A/N: This is the longest chapter yet, so I'd recommend grabbing a cup of coffee and making yourself comfortable before you get started. As much as I wanted to break this into two parts, I don't think the content is long or heavy enough for that... so here it is. Enjoy the read.
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A Kingdom Reborn: The Legend of Mohatu
Chapter 16: Revelation
Drops of water splattered through the air and onto the ground as Mohatu shook himself off. After more than a day of dying in the scorching hot desert sand, the chill of wet lionfur in the evening breeze actually felt somewhat refreshing. Despite his internal, hidden sorrow, he was cool, quiet, and ready to continue the expedition.
As Mohatu glanced over at the baboon and the soaked lioness beside him, the last sliver of sunlight fell beyond the dunes of the horizon. Vibrant shades of orange, pink, and red filled the heavens in radially striped patterns, forming bright, colorful bands across the evening sky.
Rafiki suddenly swung his stick around in the air to grab Mohatu's attention, appearing out of nowhere while the lion stared into the early night sky. "You follow Rafiki! He knows the way!"
Mohatu blinked his eyes, tilting his head back naturally. It was not long before he saw the crazy baboon began running across the grassland, using his stick as a third leg in the oddest motion the lion had ever seen.
For a few seconds, the two lions merely stared at one another. A dense and melancholic silence filled the air at first, but soon faded away, as Mari almost found herself chuckling over the baboon's antics. Eventually, the lioness turned away and stepped forward, following Rafiki's path. With a heavy sigh, Mohatu followed as well.
"Hurry up! You slow!" the mandrill teased.
Mohatu continued to walk at a slow pace, completely ignoring the baboon. Instead, he turned to Mari to ask her a question. "So... where did you go?"
Although the lion's question caught Mari off guard, she managed to answer rather quickly. "Nowhere, really. He just showed me his tree."
Mohatu nearly forced a laugh. "After all that?"
"Yes," Mari answered, remembering all that Rafiki had told her. "He's actually not as nutty as he seems."
Immediately after the lioness had finished her words, the mandrill intentionally began mumbling. Although neither of the two lions knew what the baboon was saying, it hardly mattered.
Rafiki lifted his stick up as he walked. "Asante Sana!"
"Squash banana!" the baboon continued, speaking even louder, but with a similarly catchy jingle.
"We we nugu! Mi mi apana!"
"Go figure," Mohatu sighed, focusing his attention back to the lioness. "Are you sure about that?" he scowled.
Mari rolled her eyes. "Well, I never said he isn't a
little nutty... I'm pretty sure he's just doing this for his own amusement," Mari exhaled loudly, shaking her head a bit. "But, I'm not a baboon... I wouldn't know."
"I guess," Mohatu replied simply. After several minutes of listening to the baboon talk to himself far off into the distance, he managed to think of another question to ask. "What did you want to talk to him about?"
Mari nearly stopped, as she looked down at her muddy paws. It took her quite a bit of time before she could think of an appropriate answer. She couldn't tell him—not yet. She wasn't prepared.
"I... ugh... I'll tell you later," Mari whispered carefully, continuing to walk through the sand. She almost felt a splash of relief, as she knew she would not be keeping her secret for much longer. For better or worse, he would know the truth before sunrise.
Mohatu merely shrugged. "Okay," he replied casually.
"We have a tomb to explore, so let's just stick with that for now," Mari continued, seeming a bit more confident after noticing Mohatu's lackadaisical response. It was comforting, in an obvious way, to know that Mohatu didn't care that much.
"I don't even think we're anywhere near it," Mohatu added. "It should be a giant, pyramid-shaped structure..."
The lion's comment caught Mari by surprise. "Do you think he doesn't know what we're looking for?" asked the lioness.
"Perhaps," Mohatu stated easily.
"I doubt it," Mari retorted. "I'm pretty sure he knows more about the whole kingdom than we do."
"We'll see, I guess," Mohatu admitted, as he looked across the darkening sand ahead.
They had left the grassy oasis behind, and the large dunes in their path seemed to all collapse into a depression, converging to a specific point below. It was not long before Rafiki disappeared entirely below the dunes, and down into the cavity.
