This one-shot is dedicated to my beautiful friend Catherine, 28th May 1996 – 21 September 2013.

Starlight

The deaths of both the king and his son had come as quite a shock to all. The fact that they had been there one moment and yet gone the next was something everyone was struggling to come to terms with. The sheer injustice of the situation, the loss of such a noble king and the sorrow of the sudden termination of such a young life were all weighing heavily on the minds of the whole pride. With the ascension of king Scar, it seemed like their future's outcome had been completely rewritten. Mufasa and his brother were of entirely different characters altogether, and as Simba had been learning everything from his father, there was no doubt that he would have been an entirely different king from his uncle, too.

The Pride Lands were a completely different place now. The sun and the light seemed to have gone dull. Giant clouds and a great chill had descended over the plains, as if the heavens themselves were grieving, too. Everywhere you went seemed quiet and lifeless as the entire Kingdom tried to deal with what had happened. The herd of wildebeest that had pounded the last of the life from the former king had long gone, whether out of shame or just sheer unrestraint from their initial fright was unclear. In any case, they weren't the only ones to leave. With the arrival of the hyenas to the Pride Lands many of the herds chose to simply move on, feeling their home was a lost cause now, as the former tore through the place like an angry swarm of locusts, stripping the land bare of everything. The circle of life in tatters, the generations-old savannah slowly but surely began to die.

Nowhere was this sorrow felt more strongly than amongst the lionesses. It was strange, though: their grief seemed to go beyond tears. Instead, it was translated into an eerie quiet, a lack of motivation to do anything, as if a depression had come over all of them simultaneously. No one wanted to hunt or eat, no one wanted to sun themselves on the rocks anymore, no one wanted to lie on the end of Pride Rock's promontory and watch the sun sink behind the mountains… It just wasn't going to be the same. Nothing was going to be the same ever again.

Oddly enough, the only one not to share in their emotions was Scar. For someone who had just lost a brother and a nephew, he was acting strangely normal. If anything, he seemed to be elated, his every paw-step almost exaggerated in its poise and composure. He was on top now, and he wasn't in a hurry to let them forget it. Still, much to his annoyance, despite his on-going commands and hyped-up bravado, no one seemed to be doing what he said. It caused him much displeasure, being in such an authoritative position, to not be obeyed. Still, all he would have to do was wait. Soon they would forget about it. Soon they would come around.

About a week after the initial incident had occurred, Sarafina woke abruptly from a fitful sleep, plagued by various dreams that swirled around in her head. Instantaneously, she knew something was wrong. Nala was missing from her side. Doing her utmost to control her mounting panic, she hurriedly scanned the den for any sign of her daughter. All she could see through the hazy darkness were the other lionesses, as well as Scar, sprawled across the spot where Mufasa had once lain. Trying not to get annoyed by such a blatant show of disrespect, she quickly got to her feet and silently slipped out of the den. Her heart was beating faster and faster. With the arrival of the hyenas to the Pride Lands, she was scared to let Nala out of her sight, and now she was gone. As she burst out into the chill of the night there was still neither sight nor smell of her, and the only sounds to be heard were of hyenas cackling in the distance. Completely terrified now, she turned on her heel and sprinted up the incline towards the top of Pride Rock. If the cub wasn't there she would… well, she didn't know what she would do then. She didn't want to think of such an outcome.

Although a skilled huntress, by the time Sarafina reached the summit she was completely out of breath, her fast pace and mounting worry taking a toll on her body. She gasped audibly in relief when she saw Nala, sitting at the edge of the platform, staring out at the landscape below.

"Nala," Sarafina cried, rushing over to her daughter, "don't scare me like that! What on earth do you think you're doing?"

Nala said nothing. She didn't even turn to look at her mother. Perhaps she hadn't even been aware that she'd said anything at all.

"Nala?" Sarafina repeated, "Say something to me!"

After what seemed an eternity, Nala looked up at her, her tiny eyes shining with tears. Wordlessly, in sudden understanding, the lioness pulled her daughter closer, trying to bring her some comfort. In all the chaos surrounding the deaths, Nala's troubles had been all but forgotten. Everyone had been in such haste to give solace to Sarabi; no one seemed to remember that the Pride's sole remaining cub was now quite alone, her best friend gone.

The two lions on the summit of Pride Rock stayed completely silent for quite a while after, just surveying the land in front of them. Sarafina was the first to break it.

"Nala, sweetheart," she said softly, "why did you come up here alone? I was worried when I woke up and you were gone."

"I had a dream about Simba again," Nala said, quietly, "it was so real. I thought he was right there… but then I woke up and he had disappeared."

The tears continued to fall, tumbling down the cub's face and shattering like glass shards when they hit the rock. It seemed as if they were never going to stop. Sarafina had always been able to stop her daughter crying in the past fairly easily, but now, after what had happened, it was getting more and more difficult.

"We were up here, looking up at the stars. He told me the great kings of the past are up there, watching over us…"

An audible sob left her mouth at this point, and a great shaking had come over her body. She took a moment to compose herself before continuing.

"…I was so sure he would be here. That's why I came."

Her head drooped even lower than it already had.

"I'm sorry, Mom."

