[3rd POV]
(The Pridelands)
It's been two months since Nala ran away from the Pridelands. The situation got so much worse after she left the pride.
Scar was more insecure than ever. He had completely lost his mind and the way he treated the lions was vastly different from before. He felt so betrayed by Nala's running away that it broke him.
Although he had many hyenas under him, he used to put the pride above everything else. But now, the way he treats them was the same. For some lions, he treats them worse than the hyenas.
He was no longer the king of lions. He was more like the king of hyenas.
The Pridelands had become a complete wasteland. The thriving life of the land died at an unprecedented rate. The swarm of hyenas only grew; their hunger had consumed the last of the prey.
Mother Nature seemed to abandon the kingdom. Forget animals, there was barely any vegetation. The land was in a perpetual gloom and misery.
Life was hard for the predators with nothing to eat.
"I don't want to hear that!!" Scar roared while pacing back and forth on Pride Rock. His face had an angry snarl that made him look ugly.
"I don't want to hear your excuses," he said while glaring at the lions below with crazed eyes.
His bulk was formidable. Fat and muscles blended together to create a powerful-looking lion. But the limp in his steps, the scars on his face and the dark mane, which was bald in some places, made him look like an abomination rather than a mighty lion.
"They are not excuses," Sarabi, the old queen, said with detached dignity, "You can go and check for yourself. There is no longer any prey to hunt down."
"Then go further than before!! Cover the whole kingdom if you must!" he said.
"There is no further. Your kingdom has no life," Sarabi said. "My king, you are the ruler of a wasteland."
ROAR!!
Scar released an enraged roar before lunging forward. But he did not fully commit to the action and stopped himself halfway.
The rest of the pride flinched, but Sarabi did not move while holding the gaze of the king.
"There are so many mouths to feed and not enough to go around. I warned you, Scar, but you didn't listen. You never listened, now look what you have brought upon us all," she said, her voice did not even gain a higher tone.
She was fully detached from reality now. She didn't care anymore. She boldly argued against the king and even called him by his name. But what could Scar do? Kill her? For a lion that was starving, being killed seemed like a better option than dying from hunger.
"No," Scar said, "No, no, no, no NO!!!"
"This is not because of me, this is because of you!!" he said and growled at the queen, "This is all because of you and your son. You threaten my crown and I have no choice but to increase the hyenas under me!!"
"Even till the bitter end, instead of seeing your own fault, you blame a cub that was gone two years ago," she said, "But perhaps maybe I am also partly to blame,"
"My son at his green age would've made a better king,"
That was the final nail in the coffin. Scar jumped down from his higher platform and crashed onto the queen. It was not a fight; Sarabi did not fight back. She was starved and had just come back from scouting the whole kingdom; she had no energy.
She bared her teeth and raked her claws at Scar but they barely did any damage. She could only remain still while the king mauled her, thrashing her violently on the rocky hill.
The pride didn't help; they all backed away and watched the scene unfold like a bunch of NPCs. They couldn't exactly fight the king because the consequences were grave. Even if they worked together and killed Scar, the hyenas under him would do the same to them.
Only one lioness moved.
"That's enough!!!" Her words were mixed with the guttural sound of an angry predator. Zuri shot out like a bullet with legs, she was starved and exhausted like the rest but youth and vigour were still on her side.
She crashed on the side of Scar, her teeth clamped down on his spine while her claws dug deep into his skin. She tried to wrestle him off Sarabi but that was no use. The difference in their mass was too much,
The king who indulged every day on food was nearly twice as heavy as the lioness who was starved for months.
But that was enough to take his focus off Sarabi.
Scar released a roar and swiped at Zuri who tanked the blow with her shoulder. The sound was heavy, a testament to how hard Scar was hitting her.
But that gave her a chance to exploit his weakness, which was his limp legs. With one paw up to deliver an attack, he was barely standing. Zuri pushed him on one side with all her strength. Scar tried but failed to catch himself.
They crashed on the rocks, his back hitting jagged pebbles that caused him to cry out in rage and agony. Zuri was quick to pull back, her aim was to push him off Sarabi so he wouldn't kill her. She never intended to fight him.
