I do not own The Lion King or The Lord of the Rings. They belong to Walt Disney Studios and Peter Jackson/New Line Cinema/J.R.R. Tolkien respectively.
Chapter I: Foundations of Stone
"Simba! Simba, reach for my paw!" Nala said as she tried to reach down for him. But after she did, Simba began to precariously slip further and further downwards against the crumbling rock. He looked up in terror, and gave them a very solemn look. It took them a second, but they figured out that that look was supposed to mean. Nala was the first to react.
"No... no, Simba don't! Don't you give up on me!"
Simba's expression grew in sadness. "Nala... it's too late for me" he said in a low, grim tone. Kopa, Vitani and Nala all gasped in shock and horror when he said this.
Vitani said to him, "Don't say that, Simba! You can still-!"
"You're more important than me, all of you. You have to save yourselves... I can't get out of this." Simba said in an even more grim tone.
Despite the icy conditions, tears were rolling down Nala's face now. She looked deeply into Simba's eye from far below and returned the look of sadness. She was beginning to accept the inevitable.
"Nala... I always loved you..." said Simba. At the mention of this, Nala began to sob. "Simba... I... I loved you too." she managed to choke out. Just after that, Simba slipped down further, almost loosing grip of the mountain from the still crumbling rocks.
"Kopa... you need to get to Mordor. Make it there... for me." Simba said. Like his mother, Kopa was crying like he hadn't in so long. Vitani was also crying as well, and she put her head against Kopa's mane. It was freezing, but it was still warm compared to everything else.
"Dad... I love you." said Kopa. They couldn't see it since he was so far down now, but Simba was beginning to cry as well. Collecting himself, he continued. "When you get to Mount Doom... you know what to do. If it's not... for the sake of Middle Earth, do it in my memory..."
Kopa replied, "I will, dad. I... I love you."
Simba 's grip was weakening with every second that went by, but was able to utter these words to his son. "When you get back... to the Pride Lands... you'll be king, Kopa. King... of everything the light touches."
He then gave his sad look to them all, and finally said, "I love you all.", and in his mind, he thought, I'm coming home, father.
And then his grip on the mountain failed entirely. With a loud ripping of rock sound, Simba slid off and fell through the air, awaiting whatever was at the bottom of the chasm. And the others above just stood there in absolute disbelief and horror at what they'd just witnessed.
Simba!" Nala screamed. Her cry of terror echoed throughout the landscape, bouncing off of mountainside for miles around. They all gasped and the tears intensified. They all huddled close together one another for comfort. At that moment, none of the could've cared less about warmth. Just then, Kivuli and the others appeared from behind.
"What's going on?" he asked them.
"Where's Simba?" said Timon. But Nala, Kopa and Vitani took little notice of them as they stared down into the blurred, blizzard filled canyon. The last glimpse of Simba was gone. And soon, the wave of inevitability came upon not just Kopa and Nala, but to everyone else at that moment.
Simba was dead. Much like Mufasa, he died trying to save his son. Like father like son.
For Kopa, there was only one thing he could've possibly said at that moment.
"NOOOOOOOO!"
Kopa's eyes flew open as he awoke from his nightmare, standing up on all fours now. He was furiously catching his breath, looking all around him. It was still the middle of the night. To his left was Vitani, still sleeping peacefully beneath the stars. All around them, the warm mountainsides seemed to stretch up against the sky for miles around. And finally catching his breath, Kopa realized it was just a dream, though it was a dream of something that sadly was not.
"Just a dream... I wish." he solemnly whispered to himself.
It had been a full month since Kopa and Vitani had broken away from the fellowship. And much to their dismay, no matter how far they got each day, Mount Doom never seemed to get any closer. It could be faintly seen in the distance beyond the borders of Mordor, but it never got any larger. The land of the shadow must've been farther away than they thought it was when they broke off.
Kopa sighed. He lifted up his paw, and held the one Ring of Power against his chest. The thing that was small enough to fit in the palm of his paw was solely responsible for his father's noble death. Although Saruman had done what caused it, it was the ring that was truly the root cause. Kopa stared out into the direction of the tiny orange-red glow. He knew that if they ever reached there, he was going to take immense pleasure in throwing the ring back into the heart of it.
His drowsiness beginning to overcome him once more, he laid back down on the ground next to his mate, and placed his head atop of hers, getting comfortable once more. The last thing that the lion saw before falling into sleep once more was, once again, the deep orange glow of Mordor against the deep blue, almost blackness of the night sky.
