LIGHT FOR EVERYONE - A Lion King fanfiction
"He who, through some alchemy, can extract from his heart to merge them back together, compassion, respect, need, patience, regret, surprise, and forgiveness creates this atom called Love."
Khalil Gibran
Chapter One : Trespassers
High in the skies, the blazing disc of the rising sun was performing his eternal ritual, enshrouding the Pridelands within its fiery shape and accompanying the first noises of dawn.
At the top of a tree, a colorful hornbill issued a long single note as a salute to the new sun, and then plunged towards the ground and an invisible insect. Not far away, a termite colony was already brooding in silence, like a whole miniature city which thrived, unaware of the existence of the external world, and of the vulture hovering above like a feathered vampire.
At the same time, a cheetah stretched lazily on top of another tree, and decided, after a moment of hesitation, to give himself a few more minutes of respite. In the distance resounded the dramatic roar of a lion.
Like every morning of creation, nature was slowly awakening, quietly snorting after a night of sleep and dreams. But this morning, something insidious was about to strike at its core.
Banzai marked a pause in the middle of the high grass, raising an anxious glance towards the glowing sun. Time was of the essence... To his kin, the sun was a false friend, capable of betraying you at any moment, just like Scar the Forsaken had done in the past ... And especially when you found yourself forced to trespass into a territory where a hyena was likely to be killed on sight. But it had to be done; every now and then, a matter of life or death could push you to do foolish things; and truth be said, it had mostly been a matter of death for his clan, as of late.
His litter brother, another hyena named Ed, was mopping just behind, a perpetually psychotic smile plastered onto his muzzle.
"Move your ass, Ed ... We gotta be quick." Banzai whispered at his twin's address, to which Ed replied with an hysterical laughter. Ed may have looked idiot, but he was far from it; he simply had absences. And in his case, guffawing madly had always been easier than actually talking…
Banzai cringed at his laughter. "Yeah ... you won't be laughing when one of 'em lions sends his claws up your buttocks, genius… So knock it off, and follow me..." he replied. Ed complied, giggling with embarrassment.
They stealthily continued to advance through the high grass for a while, until a peculiar smell came to tickle Banzai's nostrils. Zebras... Probably not many, but a single one would be a godsend already. Raising his head above the grass, the male hyena glanced about, soon spotting the characteristic stripped skin of the large animal. In silence, he motioned for Ed to follow, and quickly covered the distance that separated them from their prey... The zebra perked its ears in alarm, throwing worried glances around as it could feel the presence of its natural predators ; but Banzai had already jumped at it a quarter of seconds later, firmly planting his fangs into its spine.
"Chom' on 'is 'egs, 'ome on !" the male hyena shouted at Ed's intention, as the zebra was furiously kicking out to try and get rid of Banzai. But Ed contented himself with remaining motionless, a blissful smile painted on his face as he contemplated the scene. Banzai rolled his eyes in annoyance...
"I said" Banzai began, releasing his grip for a split second "Chomp on his legs, come on!"
A glimmer of understanding shone in Ed's eyes, and he threw himself at the zebra, biting on its tail to immobilize it. The animal let out a whine of pain, and Banzai tightened his jaws onto its carotid artery. A jet of warm blood gushed out, splashing the male hyena and the herbs around; the zebra's eyes wildly rolled in their sockets as its very life was escaping its body in long, rhythmic gushes. Stepping away from the dying animal, Banzai gasped for seconds, then bit on the animal's knees to prevent it from escaping. As seconds passed, the zebra's movements became less nimble and more erratic, and it finally collapsed back, imprisoning Ed under its massive buttocks.
"When you'll be done clowning about... Would ya mind helping me?" Banzai growled. "Cripes, the sun is getting higher..."
Pulling out from under the dead zebra, Ed took a step towards his brother, who was preparing to dismember the carcass; all of a sudden, however, a grimace of pain deformed his traits, as an inarticulate moan was arising from his throat.
"What again, Ed? What is it? ..." Banzai barked. The other male had placated its front paws on his rear… Seconds later, his eyes rolled back in their sockets, and he slumped to the ground, a silly smile plastered on his face. Banzai blinked and walked over to Ed, who seemed oddly more "disconnected" than usual - which, considering his perpetual state of stupor, was proving to be rather worrying.
"Ed? You okay, Bro? ... " The male hyena tried in vain, poking his brother between his eyes. For all response, Banzai himself felt a painful and sudden stinging in his rear part, which managed a groan of surprise out of his throat.
"Aaaaowwww!" He bellowed, while a throbbing pain was suddenly invading the most sensitive part of his anatomy… Strange colors danced before his eyes, and an opaque veil gradually obscured his ideas.
"I think I'm gonna puke..."
Such was his last thought, a split second before everything went pitch black.
This morning, something insidious, coming from outside the Pridelands, and even outside the animal kingdom itself, had thus trespassed onto a territory that had ceased to be its own centuries ago. And that presence was already jubilant at the prospect of making it his own hunting grounds.
It was a sunray, filtering through a crevice of the rock, that woke up Kiara this morning. The lioness twisted her muzzle into a grimace that might have seemed comical, and sneezed vigorously in the process, realizing a second too late that her companion was sleeping directly in front of her...
