Chapter 1 "Laval in Exile"

Last time in Chima

In the magical world of Chima, peace was on the rise. All the tribes had gathered for peace talks. Alas, it was for nothing, as Crooler threw the roots of the persuasion plant into the fire and trapped our heroes in a fog of destiny. Laval was able to break free of the fog, but in order to free the others from the fog, had to steal an orb of golden Chi. He saved his friends but at what cost? These are the legends of Chima.

POV: Lagravis

A tired white mane lion races on his royal speedor through the crocodile swamps, with one of the last creatures of Chima he expected to come to his rescue, Skinnet. That stinky skunk came to his rescue, while he was trapped by the crocodiles. While he was captured, he learned that Crooler was the one to start the war, the crocodiles had launched against the Lions. The anger he had felt for her. If he wasn't born in Chima and in chains, he would have ripped her apart right then. Peace be dammed, it was because of her that so much pain had been done. Not only had she started the war, but she revealed that it was her that threw the persuasion plant in the fire, causing Laval's….

"Laval." Lagravis spoke at the mere thought of his son.

The old king couldn't help but feel his age setting in and heaviness in his heart. His son had broken the rules to try and rescue his friends. Cragger in return, called for war on the lions. When his son returned to the city he had to the hardest thing he did as a leader. He had experienced this pain before, when he had to exile his brother, but the pain was so much more now that he had to banish is own son.

In the court of the lion temple, Lagravis stands on the throne of the lions reading from a scroll. His face in a sad expression, as he must now speak the words he prayed he never had to say.

"Exile, this is your penalty Laval." In his mind he echoes, 'Must he be punished for saving his friends?'
"For stealing an orb of golden Chi you are to be exiled from this tribe and from every other tribe in Chima. Lagravis pulls down the scroll wanting to see if his son would change his mind, plea for mercy so this can be stopped, but knowing how his son claimed that his destiny was to be a great leader and to lead by example, he wouldn't. That thought brings the aging lions face into a sad frown.

"All shall be forbidden to speak to you. You shall be an outcast; do you have anything to say Laval?"

'Please Laval, please, I can't lose you too, first my brother, then my wife, now you?'

Laval steps forward, the young prince surrounded by trained armed lion guards, and says with a smirk. "Ah, I guess I shouldn't count on being invited to this year's holiday part hun?"

The king sighs at this, and his temper ignites, 'Does he not realize what is about to happen?'
"Stop joking around Laval, this is serious. No one in Chima will see you or speak to you again. Including me." He chocks out the last of these words.

"I know and I really am sorry, but I have to do this." Laval adamantly replies.
"Or you can ask us for a pardon. Explain to us how you stole the golden chi to only save your friends." Lagravis pleads with his son.

"I broke the rules, I deserve the punishment."

Slowly the elderly lion walks down the stairs, as the burden of what he must do feels as if the great Mount Cavora was on his shoulders. With one last look at his son, he looks down at the treaty signed and officalized by the pride council.

"You, Laval are forever banished from the tribes of Chima."

With great sadness, father watched son, remove his sword, the armor, and even the royal crown, giving them to his father. As each item was placed into this grasp, each one became a valued treasure. He knows this will be all he has left of his only son, the manifest of love between himself and his wife, and now it must leave him, as his beloved had.

Those treasures, now he even didn't have them. Rage poured through Lagravis as fast as the falls of Mount Cavora. The objects that were left of his son, now laid in Cragger's possession. The worse part was that sneaky crocodile used them to capture him.

In his sons, old messy room, Lagravis walked aimlessly around it. After he set down his son's sword and armor on the bed, he looks at the only other occupant in the room. When Laval was younger, he wanted a training dummy to help him practice to be the 'best warrior in all or Chima.' He built it and named it Sir, Punchalot. How his son reminded him of his brother. They would have gotten along so well together.

"Yes, I miss him too Sir Punchalot. More than anything else in the world." As he rests is arm against the dummy; it lets out a squeak. Even the wood seems to be sad that Laval was missing. Looking upon each item in the room, Lagravis's feels despair and loneliness grow in his heart. He was alone, as it appears to be his destiny.

