Chapter XVII

Kiara slipped slowly back into consciousness. As her eyes edged closer to becoming fully open, her surroundings became apparent. Although the darkness of the night was flooded around, the shadowy depths of the cavern were easily noticeable. Her eyes fully opened. The large entrance to her former home came into full view. She was lying, weak and powerless in the depths of Pride Rock. Immediately she knew there could be no good reason.

As her blood began to properly flow through her body and her senses returned to her a sudden burst of extreme pain shot through her right paw. As she winced, Kiara noticed a small trail of blood trickle slowly away from her. When she darted her head up, she noticed the reason her paw ached so much. Her blood soaked paw showed only three claws remaining and ripped fur. It could have only meant one thing, and she knew it too well. The small trail of blood that her eyes followed finalised it for her. Her underbelly, also blood soaked and continuing to dribble into the much larger puddle that she lay in, had been scratched and slashed at. Kamba had sunk low enough to torture.

"Kovu..." Kiara whispered uselessly. She knew he wasn't there, but the only thing that came to her mind was the safety of the pride. She opened her eyes from wincing to notice charcoal furred paws quickly padding towards her, recognising them almost immediately.

"Look who's awake." Kamba chuckled darkly. "Sleep well?"

"What do you want from me?" Kiara grumbled, unable to lift from the floor just yet.

"Just a couple of reasons, princess. Perhaps your life is one of them. Perhaps the others lives, perhaps its information." Kamba suddenly bent down and slowly seethed into her ear "Who knows? Who really knows in this god forsaken world, eh Kiara? Do you catch my drift?"

Kiara used her uninjured paw to push the newly appointed king away from her, only for Kamba to retaliate and grab her muzzle tightly with his unsheathed and vicious claws.

"Do you want to see the light of tomorrow?"

"You don't have the guts to kill."

Kamba threw the weak lioness's head back to the floor. Kiara growled before feeling Kamba's breath seep down her ear.

"I don't have the guts to kill, don't I?"

"No."

"Let me just recap. Who was the one who killed your little feathered friend?"

"...you were."

"And who was the one to..."

"Who was the one to...what, Kamba?"

"Nah. You don't need to know." Kamba slapped Kiara's face lightly with his vicious and evil claws before turning around. "Rest your injured head. You need to prepare for execution."

"What?"

Kiara felt her heart suddenly come to a halt. She didn't believe he would be able to do it. A teenager couldn't possibly know methods of execution. Especially an isolated one.

"I don't believe you." Kiara blurted. "You can't do this!"

Kamba turned back and faced the former princess, teeth gritted and snarled viciously.

"You don't think I can eh?" He growled. "You don't think I will?"

"No."

Kamba sat next to Kiara, pressing his paw against her throat before quickly brushing up her injured paw and inspecting.
"You might want to get this checked out." Kamba chuckled. Kiara's eyes dilated.

"You wouldn't..."

Kamba shook his head with sarcasm apparent.

"No, no Kamba, please..."

"N'aww, don't do what you moronic bitch?"

"Don't you dare..."

"This is an easy dare to do you know!"

"If you dare..."

Kamba threw her paw back onto the cold floor before stamping on it hard and forcefully. Kiara gritted her teeth and snorted through her nose, knowing exactly what the sick lion wanted her to do.

"Sooner or later, Kiara the pain will make you scream!"

Kiara's attempts at keeping quiet were growing shorter as the charcoal furred lion began to squash her injury even harder, causing her to resume bleeding.

Kiara couldn't retain it any longer, in a split second the silent cave was alive with the extremely painful and ear shattering roar from the former princess, screaming directly after as Kamba refused to cease.

"Let go! For the love of god let fucking go!"

"On one circumstance, Kiara! Do I have the guts to kill lions eh? Do I? Don't ignore me, it'll hurt more. Answer me!"
"Yes! Yes you do have the guts please just let go! Please!"

Kamba lifted his paw from Kiara's, where she immediately drew it close to her and began to cradle it and lick the blood clean from it. Without warning she felt a sudden sharp pain on the right side of her muzzle as Kamba used all of his might to slap the weakened and defenceless lioness. Another, remarkably quieter, roar was released, tears beginning to trickle down her face.

"What...what did I – we ever do to you, Kamba?" Kiara whimpered. "We took you in when you were orphaned."

"The past has its ways, Kiara. The past has its ways."
"What does that even mean? You're not even making any sense!"

"I don't have to. I'm king."

Kiara, with the last remaining strength she had attempted to stand, only to be shoved back to the floor.

"What do you think you're doing?" Kamba snarled. "You're not going anywhere. If you even think to try to escape I shall execute you early!"

"Please! Please don't hurt me. Not anymore."
"Aww, has the little kitty taken too much damage?"

