The group had all started to calm down after Simba's roar, Tau ever so lightened up as he moves over by Jasiri's side who was still a bit shaken up by what was about to happen. Along with Tau, Jasiri, Kiara, Tiifu, and Zuri are Bunga and his two friends Fuli and Ono.
Arriving along beside Simba are his wife Nala along with Rani and her pride. "What happened Dad?" Kiara asked slowly coming towards him, as Tiifu and Zuri slouch back still frightened by that roar.
Nala was the one who came forward to explain, "Your father and I were worried when Zazu informed us of a hyena at Pride Rock." She said as she then turned her attention over to the two Outlanders, "And it seems that it was just him overreacting."
Tau kept a focus on the group, curiously at what Kiara mentioned of Simba being her father, that it means she is his sister. "Zazu? You mean that hornbill is still alive?" Tau said which made the others curious at.
"You know Zazu?" Kiara questioned as she looked at the lion.
Nala and Simba questioning if by chance it was a memory. Tau rolling his eyes as he gave a chuckle, "Not personally, just some stuff I heard from the others." A sly smirk as he whispered under his breath a joke he remembered, 'The Birdy Boiler.'
Simba paused a moment before letting a cough to return his attention to at hand. "What brought you here anyways?" he asked.
Tau had glanced over at Jasiri for a moment, the idea of telling the whole truth of why he was here was probably not a good thing to do, "A friend of ours was poisoned, and the only place we can get a cure in time was here in the Prideland."
Nala took the next question as she looks over at the hyena, "What is your relationship with Tau?" this got Simba as well curious but not so much for Bunga and Kiara's group as they had a run in with her.
The two gave each other a smirk, almost as if daring the other to say; Tau was the one who spoke, "We're a couple." Everyone in the cave fell shocked by this, Simba was more so.
"A lion and a hyena can't be together!" he protested to the lion with an infuriated tone.
Tau gave a shrug of the eyes as he ignored Simba's claim, "Maybe that's how it's done in the Pridelands- but I am an Outlander!" he retorted back. "And last I've checked; we do what we want in the Outlands without your tradition and rules!" further stating.
Simba grew more so infuriated by this, setting his paw down as he said with more a sterner voice, "You're in the Pridelands now, and here, I make the rules!"
Tau was starting to get infuriated, "Who was it that helped get you the ashes to cure you? I could have just let the scorpion's poison finished you off!" he said in an enraged. This brought a shock to the others, especially worrying Jasiri with that. "This is why I hate Pridelanders, they're full of their own ego that they can't accept changes!"
Rani was disgusted at what she was hearing, was this the one that Nala had told her about, their son? He spoke to his father as if he would let him die, "That's enough!" she jumped in surprising the golden lion.
"Who are you?" Tau asked.
"The name's Rani, leader of the Night Pride and Queen of the Tree of Life!" she introduced herself to him.
Tau gave an annoyance shrug, "Great, another high and mighty royal who looks down on others." He taunts her title. "Well, 'your majesty'! First earn my respect before I give even half a mind to care what you have to say." He further insults.
Jasiri placed a paw over Tau's head and lowered it gently down to the ground, "Jasiri?!" he asked, the others questioned what she was doing.
"You're starting to lose your temper." She said giving him a moment to calm himself, "Feel better?" she waited for a respond and got a nod. Removing her paw to allow him to regain his composure.
He looked over at her with a slight smile, "Thanks Jasiri." He said giving her a moment embrace before relieving a calming breath. "We'll just finish up our thing here and get back to the Outlands, then you'll never have to deal with us again." He mentioned over to the king.
The chance the two had seek for moment ago could disappear, Nala interrupting this with a concern, "There's actually something we were hoping to get your help on." Tau and Jasiri questionably looked to one another at this. "A couple of buffaloes were killed just recently."
The mentioning of buffaloes brought a shock to Tau for just a moment, something that seemed to have been missed by everyone but Rani as she kept her focus on this lion. She had her doubt about him, his comments of apparent disgust for Pridelander, the death of his father, and just his plain attitude was something unpleasant.
She was possibly thinking that Tau might know something of this as they had heard that it was an Outlander that killed them, and the chance of him being here during the same time that they were dealing with someone from the same place as him. It seemed almost a little too coincidental.