As the two lions caught up, they noticed a large metal door, that was only barely exposed to the air. Not at all surprisingly, it contained the same patterns and markings from the tomb of Algenubi.
Rafiki approached the door, and began hitting it with his stick. "Open! Open! Open!"
"Open
sesame!" the baboon commanded, hitting the metal door even harder.
After Rafiki took a second to catch his breath, he tried again. "Thou shalt open thy door!" he yelled, jabbing his stick into the vertical, rusted iron structure with all his strength.
Mohatu stopped in his tracks, glancing over at Mari. He was unsure of whether he should be amused or annoyed by the baboon's insanity. Quite frankly, either response was rational.
Mari shook her head, while Mohatu turned away and approached the mandrill. With a gentle stroke of his paw, Mohatu pushed the baboon aside.
The lion then analyzed the markings on the door for a moment, before slowly sliding his paw across to wipe away a layer of rust. Consequently, he revealed a spiral sun symbol, which was centered between the segments of beveled metals.
Mohatu looked back at Rafiki, who stood watching and waiting.
"I think I know how to get in," Mohatu stated, placing his paw right up onto the symbol. As he held it there for a few seconds, a loud rumble sounded from the ground below. Suddenly, the door slid down into the ground, causing sand to shift and fall on the trio.
"See?" Mohatu smiled contently at the other two, with plumes of sand falling from his mane. "I told you I'd get us in. It's easy as catching mice."
Mari did not reply; instead, she immediately began walking into the dark void that opened up inside the dune. She approached the tomb with caution, but the other two followed with a far deeper state of curiosity.
"This... looks familiar," Mohatu replied, with an eerie echo in his voice as he stepped into the underground structure.
Suddenly, the giant metal door began to close behind them. As it made a loud clanking and grinding sound, Mari turned around to try to stop it from closing completely. "No!" she yelled, with a deep sense of fear in her voice.
"Rafiki, give me your stick," the lioness commanded quickly. The door began to slide up, and she planned to keep it pried open with a rigid object.
By the time Rafiki reached the door, it had already closed completely. After a loud thunk, the grinding sound ceased. They were trapped, and there was absolutely no light.
"Dammit!" Mari exclaimed furiously. She began to step backward, trembling slightly from fear. "Oh God dammit..." she repeated a little quieter, speaking her mind as she tried not to bump into anything.
"Don't worry," Mohatu replied comfortingly. "It's fine. We just need to find a button that activates the lights."
"Wait a minute..." Mari retorted. "How do
you know this?"
"I don't know," Mohatu answered from the darkness. "It just feels like I've been here before. Deja vu, I guess."
Mari did not answer immediately, but from the sound of her breathing, she seemed to relax a bit. In all reality, Mohatu's vague recollection of a previous visit was hardly a surprise to her. Mari knew that he had probably visited the tomb before.
"Ah, that's it," Mohatu exclaimed suddenly, rubbing his paw against the wall. With an electrical flickering sound, every light ignited at once, illuminating all four walls and the entire roof with a warm, yellow tone.
Immediately, the lion ran to the center of the room, and found the same round hole that Leo had once fallen in. "This is
exactly like a dream that I had..." Mohatu stated, gazing all the way down into the void below.
Mari and Rafiki approached the lion, looking down into the gaping hole as well.
Mohatu smirked, beginning to explain all that he knew. "See, if you go down there, all the way to the bottom, and make a right, you'll walk down a passage. That passage leads to another passage, which crosses a pool of water with a crocodile, and on the other side, is the sarcophagus of Zosma."
"Hmm..." Mari replied wordlessly. She had little doubt that the lion knew what he was talking about. In fact, she almost considered blurting out the truth, right then and there.
But she didn't.
"Leo found the key inside that sarcophagus," Mohatu continued, looking down into the sinkhole-like structure. "Which means it probably isn't there anymore."
"Yeah, you're probably right," Mari answered truthfully.
"There's only one way to find out," Mohatu added, jumping down from the ledge. "Come on, let's go check it out," he told Mari, waiting for her to follow from below.
Mari hesitated for a moment, while the mandrill leaped down easily. He was a strange breed of monkey, after all; ascending and descending was essentially second nature to him.
But Mari wasn't quite as ambitious. She remained on the top level, where there was plenty of light.
