfamiliar cave, far from home, in territory he wouldn’t normally be allowed in? He couldn’t imagine he’d have an easy time getting to sleep either.

Then a question occurred to Kion. He was almost afraid to ask it; he knew Jasiri didn’t normally like admitting weakness, and must have already hated not being able to walk on her own. But she seemed resigned to the situation, and he had a feeling she would answer honestly. “Are you afraid of Janja and his gang coming back?”

“I don’t really know,” Jasiri admitted. “Maybe a bit. I’m not really sure what I’m scared of, but…” she hesitated. “I am.” Her ears drooped with the last words, and she sounded as much sad as anxious. Despite his risk-taking tendencies, Kion had never really gotten injured beyond scrapes and bruises and an occasional sprain, and certainly nothing that left him confined to a den. He tried to imagine himself in Jasiri’s position, knowing he’d failed to protect himself and his home, and could barely even stand on his own paws, much less defend himself if he was attacked again. He didn’t know how any animal couldn’t be scared, but at the same time he didn’t know whether he could have brought himself to admit it and make the helplessness seem even more complete.

But Jasiri just grinned. “But come on, it’s Janja. I could still take him like this, and with my eyes closed. If you keep the rest of his clan off me I can go pay him back tomorrow morning!” she joked.

Kion couldn’t help laughing. Despite everything she’d been through that day, Jasiri’s spirit just wouldn’t be crushed. “Hey, why am I stuck cub-sitting the other morons while you have all the fun?” he replied. “Besides, Rafiki will kill you if you break those clay things over Janja’s thick head.”

Now it was Jasiri’s turn to laugh. “Yeah… Rafiki’s… different than I imagined him.”

“How?”

“Well, with how you kept saying he’s older than Pride Rock, I thought he’d be… I don’t know, less lively. And honestly… I thought you were just trying to keep me calm when you said he could fix my wounds, but whatever he did seems like it worked. I mean, it still hurts, but those ants really did close them.”

“Yeah…” Kion agreed. The cuts had stopped bleeding a while ago, and although there was still dried blood and raw flesh around them, for the most part they had scabbed over. “The only downside is you might not even have any scars to remember all this.”

But instead of Jasiri laughing like Kion expected, her shoulders and neck tightened and she shot him a glare. “Kion, why would I want to be reminded of a fight I lost?” she said. Her voice was still calm, but definitely irritated. 

“Whoa, hey, I didn’t mean it like that!” Kion backpedaled. Beyond making a lame joke, he really wasn’t sure what he was trying to say, or what Jasiri thought he was saying. He mentally skimmed back through the last minute of half-formed thoughts he hadn’t paid attention to at the time. He guessed he was sort of thinking about how much bravery she’d shown, and about Bunga, bravest of the Lion Guard, but in a totally different way from Jasiri. And… well, that was the kind of thing he knew would have cheered Bunga up. He wasn’t sure if he wanted to mention that to Jasiri though; based on her reactions to the various stories he’d told her about him, he wasn’t sure whether she had a high opinion of the honey badger. But why would Bunga have enjoyed the joke about scars? Kion tried to imagine Bunga explaining it, as out-of-character as introspection would be for him. And then it hit him. “What I meant was, he had six hyenas and he still couldn’t kill you, right?”

Jasiri shrugged. “Yeah… but the only scars I want to see are on Janja and his clan’s ugly faces. It’ll be nice to see how badly I tore them up…” she trailed off, and her head slowly slumped to the ground. “But mostly, I just want to forget today ever happened.”

Kion couldn’t think of anything to say to that, and for a moment the lair was silent. Then Jasiri’s eyes widened slightly, and she hastily added: “I… I don’t mean I want to forget how much you and the rest of the Guard helped me, or that you’re here with me right now, and I don’t, but…” she took a sharp breath, and her voice quivered. “They almost killed me, all right? I walked right into an ambush, and they trapped me in a canyon, and they just kept biting me and I could barely do anything back without the others tearing me apart! And they – they all held me down, and – I couldn’t even do anything!” her words grew faster and more breathless, and she broke down into tears.

