The Lion King: Rise of the White Pride
Chapter 6: Advance In Time
A herd of zebra was grazing beside the Zuberi River. Unexpectedly, a lion lunged at them right at the herd's center and made them scurrying all around trying to get away from the predator. The lion's dark gold fur waved along his dark brown mane as he stood up pleased by his doing. Two of the zebras ran into a lioness of the same fur and they slipped off their feet as the lionesses pounced at and pinned them. But she let them go.
"Haha! Nice work, brother!" the lionesses said while looking at the herd they just scared off.
"Not bad yourself, sister!" the lion complied.
Three cubs watched them from the sidelines. One male with tan coat and brown eyes jumped in and said, "Wow! That was great! I thought you're just . . . bluffing," he blushed in embarrassment as he said the last part.
The lionesses scoffed and rolled her gold and silver eyes. "Hah! You underestimated us," her voice went menacing at the last part as she lunged at the tan cub and playfully wrestled in the mud.
The cub yelped while wrestling, "Hey! Kasi, you're messing up my mane!" his tone changed. Kasi responded with a laugh.
Another cub, a tan lioness giggled at her friend and said, "What? I don't see any," she teased, still wrestling.
The cub managed to slip off Kasi's paws and barely catching his breath while running atop a rock. "Oh shut up, Nzuri! I'll get them in a few days!" he declared.
The dark gold lion stepped in and said to the cub on the rock. "Hmmm. More like several years later," he laughed it off as he inspected the cub's head.
Suddenly a voice called, "Shida!" the cub tried to run but the lion scruffed him.
"Nooo!" Shida yelped. "Let me go, Kiburi!"
"Noff aff chanffe," Kiburi said, muffled.
Kiburi always liked scruffing cubs. It was like holding fur balls and he liked how he often scruff cubs when danger approached, most of the time.
The other lion cub laughed. "What are you laughing at!? Aibu!" Shida snapped. Aibu silenced.
Kiburi walked to the source of the voice, a lioness laid down under a tree on the Pride Rock, followed by Kasi and two remaining cubs and dropped Shida on her.
"Time for bath, young man," she playfully said to her son. "Thank you for watching my son, again, Kiburi and Kasi," she said.
"You're welcome, Laini," Kasi said.
"Aww man! Why do I have to live in this muddy land?" Shida muttered under his breath, which unfortunately heard by Kiburi and the lion laughed him off.
"That's for you to find out," Kiburi poked the cub's nose as he struggled to break free. "Come, Nzuri and Aibu. Let's do some training," he continued.
Both lion and lioness stood beside each other at top of a rock. Four years had passed. Kiburi's mane had grown to his upper torso and joined his head tuft. It was nearly pitch black as his father behind his head and down to his torso making a V-shape while it was bronze brown on top of his head and under his jaw. A bronze bang covered his left eye.
He was well-built, as seen from his muscular build on his torso and also his forelegs and shoulders. He had turned into brave and kind yet playful lion which always supports his friends and be anytime beside them to help, and unexpectedly not a troublemaker like his mother and grandfather. With his friendly and charming trait in his soul, he found it easy to make friends. He often trained some cubs when they watched him training so he had many skilled cubs under his paw, like Aibu and Shida.
Kasi had grown into a strong lioness. Her coat darkened a little and her paws lightened in color. Kasi would be a formidable fighter and huntress, but she never had a hunt. Her physique and skills even started to rival Vitani.
She developed split personality in cause of her cubhood accident. One half of her was kind, caring, and friendly like her brother while her other half was mean, cunning, short-tempered, and often rebellious also a little bit of provocation issues. This personality split also happened along with her left eye turned silver.
Unlike his brother, she always got the knack of getting into trouble either half. She also had the habit of remembering strict to few things about others. Like, how Kiburi fights, what method was more effective to train the cubs, the pride's weaknesses, and so on. A walking library she was and a problem if she's captured. But she was very loyal to her pride and friends that she rather died trying to break free than to spill information, or betraying in other words, about her allies.
Another lovely day where the sun was high on the bright blue sky. Kiburi and Kasi met their fellow friends wrestling by the river.
One of them was Kimbia. His light red mane connected from shoulder to shoulder, his body was slender. Though he was short on brute strength he made up to it by his agility and flexibility to dodge attacks – at least what Kasi had remembered; he was very silent. He was a couple of days older than the twin.
Opposite of him, was his opponent, Kubwa. Her coat darkened a little. Her underbelly and muzzle was cream. She had rough head tuft that nearly curled all the time. Her brown line bent from her nose, under her right eye, and end curled at the outer corner.
Unlike other lionesses in the pride, she was huge – even bigger than Kiburi yet less muscular, so she was slower. Her tall build made her fighting style was more of a hammered-style. Using her large body she could deliver heavy attacks that could threw opponents off ground – summed by Kasi. She was two days younger than the twin.
Aside of those two, there was a cheetress of the same age as the twins watching the whole fight from a branch of a tree.
Haraka was daughter of Ara and Kati. Her spots are long and thicker than most cheetahs. Along her back was a thick black pattern that went along to her tail. It was the rare "King Cheetah" coat she got from her father, Ara. Her eyes were yellow from her mother, Kati, and nearly blended with her sclera. Her thicker Tear Line lined down from both of her eyes and ended to her mouth's tip – thicker than most cheetahs, she was practically scarier when she's angry. Her ears were rimmed brown. She was smaller and lighter than the lions but got more speed in return. She was a formidable fighter and Kasi's rival in speed. Rarely there's a week without them racing throughout the land. She hanged a lot with the lions since her parents lived near the Pride Rock and she had close friendship with the twins' group.
