[Request] The Dawning of a New Era

[SimbaKovu]

Character List (as of 12/18/2016):

@FlipMode: Vitani
@SimbaKovu: Simba, Kiara
Other character assignments TBD upon need or request.

Basic Premise: Shortly after becoming Queen, Kiara is confronted with accumulating public pressure for her to implement democratic reforms. As she tries to navigate these challenges to her rule, Vitani quickly emerges as one of the leading voices of the nascent reform movement.

Rules:
-Please be substantive with your posts (at least one fully-realized paragraph)
-Please write in paragraph form.
-Please make a good faith effort to maintain proper grammar, spelling, punctuation and sentence structure.
-Please adhere to the Basic Premise.
-Please write in the third person.
-Please ask the Creator before joining or introducing OCs.

That all being said, let's kick this off!

====================

Simba crouched down below the canopy of the tall grass. The creeping dawn sunlight had finally allowed him to easily spot a target, a grazing antelope approximately a hundred feet away. These occasional early morning hunts of his never typically yielded anything, and were more of an opportunity for the king to clear his mind. This morning, however, appeared to be different.

Simba crept forward, taking care not to create any noise that wouldn't be drowned out by the chirps of the crickets. He felt a crick in his hind left knee as he stepped forward and inhaled sharply. Another sign of aging, the king figured. He'd be getting too old for these types of excursions soon and Nala had already implored him several times in recent months to leave the hunting to the next generation, but it really wasn't about that. He needed moments such as these...

A twig snapped underneath his front paw. The antelope raised its head and peered about. Simba froze, and so did the antelope. For a good thirty seconds, no sound could be heard except the crickets in the distance. Simba attempted to lower himself further to the ground, but in doing so, his knee cracked once again. The antelope's head turned immediately towards the source of the noise. Their eyes met. And without warning, the antelope entered into a mad dash.

Simba instantly sprung up from his crouch and began sprinting after it. For a good minute, they both weaved in and out of trees and rock outcrops. At several points the antelope almost bested the aging royal, but each time Simba managed to regain his bead on it. His knee was not troubling him, so once the both reached a straightaway in the terrain, Simba decided to dig deep down for one more youthful sprint left in him. With a burst of acceleration, he hurdled towards the antelope, but something was wrong. As he lept towards its neck, the antelope had begun frantically skidding towards an attempt at a halt. In mid-air, Simba realized why: They had reached the edge of The Gorge.

Simba landed mere feet from the ledge, and had managed to grab on to the antelope's neck with his right paw. But he landed on his hind left leg, and his knee finally buckled under the intense stress. With a roar of pain, Simba collapsed onto his haunch, released his grip on the antelope, and began to desperately tug at the ground, hoping in vain that doing so would hinder his fall. It did not. He fell directly onto his back on one of the rock ledges below. He felt the numbness instantly invade his lower limbs. As he rolled over onto his front, the last thing he saw was a freshly broken tree limb headed straight for his abdomen....

[FlipMode]

It seemed like a normal day in the Pride Lands for Vitani, the dust from the tragic battle has started to settle, the disbelief to reality. Vitani had experienced losing family before, she recognised the struggle of trying to adjust to life without them, yet the bitterness her mother has instilled in her still lingered, maybe she was easier able to adjust to things than most and she had grown up priding herself on this and using it to her advantage.

Yet she noticed something a little bit off about Simba today as he had headed out from Pride Rock and into the surrounding areas, the King was getting older. Vitani wandered if Kiara had realised this yet or was simply hiding away from the fact that her father was getting older.

Deciding to trust in Simba; she had seen him fighting before and he could take care of himself well enough, she decided to stick to her own task of searching out new clean water spots that had started to appear after the drought during Zira's war.

But then she was stopped in her tracks, from just off in the distance a roar came crashing through the otherwise peaceful atmosphere. Vitani immediately recognised it, this wasn't a roar of pride and strength, it definitely sounded to her like a lion in pain.

"Simba...?" She said under her breath.

"Kiara! Your father?!" She shouted back in urgency to the princess, as she prepared herself to go and investigate.

[SimbaKovu]

A frantic cry stirred Princess Kiara from her slumber. She opened her eyes and was immediately blinded by the sun rising over the lip of Pride Rock. Kiara could make out what appeared to be Vitani's silhouette, and figured she had been the source of the cry. After the princess rose and entered into a brief stretch, she began making her way out of the interior of the Pride Rock den.

"Mmmmm, what did you say, Tani?" Kiara grumbled, as she groggily poked her head out of the den entrance way.

[FlipMode]

Vitani was used to being up early, her mother had always started her training early, often she would encourage her to sleep earlier to make up for the lost rest to have more time to train the next morning.

Yet there was also something she appreciated about the way the pridelanders started their days and being welcomed into the pride certainly had its benefits for her, while she still couldn't let go of some the habits her mother had instilled in her, she wandered if she'd soon be sleeping in more soon too.

"C'mon Kiara we have to go. Wake yourself up. Your father went out on one of his hunts a bit earlier and I just heard a roar coming from over there." She motioned her head towards some patches of tall grass just off in the distance. Compared to the rest of the environment, they stuck out a little bit. The two of them would be able to easily find their way.

She wandered if Kiara would trust her words after everything that had transpired. Maybe this would be a way to show the pridelanders that she had changed just as Kovu had appeared to. If nothing else it would be a way for her to get to know Kiara a bit more. She had always thought of Kiara as being daddy's little princess, but seeing the way she flung herself in front of Zira's attack and even tried to save her life, it was clear to Vitani that Kiara could be brave when the situation called for it.

[KovuandKiara]

(Can I play Nala?)

[WildSimba]

Look at the time the RP was being written, it's almost a year an a half old.