"Hello all. Here is Chapter 3 of The Lion King Legacies: Tremors.

How is everyone? I hope you are all well!

Sorry for the lack of updates, I recently returned from a trip to Italy, which was fun, and I have had visitors over this week, one which is an infant which is borrowing my bedroom so I was limited on the time I could spend writing. I also spent a bit of time catching up my X-Box gameplay and writing some of my novel! (I know, considering the size of Judgement, and Legacies, I should have no problem, but I am struggling to get past 20,000 words on that novel… Even so, it's a WIP.

How is everyone though? Enjoying the heat-wave, those in the UK? As for those in the US, I bet you are laughing at us now, wondering why only 0.5% of the population has Air-Conditioning, or why we are so unprepared for good weather. Welcome to Britain!

Anyway, here is the latest chapter, in which two groups join together! Leave your reviews below!

(Apologies for grammar/spelling errors. As always, I will go through it one final time later and correct any embarrassingly painful errors. Gone through it a few times now though, so it should be pretty clean.)

Cheers: Haradion"

Chapter 3: An Enemy of My Enemy

Lukaan lead his Pride into the Jungle. The setting was familiar yet also strange to him. Alien. Strange new bird calls filled the air. Plants of new hues and shapes sprouted from every pocket of green in the forest. Even the towering trees were of a kind unknown to him. Helio was unsettled by it, the brash youth shifted away from a rustling bush that split apart to reveal a frog, coloured a blue so vibrant it almost hurt to look at. It croaked once at them before hopping away. Sundar by contrast was enthralled by every new sight and sound, the excitement proving enough to dispel the sense of fatigue that frequently followed the use of her… gift…

"Father – do you smell that?" She asked suddenly. Lukaan was engrossed in his own thoughts, but as soon as she said it, he sensed it, that tinge to the air. It smelled of a feline. His eyes narrowed. Lioness. He cursed under his breath. Had he not been so engrossed in the new surroundings, or in his preoccupation with the past, he should have been able to smell it ages ago.

Others in his party – clearly having made the same mistake – looked about sharply. All of them instantly crouching. Lukaan sniffed the air. Helio took a step forward, a soft clink announcing that he had unsheathed his claws.

"Put those away…" Lukaan told him quietly. "We are not here to fight…"

"Can you say the same for them?" Helio muttered back. A Fair point, but Lukaan was not about to allow the youngest of them to provoke a fight without course, with an opponent they could not even see.

"Just do it…" He replied. The group fanned out into the forest. All of them were as quiet as the grave.

Then a second smell hit them. Lukaan recoiled.

"SHAI'TAN!" He 's eyes widened and some of the lionesses glanced at one another uneasily.

"Impossible…" One uttered. Lukaan unsheathed his own claws, previous words forgotten. If a Shai'tan was here… then they were all in grave danger, and he had lead his people straight into a battle. Sundar tensed. Then closed her eyes.

"No…" She said. Lukaan glanced at her.

"What is it?" He asked.

"There is no Shai'tan ahead… Only… Pain. Fear… Death." At that last word, her eyes snapped open, perspiration leaking from her head. Lukaan knew instantly what she had done. She had used her gift to look ahead for the source of the smell. And she had done so recklessly. He shook his head.

"Sundar, you mustn't over exert yourself… We have no way of knowing what will happen to you." He reminded her. Sundar grimaced.

"I can't help it… I am doing it without even thinking about it now… Without control." She told him, looking disturbed. The other lionesses were uneasy, and Helio looked concerned at her. Then muttered something incomprehensible. He had no doubts it was some variation of: 'bloody magic'.

Lukaan shivered. Was there a possibility that Sundar could lose all control completely? This gift that both blessed and cursed his daughter had proved instrumental to their salvation, but at the same time, were a mystery and a torture to them. For the last year, his daughter's dreams had been filled with visions of strange, far off lands, her mind bouncing out at random across the world. And then one day… she had done so during the day, whilst awake. It had frightened him. Never had he heard of such a thing. The 'gift' they had taken to calling it, but from the toll it took on his daughter, 'the curse' was a more appropriate name.

Even so, this pronouncement of the absence of the Shai'tan did little to avert his fears. He held more faith in senses that had kept him alive for over five years than he had in magic's that had not existed until less than a year ago.

"Helio…" He said. The young lion looked up. "Yes?" He asked. "Stay here with Sundar. The rest of you with me…" he said. Helio frowned at being left behind, but said nothing.