When both realized that they'd been watched, Kubwa quickly delivered an uppercut to the distracted Kimbia and knocked him flying into the river. The rest laughed when Kimbia emerged all wet and soggy.
Kubwa refined herself. "Hey, Double K! How're you? What're you doing here?" she asked.
Kasi smirked. "Double K to you too. We're fine. And on the way to meet you guys, obviously."
"Oh no. The honor is for you two only."
Kiburi chuckled. "I saw that fight. You're taking him easy, aren't you?" he asked.
Kubwa pouted. "Hell no. He's too fast to hit, well, until you distracted him."
Haraka raised a paw at her. "Talk to the paw, Kubwa," she bounded her off. Kubwa smirked.
Kimbia came after shook himself dry. "Uhh. Any comment?" Kubwa asked in sense of guilty.
He gave a simple shook as response. As much as he wanted to strike back, Kasi's here, so he held it.
Not wasting any time, Kasi challenged the larger lioness and they fought with Kiburi and the cubs watching. Unfortunately, before the winner could be decided, a loud voice called out Kiburi and Kasi from the direction of the Pride Rock.
Someone came into view. It was Kovu, Simba, and Vitani. Kiburi quickly came to them while Kasi subsequently threw Kubwa aside and ran toward her father, tried cleaning up on the way.
They stood side by side upfront the two. Kovu, now older, was taller than Simba and his mane had completely grown to his lower chest and it was thicker and bushier than Simba's. His upper mane was flattened to the right and his muzzle fur shaped a small beard. Aside from appearance changes, he was all the same lion with his emerald eyes.
Simba stood beside Kovu, a gentle smile on his face. His mane wavered in the calm wind, a few lines turned grey. His eyes were as sharp as ever.
"What is it, father?" They both asked before looked at each other.
Kovu rolled his green eyes. "Come on. You know what," he pouted as his playful nature kicked in.
"Oh."
Kasi looked up into the sky. "Really? I thought it was still morning," Kasi asked out of confusion.
Kubwa rolled her brown eyes. "Oh please," she said with sarcasm. "By time you arrived here, the sun is almost straight up above our heads."
"Kimbia, Kubwa, and Haraka. Could you take care of them while these two are training?" he said while pointing at the cubs.
"I'll see you guys later," Haraka ran off, grin on her face.
"Hey!" Kubwa shouted. She sighed and turned her attention to the cubs and said, "Sure do, sire. Come on, you two," then she faced Kimbia. "Don't dawdle, hurry up!" she ran toward the savannah with Kimbia, Aibu, and Nzuri in tow.
Nzuri looked back over her shoulder and said, "See you soon!" at the twins while running. They waved as answer.
Kasi approached Simba and asked, "How are you doing, grandfather?" Simba smiled. "I'm fine. Today's fresh – as always though," he said before Kasi nuzzled him, and purred while on it.
Kovu attempted to spoke but Kiburi got first. "Kasi, let's go," he said leaving Kovu gaping. Double K started their daily training with their father and Simba's supervising.
Through their years, Kovu mixed Zira's and Simba's training method. He utilized Zira's harsh and brutal training but also used Simba's smooth and slower learning so it won't make the two exhausted and could undergo training longer. Kiara also asked Ara and Kati of the cheetah pack to help Kasi improve her speed. This way of training made both Kiburi and Kasi being the most powerful members of the Pride Land. An example of this was Kasi, who was the fastest and agile member of the pride. Her running speed in her adolescent times had proven comparable to a cheetah of the same age and now she's even faster.
They went to a shady arena bordered by five egg-shaped boulders with some lions fighting against each other. They stopped fighting when the royals came in sight.
"Okay, girls, time to train!" Kovu shouted at the group.
Meanwhile, somewhere deep in a forest far south of the Pride Lands, a deer was grazing on the side of a small lake in an open place. It seemed at peace - until a flash of white zipped through passed it into the forest and the deer's head rolled to the ground. Blood splattered everywhere in the scene. A pair of light blue eye gleamed in the forest's deep, slowly walked out into the light. Its appearance slowly shown as it circled its prey.
Silvery mane perfectly reflected the sun's light made it shine bright it illuminated the darkness behind. Glowing bright blue eyes were fixed upon the headless deer. It was revealed, a lion. His coat of white broken by grey on his muzzle, paws, and underbelly.
As he circled his prey while inspecting he gazed upon the sky. "Another good meal," he said to himself. Suddenly, a voice echoed between the trees behind, distracting him from his prey. "Nice."
The lion narrowed his eyes. "Who?" he asked calmly, near expressionless.
The voice cackled. "Someone. Hahaha!" it disappeared. Shortly after, echo of enchanting were heard before completely disappeared in the darkness of the thick forest.
The white lion sat down. Completely ignored what's that about – and forgotten his prey. He inhaled a little before stood up and walked into the woods in the direction of the voice. After about an hour passed through dark shades of the forest, he finally came upon an opening just before a steep cliff. He inhaled as much as he can – filling his lungs with fresh air - and then exhaled in relief.
His eyes widened. In front of him was a vast savannah decorated nicely with golden grass laid all over the land split in half by the flowing river from the valley just on the lion's right and goes up curved out in front of a large rock formation, a kopje, protruding high from the ground in the center of the savannah and his eyesight with mountains at the background. Antelopes, elephants, gazelles, giraffe, and many other herds were everywhere. He gaped. He smiled in both shock and awe from the beautiful sight ahead – though his eyes missed a pride.
He found a flatter way down and started scaling down the cliff before walked into the savannah. When he saw an antelope leap past him, he suddenly remembered his prey back at the forest. He grumped at his growling stomach and decided to hunt.
Finally the rogue shows up, and The Pride Lands are in front of him! What would happen to The Pride Lands?