Kiara gasped as her birth pains started again. "Breathe easy, Kiara,"soothed a dark-coloured lioness with dark brown patches around her eyes. "Thanks Vitani...Owwww!" she yelped. Her mother, Nala, leaned down and licked her daughter. "It'll be ok,"she whispered softly.
As a red sun rose over the Pridelands, Kiara was nursing two cubs. One resembled Kovu, the other looked a lot like the late King Simba. Kiara whispered to her mother,"Please get Kovu and Sumini. They've been waiting all night." Nala nodded and raced out of the cave, returning moments later with Kiara's mate, Kovu. His eyes were round with worry, until he saw that his mate was all right.
A lioness cub, almost three years lod, followed more hesitantly. She was Sumini, the firstborn daughter of Kiara and Kovu, future queen of the Pridelands. There would have been nothing remarkable about her, except that she had black tufts of fur at the tips of her ears, and there were fpur dark brown stripes running along her side, from her shoulder to her tail. Sumini observed the cubs silently.