The sky overhead was violet with the setting sun, an early moon rising in the east and shining through like the white-hot prick of a needle.
Kiara was running...her paws hitting the ground frantically.
Gotta get away...gotta run, keep running...!
A bird was twittering overhead - the same young bird she'd seen while on her walk with her father, the one who'd been trying to leave the nest but had been discouraged by its mother.
The princess's eyes lit up as she saw her friend, realizing it was trying frantically to lead her to safety.
But what am I running from? I don't hear anything...
"RRROOOAAAAWWWWRRRRRR!"
Kiara felt a thrill of horror as she heard a powerful roar that echoed across the Pridelands...it sounded oddly familiar, but at the same time, intense and frightening.
She kept her eyes on her bird friend, her eyes widening as she saw faces in the clouds...the Great Kings of the past, glaring down at her in disapproval.
"Look behind you, Princess Kiara," growled a deep voice. The shape of a powerful lion appeared among the clouds, its yellow eyes glowering sharply down at her.
"...Daddy?" Kiara breathed incredulously, before the powerful figure shook its head.
"Face your fear, NOW!" the deep-voiced lion commanded in a roar. "The fate of your father's kingdom depends on it!"
Kiara let out a whimper, her ears flat as she turned around...
...to see Pride Rock.
"H-Huh?" Kiara murmured, not understanding at first what she had been so afraid of.
Pride Rock stood still, tall and sturdy as ever...but something felt different about it. The mood of Kiara's dream was tainting the way she saw what would ordinarily be the familiar sight of home and making it into something terrifying.
The sky behind it was purple, and lilac-colored clouds swirled in an unnatural spiral, with the tall, imposing mountain in the center.
Distant voices chanted...the voices of the kingdom's subjects, beckoning her back towards the vast rock tower...back to the life that had been chosen for her before she was even born.
And Pride Rock's shadow seemed to slowly be getting bigger and bigger, starting to dwarf everything else around her.
"NOOOO!" Kiara screamed, her paws flailing at nothing as the vast shadow finally swallowed her, trapping her in darkness.