Zira walked hurriedly with a pace as quick as the panicking thoughts as she struggled with not only the weight of Scar's burnt and bleeding body but the ash that had settled in her lungs She would cough violently and frequently, threatening to drop Scar. The feeling of rainwater was almost foreign to her skin, but as soon as she was enjoying the fresh and cool rain soaking her fur, the rain seemed to pause. Her eyes told of a biblical deluge of rain, but it did not fall on her.
The trees had withered beyond the ability to grow leaves, and so Zira knew she was not beneath an acacia tree. The clouds descended swiftly as fast as Zira fell into confusion. The grey clouds fell into a dome that surrounded Zira like a bowl. The cloud swirled like a hurricane with flashes of lightning and streaks of fire decorating the dark dome.
Zira then heard a cold, whispering voice telling her to not panic.
"Fear not, for I wish to aid your cause. You carry one who bears a heavy price," the voice said.
"Who are you? What are you?" Zira asked with fear holding her distressed voice.
"I am Ibilisi, the Lord of Death," the voice said to Zira's utter panic. That name triggered fear even in the heartless minds of evil lions such as Scar. It was said that if one met Ibilisi, they would enter a world of pain, fear and suffering beyond description.
"If you have come for Scar, take him quickly and without pain, I beg thee," Zira pleaded.
"I come not to take your mate, but to save him," Ibilisi said. Zira did not consider Scar to be her mate anymore, but she feared Ibilisi too much to correct him.
"Please, do whatever it takes, and I will pledge my life to you," Zira promised, knowing that Ibilisi was motivated to exact revenge on the other Gods and the Pride Lands.
"I would save him without your pledge, though I am grateful. Scar is a loyal servant of mine," Ibilisi revealed.
"Was it you who paused the fire so that I could save him?" Zira asked.
"Know that I let you save him because he is valuable for my plans," Ibilisi said. "I know that you were once his queen and that he no longer shares love with you, but I will revive his love for you when he recovers," he promised.
"I thank thee from the deepest depth of my heart," Zira said. The swirling cloud began to make Zira dizzy, and Ibilisi detected this.
"I shall continue to hide you from your foes until you reach a metal tree that lies to the north-east, there you shall find a sorcerer who can heal Scar," Ibilisi said.
The clouds disappeared, but Zira still felt no rain fall on her.
Though she cared not for beauty, Zira missed the bright stars that were spread across the black sky like flowers in a green meadow. The cloaking enchantment shielded Zira's crimson-red eyes from the starlight, a sight that she had not seen since the dark days of Scar's reign began. The nights were always dark, with only the hazy moon breaking through the thick clouds providing light during the time of darkness. The moonlight shone only on the many hyenas that littered the once prosperous savannah, now composed of black soil, cracked mud and crumbling trees.
When the sky turned a dark shade of blue, and after hours of travelling, Zira saw the metal tree she thought was a thing of fantasy. She did not believe that a metal tree could exist, and if it did, it would have to be some type of magic.
The branches of the tree glistened in the moonlight like knives that lay in a dark place, reaching a great distance like a squid. At the base of the tree was a tall yet narrow hole that acted as the entrance. Out of the tree appeared a narrow-built primate that had similar properties to Rafiki, the shaman of the Pride Lands, who was also capable of magic. It had blue cheeks, a red nose, black fur streaked with silver hairs with a grey underbelly, capped with a white mane. It held on to a black metal staff that shone smoothly under the moonlight.
"My lord, what is it dat you require?" the mandrill asked.
Zira felt a rush of icy cold wind brush her fur, and to her right she saw Ibilisi in his lion form. His fur was jet black, only visible because of the navy blue sky and his eyes were a diablo red.
"Adui, I require your remedial skills to heal the King of the Pride Lands," Ibilisi said.
"Of course, my Lord, I will do as you wish," Adui accepted by default. One does not simply defy Ibilisi.
Zira approached Adui and he allowed her to enter his tree.
"De Seeing Stone showed dat de son of Mufasa was de King," Adui commented.
"The information of the Seeing Stone is only as truthful as what the viewer perceives the message to be," Ibilisi replied.
