NOTE: This is ONLY a fanfic, and this fanfic tells of the nightmare Simba has, only things go differently for the king. All rights reserved, The Lion King (c) Disney, Fanfic (c) Odd-Tiger. Mild to mature violence and/or gore may be apparent in some segments of the story, rated T otherwise friendly.
~CHAPTER 1~
It was dusk, the night was falling over the Pridelands, and dark clouds were closing in, signaling rain. King
Simba and his mate, Queen Nala, were just returning to a large rock formation at which their pride stayed, called Pride Rock. Simba at the moment, was not happy with his daughter Kiara, whom which had been found with the outlander male known as Kovu.
"My father's law will prevail, but for now, I reserve judgment. We'll see who you really are.", Simba had said to Kovu just before getting on their way, for Kovu had claimed he was no longer involved with Zira's plot to overthrow Simba and take back the Pridelands under Scar's name, and had requested to stay with Simba and his pride.
Simba had a right to distrust the younger male, and he was only following instinct, let alone protocol that the laws of the King before him demanded. Simba pondered all these thoughts, just since he took his rightful place as king he and his pride had been through a lot, with trouble from Zira at most. And now that he has been requested by a rogue lion from that side of the river where the outlanders had been banished to, it only added to the stress. Protecting his daughter was only a more complicated task. Out of the corner of his eye, Simba spotted Kovu about to enter with his pridemates into the den, this angered Simba and he jumped into action. Giving a warning growl to Kovu as he passed by, he joined his pride in the den, coming up beside his mate and cubhood best friend Nala.
"Oh, my Simba.", cooed Nala, sensing his tension towards Kovu, whom had rescued their daughter from a fire and deserved better treatment in return.
"I don't trust him, he was banished with the other outsiders, and that is where he belongs.", growled Simba.
Just then, the King noticed his daughter Kiara had approached the young male. She leaned down and forward to him, as if she was telling him something that she didn't want anyone else to hear, and Simba saw Kovu respond by sitting up.
"What kind of hunter are you anyway princess? You almost got yourself killed out there!", Kovu said curtly to Kiara, and Simba had heard.
Their little conversation went on for a bit longer, and Simba had had enough.
"Kiara!", he called her, and the young lioness whipped her head around to look back into the den, hearing the anger in her father's voice and knew she'd to obey.
"Coming!", she alerted him, and her voice carried back to Simba in an echo through the den, but this only irritated him more once he saw her turn back to continue on with Kovu. She said something to the outlander that was inaudible to Simba, but he watched closely awaiting her to come inside.
Finally she walked away from Kovu and into the den, taking her spot next to a few other lionesses but also near the King and Queen, lying down for sleep.
"What did you say to him?", questioned Simba.
"Relax, father. I was just thanking him for saving me, had he of not been there then I wouldn't be here.", Kiara replied, lifting her head from her neatly folded paws just slightly tucked under her chest, and then rested it once more.
Simba only gave a heavy sigh with a disapproving shake of his head, and looking back once more towards the den entrance and eye-balled Kovu like a hungry hawk. How was it that Kiara was always able to separate herself from Timon and Pumbaa, the ones Simba assigned to watch the princess? Even when she was a cub, she was easily out of the two's sight within minutes. Then again, it was a given, because Timon and Pumbaa weren't exactly the couple of sharpest minds on the Savannah. Giving another sigh Simba nearly mimicked Kiara's resting pose, but didn't tuck in his paws like she did, and rested his head between them rather than upon them. He watched Kovu until he began to feel sleep tug at him, and eventually the rogue became nothing but a blurred figure in what seemed like a long distance and everything seemed to fall silent. His eyes closed then for the night, or at least until his next wake, but his thoughts and fears of having Kovu in his presence seemed to fuel his dreams. The nightmare began...
"Simba! Simba! Help me!", Simba could hear a voice echo from below a deadly familiar edge of a steep dropdown into a canyon. He ran on over in long leaps, his nightmare making his movements slow no matter how hard he tried to move swiftly. He looked over the edge to find his near mirror image of himself but of an older version, calling his name and clinging for dear life to the rock face of the canyon wall, with shadowy and evil-looking beings moving thunderously below and waiting.
