Chapter 49: Deliverance

Kivu's lungs screamed for him to stop running, but he couldn't. Not now that he was so close. He was home. Home at last! His mind was too frantic to be grateful for the soft grass under his paws. He just forced himself to run. Sweat fell into his eyes and he painfully shook it away. He could not stop. He was unaware of anyone or anything around him. He just had to find his mom and dad as soon as possible.

They must be at Pride Rock. He thought

Kivu was about half-way through the lands now. Suddenly he thought,

What if they aren't at Pride Rock? What if they are out somewhere? The other lionesses there will surely rush upon me and stop me from finding Mom and Dad right away. I need to deliver the news as soon as possible.

As Kivu neared Pride Rock, he saw the lionesses began to notice him. They craned their necks hard to look at him. Some began to shout and dash about. He could only imagine what he looked like to them. Dirty, mange, bloody, scratched up, beat up. He probably stank like an elephant's rear too. Kivu didn't let his appearance distract him from getting to his parents as fast as possible.

After escaping the Black Pride, he had only stopped to rest a couple times. During one of these rests, he managed to hunt and catch a slow hare and he scarfed it down quickly. He hadn't allowed himself to waste time on washing. There was no time for vanity during a time of war.

Kivu had reached Pride Rock now. He was panting hard.

"Kivu? It is Kivu!" A lioness shouted next to him. "Look, he's back! Where have you been?"

Several lionesses were crowding around him now.

"Please-" Kivu tried to speak; it was so hard to even breathe." Move-my mom and dad… where?"

The lionesses didn't hear him.

"What happened to you?"

"Were you with the Black Pride?"

"Look at his wounds!"

The lionesses were too excited to have heard him, so he pushed on. He painfully leaped upon the stone pathway leading into the cave's mouth.

Dad must be in here.

Kivu tore into the cave, scaring a resting lioness and cub. He didn't stop to see who it was or to apologize.

"Dad? Mom?" Kivu shouted, running into the dim cave. Then he saw her. Kiara stood so quickly when she heard him. She almost couldn't believe her eyes.

"It can't be…"

"Mom! Oh, Mom… I'm… I just came…" Kivu tried. He was gasping for air now, and trying to walk to his mother. She dashed over to him just as he collapsed.

The last thing he heard was his name being called over and over.


Kivu woke to the feeling of a tongue lapping his wounded side. His head snapped up. "Mom!"

Kiara smiled so widely and tears ran down her cheeks. It looked like she had been crying for a while.

"My Kivu, oh my cub Kivu." Kiara nuzzled her son roughly.

"We're so glad-" Kovu was on his other side, unable to finish his sentence. He was crying too. Kovu nuzzled his son as well.

Kivu looked around and after a moment, noticed who else was in the cave with them. Mairu, Sarafina, Simba, Nala, and Vitani were all smiling at him. Kivu looked at the mouth of the cave and saw the rest of the pride. Jai and Mani, who were standing at the mouth, lit up when he looked at them.

"He's okay!" Jai shouted.

"He's awake!" Mai yelled, then turned his head to tell the rest of the pride behind them "Hey, he's awake everyone!"

When Mani announced this, Clous came bounding into the cave. He went straight to Kivu and embraced his neck.

"I knew you'd come back!"

"Clous!" Kivu laughed. His throat felt sore and his tongue felt like a stone.

Jai and Mani stepped in, but the other lionesses stayed at the mouth. It seemed they had been instructed to stay out for now.

"Tali and I spotted you at the border and we followed you the whole way here! We shouted your name so many times, I don't know how you didn't hear us." Jai said.

This reminded Kivu of his important message.

"Kings, this is so important, and I'm just laying here!" Kivu muttered, and tried to get up.

"Stay lying down." Mairu interjected, coming closer. Kivu ignored her.

"There is little time. How long was I passed out?"

"Not long, honey, barely an hour. Are you sure you don't want to lie down some more? I can get you some water, some lunch-"

"No, I have some news about the Black Pride. I've been with them for the past five days." Kivu said.

"So it was true…" Kovu muttered. "You did leave with the Black Lioness."

"Yes, I left with her. She's called Naferti. I went so I could learn everything about them so we could be prepared. I'm afraid it's not great news…"

Kiara interrupted a moment. " Wait a moment Kivu, before you begin. Mom?" she turned to Nala, sitting behind her. "Can you help us with some privacy? This is sounding like some vital information."

Nala smiled; glad to see her daughter in the Queen spirit again. "I'd be honored. Come help me, big lug." Nala said to Simba. The old lion went with Nala but not before he quickly welcomed Kivu back. Kivu smiled warmly at him.

"Vitani," Kiara went on. "Will you please take Clous for a few minutes?"

Vitani nodded. "Come, Clous."

