Shadowland

Chapter 1

Sapphire

I am not Walter Disney, nor am I related to Disney in any way, except for being a fan of his work. Shadowland, Chapter 1: Sapphire is property of Troy Wong, a.k.a. Chookooblash, and is not to be resold or posted on any other site without my permission. If you want to contact me about anything you can reach me Mourns' (opening poem) was taken from The Lion King on Broadway, by Tsidii Le Loka.

I hope you enjoy reading my stories. Long live the king!

Madi ao

Spilled blood

Leka sebete chia ho oele sebatha

Try courage so beasts may fall

Mo leka qeme o tsaba hoa

Those who defy mountains, are, in truth, cowards

Lebo haling ha o bue ka le ha

Even in anger, you do not speak against wrong…

Oh, oh…

Once upon a time lived a princess.

This princess had a friend- a best friend, who she had always trusted.

But one day, on her fifth birthday, this friend was taken away from her by a mystical force.

And on her fifteenth birthday, her friend was returned to her with powers beyond anyone's imagination.

But in exchange for his powers, he was not allowed to see his best friend, the princess. Again and again he would be scolded and punished when he went to meet her.

And this made him grow angry. Very angry indeed.

With the powers he had been given, the princess' best friend, driven mad by anger, tore apart the kingdom, and sent everyone running.

And so, the kingdom was destroyed- the Circle of Life lost, but not lost forever.

Hundreds of years later, three would set out to bring it back. Not on their own free will, and not because of their own crazy reasons, but as a punishment.

At the end of their quest, they would be regarded as the greatest heroes that ever lived…

Sapphire looked up at the dark, cloudless night sky. Illuminated by the silver glow of the moon, it put her in a trance. Her eyes glistened as the light from above danced on them. From outside, there came a sound of footsteps, disturbing the dry, grey dust on the ground, folding the yellow savannah grass under it's feet.

"What are you doing in there?" called a young, male voice. Whoever it was, he was waiting for an answer. "Don't think you can hide from me." he continued, chuckling.

"What are you doing up so late, Kiko?"

"The question is," Kiko replied, purposely positioning his head right in front of her, to block her view of the shining stars above "what are you doing up so late?", putting a particularly heavy emphasis on 'you'.

She pushed his head out of the way and let out a heavy sigh, then began, "Well…"

"Yes?" Kiko interrupted.

"Well, Kiko, I'm up so late because I'm allowed to be, and because I can't sleep. Now, how about you?" she asked.

"Well, uh…"

"Yes, that's an interesting answer."

"Oh, be quiet. I'm not done yet."

"Take your time, Kiko."

He gave her a dry look. "I'm up because… Because I can't sleep either." he answered, not sure of his own words.

"Oh, really? Is that so?" she replied in turn, disbelieving. "I bet you had another nightmare."

"No! I don't have nightmares anymore!" he shouted, almost trying to convince himself.

"It was that one where the ground cracks open, and stones fall from the sky…" Sapphire tried to scare him as she went along. He was just a kid. What was wrong with doing what she was doing? Kids grow up, and in time, he'll realise that what she said was just a bit of joking around. Or, was that just the reason that she shouldn't have?

"I told you! I don't have nightmares anymore, Sapphire!"

She ignored him and continued, "and then, the big monster comes…"

"No!" Despite his efforts, Kiko was getting more and more frightened by the second.

"It bends down, and roars… And then…"

"Rawr!" a monstrous, bellowing voice yelled from behind the child. Scared for his life, he darted into the cave, using Sapphire's tail as a shield. He stayed there as still as a large, cold, lonely stone, muttering under his breath, something along the lines of, "Please, please, please don't eat me… Please, please…" When he heard snickering coming from outside, he became suspicious. He poked his head out cautiously, slowly opening one of his tightly shut eyes, only to his brother, Orion, laughing himself crazy.

"That was great!" Sapphire managed to say, also laughing her head off, barely able to keep herself sitting up straight.

Orion wiped a tear from his eye as Kiko leaped out from the cave and pounced on him, harmlessly bouncing off. The larger, more powerful male looked over the weak child from above, still recovering from the earlier laugh riot. "Look, Kiko. I keep telling you, you shouldn't do that until you actually… Can."

"That was not, funny, Orion!" Kiko shouted from the ground, angrily.

"Well, to us it was." his brother replied.

Sapphire got up, off the ground and walked out of her cave, towards Orion. He'd been her best friend, ever since childhood; ever since they met. She was a loner on the outside, but on the inside, she wished ever so hard that she would someday have a friend to help her up when she fell, to make her laugh, and to play games with.

Orion continued, "So, you had another nightmare?"

"Yes." Sapphire answered, for Kiko.