Scar turned and got up quickly. He then lashed out at Zuri who pulled back defensively. Yet before he could do anything, Sarabi got up and pushed him even further away.
She might not care about herself anymore but when Zuri's well-being was on the line, strength filled her.
The three lions entered a staredown. Scar's eyes were bloodshot. He was considering committing a taboo of killing a member of his own pride but his remaining sanity held him back.
"Traitors, both of you," Scar said. After a few seconds, his voice was calm.
His eyes were cold and calculating. One would recognise this as the same eyes he had when he was plotting Mufasa's demise.
Zuri, Sarabi and Nala. These three had been nothing but an unwanted thorn in his reign. He had tolerated them for years, his patience finally ran out.
Killing them would do no good to the precarious relationship he had with his pride, so he would need to be a bit more creative again to erase them from his life.
"The two of you are no longer a part of my pride. If you do not wish to be in my kingdom, then so be it," he said, "You will not eat my food, you will not hunt in my land and....
Scar turned to the side and looked at the ground below the Pride Rocks. Hyenas were biting and eating bones, some fighting each other for scraps, while some were nursing infants.
"You no longer have my protection."
Countless round ears of ugly beasts twitched at his words. The hyenas turned towards Sarabi and Zuri. Sarabi's stoic face finally broke into worry as she looked at Zuri.
The young lioness showed no fear, she looked at the countless hyenas that now lived in the Pridelands like they were nothing. Then she turned back at Scar and looked at him with nothing but challenge in her eyes.
"I should've done this when I heard you helped your friend run away," Scar said, his words a final decree.
"Let's go Zuri," Sarabi said quickly. They both left and headed towards the cave of the Priderocks. It was their den and they probably shouldn't leave if they value their life.
Outside, hungry jaws await.
After that was done, Scar allowed himself a moment of satisfaction and a pat on the back. He should've done this way sooner. He looked at what remained of his pride.
16 members in total. 9 lionesses, 3 sub-adults and 4 cubs that were older than 6 months.
The lions were long but thin. But they didn't look weak by any means, they shared the wild and fierce look Scar had in his youth. Most of these lions were still loyal to him, a few of them even being obsessed with him.
He might be a bad king but every king has his own followers.
"Go out to hunt again," Scar said, "If you find no success in the Pridelands then I give you permission to venture further. Follow the herds where they went if you must,"
Since his main rebels were dealt with, he trusted the rest to return and not run away even if they left the Pridelands.
"As you wish, my Lord," one skewed-looking female said before they all dispersed to hunt. No one was in a group, they all went in different directions to cover ground.
Scar watched all this and huffed, pleased even though the situation was only getting worse. If Scar had faith, it would be on the land. Pridelands was not like other regions, what they were experiencing had never happened before.
So he was confident that these tough years would pass and prosperity would find him again,
He climbed the peak of the Priderocks and gazed out in thought. Years had passed but he never got used to the power he held. He was always so pleased with it. The land belonged to him and that was all that mattered.
He preferred the Pridelands as a wasteland than the thriving land when Mufasa ruled.
After a while, he was brought out of his reverie by a sound in the sky. He looked up to see birds soaring over the blue expanse again. It was a sight that had never happened in months.
When the leaves fell and water dried up, it was the birds that left the Pridelands the quickest.
"Hmmm...." he hummed while narrowing his eyes. The birds were all big and similar-looking, meaning the same species. It was not like before when different birds roamed the sky,
"Vultures?" he asked.
Even among the birds, the vultures left first. All the vultures in the kingdom left before the drought even happened because hyenas were scavengers and ate everything, leaving nothing for the scavengers of the sky.
It was a weird sight but Scar took it as a good sign.
If vultures were coming back, that must mean the herds might be returning too. They feed on flesh so they wouldn't have returned to a complete wasteland.
Scar released a sigh and lay his head to sleep. Content and hopeful of the future.
The number of vultures only increased in the sky.
Scar was right, they signified a return, but not the return of the herd.
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[IMAGE]
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Triple update!! Yesterday's double chapter and today's chapters.
It seems patreon is blocked in my region. I need vpn to access it.