Shadowland

Chapter 10

Twists and Turns

I am not Walter Disney, nor am I related to Disney in any way. The characters Simba, Nala, Mufasa, Sarabi, Kiara, Kovu, Zira, Vitani, Nuka, Sarafina, Zazu, Scar, Rafiki, Timon, Pumbaa, Shenzi, Banzai, and Ed belong to Disney. Mohatu and Thembi belong to other people. All characters in this story, not mentioned here are my own creations.

The extract from 'Shadowland' (opening poem) was taken from The Lion King on Broadway.

Shadowland, Chapter 10: 'Twists and Turns' is property of Troy Wong, and is not to be resold or posted on any other site without my permission.

Shadowland

The leaves have fallen

This shadowed land

It was our home

The river's dry

The ground has broken

So I must go…

Now I must go

Days had passed since Sapphire and Coyle had first made their successful escape to Utopia River. An equal number of days had passed since Ryun and Daeon started putting their well thought up plan to action; since they had started to follow Torres around the valley.

Their main priorities were to uncover any secrets that he could well have been keeping from them, but also, to keep themselves hidden from him during this phase of the plan. All along, they had thought that they had succeeded in the latter, but they were wrong. Torres had known of their presences all along.

The places he was leading them to were all covering up his true, evil identity. They were all fairly normal places that everyone who lived in the valley would probably visit at least once in their lives.

Torres was succeeding. After time, his two stalkers had grown to strongly doubt their own cleverness. But they continued to walk in his footsteps. Before they proceeded in the arrangement, they had to be sure, whether they had been right or wrong.

It had been nearly a week since the lions attempted to hunt the wildebeests for food. Without Sapphire, they were hopeless. In gravely weakening herself, the young wildebeest Kyomaraju had alerted her whole herd of the danger, and saved them from another casualty or two.

They had broken centuries of survival habits brought on my their natural instincts, and, instead of running away and leaving their new seer for dead, they ran towards their hunters, forcing the hungry animals to, in turn, run from them.

But now, Kyo was so weak that she would not be physically, let alone spiritually or mentally capable of alerting the others if more danger threatened. She could barely run, and had trouble standing up.

On the other hand, life had been relatively easy for the Mesas, as well as the elephants of Maloumba's tribe.

Tunnel construction and expansion had been well and truly completed. Stella had been able to restrain herself from attempting to rip apart the insanely annoying Robert, and both of them were recovering from an unwanted outburst they had experienced earlier on.

For this particular family of rodents, it had been nothing but eating, sleeping, drinking, socializing, and having fun for quite awhile. And, in Gopher's case, telling stories to Charlotte, as well.

It was the same deal when it came to the elephants. Life was smooth. For now, all they had to do was sit back, set up their sails, and cruise blissfully all the way to the climax of it all.

But while the lives of the meerkats and elephants of the valley were all good and well, two lions' lives were about to be turned upside down and kept that way. Another two lions had already been experiencing this for less than a seemingly long month.

Diego had had pretty much the same experience as the meerkats and elephants of his home valley. Nothing very exciting, or important, or impacting had happened to him during those days. But he played a very important part. His time for glory was drawing closer with each passing second, but he, of course, did not know it.

xxx

With the rising of the sun in the dark, dark sky of Shadowland came another day. Kalandro, the strange creature that had welcomed Sapphire and Coyle into the land had given them a word of caution: "… Just make sure that no one sees you. If they see you, then you must kill them before they alert anyone else…"

Both of them strongly disliked the thought of that; killing someone if they just happened to lay eyes on them while searching for something else, or perhaps even just taking a walk by the river. Luckily, nobody had spotted them yet. Nobody had been searching for something else, and then found them instead. Nobody had been walking down the brook.

That was strange. It was a river, the most reliable and convenient water supply in the land and for this land it was the only one. Why had no one gone there to drink? The place was virtually deserted.

That may well have been why the hyena had sent them there in the first place. It was clear that he did not want them to be found.

But why would a place such as this get abandoned like it had been?

