Chapter 2 : A New Scenery

A sense of wrongness was the first thing Abdul felt when he regained his senses. It didn't hurt in any way, but he was clearly not feeling well. It reminded him of that time when both of his foster-siblings had the genius idea to secretly drink some of his foster-parents' alcoholic beverages, and like the idiot that he was, he went along with it. On that day, Abdul learnt the hard way that he and alcohol didn't mix. The way he felt in the aftermath of that was pretty similar to the way he felt right now.

He released a loud groan, desperately trying to shake himself off his stupor. He tried taking slow, methodical breaths, in order to regain a semblance of focus.

He subconsciously pulled his right hand -which surprisingly felt much heavier now- to his head and began rubbing it, hoping that would make him feel better. It didn't help.

'Ouch ! No ! No! Bad idea ! Oww !' He took his hand away, recoiling from the sudden pain. 'Going to have to take this slow.'

He hesitantly reached his hand close to his head again, and brushed it against his head with a lot more caution. Though he did kind of flinch, it wasn't as painful as before. He brushed his sore head again, with slow and careful moves, trying to get used to it. This worked better, as after repeating the same moveset a few more times, the pain had begun to slowly subside, and now he could rub his head, with only some mild groaning as a reaction.

Though he had to admit, there was something different about the way he felt as he continued to rub his soreness away. His hand felt … different somehow. For one, he couldn't remember the last time that it felt so soft rubbing along his skin. Not only that, but it also felt quite … odd. Like he wasn't rubbing against skin, but something more … hairy ? It honestly felt like he was using some kind of really smooth brush, rather than his hand, to rub his head. What had he done to his hand to make it feel like that ?

Curious, he stopped his little head massage and decided to get a look for himself. He tried opening his eyes, yet they felt heavy, as if something was pulling them down. Huffing a little, he pushed on, slowly forcing his groggy eyes open. He managed to open them about halfway, with a small groan as his reward, though his vision was still quite blurry. He slowly blinked a couple of times, trying to shake it off. His vision now somewhat functioning, he scanned around the room he was in.

'Huh. That's odd.' Abdul was surprised.

Given that the last thing he remembered was the chamber in darkness, he had honestly expected to not be able to see much around him. Yet the room was surprisingly well lit, natural sunlight was somehow able to illuminate the area. Abdul guessed there had to be some way for the sun to make it in here through some opening he could not find. Taking advantage of his good fortune he looked around.

Abdul's eyes widened somewhat as realization dawned on him. This wasn't the room he had been in before. That chamber had been well underground, with no way for natural sunlight to reach, he had to use his phone's flashlight to make it through. Here, he could see just fine using the sun rays, meaning that he was much closer to the surface.

Also, while he hadn't paid much attention to the previous room, he had scanned it just enough to notice that the rock walls and rock formations in this chamber were different from the ones he had seen before.

'So then … Where am I ?' Abdul began to wonder with worry.

Having seen enough of the room he was in, he turned his weary look towards his funny-feeling hand. Once he laid eyes on it, they fully opened, all grogginess and dizziness having vanished all of a sudden.

There was no hand.

Where a human hand was supposed to be, Abdul only found a paw, covered in golden fur, with four little-white claws sticking out of it. Abdul felt his heart beating faster at the sight. Shaken, he tried to test if-

It moved !

The paw moved at his command. He could feel it, as if it was his own limb ! He tried lifting it off the ground, and the paw again moved at his will ! B-but that wasn't possible ! It shouldn't be …

Abdul, now starting to feel afraid, lifted his head. It took a bit of effort, but once he had done it, he looked to his left side. Another golden paw, with white claws greeted him. He looked behind him, and where a human torso was supposed to be, Abdul only saw a golden-furred side, with back-paws and a small tail at the end.

'A tail ? No. No. No ! This can't be ! This can't …' Abdul frantically looked around the room, looking for anything that might dispel this charade. He looked behind him again, and saw the pool he had emerged from.

