Book 2

The Lion King: A Father's Retribution

Chapter 1

Kopa's heart was racing, he was exhausted. Things had happened so fast but now, here he was faced with an impossible decision. In front of him lay a young lion about his age. The lions golden fur was damp and discoloured from his wounds. The redness sank into his fur like a drop of rain landing on the ground. His face was scared, claw marks covered him and his mane was scruffy. He watched as the lion slowly breathed in and out. He didn't have much energy in him.

"Kill me." the lion begged, striking him off guard. "Please, I'm as good as dead after what's been done." he said.

"No, I won't take your life, I can't." Kopa refused, shaking his head violently.

"Just do it, I can't live with the shame and disappointment I've brought my father." the lion whimpered, staring straight at Kopa.

Kopa said nothing as he stared deep into the lions eyes. How could he do such a thing to someone who's been through so much pain? It's not right, he can't do it. However, as he continued to stare into the lions eyes he could see the pain he was in, feel the pain he was. He could feel the suffering this lion had endured and he couldn't stare at it any longer.

"Ok, I'll do it." he said.

The lion closed his eyes as Kopa bit into the lions neck...

Kopa woke with a fright. He only just managed to stop himself from screaming when he realised where he was. His heart was pounding out of his chest and he was breathing rapidly. He looked around the den and slowly started to calm down.

"It was just a dream." he whispered to himself, trying to calm his breathing. That memory hasn't plagued him for a long a time, but with everything that's happened lately it's not surprising the one memory he's tried to suppress has come back to haunt him.

Once his breathing had returned to normal, his heart beat slowed down and he began to relax. He looked beside him and noticed Vitani there, still asleep. It's a miracle he didn't wake her up. The rest of his family was still asleep as well, including Mheetu who'd rolled onto his back and started to snore. Kopa gently smiled at them.

Noticing the light creeping in from outside, Kopa carefully stood up and left the den. As he walked up onto the throne the cool morning air helped sooth and calm him. Sitting down he watched the horizon over the Pride Lands. He and his father apparently did this a lot when he was young, but even if they did, he couldn't remember it. There's a lot of things he still can't remember but he figures it'll only come back to him with time.

He couldn't believe how much had changed in the past six months. There was a time where he didn't know who he was and he lived a life of freedom or 'Hakuna Matata', as Timon and Pumbaa would call it. But now he knows who he is and his life has changed dramatically.

"Got you uncle Kopa!" shouted Kopa's young nephew Amani as he pounced on top of him. Kopa yelled out, surprised by his appearance. After the bad dream he'd just had he's still a bit frigid. He walked around in a circle until he spotted Amani on his back.

"I frightened you didn't I?" Amani laughed, climbing onto Kopa's head.

"Don't do that Amani, you nearly made me jump out of my fur." Kopa replied sighing. He calmly breathed in and out, relaxing his tense muscles.

The young cub giggled and jumped back onto the ground. He gazed up at Kopa, admiration in his eyes. Amani was Kiara and Kovu's two and half month old son. He'd inherited his father's fur colour but thanks to Kiara it was a slightly lighter shade. He had a small dark brown tuft of fur on his head and his eyes were the same shade as Kiara's. His underbelly fur was light brown and it contrasted well with his main fur colour. They'd named him Amani in honour of Kopa and the peace he'd brought the Pride Lands. Since Amani meant peace, they thought it was a fitting name. However, Amani himself was not a peaceful cub.

"What are you doing up this early?" Kopa asked.

"Well I was already awake when I saw you leave. I followed you and decided to surprise you." the cub giggled.

"You shouldn't be so mischievous, it could get you into a lot of trouble one day." Kopa advised. Amani nodded and as always, listened to Kopa's recommendation.

Turning away, Kopa went to leave. This was an ideal opportunity for him to hunt and let off some steam. As he walked away he noticed Amani was following him, his beady little eyes staring up at him eagerly.

"Where are you going uncle Kopa?" asked Amani, his tail swishing side to side with excitement.

"Nowhere but I'll be back later. You stay here, oh and if grandpa Simba asks where I am, tell him you haven't seen me ok?" he reminded his nephew.

