ch6

Again he woke to the smell of sulfur and soot, but this time he woke to the gasps of his family as well. When he woke he looked outside pride rock and gasped right along with them, from the remains of the mountain of fire a single pyre of smoke rose into the sky, that's exactly how the mountain had started, he thought they had saved the world, how could it start up again?

"You got to go."

"What?" he said turning to his brother.

"I can feel it, it's calling for you, it wants you." Lien turned back to his brother and nodded, eyeing the fallen mountain in the distance.

Tatter could feel it to, but wouldn't accept it, "What, does it think I'm stupid?"

Lien shook his head, "It's your choice, but I have a feeling that if you don't go it will be worse than before."

"When did you start making predictions?" he gave his brother a look that said shut up.

Lien just nodded, "It's you're choice, please don't let us down."

He ended up stalking about the new ravine towards the ruins of the mountain. He knew that the mountain wanted him, he guessed he probably reflected more than his father's face now that he was older, he probably reflected his father's fate. When he arrived in the place two guard came with him instead of just one this time, there was a pyre of smoke, and it rose from a single glassy point, he drew closer to it and looked into it, he could see a reflection, but it wasn't his own.

As he watched it the royal guards that had come with him began to scream, Tatter looked back to catch a glimpse of nothing but bone left of the two, then it happened, a paw made of the liquid that inherited the ground crawled out, along with another. A face came out of the ground, and on that face a single scar, and the figure curled around tatter, "Finish it." It said in a whisper but evil voice.

Tatter pulled back pulling the watery figure out, it let go, and backed Tatter against the wall as it took solid form the form of dirt and land, yet its figure was unmistakable to anyone who knew the story, the story of the original scar. He had a sly smile on his face, "I will be reborn!" he yelled at the king, "and I will have your throne!"

"You're nothing, just my imagination."

But a paw that scorched the kings fur as it swiped at his face told him otherwise, the sly smile spread across the lips of the prince of darkness, "Oh little Tatter, I'm coming back, and hell is riding with me!"

Tatter ran, he ran out of area and the ravine, gathering some really weird looks from the guards on his way out. He ran home, and when he settled down, he didn't tell them a thing, yet the pyre of smoke from before had disappeared. Lien eventually took the obligation to ask, but Tatter wouldn't say a word.

Now going on twenty seven this still seemed a bit much for the king, he didn't want to have to defend his land from the super natural, what if scar did rise, how would he kill a demonic lion? If that wasn't enough something he had brought back with him caused one of Lien's mates to go nuts. He didn't say a word about it but he knew it was his fault, he had brought madness with him, and had accidentally brushed Maria on his way in, and she had become violent like he had been not too long ago.

Maria had started beating on the other lions, but it was when Brae stopped her from attacking Sam and Lien's cub that the king had to issue a ban for her from pride rock. He never thought he had been so scared in his whole life, him and his uncle where busy chatting up about future progress for the ravine when she snapped. Brae was used to it from Tatter's attacks, they thought they'd intervene when it got too dangerous, but Maria had instantly gone after the young white child, still not old enough to speak the young white lion had been backed into the corner and on Maria's eyes Tatter saw death, but Brae and caught her and drug her outside, where the king decreed her ban.

Lien wasn't all to happy to find there had been a ban placed on one of his mates but once his other girls told him what had happened he had told the other two how grateful he was. Tatter just felt like an ass, a year ago that was almost him.

He turned twenty seven and dreams started up, dreams like his father had, dreams of the end of the world, of a burning landscape, and a dream calling him back to the graveyard if he didn't want anything to happen to his lands. Yet he denied it, he didn't want to die anymore than any lion did.

But it was during a royal celebration, one in which he was thinking of announcing the new air as Lien's son, when he decided he was finished waiting. The festival was big, and everyone was in attendance. The king walked around with his guard and greeted his people, blessing some new children that the mothers wanted him to bless, and having a good time, until the condemned mountain let out one roar and a spark, scaring his people beyond all measure.

