Gone, But Not Alone (A KionxRani AU)

All I Need Is a Miracle

They were coming from all sides. Defeat seemed inevitable. If they took all the tuliza, what would would plant-eaters eat? If the plant-eaters were doomed, then so were the plant-eaters' eaters. The Tree of Life would no longer be inhabited by animals.

It was impossible; as it was, there were more porcupines than lions...way more. It didn't help that the porcupines were blending into the night easier, with their color and size. They were almost there, and some were already there. The tuliza was going to be lost.

Where it was to go? Well, that was pretty obvious: the only threat to the Tree. If they could just hold out a little longer, then maybe a miracle would bless them.

And that's exactly what happened.

~~~~~

In order to fully understand and appreciate what's about to go on, we must go back in time:

~~~~~

"Good luck, Angel."

With a smile, Rani made her way to Baliyo, vowing to protect him at all costs. She expected that she would meet Nirmala and Surak at where Baliyo was located, assuming they heard the scream as well.

What she didn't expect is how hard that would be. Her hope was that she would see Baliyo, Nirmala, and Surak all fending off the porcupines, and she would come to the rescue and be proclaimed a hero. Okay...maybe not that latter part, but at least the first.

Despite it being dark, she thought she would receive either a visual or audio cue. Maybe some more screaming, footprints, even fighting, but nothing was present. And neither was anyone.

At the risk of enemies being able to hear her and ambush her, she remained silence. She was tempted to call Baliyo's name, but ruled otherwise.

She was becoming nervous: maybe fighting brought them in a difference direction, and she already passed them. She looked around where she was to see how far she had gone.

She saw that there was a cactus, which meant she was pretty far Northwest from the entrance of the Tree.

"Shoot!" Rani whispered to herself. "I'm must've missed them!"

Rani decided to retract back a little bit until she was in front of the Tree; not going back to the Tree, but being in front with the same distance still remaining.

When she was fairly certain she was there, she still hadn't found anyone. She now faced another decision: Did she head toward the Tree or toward the border?

Rani trusted that Baliyo could mange to fight them back to the borders, so she decided to check the border first. Well, she did, and nothing was found.

"Alright," Rani semi-chuckled with a quick turn of the head. She couldn't believe she hadn't found anyone yet. Her nerves were starting to get the best of her as she was beginning to develop fear of the unknown. "Gotta go check the Tree now."

She would not make it to the Tree, but not because of an ambush or anything. When she returned to where she was just a moment ago, she saw a lion.

That must be Kion, Rani thought. After all, it had been quite a while since they broke up.

Not broke up like ended their relationship, Rani didn't think she could ever do that. No, broke up as in going separate ways. Wait a minute...that also sounds like were done. Bid farewell, Rani supposed, was the best terminology to use.

She arrived at Kion only to find that it wasn't Kion, but rather, it was Baliyo.

"Baliyo," Rani exhaled in victory once she arrived at him. "There you are! I've been looking everywhere!"

"Looking for me? I was looking for you," Baliyo told Rani, which was confusing. "Are you alright?"

That added more confusion to Rani's brain. "Why are you asking me if I'm alright?"

"Because you had screamed?" Baliyo answered, but it sounded more like a question.

"I thought were the one that screamed?"

At the same times, both lions realized their errors; it was neither one of them. But who was it? Rani had not seen an animal in distress along the way, and when Rani asked Baliyo, he replied, saying, "I didn't see anything either."

"Do you think it was Nirmala and Surak?" added Baliyo.

Rani shook her head left to right. "I don't think so. It came from Kion and I's left, which is, obviously, in this direction."

Baliyo looked around. "Wait a second! Where is Kion?"

"He's probably almost here by now; it's been a while."

"What do you mean?"

Rani recalled the events to Baliyo: "At first, we were fine, but once we heard the scream, he told me that his paw was hurting from running. I offered to walk with him over here, but he said he would rather have me get here first to help...well...you."

Baliyo understood, but he still didn't know where the scream came from. He thought he may be able to, though, when he saw Surak and Nirmala running toward him and Rani.

"Hey!" both Baliyo and Rani greeted Surak and Nirmala. Baliyo could see the worry on their faces.

Surak and Nirmala seemed to breathe a sigh of relief. "There you guys are; are you alright?"

Guess they don't know.

"We're fine," Rani said, "it didn't come from any of us. We don't know who it came from."

Surak noticed something in the corner of his eye. He walked up to it, receiving questions like "what are you doing?"

When he saw what it was, he became horrified. "Guys...take a look at this."

When his friends and family walked up to where he was, they saw it. It wasn't exactly footprints, but rather, it was holes in the ground, presumably made by someone running fast.

"Those are way to small to be from us," Rani announced.

Baliyo nodded. "Yeah, and they're way too small to be from any of the animals living in this area."

"Wait a second," Surak noticed, "those tracks look like-"

"A porcupine's," Nirmala finished.

Rani had a thought appear in her head. "Do you...do you think a porcupine screamed to divert us away from where they are heading?"

"I mean, there's no way just one porcupine came to attack," Baliyo added.

All four looked up at each other. "Oh my god."

They sprinted, following the tracks. One track met another, and pretty soon, there were many tracks of porcupines. It followed to the Tree and South of the Tree, the one place they didn't check.

Then, they arrived, and the sight horrified them. To their absolute horror, what seemed like thousands of porcupines were stealing the tuliza. In the distance, Rani thought she saw Mama.

Without speaking, they jumped into action, trying to fending off the porcupines who already entered, and trying to stop more from infiltrating. Then was when the Tree seemed doomed.

And then was when the miracle happened.