Disclaimer: I do not own Lion King or any of its characters except for the OC's that you will soon see. The Lion King franchise belongs to Disney and its creators. This is one of the many projects I'm working on so, if you see any mistakes, don't mind, it will get better with time. So now, without further ado, please read, enjoy, review, comment and contact me if you want to give any ideas or advice.
Lion King: Shadow Guardian
Chapter One: From Ashes and Dust
Thomas P.O.V.
Pain crawled its way through every inch of my body as I regained consciousness, I tried to rise, but my body refused, so I tried harder. It was just as I tried a second time that I felt it, excruciating pain emanated from my ribcage, forcing me to lay down once again. When I looked to the source of the pain I saw it, lodged below the eleventh and twelfth ribs, just below the right lung, was a seven inches iron piece, blood flowing like a river from the wound. I swallowed the pain and, slowly, rose from the dusty grown. The sky above me was of a bright blue tainted black and grey from the ashes that danced in the soft breeze that blew from the north. From all directions, scattered through the ground for thousands of miles, large chunks of smouldering twisted iron, bags and a legion of mangled and burned bodies could be seen. The scene before me was gruesome and disturbing, and it was by pure sheer of will that I didn't throw up the contents that rolled into my stomach. Putting all the pain and sickness aside I started to remember something, or rather, someone very important – SAM! – the plea came with all the strength I could muster to my diaphragm. And so happened, for several minutes, the desperate search for the name of the only survivor besides me, or so I hoped. I was looking through the bodies for half an hour now; I was starting to lose hope when I saw the long and dark blonde hair of the unconscious teenage boy that I was looking for. Samuel J. Cormack was the son of the only man that ever helped me, and the only friend I had now, his hair was entangled and dirty with dust and blood, he was lying on his belly, so, using all the delicacy I possessed, I turned him gently so as not to aggravate any other injury he might had, after all I had to be certain that there were no injuries that threatened his life. Sam was a thin, ordinary-looking sixteen-year-old boy wearing a thick cloth jacket, underneath was a red short-sleeved shirt with the print of a Chinese dragon in the chest area, jeans and boots, all of them crumpled, a little torn and dusty, his skin was tanned, almost immaculate if not for the wide cut in his left eye, painting his face a dark red. After examining his heartbeat I checked to see if the kid hadn't suffered any further injury, to my relief he was apparently fine, but the injury in his head worried me, as far as I knew he could have suffered a head trauma, as he was fainted I had no way to ask him where or what it hurt. There was nothing I could do for Sam except to keep him safe, but I couldn't do anything if I bleed to death. After leaving Sam in a place protected from the sun I began to look for a metal stick that was not completely twisted or blazing, it took ten minutes before I could find it, it was long and after I was done with what I pretended to do I could use it as a spear or staff, after that I searched all over the crashing zone for any kind of medicine or first aid kit I could use, I spent two hours searching this time. Remedies were not the only things I was looking for, I picked up everything that was useful and I gathered near where Sam was lying, food, drink, flashlights, pocketknives, anything to help us survive, after that I went to the cargo compartment of the plane. There I searched only for four things: my belongings, Sam's belongings and the coffins of Sam's parents. Isaac and Elaine Cormack were the kindest people I've ever met, they were the oldest and most trusted friends I've ever had and never would have again. The two had died three days before. I was spending the month at their home in Australia, it happened a few days before I left, on the day of the reading of the will my presence was requested, which I found strange, but I soon understood the reason, they had given me the guard of their son, I thought they were crazy for making such a decision, but out of respect for them, I honoured their last wish. As carefully as I could, I took their coffins from the cargo compartment and placed them next to the boy, now things were going to get a little tricky. With the metal stick in one hand and a first aid kit in another, I searched for a fire that had not gone out, which was not difficult, I put the tip of the stick in the fire as I prepared the medical kit and waited. After a while the tip turned a glowing yellow, I removed the stick from the fire and approached it from my abdomen, where the metal fragment was still lodged, and with a swift movement, I removed the fragment while pressing the incandescent metal on my white skin which began to sizzle, form blisters and blacken. The pain was not instantaneous, it took some time for my brain to process what I was feeling, unlike what many infer about a cauterized wound I didn't felt warm, I felt cold, but it was only after I felt the scent of burnt flesh that I felt it, strong as ever, overwhelming, unbearable and cruel pain. I screamed so loudly that I could have sworn they heard me from the other side of the world. The temperature of the stick was so high that pieces of my skin got stuck in the iron, I had to fight hard not to faint, after all I had one more job to do: dig more than two hundred pits for the more than two hundred passengers on the plane and that would take a long time.
Three days, it took me three whole days to dig all the pits, three days burying the corpses of man, woman, child's and olds, whole families that would never see their relatives ever again. Two hundred, two hundred lives lost in less than a day, a least now, their worries, their pain and troubles where gone. I did what had to be done for them, the right thing that was, unfortunately, what not everyone would had done, I had putted my needs aside and gave them a proper burial. The dead no longer worried me; it was a very lively boy who had my attention now, a boy who slept for three days, which worried me, for all I knew he could be in coma and, sadly, there was nothing I could do unless search for help. Now was the time to move. For another day I spent time working on a way to move all our supplies, the coffins and Sam with me for the travel to come. I was always good in creating things, but I really did it this time, basically, with the wreckage of the plane that was not completely destroyed, I created a covered metal wagon that could accommodate both the supplies, our belongings and Sam with a small trolley attached to the wagon where the coffins could be carried, in the front I placed a metal bar for everything to be pulled.
In the moment I knew two things: one, when we were at the plane our destination was Germany, Sam's parents wanted to be buried at their homeland, but we had to stop in the Namibian airport for some reason, okay, so far so good. Two, as we flew over the Congo the plane went through a mechanical failure, the turbines exploded and the plane crashed in an unknown area of the savannah. So, summing up, I'm stuck with an unconscious kid in a hostile place full of wild animals that could kill us at any moment and, to make matters worse, I had no idea where to go but, well, its life, nothing happens the way we expect. It was time for the long journey to begin and, even though I didn't know then, it would be the longest of my life.