A Dark Secret

Chapter 15

Kion blinked open his eyes. It was morning. Something didn't feel right. His throat was sore and he felt nauseous. His fur was damp with sweat as he realized that his body was overheated. He felt a throbbing pain in his scar, unlike the ones he felt before. He saw Fuli walking around the small cave they were in. He noticed Gozi wasn't there. "Where's Gozi?" he rasped.

Fuli turned to look at him. "He was restless, I told him to go run around in the grasslands, but to make sure to stay out of Swift's Clan and the Sun Pride territory." Fuli then walked up closer to him. "Something's wrong Kion," she observed. "You don't look... right."

You have a way of knowing when something's wrong, Kion admitted to himself. Kion's throat hurt and he didn't want to talk, so he just motioned with his paw to his scar, briefly touching it. Fuli looked sympathetic.

All of a sudden Gozi rushed in the den, faster than a lightning bolt. "Woo hoo!" he exclaimed. He turned around and sped out, accidentally kicking dust in Kion's face.
Kion groaned. He could tell Fuli was trying her best not to laugh. A wave of lightheadedness swept over Kion. He covered his head with his paws. Fuli walked over to him and put her paw up to his head. All of a sudden she jumped back, shocked.

"Kion you need to rest," she told him. Kion shook his head. "How do you know what-"

He was interrupted by Fuli, "Your scar's bothering you, you have a sore throat, you feel nauseous, and you feel lightheaded. You need to rest," she told him firmly.

How do you always know what I'm feeling?! He begrudgingly nodded.

Just then, Gozi rushed into the den, gasping for breath. "So... so... tired," he said through gasps. "Maybe... shouldn't have ran... so much." He over exaggeratingly flopped down on the ground.

Fuli tried to stifle a laugh. "All cheetahs learn that the hard way," she told him, amusement audible in her voice.

Kion closed his eyes to go to sleep, but he couldn't. He still stayed conscious for a long time despite keeping his eyes shut.

Apparently Fuli thought he was asleep, because she started to talk about him to Gozi. "I'm worried about him," Kion heard her say. "His scar is making things very hard for him. I told him to rest while you were out running in the fields. He now feels as if he has some sort of serious fever."

"As soon as he feels better we can continue the journey to... uh... what was it again? Oh yeah, the Tree of Life," Gozi said enthusiastically.

There was a silence that could have lasted a few moments or hundreds of years. It was a while before Kion started to feel himself drifting off to sleep, but just as he was on the brink of consciousness, the murmuring continued. Kion didn't have the reserves to attempt to wake himself back up and pay attention, for he was finally drifting off. The last words he heard before he left reality and entered dreamland were: "I have faith, faith in Kion. He'll be okay."

Kion woke up once again that day. He had a weird feeling in his stomach. He was even more nauseous than before. He looked around the den and saw Fuli grooming herself. Gozi was nowhere to be seen. Kion figured the young cub was probably outside running around again. Sure enough, he could hear a "woo hoo" in the distance.

Fuli finished grooming herself and walked over to where Kion was laying. "How are you feeling?"

He opened his mouth to reply, but then there was a spasm in his stomach. He began gagging.

"I'll take that as 'not good,'" Fuli said as she helped Kion to his paws and hurried him outside. The moment they made it outside and Kion crouched down, continuing to gag, his pelt burning with embarrassment as a sticky liquid no one would desire to touch came flooding out of his mouth. The agony that came with each spasm was something unprecedented in any other time Kion had regurgitated before.