Zira carefully lowered her body to allow Scar's body to roll onto the medical ledge, but then the body seemed to levitate, and then move towards the ledge before gently falling like a feather falling through the windless air.
Zira delivered a confused look as she witnessed the unnatural phenomenon. Adui cleared his throat, causing Zira to flinch.
"Let's see what we are dealing with," Adui said as he shook his staff and the small, marble globe set between four metal spikes glowed brightly, revealing patches of missing fur, replaced with horrific burns, as well as deep gashes all over his damaged body. Ibilisi, from the outside, disintegrated into a sandy wisp of cloud and entered the tree and returned to lion form.
"Can I trust you to save him?" Zira asked Adui.
"Yes, yes, of course. You must be tired and hungry, let us feed you with a meal fit for a queen," Adui offered. Ibilisi stretched out his arm in the direction of the entrance, and faster than she could react, Zira heard a sharp snap and blinked as she saw an antelope calf with its head twisted at a disgusting angle fly into the arm of Ibilisi.
Adui muttered "Maji," and water was poured from his staff into an empty tortoise shell.
After consuming a sizeable portion of the calf, and drinking all of the water, Zira rose with determination. "If you will excuse me, I must go back to Pride Rock," she announced.
"You will not be welcomed there again, you will not achieve victory," Ibilisi warned.
"I do not seek victory, I seek justice," Zira responded.
Zira walked westwards, the direction of Pride Rock. Her stride showed determination for revenge, her lust for vengeance was greater than the distance between herself and her destination. She thought that Simba should never have been king, and that he is not worthy of the title, that he is just the spawn of a fool.
How dare he come unto Scar's kingdom and steal it from he who deserved power?
Zira glared behind her shoulders, and the sky grew a shade of grey that made the metal tree that was Adui's home look like a cut end of a black piece of string.
Her eyes moved to the west once more, and after wishing Scar recovery and a return to power, she continued her travels.
At this point, all the withered and trees looked similar to Adui's tree. They were naked, empty and bore a lifeless colour. She then came across a ditch, of which the banks squelched beneath her paws. This former river was unfamiliar to her eyes. At first, she had thought that she had gone the wrong way, but ignored the thoughts when she stared in disbelief at something that contrasted the desolate landscape that surrounded the palm trees that guarded a pond, like the darkness that surrounded those who believed in hope that Scar would be overthrown, and in the opinion of Zira, it was a travesty that it had happened.
She jumped over the muddy brook that was once a river that was drunk from by many animals, and darted towards the oasis in thirst for water. The ash still lay within her lungs, meaning her breath was short by the time she had reached the shore of the pond, but when she found a bearable breathing rhythm, and before she could think about the cool liquid flowing down her throat, she saw a group of lionesses on the other side, and they too saw her and recognised her.
"Zira? What are you doing here?" one of them, a brown-furred, green eyed lioness who sported a dark stripe that ran along her spine up to the middle of her forehead, much like Zira's most recognisable feature, asked.
"I could ask you the same thing, Vytautas" Zira responded.
"We left the Pride Lands to search for food, and perhaps a new home. Face it, Zira, the Kiburi Plateau has died. There haven't been any migrations to there for three years, and its because of the drought, and the hyenas," Vytautas said. "Then again, what are you doing here, Zira?" she asked.
"I left also, because..." Zira harvested her brain for a realistic excuse. "Because Scar deemed me inadequate," she said, not exactly lying.
"What do you mean?" Vytautas asked.
"I failed to give him a suitable heir, Nuka is a weak little runt, and our daughter, Azra, is at death's door," Zira listed.
"I'm very sorry for your situation," Vytautas sympathised.
After the conversation, another lioness, who had a dark shade of rusty brown fur, as if blood was mixed with the colour orange, alerted the group of the sighting of a buffalo. She had five dark, circular marks beneath both her orange eyes. The lionesses told Zira to chase the buffalo in the direction of the lionesses, and they would continue the chase. This caused Zira concern, for she knew that she had not fully recovered from the breathing difficulties inflicted by the fire, even a short sprint was enough to become breathless. However, she acquiesed to the tactic.
Zira was told to wait for precisely one minute. She waited.
