Author: Daggermouth
Message from the Author: Sorry everyone, it's another "flashback" chapter. It's the last one I promise!
Lion King 4
Book Two – Reuniting the Pasts
Chapter: IX – Finale Part I: The Malevolent Queen
Atop Priderock, Zira and Kivuli continue to circle each-other, as a group of hyenas suddenly approach up behind the elder lion Kivuli. The evil lioness now grins knowing she now has the upper hand she approaches Kivuli closer until they're directly faced onwards.
"I've been setting traps in the Pridelands for so long now. It was me who set the fire, it was meant to end Kiara once and for all and I laid all those traps across the Pridelands. I have been waiting for this day. The day I would meet you again my love, join me Kivuli, together we can be the queen and king of the Pridelands. Together we can rule everything." Zira says piercingly her voice sounding most sincere; she was truly lost to the darkness. Kivuli looks at his old mate; her eyes were so different they were dim and lost their past beauty and radiance.
"Stop this madness; put an end to all this and you can go home, to your parents! Do you even remember their names?" The two of them stop circling each-other on Priderock and Zira's scowl turns into a look of regret, looking back on her life. She dare not look back on her past, so much fighting, so much rage and anger, and there in the darkness is a small spot of light, her parents who until now she had denied they ever lived. She approaches the elder lion Kivuli and slowly turns to face him.
"Their names were Uzuri and Kari." Zira gazes right into the eyes of the bigger lion and then she reflects back way back to when she herself was a cub, the old queen remembers them well, she had her mother: Kari and her father: Uzuri, who she has missed so much, but it is because of them all this was made possible, because of her parents Zira became who she is, sitting next to her old mate atop Priderock the malevolent queen Zira tells her own chronicle of her past life—'
'—In a warm time of tangible peace and propriety, far along the Zeburi River down to the very south along its golden coast, once more the animals of this land did shiver awake, opening their eyes at the blistering sun, it started like another dawn marked by the clear blue morning sky. The all-important stars temporally fade away in the blazing orange sky, a group of cheerful but importantly bright blue birds flutter throughout this land. The sky was filled with the fresh morning air as the new mother awoke from her home. Kari smiled up and welcomed the sun; Kari had dazzling but mysterious brown eyes and white flaky fur and in this time long ago she was currently the strongest lioness in all the Pridelands. Here she lived with her mate in a small green wood surrounded with a healthy and tall variety of trees; this is the forest that time forgot. The forest's true name remains a mystery but that never mattered to Kari who had just given birth to her only offspring, as she turns to see her mate Uzuri the darkest lion she ever met, he always wore a small distinctive grey scarf made of old grass and over woodland undergrowth. The grey scarf was wrapped tightly around his right 's paws themselves were white in colour, while the rest of his fur was dark grey. Uzuri was cradling their new born cub smiling at the wonders of new life.
"What shall we call her my love?" Uzuri smiles up at his stronger female mate with a warm smile, deciding to give her the honour of naming their new born cub. Kari looks down on the infant and searches her feelings; she decides to name her cub with a mixture of their own two names: "Zira," Kari says deep in the reclusive forest. While Uzuri was a kind lion, his mate Kari was somewhat overpowering, sometimes using her lioness strength to intimidate others, but she held a secret, for she was protecting something. The woodland itself was circular in shape and at the very centre of the forest rested a strange haphazard stone alter. On the top of the stone alter was a peculiar white stone perched on the altar. Kari was prepared to do anything to protect this white stone and stop anyone who came near it, Uzuri the kind lion never questioned his mate about the location at the centre of the forest, he was too timid for that. It is only when Zira grew old enough to speak her first words that her world started to crumble apart. This is her story; the story of how the little cub Zira grew up and descended into the darkness.
