Scar - The One True King
Chapter 1: The Divine Innocence of
Taka
You are my son, and the one true king.
Young Scar awoke shivering in slight pain. He vaguely remembered anything, or why he was hurting. He only wanted to know where he was, and why his father Tau had left him alone in the bitter darkness. He only lay there for a second, his head spinning. Grunting, he dared himself to move, but feared the sharp pains that might appear in his body. If only he were dead, maybe then he wouldn't have to take in the horrible fact that he was here - all alone. No one to protect poor Taka, no one to care for him.
Water.
He heard the water quietly rippling behind him, and reacted. His body hurt as he finally arose from the dirt and turned to what he now saw as the waterhole. His left eye stung and now he saw why. As he looked into the water and the blood dripped into the face of his reflection, he saw it - the Scar.The Scar that would last for all of his life, and the Scar that would hurt him for eternity. Now he remembered.
"Father..."
"You shouldn't have done it!" Tau had screamed at the small cub. "How could you have gotten lost? How could you have forgotten your way back to the pridelands?"
"But, Father, I -"
"Mufasa and I were looking all over for you, thinking that the hyenas had gotten to you before we could!"
"Mufasa? Mufasa wasn't looking for me at all, Father! He was too busy playing with Sarabi, I saw them!"
He growled lowly - Taka had said the wrong thing at the wrong moment.
"How dare you defy your own brother, your own royal blood!" With a strong paw held over Taka's face, he was thrown back into the dirt and it left him howling in pain. He felt dizzy, and found himself spiraling slowly into unconsciousness.
He had left him, left him alone to die. He left him in the dark by the waterhole. Maybe Tau was hoping that a crocodile would devour Taka whole, and he wouldn't come back to the pridelands, and that Mufasa and only Mufasa would be the one and only king.
But, he was only a child - a small cub with what seemed like no family - no pride. Did Tau hate his second son so much that he would want to hit - want to abuse him, and leave him scarred?
And he was still bleeding, still hurting. He cried, cried till he couldn't - till it was too unbearably painful to shed another tear. And he looked at his face in the water, looked at his fresh bleeding wound, and he honestly couldn't tell whether the blood were from his wounds, or from his tears.
He lives in you.
Someone that evil couldn't possibly dwell in the heart of an innocent cub, not anyone that would hurt him, no. But, he had to go back to the pridelands, whether his father was evil or not. He would talk to his mother. His mother wouldn't hate him, he was loved by her, of course.
But how did he know that his mother wouldn't disown him like his father, Mufasa and probably the rest of the pride did? What if she gave up on him as well as all the others? What if she thought of him as now evil for defying Mufasa, his big brother? Is that what he was?
Evil?
He was marked, the Scar had proved it. It meant unkind and vicious. Cruel and unworthy. Even his bright green eyes gave him a dangerous characteristic. The blood running down his face from the wound meant death. It gave him a whole new look on his name.
Deception,
Disgrace,
Evil as plain
as the scar
on his face...
At least he was still somewhat in the pridelands, and he didn't have to far to go, but it seemed so different in the night, and so quiet. Oh, how he wished he had Zazu to guide him, like Mufasa did whenever he ventured out. The stupid hornbill whom he hated most of the time, would be a great relief to see - a miracle. Taka whimpered, contemplating whether he should stay by the waterhole until dawn, or just head straight for Pride Rock.
He sighed and plopped down into a heap of fur, forcing his salty tears not to overflow and sting his face. He shall wait till dawn to go back home and face the all mighty Tau, and his brother Mufasa, the one true king.