Lion Guard: Neema the Leopard

Chapter 17: (1-18-2018)

Neema lays down to rest in the tree in her shared cave. Mwamba leaves her be, standing guard outside the cave entrance while she takes time to heal after her encounter with the rouge pride of lioness that used to live in the outlands. His ear pricks at the sound of paws on the dirt. "who goes there?" he calls.

"relax It's just me." Janja grumbles padding up to the male leopard. "I'm not here to bug Neema I just came to fill you in on some goings on."

"some goings on?" Mwamba questions.

"the pride formerly of the outlands now lives at pride rock where they came from before they was banished." Janja replies. "seems the only thing dangerous around these parts now would be those damned jackals."

"they moved back to pride rock?" Mwamba raises an eyebrow. "well that's good for us. It means that piece of territory is now open and we can expand."

"I had the same thought." Janja says sitting down in front of Mwamba. "but spreading out the pack like that will leave us vulnerable too. I was thinking I might go talk to Jasiri and see if she would be willing to merge packs for protection."

"you think something will try to attack us?" Mwamba frowns.

"call me crazy but I got this feeling in my spine... something really bad is about to happen and I don't want to be unprepared." Janja frowns glancing around. "by the way... I talked to Nne and there should be no more issues from him or Tano... the two left peacefully and headed into deeper outlands territory." He grumbles this and glances at a dirt path. "there are some nasty packs and herds out there so I hope they end up alright."

"why'd they leave? Did you banish them?" Mwamba questions.

"nah nothing like that." Janja shakes his head. "I just told them if they don't like how I lead the pack then they should go lead their own pack. I told them if they wanted to stay though then they needed to start respecting my choices. So they left."

"seems like they couldn't get over you taking orders from leopards." Mwamba smirks.

"hey!" Janja growls with his ears down. "I'm not taking orders from nobody! I just... appreciate your input into fixing our starving issue." He pauses for a moment and his ears go down again. "and that your both very strong fighters..." he sighs. "I owe a lot to Neema... not personally, but she helped me see a better way and she has brought peace between two packs that... nobody ever thought could have existed."

"she sees the best in everyone." Mwamba smirks. "that's why I like her."

"she is very easy to like." Janja chuckles. He turns around ears up listening to the outlands around them. "do you feel that?"

Mwamba raises an eyebrow looking the same way Janja is looking. "a sense of foreboding..." he mumbles. "but if everything is peaceful again then what could possibly be the issue?"

(quick pause here. I had decided not to use the 'scar' bits from the tv show because that wasn't a thing when I started writing the story. Instead what I'm going for is sort of how it would be more lifelike and also centered for a more mature audience so it has less of the fluffy stuff and more action.)

-elsewhere-

In the backlands three familiar looking Hyenas in their old age are walking very carefully while looking around. "why did we come out here Shinji?" Bonsai questions cautiously.

"the only one who stood a chance against the pridelanders was scar... now we have a whole new set of issues to deal with." Shinji grumbles glancing at Bonsai. "but Janja had a great idea. Leopards are very strong and if we can get enough of them together then we can finish what scar started." She smirks. "and the pridelands will finally belong to the hyena."