"Ok." Amani said as he watched Kopa leave Pride Rock. The young cub stared after his uncle, wishing he could go with him.

It was early afternoon and Kopa's disappearance had been noted by the entire pride. After discovering his son's absence this morning Simba had decided to let it go but as the afternoon began to approach he was getting increasingly concerned. Spending half the day away from Pride Rock isn't something Simba wants him doing.

Walking up to a group of lionesses that afternoon Simba asked "Where is my son?"

"We're not sure no one's seen him this morning." replied one of the lionesses. "Maybe he went for a walk?" she suggested.

"I doubt it." Simba sighed. He turned around and noticed his grandson standing below him. "Oh Amani I don't suppose you've seen your uncle today?" he wondered.

"No." Amani said with a cheeky grin on his face.

"Are you sure?" Simba asked thinking he was rather quick to come to that conclusion.

"Yeah, I haven't seen him." he giggled, turning to leave, however he soon found himself overcast with darkness and looked up to see both his parents standing in front of him. They didn't look particularly happy, mainly because they knew Amani looked up to Kopa and would lie for him if he wanted.

"Amani tell the truth." Kiara said, sternly. "I'm your mother, I know when you're lying." she mentioned, frowning.

"Honestly I haven't seen him." he said, glancing from his mother to his father.

"Amani, where's Kopa?" Kovu asked.

Amani tried to convince them again but the sight of his parents' frowns was too intimidating for him, so he gave in.

"He went out this morning but he didn't tell me where he was going." Amani revealed, bowing his head.

Simba rolled his eyes and groaned. He knew exactly what Kopa was doing. He was out hunting, something he did a lot of these days. Resolving to go out and find him, Simba went to leave, but not before Kiara gave her father some words of warning.

"Father, try not to be too hard on him. He's still finding it difficult adjusting to all this." she said softly.

"I know." Simba said, acknowledging her words. With that he left, just as Kiara was about to give Amani a very serious talking to about his lying.

Kopa was walking through the long grass after a successful morning hunt. While releasing his emotions from this morning he'd also managed to fill himself up and now, all he wanted to do was lie down and relax. Looking at Pride Rock in the distance, he was reminded that his father wasn't so keen on him hunting all the time. According to him it takes up too much of his time, time he should spend learning about the ways of the kingdom.

At that moment, he remembered his life as Ayari, the fearless free lion who could do anything he wanted. He missed the simplicity of his old life but it was not the life he was destined for, unfortunately. Six months ago he managed to save his family and Pride Rock from the corrupt claws of Jitu and Zira. Finding out who he was, being able to reunite with a family he never knew he had, had changed his life in more ways than one. Everyone else seemed to move on pretty quickly after that event, even Kovu and Vitani who'd lost both their parents. For him it had been different, moving on wasn't so easy.

He knew that returning as Prince Kopa would be difficult but not this difficult. He hasn't gotten used to living that kind of lifestyle yet. Sighing, he calmed himself down. He spotted a lone antelope up ahead and decided to go for it. Crouching low he slowly crept forward, sneaking up behind it. As he carefully stalked the creature it looked up, thinking it'd heard something. Kopa stopped and waited for the antelope to resume eating the grass. After a few seconds it did and Kopa took that as his chance to strike. He prepared himself to pounce but all of a sudden the antelope ran, ruining his chance.

"Kopa!" Simba exclaimed, sounding angry. Kopa grunted the moment he heard his name. He could sense his father was about to give him another one of his lecture's, one which he wasn't in the mood for right now.

"Oh great." he whispered, turning round to face his father. The antelope had fled the moment Simba arrived and Kopa sighed in annoyance. "I could've got that if you hadn't showed up." he said.

"You aren't even supposed to be hunting. Your mother and Kiara are in charge of that now." Simba said with a frown. He understood his sons need to let off steam and he was happy to give him the time to do that, but it's been six months.

