KawaiiCutie12: Don't need to wait any longer!

Chapter 7 – A Parent's Nightmare

It was the next morning, and the Pridelands were covered in thick fog. Kopa woke up early, as per usual, and was stunned to see the fog, as he had never seen it in person before. He turned to Simba and tried to wake him up.

"Dad, are you awake?" he asked. Simba turned his head so he was facing Kopa and opened one eye, to see how eager the prince looked to go outside in the fog. Kopa asked if he could go outside.

"Dad, can we go outside and explore the fog? Please?" he begged. Simba was too tired for Kopa's morning mischief and shook his head at his son.

"No, Kopa, it's too early." He said sleepily. Kopa looked to the floor and sighed in defeat. But then he had an idea.

"Dad?" he began. Simba lifted up his head again and looked at his cub. "Can I go and see if Vitani is awake and go outside with her?" Simba thought for a moment and then began to speak.

"Alright, but if Vitani is asleep, then I want you back here immediately. Understand?" Kopa rapidly nodded his head in response and carefully walked over to Vitani's corner. Thankfully for him, Zira was gone as always, so he didn't have to worry about being around her. He walked over to Vitani, who was cuddled into Chuma. Kopa saw that her and Nuka were asleep, and sighed in defeat again. He turned around to head back over to his parents, but heard something that made his spine crawl. He heard a voice in the fog, calling his name.

"Kopa.." the voice said. The prince shuddered when he heard his name being called from the fog. He looked back at his parents, who were sleeping peacefully. "I guess it wouldn't hurt to see who was calling me." He thought to himself. The voice called him again, but it was a little louder this time. Kopa walked out of the cave and into the fog. He called back to the voice.

"Hello? Who's out there?" He asked. There was no response for a few seconds, and Kopa was about to turn around and go back inside, when the voice called back to him again.

"Follow me…" it said. Kopa was beginning to think that it could be a ghost. "Is this a ghost?" he thought to himself. "I wonder if it's Grandpa!" he gasped silently. Kopa followed the voice for a few minutes, until eventually, they got to their final destination: the Waterhole. Kopa saw where he was and was confused as to why he was brought here.

"Okay, who are you and why have you brought me here?" he demanded. There was no response. Kopa began to think he was going crazy. Was he hearing things now? Or was this just some prank by someone? Suddenly, Kopa heard a voice he hated hearing, that sent shivers down his spine.

"Hello little prince." Kopa turned around and saw Zira standing behind him. "I just came here to get some water, I am very thirsty after all." She said, trying to sound harmless. She walked past Kopa and got to the edge and began to drink. Kopa watched her drinking, not sure if he could trust her. She lifted her head up and turned to look at Kopa.

"Care to join me, Kopa. Plenty of water here." Kopa didn't answer her. "How rude." She thought out loud.

Meanwhile, Simba had woken up and he sees that Kopa is not in the cave. He looks over to Vitani and sees that she is sleeping. "I'm gonna kill him." He thought to himself. He nudged Nala, which woke her up almost immediately.

"What's wrong?" she asked tiredly. Her eyes went wide when she heard that Kopa had disobeyed Simba. She walked over to one of the lionesses that was already awake, and asked them to mind the three princesses while the rest look for Kopa. All the lions and lionesses except Sarabi, Vitani, Nuka and Chuma, headed out of the cave to search for the prince. Simba and Nala began to call his name.

Zira continued to drink, waiting for Kopa to join her, and eventually, he did. Although he stayed a couple of feet away from her, to be safe. After drinking for a moment, Kopa heard his parents call him.

"Uh, my parents are calling me, I think I should go." He said timidly. As he turned around, Zira grabbed the cub and put one paw over his muzzle, and unsheathed her claws on the other, and digging them deep into Kopa's back. The young cub screamed in agony into Zira's paw, which then turned into cries of pain. He began to bite her paw pads. She stopped digging into his back and dropped him into the water. He tried to get up from under the water, but Zira put a paw on Kopa's head and another on his back, keeping him under the water and drowning him. All the crazy lioness could hear was the sound of Simba and Nala calling their child getting louder, and the popping of Kopa's bubbles. After a few more seconds of this, the bubbles stopped. Zira let go of Kopa, and he floated lifelessly to the surface. At the exact moment, Simba, Nala, and the lionesses jumped out of the long grass and saw the scene infront of them.

"z-Zira, what have you done?" Simba stuttered. Nala saw her son floating in the water, and fell to the ground, sobbing. Simba growled and pounced on Zira. He bit into her ear, and tore a small chunk out of it. Zira kicked the king off of her. Simba looked over at his son again, and back at Zira.

"I banish you from the Pridelands. Now get out, before I do something I regret." He said, trying desperately to hold in his tears, for now. Zira smiled and walked past Simba. He jumped out infront of her.

"Where are you going?!" he asked angrily.

