It was dark. The sun had finally set in the desert, relieving it's residents from the burden of the heat it was pounding down upon them. A refreshing coolness rose gradually, almost out of nowhere, in mere minutes after dusk.
Now, the desert was utterly, impeccably still.
There was nothing out here. No crickets, no other animals nearby to disturb the concrete silence. There was the occasional breath of wind, innocuously flowing through the endless valley of sand… drifting without any meaning, and without a purpose. It gently wafted the dust and grain, like a serpent caressing the sand.
This place was ancient architecture… it was cryptic and beautiful.
At this point in time, most of the family had broken off and scattered themselves among the camp site… with Scar being one of them. He spend the last few hours wandering around, gathering any former pieces of knowledge he had about himself together underneath the dark shadows of palm trees. There weren't any nighttime birds or insects to interrupt his thinking. Just the gentle flutter of palm tree leaves, rustling against each other in the dark.
Scar slowly and aimlessly kept walking. He didn't really know what direction he was going. He just brooded silently in the dark.
It was almost an apt illustration on how he felt. He was just wandering around now, without one single recollection of his name… his age, his past life… or whatever else came along with his existence.
Everyone else had made themselves comfortable in their new haven. Scar didn't even know where most of the family was, so he began to make an effort to find the bottom of the camp site before he walked a little too far.
Scar came across a few desert bushes. He left the thicket of palm trees, and walked right through the foliage of the bushes, having leaves rustle behind them.
Scar gazed up.
He then had to stop for a moment.
He was on top of a sand dune, right in the middle of the Sahara… beholding what was up in it's ink-soaked firmament.
It looked as though someone had ripped the fabric of the sky wide open in two, and the heavens themselves revealed all their cosmic splendor… and thousands upon thousands stars were spattered from one end of the sky to the other… searing passionately over the entire desert.
Scar kept his head up… where his green irises silently inspected the sky.
The sky was so black, it looked as though he were staring into an abyss. Into nothing. Each star was meticulously placed on the massive canvas, making a beautiful hailstorm of glitter. There was a thin curtain of blue-silver mist, swirling over the constellations. Nebulae gases.
A view like this only had to be found here, exclusively in the desert. There was nothing out here to obstruct the view. No tall trees to stand in the way… no mountains, nor any other distractions to rob the purity of the nighttime sky.
It certainly was nice to look at.
But after a few moments, Scar gazed back down. He began to head onward.
But then stopped upon hearing a noise… and paused in mid-step.
Scar's ears tuned in.
There were familiar voices nearby.
Scar glanced up, eyeing the area. Out here in the vast, dark desert, it was almost impossible to see anything.
But then he spotted two shadows, sitting at the bottom of the sand dune he was on.
He focused in harder, making them out as Hamu and Subira. They sat side-by-side, undisturbed under the dune… taking the opportunity to gaze at the stars in the sky.
He couldn't quite hear what they were saying. But curiosity got the better of him.
Scar looked to his left, making sure no one else was around. Then back at the two lions.
It was dark… and there was nothing else to do.
Why not? He had a feeling they wouldn't mind.
Scar then carefully placed a paw in front of him, making his way down the sand hill. It wasn't steep… and the soft sand made his steps a lot quieter. It trickled down beside him, grains of sand rolling over each other in streams.
He had managed to get to the bottom of the dune quietly. Subira and Hamu didn't notice. Scar then began to saunter up behind them. He noted how Hamu was reclining in his mother's paws. As Scar got closer, he could hear them much clearer.
"…Look, see it?" he heard Subira say. "It's the brightest one, right there."
"Erm… the blue one?"
"Yes… it's name is Sirius."
"How is it serious?"
"No, Hamu, Sirius. That's it's name."
Hamu then looked down from the sky, and titled his head up to face his mother the best he could while in her paws. He was looking at her from upside-down.
"Why do stars only come out at night…?" he asked. Subira's eyes gleamed back at him from upside-down. She smiled.
"Well… they're always out, Hamu," she told him. "You just can't see them in the daytime."
But Hamu's head had suddenly perked up upon hearing something.
His turned his head, curiously peeking out from one side of his mother, hearing footsteps.
But then the steps had slowed, coming to a halt.
Subira saw how her son's interest went to whatever was behind her. Hence, she gathered her brows together, and turned with curiosity as well.
Then spotted Scar.
He stopped and stood there… motionlessly still, and now a little nonplussed.
Scar's eyes shifted about. It looked like he had just interrupted something.
"Ah…" he began to say. "…Sorry… I just… heard you-"
Subira then tossed her head to the side and closed her eyes, although fatigued.
"Oh, don't apologize to us, sir," she said.
"…I'm not intruding…?"
"…No, absolutely not."
Hamu then beamed a bright smile and leaped out from his mother's hold.
