paixaorpg | The Boundary of the Pride Lands [Completed]

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The Boundary of the Pride Lands [Completed]

Character(s): Kovu and Priere
Content: Kovu takes his first excursion to the Pride Lands, and runs into someone with a familiar voice.
Setting: The Pride Lands
Time: Sunset
Warnings: ...Good question.

"The Pride Lands...no way..." Kovu said to himself when he heard Scar's post in the journal. How could...? He sighed, and pushed the journal away. He'd be better off staying down here, and waiting for Kiara. What if something happened up there? Kiara and Simba might know that he's all right, but that didn't mean anything about everyone else. He'd already seen what could happen with someone who'd never seen Scar, how could he be sure that wouldn't happen again when he got there? And with some animal that was much worse than that human was. But then...he couldn't just let his mother and Scar take over again. Simba had been injursed last time he met Zira, and there wasn't any doubt that either of the older lions would try to kill Kiara's father on sight if they met him again. Kovu wasn't going to let that happen, and if it meant going to the Pride Lands by himself, well...he'd just have to summon up the courage to do it.

Kiara was going to be pissed at him for this, but he didn't want her to get hurt too. He'd just go up there and check it out, then come back, and take Kiara with him next time. Hopefully she'd be okay with that...

The trek to the new floor took a while, but that one kid had said something about the weird glowing orbs in the white hallways. Kovu walked up to the first one he came to, and cringed a little. The sphere was pitch black, with little white dots flying around in circles inside it. He tried to look at them closer, but they were really blurry until he was barely inches away from it. He almost had to press his nose against the thing to see, but they had little pictures on them. One looked like the island where he'd tried to go hunting with Kiara and Simba, another...that was Pride Rock. It was unmistakable. But how did it work? He reached out to tap the one of Pride Rock with a paw. The dots weren't moving so fast, so it was pretty easy.

"Whoa!" He immediately jumped backward, letting out a growl. A...see-through disc had suddenly appeared in the air in front of him. He could tell it had a bunch of those human letters on it, but since he couldn't read them they didn't exactly help. One of the lines was lit up differently from the others. "How am I supposed to get to the Pride Lands using this thing?" As if in answer, the different colored line flashed, and the entire room around him distorted and blurred together.

He looked around, but it all was just the same as it was before. He couldn't tell anything different at all. But the disc's letters were different now. Maybe he had done something? Nothing for it but to try. He walked up the steps to the door, and cringed. "...I have to do this," he told himself quietly, steeling his nerves to step through.

The Elephant Graveyard was not the place he'd been expecting to see. Why didn't it take you to Pride Rock or something? The thought was lost quickly though, as Kovu heard the tell tale cackling of hyenas. What were they doing here? Hadn't they all run off a long time ago? A roar shut them up immediately though. the last thing they wanted to deal with was a lion, apparently, and Kovu didn't have any trouble getting out there and into the Pride Lands.

Well...almost into the Pride Lands. He stared out over the landscape. Everything was...off. It was like there had just been a drought, like things were when...when Scar had just been killed. That...that didn't make any sense. There was no way that could be right, was there? But if it was true..then no one here would know who he was. It could be another chance to start over.

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Even knowing more or less where the exit was, Priere was in no hurry to leave the Pride Lands, especially now that she understood she was just in another floor in the castle, and that the whole 'turning into an animal' thing was temporarily. With this out of the way, the only thing remaining was her own stubbornness at exiting the floor by finding the official exit, not the entrance, so she remained in the Pride Lands, wandering around and trying to find her way.

... it had absolutely nothing to do with the fact she lost sight of the entrance too. Nope. After two weeks, she was not getting tired of her rhino form at all, nor of her lack of communication to the outside world.

Okay, so this might not have been her best idea ever.

But still, she wanted to get to the bottom of this floor, so she wandered around, getting used to having smaller animals run away as she stomped her way across the Savannah, trying to find some clues on what was going on, though the natives weren't very helpful.

She was just about to leave the outskirts when she heard a roar, a distinctive lion's roar. She wasn't very fond of throwing herself at lions after the last time, especially not in this form, but she thought this could be her best shot. After all, there were lions in the city, and by the look of things, they were connected to this world. However up to this point, most of the lions she found never heard of the city and were probably just natives of the floor... and some of them looked like they wanted to eat her as well. This was a long shot... but at this point, it was the only shot she had, so she headed towards the sound, glaring at the sight of the graveyard as she approached it. Well that was rather ominous.

The last thing Kovu expected to see upon leaving the Elephant Graveyard was a rhino. What in the world would one of them be doing around here? And as the big lug of a brute got closer, he had something else to wonder about: why was she wearing a hat, and what was that thing around her neck?

"You lost or something?" He hung back, exactly liking the idea of getting too close to a rhino, since they were one of very few animals who had little to fear from a lion. And if this one decided to start some trouble...Kovu didn't have anywhere he could run. The hyenas wouldn't get scared off by him again, not in those numbers.

