Hey I'm pretty proud of myself for updating so soon..hehe. Anyway thank you for the reviews soarineaglewings and The Ligerion Emperor (and yes those mangy stupid poachers will get their well deserved death...some of them already have...you don't think I'd let Simba and Nala go out without taking some slimey villians with them do you? I'm not that horrible :) ) So this is chapter 8...sadly getting towards the end of the story, there will only be like 2-3 more chapters after this..but I am in the process of planning a sequal if people like this one enough...heck I might write the sequal just cause I feel like it. Anyway enjoy this chapter...you'll get to see some Kovu and Kiara and also some bickering between the two evil heads of the sinister plot :)
Disclaimer: I don't own anyone you recognize. No ifs, ands, or buts.
Kudoos.
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Chapter 8
When Lia broke through the brush at the top of the rocks days later she was only half surprised to find Shalu sitting at the edge, staring out at nothing. Lia shook her head in a silent joke and then stepped closer to the other lion.
"Does the view change that much every day?" She asked.
Shalu looked at her a grinned slightly. "It has it's moments." He teased back. Lia's eyebrows raised in amusement and she sat down beside him.
"I used to come up here to get away from everyone else." She glanced at him. "Especially you when you first came here. It was the only place to get away from you."
Shalu rolled his eyes. "When I first came here I didn't know my way around the jungle, you could've gone anywhere you wanted." He reminded her.
Lia laughed. "True. But you learn fast." Shalu shrugged in response. "You like it that much?" Lia asked him as he watched the jungle.
"Reminds me of home." Shalu answered softly.
"Do you miss your home?" Lia asked.
Shalu glanced at her. "You like to pry a lot don't you."
Lia's temper rose slightly. "I was just asking." She flared.
Shalu didn't answer. Lia let out an exasperated sigh and turned. "Don't you trust us?" She asked the ground.
Shalu started slightly and Lia sighed. "Never mind." She shook her head. They stood like that, silence stretching across between them.
Shalu blew wind from his nose in an aggravated fashion, hoping Lia didn't notice. Yes I do miss home, he said to himself. I miss it and mom and dad. I miss Gandfather and Grandmother, and Vitani and I still miss Talo. But I'm scared and can't go back, I'm scared what they'll think of me. They'll think me a coward. Besides this is my home now, so I shouldn't miss Pride Rock. Shalu concluded to himself. But he still did.
Lia let her mind whirl. Shalu was so…different. One moment she thought she had him figured out and the next he closed himself off to her. He'd told her about his brother, but Lia still felt like he wasn't telling her everything. Lia's heart pulled and she winced. She wished he did trust her. After all they were friends…weren't they? Lia sighed softly. Of course she had picked on him…and he had snapped at her before, so maybe they weren't friends…but they were living in the same cave, eating the same food, and becoming somewhat friendly. Didn't that deserve some level of trust?
Lia glanced at Shalu and saw that distant look in his eyes. "Shalu." She snapped at him and he looked at her startled. "Why do you do that?"
"Do what?" Shalu asked, though he thought he knew the answer from some far-off memory.
"Looking off at nothing. It's really creepy, you know." Lia informed him.
Shalu felt a bitter taste in his mouth. "So I've been told." He muttered to her. Lia cast him a look.
"It makes me kind of…I don't know, worried maybe when you look like that. It's just-"
"Creepy. I know." Shalu breathed loudly, then swallowed. "You don't need to-"
"You're my friend!" Lia stopped him. Shalu blinked in surprise and Lia herself was astonished at her words. But she got over it quicker than Shalu and continued. "At least I think you are. I mean you're sort of civil and all. Friends are supposed to trust each other and you don't seem to trust me at all with your past!" Why do I even care, Lia wondered to herself. Why on earth should it matter that much?
Shalu watched her reaction with a hidden smile, a warmth filling his stomach. A friend. That was better than the "annoying Pride-Lander" name she'd called him earlier. "I do trust you." He told her.
Lia was halfway through trying to talk herself into taking back what she'd said. It would be less confusing, she'd decided. When Shalu spoke her mouth stopped right along with her brain. "I…what?"
"I said I trusted you. I told you about my brother didn't I?" Shalu repeated smartly.
Lia nodded. "Yes. But what about everything else? There's more I know it!"
Shalu looked away. "There is more." He agreed and Lia's eyes brightened. "But I can't, won't, tell you just yet." He looked at her. "What's a lion without his secrets?" He tried to joke.