"I know, but c'mon Kiara wouldn't even be hunting if it wasn't for me." Kopa mentioned. Ever since Kiara's first successful hunt during the battle for Pride Rock, she's become very confident in her hunting. Nala still leads the hunting party but she's happy to let Kiara take over anytime she wants.

Simba said nothing and continued to frown at his son.

"That's not what this is about. I understand this is what you do but now that you're back I need to teach you the ways of the kingdom. You need to be prepared for when you take over as-"but Kopa stopped him right there.

Being King is something he's definately not ready for. They've talked about this before and Kiara and Kovu said they were more than happy to stay on as next in line for the throne of Pride Rock.

"Dad we've talked about this, I'm not going to be king." Kopa reminded his father, sternly.

"I wish you would tell me why."Simba replied.

Kopa stared at his father and said nothing. He sighed and began to walk back to Pride Rock. Even if he told him the reason why Simba wouldn't understand anyway. He wants to reconnect with his father, with his family, but how can he when they barely know him and know what he's been through.

Meanwhile, a happy and cheerful Rafiki was in his baobab tree, humming happily to himself. He was going over a picture of the young cub Amani, bouncing up and down to the rhythm of his hum.

"Amani, what a fitting name." he commented. "A cub born out of peace." he chuckled. Realising he was out of crushed berries, Rafiki turned around to crush the next batch. He began to crush them, still humming happily to himself until he heard rustling in the leaves.

He stopped, eyeing up the leaves suspiciously. Grabbing his stick he went to investigate the disturbance. Walking over to the leaves, he attacked them with his stick. Nothing was there. Shaking his head Rafiki went back to what he was doing.

"Rafiki must be going crazy in his old age." the mandrill commented. He began to crush the berries again when he heard more rustling behind him. "Nothing's there Rafiki." he said as silence resumed. As he turned his head and went back to what he was doing he was disturbed by a very loud noise.

"Boo!" someone shouted and Rafiki yelled out in fright falling head first into the bowel of squashed berries. He heard maniacal laughter as he pulled his head out of the bowel and wiped the splattered berries off his face. There, standing before him was his nephew Nefu.

"Look at your face uncle Rafiki!" Nefu said, rolling around in a fit of laughter. Rafiki said nothing as he wiped the berries away from his eyes. "I got you good!" he said, pointing at Rafiki's berry covered face.

His young nephew, Nefu was a young mandrill with bright colours. His fur was different to Rafiki's as it bore more of a rich chocolate brown colour. His underbelly fur was also that shade, but darker. His hair was braided into short stump dreadlocks and it bore a cinnamon colour. The mandrill wore a cheeky smile as Rafiki manged to wipe the last of the berries off his face.

"It's been too long uncle Rafiki." laughed Nefu. Rafiki frowned, dusting off the last of the berries. He wondered what his nephew was doing so far from Grass Walls. "Nice to see you're still living in the same old tree."

"Nefu, Rafiki wants to know what you're doing here?" Rafiki demanded, his arms folded.

"No reason, just thought I'd come and visit my favourite uncle." Nefu said, swinging from branch to branch around Rafiki's tree.

"How long are you planning to stay?" Rafiki asked, his arms still folded and his eyes fixed on Nefu.

"Oh not very long why, you worried about me embarrassing you uncle Rafiki?" he giggled, hanging from a branch upside down. Embarrassing however, was not the word Rafiki would have used.

"You can stay, but on two conditions." Rafiki said as Nefu continued to swing playfully from branch to branch. "You can't misbehave and you have to help out whenever Rafiki asks you." he said.

"Alright, I promise." Nefu said but he hadn't really been listening. He fell down in front of Rafiki, but instead of showing signs of pain the young mandrill just laughed.

Rafiki sighed and shook his head at this nephew's behaviour. Turning around he spotted a dark figure on the ground below. It looked like a lion but he couldn't be sure. He climbed up onto a branch to have a better look, but he was distracted when Nefu knocked over his bowel of uncrushed berries.

"Nefu what did Rafiki just say?" Rafiki questioned irritably. He soon proceeded to scold his nephew who, once again didn't really listen. It was going to be a long few days for Rafiki.

