A/N: Hello and welcome to this new chapter of The Guardian. I hope you had a great week and trust that you're roar-ing (sorry, not sorry) to read the next chapter. Flashback-slash-dream sequence thing time, but not before I respond to the last chapter's reviews.

Jestalnaker94000 (Guest): It was indeed. Many of the happenings in this series will be caused and decided by even the most minute details and chances. All I'll say is that the story of Alex and Morgan's relationship will be tumultuous but always emotional.

Alex Curry: I hope you're all caught up and enjoying the story so far. And I'm glad you think it's cool.

Jason Chandler: We might see the Tree of Life later on in the series, and we will also be seeing a lot from these new enemies, and we may find that some of them are not enemies as such at all.

InvincibleFanBoy (Guest): I'm grateful that you decided to give this one a read and I'm glad you want to read more.

I don't know when I realised I was in this horrible dream, but as hard as I tried, it was impossible to escape it. I remembered the sequence, from the moment I climbed down the bunk bed that I shared with Lewis. I squeaked at the coldness of the metal rungs of the ladder against my bare feet. It was because of this I had quickly descended, and almost jumped off the ladder.

"Why are you up this early on a Saturday?" Lewis asked about my decision to get up at 6:00 in the morning.

"Don't you remember? I've got a paper round now," I reminded my brother, whose hair was blond, and his eyes were bright blue, much like mine.

"Oh, well… be quieter next time," he ordered in his groggy voice, muffled under the quilt.

I quietly pulled the door, plastered in Manchester United badges and posters, and gently pulled it shut once I passed the frame and tip-toed downstairs to avoid the noise waking my parents. I collected my key, wallet and phone, I slowly opened the door to minimise the rattling of the knocker in an effort to preserve the silence. For the same reason, I gently closed the door before I headed to the newsagent to collect my round. When I arrived, I did what I usually did; Greet my cousin David who worked there, buy a Match of the Day football magazine and some confectionery for me and Lewis and shuffle the 15-strong pile of newspapers into the fluorescent green bag. It was a usual summer morning, the sun was squished between two tower blocks, and crept over the hill as I delivered the papers to the residents of the terraced houses that were situated along the street of the shop, one of the doors I delivered to was my own house, and I put the magazine in the Daily Mirror and slid them through the letterbox.

After I returned the bag having completed the round, I made my way home. I opened the wooden gate, walked up the path of light grey stone slabs next to a patch of grass and I turned the lock with my key and opened the door to my house. The last time I left this place, the stones were weathered and had weeds growing between them and the grass was encroaching on the stones, now peppered with the marks of weathering.

Having heard the clatter of crockery and cutlery, I walked through the narrow hallway and into the kitchen, which had a minimalist and fresh colour scheme, and saw that my heavily pregnant mother was washing up. There were a few items on the draining board that were dripping with soapy water. My mother, Laura, had light brown hair, blue eyes and fair, radiant skin. Even though she was in her late 30s, she retained the grace of a woman at least a decade her junior but there was wisdom within her eyes that long surpassed her youthful appearance.

"Good morning, Alex," she said with a weak smile. Her voice alone was enough to calm my body, but something was different...

"Hi, mum..." I began before I frowned. "Are you... okay?" I asked hesitantly.

She sighed before she rubbed her head. "Now that you ask, I'm..." she began before she gasped.

"The baby's kicking," she said with a grin, with a bit more strength in her voice. She then reached out and moved my hand and placed it on her belly.

Despite the firmness, I could feel the thud of the baby's foot against my palm. It amazed me that a delicate and intimate process resulted in two cells coming together and growing into an entirely new human being.

"Not long now," I smiled.

"How was your round?" she asked as she resumed the chore. "Get any tips?" she grinned.

"Not today, I suppose that's the way for debutants," I shrugged.

"No matter, it's a handsome wage on its own," she replied.