"Father!", Simba recognized this image to be another lion, but not just any lion. It was Mufasa, the long late King whom fathered Simba up until Scar had turned on him and purposely committed treason for the throne. But just then, as Simba began to reach down for his father, and as his father began to reach up, he heard the laughter of a very dark entity just behind him and getting closer. Simba turned slowly fearing to see just the one he knew owned that laugh, but it was too late, he'd seen another lion moving towards them.
"No! Death! Just a little...Further!", Simba turned back to look down at his frightened father, trying to reach as far as he could before the entity could reach him first, but it was of no avail. Right as he could nearly touch his father's paw, their claws just inches away from each other, Simba felt himself be grabbed by the entity.
"Gotcha!", the entity smirked, then hissed "Trust me...", and Simba turned his head again towards it in fear, and he turned back at the sound of claws scrapping against rock, he knew his father was sliding further and further away from him to his fate.
"Simba!", called Mufasa, just before he lost his grip and fell to oblivion.
"NO! Scar!", Simba threw his head back at the entity in a roar, with tears slipping through his angered eyes. But just before his gaze, the entity turned from the dark-hearted Scar, to his own mirror image; Kovu. This caught Simba by surprise, and he forgot all about Mufasa for that one instant.
"K-Kovu?", Simba could hardly believe his eyes, but like Scar had done with his father when Mufasa died, Kovu did the same to Simba. He threw Simba back and let go of him to let Simba fall like his father. Simba felt the shadowy and evil-looking figures rush towards him, as well as the awaiting hard ground, but the fall felt slower and more agonizingly torturous than it would have been in the real world. Simba could do nothing, but wait.
He hit the ground. Hard. He saw flashes of memories in his head. The start of the stampede, the herd of wildebeest running down into the canyon, him as a cub getting trapped within their pounding hooves, his father leaping in to save him and then getting trampled on, and finally seeing him be thrown from the rock face which he had at the time thought was his fault. And then everything was dark. Simba couldn't breathe, he couldn't see, but most of all he couldn't feel a thing. Then the pain slammed into him like a strong wave of water, he felt everything, every broken bone and every scratch. His breath was stolen from him, the pain was un-baring. But a light, brighter than the sun, soon encased him and the pain seemed to leave. Was he dead? Did he die in his sleep, in his nightmarish dream? No. He didn't feel dead, but rather very much alive.
"Save him!", a voice warned him. Simba looked around bewildered.
"Save him?...", he echoed the words.
"Save him, save your father!", the voice said, and Simba finally understood.
"Simba...Each time you fail, you will be held longer here, dead in your sleep", he heard another voice say, but he couldn't see who it belonged to as he looked around.
"Long live the king, long live the king, long live the king...", many other voices seemed to echo. Were these the voices of the other kings of the past? Simba could not tell, and everything became pitch black again, until finally he could breathe...
Simba woke from his nightmare, breathing and gasping for air, looking around with wide eyes of fear. He finally realized where he was then.
"It was all...Just a dream?", he asked himself allowed.
"Each time you fail...Dead in your sleep...Save him...Long live the king...", the verses all repeated themselves in Simba's head, he could not let go of what he'd just seen or heard. He hadn't ever had a dream like this one before. No matter, he was able to calm himself down and rested his head once again on the ground, but didn't feel sleep right away. He didn't know if he wanted to go back to sleep, frightened he'd find himself in another one of those nightmares, which he didn't want. But he could no longer fight it, sleep caught him again, but this time to his relief he fell into an empty and dreamless slumber.
Simba woke that next early morning, the sun was still rising and only a fragment of it's light had kissed Pride Rock's surface, at the top where Mufasa had taken Simba to the first morning of his lessons as future King. It was still dark in the den, and everyone was soundly asleep, except things seemed different. Then Simba realized, where was Kovu? The outlander male had vanished, he wasn't where he was the night before, and Simba looked around to see if he might be amongst his pridemates in the den. He didn't see him, then looked at Kiara who slepted soundly, but still no Kovu. Simba sighed, maybe this was a good thing, and slowly sat his stiff self up with a wide yawn. He sat like that for a moment, before getting to his paws and slowly walking to the den entrance, looking back at Nala with a soft expression as the lioness slept with her kind smile on her muzzle. Wonder what she's dreaming about?
