Author: Daggermouth

Lion King 4
Book Two – Reuniting the Pasts

Chapter: IV – Journeys & The Precursor of Death

Dashing through the Pridelands, the small hoofs of the warthog Pumbaa and his best friend Timon as they go to alert the king that Kopa was gone, the prince who just returned has run to the Outlands, running quickly without giving any detail as to what's around them the figure of a golden lioness crashes straight into the two friends. They slide across the floor in the dirt. When he finally gets up Timon looks to see Kiara, in their hastiness of trying to find the same lion, all three of them collided in the middle of the damp Pridelands. As Kiara brushes herself down, it becomes obvious they were following the same tracks; all three of them were looking for Kopa.

"Kopa's gone Kiara, he ran off into the Outlands," Pumbaa explains solemnly in his distinctive voice, Kiara thinks to herself, what was so important for Kopa to just suddenly run off, Kiara has never met her brother, and now he disappeared... again.
"Follow me," Kiara says as she knows exactly where to find her father in the Pridelands.

From her nightmare, Nala stretches out; the sunset was almost upon the Pridelands, another eventful day almost ended. Although even the coming sunset could not take Nala's mind of her nightmare; mainly the spirit of the black fox, it seemed so real to her, Nala felt it the black fox wasn't looking at her, but right at her. Just thinking about it sent shivers down Nala's back, her fur almost standing up on their ends. As the queen was about to head down onto the grass she is suddenly petrified witless as Kovu appears behind her. Nala is jumping at everything now, even her own shadow. But Kovu just smiles and wonders why the queen is like this. But it seems Kovu has already departed from the cavern with his sister. After Nala calms herself down it seems Kovu has too reasons for talking to the queen, Kovu immediately apologizes for attacking Kopa like he did, both of them still bear the scars of tumbling down Priderock, both of them were also lucky to have avoided serious injury. Then as Nala and Kovu lay together on the largest pointy ledge of Priderock overlooking the entire Pridelands, Kovu explains the real reason he is here:

"I need to leave Priderock; I need to find my real father, they're so many questions I need answering, so much I don't yet understand, "Kovu wanted to tell someone that he is leaving just so they know where he is going. Nala assures Kovu that she will inform the rest of the Pride that he is gone, even Kiara. But what Nala says next changed Kovu's life forever...
"I never met my real father either," Nala says with kind eyes, "I stopped looking a long time ago, but now I just don't want to know for fearing he could already be gone, I've just had to accept that fact." As she finishes Kovu is amazed at how strong-willed Nala really is. How much loss the queen must of suffered but yet she explains loss without regret or much worry. But little did Kovu know Nala was very troubled inside, she'd just decided to hide it for so long. After their understanding on Priderock Nala and Kovu separate; and Kovu begins his first step on a grand journey to find his real father. And this time, he was not going to return until he finds his father, dead or alive, at least now Kovu knows his father's name: Kivuli. Kovu keeps repeating the name in his head, if Nala can be so strong then maybe Kovu one day can be as well. As they part Nala heads off to then go find Vitani. Nala wants to finally apologize for the regretful things she yellow at Vitani back at Zulu Fall's. As the queen starts walking she realises she wants to apologize for something more as well, Nala didn't realise it but she acted like such a terrible lioness way back when Vitani was a cub. Nala wouldn't let her own son Kopa see Vitani all those years ago in the first years Simba was the Lion King, and until now Nala didn't realise how cruel she was really being. It seemed so long ago now but Nala heads out to find the closure her pure heart so desperately needs.

Finally after what seemed like hours of travelling, Kiara, Timon and Pumbaa find Simba dealing with an angry emu whose nest was destroyed during the storm. Simba orders Zazu to find some friends to help rebuild the flooded nest, the emu's eggs were safe but they needed a nest to survive. Simba turns to see his friends, it pained Simba to deal with another problem but it had to be done.

"Kopa has run off to the Outlands," Timon waves his tiny arms and paces up and down knowing this news would just make Simba panic. Simba gasps when he hears the news, and immediately sets off with his daughter to find tracks. The Outlands were a big place and Kopa could be anywhere inside it.

"Perhaps returning home so quickly was just too much for the prince to bear." Zazu explains before flying off to get some more birds to help him reconstruct the emu's large destroyed nest. Bidding Timon and Pumbaa farewell for now, Kiara joins her father in the search. But just why Kopa has disappeared remains a mystery, what could possibly be more important than meeting his sister and reuniting with his family? Kiara and Simba run off into the sunset as the sun starts to descend in the sky.

Nala is very glad to see Vitani once more, and as the two lionesses approach eachother, it seems they've already become great friends. The guilt Nala felt when she yelled at the younger lioness seemed to have now completely vanished. The two old enemies talk, Nala apologises for everything, it seems Vitani wasn't as bad as she was made out to believe.

"Does this make me a princess again?" Vitani asks hopeful, as a cub when she and Kopa declared their love on the Family Tree and under the Equinox Sunset, Vitani would have been the next queen after Nala passed. But complications with Kiara and Kovu being the next in line lead Vitani to believe she would never be queen, this is why she was so disheartened when Kovu was crowned the new prince during his grand ceremony. Nala nods and smiles, Kopa was born first meaning whoever he picks to be his princess will become the next queen. Vitani grins and is thrilled; she can become the queen she always dreamed to be as a cub. On the note of Princesses, Nala sits with Vitani and decides to tell her about a princess of the past named Uru.

