1.12. Danger in the Dark

The long grass was so different at night. During the hot days, it was fun to run through and hide in, and just one more great game to play, but right now, it was spooky and eerie and every rustle a potential monster coming for them.

“Maybe we should go back,” Shauku whispered, his tail tucked between his legs as he hugged close to his brother’s heels. His wide green eyes darted here and there, and he swallowed hard as the trill of some bird sounded off in the trees.

Mufasa was shaking, too, but didn’t want to look like a wimp. “You can go back if you want,” he said, his voice quivering. “But I’m not afraid. I am going to go get a look at Scar.”

“Then I’m not going home, either. I’m no scaredy cat.”

The golden cub was relieved to hear it; if Shauku had turned tail, he knew he would have as well. He talked tough, but this whole adventure was a bad, bad idea that he couldn’t back down from. He would only have done so if Shauku did so first. “Well, c’mon, then. Let’s get there and back before anyone notices we’re not there.”

As always, Mufasa led the way, and Shauku followed. Agano had always liked that about the boys – that his son was the natural leader and the runt was so easily led – and it didn’t change under these conditions. Mufasa led, and Shauku always followed. So when his brother stumbled and fell down, Shauku landed right on top of him, so close had he been dogging the other cub.

“Oof! Get off of me, stumble-paws!” Mufasa shoved the smaller cub off of himself and glowered. “It’s like you’re trying to crawl all over me!”

“You fell and I tripped over you!” Shauku returned, his voice petulant. “Watch where you’re going and this wouldn’t happen!”

“It was this stupid hole – it caught my foot. I wasn’t paying attention because your smelly breath was heating up my tail and irritating me.”

“What hole?”

“This one.”

Mufasa pointed, and they both looked. And looked. It wasn’t a hole.

“That’s… that’s a paw-paw-pawprint!” Shauku gasped, voice strangled and his paws flying up to cover his mouth.

“Uh….” Mufasa stared at it, biting his lip, eyes popping from his skull. “Can’t… uh… can’t be a pawprint. It’s just too big. No lion is that large.”

“It has to be Scar!” Shauku worried at his tail, wringing it between both paws, and swiveled his head in every direction, almost hurting himself. “He’s gonna get us!”

His cry wound up into a shrill pitch, and Mufasa tackled him and covered his mouth. “Shut up!” he hissed softly, pinning his brother. “He… uh… someone might hear you!”

They both lay there for a long few minutes, each popping their heads up to look all around and then flattening down again, whimpering. Nothing happened, and they didn’t see any movement anywhere. Just the random sounds of birds babbling in the distant trees.

At last, Mufasa sighed, feeling his spirits rise. “Knew it all along. There’s no one out here! And you were so frightened, Shauku! Like a little baby, mewling at his mamma’s side!”

“I was not!” Indignation radiated from the orange cub. “You were the one who was scared! You were shaking in your fur and whining!”

“I wasn’t!”

“Were so!”

A twig snapped, somewhere off to the right. Instantly, both cubs huddled together, quiet and shivering as they clung to one another.

“Oh, let’s go home, Mufasa! I don’t like it out here!” Shauku whispered frantically, teeth chattering as he bit his claws.

Mufasa wanted to go home. He wanted to go home more than he’d wanted to do anything in his short life. Home sounded so good, so safe, so happy. But he’d come this far, and running away was not what a lion like his dad would do. Agano would never run away!

“I’m staying. I said I’d see Scar, and by the stars, I will!”

He pushed his brother off of him and stalked away into the grass, tail held high. A frightening moment passed in which there was no sound of pursuit, and then he breathed relief as the familiar thud of running paws and the whiny “wait, wait, wait!” of his brother sounded. Since he really, really didn’t want Shauku running away and going home, Mufasa decided to be generous. “Look, if you’ll stop being such a baby, I’ll let you hold my tail.”

Shauku put aside pride and took him up on the offer, both forepaws folding tightly around the tail waved at him. He bumped along after his brother, waddling awkwardly on his hind legs. His grip was uncomfortable, just this side of pain, but Mufasa had his brother with him, and that was what mattered.  They kept on through the grass, following the more and more frequent appearances of the great pawprints until they crested a small hill and looked down on the hollow below. Down amongst the torn remains of a kudu was the slumbering form of a monstrous lion. His snores could be heard even from their vantage point, and this gave Mufasa a new sort of confidence. The horrible monster was asleep!

“Lookit him, Shauku! Just like I said, he’s not an old pathetic bag of bones at all!” His grin spread across his face, and he lit up like his usual old self, back to normal. “He’s huge!”

Shauku twisted his brother’s tail between his paws, worrying at it. “Ok, ok… we saw him. He’s huge, just like you said. Can we go home now?”

This would have been wise, but Mufasa felt a streak of stubbornness. “Not yet. I want to get a closer look.”

“What??”

“Shhh! Quiet, stupid!” Mufasa glared at his brother’s squeal. “It’s perfectly safe – he’s asleep. I want to see how big he is, close up. Maybe our eyes are just playing tricks on us. It could be the dark. It might make him seem bigger than he is.”

“I don’t think it is. I think he’s that big. I swear he is. Let’s go!” Shauku began to tug on Mufasa’s tail, trying to urge him back the way they’d come, but Mufasa snatched it away.

“I’m going down there. You be a baby and wait here for me.”

Shauku waited for all of half a heartbeat before flailing his way after his brother. He didn’t want to go anywhere near the brute below, but he wanted to stay up there all alone even less. But his fear of being alone only took him so far, and while he stiffened and went still a few yards away, Mufasa kept on until he was right up next to the big lion. The beast was a monster, truly, and Mufasa felt dwarfed by it, and now he was there, he didn’t know what to do next. Leaving felt anticlimactic and cowardly, but what else was there to do, really? He held a paw next to Scar’s and marveled at the size difference. That thing could smoosh him like a bug!

He looked over to where Shauku was shaking like a leaf in a gale and staring unblinkingly at the lion’s face, and grinned, pointing down to his paw next to the monster’s. Shauku paid him no heed, and Mufasa pouted. What a baby! But he was right, and it was time to go home. They’d seen enough, right? He gave the big lion one last look, and as he turned to go, his body suddenly froze, head turning back unwillingly to look the lion in the face. There were no more snores, which he had not noticed cut off, and one orange eye was blazing away at him, glowing in the dark like a star fallen to earth.

The hate in it was awful to see, and without any regard any longer for saving face, Mufasa screamed, high-pitched and terror-stricken. His paws kicked up dust and grass as he churned his paws, tearing up the earth as he sped away. He shot right by Shauku, who was still standing there, stricken, totally and completely frozen in fear as the huge lion rose to his paws and opened his jaws to roar at them, the sound making both the cubs’ bodies vibrate with it.

“Shauku! Shauku c’mon!” Mufasa screeched, turning back towards his brother. “Move Shauku! MOVE!”

But Shauku didn’t – he just stared at the huge lion bearing down on him, its jaws flecked with spittle and eye burning with rage. He wailed, but he didn’t move. Mufasa darted back to where his brother trembled, and grabbed the other cub’s leg, dragging at him, but he was too late, really; Scar was right there now, next to them both, and his paw – the paw he had been marveling at only seconds before – was headed right for them both, claws extended and death on the tips. They both screamed, because one blow was all it would take, and that blow was coming right for them.
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Scar's jaws were intentionally referenced from this early concept art. Spent ages playing with the "night" colours, I hope he comes off as nightmarish and terrifying.

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Artwork & story belong to me. 
Elements from the story relating to The Lion King including its associated characters ('Agano', Mufasa, 'Shauku', 'Scar') (C) Disney.