He saw their faces, wide eyed, most of them didn't want to abandon their homes once again, he saw them, and his heart filled with anger towards the land.

He held a meeting that night with his family; he knew he was going to break hearts.

"I know I've only been king for a short time now, and I am not leaving you forever, I hope, but there is something I must finish. I have a feeling I have to visit hell itself." He turned to Lien, "If I don't return I expect you to be a great king, and I expect you to raise the next great king." He said eyeing Lien's kid who was looking at everyone with wonder.

He turned to his mother, "I love you mom, and if I do come back, but dead, I want to be given a kings funeral, but I want it given under the tree you and dad married."

"Tatter, you won't-"

"I don't expect to, but we must be prepared." He rubbed up against Sandra who was starting to cry a little. "Don't cry, I swear if I make it out, I will marry you."

He was back in the ravine again heading for the graveyard where a new pyre of smoke marked his way. Partway down the ravine was filled with white smoke, he noted it was steam, pouring from several vents in the ravine, he guessed if he didn't succeed in turning the son of a bitch off now, they'd have to shut down the only legacy he deemed himself worthy of, he wouldn't let that happen either, every king had their legacy, Mufasa was the greatest king that brang peace to the land, Simba had saved his people, as had his dad, he supposed if he died doing this he too would be considered a hero.

When he reached the graveyard he refused to let any of the guard with him and ordered them to stay behind, less they end up like the last two that followed him in. The pyre again rose from the patch of liquid, and again scar rose from it, gathering a surprise grunt from the old member of the royal family, Tatter attacked, pushing the evil lion back into it, through it, and Tatter followed.

At first he seemed to flow through an endless supply of what smelled like sulfur, but then he hit warm dark sooty land, and looked around, he was in a cavern which only light was molten rock dripping from the ceiling and flowing through the ground like rivers.

He turned his head at what caught his eye, surrounding the river of fire was grass, blue grass he'd never seen the like off. This place was good looking in its own dark and mystical sense, of course his uncle would probably know the grass and its use, but he didn't care. Looking around the blue fields he noted several caves, yet no scar, he supposed his journey here would be long, he hoped his kingdom would hold up while he was gone. But that was on the shoulders of Lien now.

As he entered the first cave he gasped, from several spaces in the walls where extensions that he could only describe as memories of his friends. Or maybe it was the pride lands memories and he had only become part of it, because along the wall was a screaming head of a meerkat and warthog, of a bird recently passed, of his father, and his father's fatjer, of Simba and Mufasa, of his grandmothers and all the royal friends of the past. He prayed these where just memories and that they didn't all end up statues down here once they died.

At the end of this hallway he reached another opening, there in the middle was green bird, and it sang, but it sang with a human voice, and he gave it a weird look. It said something to him in human, and he didn't understand, it shook its head and spoke again, this time in lion.

"You seem loss young sir, can I be of help."

Tatter looked around the cave, "I'm looking for Scar."

"Ah one of his followers?"

Tatter shook his head, "I must stop him."

The bird gasped, "You wish to stop hell itself? Well good luck to you, but I can be of no help, except all I can say is watch your step, hell is not a place for a living soul, if you die here, your stuck here."

The king nodded, "I expected this much, listen, if anyone follows from my land will you tell them the king demands they go back, they'll listen." He said looking back the way he came; he didn't trust his people to leave this well enough alone.

As well he shouldn't for now Davine and some of his troops where trying to go through the water as they had seen the king. But as Davine guessed when the pyre of smoke went out the way in closed. It was still amusing to see his people try to get in, so he let it happen a little longer.

Out of nowhere there was a roar and Tatter dodged, he was facing a woman, a scar on her forehead not much different than his own.

"That scar," she muttered, "are you related to me?"

He scoffed, "Hardly, I'm here to see scar."

"Oh!" she purred in a high tone, "You're a follower, how nice, you look so majestic."

"Hardly, I'm here to stop him."

She stopped, lowering on her haunches, "I thought you looked too majestic, you're that little brat Tatter are you not?"

