Nakala

Chapter 2

Slowly Kion stirred from his sleep with his head pounding and his vision blurred. The last thing he remembered was the hyenas and nothing else came after that. He tried to get up, his legs trembled from the weight put on his paws. But through sheer will he stood up, determined to figure out what was going on. The rock beneath his paws felt similar to Pride Rock's. He figured that he must be there, brought back after his encounter with the hyenas. With a pained his, Kion rubbed his eyes and groaned in discomfort, the dull throbbing pain still in the back of his head.

Blinking with his vision now focused, it became apparent to him that he was certainly not at Pride Rock. He was in some kind of cave or at least something that looked like it. The ceiling above had large holes in it bringing bright pools of sunlight down on him. Unfortunately the ceiling was much too high to reach. As for the rest of the cave itself; it was obviously very old with dust covering his paws and the rock under his paws were cracked with age. The sunlight itself that beamed through had dust flitting about through it as well.

"Where am I?" Kion thought to himself aloud.

It was clear that he wouldn't figure that out until he got out of the cave. But there seemed to be no way to get out except for the holes in the ceiling. But the walls were way too high to scale, if he so much as slipped or a rock fell while he was climbing, he knew he was done for. Kion lion took some steps forward, stumbling a bit; he must have been out for a while, his paws felt tingly and a bit numb. But nevertheless, the Lion Guard leader was determined to get out of there and go home.

The further Kion stepped away from the spot he came from the darker it became. It seemed the actual inside of the cave was in much better shape than that spot he left behind. Still continuing forward, soon all Kion saw in front of him was pitch black. Even trying to use his sense of smell brought him no success. The only thing to hit his senses was just the smell of earth along with a stale, musky scent he could not identify. It made him scoff in frustration, wherever he was it was clear that no one had been through it for a while. He decided the best thing to do was press his shoulder gently along the wall, to keep his bearings.

"I can do this. I can get out of here. Wherever here is..." he encouraged himself. Keeping along the wall it began to curve and the ground beneath his paws was getting lower and lower. Was he going underground? Was he already underground? That would explain the high cave roof and lack of light in the cave. Did he fall down here and get knocked out? No, that didn't sound right to him. He would have woken up in way more pain and maybe would not be able to walk at all. There was no time to think about things like that. Going lower was his only option. The only thing back there was the dead end.

The wall he pressed himself against continued to curve away from him. He assumed this was the cave widening and certainly felt himself walking on a downward slope. Kion blinked, seeing what he thought was a flash. But that couldn't be right, he was underground. But as with a few steps forward it was clear to see his eyes were not messing with him. It was a small circle of light that broke through the pitch black. He picked up his pace, eager to escape but his mind was racing with questions. What kind of cave had light underground?

"The elephant graveyard's more interesting than I would have imagined," Kion chuckled to himself. "I'll definitely have to tell Dad about this."

The light was drawing ever closer and Kion felt the earth underneath his paws sloping down sharply. He kept his paws steady and did his best to prevent himself from sliding down the slope. After all he had no idea what was actually down there. The light was now in clear view. It was an exit. Kion's heart leaped with joy. He could clearly see the beam of daylight shining through. But that was not all he could also hear voices. Voices he could not recognize, maybe they could help him get back home.