Three weeks had passed since the stampede incident. Fuli had healed and was now back on patrol with the Lion Guard. However, something haunted her. Her emerald green eyes dropped whenever the guard was not on duty, especially when they returned to the lair. She would spend these times resting next to Kion, cuddling up to the lion cub's soft, chilly fur.
Tonight was no different.
After a long, action-packed day protecting the Pridelands, the Guard returned to the lair, all of them eager for a good, comfortable night's sleep. As they arrived, Ono and Jicho softly fluttered their way over to two opposing bushels of leaves and twigs. Their featherweight bodies nestled down in their nests as they drifted into a deep sleep.
Beshte and Bunga tumbled over to the centre of the lair. Beshte submerged himself in the hippo-depth pool of water coiling around the den's clearing, whilst Bunga dropped down by the water's edge, his thick skin providing him with all the warmth and comfort that a honey badger of his calibre could ever need.
Kwaheri and Kopa decided to nestle themselves into the lair's corners.The monkey clambered into a tight, compact little crevice embedded into the wall, whilst the lion rested his long, majestic body alongside it, his back supported by the same wall's curvature.
Fuli, as usual, laid next to her unconscious lion leader. Sure, Kopa seemed like a good leader, with a vast, unnatural knowledge of the land and the Circle of Life itself.
But Kion had something else: a certain fire burning in his heart and eyes.
Yet nobody else seemed to notice, not even his family.
Nonetheless, night's infernal march swooped over the land, comforting its varied, grassy landscape in blasts of chilling, northern air. Whilst the majority of the Prideland's animals slept silently through the night, a certain cheetah, although comfortable, found herself shuddering in the cold. Her mind trembled with the visions of that day, the day he fell.
As she looked down at Kion's body beneath her, all she felt was the crushing, heart-wrenching weight of guilt. The slight sight of deep, permanent scars bursting through his fur sent shivers down her spine, piercing her heart with its venomous sting. This burst of emotional stress broke the point of no return, forcing the cheetah to dump all her emotional stress out of her body. Spurt after spurt of tears poured from her cheeks as she rushed out of the lair, into the freezing cold embrace of the Pridelands.
She wasn't the only one who was struggling to sleep. In the darkened corners of the lair, Kopa tossed and turned. The past few months seemed to flash before his eyes.
The snow-filled 'fun' times with Karimu, all the moments they spent together. He thought of them, causing his heart to sink in a balancing sense of sorrow as his eyes shot open, his dreams turning to nightmares as he felt a rumble across the ground. Something was missing, as if half of his being were not present.
Awakening to a blast of cold, moist wind brushing past him, Kopa shot his eyesight across the lair. Everyone and everything appeared to be in its proper place, or at least that's what he thought until he turned to the centre of the room.
At this point, Kion's body was the only thing resting in the sharp, illuminating moonlight that part of the lair seemed to be basked in for most of the night.
Fuli was nowhere to be seen.
With his ears pointed upright, a distant, woeful sound of exaggerated breathing and wheezing seemed to be coming from just outside the lair's entrance.
Rather cautious, as to not awaken any of the others, Kopa tiptoed his way out of the lair, his fur becoming struck with lunar rays as he crossed the threshold between the slightly warmer, mostly covered lair and the completely open and frigid wilderness beyond.
Not far ahead of him, the distinctive, smoothly curved figure of a distressed, highly emotional cheetah sat in the moonlight. Her golden-yellow fur seemed to glisten with the power of the stars above them.
"Fuli?" Kopa slowly approached. His soft, fur padded footsteps seemed to be undetected by Fuli, who just continued to cry outwards to the lands beyond, her tears slowly dripping from her face onto the rocks a mere few feet below.
"I failed him." The grief shrunken, silent growling of Fuli barely muttered to herself. All the soft, soothing tension normally associated with her voice ripped and tore away by her sharp, uncontrollable, grief-stricken cries and woes. "I let him get hurt and-"
"It's okay, Fuli. You didn't do anything wrong." Kopa approached the cheetah slowly, sitting next to her with a soft thump. He placed his paw on her shoulder, feeling the shallow, mystical mark embedded in her fur. "You can't blame yourself for what happened. Besides, it's been three weeks, he's nearly better now."
