A/N: Okay, this chapter is now the longest chapter, by such a huge margin it's beyond ridiculous. At well over 8000 words, this is long enough to be its own story. However, as you've probably noticed, the chapters aren't organized as much by length, but more by events and ideas.
Believe it or not, most of this is actually just fluff. It's as fluffy as a bowl of marshmallows, but it's necessary fluff. Well, when I say necessary, I mean necessary for a Lion King story, anyway.
--- --- ---
A Kingdom Reborn: The Legend of Mohatu
Chapter 20: Light
As the hours of the night approached, a diminishing orange belt of light met the savannah horizon. The silhouette of a pointy rock stood before it, marking the territory as the Pridelands to any who approached with empty paws. It was a symbol of hope, and a monument of peace.
But it was also the next target.
Leo stood dead still in a patch of grass, shadowed by an acacia tree. He gazed up to the naturally elegant structure under the starlight with admiration and awe, before looking back down at the nine other lions behind him.
They were the best of the best, and every last one had sworn an oath to their prophet, the new king. As a combined force, they were the iron fist of the future kingdom.
"That's the den," Leo stated coldly. "We'll have to be careful; it's a natural fortress." The enormous, brown lion turned around to face his home once again, eying the terrain cautiously as his mind rushed to develop a flawless plan of attack.
In the corner of his peripheral vision, he spotted his new friend returning from a reconnaissance flight. "What's the situation, Sheikra?" the lion asked.
The African hawk swooped down immediately, to rest his wings while he prepared to tell the king what he needed to know. "The lionesses just returned from their evening hunt. They are all in the den now," he answered.
"Good," Leo replied.
Meanwhile, Rex approached his older brother slowly from behind. "It's about time," he insisted, scowling with his lack of patience evident in his voice. "We should have been prepared for this months ago..."
"No," the king declared easily, interrupting his younger brother. "Progress has been slow, but we should not rush into battle at every earliest opportunity."
"They will join us, or die. It is the
only way," Rex insisted.
Leo growled. "Patience! Victory is never attained by the one to strike first, but the one to strike
last. Pride Rock will be ours... tonight."
Rex stepped back, shuddering slightly. Clearly, he had overstepped his boundaries. "Yes..."
"Don't go anywhere," Leo demanded. "I want you to lead the attack from the promontory," the lion commanded, looking down on his younger brother. "I will distract them."
The king then shifted his gaze to the eight other felines behind him, standing in a line without a hint of movement. "Ganji, Inari, and Safar, you will approach from the north on Rex's command."
As the three nodded, Leo began to issue orders to the others. "Minerva, Zabayah, and Usama, you will approach from the south on Rex's command."
Leo paused for a moment, wondering what to do with the last two remaining knights. "Malik and Almahdi," the king commanded, "Sheikra will find any stragglers, and you will kill them. None shall leave that den... is that understood?"
"Yes," all nine other felines nodded in unison.
"This may be our most difficult battle yet," Leo stated clearly, but without hesitation. "There are five males in the pride... but they are a coalition. They have no chain of command... no structure, no order, and no leadership."
"They do not know the art of war, and they have never experienced fear," Leo explained, continuing where he left off. "They have a small advantage in numbers, but they do not have our experience."
Rex turned around, speaking earnestly to the knights. "They do not stand a chance against us."
"Expect them to be passive," Leo retorted. "They will not attack unless provoked. We will need to strike hard, and strike fast," the king continued, slamming his paw onto the ground below him. "Like lightning from a cloudless sky."
"Pardon me, sire," Ganji interrupted the king's continuous briefing. "There are ten of us... how could we be outnumbered? No pride is that large..."
"There are only five males, but we should expect heavy resistance from the females as well," Leo added. "Unfortunately, I do not think they will...
cooperate very easily. Our victory will be determined by our ability to strike fear into their hearts; we will kill the males first, and force any rebellious lionesses into submission. You know the drill."
"Keep on your guard, and we will not fail," the king concluded, beginning to step away from his subordinates. "We never have before, and we will not do so now."
As the king began to approach his old home at dusk, he looked back up to the sky. "The wisdom and strength of the kings of the past will guide us," he told himself, while the lions behind broke off into their respective groups.
It was not long before his paws met the stones leading up to the promontory, after the short walk. Quietly, he climbed his way up, as a nervous fluttering boomed into the lion's heart.
It had been a year since he had last stepped near the elegant structure, and just as long since he had seen his family. More than likely, they would not recognize him.
The lion's skill and strength had increased tenfold since he fought the hyenas in the desert, and his mane had grown to its fullest. While Leo was little more than a novice when he abandoned his family and ran after Musashi, he was now in his prime. He had discovered the truth about the past, about his ancestors, and about himself. He had become a master of war.
But he had not yet passed his final test.
He did not want to kill his family; in fact, he began to wonder if could even bear to look his father in the eye. He knew what he was doing was wrong, but it was what he had to do. It was his destiny. It was the only way he could reach his full potential and achieve true greatness. They had held him back for long enough.
