'Why is it so dark?' i stopped my thoughts when I heard someone.
"he saved the princess..." I heard a feminine voice to my right.
"what is he?" I heard another one. this time, to my left. I begin to move around and soon open my eyes, squinting as I try to clear my vision.
"wait... Shhhh.. he's waking up" the same voice I heard to my right said.
"Hmmm. Ahh... God damn, my shoulder hurts. What the hell happened?" rubbing my shoulder to my surprise, covered with some sort of leaf.
"That is a question I would like you to answer for us." Said someone, I look to see a HUGE male lion with a red-brown mane and golden fur. And it talked!
My eyes widen as I look around me. I was cornered by LIONS, FREAKING LIONS!
"Stay BACK I'm warning you!" I threatened them. Looking around, I saw my backpack, which was thankfully near me. Pulling my ka-bar out, I waved it towards them threateningly.
"Whoa, calm down, we're not here to kill you. I think we got off the wrong paw, let's start over, I'm Simba and who or what are you?." He said curiously what I am. I start to calm down but would not put my guard too low.
"I'm.. Marcus. A human" I said slightly lowering my weapon.
"Well, hello Marcus, I'm Simba, king of the pride lands." He proudly said.
'King? I'm in front of a freaking king lion! How the frick is monarchy here? Wait, he's a king!'
I immediately stood up and bowed to Simba.
"your majesty." I say with respect but mostly fear because HE'S A FLICKERING LION.
"No need to do those Marcus, you may simply call me Simba." Simba said.
"yes your maje- I mean, Simba" Simba chuckled. A cream-colored lioness came up to Simba and nuzzled him.
I think that's Simba's mate
"Ah, this is my mate, queen Nala" he said returning her affection.
"So tell us, what happened." Simba questioned me.
"Well, I heard screaming after waking up and soon went to investigate, hoping it was another human. It was actually a lioness who was cornered by 6 hyenas. I saved her and then lost consciousness." I explained to them with my best effort.
"The lioness you've saved was our daughter, Kiara." Nala was almost in tears.
"Wait, Kiara is your daughter?!" I was shocked that Kiara was of royalty.
'Now that I think about it, she said she was a princess right?'
"Yes, and she is currently being treated by our shaman." Nala replied.
"May I see her?" I asked.
'I do hope she's ok
"When your shoulder is healed, you may see her." Both Nala and Simba said at the same time.
"Thank you very much. by the way, you can call me Mark for short." Simba and Nala smiled and nodded.
My eyes were getting drowsy, so I closed them and made myself comfortable. But as soon interrupted by footsteps.
"Hello, there..." a lioness greeted me
"it's Mark." I replied tiredly.
"Hello, mark, I'm Sarabi. I may ask, what are you and where are you from?" Sarabi asked
"Uhm, well, I'm a human, from the united states of America more specifically, Chicago."
"So in this.. United States of.. America was it?, is that where your pride lives?" She asked curiously as to who I am.
"well, yes but there's a lot of us around the world."
"What?" she asked confused
"Yeah, there's a total of 8 billion of us." I said while thinking if it's actually 7 billion
"... Are you sure you're counting correctly?" she said not believing what I said
"I don't know, I think there are 7 billion, but let's put that aside who are you again?" I changed the topic
"As I said before, I'm Sarabi, Simba's mother" Her smile was warm.
'Ah, alright this is Simba's mother, which means she's THE EX QUEEN!!'
I quickly straightened up and bowed to her.
"I'm sorry if I disrespected you in any way." I said quickly.
"No need to bow, I thought my son already told you" She chuckled a bit
"Oh, sorry, I'm sometimes forgetful." A blush formed from my cheeks. I thought about the time I forgot my wallet which leads me to my parents. My eyes watered from the thought and the ex-queen noticed this.
"What's wrong Mark?" She said with concern in her voice
"I.. I lost my family" After I said this, the dam broke loose.
Her face turned sympathetic
"I'm dearly sorry for your loss mark" She came up to me and nuzzled my face.
