The Pirate King (Parody Of The Lion King)

The Stampede/ Avery's death

The next morning, Rawhiscar takes Ben out to a large canyon near Corsair's Channel. "Now you wait here. Your father has a marvelous surprise for you." He says to the boy, who is curious about it. "Well, what is it?" Ben asks. "If I told you, it wouldn't be a surprise, now would it?" Rawhiscar says. "If you tell me, I'll still act surprised." Ben mischievously says. "Oh ho ho! You are such a naughty boy." The sneaky pirate laughs.

But Ben is still stubborn about knowing what it is, "Come on, Cousin Rawhiscar, please?" "Nuh ah ah." Rawhiscar says waving his hook in a no gesture, "This is just for you and your daddy. You know, a sort of... father-son... thing." Through Ben's expression, he resents Rawhiscar's dismissive attitude, but soon shrugs it off.

Then Rawhiscar turns to leave saying, "Well! I'd better go get him." "I'll go with you" the kid says as he tries to follow. "No!" Rawhiscar loudly snapped at him, but then he regains his composure and says, "Uh, I mean, No. Just stay by this rock. You wouldn't want to end up in another mess like you did with the draconians..."

Ben gets shocked hearing it, "You know about that?" "Ben, everybody knows about that." He lies, which makes the kid feel meek and embarrassed. "Really?" "Oh, yes." Rawhiscar says, "Lucky Daddy was was there to save you eh?" He was clearly enjoying himself, and then puts a arm around Ben's shoulder and points with his hook at the kids chest. "And just between us, you might want to work on your swordplay of yours. Hmm?" "Can't you teach me?" "Nope, but I can provide you a sword." Rawhiscar then gives Ben a small practice sword, and pulls away from his shoulder. "Oh, okay." Then the older pirate starts to move off, and Ben stops him, with another question, "Hey, Cousin Rawhiscar, will I like the surprise?" Rawhiscar turns back over his shoulder, "Ben, it's to DIE for." And then he continues to leave.

Now not far from the canyon is a whole herd of wild elk, grazing on grass, just near the entrance. And Cetha, Pyndos and Ignatius are waiting off the edge of the herd, hidden under a rock arch.

Ignatius' stomach noticeably growls and Cetha tells him to be quiet. "I can't help it. I'm so hungry..." He is about to take off at the elk, "I gotta have an elk!" Cetha and Pyndos hold him back "Stay put." Pyndos reminds. "Well... can't I just pick off one of the little sick ones?" Ignatius asks hungrily, but Cetha answers, "No! First we wait for the signal from Rawhiscar." They then see Rawhiscar flashing his sword with the sunlight, and the draconians see it. "Now there's the signal..." Cetha says and with an evil yet almost humorous face, "let's go." "Finally!" Ignatius says to himself as he follows Cetha and Pyndos towards the unsuspecting elk herd.

Ben is still in the canyon practicing sword swings. "Én garde, you ruffian!" He says, pretending he's fighting someone. Then when he bangs his practice sword at the rock he was told to stay by, which makes a loud TING! which echoes throughout the canyon. The echo is soon eclipsed, however, by a low rumble. Ben looks down and sees pebbles jumping.

(Play "The Stampede" while reading the following part)

He then turns to see the herd of elk coming over the lip of the canyon. Drama increases as Ben pulls a terrified face, drops his sword and takes off and away while in front of the herd. The elk destroyed the sword with their fast hooves.

What Ben doesn't know is that the herd was driven to run away by the draconians who was clawing at their behinds. They stop when the whole herd is now running in the canyon after Ben.

Avery however is taking a stroll with Gandry and Milo to visit Corsairs Channel, since they haven't been there in a while. Gandry takes notice of the event via dust coming up the canyon. "Oh look, Captain; the elk herd is on the move." Avery looks at the dust suspiciously, "Odd.." But before he can say another word, Rawhiscar runs up to them and appears to be out of breath. "Avery. Quick. Stampede. In the gorge. Ben's down there!" "Ben?" Was all that Avery reacted with, but Milo quickly says, "Oh no! We gotta save him!"