Lia's eyes were full of something, pity perhaps? But they changed suddenly to a light humor. "Okay…fine. I'll stop bothering you about it…but I still want to know."
"I told you before I would tell you."
"I'm not patient. I don't like to wait on things to happen…or on lions." She added softly. Shalu blinked at her and Lia blushed slightly. "I mean…." Her voice faded and she dropped the subject. Shalu kept glancing at her and Lia felt slightly annoyed. "I'm going to…walk." She said. She started down the path but stopped and glanced at Shalu who was looking off towards the desert, the brown heat waves dancing in his vision. He didn't look like just any Pride-Lander standing there with his bright amber eyes deep in thought, filled with feeling. His red mane and golden fur were brushed across his body by the wind and his face was serious. He's not just any old lion, she concluded to herself and she disappeared into the undergrowth again.
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Neither Shalu nor Lia knew that at that moment in the Pride Lands another lion stood atop his throne. Kovu stood at the edge of Pride Rock, his black man whipped around his face and his green eyes were piercing the land that he looked out upon. His dark fur blended in with the shadow that had covered Pride Rock in the past days, weeks, months…who knew how long that darkness had surrounded the Pride. Kovu glanced up at the sky that was darkened by storm clouds that had rolled in. Kovu smelt the rain on the wind that carried itself across the empty plains.
"Kovu?" A soft, warm voice inquired behind him. Kovu didn't even have to look at the speaker to know it was Kiara. His assumption was proven right as the lioness, his mate and the young Queen of the Pride Lands, stepped beside him. She sat down and let her tan tail wrap around her elegant legs as she stared with light eyes at the deserted Pride Lands.
"They're all gone, aren't they?" She asked, her voice still low. The animals, she was talking about the animals of Pride Lands that had disappeared. All of them: antelope, zebra, monkey, bird. Any and all had disappeared. Only the scent of an odd animal or hyena presented itself across the Pride Lands now.
Kovu nodded, his anger boiling slightly as his thoughts landed on hyenas. Murders, pathetic low-life scum that had in their cowardly numbers brought down the greatest, in his mind anyway, King and Queen of the Pride Lands. Of course due credit must be given to the Great Mufasa, Kovu realized. But Simba had been Simba. And nothing had ripped Kovu's heart like arriving too late to help. Mangy, stupid, no good-
"There's going to be a fight." Kiara said. Kovu's name-calling of the hyenas stopped abruptly as she spoke.
"What?" He asked, feeling bad that he hadn't been giving her his full attention.
"There's going to be a fight. The ones responsible-"
"The hyenas." Kovu broke in. But Kiara shook her head.
"No. Hyenas aren't smart enough." Kovu had to agree with her on that account. "Someone else planned this…they'd been planning it for the Great Kings know how long." She looked at her mate with sad eyes. "Think about it, Kovu. Shalu killed, then Vitani. Now Papa and Mama. Who's left?"
"Us." Kovu concluded. "What about Talo?"
Kiara's eyes looked hurt at what seemed like a suggestion that she'd forgotten her other son. "Maybe they planned it that long ago." She murmured. "No more heirs."
"No more advice from old rulers."
"Just us…us and the pride."
"How many lionesses? How big is the Pride?" Kovu asked her, his heart feeling like it was being ripped apart again at the thought that his sons had been killed because of someone's plan. That they were dead because someone, lion or otherwise, had decided to begin to rid the Pride Lands of the Royal Family, and perhaps rule it themselves? Kovu wasn't completely sure.
"There's seventeen, including us." Kiara told him.
"Seventeen." Kovu breathed, trying to imagine how large the enemy might be. With hyenas at their disposal, who knew.
Kiara looked over at Kovu. "What are we going to do?" She asked slowly, seeing worry on his face.
Kovu stared ahead of him, out at the darkening land. "We fight." He said calmly.
Kiara's eyes widened. "With seventeen lions?"
Kovu nodded slowly. "With seventeen lions…we'll fight with all we've got, or had."
"Kovu-" Kiara began.
Kovu turned and met her amber eyes with his green ones. "We have to fight…fight for what the Great Kings created and what we're supposed to protect."
"What if we can't stop them?" asked Kiara.
Kovu turned and started back to the cave. He stopped for a moment and replied over his shoulder, "I…haven't thought that far, and frankly wish I didn't have to." And then he disappeared into the blackness of the cave.
Kiara sighed and looked up at where the stars would've shown had it been nightfall. "Papa I know you're up there." She spoke softly. "With grandfather and all the other Great Kings. And if you could, all of you, help us. Guide us. If you can't do that…at least will you find someone who can help us and save us from losing the Pride Lands. And lead them here. Please…."
