Thump! Thump! Thump!

Kopa broke into a sweat. His heart pounded, and his hand began to feel clammy against his bouncing knee. The very act of even trying to process what he was just told was messing with his mind, and his heart was still threatening to burst forth from his ribcage. And all after his loving, caring wife's mouth made the words "I'm pregnant." At first, he thought she was joking. He didn't even know humans could have children until that one surprisingly disturbing class he was forced to take in high school.

But...Father?

The very concept just made him want to burst out into laughter. But he couldn't because he knew that Vanessa was being serious, and how she always talked about how much she's wanted a child since eighth grade, preferably a daughter with curly red hair.

"So," she asked curiously after seeing her husband's expression. "So," he answered back kind of awkwardly and in a high-pitched tone. "What do you think?"

What was he going to tell her? He didn't have the first clue as to how to be a father. His own father wasn't really great at it but he was still loving and always there for him and definitely worthy of winning a dad-of-the-year contest. But Kopa himself? He'd be eliminated just for showing up to auditions. And he also had doubts clouding all of the positive thoughts he had about having a baby, things like if the child wouldn't like him or if something bad were to happen to them on his account.

Little did he know, like father like son.

His eyes narrowed down to her stomach where the baby...his baby was currently developing for a few moments before he noticed that he was crying. Actual tears. From his eyeballs. And it didn't take long for his wife to take notice of it. "Baby, are you okay?" He didn't know exactly how to respond to that so he just made up a random excuse to get out of it. "Yeah, I-I'm fine. It's just that, um, I-I-I have this...friend. And his dog recently became pregnant. He was so very happy about, um, Nessa, his dog, having puppies. But he was also unsure of whether or not he was capable of having puppies. He didn't know if the puppies would like him or if he was ready to take care of them. But one thing he was sure of was that he would love them no matter what." Vanessa just sat there with a confused yet happy look on her face. She scooted closer to him and locked her right arm along his left. "And would this friend happen to be named Kopa?"

"What gave me away?" "You are a terrible liar. You always stutter and look around the room when you do it. Literally, if you killed somebody and was asked if you did it, you would be convicted in under 7 seconds," she snickered as he looked at her with hearts in his eyes. It was true: he did do all of those things when he lied and was terrible at doing it. But only she took the time to notice it. It was one of the things he loved about her. How she noticed all the little things in a person. Like how she knew that Greg Allen was cheating on a test back in high school because of his repetitive bathroom breaks, or how Mindy Rose was lip-synching during a talent show because of the lack of muscle movement in her throat. She really had a knack for it. But back to what was most important: the baby.

"But you are also a kind, loyal, extremely handsome human being whose nicest to even the smallest of creatures. Like that time at the park where you stopped a three-year-old from stepping on an ant." "Hey! In my defense, ants are living things too. They don't deserve to just be squashed as if they were nothing. They're a big part of the circle of life too you know! Or are they? I don't know; my father never really got too much into detail."

She dressed her face with a sweet smirk at her husband's remark and laughed for a little bit. "You see? You're respectful of everything around us no matter the size. And you give very good life lessons even when you don't mean to. You, my good sir, have all the qualities of a good father whether you like it or not." His hand began caressing her leg soon after before it traveled to her stomach where he knew there was a baby growing.

All the pain and regret that was felt by him was no longer there. Every negative feeling was wrapped up in a cocoon and soon emerged as a blossomed positive feeling. Kopa even felt very excited about having a child that he could raise and teach all by himself. Well, not technically because without Vanessa, he'd be one disaster of a dad. She'd literally be the only thread holding him up during the process.

But then what she brought up next killed all of his happiness. "Speaking about what you said a minute ago, you never really talk about your dad that much. Do you remember anything about him? Like, what he was like or where he might be right now?"

Silence.

"Um..." "It's okay if you don't want to talk about it. I completely understand." But after all that they've been through, he felt like she deserved to know the truth. "No. I actually do want to talk about it." He turned to face his wife and intertwined his fingers with hers as he took a deep breath. "Now, before I begin, what I'm about to say is kind of hard to believe and may sound a little crazy. But I trust you to believe me okay?"

