Queen of The Outsiders

After the Queen Sarabi died, Mufasa distanced himself from the rest of the pride and spent nearly all of his time in a cave similar to Scars'. He had become completely blind and frail, so Simba had taken the throne almost immediately.

The changed that the cruel young lion brought were drastic and brutal. He forced the lionesses to hunt even more than they should, causing some of the zebra and antelope herds to flee to other lands. The pride lands remained bountiful despite the loss, because Simba now ordered the lionesses to hunt down elephants, rhinos and hippos. Animals that they had never hunted before, due to their massive size and potential danger.

Simba also took many lionesses as his mates at once and they bore him many children. Unlike his father he considered all of the cubs his sons and daughters, and did not tell them to call him 'Uncle'. He groomed all of his cubs to as heirs and made them play fight everyday to see which ones were the strongest. Then when the results were taken into account he separated the strong from the weak and groomed the strong to be his heirs.

He treated the lionesses in a similar way. Before he took any as his mate, he forced all of them to fight in what he called the 'Circle of Fights'. The lionesses fought to exhaustion and the winner was taken to Simba's den for mating. The next day the remaining lionesses were forced to fight and the cycle continued.

When Simba had first created the fighting game (that was what he called it), Nala had refused, and Simba had exiled her Scar's cave, along with her mother who was too old to hunt or bear him children. Why he did not just exile Nala to the outlands was a mystery.

Nala padded to Scar's cave where Zira's three cubs, Kovu, Nuka and Vitani were basking in the sun, and her mother was lying a little ways off watching the stripped lioness warily. After all these years of living with the exiled family, Serafina could not bring herself to trust anyone who associated with Scar, even her own daughter.

"Nala!" the three cubs yelled in unison and tackled the beige lioness to the ground.
"Ah! You guys are getting bigger everyday!" Nala laughed and allowed the cubs to tug at her ears playfully and paw at her tail.
Zira ran over to join in the fun and after awhile the two lionesses left to talk alone while the cubs went in search of their father.

"Zira," Nala began, glancing around nervously,"I've been thinking,"

"What about?' Zira asked curiously

"Simba has left us alone for too long," she hissed quietly "He must be planning something. I think we should leave the pride lands and find another home."

Zira nodded but then shook her head, "My cubs...I don't know if they're big enough to make a journey like that. I could carry Kovu and you could carry Vitani, and Scar could carry Nuka, but for how long? We've never left the pride lands before, how would we know where to go? Besides, what about your mother?"

Nala frowned "I hadn't thought about that, but what if I go and scout out the other territories?"

A shadow loomed in the cave entranced and they both leaped to their feet thinking Simba had snuck up behind them, but it was only Scar.

"I have left the pride lands many times, so I have seen the other lands. The outlands are beyond the elephant graveyard. We can go there, and as for food, there must be something beyond the outlands, and if not, we'll just have to travel further. But I agree with Nala, Simba has been quiet for too long, and waiting to see what will happen is much too dangerous. If we are to take him surprise with our departure we must leave tonight."

Zira nodded reluctantly, and Scar gave her a reassuring lick. "Everything will be alright."

"No."
The trio turned to look at Serafina who had come in while they were planning. "Leaving the pride lands means death!" she snarled, staring at all of them "I will not leave."

"Mother," Nala began padding towards her mother who hissed at her, "Simba exiled you! For being old! What will staying here do for you?"

"He will know that I am loyal, and we will invite me back." she stated in a frightening monotone.

After hours of pleading with her mother to no avail, Nala finally gave up and joined Scar, Zira and the cubs behind the cave.

Scar nodded when she joined them and they each picked up a cub, and headed to the elephant graveyard.

Nala shuddered when she remembered her first time at the graveyard and prayed that no hyena's would be lurking around. After Scar had protected her that day, the hyena's had severed their ties with him and sworn revenge for his betrayal.

A shrill scream interrupted their trek and Nala turned to see what seemed to be meerkat riding on a warthog, heading towards them with three familiar hyena's in tow.
"You've got to be kidding me! Of all hyena trios, why this one?' Nala groaned, flexing he claws.
They quickly told the cubs to hide under a pile of bones and dashed towards the hyena's who had abandoned their hunt of the meerkat and warthog to the lions instead.

"Well, well isn't this our old buddy Scar, Ed?" Shenzi snarled circling them.

"Yeah it is! Even though we told him to never come back!"

The one who spoke gibberish snarled and leaped at Zira's flank, snapping the air as the lioness stepped to the side.
"And look he brought some company! Wait a minute," Shenzi snarled and sniffed the air around Nala "I know you, you're the little she cub that was exploring with the little prince!" she purred

Nala growled and got into a fighting stance. "Listen, Shenzi. We don't want trouble, all we want to do is pass through."

"Yeah well," the female hyena snarled, and slammed a paw into Nala's muzzle. "Maybe we don't want you to pass through!"

Nala leaped to her feet and tackled the large hyena snarling fiercely. Scar charged Banzai, tearing at his side with his claws, and Zira rolled around on the ground with Ed.
Suddenly, the warthog and meerkat charged towards Shenzi and slammed her to the ground. Taking the opportunity Nala bit into the hyena's neck and shook her until she no longer breathed. The remaining two hyena's let our mournful wails and retreated quickly.

When the fight was over the three lions called their cubs our of hiding and turned to the odd duo in front of them. Scar eyed the warthogs, sharp tusks warily, "Thank you." he said curtly and turned to leave but Nala stopped him.

"Yes thank you! But what are you two doing here? Is this your home?" she asked, lying down and licking her wounded side.

The meerkat cleared his throat and rolled off of the warthog's tusks. "Uh, no. We were looking for a home and thought we'd try this one out, thinking it was unoccupied, but as you see we were wrong."

"Very wrong." the warthog nodded

"I'm Nala, who are you?"

"I'm Timon, and this is Pumbaa," the meerkat said, pointing to himself and then his companion.
"Nice to meet you!" Zira called from behind Nala, the cubs echoing her greeting and Scar simply grunted.

"Likewise. So where are you guys headed?"

"The outlands," Nala said

Timon wrinkled his nose and spat on the ground. 'The outlands? Pah!"

Nala's head lowered in dismay, "You've been there?"

"Yeah, it wad a nice place until those damned Zebra's and Gazelles came."

"Zebra's and Gazelle?" Nala cried happily

The duo nodded, solemnly. Of course they would be upset, seeing as they were herbivores/ insectivores apparently. But to the lions, this was great news.

The lions and odd duo parted ways after a bit of talking and the lions headed towards the outlands with joy filling their hearts.