Previously on The Lion Guard: Life In The Pride Lands:

And the situation would have only gotten a smidge better if I had noticed an evil force lurking behind us, that took form as a lioness, but not a regular lioness.

A lioness made...of purple flames.

"Why, hello, Lion Guard."

Now:

We all jerked our bodies around at the sound of someone calling our team name, only to discover that there was nobody there. And at the very same moment, the immense rainstorm vanished along with its bleak black clouds. Everyone then shook themselves dry as you would see cats and dogs doing after becoming soaked, and looks of wonder and disbelief appeared on their faces.

The voice was odd and rather curiously frightening. I hadn't had a good history with hearing voices out of the blue. They all usually belonged to bad guys who meant me harm and who lead me to places far away from my friends and hold me hostage and try to have me killed to satisfy a murderous evil-doer and…sorry. Still not over the kidnapping that happened a couple of weeks ago.

Nevertheless, I still felt as if something bad was going to happen to me because of that soothing female voice that we all just heard coming from behind us. The only thing that was, as we could see, was a boulder with moss growing upon it and a few termites crawling on it, which triggered Bunga's insatiable appetite and led to their demise via snacktime. The possible suspicion that whoever was speaking was hiding behind the rock slowly began to overcome me. But Kion suggested that we keep on going as we were so close to reaching Sokwe's cave to find out what led to his now violent and outrageous behavior.

"Guys, did you hear that?"

"Yeah."

"I really have a bad feeling about that voice that we just heard. Last time I heard a voice like that, I was deceived by a diabolical lying snake." "Oh, you must mean Ushari. Yeah he's...not exactly fond of the Pride Lands anymore," Fuli said as she continued groaning while shaking the water out of her fur. I could tell that she was not water's number one fan. But what did she mean by Ushari not being fond of the Pride Lands anymore? "What do you mean 'anymore'?"

"That's a very interesting story, Dylan." Bunga almost then immediately dashed in front of the cheetah. "And one I can tell you since he hates me the most." And then the talkative and obnoxious honey badger went on and on from the very beginning. He told me stuff like how the Lion Guard always trampled over him at times, but only if they were in a rush or if someone needed to be rescued from danger. It was never on purpose. They also never respected his privacy and personal space as they once squeezed a hyrax-his lunch-out of his mouth and then threw him across the ground seconds after. Ushari was also responsible for the resurrection of Scar's spirit according to the story after putting up with them for many years.

From what he was saying, it sounded a lot like they were the reason that the cobra became evil and turned his back against the Pride Lands and the circle of life. I mean 70% of his villainy came from being run over and disrespected by the Lion Guard. Even though it was never on purpose. He was still sick in the head to bring back an evil lion from the past just for being run over accidentally. Asking for respect might've been a better solution.

"And that's the whole story of Ushari's treachery." "Um, don't you guys think that some of his betrayal could've come from you?" They all stood silent and frozen. "I-i-it's not our fault that we kept on running him over. It was all during a battle with the Outlanders or a rush to get to an animal in need." "I can see that, but I mean knocking his lunch out of him and throwing him seems a bit much. All living things have to eat, no matter if the food was just rescued or not. And if you hadn't done that, he wouldn't have got all pissed and in your face and then there would've been no reason to throw him."

"Can't you guys just admit that Ushari becoming a bad guy is somewhat on you?"

In Oklahoma (the Watu World)

Tick! Tick! Tick!

The sound of the clock going by was really starting to get on Vanessa's nerves, being that she had to listen to it for the past 2 and a half hours after the interrogation about Aileen started with this Detective Licon. She really felt as if talking about that girl was only going to break her heart more because it reminded her of her son and how he supposedly ran away from home. But she had to in order to escape from that prison-literally-and drive back home to where she would probably just break down even more and grow more insane every minute she didn't have her son back.

"Ok, Vanessa, let's go over the facts: This Aileen Jaime, according to her parents, started experiencing strange behavior over the last couple of weeks ever since your son was suspended from school, she has had over five physical outbursts since then which involved the demolition of her bedroom and the death of her hamster, and she just recently was found unconscious in her bathroom with an empty bottle of Antidepressants on the counter. Luckily, paramedics were able to arrive in time to flush the toxicity out of her system, and she is now in critical yet stable condition in the Overlook Community Hospital 15 minutes away from here."

Vanessa, arms and legs crossed with droopy and sleepy eyes, could barely even hear what the dude was saying. Dylan was the only thing that she allowed her brain to think about. Despite what she had heard from the police about him having supplies to last him for a while, even she knew that he wasn't mature enough to know how to pack a suitcase properly and care for himself by himself. And the dangers he might've been experiencing somewhere just tightened her nerves and shut down any hope she had for her son left.