Zira's magnificent hazel eyes gleamed in the dark forest, the small female cub had just awakened and she rushes up to her father nudging him "Dad, Dad! C'mon I want to play!" Zira pounces on her sleeping tired father Uzuri, the small lion groans and rolls over in his slumber before opening his white eyes. Zira playfully growls and tugs on her father's ear in a futile effort to get him up, but the elder lion wakes up on his own. Yawning widely Uzuri realises the sun hasn't even risen in the dark sky yet. But he smiles, Uzuri always slept alone, Kari, as always was guarding the strange rock alter at the centre of their forest home day and all night. The trees were so densely huddled together it would be hard for Uzuri to play with his daughter without something going wrong. While they almost had the entire forest to themselves, many tigers lived in the lush forest around them and Uzuri was too old to be fighting groups of tigers. So the lion headed out with his daughter Zira to the north to play by the old logs. As Zira happily bounces and skips along the grass she enjoys herself. She was content. When together father and daughter reach an opening in the trees with several large intact logs dotted around. Uzuri comes up with a cunning plan, using the logs he arranges them together, after alittle effort Uzuri had created a mini adventure playground for his daughter with the logs. Zira nuzzles her taller father with a small purr before rushing off to play inside the logs, she rolls around of them and crawls around enjoying herself as cubs did as Uzuri chuckled and lies down on the grass. As the sun arose high the sky its beaming light shined down through the canopy of trees, the rays of light eliminated t he opening. Zira spent all day with her kind father. Together they had many adventures inside the forest as the sun peaked in the sky Zira pounce on her father and he playfully fell to the ground with a deep laugh. It's only at that moment the young cub Zira notices the strange grey cloth around her father's paw.
"Dad, why do you wear that scarf around your paw?" Zira questions her father so suddenly tilting her lovable head. Uzuri lifts his paw upwards to show his ornament up into the white rays of light.
"It's for good luck, I weaved it from this very forest when me and your mother first announced our love to eachother," he smiles warmly sincerely. As the day continue daughter and father enjoyed the warmth of the woodland they live in, far across the whole forest they adventured up high and down low, finding strange bugs and laughing, enjoying themselves as they always did. And this time it seemed like any other day, until when returning to their forest home together Kari rushes out of the lush forest chasing a small tiger with her claws drawn she roars angrily, Kari pounces on the tiger and tears it apart mercilessly pulling it and ending its life right infront of her small daughter Zira. Uzuri immediately covers his daughter curling around her to shield her eyes but by then it's too late. The tiger was dead and its blood was on Kari's paws. Kari herself just grunted and headed back to the stone alter while Uzuri takes Zira back home. He lays her down in a bed of soft straw as Zira was in sudden shock; such a lovely day was ruined with such a sight of horror. Zira shakes in her straw bed, As the sun descended and Zira fell asleep warmly tucked into the fur of her father. Uzuri cradled his daughter before parting with her and rushes over to find his mate. He knew exactly where to find Kari. She was where she always was. Rushing up to his mate Kari, Uzuri roars in anger:
"Why do you care so much about that whit stone? Why is it so important you have to kill an innocent tiger to protect it? You know, it's because of you we can't go live in the Pridelands with the Lion King Ahadi. He just returned home to Priderock and he brought the rain back with him. We can go live there, where it is safe, away from this forest, away from that white stone on the rock altar you keep swearing to protect more than your own daughter!" Uzuri roars, but as he does he just suddenly regrets doing so almost immediately. It was not like him to just suddenly outburst like that. He was too good natured to yell anymore, he never stood up against Kari before. But this time she had really let them down...
"I've had enough, I'm taking Zira and I'm leaving this place, forever!" Uzuri finishes, doing the only thing he knows he can do, protecting his daughter. Kari obviously couldn't follow them, she would be at the stone alter like she always was, day and night sleeping at its base, killing anyone who gets close to it, obsessed with the strange mysterious white coloured stone perched upon it.
That night a storm was brewing, Uzuri had Zira by the scruff in his mouth and although it pained him to do so, he was already far away from the forest and now following the Zeburi River up to the Pridelands in the North. He had never done anything like this before and it went against everything he stood for. His mate had gone mad and even Kari herself didn't understand the full purpose of the white stone in the centre of their forest home. Ever since them the two of them fell in love Kari was always protecting it... As thoughts of his mate rushed through his mind Uzuri suddenly felt a sharp pain across his back.