Kopa returned to Pride Rock with Simba in tow. Father and son hadn't spoken much on the way back and Kopa wasn't planning to talk to him now either. Seeing his sons reluctance to let him in Simba walked off, leaving him alone. Noticing his uncle's return, Amani ran straight over to him, a solemn look on his face.

"Uncle Kopa, I'm sorry I told grandpa Simba where you were. Mother made me." he apologized, but Kopa didn't understand why he was so upset about it.

"Amani don't worry, I knew he'd find out anyway." Kopa reassured the young cub. Once he realised Kopa wasn't angry with him the cheeky smile he wore soon returned. However, Kiara and Kovu soon turned up and Kopa knew Kiara wouldn't be happy with him. This isn't the first time he's asked Amani to lie for him.

"Come on you." Kiara said, picking Amani up by the scruff off his neck and taking him away. She said nothing to Kopa but gave him a dirty look as she left with her son. Kopa was surprised and relieved, he half expected his sister would pin him to the ground and tell him to stop leading her son astray. But her silence was just as dangerous.

"What have I done wrong now?" he asked rhetorically. Kovu chuckled beside him.

"Nothing, but we'd appreciate it if you'd stop using Amani to do your dirty work." he said.

"I hardly think you can call it dirty, I was just going on a hunt." he said."Besides, your son adores me so he would've done it even if I hadn't asked him to." Kopa explained.

"We know." Kovu told him. "But still, it'll keep Kiara off your back." Kovu advised.

"Maybe." he said, walking off. "I've already got dad on my back, I could do without Kiara too." he said, glancing around, trying to find Vitani. "Don't suppose you know where your sister is do you?" he wondered.

"She wanted to talk to Rafiki about something." Kovu replied, but he returned their conversation to the previous topic. "Why's Simba on your back?" he asked, following after Kopa.

"He keeps trying to push me to learn the ways of the kingdom and I keep reminding him that you and Kiara are taking over after him, not me." he said.

Kovu stopped. He wondered if this was the right time to tell him. He and Kiara had been discussing it a lot lately but both were nervous about telling Kopa. He hasn't exactly been in the best of moods lately.

"Kovu are you ok?" Kopa asked, seeing Kovu's blank expression.

"Yeah I'm fine." he said. "But we should talk."

Beyond the Pride Lands and the location of Tojo's pride, there sits another pride of lions. They control a vast area of land that is nourished by a long winding river. This pride is called the River Pride. They live in a lush area of grassland surrounded by a few trees and bushes. In the middle of the pride sits a large tree, similar to Rafiki's baobab tree but much bigger. At the bottom of the tree the King of that Pride, sat atop a rock, complaining about something that his second in command was all too used to hearing.

"Six months Sikio, I've left prince Kopa alone for six months. It was longer than I'd intended." he said. The lion brushed his thick black mane away from his eyes as he wallowed in his own annoyance.

"Well your majesty, perhaps now is the time to begin your revenge. It has been six months after all. We've gained enough intel to come up with a different strategy." Sikio explained, sitting beside him.

"I know but after waiting so long and putting so much effort into this, I don't want to see it all go to waste." he said. Sikio rolled his eyes. He's had to listen to this ever since they found out the lion they wanted was the prince of the Pride Lands.

"Do you not owe it to your son your majesty?" Sikio questioned him with a slight grin. "He needs to be avenged, justice needs to be served. Makini wouldn't want you to let the lion responsible for his death get away with it." he said, trying to persuade him.

"I know, but you see back then it would've been much easier to just kill him and be done with it. Back then he had no idea who he was but now, now that he's a prince we need to tread carefully. It will take time but you're right Sikio." and Sikio grinned. "My son wouldn't want me to let the lion responsible for his death get away with hit." finding his resolve, the lion climbed on top of a tall mound to address the members of his pride.

Sikio stood beside his king as the pride awaited his speech.

"As you all know I've been tracking down my sons attacker for over a year now. Several months ago I found him but he was not who I originally thought he was so I returned to rethink my plan. But now the time has come for me to finally avenge my son's death. Hodari!" he called out.

