"Ouch"!
Gareth awoke suddenly with a yell, a sharp pain shooting through his back.
Sitting himself up, Gareth frantically began searching for the source of his pain. After about a minute of searching, he finally found it. A sharp small rock sitting almost innocently on the cold cave floor. I must've rolled onto it when I was asleep He thought to himself.
Gareth looked up to further take in his surroundings. Looking towards the den's entrance he quickly realized it was now nighttime, the glowing stars almost seemed to be dancing throughout the horizon.
As Gareth fixated his gaze towards the stars, he began to think to himself.
Someone, be it the air traffic controllers or the Civil Air Patrol, must be aware of the missing flight. All flights are accounted for. When a plane takes off yet fails to land, there's always at least someone aware. By now they must know the location of the crash site, and after they can confirm it, they'll send a team of rescuers and investigators.
That's it! Gareth thought to himself. I need to get to the crash site! If I have any chance of being rescued, that's where I need to be…
Gareth gave a slight smile. He now had a plan. It wasn't much, but nevertheless it still was a plan.
He had made up his mind. He would leave for the crash site at dawn.
As Gareth finished his thoughts, he heard a noise. Footsteps. Well, pawsteps to be exact.
Gareth squinted his eyes once again towards the dens' entrance. After a few moments of continuous staring, he could finally make out the shadowy form of a lioness making her way towards the entrance. As the lioness finally entered the den, many others soon followed. They must be returning from their hunting party he thought to himself. As if almost to confirm his thoughts, he quickly noticed two lionesses dragging the bloodied carcass of some big animal.
Gareth looked around. The den was now completely full of lionesses, most of which were busy conversing with themselves. He could also see a few cubs who were loudly playing with anything they could get ahold of.
As he looked on towards the crowd, he also noticed Simba and his friends who were all currently busy eating. He smiled at the sight of them.
He really hadn't made the best impression on them. He hadn't acted too nicely towards Simba, either. Actually, it was quite the opposite. He had not only not been nice to him, rather he had also embarrassed him in front of his friends.
Even though Gareth found him slightly annoying, there was no excuse for his hostility towards the golden cub.
Gareth looked back towards the golden cub and his friends. He would make things right with them later.
As he continued to stare towards the group of friends, the crowd of lions suddenly fell quite. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed the forms of two figures approaching him.
Gareth turned his head towards the figures, he could now clearly see who they were. Walking towards him were the massive lion and the lioness who had saved him. Gareth quickly remembered their names. Mufasa and Sarabi, King and Queen of the so called "Pridelands".
Gareth blinked as they stopped a mere few inches away from him. He still feared them. Definitely not as much as before, but still. After all, the fact that they were lions hadn't changed.
Gareth looked back and forth between the two. His eyes finally settled on the lioness, Sarabi, just as she was opening her muzzle to speak.
"Good evening, Gareth" Sarabi said, sighing lightly before continuing "are you ready to finally tell us what happened to you? How you ended up here? If you are still too pained, we understand. We'll give you space".
Gareth blinked at her again, thoughts racing through his mind. Gareth, he thought to himself, enough with the stubbornness! She saved you, provided you with medical care and a place to recover! Just tell them what happened already…
After keeping them waiting for a rather long moment, Gareth finally sighed in defeat.
"Ok" he said in a low voice, "I'll tell you everything".
Almost instantly after agreeing to tell them, Gareth realized that everyone, including Simba and his friends, were now crowded around him. I never thought I'd be so easily "interesting" he thought to himself sarcastically.
Gareth took a long, deep breath before he cleared his voice loudly.
"Ok, I'll try to make this as simple as possible, and I'll try to explain everything as best as I can" Gareth began.
Looking around he noticed that many of the lionesses were nodding slightly.
He took another deep breath before continuing.
"I come from a far away place called America. I don't want to get into detail as to what 'America' is. It's complicated. Basically, my family and I came out here on vacation. Far away from here is a country called 'Kenya', that's where my family and I were staying".
Gareth stopped to take another long breath. All this talking after days of him being quiet were taking a lot out of him.