“It’s okay! Jasiri, it’s all right!” Kion padded over to her and pressed his forehead into her shoulder, then lay down next to her and put a foreleg around her. She was shivering again, although she was as warm as if she’d been lying in the sun.

“I know…” Jasiri sniffed. “I know… it’s just… his clan had me pinned, he could have just gone for my throat, but he grabbed my leg, and… the way he looked at me, he knew what he was doing. He didn’t just want me dead, he wanted me to suffer.”

Kion used a meerkat curse that Timon had accidentally taught him once. “What kind of animal does that over territory?”

“I don’t know… I mean, I was trying to kill him too, but only because I knew if I didn’t he’d just come back and attack me again. I always knew he was a stupid bully, but this is just…”

“Evil?” Kion finished her sentence. In the Pridelands, fights over food, territory, mates, or leadership had rules, like the crocodiles’ Mashindano, and animals really only killed for food – but then, food in the Pridelands was plentiful enough that losing a battle over food or land rarely meant the difference between life and death. In the Outlands, things were rougher, and Kion knew that killing was part of the Circle of Life. But even animals like Reirei or Makucha who broke every other law the Pridelands had didn’t generally go out of their way to cause unnecessary pain. Kion had thought Janja and his clan were like that too – selfish poachers at worst. It was part of why even when he had to use the Roar of the Elders against them, he avoided seriously hurting them. But if this was what they were really like, he thought, maybe he shouldn’t be so forgiving. He glared into the darkness, imagining himself ripping Janja limb from limb like he’d tried to do to Jasiri. 

“Uhh… Can you help me move a bit closer to the wall?” Jasiri asked, bringing Kion back to reality. “This place feels really exposed and open – I’d rather at least have solid rock on one side.” 

“Huh? Yeah, sure. Come on, I think I know the best spot.” He stood, and leaned sideways as Jasiri shakily got to her feet, helping her keep her balance. He guided her to a small alcove sheltered by a boulder, where there was a layer of sand on the cave floor that made it soft and comfortable to sleep on. He usually preferred to nap in the sun, but Fuli sometimes curled up there. “This place is a bit bigger than your den, huh?”

“Yeah…” Jasiri nodded. Even with Kion’s help, walking was clearly difficult, and she whimpered softly every time she put weight on either of her injured legs. But eventually she made it to the alcove, and slumped to the ground with a sigh of relief. “This already feels a little more like home.”

Kion had seen Jasiri’s den before; it was a natural hollow in the rock, small enough that an adult lion would need to be careful to avoid bumping his head on the ceiling. It also had a layer of sand that had blown in over many years, and it was cool even at midday. “I guess I never really thought about that,” he said. “I’m used to this place, and the Pride’s main sleeping cave is pretty big too. A giraffe probably couldn’t reach the ceiling in parts of it.”

“Yeah, I’ve never liked sleeping out in the open. Part of it’s those stupid vultures, Mazingo and his Parliament. I sometimes see them perched on a cliff, just watching me. It’s creepy. I know they mostly scavenge, but sometimes it seems like they’re just waiting, hoping a rock falls on me or something.”

“You’re not far off,” Kion laughed. “Once Fuli overexerted herself and they tried to attack her.”

“Really? Bet they were walking home after that when she plucked all their feathers out!” Jasiri snorted.

“Well, the rest of us chased them off before they could really try anything. But it was actually really dangerous; she was overheated and really weak – not much better than you were when we found you today. They could’ve really hurt her.”

“Oh…” Jasiri’s eyes widened. “Didn’t think of that. But, anyway, I’ve also just always felt safer underground. I guess it reminds me of when I was a baby – I have these really faint memories of when I was in Mom’s den, before I was old enough to be around the other cubs.” She yawned, and lowered her head to the sand.