Abdul tried to lift himself off the ground, only to fall flat on his face. Grumbling, he used his paws to drag himself towards the pool of water. To his horror, he noticed that even it looked different from the one he had fallen into.

It wasn't just that the pool itself was shaped water was no longer glowing. There was nothing anyone might notice which would make this pool stand out. Had Abdul not known better, he would have thought he had come across just a normal cave water-pool. But he knew better.

It took a bit of effort, his new limbs refused to cooperate with him, until he reached the edge and dared to look at the water. Unlike before, the water was crystal clear and he could see his reflection. At least, what he expected to be his reflection.

What actually greeted him was a golden-furred animalistic face. Not expecting the sight, he flinched and looked away with a quick yelp.

'W-what was that ?' Much more cautiously, he leaned down at the edge once again, and dared another look.

His mouth gaped at the sight of the cat-like creature staring back at him. A golden fur and sharp white teeth now decorated the figure's face. A pair of predatory, green eyes stared in horror right back at him. He moved his head around a bit. The creature moved with him. The reflection began to visibly shake.

'That … That can't be me !' Abdul took his eyes away from the water and used his new paws to awkwardly rub them. Then, he braved another look at the pool, hoping that the hallucination would be gone.

It wasn't. The animal kept staring back at him. On the edge of its eyes, he could see tears beginning to form.

Abdul turned away from the pool, not daring to look at it anymore. He began to sniffle uncontrollably, trying to hold back the tears he could now feel on his eyes.

"N-n-no." Abdul uttered through sniffles his first word in his new form.

'This … This isn't real ! It just can't be real ! You have to be- ' Abdul's eyes widened in hopeful realization.

"Dreaming." A small smile began to form on his face. "Yes. Yes, that has to be it. You're dreaming !"

But of course ! It had to be a dream ! After all, people don't just teleport to an entirely new place, or wake up in completely different bodies in real life, do they ? He did end up in an unknown cave, before he got here. An entire host of rational reasons could explain just how he lost his consciousness.

Perhaps he slipped and hit his head somewhere, or something along those lines. Oh well, he would find out whenever he woke up. This dream was proof to him that, at the very least, he was still alive.

As for everything he saw until now ? That shadow-lion, or the fact that he thought he drowned ? Why, figments of his imagination, of course. Him finding himself in a body that looked -now that he really thought about it- oddly similar to that of a lion ? The work of his subconscious, of course. He was a big Lion King fan, after all.

'Maybe a bit too much of a fan.' On second thought, if his subconscious depicted him as a lion, maybe he had to tone down his admiration for it a little bit.

'Oh well, a problem to solve for later.' He thought.

It was kind of interesting how someone's entire attitude could change seemingly on a whim. The realization that this was all just a dream, and that none of this was real, helped Abdul fight through the tears and the emotional breakdown that was about to overtake him. Now, he felt surprisingly calm about his position. Hell, even a little excited.

He took a look around again, now looking at the chamber in a new light, both metaphorically and literally. His inspection would hopefully help him shrug off the little doubts, in the back of his mind, whispering to him that everything that had happened to him felt far too real to be a mere dream. That something else was going on here.

'No, no. You're probably overthinking this. There's nothing to worry about.' He tried to reassure himself.

Surely, the voice crying out for help, and its owner, all of that had been in his head. He had just been overly anxious about his future, and his subconscious made the whole thing up when he lost his senses, as some kind of metaphor of him calling out for help, or something psychological like that. Surely.

'Should I go see a psychiatrist when I get back home ?' He mentally asked himself.

'Anyway ! Moving on !' He refused to dwell further on any self-doubting for now.

Having resolved the mental battle in his head, for the time being anyway, Abdul decided to tackle the next issue at hand. Or was it at paw now ? Dreams really shouldn't be this confusing, they were supposed to be fun.

He was in a lion's body. A lion's body he didn't know how to use. Weird, this being a dream and all, he didn't expect this to be an issue. He thought he would just … know how to do it. He chose not to question it though, lest he begins to question everything around him, and seriously begin to think that all of this was somehow real. He would simply learn how to do it. He had learned how to stand and walk once already. How hard could it be ?

