Author's note: Happy late SoXion day everybody!
Run, just keep running. That's the only thing the poor girl was thinking at that very moment. Her short black hair was swept back by the force from her running. She put one hand on her throat to calm the burning sensation and pain.
"Come on Xion! You're never going to win at this rate!" yelled out one of the girls that were far away from her.
"It's no use! She can't run far. She always loses at this game. Just leave her." yelled one of the other girls. The pack of girls running in front of her sped up and left Xion behind. All she could hear was a soft whisper, "Sorry Xion."
Xion couldn't take it anymore. She stopped running and fell on top of the grass. Her breathing was heavy and her head was dizzy. "I can't do it anymore. I quit! I give up! I don't want to play this stupid game anymore. It was dumb in the first place. Why did I even agree to it! I should have stayed home." She sat up and then examined herself. Her hands, legs, and her black dress were covered in dirt and soil, "Great, now I got myself dirty too." Xion looked around for a while. No one was going to come get her. If she went home she would get another scolding from her mother.
Her vision was getting clearer after she rested and saw a forest nearby. She never noticed it before. She didn't know it even existed near her town. Curiosity took hold of Xion. She got up from her spot and walked toward the forest. She should have known better than to go into the forest after reading many fairy tales but she had nothing else to do.
The forest was dark but not dark enough that it's not visible. Xion followed the path of a creek so she wouldn't get lost. It was very quiet and the stillness scared Xion but she forced herself to push forward.
All of a sudden, Xion heard a rustling noise coming from the bushes. She stepped back for a minute and looked aimlessly around her to see who was making that noise. The rustling noise got louder and louder. The girl was shivering and randomly picked up a branch.
"Stay back who ever you are! I have a stick and I'm not afraid to use it!" yelled Xion. She held the stick in front of her as if she was a samurai. Then something jumped out of the bushes and flew straight at the girl. She tried to block the object but it was too heavy and it latched onto her dress.
Xion fell backwards and closed her eyes; fearing of what was on her. "Was it a bullet? A football? This thing is awfully heavy." She thought to herself, "And… furry? Wait a minute, do I hear sniffing?" Xion mustered all of her strength to open her eyes.
With her eyes open the first thing she saw were two blue eyes, like hers, looking right at her. The thing had brown and white fur, brown spiky hair on its head, and a metal necklace around its neck. Its black nose was up at Xion's face making sniffing noises. As she put the pieces together, Xion realized what the thing was.
"Oh my gosh, you're a lion! A lion! Lions can't be here; they live in savannas. Not forests! Oh no, it's going to eat me!" exclaimed Xion.
The ears of the lion perked up and immediately ran into a log. As soon as the lion hid, two men came out of the bushes. The first man had blue hair while the other one had grey hair. Their clothes look like they came from the army and they carried around two rifles in their hands. They looked around in a hurry with sweat dripping down their face. The man with blue hair spotted Xion and signaled the man with grey hair. She got scared and ran behind a tree.
"Stay back you two, you guys are evil!" screamed Xion.
"Evil? Why do you assume we are evil?" asked the man with grey hair.
"You two have guns! My daddy told me that people with guns are bad guys! He also told me that I have to stay away from people with guns. If I don't, I get killed!" explained Xion.
"Don't worry; we're not going to shoot you. We're just looking for a certain vermin running around this forest." Said the grey haired man, "If you can tell us if you seen it or not, then we will be on our way. No harm done."
Xion was silent and then asked, "What does it look like?"
"It looks like a giant, brown fur ball with four legs. It has a tuff of hair on its head like a porcupine. And it has a crown necklace."
"Like a giant rat." said the man with long blue hair.
"Exactly." agreed the grey haired man.
Xion knew they were talking about the brown lion that was hiding in the log. Her eyes moved from the men to the log. She saw the lion was scared with fear in its eyes. The lion then put its paws onto its face; afraid of what's going to happen next.
Xion opened her mouth and said, "I have no idea what you are talking about!"
The faces of the two men had disappointment on it and the grey haired one said, "Okay, let's go Saix."
"Wait Xenmas!" whispered Saix, "What about the girl? Shouldn't we get rid of her? She saw us and she might tell everyone in town that we're here."
Xenmas looked at Xion and then whispered to Saix, "We should but we can't. Her parents might file into the police for a missing child and find her body here. Killing her would get us in trouble. Besides, it's too messy and we're just here for the lion." Xenmas looked back at the black haired girl and yelled, "Go home, kid. It's not safe here. Ok?"
Xion nodded and the two men left. She waited a few minutes until she knew the two men were gone. Once the coast was clear, Xion ran from the tree to the log where the scared lion hid. She bent down and said in a soft voice, "It's okay Mr. Lion. The scary men are gone. You can come out now." the lion wouldn't budge and the little girl decided to comfort it by rubbing it like she would do with her neighbor's cat. The lion removed its paw from its face and looked up at her.