Clous didn't want to leave his brother's side, but he could tell this was important. He knew he would find out everything later anyway, so he let Vitani usher him away.

Vitani grinned as she passed Kivu. "Looks like you didn't need finding after all, huh Kivu? You had it all under control." she teased.

Kivu laughed, thinking No way, things got way out of hand.

"Sarafina, will you help me gather herbs for his wounds?" Mairu said to the old lioness standing beside her. "My usual assistant, Tali, is off searching for Ciara, I believe."

"Certainly." she replied and followed the medicine lioness out of the cave mouth. Kivu could hear Mairu warn the lionesses gathered around the cave to move away and not eavesdrop, and they would all soon know what was going on.

When Mairu had mentioned Ciara's name, Kivu's heart leaped. Where was she?

"Ciara went for a walk with my mom." Jai said as if reading Kivu's thoughts. "And um... with… my dad."

Kivu cocked one eye brow.

"It's a long story... But really we don't have to talk about it now. You have more important things to talk about." Jai said.

"Do you want us to go help find Ciara?" Mani offered.

Kivu could only nod, a bit confused about Jai and Ciara's father. He wanted to ask a million questions about it, but what Jai said was right. There wasn't time for it now.

"We'll tell you all about… the new arrival later." Jai added awkwardly. "I have yet to meet him myself in fact…"

"Come on, Jai." Mani said, and left the cave. Jai followed.

Finally, Kivu was alone with his parents. He felt exhausted all over again, even though he knew this was only the beginning of the preparations. Kivu sighed, readying himself.

"First, I'm so sorry for leaving without saying anything."

Kiara let out some more tears and put a paw around him in an embrace. "Oh, Kivu, I thought so many things, like you had run away because we had done something wrong."

"No way." he hugged her back.

"We thought you had been hurt… killed…" Kovu spoke. "We searched for days. Vitani hunted for you like prey. We're just so glad you're okay." He hugged Kivu too.

"I know, I know, but I really need to say what happened. Now." Kivu insisted.

Kovu and Kiara instantly sat, ready to listen to their almost adult son speak.

"I left with the Black lioness because she threatened to hurt Clous if I didn't. She told me the Black Pride wanted me to join them. I pretended to go along with it so I could learn where the Black Pride resides and how many of them there are. I knew that information would be helpful to us when it came time to fight them."

"You went to their pride?" Kiara said, still tearing up. "I can't imagine… I would have been so scared."

"What did you learn?" Kovu asked.

Kivu told them almost everything that happened. He told them about each lioness he had encountered, their names and their appearances.

"There were only two completely black lions. Naferti, and their leader, 'Blood.'"

Kovu narrowed his eyes. "I believe I've met this lion before."

Kiara turned to him. "At the war for the Mountain Pride?"

"Yes." Kovu's claws emerged from his paws. "I thought he understood he was not to come back."

"Their greed has the better of them" Kivu said. "They are obsessed with rank. They believe fur color is a strength or a weakness."

Kivu told them about the several times the lionesses who were guarding his cave mentioned rank. He went on in his story about how Blood would strike him or make lionesses face him when Kivu refused to join their pride. Kovu became enraged during this part of the tale, and Kiara only cried more. Kivu hated to put them through the stress, but they needed to know.

"And they really didn't feed you?" Kiara asked.

Kivu didn't tell her about the buzzard's foot out of embarrassment. "I ate some grass that grew by the cave mouth. Don't worry," he said, when he saw his mother's look of distain. "I ate on the way home. Hare never tasted so good." Kivu smiled, trying to lighten the mood. She nuzzled him again for what must have been the hundredth time.

Kivu ended his story with the worst news. "I left the Black Pride in the early hours of the morning because I couldn't wait any longer. They are planning to attack in two sunrises."

Kovu and Kiara stared at him. Kovu swallowed hard.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes. I heard the lioness called Ven speak to the other two guards about it. Then she talked about a celebration with the rest of the pride… it's sick. They're celebrating war."

Kovu let out a growl. "Preparations must be made."

"Yes." Kiara agreed. "Kivu, please rest now. We will go make the announcement." Kiara said, looking over Kivu's wounds. "Mairu should be back soon with her herbs to help you heal."

"I can't rest now… I must prepare with the rest of the pride." Kivu said boldly. He began to leave with his parents.

Kovu was about to growl at him, but Kiara intervened. "Just let him be, Kovu." then she said to her son, "You really should see Ciara. She was very upset for several days after you were gone."

Kivu gulped and felt even guiltier. He left the cave without saying anything else. As Kivu went down the stone steps, he felt sharp pains in the muscles in his legs. He stopped to stretch them a moment. He probably should be resting…but he had to find Ciara.

Kovu had walked across Pride Rock's peak with Kiara and his side. "We have some vital news delivered to us from Kivu." Kovu announced. "Is everyone present?"