"Baby, no matter what you say I will always believe you. Because I know that you don't lie or make things up." "Okay. I am...not an actual human." Vanessa just sat there with a neutral expression just as Kopa feared she would. "W-w-what do you mean?" "What I mean is that I am not from this world. I once used to be a lion. I lived somewhere called the Pride Lands and was the son of the king, Simba. He was my dad and we had an argument before I ran away and then I found this weird-looking rock that began to glow and before I knew it I woke up as a baby in El Paso. Mrs. Garcia found me and took me in and when I learned to talk she kept on taking me to see a psychiatrist after I tried telling her what I'm telling you now. More than once."

She acted like she believed what he was telling her, but deep down he knew that she thought he should be locked away in a nuthouse. "And um, Kopa, I do believe what you're saying but it is a little hard to, I'll admit," she said quietly before an idea popped up in her head. "Wait. Did your home have hyenas and was taken over by an evil lion named Scar after he killed his brother, Mufasa?"

That question basically summed up everything that he knew about the Pride Lands' past and how his father ascended to become the king. How the fuck did she know all of that? It was astronomically impossible for her to even know a tiny fact about the kingdom because everyone else denied its existence and it didn't show up when he googled it. "Exactly. Van, how do you know all of this?" She released her fingers and placed her hands on his shoulders, the tension in her fingers squeezing against the muscle in them.

"Because that is the plot of The Lion King."

As Rafiki lifted Simba and Nala's newborn cub in the air as the ending title card appeared on the television screen, Kopa's jaw was practically on the floor. Everything about his father and his history and his home was a movie?! How is that even possible? How did people get the exact facts and information along with his friends' and family's names and features? If the Pride Lands were supposedly nonexistent, how the hell did people manage to make a movie about it? Not only that, they managed to make THREE movies about it. Some of the events in the last two films' stories didn't even happen as far as Kopa remembered. He didn't recall having a sister named Kiara or none of that other shit. Nor did he recall his father telling him about how he went over a waterfall as a cub and was barely saved by Pumbaa while Timon just comically continued falling. I mean the events in the supposed Lion King 1 ½ could be true as Simba never really liked to talk about his childhood that much. But how did the movie people get that information even if it is true? Heavy loads of questions were dumped on the soon-to-be-father while his wife just stood inches away from him on the phone. Not talking to a psychiatrist. No way. "He's been sitting here for three hours without talking and I'm just worried that this background story might be messing with his mind."

I stand corrected.

Kopa grabbed the remote and shut the TV off, then immediately rushed to him and Vanessa's bedroom to grab his laptop. Once acquired, he placed it on his lap, unlocked it, and logged into his google account. When the search bar popped up, he typed in "Pride Lands" and he got a bunch of results, unlike the zero results he got when he did the exact same thing years ago. Some articles were useful and others just seemed like bogus bologna. All the descriptive details used in the useful articles were on point from Pride Rock to even the smallest watering hole. His mind was baffled at what he was reading and seeing. But everything he read wasn't exactly what he needed to answer all his questions.

He exited all the tabs and started his search again. This time he typed in "Lion King human transformation." Nothing. "Lion King Simba son." Nothing. "How to transport to the Pride Lands." Can you guess what Kopa found this time? ….Nothing. It was starting to get frustrating. It seemed like all hope was lost until he searched up one more thing: "magic rock with symbols and emerald center." And a link actually did come up. He clicked on it and it brought him to a website with a very familiar picture on the desktop. It was an exact image of the rock he encountered that brought him to the human world.

And a very long article rested below it that was written a decent while ago.

"It's been almost 43 years since my search for this artifact began. I first heard of it through a vacation in Africa. I was examining and taking photos of a pride of lions when I noticed a strange cave in the corner of my eye. I walk into the cave and I see a bunch of hieroglyphics that told the legend of a magical stone that held unimaginable power that could even be used for universal domination, and how it was hidden from an apparently evil entity that took the form of a lioness made of purple fire." It was a goldmine of information. But not enough yet, so he continued reading. The article said things like how the cave vanished without a trace when the author went to go show his friends and how he spent decades of research searching for it until he finally acquired a ripped out book page in the archives of a bookstore located in El Paso, Texas with the information he sought about the legend.

