Scar of the Outlands Ch. 4

Chapter 4
Chapter 4: Broken chains.

I felt like I was walking on air.

I crawled back to my den and fell asleep. Surprisingly, I went to sleep pretty quickly, which was strange considering what I had just done before hand. I murdered someone, but I actually felt pretty good about what I had done. The dream I had was the same contorting presence, though this time accompanied by a dark shadowy presence moving in the darkness, somehow darker than pitch black itself.

About a day later, and Asha had learned about how "someone in the clan" had reclaimed the territory Janja had taken from us. Asha had assembled the whole clan as she stood on a perch above us, "It has come to my attention that someone from this clan has made an attack on two of Janja's other clan mates. One of them was found dead, and the other was found trapped inside of a cave."

Everyone was frantically searching around to try and find the culprit. Asha wasn't done talking however.

"I believe however, that I know who did this. There is only one strong enough to push a boulder of immense size, and one who could have organized this."

I will admit, Asha wasnt completely stupid, I knew she would be able to put two and two together.

"Would Nabii and Mkuba please step forward. I would also like for you all to come with me."

We then had begun to follow Asha to where the scene of the crime was. Mkuba looked worried, he then leaned in and said "What did you do!? You said you were just gonna run them off!"

"Relax Mkuba, I have this under control"

Once we had walked all the way to where the murder had gone down, I noticed exactly what I was hoping for. Obviously Janja's clan was there, the boulder had been moved and Jafari was crying in the corner as a couple others had attempted to comfort him. Janja himself had stood over the body of Giza, with a wide eyed blank expression on his face. The whole scene looked grey and bleak, with the walls casting the phrase "tomb" into the mind. Asha had turned around and smacked me in the face. I could tell she was angry, "What the heck were you thinking? Are you out of your mind?!"

Mkuba began to freak out, saying "I didn't know what she was gonna do, I"

I interrupted him though, "Let him go, I tricked him into helping me, it's not his fault."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes mother, I'm telling the truth, don't get angry at him."

"You're off the hook Mkuba."

Mkuba had turned around and walked back to the rest of the clan. The reason why I took the blame is because I wanted to salvage a little bit of trust with him. I had a feeling I would be needing him again in my life.

Once Mkuba had returned to the crowd, his head hanging low, Asha had turned back to me and said in a scratchy and angry tone, "You wait right here, I'm not done with you yet."

She then proceeded to turn to Janja just as he had looked up and started walking over. "Janja! I am so sorry about what happened, is their anything you we could do to-"

She was quickly cut off by him though.

"What happened?" Janja said.

"Well... you see... my daughter here has been very rebellious lately and-"

"WHAT HAPPENED?"

"My daughter Nabii killed Giza" She said with her ears drooping down. Janja's expression changed to that of pure anger. He squinted his eyes, and walked right past her, and straight up to me. I put on a big smile on my face, trying to rival the one he normally had. Once he had come up to me, he instantly said, "Do you see me smiling twerp?"

"Nope, but I certainly am!" I responded.

"I don't see why you would be happy in this moment girl." he said in a scratchy tone.

"And wouldn't I be?"

"Because you just made the most vicious hyena in the Outlands very, very, angry." He said in a raspy tone.

So I leaned in, and told him, "And what exactly are you going to do?"

He pulled himself back for a moment, so I continued, "Let's see here, you have many fun options to choose from! My favorite one being you could try to attack us, and be completely outnumbered ten to one."

I turned to my fellow clan mates and whistled for them to come over, and they caught on to what I was doing pretty quickly. Dozens of hyenas snarling and showing their teeth began to crowd around us. Rows and rows of angry hyenas climbing up to higher ground, climbing up on perches and rock levees above us, in the background behind us. Our clan actually did outnumber his, once Shenzi had disappeared and Janja took the charge, a bunch of hyenas in that clan had left to other clans, some even came to ours.

Once the majority of the clan had all built up around me, Janja had begun to slowly back away a little bit. "Uh... guys..." He said to his crew, who were now looking up at the angry clan.

I continued, and with a smug look on my face, and a happy overly cheerful tone, i said.

"So Janja, what is it going to be! You gonna get mad at me, are you gonna "declare war" on me, like you do with literally everyone else Janja?"

His ears drooped down as he looked around at all of the snarling and drooling animals ready to tear into him at my command. "You know Janja, we've really been wanting to have a chat with you about your actions against us, but sadly we've never gotten too until now. You know we don't really appreciate how you've been treating us. Do you have anything to say for yourself?"

His response was only "Uh..."

How pathetic.

"Uh huh, that pretty much sums it up doesn't it? I'm gonna be honest Janja... you're a looser."

I began to walk around him while saying this.

"You're not a big bad villain. You don't scare anyone at all. People think you're a joke Janja, and that's all you will ever be. I'll tell you what, since I'm so nice, I'm going to pity you, and let you go for now. Just remember this, and keep this stored in that think skull of yours. If you ever come to our territory again, I will go out of my way to make sure that you are crying for the rest of your life. Get lost."

