Chapter 5. Father's warmth

Asafa had never felt this kind of terror before... the stress of the events that were unfolding, and the stress of the premotion he had since earlier made everything worse.

The the ravine was filling up with hundreds of wildebeests all chaotically running for their lives, and at the forefront, Simba and Asafa ran for their lives.

Asafa looked back and found to his horror, that the wildebeest had neared, just any second now, both him and his brother would fall beneath the Hovs of hundreds of wildebeests.

As soon as they saw the wildebeest run into the ravine form one end, they had started running to the other end, and just as they were about to be swallowed by the horde of wildebeest, Simba and Asafa found a small tree which they climbed up unto.

They looked down in fear and horror as they saw the beasts hurry past them, some of which crashed into the tree they were on, making it shake violently.

Both Simba and Asafa were in a dire state.

"BROTHER HOLD ON!" Asafa shouted as he saw that Simba was struggling to hold onto the tree.

"I-I CAN'T, IM LOOSONG MY GRIP!" Simba roared back in fear.

Asafa was stronger and more agile, so he did his best to climb closer to his brother to support him with his own claws, which seemed to work, although it hurt Simba.

"HOLD ON, YOU CANT DIE HERE!" Asafa shouted in clear fear, he didn't want to die, nor to see his brother die.

"ASAFAAA I'M SORRY." Simba cried out.

Seeing the hint of cunfusion mixed in with terror in Asafa's eyes, Simba shouted once again.

"I'M SORRY FOR BEING JEALOUS OF YOU, I LOVE YOU." Simba cried out. He had realised that he always felt jeoulsy towards Asafa as his brother was stronger and bigger than himself.

He knew that they shouldve been even closer than they already were but the jelousy was like a rift between them.

Asafa climbed even closer to Simba to support Simba even more, he had never cared about those matters, he always loved his brother and cared for him, even though they competed in most things.

"Simab, Asafa, I found you!" Suddenly the voice of a bird was heard as Zazu flew close to them.

"Hold on, your father is on his way!" He shouted as he flew back to Mufasa to show where they were.

In less than half a minute, a fierce lion jumped straight into the stampede of wildebeest.

As Mufasa tried to close in on his sons, he fell down a few times as he crashed into wildebeests.

Both Simba and Asafa felt their hearts hurt at this, they had never seen their invincible father fall before and look so helpless.

"Daaaad!!!"

"FAAAATHER!!!!"

Mufasa stood up again and rushed on top of the stone beneath the tree!

"Take Simba, I'll cling to your back!" Asafa shouted as he saw, in a split second, the hint of uncertainty in his father's eyes on who to pick up.

Mufasa didn't speak further and picked up Simba with his mouth and Asafa jumped onto his back and held on with his dear life.

Mufasa tried running with the flow of the stampede but even then he fell down, he knew that if this continues they would all die.

After struggling, they finally reached one side of the rift and started to climb the ravine wall.

Mufasa put down Simba on a safe spot on the wall where Asafa also jumped off.

Sadly it was to small for Mufasa to stop, so he had to climb on.

The wall was steep and it was hard for Mufasa to climb.

Seeing their father climb on, Simba was worried and found another place to also climb the wall. Asafa couldn't leave as his eyes refused to leave his father, out of worry and fear.

In the end, Asafa saw Mufasa almost reach for the top, and there he saw a pair of familiar claws rip into the paws of his father.

He couldn't hear him, but he saw Mufasa speak, then he saw the complete shock in his father's eyes before the claws holding onto his father pushed him off.

In that split second that his father was pushed off, the world seemed to stop. Asada saw, how his father was falling backwards in un unnatural way for a lion. As his body slowly descended towards the stampede.

The mighty roar of his father seemed to echo inside his chest for what seemed to be infinity...

As if electrified, Asafa just stood there, his body shaking in fear.

Because of where he was, he couldn't see who had pushed off his father but he already knew. He recognized those paws.

He stood there for a couple of minutes before the stampede started to recede...

Then he climbed down, and started walking to where he had seen his father fall. He couldn't see clearly because of all the dust but he knew the directions.

Asafa felt like his mind was empty, he wanted to shout for his father but he couldn't find his voice.

He kept walking until he stumbled into the laying body of his father and he knew instantly what had transpired.

"Fa- Fa-Fath..." He couldn't even call for his father as he felt a huge clump inside his chest.

The big body of the lion that could fight hundreds of Hyenas, the strongest person he knew. The one that held up the sky and saved the day whenever he or Simba caused trouble. The source of power and security for the pride lands, was down on the ground, looking so weak, breathless.

Tears fell down Asafa's eyes as he snuggled into his father's face.

"Daaaad?" Asafa heard the voice of his brother echo throughout the ravine, yet he couldn't bring himself to say anything, he layed there weeping.

"Gallop gallop gallop" Another wildebeest suddenly appeared jumping over both Musafa and Asafa before running along, it seemed to be the slowest of its kin.

"Dad?" Simba had found his way to them,as he walked around the body of his father, not understanding why he wasn't moving.

"Asafa..." He whispered, hoping to found answers from his brother, but Asafa was just weeping.

Simba came closer to the head of Mufasa.

"Dad?" He whispered carefully, as to not harm or disturb his father.

"Dad... come on, you gotta get up..." He said as he tried to lift Mufasa's head.

"Come on dad, we gotta go home.." He said as he carefully pushed his dad, but it seemed like he was slowly and unwillingly understanding what happened.

Suddenly Simba started to panick slightly as he looked around.

"HEEEEELP" he shouted as he was starting to realise that his dad was gone.

Asafa suddenly got a powerful headache, and he started to regain the all his memories of the Lion King, all of which had been blurry before. It came rushing back. As if the trauma had forced his brain to remember.

Before he remembered some details that were hazy. But now it was all cleared, all though some details had been forgotten because of the passage of time, the trauma of today had awakened most of the memories.

But none of that mattered to Asafa as right now, this was real to him and he had lost his father.

The rest was very hazy to Asafa as he could barely register that his brother was present, he kept weeping.

"HEEEEELP.....somebody.... anybody..." Simba once more tried shouting for help.

Realising that no help was coming, Simba walked back and layed beside his brother in the embrace of his father and also wept.

Simba and Asada layed there as they could still feel the warmth of their father body.