Those thoughts were not the main ones on the lions' minds. They were hungry. They were starving, in fact. So when they found an old, rotting carcass of a small animal, they feasted upon it eagerly.

Since they had not eaten in so long, their stomachs had shrunk, and so they were easily filled. But if they had found and eaten this same amount a month ago in Amber Valley, they would still be hungry.

And they thought they were the ones having it bad. To the hyenas that lived in Shadowland, Sapphire and Coyle's earlier lives were like living in luxury.

Coyle had left the river's banks to search for more food when Sapphire spotted Kalandro walking towards her with a limp. She rushed attentively to his side and asked him what happened on the night of her escape, and if he was alright.

"I'm fine. Nothing happened." were his answers for her two questions. "Where is your companion, Coyle?" he asked, as they reached the tranquil, bubbling river.

"He has gone to find more food." she answered.

"Very well. When he returns, we will discuss our next plan of action."

"Ours?" she asked, a little confused. "Are you coming with us?"

Kalandro sighed. He seemed to be a little depressed. "All the other hyenas believe that you caused the quake when you entered here. They think that you are… Lions." He paused. "But I know better. I know wild dogs when I see them. When I tried to tell them, they turned against me. I am no longer welcomed back home…"

"They think you are…Lions." "I know wild dogs when I see them." The words echoed in Sapphire's head long after Kalandro had said them. 'What do they have against us?' she thought to herself. 'And… Does he really mistake us for wild dogs? What if he finds out that we really are lions? What will he do to us, then?'

She wanted to find out more.

"Excuse my curiosity, but, what do you hyenas have against these lions you speak of?" she asked.

A speck of suspicion flickered in the hyena's eye. There was a short, awkward silence, during which Sapphire became very tempted to withdraw her words, but she did not. Kalandro answered in the end. "It has been recorded in ancient archives that centuries ago, one lion betrayed our trust, as the hyenas. The lions had already cheated us, and treated us without respect before. This one lion had settled it. We never trusted lions again. We never allowed them back into our land."

She had quickly become fascinated, and disbelieving. "Is that why your land is surrounded by walls and mountains?"

"Yes. It took us years to build the walls. It took us even more time to raise the Grey Mountains from the ground. With their strongest spells, our best shamans could not do it. Then, they remembered the magic that Hezakiah the Traitor had used. That is how they were eventually able to create the natural walls you see around you…"

They had created the Grey Mountains that had given her so much grief? They had created the Grey Mountains which took Orion away from her? It was magic that was able to create mountains and walls. Sapphire had believed in magic that could cure sickness, and cause certain small things to happen, but nothing to that scale. He was beginning to scare her. But she was still curious. She had to ask more.

"What happened to the lions? Did you force them out of the land?"

Kalandro shook his head slowly. "No. Hezakiah the Traitor had done that himself. You see, according to our records, the hyenas used to live beyond the borders of this land, in a bare graveyard. We were kept there by the lions. But the Traitor believed that we were the rightful owners of the land beyond the graveyard. He forced the lions out for us, but we quickly saw that he was going too far. He was such a powerful shaman…"

"Wait." she exclaimed. "This Hezakiah you speak of is a shaman, and a lion?"

"Yes, yes." he confirmed, and then continued. "His magic caused the earth to rip apart in many places. The ground shook with terrible quakes, and burst open, spewing magma and molten rock. He destroyed the land. That is how and why the lions left. We fled, too, to the north. After many years, we came back, hoping that this land would be green once again, and bearing much food. But no." He closed his eyes and sighed again. "It was just how we left it. A terrible sight. Leafless, dead trees were everywhere. No grass grew. The sky was always dark and cloudy, yet no rain fell, at all. The ground was hard, dry, and cracked. There was nowhere else better for us to go, so we settled down here, and slowly grew thinner and weaker."

There were so many more things that Sapphire wanted to know about, but she did not have any more time to ask. Coyle had come back with considerably small, brown pig. Coyle gripped its thigh firmly in his jaws, and from there, the creature dangled limply. Needless to say, he had killed it.