"No!" he disagreed. "Why are you here, anyway?"

"Mom sent me to find you and take you home, okay? Lets go."

"But Orion, I'm not tired!"

"Okay then. I'll take you home, and you can explain that to her."

"I'm not going! I'm can't slee- Whoa!" Kiko's temper tantrum-fuelled rambling was interrupted by his brother's giant jaws carefully picking him up, hoisting him off the ground.

"Gotcha." Mumbled Orion, with Kiko in his mouth.

"Hey! Lemme go! That hurts!" Kiko whined, trying to wiggle himself loose.

"Don't you know it's rude to talk with your mouth full?" Sapphire asked, playfully. They chuckled before she wished him a good night.

"Seeyah, Sapphire." he managed to reply.

Sapphire watched Orion walk away, with Kiko shouting for freedom, still trying to escape his jaws. She chuckled for the last time that night, then returned to her cave, eventually going to sleep. She needed all the rest she could get; by now it was nearly midnight, and Torres had arranged a hunt for the next day. Despite her young age, she was the best hunter in the pride, and she didn't want to let everyone down.

xxx

The sun rose, accompanied by the buzzing of small winged insects, taking flight for the first time that day, and calls of brightly coloured birds that resided near The Small Oasis, taking advantage of the shade, and water. Seeing as it was morning, the temperature hadn't risen very much at all, and the sun hadn't unleashed it's full fury onto the land. When that happened, herds of all sorts would congregate around that small pool, drinking all the water they needed for the day.

There was no 'legal' agreement, but the inhabitants of the land weren't foolish enough to take more than they needed. Water was scarce these days. It had been scarce ever since most of them could remember. Food was another issue. No one wanted to be on the menu, but on the other hand, others needed them to be, and as for the herbivores out there, plants seemed to be dying faster, and getting dryer lately.

Sapphire's nocturnal nature had done her in yet again. She woke up an hour late for the hunt, slowly opening her eyes, then walking outside, not before a yawn and a stretch. The golden rays of sunshine reflected from her beautiful, cream-coloured coat of fur, and at the same time, suddenly stung her pupils, forcing them shut again. She winced and turned away from the sun, eyes still screwed shut. Before Sapphire could muster the courage to open them up again, she heard Orion's voice speaking to her.

"Not again." he said.

"Again." Sapphire replied, still half asleep, still with her eyes closed.

"Everyone's waiting for you. Stay there for another hour, and it'll be too hot to hunt until evening."

"Maybe I should talk to the council about having our hunts in the evening." Sapphire walked further away from Orion, closer towards the hunting grounds. He watched her closely as she opened her eyes again, but, quickly turning away from the sun as soon as it's rays struck her eyes.

"You should get that checked for that eye problem." he suggested.

"Right. By who?"

"Coyle. Duh."

"Coyle? The sad excuse for a shaman?"

"You know shouldn't say that. Torres believes in him. He says that he has potential."

"Torres is a cruel tyrant. The only way he manages to keep control over us is by brute strength. I wouldn't trust a deceiver like him if I were you."

Orion paused, lost for words. He knew that what she was saying was true, but never wanted to admit it. Torres had never done anything for him, or for his family, but it didn't feel right to speak bad things about him behind his back. Torres was like a father to him during his childhood. His real father had disappeared before he was born, and his mother never spoke of it. But now, things were different. Torres had changed. He used to be honest, caring, and treated all his people with the respect they deserved. One day, he returned from a visit to a foreign land, and had never been the same. "All I'm saying, Sapphire-"

"Yes?" she interrupted.

"I believe that Coyle has the potential to become the shaman for the lions."

"You're siding with Torres?"

Coyle, the pride's 'shaman', approached from around the rocky corner that made the right wall of Sapphire's cave. "What's this talk about me, then?" he asked, before Orion could respond to Sapphire's earlier question.

"Oh, nothing, Coyle." Orion replied, instead. Sapphire turned around to meet him, eye to eye.

"Why are you here?" Sapphire asked.

"Well, when Orion failed to come back with you, Torres sent me to get you. That led me to thinking that you two were doing something… Else." he coughed, as to drop a hint.

Sapphire raised one eyebrow. "Is that the first thing that comes into your mind?"

Deeming Sapphire's question rhetorical, to his previous statement he added, "Oh, yeah, and by the way, the council wants me to go around checking everyone for illnesses. Have you guys got anything that I should worry about?"

"No." Sapphire hastily replied, almost shouting to beat Orion.

"Well, actually, Coyle…" Orion began to say, with a smile on his face, "my friend, Sapphire, here, is having problems adjusting to the morning light after sleeping."

"No! I don't. He lies. All lies. Don't listen to him. I'm not going, anyway."