That reminded Kion of something he’d been meaning to ask for a while. He’d been nervous that it would seem like he was fussing over her but, contrary to his expectations, it didn’t seem like she cared about… he guessed pride was the right word. A lot of animals, especially ones that were loners or leaders of their groups, considered it deeply embarrassing to be dependent on another, even aside from reluctance to betray any weakness. He guessed he thought Jasiri would be the same way, partly from the nonchalance with which she usually talked about the threat of Janja’s clan, and partly because she was around his age, still a cub really, and defending her own territory. But she’d proven him wrong. “So, Jasiri…” he started. “Would it make you feel better if – I mean, would it be okay if I stayed here tonight?” In truth, he had no intention of leaving her completely alone – if she wanted space, he planned on sleeping outside the cave, so he’d at least be in earshot. 

Jasiri raised her head and gave him a puzzled look. “What? Yeah, I - I’d really like that. Why wouldn’t I want you with me? And, it’s kind of your cave, so…”

“Well, it’s not really mine. It’s the whole Guard’s, and the Lion Guard is still part of the Pride. Or, it normally is. This is the first time not all the members have been lions.” Kion padded over to the flat rock near the spring where he often rested, and stretched, extending his claws and scraping them against the rough sandstone.

“…Wait, where are you going?” Jasiri sounded confused.

“Huh? I’m not leaving -”

Jasiri giggled. “Yes you are, furbrain! I thought you meant here here, not way over there. Come on, you’re my friend, not some stranger.” 

“Okaaay, I’m coming, I’m coming…” There was humor in Kion’s voice as he returned to Jasiri’s side, but mentally he was kicking himself. What was he thinking? Compared to his other friends, Jasiri was always more ‘touchy-feely.’ Fuli and Ono mostly found physical contact annoying, Beshte was ambivalent, and Bunga preferred tackles to hugs – not that Jasiri didn’t enjoy roughhousing and games of tag as well. And he was around the rest of the Guard every day, whereas he wasn’t fully used to Jasiri’s personality. Still, he should have known better.

As soon as Kion lay down, Jasiri snuggled up next to him, resting her head on his foreleg. “Thank you,” she said, licking his chin. He returned the gesture, carefully avoiding the places where wounds had been closed by ant heads.

“So... I didn’t know hyenas had dens,” Kion commented. “I mean, besides you.” It occurred to him that he didn’t actually know much about hyenas besides the basics; Jasiri hadn’t normally talked much about it. 

“It’s only really for newborn cubs,” Jasiri explained. “Moms dig a temporary burrow so they won’t be disturbed. Nobody really did it when hyenas lived at Pride Rock, but my clan wanted to go back to the old ways.”

Kion nodded. He thought he understood: while the Pride usually gave newborns and their mothers an alcove in the main sleeping cave, he’d heard that lionesses outside the Pridelands would hide their cubs in bushes. “So, do cubs stay underground until their eyes open?” 

“Eyes open?” Jasiri repeated, confused.

“Yeah, you know, the first couple weeks of your life your eyes are closed – I don’t remember it though, and neither does anyone else I’ve talked to, but Mom and Dad explained it to me and Kiara.”

“Huh, I never knew that… hyenas aren’t like that, we’re born with our eyes open.”

“Whoa…” Kion guessed it made sense. Lions, cheetahs, and if he thought about it most other carnivores were born with their eyes closed, but herbivores, like Musimu’s son Jabari, could not only see but run from birth. But he’d never expected that hyenas would be the same way. It occurred to him that he actually hardly knew anything about them. “So…” he began. “What are other hyenas like? You’re the only one I’ve met besides Janja’s gang, and most of the lionesses don’t really like to talk about when Scar ruled the Pridelands.”

