Chapter 2: The First Day of Survival
The sun rose over the horizon, signalling that it was the dawn of a new day. To a pair of runaway lions though, it was their first day of freedom. The pair had been sleeping in the long grass of an open savannah where they were hidden from prying eyes but not from the cold chills of the night. Which explained why the two were curled up next to each other, with Kiara's head resting on her paws and Kovu's head resting on top of Kiara's head with their tails lovingly entwined.
For Kovu it was the best way to wake up. The darker lion found himself smiling at the thought of waking up every day next to Kiara, the only lioness he would ever love. He was glad that they had run away together, it meant he would never lose her because of Simba's inability to let go of the past, he would never lose her because of Zira's undying hatred. If they hadn't runaway they would have never have a future. Their prides hated each other too much to ever let the young adults be happy. To Kovu they had made the right choice, now there was nothing to keep them apart, nothing to stop them from being happy.
Kovu could have laid there all day next to Kiara thinking about the happiness she bought him, her kindness, her beauty, everything about her was amazing to him. But of course something had to ruin his moment to marvel at her, it was his stomach. Kovu hadn't eaten since yesterday morning and his stomach decided that it couldn't wait any longer for a meal. So it made its usual gurgling noise to signal it was time for food. Only this noise woke up Kiara from her blissful sleep.
When the golden lioness woke she was slightly confused. This grassy savannah certainly wasn't the den at Priderock that she was used to waking up in. Only after a few blinks and looking up at the lion that lay next to her did she remember what she had done. She had run away, she had forsaken her pride and abandoned her responsibilities.
But she had done it for Kovu, the lion she loved. That made it all worth it.
"Some one's hungry" Kiara muttered tiredly as she turned to her mate. Kovu gave her an affectionate good morning nuzzle before standing up.
"Come on" he said as he flicked his head leftwards "let's get some breakfast"
"Why do I have to come? You're the one that's hungry" mocked Kiara as she rolled onto her back, she most certainly wasn't ready to start the day yet. At that very moment though, her stomach betrayed her by making the same gurgling sound as Kovu's did.
"You sure about that?" teased Kovu knowing that she was just as hungry as he was. Understandable since she hadn't eat since yesterday morning either.
"My stomach only did that because yours did" joked Kiara "don't you know that rumbling stomachs are contagious?"
Kovu could only roll his eyes at Kiara's silly antics. This was one of the many reasons he loved her; he loved her light and happy attitude that she kept with her at all times of the day. It was funny, he had only known her for a few days but he was head over heels in love with her and couldn't imagine living without her. She was his whole world now, he loved her and he made himself to promise to keep her safe.
"Hey! You coming?" called Kiara, Kovu shook his head in shock. He had been so deep in thought about Kiara that he hadn't even noticed that she had slinked past him and was now heading through the long golden grass.
"Yeah I'm coming…Wait up" he yelled as he bounded after her in attempt to catch up.
Kiara saw him coming and decided to make a game out of it and began to run away from Kovu. Just like that, the two had begun a game of chase. The two chased each other for who knows how long. The whole time Kovu kept a lopsided grin on his face as he chased the lioness of his dreams and Kiara just kept her usual happy smile on, along with the occasional laugh and squeal of delight.
Their game finally ended though when Kovu pounced on his female companion, tackling her to the ground.
"Well" panted Kovu as they lay on the grassy ground, both lions to content with their position to move "that was fun"
Kiara nodded her head in agreement with a small smile on her face. Her mind was racing back to their time in the Pridelands when Kovu didn't know how to have fun. Now things were different though, now Kovu could be who he really was. Not the killer Zira had been forcing him to be his whole life. Now he could just be Kovu.
At that thought Kiara knew she had made the right choice running away with Kovu. If they had stayed with their prides then Kovu would never get to be himself, Zira would (one way or another) manipulate Kovu into a killer again if they stayed. She shuddered at the thought of her mate being a heartless killer.
"You okay?" Kovu asked as they lay amongst the grass.
"I'm just thinking…" Kiara answered in a soft and blissful voice
"About?" Inquired Kovu
"How much things are going to change" she said
She was right, there were going to be a lot of changes. She and Kovu were now independent adults, they were responsible for themselves. They would no longer have Simba's untrusting gaze watching over them...
Actually, a more accurate statement would be that Kiara would no longer have Simba's watchful gaze hanging over her like a cloud. Kiara couldn't deny that since she had left the Pridelands she had felt a strange amount of relief. Her whole life she had been a princess that could never fully reach the expectancy of her kingdom. She was always mucking things up. She failed her hunts, she always disobeyed her father's instructions and was always skipping her lessons on how to be a good queen. She couldn't help it though, it was who she was. She was Kiara, not Princess Kiara or Queen Kiara, which was who everyone wanted her to be. No she was just Kiara and now that she had runaway she could finally just be herself, just like Kovu could be himself.