He nodded, and she leapt at him, he dodged and batted her aside, using his claws, but she took no wound, he didn't doubt that was because she was already dead.

"You will not stop my husband! He is the rightful air and he has been betrayed for too long." She leapt again and again Tatter dodged her.

"Listen lady, you all need to give it up, you're dead for god's sake!"

She surprised him buy bounding up around onto the ceiling and down onto him, he barely dodged for his life. "No! I will not be stopped, we will not be stopped!!!"

He felt a little blood trickle down the side of his snout and he noted his scar was open a little again, something that hadn't happened since he re-opened it so many years ago in a fit of anger and hate of himself.

"You're just a puppet," he said pushing the white strand of hair that got in his way again and slicking it back with a little blood, it finally held back for a while, "You'll never amount to anything."

She laughed, an evil cackle that sent chills down Tatter's spine, "Puppet, my dear boy, I am the master."

She leapt at him again, this time faster, he was forced to use the wall to escape, he ended up crawling through a steam vent, from behind him he heard an irritated grunt as the lioness was unable to follow. He had no idea where the steam vent lead, but he was soon in another cavern. Here where young lions of plenty, he guessed the deceased followers past and present, of scar, scar had quite a gathering.

"What a scar man," one greeted him, and then looked up at the vent, "you get that lost?"

Tatter let out a nervous laugh, "Yeah, something like that," he couldn't catch Scar around this group, Scar would have to much back up, he started off down the hallway that connected, and ended up back at the green bird.

"You pissed the misses off something bad," it squawked at him.

"Yeah well, I'm not going down there, lets try this hallway." He went down another.

This hallway shined with rocks much like the one his father had described as the crystal that had started all this, or at least predicted it. He watched the walls as he passed; it was like walking through the night sky. Some of them even glowed a little when he passed them buy, and he was grateful when he got passed that hallway. In the next space he gasped, it was a crystal figure, a crystal figure of his great grand mother Nala, he had never seen her but he knew it was, and it was crying.

"Nala?"

"My child," she cried, "my child oh Kiara where are you? Simba, is that you?"

He shook his head, the figure couldn't see, "No, I'm you great grand child, many generations have passed."

"Ah, Tatter yes? You must leave, this place is no place for a king, and you are king now right?"

He nodded, "It's not place for a passed queen either, how did you end up here."

Her crying started up again.

"Nala?"

"Push me." She said, her crystal figure sat on a lone rock in the midst of a ring of molten rock.

"But, will that release you?"

"Push me! Anything is better than here, Scar, he does things to me, I don't want to live here anymore even if that means I shall perish for eternity."

He nodded, his heart trying to steel his anger at scar, "I understand," he jumped over to the rock and used his head and shoulder to push the crystal figure, it went over with a bang and slid slowly into the fire, then a lion figure made of the molten rock in pain tried to climb out but sank back in. Then he heard his voice, "Thank you my grandson."

"Kovu?" he looked up an around, he hadn't known his grandfather.

"No, I am a king before his time, my name is Simba"

Tatter gasped, "The Simba?"

The voice laughed a hearty and loving laugh, "Well I guess a Simba, but that's not important. You must keep traveling, you must stop Scar before he is able to rise, for if he is able to rise the destruction the mountain caused will seem like nothing with hell itself rising to earth."

"But, where's my father, didn't he stop this?"

"I'm here" a familiar voice came to him echoing off the cave walls, "and we stopped the first wave, but you see, I was an aging lion, my life force was not the one needed to stop scar permanently, that's why the mountain, while in ruins, still exists, you see if you would have taken the burden I chose for myself it would be over, but we changed fate, and now we must finish it."

Tatter looked to the lava he had just pushed Nala's statue into, "Will I survive?"

"That is for you to decide alone," the most majestic of the voices came to him, it had to be Mufasa, that deep voice, "you are the king now and will be until you pass, you must stop Scar, and after that what happens to you is your decision alone."

