Chapter Text
Two Brothers Under the Sun
Chapter – XXV
Fear the Dreaded One
"My, my, how you've grown. And how much trouble I had to get to you." Shere Khan smiled wickedly at Tarzan, stalking closer before stopping and giving a critical look to the lion beside him. "So the folk tales are true. There is another cat king in the jungle."
To his credit, Simba did a good job at making himself look less terrified than he most certainly was. His voice was still firm but noticeably more soft-spoken: "So you are the Big One, huh?"
"In my life, I have been called many names." Shere Khan declared, a little too similar to the way Bagheera did when lecturing about the facts of jungle life. "Cattle Butcher, The Big One, The Dreaded... but my favorite will always be simply... Khan."
Calm, eloquent, and straightforward. Yeah, just like Bagheera.
"We cast kindred shadows, young lion." He mentioned, from one cat to another. "Don't you see whose side you should be on?"
"I am nothing like you."
"You have no concept of the harm I am capable of, if only because I really hate to waste a life when it can serve me." He shook his head in what seemed to be genuine pity. "It's a shame for us to meet under these circumstances. I would have gladly taken you as a guest in my Khanate." When the tiger hardened his ember eyes, he almost fooled Simba into thinking he was staring straight at his soul. "But, perhaps, we can still help each other. Swear fealty to me and we can protect the jungle together."
The Khan's gaze flickered momentarily to the side.
"You just have to do one thing... kill the Man-Cub."
Simba breathed a snarl of fury. "Back off! You won't take my brother!"
Shere Khan blinked, bent back into a relaxed stance, then snickered sardonically. "Hah-Hah-Hah! A king playing the part of the pet." He stifled, eyes gazing up toward the heavens in disbelief. "It's so funny it is pitiful."
Tarzan showed his gritted teeth, and Simba parroted.
Shere Khan returned to prowling, taking a few steps towards the two. He looked a lot creepier up close, but they didn't cower under his gaze. "There is undoubtedly a fascinating story behind such a sick joke." The brothers grew irritated at those words. "Perhaps I shall let one of you live long enough to tell it."
Tarzan and Simba responded by revealing their fangs.
"Look at you, using man's tool to do your killing." Shere Khan continued with his scorn before realizing the boys still shared a look of determination. "Ah, you two have the guts of youth, I see."
"We are not afraid of you," confirmed Tarzan, refusing to back down as he held his spear close.
"Indeed, I suppose such spirit is deserving of a sporting chance." He sat down before them. "Now, I am going to let you attack first. It makes the fight more interesting if both sides seem to have a chance to win after all." Despite the aloof and well-humored manner in which he spoke, the mocking tongue was visibly there for all to hear.
Nevertheless, the brothers accept his challenge.
Tarzan charged up at him first, thrusting his wooden spike towards the tiger, who swung his claws at the same time, swatting aside each of the hairless ape's stabs. Tarzan spun both ends of his spear in hopes of delivering a lucky strike. Shere Khan crossed his paws around the head of the spear, halting the youth's offensive. The tiger then stood up in two, pulled his opponent closer, and kicked his hind claws at him, causing Tarzan to lose balance when he tried to avoid the attack, thus allowing the Khan to body-slam him with such force he flew back-first into a tree trunk. Simba immediately lunged in front of the bigger cat, looking as though he was about to thrash the tiger into the ground. But Shere Khan was faster. He swiped his claws at the young lion, who jumped out of the way in a split second. But he wasn't fast enough to miss the Khan's next jab aimed at the side of his face. A now blindsided Simba strumbled back before the striped feline bit him on the mane and, relying entirely on the strength of his jaws, tossed him away. Tarzan ran to him, kneeling by his sworn brother as he offered a hand to help him stand up. They glare at the Khan. Both shot forward and closed in on the tiger, who jumped up to avoid them. Tarzan tried to jab the blunt end of his fang at Shere Khan's face, but the latter merely grabbed the bludgeon and snapped at Simba's arm when the maned cat snuck from behind, keeping the pair from ganging up on him long enough so he could force them down to the ground with a powerful assault.
