A Quick Warning: This chapter does involve mention of blood.
It had been a few days after Kulua had told Hekima about the vision he had; and during which nothing had happened.
Another night had come to the Outlands for the two friends, but what they were about to face was going to change everything. Lurking under the full moon was a creature they had not expected to see, an amber lion with black mane.
"What is a lion doing in the Outlands?" Kulua asked Hekima confusedly.
Lions are prideful animals, and the Outlands is nothing more than a wasteland. Why would any of them come to such a place as this? This sparked a curiosity in the two followed in secrets.
They had followed him to the Elephant's Graveyard, it sent a chill down their spines as they knew who resided in this area. It was homed to the hyena Shenzi and her pack which reaches over in the hundreds.
The lion had made his way towards the giant skull that marks the place, where three hyenas had been waiting for him. They would had expected for there to be a bloodshed between the two, but there wasn't. The hyenas had allowed the lion to pass through and the four made their way into the skull and out of the cold night.
"What's happening?" Kulua questioned, Hekima shook his head not knowing what was also happening.
The two slowly approached by as to not alert the hyenas or that lion, they started hearing the voice of argument, "You know the plan, if Mufassa's child should be born, my reign will be taken from me, and you will not get what you want." The lion said to the three hyenas.
The two looked surprised at this, an alignment between a lion and the hyenas was something unheard of.
Hekima slowly step back away, unaware of the pile of bones behind him. Knocking them down with the sound of clutter, "What was that?!" Shenzi said shooting her head towards the exit.
The three hyenas slowly started heading towards where the sound had come from, leaving to find that no one was present.
"Aw man! No one is around!" Banzai said in a gripping disappointing tone as Ed simply let out a laughter. Shenzi look around to try and see if there could be any clue to what was with the noise, "Wait a minute." She said sniffing a couple of scent that didn't seem familiar.
She let out a growl, picking up the scent of another hyena and another creature, a feline. Though it wasn't a lion, she was familiar with their scent, but it was still of the same species.
Kulua and Hekima both charged away from the Graveyard as fast as they could, worried about what would happen if they had been caught.
"Did you hear what they say?" Hekima asked Kulua looking a bit nervous.
Kulua was trying to take a quick breather from the running the two did, Hekima was no exception to this though, "Something about Mufasa's child. Isn't Mufasa the king of the Pridelands?" Kulua said.
Hekima nodded at this, "What do we do about this?" Hekima asked Kulua, looking confused and nervous at what they had just witness. Kulua let out a deep sigh trying to come up with an idea on this matter.
"I don't know, not like we could do anything anyways." Kulua said getting a surprised look from Hekima, "What do you me-" he was saying before being cut by Kulua, "What could we do? This matter involves only the Pridelands, and even if we did something about it, not like they would listen to us. We're Outlanders, they would just chase us back before we could tell them anything." Kulua said looking depressed.
He saw the nervous look in Hekima's eyes, knowing he wants to do something to help the Pridelanders, letting out a loud groan at this, "Fine," Kulua said with a drag on to that word, "I'll think of something." He grunted.
The two waited a moment for an idea, but nothing could come to Kulua, obviously it didn't help with Hekima asking every ten minutes or so on if he came up with something.
They had been out for to long as it wouldn't be much longer before the sun would rise, they decided to wait till in the morning after a good rest.
They had soon come to Kulua's tree where he headed inside, "Goodnight Hekima, I'll see you in the morning." He said letting out a yawn before going to sleep.
Hekima looked at his friend with a content happiness, "Goodnight Kulua." He said before heading off towards his home. Though a bit of pain irks Hekima about what they had witness, 'Will the Pridelanders be alright?' he thought looking up at the stars.
Hekima's den was engulfed in flames, the sounds of scream could be heard as hyenas were running in fear; or at least all the ones that lived there were. Three hyenas in particular were standing with twigs in their mouth as they let out a sinister chuckle at everyone running in fear.
What was most noticeable about these three was that their twigs that hanged in their mouth was on fire.
"Why are you doing this? What did we ever do to you?" One hyena said to them, it was Hekima's father as he looked at the leader of the three who was Shenzi.
"One of your own had been caught snooping around 'OUR' territory! So, we decided to teach you all a lesson!" Shenzi said as she looks down at the hyena.
The group were cornered by the flames on one side while Shenzi and the others trapped them on the other side, slowly the two sides approaches the hyenas in the middle before a sound of loud crashing was heard.
Kulua awoken with wide eyes at the sound, looking to find where it had come from. He noticed that it was still nighttime outside, leaving out of the tree to look around for where the noise had came from.
He couldn't see anything out of the ordinary, 'Was that noise part of the dream then?' he thought to himself, but he had a feeling that wasn't the case. His eyes soon found towards a glowing light that shines in the night.
Towards the direction of Hekima's home, it shimmer liked... Kulua's eyes widen in fear, as he quickly raced as fast as he was capable of towards Hekima's den. 'nononono, this can't be happening' his mind was a jumble mess as fear and horror washed over his heart for his friend.
