Sins of the Past
Part 4 Death and Life
The months seemed to pass more quickly as the time closed in on when Zira's plans would be enacted. Kovu's mane had fully grown in. Doa and Kovu had perfected their performance for Zira and the pride. They were no longer the untamed, lustful lovers, but the content, scratchers of a natural itch. It seemed Zira deliberately planned Kovu's rewards around Doa's heat cycle, to avoid getting her pregnant. Doa was grateful for this. Even Kovu's free days were not when Doa was in heat. Zira had instructed the pride not to get pregnant this year in anticipation for the coming war with the Pride Lands. Cubs would only slow them down. They needed to be ready to fight.
Kovu had participated in several more rogue lion killings. He had even managed to kill one completely by himself, although the rogue was a bit younger than Kovu and not at his full strength. Finding a male in his prime, like Simba, was difficult. Older lions and young ones were the general makeup of the rogues in the area, seeing as no one wanted to challenge Simba as the King of Pride Rock, at least not yet.
Zira had planned for Kovu's operation to begin late in the dry season. Word got to Zira for Kiara's upcoming first solo hunt. That would be a perfect opportunity to get Kovu in good graces with Simba. He would never expect to be killed by one who would save his daughter from disaster now would he? Vitani would go to work soon after that, seducing Simba, getting him alone… The perfect combination for Kovu and Vitani to take him out quickly without the rest of the pride being aware of the situation.
Only two months remained before Zira's invasion would begin. The Outsiders were on the trail of another rogue, far outside their Outlands territory. This would probably be the last one they would find before Kovu went to the Pride Lands. The one last time to practice…
"Mother, can't I at least try?" Vitani asked her mother in annoyance. "I just came into heat! It should be so easy to trick this rogue…"
"No!" Zira growled at her daughter. "I told you no several times! Simba has only ever known the virgin Nala! With your innocent blue eyes, you will remind him of her! You can't practice! Not even once…"
"Ugh…"
"Can I have a go at him Mother?" Nuka asked timidly. "You've said I've improved…"
"If I wanted you dead Nuka, I'd do it myself," Zira growled. "Both of you will stop questioning me! The rogue is close… Get ready Kovu…"
One of the older lionesses scouted ahead.
"Maybe not this one Zira…" She reported back.
"Nonsense!" Zira growled. "We've been hunting him all day! We're not turning back now… Let me see him…"
Zira went forth and looked at the male. He was facing away from her, unaware that the Outsiders had been tracking him.
"He's fine…" Zira stated coldly. "Just another worthless male…"
Zira went back to Kovu.
"I want you to take him out alone," she told her son. "He's close in age to Simba, about the same strength. Remember what I've taught you: go for the soft spots and make a fast kill…"
Kovu nodded his head. His mind was safely tucked away, far from his impending reality. Kovu was no longer there, just a mindless shadow that blindly followed Zira's orders. He had learned this over the years to separate himself from the deeds he could not bring himself to do. Having loveless sex with Doa. Killing a rogue. The endless training to toughen him up to kill... Without this trick he would have lost his mind long ago, suffering the horrors that Zira inflicted upon him. This way, it happened to someone else, far away. Kovu only watched, he did not act. And only when it was safe did Kovu relive and grieve for what he had done. Otherwise Zira, his own mother, would tear him apart either literally or figuratively…
The Outsiders slowing encircled the rogue. He was sleeping, not paying any attention to the peril he was about to be in. Zira, with her children close, took one last good look at him. She then turned to Kovu.
"Kill him," she whispered.
Kovu sprung from the brush, jumping on the rogue's back. The startled rogue roared and knocked him off. He when to claw at Kovu, but then stopped. The rogue's green eyes staring down his opponent. The rogue then started looking around…
"Zira!" he called out, searching for her, even though she and the others were still hidden in the brush. "You bitch! Come out here and kill me yourself!"
Kovu charged at the rogue again, tearing into his dark red coat, leaving deep wounds that caused blood. The rogue kicked Kovu off but didn't try to attack him.
"You said you would come for me!" the rogue yelled. "But I never thought you'd do this…"
Zira stepped forth from the brush, revealing herself.
"I said kill him!" she yelled at her son.
Kovu grabbed at the rogue's neck, ripping at the skin, but it wasn't a very deep wound, his mane protecting him slightly from Kovu's eager teeth. This time the rogue hit Kovu harder, knocking him back, but still not drawing any blood from him. The rogue went for Zira, but Kovu ran up behind him. Grabbing in his teeth the soft skin of the scrotum and tearing it off, castrating his opponent in a rush of gushing blood. The rogue roared in agony. He kicked Kovu away as hard as he could. He then turned back to Zira, his strength obviously starting to fail…
"You bitch…" he growled. "You don't even have the decency to kill me yourself! Like you did with your other two conquests?! You send my own son out to kill me?!"