"What are you waiting for?" Mohatu asked, while Mari continued to stand like a furry statue.
"Nothing," the hesitant lioness retorted, finally making the jump as well. After a loud thud, all three were on the bottom level of the structure.
Mohatu began to move, and another row of lights illuminated his surroundings on cue. Instinctively, the lion started to follow Leo's path to the sarcophagus, noticing that each passageway was exactly like he had seen in his dream. As he looked behind, Mohatu noticed that Mari and Rafiki followed him with similar expressions of awe.
"This is almost
exactly like the tomb of Algenubi..." Mari whispered, inspecting the walls of the barely-lit passageway. The entire tomb was covered with decorations, symbols, and writings, even on the roof of the chamber itself. "The layout seems a bit different, but these symbols... and the architecture... it's all the same."
Rafiki followed silently, rubbing his chin with his finger the entire time. He thought it best to keep his musings to himself, but neither of the two lions seemed to notice.
Eventually, Mohatu made his way to the intersection of the passageways. He continued following Leo's path, directly into the dark chamber that held the room of golden treasures. As he looked back for the other two, he noticed that Mari was keeping her distance.
"Come on," Mohatu said without patience.
Mari sat down, making it quite clear that she had no intention of going into the dark room. "You can go on without me... I'll wait here."
"Mari..." the lion groaned softly.
"You know where you're going," Mari replied. "You don't need me."
Needless to say, Mohatu was rather surprised by the lioness's stubbornness. Ever since they entered the tomb, Mari seemed to want nothing more than to leave it.
"What is it?" the brown lion asked curiously. "Are you afraid of the dark?"
"No," Mari replied simply, with an unusually bitter tone in her voice as she flattened her ears. She stood directly below a torch hanging from the ceiling, so her angst was certainly visible.
"Then come on," Mohatu insisted.
The lioness shook her head, sighing heavily. "...but I
am afraid of what might be hiding in the dark."
"Only me," Mohatu replied easily. "I'm not that scary, am I?"
Yes. Indeed, he was.
But Mari could not admit that. The lion's question caught her by surprise, as it became apparent that he really was clueless. She felt a sudden chill of nervousness before she finally replied. "What? You? No..."
"Then come on," Mohatu nodded. "I can assure you, there's nothing here but me, Rafiki, and a timid crocodile."
Finally, Mari stepped forward again with an exasperated groan, following her two companions into the lowest chamber. She gave up. "Fine. I'm coming."
As Mohatu stepped closer to the artificial pond, he heard the sound of the reptile slithering around in it. It was just like he imagined it to be in his dream. Likewise, the bold lion prepared himself, just the way Leo had done the year before.
As the scaly creature began to climb out of the water, Mohatu roared as loud as he could. Consequently, in less than a second, the crocodile began swimming back to his home, deep below the surface of the tomb.
It was, perhaps, his most effortless battle yet.
"Okay, that was weird," Mari replied, standing unusually close to her brown-maned companion. "I assume you
knew to do that?"
"Yep," Mohatu nodded confidently, as a series of lights conveniently illuminated the golden treasure on the other side of the tomb. "Now we just jump across."
"Simple enough, I guess," Mari added, following Mohatu as he leaped across the body of water and into the golden section of the tomb. Rafiki followed shortly behind the two, using his stick to get a running start and leap across the muddy sinkhole in the floor.
As Mohatu glanced around at all the shiny golden objects that littered the chamber, he found what he knew to be the sarcophagus of Zosma directly in the center. He approached with a certain lackadaisical walk, obviously having no fear.
Yet, something else caught the lion's attention. As he looked down on the muddy tile floor, he noticed several paw prints—the king's paw prints. At that point, he knew for certain that his dream was actually a memory of some sort.
Slowly, Mohatu walked up to the sarcophagus and pushed open the metal lid by leaning against it. As the decayed body inside opened up to the world for the first time since Leo had entered the tomb, Mohatu looked for the disc.
But it wasn't there.
"Damn," the old king sighed. "Leo took it..." he continued, having absolutely no idea that he was referring to his former self.
Mari looked away, instead shifting her focus to the many golden artifacts around them. "Yeah, I kinda thought that was going to happen."