Simba could feel the morning as he walked out of the den, the sound of the titihoya birds crying aloud into the dawn, and the smell of the soothing breezes brought from the tropical jungles. It was truly peaceful, and this made Simba forget all about the troubles surrounding his pride, nothing seemed evil in this moment. He stretched forward, then as he pulled himself back up he shook his mane, feeling a bit thirsty. He opened his eyes wider, all signs of drowsiness gone from him, and he walked down from Pride Rock and towards the watering hole.
Upon reaching the watering hole, Simba's throat felt more dry. Perhaps it was from all the screaming he did in his nightmare? He approached the shore silently, crouching down, and then lapping at the cold water. Little did he know, he was being watched. He felt the eyes of someone watching him intently, and he stopped to look around him alertly, but saw nothing. The feeling eased, as if whatever it was that was watching him was distracted or lost interest, and he rolled it off his shoulders. He left the watering hole to go on with the dawn patrol of his borders.
The sun had risen a little higher by the time Simba reached the canyon. This place brought back painful memories. He approached the edge of the canyon, looking down at the bare rock face, and even though it was some time past dawn it was still a dark and loomy place. Dead silence, though Simba could still hear the sound of the stampeding wildebeests, and his father's scream in a dying breath. For a moment Simba thought he saw a limp figure on the ground under the broken sapling tree, but it was just his eyes playing tricks on him, as well as his mind. Still, Simba decided to go down into the canyon, forgetting his patroling task. He found a narrow pathway down, and followed it, soon setting paw on the smooth dusty ground. Dust flew up after each step he took, his eyes wandered up and down the rock walls and then ahead, sometimes behind. He spotted the rock located under an acacia tree where his uncle Scar had left him, and he could remember the greatening sound of a thousand stomping hooves, and when he had followed that sounds to see the herd rushing toward him. Suddenly he heard echoes of his name, his father's voice, like from his dream. Simba shook his head to clear it all away, and it all stopped.
"The past is in the past, the past is in the past...", he repeated to reassure himself, and went on through the canyon.
He came closer to the broken sapling tree, and a ray of sunlight shown down on it, right on a small flower that grew where Mufasa's body once rested. But, Simba wasn't the only one there, he saw another figure. This one was living, and the lack of a mane told him it was a lioness, an elderly one at that. Her scent was familiar to him.
"Simba, my son...", she spoke softly, but didn't turn around to meet his eyes, her gentle gaze rested on the flower.
"Mother, what are you doing down here?", Simba asked, coming up beside her and sitting his rump down.
"What are YOU doing here?", she asked stubbornly, but she was amused.
Simba didn't answer, he looked down at the flower and his eyes softened, tears threatened to spill.
"I know my son, I miss him too...", Sarabi felt his pain, the loss. Her tone was gentle but raspy, and her fur was tinged with silver to show her age, her body was frail.
"I remember the last night I spent with him", Simba's voice cracked.
"The great kings of the past watch over us from the stars, your father was a great king. The great king Mufasa.", Sarabi said, looking up at the morning sky, where there were no stars. Simba followed her gaze.
"Do you think Scar's up there?", Simba dare asked, and his mother gave a huff of disgust.
"That sorry excuse of a king! Committing treason was his own downfall, unlike his brother he didn't earn his place in the sky among the stars, he claimed he was ten times the king Mufasa was but that was a lie.", Sarabi said bitterly, and Simba was sorry he asked.
"Will I ever get there?", he asked after a long moment's silence.
"Simba...You have done more than you must do to earn your place alongside your father in the stars, but you still have a long while yet before you pass on, my son. You are still young, this kingdom needs you...You are just like your father in every way, you have his strong spirit and open heart, and that thought is a hopeful one.", Sarabi said to her son.
"But...I can't...Zira, she won't...", Simba stammered.
"Simba, you are the one true king, the son of Mufasa and I. Let it all go, don't let your nerves and worries take over, let the kings guide you. I know you will find a way out of this, don't worry.", Sarabi nuzzled her son lovingly, and Simba returned it.
"Thank you...Mother", he smiled softly, and she looked into his eyes with her own gentle smile, and she quietly left him, going back to Pride Rock. Simba watched her for a minute or two until she was a shadow in the dusty air, and soon gone. Then he looked back at the flower that grew on his father's grave, with the one ray of sunlight shining down on it. He sighed, looking at the sky once more, and he smiled.
~END OF CHAPTER 1~