"Just...just..."
"So, weak." Kamba spat his words as if it were a distasteful antelope. He stood up and plodded back outside, leaving the lioness skewered across the floor.

Kiara began to sob, clearing further blood from her body and curling up, unable to see what else to do. Her only hopes were that the others were going to try to find her.

()0()0()

"You don't suppose he's got her, do you?" Kovu exclaimed.

"What do you think?" Simba retaliated, frustration apparent.

"Okay, let's just not panic and think." The black furred lion turned to the shaman. "Rafiki, did you see her get captured?"
"Well...uhh..." The mandrill stumbled over what he had to say. "I, uhh...I didn' see."

"Are you sure?"

"Positive."

Kovu turned back around and smashed his paw to the ground, sending dust flying.
"Well this is just great isn't it?" Kovu roared. "He's going to kill her isn't he?"

"Not necessarily," Nira attempted to reassure his father.

"Nira, your mother is in the clutches of Kamba. Of course he's going to try to kill her!"

"Mom's...mom's dead?" Jasiri whimpered, frightened that her father had uttered such words. The two cubs had padded over not long ago and sat with their older brother.

Jasiri turned her head up to her eldest brother. "Is mom dead Ra?"
"Of course not." Nira reassured the tiny cub. "We're going to make sure she isn't."

"Well, the first thing we need to do is..." Simba's speech was suddenly broken by the surprise of a sudden drip from the water that echoed from the outlands lake. As he swivelled around to see what had splashed, to his amazement stood a crowd of recognisable lionesses who all stepped into the outlands, sitting promptly.

Simba rubbed his exhausted eye before sighing happily. "He kicked you out huh?"

"Nope." One lioness replied. "This was our own choice."

"So, what happened?"
"He got to Pride Rock, told us to leave if we followed you and tortured Kiara."

Kovu abruptly stormed up to the lioness and gestured her to come forward, shock and bemusement flowing through him.

"I'm sorry?" He whispered. "What did you say?"
"He – he tortured her."
"He wouldn't...he didn't...di-did you try to save her?"

"What were we meant to do? He has his own pride you know."

"Let me guess..."
"Before you do, your right."

"Damn those girls, they said they'd changed."
"Once an outlander, always an outlander."

"I suppose your right."

Kovu stepped away from the lioness and downheartedly stood next to the former king, preparing to wipe tears from his eyes.

"Simba, what, what are we going to do?"

"Only one thing we can do I guess, we have to save her. Those are my lands. That's my daughter. We don't have much time." Simba pondered the possible solutions that could be undertaken. "There-there must be some way we can sneak into the lands and just grab her, then get out of there."

"Simba?"

"Yeah Kovu?"

"I feel...I feel like..."
"What? What is it?"
"I feel strange."

Without warning, Kovu quite suddenly flopped to the floor in unconsciousness and began to shiver. The pride surrounded him in confusion, his eyes were tightly shut and his shivers occurred abruptly.

"Dad?" Nira bellowed. "Father?"

No response from the older lion. Nira slapped his father's face a couple of times and still no response given. His breathing suddenly increased in pace and his chest began to pound fiercely as his lungs increased and deflated faster than ever before. His mind became a blur, his vision became black, his nose wrinkled. Sweat slid off of the lion, unable to comprehend what was happening to him. It became obvious as he recognised the all too familiar feeling of the premonition.

His vision was quick to show sudden black smoke swirling around in whirlpool circles, showing no ending and no point. As he noticed a familiar scrawny lion step through the smoke he knew exactly what was happening.

"Scar..." He murmured.
"Oh, I'm sorry, son? Have I interrupted something? How very discourteous of me. Perhaps it's what you deserve for abandoning me."
"No...no leave me alone..."
"Never. Take what you deserve son. Take what you deserve!"

Scar unexpectedly disappeared into the abyss before the clouds and smoked cleared where the all too familiar blurry image of Vitani's death scene was quick to replace it. Kovu couldn't help but notice something he never had done before. The flames strangely were shaped into something suspicious. The flames were shaped to what he could only describe as the word Scar. The fact that his older sister had been trapped in the 'a' was freaking him out more and more.

As Kovu flipped, his paw splashed into a puddle, sending small droplets flying through the air. His mind was aching, his body still shivering from what he couldn't explain. His mind returned to more blurry vision. From what he could see, a lion, that bared such extreme resemblance to Simba but with a mane of brown, was attempting to slash away at him. In a split second the lion was clenching his throat, blood spewing down his neck and coughs of the precious liquid at intermittent intervals.

"Kopa..." Kovu whispered softly to himself.

"Kovu, Kovu talk to me!" Simba roared in panic.

"Scar...get out of my head."

I'll grant your wish for you, son, I'll leave your mind. Hope you had fun knowing the future.

"No. I'm not your son. No, leave me be."