Tatter looked up to the voice that came from everywhere, and bowed respectfully, then headed off further down the cave into another hallway, the hallways where all littered with crystals like that of his father, and each of them seemed to be singing a different song to him, but the song appeared only in his head.

Soon he came into a room and in the middle a giant crystal floated and turned, on one side of it shined light, the other side seemed to eat at light, and with the sides the crystals around the cave began to shine in the dark and extinguish in the light. He realized this was some kind of strange metaphor for night and day, he had no idea if it meant anything to him.

But has he stared into the crystal thoughts of his past came up, the thoughts of every girl that had ever treated him badly or betrayed him or refused him, and soon they where materialized. He felt anger well within his heart, and each of the lionesses looked at him with fear, as he snapped. He ran through them like the figments they where, but it didn't mean anything to him, for all he cared they could be flesh and blood, as he tore through one after the other with his claws they disappeared in a whiff of smoke, but Tatter imagined them lying lifeless, just as they had left him feeling so many times. There was that bitch summer, who acted all high and mighty, and that mean one Amanda, and after running through a couple he turned to the last, it was Nikita, and he dashed for her, he jumped, and as he looked into her eyes he saw true fear.

He stopped and sat, he looked at his paw and put away his claws, and then he blew at the apparition and it disappeared, "I'm past that love, and I'm past you too, sorry." He turned back at the crystal, "You won't be able to fool me, there's nothing here but me and you, and that's even if you are real.

But as he leapt for the giant orb the ground fell beneath his feet and he lost his purchase to push off, and he fell away from the world, away from night and day, and away from what seemed to be sanity.

A day passed as his brother was gone, and yet just as his uncle before him Lien missed his brother dearly, he knew his son was likely to be king one day, but he also noted that Tatter had taken a liking to one of his girls, and they could bear a king instead. But none of this mattered to him as he watched the morning sun rise beyond the horizon, and gave his silence to the breeze for his brother, he wished for him, upon all the past kings, to come home.

When Tatter woke though, there was no tomorrow, the place he was in was just as dark as before, and the only light was the orange the magma gave off. And he looked up to his father, who looked at him proudly, and he ran to his father and tried to hold him, but Jake disappeared in a puff of smoke, and he realized once more it was nothing more than an illusion. He cursed himself, and uttered one last goodbye to his father.

Turning about he saw only one hallway leading out, and he had no where else to go, he felt the deeper he went, the more permanent he would stay, but he would save his land if he had to kill the devil himself.

He entered a fiery room of every animal on earth, each in a bed of some kind of machine that held humans lions, dogs and pigs, and everything you could fathom. Each animal had darkness in his eyes; each animal had long ago lost hope.

"This is where they suffer." A voice spoke within his mind.

"What? Who are you?"

"The darkness, I run this place under the king of dark. These hooligans worse fear was to be sick, and the worse place to be sick was dreamt up from the strongest darkness within humans, so each of them is placed in this never ending stage to be sick forever!"

"What? Never ending, how do I get out?"

"Well its not never ending for you" he could feel it grin, and a doorway opened in front of him, a human doorway, he peered around the doorway and he could see the rode was never ending, but inside was a totally different place.

This place was a maze, the floor was of human construction, a tile of black and white, it littered the floors the walls and the ceiling, and he swore it looked as if any of the corners of the room could be stood upon.

"Fucks sake," the creature in his mind spoke up, "You're going to get yourself lost here."

"You brang me here!" the king growled,

"No," it corrected him, hissing joyously as he got toe teach the newcomer, "It is you who brought yourself here. The doors take you where you want to go."

"Well then I want to go to Scar!"

"Do you? You've been wandering a bit; I think you must find the door in this place, no more freebee's, this place isn't ever ending, if you don't get lost."

He did a good job at getting himself lost though, he spotted the same spots several times, started marking his ways, no one said it was cheating. Buy the time three hours passed he was at the end, but it wasn't a doorway, at least not in the normal way of speaking of one. Instead stood the man he searched for, a scar upon his eye, his matted mane majestic yet evil, yet he looked different than in his visions, something was wrong, this was not the man he was meant to face, at least not the one running the show.