"After staying in Kenya for about a week, we had to continue on to another far away country called 'Tanzania'.Now here's the tricky part. Humans use a contraption called an 'airplane' or 'aircraft' to travel long distances. To make it simple for you to understand, an 'airplane' is like a huge, rideable metal bird. It allows us humans to travel long distances much faster than walking. It's also an effortless form of travel. Now this big 'metal bird' is piloted by one, two or even three humans depending on the airplane's size."
Gareth stopped again and looked around, many of the lionesses clearly looked confused, yet he knew everyone understood him to an extent. He had warned them that it would be a lot to take in.
"Another important point is that these airplanes run on something called fuel. It supplies the plane's energy, just like how you get your energy from food. Now, just as an animal would starve and later die without food, if an airplane runs out of fuel, it no longer has the energy it needs to sustain flight. At that point a crash is inevitable".
Gareth closed his mouth and lowered his head slightly. Now came the dreaded painful part. Just the memories were enough to get him all choked up. The fact that his very avoidable mistake lead to the deaths of his whole family was simply too much for him to handle.
Gareth swallowed loudly before raising his head. The thick hot tears slowly streaming down his face were now visible to all. He didn't care though. He had brought it all upon himself.
"I'll get straight to the point. I happen to be a pilot, meaning I know how to fly and operate airplanes. Like I said, we had to get from Kenya to Tanzania, so I suggested that I'd fly us there myself. And that's exactly what I did.
But I made a big mistake. I didn't make sure we had enough fuel before we left. As we were about halfway to our destination, I finally realized my mistake, but it...it was simply too late".
Gareth was now crying uncontrollably. Sarabi tried to comfort him with a nuzzle, only to have Gareth push her away lightly. He sniffled loudly before continuing for the last time.
" What happened from there is history; we crashed and my whole family died! My parents and younger sister are all dead because of my mistake! They don't deserve to be dead because of my stupidity... I should be the one dead! But what happened? I live and they die! How cruel is that?! I may have lost everything, but boy did I get something in return. A burden. The burden of knowing that my whole family is dead because of me. A burden I will live with till the day I die…"
With that, Gareth collapsed onto the floor, trembling as he cried softly.
Sarabi looked towards him. She felt sorry for him, he had been through too much pain. She then turned and looked towards her mate. His facial features were filled with pity and sorrow, a rare gesture from his part. She then turned to face the other lionesses. Some were crying, but all wore sad expressions on their faces.
"OK, ladies" Sarabi said, "Gareth has just shared a very painful and personal matter with us. It's time we give him space".
And with that, the crowd scattered slowly throughout the den and settled down for the night.
After what seemed to him like years though it had actually only been a mere few minutes, Gareth finally raised himself off the ground and sat upwards against the cave's cold wall. These pain filled days simply never seemed to end. At least he'd be getting back to civilization tomorrow. Well, hopefully.
As Gareth stared into the dark distance, he noticed that Simba and his friends were slowly walking towards him. Gareth now remembered that they too had listened to his pain. They must think I'm some cry baby for breaking down like that he thought to himself.
As they finally reached him, Simba was the first to speak.
"Umm...Gareth? Listen, I just wanted to let you know that we're really sorry for your loss. We really are. I know that we can never understand what you're going through, but for whatever it's worth, we will try to do anything we can to make you feel better".
Gareth just stared at the golden prince. He knew that he was very sincere, his beautiful features spoiled by a pained expression. This made Gareth even more sad. He never had intended to drag anyone into his own personal problems. Problems that he himself had caused.
Simba looked back towards him. Though Gareth was staring right at him, the young prince could tell that his mind just wasn't there.
"OK, guys. Let's go" Simba said, turning around to leave.
As he slowly walked away with his friends, he was surprised by a hoarse voice coming from behind him.
"Wait"!
Simba smiled, it was Gareth.
Simba slowly turned around to face him. What he saw shocked him. Gareth was still staring at him, but something was different. He was… smiling!
As the two continued staring and smiling at each other with no soon end in sight, Gareth finally spoke.
"Thanks, Simba. Thanks for everything…"
A/N:
Hey guys! Did you miss me? Sorry for not posting in a while. Believe me when I tell you that football is to blame. So, what did you guys think? Let me know in the comments. They really motivate me to continue updating. Also, if you haven't already, please fav, follow and review! It means a lot to me…
Until next time, bye!