Well y'all, I apologize for the long break I took from writing. Too much stuff was going on, but I'm back for a bit. Before I get back to work on Birth of Steele, I figured I'd write this one-shot first.
DISCLAIMER: I OWN NOTHING
"EXILE!"
Kiara's eyes widened in absolute shock at the indictment given to Kovu by her father. Her claws unsheathed and began to scratch at the pale, brown dirt that was below her. Her voice screeching with anger and fury, she shouted in response.
"NO!"
Kiara's scream was deaf to Kovu. He had not expected Simba to welcome him back with open arms, but he had certainly not expect to be banished under the pain of death after his apology.
Fear suddenly surged through Kovu's inner being. Everybody and everything had suddenly turned against him. Why? What had he ever done? What had he ever done to never deserve the chance to be happy?
Kovu immediately turned around, and began to run away, dirt flying up from under his paws. He thought he heard the various animals that inhabited the kingdom break into song, but that didn't matter at all to Kovu anymore.
But he didn't think about Kiara. It was simply too painful. Right as he had finally found his love, his mate for life, she was cruelly ripped from his grasp, and his happiness was ripped away with her.
It was at that moment that the former Outlander, rejected and despised by all but a select few, realized that he was no longer in the Pridelands. He stopped, and took a quick glance at his surroundings.
The area was incredibly lush. Some of the grasses reached as high as his knees, and the sky was dotted with long palm trees. The soil was wet, and the breeze blew briskly through Kovu's midnight black mane.
Suddenly feeling exhausted, Kovu plopped down on the ground, panting heavily. That was when the young lion began to think about his previous questions.
He had experienced nothing but abuse and prejudice his entire life. His pathetic excuse for a mother trained him to kill, to murder, and denied him food whenever he did not respect her harsh wishes. She beat him, and treated him like dirt. When it came to Zira, resistance was futile.
But why did she do all of this to him? It certainly was not her obsessive reverence to Scar. The old king was a tyrant, but he likely would not have done all of that to Kovu, his intended heir. No. That wasn't the reason at all.
Kovu's emerald green eyes suddenly widened as the young lion came upon a massive revelation. It was the throne. Everything that had every happened to him had happened because of the accursed throne.
Zira and the other Outlanders were banished because they thought Scar should have remained on the throne. He had been trained and abused…so he could eventually steal the throne. He had been sent to the Pridelands as a spy and an assassin…so the Outlanders could steal the throne and make him king.
He had been incapacitated during the ambush…so the Outlanders could steal the throne. And finally, he had been exiled…because Simba thought that he was trying to steal the throne.
Kovu slammed his paw against the ground in dark anger. How dare a position, a title, steal so much from him?! He had not had a cubhood, not had an adulthood, and he did not have a loving mate all because of that putrid, hideous throne. Growling, and with teeth bared, Kovu began to speak to himself.
"The throne has beaten me to the ground, time and time again. It has denied me my life, and it has denied me my freedom. I hate the throne. I hate it to the fiery depths of hell and back. A leader is meant to lead, not to rule, and that is exactly what a king does. I will not allow myself to be ruled by another any longer. No, not any longer. I am Kovu, I am free, and my life is now my own."
The young lion closed his eyes, and clutched at the tall grasses, still seething with anger at what the throne of the Pridelands had done to him.
As he plunged into the depths of slumber, Kovu heard a lone voice call out to him through his mind, a voice that he would never dare to forget.
"Kovu, I'm coming for you. I love you."