Hello there! Wow it has certainly been a long time between stories for me yet again. Hope you all enjoy. I do not own The Lion King or any of the characters except Sasa. This story is not connected t my others.

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It was a bright and sunny day out in the Pride Lands. Actually it was a bit too sunny and hot for comfort.

Vitani and Kiara were certainly feeling the heat while they were hunting in the grasslands, which were now so dehydrated that the grass actually looked more like straw rather than the lush green plains that it had been during the wet season.

Vitani had taken over from Kovu in assisting Kiara become a better huntress. She was, after all, the better of the two siblings at it as being female it came more naturally to her than to her brother, who in her opinion, actually had a rather crude way of killing. So far Kiara had managed to scare off a herd of gazelle and wilderbeast through heavy breathing and once by tripping over. She while practicing her stalking had come very close to a family of warthog and could have certainly come away with a piglet or two but refused to follow through with it as she could never bring herself to harm any animals who were the same species as any of her friends. This annoyed Vitani considerably as she herself would have liked to snag one. She thought Kiara too soft for her own good. She tried to explain to Kiara that they could just eat it there and then and her friend need never know, but this was refused. Vitani accepted this begrudgingly in the end and the two instead worked on creeping up on a herd of Zebra they could see in the distance.

Kovu was spending the day patrolling the borders for rogue lions who may threaten to overthrow the king and take over the pride. Simba was still fairly young given that he and Nala started their family when they had barely finished adolescence. He could certainly still defend his pride against many such rogues himself. There was no denying however, that Kovu, being younger still and having strong muscles from a life of being trained to be a killing machine could, if he wanted to, overthrow the king himself which was the natural instinct for younger males. For lions even sons often return to their prides and overthrow their own fathers so love and friendship usually have very little influence on this instinct. Kovu however wouldn't do such a thing as Simba was a good king in his opinion and had become quite the fatherly figure to him and his love of Kiara would not let him consider such action. He let out his fighting instincts instead by chasing away these rogues. So far it looked like the pride would be safe for yet another day, but he continued his patrol as always.

The outlanders had now been with the Simba's Pride for about six months now so things had settled down quite a bit and it was almost as if they had always been one pride. Of course some had taken longer then others to fully trust the newcomers. Zazu, Timon and Pumbaa had naturally been a bit wary of the outlanders for the first few weeks as although they had befriended the lions they couldn't help think that carnivores who had been deprived of a suitable amount of food for so long a period would be able to resist the lure of having prey animals in such close quarters. Pumbaa had been the first to get over this due to his generally trusting nature which is quite ironic as he being the largest would have provided the greatest temptation.

Timon and Zazu on the other hand, had only mostly gotten over it. It could be noticed that they still tried to avoid all situations where they would be alone with an outlander.

On this particular day most of the pride had left the rock to either hunt or warm themselves as they catnapped in the sun. Timon and Pumbaa thought it a shame to stay inside too so were having a leisurely stroll around the lands and Zazu had found himself a tree by the water hole which provided him with a place to relax and a prime location to view the goings on between the citizens of the Pride Lands at this common social meeting place. Zazu spent most of his days alone as he found he had little in common with Timon and Pumbaa. He and Timon usually ended up fighting about something or other actually as they had very different viewpoints on life. He did spend some time with Sarabi and Sarafina but as lions tend to sleep half the day or more he was left to occupy himself most of the time.

Simba, Nala, Sarafina and Sarabi were spending their day on a much more sombre note. They had gone to the Tree of Life to visit Rafiki whose age it seemed was finally catching up with him, not that the old mandrill would of course admit it to anyone. Despite him having become more and more frail Rafiki still went out and about the Pride Lands trying to help as many animals as possible despite prior protests from the royal family. Rafiki had of course sensed his time was coming near as he now had an assistant who was destined to take his place when his time came. Her name was Sasa and she was also a mandrill, supposedly the child of a second cousin of Rafiki as he had produced no children himself to replace him nor had he any close family. Her colouration was the same as Rafiki's but she was smaller in stature and had notably bigger eyes which were a deep chocolate brown. She was very softly spoken and kind.

Sasa was now competent enough to handle most of the duties that would be required of her as shaman of the lands which made Rafiki's refusal to take things easy all the more unnecessary. Today however the heat had indeed taken its toll on the seemingly ancient mandrill as he had fainted that morning while out in the lands trying to assist a rhino give birth due to heat exhaustion.

The lions hated to see their old friend in such a state. He had always seemed so lively despite his age. He had been shaman even before the two older lionesses had been born so the lions could be excused from just presuming that he would simply live forever.

Rafiki had now, with help of Sasa, regained consciousness and lay sprawled out in the tree as Sasa fanned him with a leaf and tried to get him to drink some water out of a cup made from half a gourd. It had not been easy for her to bring him up the tree in his unconscious state but she had apparently made a pulley out of the vines to complete the task. One of the Rhinos near at the site where Rafiki had collapsed was kind enough to carry him to the foot of the tree for her.

"Dear Rafiki, you really must not over exert yourself anymore," said Sarabi who like the rest of the party had managed to climb up the tree and sat on one of the many strong branches inside. It never ceased to amaze the lions how the interior of the tree seemed so much larger then the outside. Many suspected there was some strange magic surrounding the tree.

"Sarabi is right," agreed Sarafina, " we ourselves have began to take things a little easier as we are approaching our senior years, and we are far younger than you."

"You have picked a fine apprentice and I believe the time has come for you to allow her to take over," added Simba. It was quite surreal for all of them to be given advice to the one who was usually guiding them.

"Dis I know," sighed Rafiki. " De circle of life is soon to set on dis silly ape but de shamans calling feels as strong to me as it was de first time de winds told me of my purpose."

"Don't be silly Rafiki," said Nala, "you still have a good many years left we just need you to take it easy so you can enjoy them."

"Oh my dear child," smiled Rafiki reaching out and stroking Nala's head. "I know my time is near, do not deny it. I would rather pass sooner from helping others then just relaxing and doing nothing. What is the use of a silly old ape who sits around picking flees out of his fur all day? I do not fear death, it is part of the great circle of life, and it is only the end if you choose to look at it that way. I know death to be more of de beginning. But fear not, I will go soon, but not today."

Rafiki then pulled himself up despite protests and sat facing his friends. He took a sip from his gourd. "So enough about me, tell me, is there anything exciting taking place at Pride Rock?"

From there they talked of many things such as which lionesses were expecting cubs, how many rogues had to be chased away, which herds were currently passing through the lands and other such chit chat and gossip. Rafiki changed the subject when it ever came back it him. It was obvious he didn't not want any more advice or to hear of any concerns regarding his own well being.

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There you have it chapter one! It pretty much just tells you where and what everyone is doing as their locations are important for what happens next. I can't promise I will be quick to update but I can promise that I will eventually finish this story as I hate it when people give up on them.

Sasa means help/ aid.