"I don't know what to do.. I have no food and water and I'm alone in the savannah" I cried more
"Alone? What are you talking about? You're not alone Mark you have me, Simba, Nala and the pride members." she said trying to cheer me up
"But, you guys are lions" I replied
"And? That hasn't stopped us from helping others" she said. I realized this and felt dumb
"you're right, I feel really dumb right now." I laughed at myself
"Uh, sorry but, I'm really tired-" I try to explain to her.
"Say no more, you can rest and tomorrow, you will see my granddaughter. Good night mark." She walked layed down near the ledge where Simba and Nala were sleeping. I closed my eyes as soon as I lay back down.
I opened my eyes to see light from the cave's exit hitting me. I sat right up and turned around to see most of the lionesses sleeping.
'Huh, I must be early then'
I stretched my arms and legs to get the blood flowing. I began exiting the cave and to the water hole I go. I dumped my head into the water, and to my not so surprised face, it was cold.
'Not the best idea I've had'
"Good morning mark, why is your face wet?" Nala raised an eyebrow.
"Hey Nala, to be honest, I do not know. Oh, and where's Simba." I asked noticing he was not here nor inside the den earlier.
"Oh, he's doing morning rounds." She said.
"Ah, ok. If I may ask, how long have you been a queen?" I asked the Queen.
"3 to 4 years now" She said bending her head back down again to drink
"Ah ok. Alright, I'm heading back inside the den and eat something." I said already walking
"Ask one of the lionesses where the food is and they'll show you." she began drinking again.
"Ok!" I said back.
I waited for about an hour when Simba came in with Nala following
"Are you ready to go?" Simba said
"Hold on." I grabbed my backpack
"Alright, let's do this." I said ready to go.
We walked outside the den and went down.
"How did you end up here mark?" Simba asked curious about how I ended up in the pride lands which enticed a frown from me.
"Well, I and my family were on a trip to Kenya. Unfortunately, the plane was not so smooth and crashed somewhere.. Well, Wherever this place is on the map. I found Kiara circled by 6 hyenas, I beat 4 of them and made the last 2 run from the site. After the fight, I fainted. That's about it." I told them my story.
"Plane? Kenya?" Both Simba and Nala said confused by these new words.
"Uhm, basically a plane is a giant metal bird with humans in it and Kenya is a place where humans stay." I simply explained to them, so as to not confuse them even more.
"Ohhhh." they said understanding. Suddenly, Nala asked me my age.
"Oh, I'm 15." I simply said.
"15.. Months? Weeks?" she asked not sure how old we can get.
"Years, I'm 15 years old." I said to them. Then their eyes widen at how old I was.
"Impossible, we're only 6!" they said very, surprised.
"Well, I'm a human, and humans go to about a hundred years before we pass. but if I was a lion, I would probably be 1 or 2 years old."
"Ahh, so you're still a wee little cub" She teased me.
"No, I'm not." I said simply
"Yes you are mtoto" She teased again
'Sigh'
"Alright, here we are." we stopped to see a big tree.
'Hmm, I'm guessing this is the home of the shaman'
"Rafiki, are you there old friend?" Simba half yelled.
"Yes, what is that you want ol Rafiki to do?" He greeted the king and queen.
"I want you to meet Mark" Simba introduced me.
"Hello, I'm-" but before I could finish, Rafiki cut me off.
"Yes, yes, I know you, The great kings of de past have told me about the one who saved the princess" Rafiki bowed to me and in turn bowed to him also.
"The great kings of the past? What that?" I asked, a bit curious about their culture.
"Dat is a story for later." Rafiki replied
"And they also told me you wish to meet the princess." And I gave him a simple nod.
"Yeah, I want to see if she's ok." I explained to Rafiki.
"she is up der. You need to climb for you to see her, or you could take the platform" He said pointing his stick at the big tree house.
"Alright, this is easy" taking my bag off, I wiggled my arms to get ready, I grabbed a branch and climb the tree without breaking a sweat.
Hey ya guys, this is my third chapter, hope you guys like this and damn is it hard to write something this big on a phone, anyways, it's always good to get feedback so, can ya'll make a review if my grammar is bad, too short of a chapter or anything else really. Anywhoo bye-bye, thanks for reading this.