KING SCAR- ON THE EDGE OF SANITY

CHAPTER THREE: ZIRA

King Scar was proud of himself. The pressures of delivering the 'sad' speech and conducting his brother's funeral had immediately disappeared as soon as it was over. With his heart's burden gone, the free pleasures and privileges of ruling the Pridelands were now his to enjoy, without any distractions whatsoever. He was born to be on the throne, he thought. His plans long from the start were executed smoothly, without anyone having to know the tragic secret behind Mufasa's death, or so he supposed.
Not too long after the hyena invasion in the Pridelands did the lionesses began to scheme on how to confront Scar. His decision had left many hearts shocked, confused and enraged. The Pride gathered in a meeting hall to discuss the issue.
"We have to do something Sarabi," Sarafina pleaded, "We have to fight! It's against Pridelands' Law. You know that, we all here know that very well, so does he and..."
"Calm down, Sarafina," Sarabi said, "Patience...when the time is right we shall react. Scar has taken the throne. His reign has just begun. We do not know what he is capable of, and we are low in numbers compared to his massive army of hyenas. If we start a war, defeat is likely to be our portion."
"But we are far stronger than them despite our numbers," Sarafina objected. Murmuring arose in the Pride, and Sarabi silenced them once more.
"Despite the fact that Scar has allowed our enemies into Pride Rock, we are all safe and secure as long as we have each other and stay united," she reasoned. "Go on with your hunts and be faithful stewards of the Law. We must all stay together and protect the Pridelands, for this is our land, our kingdom, our home. For now, be still. I'll talk to Scar. Meeting ends."
The lionesses left the hall while Sarafina remained behind to speak to Sarabi.
"Are you quite sure you can do this, Sarabi?" She inquired. "Scar's a hard nut to crack, and it's not easy for him to listen to reason."
"I'll do my best. If he accepts, then well and good, but if he refuses, then let him be. We'll have to learn to live with the hyenas." Sarabi responded.
"But..."
"Sarafina, what else can we do?"
"But you are our queen," reasoned Sarafina. "Losing a king doesn't lower your position and status in Pride Rock any slight bit. As long as you still have your being, you are our queen. Our loyalty is to you. And as queen, you still have free will to form your own opinion." Sarabi paused and stared a little while.
"But of course, you have all the freedom to choose how to handle this matter. You can decide what to do," Sarafina concluded.
"I'll think about it. But first I must see Scar," the queen said.
"Of course," Sarafina said, in a submissive tone. Morning approached, and King Scar was in his den. Two strong hyenas, each by the sides of the cave, guarded the entrance. Sarabi approached where she was stopped by the two hyena guards.
"We have our orders from the King," they said, blocking Sarabi's path.
"It's OK," Scar interrupted, his raspy voice echoing across the entrance. "Let her in." The two hyenas glared at the lioness and paved her way. She stepped into the den and stood a few feet away from Scar.
"Sarabi," Scar called, gently, "What brings you to my den?"
"Scar, we need to talk," she said.
Scar sat up straight, with an aura of eargerness to listen to what the queen had to say. His attentive countenance stared straight at Sarabi's.
"What was that all about?" She asked.
Scar's facial expression changed drastically. "What was what?"
"The hyenas...." Sarabi responded. "Why, Scar? Why did you allow them into the Pridelands?"
"It's a new era, Sarabi," Scar said. "A new era with a new beginning."
"You know very well that isn't what the Pridelands' Law suggests," She argued.
"After all," said Scar, "I am the new King. Therefore I am the one, and the only one, with the authority to order the steps that should be taken in this Kingdom."
"Then you are misleading the Pridelands because allowing the enemy to live with us is not what you're supposed to do," Sarabi said.
"I know what I'm doing, Sarabi, trust me."
"No, you don't."
"Yes, I do."
"Giving our territories to the nemesis as hateful as those scavengers is creating an open access to all kinds of problems in the Pridelands. You, more than any one, should know that."
"It's not creating an access to problems, Sarabi," reasoned the king, "It's creating an opportunity."
"An opportunity for what?" Asked Sarabi.
"For enemies to get along with each other."
"Are you serious, Scar?"
"It's a golden opportunity for lions and hyenas to get along with each other, and stop thus endless conflict between the Pridelanders and the Outsiders. I'm trying to make peace here," responded Scar. "That's why I've told you its a new era- a new beginning!"
Sarabi shook her head while she stared straight at Scar's dark green eyes. "Mufasa didn't have to bring lions and hyenas together for there to be peace in our Kingdom, Scar. Just by keeping the hyenas a far off from the boundaries that marked our territories, he created peace itself. Be reasonable, Scar. You're making a grave, grave mistake. Every single member of this Kingdom knows that the Pride will never come to terms with the hyenas. You have started a war. Think about this!"
Scar paused for a while, while Sarabi waited for his response. After a long period of silence, Scar broke the silence. "My decision still remains the same."