"Great," Mohatu retorted sarcastically, closing the sarcophagus once again. "So what are we going to do now? What's the point of looking for the discs, if Leo took the others?"
"I'm not entirely sure," Mari replied. Instead of answering the lion's question directly, the orange lioness focused her attention on a long, slender object, plated in gold and silver. Curiously, she moved closer to smell it. "But maybe there's something else here, that could be useful... like this."
Mohatu turned around. "What are you doing... what's
that?"
"No idea," Mari replied, before picking it up with her mouth. As she tried to carry it into the light, one end of it began to extend.
"Stop!" Rafiki commanded, finally speaking up after several minutes of keeping his mouth shut. "There is something in there."
The lioness stood still for a moment, allowing the mandrill to inspect the object she carried between her teeth.
Carefully, Rafiki grabbed the end that started to fall out, and gently began to pull on it. As a smooth, high-pitched metallic ringing sound filled the air, the object inside shone brightly in the light. Whatever was inside, it was highly reflective.
Eventually, the baboon carried the entire shiny stick in his hand, freeing it from its sheath. It was a sword: an elegant weapon, for a different type of warrior.
Rafiki pulled the weapon closer towards him, inspecting the incredibly fine blade at the end. He wiped his fingers across the length of the blade slowly, realizing that, without question, the weapon had been left in excellent condition. His eyes widened, as he admired his shiny new stick of doom.
Mari set the blade's sheath down on the shiny tile floor. "You can keep it, I guess. It's your reward for helping us."
Within an instant, Rafiki threw his old wooden stick down, and held the new one into his dominant hand. Briefly, he swung it around in the air, to get a feel for the weapon. Despite being made of a silver metal alloy, it was actually quite light in terms of weight. Rafiki was able to swing it quickly enough to make a sharp whipping sound, as the tip broke the sound barrier.
After a few seconds, the baboon grabbed the sheath, before setting the weapon down in its protective case with care. "Thank you," Rafiki replied honestly, bowing again to the lioness. "I will put this to good use."
Mari felt a nervous fluttering building up in her stomach, as she glanced over at the other lion. "I guess we're done here," she stated nervously. "Let's go."
"The way out is over here," Mohatu replied impatiently, before pushing a rock aside with his head.
Another plume of sand fell down from the surface, but he had opened up the chamber to the starlight. He moved aside and held the hidden door open for Mari and Rafiki, before following the two out of the temple.
As the trio returned to the dry, sandy desert, the hours of twilight fell upon them. The entire sky was glowing a purplish-blue with millions of stars.
"It is getting late," Rafiki replied. "It is time for me to return to my home. Perhaps our paths shall cross again sometime."
"It was a pleasure," Mari forced herself to smile back, despite her anxiety.
Before the mandrill turned around, he winked at Mari. "Oh, and good luck!"
The baboon then left the scene quickly, before Mari could even catch her breath. As Rafiki left the two lions alone once again, a deafening silence filled the air. Had it not been for Mari's thoughts, the night would have been calm and peaceful.
But she had no choice. Not anymore. She had to do it.
Mari's gaze shifted from the night sky to Mohatu's rough mane. As she began to speak, her eyes revealed only a sense of despair. "I guess I owe you an explanation..."
"What is it?" Mohatu asked curiously.
As he waited for an answer, he began to realize that whatever it was, it was upsetting her. The lioness's tone of voice in itself made him feel rather uncomfortable. "Please," he continued, "whatever it is, don't beat yourself up over it. I hate to see you like this."
Mari looked away for a moment, groaning in the process. "No... you deserve to know the
truth."
"But... I don't understand," Mohatu stated ignorantly.
Mari picked her paw up and pointed roughly in the direction of the moon. "Exactly. Of course you don't understand—that's the problem. Let's go. I'll explain
everything this time. I promise."
"Okay," Mohatu mumbled, following in the lioness's path. "So what's this all about?"
Mari gulped, suddenly recalling the events of that night in her mind, as she prepared to explain herself to Mohatu. If she was actually going to tell him the truth, he had to know the
whole truth. She planned to tell him everything from her point of view, all from that critical moment...
--- --- ---
A thick, dark layer of clouds and fog shielded the Pridelands from view. Occasionally, lightning struck, illuminating the ominous night sky above. Even from the promontory of Pride Rock, the massive downpour of rain completely blocked visibility across the horizon.
