Chapter 2

A/N: Hey everyone! Sorry for the late update. Wanted to see the Mufasa movie to see if there was any good bits I could use for the story. While I liked the movie and loved the music I felt the plotline was a little all over the place. Especially with how Taka became Scar. I might use some of the stuff in the movie for this story but I'll probably just stick with the books and the show.

Had a very hard time trying to put this chapter together. Didn't know how to make the story progress from point A to point B so I just decided to rush past the boring stuff so we can get to the juicy stuff. Sorry if this is pretty choppy. Not one of my finest works but it'll get better after this once we see a certain Lion.

Let's get on with the story!

Disclaimer: I don't own Lion King, I just own my characters.

Enjoy!

/

Zoe pulled her luggage into her room and shut the door behind her so her dad couldn't scold her further. She paid extra for her own hotel room so she could have some privacy. It was bad enough she was forced to be with her family for a whole week. She wasn't going to spend any more time with them by sharing a hotel suite.

Dropping her bag on the floor, she sighed and looked around her temporary home. It was a hotel room alright. Standard bed, standard dressers, standard bathroom, standard everything. The only thing that didn't make it boring was the color scheme of the rooms. The walls were painted a rich brownish orange and the wood trim had intricate designs carved into it.

She noticed there was a balcony that lead to outside where one could sit and watch the scenery. She went over to the doors and opened them up, letting the warm air hit her face.

"I'm definitely not in Denver anymore" she deadpanned.

The landscape was very beautiful. Grassy fields stretched as far as the eye could see while a few tress scattered about here and there. A few birds flew by as the sun slowly started to set, casting everything in an orange glow.

Suddenly feeling motivated, Zoe went over to her duffle bag and pulled out her sketchbook and sticks of charcoal. Just because she had to deal with her family for a whole week didn't mean she had to be bored to tears. Her colleagues wanted to see pictures of what Africa was like and what better way to show them then by drawing it out?

She went back out onto the balcony and opened up to a fresh page in her sketchbook. The sound of her charcoal scratching against the pages was the only thing that could be heard as she focused on capturing the scene before her.

Art was the only source of comfort she had growing up. Her parents were always too busy with work so she had to find ways to keep herself entertained. Every time she felt lonely she would create scenes in her sketchbooks and make up stories about what was going on in the picture. Her father thought she was wasting her time trying to make a career out of her hobbies but she didn't care. She had tried to please her parents before by doing what they wanted and she was miserable. It was either be miserable doing something she hated so they could be happy, or be happy doing something she like and that they didn't like. Since it was her life, she went with making herself happy.

It was hard pleasing others. There was no reward to it.

"That's quite the scenery you have there"

Zoe screamed and jumped from her seat. Dakari held her hands up with a weak smile.

"Forgive me! I knocked on the door to see if you settled in alright and when I didn't hear anything I came in to see if you were ok"

Zoe sighed and pressed her hand over her beating heart.

"At least you weren't my dad. He would have yanked my sketchbook out of my hands"

She picked up her sketchbook from the floor and checked that her drawing didn't get damaged. Dakari smiled as she looked at the picture.

"I see you have a talent for art. But then again it's no surprise since you were admiring the artwork in the lobby earlier" she said.

Zoe blushed and quickly closed her sketchbook. She was proud of her work but she always felt embarrassed and shy when strangers admired her work.

"I-it's not that impressive. I mostly specialize in sketching and painting. I've tried sculpting before but failed big time with it. My statues were so abstract that they would have their own category in how weird they were"

Dakari chuckled.

"We all have our gifts, dear. Just because we're not good at something doesn't mean we're failures. It just means our talents are elsewhere"

Zoe snorted and looked off to the side.

"Try telling that to my family" she muttered.

She quickly caught herself and put on a fake smile.

"You didn't hear me say that!"

Dakari looked at her sadly.

"I take it your family isn't fond of your talents?"

Zoe rolled her eyes and sat down on her chair.

"I'm sure my dad scolding me in the lobby was a dead giveaway. He's always been like that. It's either follow in his footsteps and make something of yourself or disgrace the family" she said.

