A/N: Hello everyone! I'm pretty new to this whole writing thing, so if you could leave any tips/tricks in the comments, I would really appreciate it! Also, please share this with any friends who might like this story as well! Thank you everyone and have an amazing morning/afternoon/night!
"Katie, what's wrong? I thought you would love this trip."
I heard my father's words while absently staring out of the car window.
"Well, that's because I thought I would see more animals, dad," I replied, keeping my gaze fixed on the car window.
My father just shook his head. "The animals are probably hiding due to the loud noises of the car. Come on, Katie, you need to lighten up. Just relax and enjoy the trip. Take a nap if you need to. I know you didn't get sleep last night. I'll wake you up if I see an animal, I promise."
My only response was a yawn.
"Look, Katie, you really need to go to bed on time instead of playing on your phone or whatever. You're already very sleep-deprived and you're only a freshman in high school! It's only going to get worse if you don't put that phone down!"
I let out a long, annoyed sigh. After a few more minutes, my eyes started to get heavier... and heavier...
Suddenly, my eyes shot open as I felt the car go off the road. Then I heard a noise. I felt a force push my face forward into the back of the front seat then pushed me back into my own seat.
What the hell just happened? Did dad drive off of the road?
However, that turned out to be the least of my worries. I looked around my seat only to discover there was a motionless body a few feet away from the car along with a giant hole in the windshield. No! No, it couldn't be...
My dad!
Instinctively, I pressed the red button to unbuckle my seat belt, pulled on the door handle, pushed open the door, and ran towards the body. My heart was already going a million miles an hour and I felt an awful feeling in my stomach.
When I got to his body, tears started to roll down my face. He didn't have much of a face. There was just glass and a lot of blood. Even though it was hopeless, I tried to think back to health class. What's the thing I need to feel for again to check if someone is alive?
Oh yeah, a pulse!
I put two fingers on my father's carotid artery. Unsurprisingly, I didn't feel a thing. This just made me feel even worse.
I just sat there for a while trying to understand what just happened. I glanced around, and there I saw why he flew out of the windshield: There was a giant tree and part of the car was halfway around it. It was the same car we were riding in an hour before. More tears rolled down my face. They have gotten uncontrollable at this point.
He must've lost control and hit the tree while going very fast. There's no way he was going slow. He probably wasn't wearing his seatbelt, either.
Now, dark thoughts were circling my mind. Why should I carry on living now? My mother has been gone for years, my grandparents are gone, and now my dad is gone. I'm an only child, so I don't even have a family to live with anymore. I might as well just take out the knife from the glove compartment and just end it all.
As I was walking toward the car, however, I heard some faint talking.
Wait, are there other people here? If there are, should I just ask them to put me out of my misery?
But as the talking got louder, I noticed that the figures were not in the shape of humans at all. Really, they looked more like two four-legged animals...
I saw two lions sitting down and staring at me with curious eyes. One had a long, black mane with auburn fur, a cream underbelly and paws, and green eyes. The other one looked like a female with tan-gold fur, a cream underbelly and paws, and brown eyes.
"What the hell is this thing, Kiara?" the male asked.
Kiara shrugged her shoulders. "That's a good question, Kovu. It barely has any hair!"
Well, at least now I know what their names are.
"Should we approach it?"
"Eh, why not. I can probably take it down if I need to anyway."
They started to walk in my direction.
I felt my heart start to beat faster again. Oh god, these two lions are going to kill me! I mean I kind of want to die, but I don't want to get mauled. That would be a very painful demise.
But I didn't get mauled. In fact, my life changed a lot that day...
They approached me slowly like they're being cautious or something.
"Uh, w-what are you d-doing?" I said with a shaky voice.
The two lions looked at me with wide eyes.
"Wait, did you just TALK?" Kovu asked me.
"Y-y-yeah," I stammered.
They started to relax a bit because of my nervousness. "Ok, uh what is wrong? Why are you so nervous?" Kiara asked.
"Please don't eat me!" I cried out.
They stared at me with dumbfounded expressions.
"Why would we do that?" Kovu asked.
I felt my breathing and my heartbeat slow a little. "So your not going to kill me?"
"Of course not! We only approached you slowly because we weren't sure whether or not you would hurt us and we were curious what was going on," Kiara explained. "Besides, you can understand us. We are curious about what you are and where you came from."
I started to explain what a human is and all that other stuff. They stared at me with intrigued expressions.
"Interesting. Hey, what happened with that big metal thing by that tree?" Kovu asked.
I let out a long sigh. "My dad got killed in a collision with that tree. Now I have nobody to take care of me."
Kiara looked at me with sympathetic eyes for a few moments before motioning Kovu to talk to her in private with her tail.
While they went to talk, I just stood there wondering what they were talking about. My mind was racing. What if they do decide to kill me? What if they just leave me out here and I starve to death?
Finally, they were coming towards me again. "Hey, what's your name?" Kiara asked.
"K-K-Katie" I stammered.
"Hey, Katie. I'm Kiara, and this is Kovu. We have a question for you."
"Would you like to follow us to our home and we can help you there?" Kovu finished.
"Uh, yeah I guess so. Thanks, I guess," I said.
They then lead me east, toward the place where my life would be changed forever...
End of Chapter 1