Looking out the window, onto the lands of Chima, he sees a small dust cloud. 'A rider trying out some tricks. Just like Laval would have done.' Looking at the dust cloud, he sees it do a donut, and then a jump with the ending being a zooming out of the dust cloud into the forest. A flash of red and gold catches his eye, as the red shows the face of a lion.

"Laval?" He speaks. A feeling of hope rushes to him. 'Rules be dammed, I'm seeing my son!'

It was easy to catch up to the other speedor. It was if his son was waiting for him to come so they could talk. How Lagravis wanted this so much, he just speeds after him. He hadn't seen is son's face yet, it was hidden by a blue cloak, but he could already picture his son's face, ready to just talk and be happy.

"Laval!" He shouts trying to get his attention. He was here, can't he see that there is no need to travel any farther. His son must have a reason for not slowing down, but why?

As they passed the outside gate the rider and Lagravis steps off of their speedors. The rider starts to remove his hood

"Laval is that you?" It was like all his birthday's combined. He was to see his son again. A smile like that always graces a fathers muzzle when you see your son for the first time, but what happened next made is heart drop and took away that smile The figure turned around and revealed it was no other that his son's ex-best friend Cragger.

"Guess again." The croc speaks. Lagravis sees that the youngster's eyes are glowing, in all the times he had visited the temple, they'd never glowed. Lagravis shook his head in disbelief at the crocs actions.

"What! What's the meaning of this? How did you get Laval's sword and speedor?" He just left his son's sword in his room, as well as the armor that Cragger was wearing, and he even stole his son's Speedor. What an outrage! There is a reason no one messed with a lion's cub, and this croc was going to see why!

"A little birdy gave them to me." Cragger responds, pointing to behind the ageing king.

On top of the boundary gate of the Lion Kingdom, stands a raven, with a blaster. The raven pulls the trigger, and a net falls on the king, knocking him out.

Lagratis, was torn. One part of him still hoped for peace, the other wanting the lions to embrace the cruel instincts that they abandoned all those years ago, and tear those scaly reptiles apart and feast on their hearts. Ultimately he knew that the weight of kingship outweighed what his rage and pride told him to do. With resolve he looks to the lion city as he and Skinnet, pass the final line of trees.

'Those crocs will pay. If they dare come here and attack, like they plan.' He wasn't going to let a single one of them leave; they will either be corpses or be thrown into the dungeons.

At the gates of the palace, several lions, rush out to meet him.

"Your majesty! Where were you? We feared the worse. What happened?"

Lagravis wondered just how his tribe would survive if he really had disappeared or was captured. In the past he would have trust that Laval would do his best to take his place and make him proud. Now, without him, it was uncertain. 'Finding another heir can wait, I have to get this settled now.'

"The crocodiles, captured me." The effect was instantaneous; all the lions present wore dumbfound faces that morphed into ones of anger and rage. Soon the great city of lions was roaring as it had never had before.

"Please, please, calm down everybody."

At the words of the king, the roars started to get softer, until there was silence. Without the roars, though, the rage emanating from his tribe was still palpable. It came from everyone present, including some of Laval's friend that were watching from the gate

"Cragger led me away, under false pretenses. At the city gates they captured me, and took me to their lair. There I learned from Cragger, that he plans an all-out war on us, to take the chi for himself."
Lagravis was forced to stop, as once more roars threated to explode his head.

"SILENCE!" The proud voice of the king stopping the lions in their roars

"I'm angry too, but we have more pressing issues." Signaling to the skunk, Skinnet moves forward.

"This skunk saved me, by jumping though all the guard, and thoroughly humiliating Cragger." Many of the lions look at the skunk with awe. Who knew that this stink skunk could actually take on an army and come out alive, let alone win.

"It was nothing really." Skinnet replied bashfully. "It was because of the slime on the pledge that Laval gave me."

Everyone leans forward toward the skunk.

