"Are you going to name her?" Asked her mother, Nala. Kiara sighed and nudged her new daughter.
"I don't know what to name her, mother," whispered Kiara.
"Kiara?" Kovu poked his head into the den, "Is everything alright?"
Kiara spun around, "Kovu?" she blinked and relaxed, "Oh, it's only you. Come look at the cub."
Kovu hesitated then stepped in and around Nala and Kiara to get a look at the cub. His eyes widened, "It's not possible!" he gasped.
"Apparently it is," growled Kiara in dry humur, "She can't live, Kovu, it's an omen."
"Kiara," sighed Kovu. Nala glanced back to the entrance and gently picked up Kiaras cub.
"Mother, what are you-" Kiara started, but Nala cut her off.
"I'm taking the cub to another lioness, one from a pride farther south. Her cubs were due any day when i last saw her, she can keep the cub, and I'll get a new one from her."
"But-" Kiara was scielenced by a hiss from her mother.
"Don't defy me, Kiara," she hissed, "Do you really want her as a Queen someday? Do you? You'll kill us all!"
Kiara was trembling now, "At least let me name her," she whispered.
Nala paused and then gently set down the cub for her daughter. Kiara leaned in close to her cub and licked her once. She smiled, "I'll call you Sarafina," she decided at last. Kovu blinked in surprise.
"After your grandmother?" he asked. Kiara nodded and pushed Sarafina towards her mother.
"You know she will be renamed once she is with another pride." Nala murmured, and Kiara nodded.
"She will be happier in the other pride, where she on't be the heir to a throne and be marked for life as well."
Nala picked up Sarafina and made her way to the back of the cave where an entrance was. It was night and it was raining outside, obscuring her vision, Nala picked her way down Pride Rocks side, careful not to drop Sarafina.
After traveling a distance south, she reached the river. It was thrashing and curning, dirt brown and clogged with debris. Gulping, Nala re adjusted her grip on Sarafina and headed up the river. The water began to spill out of the riverbanks, turning the flat prideland into a soupy marsh. Crocodiles crept onto the new land, ignoring Nala and her cub.
Pausing on the bank of the river, Sarafina glanced around for any other lioness and then leapt to the other side. She was now in the other prides territory.
Gulping, and ran now, towards a large, dome shaped rock that the pride slept in, and into a narrow crevice. shaking herself dry, Nala and Sarafina picked around the sleeping lioness until she had reached another narrow entrance. This time she entered without a sound.
Inside, a lighter lioness and her two cubs were being nursed. Looking up as Nala and Sarafina entered, she narrowed her green eyes.
"Nala, what is the meaning of thios?" she growled, "Why are you and a cub on my prides territory?"
Nala set down the cub, panting. The cub was cold, and she curled around it, "Has any other lion seen your cubs?" she gasped.
The lioness shook her head, "No, why?"
Nala took a deep breath, "I have a favor to ask of you. I need you to take this cub and replace it with one. This one is the heir to the pride, but she cannot stay."
'Why must I take her?" snarled the other Lioness, Fina, "It is your prides problem."
"No, Fina, listen." Nala took another deep breath, "This cub cannot take the throne, she is Kiaras only daughter. If she does take the throne, all chaos will break out. She is cursed, Fina, look at her."
Fina looked at the cub and sighed, "Take her," she nuzzled a lioness cub from her body and picked up Sarafina, "She will not be loved in this pride, Nala, are you sure about this?" Nala nodded, and Fina turned back to her new cub, "She'll be called Shetani."
Nala paused, "isn't that a little harsh, Fina?"
"Now for a curse lioness, now go, before anyone else wakes!"
"Right," Nala picked up the cub and padded quietly out of the den. Fina looked down at Shetani.
"What an unfortunate life you will have, Shetani," she murmured, "My little two-tailed lion."