In addition, the Pridelands were the most resource-rich environment for many hundreds of kilometers in any given direction. If he was truly going to become the the next king, it
had to be under his control. The conquest of Pride Rock would not only be a symbolic victory, but a strategic one as well.
Leo knew there would be no better place to declare the center of his kingdom. He knew that his kingdom could only rise for the first time,
after the conquest of the Pridelands.
Besides, his kingdom would be his new family. He had to leave his past behind, and the conquest of the Pridelands would be the final step toward achieving that goal. Then, and only then, could he be cleansed from the wretched cradle of ignorance he once lived in.
Suddenly, the lion stepped in front of the entrance to the den, making himself fully visible in the moonlight. He paused, waiting for someone to approach him, while his army gathered in the shadows.
A fully-grown lioness stepped out of the shadow of the den, and into the moonlight as well. She approached cautiously, but tried to maintain a friendly posture. "Hey," she greeted the lion casually, but did not get a response. "Uhm... who are you?"
"
King Leo," the lion retorted coldly, lacking any notable emotion.
The lioness stepped forward, smelling the air around the lion carefully. "Leo?" she asked. "You're joking... there's no way..."
Leo growled, clenching his jaw under his breath.
Is it... is it really you?" the lioness continued to ask, too baffled by the situation to comprehend Leo's oddly aggressive body language.
As expected, several murmurs began to erupt in the back of the den. The lions of the pride started to listen in with significant interest.
Meanwhile, Leo did not move. In fact, he focused all his energy into not saying a thing. He only needed to distract them for a bit longer; soon, his knights would arrive, and every lion in the den would be dead.
"It is you, isn't it?" the lioness asked, carrying a smile that nearly reached to the ends of her ears. "Where have you been all this time? I thought you were
dead!" she exclaimed, growing even more excited with every word.
Two more lions approached the king, wondering what all the ruckus was about. As their eyes met the magnificent figure, it became quite clear. It really was Leo, no doubt about it.
"I have returned from the land of our ancestors, to bring strength, order, and stability to the Pridelands," Leo stated bluntly.
The first lioness tilted her head. "Leo?" she asked, wondering why the lion would not give her much attention. "What are you... don't you remember? It's me! Mari!"
Leo tried as hard as he could to ignore the lioness's heavy words. Instead of acknowledging Mari's presence, he called his father's name. "Busar!"
As Busar approached, Leo extended his seven sharp claws.
The older male's jaw dropped. "Son...?"
"The sun has set on your time here," Leo explained. "Your pride belongs to
me now," he commanded, waiting for his father to sit down and roll over as a sign of submission.
Busar immediately noticed his son's aggressive posture, and began to back away slowly. "No..." he whispered. "No! Don't do this! I don't know what happened to you... but I can help."
When Leo last saw his father, they had not parted on good terms. But now, Leo held a very distinct advantage of brute strength. He stepped forward, emphasizing his leonine form and adding a tense quality of pressure into the air. "This is my
kingdom. Tomorrow, the sun will rise with me as the new king."
"Stop!" Busar commanded, while the four other males stepped forward as well. "Don't do this!"
Leo continued to step forward, growing ever more aggressive with each forceful beat of his heart. "I will succeed, where hundreds of generations before me have not," he continued.
Not surprisingly, chaos interrupted between the many lionesses. Some feared for their lives, while others remained in shock by the sudden news of Leo's return. Disaster was surely brewing in the air.
Leo paused, motioning with his paw for all the males of the pride to step forward and face him head-to-head. "You will join me, or
die."
"No!" Mari yelled, pushing on the enormous lion from the side. "What are you even...? He's your father! You can't fight him!"
Leo turned around, snarling at the brave lioness. "Yes I can!" he insisted, finally starting to let a bit of emotion show. "He's been holding me back for long enough... he's held us all back!"
"This..." the new king continued, speaking slowly. "This is not the way we are meant to live. We are
lions! Join me, in battle, and the winner will determine the fate of the Pridelands!"
Mari then strafed to the side, extending her own claws. "I'm not going to let you hurt him," she insisted, with a certain trait of courage that even Leo found to be admirable.
Quickly, Leo threw Mari away from him, and sent the golden lioness crashing into a rock with a minor concussion. Immediately afterward, he focused his attention back on the males.
A loud roar began to fill the air. All the lions of the pride focused their attention on Rex, who stood behind Leo, at the very center of the promontory. In the shadow of the night, an army of six other leonine warriors stood still, waiting for battle on both sides.
Before a grand battle erupted out of the darkness, two of the males of Mari's pride lunged forward, immediately pouncing on Leo and pinning him to the ground.
"Run!"
While the king was pinned down, a group of several leonine figures escaped the den. They charged forward, running as fast as they possibly could. They decided to flee.
Several other screams and roars ignited the once-peaceful atmosphere of dusk. Many of the lionesses managed to escape, but four of the males stood around a defeated Leo to hold their ground. All five males of the pride,
except Busar.