"And finally, Vanessa, the doctors Aileen is currently with for psychiatric evaluation keep on hearing the exact same thing from the girl. All about how a lion made of fire is coming to destroy the world and that some group of animals led by a lion cub is the only thing that can stop it. It's all very heavy, Vanessa at the moment and we were just wondering if any of this girl's behavior makes sense to you given that you were a pediatrician in the past."

"That was a very long time ago, Detective. I quit that job to care for my child after his father left us and now it all seems to be for nothing! My baby is out there scared and hurt or possibly even worse. Do you even know what it feels like to lose the child that you taught right from wrong to for the past 12 years? Do you even know how any of this makes me feel?"

But alas, the detective did not have the slightest clue how she had felt. He hadn't had a case this serious in the past 20 years of his career. He wished he would help make her feel better but anything tried would probably only make her feel worse. So he just sat back and continued writing in his notepad while Vanessa turned around in her chair facing the wall and thinking back to all the good qualities of Dylan that she might never be able to see or feel again. She even seemed to have cried to maximum capacity because her tear ducts seem to have dried out from her hours of sobbing about the very boy that she wanted to cry about even more . Vanessa sighed and looked up at the ceiling, looking like she was praying but in actuality was saying something to her son, no matter where he was.

"I miss you, Dylan."

In the Pride Lands

We continued hiking up the mountain after about a 10-minute rest stop to talk about the Lion Guard's involvement in Ushari's turning, my feet becoming closer to catching frostbite with every next step that I took. It literally felt like I was walking on ice cream before we take it out of the freezer. "Guys, how much longer until we get to this King Sokwe because my toes will actually fall off if we have to go any further! I'm gonna become a human popsicle. Not exactly on my bucket list," I complained to the furries ahead of me probably getting cozy in their cold-resistant fur.

"Well, Dylan, tell your toes that they're going to have to wait because the cave is straight up there." There was no way! I looked up and that's when, after the snow cleared up a little bit, I saw a tall cave with a big opening covered in snow and a few rock piles and trees just outside.

Well, hallelujah.

But of course something had to go wrong just before I could get all triumphant and get to where I had to be. The ground began shaking as if an earthquake was occurring, but then an animal jumped out at us and began roaring in a way at us, blocking the only way to get to the cave. It was a large, bulky male silverback mountain gorilla with dark brown fur, a tall sagittal crest. He had darker fur on his arms and crest. On his lower end, he had a gray-brown fur. His underbelly, ears, hands and feet were a weak beige color. His face was gray and his nose was pink.

"King Sokwe," Kion shouted as he got into a fighting stance and bared his sharp teeth, still a little stained from the gazelle we had for dinner last night, at him. So this was the king that murdered and rampaged some forest hogs? Cause I could totally see how at that moment.

His eyes weren't normal though. They were glazed over to the point where he look demonically possessed, with some sort of purple energy clouding them as well. It was almost as if he was under some kind of spell. But that couldn't be possible seeing as if there was no magical entities around us.

And then the black storm clouds came back.

But at that very same instant, the gorilla's eyes seemed to have gone back to normal and he acted like he had just woken up from a coma with a headache, his humongous right hand on his head before he collapsed unconscious onto the ground.

And just seconds after that is when an impossible lightning bolt the color of purple struck on a dead tree inches away from us, engulfing it into purple fire melting the snow from the top and consuming the branches easily before the fire became bigger and eventually burned the whole tree.

Something was then formed from the colored flames. The fire was magically put together somehow to form a lioness made of the exact same purple combustion it was born from. It resembled Nala in a way, with a muzzle longer than the average lion's and evil white angular eyes. Starting from 3 feet, the seemingly ghost entity rose to become over 20 feet tall, even growing enough to be the same size as the mountain we were standing on.

"WHAT THE HELL IS THAT THING!?" None of us knew what exactly was going on. Only that some sort of supernatural lion made of fire, nonetheless purple fire, was towering over us as if we were ants.

"Well, look who I've stumbled into. The Lion Guard, is it?" "How do you know who we are?" "Oh, I've always known you. Each and every one of you five. Kion, the Fiercest. Bunga, the Bravest. Fuli, the Fastest. Beshte, the Strongest. And Ono, the Keenest of Sight. Oh." The lioness looked down to meet me almost face to face. "But you're new." Her flamey eyes glowed brighter almost as if they were projecting spotlights onto me. She closed her eyelids and mumbled some sort of weird, un-understandable language. She then sighed and brought her head back over to me. "You're a Watu, aren't you, little one?" "Why would I tell you that?" "Whoa. Feisty much? But Shetani already knows all, Watu." "You don't know me at all. And my name is Dylan," I shouted to her. But her voice sounded so familiar. Where have I heard it before. Wait. But before I could come to a conclusion, she began talking again.