"The stories are passed down to everyone through the generations, everyone in the Pridelands know the tale, however each time the story is pasted the tale changes, and becomes more faded. Through all of the past generations it is said that Uru, the mother of Mufasa, got a black stone carved into the silhouette of a scarab. Ahadi's personal watering hole was poisoned and the king had passed away just days before Uru received a Black Scarab. Again, no one truly knows who killed Ahadi but after his death Uru fell into a spiral of depression. She gave up on herself and later passed away. Now Mohatu, the first Lion King, his mate was called Ufu; and it's said Ufu carved into black stone the symbol of a Scarab before she herself died giving birth to Ahadi. The past queen's and princesses have taught us that the Black Scarabs were a sign that death was on its way for whoever received one, the Black Scarab would present itself to anyone who is about to pass over...they are our warning to prepare ourselves, it is said that Ufu's ghost still walk the Pridelands and place Black Scarabs for the creatures of the Pridelands to find to forewarn them of them inevitable fate..."
Vitani listen intently but the story seemed too implausible to be true. After telling her story Nala says that it's mainly just a story to scare the cubs and that until her nightmare she also believed there's no such thing a ghosts or spirits. Vitani gives thanks Nala for the tale and for apologizing for everything. It's only then so suddenly that news reaches the two lionesses that Kopa has run away to the Outlands. Zazu on his way to find more birds to help the emu kindly stopped off to inform the two lionesses that prince Kopa was gone. Vitani shocked more than anything, decides to follow him, she know's Kopa more than anyone in the Pridelands, so if someone can find him, it's her. Heading out towards the south, towards the Outland Vitani rushes to find her love, she doesn't want to lose him again. Especially after the tale Nala just told her. Uru was lost to a spiral of depression after Ahadi was poisenoned; to Vitani that sounded so familiar, Vitani gave up on herself too when Kopa disappeared as a cub, she was going to make sure after she finds him they never part sides ever again.

As everyone runs off to partake in their own business this leaves Nala alone to watch the burning sunset. Everyone was out looking for the past they lost. But as Nala watches the sunset alone, a slippery figure slowly creeps up behind her. Slivering across the ground a purple snake with red stripes approaches her. Its slivering hissing voice beckons Nala. As Nala turns to the creature the snakes blood red eyes meet with her crystal blue eyes. As they do Nala seems to grow cold and weak, as if she's being captivated in the snake's strange eyes. As the snake grins it decides to part the information it knows with the queen:

"Your dreams are real Nala, everything you dreamt, the darkest nightmares of your past, all of it really happened. Nala, you have been lost so much longer than everyone but yet you hide within yourself. This is the same way Taka kept his melancholy hidden away until the darkness slivered inside him and he became the Dark Lion King Scar. But you must know; your brother Mheetu is still with the living." Listen intently Nala suddenly squints, for a second she believes she misheard the snake and in her thoughts she growls and grabs the snake's neck with both paws and demands for more answers, her brother can't possibly be alive, she saw it herself in her nightmare, Mheetu was gone. The mysterious snake with its red stripes across its slivery body was gifted with the knowledge of second sight and slivers out of Nala's tight grip and twists back into the tall grass, but just before heading into the grass to disappear the snake coyly turns it head back to the lioness queen with a smile and continues:

"Scar failed to deliver the final blow to your brother. Mheetu escaped and ran away. But Scar in all his pride couldn't bring himself to tell everyone that Mheetu escaped he couldn't accept his weakness that he didn't bring himself to finish the cub. Scar told you he killed Mheetu, but this is his darkest secret: he lied about that to all of you. Mheetu ran so very far away, this much I have seen myself, he fell in love with a grey lioness named Solta in the perpetual forest that time forgot." The snake's sharp voice drove Nala into more fear than she's ever experienced before, under the dazzling sunset the snake slivers away saying no more. And so suddenly the fear and hurt Nala kept inside of her for so long bursts out into forms of salty tears, curling herself up into a ball covering her face with her paws Nala parts pain under the great blood red sun. As the snake slides away his voice still echoes around the tearful Nala, telling the queen over and over again that Mheetu was last seen in the bone chilling Elephant Graveyard, Nala tells no one of her encounter and after parting her sorrow she gets up and immediately runs to the Elephant Graveyard to find her lost brother leaving a trail of saline tears behind her.

As the sky burns brightly red four journeys to find the past which was lost have begun: Kovu who heads outwards to search for his real father Kivuli so he can further understand the darkness which he believes to be corrupting his thoughts. Kiara and Simba both separated from Vitani all search for Kopa to reunite with her lost love Kopa in the Outlands, Vitani can return Kopa to his sister and get answers as to why he ran away. Nala who so quickly learned that Mheetu may still be found from a snake which decided to help her grieve, the queen rushes to the Elephant Graveyard in hopes of finding her lost little brother. And finally Malka who was given information about Tama's location from Kopa, Tama was said to of survived the Daggermouth Gorge incident. All four journeys are in search for the past. But soon the entire Pridelands will shake and shiver as the past they anticipate to find could mean the destruction of a great balance the king's and queen's of the past worked so hard to maintain.

End of Episode IV.