Sarabi quietly sighed a heavy sigh slowly and deeply. She had no other choice but to leave the king's own decision to himself.
"Alright," said she. "But think about your decision. Many lionesses were greatly shocked by what you did, just so you know." She quietly left the den, and climbed down from Pride Rock to go behold the proceedings of the morning hunts.
Just as soon as she left did Scar receive one of the greatest shocks of his life. Pondering about his conversation with Sarabi and his decision of giving the hyenas residence in the Kingdom, he received an uninvited and breathtaking surprise.
"Your majesty," a hyena guard called.
"Yes," responded Scar, without looking.
"Someone's here to see you," he said. Scar raised his countenance. "Who?"
The hyena guard nodded at his two partners outside, who paved the way for a strange visitor. On recognizing her familiar face, Scar was shocked to the roots of his existence. The sight of the strange lioness literally choked the power of speech out of him. A huge smile appeared on her face, her eyes glowing red with seeming determination. From the look in her face, one could tell that she was upto something.
She majestically walked past the hyenas and stood before the King, with an aura of determined confidence and boldness.
"Your majesty," her raspy voice echoed across the cave. "Can we have a private talk?"
After finally regaining composure and was now able to talk, Scar ordered the hyenas to leave the den, still staring confusedly at his visitor. The hyenas bowed and left, leaving the king behind.
"I'm sure by now you have recognized me fully, haven't you?" She said, sarcastically.
"Z....Zi...Zira?" Scar uttered, in a shocked, quiet tone.
"Hello, Scar?" She greeted, gleefully.
Scar suddenly let out a quiet laughter, so fake that Zira could feel the uneasiness inside it. "It's...it's been long since we last so each other. I mean...oh my goodness!" Then he stared one more time.
"Why? You seem quite surprised to see me," she said. "It has indeed been long. Let me guess....is it...ten, eleven....oh,yes- Ten years, isn't it?"
At the mention, Scar's mind glided back to that fateful day, many years ago, that broke his heart and soul. Something that he had buried in his memory. He recalled those helpless, lonely, adorable dark red eyes that stared and looked up to him as her only source of help after King Ahadi's decree of expelling her from the Pridelands- the same eyes that were now looking at him, determined, ambitious with a sense of evil in them.
Zira had really changed, Scar thought. And she had grown thinner, bony and skinny over the years. She didn't seem like the young, lively, beautiful teenage lioness she was back then before her and her mother's exile.
     "It's such a pretty long time," Scar added, "I mean...ten years? Sarabi and her pride would be shocked to see you, Zira. How are things going? Where's...where's your mother? Azola was her name wasn't it?"
     "Yes, its Azola," replied the lioness. "And, unfortunately she died, during an attack by a nomad pride."
     "I'm really sorry about that," Scar said, surprised.
     "Yes. She was my only source of inspiration. My only hope when no one stood for me," Zira said. "And both our lives had been so miserable in the Outlands after your father banished us...."
     "For a crime you didn't commit," Scar concluded. Zira looked away, trying to surpress and fight off her torn, fractured emotions that had dominated her heart for nearly her entire life.
      "So...you decided to have your way back to Pride Rock?" Asked the king.
     "Yes," responded Zira, "but I'm here for a reason. Otherwise I wouldn't have come back. Just so you know, I hated Pride Rock with an uncontrolled passion ever since that fateful day of our exile."
    Scar took a minute to swallow that in. Ouch, he thought. "So...why are you here?"
    Zira's face shined with a plain smile. "Well, if I remember correctly, before leaving the kingdom, you had such a deep grudge against Mufasa. And, from the looks of it, I see your grudge against him has taken you quite far," she uttered.
    Scar looked at her suspiciously, his heart almost skipping a bit.
   "What do you mean, it has taken me quite far?" Asked the king.
    "Well, you see, there were actually eyes that had seen everything that happened at the gorge that morning," she said, looking straight into Scar's eyes. Scar stared back unblinkingly at the young lioness. "You're joking, right?" He inquired, scared and shocked out of his wits. Zira maintained a serious countenance, as a gesture seeming to say, do I look like I'm joking?
     Scar was suddenly overwhelmed by a drop-dead fear. His dark secret had not been a secret after all, he thought. And who else could have been beholding him exterminate his brother in the gorge?
     "Weren't you the one throwing your brother off the cliff to a huge stampede of wildebeest in the Canyon?" She asked, in a sarcastic tone, knowing how much shock, pressure and fear she inflicted in Scar's heart by her words.
     "You mean to tell me," he asked, "that, you...you actually saw everything?"
     "Everything, " she replied. "That little plot you made with the hyenas, the way you lured and talked Simba into the gorge..."
    "Well, the truth is," she continued,  "I've been keeping a close watch on you, Scar. If I remember correctly, before being kicked out of the kingdom, you had a passionate hatred for Mufasa so much that you had sworn nothing but revenge. I always knew that you wouldn't end things well with Mufasa, and I was quite determined to behold the revenge that you wanted to carry out...and here it is! You murdering your brother off a cliff ledge was just...unexpected, mind blowing and terrific!" She said with an amused facial expression.