I nodded in agreement as I picked up a plain white bowl that was warm with saponaceous water and began drying it with a red and white chequered tea towel. I intended on having Corn Flakes for breakfast this morning. In the cupboard, there were cereals such as Ready Brek porridge, Coco Pops, Wheetos and Cookie Crisp.

We then looked to the ceiling as we heard Lewis come down the stairs. As usual, he was already dressed, and his hair was combed. With a broad and authentic smile on his face as he walked into the kitchen, I faced him as I went to wish him a pleasant morning, but not only did he get there before me, but he did something that was both rude and funny.

"Good morning, Alex, morning, Mum... oh, thank you, brother," he said as he took the bowl from my hand and gathered the ingredients for breakfast: Corn Flakes and milk.

"Rude," I chuckled before I grabbed another bowl to dry and eat breakfast from. However, this innocent objective would be forgotten within the next few minutes.

Mum stopped washing the final few items of washing up to rub her head and groan in what seemed like discomfort.

"Mum, are you alright?" asked Lewis with concern saturating his voice.

"I..." she breathed heavily before her legs gave way and she fell to the floor, holding onto the edge of the sink to stop her from injuring herself or the baby.

Lewis jumped out of his seat and I practically dived to my mum's side. Lewis put her in the recovery position.

"Mum, what's happening?" I asked frantically.

She spoke, with a slurred voice, these harrowing words. "I'm sorry... I love you."

I looked at Lewis, who could only match my frown of confusion.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"I'm sorry... I love you," she said between breaths.

I shook my head. She must be speaking out of the fear of death rather than the guilt of early departure.

"Get Dad and call an ambulance," I firmly ordered my brother, who practically leapt up the stairs.

"It's going to be okay," I assured my mother, but even I was not convinced that what I said was true.

"There's something... you must know... everything's going to be..." she said urgently before looking into my eyes. "Alright…" she breathed silently before her eyes closed.

"F... fuck!" I whimpered hesitantly. I was forbidden from swearing in front of my parents but this was overruled by the sudden realisation that my mother could die, that this could be the last time I ever saw her gracefully-framed face, hear her glorious and vibrant voice.

My father ran into the kitchen and his face turned white. "Let me take her to the hospital," the words came from his heavy throat through his shivering mouth.

"Lewis, open the door for me," our father commanded my brother, in a surprisingly calm manner. Despite this, Lewis immediately opened the door in time for our father, holding our mother in his arms. We both rushed outside. Lewis opened the gate, I opened the back door of our Saab for Dad to place Mum in the back seat. When he strapped her in, he said,

"You are to remain here until I come back," our father declared. And as long as it took to look at each other anxiously, our father slammed the door shut, started the engine and headed off to the hospital. The next few hours that ensued were agonising. We were afraid to put the TV on, we didn't even resume making breakfast. We waited for what seemed like forever for the sound of the jangle of our father's keys against the front door as he would insert them into the lock. The seconds alone felt like hours. When the clouds veiled the sun, it felt like an endless night.

Lewis broke the silence.

"Did you notice Dad's reaction when he saw mum?" he asked.

"What?" I frowned. What sort of question was that? When your pregnant mother collapses into unconsciousness, your first thought is of the health of your mother and unborn sibling, not the nuances of emotion and shock.

"I mean... he looked... sad but... not... surprised," Lewis replied, put off by my initial reaction. I scoffed.

"Our pregnant mother collapses and you want to start conspiracy theories?" I responded with incredulity.

"Well, forgive me for noticing that mum and dad have been weirdly depressed considering they are expecting a new child," Lewis huffed before he got up off the sofa and walked out.

"Where are you going now?" I asked.

"I'm getting breakfast," he called from the kitchen.

Suddenly, our father walked through the door.

We both rushed to the foot of the stairs. We were taken aback by what we saw. A man who had seemed to age a decade in an hour. The bags under his eyes were like dark, bulbous crescent moons. His formerly bright blue eyes were pale and bloodshot.