Fuli seemed to calm down at this. Her breathing and voice slowly returned to normal, but her eyesight stayed locked to the land beneath them. Kopa stared out to the horizon. The sun's rays had just begun to pierce the upper atmosphere, turning the blackened sky a light, creamy shade of rose. The feline duo stared outwards, watching as the world brightened around them. Neither spoke a word for minutes, only breaking when Kopa quickly glanced at Fuli.
"You're not like any cheetah I've met before."
"What?" Fuli turned to Kopa, His eyesight still locked onto the glowing horizon. The shock of his words pushed her a few inches away from his thick, tangled fur.
"Well, most cheetahs keep to themselves." A tense, rather embarrassed tone brushed across Kopa's muzzle. "And they definitely don't cuddle with a lion cub to 'keep him warm'." A slight smile flowed onto his face as the embarrassment that scuffed across now evaporated. Fuli looked back at him, blushing at the thought of her cuddling up to Kion all these nights. "I've just never seen a cheetah... care as much as that."
"It wasn't always like this." Fuli moved closer as the cold, northern breeze blasted against Pride Rock, brushing past the Lion Guard's lair at its base. "At first, we hated each other." Her eyes flickered, scanning the land as she nestled down to the adult lion. "I thought lions were always so full of themselves, looking down at all the animals under them in the Circle of Life." The pair giggled at this remark, especially Kopa. He knew that most lions could be... snobby of their stance in life.
"But Kion's different." The cheetah blushed as she said his name, a name that made her body shudder at its thought, for no real, feasible reason. "He actually... cares." She couldn't help but smile as she spoke. "He's always cared about me... it's like..."
"You're related?" Kopa responded. Fuli glanced over at Kopa, rather surprised. It was as if he were in her mind. He glanced behind them, focusing his eyes past the monkey, nestled in the corner. The faint, crystal blue gleam bloomed from his staff as the moonlight reflected off it.
"Kwaheri and I are like brothers, growing up, looking out for each other..."
"Like me and Kion!"
"Exactly!" Kopa smiled, exhaling softly as if part of his soul had been relieved ever so slightly. "He even left his own clan to help me look for Karimu." Fuli gasped, watching as Kopa lowered his head. Without a second thought, he shook his head, his mane swaying in the cool breeze as he regained some composure.
Fuli sensed the sorrow in his heart, cooling her own fur as the chilly breeze intensified. Despite all of this, she felt better, as if her concerns for the adolescent lion were justified.
"I... I think I'll leave you to your thoughts." Kopa rose to his paws. Their soft, shock-absorbing pads silenced his steps as he approached the entrance to the lair.
"Kopa."
He turned back to Fuli, who turned her soft, air streamed face around to watch him leave.
"Thank you." A smile graced her face as she looked back. "The lionesses are right about you."
With that, Kopa returned to the lair, a rather large, friendly smile adorning his own muzzle as he snuck back in. The rest of the guard still slept peacefully, not even a nudge of movement rattled through the lair as the lion nestled himself back in his corner. As he closed his eyes, however, something within his peripheral vision seemed to shudder. A flash of auburn, yellow fur seemed to shake as he raised his head. Kopa arose to his feet, slowly stalking his way back to the entrance of the lair.
There before him, Kion lay perfectly still.
It couldn't have been him moving... could it? Sure, he seemed to be getting better. The lion cub's breathing had returned to normal, his legs and chest hardened only but a few days prior, their bones finally fused together naturally.
To the amazement of Kopa, Kion's body shuddered once more, his back legs kicking out at the stony ground, stretching the fine, powerful muscles buried beneath his fur. The lion cub's tuff of mane brushed across the ground as his head reached outwards, the muscles in his neck squeezing forward to brush his face in the dirt.
A shot of brownish, auburn fur shot from his face. Kion seemed confused at first, barely able to see anything as his eyesight reconfigured itself. When it did, all he could spot was a sea of yellow, goldish fur resting in front of his face. A strong, masculine, musky smell pierced his nose, a scent he was not familiar with.
"Kion?" A tough, masculine spoke as Kion jumped up to his paws. The cub's scruff spiked to the sky as he quickly clambered back to the ledge.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Kopa softly but quickly pounced his way towards the cub, gently knocking him away from the end of the ledge. "It's ok, little cub. I'm not gonna eat you." His words seemed to do the trick, as Kion seemed to calm down slightly.
Realising where he was, Kion rested once more, his attention drawn to the others sleeping. It brought him great relief to see them breathing.
