He could smell the sickening scent of his own blood,
He could see shreds of his body being ripped apart mercifully And most of all he could feel it.
He could feel the pain of it all.
But then, suddenly the pain subsided. His vision began to blur until eventually all he could see was a dark pit of nothingness. For several minutes everything stood still; everything silent. However, this feeling failed to last as the dark furred lion gradually felt himself falling. At first the fall was gentle and calming but rapidly, within seconds the fall became absolutely terrifying.
THUD!!!
"Urghh, my head," the lion groaned as eventually the whacky ride came to an abrupt halt.
A strange scent lingered through the air causing the lion's nose to twitch. " Is that burning? Ash?" the curious lion murmured to himself.
Carefully, the thin, sleek mammal lifted himself up and slowly opened his eyes.
Smoke drifted through the air lowering the lion's usual sharp eyesight yet still the animal could see what seemed like distant jungles of fire in every direction. A few moments passed and the lion's vision grew more used to the smoke allowing him to see more clearly. Now that all his senses were working well the lion began to panic. He very much disliked being in places he was not familiar with. Desperately the animal looked around trying to find some means of escape. But the only exit he could see was a large gate behind, the one that he was likely to have came through. Unfortunately the gate was smothered in blood red flames and hopelessly, the lion realised that trying to escape through it would be futile.
" Hmmmm, another new face. How very exciting. So tell me lion; what have you done?" a cool yet chilling voice asked.
The chestnut brown lion gasped in fright and jerked his head in all directions trying to identify the speaker. Suddenly a whoosh of air was heard and the next thing the lion felt was himself being pinned to the ground, a memory that had only happened when his brother and him were young. "Arghh! Get off me! Get off!" the lion cursed, struggling to be released from the grasp.
" How interesting, and I thought lions were supposed to be the kings of all cats." the voice calmly replied. This comment angered the lion and he stopped trying to break free and instead stared up at his attacker. The appearance confused the lion for this... animal did not at all look anything like a lion should. No, the speaker had no mane and instead of an earthy tone of fur its was orange in colour with dark thin stripes smeared across it. However, his structure was alike to a lions but they're had to be something different. " What are you?" the lion asked curiously.
The other animal laughed in reply and slowly released the lion. Instead he began to circle the beast. " What an amusing question, you are quite the humorous one. Usually the question asked is who are you? Not what are you?" the other mammal answered lightly.
However the lion kept his icy cold glare and remained silent. So as to keep the conversation going the striped animal continued,
"My friend I am what is known as a tiger, you and I are both relatives of the same large family of cats. Only, tigers and lions reside at different sides of the Earth. Look, I apologize for pouncing on you like that I admit it was quite impolite. I meant no harm, we are all family here."
The lion snorted in reply, " Ha, a touching speech although I must admit that family values have never been too high on my list."
I see, you portray the antics of an extremely intriguing character, allow me to introduce myself. I am Shere Khan.■ the tiger answered.
" My name is Scar" the lion replied darkly.
"Oh how sweet you are named Scar because you have a scar; very, very sweet." the smug tiger continued.
Scar roared and dug his claws fiercely into the ground preparing to attack the egotistical tiger.
" No, no I suppose you're right. No cat here is sweet." Shere Khan quickly continued trying to avoid any violence.
Fortunately Scar calmed himself down and in frustration asked the tiger, " So... we are dead? This is a place for villains? I ... why am I so confused yet you seem so informed. I was always told that I was an intellectual lion but you tend to possess so much more knowledge than myself. Why is that?"
Shere Khan replaced his smug expression with that of sadness and understanding. "Yes Scar we are the dead and this is indeed a place where the imperfect cats of the world dwell. I am also positive that you are intellectual, I only seem more informed because I died before you meaning that I have had longer to come to terms with this┘ this nightmare." he added solemnly.
Scar nodded in reply, he tried hard to be understanding but it had never been his style. Curiosity took over him as he neared the muscular tiger and asked,
"So, what did you do?"
A smirk appeared on Shere Khan's face. "Me? I guess I was just too ferocious. I killed without reason and vast areas lived in fear of me. It was incredible, the feeling of power was so immense. But then a man cub arrived. I hate men, they do not live in fear of me, the seem to think they possess more power than I and unfortunately I suppose they do. After trying to kill the man cub for the first time I was defeated as the male attached a burning torch to my tail. Scar, I am a stubborn, arrogant tiger and do not admit weaknesses often but to you I shall confess that I fear flames."
" Everyone has fears Shere Khan. So that is how you died? Burned alive?" Scar asked smoothly.
" In some ways yes in others no. You see luckily I managed to escape and after recovering I set out in revenge against the man cub, eventually I found him but again I failed. He possessed friends and I worked alone, perhaps that was my downfall. Anyway, I fell of a cliff, however I landed safely on solid ground. Unfortunately I was surrounded by magma and before I could do anything a large piece of ruin landed on top of me. It did not kill me instantly but it did indeed seal my doom. I was trapped with no food, no water,
slowly being roasted by the burning lava and not to forget the continuous droning of a stupid, unfunny vulture. Yes, life was hard. Yourself?" Shere Khan finished.
" Well I must admit my death does not seem as bad as yours, not now anyway. At least mines past sort of quickly, yours seems slow and painful. In a way I really feel no regret,
in fact I really feel nothing at all. I definitely deserve to be here. I murdered my own brother and sent hyenas to murder my nephew. Why? Ha, just for the same feeling as you.
Just for that immense feeling of power. My brother was king, I was only the second in line that was until his little hairball of a son turned up ruining all my hopes of ever having rule over the kingdom. So I plotted and grew more cunning and evil by the day. Soon I had devised my murder plan and at first it worked.
I became king. I ruled, it was amazing. But unfortunately, Simba, my nephew did not die. The hyenas, my henchmen, failed to kill him.
He returned to fight me and take back what apparently belonged to him. Unfortunately he won and threw me off a cliff. Foolishly I tried to make him see sense and before he threw me off the cliff, I told him it was the hyenas fault. Little did I know that my minions heard me and were waiting for me at the bottom of the cliff. It was there that they tore me apart and that is how I am here beside you." Scar also finished telling his story.
" Power is a great emotion but also a great weakness." Shere Khan said wisely.
The two large cats smirked at one another.
"I think you and I are going to get along. Come on, allow me to show you around properly." Shere Khan said.
And with that, the two friends began to walk further into the fiery pits, side by side.
An odd story, I know. But I don't know, I just really like these two villains.
To me they seem so alike. Anyway, I'm sorry that nothing really happened in this chapter, it was mainly speaking but I have thought of a storyline for future chapters.
That is, unless you think I should just quit while I'm ahead and leave it like that. Please give me your feedback. If it's positive I'll continue for you. If not, I'll try to think of a better story. :P