Nakala

Chapter 52

"...I protect the hyenas that live here. All of them," Nakala explained to the listening honey badger. "And of course that makes me an enemy of the Pride Lands." The lion finished telling Bunga all that happened since the two of them had seen each other. But Bunga for some reason the word 'enemy' started to circulate and repeat in his mind. There was something very important about that particular word. In an instant it hit him and Bunga began to panic, rising to his paws and pacing. How could he forget something so important? He had to act quickly before it was too late.

"What's his problem now?" Janja asked, watching the badger dart back and forth.

"Nakala! I need your help! I forgot the reason why I came running here. I mean it was to see you but—no! I mean the other reason I came here. The more important reason!"

Janja stamped a paw and gave bark. Bunga stopped his rambling and looked at the leader of the clan. "Will you just say it already?!"

Bunga took a deep breath, thought exactly what he wanted to say. "Okay... I came to the Outlands to find you. But turns out Kiara followed me here..." Nakala's eyes widened, bringing all his focus on the honey badger's words now. "We saw you going in to some cave and waited for you to come back out. And when you did we followed you and the other two. But once you left Kiara went off to talk to them. And they knocked her out....They took her away!"

"Bunga, why didn't you say that in the first place?!" the lion began to pace as well. Janja and Chungu both stood behind, looking in confusion about the pair in front of them panicking.

"Wait, wait. What exactly is going on?" Janja demanded.

"Kiara. She's my sister," Nakala answered.

"She followed me out here and got taken away both some other lioness and lion that stay across the Outlands," Bunga finished. "I'm sure they still have her back at the cave you went to."

"Wait, a minute. I never saw a lioness come into our cave," Chungu gave a confused look.

"No, I'm talking about the cave out there," the honey badger pointed out in the distance. "I saw Nakala go in and out of there last night. It's the same cave the lion and lioness that took Kiara came from." While they were talking about his late night actions, the lion felt a chill run through him.

"Nakala, what is he talking about?" Janja asked, taking steps closer to the lion.

The guilty lion gulped, seeing the stern look in the hyena's eyes. He knew that he would be hearing more about this later on. "I was kind of visited by a lion and lioness yesterday. They wanted to lead me to a place and I figured it wouldn't be too dangerous to follow them. They led me to the cave where they lived and that's where I met Zira." Janja and Chungu gave a collective gasp.

"Not Zira! She's bad news..." Chungu shuddered.

"The furbrain's right. There's not too many you can trust in the Outlands and Zira is the worst of them all!" Janja snarled. "I may not know much about her but I heard how she got banished in the first place." Nakala sighed, looking at the dirt surrounding his paws. Now he knew he couldn't trust Zira at all. Maybe he should have known that earlier. Maybe he could have stopped the situation they were in before it could even start. The lion wasn't exactly sure.

But he was sure of something. He turned to the others around him. "We have to go and save Kiara." Bunga seemed more than eager to do so. But Janja and Chungu didn't look too sure.

"Why do we have to risk our necks for some Pridelander?" Janja grumbled, looking up the now stern lion.

"That Pridelander is my sister and I'm not just gonna leave her there." Having made his point the lion stamped his paw in the dirt.

"Alright, alright. We'll help you out. But I'm telling you this is a bad idea," the hyena insisted.

The lion couldn't help but smile at the hyenas sour mood. "We'll need all the help we can get. Chungu, can you get Amana and Cheezi?"

Janja tilted his head in confusion. "What do you need all of them for?"

"Janja, we pretty much have to storm her cave if we're gonna get Kiara back. They won't be expecting us at all. We'll swoop in, taking them off guard and get her back before they can react. It'll be easy. But we'll need more than just the four of us."

Bunga's ears twitched. He clearly heard Nakala mention four of them. But it was him and 2 hyenas. "By four do you mean—"

"Yep. You're coming along, too."

Janja made a noise of clear disagreement. "You're really just gonna let this Pride Lands honey badger tag along? What if he gets in the way or could even be leading us into some kind of trap?"

Nakala considered his mate's words. Looking from Janja to Bunga he came to his own conclusion. "I've known Bunga for a long time before I joined the Outlands. And he hasn't changed at all. That means that he would never try to trick me like this, especially involving Kiara into it. He's my best friend and he's gonna join us."

Bunga felt his chest swelling, hearing the lion's words about him. Janja gave another sigh but gave in. Chungu simply nodded before rushing into the caverns to find Amana and Cheezi.