Jasiri shrugged. “Well, Sisi Ni Sawa. I don’t think we’re really much different from you lions. You have the Pride, we have clans. I think the big difference is I’ve never heard of a hyena being a king – a clan’s always led by a queen.”

“What about whoever’s married to the queen? My Mom’s still the queen even if Simba’s the king.” 

“Uhh… usually you’d just use his name, or I guess call him the Queen’s Consort. Unless his mom was the queen of another clan – then he’d still be a prince.” She paused. “I think it’s because… in the Pride, the Queen leads your hunts, while the king rules the Pridelands, right?” 

“Yeah, basically.” Kion decided not to tell her his uncertainty as to how Kiara would handle the two roles.

“Well, hyenas don’t have that. If the queen’s in a hunting party she’d lead it, but… well I guess Simba’s subjects aren’t just the Pride, they’re other animals in the Pridelands too, right?”

“Yeah,” said Kion. “So what you’re saying is that since hyenas don’t have that, they don’t need both a king and a queen?” 

“Exactly.”

“So, where does Janja fit in?”

“Janja and his cronies aren’t a real clan,” Jasiri replied with disgust. “They’re just a bunch of… well, I guess they’re still cubs like me, even if I don’t always think of it that way because they’re older than me. But they just banded together so they could hunt better, defend a bigger territory, all that. And a clan is… it’s family. Moms, dads, brothers, sisters. Janja can play leader all he wants, but he’s still clanless, just like me.” Jasiri’s voice grew hoarse as she spoke, and her ears started to fold down.

“Clanless…” Kion repeated the word. “So, are you kind of like the teenage elephants who leave their old herds?”

Jasiri was silent for a while. She sighed, turning her head away from Kion. “Did… did I say something wrong?” he finally asked.

“No… it’s just…  it’s kind of a long story.” She took a deep breath, and began. “How much did your parents tell you about what happened after Scar was killed?”

“I know there was a war, and all the hyenas were driven out of the Pridelands, and then a while later Zira split the Pride in half, and there was another war,” Kion answered.

“Yeah, that’s pretty much right. After he died the hyenas of the Pridelands didn’t have a leader, and there wasn’t anyone who could keep them united, so they split into three clans. I heard my clan didn’t really try to stay in the Pridelands, but some of the others did, and a lot of hyenas died fighting either the lions or each other. When I was born, we all lived in the Western Outlands.”

“Isn’t that where Zira’s pride lives?” Kion asked.

“It is. I was really young back then and don’t remember it that well, but I know there was never enough food, but Mom never let anyone cross the border into the Pridelands and steal – she said the only way for there to be real peace between lions and hyenas is if we had our own lands. And I guess there was peace for a while, but then Zira… when Simba kicked her out she came to the Outlands too. At first we tried to make peace with her – and maybe it would have worked if our clan wasn’t mostly hyenas who didn’t like Scar that much – and then when that didn’t work there wasn’t anywhere else to go and the outlands were a big area, so we just tried to stay out of their way, scavenge from kills after they left, things like that. But…” 

Jasiri hesitated and took another breath. She seemed on the edge of tears, and part of Kion wanted to tell her to stop, that he didn’t want her to feel like she had to bring up something painful, but he was drawn in by the story, and wanted to hear what happened next. And she could have just said she didn’t want to talk about it – she must have wanted him to hear this.

But Jasiri’s next words caused Kion’s jaw to drop. “After a couple years, she started hunting us down. Hyenas would go out looking for food and not come back, and then days later someone would find… once, there were three heads lined up by a watering hole. In the dry season, when she knew we were starving, her lionesses would kill prey and barely eat anything, just leave it as bait, then attack us. Even cubs disappeared, my age or even younger. I remember there being a lot of fights back then – we outnumbered them I think, but not enough to drive them out of the Outlands. And then one night… her entire pride attacked, all of them at once. I barely remember anything, I was too scared. But somewhere in that battle… they got my Mom!” Jasiri started to cry, tears running down her muzzle and collecting on her whiskers like dewdrops, but she didn’t stop. “And… she didn’t have any sisters, and I was her only daughter, so there was no one else to be Queen. One moment I – I had to be dragged away from her, and then the next morning they told me I was going to be Queen, and there were dozens of hyenas looking at me, expecting me to do something to save them! But there wasn’t anything. Everyone agreed we couldn’t stay in the Outlands any longer; we had to go further West, beyond the Outlands. But – everyone was expecting me to lead them, and I just couldn’t do it! And…” Jasiri swallowed hard. Kion waited in total silence. “I betrayed my clan.”

