Calm before the Storm
"I'm telling you, I heard it right here!" said a feminine voice.
"Wema, you know Jasiri says we shouldn't be here." said a male voice, "Not since, y'know... her pride was here..."
"But the war's over now, Tunu! Don't you wanna be brave? Get the inside story on mysteries that keep us awake at night? Jasiri would be more than proud if we found out what that noise was!"
"War or no war, I don't want to be 'brave', I would gladly step away from what keeps me up at night, and Jasiri's not gonna li- Wema, don't!"
Tunu got a hold of his sister's tail with his teeth, his weight being outmatched by the fact that he was instead helplessly being dragged further and further into the Elephant Graveyard. Wema turned back, glared, and shoved Tunu away from her tail.
Tunu looked around and shivered, "This place is even creepier since those two lions ran off..."
"This must be where the it happened, look at all these cracks!"
Tunu whipped around, "'It'? What is 'it'? What do you think did this? Looks awfully destructive... and dangerous."
"The Roar!" Wema beamed, "I heard it, and I swear I saw a strange fire, and clouds with heads!"
"Whoever this new wielder of the Roar is sure sounds unstable." the male hyena remarked.
"Something paranormal is going on here..." Wema squinted, while her brother whimpered at the thought of the unfathomable.
Suddenly, lightning cracked through the ominous sky. The following thunder made Tunu yelp.
"Wema?! Tunu?! Where are you?!" called an older voice, "Come home before you catch your death out here!"
"Death?!" Tunu's voice quavered, "Sure looks that way, what with these geysers, and lava, and-"
"It's just an expression, Tunu." Wema sighed, "Here, we can sneak out this way, that way we'll look like we're coming from Broken Rock."
"Whatever happened to being a brave mystery solver?" Tunu jabbed.
Wema sighed again, still conflicted with making Jasiri either proud or disappointed.
"I... I guess I just need more clues..."
The two teen hyenas met up with Madoa before the storm worsened.
___
The autumn season befalls the Pridelands. A storm had formed one night as a result, cutting the Lion Guard's mission short and forcing them to take shelter in the lair to sleep through it. Little do they know, however, this storm was strange, seemingly of the supernatural type. One that would subject them all to nightmares of their worst fears...
Even the Bravest of the Lion Guard isn't safe from this spell. Shabaha relives the darkest moment of her life; deliberately being left helpless at the hands of danger as a cub. Shabaha notices her surroundings and peers appear large to her like they once did when she was a cub. Along with her neglectful single mother who never wanted her, Shabaha watches as her very friends abandon her and move on with their lives while she desperately calls for them with no hope, left to wonder what she did wrong.
Imara was everyone's rock. She was reliable, and quite ambitious with her goals. She finds herself taking on the challenge of lifting as many boulders as can, just as she'd promised everyone. However, more demands and pressure from those that need her begin to manifest in the form of more and more boulders. The Strongest is suddenly losing balance and control from the weight she can no longer carry. She struggles to fight the urge to let everything drop on her from the pressure... which turns out to be mostly from herself.
Kasi's dream started like any other she had, showing off her speed as she glided past her surroundings. Everything -- and everyone -- around her stretched and whirled into a transcendent wind. However... her surroundings are suddenly overcome with an urgent demeanor, as if they were desperately trying to stop her. The Fastest finds herself in a liminal, white space. When she looks back, there is nothing -- and no one -- behind her. She realizes she pushed everyone in her life away with her arrogance.
While Tazama had long embraced the life of a loner after a lifetime of ruthless bullying and being outcast, she relives her fears before her keen eyes as her very friends -- the only animals she'd ever trusted -- begin to turn on her. Like what Zira once was in Tazama's life, Vitani was taking the role of the instigator and ringmaster of the abuse. The Guard collectively insults the Keenest of Sight and pushes her to the ground, treating her as a useless ragdoll that they could take everything out on. She was completely alone, and hated by everyone.
Vitani’s role as the invisible child of her family manifests in a literal sense as her efforts to keep others safe go unseen and unheard. Everyone around her was dead, including the only family she had left; Kovu. Zira appears to tell Vitani that everyone is dead because she lost control of the Roar, and that she would be nothing more than her pawn, and nothing but an extension of her.
BOOM!
The Guard awoke from a roar of thunder, all in a cold sweat, looking around the Lair.
___
((In this installment of Vitani's Guard, I chose a "What Do They Fear?" premise in spirit of the Halloween season. Glad I settled on this one because it's a huge outlet for me to showcase headcanons I've had for Vitani's Lion Guard.
I almost went for a Final Destination-like premise where the Guard would see Rafiki's paintings and think them to be premonitions of what they think are their deaths, but it seemed too much like TLG's "Paintings and Predictions" episode, and I was losing time to figure out how to lay that story out.
Will probably be drawing more Halloween stuff throughout the month. Big probably though lol))