Chapter Four : Revelations and Chaos


The narrow passage was plunged into eternal darkness, a darkness so thick that it seemed almost tangible to Kiara, as the lioness had soon found herself forced to crawl her way through it. As minutes passed without her seemingly reaching the end of the tunnel, she was becoming increasingly convinced that the hyena had just tricked her; this passage likely led to nothing, and she'd just eventually find herself stuck in a dead-end, unable to turn around or even move. And then she'd probably suffocate to death, unless Shenzi would show up in her back and rip her apart. But just as the lioness was about to give up all hope, the tunnel suddenly widened again, curving upwards. With a sigh of both exasperation and relief, Kiara climbed out of the passage - and lost herself in the contemplation of this otherworldly place.

The tunnel had given way to a room carved by the ages in the stone, where rocks and bones had eventually merged to give birth to an amazing natural arch... Strange fungi were gleaming on the walls of the cave, haloing it with a soft blue glow; a spring was gurgling softly between the surrounding crystalline concretions, winding through patches of vegetal moss where tiny fireflies were quietly buzzing.

Kiara walked to the center of the cave, fascinated; even in the most complete misery, there could be beauty. Even in death, there could be life; an oasis vibrant with life, symbolizing the hope of an entire community, at the heart of the seemingly eternal sterility of the Elephant Graveyard. Taking foot on a patch of fresh moss, the lioness suddenly froze, her ears perked up. A whisper was echoing under the vault, although Kiara seemed alone here... And not just one voice... Hundreds, perhaps thousands of them, at the same time close, and as distant as the icy stars of the Great Kings.

It was then a maelström of mixed sensations and foreign recollections, which exploded in the spirit of the lioness as she felt a presence enter her mind, both close and infinitely far away... And a curious feeling came to her senses; the impression of no longer being totally herself. For a long moment, Kiara wandered in spirit through the maze of her own subconscious, travelling down dusky paths, and skirting abyssal wells filled with a blinding darkness. She witnessed unspeakable shadows loom over her menacingly, and the lioness experienced a moment of dread in front of the horrors that her own soul seemed to harbor.

She then saw some sort of luminous, vaguely defined figure appear in front of her... The impression of despair and loneliness that emanated from the entity forced her to feel a degree of compassion like she had never experienced before, and Kiara plunged towards it with mixed feelings of pity and gratitude.

"You who Hear…" the spectral hyena murmured, a thousand voices united into one.

Kiara looked into the yellowish, pulsating lights that were the eyes of the entity. Around her, the temperature seemed to have dropped noticeably, as if the presence would have absorbed all heat.

"Who are you?" the lioness murmured; a few seconds later, she would come to wonder if she had really said those words, or simply thought them... Her mind seemed to float away from her body, and everything around her appeared to be made of the very fiber of dreams...

"We have several names." the ghost replied. "We are Them who Wait, what remains of the matriarchs of ages past; And You who Hear, you are looking for answers."

Kiara shuddered, the cold penetrating up to the lowest layers of her skin... "Why was your people exiled?" the lioness asked, fully aware of such a question's direct nature...

"There is fire within you, daughter of a King; beware it does not consume you..." The ghost warned her. "You are venturing on a rough terrain, and knowing the truth could have compromising implications for both you and the honor of your Pride. And you would suffer more from it than anyone else."

"The truth does not have to appeal to me." Kiara said. "If I have come this far, it is to hear it; not to avert my eyes because it could jeopardize an illusion that I am fond of. I am here to know the reason for your exile, not to taunt you."

"Then, Behold."

At these words, Kiara felt a spasm surge through her whole being, and once again she felt that sensation of no longer being identified; in silence, like a dreamless fetus in its yolk sack, her mind travelled outside the cave...

The Elephant Graveyard now stretched below her, but it was merely a reflection of it, even more atrocious than the original, with overturned perspective and grotesque angles... Colors were non-existent, replaced by an infinity of grey shades, from the most blinding white to the most fathomless black. The mist clung to the bones in long, winding columns that sprang up towards blackish, dark red-veined skies. And here and there, Kiara could distinguish vague shapes, that miserably wandered the mire, uncertain and lean. From their groups arose a sinister threnody, a chorus of moans and cries that revealed unending sufferings. In front of this nightmarish vision, the lioness froze in horror.

