Chapter 3 – The Hidden Danger

Kiara had done significant progress in her hunting abilities from the time of the first lessons Kovu gave her. At the present time, her mate was quite proud of himself when he observed how she put into use everything he attempted to teach his young and eager pupil. Kiara took part in the pride's team hunts on a daily basis now, and Kovu was hearing praising opinions about the development of her skills. He was really happy for her, because he knew that since she was still a little show-off, most of the work she put in to her training was to please her mate and to be able to spend at least a little more time together with him.

It was due to Simba's deep lawfulness that the two lions were nowadays too busy to be together all day long. Since the number of the pride's members was lately almost doubled, the king decided that the Pridelander and former Outlander lionesses should form two separate hunting parties- one lead by queen Nala, to which also her daughter belonged and that was under Simba's personal protection, and a second one that caught their prey in another part of the savanna at the same time, lead by Vitani and supervised by her brother Kovu. This made the pair of mates work in separation, drastically shortening the amount of time they could spend together. Somehow, Kovu couldn't fight the thought that Simba wanted to isolate him from Kiara for a reason… But usually he would just consider that feeling an illusion.

Side by side, they ran through the grassy field with highest haste. Kiara was already late for her team's hunt and every wasted minute that she didn't spend standing on her assigned position could result in a failure, an empty stomach and being shouted at by everyone including the king. And that was a thing they would rather not experience. Not another time.

Halting at a crossroad post marked by a dead tree, their typical goodbye spot, they panted for a while from the strain of the long run from as far as Pride Rock. Kovu, lowering his head and attempting to catch his breath, missed to notice Kiara throwing herself at him to lock him in her embrace. As he groaned with surprise, she licked his cheek and smiled.

-"Well now, mister hunter! Didn't see that coming, did ya?"

The male lion hugged her with emotion, knowing that there was no time for prolonged farewells.

-"Oh you agile little snake! You better go on and join your mother to use those abilities of yours in practice."

-"I get my best practice while using my skills on you! And far more fun that while chasing wildebeests, definitely."

-"Yeah, but I'm kinda starting to become hungry for a wildebeest steak. Go on, Kiara- we'll see each other in the evening."

The lioness just sighed with staged, cub-like discontent. But then her face became normal again. She knew her duties- she was not a child anymore and refused to be treated like one.

-"Bye, honey. Thanks for a great morning" – she said finally.

-"Goodbye, Kiara. Have a good hunt."

Just as every day, they both parted with a heavy heart. The lioness ran towards the grassy meadow where the herbivores liked to graze and Kovu stood on a hill for a while to observe her joining her party. Somewhere over there, Simba was also scoping the huntresses in order to make sure that they are undisturbed by whatever danger that may occur and to aid them in bringing the captured prey down, if necessary. The younger male had a similar job to do as well- and so now he had to make his way closer to the northern border of the Pridelands where Vitani was probably already about to lead her lionesses into action. His sister was a good hunter and didn't really consider Kovu's presence and protection to be required at all. As fast as she had to learn to have a whole team under her command after Zira's death, she really showed signs of simply being born to do that and laughed at the mere mentioning of a proposition to help. But still, Kovu was now Simba's subordinate and had to take care of all the duties he was given, even if they consisted of doing nothing but gazing at Vitani's team as they caught their food without any trouble at all.

Well, who knows – thought the lion as he turned around and slowly started pacing towards the northern border – Tani's plans are pretty hard to predict. Maybe today she'll order her girls to take on a giraffe or even an elephant, and they'll really need some extra muscle? Ah, I better just get moving…

It was now right before the edge of the dry season. The until recently juicy-green landscape of the Pridelands was slowly starting to show signs of a more yellow-greyish palette of colors due to the intense heat. Even though the lions from Simba's pride were far from being threatened by starvation, still they had to put in a significant amount of work to pursue the herds relocating in search for better pastures. And so Kovu had a long walk ahead of him- he had to make it through nearly half of the kingdom to find the place where Vitani and her cats were hunting. And, frankly, he wasn't very up for it.

Traipsing lazily from one checkpoint to the other, taking refuge from the rays of the merciless sun under the branches of acacia trees he passed along the way, he might have moved in the right direction, but still wasn't getting there very fast. Looking at the blazing ball of fire in the sky, he estimated that it wasn't even noon yet and that there was no need to rush even if he was a little late. He didn't talk to anyone along the way since all of the other animals were either afraid of a lone lion or not any of his acquaintances. Lost in his thoughts, walking where his paws would lead him, he suddenly found himself in an unknown surrounding. How clumsy of him, he judged, but not really blaming himself for getting lost. After all, he was still new to the Pridelands and had the right not to know every stone and bush in the whole kingdom. He took a look around- the area was grassy, already pretty dried up, probably a little to the east from where he was supposed to be. Upon the many places where there was nothing but dirt there wallowed scorpions, desert rats and other such unpleasant creatures, so Kovu thought that he best not waste much time in this dreadful environment. All around, everything was silent- the wind playing only a soft melody upon the strings of the grass.