Coyle looked towards her and chuckled. "You and Kiko are so alike, it's funny."

She stared at him blankly for a moment, then walked away, without a word. "Where are you going?" Coyle yelled, after her.

"To the hunt." she replied, plainly, without looking back at the two.

xxx

They'd been stalking the herd for at least an hour now, and just like Orion had predicted earlier, the sun had risen further, and made it far too hot to hunt. Sapphire glanced at the other lionesses crouched low in the grass, inching towards their oblivious prey. Some looked faint, exhausted by the heat.

She looked towards The Small Oasis, instead seeing a crowd of animals bundled so closely together, moving in front and behind each other in confusing waves. She knew it was noon, without even looking at the sun. More than an hour had passed, after all. The hunting party needed water. She wished that she'd woken up earlier, or even better, an hour later.

At this point, one of the wildebeests in the herd ahead lifted it's head up and looked directly towards Sapphire. She didn't know if it could see her, or not, but immediately, it let out a call, and the mass of horns and hoofs ran. Sapphire knew that this was their only chance. If they didn't give chase now, then they would have no chance of capturing anything until evening, and even then, they would barely be able to move from exhaustion.

Without a word, she bolted after them, the other lionesses following. As Sapphire neared, she noticed several wildebeest that had trouble keeping up with the rest, that ran behind the main body of the stampeding herd; the stragglers. There were at least ten of these, either the old, or the sick. It was unusual that such a large number of wildebeest in just one small herd were unwell at a time. It was just another sign that things in the land were getting far worse than they used to be.

One lioness, Gharah, had ran ahead, and was already closing in on one of the old, weak ones. She leaped at it once, failing to grab onto something, and losing precious metres. Sapphire passed her, and caught up with the prey. Before the doomed wildebeest could turn to see who was running beside it, she had dragged it down to the ground with a swipe to the flank, and a bite to the neck. Once it was down, she wasted no time, pouncing on it and going for the throat. In moments, it was over.

The other lionesses caught up to her, each one congratulating her on yet another clean kill. The male lions of the pride came soon afterwards.

"Nice one, Sapphire." said Orion, as he passed by.

"Remind me again why you guys don't hunt." she managed to say in return, still catching her breath.

"Tradition." he replied.

"Yeah, right. Just another excuse."

"Get out of the way!" Torres yelled violently, making his way through the crowd of lionesses that were subconsciously surrounding the fresh kill. He looked at it with eyes opened wide, as if he's never seen such a thing, and with his mouth open; drooling, with an absence of saliva. Unexpectedly, he threw the wildebeest onto his back, and without a word, he headed off towards the Dark Lands.

"Where are you going?" Daeon shouted after him. He was about the same age as Coyle, with a Black mane, and a dark brown coat. No reply came.

Coyle ran up to Torres, trying to stop him. Sapphire couldn't hear what they were saying from where she was, but it mustn't have been friendly, as Coyle was subsequently knocked to the ground seconds after approaching him. Gasps were heard from the lions as they saw what had just happened. Torres, their leader, whom they had put their trust in, had just stolen their food, and attacked the pride's shaman.

"Still think he's all high and mighty?" Sapphire asked, smugly. The lionesses waited for Torres to move away before running to Coyle to see if he was alright. They were fearful that the same thing would happen to them, that happened to their shaman. Coyle painfully lifted himself up from the ground, now with a huge, deep scar over his right eye. Torres' claws had drawn no blood.

"I'm alright…" Coyle struggled to say.

"He's crazy." Orion told Sapphire, in relation to what Torres has just done. She just nodded and agreed. She'd known that all along.

xxx

It was night. His pride still didn't know where he was, or what he was doing. They didn't want him to come back, anyway. They were fearful. After what he had done to Coyle, they didn't know what to expect of him.

Torres had in fact gone to the Dark Lands. Effortlessly, he threw the dead wildebeest over the edge, into the never-ending Abyss. Immediately, the fog that blanketed the chasm, to make it look as if there was ground where that emptiness was, stirred. At first, naturally, as the object thrown down would have disturbed it, but then, in a surreal way.

"Torres…" a godly, booming voice called from the Abyss.

"Yes, my lord." Torres replied with haste.

"You have done well." It told him, though, without any sign of emotion.

"Thank you, my lord." Torres silently awaited a reply for a few moments.

"These adolescents of your pride… Orion, Coyle and Sapphire…" the voice trailed off. After a sort pause, it continued, "I see that they will cause you much trouble in later years."

"What do you advise I do, my lord?"

"Exile them. Frame them for the murder of the youngling, Kiko. This cub will be a problem as well, when he reaches maturity."

"It will be done, my lord." Torres replied, showing a wicked grin.