Kingdom Hearts: Return To The Pridelands

[FlipMode]

Chapter 1: Return

“Woah...” The only audible sound he could make as he looked in wonder at how beautiful the Pridelands had become since their last visit. Gone were the barren browns they had known under Scar's selfish and neglectful reign. Replaced now by lush grasslands, calm and rippling rivers and all teeming with wildlife. Antelopes hopped merrily along their way, birds flew majestically in the sky which was now a vibrant blue, the sun lighting up everything that existed underneath it. Sora had been to many Worlds on his travels, but this one was one of the most invitingly peaceful he had ever seen.

“Looks like Simba is doing a really good job!” Donald said, energetic and happy as he flapped his wings every now and then to regain height when gravity started to pull him down, flying just above Sora and Goofy.

“Ya Huh” Goofy agreed, how could he not? Although the weight of his shell he used to shield himself in these lands felt heavier than usualy in the sunlight.

“C'mon! Let's go see him!” Sora said. Motioning his head toward Pride Rock, which was just in the distance. Standing tall as the landmark of the Pridelands, casting a shadow around anyone who was near it.

As the three of them made their way toward the structure, Donald was enjoying the breeze that came with his light weight in this World as he flew laps around Sora and Goofy. Goofy waddled along at times, but he also would bring his neck inside his shell, spinning along the grounds so he could travel easier and faster and keep up with Sora and Sora himself felt the worst of it, his mane and all the rest of his light brown fur drew the rays of the sun to him.

“Look! There they are!”

“The heroes of the Pridelands!”

“Mummy can we go and say hello to them?”

The voices of the animals both young and old that inhabited these lands swirled around as the trio passed. Word had spread of their arrival and the kingdom was humbled to have them visit again.

Getting closer the Pride Rock, which was now enormous as the three were dwarfed by it, Sora wandered what had happened to the hyenas and the heartless.

A lion with tanned almost orange fur with a red well groomed mane that covered the outsides of his face and rounded his neck and tipping off at his chest was joined by a young adult lioness with light brown fur and yellow eyes with striking blue iris.

“Sora! Donald! Goofy! Its great to see you!” The lion said as they stepped down from the monument to meet the.

The lioness smiled at them, she hadn't spent as much time with them as Simba had and she hadn't joined them for the battles but she had them to thank for helping to get Simba to return to the Pridelands in the first place.

The three of them bowed their heads in respect to the royal couple.
“Your majesty.” The three of them said in unison.

“Oh come on. You guys know you don't need to be so formal around us.” The lioness said back to them but she respected them for doing it anyway.

Sora laughed, partly to break the awkward moment of silence and partly out of pure joy, after all it was amazing to see how much Simba had grown and changed, transforming the kingdom along with himself.

The five continued to talk and exchange laughs as they stepped up Pride Rock, reaching the peak of it that stretched out from the King's den. The view was a stunning one, the savannah seemingly endless in front of them, even the barren gorge where the tragedy of the great Mufasa took place was now teeming with new life. The hyenas allowed to live there in peace and while it wasn't what they had in mind, it was better than fighting for scraps in the Elephant Graveyards. The downside of course is they had to vacate it when the herds wanted to move through, a fair trade off they all had agreed to.

In the midst of the joyous reunion, Sora had forgot to mention why they were here. Until Goofy bought the subject up. “Gawsh Simba, its great to see you all again but we noticed darkness in this World. Do ya have any idea where that might be coming from?”Perhaps the organisation were somehow present in this World. Or Maleficent and Pete had returned.

Simba looked off to the East, to the place where the colours stopped and murky browns, rocks, hills and barely any signs of life seemed to be present. While they shared the same sky, they did not share the same destiny. It was hard to believe this was a part of the same World, the contrast as Sora looked from those lands to the magnificent ones in front of him was almost sad to see.

“... That would be my best guess.” Simba said reluctantly.

“The outlands.”

“The outlands?” Sora repeated it back to him.

The king's blue red-billed hornbill and Majordomo for the royal family, Zazu was perched on Simba's broad shoulder blade. “Nothing there but a bunch of back stabbing outsiders.” he hissed the words out.

“Zazu's right. You can't trust them. They were banished to the outlands for continuing to follow in Scar's plans.” Scar, now there was a name that bought with it a sense of dread and anxiety. Images of his namesake, that scar that tore through his eye, came rushing back to Sora.

“And worse yet. Kiara seems to be involved with one of them somehow.” Simba continued

“Who is Kiara?” Donald asked Simba. His voice was always loud in any conversation among all others.

“Princess Kiara.” Zazu smiled a proud smile.

“Uhm, princess?” Goofy was the first to realise what this meant.

Simba nodded and smiled “My daughter.”

There was a brief moment of silence but it was sharply broken “DAUGHTER?!” Sora and Donald both shouted it at the same time. The rest of the gang couldn't help but laugh at the shocked look on their faces.

[Azdgari]

This story is like crack for my nostalgic soul. You better not be thinking about ditching this.

[FlipMode]

I won't. I have started on chapter 2, its just slow moving atm because I have other projects and of course real life getting in the way of being able to make decent progress with it. It will continue, though

[FlipMode]

Chapter 2: We Are One

A young lioness cub with tanned fur and striking yellow eyes with orange iris was laying in the grass, her front paws out and the rest of her body close to the ground as she stalks the butterfly in front of her which was resting on a rock. “The mighty hinter has cornered her prey.” She said quietly to herself. And then she leapt forward out of the grass and toward the rock. But the butterfly fluttered away.

