The Lion King: Rise of the White Pride

Chapter 8: The Dream, The Pride, and The Past

The pride had finished dining. They were starting to sleep. Kovu was the first one to sleep beside Kiara and his children. Simba had told Nala about the ruckus earlier. How Shaka showed up and things got worse. Nala simply nodded at word after word and licked Simba before sleeping. Simba, however, was unable to sleep along with Kiburi and Kasi, not that Chumvi and Tojo's constant strikes to the wall while sleeping bothered them. After an hour went, they decided to go outside and discuss about it.

"I can't sleep," Kasi said.

"Me too," "So am I," Kiburi and Simba said in the same time.

Simba spoke, "It's about him, is it?"

"Yeah," Kiburi said. "He was unpredictable. He defeated Kubwa and Kimbia at the same time," he said it all excitedly.

"It's blurry, but was he slaughter three gazelles?" Kasi asked. She realized. "Hey! You still didn't tell me what's going on when I was out."

Kiburi blew his bang. "Yah. We interrupted his hunt," he said then continued after Kasi's demand, "Okay. Okay."

"Wait. You said he didn't eat the gazelles?" Kasi muttered. "He must be starving enough to hunt three at once. Come to think about it, how come he had that much strength if he had an empty belly?" the others' head raised in confusion.

Simba ran back and took a chunk of meat. "Let's find out," they all said in unison and ran off to find Shaka.

He was somewhere in a desert. He walked around for a while and encountered a lion. The lion was tall and muscular. His shoulder was tough. He had thick red mane. His jaws were huge and prominent.

He circled Shaka. Shaka froze but stayed wary. Suddenly, a flash of light blinded him. When he opened his eyes, he saw the Pride Lands. Complete with herds, tall grasses, and some acacia tree, and of course the majestic Pride Rock.

He came to the den but couldn't identify any of the lions. Suddenly from the dark, a golden cub ran past his chest and stopped at the promontory. Shaka didn't look surprised. His own body was covered in white light. The cub ran back past him and into the den. In there, he jumped through the lionesses and came to the same large lion Shaka saw before the flash on a leveled ground.

"Dad. Dad. Come on, Dad, we gotta go! Wake up!" the cub said and then dads were heard over and over.

Shaka was beside the cub. A lioness groaned. "Simba. Stop . . .," she said before sleeping again.

That's Simba? . . . then that lion is . . .! Shaka thought.

Shaka's father once told him about the Pride Lands, where the land was plentiful, colorful, and beautiful. The king, Mufasa, was his friend along with Mufasa's mate, Sarabi, when he was traveling several years ago. And he had a son but he never knew his name. By Shaka's hypothesis, Kovu couldn't be Simba's son and Shaka's father traveled her several years ago, so Simba must've be Mufasa's son! It matched the gap, though he still didn't understand why Simba's reign was shorter. And the large lion he saw was Mufasa!

"Your son is awake," a lioness beside Mufasa spoke but still shutting her eye.

She must be Sarabi Shaka thought.

Mufasa did the same. "Before sunrise he's your son."

Simba tugged at the lion's ear. "Dad? Come on, Dad! Da-," he was cut by his falling when his grip slipped. It wasn't a minute before Simba nudged him awake and said, "You promised!" he said with an annoyed face.

"Okay. Okay. I'm up. I'm up," he yawned and the roar he let go echoed in the den.

"YEAH!"

The sky darkened a little and time was sped up until he was up in a side of a large gorge with scene of a stampede in the gorge. Simba was in Mufasa's mouth. Mufasa put Simba on a platform to the side of the gorge but he was dragged by the current of the stampede. Mufasa sprang from the stream of wildebeests and clinged on the gorge wall and stopped at the tip where a dark lion was standing.

Shaka's eyes suddenly narrowed along with his teeth bared and claws unsheathed.

Scar! he flared as the evil lion grabbed Mufasa's paws with claws unsheathed before throwing him into the gorge.

Shaka was seeing the scene of Mufasa's death! He muttered "Mufasa" a few times before a grumbling rattled the sky and a flash of light blinded him again. Two light voices were heard.

"Hey!"

"Hello?"

He woke up. He opened his eyes and looked around, he wasn't alone. He immediately got on his legs and tried to take his battle stance but his legs weren't responding and he fell to his side.

"Hey, easy. It's us," he heard a similar deep voice spoke.

Shaka widened his eyes to see much clearer and he found Kiburi, Kasi, and Simba stood in front of him. He asked for their intention there. They responded that they noticed that Shaka hadn't eat for a while and offered a chunk of meat which Shaka quickly gobbled up in no time.

Shaka asked how they manage to get here. Simba simply gestured to Shaka's paws which were covered in gazelle blood – and it was stinky. They got out and started talking.

Kasi sat and brought up the topic. "You didn't eat for three days?"

"Four," Shaka corrected while raising his paw with his dew finger folded.

Simba spoke, "Yet you still had the strength to fight an entire pride," he joined sitting.

Kiburi sat. "Minus the hunting party," Kiburi added.

Shaka fell silent for a moment before saying, "In my birth pride that was nothing," he shrugged and turned away.

The others look to each other. "Tell us," they said enthusiastically.

Shaka glanced over his shoulder and turned to face them. "Well," he started.

Shaka's birth pride was a pride of the rare white lions. They lived in Mount Kilimanjaro's height, but "still savannah lions and not pumas," as Shaka noted. The first day his eyes were open, he couldn't see anything in the thick of snow. But there were always a gentle touch guiding him, the one and only mother, while his father was the leader of the pride. When he was 3 months old he started his training.