When the sixtieth second was counted, she began to sprint straight at the buffalo. Her strides were long and fast, meaning that she swiftly caught up with the buffalo, who sprinted in the desired direction. It limped and groaned in pain, showing that it was an elderly buffalo with a deteriorating knee. Zira enjoyed the air brushing against her fur, it was a fresh feeling that she had forgotten, for it had been a long time since she had last hunted. But then, she was reminded why she feared to run. The ash from the fire once again caused breathlessness, but Zira continued. A pain in her ribs grew, until she saw the other lionesses launch like hypercars from their positions, and she collapsed in weariness and pain.
The other lionesses easily made the kill. The bufalo, with its deteriorating health, was not hard to catch and slaughter. As Vytautas picked up the buffalo, she saw Zira, panting heavily on her side.
"Marina, hold this," Vytautas ordered the brown lioness with the spots beneath her eyes, and she complied without question, sharing concern with Vytautas for Zira.
"Zira? Are you okay?" Vytautas asked.
"Do I look okay?" Zira wheezed. Fearing for her life, Zira decided to reveal her secret. "Vytautas, I haven't been entirely truthful, while it is true that Scar has given up on me as a mate, I should tell you that he has been dethroned by Mufasa's brat, and he brutally attacked Scar by doing so, and even though my beloved is recovering, he shall return more powerful than ever, for we have the backing of Ibilisi," Zira slurred as she continued to wheeze loudly.
"Did she just say..." Marina began.
"Don't say that cursed name!" Vytautas warned.
"We need to get Zira back to Pride Rock, hopefully she'll improve on the way," Marina hoped.
Suddenly, a blinding flash of light preceded a great explosion of fire that took the lionesses off their paws. The fire seemed to burn from nothing, and it hung in the air as a globe of fire, almost like a star, but it turned black.
"You carry the herald of truth," a cold voice said, sending chills down the spines of the terrorised lionesses.
"If you value your life, you shall stand as still as rocks," Ibilis warned, and the lionesses complied, before fire surrounded them, and the ball imploded before reshaping into a globe, and then disintegrating, revealing the desolate wilderness of the Pride Lands.
"What the hell was in that buffalo?" Marina asked.
Nuka had a headache. His ears took in the unending sound of Vitani's moaning of boredom.
"Why is mother not back?" Vitani asked.
"For the millionth time, I don't know!" Nuka shouted, worsening the pain. He groaned and held his head in an attempt to at least lighten the heavy and burning pain in his head.
Nuka then heard a muffled voice. It sounded much more motherly than the rough voice of his mother, and he recognised it as Sarabi's as it grew closer.
"The crying is coming from around here, Simba," Sarabi explained.
Who is Simba? Nuka thought. Was he the new lion everyone was talking about? What happened to Scar?
"Nuka? Are you okay?" Sarabi asked with her familiar tender tone.
"Y..yes," Nuka's voice shivered in the cold rain that still fell upon the Pride Lands. He was afraid of the golden lion whose mane was a bright shade of auburn.
"Don't worry about Simba, he won't harm you," Sarabi assured to Nuka's relief.
"Where's mother?" Nuka asked, wondering why Zira had not returned.
"We do not know, but she couldn't be far," Sarabi assured, but finished her sentence by silently cursing Zira for showing no priority for her cubs.
Suddenly the small cub known as Kovu gasped for air before coughing a lot – too much for his age and size. Vitani looked to her small brother with concern, chancing a glance at Nuka who surprisingly also had shown some concern on his face about his little brother.
"What's wrong with him?" Vitani asked with panic gripping her voice.
"I think the smoke has affected his breathing," Sarabi diagnosed. She gracefully and calmly lowered her head to grasp gently with her teeth Kovu's scruff, and she briskly strode to the cave, the venue of much of the brutality that Scar inflicted upon the tortured subjects who painfully endured his tyranny. Nuka and Vitani followed Sarabi as they headed to the nearby Stone Hollow.
"Oh, what do we have here?" an accented voice asked. The voice belonged to a mandrill who was treating the minor yet many wounds of the lionesses who had battled with Scar's hyena soldiers, and even though some only required healing ointment, the challenge was only in the number of casualties, for Rafiki's skill was matched by few.