"He wanted both his kids to become lawyers. My brother did what he wanted and he became the favorite while I decided to become an artist and smudged my dad's perfect image of a successful family. Doesn't matter what I want, I need to make my parents happy because they raised me and I need to be able to take care of them when they get older"

Dakari looked at Zoe sadly. It was obvious this poor girl was hurting. She acted like she didn't care about what her family thought but deep down she did to an extent.

Just then Zoe's mom entered the room. She saw her daughter sitting on the balcony with Dakari and sighed wearily.

"Zoe, stop bothering our host. You should be unpacking and getting ready for dinner, not showing off your little scribbles that you obsess over"

Zoe became angry. Leave it to her mom to jump to conclusions and trying to make her look bad.

"I was just talking to her"

"None of your excuses. Now let Miss. Dakari go back to her work"

She gave Dakari a weak smile.

"You'll have to excuse my daughter. She tends to have her head up in the clouds"

She gave Zoe a stern look.

"Get changed. You don't want to be seen with those charcoal smudges all over you"

She left the room and went to meet up with her husband. Zoe balled her hand into a fist. That was super embarrassing. She was 21 years old and still getting reprimanded like a child.

Dakari placed her hand on the girl's shoulder and gave it a squeeze.

"It'll be ok, dear. Maybe this trip will bring you all together"

Zoe scoffed.

"One little trip to Africa isn't going to fix 21 years of conflict" she said.

Dakari shrugged.

"People tend to find themselves when they come here. It's never too late to fix things"

She stood up and smiled gently at the girl.

"You'll have a fun stay here. I'll make sure of it"

She left Zoe so she could get ready for dinner. She paused when she reached the door.

"Oh before I forget. I brought you a little housewarming gift. Thought your room could use a little more decorations"

With that, she left to go tend to the other guests staying at the hotel.

Zoe peered into the room and saw a little statue sitting on the coffee table. Raising an eyebrow, she went over to it and picked it up. It looked like it was handmade by someone. It was a little wooden figure carved to be shaped like a lion. It wasn't the best looking thing but someone must have worked hard to make this.

Shrugging she set the statue back on the table.

"Will be better company then my parents anyway" she muttered.

She headed for the bathroom to wash up for dinner. If she had been paying attention to the statue she would have see it move slightly as it watched her leave the room.

/

Dakari was dead wrong about her getting closer to her family. Throughout the whole trip all Zoe's parents did was do fun stuff with Kevin. Yes, this trip was to celebrate him but they could have done family activities instead of Kevin related ones. Instead of sightseeing the wonders of the African Plane he wanted to go into the city and see what expensive trinkets he could get as a present for becoming partners in his law firm. They did a few tours but it was mostly one of the tourist kinds. The only animals Zoe every really saw was the ones she was forced to call her parents.

She just grit her teeth and dealt with it the best that she could. She only had one more day of this trip and she could go home where her paint supplies were waiting for her. The only highlight of this trip was all the drawings she put together while they were out. Once she got home she was going to turn them into colorful pieces that she would give to her friends.

Finishing up a sketch, she hummed in thought as she looked at it. It was a quick sketch she took of her family while they were out getting something to eat at one of the local cafes near the hotel. While they were all talking amongst themselves she decided to capture this rare moment where no one was fighting or ridiculing her.

She turned to the little lion statue Dakari had gifted her and showed off the sketch.

"What do you think?"

As one would expect, the statue didn't say or do anything. Zoe shook her head and smirked a little.

"I'm so lonely on this trip that I'm talking to a statue to keep me company"

She closed her sketch book and threw it on the bed.

Tonight was their last night here in Africa and her dad had something special in mind. What that was she had no idea but she was sure it had something to do with Kevin.

"Gotta spoil his favorite child" she thought.

She failed to see that the statue's eyes glowed slightly as it watched her leave the room.

/

Dinner was oddly pleasant between the four of them. Zoe's dad didn't make any insulting remarks to her and her mother actually had a decent conversation with her. Heck, even Kevin was being brotherly with her as he joked while they ate.