"I don't see how what happens in the Pridelands have anything to do with me, I only care about Outlander matters." Tau mentioned.
Jasiri looked ready to tell Tau something before Simba came chiming in, "This is an Outlander matter. Since it was an Outlander that killed them."
This brought a moment of surprise to the groups around, "An Outlander killed them? You sure?" Tau asked Simba rather shocked.
Both Simba and Nala agreed to this, "They said that they came from the Outlands, and that it was someone they hadn't seen before." Nala answered.
Tau gave a defeating sigh, if an Outlander were behind an attack on the Pridelands, he would need to take care of it before 'you know who' finds out about another failure from him. "Alright, do you at least have any clues?" he asked.
They explained what they had found, the outlander didn't kill for food, but rather left that alone and gone for the horns and eyes instead, having a cruel and disturbing method of killing; this news brought a slight fear to the others around, and that there was no scent to track.
These left Tau questioning for a moment, anyone in the Outlands would not leave them unless they were chased away. But if they had the time to retrieve the horns and eyes, then that wasn't the case. There was also the cruel method of killing, something he couldn't think of anyone doing except for...
His eyes widen in shock, 'No, not her!' he pleaded from any depth of his memories for anyone else. Jasiri noticing the fear, "What did you figure out?" she asked.
Tau looked confused as he rubs the top of his head, "It can't be possible, why would she be here in the Pridelands?!" The others questioned who he could have thought of, as Jasiri looked at him worryingly to who he thought of.
"Tau?" she asked nervously.
"It makes no sense, why?" he continued to rant as he starts going in circle, "Why? Why?" he continued to repeat as if it was the only thing keeping him sane. It wasn't until Jasiri blocked his path that she was able to gain his undivided attention.
"Who are you talking about?" she asked worryingly at how he was acting.
One word escaped Tau's mouth that brought a cold chill to the five of them there. The name that weighed heavily, "Kama."
Author Note:
Hey Everyone, this chapter took a bit of work and I will admit that it wasn't one of my best works. Me and my Editor DeadlyCodes had had multiple conflicted ideas on how to improve this story and decided to go with the "safer" choice which also lacked more things around to add.
I will be sure to explain what I mean... But we were struggling to figure out and when nothing could come to term, this was the choice we went with and that is what I hated. But I'll just have to play the next chapter with more detail and personality as it will also be the biggest chapter I would have ever posted once it is ready. Why is it the biggest planned? It is planned to take 6 chapters worth and shove them all into 1. (I won't spoil what it will all be about because of ... 'him'.)
Because it will take a lot of work to get it written up and edited, I will try to get it out by Friday next week (10th) so I will see you all sometime soon as we are getting close to the finishing of Tau Returns to Pride Rock Arc.
We had multiple different routes planned and each one wound up struggling to agreed upon. One of which was adding Rafiki in the cave, but we had a hard time working him into the conversation.
He was also planned for if he would had made a mess with the cure that he would be working on or if he had cotton stuffed in his ears to help save him from the roar.
We also struggle to figure out which of the two, Tau (Kion) or Rani would be the one to initiate the fight. We will be going with more conflict between the two in the next chapter, but this would have to do.
Trying to also figure out how far to make it known of the two's relationship (Tau x Jasiri) and even questioned if Jasiri would scrape herself and Tau would lick her wound making her feel embarrassed. But because of the nature of emergency, we decided to drop it to this level and plan to present more lovey dovey moments in next chapter.
Questioning of whether to do a 2nd run of introduction for Rani's group with both Tau and Bunga's group.
If we would explain how Tau and Jasiri met up with Bunga, Fuli, and Ono in this reunion (Also with Kiara and her two friends) but decided to plan next chapter.
And how Simba would force Tau into helping, whether it would be to get the cure, using this situation of mentioning it being the Outlander's matter as well, or offering him a reward for his help. But because Tau would have a reason to get the cure without helping and we also struggle to figure what kind of reward Tau would want to agree to such matter.
There was a lot of problems we had crossed, and when we took 1 route, another felt like it clashed, and we tried replacing that missing piece with a new one only for the other to not work. It was a mess in of itself that we couldn't agree.
So, we got this more blander action. Sorry. We are also getting close to the reveal of Kama's reason for her actions as I can't wait, and we actually have something straight and more interesting for that. (That chapter is after this next one.)