"Dad... is there any news? Are Mum and the baby okay?" I asked, afraid of the response. When he looked up, it was only clearer that his eyes showed evidence of mental and physical grief.

"Get your shoes on and get in the car," he requested with a quivering and delicate voice, as if he had been abusing his voice.

"Dad, what's wrong?" Lewis asked cautiously, afraid of the answer he desperately wanted.

"Just please..." he said harshly. "Get in the car," Dad ordered with a more sensitive tone.

After doing as we were told, we immediately knew that something bad had happened.

"Dad, has something happened?" Lewis asked.

"Prepare for the worst," Dad said quietly.

"What?" I asked, not quite knowing what he meant.

"The doctor said to prepare for the worst," he clarified.

His driving style, usually safe and secure, was sloppy. He was quiet whereas he would usually ask us about our activities and answer our questions. He wouldn't answer any questions that we put to him. He looked like he was constantly fighting against the urge to cry.

The road was quiet, as well. Unnaturally quiet, considering it was in the middle of London. But when a car did pull out from a junction, Dad had to slam on the brakes.

He rolled down the window furiously to shout,

"Stupid fucking idiot!"

Lewis and I looked at each other in shock, but we didn't know if it was more because of the sudden stop to avoid a crash or our father's rare outburst of profanity.

"Sorry... about that, don't tell your mother about that," he chuckled. There was the impression that it masked the continued urge to burst into tears. This was confirmed when he rubbed his eyes before closing the window and continuing to the hospital.

Nothing else was said until we reached Whittington Hospital in Highgate. We walked through the many corridors, under the many signs.

As we continued, I noticed that all of the wards were passed, until we entered the maternity ward.

Dad pressed a faded button on the intercom next to the baby blue doors, and a little voice was detected by my ears.

"Maternity ward, how can I help?" one of the ward sisters asked.

"It's Christian Maximilian, and I'm here for my wife, Laura," Dad said awkwardly into the intercom.

Since the beginning of these dreams, I have tried endlessly to escape them. Methods to escape nightmares included screaming, throwing myself to the floor, and jumping... but it was an impossible task in this type of dream. One of memory. I was forced to relive these horrible memories, even more so recently. Sometimes they were accompanied by other visions, premonitions perhaps.

Back to the nightmare, we followed our father to a door that was labelled 'Relatives Room'. He opened it and we were greeted with a small room with purple walls. The scent of recently painted walls was carried by a refreshing breeze. This was due to one of the windows being open. To my dismay, the blinds would knock against the window with every gust. That was going to be irritating.

"Wait here while I get something from the vending machine. Do either of you want anything?" Dad asked us.

"I'll have some MMs if there are any, or a Dairy Milk and a Coca-Cola or just some water... please?"

Dad raised an eyebrow. "Quite a shopping list," he chuckled lightly.

"Well, I never got to have any breakfast so..." I began but Dad interrupted with a sympathetic yet slightly exasperated expression on his face.

"Of course, just a... passing comment to divert my attention from... y'know," he said the last word after a pause. He then left and gently closed the door and seemed to stand and lean against the door, hanging his head downwards before he walked away.

We waited in the room for several hours. The monotonous soundtrack within the room was that of the clattering of the blind, the ticking of the clock and the turning of the pages of a magazine. The only other sound was a cough from Lewis, which I guess was triggered by the smell within the room. He was reading a magazine that had several images of animals on the front cover. The magazine next to me had a front cover that contained images of celebrities who were famous for being famous.

I was bored of looking at the same posters and books, malcontent with the sound of birds and the breeze knocking the blinds. Dad then returned to the room for a brief moment to give us our selected confection and beverage. I voiced my gratitude but he said nothing and left the room again. Once again, he seemed to compose himself before he opened the door and asked us if we wanted to see our mother. Having previously slouched in the chair, I straightened my back.