"Wait, what?" Kasi interrupted.

"The White Pride is a pride of high skilled lions. Let me tell you more," he said.

The White Pride members were very skilled. They started training at least 3 months old. The trainings were variable. The adults used Mt. Kilimanjaro's dangerous terrain to train the cubs. Sometimes the cubs were lost mid-training and must get back on their own, left without any food ranging from two to six days.

The training was harsh and dangerous, but only one cub didn't survive the custom. A male named Hasira. He was all white unlike Shaka but he was also bloody red eyed unlike the rest of the pride. He had a short tuft on his head that had a red line on each side of the tuft.

He refused to follow the custom and repeatedly tried to escape the pride but he always got caught. One day he was put into training with Shaka, a male cub, and two other female cubs. Since he didn't undergo training as much as they do, he slipped and fell from the mountain and never to be found. He, so far, is the only member that defied the custom.

Other cubs went to training gladly because they knew what benefit it had to them. Many great lions and lionesses were born because of it.

"That's reasonable," Kasi pointed out. She was clearly shaking uncontrollably.

Shaka noticed that. "Get some sleep, would you? A saw that. You has split personality, right?" he turned to Kasi.

"How?"

"I met two before."

"I'll walk you back," Kiburi said while getting Kasi on his shoulder. "Grandfather, you're coming?"

"I'll stay for a while."

"Okay. See you soon," he waved his paw.

Shaka narrowed his eyes. "Oh, and, keep it from anyone, okay. Those are sensitive info."

"Roger," Kiburi saluted him.

As soon as Kiburi and Kasi left, Simba entered the cave and asked Shaka if he had met him somewhere. Shaka nodded. They did meet each other several years ago. That was when Shaka attending his Farland Trip. Simba also recalled that. It was six years ago when Simba and Nala along with Timon and Pumbaa visited Hakuna Matata for memorial – also to visit Timon's meerkat family. Simba's group stumbled upon four lions and three lionesses all had white coat.

One lion and two lionesses were adults while the rest were cubs' age of seven months least. The lion introduced his name as Busara. He had dark blue eyes along with a single blue line went from the back of his right ear down to the tip of his gray mane. On his left paw was a large healed tear wound. Bound of muscles were clearly seen on his body and arms. His appearance alone could scare away most enemies easily, Simba shivered a little. It was a good thing that Busara was in good terms with Simba and co.

The adult lionesses were all white with the same solid blue eyes. One of the male cubs had a burst of silver Mohawk tuft on his head and bright blue eyes with black rimmed ears and gray muzzle and paws, while the other one had small ruff of white on the head. The female cub had ash grey muzzle and tail tuft with cyan eyes. There was a long scar that ran along the right side of her neck.

They were in a part of training and saluted Simba as they excused themselves returning to their trip.

Simba snapped at something. "Ah, you are the cub with that Mohawk on the head, aren't you?" he said, laughing.

"Yeah, thanks for reminding. That wasn't a good hair. But strangely many girls liked it," he said before thinking out loud.

Simba struggled to hold his laugh. "Quite the ladies' man, aren't you? You must had a girlfriend back then, or at least a crush maybe?" he teased.

Shaka gasped and blushed under his fur before cleared his throat as he tried to regain his composure. "B-back to the pride!" he tried to change the subject.

Farlands Trip was another training tradition in the White Pride. In it, the cubs went out from he mountain and ventured to other places. Its reach could bend hundreds of miles from Mount Kilimanjaro and a trainee cub batch attends it every year. It was harder than the training in the mountain, but since they got new scenery they also got new spirit to survive.

Simba searched for a place to sit. He found a pile of branch in a corner and sat on it only for it to be crushed into a hole and Simba's rear end stuck in it. Shaka laughed and gave Simba his paw. Simba shrugged it and smirked. He gave his hand, his widening smirk quickly turned into shock as Shaka pulled him off but the remaining force made him fly into a part of the cave. They both laughed it off.

Simba sat on a safer place. His eyes were looking around the gleam of the cave. His mind meddled with memories of the past as he subconsciously starting to tell Shaka about his past. Shaka rest on his paws and eased his mind as he followed Simba's words. Simba told him about the day he was born to the day Mufasa died, in which Shaka gasped in shock his head almost hit a low ceiling.

"What's it?"

"Uh . . .," he hummed around searching for an excuse. "Nothing," he threw a fake smile at the elder.

Simba brushed that off and attempted to continue the story. But Shaka put a lid on his mind with a disturbing scratch on the wall.

"I think that's enough. You better go back. I don't want controversial problems," he gestured at the Pride Rock.

"Fair enough. See you tomorrow."

Shaka nodded and turned. But halfway he shouted at Simba. "Oh, and, if you're still skeptical about my training, go far south of here before sunrise," he said with a half sleepy eyes.

Around the same time, a lone lioness laid on her back on the cliff on the side of the Pride Rock. It was Vitani, and she couldn't sleep. She stargazed almost all night, saw a falling star once. She tilted her head to her side to found the Zuberi River on her sight. Suddenly, she stood up and stomped the ground hard.

"Damn it!" she muttered.

She just could forget him. That very night always haunted her. Every few days or so the thoughts came to her and overwhelmed her sanity. Only Kovu knew this, as he also there that night albeit wasn't affected much. Vitani, however, couldn't forget the night where the river took a life she cared. She stopped, however, when Simba came into sight and went back in the den before he noticed. A few minutes after closing her eyes, she drifted to sleep.

And so a part of Shaka's past are told. See what he'll do in the next chapter. Reviews would be appreciated.