"It's Kovu, Zira's cub," Sarabi answered as she gently lowered Kovu onto a ledge for Rafiki to examine Kovu's chest.
"I think the smoke has had an effect on his breathing," Sarabi said.
"Don't worry, little one, I'm here to help you," Rafiki assured a frightened Kovu, unsure of how to deal with so many new faces. He had only ever seen the faces of his parents.
"Now, can you breath deeply for me?" Rafiki asked, and Kovu accepted and he took in a load of air before another coughing fit ended Rafiki's observation.
"Yes, I do believe de smoke harmed his lungs slightly, but dey should be okay, bring him back to me tomorrow and I'll check again," Rafiki concluded.
"C'mon, Kovu, shall we go outside and give Rafiki some space?" Sarabi asked the dark red-furred cub, who agreed.
Rafiki then asked Nuka and Vitani to take a deep breath, and when no coughing came from them, Rafiki deemed them healthy after checking them for burns.
Sarabi caught sight of Simba, rubbing his eyes as she too left the cave.
"Simba? Are you okay?" she asked.
"Yeah, I'm okay. I've just got something in my eyes, is all," Simba lied. The hot embers of fiery ash and stone that Scar swiped into his face had continued to cause discomfort. He seethed in pain as he continued to try and stop the irritation.
"Simba, you should go and see Rafiki about your eyes" Sarabi suggested, almost ordered.
"Mom, I'm okay, Rafiki has more important cases than an irritated eye to deal with," Simba argued.
"Simba, just because you are king does not exempt you from admitting that you need help, your eyes are more important than you believe, You may have seen the horrors that no child should see, but without sight, you would not see the beauty that the world offers, and you would not learn from the mistakes you have done," Sarabi explained.
"Okay, I'll go see Rafiki," Simba acquiesced.
Simba, at last, walked into the cave, with every suitable space occupied by a lioness who bore slight yet many claw-borne wounds, and then he was seen by Rafiki.
"What can I do for you, my king?" he asked.
"Oh, there's no need to address me in a formal matter, I'm no more important than any of you," Simba said.
"But...there is a problem with my eyes," Simba said and Rafiki immediately reached for Simba's eyes, and the king stepped back, fearing that Rafiki would do something horribly painful.
"What are you doing?" he asked.
"Don't worry, you won't feel anything," Rafiki insisted.
"I highly doubt that..." Simba began, but Rafiki extended his arm, and Simba saw a small speck of ash move towards his fingers that originated from his eye.
"See? Did dat not hurt?" Rafiki asked. Simba shook his head, chuckling at Rafiki's ability in wizardry. He had almost forgotten about the magic of the mandrill after the long years spent in exile.
"However, I did notice dat dere are some burns on your nose," Rafiki said, and broke off a gourd from his staff, cracked it open and smeared some of the juice on Simba's nose.
Rafiki chuckled at the sight of Simba's nose coated in the orange substance. Simba, however, did not share Rafiki's amusement.
"Simba!" Nala successfully caught the attention of her mate.
"Oh, no!" Simba feared Nala's reaction. "What is it?" Simba replied as he begrudgingly turned to face his mate.
"There's a trio of lionesses incoming...oh, what's that on your nose?" Nala asked, smiling in amusement.
"It's to help my burns heal," Simba sighed in embarrassment and exasperation.
"Anyway, one lioness was being carried by another, and they were accompanied by a third, but they brought a buffalo!" Nala exclaimed, causing excitement and relief
among the lionesses burdened with malnutrition.
"It must be Vytautas and Marina," Sarabi deduced, having covered for their quest from Scar, who forbade lionesses from leaving the Pride Lands without permission, and would not be allowed to enter the Pride Lands once they set their paws outside of the borders.
"They volunteered to search for herds far beyond the Great River," Sarabi explained.
"Who is the lioness they carry?" Nala asked.
Sarabi ran towards the returning lionesses with the hope of favorable news fueling her pace.
"Vytautas! Marina! And...Zira?" Sarabi cried and then said in confusion. Sarabi guessed that Zira wanted to be alone after the downfall of Scar, but somehow got injured.
