Family Traditions

SUMMARY: Nala awakens to something amiss: Kiara's not in the den. Nala goes out in search of her daughter. First attempt at angst/comfort. Request fic of RVDLegsTrish. NOT A SHIPPING FIC!

Kit: So I got this PM with a request to write an angst/comfort fic for the Lion King genre, right? Well, here it is, RVDLegsTrish! Hope it's what you were looking for. (and that my one friend is wrong about people rejecting an author after they write something in the Lion King genre. sweatdrops and looks to the side) I don't own any of the characters; they belong to Disney. The main plot of this really belongs to RVDLegsTrish, since he's the one that sent the request to me. There's only a small part in here that belongs to me, but it's very small... Anyways, I did a little research on this before I wrote it, because aside from what I've watched in the Lion King movies, I knew pretty much nothing about lions, their feeding habits, etc. Honestly, I'm not sure I found what I was looking for, but I'm gonna work with what I did find. ...Well, on with the story!!

EDIT!!!: Okay, so I just got a review from an anonymous reviewer calling themselves "Starzinmieyez :)" asking me to continue this. Appearntly they didn't pay attention to the status of this oneshot: Complete. RVDLegsTrish did not ask me to write him a multi-chapter fic, and i did NOT plan on this to be more than one chapter, so sorry to disappoint, "Starzinmieyez :)", but I am NOT going to continue this.

"words" means Regular talking
'words' means Thinking

Nala awoke before the sun; something was amiss. Blinking in the dim light left from the moon, she looked around, taking stock of everyone in the den. No one seemed hurt--wait! Someone was missing. She checked again. Adimu, Akeelah, Alfajiri, Angalia, Betoto, Chausiku, Dogo, Faraja, Ghubari, Harbuu, Hisani, Juma, Lumbwi, Mosi, Raziya, Sadiki, Sarabi, Sarafina, Simba--

'Where's Kiara!?' she thought frantically, looking around for her daughter. No matter where her eyes searched, she could not find her own daughter. Deciding this was not something that she needed to wake Simba or anyone else up for, Nala crept out of the den to search for Kiara.

The first place she looked was the watering hole, only to come up empty handed. Next she searched around the plains, looking high and low but still coming up with nothing.

"Where could she be?" she wondered aloud, growing more and more frantic by the minute. She looked for nearly another hour around the Pride Lands--where the antelopes grazed, near the river--before she decided to go back to Pride Rock and tell the others what was wrong and ask for help. It was not until she was nearly back to Pride Rock and passing it did she hear the sounds coming from a little cave under a rock: the sounds of sobbing. Curious and hopeful, Nala poked her head inside and silently sighed with relief before hurrying inside.

"Kiara, what do you think you're doing out here by yourself!" she snapped, causing the little lion cub to jump and turn around fearfully. "Do you realize how worried I was when I noticed you were missing? Your father is not going to be happy about this, young lady!" The two stared at each other for awhile, one in parently anger and the other in teary fearfulness. That was when it actually hit Nala: Kiara was crying, and she did not even know why. "Kiara? What's wrong?" she asked, padding closer to her daughter and pearing down at her. Kiara just turned her head away. "Kiara, why are you crying?"

"I'm not crying!" was the immediate, tight-sounding response from the young princess.

"Kiara, I'm your mother. You can tell me what's wrong," Nala urged, worried about her daughter in a different way than when she woke up to that morning. Kiara just shook her head and continued to look away from her mother, attempting to control her sobs. "Kiara, sweetie, please... Why won't you tell me what's wrong?"

"Because you wouldn't understand!" snapped Kiara. "You wouldn't understand... just like daddy..." she added in a whisper.

"Kiara, I'm not like your father, and he's not like that. Your father can be stubborn, yes, but he also cares about you very much. Just like me." Nala peered around her daughter's turned head to look at her. "Please, tell me what's wrong?"

Kiara stayed silent for another few minutes, Nala patiently waiting all the while.

"I'm hurting you," the young lioness finally said in a whisper so quiet Nala almost did not hear it.

"What do you mean, Kiara?" she inquired, confusion written all over her face.

"Wh-when you're feeding me; I'm hurting you." The Pride Lands' princess finally looked at her mother, tears still in her eyes.

"Where did you hear that?"

"From you. You were talking with Mosi about how my teeth keep hurting you when I feed." Kiara still did not fully meet her mother's eyes, so she missed the shocked expression on Nala's face that quickly turned to quiet understanding. She did, however, notice when her mother started nuzzling her.

"Oh, Kiara. Every mother goes through that with their cubs. Do you know how I know that?" she looked at her daughter with a slightly mischievious, understanding look in her eye.

"No..."

"Your father and I overheard our own mothers talking about the same thing with each other when we were your age."

"Really?" Kiara's tears had stopped flowing and she sounded disbelieving of what her mother told her.

"It's true. We even ran away just like you did, only we didn't do it at the same time. We didn't even know we each had done it until we saw each other coming back with our mothers."

"That's just... weird," giggled Kiara, happy her mother was not angry with her for running away. The two laughed and talked for a bit more before heading home together.

DISTRACTION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Elsewhere (in the Outlands to be precise), a certain vengeful lioness stalks off in search of food for her outcasted pride, muttering about her son's sharp new teeth.

Kit: Okay, hope you all liked it, especially you, RVDLegsTrish. (what does your name mean, anyway, dude?! O.o) All the names of the lionesses are actual Swahili names. I went to babynamesworld. parentsconnect. com /swahili-names .html to get them. Did anyone know that Simba's name actually means "lion" in Swahili?! O.o Cause I sure didn't!! Sneaky Disney.... Hell, Zira's name apparently means "seed". XDD Yes, I laugh at Kovu's mommy; who doesn't? Anyways, the place where Nala finds Kiara is the same place that Timon and Pumbaa use as one of Timon's "dream homes" during The Lion King 1 1/2. Though, now that I think about it, does anyone else wonder if they move back in there after the first movie?? Oh well, they don't in this fic. XD And YAY! No chapter notes from me! Hope you all liked it! Please read and review!!