Suddenly, his ears caught an unusual sound that attracted his attention. It was something of a short hiss, coming from behind a tall wall of something that looked like reeds scorched by the sun. That was interesting- reeds meant that somewhere over there once there might have been a waterhole or even a small lake, and the lion was getting seriously thirsty due to his extended journey. Hoping to find some water despite the heat, already feeling it's cooling pleasure, Kovu rushed to cross the plant wall. But, to his great surprise, he didn't exactly find a pond at the other side. Instead, he felt the dry ground slumping from under his front paws, and with a shriek of shock, he fell down the edge of a tall ravine, bruising himself painfully on the way.

As soon as he hit the earth at the bottom, he cursed at his carelessness and the many bruises it caused. Shaking the dirt off his mane, he saw himself inside a small valley, desolate and dry, a place reminding him of his former home in the Outlands. He was alone there, accompanied by no one but a chalk-white skeleton of a long dead antelope.

-"Hmf! At least I'm not the only animal dumb enough to fall into this pit…" – he uttered vexed, gazing inside the hollow sockets.

-"Dumb? Why not at all!"

Hearing the skeleton answering him, Kovu became petrified. Was he loosing his mind from being in the sun for too long?

-"You did jussst what'sss required of you, my lion friend" – the low, hissing voice echoed gruesomely from inside the empty antelope head.

-"Uhm… What is this? Who are you?" – Kovu asked with a note of insecurity, carefully knocking at the skull with a paw and then quickly moving away to observe what happens.

-"Hmhmhm… Are you afraid of ghosssts, Kovu? Well don't worry, because you aren't sseeing any… yet."

Out of one of the sockets there crawled the owner of the voice that spoke- a large serpent, colorful and quite pretty with his mixture of black and yellow and orange scales, yet visibly a poisonous and dangerous one as well. The lion before him sighed with relief, seeing that he was neither crazy nor in the presence of some strange, unknown beast, yet still keeping all of the required caution.

-"How do you know my name, snake? And what do you want from me?" – he asked with a lot of emphasis. But the reptile was far from letting himself become intimidated.

-"Hmhm… I know a lot of thingsss, my friend. My name iss Elkanah- and I am the oracle. The one who hearss the voicess of the ancientsss, and those who are far away. Who revealss the visionss of the sstarsss- falling down, yet having eyess uncovered."

Kovu did not understand much from the serpent's senseless babble, yet his words did sound a little bit familiar. They reminded him of another animal that bore the title of oracle- the ever-irritating and ever-crazy ancient baboon, Rafiki.

-"Elkanah, huh? Well what are ya, some kind of a shaman or something?"

The snake's emotionless face did not change a bit, but somehow Kovu had the feeling that he smiled.

-"That'ss right. A shaman iss who I am. A mixer of herbsss and poisonsss, and the medium to the world of beyond…"

-"Okay okay, let's leave the world of the beyond for a while. You still didn't answer my question- how in the world do you know my name, wormtongue?"

The lion was becoming more and more unstable, but Elkanah seemed to have planned this conversation long ago.

-"There are certain thingss you will know ssoon, and ssome for which to know you will have to wait. But thiss I can tell you right away- I know you, Kovu. You can call me, if you pleasse, a friend of the family."

-"What?" – asked the lion with disbelief filling his voice. – "You knew someone from my family?"

-"Correction!" – Elkanah crawled with the rest of his long body out from inside the skull and curled up right in front of the startled feline. – "I know your family!" – he hissed.

-"Who, for example? My sister? Or maybe you mean my mate and her father, the king?"

The snake turned his head, disappointed by Kovu's ignorant answers.

-"You're misssing the point thiss time…"

That was about enough of what the lion could bear. With an contemptuous snort, expressing the offence he felt from the serpent's obvious lies, he decided to just leave the lunatic reptile with his skeleton to catch up with Vitani and the huntresses while he still had the time.

But as soon as he went pass the snake, he heard him hissing with noticeable anger. Normally, being much bigger and stronger, he wouldn't pay any attention to that at all, but when he felt two venom fangs piercing the skin on his calf, he froze. And not just from the rage that rose inside him after that insolent attack. Also because he simply couldn't move, at once becoming overpowered by the paralysis caused from the poison. Stumbling to the ground with a desperate groan, he only tried to remember if the type of venom a snake of Elkanah's kind used was able to kill a grown male lion. But he couldn't remember…

As the darkness became shadowing his sight, he saw the serpent shaman's black eyes shining right in front of his.

-"Sleep, my little Kovu. My precious little thing" – he said, making the lion wonder where ever did he have a chance to hear the words of his mother's old lullaby.

But only a second later, he wasn't able to wonder about anything more at all.


AN: So, if in the Lion King universum there is a good shaman (namely Rafiki) who can contact the spirits of the 'good' dead guys, then why can't there also be a 'bad' shaman? Thus we meet Elkanah, the mysterious snake, a well-known symbol of temptation. He's a character from one of my first fanfics I wrote in Polish, but I suppose he'll fit here perfectly. As long as Kovu doesn't bite his head off for poisoning him...

Reviews shall be well apreciated XD