Disclaimer- I do not own the Lion King, or any of the characters
Simba was woken from his sleep by a paw nudging him, he looked up into his mothers face, she whispered urgently "hurry Simba, your father is ready to take you hunting, do not make him wait". Simba yawned before standing up his mother had already stretched out on the den floor her eyes closed. As he walked by Sarabi she muttered almost to quietly for him to hear " good luck Simba, try not to upset your father" Simba gulped wished his mother had said something reassuring instead of reminding him of his father's bad temper. Simba was so distracted worrying about what would happen during the day he almost walked right into his father, who was sitting outside of the cave's entrance, he glared at his son growling " you should be more careful nobody will want a king who can't pay attention to his surroundings, I expect more from my son". Simba gazed at the ground he felt ashamed that he had already angered his father by being so clumsy, he mumbled " sorry dad I promise i'll try to do better".
Mufasa growled irritably before stalking towards the hunting grounds not looking back at his son, Simba sighed before following his dad being careful to not ma too much noise, knowing Mufasa would tell him he was scaring everything away. Simba jumped as Zazu landed beside him smirking at the cubs discomfort, he turned and bowed respectfully towards Mufasa " good morning sire what are you and the young prince up to today?" the dodo bird smiled condescendingly at simba, he had to resist snapping at the bird, his father would punish him for treating his most loyal servant hated when Zazu babysat him all he did was continuously comment on how Simba and Nala would be a poor king and queen, and how it would be a sad day for all the lionesses at pride rock when Mufasa and Sarabi passed away. Simba wished his father would let his uncle Scar watch him and Nala instead but Mufasa hated his brother. Mufasa glanced at Simba disdainfully "i'm trying to teach my son to provide for the lionesses, but from past experiences I don't believe he will ever be a very good hunter". Simba flinched at the harsh words while Zazu shook his head in mock sadness before looking slyly at the cub "you can only do your best sire, in my opinion Simba needs a firm paw to guide him, just the other day I saw him with your good for nothing brother, if I remember correctly you told the you prince to keep far away from him".
Mufasa leapt to his paws snaring Simba gulped and backed away nervously, Mufasa followed him growling quietly, "is this true Simba? i've told you I don't want you around my brother, all he will do is fill your head with nonsense about how hyenas should be treated with more kindness, and criticize how I run my kingdom, how dare you disobey me!" Simba tried desperately to calm the angry king dad stumbling over his words,"i'm sorry dad, I was just asking uncle Scar if he had seen Nala around honest!" Mufasa narrowed his eyes he didn't believe his foolish son, he had seen how fond he was of Scar's company, his brother had always been to soft on him. Zaza watched Mufasa prowl after his son satisfied with how things were going, he had been trying to convince the king to give up on Simba and have another cub, a different heir who would take his advice on how the kingdom should be run, the greedy bird was already imagining how much more influence he would have after this pesky cub was out of the way. Without warning Mufasa swiped at Simba, the cub let out a startled yelp and was bowled over slamming into a nearby rock he slumped to the ground trembling, his father had clawed him at times when annoyed but this was the hardest he had ever been hit, Simba tried to stand but his shoulder had been hurt when he hit the rock, after a moment he lowered himself painfully to the ground. Simba stared up at his father with with wide frightened eyes "dad please help, my leg really hurts" Mufasa shook his head in disgust "kings don't beg Simba, you can make it back by yourself" Simba stared in disbelief as his father headed back to pride rock not sparing him another glance. Zazu was unable to hide the glee in his voice "do try to hurry young master, I would hate for you to still be lying here when the vultures come out" chuckling Zazu spread his wings and flew after the king, Simba watched the bird until it was out of sight he hated that miserable creature more than he had ever hated anything, but he knew he had a point about not staying in the same spot for too long, Simba tried once more to stand and fell back with a cry of pain.
Simba knew that he would never be able to make it all the way back to pride rock when he was this weak, if he was lucky his uncle Scar might be somewhere close, he was sure his uncle would help him get home, he wasn't nervous about letting Scar see him in this condition his uncle always treated him with more patience and kindness than his own father and mother did. Simba pushed himself forward and then started to crawl determinedly towards a shady part of their territory where his uncle could usually be found lounging on a rock, Scar was forbidden by Mufasa to sleep in the den with the other lions so he had been forced to find other suitable places. Simba managed to crawl about another few inches before all hopes of reaching his uncle faded, every time he put some weight on his shoulder to move forward the pain would get worse, and the heat was not just making it worse, panting Simba finally gave up he was too exhausted to keep his eyes open, he could only hope that somebody found him soon, hopefully his father would regret leaving him and come back to check on how he was doing, but he doubted this would happen, the cub finally gave in and went too sleep.