Zoe didn't know what was going on. Was this trip finally getting to them?

Her dad cleared his throat and got everyone's attention. He seemed to be proud of something as he looked at his family.

"I just want to say this has been a lovely trip. It's been so long since we traveled together as a family"

Zoe raised her eyebrow as her father spoke. Since when did he care about doing family trips? Vacations took time away from his work.

"I've never been more proud of my children. My son has become partners in his law firm after studying hard and winning his cases" her dad went on.

"I know this trip was to celebrate Kevin but I didn't forget about you Zoe. I have a surprise for you as well"

Now Zoe was confused. Her dad had been doing nothing all week but chew her out for her childish hobbies of drawing and he suddenly decided to give her a present?

Her dad looked at her mom with a knowing smile on his face before he turned back to her.

"I've talked it over with your mother and I've decided to give you a hand with your financial problems. I'm giving you a position in my company so you don't have to be a struggling artist anymore"

A pin drop could be heard. Zoe looked at her father as if he grew a second head.

"What?!"

Her father waved her off with that smug look on his face.

"We've let you carry on with this childish dream of being an artist but it's time to wake up. Painting can only get you so far in life. You need a real job to sustain yourself. Not painting pictures out on the streets"

Zoe glared at her father the more he spoke.

"I don't want that job so give it to someone else. I'm doing just fine with the job that I have"

Her father slammed his fist on the table and glared at her.

"Damnit, Zoe! When are you going to grow up and realize the real world isn't like one of your paintings?!" he snapped.

"Honey" her mother said.

"No! She's been coddled long enough and it's time for her to face reality" her father said.

He jabbed a finger in her direction.

"I've worked long and hard to get where I am. I didn't slave away to put you and your brother into good schools just so you could become a struggling artist! Our family has strived to reach for the top and be the best. Your brother did it so now it's your turn to step up. You want everyone to remember you as the black sheep of the family?"

"I'd rather be a black sheep then a mindless one like you guys are" she spat.

Her father shot up from his seat and glared at her.

"If you'd rather not be part of this family then fine! I'd rather have no daughter then a shameless one like you!"

Everyone looked at him in horror. How could he say that to his own child? Zoe felt like she had been slapped in the face. She knew her father didn't really like her but for him to admit he'd rather not have her was an unspeakable type of pain.

Standing up, she stormed out of the dinning area and headed for her room.

"Zoe! Wait!" her mother called out.

She ignored her mother. Why listen to a woman who wouldn't defend her own child?

She made it up to her room and slammed the door. Leaning against it, she let out a shaky breath as she forced herself not to cry. She was used to her father's cruel words. This shouldn't have been shocking.

Looking up, she saw her sketchbook that was on her bed. The drawing she made earlier of her family was staring back at her.

Angry tears pooled her eyes as she looked at the drawing. Letting out a frustrated noise, she went over to the book and tore the page out and ripped it up. How could she have been foolish enough to think she could capture a happy moment with a horrible family like hers?

She didn't stop at that one drawing. She ripped out all the drawings she made while she was on this trip and destroyed them. She didn't want to remember this trip. She didn't want to remember the fights she had with her father or the times her mother fawned over Kevin and not her. She didn't want to remember this family she was born into.

After ripping out all the pages she threw the ruined book across the room. The book hit the lion statue Dakari gave her and fell to the ground, breaking it to pieces.

She was suddenly pulled out of her rampage and she panicked when she realized what she had done.

"Oh no!"

Zoe hurried over to the broken statue and picked up some of the pieces.

"Dakari is going to be so mad when she sees this. She must have made this statue"

She picked up the Lion's head to see if there was a way to fix the statue. She didn't realize the teeth on the head were very sharp. One of the fangs sliced at her skin, leaving a nasty cut in it's wake.

"Ow!"

She dropped the head and looked at her hand to see it starting to bleed. Some of the blood dripped from her hand and landed on the statue's face. The lion's eyes glowed as the blood seeped into the wooden surface.

Zoe realized the room suddenly grew very, very cold. A hushed whisper echoed through the room as the lights started to flicker on and off.

"W-what's going on?"

