King

8 - Thought

"Hey guys!" Kion giggled, waddling into the lair.

"Kion!" Bunga shouted happily, running over to him. "You're late, where you been?" He asked.

"I overslept, sorry everyone!" He replied bashfully, pawing the side of his muzzle in embarrassment. Bunga walked up to the lion cub, jumping up to meet his eye level and the two quickly exchanged a quick fist bump, or more like a swipe of the claws.

After that, Bunga stood next to him, and Kion looked around. He saw Besthe swimming around in his small pond, and Ono, the cheap little egret, bobbing upon his head.

"Where's Fuli? She's usually on time..." He asked, ears narrowing to the back of his head in worry.

"We haven't seen her," said Ono, flying towards the pair. "We were hoping you would know!" He flapped in his usual high-pitched tone.

"Go look for her, okay, Ono?" Kion smiled, a hint of unease braking through. The bird nodded and took off behind the honey badger and lion cubs.

Besthe heavily trotted out of his pool, stretching out his limbs and neck. "I sure hope she's okay..."

"Don't worry about a thing, you guys!" Bunga squealed, "zuka zama, right? Fuli's completely fine, she can handle herself!" He laughed.

Kion wanted to believe his best friend, but couldn't bring himself to commit. I sure hope you're right, buddy...

Suddenly, Kion awoke in his lonely pit of a cave. Disoriented, he quickly looked around his leafy surroundings, quickly recognising his loving home, however, he frowned when he saw that the time was still early morning, shown by the cold blue colour of the atmosphere braking into the cave from the outside.

Kion sloppily got up, stretched his limbs, then walked over to the chalk piece and the wall littered with markings. Where the sloppy '1' was a couple days ago, now three figures lined up, implicating that three days had passed since the lion's return. Kion flew the chalk around and placed another figure to the right of the last, meaning that morning was the beginning of the fourth day.

Slowly, the King trudged out of his quarters and towards his old sister's, and his old pride's room. It was to the left of his own, and bigger, but much blander. Inside, was many lionesses as well as two distinctively larger males, namely, Simba and Kovu. Cuddling the King, was Nala, and near Kovu, Kion's sister.

The outlawed son grimaced at the fact that he could not recognise many other faces, just two others, Tiifu and Zuri. He was immaculately impressed with their resilience in training, and somewhat regretted forcing so many animals to fight the cause that Kion provoked.

Then, he remembered why he was there, peering into the cave.

"Kiara..." he whispered ever so quietly. He moved silently a bit further into the cave, then whispered again.

"Kiara..." Again, nothing. It took a lot of confidence to walk among his old friends and family, with no permission to do so, but he really needed advice, so he pushed forwards to the pair holding each other in slumber, both smiling, seeming to be living the exact same dream.

"Kiara, hey, Kiara..." he nudged her head, and finally, she stirred. First, her eyes clenched, then her face moved in random patterns from being forced out of her sleep, and finally looked up at the enforcer. She frowned.

"What?" She whispered, obviously not amused by the boy's appearance.

"Can... we talk? Please?" He asked politely, secretly terrified of the princesses reaction. She thought, looked at her mate, then back at the mean old King.