"There wasn't much due to the page looking as old as time itself, all withered, crumpled and stained, but I did notice one thing: markings. There were markings on the very bottom of the paper with what looked like coordinates, 35.0078° N, 97.0929° W, and a message: 'Ninakuita, wafalme wakuu wakuu wa zamani, na ninaomba nguvu yako iwe huru mwisho. Nipeleke mahali ninapotamani, ili ukweli ndio ninaoweza kujifunza.' After putting that into google translate, it said: I call onto you, mighty great kings of the past, and beg for your power to be free at last. Take me to where I yearn, so that the truth is what I may learn."

Kopa continued reading on and on about how the coordinates led the guy to someplace called Oklahoma and what he continued to do next. "I was led to a small house on Agnes Ave when all of a sudden-."

But then the article just suddenly stopped. Like there was no more left to read. "What?" How could there not be more written? It was clear to Kopa that the article was meant to be continued but it wasn't. He sensed that there was something wrong. He searched up the article's author, Terry Herrera, and what he saw next made him jump out of his skin.

LOCAL RESIDENT DIES IN TRAGIC HOUSE FIRE.

It said that this man, Mr. Herrera, was sadly killed in a fire that mysteriously burned his entire house down. Witnesses claimed that they heard the man shouting to himself moments before purple fire was reported coming from his kitchen window which then, after 7 seconds, turned to normal orange and red.

Woah.

Kopa tried to find out more about this man and his whereabouts when all of a sudden he heard something. It was like an angel was singing. A voice was being heard in the distance. It was like he was being called. He followed the voice which triggered his wife's curiosity as she began to follow him. "Baby, w-what are you doing?" "Just, hold on, Vanessa. Do you hear that?" "Hear what?" And shortly after is when an aroma filled his nostrils. A scent that he recognized...as gas. Flammable gas. His eyes widened as he realized what was about to happen. He grabbed his wife by her arms as he rushed out of the door and fell over into their lawn, his wife just shortly falling on top of him as the house combusted into flames...and exploded.

Debris flew everywhere, destroying their car and their flower bushes and alerting some of the neighbors who soon got on the phone with the fire department. But putting everything else aside, Kopa noticed that the fire that blew up their home was purple before it became orange and red, mirroring the fire that witnesses claimed killed Terry Herrera and his home. He came to the conclusion that everything that happened in the last hour was no coincidence. Somehow he and Mr. Herrera were connected somehow. It soon became clear that whatever voice was calling him was the reason for the house exploding and nearly killing him, his wife, and their unborn child.

The now-normal-colored fire lit up the night sky as people were woken up by the sirens of firetrucks parking near the scene. While those men took their giant hose and began putting out the fire, Kopa sat on the firetruck with his sobbing wife on his shoulder staring blankly into space with his mouth open, oceans of drool escaping onto the concrete. Their lives would never be the same after that. But boy if only Kopa knew how much of what happened and what would happen in the future would change the life of his child forever. "B-b-b-b-baby, I-I-I-I d-d-d-d-don't f-f-f-f-f-feel safe anymore," a terrified Vanessa whispered into her husband's ear. And neither did hear. After what just happened to them, it was clear that someone, or something, wanted them dead. But he wouldn't let them get the chance to try again. But he also still needed to continue his research on the magic stone he was reading about. And Vanessa obviously didn't want them to stay there anymore.

DING!

A lightbulb suddenly went off in his head. A plan that would solve both his and her problems and suit both of their current needs. He gently stroked the stream of tears off her face and looked her in the eyes. "Van, do you want to move from here?" "YES! THAT IS THE BEST IDEA I'VE HEARD MY WHOLE LIFE! But where?" He smacked his lips and looked into the sky for a few moments before locking eyes with her again.

"How does Oklahoma sound?"

To Be Continued in Chapter 17


Author's Note:

Hi guys. I would first like to apologize for taking almost a month to upload this new chapter. I was just as anxious writing it as you guys have been waiting for it to come out. But here it is! Finally. I would also like to note that the next chapter after this is the last one on Kopa and his backstory. I know you all want to get back to Dylan's side of the story after he meets his father unexpectedly, and you will after the next chapter is released. Even I want to get back to writing about that and find out what all my characters are up to. So anyway I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter and the next one, but bear with me as you have no idea how hard it is to write an amazing story like this. Have a nice rest of your day!

-DBROWN13