Abdul placed his paws on the ground, ready to get up, as if he was on all fours. Then he applied pressure on his new limbs, and tried to lift himself off the ground. His legs began to wobble under his weight, not used to the pressure applied to them. Yet, when it seemed like he was just stuck there, he felt his body slowly rise from the stone-floor.

He couldn't fight the bright grin that appeared on his lips. His body was shaking, but it was doing his bidding.

'Yes ! That's it ! Just a little more !' He tried to cheer himself on.

He finally managed to fully stand on all his four legs. The wobbling and the shaking subsided a bit. His grin widened at his apparent success.

And then his front leg buckled under him, the weight simply too much for it to take. Like a house of cards -when a single card is removed, the whole structure collapses- so too did Abdul, with the little stability he did have gone, crumble under his own weight.

Once standing proudly tall, he quickly and suddenly found himself getting reacquainted -face first- with the cold floor. The occasion was marked with a loud thud, and with his grin now having vanished.

Abdul told himself that the wound at his pride was greater than the one at his body. Though, with the feeling of soreness he began to feel throughout it, he wasn't very sure about that.

Abdul's expression shifted to an annoyed frown. Maybe getting used to this new body would take a bit longer than he originally thought.

He quietly began to wonder what even was the point of this dream, that his subconscious had cocked up for him.

It had taken a lot longer.

The testing of his new limbs and muscles, learning how to stand, and perhaps most important of all, learning how to walk around -relatively- normal. All of it had taken a lot more time than Abdul would like to admit. And that was only timewise.

The whole process had been nothing but a brutal practice of trial-and-error. Learning how to stand and walk on four legs -he had found out the hard way that his new body could not support any kind of movement on just two legs- had earned him plenty of sore spots, and even a couple of bruises. Not to mention plenty of dirt-eating as well.

The whole thing had been a string of one humiliation after the other, causing a serious blow to his self-esteem -and seriously made him question how this dream he was in even worked- and the only saving grace had been the fact that no one else had been around to witness his embarrassment. Not that that helped much.

All in all, this was a turn of events that he had no intention of sharing with anyone -not even himself- ever, and would have no problem taking with him to the grave.

Still, the whole humiliation had paid off, since he could now comfortably stand up, and he could confidently walk around, only occasionally losing his step, yet quickly correcting himself.

Having sorted that out, he took a quick look around, wondering where his stuff had gone.

'Oh, right. Dream.' He soon realized, briefly laughing at himself. 'Oh man, it sure would suck if I lost my phone. I just bought that.' He was sure they were close to him in the waking world.

Satisfied with his brief search, he quickly got bored of the chamber. His eyes then turned towards the room's exit, small rays of sunlight shining through it. A small smile appeared on his lips.

'Well, since this is a dream, I might as well make the most of it while it lasts.' He began taking his first true steps in his new form towards the exit, and only stumbled once before correcting himself.

Once past the chamber's entrance, he made his way towards the cave's mouth, following the natural sunlight. His guess had been correct. This place was much closer to the surface. He could vaguely see the exit from where he was.

Getting impatient, he picked up the pace, wanting to leave this cave as fast as possible. He nearly tripped a couple of times along the way, yet he didn't fall. He briefly smiled at himself, he was finally getting used to this.

Soon, he exited the cave, and stopped dead in his tracks, his mouth agape. He was no longer in the forest, that was for sure.

He had been on a safari tour once with his foster-family, when he had been younger, and the scenery reminded him exactly of that. It had really been like he had been transported somewhere in the wild savannah. He looked around the open valley he was in with excitement, taking in all that the scenery had to offer him.

'This is so awesome !'

Suddenly, he felt his ears pointing upwards, towards the air, becoming more sensitive towards an unexpected sound. The loud chirping and honking of birds broke him from his exploration. Curious, he looked upwards, and his eyes widened in surprise. He had expected to see a small flock of them, at most, up in the sky. What he actually saw was flocks of them, big or small, different species and whatnot, in numbers simply impossible to count.

