A Great Calling (Chapter 9)

Four years…

 

Four...long..years...since I arrived in the pridelands and boy have we all grown a bit. I’m now up to Simba’s shoulder at 19 years old and Kiara is up to Nala’s height when I remember her as an adult in the first movie, so she isn’t much shorter than Nala is right now at 18 human years old.

 

Oh? What am I doing awake when I could be asleep right now, you ask? Well, right now, I am standing next to Zazu, Timon and Pumbaa as Kiara walked down the pathway leading down the rock, lionesses on each side of it to make it look special and royal..because it was...today is Kiara’s first hunt and i’m rather skeptical about how she will perform, considering I know how she did in the movie, but i’m proud for her.

 

‘’Good luck Kiara!’’ ‘’My how you’ve grown!’’ ‘’You’re gonna do great!’’ Ah good, the cheering is going on and it’s making my ears twitch.

 

‘’Daddy.’’ Welp, Kiara is talking to Simba now, ‘’You’ll have to promise me to let me do this on my own...promise?’’ Simba looked at me, but noticing my indifferent face, he looked at Nala, who raised her eyebrows at him, causing him to sigh.

 

‘’All right..I promise.’’ Sure you do. But even then, I couldn’t hold in my smile as my friend, the princess of the pridelands, embraced her parents and went off to her first hunt. As Nala and the lionesses walked back into the den and Zazu flew away, Simba walked over to us and frowned.

 

‘’Make sure she doesn’t get hurt.’’ Simba said before Timon and Pumbaa went to walk to where Kiara was going, but I stopped them by holding my arm out to block their path, causing Simba to look at me.

 

‘’Simba, let me do it.’’ I said, causing him to raise an eyebrow, ‘’I know Kiara can trust me more than she can trust these two and I know how to keep track of her, so let me do this.’’

Simba looked at me, seemingly in doubt, before he smiled.

 

‘’Alright..good luck, Shujaa.’’ Simba told me, putting his right paw on my shoulder, ‘’I trust you on this..make sure she doesn’t get hurt.’’

 

‘’Oh, Simba, have I ever let her be hurt?’’ I asked with a smirk and he shook his head with a frown.

 

‘’No and I expect it to stay that way.’’ Simba said, narrowing his eyes as I gulped.

 

‘’U-Understood.’’ I stuttered before running off to find Kiara.

 

 

Suffice to say, it wasn’t hard finding her because of how much noise she was making, that’s for sure. I followed the sound of ‘ows’ and breaking twigs, eventually sneaking through the grass and finding Kiara, who was observing a herd of antelope near a hill.

 

‘’Hey!’’ I whispered to Kiara, who’s ears went up at the sound of my voice, ‘’Hey, Kiara!’’

 

Kiara whipped around and saw to me.

 

‘’Connor?’’ Kiara asked, whispering as I am, ‘’What are you doing here?’’

 

‘’I came to observe.’’ I lied, ‘’I wanted to make sure you had this all understood and you weren’t just blindly rushing into this.’’

 

‘’I’m fine.’’ Kiara assured me, but seeing my raised eyebrow, she sighed, ‘’I don’t have confidence in this.’’

 

‘’Then let me help.’’ I said, ‘’I’ve seen lions do hunting before in my world and did research on it.’’

 

‘’Wait, wha-’’ Kiara started before pausing...then sighing, ‘’Oh, alright.’’

 

‘’Thank you, Kiara.’’ I said before going low to the ground, ‘’Now, go low to the ground.’’

 

I sure hope I remember this correctly.

 

‘’Don’t make a sou-darn it!’’ I grunted as Kiara accidentally broke a twig and gasped, alerting the herd to our presence and sending them running, causing Kiara to growl and groan in disappointment and anger, ‘’It’s alright, Kiara.’’

 

I went up to the lioness and put an arm around her before pulling her close while smirking.

 

‘’Nobody is perfect on their first try.’’ I reminded her, causing her to smile.

 

‘’Yeah, I guess you’re right.’’ Kiara said before running towards the hill after the herd, causing me to run after her, ‘’Let’s try again!’’

 

‘’Hey, wait!’’ I said before following her, ‘’Come back!’’

 

I kept following her, running as fast as I can to catch up to the lion while cursing myself for not warning her about the twigs. Freaking perfect! She’s running after the antelope and can’t seem to hear me. But alas, I have to follow her in order to keep her safe, as I assured Simba i’d do and I can’t afford to lose his trust...but that’s when I came over the hill and saw Kiara tackle an antelope, only to see a fire heading towards her..oh no!

 

‘’KIARA, WATCH OUT!’’ I jumped off of a cliff and ran down to help Kiara as she started panicking, the fire causing trees to fall and burn, me barely breaking one in half to prevent it from hitting Kiara, ‘’Kiara, this way!’’

 

I ran towards an area containing burning and falling trees that led to safety.

 

‘’Connor, are you crazy!?’’ Kiara asked me, baffled.

 

‘’It’s the only way to safety! Do you wanna die in a fire or survive?’’ I replied and she frowned and nodded as we kept running.

 

 

Jesus Christ, it was hard to get us through this fire. Breaking and burning trees stacked on top of the fact that Kiara was starting to suffer from smoke inhalation, we tried to go through the fire, but I saw Kiara slow down as a tree fell between us, followed by trees falling behind Kiara, leading to her leaping over the tree, but burning her legs in the process. I quickly ran towards Kiara as she collapsed on the ground, the smoke inhalation causing her to pass out..this will be tricky.

 

I got Kiara up and on my back and started sprinting to the end of the forest as I saw..Nuka and Vitani...observing the fire with a smirk..oh those little-whatever.

 

Connor!

 

Oh, for the first time in almost two years, you speak to me again..what is it, Mohatu?

 

Over there, at the cliff nearing the water!

The cliff nearing the-OH, I see! There was a cliff leading to the water and I quickly jumped off the cliff and into the water below as fire went forward, barely missing us as me and the knocked out Kiara landed in the water with a splash. I stuck my head above the water.

 

‘’Kiara!’’ I coughed before I noticed the lioness floating in the water, drowning, ‘’Kiara!!’’

 

I quickly swam to her and used all of my strength to pull her and prevent her from drowning, then quickly swam to land before dropping her and falling to the ground in exhaustion. I saw Kiara slowly wake up and cough out water before she looked at me and saw I was on the ground, having inhaled a lot of smoke just to get Kiara out.

 

‘’Connor!’’ Kiara yelled before using the usage of her hind legs that she can to push herself to run to me as I slowly blacked out from smoke inhalation...just like Kiara did...great.

'''NEXT: Under The Stars! As the pride goes to track down the source of the fire, Shujaa stays behind to assist Rafiki in healing Kiara’s burned legs.'''