The lion snarled, "You're that whelp's kid aren't you! I'll never forget him! Or your grandfather, who killed me." He moved around.

Tatter matched his movement keeping his distance, "Who are you?"

"I was once called Scar, but I am no where near as great as the original, your father once had at me, and got punished for it, and while he became my undoing I had the last laugh."

While the lion seemed to speak in riddles Tatter realized who this was, his father had many a night told him of the man who had killed the previous king, of the man that had started his father on his way to his hardships and basically onto kingship. This was no scar, but he was buy looks no longer ill, now he was a prince of this hell.

As he thought this the lion sprouted great black wings and over took the king, and Tatter rolled and pushed him off. The lion used his wings to flip and glide to a safe landing, laughing in triumph, "You can't kill me, I am already dead!"

He came at Tatter again and clawed him, and clawed him again, and roared in his face, the roar shattered the cave, the middle opened up and a circle of fire opened, but as tatters own circular marked eyes open, a new fire raged within. He pushed the dead one back with a mighty thrust and now was on the attacking. The fake Scar bounded off the cave wall and came at him again, and they where in arms clashing with each other. While the fake Scar never gained a wound, Tatter gained plenty, a new scratch under his eye in the shape of a moon, three claw marks into the side of his face, a bite on his neck, and the tearing of a bit of his mane.

He looked up breathing hard, the fake Scar hadn't even broken a sweat, and he eyed what the Scar had in his mouth, his eyes widening, the full strand of Grey hair hung from the dead one's mouth. "Fucker!" the king yelled, coming quickly at the dead one you tried to jump out of the way flapping his great wings, "I grew to like that part of me!"

Tatter dug his claws into the fake Scar's shoulders and pushed him into the ground, they tumbled, and soon tatter was on bottom, his head hanging over the new fiery pond, and the Scar was laughing, but Tatter just smirked.

"What are you grinning at dear boy?"

Tatter laughed, "I got you." And pushed his lower feet making the dead Scar tumble end over end into the fiery pit, he let out one final scream and went in a quick puff, almost anti climatic. The cave shook, and began to crumble, and Tatter was out the other side of it away from the maze before it fell in on itself.

This hall was littered with reflections, but none of them where his own, he saw reflections of evil of every kind, a human with a small moustache and no mane, rising his hand to the people, another one with an evil grin on his face in color, behind him a sign that read "mission accomplished" but at the last picture not long after Scar's and his followers, was a picture of just black.

"That's me." The voice in his head spoke.

Tatter scoffed, "You don't show very well, need some color."

The thing laughed a hearty laugh, "Well smart ass, you see, all the people down the line that are evil are able to be evil because they got a bit of me in them, everyone has a bit of me in them, even you."

"No, I don't" tatter shook his head.

"Yes you do," the thing insisted, "somewhere in our hearts our darkness lies, now go beyond, I'm getting bored."

He entered the next room, into some new human contraction, a see through human was ushering people into a long metal animal of some kind with a long tube shaped metal exterior, and he too was ushered in. He noticed how unlike the other's here he was, the others where dulled, the senses, there smell, even there light seemed to glimmer less than him, he guessed because he was the only one here not dead. The thing let out a long toot and he sat on a cushy rock of some kind, like the humans, and they rode down a track, no one seemed to pay him any mind. But soon after leaving the train stopped, the door open, and a human pointed to him, "You're stopping here young master." He said in a voice he could for some reason understand.

The sign read the wings of hell, but it looked more like a human city, something he had only barely heard off, the only human formation he had ever seen had been as a kid and this was nothing like it. The street was made of the same square stones the buildings where. Here brighter but different creatures roamed, things born of hell. Some of them looked human but where more lively than the dead in the train.

The train roared to life behind him and took off, and he let himself draw into the crowd, getting a few strange looks from the things that lived here.