Aside from the fact that so many different avian species were gathered in such a close space -he was quite sure that some of them were even predatory ones, who would usually hunt other bird prey, how they seemingly got along without issue he couldn't tell-, was the fact that they were flying in a straight line, towards a specific direction. This was not normal avian behaviour.

'That's odd.' Abdul pondered. 'Where are they going ?'

He followed their pathing with his eyes. Their flight took them over a hill, beyond the valley he was in. Curious, and with nothing better to do at the moment, Abdul decided to follow behind. Maybe they were going somewhere interesting ?

Abdul made his way towards the hill, and began climbing it, nearly tripping over himself at least once. As he was reaching the top, however, he felt his ears subconsciously pointing forwards this time -it still felt weird when they did that- trying to make out the new stream of different sound he began to hear, that grew louder as he closed in on the top.

Some sounds he could recognise, like antelopes and zebras, while others were completely foreign to him. Yet all sounded like they came from a wide arrangement of animals of the savannah. Maybe he was close to a herd or something ?

Determined to see for himself, he sped up, quickly closing the gap, and reached the hill's top. Abdul's jaw dropped at the sight in front of him, while his ears fell back.

'What the …'

This was so much more than just a herd. Beneath him, as far as his eyes could see, a seemingly endless row of animals flowed like a river, all heading towards the same direction. Adding the birds flying over them, it appeared as if the entire fauna of the savannah was on the move, towards an unknown destination. All the animals were releasing their own kind of sounds, which when mixed together, let out a strange cacophony, which reached Abdul's ears.

Abdul was too stunned to complain about the sound. He looked around aimlessly, taking in the unnatural sight in front of him with his mouth agape.

'What is going on here ?' He took a few steps down the hill, weary of any animals that might get too close to him.

He suddenly noticed the animals' sizes. Huh, that was strange. The closer he got, the bigger they seemingly got. Abdul looked at his new body, then back at the herds. His eyes widened in realization.

'I'm not just a lion.' He understood. 'I'm a lion cub.' Suddenly he felt a lot more vulnerable with all these adult animals around him. He had seen a few documentaries, and he had learned that some prey-animals had a tendency to kill predator-cubs, if given the chance. Something about "taking out future-threats" according to the documentary.

'Why would things be different here-'

Abdul immediately shook his head, trying to chase away such grim thoughts. What was he thinking ?

"Snap out of it !" He mumbled to himself. "This is a dream ! And you can't get hurt in a dream !" He assured himself.

So why did he still feel so uneasy ?

"Come on, mom ! We're going to be late !" Abdul flinched hearing those words, and turned towards his left.

He saw two giraffes at a small distance from the rest of savannah animals. One clearly much younger and much smaller than the other, and was further ahead, waiting anticipatorily for its fellow companion to catch up.

"Slow down, sweetie." The older giraffe laughed. "We still have plenty of time. The ceremony won't start until all the King's subjects are present."

"I know, mom." The female giraffe answered. "But I just can't wait to see the new heir." She slowed down a bit, so that her mother could catch up.

Abdul suddenly felt very small, as the two giraffes passed by in front of him. Even the one that was supposed to be a child, practically towered over him. The mother, meanwhile, might as well have been a skyscraper compared to him. He did not like this new perspective, that was for sure.

His heart was beating harder. He subconsciously felt himself crouching down, trying to make himself look as small as possible, while his ears were glued to his head. The two giants passed by, not sparing a look towards him. If they saw him, they didn't care enough to show it.

"Hey, mom. If we hurry, do you think we might find a good spot to watch the ceremony ?" The child asked. "I really want to get a good look at the lions."

"Dear." The mother laughed. "I think that we'll have a good view, no matter where we stand." She pointed towards herself with her head.

The daughter looked at herself in return. "Oh, right." She chuckled at that. "But still, that doesn't mean we can't find a good spot to watch."

"It certainly doesn't." The mother giggled. "Follow me." She picked up speed, and the daughter followed suit, laughing along the way.