The whispers grew louder chanting something in a foreign language to her. Zoe looked around trying to find out where the noise was coming from but couldn't see anyone. The doors to her balcony blew open from the sudden strong gust of wind from outside. Zoe screamed and covered her eyes as stuff flew all around her room.

She thought she heard the roar of a lion coming from outside. Cracking her eyes open she saw a black billow of smoke come from her balcony and enter her room. The smoke took on the shape of a lion as it charged at her with it's mouth open wide.

She quickly covered her face to protect herself as the smoke hit her straight on. She heard the lion's roar one more time before everything went black.

/

Everything hurt when she came to. Her head, her hands, her body. Everything throbbed with pain. Groaning, Zoe forced herself to wake up. Her head was screaming in pain. She must have really hit her head when she passed out.

As she woke up more, she found it was hard to move her body. Everything felt so heavy and off.

'Did something fall on me from that sudden storm?'

She tried to push herself up but she found that her hands really didn't want to work. They felt so off and…weird.

"Why won't my hands work?"

She finally managed to open her eyes. She looked at her hands to see what was wrong with them only to find out she wasn't starting at hands.

Instead she found paws.

Very, very large paws.

She freaked out thinking there was a lion in her room and tried to get away from the paws. However she quickly realized that when she moved her arms, so did the paws. She froze and slowly looked up where the paws went to and saw that the arms reached to where her arms were supposed to be.

"No…."

She moved her fingers a little to see what would happen and sure enough the fingers on the paws moved the same way she moved her fingers.

"W-what's going on?! Why do I have larges paws and-"

She caught her reflection in the overturn mirror and could not believe what she was seeing.

Instead of seeing her face, she saw a lioness.

Or rather she saw herself as a lioness.

Now totally freaking out, she screamed. Since she was in an animal's body her scream was turned into a roar. She covered her mouth with her paws and just stared at her reflection.

This wasn't real. She had to be dreaming this. She just hit her head really bad when she fell and now she was imagining she was a lioness.

"Just wake up, Zoe. It's just a bad dream"

She went to pinch herself on the cheek but yelped when she accidentally scratched herself with her claws. Since she felt pain that meant she wasn't dreaming and that this was real.

Zoe had turned into a lioness.

She looked at herself in fear.

How did this happen? How was this possible?!

She couldn't look away at her reflection. Each movement she made, the lioness's body would copy it.

This was a living nightmare.

Someone banged on her door frantically.

"Zoe?! Are you ok?!" her mother called.

Zoe panicked. Her mother couldn't see her! There was nowhere to hide in the room. She couldn't hide under the bed because she wouldn't fit and she couldn't lock herself in the bathroom cause she couldn't open the door.

Where could she hide?

She saw the balcony doors were still open from that strange gust of wind. When the door rattled, she knew she didn't have any other choice.

Struggling to her feet, she tried to work her limbs to move. She had to get away. She flopped over to the balcony and climbed over the ledge just as her mother burst into the room. Her mother looked at the scenery before her.

Her daughter's room was trashed with furniture thrown everywhere, items broken, blood on the floor.

And a lioness perched on the balcony.

Her mother let out a loud scream as she looked at the lioness, not realizing it was her daughter.

Zoe jumped off the balcony and landed on her side as she hit the ground. She struggled to her feet and ran off the hotel property with limbs she was still trying to figure out. Her mother ran to the balcony and watched as she ran away.

"Someone help! A lion attacked my daughter!"

Zoe could hear people freaking out as they ran out of the hotel to see what was going on. Some spotted her and tried to chase after her. She willed her body to move as she tried to get away.

She didn't see a rock poking out from the ground in front of her which caused her to trip. She tumbled down a steep hill, hitting rocks and debris as she went. Her head hit a large rock as the base of the hill that caused her to black out.

Her body landed in a river which swept her away from the hotel and towards the unknown.

Out where the Pride Lands were.

/

A/N: Not one of my best works but had to get the story moving somehow. What did Zoe do to turn herself into a lioness? Some crazy things are happening and it's only going to get crazier.

Please let me know what you think!

Take care!