"What happened to Zira?" Sarabi asked.
"Oh, uh, I guess she wanted to get away from her...situation but how she came to be like this, we don't know. We found her by the..." Marina trailed off and looked
at Vytautas for help.
"We found her by the border," she finished. Marina nodded.
"Well, let's get her to Rafiki quickly!" Sarabi said, and they continued to Pride Rock.
"So...Simba's come back, huh?" Marina asked.
"Yes, it was such a Godsend! I hoped something like this would happen, but it was the last thing I expected that my son would return and save us from the horrific tyranny of that murderous bastard," Sarabi exclaimed. "Pardon my vocabulary," she added.
Marina and Vytautas looked at each other in confusion. They were told a different story by Zira, one that said that Scar was murdered by Simba.
"Who is the murderer?" Vytautas asked.
"Oh, of course, you don't know. Scar told us that Mufasa and Simba were killed in a wildebeest stampede, yet Simba's body was never found. Until now, the truth was kept from us. The truth was that Scar killed Mufasa and drove Simba away, but Simba has returned and he overthrew Scar, but we do not know where his body is, whether he was killed by the hyenas, or if he slinked back into whatever hole he hides in cowardice, that pathetic excuse of a lion!" Sarabi growled.
"Or, he's working with Ibilisi," Marina corrected in her mind, or so she thought.
"What did you say?" Sarabi asked in an accusatory fashion.
"Uh... Oh, how could he be so...silly? What goes around, comes around, eh Sarabi?" Marina laughed nervously. Luckily for her the former Queen apparently accepted that as she gave a quiet sigh of relief once said lioness was out of earshot.
"Careful" Vytautas whispered back to her sister.
The lionesses finally reached Pride Rock, Rafiki made his way to assist the lioness, found to be Zira.
"Dis is someding dat I will have no trouble in dealing with, don't you worry," Rafiki assured the lionesses who Zira had come across.
Rafiki aimed his staff at Zira, and she rose like dust and levitated before her body followed Rafiki, who continued to hold his staff like a rifle.
When he finally re-entered the cave, he lowered Zira onto a spare ledge of rock, once taken by a lioness who suffered from malnutrition.
A few minutes after Rafiki painlessly extracted the ash from Zira's lungs (again, by magic), she woke up.
"Where am I?" she asked.
"You are in Pride Rock, Zira, but now, a Pride Rock dat is ruled by Simba," Rafiki answered.
"Yes, I know who my king is now," Zira replied.
"I know that you were Scar's mate, but if you are willing to stay in the Pride Lands, you will have to accept me as your king," Simba said.
"Of course, your majesty, me and my children have no other place to call home," Zira pretended.
Sarabi wished to lecture Zira over what she thought was a lack of priority over her children.
"Zira, how could you abandon your children like that?" she asked with disgust evident in both her expression and voice.
"I'll have you know that I told them to hide in the cave," Zira defended her decision.
"But why did you run away like that?" Sarabi interrogated.
Keeping the survival of Scar a secret, Zira said: "I just wanted to get away from it all, have a bit of space for a while, from what had happened to Scar, and Azra being unwell, it just got too much, but now I know it was wrong of me to abandon my children," Zira admitted.
"I'm glad you've seen the error of your ways," Sarabi said.
...
As Sarabi was questioning Zira about her departure, the king was called for by Rafiki to receive proper treatment for the suspected eye damage by the fire.
"Ugh, I thought you had solved that," Simba huffed.
"No, no dat was just preliminary, now I will check your eyes more properly," Rafiki said.
"Well, make it quick," Simba ordered.
Rafiki broke off a shard of wood from his staff, positioned it near Simba's eyes, and the tip of it began to glow, once again, out of magic. The light grew so bright, Simba struggled to keep open his eyes. Despite this, Rafiki saw no fault in Simba's eye functions.
When Rafiki fixed up all of the lionesses wounds, a young female lipard came bursting into the cave.
"Rafiki! Rafiki!" she cried frantically.
"What? What is de matter, Mlezi?" Rafiki asked.
"It's my sister, Azra, she's not waking up!" Mlezi shouted.
"Azra!? My daughter!" Zira cried.