"Sire, look to the west!"

Zazu's voice seemed to echo as Kovu sprinted to the western Pridelands. Earlier that day, Zazu had spotted the smoke—right where his daughter Adia had been playing with Kiara, Adia's mother and Kovu's mate.

Adia. Kovu's perfect little daughter, and the heir to the throne. Not one lioness in the pride didn't want Adia to be their own cub; she was quite beautiful, a light tan color with darker brown freckles and lighter tan ears, and she also had perfect manners. Or so they thought. In reality, Adia had been spoiled from the moment she was born, and so she was really quite obnoxious at times, acting like and demanding to be treated as a princess. The higher that cub stuck her nose in the air, the lower every other cub in the pride felt.

As Kovu got closer to the site of the blaze, fire became more and more visible, until it was right up ahead. And Kovu entered the fray.

A flame suddenly leaped up in front of him, and Kovu had to swerve. He felt his fur get singed, but he didn't care. All he cared about now was finding his family.

"Kiara!" Kovu cried out as well as he could in the smoke that threatened to choke him. "Adia! Kia… Kiara…" Kovu's eyes were watering, and his vision blurred. It was getting harder to breathe… his paw hit something, and Kovu felt his face come in contact with the ground… Kiara... Adia…

And everything went black.

"Kovu?" Kiara shrieked as fire nipped at her paws. "Kovu, where are you?" She had been running like this for a while, carrying her daughter and trying her best to dodge the flames. She thought she had heard him call out to her from far away… perhaps her mind had been playing a trick on her…

Kiara suddenly collided with a large boulder and realized she shouldn't have been thinking about that while running for her life. But wait… Kiara suddenly realized… that was no boulder.

"Momma, what's going on?" Adia cried, and then realized what her mother was staring at. A lifeless Kovu was sprawled out in the dust.

Kiara wailed, laid Adia on the ash-covered ground, and collapsed on her mate's body. She cried like Adia had never seen her cry. Adia felt tears burn in her own ruby eyes, but couldn't cry over her father before Kiara gulped down her tears and whirled around to face her.

"Adia, I want you to run away," Kiara choked, her voice full of sorrow. "Run away and never return."

"Momma, where—?"

"Anywhere is better than here," Kiara whispered. "Find a new life, Adia, away from the Pridelands. Make your father proud, sweetheart." Kiara smiled warmly in spite of her tears.

"What will you do, Momma?" Adia felt scared for the first time in her life.

"Not now, Adia, go!" Kiara screamed as a flame threatened to separate her and her daughter. Adia dashed away and began to weave in and out of the flames. For a fleeting moment, she looked back and saw Kiara curling up beside Kovu. Adia watched, horrified, as they both were swallowed up by flames, and suddenly felt white-hot pain sear up her leg—her paw had been burned.

Adia yowled and tears began rolling down her face. She shook away her tears and her pain and kept running…

Miles away, a lone lioness watched the princess suffer and the king and queen die. A smile played on the features of her face, cold and dark, like her soul. Kovu had betrayed her for the last time…

He thought she was dead.

He had been glad she was dead.

Now he paid the price.

Zira threw back her head and laughed.

"That was for Scar."

Hello, all! This is my first Lion King fanfic, pleeeeeeease gimme a break. I've been writing it for a while and at the moment I'm actually starting chapter 7. But my friend has been reading it and she liked it so I decided I wanted to post it on here. I'm going to tell you right now, though, I am a serious procrastinator, and I probably will forget/put off posting chapters until weeks after I wrote them. Just a fair warning. Reviews are much appreciated, thanks!!

Aishia12675

P.S: Perhaps I should include a disclaimer. Yes, I think I will. Ahem, I do not own Lion King or Simba's Pride or any of those characters. Disney does. Good enough? ;)