"Who are you, lion?" Kion's eyes puzzled the lion before him. He definitely wasn't from his pride. But then again, he didn't recognise him from Zira's Outsiders from his visit to them, during the wet season a few months prior. "What are you doing in the Outlands?"
"My name is Kopa. I helped save you from the stampede." Kopa's head dropped to the side as he, once more, had to explain himself. It seemed, however, that Kion's rather shocked reaction had awoken the rest of the guard. The first to wake, Bunga, shot to his feet the moment he heard Kion's voice ringing around in his head, b grasping a vine hanging from the lair's roof, swinging towards the lion duo.
"Kion!" Was all the honey badger could say before landing on the lion's back with a wiggly thud. This was closely followed by a small gush of wind, as Ono landed softly next to them. His keen, detail-sharp eyes glistened with the occasional tear strewing down from them.
"Welcome back, Kion!" The egret fluttered, just before cleaning and realigning his feathers. The ground thundered and rumbled as Beshte emerged from the shallow pool of water lying below the ledge where Kion lay.
"Kion! You're finally awake." The hippo slowly nudged his way up to the lion cub, brushing his head against the cub's back. Kopa by now had stood back, not wanting to intrude on a private, personal moment between the rest of the Guard.
"How long have I been out?" Kion looked at his friends. A quick nudge forced Bunga off of his back and onto the ground beside him. The fall brought a shower of laughter to the honey badger, sending ripples through his thick skin and a smile across Kion's muzzle.
"Well..." Ono hopped forward, his eyes rolling around his small skull as he recounted the last few weeks. "You've been out for three weeks. In the meantime, Kopa here has been leading us."
"Kopa?" Kion's attention shot towards the older lion.
"Your father put me in charge after I saved him from falling into the canyon, after saving you. Then again, that's my job, protecting royalty."
"Well, if my dad was okay with it." Kion began to smile at Kopa, the first time he had done so since they met. The lion cub looked around the lair, an obvious member still missing from view. It was weird. His heartbeat quickened, boiling within itself. "Wait, where's Fuli?!"
"She was here earlier." Beshte commented, a slight tone of confusion brushing through his bulky vocal cords.
"Hey, maybe she's hiding!" Bunga began to kick small rocks over with his claws, only finding the occasional bug, attempting to hide from the view of their brave hunter.
As a shard of light burst through the lair's entrance, the members of the Guard turned. A large, contorted shadow burst through. It approached, slender, streamlined and spreading outwards as the sun rose into the African sky.
"Kion?" A soft, luxurious voice trembled. A sweet, clean scent flowed into the lair, particularly tingling across the muzzles of Kopa and Kion. Oddly, it affected Kion even more, nearly forcing the poor adolescent lion to sneeze as his eyes locked onto the figure gleaming into the lair.
"Kion!" The chirping, ecstatic cry of a certain cheetah reverberated across the room as she sprinted inside, her emerald green eyes illuminating with pure joy as she smiled widely at the awoken, adolescent lion. Within seconds, she rushed over to him, halting just before his still surprised muzzle. The others watched as they both shared a short, friendly nuzzle.
Fuli glanced at Kion, her warm, friendly smile replaced with that of concern. "Kion, I'm so sorry, I didn't mean for you to get hurt and-"
"Hakuna Matata, Fuli." Kion grinned up at his cheetah friend before giving his head and body a quick, revitalising shake. He had spent entire weeks resting, after all, barely moving as he lay unconscious. Kopa watched this conversation on the sidelines, a heartwarming grin.
He quickly turned to Ono, his mind focusing on the situation before him. "Ono, can you tell Simba and Nala of Kion's recovery? They need to know right away."
"Affirmative, Kopa." The egret slowly eased out of his chuckle, instead replacing it with a stern, focused grin, taking grasp of the situation before him.
With one, powerful lunge of his small body, Ono shot into the air, his wings guiding him out the small opening in the lair's ceiling. As Ono flew away, Kopa slowly, and silently, crept his way towards the lair's exit.
He knew that, now that Kion was awake, he was no longer needed here. His mind could now focus on finding Karimu. But as he left, a sudden, smooth exchange of breaths boomed behind him. As he turned, he saw the entire Guard, huddling up to their leader.
His own heart boomed with the love he saw before him, burning into every inch of his body. The appreciation of a leader, of a lion who sacrificed his life to save those under his command.
This was something that Kopa could not be.
All had fallen in his name, but he did not fall into any other. He was a lonely ghost from a dead pride.
And that is how it must remain.