Growling slightly as they readied themselves for another round, the mismatched brothers ran forward. Tarzan was a foot away from the Khan when he jumped up and somersaulted over him. The unlikely Black Back landed behind the tiger and spun around, aiming for his head. But Shere Khan turned and blocked him with his left paw. He quickly crouched under a claw swipe from Simba and swept at his thorax, knocking the lion over. Tarzan kicked up to his head repeatedly. Shere Khan spun around and would have crushed his chest if the juvenile hadn't disengaged at the last possible moment. In a beat, the brothers were on their feet again, blood boiling inside their veins. Simba popped and recoiled his claws on the ground, dragging their sharpness along the rocky floor, and pounced upon Shere Khan, who turned his head in time to miss the incoming razors. Tarzan ran up too and was even able to smack their enemy with his pole.
His attack barely made the tiger budge.
Shere Khan easily leaned out of the path of his next blows. With a feral roar, Simba leaped into the fray, ready to tear their foe to pieces. Shere Khan reacted instantly and darted to the side, causing the lion to sail past him before instantly rolling on his feet at the sight of Tarzan's incoming charge, the Mangani piercing at him wildly only for the Khan to side-step his attacks with little effort.
'ROAR'
Simba unleashed his throat. Shere Khan whipped his head around and was body-tackled by the lion. He grunted on the ground, pinned but not down yet. Simba brought his fangs upon his head but the stripped feline ducked and was able to free his arms to hit his opponent on the sides, forcing the lion away. Tarzan rushed next to thrust his stone blade up at him, but that was easily blocked by the very fangs of the Khan. Backing away with a push-and-pull, the White Ape spun around in a broad, sweeping arc and swung a whack at his noggin. His opponent ducked under in response and aimed a swipe at him. Tarzan's fang had great reach, but it left him wide open. He was barely able to block the huge foreclaw with his spear shaft. In turn, he tried to swing his elbow at the tiger's eyes, but Shere Khan shifted his head so his short yet thick neck could absorb the brunt of the attack. Afterward, his massive arm came into contact with the youth's face, slugging the latter back to his brother's side.
From afar, the tired siblings stared in astonishment as their adversary looked as unfazed by the scruffle as he had been prior to their first assault.
"How's he so fast?"
"I don't know. I was barely able to touch him." Tarzan, trained in the nimble ways of the leopard, had difficulty understanding how such a big beast could move like that.
The brothers were unable to land a single solid hit on the Khan, who had been clearly toying with them all this time. The casual manner in which he dodged their moves made it rather obvious.
Shere Khan chuckled once again, almost like he could hear their thoughts. "Much bark but next to no bite. As foolish as newborn cubs." He returned to addressing the maned youth. "Don't move, young lion. Just watch, and you will see how truly nonsensical all of this is."
Narrowing his eyes, Simba asserted: "We are of one blood, he and I."
This time, his words earned a greater reaction from the tiger... his grin uncurled.
The brothers suddenly started sweating cold. Shere Khan's features changed all of a sudden into an utterly unamused scowl combined with a deep frown. Tranquil fury adorned his facial features, especially that unsettling glare he now had in his eyes. To the pair, it was as if they had suddenly fallen into a pit filled to the brim by a horde of hissing snakes.
"So be it then... you just lost your chance."
'ROAR'
He roars at their defiance, and SPRINTS.
Suppressing a collective gulp, Tarzan and Simba looked up. The Khan brought his arms down, shooting out his claws from each of his huge paws. He dived forward, straight at the pair. In the blink of an eye, he appeared on Simba's face, who saw his teeth gritted in utter rage; a harrowing, haunting vision. Roaring both to answer his enemy and to get his head back in the fight, Simba swung at the tiger with all his strength… but Shere Khan shrugged off his claws with ease as if he were no more than an ill-tempered serval. The lion took a moment too long to attack again, and his adversary didn't give him a chance: Shere Khan barged into his guard before biting and pulling him by the hair, flipping the entire body over his broad shoulders. Tarzan turned to them in time to see him throw Simba to the bottom of a ravine; the lion's body slid and vanished down the slope.