What he had intended to do was to find another half-eaten meal on the ground somewhere, not go hunting. Until then, he had considered himself hopeless at hunting, and that the whole thing should be left to the females. But he had changed his mind.

Upon seeing the swine, Sapphire remembered Kalandro's voice telling her that the staple food of his people was warthogs. This must have been what a warthog was, but she could only guess. She had never seen one of these beasts before.

"Ah, good. You are here." called Kalandro, to Coyle. "Now we can begin our planning."

Then, Kalandro sat them both down and explained that they should cross the river, then walk south, then up and down the southern mountains, until they reached the little-known Southlands. There, they could start on a new, clean slate.

However, in doing so, he had accidentally revealed many important facts about his 'masters', the tyrants that ruled the land- the ones that were, apparently, keeping them from hunting as they wished, and drinking water when they pleased for their own outrageous reasons.

By the time Kalandro had finished explaining, Sapphire had a completely different idea of her own. "Why don't we stay and fight?"

"What?" exclaimed the two males in shock.

"I'm serious. We could overthrow your tyrants, with the help of your pack. Then you could eat and drink as often as you want. There can't be too many of them." she explained.

"Sapphire, have you forgotten that my pack has turned against me?"

"You must have some friends in high places. You were their leader not too long ago, Kalandro. You can't honestly say that you didn't make any good friends over your time." argued Sapphire confidently.

"Well…" He hesitated to continue. "I do not want to go back there. They could give me enough time to explain, or they could rip me apart as soon as they lay eyes on me. I do not want to risk it. Hyenas are not the types that give second chances."

"Hyenas are not the types that give second chances." Sapphire knew why. He had explained it to her on that same day. But Coyle had no idea of the deeper meaning of that sentence.

"We will be there to protect you. Won't we, Coyle?" she asked Coyle, rhetorically, who had matured a lot during their travels. She started talking again, intentionally before Coyle could give an answer. "Yes. We will. We are stronger than we look, you know."

Both of the people she was trying to convince did not look very convinced at all.

"With all of your pack to help us, we easily outnumber these rulers. You told us- there are at least one hundred of you, and only ten of them."

"If it was that easy, we would have done what you are asking us to do a long time ago. But I fear it is not." he replied fiercely.

"Why isn't it easy?"

"The tyrants… They have… Powers. They can bend us to do their will against ours. They can cause storms with a shout. They have invisible hands everywhere that grab and push at their command. With a hundred of us, it is impossible. Maybe if our number were double what it is now… But as it is, we cannot."

'He must be exaggerating.' she thought. "Fine." she agreed. "But before we leave for the Southlands, I must go and see the tyrants that you speak of."

Coyle gave her a look that clearly said, 'What are you thinking? What are you doing?' and Kalandro seemed to be frustrated with her behaviour. Regardless, after eating her fill of warthog meat, the three of them would venture off to Lava Den, the hyena 'headquarters', despite the fact that Sapphire had said, "I must go…", and not "we must go…"

xxx

Torres had lead Ryun and Daeon all over the valley in the past few days. Their muscles now strained and ached with every pushed movement, and their heads had grown heavy.

Their plan was to let one of them sleep while the other watched Torres, and awoke the other if their target was to keep moving. They would take turns doing this. It was a good arrangement. Both of them would get sleep, if Torres was normal.

But Torres was not normal, at all. He did not grow tired. His limbs did not strain, even after hours of walking. 'Maybe it is his iron will' they had thought, at first. But when time drew longer and longer, and his performance did not falter, they began to suspect that they were foolishly going against a far greater power than they had ever imagined.

And only then did they start to uncover the truth.

The spirit that lived in the Abyss in the Dark Lands had cast some sort of dark magic spell on Torres, to give him unearthly endurance and strength. The spell had also given him the ability to cast some simple spells of his own.

The strike of dark lightning that had saved the pride from the wild dogs' claws and teeth was not some sort of bizarre natural coincidence. It was Torres. He had created an illusion that made it appear as though he was the dark lightning. Then he had roared an impossibly loud, monstrous roar, and slashed at the wild dogs so unmercifully that they ran away, cowering.