She smiled, "Looks like you're feeling better now. Well, I have to go home now. It's getting late. I wish you the best of luck." Xion got up and started to walk down the creek path. She heard crunching noises and turned around to see the lion was following her.
"No Mr. Lion you can't come home with me! I'm not allowed to bring home pets!" said Xion. It didn't listen though, the lion just kept walking closer to her. "I said no Mr. Lion! No means no!" it came closer; "I mean it!" it was practically standing near her legs.
Xion got frustrated and decided to keep on walking. She tried to ignore it but sometimes she would look back to see if it was still following her. And it was. She decided to make a run for it but little did she know that the lion was faster than her. Xion forgot she was the slowest when it came to running. As she was running, Xion tripped over a tree root and scraped her knee. The young child found herself on the ground and tried to stand up. But she couldn't because her knee was badly injured. Blood was spilling out and her knee was red and hot. She found a big rock near the creek and crawled her way to it. The situation looked bad and she didn't really know what to do. She was only 10 years old and alone in the forest. Her parents never taught her anything about surviving on her own. She felt helpless and afraid. There was nothing else she could do.
Xion put her hands to her face to catch the tears from her eyes. She wept softly to make sure no one heard her. As she was crying, Xion felt something wet on her knee. She took her hands away from her face and saw the lion licking her knee. She was disgusted by this but it made the pain go away, so she couldn't complain about it. The lion looked up at her afterwards with its big eyes as if it was saying, "I'm sorry."
Xion stopped crying and used her wrists to wipe away her tears. She picked up the small lion and said, "Apology accepted." Then she hugged it like a stuffed animal.
The lion lied down on Xion's lap and Xion began stroking its fur. She did this for a few minutes and then began starting to say, "You know, this is actually nice. I never was allowed to have pets. Mom and Dad said I can't have animal friends but human friends. They said that I read too much in my room and I should socialize more. But I don't like the kids in my neighborhood. They like to play this game called the "kissing game". It's really stupid if you ask me." The small lion made a noise that sounded like it was interested. Xion took the hint and explained about the game, "Well the "kissing game" is when either the boys or girls try to kiss the other girl or boy. If the girl or boy is able to place a kiss then they win. If not then they lose. I lose either way though."
"Maybe you can kiss me?"
Xion stopped stroking the lion. "Did you just talk?"
"Uh, yes?" answered the animal.
"Oh my goodness gracious!" screamed Xion, "You talked! I thought a lion in a forest was bad enough, but a talking lion?"
"Whoa, calm down! This is why I didn't say anything in the first place! Calm down." assured the lion.
Xion hugged herself and took a couple of deep breathes. Then she got up from her seat and placed the lion onto the rock. Her knee felt better so she was able to stand.
The 10 year old pulled herself together and said, "Okay, so you're a talking lion. Right, okay. So, do you have a name?"
"Sora, my name is Sora. What about you? What's your name?"
"M-my name! Um, it's Xion…"
"Xion, that's a pretty name!" When he said that, Xion blush a little. But then she thought Sora was only saying that just to be polite.
There were so many questions that Xion wanted to ask like "where did you come from?" or "why can you talk?" but instead she asked, "Why do you want to kiss me?"
She noticed Sora's cheeks turning a little red and he turned his head away a little from her. He answered, "Well… you said that you always lost the game. So I thought maybe if you kiss me then you'll win. The rules have nothing against male lions, right?"
"I guess not. But wouldn't it be weird to kiss a lion?"
"Naw, it won't! It's just one kiss on the lips. Nothing to it!"
"You seem really persistent about the whole kissing thing."
"Just one kiss?"
Xion was hesitant about the whole kissing a lion thing. But Sora's pleas annoyed her. Plus, there was something odd about Sora that made her curious. Especially when she looked down at her knee to see it "magically" healed in an instant!
"All right, just one kiss. Only because you helped heal my knee." Sora's face was gleaming with joy and positioned himself on the rock.
Sora closed his eyes and kind of puckered up his lips. Xion was becoming more and more nervous. She didn't want to do it, but for some reason she felt like she needed to do it. Her mind was jumbled up and confused. She closed her eyes and rammed her face into Sora's face just to get it over with. When the lips of Xion and Sora met, Xion started to feel something warm. When she opened her eyes, Xion found Sora's body glowing. A bright light blinded her eyes and she looked away with her arms covering her face.
The brightness faded away and Xion took her arms away from her face. She didn't see the lion anymore. Instead she saw a young boy with spiky brown hair and sapphire eyes in front of her. He stood on the rock where the lion was before. He wore clothes of royalty with a crown on his head.
The boy jumped off the rock, and walked up to Xion. The bewildered girl was too dumbstruck by what just happened. She found the boy was the same height as she was without the spiky hair in the way.
She uttered, "Sora?"
He smiled and said, "Congratulations Xion, you won yourself a prince."
Author's note: People will find thier Prince/Princess Charming in odd places. Hope you like the story! Don't forget to rate and review so I know what to improve on in the future.