The lionesses looked around for a moment until Mani, among the crowd, spoke up.

"Jai is still out looking for his family. He wanted to look on his own. And I think Tali is still out looking."

"No, I'm over here." Tali said, trotting up to the group. "I ran into Jai while searching, he said he would find them."

"I'll call for them now. Everyone needs to be here for this." Kovu said, and then let out a roar that would easily be heard throughout the Pride Lands.

Jai finally spotted his mom and sister strolling along some tall grass. Ciara was walking between their mom and… Jai Sr.

The pale adolescent gathered his courage and trotted over.

"Mom! Ciara!"

The three looked at him with surprise.

"Jai, you came!" Ciara smiled.

"Well I didn't come to uh.. .talk." Jai said, eyes flicking to Jai Sr. for a second. He wanted to be clear he didn't want to talk to this lion.

"But don't you want to get to know your father?" Toni asked with a sad look in her eyes.

Jai forced himself to say something other than: "No."

He said instead, "There are a few things I want to ask you…" he looked at the pale orange lion. "So that I can decide if you're worth getting to know." he said, using Tali's words. He didn't know if he could have found any other words at that moment. "But now is not the time."

Jai turned to Ciara and smiled. "Kivu is back."

A flash of a smile appeared on Ciara's lips, but it disappeared just as quickly. "K-Kivu?" she said, her voice breaking.

"Yes! He's home. When I left the cave a few minutes ago, he was telling his parents what happened to him while he was away."

Ciara didn't say anything, she only stared.

"Well I'm sure he wants to see you." Toni said to her daughter.

"Who is this Kivu?" Jai Sr. spoke up. "Is this some boyfriend of yours, Ciara?"

"No!" she turned on him. "No he's not." Then to Jai, "And I don't want to see him. I don't want to see that jerk!"

Suddenly they heard Kovu's strong roar from Pride Rock, calling them to come.

"That's Kovu, we have to go." Toni said, and started heading home. She beckoned to Jai Sr. to follow her.

"Are you coming, Ciara?" Jai asked his sister.

"…Yes. But I'm not sitting by Kivu, I'll sit with Mom and Dad."

Jai sighed.

It took a couple minutes to hurriedly trot back to Pride Rock. When they got there, Jai ran up the steps to sit with Kivu. Kivu had found it too painful to go down any more steps.

"Hey, how are you feeling?" Jai asked his friend.

"Alright. My legs are so sore though."

"You need a bath." Jai laughed.

"I know. Did you find Ciara?"

"Yes but… I don't think she wants to talk to you right now, bro."

Kivu sighed with a defeated look. "I was afraid of that."

"Since we are all here now," Kovu's voice from Pride Rock interrupted them. "I'm going to go over briefly what happened to Kivu and deliver the message he's brought. Unless Kivu, did you want to tell them yourself?" He turned to his son.

Kivu shook his head. "I think I will go rest in the cave after all." he stood and retired to the den.

"Very well." Kovu continued, then began telling everyone what happened.

Kivu half-lay, half-collapsed in the cave. He was all alone with this thoughts.

Ciara probably hates me now. I've got to get her to talk to me. Maybe once I rest, I'll be able to think properly.

The older adolescent dropped off to sleep only after a moment.

Kivu woke sometime later and his first thought was how undeniably thankful he was to not wake up in the Black Pride's prison again. Kivu smelled herbs, and looked at his flank. Someone must have put the medicine on his wounds while he was asleep.

Light still shown from outside the cave.

Good. He thought. I didn't sleep long. There is too much to do, and so little time. No time for any more sleep.

Kivu forced himself to his paws. His muscles still strained against him, but he silently ordered them to work. He painfully trotted outside the cave and down the stone steps. No one was around.

"Where is everyone?" Kivu murmured aloud. He listened carefully and finally heard a commanding voice coming from the back side of Pride Rock. It sounded like Vitani. The older adolescent clumsily trotted toward the familiar voice.

His aunt wasn't the only one there. The whole pride, in fact, was there. This was the exact spot where they partook in Vitani's training. It looked like Vitani was in charge of training once again. But this time, it was serious. There wasn't time to split the pride up into two groups, so all 24 lions and lionesses were lined up into two rows. This included Vitani's mate, Tome, and Kivu's friends. Even the elderly lionesses, Sarafina and Larne joined the training this time. Kivu could see Ciara on the far end of the line. Kivu noticed a light orange lion on Ciara's other side and assumed this was her father that he had yet to meet.

Kivu almost began wondering where the cubs were when he noticed them by the tree they used to sharpen their claws on. The tree looked very sorry these days with its dilapidated bark. The six cubs were sitting together. Most watched Clous who was playing with a long stick. He batted it around with Dark, and bit it at the end. It seemed the cubs weren't expected to train with the others. It made sense to Kivu since these cubs wouldn't be expected to fight in the upcoming attack, so there was no point in spending too much time training them right now. He figured Vitani wanted to pack as much practice as possible in the short time they had.