Kovu grunted in surprise and blinked his golden eyes, giving Kiara a look of both shock and confusion, while the lioness plastered a paw on her muzzle with embarrassment.
"Sorry ..." she ventured in, trying to contain a fit of giggles.
The male lion shook his mane, anxious to recover at least a fraction of its dignity, before smiling back at Kiara.
"I usually prefer to be woken up in a less wet manner, Kiara." Kovu joked, pressing his muzzle against hers.
Kiara laughed, returning this beastly equivalent of a kiss, before beginning to stretch, dissipating the numbness of her muscles after nearly twelve hours of sleep, and simultaneously offering Kovu a pleasant demonstration of feline grace. The male sat up with a beatific smile, reveling in the spectacle with an enthusiasm that would have been more suited to a prepubescent cub...
"The view is as beautiful as ever on this side of the Pride Rock, dare I say. Yet another perfect morning on our land. " Kovu commented, licking his chops.
"No morning can claim perfection without breakfast, dare i add." Kiara replied. "We'd better hurry before the best preys are taken... or the other lionesses begin gloating about the fact that I'm starving you, my Prince!"
A few minutes later, both were walking outside in the warm sunlight, engaged in this eternal ritual of greeting which, over time, had almost come to be part of a collective unconscious shared among the lions. The light was part of their existence and their traditions; or so it seemed to Kovu. And it was so good to feel special, one of the few chosen ones.
«Everything the Light touches ... " the young lion started.
"No Light is ever going to touch your stomach if you do not stop philosophizing one second, my friend." Kiara interrupted with a mocking laugh. A second later, the lioness had already jumped at the feet of Pride Rock, on the lookout for a prey...
"They should be found in several flavors!" Kovu joked after finishing his meal. The male lion licked his blood-stained muzzle with satisfaction, before turning his attention to Kiara, while his companion was still busy tearing strips of flesh from the zebra carcass they had discovered not far from Pride Rock... It was surprising that a lioness could have abandoned a barely killed prey like that. But neither Kiara nor Kovu were going to complain about it, all too happy to be spared the need to hunt on this rather hot morning.
"Mayhaps you should tell Father about it!" Kiara quipped, between two mouthfuls, before carefully licking the blood that covered her claws. She then straightened up, stretching and sniffing the air.
"Speaking of Father and the Pride..." Kovu replied.
"Yes?"
"He asked me when we intend to make him a grandfather, you know..."
Kiara laughed heartily. "I'll name my daughter Huruma."
"And what if it's a male?" Kovu replied, intrigued.
"It will be a female."
"You don't say! And how can you be so sure?" the lion asked, resting his chin on his front paws.
"Because I'm a female." Kiara replied flatly, before jumping up and disappearing among the high grass. "And now, just you try and catch me with a full belly!" She teasingly shouted at Kovu's address, leaving a crystalline laugh float behind her.
The male lion remained speechless for a split second, then sighed. So much for killing time with a little nap!
Surely, the mane of a lion was his pride; but it could become a major embarrassment when it was a matter of running, especially after a hearty meal. Kiara knew this, and couldn't help laughing at the sight of Kovu dawdling after her, barely able to maintain a constant distance between them.
"So what?" She commented while pausing in her track to face her companion. "Is it the best you've got? How can you hope making a grandfather out of our King if you can't even catch me first? I'm starting to think that you're the grandpa, my Prince!" Kiara taunted him with a playful wink. For a moment she remained motionless, almost allowing him to touch her, before leaping out of his reach at the last moment.
"Missed!" She trumpeted, failing to notice the tree in front of her...
"Ow!"
Kovu stopped dead and let out a tired laugh.
"I may have missed, but this tree didn't!" He chuckled before tilting his head in concern. "Kiara? Are you hurt?"
No response...
Kovu quickly covered the distance that separated him from his companion, and peered around the tall grass, but only to see Kiara pounce on him at the last second and send him rolling on his back.
"And thus the hunter becomes the prey!" commented the lioness, laying a paw on her Prince's belly.
Kovu chuckled and spread his paws in a parody of submissive posture. "Okay. You win. But this is the last time."
"Yes, that's what you keep saying all the time!" Kiara replied, rubbing her muzzle against his. Kovu closed his eyes, reveling in the preciousness of the present moment. Upon reopening them, he then noticed Kiara's look seemed suddenly directed towards something he could not see from his position, but which seemed to divert all her attention.
The Elephant Graveyard. A necropolis spanning several kilometers around, and constantly invaded by suffocating fumes. Everyone in the Pridelands knew that these vapors were none other than the residues from burning geysers. But to Kovu, this indistinct and creepy fog had always irresistibly evoked the lost souls of pachyderms who came here to die. It was the final frontier, bordering the Desert where Nothing Lives adjacent to the Pridelands ; an area of darkness and despair where grass itself dared not grow ; an undead in-between, unpleasant and sinister, in the image of the scavengers who inhabited it.