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A dark lion stood on a group of jagged rocks on the edge of the Pride Lands. Dark shadows from the black clouded sky stretched across the land., crossing the rocks as well. The lion's mane brushed his face as he looked out with icy eyes. He stared at the large form of Pride Rock that stood out in the Savannah and his eyes narrowed, a low growl escaping his throat.
"They can't hear you." The dark lioness slunk up beside him.
"Soon they'll feel what I can do….and then they won't need to hear me." The lion told her in a daring voice.
A smirk pulled at the lioness' lips. "Ooo, temper. You might want to reel that in before you do anything….rash."
The lion glared at her. "Don't lecture me on rash, Malie. You of all lions don't have that right."
"Your temper will get you into trouble."
"As will your smart tongue." He returned bitterly.
Malie continued to smirk slightly. She easily changed the subject. "You've killed the young Prince and his Aunt. Then the past King and Queen."
"Barely. They might have been old but they weren't weak like you thought."
"They were overpowered by your hyenas, even two strong lions couldn't have survived that. The fact that they were old only made it easier."
The lion snorted as he continued to stare out at the land. "We sent fifty hyenas. And of that fifty how many returned? Twenty! Twenty not without their wounds I might add. Them being old made nothing easier. Only the fact that we had them outnumbered gave us victory. And now we have less hyenas then we did when we started out." The lion glared at her. "Besides, they're your hyenas, not mine. I'm not lowering myself by saying that those flea-bitten mongrels belong to me."
"That's not the point." Malie said, her face slightly hot. "Simba and Nala are dead, and we can replace hyenas, that's no problem. And now all that's left is that group of traitorous lionesses and the unworthy King and his even less worthy Queen." She spat.
"A bit jealous are we?" It was the lion's turn to smirk at his counterpart.
"You only wish." Glared Malie.
The lion chuckled. "This whole plot is centered around Kovu and Kiara and your revenge on Kovu. Sometimes I wonder if that's all it is, and has nothing to do with 'finishing Zira's work" as you put it."
Malie glared at him. "Zira promised me the right to rule beside Kovu." She snarled.
"As his mate." The lion looked at her with evil amusement. "Something tells me she didn't inform the prodigy of that plan."
Malie held back her temper. "He knew. And he went on and took up with that pathetic princess, abandoning us all, and ruining Zira's perfect plot. His cubs, and that throne, should've been mine!"
The lion rolled his eyes. "Zira's plot was far from perfect. She didn't account for Kovu actually having feelings other than the lust for Simba's blood and revenge for Scar. Besides," He continued. "The other outsider lionesses don't seem to mind it half as much as you do."
"They didn't have a promise broken to them." Malie reminded him darkly. "I'll relish it when Kiara's dead. After you've shown Kovu a thing or two."
The lion made a noise. "You mean after I've carried out your revenge on Kovu for you, and then made Kiara weak enough so you could stand a chance. She's no pansy, Malie. I'll wager if she's not weak before you take her on, she'll kill you in less time than it would take you to string a sneering sentence together."
Malie growled low at him. "Don't get cocky. The student never surpasses the teacher."
The lion narrowed his eyes. "What Pride Lands are you living in where you believe that?" He dared. He turned to walk off and Malie called to him.
"Watch your back, little cub. You never know when you'll find claws in it."
The lion whirled and faced his partner, his eyes flashing. "Is that a threat?" He demanded.
"Of course not." Malie replied sweetly. "It's a promise, Future King."
"Keep your promises to yourself." The lion ordered. "Or I might just give you up to the hyenas after I take over Pride Rock."
"Only if you had brotherly help." Malie returned. "Or perhaps the help of the Great Kings."
The lion glared at her. "I don't need or want the help of dead lions who've done nothing worthy of the praise everyone so willingly gives them." The lion spat bitterly, then turned sharply and left her standing there, a menacing smile revealing her teeth, her yellow eyes flashing in the darkness as the dark-maned lion disappeared around the rocks.
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Don't you love the bad-guys? I do. They have so much more fun I think...at least the ones in stories. Anyway there you go...that's chapter 8. I hope the beginning wasn't too repetitive from last chapter...if it was my apologies but Lia doesn't really like people not telling her stuff...and she will be finding out soon exactly what Shalu isn't telling her. Besides...they need to start showing some feelings toward each other...well more feelings :) :) Please review...PLEASE:0)