It was a frightful thought that the two stalkers would have to deal with once Torres revealed to them, the full truth.

But he would only do this in the Dark Lands. The spirit in the canyon had left, temporarily, for some other 'important business' involving a possessed bird, and an earthquake, but that was not why he eventually lead the two of them there.

There was just something about the place that he felt comfortable about. It made him feel more at home. The spirit had made him forget everything he held dear to himself. It had made him forget his real family, and his real home.

Now, the spirit was his family, and the place where it was cursed to dwell forever, in, was his home.

By noon, he had reached his destination, and, blindly following him, Ryun and Daeon had reached it also. Torres had stridden hastily into the fog, suddenly disappearing. The thick air in the region made it so that his two pursuers could not think straight. They ran straight out of hiding, into an open clearing, to find him.

He found them first. Then, he revealed the truth. And he prepared to kill them.

He could have succeeded, too, if he hadn't relied on one very unreliable thing. He was hoping very strongly that the thick air would keep them dazed enough, for long enough for him to finish them off. But they soon adjusted to the intense humidity, and managed to escape with the information they needed.

Phase one had been completed. But it was very clear, now, that phase two could not happen without a lot more planning. Torres already knew of their intentions. If he returned to the Den, then he would be ready, and if they tried to ambush him, they would, quite literally, be killed. The whole pride, acting as a unit, could not take him down.

They needed help. So when the two lions arrived back in zebra territory, where their home was located, they immediately spread the information that they had acquired. Along with that, they spread the new word.

"Leave, in groups of three. Go from here, to every corner of the land, and call for help from everyone that you come across. Tell them what I am telling you now. Then, tell them to meet here, in zebra territory. If we are to be rid of Torres for good, then we need everyone we can get, whether they are strong, smart, or fast… Whether they are common folk, or shamans, witch doctors, or seers. This is the end of Torres' reign."

xxx

By this time, Sapphire, Coyle, and Kalandro had made it to Lava Den. They had managed to get to the main terrace without any trouble, and were now spying on the 'tyrants'. Unlike the other creatures that Sapphire had encountered in this land, she had seen others of these oppressors' kind in the Amber Valley.

But the ones she had seen were kind, humorous, and helpful. They were on the 'good' side, if there ever was one. The ones in Shadowland were obviously not on the good side. At least, that was what they had heard from Kalandro.

These ones looked a little different, too. The fur of seven of them was navy blue, like the night sky. Two of them had coats that were coloured dark grey, like the thick clouds that always hovered above Shadowland. The last one, who was a little bigger built, and taller than the rest, had black hair, as black as the Abyss.

Sometimes they would walks on all fours, and sometimes they would stand up on their hind legs. Their faces were unusually colorful, as if someone had taken out a set of permanent face paints and went crazy on them one day. Hiding their necks were ruffled up 'manes', grey like the hair of an aged individual.

In their dexterous hands, they held smoothened, slender, detached branches of ancient trees with many strange items attached to them, above the hilt.

They were mandrills. And very strange ones, too. They had a sort of distressing aura about them.

When Sapphire was just about to take Kalandro away and explain to him, what his tyrants were, she had another voice interrupt her. The voice belonged to a hyena named Rae.

"Hey, what are you doing-" Kalandro wrestled him to the ground in a second, and stopped him from speaking. Their plan was ruined. They had to do something. Their only options were to take him with them by force, dispose of him quickly, or to turn him over to their side.

Turning him over was the best one, by far. And they were in luck. Rae was a dear friend of Kalandro's. He could talk to this hyena. Rae would be on their side so quickly. Not only that, but he was the 'friend in a high place' that Sapphire had been telling Kalandro he had.

But the mandrills nearby had been alerted by the sound. Two of them were coming. They would be killed, Rae included. They would accuse him of aiding lions in their unholy duties. Kalandro knew this all too well. So, they took the only immediate option they had been given. They ran.