Although the king stood down, unharmed, his entire platoon was ready to come to his aid. Rex and the six other knights did not pursue the small group that had escaped. Instead, they walked forward, surrounding the remaining four males of Mari's pride, along with a few scattered lionesses seeking shelter in the corners of the den.
Within a matter of seconds, several claws clenched down into the critical veins of one of the males. With a deafening shriek, the defender attempted to turn around and fight, but soon fell lifelessly onto the ground from the assassin's strike.
One down.
The three remaining defenders jumped up at once, instantly turning to fight six of Leo's deadliest warriors. Their focus shifted away from Leo entirely, instead concentrating all their attention on the knights surrounding them.
Two down.
A giant pool of blood began to spill onto the rock below, in combination with many screams of pain and horror, as the cataclysm erupted in full force. The three opposing lions were swept up into a battle almost immediately, giving Leo time to go in for a kill.
Three down.
The battle did not even last for a minute. It was over before it even began. The males were outnumbered two to one, and outmatched by a far greater factor in skill.
As the first king of pride rock rose to his paws once again, he wrapped his forepaws around the head of one of the pride's defenders. Leo gripped the lion by the sides of his face, throwing him furiously onto the ground below. From there, Leo jabbed his hind leg onto the opposing male's stomach, quickly puncturing through the skin and damaging many critical organs as his claws slid across.
Four down.
By the time the king looked back, not a single opposing lion remained. Only one defender of the pride could move, and it was only a simple twitch of a muscle. It was little more than a reflex—a small remaining flicker of life, fading away as the chill of death overcame him.
As the knights emerged from their shadow of darkness, Pride Rock fell under the control of king Leo. He walked around, finally, intentionally stepping over all the males of the Pride. After a few seconds, they all rested cold and lifelessly on the ground.
They were dead.
They were all dead, every last one except Busar. As such, not a single lion in Leo's former pride was capable of opposing the new order. Only a few insignificant lionesses remained in the den, and all of them were shivering and bowing in submission.
Leo grinned deviously, inspecting the dead bodies of his family below his paws. He had
total control.
Almost. There was only one little tiny problem: Busar had escaped, and many lionesses followed him.
"SHEIKRA!" Leo demanded at once.
"Yes, sire?" the bird answered from above.
"Some of them are still
alive. Where have the others gone?" Leo asked coldly.
"I..." Sheikra choked for a moment. "They escaped, your highness. They hid in the grasses."
"Malik and Almahdi!" the king shifted his attention away from the bird of prey, calling for his knights.
"Yes, milord?" one of the lions asked, stepping in front of the mighty king.
"We're really sorry," the other pleaded.
Leo tilted his head up, allowing his mane to blow in the wind for a second before he decided to speak. "You know what the punishment is for failure..."
"But... we're sorry! I can track them down... I'll find them! I promise!"
Leo did not bother to listen to the knight's pleas. With a quick strike, the first king of the Pridelands dug his claws into the throats of both knights simultaneously, killing each with a forepaw.
"Welcome home,
brothers," he hissed coldly, looking down at the dead bodies of his own warriors for only a split second, while they, too, fell down to the rocky surface.
However, oddly enough, Leo was not speaking to his two victims, but to his new pride as a whole. "Only those who are worthy will survive... as you will soon learn," he continued, in an attempt to intimidate the other knights.
Rex stepped over beside his true brother once again. "That is what makes us great," he added.
--- --- ---
A sudden jolt awakened Mohatu from his heavy state of sleep. He opened his eyes, scanning the world around him, but found nothing. All around him, there was nothing other than darkness.
No, he was not at Pride Rock. He had already been there, and he had already killed off half of Mari's pride. That was in the past. In reality, he was sitting in the floor of a dark, wet cave, right beside the very lioness he almost killed that night.
Mohatu's breathing began to soften over time, as his vision of conquest slowly faded away. It may have been a dream, but he knew it was also a memory. He had indeed attacked his own pride, and now he was suffering the consequences of his actions.
He knew what he did, but to actually see it unfold in his dreams—that was another matter entirely. It struck him down, right from the very inside of his own mind. It was a horrendous thought, but the visualization was many times worse.
Mohatu closed his eyes, trying as hard as he could not to cry again. He couldn't; not now. Not in front of Mari, at least.
The former king lifted his head up, before pushing himself off the ground and away from Mari. In consequence, the lioness rolled over slightly, but did not awaken.
As he realized he was free to move, Mohatu stood up on his paws, and began walking away from the sleeping lioness. He kept cautious, walking slowly as to not bump his muzzle into any columns that were hiding in the dark.
Perhaps, he just needed to get moving, he thought. He needed to get up, walk around for a bit, and try to clear his mind with the much more pleasant sounds and smells of reality.