"How dare you say I don't care for Zira!" Kari rushes up to her mate pouncing on him as the two elder lions roll across the floor fighting in a scuffle kicking up sand up high on the river bed. Zira falls to the ground, getting up and shaking her head, watching her two parents fight, it was heartbreaking to her,
"Stop it!" Zira repeats over and over again in desperation she rushes up to her fighting parents in a bid to stop. Kari was overpowering her mate as Uzuri frails his paws desperately trying to fight back. A thunder claps erupt above the sky above them. Zira quickly approaches the fighting couple but during the fighting she is kicked in the scuffle and falls across the floor sliding right over the edge and into the Zeburi River with a loud splash. As more thunder lights up the sky in the storm the Zeburi River was rushing faster than ever, Zira gasps for breathe her fur was wet and ruined, she tried to keep her head above the water but she was only a young cub. Only the cries of their daughter stop Kari and Uzuri from fighting. Both of them hear Zira at the same time and they both rush to the water edge looking across the water in fright, "Zira! Zirrraaaa!" Uzuri chases his daughter down the river but the raging water is too fast and Zira is thrown down the river at deadly speed. Zira couldn't even muster the strength to cry for help anymore. Her parents suddenly out of sight, the thunderstorm rages above. In fear Zira thought her last memories were going to be of her mom and dad fighting as the cub is washed across the savannah. And that was the last time she ever saw her parents...
In the warmth of the savannah a newly formed tide covered with thick broken logs presents itself on the rocky coast of the Pridelands. In the coastal waves a figure of a lioness is washed away with the tide. With no strength to raise her legs she crawls out of the water and trundles further onto the coast. She wheezes for breath only to cough up water. The strong waves trying to haul her back into the rushing river she came down from. The lioness almost reached the end of her life after falling from a reasonable height into the water and swept down the Daggermouth gorge when the dam broke. The waters crushed upon her with such power and ferocitythe next second she could breathe was on this coast, but now she was greedily swallowing the air before eventually awakening and started coming to her senses over than the tang of wet groggy dirt and sand in her mouth. She rubs her bleak face and eyes with a broken paw. She shakes her golden furred body to release the water and only then she does look up at the horizon and stare at Priderock still standing strong in the distance. With cowardly eye's she draws her chipped claws and weakly hobbles off alongside the golden twilight coast.
"Hey, who're you?" A dark furred adolescent teenage lion turns to the golden female cub that just appeared on the same shore. The lioness spitting out some swallowed sand weakly manages to speak her name:
"Zira... My name is Zira." She says, the water trapped in her throat had permanently changed her once beautiful voice into one of wheezing horror.
The dark furred lion smiles, and introduces himself:
"I'm Taka! Oh wait, that was my old name until I got this Scar...Did you run away from home too?" The teenage Scar says on the Evenstar Beach. The beach was around a large lake and it was here Scar and Zira met. Both of them lost from home. Priderock was a mere speck on the distant horizon from the beach. Zira finally manages to reply,
"Yeah, I guess I did run away..." Zira only remembers the horror of her mother ripping a tiger apart and both her parents fighting at forest. She had no reason to return home. And so without thinking too much, Zira went with Scar to Priderock. Where Zira found a new better mother named Uru who adopted her and protected her. Zira cries and hugs Uru. However spending time in the Pridelands never made her forget those horrors she saw as just a cub and it scared her for life. Scar had already fallen into hatred; he had already met with three young hyenas and is quick to forcefully make friends with them. Nobody notices that Scar was gone from Priderock he was almost forgotten as Mufasa was learning to become the Lion King. The three young hyenas: Shenzi, Banzi and Ed, schemed with Scar, creating dark plans to depose of Mufasa. Meanwhile Ahadi's private watering hole was mysteriously poisoned; Ahadi died almost immediately, his life cut short. Everyone undoubtedly held Scar responsible for this treachery. Scar claimed to be innocent, he was at the Elephant Graveyard at the time of Ahadi's death and no facts ever proved him to be his father's killer, Scar walked free. But to this day no-one ever truthfully know's who killed Ahadi, or why they committed the appalling act.
