Chapter 23. Wait a second

Nala stared at the lion, that looked eerily similar to the former king from her memories, except that the lion in front of her was noticeably bigger. His fur was brown, and his mane was dark brown. His eyes were piercing green.

As for Ayana as she was held down, she could only see Asafa from underneath him. As she looked up, she got a feeling that they had met before.

"AH! IT'S YOU!" Ayana shouted as she realised who this is.

'Did she recognize me this fast?' Asafa started to worry about what he should say to his childhood friends as he let go of Ayana. He backed up and sat down looking at her as she stood up.

Nala stopped growling as Ayana seemed to recognize this big fella.

"It's you isn't it?" Ayana said slightly excited.

"..." Asafa didn't answer, he wasn't sure how he could tell them 'yep, it's me, uncle Asafa. Me and my twin survived, surprise! Oh right, my twin died recently, another surprise?' that reply wouldn't fly.

"It's you, the one I saw on the tree! The one hunting the hyenas?" Ayana realised.

Only then did Asafa realise that she hadn't recognized him truly, only his secret identity ad Hyena Hunter. A royal crown prince during the day, and a hyena Hunter vigilante during the night.

"Cough cough, erm yes..." He didn't know what to say at this moment. How should he tell them that he is their long lost friend?

Nala frowned at this, Ayana seemed to recognise him when she herself hadn't seen this lion before, which was weird because she felt like she also recognised him from somewhere.

One have to remember, these three hasn't met eachother since they were cubs, even then, Nala is one year older then Ayana and Asafa. So she remember those events slightly more clearly.

While in Ayana's head, although she remembers Asafa whom she had a crush on, and Simba the crown prince, she couldn't rember the time they spent together clearly, nor their looks, only hazy shadows were left in her mind, but she early remember their friendship.

Nala got even more concerned when she realised that Ayana knew an outsider without telling her. Which made her protective alarms go off.

"Ayana... Who is this?" Nala siad in a dangerous voice.

"I don't really know him, I just saw him hiding from us when we were hunting the hyena Hunter!" She said, her eyes still vigilant on Asafa.

Ayana instantly felt her sisters eyes turn dangerous as she looked at her.

*Gulp* she knew that Nala would deal with her went they got back. 'i knew I shouldn't have kept it a secret back then.'

When they were young, Nala was the misbehaving ball of energy while she, Ayana tried to be more aloof like her childhood crush Asafa. But when they lost the two royal princes, their best friends... Nala changed into an over protective sister, way too mature for he age.

"Why are you hunting the hyenas in our turf, and why did you attack us today?" Nala asked the hyena Hunter, with agression in her voice.

She didn't treat him as a friend for simply hunting the hyenas, after all, it was still in their territory. Other lions are not welcome no matter how bad their situation was.

Since Asafa wasn't sure how to explain why he hunted hyenas, he started with the second question. "I didn't attack you first."

"You obviously did!" Ayana got angry. At first she thought that the hyena hunter might be a good guy but now her image of him started to change.

"No, you guys attacked Timon and Pumba, my family." Asafa said seriously.

"Timon and Pumba? What kind of lion names are those? And when did we attack other lions?" Nala scoffed.

"Not lions, a pig and a meerkat." Asafa explained.

"Those two? How can you be friends with food?" Ayana got even angrier, thinking he was lying even more, to come up with a false reason as to why he attacked them.

*ROAAAAR* Asafa angrily got up and roared to show that, that's where he draws the line.

Both Nala and Ayana started to growl.

"They're not food, they are my family." Asafa said angrily. After all, if someone tries to kill someone dear to you, you would get angry lest you don't really hold precious feelings to them.

"Fine, we'll accept your excuse. But let me ask you in advance... Are the other foods in this jungle your so called 'family'?" Nala said with anger. She assumed that what Asafa meant was that this Forrest was his territory, and only he could hunt here.

Hearing her question, Asafa realised that they misunderstood.

*Sigh* "TIMON! PUMBA! GET OVER HERE!" He shouted. He had heard the two sneakingly return here after they heard his roar.

And he felt like it was better to resolve any misunderstanding that might occur between them... After all, he knew that soon, he'd have to return and defeat Scar and retake the position as king...

He understood this since the day Simba died, now matter how unwilling he was. The throne could not be under Scar. It had become his responsibility, and it's better not to create conflict with these two.

"Ah erm, yes, sorry for eaves dropping, I'm Timon the bones with barely any meat, and this is my stinky, rotten bacon friend pumba. Not tasty at all. Nice to meet you!" Timon meekly introduced themselves as they got behind Asafa.

Both Nala and Ayana dropped their jaws at this... A lion, a meerkat and a big... Family? It didn't make any sense at all, yet here they were.

"Then... You really weren't coming up with excuses so that we wouldn't hunt in your turf?" Ayana asked still bewildered.

"Pfft you're still as silly as ever Ayan..." Asafa stopped himself as he realised what came out of his mouth.

*GROWL* *GRRRRR* Both of them got defensive, ready for agression, when they realised that he knew their names. After all, if a stranger suddenly comes up to you and know your name, you'll get very defensive.

Seing how he screwed up, he might introduce himself before things got trickier.

"Nice to meet you again Ayana, Nala... My name is Asafa." He said slightly nervous. How would they react to him still being alive?

-~-~-~-~-~

The cliffs are strong with this one!