The Lion King III: Hidden Prophecy Part I

1

It was the middle of the night in the Pride Lands in Kenya, Africa. The moonlight shone over the savannah and illuminated everything, so that even the animals with bad eyesight could even see in the dark. Everything and everyone was so quiet that the place almost seemed like a gloomy battlefield where all animals had been wiped out due to a mass extinction or a bloody war. There was not a soul of movement within the lands because all animals were asleep. There was not even late night hunting occurring from the lions because they had been hunting all day the previous day and they had to sleep it off to prepare for the next days hunting session.

The king’s pride at Pride Rock was all peacefully sleeping inside the den without any sign of trouble of disturbance. They had all had a fairly rough day the previous day, because a large war between the Pride Landers and the Outsiders had occurred for the battle of control of the Pride Lands. The Outsiders had been getting the upper hand due to fighting advantage and the size in numbers; but Kiara, the daughter of King Simba, and Kovu, the son of Zira, had intervened and demanded for peace to be settled because both the Pride Landers and the Outsiders are the same kind and they should not be fighting between themselves, but should be living together in peace. Both prides saw reason and had joined together, where peace was finally settled within the Pride Lands.

Inside the den, Kiara was sleeping next to her mate Kovu. She seemed to have trouble sleeping because she kept tossing and turning in her sleep. She kept breathing heavily while gritting her teeth and shutting her eyes tighter at the same time as if she was in the middle of a nightmare. Kovu was sleeping almost right next to her, but he didn’t seem to notice her groaning or moving in her sleep. He was very used to sleeping through certain noises because once he got to sleep, he could fall into deep sleep within five minutes, and he could sleep through anything. The only thing that could wake him up was being physically touched. He was also so used to sleeping that he would often get grumpy when he was woken up before he wanted to or he wanted to sleep on. So he continued to sleep on and took no notice of Kiara’s continuous tossing and groaning.

Kiara continued to toss and turn in her sleep. This rarely ever happened to her because she would always fall into deep sleep and rarely ever experience dream sleep; but this was different. She could not take her mind off of the previous day’s events where she attacked and sent Zira, the leader of the then Outsiders, down a cliff and into the river. She attacked her because Zira attempted to strike and kill her father and Kiara was trying to defend him. In the attempt they both fell down the cliff and Kiara managed to hold on and save herself by clinging onto an overhanging ledge. Zira was not so lucky and fell down further to the wall of the gorge, where she struggled to hold on because the walls were so steep and practically impossible to hold onto without slipping off. Down below the river was flowing very fast because the water had broken through the dam wall of logs and so much water had been released that it had turned into a tsunami. Zira struggled to hold onto the gorge walls and prevent herself from falling into the fast flowing rapids. Kiara tried to help her back up, but Zira could not reach her as she was slipping fast. She then looked at Kiara with an evil smirk and said “No, never.” And let go of the wall smiling and fell into the rapids. Kiara just watched as Zira disappeared within the rapids, shocked at what Zira had just said to her.

Kiara suddenly woke with a start, gasping and panting with a worried look on her face after what she had just dreamt about. She looked around herself to see whether she had woken anyone up with how loud she was panting, but luckily she hadn’t because it was still very early in the morning and everyone was still deep in their sleep. The sun had not even appeared over the horizon as yet, but it was getting very close.

Kiara tried to wash these thoughts out of her brain and tried to go back to sleep, but she was so worried about the previous day’s events that she couldn’t even attempt to close her eyes. By attempting to go back to sleep she also didn’t want to wake the others up. But the thoughts were getting too much for her that sleep was not possible. The only option was to sleek out of the cave and into the outside without waking anybody. She could not think of anything else to do.

She slowly, with very sleepy legs, rose from her position on the hard rocky surface as quietly as she could. Once she stood on her four legs she looked around the cave to spot any sign of movement. There was the occasional groaning from dream sleep and movement to attempt to get into a comfortable sleeping position, but no one was awake. Seeing her opportunity, she slowly crept out of the cave quietly; looking at the others to make sure that no one was stirring; and walked out to the edge of Pride Rock.

Once she was at the edge of Pride Rock, she saw the sun slowly appear on the horizon. The morning sunlight lit up the entire savannah and made Pride Rock glow in a beautiful golden light. The sunlight even seemed to reflect off of Kiara’s golden skin and blend her colour in with the light. She felt the presence of the sunrise of the early morning and began to feel more comfortable with the light. She always felt the metaphor that the sunlight would put some light and comfort into your life and make you feel better; and it did for a few seconds; but she still could not get these dreams out of her head.

Why do I have such a bad feeling about what happened yesterday? She thought to herself. Is it that what she said made me feel fearful of her again because of another threat that might occur? And could she even have survived that fall?

That was what she was most concerned about. Zira had intentionally let go of the wall; and she was smiling as she fell into the currents. Kiara had a feeling that Zira knew that she could survive the avalanche of water, and that is why she let go. If she did survive, could she return and plan another attack on the pride?

There were so many questions that Kiara was asking herself that she found all of them hard to take into consideration. The only one she was focusing on was Zira surviving and further planning revenge. But before she could think any further, she heard the sound of paw prints hitting the ground and a voice calling from behind her: “Good morning, Kiara.”

It was her mother Nala, who had just woken up to step out into the outside and admire the early morning sunrise when she spotted her daughter sitting on the edge of the rock. Her eyes were still very sleepy and she was yawning, like she wanted to go back to sleep but just woke up in case of something urgent; even though it wasn’t like this. Kiara suspected that her mother heard and saw her walking out of the den and it got her immediate attention. Oh, great...! Kiara thought to herself sarcastically, thinking that she would reluctantly have to tell her mother what was going on. She always knew that her mother was an understanding person, but Kiara wanted to keep secrets sometimes. As Nala came closer to her, she thought about keeping her mouth shut and not saying anything; but she decided against it and thought that it would be best to tell her what was going on.

“Oh!” Kiara jumped in surprise as if she got scared of the sudden unexpected voice behind her. “Good morning, mother.”

“I’m sorry, did I scare you?” Nala asked, half amused by her daughter’s surprise.

“Not really,” Kiara replied. “You just surprised me.”

“What are you doing out here this early in the morning?” Nala curiously wondered. She was never used to seeing her daughter up this early because she knew that Kiara loved to sleep; and she knew that when she did get up this early, she always suspected that something was up.

“Um…” Kiara began. She had another thought about lying, and stupidly let it slip out of her mouth without thinking. “Nothing.” Great answer, you fool!

Her mother looked perplexed at her daughter’s answer, and she knew immediately that Kiara wasn’t telling the truth. “Kiara, don’t lie to me.” She said softly, “I am your mother. I can see in your eyes that something is up with you. I can also tell from the tone of your voice; plus you never usually wake up this early.” At this point Nala had reached the edge of Pride Rock and had sat down next to her daughter. Kiara looked into her eyes and felt guilty at lying to her mother. She decided to then tell her the truth when Nala said it for her. “Is it about yesterday?”

Kiara was amazed that her mother was able to figure out what her situation was, but it occurred to her that her mother already knew because Kiara was acting like this the previous day as well and her mother had noticed. Kiara then knew that her mother was very keen to find out what her problem was, and she might as