The Lion King Origins: Book One

36| Clues

•Nama•

Making our way deeper into the African Plains, both of our search parties began to make our separate ways. Father turned to Kion.

"Alright, here is where we will split off. We will search for about an hour, once finished we will come back together and see what we've all come up with Go it?" He said loudly.

Uncle Kion nodded. "Got it. Quickly everyone, this way!"

He led his group to another area to the left of us. We took the right route, following behind father's tail. We all began to sniff around and scan our eyes across different parts of the lands. We made our way to the border between the Pride Lands and Out Lands. The eerie feeling that it gave off caused me to shiver in my tan fur.

"Hmmmm.." Father said, pacing and sticking his nose to the ground. Mother and the rest of us stood aside.

"Anything?" Mother asked.

He shook his head. "No, their scent smells very faint around here. Odd.."

Tau pointed with his paw. "Hey look!"

We all turned our heads and saw that on a large and half broken tree branch, claw marking were slashed inside of the dark wood. Beneath it also, a strong smell hit my nose.

"Oh no, they're beginning to claim territory again." I sighed as we ran up to the branch.

Father growled angrily. "Those little pests! They won't stop until their entire clan is killed! I should go into the Out Lands right now and kill them myself!"

I placed my paw on my chest by his sudden snap of anger. Tau and Leo stood shocked, along with the two other lionesses who joined us. Mother calmly walked up and placed her head underneath his chin.

"Kovu you must calm down. This is what they want, for us to be on edge. They seem to have our attention and that's just building them up more."

Father pulled away from mother, still feeling angry and upset. "No Kiara, I can't calm down. This is becoming too
much to handle. This not only affects us but the entire Circle of Life as well. We have to find them now or we are all going to get wiped out. This isn't the time to think that everything is alright when it clearly isn't."

With that, Father stormed off. I knew deep down he felt bad for yelling at my mother like that, he's just stressing that's all. Leo walked up to mother and hugged her, she cried a few tears into his mane.

"Your father is slowly giving up. Being a King has been impacting him in such a huge way. I don't want us or our Pride to go unprotected and harmed. The hyenas are getting to him. He's becoming more tired and out of energy." She said, wiping her reddish brown eyes.

"Shhhhh mother it's okay." I soothed her, rubbing circles on her back. "Everything will work out. Right now we all just have to work and come together as one. Father is just stressing about this. He didn't mean to snap at you like that, I know it."

She sniffled. "Okay. Thank you both." She hugged us, while Tau stood in the background smiling.

As time passed, Leo decided to take over the team since father never returned. I stood by my mother's side the whole time, since she was clearly worried about him. We didn't come up with much more evidence, just that the hyenas were clearly grasping our attention. When the groups rejoined, we saw father speaking to Uncle Kion. Mother breathed a sigh of relief and father refused to make eye contact woh her.

We came to the conclusion that sooner or later a war will commence. We just don't know when. Our Pride will have to make some changes in order to stay safe.

When we made it back to Pride Rock, we saw Lana standing on the edge of the promontory. She smiled widely seeing us return. She walked up to my brother and gave him a tight hug, along with me.

"Thank goodness you are all back home safe. How'd the search go?" She asked.

"It went fairly well. We can discuss everything in the morning. It's been a long night and we all should get some rest."

Lana nodded. All of the lions began entering the cave for bed. Father took his normal spot in the back of the cave, but mother chose a spot distant from him and beside me and Leo.

"Do you think you parents will be alright?" Tau asked me, laying close at my side.

"Of course. They just had a little fight, nothing too major. Everything will be fine." I reassured him, nuzzling his cheek.

"Let's hope so. Goodnight my princess." He whispered softly.

I placed my head over his two large paws, sleep taking over my body.

-:-

Author's Note: Hi everyone!!! This chapter was a bit shorter than the last one but I still hope you all enjoyed anyway. This book is getting so much better now, wouldn't you all agree?😆 I still have so many fun ideas and surprises in store for you all so stay tuned for more updates. Thank you for standing by me and enjoying my story writing, I love and appreciate all of my readers so much! I not only do this for me but for you guys as well! ❤️😊 Just thank you, for everything! 💞

-crimsonlips💋✨