You can see my art for this story at: h t t p / f a n a r t . l i o n k i n g . o r g / A r t i s t s / s o u t h p a w /

Hope you like it!

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Umeme came on a sunny morning when the birds were singing, and antelope grazing. She saw the lionesses lying around on Pride Rock, and the cubs playing, and she knew she wanted to stay there.

"Tell me, where is the king of this pride?" She asked one lioness.

"Follow me. I will take you to Ukinzani."

The Lion King was sitting on Pride Rock.

"Your Majesty, I would be delighted if I could join your pride."

"What is your name?"

"It is Umeme."

"Umeme, you are welcome to the Pride, as long as you can hunt with us. Do you have any cubs?" He asked with hope in his eyes.

"No," Answered Umeme. But Ukinzani could tell she was hiding something.

Rabi (pronounced Robby) and Hara were playing.

"What should we play?" Rabi asked.

"You decide. You're the Prince."

"Well..."

"I know, let's go in the tall grass and play hide and go seek!"

"Okay," said Rabi, and they started off. Then He stopped, and looked down.

"Rabi, come on! We don't have all day!" Hara complained.

"Come here, I think I found something!"

Rabi had indeed found something. It was a little cub, about his age. She had bright blue eyes, and a yellow-gold coat.

"My name's Rabi. What's your name?" Rabi asked the cub.

"My mommy says to nevah talk to stwangers. You're in trouble, 'cause I'm a stwanger. So you bettah weave, or your mommy'l beach you up."

"You're not a stranger, you're nice. And besides, my mama wouldn't beat me up, 'cause I'm gonna be King."

"King's die. Mommy told me. Somebody killed 'im."

"They do not. Come on, let's play! What's your name again?"

"I'm not tewwing. You're gonna be in big twubble."

"Come on, Rabi, let's play. Just leave her here." Hara told Rabi, and they walked away.

"Hey, wait fo' me!" called the cub as she struggled to her feet.

She could barely stand up.

"Hey, you have three legs!" Hara said.

"She does?" asked Rabi.

The cub did have only three legs. They counted them: 1,2,3. The back left one was missing. It wasn't cut off at any point, it just wasn't there.

"What happened to you?" Hara wondered.

"Nufin'," the cub was ashamed of her appearance, and looked away.

"Hey, I don't care if you have three legs. It doesn't matter to me," said Rabi.

Laana began to cry. Laana was her name. She didn't know why she was missing a leg, and she had never known, or else she had never understood. Her mommy just said she was born that way. Laana didn't know what born was, and whenever she asked her mother again why she didn't have a leg, her mother only shook her head and said, "Go to sleep."

Hara encouraged her crying. "You look stupid!" he said, laughing, "Go back where you belong, where all the other three-legged creatures are. Or go with the tortoises, where their pace will match yours. Tortoise, tortoise, tortoise!"

Now Laana's shame turned to anger, and she jumped at Hara and bit his paw.

"Ooooh, getting tough now, aren't we? Well, I can do it right back," said Hara as he bit her ear.

"Stop it, she's a girl!" said Rabi.

"And she has three legs. Three legs, three legs, three legs!" Hara danced around the cub.

Rabi just stood there. He knew he should do something, but he didn't want Hara to tease him, too.

"Hey mom, guess what I found!" said Hara, as he bounded over pride rock.

"What did you find?" asked his mother, amused.

Hara dragged Laana by her tail into his mother's view.

" I found a three-legged lion cub."

Hara's mother was a very good lioness, but a deformed cub was something she had never seen before. It seemed like a sign of evil to her.

"Eww," Hara's mom said.

"Its name is Laana," Hara said, pleased to see his mother disgusted, "It means curse."

"Get it out of here. It may curse the pride."

Laana was frightened beyond description. Hara dragged her to nowhere in particular. Then he saw the river, and headed towards it.

"Let's see if you can swim!" Hara evilly cackled. Laana was more frightened than ever.

"No, pwease..." she cried. There were crocodiles in the water.

"Let her go, Hara," Rabi coldly ordered out of the shadows.

"Okay!" Hara pushed her into the river. The crocodiles hurried to the drowning cub. They were hungry.

Rabi jumped onto the back of one. He sank his claws into its scaly body. The crocodile turned over and dived for its prey. Rabi found himself in the creature's mouth, struggling for breath. Suddenly, it let go, and turned around.