"Mister Lion!" he said.
Scar took a step back. He sounded quite happy once he saw him.
Hamu had prodded up to him quite casually, gazing up at him.
"Why don't you come and sit with us? Why… mother was just tellin' me what she knows 'bout stars an' stuff. It's kinda neat. Ya see that star right there? That's Sirius! She says that that one right there is… is even bigger than the sun!"
Scar gave him a slow, thoughtful expression on his face.
Hamu then whirled around.
"…Innet that right, mum?"
Scar then looked at Subira for some kind of confirmation expression.
But what he saw was her looking at her son with an uneven smile. She gave way to a small laugh... but it came out as one of the most modest chuckles, with her staring down at the ground.
Scar could tell Hamu was wearing her down with his boundless flow of energy. He had been quite cheerful the whole day, and it looked like she was hoping it would've died down by now.
Hamu smirked knowingly at his mother. Then turned around to Scar.
"…She also says that it's the brightest one, too!"
Subira then tried to chuckle again… but it was nothing more than an unenthusiastic scoff.
"Well, actually, Hamu… the word 'sirius' means scorcher, or glowing in Greek," she said- quite casually at that. She then crossed her paws over each other while looking intently at him. "Someone had that knowledge before I did. I don't just say things, Hamu. You have to learn them."
Hamu whirled around with some newfound interest. His mother would've fared better if she were explaining this to someone more advanced in knowledge… like Thamani.
Hamu's face then scrunched up.
"Huh?" he said.
Scar, however, lifted his head. He had just acquired some newfound interest himself.
He blinked… trying to find something to say to that.
"It's not common to find one in Africa who speaks Greek, Madame…" he decided to say.
"Oh, I don't, really," Subira clarified for him. "I prefer…"
She then faded off. Then a smirk crept up on her lips in the dark.
"Aah…"
She stopped talking, deciding to drop her sentence. But Scar and Hamu were waiting on her... now without a choice but to receive some kind of answer.
She wrinkled her nose, trying to smile.
"I actually prefer Latin," Subira said. "That way the vocabulary one way or another is based off a root word in other languages. Like désert and deserto. They both mean desert, but the first is French, while the latter is Latin. That's how I know the star names."
"Well you ought to be commended for your hard studies, Madame."
But Subira merely sat there, unperturbed. Her eyes slid away… only to look back at Scar again. She shook her head… shrugging.
"It's not hard," she told him.
"Mom…" Hamu then huffed. His eyes were fluttering closed. "I'm bored. Can we stop talking about this stuff?"
"Uh, actually-" Subira then quickly began, began to rise up on all four of her paws, eyeing the area. She glanced down at her son.
"It's getting rather late, darling. Uhm… why don't you go and race us back to the camp? We'll catch up."
The boy beside her lit up.
"…ALRIGHT!" he exclaimed.
There was no hesitation. The boy whirled around and sped off, trotting his way back to their camping ground.
It was only until then Scar blinked… and stared after him with his green eyes all the way open. Hamu's antics and hyperactivity would wear out any other parent. But Subira remained ever calm and poised... eyeing her son run away.
But if there was one thing Scar knew- he was not going to try and outrun that little cub. Scar wearily shook his head... then turned to Subira.
"You can't be serious, Madame," he said.
The ladylike lion then looked at him… rather quizzically, and scoffed.
"…And you'd be correct," she said.
The two lions then weaved their way back towards the campsite. The desert temperature was still frigid- to say the least, but by the time they had found the camp, everyone else was waiting for them. Grandfather Lion was just wrapping up a story he was telling Hamu and Thamani. They seemed quite enthralled.
Grandfather Lion seemed happy to be the source of their attention. In fact, he seemed plenty happy that the children wanted to listen to him.
Afterwards, everyone said goodnight, and had went to sleep almost immediately after. But Scar however was curious whether or not he should sleep out on the open barren sand land, or inside the grass thicket with everyone else.
If he slept out in the open, it would boldly state that he really didn't like the company of the family at all, and he was just being aloof. If he chose the thicket where everyone else was, he felt like he was being too chummy for everyone's comfort.
Surely if he still had a home, or even a family- this problem wouldn't exist. But in the end, he chose the thicket… and decided he would keep a reasonable distance from everyone else. He didn't want to impose.
Scar settled down, sighing out his nostrils and rested his head on his paws. It was too quiet out here. It radiated a peculiar, surreal type of peace floating through the air.
Scar stayed there momentarily, keeping his eyes idly fixed open. He glanced over at Subira and her family.
Everyone looked content as they laid there. Subira had Hamu curled up next to her side for warmth. Grandfather Lion slept across from his daughter, while Thamani was on her mother's other side.
Scar then removed his glance.
