Peace for the Soul ~ A Lion King Fanfiction

Chapter 5: Trail of Desperation

"Alright guys, you all know what to do."

I turn to face my friends one last time,

"We will stand by you till the end, Kion."

We all hold each other's paws on our marks of the guard, as what could be our final goodbye, they then move to distract the hyenas guarding the volcano,

"Kion,"

I turn to see Umeme, just before I sneak into the volcano,

"Umeme..."

She leans forward and kisses me, slowly releasing and looking deep in my eyes,

"I love you..."

I hold my paw on her cheek,

"I love you too, and I always will Umeme."

Her eyes filled with tears,

"I just wish I would've told you sooner..."

I woke from my slumber, once again taunted by my own emotions. The moon was in the middle of its path, I know I won't fall asleep again, so I rise to my paws and begin walking, no longer caring about where I'm going, just as long as it's away from home.

The sun and moons path seem to rotate rapidly overhead constantly as my journey just kept on going, I had already lost track of how many zig zags I have made, so direction doesn't matter. The backlands was as barren as I figured it would be. By this point I haven't seen water in days and it was heavily impacting my ability to focus. 'How could anyone survive out here?' I think to myself.

My muscles aches from the endless path I was on. I grew more desperate for food and water every day. Unfortunately, the usual rocks that scraped away at my paws soon turned to sand that scorched them with every step, clearly indicating that I am in a desert. I lost count of the days I had traveled as it felt like I am being buried alive in my own regrets.

The Nightmares. They still won't leave me alone. Either of my Mom, my Father, Umeme, Scar, that plain with the cheetahs, I can't escape it! It feels like I was born to endure this pain, and these regrets. It was my duty to protect, what good am I if I can't help those I'm closest to?

I feel my eyes getting heavier by the second, that's when I see it. I see a green ridge line off in the distance, I don't know what it carries, but I pick myself up and push my body to run to the ridgeline, knowing full well that it may be my only hope to survive. I could only hope I was right.

But as I got closer to the ridge, it seemed to only get further away, especially when I thought I was really close to it. It's as if it matched every step I made, I didn't care. I needed some shelter, my life depended on it. After a short while of chasing my eyes became heavy again, that's when I thought, 'what if it was all a hallucination?' I roar as loud as I can in frustration, and trudged my way through the desert, not even holding my eyes open, as I know I will pass out eventually.

'Imagine you are in a dark cave, how do you get out?'

That single riddle from Rafiki has bounced in my head for days, possibly weeks, if only I knew how long I was out here. 'What could that possibly mean, it makes no sense!' But after all the course sand grinding at my paws, that's when I felt it, something soft under my feet. I don't even think, it feels plush and I slump to the ground.

I see myself running through a dark cave,

'Oh Kion...'

I hear scars taunting voice,

'You don't realize you've already lost...'

I keep running,

'You have failed your land, your pride and the duty of the fiercest in the land...'

'Get out of my head Scar!'

He chuckled maniacally,

'And Kion...'

I freeze as I hear a horrific shriek from a voice I know all too well,

'You will fail her too!'

I wake up near panicking, trying to hide under any shelter I can find, but to little avail. I crawl under an unearthed tree root and try to settle my breathing down. That's when I see it, I stumbled upon an jungle oasis. I guess I must have passed out once I got here, as the grass was really soft. Though the jungle mist and fog was thick, I got up and walked to a nearby pond, taking in the first water I had seen in a long time.

I felt the cool liquid run down my throat, into my stomach and bring life to my body once again, as the moisture from the air felt both cooling and cleansing to my fur. One thing leads to another, that's when I noticed how hungry I was.

I began to sniff the air to look for anything I can feast on. I picked up the scent of something strange, an animal I wasn't quite familiar with, I could tell by it's scent that there were multiple of them, but something was off.

I noticed what was wrong all too late...