Eventually, Mohatu reached what he felt to be a large, wet stalagmite on the floor of the cave. Realizing that he had walked far enough away, the lion leaned his forepaws on the cone-shaped structure, and began to wipe his muzzle on the surface.
A mixture of water and dissolved limestone began to seep into his bloody fur, around his face, forepaws, and mane, as he tried his best to hide from his past.
Meanwhile, the images of blood and wounds of his family burned even deeper into the lion's mind, filling his conscience with inescapable thoughts of death. "I don't know what to do," Mohatu sighed, whispering as quietly as he could with the intention of allowing Mari to continue her slumber. "I can't escape this..."
Unfortunately, the lion's sudden movement caused an entire colony of bats above him to form into a cloud, flying erratically and making a frightening cacophony of screams to pierce the air.
On the other side of the den, a scared and frustrated lioness began to jump around. "Mohatu?" she called. "Mohatu! What was that? Where did you go?"
The lion groaned, swatting many bats out of his mane, as they continued to scatter and bounce into him. The least he wanted was to have to deal with a frantic lioness, at this point.
"Dammit, Mohatu! Get over here!"
Mohatu pushed himself away from the stalagmite, and tried to hold his paws steady on the ground. It was not an easy task, by any means, but he managed to do it, to feign a small degree of strength. "I'm over here," he replied, although his voice was weaker than he had ever heard it before.
Mari skipped over to the location from where she heard the lion's voice, but tumbled into several rocks along the way. "Ouch! Why did you have to-"
The lioness's voice suddenly began to turn into a muffled cry, as her muzzle collided into the lion's fur.
She found him. Mohatu had not walked as far as she thought.
The lion turned around, but suddenly found himself lacking the strength to continue to stand. His paws collapsed to the floor below, making a slight splashing noise as he fell into an extremely shallow pool of mineral water.
"Are you okay?" Mari asked instinctively, upon hearing the noise of his battle with gravity. The lioness stood still for a moment, listening closely to the echoing sound of Mohatu's body crashing to the ground. "You didn't get hurt earlier... did you?"
"No," Mohatu answered. "I just wanted to get some fresh air, that's all," he replied, but his lethargic tone of voice almost prevented him from speaking entirely.
Mari backed away slightly, while her mood began to cool off. As the echo of her companion's voice continued to flow through the dense air of the cave, she started to notice the lion's troubled breathing.
The lioness stood still for a moment, trying to observe the lion in front of her despite a total lack of light. "Mohatu...?" she asked in a state of worry, but failed to finish her question.
Mohatu closed his eyes, breathing heavily. He had little doubt that the lioness was about to pick his brain.
"Are you... crying?" the lioness asked slowly, hardly speaking with any more energy than Mohatu.
"No," he retorted. In his opinion, it was a very dumb question for Mari to ask. Even if the answer had been yes, he still wouldn't have admitted it. "It's... nothing," Mohatu lied. "It was just a bad dream."
"It was another memory, wasn't it?" Mari asked softly.
For nearly a long and agonizing minute, Mohatu did not speak. Of course, the lioness was right. It was a horrible memory. He only wanted to forget about it, but telling the lioness certainly wasn't going to help him reach that goal.
"Was it about me?" the lioness asked, wondering why he was being so quiet. "If it's about what I said earlier..." Mari began, trying to apologize, "I probably shouldn't have... you know I didn't mean to upset you."
"Just... don't ask," Mohatu retorted sadly. "Don't."
"Mohatu..." the lioness whispered again, this time much warmer with her tone of voice.
As a result, a tear began to run from the lion's eye, before he could even say anything. As much as he wanted to hold onto his masculinity, he couldn't. Even with all his strength, he could not prevent himself from crying pathetically in front of a lioness.
Not just any lioness, but the lioness he tried to kill. The lioness who saved his life, even
after all he did. It was the same lioness who carried the one spark of light, surrounding an entire sea of darkness within his soul.
She made him cry.
But at least she could only hear his distress, and not see it. She didn't have to know. No lion had to know.
"I..." Mohatu groaned. "I don't want to talk about it." Even if it would help him, he definitely wasn't going to burden Mari with
his problems. She didn't deserve that.
Mari stood still, keeping a short, respectful distance from the lion. "I think you need to," she insisted politely. "I know you're not usually like this... unless something is bothering you."
"You don't even know what it is," Mohatu retorted, his voice cracking between every syllable.
"I would, if you tell me," Mari answered simply. She paused, waiting for the lion to reply, but he never did. "Come on... you can tell me."
She just wasn't going to give up, was she?
No, of course not. That was the mind of a lioness: always trying to talk about problems. It was almost as if she thought it would actually make him feel better. Could she really not understand that he already said no?
Mari planted her hind legs down onto the flooded ground, resting her weight above them. "I'm not going to stand here and watch while you're obviously upset about
something. I'm here to help."
Clearly, resistance was futile. She was not going to stop until he gave her an answer, so that was what he had to do. "It was a memory," Mohatu explained, at long last. "I killed them..."