And he saw her again, but it was different, it was a different look for her, a noble sly look, but it was still Nikita, and this time she didn't look like an illusion.

"What the fuck are you doing here?" he screamed at her, and the lioness backed away in surprise, he got more odd looks from the odd townspeople.

"I beg your pardon, do I know you?" she asked, her eyes wide with wonder at the strange lion.

"What do you mean do you know me? It's me Tatter, you haven't forgotten the pain you caused me have you."

The lioness laughed, a small unfamiliar tatter, she looked like his x, but she sure didn't' sound or act like her. "You have me confused; you see my name is Lust."

He gave her an odd look, "Lust?"

"Yes, you see I appear to those that don't know me as the ones they lust after most, it's a quite useful spell, but as you can see it can backfire." She waved her hand, and the illusion of the beautiful lioness was replaced buy a dark hooded female human.

"I'm…I'm sorry, you speak lion?"

She nodded, "not really, but we all speak our own language and understand each other, it's the mysticism of this land, are you new?"

"Sort of, I guess I'm here looking for someone."

She bent down beside him and patted his mane, at first he tried to avoid her but he then let it happen, it was sort of relaxing. "Maybe I can help, who could a kitty like you so full of life be looking for down in this hell hole of a city?"

"Scar."

She stood, scoffing, "That outcast? You one of his followers?"

He shook his head, "No I must stop him!"

She eyed him warily, "Why?"

"He means to destroy my land, my people, and my kingdom."

Her eyes lit, "oh that's sort of so romantic, you a king?"

He nodded

"Wow, except for the royalty of hell I never knew any. I tell you what, Scar is not in this city but I can find you his mate here."

"She's here? I just fought with her near the entrance to this hell."

"Or did you? The only one of his kind that holds the gates is that whelp that came in a few years ago, I forget his name," she said turning, "what you fought of her was most likely an illusion, and if it was her she doesn't stay there forever, come, lets go see what the tavern is like tonight." She walked towards a sign bearing in some kind of language he saw he could read "Pub",

Inside smelled of wheat and the drink his father had taken, and there where things of all kinds, some of them working. He sat with her at a booth table, he took up on a chair so they could sit eye to eye, and the waiter brought them both something without asking, she had some kind of dark bubbly drink, and he had exactly what he wanted, a small bowl of iced water.

"What is this place?" he eyed the place

"A safe place." She answered

"And?"

She nodded, "a place for information."

As she spoke another hooded lady sat down, and drew back her hood, as did the one he was with. The one he was with had blue hair and pointed ears like he had never seen on the few humans he had eyed in his life, the other one with similar ears bore pink hair, they kissed each other passionately on the lips, and he turned a little embarrassed, all life forms showed affections in similar ways he guessed.

The girl he was with turned, "I am Torrotu" she said rolling the r's, "thought my normal name everyone knows be buy is Lust, and this is my mate for life, Kinkli, we are of an ancient, now extinct on the earth you come from, race of elves. She is also my informant."

The pink haired woman nodded, "and I got what you called for, she has been spotted in southern city stalking about the children camps again, while the guards shooed her off their afraid she might be a little angry at something tonight."

"I got away" Tatter mumbled,

"What?" Torrotu asked

He shook his head, "Nothing, can you show me this children's camp?"

Kinkli nodded warily eyeing the lion/.

When they exited he was surprised to see it storming, the ladies put there hoods back on to break the rain, and the sky above them was lit with flashes of lightning, he never thought weather happened here, but he never thought he'd be here in any form, neither did he ever expect to be conversing with humans. They walked down the town, away from the train station to what seemed to be the south to his senses, and near the end they entered a cul-de-sac, the stone cobble had a tent where children of every form of being seemed to be playing, it was a joyous occasion for the kids, but not for the freaks that where forced to entertain them. The things entertaining them had the dark glimmer and the smell of the dead on them and he guessed this was their punishment.

The place was all so dream like, the kids running in circles amongst the dark alleys and roads, the people of all different kinds, everything was beyond this king's most wild imagination, but once he shook his head clear he had one goal. "Where is she?"

