Guilt and Fear-The Untold story of Zira

Chapter eleven: Zira's point of view

Zira had a terrible dream that night. She was back at her cave in the outlands with her father. She watched him as he paced. Back and forth and back and forth. She had come back alone. No mother, no sister, no brother. Just Zira and her father.

Finally, Jerahah stopped pacing and told Zira to follow him. She slowly dragged her paws out of the cave after her father. The sky was a dark gray, clouds rolling above them like dust in the gorge. Her father led her to a patch of clear land, nothing but rocks. As the clouds gave way to rain that started to spill, Zira noticed that as the drops hit the rock, they turned a crimson red, the color of blood. The red liquid then formed three paw prints, one was bigger than the other two.

Zira couldn't stand this. She tried to hold her tears, looking down at her paws. But on her paws were the same red liquid, haunting her and drowning her in guilt.

"Now look what you've done, Zira." Jerahah's voice came from behind her. "Your mother and siblings are both gone." He put his head down to where his eyes met hers. Hatred shot from Jerahah's eyes, piercing Zira like a sharp rock. "Because of you." He turned around to leave.

"Daddy?" Zira asked, following after her father.

"Stay, little one." Her father said, turning back to Zira. "You are no daughter of mine."

Zira couldn't hold it back any longer. She bawled, placing her paws on the rock. "I'm sorry, mother!!! I'm so sorry!!!! It..." She sniffled. "it's all my fault. Just please..." She pressed her paws on the crimson paw prints. "I just want you to come back. Please come back, Mommy. You and Almasi and Mabaya, please come back..."

And that was all Zira could remember of her dream. Scar shook her awake, a worried look in his eyes. Zira knew that she had been talking in her sleep. "Sorry, Scar..." She said, sitting up. "I had a dream about my mother and siblings. I didn't mean to worry you."

"No need to be sorry, Zira." He answered. "I've been having dreams of mother and Mufasa as well." He hung his head. "Why can't the circle of life ever rule in our favour?"

"Just because it isn't now..." Zira snuggled into Scar, trying to make him feel better. "Doesn't mean that it can't ever rule in our favour." Scar looked at his friend. "My mother told me that one day, she hoped that someone would come into the pridelands and bring peace, and give a home to all the rogues, welcome the Outlanders, maybe even make peace with the hyenas." She looked out at the entrance to the cave. "that was always her dream. I wanna make it come true."

"Maybe we can." Scar said. "My mother always wanted to see her family again, the Outlanders. She hasn't seen her sister, Kifaa, since she left the outlands with her mother. Kifaa was a full grown lioness, she could make it on her own while mother had to move. When mother's mother died, her stepfather forbid her from going to the outlands, therefore forbidding her from seeing Kifaa."

"Maybe we could find Kifaa?" Zira asked. Scar looked at her funny. "We could stay with her until we're old enough to live on our own, and that would kind of be like helping your mother get her wish."

Scar smiled at his friend. "That's a great idea, Zira." He started walking out of the cave. "Come on, I may have an idea on where she is."

Both of the cubs ventured out into the cold of the night, leaving all they had ever known, all the farmiliarity of the borders of the outlands, and journeyed towards the heart of the outlands, following clues from Uru's stories and journeying farther and farther away from the border. They were searching for any sign of life in a world completely alien to both of them.

Zira was determined to find Kifaa, as not only would it help Scar accomplish something his mother always wanted to do but never could, but she also wanted to get as far away from her old home as she could. She wanted no risk of Jerahah finding her and making her return to that horrendous place, not when they were the only two there.

Farther and father the two journeyed, slipping and creeping through the shadows of the night.