After many more lengthy days away planning dark dangers for his brother, the now heartless and hateful Scar returns home to visit Zira and his old mate Sarafina only to see Mufasa the newly crowned Lion King stood apex the end of Priderock with his new mate Sarabi, basking in the light while his forgotten brother Scar laid underneath in the shadows watching his brother with fresh hate. Putting his paw slowly upon his scar, that morning the darkness inside of him manifested itself, it's that day he vowed his revenge, the plans were made, the hyena's were prepared and vengeance will come. His brother had everything he ever wanted, he even got to spend more time with father, he got to be king and even found a loving mate, but little Taka got nothing, betrayed by his own brother Mufasa, the promises made to him were always broken. But Taka was not that little cub anymore, now he was Scar, and now he sought only to tear down Mufasa. As all the different animals headed the calling as echoes upon the four winds, they gathered at Priderock for Mufasa's coronation, together they all chanted in devoted unison what would become Scar's parting words to his brother: "Long live the king...! Long live the king...! Long live the king...!" However Zira was stood next to Scar and she understood his pain like no one ever had. She nuzzled him warmly and she was by his side the whole time. Together they had two cubs: Vitani and Nuka. And while Scar was planning to kill Mufasa, Zira raised their cubs in the recluse of the Pridelands out of sight and out of mind. Zira always wondered why her parents never came to look for her at Priderock, she wondered just what happened to them in the end but she never found out.
Then it finally happened, Scar acted out his evil revenge, killing Mufasa and Simba was lost in exile. Zira became the Malevolent Queen and Scar became the Dark Lion King. During these times the younger Sarafina could only watch she already knew Scar was lost to darkness but she still had hope to save Zira. Sarafina decided to introduce her old friend Kivuli to the Malevolent Queen in an effort to turn Zira and show the kindness in her heart. Sarafina and Kivuli were old friends in these dark times and Sarafina introduced the brown furred lion to Zira on the day of Scar's coronation, the day the hyena's entered the Pridelands. Unlike Scar, Kivuli was kind and truthful. It seemed Zira might have being saved from the darkness when she fell in love with Kivuli and hope it seemed was restored; Zira later became pregnant with Kivuli's cub. But Sarafina's plan failed one fateful day. The Dark Lion King Scar was defeated and then killed by Simba. That was the day when everything changed forever. As Simba ascended onto Priderock, Zira cradled Scar's body, Zira was no longer the Malevolent Queen and Scar's body was mess because of the hyenas attack, but as Zira cuddled her mate, the sparkle of life was still in Scar's green eyes, Scar noticed that Zira was pregnant once more and as she hugged his blood stained body in tears, Scar tilts his head, too weak to move much, Scar was staring at a figure on the horizon, a single black ghostly figure was watching his last moments. A spirit of a black fox was watching him, staring right into his eyes. The spirit made him feel uneasy and made the Dark King scared for the first time in a long while. Scar remembers back when his real name of Taka was used, how he used to play in the Mog Forest with Mufasa, Sarabi and Sarafina before everything started falling apart. Scar lifts up his brown paw and rubs Zira's belated womb before managing to weakly say his final words: "Long live the king—'
Zira, now a fully grown lioness, finishes telling her story to Kivuli. The whole time the two of them were sat together, protected by a group a hyena's behind them. While everyone was fighting they were bonding on the largest ledge of Priderock. Kivuli listened intently as his old mate finished her long story.
"Because of Scar's last words you both wanted the unborn Kovu to become the next king. You raised three cubs all on your own without love and without hope. Even the unfortunate Nuka had to grow up knowing he would never become the next king." Kivuli concludes finally understands Zira's pain. Scar never knew that Zira loved Kivuli behind his back. Zira was in love with two lions at the same time. It was a long and complicated tale, Zira's whole life had been one of horror, pain and misunderstanding, Kivuli who in regret for ever leaving her alone nuzzles her warmly, she was hurt inside and it had been so long since they saw eachother. Kivuli closes his eyes and while nuzzling her, the grey lion parts just a few more words:
"Just as my fur used to be brown, it was twisted grey when I was in the Shadowland that is what the Shadowland does to you, it taints your fur, it marks you forever. It changes us, but you can change too Zira. You can be a good and caring wife as you always were before. Zira my love, we will put an end to all of this; Together."
End of Episode IX