      "So...is that why you came back to the Pridelands?" Scar asked, confusedly and torn between emotions. He found Zira's explanation for her returning to the Pridelands so unbecoming and 'childish' in a sort of way, and yet he was overcome by a heavy sense of fear and frustration at the same time. His secret, it turns out, wasn't a secret at all. As long as there were eyes that beheld his murderous deed at the gorge, he wasn't safe at all.
        "But you don't worry," she reassured him. "Your little dark secret's perfectly safe with me. Anyways, that wasn't my primary aim for returning."
      "Then...why are you back?" Scar asked.
      "Well....You're the new King of Pride Rock. Mufasa's gone and that means that the decree of keeping my mother and I out of the kingdom is dropped, isn't it?" She waited anxiously for Scar's response.
     "I mean...yeah, sure why not?" Chuckled Scar quietly. "Besides, you were my best friend, it would be completely unkind of me to not allow you back into the Pridelands. This was your home as much as it was mine."
    Zira smiled sweetly at the King. "Thank you, Scar."
     "Anytime. Anything for my bestie..."
    "But I'm quite surprised if that's all you remember about me," she said and laughed awkwardly, birthing a weird silence between the two.
     "Remember what?" Scar inquired, glancing aside.
    "That we were just besties," she answered. "Have you forgotten all those lovey- dovey moments we shared? And how we were this close to falling in love with each other?"
     Scar's mind raced back to those moments that he seemed to have long forgotten. Not that he didn't love Zira back then,  but that Sarabi was the precious and perfect piece that filled his heart that was left bare by Zira's banishment. He foresaw what type of conversation Zira was leading him to at this point. He couldn't find ways to change the subject, so he prepared himself to face her.
      "Oh yes," he chuckled once more uneasily. "Those times when we were still cubs and in our preteen years..."
     Zira nodded, looking at him, making Scar sense an aura of expectation in her. He tried to evade her look, and directed his eyes toward the glowing yellowish evening sun  that shone his face with tender light rays.
      "But everything literally changed ever since my dad's harsh decree," he said suddenly. "My life was crashed until Sarabi came along."
    "Sarabi?"
     "Yeah. She was probably one of the most comforting and wonderful gifts that ever happened in my life," Scar said, unknowingly resurrecting the thoughts of paiful encounters with Sarabi in the past in Zira's mind. Zira raised her eyebrow in surprise.
       "Really? How come?" She asked.
     "A lot changed ever since you and Azola left," Scar explained. "I just kept wondering how animals all over the farlands considered it great honor and favor to dwell in the Pridelands, when my life as a prince, was pathetic and miserable. As far as I can remember my father treated me like an outcast in his royal family. I did everything I could to earn his love and acceptance, and show him how lucky he was to have a young, strong lion prince like me, or even earn his smile just for once, but I was constantly bombarded with irksome, hateful remarks and lectures from him, while he showered Mufasa with all love and favor and unconditional acceptance, making him have the greatest and best years of his young life that any Pridelander could hope to have. It was horrible, made me feel the unluckiest and filthiest, most worthless person in the world." Zira looked down at her paws.
      "For all I know," continued the king, "you and my mother were probably the only ones in my life who valued me as a lion, and for who I was. And the mere thought of losing either of you was, by itself heartbreaking. But, it seemed that life itself was so unfair to me that it drained me of you both. Uru died, you got kicked out,  and my life crumbled that instant.  And just when I thought I had no hope, Sarabi happened. She and I got close, so close that we became inseparable friends. But tradition didn't leave her a choice. She had to be mates with Mufasa. And on Mufasa's coronation day as King, that's when everything chamged. She and I barely saw or talked with each other. But she's always in my heart..."
       Zira nodded, deep in thought. Not a day went by that she didn't think of Scar even while living in those barren wastelands, and she had hoped that she would one day meet him again. And that day arrived. However, little did Scar know that he had started a small spark that would light a fire in Zira's heart that she could never escape. A fire of passion, anger, wild hatred...against the royal family of Mufasa.
      "Zira...Zira are you okay?" Scar jolted her thoughts back to reality.
     "Yeah I'm fine," she answered quickly. She felt like she had so much to tell Scar, but she controlled herself and left it at that. She didn't want to startle Scar too much, who was still recovering from the shock of her sudden return after so many long years.
      "Welcome once again," Scar said, smiling. Zira nodded, and asked for both Sarabi and Sarafina.
       "They're on the hunt," he replied. "In the hunting grounds."
     Zira then left the king's presence and descended Pride Rock. Scar became very worried about her knowing he was the one who killed Mufasa. His paranoia took him too far and he thought that maybe she wasn't
the only one. What if there were other eyes that had seen the whole incident??