“You what?” Kion said, astonished. He was still trying to process the idea that Jasiri was supposed to be a queen.

“There’s never been a law about abdicating,” Jasiri said frantically. “But I still could have done something – I could have chosen a successor. But I didn’t: I just waited until everyone fell asleep – I couldn’t sleep at all – and snuck away without even saying goodbye. And I never saw any of my clan ever again. That’s who I really am, Kion. I’m the princess who ran away.”

“Oh… oh, geeze…” for a moment, Kion was at a loss for words. All he could do was put a foreleg around Jasiri and pull her close to him. She pressed her head against his, and he felt the familiar wetness of tears soaking into his fur. “How is that betraying your clan?” he asked, still astounded. “That… none of that’s your fault!” He tried to imagine himself or Kiara suddenly being left in charge of a pride that was being driven from their homes and into the unknown. But even aside from having no idea how either of them could possibly handle it if something happened to Simba or Nala, they weren’t even close to ready. And Jasiri must have been much younger; how could anyone possibly have expected a grieving cub to suddenly take on responsibility for a whole clan? 

“I know everything that happened with Zira and the fighting wasn’t my fault… but I’m still the one who ran. I still abandoned my clan because I was afraid. And… look at you, you’re leading the Lion Guard and protecting your family when I couldn’t lead a giraffe out of tall grass!”

“Hevi Kabisa… Jasiri, when I met you the Guard was just formed a couple weeks ago, and half the time I had no idea what I was doing. Pretty much everyone but Rafiki didn’t think I was ready for it because I was a cub. And they were kind of right: just a year ago there’s no way I could’ve done it! And you were even younger! I just… don’t understand why the adults wouldn’t have helped you.”

Jasiri sighed. “Everyone was scared and confused, not just me. Maybe they would have, if I ever gave them a chance! But we’ll never know now, will we?” 

Kion tried a different approach. “You know… a while back my dad told me about what happened when Mufasa died. I mean, most of the pride knows what happened, but… Simba ran away too.”

Jasiri lifted her head. “Really?”

“Yeah. Scar pretty much told him he had to and that Mufasa’s death was his fault, but still… he told me ever since he found out what Scar did to the Pridelands he’s felt guilty about it, even though he knows if he came back when he was still a cub Scar would’ve found a way of killing him and making it look like an accident. But he also told me that you have to put your past behind you, and you can’t spend your life worrying about things you can never change. And… wherever your family is, I know they don’t blame you for running away, and they wouldn’t want you to blame yourself either.”

“Maybe…” For a while, Jasiri was silent. Then she said: “I’m glad I met you, Kion. And… as bad as this day’s been, a part of me’s happy I’m here, even if Janja almost tore my legs off. It feels kind of like… kind of like having a family again.”

“Yeah…” Kion yawned. “But if we do this again, I’m the one getting hurt next time.”

“Sounds like a plan…” Jasiri said with a giggle. Her eyes closed, her breathing became more even, and she pressed herself closer to Kion. Before long, both lion and hyena were fast asleep. 