"Who are they?" she gasped, a frightened sadness in her eyes.

"These are the souls of our departed. All those who died in this place." the specter at her side responded.

"But why are they still here? Don't they know they are dead?" Kiara asked.

"They are trapped." the ghostly hyena explained. «Forever chained to the sufferings of their own children."

In silence, Kiara contemplated the tortured and emaciated hyena silhouettes. They seemed so alone, and appeared to be unaware of her presence, or even of their very own state for that matter, except perhaps for the endless vicious circle in which they were imprisoned : indeed, as Kiara looked more closely, she realized that their eye sockets were empty, simply occupied by bottomless pits of nothingness in place of eyes.

"For a parent, there is no hell worse than the suffering of his child." The ghost said. "As long as their descendants live in misery, these souls will remain trapped between this life and the one that comes After."

"Can we help them?" Kiara asked.

The spectral hyena remained silent for a long moment, her bright eyes centered onto the lioness, and seemingly probing the very depths of her soul. "The answer lies in ages past and is no longer ours. No more than the fate of your Pride belongs to the Great Kings. Only one who walks among the living is able to unravel the truth; to mend what was sundered, to restore the possibility of a dialogue between old enemies, and put at rest Those who Yearn in vain." The ghost responded. "If you really want to know the truth, hear the words of your Father; and ask him about Ahadi."

Kiara's ears perked up. "Who is Ahadi?" She asked. But her ghostly interlocutor did not answer, merely focusing her attention onto the lioness' abdomen.

"You who Hear; you bear the hope of our clan; and of your Pride." The specter murmured. "May your heart be worthy of it."

"What do you mean?" Kiara asked, puzzled.

"You know already."

The specter seemed to shift away without actual movement, disappearing into a direction of space that Kiara could not comprehend. "We will talk no more. The fate of the living belongs to the living." Her voice resounded one last time, while it gradually returned to nothingness.

Kiara felt a muscular spasm surge through her body, as though she had been numbed for an indefinite time. She was alone again in the middle of the cave, and perhaps she had always been... Or had she? All she remembered now had the uncertain and ever-shifting texture of a dream, at the center of which floated a single name: Ahadi...


Shenzi was still deep in thought when Kiara emerged again at the base of the Elder Skull. The lioness stretched herself and snorted, getting rid of the dirt that stained her coat before centering her look on the Matriarch. Calmly, Shenzi turned around.

"So?" the hyena muttered. "Been havin' fun? Or did you just waste your time trudgin' through the mud for nails?"

Kiara nodded. "I need to talk to my father."

Shenzi let out a wry laugh. "Ha! Cuz you really think you can help us?... That's good one. Do what you want, it ain't like it's gonna change anything... " she replied with a grimace of exasperation, before suddenly turning serious again. "But I warn ya. You better not cause our clan to suffer even more just cuz you wanna play the good Samaritan... Cuz you can rest assured I'll get you."

Kiara took a deep breath, fixing her gaze onto the hyena before responding. "I do not expect you to lend me a blind confidence, and I could not blame you for that. But I give you my word that I will not betray you, Shenzi."

The hyena remained silent for a long moment, staring into space. "Yeah... The word of a lion, alright... Stop livin' in topsy-turvy land, will ya? I've heard that one before." She eventually whispered back, shaking her head.


Still surrounded by the group of hyenas, Kovu could not take his eyes off Windaji, who continued walking in circles around him. During his whole life, the young lion hadn't felt so alone save for one single previous occasion: when his mother Zira had disavowed and disfigured him...

"Your Majesty, please help us..." Kovu mentally pleaded.

"Silence!"

The answer had come to his ears as clearly as if whoever had spoken would have done so a few inches away from his head. But save for the hyenas, nobody else was around. Kovu froze on spot, confused...

"Your Majesty, is that you? But how..."

"No, it's not. And quit moaning, you fool!"

