The Last Roar ( Previously "The Whitest Lioness")

12- Can you feel the love tonight...? No...? My Bad.

There were maggots writhing in the flesh of the rotting giraffe and the wafting odour made Zazu go green. Just above the gruesome scene, perched on the low-lying branch of a gnarled Baobab tree, the hornbill could scrutinise the remains that were still decaying in the sand, only a week after the initial kill. It was only a baby giraffe, yet it was lengthy and undoubtedly heavy even at birth. This got Zazu's mind tinkering and brought into question of just how many hyenas were involved. His sense of smell was nowhere near as insightful as the lions', but his keen eyesight would surely make up for that.

Zazu hummed in deep thought and fluttered down from his low perch to an even lower vantage point, merely metres from the mangled corpse. His view was improved and, unfortunately, so was his sense of smell.

"What do you make of it, Zazu?" Nala asked curiously.

The hornbill gazed at the corpse thoughtfully for a moment more; marking the position of the corpse, the raised earth surrounding the blunt paw prints and the horrible mess of blood, ribbons of flesh and gore that surrounded the poor animal. He glanced up at the lioness. His expression was grim.

"Definitely hyenas." Zazu replied, grim certainty in his tone. The hornbill worried for a moment to see if he might have upset her - she was only a young female, after all - but the gory effect was lost on the female completely as she only took another inquisitive step forwards to examine the body.

Nala probed, "How can you tell?"

Zazu smiled. It was so unfortunate that Simba couldn't be persuaded to love Nala, she was such a lovely, curious mind. Unlike Simba whom, as far as Zazu could see from his perch, was moodily staring at the corpse as if it had insulted his mother. Or, even worse, as if it actually was his mother.

"Well, Nala. There are some things to take into account before we are allowed to convict anyone." Zazu explained, "We know it was a hyena because of the tracks. The claw marks are consistent around the body, which means they are non-retractable claws - the same as hyenas."

Nala made a cute, appreciative "oh" and dipped her head further to the floor, detecting the smudged prints in the sand that she hadn't seen before. The hornbill waited until she was done with sceptically studying the area for any other clues, which didn't take very long.

"And not just that. We know that this is a spotted hyena." Zazu commented shrewdly, "Because the other species, the striped hyena, mainly scavenges for food. The spotted hyenas are the hunters," Zazu considered this for a moment, "and the outlaws."

Nala's eyes were bright as she said eagerly, "How do we catch it?"

"Them." Simba corrected, appearing besides Nala like a grumpy ghost, "Judging from the tracks, there's at least two of them." Simba glanced witheringly at Nala, "I thought you were a hunter."

Nala blushed and retorted fiercely, "I am a hunter."

Taking an intimidating step forward and using his leverage of height against the significantly smaller female, Simba moodily glared down at the female lion. From beneath this wiry whiskers, his teeth were poking from his lip in an irritated grimace.

"Then prove it, why don't you?" Simba snarled.

Nala bristled, "I've got the best nose in the pride. My sense of smell is always useful in the hunt. If anyone's going to track down those hyenas, it's going to be me." She added cuttingly, " Your Highness."

Simba scoffed, "Whatever."

Nala growled in irritation and knelt low to the ground, pressing her nose almost to the floor in an attempt to pick up a scent. They waited with baited breath for her to reply and, a few minutes later, her head shot up and there was a fire in her eyes. There was no missing the fervour burning in her eyes and, for a moment, Simba could detect a trace of the cub that he had loved playing with before their teenage years.