Abdul released a breath he didn't know he had been holding, and visibly relaxed.

'What ? Was ? That ?' He asked himself between breaths. What kind of dream was this ? Unconscious or not, he certainly hadn't had any dreams before where animals could actually talk. Or were attending … ceremonies. From their king …

"Wait a minute." He said to himself. He sat down on his haunches and thought about the words the giraffes had said to one-another. Really thought about them.

'King. Ceremony. Heir. Lions. Why does that sound familiar ?' He pondered. What could get him to imagine something like this. The only instance he could think of which included all these words were ... His eyes widened.

'H-hold on a moment.' "It couldn't possibly be …" He looked at the wave of animals in front of him. All of them had been heading in the same direction. The only time he remembered where something similar had happened was …

He stood up, his heart beating once again, only this time, instead of fear he felt, excitement. His ears perked up and a smile was plastered on his lips. There was only one way to test if his theory was actually correct. Without missing a beat, and with a small liveliness in his steps, he made his way towards the direction the herds were headed towards, keeping his distance from them, of course.

As he kept on a steady pace, he chanced a look towards the animals of the savannah. He saw a pack of zebras trotting, and the song from the movie started to play in his head.

"From the day we arrive on the planet.

And blinking step into the sun."

His gaze turned towards the sun. It was well in the sky by now. Oh, if only he could have seen the sunrise. It would have gone perfectly with the opening of the song. Oh well, nothing could be done about it now.

He marched on, picking up speed now, getting more impatient by the minute.

"There's more to see than can ever be seen.

More to do than can ever be done."

From the corner of his right eye, he saw a couple of cheetahs run past him and the rest of the packs. Huh, the original intro had only shown one of those, only to vanish from the film as quickly as it appeared. He found it a little peculiar, wouldn't a dream show its dreamer things they knew from memory, lest the dream fall apart ?

He mentally shrugged it off. Right now, it wasn't at all important. He picked up his pace, going into a heightened trot.

"There's far too much to take in here.

More to find than can ever be found."

He saw a pack of elephants to his left, and alongside them … a small pack of leopards ? Granted, they seemed to keep their distance from each-other, but the fact that they sort of got along, at least for now, was nothing short of impressive. So, if the ceremony he had heard about was what he believed it was, it was apparently more important than the movie gave it credit for.

He broke off from the rest of the herds, seeing them bottling up between two hills, in order to pass through.

"But the sun rolling high. Through the sapphire sky.

Keeps great and small on the endless round."

Abdul, not wanting to get trampled, decided to go to the hill in front of him. As he climbed, he began to sprint to the top, no longer able to hide his anticipation. The toothy grin plastered on his lips refused to go away. His heart was beating stronger than ever since he woke up today.

He was almost to the top now. He was so close. This was it. This was the moment of truth. Abdul got to the top of the hill, ready to see if his expectations had been correct. His eyes widened and his jaw practically reached the ground beneath him.

"It's the circle of life."

Abdul froze in place, too stunned and shocked to do anything other than gaze at the sight in front of him.

Pride Rock.

There was no mistaking it. There was no other natural structure that looked like that. Over there, into the distance, stood Pride Rock. As if taken straight from the Lion King movie and placed there.

Abdul sat on his haunches, for if he stood a moment longer, he didn't trust himself not to faint.

'Pride Rock. Pride. Fucking. Rock. That must mean … I'm in the Pridelands ! I'm in the movie Lion King !' Abdul's stunned expression turned into an ecstatic one.

"Eeeeep !" He felt a little embarrassed, but he couldn't help himself from getting giddy at the mere thought that he was in his favourite movie ! Or at least, dreaming about it.

He quickly pinched himself. Strange, he still didn't wake up. Man, he must have really been out of it. He hoped he hadn't suffered a concussion or something. Still, he had never before actually dreamt of anything like this.

'Whatever kind of dream, or hallucination, this is. Please wait a little while before you wake me up !'

"And it moves us all."