To see her daughter in such misery was a thorn in Sarafina's heart. That, combined with the brave face that Sarabi had been putting on, was becoming more than she could bear.

"I understand, Nala. It's ok. You're safe, and that's what matters."

Her heart seemed to break again at these words. She thought of Sarabi now. That was something she would never be able to tell her own cub. He was gone, so quickly and so easily. He had barely had the chance to live.

She snapped out of this troubling torrent of thoughts as Nala spoke up again.

"Can I ask you something, Mom?"

"Anything, Honeytree."

Nala cast her gaze up to the skies again, the stars reflecting against her glassy eyes.

"Simba told me the great kings of the past are up there, so I know Mufasa is there, right?"

"Of course," Sarafina nodded, "Mufasa was nothing short of great. I'd say he went there straight away."

She smiled warmly at her daughter, expecting this to bring her some reassurance. Her smile faltered when she saw Nala's face slowly crumpling.

"But, what about Simba? He never got to be King! Where did he go?"

The lioness stopped, and thought. She, too, looked up, surveying the glittery sky. She was choosing her words very carefully.

"Did he go somewhere bad? Oh, gods, no! I know he got into trouble a lot! I know he could be annoying and selfish and he showed off sometimes but he wasn't bad!"

The cub broke down at this point, sobbing nearly hysterically. Her wails ripped through the silence of the night like claws through a carcass, echoing across the savannah in all directions.

"Nala, sweetheart, it's ok! You're right: he wasn't bad at all. Everyone could see that."

"So where is he? He can't be up there with them. He never got to be one of them."

In a sudden, the right words came to Sarafina. With the sudden enlightenment, a smile crossed her lips, and she looked down at her daughter again.

"Aiheu has a very special purpose for the cubs he takes to his side," she said, softly.

Nala stared up at her intently, listening.

"You see those stars, Nala? Simba was right, they're always there, watching over everyone. They continue to look after us all, just like they would when they were King. But the cubs' job is very much different."

She glanced down at Nala again. Her little face looked so desperate to know more.

"How?"

"Well, their appointed task is to watch over the special people who miss them the most. You don't see them permanently in the night sky like you do the others-"

Sarafina stopped, for a sudden flash of light appeared in the sky above them. A comet, bright and burning, shot amongst the stars surrounding it, before vanishing again, as quickly as it had come. Nala leapt to her feet in excitement.

"Did you see that?!" she cried, hopping excitedly from foot to foot.

"I did," Sarafina continued, smiling widely, grateful for the added effect to her words "every so often they like to remind those special people that they're still there, and they're always going to be looking out for them."

She breathed a sigh of relief to see Nala smiling from ear to ear, clearly very happy to finally know.

"So, that was-?"

"Yes, my love," Sarafina said, pulling her closer and nuzzling her on top of her head, "that was Simba, and he'll be watching over you forever. That was his way of telling you."

All of this seemed to illicit a happiness in Nala that nobody had seen since the horror of the deaths. Sarafina had thought she would never see it again, but now, here it was, right in front of her. She knew that nothing she could ever say would lift the sadness and grief at Simba's passing, but this sight was still so relieving to her.

"So, shall we go back to sleep, now?"

Nala nodded, evidently very tired despite her new-found joy.

"Alright, then, let's go."

The two of them headed back down the slope together, and assumed their usual position on the den floor amongst the other lionesses. As she felt her daughter's breathing slowly fall into a rhythm, showing that she had fallen asleep again, Sarafina cast a final look around the den. At Scar, still spread across his late brother's spot; to Sarabi, fast asleep without her cub in her arms; and finally back to Nala, finally safe in the knowledge of her friend's fate. Despite everything that had been said, nothing was ever going to be the same again. There were going to be both hard times and good times, but they would take them as they came. As long as they had each other, everything would be OK.

For the first time in a long time, Sarafina fell straight to sleep, without any troubling thoughts plaguing her mind. Outside, high above them, another shooting star tore across the sky, its beautiful light illuminating the Pride lands below, before it once more vanished, carrying out its sacred Aiheu-given purpose.

And there we go. I really hope you liked this one. I put my heart into it.

The last time I saw Catherine was the 10th of September. That was the last time any of my friends saw her. She was off sick from school for the rest of the week with an agonising headache. It turns out she had a blood clot in her brain: a side effect of the extremely rare form of leukaemia that had taken over her body. She was only in the hospital for a week before she died.

I lost a part of myself I didn't know I had the day I found out. It is something I am truly struggling to understand. She was seventeen. Seventeen year-olds shouldn't have to die. It isn't fair.

Catherine was fascinated by astronomy and stars, a recurring theme in The Lion King, so I was inspired to write this. That and I can now empathise with Nala, and wanted to focus on a part of her story that I haven't seen on this site much. A lot of personal emotions and experiences were pumped into this piece, more so than anything I've ever written before.

As people who didn't know Catherine, I cannot put into words just how amazing and kind and beautiful a person she was. I hope I can do justice to her memory with this fic.

If you take anything at all from this, please make sure you tell the people you love that you love them, each and every day, because one day you won't be able to.

Thank you for reading.

~Niñaroja