Rabi found the surface and coughed up muddy water. He looked around. The crocodiles had gone. And so was Laana. A crocodile surfaced, a limp, muddy animal in its mouth.

"Laana!"

The crocodile turned. Rabi glared at it coldly. His glare was pure anger. It was enough to frighten a crocodile.

And it did.

The monster dropped Laana and swam off like a frightened gazelle.

Rabi dived for Laana. It was a good thing his dad gave him swimming lessons.

The muddy Laana scrambled to her feet after she had recovered from her wet adventure. Rabi was sitting next to her, grooming himself. He was covered in thick, dry mud.

"Blech! This mud tastes horrible!" Rabi said with a funny face.

Laana giggled. She couldn't help it.

Rabi turned. He was surprised to see Laana in such good spirits after her close encounter with the crocodiles. He felt miserable. His coat was all dirty, he hadn't known that Laana was alive until now, and he wasn't even sure how he had gotten out of that mess. His mind was full of confusion and worry. Why did the crocodiles just run off like that? Was Laana hurt at all? Where was Hara?

"Mama, mama! Rabi is dead! Rabi is dead! I tried to stop him, but he just jumped in the water and a crocodile ate him!"

"What!"

"A crocodile ate Rabi!"

"How did that happen?"

"I was feeding that cursed lion cub to the crocodiles, and Rabi just jumped in there, and the crocodiles ate him!"

"Oh dear. We should tell Ukinzani. But let's not tell him about the cursed lion cub. Let's just say the crocodiles grabbed him and pulled him in."

"Okay." Hara sniffed.

So they walked over to Ukinzani and told him. He became very upset by this news. This meant that Hara, who was the next oldest, would be the next king. (Not that he didn't like Hara, he just thought Rabi would be a better king.)

"I would like to talk to Hara alone, please," Ukinzani told Hara's mother.

"All right." She said, and left.

"Hara, what were Rabi's last words?"

"Let her go, Hara."

"Why did he say that?"

"Um, well..."

"It seems you are leaving something out."

"Well, I found this disgusting thing, and Rabi didn't want me to put it in the river where it belongs."

"And he jumped in to save it?"

"Yes."

"And what was this thing?"

Hara paused. Then he broke down and told the truth.

"All right, it's all my fault! He wanted to save Laana. I didn't like her because she's all messed up."

"Who is Laana?"

"She's a cub who we found, and she has three legs."

"A cub? Where is she from?"

"She didn't say."

"Do you realize what you have done?"

"Yes, I do. I have destroyed a vile creature who would have died anyway. Rabi destroyed himself."

"That is not what you have done, Hara. Think about what you've done."

Hara thought. "Well, I guess I did basically kill Rabi. But he chose to jump in, it was his choice."

"This is not about Rabi anymore, all though it does make me very sad." He paused. "Laana could have been the only hope we had." He looked at Hara, his face full of sorrow.

"Oh." said Hara. He looked down at the stone floor and traced his paw around in the dust.

You see, the Pride was shrinking. Most of the lionesses in the pride were very old, and whenever a cub was born, the whole pride hopefully expected a girl. Every time a male cub was born. There were many cubs in line for the throne. Without any more lionesses, the pride would not survive. Hara realized this, and he realized what a foolish thing he had done. However, Ukinzani wasn't done yet.

"You have drowned the only hope for our pride. Why didn't you think? Why?"

Although Ukinzani wasn't shouting at him, Hara felt like he was. He cringed, as if expecting a blow from the king's paw.

"Why?" he asked, a little gentler.

A few tears began to find their way out of Hara's eye. "I din't like her."

"You didn't like her."

"I'm sorry. Really." More tears began trickling down his cheeks. He still cowered down, expecting a blow, maybe not with a paw, but with words.

Ukinzani realized that Hara was terrified. He laid a gentle paw on Hara's shoulder. Hara jumped.

"I just hope you won't do anything so rash again. I am not angry at you. No, maybe I am, but I will not hurt you. You can leave now.

Hara slowly turned around, and then dashed out of the cave.

Rabi and Laana had cleaned themselves as best they could after their deathly experience.

"Where are we?" Laana asked.

