The Pridelands looked different at night. The noises and scents were strange, as nocturnal creatures were about. Owls whooped from above, and insects clicked and chittered in the grass. Kiara padded silently along the familiar trail, her ears twitching at every sound. What had seemed a great idea at high noon seemed less so in the dark.

But she was a Princess. And she was brave. Head held high, she marched purposefully towards the tree that marked the border of her father's territory. Good - she was early. She would lie in wait for Kovu and...

"Aiiiiiiiiee!!"

A dark shape dropped on Kiara from above and bowled her over. Screaming, she lashed out with all four paws at the unseen menace. The creature leaped off and sat a few feet away.

"You're dead, Kiara! I pounced ya!"

"Kovu! Don't do that!"

Kovu licked his paw smugly. "You wouldn't last five minutes in the Outlands with reflexes like that. Me, I've been training ever since I could walk - argh!"

Kiara jumped forward, caught him off balance and sent him sprawling on his back.

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah!"

They scowled at each other, lashing their tails. Then Kovu grinned. "I guess we're both brave enough. Let's go!"

The way to the Elephant Graveyard was rocky and steep. The foliage soon petered out, leaving only sand and stones. Scratch marks on a dead tree-trunk and scattered bones spoke of past hyena occupation. Kovu bristled and looked about him constantly. Kiara followed meekly; she was a stranger to the place where her father had nearly lost his life.

"That's it." Kovu whispered. Two great pillars of grey stone, leaning haphazardly, marked the entrance. They could see nothing beyond but darkness.

The legend of elephants sensing their approaching death and making their way to an ancient graveyard is as old as the savannah itself. The location of such graveyards is a secret never told, handed down the generations in racial memory. Even the elephant does not know of it until instinct drives him there in his last days. But the vultures, the hyenas and other scavengers had sniffed out this particular graveyard, and so the elephants had abandoned it for other grounds. Death should be a peaceful passing from one life into the next, not a time to fight off impatient meat-eaters.

The two cubs shrank into each other as they crossed the threshold. Here the light was shut out by walls of cold rock and a roof of twisted thorn branches. Giant skeletons, picked clean and scattered by scavengers and time, cast weird shadows. The wind whistled through empty ribcages, and a skull that could have held both cubs with room to spare gaped blankly at the intruders.

Kiara shivered, not entirely because of the sudden drop in temperature.

"Kovu...I don't like it here."

"Scared?" Kovu asked teasingly, though his own fur was sticking up on end.

Kiara frowned. "Not scared exactly, but...I feel this is a bad place. Bad things happened here. I can sense it."

"Quit trying to spook me, Kiara, it won't work! There's no such thing as ghosts," Kovu snorted.

The other cub suddenly froze, one paw raised, and swivelled her golden ears.

"Stop messing around!" Kovu said, sounding uncertain.

"I'm not - there's something here!" she whispered urgently. Then they both heard it - a low, deep laugh.