Almost as soon as his lips had formed the question the yellow pale lioness stepped out of the shadows, her eyes crazed, her mouth foaming, growling. The kids temporarily forgot there fun, and ran for cover, and Tatter was out in front of the two ladies ready to take on the princess of darkness.

"You again!" she growled

"Let's finish this!" he said

She lowered her head in anticipation, "With pleasure, ever since your great grandfather stole the kingdom I wanted to kill his kind, it looks like I'll finally have the chance!"

And she rushed at him, and he dodged, and swiped, and blood came from the claw marks on her cheek, and matted his paw. He looked back to the humans who had relocated on the side of the road. "I hurt her?"

Torrotu nodded, "Here anything can die, but if it is already dead when it does it disappears forever."

"Careful," her mate called to him, "for if you die here as a living being you will be trapped in this city forever!"

The lioness came around for another go, and he easily dodged her and gave her matching marks on her other cheek, she turned back to him, her eyes narrow, her face matted in blood, growling, "Why can't I kill you?"

"Maybe it's because I am a king, maybe it's because you're a pathetic outcast, or maybe it's just because I'm a man." He said smiling at her with the joke.

She growled at this and jumped at him, but instead of trying to land on him and receiving another claw to the face she landed an inch in front of him her paw to the ground. "Fool, here I might be mortal but I still have my power!"

Tendrils of smoke poured from the cracks that began for form in the streets, cracks that started from her paw, buildings behind him collapsed and an alarm he had never heard in nature started to rise in the distance. "I will have my kingdom!" she growled, "I will be queen."

Tatter shook his head, nobly rising above her on his back legs ignoring the smoke and came down upon her, his hand pushed against her neck, and he mouthed her head as she gasped in horror, he dug his teeth into her skull until he felt and tasted of the meat of her brain, and felt her dying breath.

Taking in a big sigh and liking the blood off his lips, he looked around him; the southern part of the city he was near was in ruin because of their fight. The girls who had helped him stood in amazement watching the lion, his mouth still dripping with the lionesses blood. "I need to go." He said

"But where?" his second new friend asked, "You didn't get any information out of her before killing her."

He nodded, "I know exactly where that waist of a lion is going to. My home."

Torrotu used a car she had gained in this land, a flying vehicle of some kind, to rush him back to the beginning, she only prayed that lions didn't get car sick, and he only prayed he wasn't too late.

Three days now since the king left, and his brother was getting tired of his job, but when he saw a pyre of smoke begin to drift out of the deceased mountain he knew something was wrong. What he saw when he got there filled him with fear, invading his pride lands from the mountain where dozen's of lions, and with them came hyenas, he amassed his troops, and unlike many kings, Lien, who only filled in for his brother, came to fight.

When Lien met Scar on the battle field in the middle of both of their troops, he was amazed buy the lions dark aura, yet let down buy his physical appearance. "My, the last of an era of kings, I suppose your brothers toast buy now." He purred

"What would you know?" Lien growled, his uncle to his left, his mother to his right, the lions and lionesses of the kingdom about him in behind.

"I know the land I came from, and that land will overrun yours, give up and I may let the other lions live."

"Never." Lien growled

"Fine then," Scar smirked, "I'll kill you after you watch your son die!"

Lien jumped at him, "Never threaten Triton!"

And after the two started at it the other lions and hyena's joined in, what was unfair is everyone on Scar's side had already died once. No matter how many time's Lien slashed him or bit him he never became wounded, and all he did was laugh, louder and louder.

Torrotu dropped Tatter off at the beginning, and Tatter stared up into the small water hole from where he entered. He thanked his ride and jumped into the portal, and came flying out his other side. His world was transforming again, smoke filled the air, and somewhere above the ravine came the cries of dying and fighting lions. When he climbed to the top he was too late, while several of the hundreds of lions including his uncle still stood within the midst of battle not one of Scar's had fallen, and Scar stood over the lifeless and throat less remains of his brother.