"NO!" Tarzan's heart goes cold at the sight; a cold heart turns to flame which he aims at the tiger. "KHAAANNN!"
His opponent is unimpressed, he evades a slash, a swat, and a thrust. Finally, his intersected arms take hold of the stone tooth. Tarzan fumbled while Shere Khan snickered. The former breaks away; both beasts display their fangs for the other to see. Jabs are exchanged and Shere Khan overpowers the White Ape with ease as he makes the latter fall back.
Again, their fangs collided.
'CRACK'
With one blow, Tarzan's defense was gone. He fell on his knees after losing the clash against the tiger. To the side, the Mangani spots his weapon lying a few feet away, with the top half broken off. His eyes dilatated.
"My fang..."
He was unarmed; couldn't fight any longer.
All at once, the fearless youth loses his bravado, and an invisible chill causes what little he has for body hair to stand on end. The Khan stood over him, raising a paw. Tarzan gulped in terror, crawling back and feeling disoriented all of a sudden.
'THUMP' 'THUMP'
He sees flashing visions of times past: a figure staring down warmly at him,
'THUMP' 'THUMP'
His mother singing their lullaby,
'THUMP' 'THUMP'
He and Bagheera strolling around the jungle,
'THUMP' 'THUMP'
He and Simba striding across a log.
'THUMP' 'THUMP'
Running in the plains with his family,
'THUMP' 'THUMP' 'THUMP' 'THUMP'
The pounding of his accelerating heartbeats echoes from inside his chest as the horrifying realization sinks in: he is defenseless.
And Shere Khan was all too glad to remind him that he still was in danger.
"Little man, you are going to learn a hard lesson today." Said the predator as he smacked his lips, showing off his tongue which is so rough it can scrape flesh.
The White Ape never looked so pale.
'GROWL'
This was not a warning. It was voiced to freeze the Khan's poor victims in a paralysis of terror for a tiny fraction of an instant which would suffice for his mighty claws to sink into their soft flesh and hold them beyond hope of escape.
So far as the ape was concerned, Shere Khan reasoned correctly. The little fellow crouched trembling just an instant, but that instant wasn't quite long enough to prove his undoing, for life amidst the dangers of the jungle had taught Tarzan to meet emergencies with self-confidence and quick action.
Thus, the growling of the tiger galvanized the petrified brain and muscles of young Tarzan into instant overdrive. Abandoning his broken weapon, the Black Back fled from a fight for the first time since he was a man-cub without fangs to show. Running in the very same rush he had as a child when running from Sabor. All his inhibitions shut down.
"Oh, you're going to try and outrun me. How droll."
Cautiously, the tiger moved a great padded paw forward, noiselessly placing it before he lifted the next. Like that, the Khan advanced; belly low, almost touching the surface of the ground-a great cat preparing to pounce upon its prey. He drew his hind feet well up beneath his body, the great muscles rolling under his bulk. So low he was crouching that he seemed flattened to the earth except for the upward bend of his glossy back as it gathered for the leap.
No longer Shere Khan's tail lashed-quiet and straight behind him it lay.
For an instant he paused, as though turned to stone, and then, with an awful scream, he sprang.
~Do you know who you are facing? Do you know just who I am?~
While Tarzan squeezed through the clumps of mossy green wood, The Khan merely cut everything in his path.
~Prepare to meet your last defeat i n the paws of Shere Khan~
The marshes were dark, but Tarzan was stricken by fear and despair and couldn't stop himself. That monstrosity made it look easy to best someone who won the Ugani's Coming of Age battle royale. Surely he would be bodied if he were to face the tiger without his fang.
~I may let you run...~
Shere Khan took to stalking and prowling after him, relishing at the sight of his enemy scampering in fear, along with the torment he was noticeably causing him. He shouldn't hunt for pleasure, yet Men weren't worth his courtesies.