"Y-yes... is she okay?" I asked. As I was in a dream, I already knew the truth, but going through the motions was torture. Every syllable that passed through my mouth was like poison

"What about the baby?" Lewis asked. Dad looked at Lewis with grief clouding his blue eyes.

"I'm... not sure I'm the one to tell you... at least not now," he said. In hindsight, now I know he was making it up, he was trying to ease us into this era of sorrow. Break our hearts slowly, even though it matters not if it is broken in a second or a month.

"What?" Lewis questioned. I was afraid to look at his face, but I had no choice but to spectate the moment his heart dropped, his eyes filled with fear, his otherwise bright face becoming a pale and gaunt one.

"Follow me..." Dad instructed as he held open the door. We did as we were told.

We were led through a corridor of cubicles, then a nurses' station, and then the room at the end of the corridor which hosted our mother. Every other bed in the ward had a smaller bed beside it, but not this one.

As if the implications of this were not enough to think about, the woman that lay in our mother's bed was exhausted, grief-stricken, and defeated. A shadow of herself. Hollowed out as if everything that brought joy to her life was extinguished.

"Mum..." I squeaked. The urge to burst into tears was caught in my throat. I could barely breathe.

"Where... where is the baby?"

Our mother looked solemnly at our father. Her eyes couldn't even well up with stinging tears, such was her state of emptiness. Our father slowly nodded.

"I'm afraid the baby didn't make it... she was born asleep," she announced to my wrenched heart.

"Oh..." my brother whispered breathlessly. At that moment, all vitality drained from my brother's face, replaced with a pale shadow of sorrow and grief, which stole from his legs the strength to stand unsupported. I held him under his arms in order to prevent him from hurting himself. When we both gently fell to the floor, we just sat there in an embrace, the pain of grief surrounding us like a shell of obsidian.

He wept into my shoulder, I closed my eyes as I kissed his hair. When I opened my eyes, I could only see the rugged wall of the cave in which we slept for a few hours after we finally returned from Rafiki's tree.

I wiped the tears that had welled up in my eyes before I turned to face where Morgan had been sleeping. There was a brief moment where my heart sank when I saw only an empty space, but as I flipped onto my hands and knees, I saw that he was playing with Simba, Nala and some other cubs outside the cave.

I couldn't help but smile. How many children dream of playing with cute lion cubs, and how many have gone on to live that dream?

Morgan had but a brief opportunity to look into the darkness where I lay, and his face was renewed with excitement and ran in my direction. He was duly followed by a cascade of cubs, including the Crown Prince and Sarafina's daughter. There were three cubs, each of them had a different shade of pelt. One of them had a more sandy pelt with a tuft of fur on their head. Another was closer to red and the third was the colour of chocolate. I didn't realise that these colourations were naturally occurring. Soon enough, I had more company than my thoughts filling the silence of the cave. I had a host of cubs pawing at me, asking questions.

"Yes, hello... my name... my name is Alex," I managed to say through the onslaught of scrutiny.

"Is it true you can stand on two legs?" the chocolate brown cub asked. I promptly got onto my legs and spread my arms wide, as if to say 'tah-dah'.

"Woah..." the sandy-coloured cub gasped.

"And if you accidentally scratch him, it'll heal up almost instantly," Morgan said proudly yet thoughtlessly.

A chorus of 'wow's and 'really?'s followed, with even a volunteer offering to put that statement to the test. I was slightly disappointed in Morgan for revealing that private information without my permission, but I chose not to call him out in front of everyone else.

"Uh, listen cubs, would you let me and Morgan talk privately for a moment?" I asked. "We'll come and play with you after," i offered. In response, the cubs ran outside again, exclaiming excitedly.

I motioned for Morgan to sit on a rock while I sat down on a platform off the wall.

"What's wrong?" he asked, worrying that he said something wrong, but he noticed moisture around my eyes being reflected off the sunlight that was streaming into the cave. "Have you been crying?"