"Lien! Brother!" he cried rushing to his side.

"Oh how touching, I see you must have avoided all my stooges, and my wife, I must chastise her when I get done here."

Tatter looked up growling, darkness within his eyes, hate filled his heart "You have no wife to chastise."

Scar looked at him with wonder, than realization, "No, you couldn't!"

"I did, in the city, she's dead scar, as is your prodigy!"

Scar leapt at him and sliced his cheek open, but Tatter held his ground.

"Why won't you scream in fear?"

"Because scar I don't fear your weakness."

Buy know all the other lions and hyena's of either side stopped fighting and where watching the main show, a showdown of king and king over the blood of a dead prince. At first it seemed Scar would get the better of the king, he slashed and bit, and he made hole and cut after cut, and Tatter did nothing. But to Scar's dismay Tatter just kept on smiling, and when scar was open he reached up, and tore into scars chest, and scar drew back, but in Tatters paw held one slowly glowing rock. It was red, as was his fathers.

"What is that?" Scar asked, his eyes widening.

"It is your bind to this world, without this you will be cast powerless back into the pits of hell!"

"No!"

Tatter crushed it, and Scar vanished, all his lackey lions and hyena's vanished along side him, all that remained where the living and dead of the present day. Tatter turned to his brother, a brother of many ladies, a brother that didn't deserve death, and lied down nuzzling and crying into his mane.

Lien's family did come up, and grieved for the lost prince as well, and in the middle of the field, as rain began to fall, they cried loudly for their lost friend and family member. It wasn't until his dad spoke to all of them that they stopped, the rain took shape of him, and he touched his son. "My son, I can not bring back, your brother." He paused, "But he will be here with us, he deserves to be known as great a king as anyone, his short reign he proved himself to the ages, and to the gods." He touched his son and several of the small scars erased from existence on Tatter's muzzle and brow, even the white strand of hair grew back. "I can even take care of this," he said reaching for Tatter's large ageless scar, but tatter stopped him.

"No, dad, this scar, it's me, it's about what I've become and what I will do, it is as much king as me, I'd like to keep it along with this annoying strand of hair." He said batting it out of his face.

Jake nodded, his form fading, "Give my son, a great burial." And he was gone

Tatter looked down to his brother's lifeless form, several of the lioness where still grieving him, some had watched the show, some where too distraught buy his loss, but all looked at Tatter when he rose to his paws, "I will give him a royal funeral." and he roared his brother's name for all the lands to hear.

That night they burned his brother's carcass, and he gained a family, as well as a wife, while Sandra was taken has his foremost mate he gained the respect of all Lien's former mates, and he took Triton in as his own son, raising him, yet always telling him stories of his true father who died at too young an age.

Ch 7

The years went on, and Tatter watched his nephew grow under his guidance, when Triton was six, barely able to start talking, Tatter taught him something his father had passed onto him, Push the rock. He had great things imagined for this kid. His kingdom re-grew, and his lands replenished, and on the third anniversary of the death of his brother the fire mountain collapsed in on itself, without power it had grown old and began to rot, now it was nothing more than a pile of rocks that commemorated a great battle and the loss of a hundred or so lions.

As his idea for the market became more popular so did his land, he drew more alliances than ever; they all wanted to be his pride land's friends. He no longer had fits of anger, headaches, bad dreams, or any of his old ways since loosing his father, destroying Scar's last chance had destroyed the disturbance in fate he and his father had caused.

One starry night he took his nephew out to the pride rock, and sat with him, and looked towards the stars, and spoke of his brother, spoke of his past, and spoke of his father and the king before him. He told his nephew, his new son, of the things he knew big and small, and how much he missed the boy's father.

The kid rose as the sun sat and stood on his uncle's paws, looking up to the stars that began to fill the sky, "But dad will be watching over us, wont he, even when I become king."

Tatter smiled, nuzzling his nephew "As will all the greatest kings of the past, your father was one of the greatest."

Fin