Vitani and Nuka were horrified. The older lionesses who knew trembled at his words. The rest were too shocked to move. Somewhere, deep inside Kovu's mind he was screaming, but on the outside he lunged again at his prey. But the rogue ran off, the Outsiders did not bother to stop him, he was bleeding profusely from his wounds. Kovu turned to follow him…
"Leave him!" Zira commanded. "He'll never make it… He's as good as dead anyways. You tore away the only part that matters anyway…"
Kovu picked up the severed testicles and ate them. As Zira had commanded him to do so many times before. But as he swallowed them his mind was slowly coming back to him. He could smell the sickening scent of blood all over his coat. And what the rogue had said? Was it true? Dare he even think such thoughts…?
"He headed off towards the Pridelands," Zira sneered. "His body will be a reminder to Simba that we are still here… And that we're coming…"
Kovu was starting to tremble. What had he done?
"You have well earned a day off, my son…" Zira said proudly. "The next two days you'll have free to do as you please …"
A worried look came over Doa. She had just come into heat. She and Kovu, while not that close, confided in each other when they were alone together. She saw the look of horror forming on Kovu's face. He would call upon her to comfort him, distract him, from this latest wound Zira had inflicted on him…
Kovu could not look at his mother or his siblings that were next to her. Instead he looked for the only tiny light in the pitch black darkness of his despair: Doa… He needed her now more than ever before, otherwise his mind in such a fragile state might not survive this torment…
"I will start my free days now," Kovu coughed as he tried not to chock on his words. "Doa… Come with me…"
Doa did as she was told. To disobey her mate in front of Zira would not be tolerated. She followed him to their small cave near the Elephant Graveyard. It was there, with the pride far, far away, that he let go. He screamed and cried.
"Is it true?!" he yelled a Doa. "Was that... Was that my father? Why would he have been so close! He should have known better! Why? WHY?!"
Doa had no answers for the distraught Kovu as she licked away the blood from his coat. She had been too young to know of Zira's mates. How she had tricked them. How she had promised to kill them should they ever try to see their cubs. As if she could hide the truth and pretend that they were Scar's cubs. When everyone clearly knew none of her cubs were.
They all had different fathers, even the twins Kovu and Vitani, were believed to have different paternity. Zira had worshiped Scar. She had waited with anticipation for her first heat, when Scar would summon her, as he did with all the young lionesses, to break her in… But he never did. He called her ugly and scrawny. A mane-less lion… He waited instead for Nala, thinking he could win her over. That this time he wouldn't have to force himself on her like all the others, because she had been raised nearly her whole life under his leadership. But of course Nala remembered the better times and shrugged off his creepy advances.
So Zira thought she could have a pretty daughter, something to distract Scar from his obvious failings with Nala. But Scar never gave up on Nala and he laughed at Zira's pathetic cubs. He normally would have killed any male cubs born into the pride but Nuka was so weak that he called him a lioness cub. And her twins were just as bad: ugly and worthless. They were only a few days old when Nala had run away and returned with Simba. Their eyes not even open yet. Scar had not had a chance to kill the only worthy threat left in his pride. But with his dying breath he had declared Kovu his heir, spinning the crazed Zira out of control and into insanity. She and the Outsiders had been banished. But she knew how to return unnoticed…
"I don't know Kovu," Doa said, tears falling from her eyes as she tried in vain to comfort her mate. "It doesn't matter… We don't know for sure and we never will…"
Kovu knew he would never directly ask his mother for conformation. He was too afraid of her to do so, brainwashed by years of her tormenting him. But he needed to forget, to be distracted. His mind needed to be free from this pain, this torture inside his mind. As he breathed in the air frantically from the small cave a scent came to his nose. An enticing scent. Doa's heat. His tearstained face looked into Doa's sad eyes with the little freckles underneath them. He kissed her. Then again…
"Kovu…" Doa whispered nervously. "I… I'm in heat… please, we don't want cubs…"
But Kovu was too focused on the new emotion in his brain; anything to take him away from the darkness the plagued him. Desire and lust filled him. Even though Doa wanted to push him away, she too was drawn in by his actions that aroused her already heightened state of readiness. She kissed him back, moaning in his ear, rolling onto her stomach, readying herself for their desires to be fulfilled. The cries of their union were sent out into the night. Ecstasy was theirs as they writhed in pleasure. Kovu fanaticized about Kiara. Although he hardly knew her to him she was perfect in Kovu's mind. She didn't know of the pain and suffering, the death and bloodshed. All she knew was happiness in her small world of the perfect Pride Lands. It was for that that made Kiara most desirable… Her perfect innocence of this wretched world… Here, alone in the small cave with Doa, Kovu could pretend he had a different life. It was in these fleeting moments that he could truly live without fear and pain. And he could wish there was more of it…