Mari stood behind the lion in a mild state of shock. Never, in a thousand years, could she have imagined
king Leo acting in such a way. Not only had her plan worked, it had almost worked a little too well. She had convinced him that what he did was wrong, but now she had to convince him that she believed he could make amends.
"I know what you did," Mari sighed. "I was
there. You aren't telling me anything I don't already know."
"But I wasn't there!" the lion retorted. Suddenly, he had given up on trying to keep it mellow. "I have no idea what all I did! I only know part of the story... and I'm supposed to assume that's
all? I'm supposed to assume what I just saw is
the worst of it?"
Mari closed her eyes, but a chill of emotion still managed to escape her as well. Although Mohatu could not see it, a smile formed across the lioness's face. Instinctively, she rested her chin above the lion's mane for a brief moment. "Welcome back, Leo."
Mohatu barely moved. He continued to sit still, with his tear-stained muzzle hanging above the wet limestone floor of the cave. "What?"
"I really missed you," the lioness purred. "It's good to have the real Leo back."
"What do you even mean?" Mohatu inquired, his voice still very coarse from crying.
"You're Leo, not
king Leo. If you
weren't upset about what happened, then I'd be worried..." Mari continued, stepping closer toward the lion. "But you've changed back to the lion I once knew... you're not the king anymore. You're the same lion you were before all that happened; we're both just a little older now."
"No..." Mohatu interrupted. "It's not like that."
"Yes it is," Mari argued. "Maybe you don't see it, but-"
"I know what I did," the lion insisted. "I was the one to organize the siege of Pride Rock. It was intentional. I... I was fully aware of what I was doing... and I
wanted to do it."
"I don't care," Mari argued. "We've already been through this. It doesn't matter what you did. It's in the past."
"You don't understand," Mohatu interrupted. "You don't have any idea what it's like-"
Mari flattened her ears. "Try me."
"You haven't plotted the demise of several prides."
"You're right. I haven't," Mari conceded. She leaned backward for a moment, lifting her head up. "But you know what I've done. I've been lying to you this whole time... up until last night." The lioness cleared her throat, before she began to speak even louder. "Every day, I thought about what I did. I started to regret ever thinking it was a good idea in the first place... that guilt was one of the most difficult things I've ever dealt with."
Mari breathed another deep sigh. "I've killed other lions too, and I've been plotting the demise of an entire kingdom, ever since this all began. Hell, I've turned a king against his own kingdom!"
"But-"
"There's just as much blood on my paws as there is on yours. I know what the life of a killer is like... I've been living it too." Mari shook her head, lowering her voice as she began speaking a bit slower. "I still remember the first time I killed another lion... I wasn't able to sleep for a week after that."
"You haven't done anything wrong," Mohatu retorted. "Not like I have."
"If I have brought you
this much pain, then yes, I have done something wrong," Mari continued. "I never wanted anything like this to happen; that's why I never told you."
Mohatu groaned. "You don't get it..."
"Yes I do," Mari stood up, glancing down at the dark blur where she would normally have seen a lion, had there been light. "You regret what you've done. That's okay. You're only a lion... you're not perfect. I know you
think you are, but you're not."
Anther tear ran down the lion's muzzle, while Mari tried to comfort him. Never before had he felt so weak and hopeless. "But what am I supposed to do?" Mohatu asked. His voice was almost as high-pitched as it had been when he was a cub. "I can't go on like this."
"You have to," Mari answered. "We need you. If you can't help me fight the kingdom, then we're all dead. I don't care if this is your fault... you're the
only lion capable of fixing this. And I know you can... you're Leo. You're the type of lion we
need."
"No," Mohatu muttered. "I can't fix this."
"This whole situation is nothing but a giant furball," Mari insisted. "No one blames this on you..."
"But it
is my fault," Mohatu retorted. "If it wasn't for me, nothing bad would have happened."
"Aww, come on," the lioness mewed. "There was a drought. Musashi was planning to take over the Pridelands... we were in for a disaster, no matter what. You were always just as much of a hero as you were a conqueror. You were
both those things..."
"But..." Mohatu tried to reply, but lost the ability to speak. "No," the lion finally stated. "That's what you don't understand. It wasn't Musashi, it wasn't the ancient kings... or anything! It was only me... it's all my fault."
Obviously, the lioness's words weren't working as well as she planned. Instead, she tried something else.
Mari lifted one of her forepaws up, placing it over the lion's shoulder. For several seconds, Mari rested her paw there, allowing Mohatu to feel her graceful presence. After a while, the lioness began working her paw up the lion's neck, and through the manefur behind his ear.
Mohatu's heart skipped a beat, as he felt the tickling sensation of the lioness's paw. "What are you doing?" he asked softly, turning around.
"Just... relax," Mari insisted. She waited for the lion's head to fall back down on his paws, before she continued to move again.
Many seconds passed in silence, before that actually happened. Mohatu turned his head back around to its natural position, resting it above his forepaws, and barely above the shallow layer of water.
