Nala's Darkest Secret

Chapter 1

Note: All well-known characters of The Lion King 1 and 2 are products of Disney.

The Disney Company alone is the owner of these characters.

She was beautiful.

Nala panted due to the exhausting event of giving birth, however all the pain that Nala had felt only a few moments ago soon subsided when she stared down at the newborn.

It was silent throughout the cave; Simba was away, per usual, he was forever busy looking out for the welfare of his people. However, the solitude pleased Nala, somehow she did not think she would be able to cope when Simba came to greet "his" child. For you see, the true fact was that it was not his child. A tear trickled down Nala's left eye as she remembered whose child it truly was.

It was a dark time; each day was a fight for survival. The hyenas greedily munched away the last of the Pride's food source. And the only person to truly blame for this was the lionesses' "king". Ever since that thunderous night when Scar announced that Mufasa and Simba had passed away and that he would take over the monarchy things seemed to go from bad to worse. The lionesses barely saw their leader; he was always secluded and hidden in the shadowy depths of his luxurious cove. Despite his lack of appearance you would always be sure to hear of him, wherever you would wander you could repeatedly hear the whisperings and mutterings of his name. His name, never once praised, always loathed and despised beyond belief.

Of course Nala was extremely upset, she missed the good times when the Pride was bright and happy and when everyone was looked after by the wonderful King Mufasa.

But more than that she missed her childhood friend, her one true love Simba. Simba was the friend that she would talk to, who she would spill her heart out to. Obviously, she was young at that time, as was Simba who she knew never really listened to her problems and instead wished to explore and have adventures. Still, his presence was all the comfort she truly needed. But now that comfort was gone, of course Nala had her mother to speak with but nowadays Safarina mainly spent her time comforting Sarabi, who had lost both her husband and son. Whenever her mother returned to Nala after a long day of assuring she was always extremely tired and Nala knew she would not wish to be pestered by her daughter whom was also longing comfort, much like the rest of the pride.

So one evening, Nala's emotions finally broke free from their mental imprisonment and Nala could no longer hold in her fury. Nala had always hated Scar but tonight she would tell him this face to face. Tonight she would confront the selfish lion that was sending the pride to their early graves. However, on arriving at his cave her anger suddenly disappeared. Nala, silently observed the scene, extremely perplexed at the sight she was witnessing. For there, in the solitude of his cave stood a lonely, saddened Scar who was staring at the cavern walls surrounding him. Along the entire rocky surface there was an amazing sketch of each and every one of the lionesses in the Pride. All of them looked happy and in the top corner of the cave a bright, orange sun had been created to enhance the already wonderful artwork. Nala could not help but gasp at the beauty of the scene.

Scar suddenly jerked his head at the sound of the gasp; there at the entrance of his cavern stood the beautiful, young Nala. At first Scar felt a pang of hope, a visitor, who was willing to speak to him! But that feeling soon passed as he noticed the scared expression on Nala's face, suddenly the pang of hope turned into a vicious stab in the heart. There was a moment's silence until stuttering, Scar eventually managed to say,

" Eh… please… come in, a…are you…okay? Em… can I…help you in…anyway?"

Nala was surprised at the kindness in Scar's voice, though she had never really spoke to the lion face to face before she had always imagined him as a sinister, evil being. As if in a daze Nala slowly wandered into the cave, everything seemed unreal. Nala apparently forgot what she was here to do and instead replied politely saying, " em… no everything's fine," There was another awkward silence, in which Scar seemed to contemplate the whole situation. This time Nala was the one to break the mould.

" Did… you do all this?" she asked timidly, whilst staring around at the cavern walls. Scar nodded in reply then he lowered his eyes solemnly towards the cold, earthy ground.

" I wanted everything to be like this, for years I dreamt that if I ever were to rule the pride lands then it would be like this. Of course I was a fool to believe that dreams ever came true." He whispered, more to himself, but still Nala had heard what he said. She gulped to stop tears from arising, for some reason Scar's words filled her with sadness and she found herself pitying the scrawny lion. " I…am sorry things did not work out the way you wanted them to, but the drought will pass, have hope, have faith! The pride will make it through this hardship and afterwards you can work on achieving this goal," she said soothingly.