A few lionesses noticed when Kivu had arrived, but none strayed from the exercise. Vitani was having them practice attacking the air with both front arms.

"Put some quickness in it!" she instructed. "One two! One two!" she demonstrated. She traded paws so quickly, it was like one fluid motion. The pride followed her example and repeated the motion over and over.

Kivu wanted to walk over and join his friends, but he felt he really had to talk to Ciara alone first before anything. But he couldn't just interrupt the exercise to talk to her. Vitani would have none of that, he was sure.

"Glad you could join us, Prince." Vitani called to him, stopping her demonstration. Now everyone took a moment to glance at Kivu, but none stopped the exercise. Some lions gave Kivu a sympathetic look. He knew his dad had told them the whole story about his capture. Some just smiled at him, including his parents who were near the front of the training lines. Ciara wouldn't lock eyes with him, even though his other friends had.

All went back to concentrating on their movements, slicing one paw through the air, then quickly the other.

"If you're feeling well enough, stretch out and join the exercise." Vitani said, then turned to her team. "Keep it up. A few more then we can add a move."

Kivu knew he needed to get back into shape as soon as possible so he could partake in the upcoming battle. Where he stood, he stretched his arms in front of him, lowering his upper body as far as he could. The strain was painful, but necessary. He stretched each back leg in turn. He repeated the front and the back a few times until he didn't feel the sharp pain. Then he tried the one-two clawing move Vitani was demonstrating, and found it difficult at first, but the more he did it, the easier it got. Kivu only got to practice it a few times when Vitani instructed everyone to stop.

"Alright, everyone, let's add a leap in front. Remember when we practice this last month? Good, let's do it." Vitani said when several lions nodded. "Remember, more space is needed, so spread out."

The pride moved around so they had more room.

"Ready? Leap! One-two!" Vitani jumped out in front of her, then sliced with her claws, then repeated after quickly jumping back into her original position. Everyone followed her example.

"Good! We will use this move to jump on those rotten Black Pride lionesses, then tear their faces!"

The training went on. Next they covered being light on one's paws and moving quickly around an enemy. They practiced dodging, rolling, jumping. Finally, Vitani allowed a break time.

"One hour. Be back here or be left behind." Vitani warned, then stalked off toward her cubs who were still waiting by the tree.

Kivu felt exhausted already. Now was his chance to talk to Ciara. If she would allow him to.

The prince didn't get very far when Kiara stepped in front of him.

"You look like you're feeling much better." she said, wrapping an arm around his back, pulling him into a hug.

"Yes, Mom." he squeaked as she hugged him too tight.

"If you're too sore to do this-"

"No, I can do it. What about you? Should you be working this hard?" Kivu said, remembering his mother's injury a while back. She used to be unable to walk far, let alone jump about and attack.

"Oh yes, I feel great! I feel so much happier now that you're home." she hugged him again. "And I have much more energy than I used to, so don't worry about me." she licked him on the cheek.

"Mom, ugh!" He wiped his cheek with a paw. "I'm almost an adult, you can't be licking me."

Kovu laughed as he walked over. "Leave the boy be, honey."

Kiara smiled from ear to ear. "I'm just so elated he's safe. And I'm so positive we are being trained well enough to beat these Black Pride lions."

Remembering the Black Pride made Kivu flinch. He didn't want to think of them. He wanted to think of Ciara.

"I'm going over to my friends now." he said, and quickly trotted toward them. Before he could get very far, he was stopped once again.

"Kivu!" Clous ran at him at full speed.

"Hey, Clous." Kivu lowered his head and nuzzled his brother. "What was it like without me?" he teased.

"Terrible. Everyone was upset all the time." Clous said.

"Is that so?" Kivu said, just glad to be back to end his family's turmoil.

"Yeah, and Mom and Dad fought all the time." Clous said, getting quiet.

This was the first time Kivu heard this. He turned to look at his parents who were now having an animated conversation. They were smiling and laughing. Kiara playfully shoved Kovu in the shoulder when he said something-probably a smart remark. They looked like courting adolescents. He could never imagine them fighting. The stress from Kivu being missing caused more than he realized.

"Everything's okay now." Kivu said to his brother.

"Much better! Hey, guess what? I've been sharpening my teeth on a stick, you wanna see?" Clous grinned hugely, showing Kivu his teeth.

"Woah, look out!" Kivu said, pretending to shield his eyes from Clous's teeth. "You'll be a biting machine. You know what? Let's play more later, okay? For now I really need to talk to my friends."

"You mean Ciara?" he asked.

"Yes. Especially her."

Clous smiled rather knowingly for his age. "Okay!" he said, then ran off toward Kiara and Kovu.