As the lion stood still, Mari began digging her claws through the lion's mane, massaging the back of his ear. Almost immediately, her actions started to elicit a mumble of a purr from her companion.
"Relax," Mari repeated herself. "It's okay."
The lioness took a deep breath, before deciding how to explain what she intended to say. All the while, she continued to knead at the itchy patch of fur behind his ear. "The problem is, you can probably only remember what happened
right before your mind was wiped."
"Uh-huh," Mohatu replied quietly.
"I'm not sure if you'll ever regain your memories completely," Mari added. "I doubt it. But I know for sure, that what you
can remember is the
worst of it. I knew you for years before any of that ever happened..."
Almost immediately, Mohatu's mood began to improve slightly, as his painful thoughts started to escape from the damaged depths of his mind. The lioness's massage, in combination with her warm voice, was enough to begin calming him.
"You weren't always a king," Mari continued. "I knew you for more than half my life, and you were my best friend."
"You really did mean that?" Mohatu asked lethargically, almost not believing the lioness after what he had seen. She had said it several times before, but perhaps he was only beginning to understand what she actually meant.
"Yeah," Mari smiled, continuing to scratch behind the lion's ear. "That's how I know this will make you happy. It always did."
Obviously, she was right; it did seem to have a tranquilizing effect on the lion. She knew he liked the back of his ears to be scratched.
For Mohatu, it was very weird, in a way, but he hardly cared, considering how good it felt. The lion sniffed, clearing his sinuses and allowing his purr to increase in volume. He then brought his head in closer to the lioness's paw, forcing her claws deeper into his skin to scratch his constant itch.
"You were the one to teach me everything I knew about fighting," Mari continued. "We spent half the day sparring, every day... for almost two entire years. You taught me everything you knew..." Mari sighed happily, remembering the best times of her life. "I learned from you, and you practiced your new techniques on me. It was all in good fun, and we got pretty good at it. We played games too..."
Mari pushed herself in closer to the lion with her three other paws, beginning to purr slightly. "There was one time we tried to build a dam around the waterhole... and another time we went to the elephant graveyard and tried to find out what made it so creepy. We also climbed trees, and you showed me all the cool places you found."
"You also taught me how to hunt months before my mom ever even tried," the lioness continued. "You were only a bit older than me, of course, but you were a prodigy! You made it look so easy. I never understood how you were able to do what you did with such little practice... but you helped me become the huntress I am today. You taught me so much more than my mom ever did."
Mari cleared her throat slightly, as she began to recall her more sensitive memories. "And... when my dad died, you didn't leave my side for three whole days. You weren't just a badass..." Mari added, gently stroking the lion with her other paw, "you looked after our pride, too."
The lioness slowed down her breathing a bit, reminiscing those years of her late cubhood. "I'm sure you don't remember any of that, but we had the best life..."
"But I took that away," Mohatu interrupted suddenly.
"No," Mari replied. "You made me who I am today. Without you... I don't know what would have happened."
"But I..."
"Leo," Mari interrupted, finally withdrawing her paw. "I don't know what happened to you in the Badlands, after you fought Musashi... but all I can say is that I wish I went with you." Mari looked down at her paws, but could not see them. "Sometimes... I wonder..."
"Huh? Why did you stop?"
Mari twitched her tail, suddenly taking a break from her speech. "Roll over," she commanded lightly.
As Mari expected, Mohatu did not hesitate to do as she told. He leaned onto his side, allowing all four of his paws to rest freely in the space between him and the lioness.
In Mohatu's mind, he was still having trouble wrapping his mind around the fact that Mari knew so much about him. It was embarrassing, no doubt, but everything the Mari did only brought him comfort. She did not make him feel stupid or weak. She understood what he was going through.
But perhaps even more importantly, she was beginning to make him feel loved. That, in itself, was incredibly distracting. Mari's acceptance was all he truly wanted. Although he had only begun to realize it, that was all he cared about, right from the very beginning.
"I wonder..." Mari repeated herself, using her claws to gently comb through the lion's dirty mane, cleaning out bits of dried blood. "If I had gone with you, would you still have become the king? Would I have been able to save you?"
"I don't know," Mohatu rested his head back down on the ground, waiting for the lioness to continue.
"Or..." Mari paused, before speaking hesitantly while she continued to knead at the lion's mane. "Would I have become your queen? Would we have turned against our pride together?"
Mohatu's jaw nearly dropped. Did she actually just say that she might have considered turning against her pride with him? Mari, the one lioness to resist her friend's kingdom with all her strength... becoming a queen herself? That thought was unimaginable.
Mohatu sighed, his mood lightening up slightly. "I... I guess..."
Mari stopped moving her paw for a moment, as she accidentally bumped into an open wound in the dark. Before Mohatu could react, Mari rested her chin beside the healing patch of skin.
"Look," Mari continued, whispering, "when you left to fight Musashi, I wanted to go with you... but I didn't. I really don't know what happened to you during or after that, but I wish I could have been there for you."
