Queen of The Outsiders

Simba laughed mischievously and bounded in front of Nala.
"Alright!" he said grinning "It worked!"
Nala smiled at her best friend, her eyes shining, "We lost him!" she said, referring to their 'guard' Zazu. Honestly if Mufasa should consider firing the dumb old bird. He was way too old to keep track of the two energetic cubs. She almost felt sorry for him as she thought of all the other times, that they had harassed the horn bill, but something Simba said brought her back to reality.

She narrowed her eyes at the male lion cub, and glowered at him, "Hey 'genius' it was my idea!"

Simba smirked and pointed at his chest, "Yeah, but I pulled it off!"
Sometimes Nala wondered why she was even friends with the cocky male. He was always showing off and taking credit for her work!

"With me!" she snapped, and leaped to her feet snarling quietly

"Oh yeah?" Simba taunted and jumped on top of her. They wrestled and rolled for less than a minute before Nala pinned Simba. She grinned and laughed playfully "Pinned ya!"

Simba's eyes widened and he shoved her off of him. "Let me up!" he grumbled and rolled onto his side.
Nala danced on her feet happily while holding her head high.
Suddenly Simba tackled her and the two cubs rolled off a small incline and into a dusty trench, landing with Nala on top of Simba once more.

"Pinned ya again!" she purred, but her triumph was short lived.

A rush of steam shot up from hole in the ground and they both whipped their heads to stare at it. When the steam and dust cleared they both gasped, for they had not realized where they were.
Simba's face split into an awed smile as he slowly padded forward. Nala reluctantly following behind him.
"This is it...We made it!" Simba whispered, but all Nala could focus on was the huge elephant skull that sat in front of them. She couldn't believe that such a hollow and dusty thing was once apart of the majestic creatures that she saw grazing on the plains every day.
The two cubs slowly leaned over one of the gray tusks to gaze at the rest of the bone littered graveyard.

"It's really creepy," Nala mumbled, hoping that Simba would take the hint and decide to leave.
But of course, this was not so.

"Yeah," Simba breathed, "Isn't it great?"

Nala briefly considered voicing her concerns but Simba would never let her forget how scared she acted when they returned to pride rock, so she grinned, and agreed. "We could get in big trouble,"

Simba smirked, "I know." And turned to look at the elephant skull.

Nala, eager to show how fearless she was, bravely stepped inside the opening of the skull. "I wonder if it's brains are still in there!"

Simba turned to grin at her, "There's only one way to find out, come on! Let's go check it out!"

Nala nodded and pranced after her friend.

"STOP!"

The two cubs jumped back in surprise as Zazu flew in front of them. "The only checking out, you will do is to check out of here!" he snapped, shooing Simba away with his wings.

Nala inwardly let out a sigh of relief at the sight of the old bird, but outwardly glowered at him along with Simba.
"Aw man," Simba sighed in defeat. But Zazu was not done ranting.

"We're way beyond the boundary of the pride lands!" he said, looking around anxiously.

Simba smirked and whirled around to face the bird. "Look! Banana beak is scared!"

But before Nala could laugh along with her friend Zazu jabbed Simba in the nose. "It's Mr. Banana beak to you, fuzzy! And right now, we are all in great danger!" he said almost pleadingly

"Danger? HA!" Simba scoffed "I walk on the wild side, I laugh in the face of danger! HA HA HA HA!"

And just as he let out his last burst of laughter, a loud sharp rush of laughter echoed after his. Simba's eyes widened in horror and his ears drooped. He ran to hide behind Zazu, and Nala looked about fearfully.
The laughter got louder as three huge hyena's spilled from the hollow empty eyes of the elephant skull.
Had they been there the whole time? Nala wondered.

"Well, well, well," the leader and largest drawled "What have we got here, Banzai?"

The second biggest laughed maniacally and turned to his googly eyed companion, "I dunno Shenzi, what do you think Ed?"

The last hyena grunted and snorted crazily.

"Yeah," Banzai spat "Just what I was thinking, a trio of trespassers!"

By then the three hyena's where right in front of them drooling, and their harsh breathing made Nala cringe.
Zazu sputtered some nonsensical excuse for their presence and they turned to leave. But the big hyena, Shenzi slammed her paw down on Zazu's tail feathers.

"Wait, wait wait. I know you, you're Mufasa's little stooge!" she exclaimed, leaning in close.

