Kion could barely sleep that night. Thoughts kept racing through his head - and conflicting ones at that. Part of him blamed himself for his mistakes, but the other part of him - the angrier part of him - was vehemently wishing Janja had never been born, and unwanted thoughts of making the hyena pay for all the pain Kion was going through flashed through his mind. Of course, Kion pushed those intrusive thoughts away, aware that they would only do harm and would not help him solve his problem, but they would always come back.

Eventually, Kion decided to give up trying to sleep. Figuring that nobody would really mind if he got up for a few seconds and had a walk around the Pride Lands. That would cheer him up.

LGLGLGLGLGLGLG

Kion paced around the borders of the Pride Lands, the cool evening breeze hitting him in the face. Standing here, he felt a lot more in control than back in the den with nobody to talk to, and felt instantly at peace. Instinctively, he lowered his nose to track any scents that might have wandered onto that path, whether they belonged to a lost animal, potential prey, or a predator. He stopped tracking as he was hit by an idea. Maybe, if he were to solve some trouble here, his father would realise that he could lead the Lion Guard after all. He could prove himself to be a worthy leader, he just had to find something, anything…

"Kion!"

Startled, he raised his head in alarm. He knew that voice. "Jasiri!" he called out.

The hyena stood up from behind her hiding place and raced towards the royal lion cub. "Thank goodness you're here!" she cried out.

"What's wrong?" Jasiri sounded very worried, which instantly put Kion on guard.

"Kion, you have to help - Great Kings, what happened to your eye?"

"I - had an accident," Kion muttered, not wanting to talk about it. His father said they'd go to Rafiki first thing in the morning, and they'd sort it out. Hopefully Rafiki would be able to stop any scarring from happening. Maybe in time his Dad would even reinstate the Lion Guard, and then they could all forget this horrible day ever happened.

"Oh, I didn't realise you were injured. I'm sorry, I wouldn't ask if this was so urgent -"

"I'm fine," he insisted. "What's the matter?"

"Really strange things have been happening in the Outlands," she whispered, looking around as if worried about someone overhearing. "The volcano's active again and erupts randomly at night, for one thing."

"The Outlands volcano? But that thing has been dormant for years!" Even in Grandfather Mufasa's time, that volcano had never once so much as let out a single puff of smoke.

"It's not just that. Sometimes, we can hear a disembodied voice laughing in the middle of the night. My clan are really freaked out - at first we thought it was Janja playing some cruel joke and trying to scare us, but we didn't see him anywhere. However, later that morning, who should we find but Cheezi and Chungu, who seemed to think we were the ones who had been making that noise."

"That's really strange," Kion said, more to himself than Jasiri, as he tried to think of what could possibly be the cause of these strange events. His first thought was that Janja was behind it but for some reason left his minions out of the joke, but what possible reason could he have for scaring Jasiri? Sure, the two hated each other, but Janja did things for personal gain. The only thing Kion could see Janja gaining out of this was a good laugh at Jasiri's expense.

"We also sometimes see an eerie glowing light at night, usually close to that same volcano. It's never been there before, and although we are all too scared to get too close to it, it seems really… off. Unnatural. I don't know how to explain it."

"I'll go and investigate."

"Thank you Kion - but what about your friends?"

"I'll bring them tomorrow, they're probably asleep after today's disaster. Besides, I'll just have a quick look tonight to see what's happening, and then tomorrow morning, I'll try and solve the problem."

Jasiri flashed him a grateful smile. "Just be careful, and I'll come with you in case Janja and his lot are around."

"Thanks Jasiri. Maybe bring me to where you can see the light, and I'll try and see if I can track it down to its source."

"OK, Kion. Come on, it's this way."

LGLGLGLGLGLGLGLG

Kion soon learned that the Outlands were twice as scary at night as they were in the daytime. For one thing, Janja was not very neat about disposing of his prey, so animal skeletons were littered all over the Outlands. For another, it felt as though the suffocating darkness would swallow them up, and even though Kion had been here plenty of times before, he began to feel a little uneasy.

Soon enough, they began to hear the sound of an eerie voice cackling, making them both jump.

"See what I mean?" Jasiri whispered. "It gives me the creeps, whatever it is."

"I almost hope it's Janja," Kion agreed. "I can deal with an arrogant hyena, but not with - whatever this might be."

As they began to nervously follow the cackling noise, Kion shivered - and not with cold.

Suddenly, an ominous glow lit up the cavern in which they had found themselves. "Hevi kabisa!" the lion cub gasped as he stared at the glow, which seemed to have started all by itself. Suddenly, he felt a warm, fuzzy feeling come over him, like he was floating on a cloud of oblivion…

"Kion! Are you -" Jasiri started, noticing the change in her friend's demeanour, before she herself succumbed to the warm, fuzzy feeling. Suddenly, she felt an inexplicable urge to wander out of the cavern and take a nap with her clanmates. It's getting late, she thought dopily, strolling out and completely forgetting about Kion.

Kion, however, didn't seem to mind or even notice that Jasiri had just left, as he felt compelled to follow the ominous glow. Stumbling over his feet, he walked towards the glow until he found himself behind the great volcano that towered over the Outlands.