"What?" I then remembered that my eyes were still damp and then immediately dried them. "I just... wanted to let you know that..." I began, wondering how to explain it to him. "The things I can do... no one else can do them, and there are lots of things you haven't seen yet, and... it's caused me more trouble than good, a lot has had to be sorted to keep my secret... well, secret. And even then, there were things that my parents wouldn't tell me," I explained. Maybe I was overthinking it. Maybe me being here was the purpose of my gifts after all, so I decided to change the angle of my reprimand "And it's not right for you to tell people's secrets without their permission," I concluded before I got back up.

"I'm sorry," Morgan said with authenticity. I turned to see an apologetic face looking up at me. I couldn't stay mad at such a face. I ruffled his hair.

"It's okay, just think before you speak next time, now let's go and play with some cute lion cubs!" I said with progressive enthusiasm.

And with that, we played tag with the cubs. I went easy on the cubs, of course, and Kula, the rusty-pelted female cub, was the one who was tagged the most, and Morgan was the one who did the most tagging. All seemed fine for at least one day.

The cubs decided to play hide and seek after about an hour of tag. The sun was at its highest. I really had to sort out my sleeping pattern, even though I hadn't really much control over the events that had happened since the crash. But I had enough energy to go along with the cubs. They asked the adults if they could play deep in the Pride Lands, to give them a sense of freedom. Sarafina volunteered to accompany and watch over us play in an area between Kiburi Fields, the vast expanse immediately in front of Pride Rock, and Chekundu Cliffs. This area turned out to be quite liberating. The only explicit condition for playing in this area was to stay away from Nandembo Caverns, which was said to be a dangerous and unforgiving cave system.

With that in mind, we set off for what looked like a pleasant journey through some awesome Pride Lands scenery. We encountered some elephants, including one Aminifu and his daughter, Ma Tembo, an eccentric zebra named Thurston, who had lost track of his herd, and we met the leader of the hippo float, Basi. Everyone was kind and courteous and respectful enough. Some even greeted me with a bow of their head. I put it down to exemplary treatment for a guest of the realm. The cubs were chasing, pouncing and tackling each other and talked about what the place that they were going to looked like, as well as rumours of what happened if someone ventured down into Nandembo Caverns, mostly involving ghosts or hyenas. I noticed that Morgan was silent, walking on his own most of the time. Was he still disturbed by the dream that caused him to run away? I would seek to ask him about it,

Eventually, we arrived at a suitable place to play hide and seek. A small grove of trees out of the way of any obstacles and with no one currently feeding off them or residing in them.

It was decided that I would start off looking for the cubs and Morgan. They were given two minutes to find a hiding spot before I yelled at the top of my voice,

"READY OR NOT, HERE I COME!"

Sarafina could only chuckle and shake her head in amusement. I grinned as I heard the fluttering of disturbed birds flying away from the noise and then set off to find the human and the cubs. I decided to look through the forest first. The ground didn't seem uneven as to allow cubs to hide under roots, and sure enough, looking at the bottom of the trees provided me with no success. I didn't know if lions or lion cubs were any good at climbing trees, but I went to eliminate the possible hiding place.

As I began briefly looking up at each tree, I heard a young voice whisper,

"Oh, no... oh, no, no, no!"

Whoever said it sounded like they were struggling. I couldn't see who the voice might belong, but whoever it was, they gave a short and sharp scream, causing me to flinch and turn in the direction of the said scream, and my heart skipped a beat when I saw a cub falling from a tree and landing with a thud.

"Oof," the cub grunted. It was Tama.

"Tama!" I exclaimed with concern for whether the cub hurt herself. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," Tama shook herself. "Turns out a bunch of cute galagos live in that tree," she chuckled.

"Is everything okay?" Sarafina asked from behind.

"Yeah, bad hiding place is all," Tama answered. "I suppose we should find the others."