~And I may let you hide...~
Catching his breath, Tarzan felt a shadow of terror loom over him. Shere Khan was there, taunting him around every turn. Out of nowhere came the Big One. Quiet and sinister, he frightens the youth into another panicked rush.
~But there's no way you'd escape your fate even if you tried~
These parts of the swamp were closed from the others. The sunken jungle is dark, ominous, and uncomfortable to most. That chilling voice of the tiger who had easily bested him and his brother didn't calm Tarzan's nerves. He felt his foe's presence all over the place. It was like the Khan was lurking inside his very mind. There was no way to know from where he would come, or what his next attack was going to be.
~Enjoy the moment, Man-Cub...~
Tarzan ducks so he won't hit the branch, while the Khan simply crushes and knocks it aside. Shere Khan carried a cold yet powerful demeanor, full of malice and contempt for men. And he was determined to kill this one.
~You won't live to be a man~
The shadows are alive, reaching out for Tarzan from all sides. He heard a sound, was it the tiger? Was he there? He kept running and never stopped moving, not even bothering to do so silently. The only thought on his mind was don't stop. Never.
~Run~
Mind reeling, the helpless ape tried to make heads-and-tails of this nightmare. Bagheera disappeared, Simba had fallen, this couldn't be! Oh, but it is. He was all by himself.
~RUN!~
What was that silhouette watching him from afar? One of the Colonel's bird scouts?
~WHILE YOU HAVE A CHANCE!~
Still in a state of shock, the juvenile paid little mind to it and went back to his blind run.
~RUN, FRIEND, RUN!~
His nerves, tensed to their limit, propelled him to jump over a bough gnarled by a creeper before the dead wood gave in to the added weight.
~This is your last dance~
The cruel Khan, watching from somewhere in the bushes, savored in his fear.
~You humans are all the same: on the world, you think you reign~
During the annual trips to the Theluji, Tarzan endured many freezy chills but none like this one. Quite ironic considering this was like any other hot day in the Bukuvu and he was currently sweating a ton.
~But now, the hunter is the hunted as you've become my game~
Shere Khan was relentless, unstoppable. Energized by malice and hatred, hellbent on making this creature suffer before killing him.
~This is your last race , I'll put you in your place~
There was no safe place to hide in the eerie swamp.
~You've come to meet your destiny n ow it's I you must face~
Tarzan was no match for this beast. He was going to die here.
~Take a deep breath, my friend...~
It didn't matter where he went, goosebumps continued to crawl all over his body.
~As you are near the end...~
His life still flashed before his eyes, getting him even more lost than he was before.
~Now run.~
The Black Back held on to his beating chest while breathing so heavily as if his lungs would burst any moment due to his ever-increasing heartbeats.
~RUN!~
All he could do was run. Run. And run. Where to go? He didn't know. Was there a place where he would be safe? His horrors follow him on. There is no light to guide him. Around every bend was the tiger.
~While you have a chance!~
He stuck to the path ahead without seeing anything, hearing everything yet nothing at all; long gone was his sense of direction. This brave young man, head soaking with the blood in his hair, didn't even think anymore.
~RUN, FRIEND, RUN!~
His legs couldn't bear it any longer. He couldn't go on. His awareness slowed down to minuscule seconds. For a second which felt like several minutes, his eyes stared petrified as the blurry form of Shere Khan's claw plunged towards him.
~This is your last dance!~
Then... he fell.
'SPLASH'
Tarzan was never one to miss the chance to take a daily plunge in a lake or stream when it was possible to do so. When he sank into the chill waters, however, he felt something akin to the discomfort of the torrential rains, feared by all apes for the thunder and lightning and wind that accompanied them.
Rapidly he moved his hands and feet in an attempt to scramble upward, and, possibly more by chance than design, he fell into the stroke that a dog uses when swimming, so that within a few seconds his nose was above water and he managed to keep it there by continuing his strokes, which also allowed him to progress through the pond.