Ben, of course, is still running. And as he was about to run out of breath, he spotted a dead tree and quickly ran up to it and climbs until he reaches the point that he has to hold onto.

Gandry runs ahead of Avery, Milo and Rawhiscar (who are all rushing towards the canyon), as Gandry gets there, he knew there are NO vines to swing on, so he stops at the lower ledges of the gorge and looks around the canyon until he spots Ben.

"Gandry! Help me!" Ben calls out as he sees the monkey while clinging precariously to the tree. "Your father is on the way! Hold on!" Gandry calls back. Ben starts to lose his grip "Hurry!"

As if on cue, Avery, Milo and Rawhiscar now arrived at the ledge where Gandry is on, whom points to where Ben is, "There! There! On that tree!" "Hold on, son!" Avery calls out. But just then, an elk rams the tree Ben's on, nearly breaking it, causing the poor kid to scream.

Avery quickly runs out into the herd, joining the stampede, while ducking the elk. Milo attempts to do the same, but as he almost enters the stampede, he hesitates and holds on to the lowest ledge that's close to the herd, "Woah!"

Gandry and Rawhiscar watch this, but the monkey is starting to panic. "Oh Rawhiscar, this is awful. What will we do? What will we do? Hah... I'll call out the rest of the crew, that's what I'll do, I'll call out the-- oomph!" Rawhiscar backhands Gandry into a rock wall, knocking him out.

Avery runs with the herd till slightly past the tree. He whips around the front of the elk and runs into the herd towards Ben's tree. He gets rammed shoulder first once, throwing him to the ground and knocking his hat off as well. An elk then hits Ben's tree, breaking it and throwing Ben into the air. Avery gets up in time to catch him in the air with his arms (and with the agility to walk on an elk during that leap), and landed on another elk, steering it to where Milo is at the ledge.

Rawhiscar follows Avery's process from the force's lip, and his shadow cast mysteriously from the bottom of the gully. But then, the elk they were steering, gets hit by another elk, which throws both Avery and Ben off. Ben got separated for a while, dodging a few oncoming elk, then Avery quickly snatches him and succeeds in bringing him to the ledge where Milo is waiting. He jumps up the ledge with his son holding on to his back and Milo picks Ben up off him. "Milo! Take Ben out of her-" but Avery immediately got struck by an elk and carried off into the stampede before he could finish his sentence or get Milo's help.

"DAD!" Ben cries out, while Milo cries out, "AVERY!" And they both watch in horror as they cannot find him in the swirling mass of elk below them. At the last second, Avery leaps out of the herd and starts to climb with difficulty up the sheer rock slope. Ben turns and start to climb up to the top of the gorge. While Milo still stands there, focusing on Avery.

Out of Ben's sight, and in Milo's, Avery reaches a point right below a ledge where he can't climb due to the steelhead. His hands are holding on to the end of the ledge and his feet can't find any rock to stand on. Above him on that ledge is Rawhiscar himself.

"Rawhiscar!" Avery hastily calls out as he starts slipping, yet barely hangs on. "Cousin! Help me!" Rawhiscar looks disdainfully down at him, and then suddenly stomps his foot on Avery's hand, causing him to wince in pain. Avery's expression slowly changes to horror as he realizes Rawhiscar's intent. Then the murderous pirate slowly and wickedly says, "Long live the king."

Then he kicks his cousin in the face. Avery free falls, back first into the raging stampede below, screaming. Milo watches in horror as he witnessed what had happened, while Ben watches his father hit the ground, although there is no sound effect of the hit and no view of it either. Avery and Ben's screams do however, mingle. "Noooooooooo!" Was all Ben yelled.

(The song finishes as the stampede of elk is over)

I know it's kind of dark and sad. But it gets more sadder in the next chapter when Ben and Milo find Avery's body.