Chronicles of the Pride Lands Part 17

"If everyone is against you, why do you stay here? I'd follow you anywherea"you know that. We could start over, just the two of us."

"We'd be no safer anywhere else. The true seer had spoken, and I believe her." He nuzzled her. "Elanna, you must live forever. You're all I have left. Swear you'll never leave me."

She nuzzled him again, rubbing his tense body with her paw. "You're all I have. I gave up everything for you. I can't bear your child. You won't even let me hunt anymore, not that the others can stand me. Taka, leave your doubts at the mouth of this cave. Don't you know I would never leave you?"

"I know." He kissed her. "I have to trust you. If you betrayed me, I'd kill myself. You're the only reason I cling to this miserable existence."

"Don't say that, Taka. You know how it tortures me. I wish everyone could see you the way I do." She touched him with her tongue. "Stop this foolish cub talk and go back to sleep. I'll put my arm around you and keep it there all night long. At the first sign of trouble, I'll wake you."

"Promise?"

"I promise."

Taka laid his head down and she placed her arm protectively around him, stroking his mane. In a few moments, his calm, slow breaths showed that he was peacefully asleep.

Two hyena eyes s.h.i.+ned softly in the darkness as silent feet padded out of the cave.

Skulk headed to a special clan meeting about Scar. Shenzi greeted him affectionately and called for silence. "Our ears have returned. What have they heard?"

"It is no folly that my mother named me Skulk. I was silent, I was unseen and I heard it all." Pleased with the expectant hush, he continued. "It seems our King has dreams, nasty dreams about being torn apart by hyenas. Not once or twice, but night after night, and always the same. Now I ask you, is a dream dangerous?"

They looked back at him not knowing what to say. "It IS dangerous, " Skulk thundered. "Especially when he thinks it is a vision, a sign! "

"He should have been an actor, " Banzai whispered. Shenzi hushed him.

"I tell you Scar cannot be trusted. He will turn on us the first time he feels threatened."

"What are we going to do about it?" Banzai asked.

"We could strike when the advantage is with us."

"Even if we could gang up on him and win, if we attacked him the lionesses might side with him just to get rid of us."

"Fair enough, Banzai. But do you think I'm a hot-headed fool?" His frown discouraged Banzai from answering. "He is a hollow sh.e.l.l, a dried husk. His very life hangs in the balance."

"Your speeches are murder, " a heckler called out.

"Say that to my face, and I will show you a murder! "

There was deadly silence. Skulk was a well-sculpted fighting machine.

"As I was saying, I heard with my own ears Scar telling Elanna if he lost her he would kill himself."

The remark was followed by some gasps of surprise. "With him gone, we could figure out something more creative. Maybe the lionesses would be in a position to bargain with us. We know of a male cub, an adolescent, that would be much more likely to need and want our help. He would be the next king. He would owe us his very soul, but unlike Taka, he's a level-headed chap that knows which end of the carca.s.s to chew."

Bree said, "If we hurt Elanna, he'd try to get revenge on us, THEN kill himself. We can't rely on that."

"No, but if it looked like an accident, or like she'd left him for another lion, it just might work."

"An accident?" Shenzi said. "He won't let her hardly breathe, much less get involved in an accident."

"Let me see to that, " Skulk said "But isn't this treason?" Bree asked.

SKULK: His mind was once a trap, but now it's growing rusty,

He's running from his shadow in the night.

I hate to say it friend, but Taka's *round the bend,

In short, our King is not quite right.

BANZAI: I think I see your point. His brain is so disjointed,

And though sometimes he's very meek and pert,

He weighs five hundred pounds, and brethren it sounds

Like he could cause a world of hurt!

CHORUS: He's twitterpated, pixilated, nutty as a fruitcake,

A badly-addled, muddled, batty cuss!

A truly royal pain, a major hulking heartbreak,

In short, he's not a thing like us!

BREE: What's a fruitcake?

SKULK: It's all mixed up, like Scar.

BREE: This is treason!

SKULK: You bet your whiskers! And remember you heard it here first!

BANZAI: He promised us a feast, instead he gives us famine,

And now on top of that he's gone berserk!

Now even when he sleeps, he still gives me the creeps,

I think it's time we can the jerk!

SHENZI: We've been a patient lot, so downright sentimental,

And overlooked his lapse of sanity.

Enough is now enough, the King is playing rough,

It's time to cast your lot with me!

CHORUS: He's twitterpated, pixilated, nutty as a fruitcake,