He was now swimming parallel to the bank and there, in the form of a haunted echo, he heard the cruel beast that would gladly have him for dinner:
"No matter how fast you run, no matter where you hide, I will catch you."
Tarzan had a choice to make. Beneath him lay the murky waters of the little lake, above him certain death; a cruel demise beneath tearing claws and rending fangs. His startled instincts decided for him. Before the great tiger had covered half his leap, Tarzan felt the chill waters close above his head.
Shere Khan whiffed his nostrils around to find Tarzan's scent. The thrill of the chase heightens his hunter senses, aware of any disturbance in the environment. To his hearing, the sudden scraping of one blade of grass across another was as effectual a warning as the loudest cry, and the monarch knew that youth couldn't perform his escape without a little noise.
"Come out, come out, wherever you are." His tone was unsettling as ever.
He surveyed the area until his eyes fell upon the stillness of the small waterhole. He approaches to drink.
Frightened, Tarzan latches his foot under a tree root and tries to hold his breath, attempting not to be noticed by the tiger. As Shere Khan licks at the surface, the blood he had drawn during the battle washes off his face and coats the water between them red. After a tense few moments, Tarzan couldn't hold his breath for longer and gasped for air. The bubbles rise, plopping to the top and towards the Khan. The tiger looks into the water, gazing deeply in. When the red blood fades he sees Tarzan at last, and then he slowly... very slowly, gives a smile.
'SPLASH'
The usual sounds of the swamp are drowned out by pained cries for help and a furious paw lashing out in the water.
Now with a sprained leg, Tarzan blindly swam through a gunky pile of leaf litter and quicksand. There wasn't much he could do now. His breathing became too erratic for him to exhale. He couldn't stop, he couldn't think, but the worst was that he couldn't go on. He slumped in fatigue.
A trail of red liquid trickles down his chest. Tarzan wipes it off his thorax and stares to find out it's, in fact, his own blood and he was a millimeter from having his ribs torn apart. The realization renders the pinkish ape frozen in shock.
He had never been touched by a claw like this before.
Not even a second later, the dark and imposing form of the Khan started emerging out of the lake.
An injured Tarzan struggled to get up, rubbing his now bleeding arm and leg. "Damn it!" he cursed while limping off.
Out of nowhere, he was forced down when a powerful form forced him to the mud before something sharp and heavy pressed against his injured chest, nearly crushing his ribs while further threatening his breathing. Tarzan felt as if he had blacked out for a second and, the next thing he knew, Shere Khan was towering over his body. In an attempt to force the great beast off of him, the Hairless Ape tried to grab his leg with his uninjured hand but was stopped when the Khan placed his other paw on his arm, causing even more pain to the young man, who was already feeling utterly weak and exhausted.
More than that, he felt fear, true fear.
"You disappoint me, Man-Cub. Bagheera held you in such high esteem." Tarzan tried and failed to raise his voice in the call of distress common to his Troop; the tiger's fangs leering toward his face. "But don't be hard on yourself. You were never my equal. If you were an ape of the jungle as you pretend to be, you would do as all warriors do when cornered: stand your ground against your opponent and match their strength in a battle for your life. All you have done so far was evade me while looking over your shoulder." His enemy ranted on as his rage reached its apex. "That's the Way of the Prey. Why did you even bother with this chase if you have already accepted your fate? Now you have tried my patience, insolent frog." Shere Khan sneered at the man for a moment. A second later, his other paw drew out its claws. "I cleansed the jungle of your kind, tearing them apart down to the last one. Just one swipe and I will have done it again."
He reached forward, prepared to stab his longtime prey in the head. Tarzan managed a gasp.
"This is it, he's gonna kill me!" he thought. "No, I can't die now… not like this!" The White Ape screamed internally as he tried to think of a way to free himself, to no avail.
Defenseless, he lay there, waiting for the Khan's judgment, probably a handful of claws shoved directly into his throat. His eyelids clenched shut (even though he could barely see by that point) as he silently prayed.