Author’s Notes:

• More biology facts: IRL, male lions eat first at a kill and females and cubs get whatever’s left. Given everything else we know about the pride in TLK, there’s no way that’s true for them. 
• I don’t think Disney has ever actually made a statement on animal aging in The Lion King. IRL, lions take about 2-3 years to reach adulthood, but… eesh, that just seems disconcertingly fast. Kion would be very noticeably larger by the end of the season. So… I guess they’re somewhere in between real animals and humans? 
• This chapter had a bit of Zuri and Tiifu. Now, I do actually think they’re younger than Kion and Kiara. The first reason I think this is that they just outright seem less mature. Especially in “Just can’t wait to be Queen –“ they were more or less treating Kiara being queen like a game. The other reason, is that if we accept the fanon that Kiara (and therefore also Kion) was conceived during the “Can You Feel the Love Tonight” montage, well… the other lionesses in the Pridelands would be unlikely to be interested in having cubs due to the circumstances. So …ahem… mating would be unlikely until several months later, when the Pridelands started returning to normal. This is aside from the availability of potential fathers if we’re going with the “monogamous lions” theory. Incidentally, if we’re not going with that theory, that would imply that, if the King is the father of most of the Pride’s cubs, then status as royalty would have to be passed down from the mother’s side – i.e. the Pride would be matrilineal. But it’s okay, TLG pretty much jossed that. Anyway, I think the Pride would have a shortage of cubs, followed by a “baby boom.” If this boom occurred long enough after Scar’s death, though, most of the cubs would be quite a bit younger than Kion, which could explain why Zuri and Tiifu are the only ones seen in the show and why most of Kion’s friends are non-lions. 

• Tama is a name I got from a semi-canon picture book that came out a really long time ago and I haven’t read. 
• The other thing about Zuri and Tiifu themselves is that I think they get a bit of undeserved hate from the fandom, especially Zuri. Actually, the creators don’t seem to like them all that much either, and they don’t get much screen time aside from the flat “mean girl” role they got in Just Can’t Wait to be Queen. And… I don’t know, I think they deserve it. A little about them: 

• Zuri’s broken claw reaction isn’t just vanity. Unlike human fingernails, carnivores’ claws have a part called the “quick” underneath the main nail which contains blood vessels and nerves, and can be quite sensitive. This has resulted in many bad experiences for pets and their owners, especially ones with black nails where the blood vessel can’t be seen. So breaking a claw would likely be something more analogous to a bruised toenail from a bad toe stub, or even partially ripping off your fingernail. It’s not unreasonable for the equivalent of what, a ten-year-old child at the oldest to cry over that. 

• A/N from the distant future: Well, there you go, there's Jasiri's backstory which was completely and totally jossed by Lions of the Outlands. To be frank, I have some problems with that episode anyway. First, nobody ever even mentioning the existence of a hostile pride of lions outside the Pridelands' borders to the new leader of the Lion Guard really stretched credulity. Not telling the kids Zira's real history, maybe, but I still think they'd have found out eventually even without encountering them. I'm ambivalent about them introducing Jasiri's clan and only actually introducing her sister. I mentioned my pet peeve of shows having child characters appear to be living on their own, then introducing their families later on and claiming it's a normal, healthy dynamic. Conservation of Detail should not excuse this: it's the reverse. If a character is at an age where you would expect a child to still be with their parents and there isn't something specific to the setting explaining why they wouldn't (e.g. I think Fuli mentioned that Cheetahs separate from their parents young), then having some trace of their existence should be the default, and lack thereof important. Still, I can kind of accept not wanting to give the audience extra characters to keep track of. However, now that they introduced her clan without showing parents, if a future episode introduces Jasiri's parents, they're alive, and there's not a very good reason for them to have been completely uninvolved in the things happening with Jasiri and Madoa, I'm gonna be mad because at that point it's just bad writing. Finally, I've gotta nitpick the design of Wema and Tunu. Spotted hyenas are born black/dark brown, and this fur becomes their spots as they grow with lighter fur in between. I know the hyenas in the TLK 'verse don't have accurate coloration, but they could have at least made the younger hyenas' spots (or splotches) cover more of their bodies.