Kulua had managed to arrive at what he knew he had expected, the place was caught in flames. Kulua quickly raced into the place to find hyenas running around screaming in a panic, "Hekima!" Kulua shouted as he raced towards where he remembered to see him in his previous dream.
The smoke was harsh on his throat and eyes, but still ignoring it to find his only friend. 'Please, don't die!' he begged for anything to hear his plea. Arriving at a den that had collapsed, Hekima was caught under the rubbles of the caved in.
"Hekima!" Kulua shouted as he darted towards, seeing Hekima squirm under as he tries to make his way out, "Look out Kulua!" he shouted back.
Kulua looked confused, remembering this moment was when everything had gone black, he was not aware of what could happen here. It happened, something jumping down on top of him knocking Kulua down to the ground.
"So, you're the other one I smelled back at our territory." A rough sounding female said as she dug her right paw's claws into the bobcat's skin. Slowly skidding it across till it reaches the back, Kulua let out a cry of pain as the blood slowly came pouring down from the mark left by the assaulter.
"This will teach you a lesson on snooping around where you don't belong!" she said to the Kulua.
Kulua kept his vision on Hekima, though the pain was unbearable, it was not something he let distraught him. Rolling his body to try and get the one on his back to lose her balance, succeeding in doing so as he manages to knock her away.
It was the hyena he had saw, Shenzi. She looked at the bobcat with a proud satisfaction grin on her face, Kulu slowly made his way back onto his feet, the blood slowly seeping down from his forehead and to his right eye.
He wiped the blood away with his paw, turning his attention away and towards Hekima. "No you don't!" Shenzi said as she charges towards the bobcat, putting a few bite and claw marks in the bobcat's coat. He swatted away every time she had taken charge at him as he kept returning to Hekima to make slow approaches now and then.
"Stop this, just leave me!" Hekima shouted at Kulua, who only shook his head as he slowly approached ever more, blood staining a path from where he was first assaulted towards the caved in den that trapped his best friend.
"You're tough, I'll give you that. But also very foolish!" Shenzi insulted at the bobcat's determination, though he refuses to give up in trying to save him. His breathing was heavy, his vision was blurry, and he was starting to feel cold on the inside. He was slowly wobbling as he felt all his strength slowly leaving him, "I w...n't ...os..." his words were weak and hard to understand under his breathing.
Shenzi grew bored of this, making one final charge to finish him off. "KULUA!" Hekima shouted knowing his best friend couldn't survive another strike. Kulua let his muscles collapse on him to have Shenzi slam into the pile of rubble, hitting it hard causing her to collapse while seeing stars.
Kulua tried hard to regain himself on his feet, though it was harder this time as it felt like he was lifting a something that weighed heavier than anything he had lifted in his life. Blood continued to pour out faster, he couldn't tell how much blood was lost, or how he was still able to keep going, but he didn't give up in trying to save Hekima.
Starting to dig around the trapped hyena, hoping to get an opening big enough to allow him a chance to escape. Hekima joined in the struggle by wiggling his body around to hopefully help get freed, even while struggling with his wound along with the smoke from the now smolder and ember flames.
After a moment of digging through, Hekima was broken free before Kulua had finally collapsed from it all. His body hitting the ground with a loud thump, feeling pain coursing throughout his entire body but also feeling a numb and chill running along as well. 'Am I going to die?' he thought as darkness soon took hold of him.
Author Note:
Well, sorry it took a lot longer than originally planned to make this...
A lot of ideas had collided with one another in the making of this story, me and my editor (DeadlyCodes) had to go to a group of friends of ours and a very annoying someone who I made a bet with in the past that I still have to pay back.
Anyways, we had got the ideas all figured out about 3-4 days ago and had written it all down and sent to my editor who was then struggling to correct and fix it up nicely. This was not exactly an easy one for some reason, and even now I still have some doubt about it. I don't know why really...But at least it tell the emotion of what I was trying to tell.
Though you may think this is another Cliffhanger, we're done with Kulua's past for now! Next chapter is another dark theme with Kama...DeadlyCodes is most excited as the dark theme will be inspired by the author of another great Lion Guard Fanfiction I've read, though I was sad with what had happen to one of the character, it was still a great dark element story.
SpiderEye-'s story (Kion's Betrayal: Revenge of Kion's Pride)
I do wish him luck in life as he had a few bad events happen to him (He had mentioned in Conversation of his broken keyboard, cracked ribs, and lost work of chapter 16.) though I don't know him in real life or had any past events with him before recently with Wattpad, I had enjoyed his work none the less.
And a side note, my editor DeadlyCodes was also interested in your idea as well, said that it put a smile on his face...Sadly, for me not in the right area as it had to do with the chapter I had the least love towards... >.>
P.S. I will get you both back for this, DeadlyCodes and K13K! Even if neither of you two read my stories, I will get you both back for the taunting in our game.