Mari moved her paw around, combing the underside of Mohatu's mane and across his belly with a slow, lateral motion. "It's one thing to play around, like we did... but to be
forced to actually kill another creature out of cold blood? It's not an easy thing to live with, that's for sure..."
"It isn't," Mohatu agreed, trying to bring himself to actually listen to the lioness's words.
"When you attacked us, I was with our pride," Mari continued, "so it was a bit easier for me to deal with... but you and Rex didn't have anyone. Especially after discovering the whole prophecy thing... I can't even imagine what that would have been like."
"I..." Mohatu paused. He wanted to say something, but he had no idea what it was. For better or worse, his mind was almost totally blank.
"I know... maybe it seems like I'm being a
little naive," Mari tried to read the lion's thoughts, rubbing her paw a bit faster, playfully, across his belly. "But all I'm saying is that..."
The lioness struggled to find her words for a moment, while she tried to remember what it was that she actually wanted to say. "I don't know what happened to you, but I'm not here to judge you for it. You were my friend, and you still are—I'm here to help you. I'm not here to make things worse."
"But you-" Mohatu insisted, before being cut off again.
"It doesn't matter," the lioness added. "I know you want to make up for what you've done, and as long as that's what you're trying to do, I'm with you to the end." Mari lifted her head up, before speaking again. "I know you can do it. I know you want to do it.
We can do it."
"I..." Mohatu began to stutter.
"Leo," the lioness continued softly. "I know you've been through a lot. We all have. But... we just need to move on, and learn from it."
The lion lifted his head up off the ground, finally thinking of something to say. Although he still felt quite remorseful, his mood had already improved significantly. "What's there to learn?" he asked. "There's so much I don't even remember."
"You created the kingdom. You must have learned something, because now you want to destroy it."
"I was wrong..." Mohatu admitted.
"Well... yeah," Mari replied, retracting her paw once again. "That's it:
you were wrong. That's all there is to it."
Mohatu sighed, tilting his head up a bit further. "But that mistake killed more than half our pride... I just wish I could change that."
"You can't," the lioness replied. "It's impossible to change the past. But you can either run from it, or learn from it."
Mohatu remained still for a moment, contemplating the lioness's words of wisdom. His mind, however, soon began focusing on other, more immediate thoughts. "Can you scratch behind my ear again?" the lion asked, intentionally changing the subject. "Or... what about the other one?"
"Well..." Mari held her breath for a second, "you must be feeling better now."
Mohatu smirked. "Fine," he replied, grinning as he rolled himself back over. His increasingly optimistic and lighthearted attitude was clearly emerging from his voice.
Once again, the lion rested on his paws, with Mari sitting right beside him. For a brief moment, the lioness lifted her forepaw up out of curiosity. She was unsure of what Mohatu was actually thinking, although she was happy to hear his more playful voice speaking.
"I'll learn from the past," Mohatu continued, "but not until some other time. Y'know... later. Tomorrow. In the morning."
The lion wiped his tears away with his paw, before resting his head comfortably above his paws. "So... are you going to scratch my other ear?"
"Hah," Mari chuckled. She wrapped her paws loosely around the lion's mane once again, and began scratching behind his far ear for a brief moment. "Let's get out of this cave first..."
Mohatu considered the idea briefly, but decided against it. Even as embarrassing as it was to have confided to Mari, he did not regret doing so. He was beginning to feel comfortable in her close presence, and he only began to hope that the special moment wasn't about to end.
"We can do that later," the lion insisted, not moving a single muscle as he continued to lay on the wet ground. "I'm going back to sleep."
Mari's ears twitched for a moment, as she began to consider the idea. As much as she wanted to leave the cave, she knew she needed a bit more rest as well.
"Yeah... okay," the lioness agreed with the idea, pulling herself in closer to the lion with her forepaws. Eventually, she rested her head beside Mohatu's shoulder.
An incredibly wide smile formed across Mohatu's face, as the lioness fell down beside him. He wanted so badly to wrap his paws around Mari and bring her into a tight lionhug, but he could not gather the courage to do it.
Considering what she had said about any sort of potential romantic relationship, it would have been too weird. Besides, she had done enough for him already; Mohatu wasn't going to push his luck. Having his ear scratched was enough for one night.
"Sweet dreams, this time," the lioness mewed quietly, but directly into the lion's ear.
"Yeah," Mohatu closed his eyes. "You too."
As time passed, the two lions became much more relaxed. Without a doubt, the hours of the night proved to hold many heartwarming moments for both Mohatu and Mari. Despite the heavy chaos of reality, the events of the night faded into a simple, fond blur of comfort and companionship.
Only one thought remained in Mohatu's mind, repeating itself continuously throughout the night:
I'm her best friend.
Although he originally expected the reality of the situation to bring him even more pain than what he had already experienced, that never happened. Knowing that Mari truly was his friend, Mohatu found more happiness than he ever could have imagined.