Hope our paths cross again. Goodbye son.

Kovu's heart came to a stop. He could only vaguely hear the brief shouts of his names from the surrounding pride and feel the water tickle off of – off his paw fur. The only thought was this could be it. Scar could have killed him. He felt a dribble of water reach his nose, before more and more droplets bounced and splashed off of his muzzle. He felt his eyes slowly slide open before his breathing suddenly returned to him enormously heavily, almost bursting his lungs. Kovu remained lying on the floor, staring into the pridelands, unable to quite comprehend what he now had to tell the others. The sudden moment he saw of Kopa he knew he couldn't divulge because it wasn't the time to focus on such a thing.

In a split second he felt his son attempting to lift him from the floor. Accepting the help, once he was stood Nira dusted his father's shoulders and mane and stepped back to his mate. Kovu searched around the outlands with his head, touching his chest every few seconds. Once he was sure his mind was back to reality, he turned to the older golden lion.

"Simba..." He whispered in disbelief. "Simba, Scar...Scar's...Scar's alive!"

"What?" Simba exclaimed, stepping forward.
"Scar's back! The heartless king is back! He's not dead! He's not!"

"Kovu, calm down..."
"No! Scar's not dead! This has nothing to do with Kamba! This plan is Scar's! It's got nothing to do with..."
"Kovu! Calm. Down. Speak slowly, and tell me what needs to be said. Deep breath in, and out. Now, what do you need to say?"

"Scar. Is. Not. Dead. And. Kamba. Is. His. Chosen. One."

Simba, taken aback completely by what Kovu had said, averted his eyes to the floor and stared at his reflection in a puddle.

How could Scar live? What's going on? Why did this happen?

Simba always knew something wasn't right. The power of souls we're intense, they could only be killed with one technique. One horrible, horrible technique...

"None of us are safe." Kovu explained. "This can't all be true. Our world is under threat. We can't live in a lie anymore. There's no safety!"

"Father...what-what's this mean?" Nira asked worriedly. Kovu turned to his eldest son, who had his two cubs on his back and shook his head in defeatism.

"It means, no matter how much we fight, we're in an endless battle where no one wins. Nira, Hasira, Jasiri I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to get you into this mess."

"Hey dad, it's not your fault." Nira replied. "You didn't cause this, we're not angry at you."

"No, no it is! It is my fault! You're born into a war. This is something we thought we'd avoided. I'm sorry."

Kovu couldn't help but begin to stream warm tears down his face. In all seriousness, the fact that he didn't follow Scar meant this was all his fault. On the other paw if he had followed Scar he would probably be dead this very instant.

Nira placed his paw on his father's shoulder while the two twins hopped off of their older brother and stroked their fathers forelegs. Kovu's cubs weren't angry, nor did they really care. The main concern for them at that point was the distress of their father and mother. Both of whose lives were in danger.

"Why would we blame you father?" Nira sighed. "All we want is for you and mother to be safe. We just want to stay a family. You know us love you through any circumstances. And you know what, I don't care how long it takes us, but I'm going to fight until we get our lands back. I won't stop until we have the lands. I promise father. I promise."

Kovu wiped some of his tears away, smiled proudly and lightly slapped his son's shoulder.

"You don't realise how proud I am of you. The fact that your still going to fight is brilliant. You're going to be an amazing king."

"Y-yeah..."

Nira was still fully adamant that being king was just not what he wanted to do. However he said nothing and smiled at his father, he wasn't to ruin the moment.

Shemba stepped back up to Nira, nuzzling him promptly and holding his paw before Kovu turned back to Simba.

"What are we gonna do about Kiara?"

"The only thing we can do. We need to save her. We need to get into those lands and save her. Nira; Kovu, I'm going to need your help."
Nira flickered his eyes in disbelief. "M-my help? What good am I?"
"You're a strong hearted lion, Nira. You put yourself down too often, you are strong, I know you are. Even if others can't see it I see a strong lion inside you."

"Thanks gramps..." Nira replied half heatedly. The dim furred lioness stood next to him frowned.
"I agree." She replied. "I know there's a strong lion within you. You need to find him first."

"We all know you're strong Nira," Kovu added. "You just have to believe it yourself."
"But I'm not."

"I think you are." Shemba sighed, nuzzling into his developing mane. "And I always will"

Nira still didn't believe what he was being told, he never could call himself strong. He had always seen himself as a weak hearted lion. His forelegs and underbelly were scrawny, he thought himself as unattractive he was most likely underweight, he had no courage, no self confidence, his stamina was low. Never in his entire life would he be able to call himself a proper lion.

Simba stepped over to his injured mate, nuzzled her lightly and looked into her eyes.