The other lions advanced, keeping low in the grass, a good distance apart, alert and on edge. Lukaan lead the way, and they traveled in the direction of the smell that smelt so like the harbingers of destruction they recognized as Shai'tan.

After a few moments, they came upon a sight that made him gasp. A Tigress lay at the side of the pool, mangled by carrion and decay. But unmistakably a Shai'tan.

"Harten… Get the others. They need to see this…" He muttered. He took a tentative step forward as the lioness Harten jolted away, and returned a few minutes later with Helio and Sundar.

"What the…" Helio managed to say, before his voice escaped him. Lukaan nudged the corpse with a paw.

"It can't me…" One of the lionesses said. "It's a trick." Another decided, but looked uncertain. Lukaan hesitated, and then pushed the body over. It landed with a sickening 'crunch' as rotten bones snapped.

"This seems too soon. The marks from the fight look recent, but the decay looks closer to a month's rot…" Lukaan observed. Helio gave a sour laugh.

"Well – they were rotten to the core in life – it's only right they get the same treatment after death!" He said. All fears erased, the lad seemed elated.

"One down – Six to go!" he said joyfully. Lukaan frowned. "But who could have done this?" he asked. The decaying body left no signs of the cause of death, but the evidence of a fight was all around them.

"Who cares? Which one was it?" Helio asked, looking almost blood thirsty. Lukaan gave a closer look – resisting the urge to throw up.

"She's female… Large – bulky and well muscled… Sekmet. This is Sekmet." Sundar whistled through her teeth.

"Was Sekmet." Helio corrected.

"The question remains. What happened here? I for one want to know who, or what was responsible for this… We have to know what happened here." Lukaan decided. He turned around, and began moving away from the body. The others followed.

"We should move on before–" His words were cut off by a loud growl followed by a roar, as a huge mass of gold fur collided with him. And suddenly he was fighting for his life. He returned stroke for stroke and his vision cleared to show a lioness before him. He didn't recognize her. A Local. And from her actions, a spy for the Shai'tan. He roared in response and brought his own claws up to bear. She growled again and leapt at his face.

Behind him, Sundar looked on desperately with the other lionesses. Helio took a step forward to intervene, but she lifted up a paw to stop him.

"No – they are moving too quickly. Get involved and you'll just get torn to ribbons by the both of them before either of them realizes whose side you're on!" She told him. Helio growled, but stopped moving and began to follow the pair.

The lioness was large, and strong. Stronger than any lioness in their group for certain. And there were over differences. She was paler than the palest of lionesses Sundar has ever seen, her eyes were wild, haunted even.

Almasi clawed at the lion before them. She had been walking, trying to clear her head when she had first seen the strangers. She had stalked them, hidden from sight to discover their intentions, but when they had found Sekmet's body, recognized it for what it was, decided to uncover what had happened, a mad rage had gripped her.

They were spies. Followers of the Shai'tan – how else would they have such detailed knowledge? And if they were Shai'tan spies… then they were of the same ilk that had carried off her children before her eyes. The same scum who had near murdered Danyal – nothing more than a boy himself. Such heartless scum moving through her new home as if they owned the place, their hearts blacker than tar, had sent her into a berserker rage that even now sent blood pounding through her ears and her heart into overdrive. She roared her anger.

"LOW LIFE SCUM!" She bellowed as she struck at him. The lion was as white as the clouds in the sky, and her claws slashed into the edge of his skin, tainting that pale purity with sprays of scarlet. He was thin and sleek but he moved like a serpent, ducking and weaving beneath every one of her attacks. She could scratch him; draw a few flecks of blood, but nothing more. Suddenly, he weaved under her strike and bit forwards, seizing her by the neck. Almasi rolled, throwing them both to the ground before he could clamp his teeth down on the neck, and the two we sent sprawling onto the floor.

"You are a traitor to your own species!" She spat at him. Then slashed with both paws. That caught him of guard, and six lines of red appeared on the both of his flanks.

"Give me back my children!" She howled. And she vented all of her anger at this stranger in her land.

"Give me back my home!" He replied in anger.

Suddenly, Sundar froze. This was no spy, or rebel. This was… a survivor.

"DAD! STOP!" She shouted.

"Almasi!"

