Gareth's dream, through his POV

Alarms were going off everywhere in the cockpit. We were in a dive; a dive I could not control. Through the alarms, I could still hear Camy and mom crying. They were trembling so loud I could hear it. "Gareth, you've got to do something. Save us!" Camy screamed. "I know Camy. I'm trying" I yelled back at her. I checked our altitude, we were currently at 5,000 feet. At this drastic rate of descent, we'd crash in under a minute. If I planned on doing anything to stop the dive, it had to be done now. It was do or die time; now or never. I yanked on the controls with all my might. 3,000 feet to impact. As hard as I pulled it was no use. The dive was a force I could not stop, the laws of physics playing against me. 2,000 feet to impact. Mom and Camy were screaming, dad must be too shocked to scream.

As a desperate last measure, I lowered the gear, extended the flaps and air brakes (if you don't know what those are, Google it) in hopes of creating drag. If my planned worked - the drag produced would help slow the dive. Unfortunately, I failed to take into consideration the fact that we were diving towards earth at almost the speed of sound. The second I lowered the gear, flaps and air brakes, I could clearly hear them tearing away from the fuselage and wings. Now we were really screwed. Even if I did somehow manage to stop the dive, without landing gear we'd have no way to land. It wouldn't matter though, there was no stopping the dive now. 1,000 feet to impact. Time froze. My life flashed before my eyes. We were now moments away from impact, though it seemed to take for ever. "Oh shiiittttt…!" was all I managed to yell before we impacted with an explosion.

End of Gareth's dream

"Nooo! They're dead! My whole family, dead! It's all my fault!" Gareth yelled in his sleep.

Gareth opened his eyes. He was sitting upwards, panting and sweating; his nightmare waking him up.

Taking in his surroundings, he noticed he was sitting on a cold stone floor. He was in some sort of cave, a pretty dark cave, the only light source being the moon's rays that poured through the cave's entrance.

Gareth looked down, and to his horror, realized he was by no means alone. He was circled by, wait, it couldn't be...lions?! Gareth had thought that his encounter with the lioness was only a part of his nightmare, not an actual occurrence. Looking around, he noticed that some of the lionesses were stirring in their sleep, clearly only moments from fully waking up. His yelling in his sleep must've woken them up! "Oh shit" Gareth cursed under his breath. He desperately tried to stand. Forgetting his legs were broken - he quickly failed in doing so, falling to the cold floor in immense pain. "Ouch! Oh, my damn legs!" he shouted. After he recovered from his pain episode, he cursed to himself again. He had surely woken them now. As if almost confirming his thoughts, he heard the words "he's awake" said behind him.

Gareth quickly spun around, only to come face-to-face with three very awake lionesses. "Ah! God dammit!" he yelled. The three lionesses began to wake their pride sisters, whispering "he's awake". Gareth froze. He now clearly heard them speak, and now was no nightmare. Realizing he was in big trouble, he desperately attempted to crawl away as fast he could. He quickly stopped though; pain shot through his body like a bullet. He was simply too injured to do so. He rolled onto his back and did his best to look around him. All the lionesses were now awake, and were now standing around him in a circle. Gareth was trembling with fear. Is this how it ends? He thought.

Through the corner of his eye, he noticed a lion and a lioness, who were steadily making their way over to him. He turned to face them. He hadn't noticed the lion before, only the many lionesses. This was no ordinary lion, he was massive! He was definitely the biggest lion he had ever seen.

They were now only meters away; the lion's huge red mane swaying with every step he took.

Gareth braced himself both physically and mentally as he awaited his fate.

"P-please… d-don't eat me" he said in a quite, trembling voice. I didn't help. The pair were still approaching him at a steady pace. Gareth squeezed his eyes shut and lowered his head,preparing himself for the worst…

But surprisingly, nothing happened.

Gareth slowly opened his eyes and raised his head. He froze. The lion and lioness were only about a foot away from him. He stared at them, fear lurking in his eyes. Most shocking of all though, they were...smiling! They were actually smiling at him!

"Don't worry, young one. No one's going to eat you" the massive lion said in a booming, stern voice.

Gareth just stared at them, frozen in time.

"It's really OK, I promise you. We mean you absolutely no harm" the lioness beside the massive lion said. Her voice was calm and full of warmth.

Gareth snapped out of his frozen state.

He had seen this lioness before. She was the lioness he'd encountered moments before he blacked out.

"H-how c-can I t-trust you? A-and.. h-how in God's name a-are y-you speaking?" Gareth asked, this time in a low, shocked voice.

"Well, to answer your first question, if we wanted to harm you, don't you think we would've done it already?". Good point Gareth thought to himself.

"And to answer your second question, what do you mean? Of course we can speak" the massive lion asked.

"W-well, you're a lion. You're not supposed to be able to speak. Only humans can speak" Gareth answered, fear still present in his voice. "Well apparently we can" the lioness said. Gareth drew a slight, scared smile to his face as a result of her sarcasm. All the lionesses were now crowded around him, taking interested in the strange newcomer.

Gareth looked back up at the massive lion. "W-who are y-you?" he asked in asked in a whisper.

"I'm King Mufasa, ruler of these Pridelands, but you can just call me Mufasa. And this is my mate, Sarabi" the massive lion said, signalling to the lioness besides him. Gareth was glad he wasn't required to use formalities. It's not like he would anyways, considering that after all, he still was technically at the top of the food chain. Gareth just remained silent, staring into space. After what seemed like minutes but were in fact only moments, he eventually asked "how long have I been out for?". "Three days. Sarabi found you unconscious and brought you back here. Rafiki, our shaman, had a look at you and said you'd eventually make a full recovery. He also said that both your legs are broken, so don't try to stand again" the massive lion, who Gareth now knew to be Mufasa, answered. Gareth just nodded and continued staring into space. Sarabi eventually broke the silence. "Come on, everyone. I think it's best we all leave him alone now. He's had a tough past few days. We'll find out more about him tomorrow" she said in her signature calm, warm voice. And with that they all turned around, walking away. They settled down, and eventually, one by one, began to drift into sleep.

Gareth just continued staring.

What the hell is going on? He thought…

A/N:

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