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1.37. Grave Mistake

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Warning. Blood.
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The waterhole was a roiling hotbed of activity, with hippos flinging water wildly as they sought to catch hold of the hyenas, who were snapping at tails and heels and tearing into whatever animals they could. It was pure chaos and violence with no point, and all of the Guard felt a pang of fear and hesitation at the sight. But if they did nothing, what was the point of even having a Guard at all? This was what they’d been training for. So Dhambi went right while Ondoa went left. Wema and Tumai were circling to come from the rear, and Shauku had taken up the full frontal direction, Sarafina right behind him.

The Prince picked his target with care, grateful that none of the seven hyenas he saw were his friends. These were all full adults, mostly female, and every single one with blood liberally speckling them. No friends to worry about, just enemies. Good. He hit the lead female side-on, knocking her off her paws and catching her by surprise. She’d been so focused on trying to tear the liver out of a heron that she hadn’t noticed the Guard’s approach. Shauku jerked back as her jaws snapped the place he’d been standing, knowing if that mouth got latched onto him, it would tear right through bone like he’d bite through grass.

Another paw lashed out and struck the hyena fully across the face, crunching the teeth together and knocking her for a loop. Sarafina. Shauku spared a look of gratitude for her, then focused again on his enemy, who was shaking her head and aiming for him again. That stood out to him later – these hyenas were working on pure rage, and little else; they attacked without thinking and killed without hesitation, heedless of how much bigger or stronger their opponent. No sane hyena would try to fight two lions, but this one was willing to try, and she came at Shauku and Sarafina once again.

Using his battle training, Shauku anticipated her strike and sidestepped, using a hip to push Sarafina out of the line of fire as he did so. As the hyena passed by him, he struck her across the back of the head as hard as he could. She went down, face into the dirt, and this time did little more than writhe feebly from the prone position. The Prince spared a look for the rest of his Guard, to see how they were faring.

Tumai was holding his own and had one hyena down at his paws while he trounced another; Dhambi was sporting a nasty looking bite to his shoulder, but was running off the hyena who had made it; Wema and Ondoa were together putting the hurt to two other hyenas. The final hyena of the group, the solitary male, was racing away, already fleeing. They had done it! They were beating the hyenas, saving the animals of the waterhole! Pride swelled his frame, made him feel like roaring to the heavens above in triumph. He turned to share the moment with Sarafina.

She wasn’t there.

Whipping his head around, Shauku spotted her, in full-on pursuit of the fleeing hyena. Why was she…? “Sarafina!” he yelled and chased after her, trusting his Guard to finish up with the beaten hyenas.

****

Sarafina heard Shauku’s shout, but tuned it out, her attention only for the spotted rear ahead of her. An anger such as she had never known filled her, made her uncaring of anything else.

She knew this hyena.

When her father had died, there had been a hyena body underneath the rhinos, proof positive of their guilt in the matter. That hyena had often been seen in the company of another, so it was said, never apart from him, and that companion had been pointed out to Sarafina by a fellow pride member once or twice; he was well known for disrupting the hunts of the adults with his pack of cohorts around him. She had committed that face to memory, and could never forget it. If this male was always with the one who had helped murder her father, then he too was to blame, just as bloody-pawed. And he was not going to get away. Not today. Never again.

She cut him off near the borders of the Graveyard, rocks spraying up around her as she hit him in the shoulder, sending him spinning. He rolled to his feet, but she was all over him, teeth and claws seeking soft spots, areas of sensitivity. Snarls and pain-filled yipping sang out through the air, and he kicked at her belly, but Sarafina didn’t let go or back off an inch. Vengeance was at hand, and could be sated with nothing less than death. Only when he was lying at her feet, panting and looking up at her in fear, did she pause.

“For my father,” she growled out, low and hateful. Then struck the final blow.

Shauku was close enough to see it, hear it, and his world shattered in that instant. He too knew the hyena whose throat she crushed in her jaws. He’d not looked close enough, before, at the faces. Seen only adults, not his friends. Missed this face, whose eyes were looking blankly right at him. Banagi.

“Sarafina… what have you done?” he whispered, and she looked up at him, red staining the fur around her mouth. Hot anger still burned there, but was cooling.

“Avenged my father,” she said, panting, a little hitch in her breathing. The pain from her wounds was now beginning to seep in.

Swallowing several times did nothing to clear the lump in his chest, and so Shauku’s voice was strangled when it came out. “You… you killed him!” A moment of gaping, then the situation began to truly sink in. “You killed him.” Now his voice was stronger, but also flatter. “Killed.”

“Yes, I did.” Her ears flattened. “And I’d do it again, too. He murdered my father, Shauku.”

“The Guard do not kill!” he yelled, anger sparking up in his heart: anger at the death of someone who’d saved his life twice, anger at his father for his treatment of the hyenas, anger at how easily everyone had believed in their guilt, anger at how Tumai had stayed silent. Anger… so much anger. “We do not kill!” he practically screamed into her face, that awful face dripping with the blood of someone he’d known and cared about. “The Guard protects, it does not take life!” A wave of pain, through his expression. “How could you?”

“Even if those you fight against have taken lives themselves?” she snapped back, fur spiking up along her backbone. “Even if they are bloody murderers? Don’t you dare patronize me, Shauku!”

They glared at one another for a long few moments, teeth bared and ready, but then Shauku backed down, lip curling in disgust, hate colouring his words. “My father was right about one thing: girls don’t belong in the Guard. They run too wild and hotly with what the heart feels, and not what the brain says.”

She watched his retreating back and a for a moment, wanting to shout defiance at it, but the distance between was beginning to cool her emotions, and the tacky feel of blood on and around her was unable to be ignored. Or excused. The laws of the land forbade killing for sport – death for anything less than hunger was unacceptable. It violated the sanctity of the Circle of life, and there were no provisions for revenge to change that. She’d killed, not for food, but for the simple need to spill blood.

Shame flooded her veins, and she hung her head. The crime would be punishable, if not rectified at least in part. The hyena had deserved death, but waste of life was only forgivable for that one reason. Only that.

The taste of hyena was bitter on her tongue as she made the trek home, alone. Lions rarely made meals of such beasts, and Sarafina swore it would never again pass her lips. From today, she would hunt only that which was necessary to survive, not for vengeance, and not for the sake of killing. Shauku was right, about her actions: terrible and not those of honour. She’d sunk to the level of the hyena, and so earned his scorn. Perhaps permanently.

She sat alone that night, outside Pride Rock, and looked over the dry grasses taking over the land. She could sympathize with their plight, for it echoed that within her heart: withered and empty, barren and lifeless.

Suffering all in silence.
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This whole thing is based on the Broadway musical, where in the song 'Chow Down' Shenzi remarks to Banzai that Nala's mum (Sarafina) 'ate' his dad - "Now wasn't it her mom who ate your dad? And having parents eaten makes us mad". Figured it fit in with the whole war between the lions and hyenas. Also helps with how little Scar will later care for either Sarafina or the children they have together.

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Artwork & story, characters Ondoa, Wema, Dhambi belong to me. 
Elements from the story relating to The Lion King including its associated characters ('Shauku', Sarafina, Banagi, 'Tumai') (C) Disney.

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© 2016 - 2024 Kirroc
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Gingadensetsufan12's avatar

In my opinion it is better to think with your heart and no with your brain. I’m a shame of you Sarafina should the hyena had killed your dad but you think your any better? Lions does the same to hyenas so don’t be a hypocrite Sarafina. Taka your dad is dumb their is nothing wrong with girls being in the lion guard girls are ten times smarter and stronger then boys.