The following day, Kopa and Vitani continued their journey through the Misty Mountains. Compared to the Pass of Caradhras, the air was warm and moist, and not a flake of snow fell any more. The sky was riddled with light grey clouds, blocking out much of the blue skies that lay above. The winds were soft and harmless, though still strong enough to ruffle the fur of Kopa's mane. The two of them climbed over the rocky terrain, being mindful about every step that they took. Occasionally one of them would stumble or lose their balance, but for the most part it wasn't too difficult to traverse. The dark grey mountains were beginning to fall over the next few miles, as if the mountain range were nearly at an end.
Soon, they had gone over a steep cliffside and reached the top of it. They stopped for a moment to catch their breath, looking out to the mountain of fire. Vitani narrowed her eyes at the sight of it.
"Mordor... the one place in Middle Earth we don't want to see any further, and the one place we're trying to get to." she said. Kopa looked over to her. "It won't be long now." he commented. Vitani sighed.
"It hasn't been getting any closer, Kopa. We've been going through these mountains for a month, and it hasn't gotten any nearer."
She leaped off the summit of the rocky foundation and onto a lower slope, looking all around her.
"Let's face it, Kopa... we're lost."
Kopa soon cilmbed down to her, and now they stood side by side.
"I don't think Simba meant for us to come this way." she continued. Then Kopa gave her a sad, but determined look.
"He didn't mean for a lot of things to happen, Vitani." he said. "But they did."
In that moment, Kopa saw something. It was only for a flash of a second, but he saw the entire world around him change in an instant to the dreaded eye of Sauron. Like the first time he saw it, it was rimmed with fire, and had the piercing black slit down the middle, staring at him intently. He gasped as this happened, and he fell to the ground. Vitani was startled by this.
"Kopa!... It's the ring, isn't it?" she said, looking down to him. Kopa gathered the strength to get up, and he clutched the ring with his left paw. Since the incident at Bree, the wound on his paw had healed rather nicely, and was almost invisible now, save for a few red streaks across it.
"It's getting heavier, Vitani... every day now, I see the eye of Sauron in my mind... as if he's invading my consciousness..."
Vitani came up to Kopa and softly nuzzled him again. Kopa returned the comfort.
"It won't be long... we'll get there." she said to him. And with that, the the lion and the lioness went onwards down the rocky slopes. The mountains weren't nearly as high here as they were before, so it was becoming gradually easier to move through them.
"Vitani... I've been thinking about something." The lion said to her. Vitani asked, "What?"
"Do you remember the day Simba... well, you know."
Vitani nodded.
"Well... I remember just before he died, I heard a huge roar through the air. What do you think it was?"
The lioness replied after a moment, "I'm not sure. But... you know what?... I can't help but feel that I've heard that roar before."
Kopa perked up. "Really? Where?" he said.
"I don't know. Whoever it was, it isn't important now." She replied.
As they walked, Kopa looked around and raised his eyebrow at certain features of the landscape.
"You know, this place looks familiar." he said. Vitani came to a sudden stop by his side and looked around intensely as well. Her eyes widened somewhat.
"We have been here before! We're going in circles." she said, taking a deep breath. Kopa looked around and saw what she meant.
"You're right. We've-"
The lion never finished that sentance. For as he was speaking, he heard a few small rocks crumble near a massive rock behind them. The sound got both of their attention and they stayed quiet. As they looked around the landscape, they began to pick up a horrid smell of some sort. It was unlike any scent they had known before, smelling like some sort of rotting flesh or a long dead body.
"Do you smell that?" Kopa asked. Vitani replied, "It smells like something died here." she said, cringing at the scent. Suddenly, Kopa whispered to his mate,
"We're not alone here."
Abruptly, the sound of falling stones could be heard again, only this time louder than before. Kopa got in front of Vitani, where they both looked out into the direction of the sound. They could now hear uneven and muffled breathing, as though someone who was horribly sick was following them.
"Stay back." Kopa whispered. He didn't know whether he meant for Vitani stay stay back for safety, or for whoever this intruder was to stay back from them. He crouched down to the ground and tensed up, ready to attack whoever was there.
"Who are you?" he shouted, echoing around the mountains. "Don't come any closer, we're more than capable of killing you if you attack!"
And then suddenly, a voice called out. It wasn't like any voice either one of them had heard before, it sounded deformed, fierce, and high pitched, while at the same time sounding as if it were sick. As the voice hissed, it got ever louder to them, as if whoever it was was coming closer down the pathway they were treading down. It hissed,
"The thieves! The thieves! The filthy little thieves! Where is it? Where isss it? They stole it from us. My preciousss! Curse them! We hates them! It is ours, it is... and we wantssss it!"
Author's Note: I probably don't have to tell you who that voice belonged to, do I? Please review to find out in the next chapter!