There was something both insulting yet incredibly satisfying about scaring almost everyone just by looking at them. Honestly, it was getting a bit annoying at times, but hey at least the larger predators kept away, and since this lion was alone, he probably wouldn't try anything...

Wait a second. She knew that voice. "... do I know you?" she finally asked, ignoring his own question. She was pretty sure she heard that voice before, quite possibly on the network.

If he was always a lion, that would narrow it down a lot, but considering this place, it didn't hurt to ask.

"...Wait, aren't you that girl from the journals? How did you get turned into a rhino?" This was the most confusing thing Kovu had ever seen. And after being in this castle for so long, that was saying a lot.

Okay, that rather settled the question of if they knew each other or not, and she was pretty sure at this point that he was supposed to be an actual lion.

"I'm called Priere," she said, not realizing that they had actually never properly introduced themselves in the journals. "You're that lion I talked to a few times, aren't you?"

"And how should I know? It's not like I wanted to be a big giant animal in the first place!"

"Yeah. I'm Kovu." It felt weird, saying that here. From the look of everything...he wouldn't have been very old by now, maybe just a newborn cub, if that. But introducing himself like that to someone in the Pride Lands was just...strange. He'd done it with Kiara when he was a cub, but...that was a long time ago.

"Think of it this way, even the lions are afraid of you here. You don't even have to actually hurt anyone, they'll just get out of your way on principle. Though I guess walking on four legs probably took you a while to get used to, huh?" He still hadn't told this girl that he was Zira's son, and he didn't think she knew anything about Scar. And for now...he was going to keep it that way. He didn't need her to have any excuses to hate him like everyone else did.

"Heh heh..." Priere answered sheepishly. "It also makes it hard to ask for directions..." Especially when small rodents only answered "PLEASE DON'T STEP ON MY INNOCENT BABIES!" Though having most of the lions afraid of her was an advantage, especially if the one from the other day showed up.

She laughed nervously at his last question, making it quite obvious that yes, she did have trouble for the first days or so. Even after two weeks she'd still trip once in a while while running. "Errrr, so... this is your world, right? I guess it must feel weird being home huh?" she said, trying to switch the subject.

Kovu looked at the ground to one side. "...You have no idea." There was "weird," and then there was...this. How was he supposed to explain that he'd expected to show up to a world full of people who hated him just because of who he was? And that he was going to be surprised if they didn't?

He'd only been in the Pride Lands for a few days with Kiara before he'd shown up in Paixao, but even after so short a time he'd gotten used to the looks everyone would give him. Especially Simba...

Oh... oh boy, that was not the reaction she had been expecting. Was he sad that this wasn't his real world in the end? No... no it looked worst then that. Priere couldn't imagine what was so wrong... why would someone hate to be home? "Well... since you're here, how about showing me the place? I've been wandering around for two weeks and I still haven't a clue what the hell we're supposed to do here. You should know better right?" she finally asked, thinking that it would be better than to press on the subject.

Nevermind that it wasn't really a "question".

"Huh? Uh...sure. I could do that." Kovu quirked an eyebrow, and gave just a bit of a grimace. "If you don't mind everyone giving us funny looks, anyway."

It would be an easy way to figure out ...when...this Pride Lands was too, and if he was right about it or not. If he was...this was going to be way beyond just "weird" for him. Especially since there really shouldn't be any male lions in this territory other than Simba...

"Meh, I've been getting funny looks for a while now, I'm used to it. Just ignore them, who cares what they think?" Prier said, doing whatever the four legged equivalent of a shrug was. Granted, she had almost no connections to this place compared to him, but that fake people gave her funny looks didn't bother her as much as it should. "So, lead the way."

Kovu almost started off, but then paused. Where was he supposed to show her? Well...might as well start with the big one...

"I guess I should show you Pride Rock first, since that's pretty much the most important thing around here. If you look you can already see it." He tilted his head toward the giant stone towering on the horizon. It was a fair distance away here, and didn't look too impressive.

"What's so important about it?" Priere had seen that rock before, it was pretty impossible to miss after all. But apart from it being pretty damn huge, it was just a rock. Then again, these were animals, it's not like they had buildings or statues or anything like humans would. But still, you follow the guy who actually knows about the place, so she stared off in the direction he mentioned.

"It's where all the lions live," Kovu answered. "Including the King." He cringed slightly, but he tried to hide it by looking toward Pride Rock.

"The King of Pride Rock rules over everything here, and it's his job to keep everything in balance." He was finding this a lot harder to talk about than he wanted it to be, and he hoped Priere wouldn't want to ask him too many questions about it.