He must've had a home before this. Parents, siblings, a family. Everyone had them. It was only common sense.
Before this… this whole… incident.
There was no possible way he could have gone all these years- his whole life- wandering around, not having a clue as to who he was.
He tried to dig up any information he could still salvage in his memory. But it was too hard. Absolutely nothing would come up… no matter how hard he tried to search out that small, blank area of his mind.
Blackness. All of it.
He knew something must have obviously given his head quite a blow, but the problem was he just couldn't remember what it was.
Perhaps he wasn't trying hard enough.
Scar closed his eyes.
Then raised a paw to his head, rubbing it into his temple.
He firmly held his eyes shut… and forced himself to think. Searching, rummaging inside his mind… almost burying himself in his thoughts.
It was still black. A big, empty void. No sight, no sound… no feeling existed here.
It was no use. He could feel that nothing was in there. His head was really starting to hurt again if he thought about it any longer.
Scar lowered his paw, then sighed out his nostrils… then opened his eyes again.
This was not good.
No. No, this was an issue. How was he supposed to live like this? Why did this have to happen to him? What if someone he knew from his past life was getting worried about him? They might have just found out he was missing, and were now grief-stricken that something bad could have happened to him. A sister, a friend, or cousin twice removed… or something…
Scar's chin lowered into his paws, beginning to blink slower and heavier. He laid that way for a long time.
He waited for these restless thoughts to depart from his mind.
But once they had… Scar had already fallen asleep.
Fog.
Dark green, rolling fog.
There was a lot of it.
It silently floated along… filling the deathly quiet realm. It gradually dissipated and began to present a clear view.
A breath of air pushed the fog out of the way, where it seeped up and down canyon walls, and through cracks and crevices. Scar had seen this place before. He knew it, but it looked different.
It was all distorted… and slurred in motion.
A gentle breeze came in and weaved it's way through the rock walls, eventually making shivering noises against dry bones.
Strange enough, this gust of wind was accompanied by the haziest voice.
It wasn't decipherable… and it sounded disturbingly familiar… but Scar was able to just barely make out a couple of words.
It was singing.
Something was a little off with the owner. The tone was a little soft. It was scary… and frankly a little sinister.
…I know it sounds sordid… but you'll be rewarded…
This voice rang out and echoed off the walls, reverberating into the black sky, hanging above the cavern.
The creature sounded more… foreign… than anything else.
A couple of large, looming shadows then began to gradually slink over the walls… slowly creeping their way across the rock formations. One after another, they passed all in a single file line.
Five… ten… fifteen… twenty dark silhouettes then began to march together in perfect sync. Scar could hear their paws hit the floor... with each step getting louder and louder… like thunder striking into the ground.
The scene alone was making Scar uneasy. He wasn't sure what was going on, or why he was here. Nothing was being explained. Everything was a continuous murmur… and none of it made sense.
All of the sudden, a large geyser blew a gush of green smoke out from the ground, and it went fizzing up into the air. Then it died down… and the attitude of the scene before him changed.
Now whoever was singing, their voice was blaring inside Scar's head- loud and clear as the sun is bright. More geysers began to blow up… red fissures and yellow steam erupted everywhere. Everything suddenly became enlivened, roaring with life.
Every word this entity was singing was strong and exhilarating, the owner of the voice practically belting out every word.
It was a bothersome level… it was beginning to agitate him.
…Meticulous planning, tenacity spanning…
Hundreds of eyes- all a piercing yellow- grinned happily and sang along… praising the singer... all admiring him. The ground…
The ground was shaking.
The song was now getting to the point where Scar realized that he was coexisting in two different realms. This wasn't reality. This was something else. Something very, very undesirable and distressing. No.
No, he wanted to get out, now.
Along with their singing, a pair of skeletons on the ground then decided to get up and start rattling together in time with the song. They casted their shadows over hazy, purple walls.
Through his subconscious, Scar could barely feel his pounding heart outside his body. The whole thing was making him restless… provoking fear. But what really did it was the bold, menacing laughter echoing in his ears.
The one laughing was casted against a pale, crescent moon.
Scar… had never heard such a cackle in his life. It racked his emotions. It was remarkable enough- and frightening enough, to burn a lasting mark inside his memory.
All of the sudden, an alarming epiphany then dawned over Scar.
This laughter… was his own.
"How about pink?"
"Ugh! I hate pink!"
"But I like pink…"
Vitani shook her head. "No… I'm not doing pink."
Kiara frowned slightly. The sun was just barely rising over the Pride Lands, painting the sky with lavender and orange. Simba was already up, observing his pride wander around, doing errands for Kiara and Kovu's marriage. These recent few weeks have been hectic, trying to ready everyone for the big day; and Kiara was at the bottom of Pride Rock, trying to persuade her maid of honor to wear a colored lily behind her ear throughout the ceremony.