"I have no idea. We must have been washed downstream a little, or a lot."

Laana was scared. "Can we get back?"

"I don't know. We should probably go... that way." he pointed with his paw.

They began traveling. The land was grassy, with many stones and holes to trip on. They made their way slowly. Each of them often stumbled, and they always helped each other up.

The cubs grew weary and hungry, but they did not stop until night fell. They found a tree to use for shelter. They were so very tired, they instantly fell asleep to the quiet rhythm of the moonlit night.

The morning was hot and dry. Laana and Rabi walked on, their pace very slow. They had no idea where they were. Aimlessly, they hiked onwards. Then they saw Pride Rock, far out in the distance. They ran towards it, or at least Rabi did. Laana could not run. After awhile, Rabi realized Laana was no longer beside him. He turned around. Far behind him was Laana, struggling to stand up. He trotted back to her.

"Oh, Laana," Rabi said, and sighed. He helped her get on her three feet.

"I nevah wan before," Laana said, "Mama always cawwy me."

"You'll have to learn to run, then." He pretended he only had three legs and tried to find the best way to run. After awhile, he finally said, "Well, I guess if you push off with your back leg, and then with your front legs, like this, you could run, but not very fast."

Laana attempted this form of running, but she quickly stumbled and fell. She picked herself up, and tried again.

She fixed her eyes on Pride Rock with a determined gaze. She WAS going to get there no matter what. She pushed off with her back leg and ran towards it. She ran at an impossible speed.

"Hey, wait up!" Rabi called. He ran with all his might, but he could not get past Laana. Her tail tickled his whiskers.

After some hard running by both, they reached Pride Rock.

"Rabi! You're alive!" Rabi's mother, Duara, who had been crying, looked up when she heard the pitter-patter of the cub's feet. "Who's that?" her gaze drifted towards the three-legged cub.

"I is Laana."

"Did you think I was dead?" asked Rabi.

"Yes. Hara told us what happened."

"Oh."

"We must tell you're father. He still thinks you are dead."

They ran into the cave of Pride Rock, where Ukinzani was sleeping.

"Ukinzani, wake up!" said Duara.

"Dad! Da-ad, I'm ali-ive!" Rabi tugged at his father's tail with his teeth.

"Rabi? Is that you?" said Ukinzani, without opening his eyes.

"Yup, it's me, wake up! Rowrr!"

Ukinzani smiled, his eyes still closed. "I must be dreaming. My son can roar like a King."

"Don't be silly, dad. I can't roar near as good as you can."

Ukinzani laughed and opened his eyes. "Okay, Rabi, how much did Hara lie? what really happened? Were you really eaten by alligators?"

"Almost. Good thing you taught me to swim, Dad," Rabi grinned.

Rabi's father was amazed. "You really jumped into the river to save someone's life?"

"Um... yea..."

Then Ukinzani noticed Laana, who was a way away from the other three, trying to be invisible. "Come here, Laana," he said. He spoke the name tenderly, pronouncing the two A's separately, La-ana."

Laana moved towards him.

"Laana, I would usually choose someone in the pride, but since you are the only one, I am selecting you. You are betrothed to Rabi. One day you will be the Queen of Pride Rock."

Ukinzani Knew Umeme was Laana's mother. It was obvious to him. But Umeme did not know that. So when he walked up to her with Laana at his side, she was surprised, and a little frightened.

"You have lied to me, Umeme," was simply what he said. No expression was visible in his face or voice.

"I'm sorry," Umeme said, and then she sobbed out, "Please, don't hurt Laana, my only cub."

"Why would I hurt her?"

"Fronwial didn't want her. He would have killed her if I hadn't run away. She is deformed, he said, not shaped right, disfigured, ill-shaped, wrong, he said. He called her Laana. And I liked the name, until I found out what it means. Curse. My own cub, a curse."

"Mamma, why are you cwying?" Laana said, walking up to her mother, and rubbing against her mother's leg in an effort to comfort her. Laana lost her balance, because she did not have four legs. She toppled over. Umeme sobbed even louder.

"Mommy, stop cwying. You don't hafta be so sad. You can laugh, like me, see, ha ha ha!"

Ukinzani smiled. Laana was a good cub. She would make a wonderful Queen for Rabi. His life full, he went back to the cave to take another nap.