The atmosphere within the cave soon calmed and the two mammals found themselves speaking away to one another, as if everything were carefree and full of happiness. They spent all night just talking, Nala learnt that Scar's name was originally Taka, he then told her the devastating story of how the scar upon his left eye had appeared. Nala listened intently and wept for the painful event that had earned him the name Scar. Afterwards she told him of her life, which also was not so full of the happiness that everyone seemed to expect, Scar too shed a few tears at her story as she had previously done to his.

From then on, the two mammals soon became very close. Nala would sneak away from the rest of the lionesses and go to talk with Scar each night. She had finally found someone to fill Simba's gap, someone to comfort her. Nala saw Scar as a true friend but also as a Father. She had never known her own Father and Scar was just like the Dad that she had always imagined.

…or so she had thought until…

It was just an ordinary evening. Scar smiled as Nala entered his cave, they embraced in a hug and then both began to tell of what had happened throughout their day. But tonight, a different feeling sparked in Nala's heart, as she listened to his smooth voice and gazed into his bright, emerald eyes Nala began to see Scar completely different.

Scar was mesmerized by Nala, she was incredible, so kind, so caring. He could hardly believe he had survived so long without her. Perhaps if she had been there for him earlier, then maybe, he would not have turned into the evil lion he had become. Just maybe, he wouldn't have ignored his brother's pleas and cries for help and instead of sending him to his death perhaps he would have saved him. In fact if he had only met Nala just a few years previously then he would never have even thought of disposing of his elder brother and his nephew. Scar, sighed. He could never tell Nala of his evil ways, he would never ever be able to tell her of how he practically destroyed the young women's life. Without her… he couldn't even begin to describe it… no, he didn't want to think about. He shook the thoughts of darkness and sorrow from his mind and instead began to stare at Nala. She was smiling; he loved it. Everything about Nala was angelic; she was so different from him, how little she knew of him yet how much he loved her so. At first it was just someone to talk to, someone to comfort him. Then it turned to a sort of father and daughter kind of relationship but now… staring into her bright, shining green eyes he began to see Nala in a different light.

Nala winced as she reminisced. After that night she had fled.

Sure, Nala had been mischievous when she was a cub but after that night she felt so bad. She longed to love Scar but he was far too old, he might as well be her real father. Nala remembered the strange sensation inside her womb; she knew that the other lionesses would never understand her and Scar's special relationship. She could not face them so instead she left but before she did she took one last look at comforter.

After leaving the pride lands Nala managed to convince herself that Scar was evil and that he was leading the pride to starvation. She made herself believe that she was going to seek help and that when she returned she would have a solution to everyone's problems.

Just after she had finally cramped all these decisions into her head she noticed a large warthog, he was trapped by the root of a tree. Nala had forgotten how hungry she was; she needed food! Especially now that she was feeding for two. Snarling she prepared to pounce until… a lion approached her…. SIMBA!

Nala remembered how she had told Simba of what was going on in the Pride Lands. She was so happy to see her friend that she completely forgot about Scar. Together the two walked side by side and eventually they returned to their homeland. This was the part of the story that Nala hated the most.

When she returned Nala witnessed a new Scar, a violent Scar. She remembered watching him hit Sarabi to the ground with one of his mighty paws; it was awful. The scene that played through her head started to blur, her eyes were watering as she heard those words, those horrible words. " I killed Mufasa!" The voice of Scar rang through her head again and again. " Nooooo!" she yelled causing the small golden cub in her arms to whimper.

Suddenly the trip down memory lane dispersed. Nala gazed down at her little girl. Smiling, she tenderly hugged the cub. " I will name you Kiara, and I will make sure that you do not make the same evil mistakes as your Father. I loved him, once. But he became an evil being and I wish for you to know nothing of him. Simba will be your Daddy and he will love you just as much as I do."

Nala softly kissed her child's head and together the females awaited the return of Simba. Nala knew that her darkest secret was for only her to know and in order to be happy she pushed the memories to the back of her mind. But there was one memory that refused to go; a faint whispering voice echoed inside her head, " You are so special Nala, if only I could be all that you are. Promise me never to change, you are beautiful, I love you." And then the smooth voice faded as the chestnut brown lion turned his back and walked away towards the horizon.

Well hope you liked it. I really hope it wasn't too confusing. If you did enjoy it please review and if you didn't like it please inform me kindly of how you think I could improve.