"So, it's like a castle?" Priere said. It made sense in a way, the biggest, tallest landmark would be where the king ruled. "Huh... I guess it's not so different from human worlds after all. So, is it always a lion? Can't it be somethi--"

She interrupted herself, noticing just how enthusiastic Kovu was. Huh... had some problems with the Man back home? Bitter memories of the place? Well it didn't really matter to her, if he didn't want to talk about it, she wouldn't push it unless it became her problem as well.

"Well if it's like the castle, I don't think we go there unless we need to. If it's like back home, it's probably filled with stuck up big shots or something, urgh."

This was getting way too awkward. Kovu was more than happy to stay away from Pride Rock, though. He had no way of knowing whether Simba--the Simba he knew, was there or not. And he'd rather not get anywhere near the place until he was sure.

"I could show you where I came from," he said without thinking.

"Where you're from?" It hadn't even occurred to her that he wasn't from around here. After all, nothing else looked like it would make a good home except what was around the huge rock. "Sure, why not?"

And now Kovu was stuck with it. Real smart. Why did he say that?

"It's a place called the Outlands. It's...not as nice as it is around here." Solemnly, he started walking in the direction of the place he used to call home...though he had trouble thinking of it that way now.

Something told Priere that Kovu had said something he shouldn't have. Well, sucks to be him, she had nowhere to go and she wasn't about to start babying him when he made a mistake. So she simply followed him, trying to ignore the fact that they were slowly walking into what looked like a dead piece of land. "Anyone you know still there?" she tried.

"I hope not," Kovu mumbled, hopefully not loud enough that she could hear him. "But...I don't know." The last part was much louder.

The Outlands weren't far from the Elephant Graveyard, and it wouldn't take them long to get there. They could already see the border, where one side had grass, and the other...nothing but dried up dirt.

Sadly for Kovu, it seems like rhinoceroses had pretty good hearing, so yes, Priere did hear him. Fortunately for him, she wasn't about to start prying... yet. Especially since the view was much more... interesting at the moment.

"Looks... cozy?" She said sheepishly. Yeesh, this was a dump, who in the world would want to live there? "What's up with this place anyway? It's... dead?"

"...Yeah. My mother was banished here, by the King." There was no avoiding it. "If I'm right, it wouldn't have been too long ago, here." Kovu didn't go further to explain what he meant by that, though.

"There isn't any prey out here, and we aren't allowed to hunt in the Pride Lands, either." He felt himself becoming bitter, but who wouldn't be? He hadn't even had anything to do with this mess, and he'd been forced to grow up out here anyway.

So... there was a problem with the rulers. Priere had no idea just what his mother did, but it's pretty understandable to punish criminals and the like, though... this seemed extreme. They weren't allowed to hunt where there was food? Okay, so she wasn't too keen on the hunting thing, mostly due to the psychopath lion trying to eat her, but hey, animals are animals and she got that they had to eat.

So, either his mom was a complete sociopath... or that King was unfair.

"Not too long ago?" She asked, not too certain just what he meant there.

"There was a drought before the old King...died." Kovu sighed. He couldn't get over it, this stuff was probably never going to be easy to talk about. Just this much was taking almost all the courage he could muster. "And it looks like the grass is just starting to grow again."

"But by the time I'm this age, everything in the Pride Lands was back to normal."

"Oooh, it's that weird time thing again." Well that made sense. The same thing happened when Culotte came to the city, so it wasn't so weird that the same thing would happen in the Castle. But then this meant...

"Wait, you were a little kid?" What the hell? Okay fine, so send a criminal into exile, fine, but... come on.

"...Yeah." That was all Kovu could say. Thinking about it still made him angry, no matter how much he tried to let it go. The Simba he'd met in Paixao was nothing like the one who ruled the Pride Lands here. That one in Paixao he'd saved from Zira because he didn't want to see Simba hurt...the Simba who was King...Kovu was pretty sure he'd only save him to spare Kiara the grief.

*thud*

It was almost automatic, her foot/stump just stomped the ground as hard as she could. Oh, that pissed her off. You don't do that to a little kid! Just what kind of a jerk was he?

Oh nevermind that, this whole place was starting to piss her off.

"Let's just get out of here!"

"...Good idea." Kovu didn't want to think about it anymore. He gave a low growl as he looked at the termite mound that had served as he home for his whole life, then turned his back on the place. His scar was the end of it. He was never going to come here again.

He walked slowly and silently, head low, shoulders tense as he led her back toward the door that brought them here. Even the animals who hadn't seemed concerned with them as they came gave Kovu at least a worried glance, though whether it was because he stance scared them or they were concerned for his sake it was impossible to tell.

Well this was going from bad to worst... Neither of them were very happy and it rather showed. Part of her wanted to go back to the rock to smack the King right in the head, though she knew it wouldn't do much. After all, these were fake animals... at least from what she understood. Then again, fake means no regrets. She'd teach him a thing or two about pulling crap like to little kids.

She just followed him, trapped in her own little world, still pissed off.

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The Boundary of the Pride Lands [Completed]

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