It was Vitani. The lioness had been drawn by the sound of combat and returned to the pool to find Almasi locked in combat with a white male lion. Then she had felt the words of the other lioness seared into her mind. Almasi looked around, grateful for the backup. The fury was leaving her, as were her will to fight. Lukaan was panting heavily, but he had frozen at his daughters words. He stepped towards the duo now.

"We mean you no harm…" The lioness said. The white male looked at her strangely, but nodded in agreement.

"You don't serve the Shai'tan?" Lukaan asked, tentatively. Vitani looked around at the on looking lionesses.

"Ask Sekmet." She said, nodding towards the corpse.

"Who are you?" She asked them.

"Who are you?" Replied the younger of the two males. Vitani ground her teeth in frustration. The white lion however, stepped forwards.

"I believe I can guess. You are survivors. The Shai'tan appeared in your land, murdered your family and King, destroyed your home, and you are some of the few to have survived the massacre. And you…" he nodded at Almasi. "You shrieked… 'Give me back my children' back there… which means… You have my condolences. I am so very sorry." He said sincerely. Vitani had flinched and was staring at them in shock. Then she eyed his white mane, his manner, his presence and the fact that all lionesses seemed to look towards him. In a way, he reminded her of Simba, and of Kovu. So Vitani hazarded a guess.

"You were a King…"

"Briefly…" He replied. But there were no Prides near the Pridelands – the lands could not support the numbers.

"A King a Long time ago. Far from here. You know of Shai'tan… which means you have met them before." Lukaan smiled.

"Go on…" he said. Vitani paused.

"You know them… you fought them. But you lost. You ran. You fled your lands and your people and tried to escape death by running away. You ran here. Far from home with nothing but your friends and family. You still see them in your dreams, the ones you couldn't save…" Vitani said. Lukaan smiled.

"It seems we know one another after all…" he said.

"I am Lukaan. I inherited this Pride from my Brother, who died heirless. And we fled the Shai'tan when Empire fell."

"When it fell? The Empire still lives my friend. You walk around its frontier as we speak…" Vitani told him. Lukaan winced.

"The Imperium existed before Ben-Kai-Ra Murdered his way to Power, I assure you. A Coalition of a dozen different tribes and Prides twenty or thirty times the size of these lands for as far as the eyes can see, founded on principles of unity and honor. Principles he betrayed… As he betrayed us all…" He said, his eyes taking a hallow look. And Vitani felt a pang of sympathy. To see her home under occupation was one thing, but to see it and everything it stood for twisted beyond recognition would truly make life unbearable.

"You have my sympathies King Lukaan." She said.

"No longer. I am a King without a Kingdom. I am just Lukaan, who happens to lead a group of rouges." He said. Despite it all though, Vitani felt a glimmer of excitement.

"But you know the Shai'tan…" She said. "You know how to fight them!"

"You can't fight them." he told her. "It is death to try." He said. Vitani frowned.

"They are not immortal." She said.

"They are not wholly mortal either. Not anymore. What kind of creatures could massacre whole Prides? Could murder cubs before their parent's eyes!" Lukaan said.

"The Kind we can kill… Look behind you again." Vitani told him. Lukaan glanced at the decaying corpse of Sekmet and shivered.

"How did you do that?" he asked. Vitani hesitated, wondering how much to tell a stranger.

"The Shai'tan came upon us with a pack of Wilddogs. They were after the cubs. We fought off the Wilddogs, but one of the Shai'tan led the attack personally, and crippled Almasi. One of our number, a young boy by the same of Danyal put himself between the cubs and the Shai'tan. We tried… We tried so hard… But we couldn't stop her. The Wilddogs took Almasi's twin cubs alive. And the other two cubs in our number are missing… we don't know where they are… Danyal fell from the tip of the cliff-face. He dragged Sekmet with him but… She was killed. And he is mortally wounded. From the fall, and from… Sekmet's… The Shai'tan's perverse pleasures." She spat. The new lions looked at one another…

"Impossible…" One muttered again.

"Take us to him." A new voice said. Lukaan knew without looking that it was Sundar - though Vitani did not know that.

The young lioness was staring at her intently.

"Take us to this 'Slayer'.

AN:

There you go people. Enjoy.

So it seems the new lions have met the current Pride. Still no guesses as to who, or what, they are? Let me know below.

I should get more regular updates once my holiday begins, but this should keep you going for now.

Enjoy your summer.

:D

Please Review, and Goodnight!

Have a nice day!