That voice… Kovu knew it all too well; severe, incisive as an obsidian shard, and filled with malice. He had heard it too often during his early childhood. Kovu imperceptibly gritted his teeth, trying to repel the insidious presence that invaded his mind.

"Let me be, you monster! You're dead, and I owe you nothing!"

"And what exactly do you know about death, Son? You're alive, as far as I know..."

"I am not your son!"

Scar let out a sardonic laugh...

"You may deny the truth at leisure, Kovu. But one way or another, I shall always be there..."

"What do you mean?..."

"Whether you like it or not, I took you in, I raised you, and made you who you are today. You are Us."

"Lies! I disowned you, Scar!"

"You may disown me till your heart is content, young idiot. But you may not deny your origins. Whatever you may think, you have a burden to carry. As everyone else."

"And what is this burden?"

Scar's voice remained silent for a moment, before resounding again in the depths of Kovu's soul. "It is what you will do of it. The fate of the living belongs to the living." It then seemed to fade away in a succession of echoes of cosmic proportions, and Kovu remained silent, confused and shaken to the point of no longer being aware of the hyenas' presence around him.

A violent detonation then snapped him out of his apathy, as a crimson bolt pierced the night in his back; nearby, one of the hyenas instantly fell to the ground with a muffled groan.

Immediate panic ensued... The horde of predators moved off like one single individual, instantly scattering in all directions; in vain, Windaji ordered retreat to the others, only accentuating their panic. New detonations broke the silence of the night, accompanied by crimson flashes, and more hyenas collapsed, as if stricken by an invisible lightning.

Kovu himself remained motionless for a moment, unable to understand what was happening; then he saw them...

Their attackers had surrounded them from the highest mounds of the Graveyard. And they were unlike anything Kovu had seen before. Reddish lightnings briefly illuminated their silhouettes, revealing bipedal bodies, which could have been simian in appearance, had they not been standing straight onto their hind legs; Kovu also felt their pungent smell, so foreign to the Pridelands and their surroundings: a smell of smoke and death was floating after them, as they were advancing down the rocky slopes. The male lion himself felt something sizzle inches away from his head, and he let out a roar when a wave of pain travelled through his left ear. Something warm trickled down his mane, tacking it ; for a while, Kovu remained unable to perceive any sound at all, apart from an intense buzzing that bore through his skull. Staggering at the center of a magma of muffled and watery sounds, he caught a glimpse of Windaji as she rushed towards one of the burrows nearby; tucking her head in, the female hastily pulled out a pair of terrorized baby hyenas, that she began pushing in front of her...


Kiara itself had been startled as the din of detonations had broken the silence of the night; then, without exchanging a single word, Shenzi and herself had begun running amid that chaos of smoke and thunder.

"What's going on?" Kiara inquired, briefly turning to Shenzi.

"Do I look like I know?" the hyena grunted back as she struggled to keep pace, hampered by her swollen abdomen...

Around them, the air seemed saturated with ozone, just like after a heat storm, but when she finally got to see the crimson flashes illuminating the night on the other side of the canyon, Kiara quickly realized that the cause was quite different: someone or something was storming the place, leaving a trail of death in its path...

For a split second, Kiara was aware of a stooped silhouette appearing just in front of her, and she froze, on the defensive; Windaji was standing there, accompanied by a quintet of fluffy baby hyenas huddled between her legs ; at the sight of Kiara, the female hyena let out a roar of anger, her mane bristling. "Don't you touch them, witch!" She spat, snapping her jaws a few inches away from the lioness.

"Windaji!" Shenzi intervened firmly, forcing the other to report her attention onto her. "What is happening?"

"Humans, Matriarch..." Windaji replied in a whisper. "They appeared all of a sudden... We were caught by surprise."

Shenzi cringed... "Lead the kiddos to safety... I'll get in touch with the others!" She answered.

The younger hyena complied without a word, casting a last hateful glance towards Kiara, before hurrying to the limits of the canyon, still pushing the hyena cubs in front of her while whispering soft words of comfort to them. Kiara looked away, biting her lips as she couldn't help but feel a pang of esteem for this female's devotion to these little ones, in spite of all the hatred she seemed to bear in her heart... And suddenly, the lioness realized the full extent of their situation.