Kiara doubted she would ever feel this kind of relief and freedom if she had stayed in the Pridelands.
*gurgle*
It was the sound of Kovu's stomach that bought Kiara out of her thoughts and ruined the peaceful silence that filled the air around them.
"Come on, let's get something to eat" he said gently as he nuzzled her to her feet. Kiara nodded at her mate before following his lead to find breakfast.
-TLK-
"Hey look" Kiara whispered as she pointed towards a herd of zebra with her muzzle "how do you feel about zebra for breakfast?"
Kovu nodded, he didn't really care what they had for breakfast. He was born in the Outlands, a place where the only food was termites or more termites.
"Alright, so how do you want to do this?" she asked uncertainly. She felt a bit silly asking Kovu how to do this. He was a male, she was supposed to be better at hunting than he was. But here they were, preparing to hunt a zebra and she was asking him for advice.
"Well, I say we both head out and startle them and in the panic we'll cut a zebra out of the herd and then bring it down" he planned. He wasn't sure if this was the right way to hunt in a group, after all, he had been trained to hunt alone but he knew he couldn't do that anymore. He and Kiara were a team, which meant they had to do everything together, it was the only way they could stay strong as a mated pair.
Kiara nodded in agreement to Kovu's plan before the pair crouched down and headed through the tall golden grass towards the unsuspecting herd. When the two lions were close enough to the herd for Kovu's satisfaction he gave Kiara a nod and the two bursted out of the grass and charged at the herd.
The zebra's all let out terrified whinnies and began to stamped out of the open grass land and into a cluster of tightly grown trees. Kovu and Kiara quickly began to give chase, if the prey reached the trees it would be hard to chase them out.
When the herd began to get closer to the tree line Kovu decided that it was time to cut some food out of the herd. Acting quickly he snapped at the zebra closest to him and began to shepherd it out of the herd. Kiara saw what he was doing and quickly came to his side and copied his motion; this created more driving power for the pair and the zebra was pushed out of the herd before it could reach the safety of the trees.
Feeling more confident about the hunt Kiara sped up a bit, her eye's glued to the zebra. She couldn't let it get away, she couldn't fail this hunt.
But fate had other plans.
Kiara and Kovu were so focused on the hunt that they didn't see the large rock that they were quickly approaching until Kiara full on body slammed into it. She let out a groan of pain and continued the hunt, this time going around the rock. Kovu was still tailing the zebra, he had seen Kiara slam into the rock and instead of copying her mistake, he bounded over the rock and took off after the prey.
Kiara was now far behind them and was struggling to keep up, her left leg (which was on the same side that slammed into the rock) was aching badly. It hurt Kiara so much to put weight on it. Just then, Kovu made the zebra swing 'round so it was heading directly towards Kiara. Kiara knew he was doing this so it would become trapped between them and they could make the kill. Kiara continued to head straight towards to the zebra with an aching left leg. When she was close enough to the prey she lept at it.
Her aim was to get a grip on the zebra's throat with her fangs.
She didn't think the animal would be fast enough to side step her attack.
But it was.
The zebra side stepped Kiara with grace and ease. Kiara's attempt to help Kovu bring down the prey only failed. With that the golden lioness ended her jump by colliding with the floor. Even though it was pointless, Kovu continued to pursue the zebra while Kiara just lay there. Her whole body was aching and lying on her left side wasn't doing her sore leg much good. But Kiara was too exhausted and miserable to care.
The hunt wasn't meant to go like this.
She should have made the kill
But she didn't
She had let herself down
But more importantly, she let Kovu down.
And that hurt her more than anything.
Up ahead Kovu panted tiredly as he watched the zebra race through the thickly grown trees. He knew it was pointless to even try to follow the animal in there, he wouldn't be able to keep up with it. He then looked towards where he had last seen Kiara, she hadn't moved from the spot where she collapsed.
How did this happen? Everything was going fine. Why didn't Kiara see that rock?
It was at that very moment that Kovu realised just how hard survival was going to be.
Alright, that's chapter 2 done!
Now I've got some good news and some bad news…more bad news than good news
GOOD NEWS: I'm starting a HTTYD fic so any HTTYD fans please feel free to check it out J
BAD NEWS: This means that since I'm going to be doing to fics at once, updates may not be as fast as I planed L
BAD NEWS: School starts very soon
THANKS TO:
Asaf, CSIMentalistTLK lover, gary2000, Teddi 8347, LionLover23 and Blair93
Also, I know it isn't 3k+ BUT I felt I owed it to you guys to make an update since you've all been patiently waiting for something.