Both sides continued doing everything they could. One lioness in particular was done sitting idly by and took up the fight herself. Upon joining the battle, Zira's paws were quickly stained with blood as she mercilessly slashed and tore into anyone who got into her way, not even giving them the chance to retreat. A zebra snorted and reared his front hooves to defend himself against her. But his efforts were wasted from Zira going for the throat and making quick work of the striped mammal. As much as she would have enjoyed to watch the life slowly drain from the convulsing and gasping zebra, she was aware that she had better things to attend to. Scanning around the fun she was having was quickly diminished. From what she could see over the fighting, the Outland forces were being pushed back. More and more were retreating and she could see the body one of her own fellow lioness lying still on the grass some distance away from the fighting. But she could not take the time to honor her sacrifice, after all if they are defeated it would have been all for nothing.
"You!", Zira snarled. Janja was standing some distance away, observing the battle. Before Janja could properly react Zira pounced and had him pinned down. "Why are you just standing there?!"
"Whoa, whoa! Zira, let's take it easy a second!", Janja pleaded, squirming under the lioness' weight.
"Get your hyenas out there! We need everything we got!", Zira snarled.
"Alright, alright", Janja grumbled and stretched as he was released. he quickly made his way to the rest of his hyena troops. Most of them had retreated from the fighting, having scars, bruises and open wounds.
"Hey you two! Furbrains!", the main group of hyenas sprung to attention: Cheezi, Chungu, Nne and Tano.
"It's time for you guys to make yourselves useful. Get out there and take was rightfully ours!", Janja ordered. The group voiced there agreement to the hyenas words.
"You got it, Janja!", Cheezi nodded and with just those words the group already took off. Janja watched as they ran off in the direction of the fighting. Once they were out of sight he sighed in relief. That was sure to keep Zira off his hide. He himself saw what was going on down there and had no intention himself throwing himself in that fight. Janja had lost count of how many times he was thrown out of the Pride Lands and knew this time would be no different.
"Can you believe it, Chungu? We're gonna be in a big battle!", Cheezi whooped as he ran alongside the rest of the group.
"I know. It's gonna be awesome!", the biggest hyena replied with excitement. The small hyena nodded in agreement, his tongue flopping from his muzzle.
"Alright listen the rest of you!", Tano commanded to the rest. He was put in charge of the group by Janja personally who saw him as the most capable. "Instead of charging in headfirst like he wants us to, I say we slink along the sidelines and catch them off guard."
The rest of the group had no objections, at least none voiced aloud in the case of Nne. Now with a goal and means of entering the battle, the pack slowed their pace and kept close together and focused on not being seen. It proved something to be quite easy when everyone else was preoccupied with a war. Keeping along the shrubs and treeline they managed to keep their presence unknown.
"Nice job, boys", Tano encouraged the group. He was especially grateful that Cheezi and Chungu had no ruined it all somehow. But he knew to hold his tongue and not jinx things up. Ducking further into the trees Tano spotted a path that dipped to a lower elevation, it led to what looked like an open enough space for them to make a proper ambush plan. "Come on, this way." The rest followed his orders without question. Even Cheezi and Chungu had enough sense to know that things were serious now and if they were caught it wouldn't just be getting chased off this time. The hyenas pressed themselves close to the ground and crawled as carefully and quietly. They all froze in fear as some roars sounded way too close for any of their comforts. Chungu held his breath and stood perfectly still, hearing the sounds of fighting. As soon as the roars and snarls sounded they were just over. Tano took no chances and motioned with his paw for them to continue on carefully. As soon as they reached to clearing they all gave a sigh of relief.
They huddled close around Tano as he began to formulate a plan.
"So what do we do now?", Nne asked. The other two lackey hyenas also looked to him for what to do. Tano just cleared his throat confidently, but he actually had no idea how to actually follow through with the plan he had.
"Alright, the truth is....I have no idea...", Tano admitted.
"Ha! I knew it", Nne grinned smugly. He knew he should have been the leader to the group.
"But I think we should just wait this whole thing", Tano suggested.
"We should just sit here?", Chungu asked in confusion.
"Well it's this or bring ripped apart by a crazy Pride Lander!", Tano offered, to which no one had any objections. "Alright then!"
"We should be good right here", Tano sighed, already sitting down in attempt to relax. The rest of them tried to relax as well, but the sounds of fighting was not too far off. It kept them on edge, each of them were prepared to defend against anything that came at them.
What the group did not know that it was the area that thier own comrades had stalked out before. Who were caught by Mkali and the other honey badgers. And they were still on the look it, unknown to the current group.
"More hyenas?!", an angered voice growled through the nearby bushes. The group perked up to the noise.
Mkali burst from the surrounding foliage with Jino and Muinuko at his side. Behind them were the other honey badgers they had gotten the help of.
The hyenas cowered in fear as they quickly measured up the number of badgers compared to them.
"What do we do now, leader?", Nne growled.
"Don't let em get away!", Mkali commanded. The badgers sprinted towards them all at once. Nne and Tano prepared themselves for attack.
"Get ready, guys!", Tano growled. But only Nne responded. He looked behind him to see that Cheezi and Chungu were gone.
"Hey! They left us!", Tano yipped. But he had no time to think about that. He and Tano were soon swatting at badgers that seemed to only come back with even more numbers.
Meanwhile Cheezi was running as far as he could into the dense forest. He was struggling to catch his breath and his muscles ached for him to stop, but he continued. The moment he laid eyes on how many badgers were there he bolted out of there. He tripped on the root of a tree and crashed to the ground, skidding a bit. He stood up a but shakily and shook himself off.
"Cheezi? Cheezi?", Chungu called, following the path of bent branches and leaves Cheezi left behind. The smaller hyena ran so far that both the war and badgers were very much behind them. He continued till he found the smaller hyena catching his breath.
"Cheezi! There you are!", Chungu bounded happily to him.
"Oh, Chungu. S-sorry for leaving you guys back there", Cheezi folded his ears back in apology.
Chungu didn't like seeing Cheezi unhappy. "It's alright. You were just scared, that's all. But don't worry, I'm scared too. This fight is scarier than I thought it would be". Chungu admitted.
"Should we go back?", Cheezi whimpered.
"Do you want to?", Chungu asked, tilting his head.
"Nope", both hyenas answered at the same time and laughed. But Cheezi sighed and kept his eyes low towards his paws.
"What's wrong?", Chungu asked.
"I wanna go home, Chungu. I...hate fighting....I always have", Cheezi admitted, looking up at his best friend.
"Well, I don't hate fighting....but I don't like fighting either", Chungu gave his trademark toothy grin which caused Cheezi to laugh. "Hey, since neither of us want to fight, let's just not."
"You mean..?"
"Yep, let's get out of here. But we can't be seen", Chungu warned.
"But where will we go?", Cheezi asked.
"Hmm..", Chungu looked past the foliage to the surrounding areas. "How about that big pointy rock over there?"
"Big pointy rock....huh....sounds kinda familiar", Cheezi thought.
"I don't see anyone there", Chungu pointed out.
"Alright, then. Let's go", Cheezi beamed, tail wagging and his tongue lolling to the side. It was a sight that made Chungu even happier. Even during a war, seeing Cheezi'z smiling face made him smile as well.
The two walked side by side towards Pride Rock to hide out until for a while. Neither of them thought about leaving Nne and Tano with the honey badgers or even what Janja would say to them, they didn't really care either. Both had made up their minds, Chungu especially was more concerned about Cheezi. He has never seen him acting this way, never just running away like that.... He was determined to get him somewhere safe, so they both didn't have to worry.