The Lion King: Sasha's Pride
Chapter One: The New Princess
The sun was already high in the sky, clouds spotted the sky, but never covered the sun. Suddenly, a warm spring breeze picked up on the savannah, and every animal made there way toward Pride Rock. A horn bill circled overhead before landing in front of the king, and bowed. The king smiled and walked towards the caves where his queen and his two newborn cubs were. I was one of those cubs.
"They will make excellent rulers sire." the horn bill assured my father. "I know Zazu, but which one will rule?" he asked himself. By now there was a crowd of animals below Pride Rock and an old baboon walked up to the king. My mother licked me and my brother to wake us up. I watched everything around me as the baboon picked us up and carried us to the edge of our home. I stared at the animals below me as they bowed to me and my brother. I didn't understand why they did so, but I thought it must be something important.
After a few moments the baboon took us back to our parents. "Thanks Rafiki." I heard my mother say. The baboon, who's name was apparently Rafiki, laughed. "It is no problem at all." he said before walking away, using a stick to help him along.
Me and my brother, whose name is Nathan, grew up at Pride Rock. we tumbled around and played with other cubs there during the day, and at night we slept between our parents. Safe from any unimaginable harm. One morning I woke up with the sun. I padded outside to see the sun just barely starting to rise over the horizon. I sat there for a few moments til my brother joined me. "What are you doing Sasha?" he asked me. "What does it look like I'm doing, Nathan? I'm watching the sun rise until dad gets up." I chuckled, moving over so he could sit beside me. After awhile, our grandmother came to join us. Our grandmother used to be queen, her name is Nala. She ruled the Pridelands with our grandfather, Simba. My mother was their daughter, her name is Kiara, and our father is Kovu.
"Hello Sasha, hello Nathan." Nala said as she padded up behind us. "Hello grandmother." Me and Nathan said together. After that I heard the familiar heavy footsteps of my father. "Daddy!" I called running up to him. My father chuckled and Nathan ran up beside me. "You two are up early." he said, working his way around us and down the stones that made steps down to the ground from Pride Rock. "Can we come with you?" I begged. Every morning my father went around the borders of the Pridelands to make sure there wasn't any trouble. "Maybe when you're a little older, but not now." he said before walking away.
Me and Nathan stood there for awhile until something pushed me to the ground. "Got ya!" Rosa giggled. Rosa was one of the younger cubs in the pride, she always preferred hanging out with us then with her older sister. I sat up, which in turn made her slide off my back. "You're learning the element of surprise." I observed. At that moment I heard my mother calling for me and Nathan. "Come on." I told Rosa as we made our way up the steps. "We're right here mom." I called as we were about half way up the steps. As we climbed up I saw my mother sitting next to her uncle, Mheetu. My mother had some of the lionesses gathered for a hunting group. "Nathan, Mheetu's going to show you around the kingdom." my mother said and at my look of disappointment she smiled at me. "Sasha, you are coming with me and the other lionesses hunting." I brightened up at that. Not only would I see most of the hunting grounds, but I might catch something if I get lucky.
I padded back down to the ground beside Nathan and went off with the lionesses as he went with Mheetu. "Now one thing you must remember is that you need to be quiet when stalking prey. At the slightest sound, they could run." I nodded as my mother told me what I needed to do.
At first I stayed at the back of the group of lionesses and hid in the tall grass as I watched the lionesses take on different prey, once the hoof beats of some antelope stirred a field mouse from its scavenging and as it scurried past I caught it. The fourth time they stalked some zebra, and my mother had me up front with her, I was supposed to try and help bring one of them down. I crept forward with my mother, and one her signal I lept at a zebra, and with a lot of help from her, brought it down.
"Wow! That was neat!" I exclaimed on our way back to Pride Rock. "Your first hunt with the lionesses is always neat." My mother chuckled, thinking back to her first hunt as a cub with her mother. When we got to the water hole, we saw Nathan and Mheetu. Nathan padded up to me with happiness shining in his eyes. "The Pridelands are neat!" he exclaimed. "Hunting's neat too. I caught a field mouse and with moms help I brought down a zebra!" Nathan chuckled. "Well while you're hunting field mice and zebra's, I'll be checking the borders of the Pridelands." he boasted then padded away a few steps. "Come with me, there's a really cool place I want you to see." He called bounding away, the wind splitting his mane.
Nathan and me were only cubs, but Nathan grew a little fast. He already started growing his mane, there's a tuft of fur on his chest, and his mane had already grown down his back. But it wasn't around his shoulders yet.
I ran to catch up with him and we bounded along. Past Pride Rock, I noticed. Soon the long grass cut off to short grass, and we were by a tree. "This is the southern border." Nathan explained. I looked around. There didn't seem to be any other lions on the other side of the border. "Come on, lets go back to Pride Rock, see if Nakatou and Kinku will play with us." I told him. Nathan seemed a little distant as he replied. "You go ahead, I'll catch up later." He told me. I nodded and padded away. After I had gone a little ways away, I tracked back over to where Nathan was, but I was closer to the tree, and I was well hidden.
For a long while, nothing happened, and just as I thought about really going back, I see something approaching. Not something, someone, It was a lioness, possibly a little older then me and Nathan, with her were two younger cubs, her little brothers, I thought. I could hear her telling her brother's to stay out of trouble, and out of the tall grass, when she looked right at me.