As Mari looked up, she saw two lions standing on the enormous rock, glancing over their kingdom in the storm. One shook the mist out of his mane, while the larger of the two lions almost glanced at her, but instead noticed a wet cheetah running towards Pride Rock.
"What are you doing here, Duma?" The king demanded. "It's just a storm."
The cheetah climbed up to Pride Rock as fast as he could. "I... I saw... the traitors, your highness," he replied, between his deep gasps for air. "They're here. In the Pridelands. Busar is with them."
The king shifted his attention towards his brother. "Rex, gather the knights above Pride Rock. We will make our stand here. Just as we planned."
"Yes..." Rex grinned deviously. He turned around and walked to the other side of the enormous rock with haste. "Soon, there will be no one left to oppose us!"
Leo's dark brown mane blew magnificently in the violent winds. As confident as he was, he felt something was not right as soon as his brother left. "Are you sure?" the king asked Duma. "I'm surprised he actually has the guts..."
"Now's the time!" Busar whispered to Mari and the other three lionesses below. With a sudden surge of energy, they all charged up Pride Rock, following behind the cheetah that almost gave away their camouflage.
Immediately after reaching the top of the promontory, Busar swatted the cheetah away, causing the smaller cat to fall down temporarily.
Duma quickly regained his balance on his paws. He backed away from the lions with his fur standing straight up like spines.
The cheetah exposed his clenched teeth for a moment, before running away as Busar focused on his son.
Two lionesses stood beside him on each side, after following Busar up Pride Rock. Mari and Kartitiki guarded his right, while Narisah and Irena covered his left.
It was five versus one.
"I would rather not fight," Busar stated. "But your actions have forced me to do this."
Narisah nodded in agreement, while a harsh rain began pouring down on the lions. "You have brought order to the Pridelands... but at what cost? Uhai is dead. Akila is dead. Iltani, Korrawi, Isis, Vasari... they're all dead. Half our pride is gone, just because of
you!"
"Their deaths were necessary," Leo spat, glancing behind his shoulder. "Those who are worthy of ruling a kingdom serve
me. Only the strongest can survive. This is the way it must be."
He hoped to see his knights behind him, ready for battle. Instead, he found no one. A deafening silence filled the moist air around him.
His brother was not in position above Pride Rock as he promised. The lion clenched his teeth together with incredible force as he came to realize what this meant. Rex had betrayed him. He was left to fight alone.
But he would
still take all the glory. His anger would fuel his strength in battle.
"This is your last chance, Leo," Busar taunted. "Stand down, or I will be forced to kill you."
Leo moved into his fighting stance, lowering his center of gravity closer to the ground. "You will not stop me!" Leo warned. "I am the king!" He watched each of the lions carefully, waiting for the perfect moment to make his first strike.
Busar inched towards his son at a snail's pace. In a split second, he turned to his right and winked at Mari. She knew what to do.
Leo had no space to move, nowhere to run, and nowhere to hide. His only choice was to attack first, and expose himself to the other four lions.
"It's over, Leo!" Mari taunted, moving confidently into position atop a boulder as lightning struck behind her. "This ends here. Now."
In a desperate move, the lion leaped straight forward, directly for Mari's head. The gusty winds and dim moonlight made observing him rather difficult, except during the frequent moments when lightning struck in the distance.
Mari ducked under the pouncing lion, and waited for him to land behind her.
Though Leo managed to sink one of his paws into Mari's back, causing the lioness to scream in pain, he gained too much momentum to hold on. The once arrogant and bodacious lion feared for his life as he slid off the wet rock below him.
Mari remained standing on the boulder, as the rain poured down on her wounded spine.
Leo began accelerating downward at a rapid pace, falling directly in the path of several rocks below. As he hit the first boulder, his body warped and twisted around it, before sliding off into an adjacent rock.
At last, he rested motionless, covered in an ever-expanding pool of blood. Though a dense fog hindered the pride's vision, it was quite clear that the king had fallen.
Mari jumped down and stepped over to the king's carcass. Seconds later, she and the other lions surrounded his dying body.
Checkmate.