'Wait a second.' Abdul took a look at the animals of the savannah gathering around Pride Rock. He could vaguely spot a lone lion on the edge of the platform. And then it dawned on him.

'This is the ceremony they were talking about. Where Rafiki will lift up Simba, and show him to all the other animals.' His grin widened in excitement.

"By Allah, there is no way I'm going to miss this !" He loudly proclaimed. He got up and took off down the hill, towards Pride Rock.

"Through despair and hope.

Through faith and love."

Abdul actually slipped and tumbled twice -man that really hurt, not to mention dirtying his coat- before quickly shaking himself off and running again, not caring much for his well-being at the moment. Right now, he only cared about getting as close as he could, to see this marvelous event of cinema-film brought to life !

As he ran, he caught sight of a lone bird in the sky, heading straight for the edge of the Rock. Abdul smiled and giddied a little. He would recognize that feather pattern and that beak anywhere.

'Zazu.'

He could see Zazu landing on the edge, and though he couldn't see past that, he could picture in his head the Hornbill bird performing his signature bow in front of Mufasa at the moment. He picked up speed. With Zazu there, that meant that the ceremony would start soon.

"Till we find our place.

On the path unwinding."

Abdul managed to get close enough to Pride Rock, now being able to make out more of its characteristics. Man, it was just like the movie. He could see all the animals of the savannah gathered around the platform's bottom, clearly eager to observe the ceremony.

Abdul, while excited, did not feel comfortable enough to get any closer. Though there seemed to be no hostility between predator and prey, for the time being, he wasn't sure how a bunch of skittish animals might react to a lion cub, just roaming around them.

He looked around and spotted a small rock very close to him. He hastily climbed it, giving himself an incredible vantage point, from which he could observe the proceedings, while staying far enough from other animals, which might have asked him some difficult questions.

Questions like, "Who are you ?" or, "Where did you come from ?" or, "Why is there a lion cub all by its lonesome ? Where are its parents ?". He would much rather avoid all that, if he could help it.

Abdul sat down on his belly and got himself comfortable on the rock's surprisingly smooth surface. The sight of a well-known mandrill, slowly but steadily climbing the rocks, trying to reach the top, clued him in that he had arrived just in time.

"In the circle.

The circle of life."

As soon as Rafiki reached the Rock's top, he practically jumped into Mufasa's paw, embracing him in a heartwarming hug.

'Awww.' Abdul put his two paws in front of his mouth, trying to suppress his giddiness.

Releasing himself from the hug, Rafiki turned towards the assembled crowd of animals, and waved his staff around in the air. All sound and murmurs from the crowd silenced at this. Strange, that hadn't happened in the movie, yet Abdul didn't complain. He was too busy trying to contain his excitement.

Then, both the mandrill and the king withdrew from the edge, vanishing from view. Abdul knew what was going to happen. Rafiki would mark Simba with that weird red juice from one of the fruits hanging on his staff. Then, he would take the cub and show him to the gathered audience. He decided to take a look around the crowd while he waited.

The gathered animals were pretty much all kinds of species one might have expected to find out in the savannah. Antelope, gazelles, elephants -oh those were giraffes, he briefly wondered if one of those were the mother and the daughter he had seen earlier- as well as … huh ?

Cheetahs, leopards, jaguars ? Those were … predators. Weird, as far as he could remember, aside from the lions, there hadn't been any other predators present during the ceremony. Sure, he had seen some before he got here, but he had expected them to vanish, like they did in the movie. So why were things different here ?

And were those ? Were those … hyenas ?! What ?! Abdul's eyes widened. What were hyenas doing here ? Weren't they supposed to be the bad guys ? To be fair, the other animals -even the other predators- seemed to keep their distance from them, so clearly they weren't exactly the best of friends, but still ! Why were hyenas present at all ?! Why was nobody doing something about them ?

'What is going on ?' He pondered. This dream of his had taken a bizarre turn. 'Maybe this is something I missed during the movie ? Something I didn't understand correctly ?' He couldn't figure it out.