Lucky for me, my brown pelt blended into the bark of the tree, so she didn't see anything unusual, then she saw Nathan. The two of them stared at each other, mouths gaping, then Nathan smiled at her, and she smiled at Nathan. "Who are you?" the lioness asked. Don't do it! I pleaded to myself. "I'm Nathan, The prince of the Pridelands." he told her, motioning behind him to the savannah. "I'm Kyra, I'm the princess over there on the grasslands." She told him. "I'm third in line for the throne, behind my older sisters." She added. Nathan smiled even wider. "I'm second in line after my sister." he told her.
At this point I couldn't take it anymore. I lept at him and bowled him over. "What are you doing?" I hissed. He looked at me like I was insane. "Get off." he breathed, and I realized that my paw was on his throat. I got off of him and let him stand up. "You are going to be in big trouble if dad finds out." I growled before glaring at Kyra and walking away. "Come on Nathan!" I called behind me, refusing to go any farther without my brother at my side. After a few moments I turned around. "Nathan!" I called, but he ignored me. I padded up to pull him away when I saw what he was looking at.
In the grass was a tiny sleeping cub. So small, so helpless. It had a brown pelt like mine, so I knew it couldn't be from the same pride as the gray lioness and her brothers, who had already left. "What is she doing here?" I asked Nathan, who merely shook his head. I had pity for the helpless cub and grabbed hold of her scruff in my jaws. I nodded to Nathan and we padded back to Pride Rock, the cub still asleep in my jaws.
When we got back to Pride Rock it was almost night. I set the cub down gently on one of the warm stones and called for my parents. "Mother! Father!" I called. Nathan padded up the rocks to see if
they where in the caves. My father padded up behind me. "What is it Sasha?" he asked. I turned around and moved aside so my father could see the tiny cub. "We found her by the southern border, abandoned." I explained. My father examined her carefully. "She's from the Outlands." he murmured. "Possibly one of the banished lions had her, and didn't want her." he told me. He took the small cub in his jaws and padded up Pride Rock and into the caves with me trailing close behind.
My mother was in the caves, Nathan telling her everything about the cub. My father laid the cub down beside her, and the small cub woke up. My parents talked about what to do with her for a little while before making a decision. My mother called us over with a smile.
"This child can't take care of herself. So it looks like you have a little sister." she said with a smile. I smiled and watched the little cub explore the caves on wobbly legs. "What are we going to call her?" I asked. My father chuckled. "We'll called her Nikki." he said. Nikki looked over as if she knew that that was her name already.
As days went by, Nikki grew bigger, and stronger. Before long she was a frisky cub, always bothering us older cubs. One morning I woke up to Nikki shaking me and the rising sun in my eyes. I yawned and stretched out. "Sasha? Sasha!" Nikki kept calling my name. "What is it Nikki?" I asked sleepily. "Nathan's gone." she said with a worried tone. This woke me up right away. I stood up and padded outside the den, watching out for the sleeping lions around me, Nikki close behind.
I looked around, just outside the caves, but he wasn't there. I went to the peak of Pride Rock, he wasn't anywhere I could see, he wasn't by the water hole or out on the paths my father had marked for us when we were cubs.
"I think I know just where he is. You go tell mother and father that he's missing, they'll check around the Pridelands, I'm going to check the southern border, make sure they know where I am." I told her as I padded down to the ground. Nikki nodded and ran back inside the caves and I ran to the border.
I stopped as soon as I saw Nathan at the edge of the border, talking to Kyra. I growled softly and stalked around in the grass so I could see better. When I got close enough so I could here there conversation, I was already too late to here what they were talking about. All I heard was Nathan saying, "I'll go tell my parents." I stood up, so they could see me. "No need to do that." I growled. "They're on their way hopefully. Worried sick looking for you." Nathan looked shocked. Kyra looked at Nathan. "What's going on here?" she asked. "Nikki woke me up to tell me Nathan was gone. When I couldn't find him anywhere on the Pridelands I knew he had to be here. Nikki went and woke our parents up, and they're looking for him." I explained, flicking my tail at Nathan.
Kyra seemed to brighten up at the sound of the name Nikki. "That's just what we were talking about. I think I know who Nikki's parents are, another pride close by here. By the description I've been given of her, she sounds like she's one of them." she explained happily. I growled at her, which made her go from happy, to scared. "We don't need to know, she's happy where she is."
Nathan looked at me pleadingly. "Sasha, wouldn't Nikki like to know who her real parents are?" he persuaded. I turned on him, still growling. "Nathan, listen to me very carefully because I'm only going to say this once," I hissed. "As far as Nikki knows, she's with her real parents. It would crush Nikki if she found out she was adopted, and that her real parents didn't want her." Both Nathan and Kyra seemed to realize this flaw in there plan for the first time.
"I think she'd still like to know." Kyra murmured. I finally lost it with her, I roared in anger at her comment, and quick as a flash there was a lion in front of her, roaring at me. Her father by the looks of it. Now, normally, I would have backed down and gone to my father, but I was seething with anger, so like an idiot I growled at the lion and stood my ground. Nathan snatched me back from the border. "What are you doing you idiot!" he hissed in my ear. By this time I was ready to cry.
"Traitor!" I yelled and ran. I ran as far as I could, until eventually I was in a place I had never been before. I flopped over on my side and cried for the longest time. Eventually I heard paw steps behind me. "Go away Nathan." I growled. Then came something I didn't expect.
"Who's Nathan?" A voice asked. It was defiantly a lion talking to me, that much I could tell.