"Well, Dylan, you are feisty. And let me ask you this: what are you doing at the bottom of a hole?" That made absolutely no sense. Confusion showed in my face as me and the Guard just stood there waiting for an answer to the ridiculous question we were just asked. And boy did we get one. The fire lioness opened up her mouth as wide as she would, revealing an endless maw of sharp teeth of course made of fire, some straight and some crooked or even cracked and broken. And then she shot a bolt of lightning into the ground, cracking it to the point where a large hole was formed just like a sinkhole would that seemed bottomless right below me before shutting her mouth, doing a bit of an evil chuckle, and eventually disappearing.

Of course she could do that. Of course. OF FUCKING COURSE!

The ground I was standing on soon became no more, and I plummeted what seemed like 36 meters underground, seeing the Guard looking down on me shouting things at me before they were too far away to even see.

And then darkness.

I was then in the same state I was in when I was attacked by that hyena and passed out: unconscious but still able to think and feel. Just not see or move. My sense of sight soon began to return to me. My eyes fluttered open to see that I was at the bottom of some sort of cavern. There were stalagmites and stalactites made of light brown mineral rock all around me as far as I could see.

I saw that I had some bruises and scrapes, but no serious cuts or lacerations. Getting hurt was really starting to become a habit. By the time I get back home, if that was possible, I'd be dark enough from all these wounds to classify as an African American. I hesitantly got up on my feet, and began walking/exploring this cave I was in. There was nothing interesting going on until I noticed a strange glowing aqua blue light coming from another side of the cave I was in. I was then completely mesmerized by it. It was as if something was pulling me towards the light.

I found myself walking and following the light to the very end of the cave to discover some sort of weird object sticking out of a grey boulder. The object seemed to be half of a circle made from stone with weird markings carved into it. And it was poking out from the boulder like it was the sword in the stone. I trotted up to it and was about to touch it then take it out, but then I remembered similar situations to what I was in in movies back home. I'd take it out from the ock, but then it would sense that I removed the circular piece of stone and have the entire cave collapse right on top of me and kill me. I had to be smarter than that.

I looked around and saw a rock similar to the piece of stone stuck in the massive boulder. I broke it in half to the point where it looked exactly the same as the object in the boulder. Not wanting to waste anymore time, I immediately took the stone circle out of the boulder and replaced it with the fake piece of rock I had just broke in half faster than Fuli would run if it started to rain.

Nothing happened.

I scoffed before examining the piece of weird-looking rock and put it into my pocket before I heard a low growl coming from behind me. I jolted my head around and saw that I was being cornered by a fully grown male lion as he emerged from the darkness on the opposite side of where I was standing. He had fur similarly colored like Simba's that looked a bit worn out and tattered, eyes that were similar to Kion's, and a rusty brown mane that looked like it hadn't been washed in ages. "L-l-l-l-l-let's talk about this. I-I-I-I don't mean you any harm."

"What are you doing with the piece of the Ukewe Disk?"

"The kiwi what?"

I had no clue what the hell he was saying or at least trying to say.

"Who are you?"

"The name's Sahau. It is my sworn duty to protect that with my life from animals that mean others harm if in possession. So I ask you again: what are you doing with it?" "I-I-I don't know. It just looked pretty." "Oh, just because you think something is pretty you think it gives you the right to steal it?" "N-n-n-no. I-I-I was taught better than that actually. My mother taught me right from wrong; how could I be so stupid to forget that. Just because I'm a Watu doesn't give me this right."

And the word "Watu" seemed to have scared him shitless because he stopped in his tracks and stood still for over a minute. "Mister, are you okay?" "W-w-w-w-what did you just call yourself?" "A Watu. That's what I've been told by my grandfather, King Simba." He then just started bursting out into hysterical coughing as if he was choking on something. "Mister, are you sure you're okay?" "Do you have a father?" "I-I-I did, but he abandoned me and my mother a long time ago." His eyes widened. He took three steps closer towards me and began to sniff my hair. He gasped and took three steps back with noticeable tears forming in his eyes. I just stood there.

"D-D-D-Dylan?" My eyes began to widen like his.

"How do you know my name?" "T-t-t-t-that's a very good question. And here's the answer."

And then he began to sing. But not just any song. "Can you feel my love tonight? The peace the evening brings." I let out a shaky breath before stepping in and singing the next line. "The world for once in perfect harmony." I saw a tear leaking from his left eye before we both sang the last line together in perfect harmony. Get it? Never mind. "With all its living things." Tears began leaking from my eyes as I realized there was only one person who knew that song. I stepped forward and looked this lion in the eyes and began caressing his mane and smelling cherries all over his fur.

I closed my teary eyes.

"Dad?"