Lagravis asks quickly, "Skinnet where is my son, maybe he can help us if the crocs attack?"
"Oh that's easy. You see we kept playing this game of hide and seek, where Laval would keep on trying to hide, but he was really bad at it, so I kept on finding him."

"We soon made it to the great gorge, where we found the pledge of the pact, covered in that sticky delicious slime. He was still determined to play that game, until he heard that the croc captured you. So we raced to the croc's swamp. Naturally I won." Many lions shook their head at the skunk's words at the last part.

"Laval wanted to rush into there to save you, but he said he couldn't. It was against the rules of another game, he had to play. So he gave me the wonderful slime, told me to get into the throne room and tell Cragger he could have the delicious paper if he let you go, and to tell him there is always hope."

"But why didn't Laval go with you?" Eris walks up to Skinnet. "Laval would have risked anything for his father, so why didn't he go to save him personally?" She asks.

"He said something like, we all must play by the rules, or there is no game." Skinnet replies to a smile.

Eris hangs her head at this and Lagravis's, heart falls. His son, had come to his aid, but was still determined to follow the rules. 'I really did teach him too well.'

"Assemble the lions." The king speaks, "We must prepare for war. Now that the crocs have that pledge, we must now prepare to face the crocs, and the wolves."

"Ahi Sir!" Shouts the troops. Then they march back into the temple.

"Lagravis." A frail voice asks.

Lagravis turns to see the voice belongs to Eris, one of Laval's closet friends. Red puff eyes now adorn the eagle's face, evidence of her crying since his son's departure. "Do you think Laval will come back?"

"I don't know Eris. I wish he was here. We need him, especially since Cragger will be making an attack for the chi soon."

"I know. Maybe I can find him, tell him what's going on, and he will come back." Eris says hopefully

"No Eris, we need you here. The eagles need you here, and knowing my son, once he sets his mind to something, nothing less that Mount Cavora will change it."

"Yeah you right about that." With that the female eagle lifts her wings and takes off. Off to Eagle's Spire she few until she disappear from Lagravis's sight.

Looking out at the gates of the palace, he can't help but recall his last words with his son.

'I wish this hug could last forever.' The king thought as he held his son in his grasp, softer fur brown fur brushing against his coarse grey coat.

"Don't worry Dad, forever is not as long as you think." Lagravis could only smile at that. 'True Laval, but forever is a very, very long time still.'

Letting his son go, he couldn't help but remember his brother on the day of his Exile. They hadn't even hug, how he wished he could have hugged his brother the last time they were together.

"You were the cub, the last time we exiled someone from our tribe." Laval didn't even know about his brother. He and his wife thought it was best not to tell Laval, so he wouldn't rush to the Outlands to meet his uncle. At best, he became a found memory for the king and the lions. They told stories of his heroic dead with honor and pride. It was clear to see these stories influence on Laval, as he begins to smile.

"You mean Lavertus, I've heard pretty incredible tales of that lion."

"Yes, Lavertus, was once one of our greatest warriors", He smile looking into the forest. How they used to race through it when they were cubs.

"And my best friend, before bad things happened. We haven't seen or heard from Lavertus for ages, I fear the same for you Laval." The king continues, his resolve crumbing as he sees his son now looking into the Outlands. Will he even see his son again, let alone talk with him? Laval turns back to his father.

"You can't exile me from your heart dad. That's where I'll be if you ever need me." It was if a small tiny fire was in his heart. His beloved wife, Leona, said something similar on her day of death. How she would always remain in his and their son's hearts. Seeing his son before him now, he couldn't be more proud of him, for trying to be the best leader possible.

"How did you get so wise son?"

"I had had the best teacher ever." Was his son's final words to him.

The king looks towards the swamp, where the enemy laid. They were the ones that forced his son to break the rules, to save their king. And what do they do? They prepare to attack the lions! They won't get away with this! If it's a fight they want then it's a fight they'll get! If they launch an attack, then they better be ready to pay the consequences.

"Be careful Cragger. Should you attack, I will water the grounds of the Lion Kingdom with your blood!"