Kula and Chumvi, the chocolate coloured male, were found with not much more effort. Kula was found following a small hyrax, who was about to be pounced on before we declared that we had found her.

"Oh, guys!" she moaned. "You made me lose my snack," she complained.

I could only chuckle. "I think you slightly misinterpreted the memo," I commented, not expecting anyone to understand, but Kula and Tama giggled.

Chumvi was found in a hollowed-out log. His fur provided some form of camouflage which allowed him to evade our detection for at least five seconds.

"Found you, Chumvi!" Kula leapt onto the log and repeatedly jumped on the spot above where Chumvi was tucked inside, and the caramel-coloured cub's weight could not be supported by the rotten, flaking log, which promptly collapsed as Kula fell onto Chumvi's back, and they both slumped onto their bellies with dust and bark being kicked up and littered on their backs. A brief, tense moment passed as I waited for someone to cry out in pain, but that didn't happen. Instead, they both laughed at their predicament. This made me smile.

When everyone recovered from the bout of laughter, Sarafina announced that it was time to look for her daughter, the Crown Prince and the other human guest.

Morgan's POV

I decided to follow the golden-furred cub, deducing that he might help me find a decent hiding spot, whether intentionally or not so.

"Uh, I don't know how humans play hide and seek, but usually you look for your own hiding spot," Simba commented in what I thought was a slightly rude and bad-mannered way when he noticed that I was following him long after we set off to find a place to hide.

"I know, I'm just following you so I don't get lost, I'm obviously going to find my own spot," I defended myself.

"Oh, okay," Simba replied. "Do you play hide and seek often?" he forced the question, probably trying to reduce the awkwardness. I admit, I hadn't talked much on the journey, for my mind was still in turmoil following my dream that caused me to go to the canyon and anger the jackals.

"Sometimes," I began my answer. "I played it with my friends at school," I said, hoping to lead him to continue the conversation.

"Huh... what's a school?" the lion cub asked. I smiled.

"It's a place where children learn stuff, uh... about the ways of life," I tried to keep it relatable. Simba probably didn't know what mathematics was.

"I see, so a bit like how Rafiki teaches us a load of stuff?" Simba responded. Rafiki mentioned that he was a keeper of knowledge and history.

"Exactly," I nodded.

"Sounds boring," Simba scoffed. I laughed.

"Yeah, it was most of the time, but my friends made it...fun," I drifted off as I was hit with a wave of regret. Regret that I would probably never see my friends again. I contorted my face to try and stop myself from crying. I guess Simba noticed my change in tone and sudden silence.

"Are you okay?" he asked genuinely. I shook my head and couldn't help but put my hands over my face and fall to my knees.

"I'm not okay, I'm never going to see my friends ever again!" I lamented.

Simba sighed and walked over to me. I looked up at Simba when I felt a paw on my shoulder, an interaction I didn't expect, neither as a token of empathy or behaviour as a species.

"Look, I can't say I can relate to what you're going through, but I can say that now you're here, we'll look after you, we'll make sure you have fun, we'll be your friends," Simba promised. I looked up at him and dried my eyes before reaching out and hugging him.

"Thank you, Simba," I said as I embraced him. When he returned the gesture, I gasped as I realised what I was doing: hugging a prince. I gently pulled away before apologising.

"I hope that wasn't, like, improper," I chuckled.

"No, it's fine, and don't mention it," he said before smiling. "Anything for our guest of the realm."

"Anyway," I said, getting back on my feet. "We should find our hiding spots before they find us out in the open," I declared.

Simba nodded. "I know a good place, it's close to Nandembo Caverns, but we won't be going anywhere we're not allowed to," Simba assured me in a huge shift from his earlier demeanour.

Simba's ear then twitched and he gasped. "Alex has started looking for everyone, let's go," he said before running in the direction of Nandembo Caverns.