"Getting my cubs." She responded. Simba glared at her.

"Those cubs don't deserve to be near a monster like you." He replied. Zira growled at the king, turned around and disappeared into the fog. Simba looked back at his devastated queen, being comforted by the lionesses. He sighed and walked over to Kopa and picked him up out of the water and brought him over to Nala. He saw the deep wounds in his sons back, and his tears came. He gently placed Kopa onto Nala's forelegs, and she began to lick his wounds, while sobbing in between cleaning.

"I think it's best that we go." One lioness said. After that, all the lioness left and headed back to Pride Rock, to break the news to everyone else in there.

Nala stopped cleaning Kopa and looked over at Simba.

"o-Our baby's g-g-gone.." she choked. She buried her head into Simba's mane and sobbed. Simba nuzzled her and shared her sadness.

Back at Pride Rock, Vitani had woken up and looked around at the almost empty cave. She watched as Kanai flew in and woke Sarabi up. She turned to Chuma and nudged him, trying to wake him up. After a couple of attempts, she succeded.

"What is it dear?" he asked.

"Daddy, there's barely anyone in the cave. What's going on?" she replied. Chuma looked around and saw that she was right. He noticed that the royal family were gone, and that one of the lionesses was minding the princesses.

"You're right, my dear. Something has happened." He got up and walked over to Kanai.

"Goodmorning Kanai." He said to the bird. Kanai turned to Chuma with a worried look on his face.

"What's wrong?" Chuma asked.

"Prince Kopa has gone missing I'm afraid." The bird replied. Chuma was shocked. As he turned around to go back to Vitani, the lionesses had returned. Some were in shock, and a few others were in tears. Chuma ran over to them.

"Girls, what happened?" he asked frantically.

"Prince Kopa was murdered, Chuma." One said. Chuma was stunned.

"w-What?!" he replied. The lioness nodded sadly before the rest walked in, some heading over to Sarabi to sympathise with her. Chuma walked back over to Vitani, still trying to process what he had just heard.

"What's wrong, Daddy?" Vitani asked fearfully. He looked down at his daughter and licked her head gently.

"I'm so sorry my dear, but, Kopa is…. No longer with us." He answered as best he could. Vitani knew exactly what her father meant and hugged him tightly, before crying silently into his coat. "I'm so sorry my dear." He repeated. Nuka had woken up to the sound of Sarabi finding out about her grandsons death. It wasn't a pleasant sound for him.

A few hours later:

It had been a few hours since Kopa was murdered. The news of his death had spread like a wild fire. Timon and Pumbaa were relaxing at Hakuna Matata falls, until they had gotten the news, and were now on their way back, to comfort their heartbroken friend.

Simba and Nala were still with Kopa.

"It's time to go." Simba said sadly. Nala cuddled her son one last time before Simba picked him up and placed him on a rock. The heartbroken royal couple left their son on the rock, letting Nature do whatever it wanted with him. A short while later, they arrived back at Pride Rock. Nala walked in first and was surrounded by about 10 lionesses. Simba cleared his throat, signalling for them to make way for the queen. She walked over to the lioness that was taking care of the princesses. Her and Simba took the princesses off her and walked to their side of the cave.

The lions and lionesses had all sympathised with the royal family by now. Evening was soon approaching, and the lionesses would be leaving for their hunt soon. Simba looked down at his sleeping daughters.

"I promise, I will never let anything happen to you three." He whispered to them. Nala nuzzled Simba, and he returned her nuzzle, before she fell asleep while cuddling into his mane. There was a loud clap of thunder, and then it started pouring rain.

Meanwhile, the rain was falling down heavily on the lifeless prince. Suddenly a bolt of lightning struck the rock that Kopa lay on. There was an ear piercing clap of thunder, and the lightning struck Kopa's rock again. After that, the ground shook as Mufasa's voice boomed across the sky.

"Rise again.." he said.

One final strike of lightning hit the rock that the prince was lying on. The rain stopped and the sky cleared a bit. After a few seconds, Kopa woke up and leaped off the rock in fear, thinking he was still underwater. Mufasa called Kopa and the prince looked up to the sky.

"Kopa.." Mufasa said

"Yes Grandpa?" Kopa responded.

"Go somewhere where you are safe, Kopa." He advised

"I will Grandpa. Thank you" Kopa answered. The clouds lifted revealing the red evening sky.

"Zira must still be around here." Kopa thought. "I gotta get out of here."

He ran as fast as he could to the border of the Pridelands. He turned around, and looked at Pride Rock one last time, as a tear fell from his eye. He looked forward and ran away as fast as he could, hoping to find somewhere safe to live, for what he thought would be forever.

Author's Note:

Well, that chapter wasn't fun to make. Oh, and here's a little spoiler, that mysterious lion will be revealed in the next chapter. That's it for now, take care!