Looking up from the rock she was perched onto, she sees a vast but almost seemingly lifeless brown and rocky landscape in front of her “Woah, the outlands.” She said. “Wander what's out there?...”
Looking behind her over her shoulder to make sure that no one was watching before deciding to venture onwards. As she expected, no other lions or lionesses were around this close to the border.

She continued exploring forwards, getting deeper into the outlands and further away from home.
“You will never catch them if you make noise like that.” A young male lion cub voice said and startled her.

“Who said that?!” The lioness said. And with that, the young lion cub stood up from a patch of grass. He was about the same size as her, but his fur was a darker brown colour with patches of it cut shorter than the rest and his mane was messy. Outsiders had neither the luxuries of time or resources to maintain their appearances.

“Relax, I'm not going to bite.” The lion said to her, noticing that she had gone into a defensive pose.

“My father says to never trust an outsider!” She shouted back at him. They were now close to each other but the lion remained calm, sitting up right.

“Oh, and do you always do what daddy tells you?” The lion teased her.

“No!” She snapped back at him. Even though she knew it was a lie.

“Bet 'ya do, I bet your daddy's little girl!” He said and laughed.

“An outsider doesn't need anybody. We take care of ourselves.” He smugly told her. Kiara was less defensive now, her eyes widened a little bit.

“Really? That's so cool!” She said.

“My name is Kovu.” The lion said

“I'm Kiara.” She replied to him, a playful tone to her voice that didn't match Kovu's

Sora, Donald and Goofy were exploring the outlands and had already fought off several waves of heartless. Sora's trademark kingdom key keyblade dematerialised from his mouth.
“Look, there!” He said, spotting the two young cubs. “Do you think that's her?”

“Well they look very different, so I think it must be her.” Goofy said.

“Okay on my mark, we go.” Simba said to the rest of the gang.

Kiara tapped Kovu's paw with her own. “Tag you're it!” No response from Kovu other than a blank look, so she tried again “Tag you're it!” Kovu just got more confused. “Hello? I tag you, you chase, I run? What's the matter, you don't know how to play?” She laughed but she could tell Kovu genuinely didn't understand.

Suddenly a vicious looking lioness jump out from behind Kovu and Simba immediately did the same from behind Kiara. Two very loud roars rumbled the very grounds of the outlands.
The scruffy looking lioness with razor sharp teeth and claws and a chuck from her left ear missing, appearing to have been bitten off at one point stopped in her tracks and met his aggressive stance.

“Simba... She said.
“Zira.” Simba said.

Sora, Donald and Goofy ran up along side Simba.
“So much for 'on my mark'.” Sora said.

“Oh and you have your court jesters with you too.” Zira said to Simba.

“Hey!” Sora said

“Quiet. You three were there when Simba killed Scar. You helped. I will never forget. Every day I am reminded of what you did. And then to add insult to injury, Simba forced us into the outlands, we have little food and even less water.” Zira said, a plea for sympathy in her voice that was so grotesquely and falsely fabricated Sora didn't even think about giving her the benefit of the doubt.

“You were banished to the outlands for following Scar's will. You chose this.” Simba retaliated back.

“I wouldn't worry about that now, Simba. Your day is coming. Now I am not stupid, I realise I am outnumbered here, so you take yourself and your trespassing lackeys and get out of the outlands.” Zira snapped.

Simba and Zira glared at each other. Before Simba reluctantly decided to respect his father's will of living and let living, he motioned his head forward, ordering Kiara to start walking as he followed directly behind her. Sora, Donald and Goofy followed but not before Sora looked back and saw Zira observing him with an evil yet thoughtful expression.

Once the Pridelanders had left, she turned her attention to Kovu.
“We are going home too...” She said to him.
Kovu could tell by her voice that he was about to be in a lot of trouble and Zira was a lioness nobody wanted to anger, including her own pride.

Meanwhile back at the Pridelands, back in the safety of the shadow of Pride Rock, the mood was a sombre one as day gave way to an evening sky and the sun set cast an orange glow across the sky.
“Thanks for the help today, guys. But I need to talk to my daughter alone.” Simba said to the trio.

“Got it, we will come by a bit later.” Sora said. And himself, Donald and Goofy left to give the king and the princess some time alone.

Simba turned to Kiara. She gave him a cheeky innocent grin to try to lighten the mood but Simba returned an unimpressed scowl. “What were you thinking today?” he said as Kiara changed her expression and accepted the situation.

“I didn't mean to disobey you, I ju-” She was cut off by Simba.

“You could have been killed.” Simba said to her with worry, his stomach knotted at the thought but he couldn't help but worry.

“I just-” Kiara was cut off again by her father.

“I'm telling you this because I love you, if something happened to you, I don't know what I would do.” He said as he nuzzled her.
“One day I won't be here any more and it will be up to you to be the new queen. You are a part of the great-”
“The great circle of life.” They both said at the same time.

“What if I don't WANT to be a queen?” She said defiantly.

Simba wasn't ready for that remark.
“That's like saying you don't want to be a lion.”

“Sometimes I don't know who I am...” She said.

“Princess Kiara. Its who you are, its in your blood, just as I am.”
The two of them looked at each other and smiled lovingly.
“And as long as you live here, that's who you are.” Simba said. “We are one.”