"Oh, no... Kovu!" she gasped.

Shenzi gave her a quizzical look. "What's the problem?"

"I have to find my companion and make sure he's okay! I'll be back as soon as possible..." the lioness replied.

Shenzi stared at her in silence for seconds, before giving her a half-smile. "Suits me, girl... I know the feeling: I got someone too… Go save your boyfriend!" The hyena replied with a nod.

And Kiara rushed towards the Graveyard's center...


Kovu was scared; his wounded ear ached, hanging limply on the side of his head, and for a split second he remain paralyzed with terror, thinking of just curling up on the floor and await the end. Then his survival instinct kicked in, and the male lion desperately tried to put distance between himself and the Humans; new shots sizzled right above his head, and he felt the air displacement...

Spotting a breach on the side, Kovu rushed towards it, hoping to get out of the maze of canyons and reach the precarious safety of the bush, but his hopes were crushed upon realizing he had just come to be astray into a dead-end; cursing his bad luck, the male lion looked up at the edge of the ravine, several meters above him; no chance to reach it...

And suddenly, he felt a presence behind him. Turning around, the lion found himelf directly facing one of those Humans. This biped creature was so different from him that Kovu could not even apprehend its strange anatomy, and thus he remained unable to react. Two other Humans then showed up, following the first one.

Emitting a growl of both fear and anger, the male lion recoiled towards the bottom of the rocky pass, his eyes trailing wildly from one to another of his assailants; never before had he seen these animals so similar to monkeys, but which stood upright onto their hind legs.

"I'm so sorry, Kiara ... I did not want it to end this way..."

Such was Kovu's last thought, just before a clear spot blocked his vision; there was the indistinct flow of a golden mane, and the flash of gleaming fangs opening onto a furious roar.

It was Simba...

At the sight of the large lion, the attackers froze as a triptych of wax figures before letting out a yelp of terror; a split second later, they were scurrying away...

Kovu then felt himself thrown to the ground; Simba had pounced on him, teeth bared in a snarl of anger, and mercilessly slashed at his temple. Kovu remained stunned for a few moments, only vaguely perceiving the roar of his King through the reddish veil that enveloped his mind.

"Where is Kiara?"

"Your Majesty? I'm Sorry... I..." Kovu stammered, just before Simba's paw once again struck at his face.

"WHERE IS MY DAUGHTER? Answer me, fool!"

The young lion staggered, immense waves of pain surging throughout his whole being. In vain, he tried to crawl away from Simba.

"She is... gone. With the hyena..." He finally whispered.

A leaden screed seemed to fall upon them, while Simba's face changed into a mask of pure hatred. For a time that seemed to stretch to infinity, he was another one; a vile, bloodthirsty beast that had remained dormant for decades, and was now waking up to give free rein to his anger, without compromise nor judgment. Faced with this noxious parody of the noble face he loved, Kovu felt something break within himself...

Then the monstrous beast vanished just like it had appeared; Simba's expression was once again adamant, as he gave Kovu a rough shove.

"Get up!"

The younger male obeyed without a word as Simba ruthlessly pushed him again. His head low, Kovu limped out of the dead-end with Simba in tow; Kovu could almost feel the fiery eyes of his sovereign upon him; marking a pause, he let his gaze trail along the devastated landscape ; but Kiara was nowhere in sight... Flattening his ears, he then gave Simba a pleading look.

"Your Majesty... Father, i'm sorry... Kiara is..."

Simba sent him a pointed glare that was forbidding any further discussion.

"Move, you imbecile!"

Mortified, Kovu lowered his gaze and followed his King in silence, a magma of tangled thoughts bubbling under his burning skull, while the first raindrops of a heat storm began striking along his mane and spine.

In one single night of time, his world had collapsed...


Are Kiara and the hyenas going to pull out and reach safety in time ?

And if they do, how is Simba going to react when confronted by his daughter?

Stay tuned for Chapter Five : Hours of Despair.