The scarred lioness placed her paw above the king's muzzle, to feel his shallow breath. "He's still alive," she whispered. "He's breathing."
Mari then stepped back, gazing across the horizon to look for any more attackers. Her heart continued to beat faster than she had ever felt before, as adrenaline flowed through her blood in massive amounts.
Meanwhile, Karttiki began rubbing a copious pawful of catnip leaves over the lion's nose. She had to knock the lion out of consciousness for sure, and there was little time to waste. Although the king was already down, she had to be sure that he would not be getting back up anytime soon.
After scanning across the horizon, Busar verified that their plan was still in motion. "Hurry up!" he commanded. "Take him back before any lion notices. They could get here at any minute... I'll stand guard until you're hidden in the grass."
Each of the four lionesses grabbed a paw, and began dragging Leo's injured body down to the grasses below Pride Rock. With their combined efforts, they were able to carry him back to the jungle at a reasonably fast jogging pace.
"If he wakes up," Karttiki began, breathing heavily between steps, "We're screwed."
"Indeed," Narisah agreed. "Busar, have you found any more of them yet?" she asked, seeming surprised by the lack of resistance.
"No," Busar replied quickly. "This is too easy..." he replied, his voice growing quieter by the second. "They're letting us go," the old lion concluded, leaping down from the promontory. He began to follow the lionesses back into the jungle, protecting them every step of the way.
"Well, I'll be damned if this actually works," Irena added. "Mari, when we get back to the jungle... I think we owe you one."
The young lioness couldn't help but smile as she helped drag the lion across the stormy savannah. For the first time in her life, she felt absolutely certain that she had done something right.
--- --- ---
"Remember how I said...
I killed Leo?" Mari asked.
"Yeah," Mohatu replied, listening carefully to the lioness's heavy words.
"Well, I lied," she stated bluntly. "I never did. I fought Leo, but only briefly."
"I think I was there," Mohatu added. "Leo attacked you, and that's how you got your scar."
"Yes... you remember, don't you?" Mari replied with a tone of surprise in her voice. She gazed deep into Leo's eyes, wondering if he could discover the truth on his own.
"Not really, I just have these... thoughts."
"Well, that's not important," Mari shook her head, before continuing her explanation. "You know, Leo was the best friend I ever had..."
"Uh-huh," the lion nodded, waiting for Mari to continue.
"Even after all he did, I couldn't just kill him. Like I said, he really wasn't a bad lion... I knew something happened to him when he left the Pridelands for a year."
"So... what did you do?" Mohatu asked.
Mari avoided the lion's question, continuing to explain the situation from a state of discomfort. "My plan was never to kill Leo to begin with. You know... I
couldn't do that."
"But, what happened to him, then?" the brown lion inquired.
"After I fought him, I took it upon myself to heal him. I tried to bring him back to life..." Mari added, her voice fading into silence as she continued to speak. "I tried to make him see things from
our point of view."
At this point, Mohatu was deliberately trying not to put the pieces together. Somehow, in the back of his mind, he knew what Mari would say next, but he would not allow himself to realize it.
Mari ceased her walking, and instead stepped closer toward the naive lion. She placed her paw above his shoulder. "You're not going to want to hear this, but you must."
"There was only one way to save Leo," she continued slowly, "and that was to wipe his memory clean. I give him a new life."
Mohatu cocked his head to the side. "You... did?"
--- --- ---
Leo's contorted body sat beside a large palm tree near the pride's jungle hideout. Busar, Mari, Narisah, Karttiki, and Irena glanced at the resting lion, after dragging him into the shade. Together, along with the cub Uru, they were all that remained of their ravaged pride.
Busar knelt down beside his dying son, Leo. Slowly, he placed his paw above the old king's forehead, with dark shadows from the trees covering both figures.
The others watched intently as Busar spoke. "I'm sorry, Leo. If you are to blame anyone for this, please, blame me."
Narisah shifted closer to her mate. "It wasn't our-"
The lion blinked in an attempt to hold in his tears. "It
was my fault," Busar retorted. "I never should have let this happen to begin with. But I'm not the one who can fix this."
The old lion paused for a moment, breathing heavily before continuing. "Please... forgive us. Forgive yourself. You can make up for what you've done," he whispered to his unconscious son.