A pale furred lion with a dark brown mane stepped forward, his eyes full of pleasure.

"Yes, your majesty?" Hodari said, bowing his head.

"You will be in charge while I am gone. When I return I will have been successful and my son can finally get the justice he deserved!" the lion roared. Sikio joined in and soon the whole pride was roaring with encouragement for their king. While they were all preoccupied, none of them noticed the cunning smile Hodari wore on his face. He watched on with glee, finally getting what he wanted, Kucha out of the way.

Kucha and Sikio wasted no time in leaving. It was just the two of them however, since a big party would draw too much attention to them and that's not what they wanted if this plan of revenge was going to work. As they began their journey Sikio noticed the look of determination on Kucha's face.

"Are you ready for this your majesty?" he wondered.

"I've been ready for this since the day I watched him kill my son." Kucha growled. "I will not rest until prince Kopa has felt the same pain and despair that I felt when I lost my son. I will take everything he cares about away from him and then when he has lost everything I will kill him." he said looking forward to that moment with every breath in his body.

Prince Kopa was going to pay the ultimate price.

As the afternoon slowly came to an end Simba sat outside the den of Pride Rock, talking with Nala about Kopa's recent behaviour. It's something that's been worrying him recently and today only confirmed that he was right to worry.

"It's been six months since our son returned and I feel just as close to him as I was when he came home." Simba said with a heavy sigh. "Nothing's changed between us."

"Oh Simba something like this will take time." Nala said, comforting him. She could see the pain in his expression and she understood what he was feeling. Reconnecting with Kopa was going to be hard for them both but it's going to be harder for Simba considering their broken bond and his expectations of Kopa. "Kopa's been through a lot and returning to a life he can't remember is going to be difficult for him to do."

"I know but-"

"Let our son deal with it in his own way." she said, cutting him off. "When he's ready you will know." she explained, encouraging him to accept that this will take time.

"You're right, I'll give him the space he needs." Simba said, smiling half heartedly. They were about to head into the den when all of a sudden they heard raised voices coming from the front of Pride Rock. They glanced at each other with a frown before they went to investigate the commotion. Kiara had heard it too and the three lions arrived to find Kopa and Kovu arguing about something and Kopa looked furious.

"You and Kiara both agreed that you would stay on as heirs of pride rock." Kopa complained, not happy, not happy at all. The anger was radiating off him but Kovu had expected this.

"I know, but we've been talking about it lately and we don't think it's right to rob you of your birth right. You are the eldest, therefore you're the one who should be king." Kovu explained, trying to reason with him. They both noticed the appearance of Simba, Nala and Kiara, but Kopa didn't care, he wanted them to hear this.

"I've told you all before, I'm not ready for something like that. I've been back six months and you're all trying to push me into something I don't want!" he shouted.

"Kopa, we're not trying to push you into anything-"Kiara said, but Kopa cut over her.

"No, none of you understand how hard this is for me, none of you." he said, looking over at his family. After a few brief seconds of silence Kopa left Pride Rock in a fit of rage.

"Kopa wait, where are you going?" Simba called out, going after his son. Nala stepped in front of him and stopped him in his tracks.

"Simba let him go. He'll come back when he's calmed down, he's just needs some time." she reminded him.

Simba sighed, but stayed at Pride Rock. He turned to his right and watched Kopa sprint away from Pride Rock. As he watched him leave he realised he didn't know who his son was at all.

I'm back with the first Chapter of my Second Lion King Story. Hope you enjoyed it :)

Just thought I'd share with you the meanings of some of the names mentioned in this chapter.

Amani (Peace)

Kucha (Claw or Darkness)

Sikio (Ear)

Makini (Dignity)

Hodari (Clever)

-Nefu was Rafiki's Nephew who appeared in 'The Lion Kings Timon and Pumbaa' and a comic called 'This Chore's a Bore'. I like his character and thought that he'd fit in well with my plot for this story. Also I based his description off of his appearance description from the Lion King Wiki.

-Also thank you to those who voted on my poll and helped me decide on Kucha as a fitting name for my antagonist.

Dreaming18