(A/N: Happy Halloween! :D Hope you're all getting some sweet sweets and some good scares! :3 And here is... Chapter 1...)
There was something strange about that moment. The sun had barely risen in the east. Everything was cast in a soft gold. Smoke was on the air, but it would fade in a few days' time. None of the starvation, the thirst, or shame of Kovu's past mattered now, though it had, and still meant, everything to him.
He hadn't heard so much as a thank you for saving the princess. And she would've gotten herself into some sort of trouble eventually without the fire that Vitani and Nuka had purposely set. When Simba refused to let him in, Kovu was sure his mother's plan had failed. If not for the urging of Queen Nala, Kiara, or the shouting monkey, who'd apparently watched the rescue, Simba wouldn't now be lying at the paws of Zira's Chosen One.
This is what you got for reserving judgement. Should've trusted your hate for me…
Silently, Kovu had crept up on Simba while he drank alone at the watering hole. When the king turned to leave, Kovu had raised his paw against him and had delivered a quick, stunning blow to Simba's head. The king fell with a surprised grunt and a spray of water. Kovu pounced and put all his weight on Simba's submerged head, neck, and shoulders. Fighting back, Simba tried to shake off the assassin as he drowned—his legs, stuck out to the side, paddled to nowhere. Kovu's limbs had shook from the strain and excitement as a terrible, but satisfying, gurgle had risen to the bubbling surface. Air surged from the king with each retching whoop until the king went limp.
A harsh, but stealthy death, Kovu thought to ease his blood lust. But, really, the faster the better. He'd used nearly all his strength in the almost disappointingly short fight.
Small clumps of Simba's red mane drifted on the settling surface of the watering hole. Ankle deep in the water, panting and soaked, Kovu shook his mane as he stood next to the deceased. Looking down, Kovu dipped his paw into the water by Simba's head; he moved aside the thick red mane, which swayed with the water that lapped over the king's head. Simba's thick body twitched in a death spasm. Kovu sighed and rolled his shoulders. He pulled his paw away, and Simba's mane drifted back in to hide his wide-eyed and strangled expression.
Jogging away from the scene, Kovu chuckled. Kill the king… check…
Unable to face the rest of Simba's pride alone, Kovu ran to the Outlands and charged into his family's den. Winded, he announced Simba's timely death. Zira drank in the moment, swelling up with prideful energy. Every night she'd put Kovu to bed with fantasies of their new dawn. Her lullabies were sweetened by promises of war, death, and revenge. Her little prince would bring them to greatness. Cheering from his siblings and the other lionesses echoed through their giant termite-mound den, which distorted the noise into something like the guttural purr of a crocodile.
He beamed with his chin lifted high. He'd done the family good. No more empty stomachs. No more sneaking a drink from a filthy, predator-filled river. No more paws made raw by sunburnt dirt. They were shaking away the ashes and rising above the shame of their exile. A little of the weight Zira had placed on Kovu's own shoulders at birth lifted away.
Just a little bit.
"Good work, Brother," Vitani said with a smirk, patting him on the shoulder. She flipped the little tuft of fur on the top of her head. She then gestured to his foreleg. "You got a little…"
He looked down. He hadn't even realized Simba had scratched him in the fight. He licked the bleeding claw marks. "More soon where that came from."
Vitani nodded.
"The plan worked better than anticipated—thanks to Kovu's swiftness," Zira gushed. She thought for a moment. "Not even a day. Kiara was just starting her hunt right now yesterday."
Kovu's older brother, Nuka, sniggered. The mangy, grey-furred lion shook hard with excitement and couldn't sit still. "Little Miss Princess ran right into our claws!" He held his paws up in front of him. "Little did she know her daddy would soon be—"
"Hush!" Zira snapped. "Do not celebrate early. The lionesses— Simba's lionesses. They're not so weak or so stupid. And we need to deal with them."
The throne was in sight, but Kovu still needed to secure it. Removing Simba was only a small victory in the bigger scheme of things. Kovu narrowed his eyes as an ugly gladness made his muzzle turn up in a grin. His pridesisters roared around him as they prepared for a battle…
Then, he wondered, why had they needed to trick Kiara in the first place? Simba regularly patrolled his borders by himself… It now seemed… messy. During the fire rescue, a burning tree had nearly fallen on him as he carried an unconscious Kiara across his back.
No, Mother knew what she was doing. It just worked out that Simba was alone this morning, too—the idiot shouldn't have been alone. And does it matter now? Pride Rock is for the taking. Our suffering in exile is over.
Zira laughed. "Go for the eyes! Break their jaws. Maim them and make sure no one escapes."
With a roar, she led the way out of the den for the last time—Kovu wasn't sad to leave a place where the dirt walls had been permeated by their suffering, and he wondered if the stench of it would linger for years to come. Maybe with more dirt and spit the termites could cover up and seal the misery within, even if Kovu could never forget it.
Nuka cackled into a dry breeze heavily saturated in the scent of charred grass. In his fur, Kovu caught a whiff of blood, and he readied himself for more.
Kiara's mother frantically scooped aside several rocks the size of their heads at the back of the den inside Pride Rock. She'd created a tight but good-sized hole for the princess to squeeze through. To run from the Outsiders without being seen.
Exhausted and sore from yesterday's fire scare, Kiara had overslept. When her mother had roused her and pushed her to her paws, she'd cried out in irritation and confusion, but was rudely awakened to reality when she heard her mother's news. The Outsiders had ambushed several lionesses. They'd been walking to the watering hole together that morning. When they'd heard the distressed roars of their sisters, everyone else who'd been lounging nearby had joined the battle. Now they held the Outsiders at bay. Back from the queen and princess.
They can't hold them off forever…
"Run, Kiara."
Kiara crouched before the opening. Her mother had told her about this exit before, how it had been put in for exactly this reason. Distant roars of agony, terror, and anger rattled her nerves. Shivering, she looked up at her mother. "Where's Daddy?"
"Kiara, go!" Nala pushed Kiara's hip with her forehead."
Scared, Kiara began to crawl.
"Zazu's outside. I won't lose you, too."
Too? Some rocks and dust shifted, and Kiara let out a cough. "Mom, I—"
"Zazu'll take you to Tojo's pride until it's safe." Nala's voice sounded muffled and hollow as Kiara wriggled through the short tunnel, which was the length of her body. "I love you."
Kiara came out the other side of the escape hole. She turned and leaned down. "I love you, too, Mom!" Kiara called back. "Where are Timon and Pumbaa?"
Nala crouched down, her blue eyes wide. "K-Kiara, please, run!" Staring down a bull elephant would've been less frightening than hearing the raw urgency in her mother's voice. Would she lose her mother? Where was her father? Where was Kovu?
"Princess! Come, Princess," Zazu, the king's hornbill majordomo, called from above, swooping down over Kiara's head before rising high in the air to keep watch. "This way. Hurry!"
Running with her body lowered, she followed Zazu. She couldn't block out the piercing cries of lions slaughtering each other. Is this real? No, I'm about to wake up! This has to be a nightmare. I'm going to wake up at dawn and Kovu will teach me to hunt!
Kiara shook her head. No, this was real. Why? What happened? Were the Outsiders upset that Kovu left them? Is that it? Is Kovu helping us… or his family? When she nearly tripped over a thick, gnarled stick, she stopped herself from analyzing what had happened. She couldn't. A day's run was ahead of her. She focused on Zazu and ran like flames were licking her heels again.
When Pride Rock disappeared from sight, she remembered her father, and how he'd left home, too, all those years before…
History repeating itself—tenfold.
