Kayley is jolted awake, a shout vibrating through her throat. She pants, drenched in her own sticky sweat, as the blackness begins the fade. Or rather, a light penetrates the dark. It's much too dark to be the same beach she passed out on.... But a glow illuminates around her, giving her a small sense of vision.
Frowning, she scrambles to her feet, stunned to find she isn't nearly as weak or sick as she recently felt. In fact, she doesn't feel like herself at all. Like she isn't even here. Like none of this is real.
It's gotta be a dream.
Not that she's ever been aware of when she's dreaming. But what other explanation is there?
To her right, a waterfall of white light cascades down from the darkness. She approaches it slowly, cautious of the strange, mumbling noises lost inside it. Faded, blurred images pass through the lights, too warped for her to make out. She squints, her fingers outstretched.
A tinny voice echoes through the air, so quiet it could almost be mistaken for a breeze.
"It... It will, um, let you see into the mind of anybody you want."
Kayley withdrawals, pinpointing the voice instantly. Periwinkle, the frost fairy. During the dance-off level, when Kayley saw Scar, and Peri offered her the potion. At the time, when she gulped it down and nothing changed, she felt as if it was a waste of magic. But maybe it wasn't, after all. Maybe this is the magic, finally working.
Bunching up her shoulders, Kayley once again faces the shimmering wall of light. Steadily, she places one foot in front of the other, a tinkling sensation moving through her as she steps beyond the light, into it's center.
An explosion of colors and sounds erupt around her, a sudden wind tossing her hair back. She tenses, frightened by this change of scenery. All around her, as if she's in a 3-D movie, images flash around, showcasing wild plains. Zebras, giraffes, and elephants pound across the dried grass, as beautiful birds soar across an open, cloudless sky. Men dart around a house decorated with African relics, a young boy ignoring them all and messing around, charging straight at– her.
No, not her. She's a witness, peering through someone else's eyes. Eavesdropping in someone else's eyes.
The boy sneers, pushing at the victim, mouthing words way too easy for her to decipher.
"You're so stupid! You'll never amount to anything! This is why Mama and Papa love me more!"
She grips at her chest, ignoring the sudden flare she feels inside, and spins to face another scene.
The same boy, a bit older, taunting the victim to go play in the gorge. "You're half lion - nothing will happen to you!"
Then a shocking, eerily similar gorge she had been trapped in minutes ago. Racing through the gorge as a wild herd of wildebeests pound around, tripping, landing face up, a sharp hoof scraping dangerously close....
Kayley feels the excruciating pain that sears across her eye. She screams out in pain, pressing a hand to the wound. It should be covered in blood. For all she knows, she shouldn't be able to see out of that eye. But when she lowers her hand, not a hint of blood is shown on her skin. Her vision is perfect, even through the pain is searing.
At that moment, she recognizes, without a doubt, where she is.
This is Scar's mind. These are his memories. She's looking, first hand, into his past.
This could be the key to defeating him.
Huffing, she forces the idea into her mind that the pain isn't real. It's not hers. It's Scar's. It does little to convince her, but she moves past this memory, none the less.