A bright light answers by illuminating the vicinity.
Suspended over the driftwood, Simba's unconscious body floated in the river till it beached on the sandy shores of a confluence by the territory of the Bandar-log, head down but thankfully without his face plunging into the water. The lion is dragged to not dry but land all the same. A shadow passes over him as he recovers his senses. He looks up a hill where his fluttering eyes see a lumpy, big-hearted, perceptive but slow-witted Mr. Pig, his trusty, meerkat hyper pal riding on his back, and, beside them, their other bestest best pal, an always hungry, gruff on the outside but sweet as honey on the inside, aspiring Papa Bear.
"Simba? Simba!"
Without rest, the trio rushed to him. Simba pauses and looks up wearily at their arrival before grunting in pain.
"Simba..." Baloo gently rubs his godson, then pulls away to watch him in concern. The lion was inhaling heavily between rapid and shallow breaths. Pumbaa skids to a halt in front of him with Timon in his mane.
"Simba, talk to me!" The meerkat jumps to stand directly before his ward. "What happened?"
"Shere Khan... he is after Tarzan..." The lion moaned and then collapsed on his side.
"Shere Khan?!" shouted Baloo, agape. Next, his eyes narrow before he turns to his companions. "Take him to Louie's, I gotta go help T!"
The warthog picks Simba's head to pull up his heavy form while Timon lifts his tail.
"It's all right, buddy. We're here for you."
Together, Timon and Pumbaa drag Simba ashore as they carry him towards Monkey City, while Baloo hurries off in the river's direction.
OMAKE: Return of the Mjuzi
Shere Khan reached forward, prepared to stab his longtime prey in the head. Tarzan managed a gasp.
"This is it, he's gonna kill me!" he thought. "No, I can't die now… not like this!" The White Ape screamed internally as he tried to think of a way to free himself, to no avail.
Defenseless, he sat there, waiting for the Khan's judgment, probably a handful of claws shoved directly into his throat. His eyelids clenched shut (even though he could barely see by that point) as he silently prayed.
Just as the predator was about to deliver the coup de grace, a newcomer made himself known.
The Khan steps away from Tarzan once he feels a familiar presence and turns in its direction. Walking into the scene, a savior comes to answer the Black Back's plight: an old monkey, a baboon of some sort with a wild mandrill mane of white hair surrounding his multicolored face and expressive black-on-yellow eyes. He walked with a staff made from an old bent stick with a few fruits tied to one of its ends.
"Rafiki..." Formal but with a hidden edge in his words, the monarch saluted the primate.
"Shere Khan."
"Came to interfere in my affairs one last time?"
"Rafiki goes where he is needed, and Rafiki is needed in many places." The baboon/mandrill mused as he held up a finger before fully appraising the big cat. "Powerful you have become, Shere Khan. The star's power I sense in you."
"I have outgrown it; I am now more powerful than any primate, even you."
The Khan shifted to a prowling stance. Rafiki hefts his staff over his head, pointing towards the tiger. Suddenly, the dreaded feline charges across the way at the Mjuzi, after which he proceeds to rain down blows upon the tiny figure. Rafiki doesn't budge an inch. For the first part of the contest, he parries every cut and bite from the great predator with a combination of kicks and swings from his staff. Nothing the mighty hunter tries gets through. His energy drains. His strokes become feeble, slower. Rafiki attacks! He flies forward, cartwheeling. Shere Khan presses on but retreats at the baboon's onslaught. Words are insufficient to describe the range and skill of Rafiki's speed and his weapon. His staff is a blur of brown swarming at the tiger's head.
'THWACK'
The monkey's weapon hits its mark. Finally, they disengage and their hearts slow down.
"Huh, I don't know. Seems to me you still have a lot to learn." Rafiki remarked, chuckling while whirling into a new stance.
To that, Shere Khan fumed. "Perhaps it's time I taught you a lesson."
He rushed at his opponent, ember eyes burning bright.