He then quickly turned around and yelled, "Let's get out of here boys, I can tell when I'm not wanted." and ran off with his goons. He ran like a coward. The rest of the clan had then began to split back up and go back to the horns, Asha and Zane were shocked at what I had just done. "You're welcome". I told them as I past by.

Poor Janja, he's only making enemies out of everybody.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

The conflict with my parents only grew. It sprung into a competition to win following, sort of a civil war, but without the fighting. I was trying to win over clan mates to my side, pulling every dirty trick in the book. I framed Asha for child neglect, I told the clan that if I were in charge I would run Janja out of town, and had the dead body and claimed territory as proof of it, there was also a good shortage of food and resources in the Outlands, and Asha wasn't doing much about it. I had a plethora of ideas though to solve the problem on the other paw.

I started an entire campaign against her, and I called her our on everything that I could. We started to even call each other "comrades". I wanted to steal everything that my mother worked for, because she doesn't deserve it. That day with Janja only helped me to realize something, the Outlands is in terrible need of fixing. It's either ruled by criminals or idiots, sometimes those leaders are both. We need someone to step up, take the charge, and just say "No", and I knew just how to fix it.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

One cloudy day, I came up with an idea. I went to Mshale, and asked him for help.

"What? Are you insane, we'll get in so much trouble!"

"Since when do you care about getting in trouble? Weren't you the one who let me go off on my own and do what I want against my parents wishes and covered for me? Weren't you the one who stole from Janja's clan when we needed more food? Was it not you who challenged Mzingo's entire Parliament to a flying competition and won by building a giant catapult with your crew?"

"Well when you put it that way, I do sound pretty daring. I miss that giant catapult also, too bad Asha made us take it down." He responded.

"Yes exactly! Don't you think this will be fun? Standing up to the morons in charge?"

"Nabii, what you're asking me to do is more than just that! You're asking me to do something horrible!"

He was too scared, I had to convince him, and I knew just how to do it.

"Mshale, close your eyes, and Imagine this. Imagine the Outlands, except, it's completely different. It's got food, it's got water, it's got plant life and green all around. Everyone get's along perfectly, everyone is perfect. Their is no chaos, there is no disorder, there is no imperfections. Their is only peace, and only harmony. The best part for you, as that you helped make this. You, me, and a couple others have now gone down in history as the great revolutionists, the ones who fought the hard battle to make it all possible. Everyone remembers your name, Mshale, the brave hyena who did the dirty work when no one else could. Mshale the brave. Mshale our hero, the hyena who helped save us."

His response was, "Not gonna lie Nabii, but that sounds pretty good to me."

"Their you go Mshale! Do you want that, or do you want the Outlands to progressively get worse and animals suffer, or do you want to be their hero?"

"You know what Nabii, I'm in."

"Great, now go get your guys, we've got some work to do."

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

The next day, we confronted my mother.

"Asha, multiple times you have ignored the will of the clan. Refusing to do anything about Janja, and refusing to do anything about the food situation. If you do not relinquish your position as clan leader, we will have to take action!"

She turned around and started laughing.

"You've just stepped into my territory Nabii, I can play this game too." She raised her voice. '''"Nabii, I am afraid to say that if you make any advancements towards me, you will be counted as a threat to this clan, and thus, you will be exiled or worse." ''' We both stood there, rows hyenas behind both of us. The stand off lasted for a while, waiting for the other to make the first move. It was tense, and I loved every moment of it. Eventually, I came to the conclusion to turn away, you'll learn why in a second.

I turned to my hyenas and said "Comrades! Back down, there's not going to be any fighting today, return to your normal daily routines."

They turned around and walked away, so did the ones on Asha's side. She walked up to me and said "Don't play my game daughter."

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

It was all part of the plan though. I had told them we were going to pretend to submit, then in the dead of night, when there guard is down, I would make my strike.

I had Mshale and his goons sneak into Asha and Zanes den at night, to try and assassinate them. I patently waited in my den for him to come to me and bring me the news, or find some angry parents wanting to tear me apart. After what felt like hours of pacing and sweating, thinking about what I would do if this didn't work, he finally came up to my den with his henchmen.

"Well Mshale, how did it go?"

"..."

"Mshale tell me, what happened?"

His mouth was stained red. He finally spoke up.

"You're mother wasn't there... I think she's in a meeting with the brown hyena clan leader... uh... what's her name?"

"Rookus." I told him.

"Right, her. Your father was the only one who was there..."

"Right, and?"

"He died whimpering..."

"Mshale, I know you just did something you didn't like, but I'm proud of you. This is only the beginning.'

"Nabii... he didn't do anything wrong."

I had to ease his mind somehow, and I knew how.

"Yes he did, you're new here, you don't know this clans history. i do. Don't think about it, go get cleaned up and go to sleep, I will see you tomarrow."

He turned around and walked off, along with his company.