The Fate of the Stone Lion

Chapter 6: The Itch

Stone watched as he saw Seph and Shadow looking at each other. They looked around and knew something was about to come, and even Stone felt it.

Since the time that Seph had joined them, Stone had become a full grown, adult lion. His father had begun to encourage him to start going on his own and experience things for himself instead of following him and Seph around. Of course, Stone refused. Why would he leave? Seph had given up everything to save him when he was a cub. He was forced to live with a pride of talking lions, which couldn't be the most interesting of things to do. As long as Seph lived with them, Stone refused to leave.

Stone noticed something that seemed to be pinching his belly. He laid on his back and used his hind legs to scratch it. His belly started to scratch more and more. It felt like someone was endlessly cutting into it. Both Shadow and Seph watched him carefully.

“Are you okay?” Shadow asked, while both of them ran to his side.

Stone opened his eyes and looked at both Shadow and Seph. “I-I'm fine. I think. Just itchy.”

Stone kept scratching and scratching. He was scratching until he bled and still couldn't stop.

“Stone! Stop scratching!” Seph screamed while grabbing his hind leg.

“Easier said then done.” Stone growled. He tried to pull his leg away from Seph, but he wouldn't allow it to nudge.

All the sudden the pain stopped. It was like there was a switch that someone had turned off. Stone was panting and bloody, but okay. “What was that?” Seph asked.

Someone chuckled from far away. The evil laugh grew closer and closer until it seemed to be just beyond the tree line. A man emerged from the treeline and everyone instantly knew him.

“You fools! You honestly think I was going to leave you alone?” the King shouted.

Shadow let loose a massive roar. “How dare you! I will have your head!” He bounded towards the King, letting his instincts take over. Shadow pounced, ready to tackle the King to the ground. Out of the blue, a large, full grown white tiger tackled him. Five other white tigers bounded out of the tree line and they successfully pinned Shadow to the ground.

Stone watched helplessly as they had his father in there grasp. This was impossible. The black lion should not end like this. He got up from his laying position and limped towards his father. Suddenly, something seemed to paint his vision in a red color. His mind started to hurt, and he felt all these cruel thoughts rushing into his mind.

The pain of it all was unbearable. He couldn't help but feeling like someone had taken out his thoughts and replaced them with someone elses. He let out a roar of pain. Stone looked at Seph, and his mind said one thing over and over again. Kill him. Kill him. Kill him.

Stone widened his eyes as he knew that his mind was being taken over by the King, and he could not allow him to take control. His translucent red vision took all color away from the world, allowing him to mistake the colors of his surroundings.

He felt the pain creep deeper and deeper into his mind, slowly attacking each individual section of his brain. He felt like a poison had been injected into his body. He looked at his father, still pinned under the weight of the white tigers. Kill him. Kill him. Kill him.

Stone couldn't help but feeling maybe, just maybe, there was a small chance that these people were the enemy. Shadow and Seph wanted to hold him back, to make him a piece of of there own game. He couldn't allow it. Stone looked back towards Seph, his eyes glittering with rage.

“Stone.” Seph said quietly.

An evil grin appeared on his face, and he got down low to the ground. He was obviously about to strike.

“Stone! No!” Seph shouted again, trying to show sense to the black lion.

The black lion crawled closer and closer, and Seph backed away further and further. “Seph, run!” Shadow finally shouted.

Seph turned in one quick movement and ran at high speed into the forest. He pushed his body past the point where it should have never been able to go. His mind kept on replaying one word over in his mind. Run.

Stone watched him, laughing at the fact that a human thought he could outrun the great black lion. He bounded off after Seph, and decided to toy with him before going in for the kill.

Seph looked behind him and saw Stone smiling behind him as he ran. Seph's eyes widened in terror as he realized that there was no way to outrun this creature. Seph cursed the day he threw the ball to Stone and taught him the correct way to run and get the fastest speed and acceleration.

He looked above him and into the treeline before grabbing a branch that was right in his running path. He grabbed the branch above him and the one above that. He continued to grab the branches, nearly falling out of the tree on multiple occasions. He looked below him once he was at a satisfactory hight, and he saw Stone sitting at the bottom of the tree, looking up with hate in his eyes.

“You think a pathetic tree will save you?” a voice that so obviously was not Stone's spoke. “I will knock down every tree in this entire forest.”

Seph watched him, worry in his eyes. What was going on? Why was Stone acting like this? It was as though something was controlling him.

“That's because something is.” Shadow's voice rang in his head. “Your Highness seems to have something controlling him. Something that it trying to make him kill both you, and me.”

Seph continued to look below him and saw Stone running towards the tree. “Can lions climb trees?” Seph asked quickly. Stone jumped just before he got to the tree and gripped it with his claws. He dug his claws into the trunk and moved a paw above him. He dug his claws into the truck and continued to climb.

“Yes.” Shadow informed, his voice full of fear.

Seph watched the lion get closer and closer to the top of the tree. His heart started racing as he looked around and saw no way out of this situation. He couldn't believe what he was going through, but he was proud to redeem himself in Shadow's eyes. He remember when he first took the cub away. He had ordered his archers to shoot at Shadow. He just wanted to keep his son out of danger. How could that be replayed? Had he redeemed himself?

“You have.” Shadow said, his voice full of sadness. It was obvious that Shadow had looked through this situation and saw no way he could ever make it out. On the inside, Seph was crying. He wouldn't show his emotions. He would die honorably by the hand of the creature he cared so deeply for.

Seph looked down and saw Stone almost upon him. The lion pounced, knocking both him and Seph from the tree and sending them flying to the ground. The lion dug his claws into the man and Seph let out a loud scream. Stone's claws dug deeper and deeper into his chest until one dug into his heart.

Seph's breathing slowed down dangerously, and he knew that soon enough he would no longer be able to circulate blood in his body. Black dots danced in front of his eyes, and he saw a bright light cutting through it all. The light invited him. He could feel its warmth radiating upon his body.

His eyes landed on Stone. He lifted a hand up and pet the lion on the top of the head. “I love you.” he said simply. He closed his eyes and tried to breath.

“Good bye” Shadow spoke in his mind.

“Good Bye.” Seph replied before his body drifted off into the warmth and became limp.

Stone lifted his paws off Seph's chest and moved away from the corpse. He had a stern look in his eye, but one tear streamed down the edge of his face. It worked it way down the edge of his face and dropped onto the soil below. For a moment, Stone's eyes turned back to there normal color of yellow.

“Good bye.” Stone said, before his body again succumbed to the dark thoughts.