--- --- ---
Mohatu never ceased to purr through the night, with each exhalation of his breath. The two lions continued to lay still, even after several more hours. Time passed quickly, and before Mohatu could even blink, the night was over.
He only knew it, because a faint glimmer of light began to illuminate the lion's surroundings, far off in the distance. Mohatu opened his eyes, immediately finding himself staring at the lioness beside him.
Of course, there was nothing unusual about that. It was a typical morning, for most intents and purposes—but something was different. Something was
very different about the lioness.
Mari was awake as well, leaning comfortably into the lion's mane. For the first time in what must have been much longer than a day, the eyes of the two felines had met. She had been watching him, peacefully, long before Mohatu became aware of the world around him.
Mari's eyes were only barely lit with the reflection of light, but the glassy, shiny orbs reflected a much greater sense of tranquility. Without words, the lioness only smiled, silently wishing the lion a good morning. She continued to stare into his eyes for several more seconds, enjoying the simple peace of the calmest morning she had ever experienced.
"You're... awake?" Mohatu asked slowly. As the lion's eyes opened further, he began to question whether or not everything he had experienced was a dream. Had she really said all that about him? Had he really cried in front of her? Was he really her best friend?
"Yep," Mari replied. "It's a good morning, isn't it?"
"It... is," Mohatu answered.
It must have happened, he thought. The entire situation seemed too real not to have happened.
The effects were too real, as well. Mari was much different from what he could remember; she was calmer, happier, and much more open. She no longer had anything left to hide, and that message was quite clear in her eyes. The talk had liberated her, spiritually, just as much as it had to him.
She was now free. They were both free. The nest of lies around their relationship had fallen apart, and only two lions remained. Two close friends, finally reunited after years of death and chaos all around them.
"Are you about ready?" the lioness asked slowly, stretching out her paws while she yawned.
"For what?" Mohatu asked jokingly. "That could have
multiple meanings right now," he laughed.
Mari allowed herself to chuckle a bit. "You know what I mean," she added, pushing herself off of the ground.
Finally, the lioness took her eyes off of Mohatu. Her dark orbs began to dart around, scanning her surroundings. "It looks like... the surface is up there," she stated, pointing her paw in the direction of the light source. "Maybe, once we work our way up, we can get some food, and we can continue from there."
"Okay," Mohatu nodded, rising to his paws as well. After speaking to Mari, he felt considerably lighter, and managed to walk around with ease. Once again, he was ready to continue the journey.
Of course, that was provided that he could even think about the journey, being as close to Mari as he was. Obviously, accomplishing such a feat was not going to be easy for the lion, not even in the slightest.
"It's good to see you're feeling better now," Mari breathed a delighted sigh of relief. "And, it's good to see in general, really. I'll follow you, I guess."
As the lion began walking back up the subterranean river, he tilted his head to the side and rubbed the top of his mane around Mari's neck. "Thanks... for that, last night," he whispered quietly. "You're the best."
It was his obligation to say that much, at the very least. Without a doubt, she truly was the best lioness ever.
"Welcome back, Leo," Mari repeated herself, smirking slightly as she returned the lion's nuzzle. "It'll be just like the old days..."
"You're going to have to stop calling me that, though," Mohatu insisted.
"It doesn't matter," Mari replied with a playful nudge of her paw into Mohatu's mane. "You'll always be Leo to me."
--- --- ---
A/N: I think this is going to be the end of the flashbacks, finally. From here on out, I am planning on having the story progress in a much more linear fashion. For the most part, all of the pieces of the puzzle have been put into place. All the key events of Leo/Mohatu's early life have been explained, except what I have saved for the very end.
Since this was a rather long chapter, I'm thinking about holding off on next week's update. I might need a little bit more time to work on chapter 21, as well, because I've already rewritten it four times and I still don't like it. It's a big change from the past few chapters, and it certainly needs a lot of improvement so that the transition into the next phase of this story is more seamless.
As much as I hate to beg for reviews, I would like to ask for any sort of feedback, good or bad. I know I'm pretty far into the story as it is, and to be honest I'm probably not going to make any
major changes from my original idea. It's too late for that, now.
I am, however, struggling to come up with a summary that I actually like. This story is very long and contains quite a few intertwined plots, so summarizing it in only a few captivating sentences is rather difficult. If you've read this far into it, you know what the story is about. For that reason, if you have any suggestions or recommendations for that, I'd like to hear them. I've changed it so many times in my indecisiveness, it's probably starting to get annoying by now. xD
If you find any spelling or grammar issues, please let me know as well. I try to revise each chapter at least twice before I post it, but even still, I know that some errors have gone unnoticed, and thus uncorrected.
I know there's more than just a few people keeping up with this story based on the traffic stats, and, as such, I would like to hear your honest opinions. Even though the story is still very much unfinished and there's a lot left, I would like to know how I can improve my writing before it's all over.
And, to those of you who have already left reviews: thank you. :3