We were running only for a few minutes before Simba skidded to a halt. It looked like he was looking at the grassy floor, but when I got closer, I saw that he was looking down into a shallow hole with some saturated mud in it.

"What is that?" I wondered aloud.

Simba snickered. "Gee, I wonder..." he said sarcastically.

"I know what it is, but I'm wondering how it was made or who made it and for what purpose," I listed, feeling a bit like a detective.

"Do you think one of us should hide in it?" Simba asked as he put his paw on the edge of the hole. I was unsure. My idea of a hiding place was behind or in something, not necessarily a hole.

"I don't know... it looks a bit messy," I discouraged.

Simba shrugged. "I suppose you're right, after all, it won't be you who will be slathered with a tongue all over your body," he shuddered. I chuckled, but my smile disappeared when I noticed that, upon Simba stepping over the hole, a chunk of soil where he had stood fell into the floor. And for some reason, I began to lose my footing, as if the very ground beneath my feet was moving.

"Oh, well, let's find somewhere else," Simba said. As I looked at him, I could see a ring of darker looking grass begin to form around us, and then a depression formed on the perimeter of the ring. I went to move my foot, but it was implanted in heavily saturated, compacted and squelchy mud.

"Simba, look out!"

I felt myself fall a good few feet and land with a splat on my shoulder, with stinking muddy water splashing on my face.

"Oh, yuck!" I groaned, looking at the muddy water on my shirt, shorts, bare arms and legs.

"Are you okay?" Simba asked. He had mud on his back and the bottom of his legs.

"I think so," I replied, trying to get up, only for my feet to lose all traction, allowing me to slip comically before falling on my face.

"Oh, that's just great!" I shouted as I lifted my head up.

Simba couldn't help but stifle a giggle as he saw my face. I just stared at him.

"Come on! If there was someone else here and it happened to them, you'd laugh," Simba claimed.

"Whatever," I huffed. "How are we going to get out of here?" looking up to the sky. The wall of the hole was about three times my height. I then looked around me to see if there were any unlikely notches where I could put my feet to climb up. When I looked at Simba, I saw that he was sitting in front of some sort of tunnel.

"What's that behind you?" we both said at the same time to each other. We then laughed at that before we turned around to see what the other saw. There was another tunnel behind me. Looking at the other tunnel, they looked like they were in alignment.

"So we fell into a sinkhole that formed because of this tunnel," I concluded. "Just our luck," I slapped my hands against my legs.

"Do you think we should go through the tunnel to see if we can find a way out?" Simba asked. I don't know if this was down to an underlying, characteristic curiosity that he had to satisfy, but neither did I know if it was right to look for an exit but risk getting lost or stuck, or stay here and think of a way to climb out. The hole didn't seem like it was going to collapse any further.

"I think... if we do that, one of us should go that way, and one of us should go the other way," I said, pointing to the tunnel behind Simba and then myself respectively. "And then if we find an exit or a junction, we come back here and go that way together," I added, pointing to the muddy floor.

"Sounds like a plan," Simba nodded. "I'll go this way," the cub motioned behind him. I nodded.

"Okay, then... good luck," I chuckled.

"You too," Simba laughed.

No POV

"So run that by me again, would ya?" Mjinga requested. Kujadili exhaled in exasperation.

"When I give you the signal, you knock down the wood and the tunnel collapses, forming a sinkhole that destroys a piece of the Pride Lands," Kujadili explained. For the third time.

"I don't get it, how does that disrupt their Circle of Life?" Mjinga asked. Making a giant sinkhole was hardly a fundamental threat to an ecosystem.

"Well, Hila's plan is to start small, and go bigger the longer the Pridelanders won't give us what we want," Kujadili replied.

"But don't we want them to know that we're the ones who are destroying their territory so they know we're serious?" Mjinga wondered.