"But it's such a pretty color," Kiara told Vitani nicely. The former Outlander then vigorously shook her head again, widening her eyes.
"I wouldn't be caught dead wearing some pink flower."
Kiara closed her eyelids halfway, appearing bored. "It won't kill you, Vitani."
Vitani sighed hoarsely. "Can't you pick a different color?"
"Well," Kiara said. "Pink is just about my favorite color… I don't want any another color."
Vitani shook her head a third time, growing a bit worried. "No! I can't wear that. I just… won't." Vitani stared up at Kiara nervously. Kiara sighed upward, trying to think of something else.
Vitani's face then brightened up.
"Purple!" she exclaimed with wide eyes. "Now I'll go just about as feminine as purple… but pink is where I draw the line."
Kiara smiled and giggled.
"…I like purple, too…" she said. "…We can do that."
Vitani sighed with relief, sitting down in front of Kiara.
Simba smiled at all of this, watching from atop Pride Rock. He turned his head in a different direction, observing his mate, Nala, supervise Timon's family in braiding strands of flowers together for Kiara's bridal crown. They seemed happy to do it. Timon's Ma and Uncle Max had shown up to lend a hand with everything, and they all stood around in a group at the bottom of Pride Rock.
Kheeva sat on a small rock, twiddling a few vines of morning glories together by herself. Two weak strands that refused to go together broke apart- and she grew exasperated. Kheeva whipped the half-braided thing down on the rock beside her and folded her arms, all in a huff. Her billow of fur that normally rested on top of her head fell down in front her eye- and she suddenly blew upward to get it out of the way.
A few white pedals from her flowers fell to the ground.
"Honey…" a voice calmly began.
Kheeva suddenly looked up, just a tiny bit off guard.
Timon's Ma stood before her, looking concerned. She clasped her two paws together over her plump chest.
"Is something wrong?" she asked.
Kheeva exhaled through her black nostrils. She tried putting on a cheesy smirk.
"No, Ma…." she said contently with her arms folded. "Everything is just dandy. See?" Kheeva took both of her fingers and pointed directly at her smiling face. "This is my 'I-love-my-idiot-mate-so-freaking-much' face!"
Timon's Ma said nothing. She just stared knowingly… being acquainted with her long enough to know what she really meant. Timon's Ma then bent over and gently picked up the half-braided vines on the rock next to Kheeva and handed them back to her in the palm of her paw.
"The sarcasm runs in the family," Ma said with a slight roll of the eyes, holding the flowers out to her. "Not just with this family- but with meerkats overall."
Kheeva just stared. A few moments went by, while the hurrying bustle of everyone else at Pride Rock in the background.
Kheeva then sighed with a roll of her head- taking back the flowery braids. Timon's Ma then sat next to her daughter-in-law, braiding her own strands of flowers.
"Timon and I had another fight, and now we're choosing not to speak to each other for a while," Kheeva said, glaring down to twirl the strands together.
Timon's Ma blinked.
"Another fight, honey? Oh, for Pete's sake, what could it possibly be about this time?"
"He gave your granddaughter permission to go jump off some hundred-foot cliffs, and a black leopard attacked her and her friends," Kheeva explained sourly, clutching her flowers together as she braided.
"The thing almost killed her, and he seems very indifferent about it…" she went on as she twisted the stems together angrily. "So… I kicked the runt out of our burrow, and my main plan is to avoid him like the town leper."
She continued to fiddle with the two vines. "And then he had to mention Saada- which really got on my nerves."
Timon's Ma paused her braiding, glancing over to her. "And how does Jo feel about all this?"
Kheeva then raised her two fists to her mouth in an attempt to tie the braid with her little teeth.
"Tshee's not therry thurprised. She gets how we are." Kheeva said, removing the two broken vines from her mouth. She then tried twisting them around each other so they'd hold.
"I'll be taking care of her for a while… I'll teach her my point of view on things. But in all honesty, you should have seen us going at it. It was ugly. Ugh. The boneheaded, irresponsible little-!"
Kheeva was obviously incensed. She was gripping her braid a little more harshly than she should have. A few clumps of morning glory pedals dropped to the ground.
Timon's Ma saw this and instantly held out a paw. "Honey, honey…!"
She laid her paw on hers, telling her to stop. Kheeva obeyed momentarily… but then sighed... Resting her paws down in her lap, disappointed wit herself.
Timon's Ma then stood up from the rock, standing in front of Kheeva.
"…Just tie the two ends together," she simply said, taking the ends of the morning glories and tying them in a tiny knot. The two vines then held.
Kheeva stared at her braid. Then glanced up. Timon's Ma smiled and patted her on the shoulder.
She then turned around and said nothing more.