Kovu had been only told stories about the hyenas that once haunted this place. Things had changed by now, or at least that's what his King had told him. There was nothing else here, save for bleached bones and a sterile soil. And thus he could hardly conceive Kiara's sudden interest for this territory, so opposed to the Pridelands.
"This place gives me the creeps." Kovu commented vaguely, as he contemplated the bony carcasses extending out of sight.
Kiara was silent, not averting her gaze from the landscape of forgetfulness that extended before them. After a few seconds of an awkward silence, the lioness stood up and walked to the narrow gorge that twisted its way towards the Elephant Graveyard; Kovu blinked, confused, and stood awkwardly as well.
"Kiara? What are you doing?"
The female did not answer, merely pushing further through the moist vapor.
"We should not be here. We should not even get close to it. Father forbid us..." Kovu protested, throwing anxious glances around. As they progressed, the desolate landscape seemed on the verge of snapping shut onto them, like the jaws of some antediluvian beast whose teeth would have been giant ribcages.
Kovu grimaced in disgust, snorting at the smell of death and decay that hovered around the area. "It stinks!" He grumbled, as a half-reproach addressed to Kiara. "There is nothing good for us here. Just carrions and those pesky geysers!"
But the lioness remained silent, as if hypnotized by this haunted place. After a few minutes, she reached the edge of a depression in the ground where skulls and bones piled up in a macabre composition. Silence reigned, stretching its invisible tentacles around.
Suddenly, something moved inside the crater.
Out of the bony mass, a female hyena pulled out slowly, throwing cautious glances around her. She looked sickly and old, as if a lifetime among bones had gradually drained all life force away from her, leaving only a shell of flesh that still walked among the living yet already wore the mantle of the dead. Her mane, which had probably been thick and fluffy in the past, was now reduced to a meager wave of grayish hair running along her crooked spine. Her right ear was hanging limply, more a vestige of cartilage and scab, and a deep scar was running down her muzzle, splitting her brow in half and extending to the middle of her nose bridge.
The surprise and sudden nature of this vision left Kiara without reaction. She stopped dead, so that her presence remained unnoticed. Kovu had a similar reaction, and froze at the sight of the predator, his mane bristling as a roar was about to leave his throat.
But the hyena below them showed no sign of hostility. She hadn't even noticed the presence of the two lions. Limping to the center of the crater, she just let out a hoarse yelp... Inside the bone crevice from where she had appeared, something smaller than a lion cub stirred slightly, before trotting outside.
The hyena cub must have been already several months old, as evidenced by the small brown spots that were beginning to appear on its fluffy coat. But it was so small that it looked like it was barely a few weeks instead, and his legs had troubles carrying it as it walked towards his mother. Immediately after him, a second baby showed up, cautiously sniffing the air before leaving the den. Their mother limped up to them, briefly licking their muzzles and extending her protective shadow over them while she stood watching. She then undertook to scratch the ground with her valid front paw, digging out a bone fragment where a few shriveled shreds of flesh were still attached. Both babies squeaked in unison, throwing themselves onto the carcass with such eagerness that one of them lost its balance and rolled over with a pitiful cry. Approaching it, his mother helped it back on its feet, and the cub immediately clung to the comforting maternal nipples.
In silence, Kiara stared at the spectacle. And she was surprised that so much softness could arise from this scene; a devoted mother, and innocent children. That's what it was all about… However, the picture's tenderness was also tinted with pain. Small, sickly and malnourished, the young cubs were painful to watch, and would probably not survive long.
At her side, Kovu stood motionless, his incredulous look switching between the scene below, and the strange expression that had invaded Kiara's face.
"I thought these… things had fled the place. Just wait till the King learn of it, and..."
"Shut up." Kiara interrupted him, on a tone which was forbidding any reply. The male lion stared at her in disbelief for seconds, and shook his head.
"Come on! They are hyenas!" he replied in a dangerously loud voice.
Kiara said nothing and continued to watch the female and her cubs below. The hyena mother was suddenly acting nervous; mayhaps she could perceive their smell. Letting out a brief cackling, she hastened to lead her children to the safety of the burrow, pushing them inside with her muzzle.
"I've seen enough." Kovu let out with a grimace of disgust. "Let's go."
But Kiara was already preceding him, walking silently along the rocky gorge and back to the Pridelands. The male lion quickly followed her, all too happy to put some distance between himself and that foul abyss.
"Are you going to explain me?" He let out at her address, after they had finally reached the grassy border separating the Elephant Graveyard from their own territory. Fear, anger and incomprehension; Kiara could perceive all of this in the voice of her companion. Obviously, he was expecting more than a vague explanation about her reasons for venturing into such a place; Kovu also tacitly reproached her something else.
"What do you think we saw? A mother and her children. That's it." She answered.
Kovu growled, his chops pursing in a snarl; for a second, he was another one...
"Tell me about it. It would have been a pleasure to rip these little runts apart."
Turning back, Kiara stared a moment at him. "You keep telling horrors, Kovu. Especially when you're scared." And she walked away without fanfare.
And that's it for Chapter One!
What happened to Banzai and his brother?
Is Kiara going to confront her father about the hyenas' misery?
Find out soon in Chapter 2 !