FSE

Furry search engine

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_"Scar, there is no more food here. The herds have moved on." The former matriarch of the pride bravely said in a stony voice to the black maned king of Pride Rock.

"No, you and your hunters just aren't trying hard enough!" Scar answered furiously. Behind him the hyenas cackled. They were always cackling. Nala shrank behind her mother Sarafina who was also present for moral support of Sarabi as well as silent witness to the king's increasing madness. Nala hated when Scar got like this, but there was no point in denying the truth any longer. The Pridelands were dead.

"If we stay here, we will all die." said Sarabi, the notes falling like rocks on the floor.

"Then we will all die together! I am the king of the Pridelands, you have to do what I say!" And with that he dealt Sarabi a mighty blow to the face with a sheathed paw. "Get out of my sight all of you!" As Nala was leaving, she could hear Scar none too quietly curse behind them, "Lionesses..."

Nala seemed to dissolve through the floor and the next thing she knew, she was with her mother, who was tenderly licking Sarabi's face; one of her friend's eyes was swelling shut. "Nala, you must leave the Pridelands. It's our only hope."

"Mother... I, I can't."

"You must find help, even if it's just a rogue lion, or an elephant's carcass." Sarafina said to her daughter. Mmm... Elephant, she hadn't had that since she was a cub. "The king is mad."

But what could she do against such madness? She had just entered adulthood herself in the current season. And with the current state of affairs, she was more familiar with raiding disgusting termite nests than nobly stalking and taking down large prey. She was half the lioness her mother was. "Please mother. Why must I go?"

"Everyone else is too weak with hunger, Nala. I've tried to spare you the worst of it and you are the youngest. You have the best chance of survival out there."

"I... I... I w-"

"You won't because you are weak. You are all weak." A voice said following with manic laughter. It was Scar who flowed into the room like a terrible breeze, his mane was waving about him crooked like a many tentacled fiend. Without further notice, he growled fiercely and struck down Nala's mother and put his teeth to her throat. Then he looked up at Nala, a demon with red stained teeth. "Nala..." he said sweetly. "What do you think is happening now that you're gone? I explicitly forbade any lioness to leave. I guess I'll have to take it out on your darling mother instead..."

"No!" Nala roared, but found she had no voice. This wasn't right. This wasn't how it happened. She was falling, falling into a deep black well. All around her was Scar's awful laughing. Her feet touched the bottom..._

Nala's paws brushed against the bottom of the shore. At her fore, her chest and front paws were resting on something solid. That's right, the piece of driftwood she'd latched herself onto. She could feel her claws dug into the wood, such that they were stuck even. The wood was firmly entrenched in the soft soil at the shore of the river. Around her, she could even feel the water retreating, slowly but inexorably. It was no longer raining. Nala coughed weakly but forbade herself falling asleep again. Her dreams were all too frightening of late.

Groaning with the effort, Nala lifted herself up, and then promptly fell onto her side in knee deep water. The soft silt billowed around her like a cloud in the otherwise clear water. The weary lioness sank her paws into the soil and tried again, more slowly this time. Pausing every few moments to clear her spinning head, she eventually got to her feet. Slowly, cautiously, she bent her head to lap at the water.

Thirst sated, she looked up to observe her surroundings. To her shock, but not incredible surprise, she recognized none of the landmarks surrounding her. Though that was hardly surprising, with the river having spilled its banks, half the land it seemed was submerged. The water was retreating, and in the meantime, there would be lush life for this area of the land. Nala knew that it was extremely fortunate that she survived such catastrophic flooding.

"Thank you, Ancestors..." She prayed briefly. She walked further up the bank and shook as many drops from her fur as she could, pausing at the end to regain her balance. She was still quite unsteady, and also as she put her full weight on her paws out of the water, she realized she had a great pain in her left haunch. Inspecting the wound, she saw that she was bruised badly, perhaps having slammed into something while floating in the river. Luckily, the leg took her weight however, and nothing seemed broken.

Spying a nearby tree, Nala decided to climb it and get a better view of the surrounding area, which was largely blocked by shrubbery, water and low mound of silt and mud. She moved gingerly, careful for her wounded leg, but Nala was young and sprightly and she could manage to get herself at least a few feet into the air.

"Oh my..." Nala muttered upon seeing the view. The flood was far more extensive than she had initially thought. What she had taken for a bank was in fact, little more than a sand bar amidst the watery landscape above which only trees and rocky hills emerged. Beneath the water, green stuff was already taking root and thriving and frogs sang every where. The turtles were happily coasting by in droves while fish explored areas usually closed to them. Long legged birds too seemed to be enjoying this and were busy spearing fish and bugs by the hundreds.

While surely the land would benefit greatly from the gift of water, Nala thought that it would probably take days if not weeks for all this water to sink below the ground. She couldn't spend all that time in a tree, she was all but starving already.

To the north, Nala spied a train of baboons wading through waist deep water, obviously displace and uncomfortable with having to wade, their silly hands raised far over their heads. Perhaps they knew the way to some higher ground? Nala decided to follow them, besides it might be a good chance to get a decent meal, even if they didn't cooperate.

Though tempted to jump from the tree and land in the water, Nala was cautious and climbed down before wading out herself. Used to dryer conditions, the water did feel clingy and uncomfortable on her fur, but Nala pressed on, trying to catch up with the migrating baboons.

They saw her naturally. The alpha of the group stared her down for a good few seconds, analyzing her intent. Nala couldn't hide her intent to prey, and he called the alarm. The monkeys began to book it and while the water slowed them considerably, Nala herself was slowed as well.

She almost got one, when a pregnant female stumbled into a patch of deeper water and was forced to swim, but she and the rest of her mates managed to reach the safety of some nearby trees in time. Foiled, Nala asked the simians for directions, but they only hooted down at her and pelted her with rotten fruit. The lioness waded away, miserable, but at least not stinking as she washed the repellant fruit off in the omnipresent water.

Deciding she had nothing better to go on, she began to trek off in the direction the baboons had been heading. After two hours, Nala was tired and her paws were aching for having been submerged for so long. She pulled herself up onto another muddy stretch of damp soil just barely over the level of the water and took a nap in the midday sun.

She was awakened by growls from her stomach and fresh hunger pangs. Not for the first time, she wondered how she was ever going to complete her quest and if she would simply die out in the unfamiliar wilds, her mother and friends never knowing her true fate; that is, until they too succumbed to the desolation that was now the Pridelands. Yawning massively, Nala stretched. Her top side was dry, but where she lay on the ground was still damp. This flooding was damn inconvenient. What she would have given for a nice dry cave just now...

Getting up this time, however Nala was met with a surprise. Why there was another lioness wading through the water not more than half a mile away! Nala could clearly make out her yellow coloration as well as the feline motions of her body and lack of mane. It looked as though she was dragging something. A fresh kill perhaps.

The direction was at 4 o'clock from her previous heading, but Nala didn't mind backtracking, there didn't look to be anything else besides more water in the direction the baboons had been headed. Nala mustered all the speed she could to intercept the lion.

Although it was sometimes dangerous to meet new lions, Nala knew that she had several things in her favor. For one, this lioness was alone and probably outside her immediate home territory since she was bringing her prey beast somewhere. Also, Nala was alone and also female. Lone females were usually tolerated more than ambitious lone males. It could have been better if this lion were male, as he'd be the least hostile to a new female, but then Nala would have also had to worry about notions of starting a new pride with her; which were certainly unwelcome!

The other lioness detected Nala less than a quarter mile out. Nala knew because she turned her head. But the stranger didn't alter her course. Another good sign. Carefully, Nala advanced on the strange lion, wondering what lay in store for them both