"Nala, I need you to stay here and watch the cubs. We'll be back before you know it to collect you."
"okay." She replied almost inaudibly. As they continued to nuzzle the brown lion Nira pulled away from the nuzzle he was sharing with Shemba.

"What's wrong?" She sighed.

"Shemba, I want you to stay here. I don't want you coming. I can't risk losing you."

Shemba shook her head. "No, no I have to fight! That's my brother, I need to help you."

"Please, no. I don't want to watch you die."

"Look: Nira, all I want to do is help. I won't die."

"Please! I just can't risk it! It's because I love you, not because I'm against you."

"I love you too, that's why I want to fight!"

"Just stay here! Please. For me. Please."
"Nira...I just-" Shemba couldn't stand to see the misery in Nira's eyes. She knew she had to fight, but if it was going to hurt him this much she wouldn't risk it.

"Fine. I'll stay here. Please be careful, don't get injured or killed. I love you."

Nira licked the side of his mates muzzle, feeling relaxed knowing she was in safety. Shemba, however, exhaled out of worry. This couldn't possibly end well.

Simba pulled away from his nuzzle with Nala and also licked her muzzle.

"I love you Nala. Never forget that."

"I won't. You know I love you too."

Simba stepped away from Nala, nodding to Nira and Kovu and stepping to the log exit, promptly followed by the father and son. The cubs stared at their father and brother, both feeling the same amount of concern that Shemba did.

()0()0()

The three lions moved hastily through the long grass, cracking and clicking it almost ever paw print they made. Nira continued to remain frightened, the only thing on his mind was death. All of their deaths could occur tonight, all of them. The naive lion was still unsure to the great powers this Scar figure possessed. He couldn't work out why he was so well known.

"Dad," Nira whispered while continuing forward. "Dad?"

"What?" Kovu grumbled, keeping his eyes firmly locked on Pride Rock.

"What was so great about Scar anyway?"

Simba, unable to quite understand what his grandson had just uttered, flipped over and addressed the much younger lion.

"He was only the most powerful dictator in the whole of the Serengeti." He told him. "He had manipulation skills like you wouldn't believe, he killed pretty much anything. He was a nasty piece of work."

"God, but I still don't understand..."

"Nira, can we save the twenty questions until we return home?" Kovu snapped. "Focus, boys!"

The lions remained silent once more, stalking further and further through the long grass. The tension Nira felt was killing him, he wanted to just sprint back and hide in the bushes. But he had to prove to himself and his pride, he was a strong lion.

Simba lifted his muzzle slightly to sniff around and check that he wasn't there. When he was certain he lifted his head out of the grass, only to see the charcoal furred lion sprinting up to them.

"Nira, Kovu," He whispered. "Look up."

The two lions followed his instructions also to notice what he had.

"Fuck!" Nira exclaimed. Kamba hopped into the long grass, cackling darkly as he did. The other three lions remained still, searching for what they couldn't find. Kamba's brief cackles were heard infrequently and his whereabouts unknown.

"So," the dark voice from Kamba cackled. "You decided to trespass eh?"

"You know these are not your lands." Simba growled, still unable to get the location of the charcoal lion.

"I disagree, your highness. I do believe that they are my lands now. Isn't that just wonderful?"

"Don't you dare call them your lands."
"Your right, they're not mine. Nor are they yours. They're Scar's."
"How dare you..."

"Perhaps you'd be able to threaten me if you could see me, eh?"

Suddenly the vicious lion, with a roar, sprung from the long grass and instead of attacking, sprinted back to Pride Rock. In an instant all eyes turned to him quickly speeding away.

"Get him!" Simba bellowed. The lions un-hesitantly proceeded to sprint after him, their paws crashing to the ground and picking up pace as they went. Each time they got slightly closer to him, they were unable to catch him. Kamba, being one of the stronger lions, had higher stamina and sped away more. Kovu and Simba grew tired quickly, but they couldn't give up. The safety of the pride and Kiara was at risk.

"Ha! Keep up!" Kamba yelled back. "Can't you catch me?"

"Get back you insane piece of crap!" Nira bellowed after, speeding past the older lions. Kovu and Simba were surprised, they didn't realise Nira had it in him to run as fast as he was going.

Kamba sprinted up the ramp of Pride Rock, dashing into the cavern and taking a breather for a second, thinking the others were far behind. Nira began to slow down as he approached the ramp, stopping punctually and breathing deeply. He was shortly followed by his father and grandfather, both who were out of breath. The three lion's wheezed and coughed, all out of breath and preparing for a struggle that would fight back harder than they imagined.


ANNND there's the second half :P Okay, here's the deal, my AS exams have officially dominated my life and they'll be over in about...hmm...two weeks. after which, I shall be entering A2/2nd year/upper sixth (I have absolutely no clue what the USA equivelant is) where I start dun...dun...dun CREATIVE WRITING :D