"Well..." Kujadili didn't quite get his point but he noticed that he was trying to be more helpful. "If they know it's us too soon, I think they would stop us as soon as they found out. We're out to disrupt the Pride Lands, and we can't do that if they find us out," he explained.

"So when are we supposed to collapse the tunnel?" Mjinga asked.

"When the vultures fly overhead, whenever that is, so just... keep watch for them," Kujadili instructed. Mjinga promptly pointed his snout upwards.

Kujadili sighed. "You're gonna kill your neck if you look straight up for more than a minute."

Mjinga growled in frustration. "Why do you always talk me down, always point out my mistakes and treat my like an idiot?"

Kujadili was taken aback. He had never seen this from the usually subservient jackal. "I'm sorry but... maybe if you took some initiative for once..."

"And you never give me a chance to prove myself because you think I'm incompetent, and that makes me feel insecure, and it turns into a vicious cycle," Mjinga was on the verge of tears. "I want to help with the cause, and if you believed in me, maybe I could be more useful," he added.

"Mate, I'm one of your most loyal advocates, I specifically chose you to help me out with this," Kujadili replied.

Mjinga scoffed. "Who are you to talk about loyalty? The only person you're loyal to is yourself!" he accused.

"You take that back!" Kujadili demanded angrily.

"You know what? I'm gonna say it; at least your parents fought and died for something other than themselves," Mjinga exclaimed.

"You bastard!" Kujadili growled before he pounced on his oratory opponent. They wrestled in the mud, scratching at each other's faces, and biting at each other's legs and necks. The fight was at a stalemate until, when Kujadili pinned Mjinga's face in the mud, he paused and looked into the tunnel. Mjinga noticed that he was no longer being attacked and that he was looking into the tunnel. He did what he could to look into the tunnel himself and gasped when he saw a creature other than themselves.

It was a lion cub.

He stood there, frozen for a few moments, before he turned around and scrambled as fast as he could, running into the darkness.

The jackals looked at each other again.

"You know who that is? The King's son!" Kujadili exclaimed.

"Well, what are we doing fighting each other? Let's get him!" Mjinga suggested.

"Are you insane? If that cub came to harm by our paw..." began incredulously before being interrupted by his former opponent.

"Who said anything about harming him?" Mjinga grinned malevolently.

"Oooh," Kujadili responded knowingly.

Simba's fear of the dark was superseded by the need to evade his pursuers. If only the jackal belligerents had not noticed him, not that he could have influenced that occurrence, so he dedicated his entire focus on running as fast as he could. Such was his size, he could weave between the occasional stick that he guessed held up the ceiling from collapsing, but he couldn't afford such tricks right now. He had to take any advantage he had right now, including the fact that the jackals had to take time to manoeuvre themselves between bulging walls and the sticks.

He rounded the last corner before the straight that preceded the sinkhole that he and Morgan fell down. He didn't know what Morgan would find down his tunnel, but he hoped, for both of their sakes, that it was better than a pair of jackals.

Simba made a fateful decision to look behind him for a brief but decisive moment. He saw that the jackals were about three or four paces behind him. He was beyond their pouncing range, but when he assured himself of that, he only looked forward when it was too late. The first thing he saw was the final stick that held up that part of the tunnel before the opening. He collided with it and tumbled over, coming to a halt with just his head and front paws outside the tunnel.

Before he could shake himself off, Simba gasped when he looked behind him and saw a jackal leaping at him.

That was, until the tunnel collapsed, burying both the jackals and most of Simba's body, crushing his legs and torso. It was like the air from his lungs was squeezed out. He couldn't move his legs. He was trapped.

A/N: Cliffhanger! Well, is it still a cliffhanger if the protagonist is under several tonnes of dirt? Anyway, I digress. Will Morgan come back to rescue Simba? Or will there be a plot twist with the Crown Prince coming to an unexpected end? You know what to do - review constructively, add it to your lists if you haven't already done so, and come back for the next chapter in a week's time.