"Don't get too confident," Karttiki muttered sadly, preparing herself to speak the obvious. "He's pretty damn close to being dead. There's no way he's going to be able to help us like this."
"I think he'll be fine," Mari informed her pride, choking on her own saliva for a second. "He's still breathing; it looks like he just needs some rest." The lioness stepped forward slightly, taking a deep breath before continuing. "Come on..." she rolled her eyes. "He's Leo. If he survived the Badlands, he'll survive this too."
"Okay, maybe he
will be fine," Irena muttered. "And I really like your idea, Mari... but my only concern is... what if the catnip doesn't work? What if all his memories start coming back later? What if he finds out what we've done? What will we do then?"
"I'm afraid that's a risk we have to take," Busar added. "Look around. Look where we are. We're stuck in the jungle with nothing to eat but bugs, because we've been chased away from our home by my own sons. If this isn't our only hope, then I don't know what is."
Mari suddenly interrupted the older lions. "Well, I've been thinking... as soon as he's able to move again, what are we going to call him? Obviously, we can't have him know who he really is..."
"We will call him Mohatu," Busar declared, wiping his paw across his son's forehead to clean a partially open wound. "The savior."
Mari and Narisah were first to accept the idea. The two placed their paws above Busar's in agreement.
Karttiki and Narisah hesitated for a moment, before adding their paws as well. "It's settled then."
--- --- ---
Mari tilted her head up slightly. "We gave him a new identity, while he was in and out of consciousness for several days. We started to call him Mohatu. Our savior," she explained. "From that moment on, Leo was dead... sort of. He was
reborn."
The lion's jaw lowered, and he temporarily lost his ability to speak.
"It's not what you think," Mari said desperately. "Please, you must understand... I didn't want to lie to you all this time. I didn't have much of a choice."
"Is this some sort of joke?" the former king asked. "I would never-"
"It's true," the lioness replied. "But you've changed since then. You're a new lion now, and..." Mari suddenly struggled to find her words, trying to remember the way Rafiki had phrased it.
"I..." Mohatu began, stuttering between every breath. "I don't even..."
Mari looked away. "The truth is,
that's why we're here," she admitted. "If you hate me for it, I don't blame you."
"But," Mari interrupted herself, speaking a bit louder, "I had no choice. I only wanted to give you another chance..."
"I just want to be alone for a little bit," Mohatu sighed heavily, after seconds of hardly breathing. It was all too much to think about at once.
The lioness nearly choked on her own words. "Oh... okay. I-I'll let you think about it. It's a lot... I know."
Mari then collapsed into the sand, as her friend walked off into the middle of nowhere. Even though she had told him the truth, he was still just as lost and confused as he had ever been.
This would be the former king's ultimate test—and it would be Mari's as well.
--- --- ---
A/N: I'm not sure exactly how long this story is going to be, but this is somewhere around the halfway point, right here. I know, I know. This is a long story.
Now, considering that, I have something to say that I probably should have said all the way back at the very beginning. Like The Lion King was inspired by Hamlet, and Simba's Pride was an adaption of Romeo and Juliet, the general outline of this story was primarily influenced by the award-winning video game, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic.
To make it very clear: I do not own that franchise either (obviously), and I am not taking credit for the plot idea. If I actually owned anything, I wouldn't be uploading my stuff here, lol.
I did not want to reveal that at the beginning, because it would completely give away the plot twist for anyone who has played the game before, or anyone who is curious enough to Google it and read half a Wikipedia article. That being said, if you haven't played the game, I highly recommend it if you're into that sort of thing. Too bad I've spoiled the best part.
I can assure you, though, the ending of this story will be quite a bit different, along with many of the following chapters.
Oh, and one more thing: believe it or not, I've been writing this story for about a year now. I've had the actual idea in mind for the plot for nearly two years (hence my name, as you now know), although I have made many changes along the way since then, of course. I've come a long way since my first draft, and it's been quite an experience. It has required a lot of time and effort to tackle a project like this, but I have to say it's actually been pretty fun. It will be a sad day when I am done writing this story, that's or sure.
My goal is to have the story finished before the end of this year. As with everything else I do, it may or may not happen on time... but that's my plan, at least.