How did they know Mufasa? And by the way they were acting, they didn't seem to like him much. Nala thought. She whimpered and leaned closer to Simba, who didn't respond. He was too busy glaring at the hyena's who had begun to circle them.

"So that would make you," Shenzi snarled, staring at the male cub.

Simba bared his teeth, "The future king!"

The hyena's shared a laugh before Shenzi turned to look at them once more. "Do you know what we do to king's who step out of their kingdom?"

Nala and Simba turned around and around so none of the hyenas could end up at either of their backs.
Simba smirked, "You can't do anything to me!"

Zazu gulped, "Technically they can, we are in their territory."

Simba frowned, "But Zazu! You told me that they were nothing but slobbery mangy stupid poachers!"
Nala eyes widened and she stared at Simba. Why was he doing this? Making them even angrier than they already were!

The hyena's snarled in outrage and the pride lander trio turned to bolt away in the direction of pride rock, but Shenzi blocked them. "Where do you think you're going?" she smiled sinisterly "We'd love for you to stay for dinner!"
The other hyena's laughed and began to try to out quip each other.
Seizing the moment Nala bumped Simba and Zazu and they dashed past the elephant skull an deeper into the graveyard.

Somehow during their escape, Zazu had disappeared, unwilling to believe that he would abandon them, Nala worriedly began looking around for him.
Simba growled and nudged her."Let's go!"

Nala whimpered and ran after him. What if the hyena's had eaten Zazu? What if they were torturing him!

Suddenly they heard a scream and looked up to see a birdlike form soaring through the sky, while a trail of smoke followed it.
Simba raced up to the hyenas who were gathered around a geyser, grinning.
"Why don't you pick on someone your own size!" Simba snarled and Nala raised her hackles behind him.

"Like you?" Shenzi snarled and lunged at the two cubs, her teeth just barely missed Nala's tail. The two cubs frantically raced even deeper into the graveyard. They scrambled and slipped up a slope made up entirely of bones and the hyena's were getting closer and closer.

Suddenly Nala lost her footing and she slipped nearly all the way back down the slope. "Simba!" she shrieked
Simba turned to look down at Nala and his eyes gazed over in fear.

"Help me!" she cried and tried to climb up but the bones kept slipping under paws.
Simba turned and ran, leaving her with the three angry hyenas.

"Simba!" she screamed "Wait! Don't leave me!"

Nala whipped around when the hyena's reached her. Their eyes bright with amusement. "Well well, it looks like the little she cub has been left behind!" Shenzi sneered, licking her chops

"We would have preferred two cubs, but one is good enough!"

Nala squeezed her eyes shut as the hyena's jumped forward.
A large roar echoed through the graveyard and stopped the hyena's in their tracks.

She let out a gasp of relief. She knew Simba would never abandon her! He must have brought Mufasa back to save her!
But when she opened her eyes she did not see the bright golden paws of her king.

Scar, the king's exiled brother stood in front of her snarling at the three hyenas. His black mane swirling around his dark brown pelt.

"Leave." he said calmly "Now."

The hyena's scampered away, yipping in fear and frustration.
"Now my dear," he purred turning to stare down at her "Tell me exactly, why you are here."

He sat down and flicked his tail at her, signaling for her to lie down as well. She flopped down in relief and stared up at him curiously. Of all lions to save her, she never expected Scar to be the one!
Her mother had always told her to be wary of him and steer clear of him, but he didn't look so bad now.
She looked down at her paws sadly, and all her feelings from before came rushing back.

"Simba," she began and Scar's ears perked up at the mention of his nephew. "I came with him to explore the graveyard and the hyena's came and they were chasing us...and-

Scar set a paw on Nala's head gently, "And?"

"And he left me." she stared up at Scar with tears in her eyes "We were climbing up the bones and I couldn't get up and he left me."

Scar frowned. He hated his nephew with a passion, because he had ruined his only chance of becoming king and saw him as nothing but a nuisance, but he didn't expect him to be so cowardly. By the way that he acted at the pride lands with Nala...Scar would have never expected him to abandon her.

"Oh my dear," he sighed and stroked her back "But you two shouldn't have been anywhere near the graveyard at all! And Simba...Well we seemed to have learned something today haven't we?"

Nala nodded, sadly.

"And what have we learned?" Scar prompted

"The elephant graveyard is a dangerous place," she murmured

"And?"

"Simba should never be trusted."