The bray of some zebras broke him from his internal monologuing. He turned and saw the gathered animals looking up towards the edge of the platform. The sight of Rafiki carrying baby Simba was enough to momentarily push aside his questions.

'Oh ! Here it comes ! Here it comes !' He awaited with a baited breath.

Rafiki raised the cub up towards the sky.

"It's the circle of life.

And it moves us all."

All the gathered animals went into a cheerful frenzy at the sight of the new heir. Brays, roars, and all sorts of animal noises filled the air. A lot of them were jumping on their front legs in sheer excitement or hitting the ground, creating puffs of smoke in the process. He saw a pack of monkeys jumping up and down, screaming all the way through.

"Through despair and hope.

Through faith and love."

By Jahannam, even the predator animals seemed to cheer for the cub, barking and roaring in the air. Abdul was stunned. To his surprise, even the hyenas were seemingly paying their respects by howling, though they were clearly doing so much less enthusiastically than the rest of the assembled animals.

Despite this turn of events, Abdul couldn't help himself but cheer along in pure excitement and giddiness. He held his paws in front of his mouth, trying to suppress the sounds that no teen-turned-into-a-lion-cub-while-in-a-dream should ever be able to make, coming out of him. Here it was ! One of the greatest moments in the history of cinema ! Brought to life in front of his very eyes !

"Till we find our place.

On the path unwinding."

He saw the rays of the sun shining upon Simba. Man, it really did look like some kind of divine figure had personally come down from the heavens to bless the little cub. The sentiment was only further amplified, when the gathered crowd bowed, low to the earth, before the proclaimed heir. Even the predators, including the hyenas, though Abdul again did notice that the latter ones' bowing was clearly a lot more half-hearted and insincere than the rest. Though if anyone did notice, they didn't dare bring it up.

Abdul had the belief that, with that, the ceremony was officially over. After all, that was where the scene had cut, and the story moved on. But he was wrong.

He saw king Mufasa, and a lioness he assumed to be queen Sarabi next to him, moving together towards the edge of the rocks, close to Rafiki. Behind them the entire lion pride had gathered around the edges of the platform, plainly visible while still keeping a respectable distance.

Abdul noticed that there were a lot more lions around than what the movie had shown. And a lot of them had … manes ? Wait, those couldn't be male lions, could they ? The film had only shown two male lions around, before Simba came of age. Mufasa and Scar ! So who were those other lions ? Why were they here in the first place ?

'What is going on here ? This isn't how this happened !' He tried to make some sense of what he was looking at. This simply didn't make sense ! 'What kind of dream is this ?'

And who was that lion with the black mane-

*ROAR*

A loud and mighty roar interrupted his thoughts. He actually yelped at it, yet quickly steadied himself. That could only have been Mufasa. He looked at the Rock and lo and behold, there he was. He had to admit. For a figment of his imagination Mufasa, at this moment, was more than a little intimidating. And it wasn't just him.

Following him, Sarabi roared next to him. Then a lioness behind them. Then a lion. And another. Until soon, all the lions present were releasing powerful roars that sent shivers down Abdul's spine.

The disparate roars quickly merged into a symphony, until they sounded like a single, all-encompassing, mighty roar, directed towards the heavens themselves, in a show of ultimate strength and dominance. Abdul jaw practically touched the rock he was standing on.

"In the circle of life.

The circle of life."

That last part hadn't occurred in the movie either. Yet Abdul was simply too awestruck by what had just happened to pay attention to it. He was torn between being jubilated in excitement by the sheer awesomeness of what he had witnessed, and being extremely terrified of it at the same time. He wasn't sure which side would win out in the end.

As the symphony of roars continued, a single word was the only thing that dared come out of his lips.

"Woah !"

And yet, a not so small part in the back of his mind, began to cast doubt on him. It started to ponder, digging for answers to questions he had so far managed to push to the side. And he increasingly wasn't sure if he wanted to confront them to begin with.

'What is happening ?'

Translation(s)

Allah : God

Jahannam : Hell